The National Register. — London, England, 1820-12-31 00:00:00

418 THE REV. ARCHDEACON BATHURST. The Ministerial Papers—the part of the Press whose censure is a certificate of virtue, recently made a most violent attack on the Rev. Mr. Bathurst. There is no doubt but that the Rev. Gentleman's readiness to obey the commands of her Majesty, which had been intimated to him, was the immediate cause of the coarse abuse that was (so honourably to him) heaped upon him : but whatever may have occasioned it, we rejoice at it, as it has given him an opportunity of adding to his celebrity by the follow ing refutation. Well may the Rev. Gent. say,— Mark now how a plain tale Shall put you down." " About 11 years since the late Duke of Rich. mond authorized a Rev. Gentleman now living in Norfolk, to whom he wished to give some preferment in Norfolk, to offer Mr. Bathurst the deanery of Killala, in exchange for a living which he (Mr. B.) bad in Norfolk. Just at that period Mr. Bathurst obtained a second valuable living, where lie now resides, and as three flittings are said to be equal to a fire,' and he had just settled on his new living, he declined the proposal, though very thankful to Lord Bathurst for his kindness which had recom mended him to the Duke as a proper object to serve in this instance. Some time afterwards, upon Lord Whitworth first going to Ireland, Mr. Bathurst altered his mind, and having received infbrmalion, which appeared afterwards not to be altogether well founded, that an English gentleman was likely to be able to accommodate him with an exchange for Irish preferment, as a quid pro quo, to his satisfaction, he wrote to Mr. Bragge Bathurst, requesting him to forward the object : Mr. B. Bathurst declined, under a plea of having no acquaintance with Lord Whit worth, which the Archdeacon took (considering some family circumstances with which he will not trouble the public) as disobliging, and perhaps unnecessarily expressed himself as disobliged, This very inter ference in his behalf, so far as propriety would per mit, and which Mr. Bragge Bathurst declined, Lord Bathurst, to whom the Archdeacon then wrote immediately, consented to lend, whenever the ex change should offer; and whatever Mr. Bathurst may think of the general indisposition of Ministers towards their opponents, he cannot attribute any refusal of a suitable exchange to Ministers, whom, if personal motives towards administration were to operate in the political part which lie takes, lie would, from respect and attachment to his noble .relative, Lord Bathurst, be able to support. Cer tainly, for the last four or five years Mr. Bathurst has been opposed to Ministers, and intends, while they act towards the nation as they act at present, to remain so; but without any of the motives attri buted to him. " This is a candid and correct statement of the facts to which the Courier appears to allude ; and it is somewhat singular that the substance of this attack should have been made in a printed anony mous letter, without the printer's name, addressed to the Archdeacon, with other malignant misrepre sentations of a private nature, and threatening him with insult the following day at the county meeting, which he instantly showed to his father and another friend present, the evening before the meeting of the county of Norfolk in opposition to the Bill of Pains and Penalties. " Such are the means which, instead of argument, the friends of social peace and order' resort to in their inveteracy against an unfortunate Queen, who might (by an act of separation conceding her rights, and drawn up by the consent of the King awl her self, and the provisions sanctioned by Parliament, together with an agreement that all discussion on the subject should afterwards cease), be left to spend the remainder of her days in tranquillity, and leave the Parliament time for other most important con siderations of the public welfare. " Mr. Bathurst knows that, from an occasional warmth in his disposition, he is accused of bitterness by some; but lie bears no man malice, nor would he refrain from assisting his greatest enemy in any need: and respecting the part which he has taken as to the Queen, lie will ever repose his head on his plloiv with undisturbed satisfaction. It is very unwillingly that lie intrudes thus much of a personal nature on the public, but it is certainly fi,:sirable that the Queen's advocates should stand frx from the suspicion or wordly ambition ; and Mr. Bathurst is willing to leave his conduct ever to hereafter to the test el disinterestedness, as he feels hitherto that lie never has sacrificed, and trusts lie never shill sacrifice, the great feelings of general ju: tice to resentment, or even (which is much more cxc :sable) to personal favour. His wish is peace and public content. He has long seen an arbitrary temper . in the public councils, unyielding to the pro cress of opinion on the one hand ; and on the other, a sense of neglet t d rights, partly at least justifiable; and be has lung tris!telt to sc..: the independent, and hest educated, and mum tit vated nt..ntbers of society step !inward alai uiedi.te between the people and THE NATIONAL REGISTER -- the Government, before the time arrives when mu tual insult anti injury may disgust the temperate on sides, and rouse the violent to acts at which human nature shudders. The object of the Arch deacon, he can truly say, is to heal and not irritate —to make peace, and not to make war ; for the truth of this, he is willing to refer to those who know him in his capacity as clergyman and magistrate, and even as politician in general, whatever severity of observation he may occasionally make use of; and he would be one of the first to recommend an entire oblivion of every provocation of Ministers past to the people, if Ministers would but adopt a reasonable plan of conciliation ton arils the people, for whose benefit government could alone be originally insti tuted." REFUGE FOR THE JIOUSELESS POOR. On Friday the Members of the House Committee, appointed for the General Committee engaged for the service of the houseless pour, waited upon the Governors of the London Workhouse, for thc pur pose of making a proposition to them, from which great advantage is to be expected to the destitute during the winter. Amongst the Governors who atiended at the Workhouse to receive the proposition of the deputa tion from tile Committee of the Houseless Poor, were the Lord Mayor, who took the Chair. Alderman Wood, Mr, Wright, Mr. Dolly, Mr. Goss, and Mr. Pearce. Amongst the Deputation were Mr. Hick and Mr. Bodkin. Mr. HICK stated, that he waited upon the Gover nor in the name of the General Committee, to request that they would permit so much of the Lon don Workhouse as could be spared, to be appropri ated to the use of the indigent and unprotected, with whom the streets in this severe season began to abound. He represented that such an application of the workhouse was compatible with the charter, and said that tha expence arising from dilapidations &c. would be defrayed by the Committee for the Houseless Poor. The LORD MAYOR wholly approved of the sug gestion of the Committee, and pointed out various untenanted parts of the workhouse, in which the unfortunate could be placed without the slightest prejudice to the present system upon which the establislunent was conducted. He was of opinion that the sum of 20,00() or 25,0001. a sum easily raised in London upon so urgent an emergency, would be of incalculable service (if applied judici ously) in ameliorating the condition of the poor generally through the country. He considered that one of the greatest causes of vagrancy was want of work ; for the purpose of preventing which coin plaint he should advise the adoption of a plan similar to that upon which an old friend of his, Mr. Jackson, one of the Overseers of the Parish of St. Catherine Cree had acted. He would provide work, whether that work proved to be a matter of pecuniary advantage or not, and the hosts of vagrants who hated work would soon disappear, as they had done in she case of his friend, when they found that without working for it they could get nothing to eat. Alderman WOOD strongly recommended to his Brother Governors the propriety of acquescing in the proposition of the Committee. Mier which the Treasurer (Sir W. RAWLINS) having made no decided objection, the application was replied to in the affirmative, and leave was given to appoint a Committee to model the work house, and put it on a proper plan for the reception of between 200 and 300 poor people. The Com mittee arc to apply for similar accommodation for the poor at the east and west ends of tha town. We understand that in their arrangements for the temporary protection of the houseless, they are de termined to guard against the possibility of being burdened by those who are not in the most pressing state of necessity. Bread and water will be administered to all those who crave admission, and punishment will certainly be inflicted upon all impostors. TUB WINTER'S EVENING. [From " The Njeutur."l Well! at last winter is come, and (itiank God!) we have got a good excuse for " cherishing our knees at the fire." We have lithe more to do with the green fields and clipped kedges of the country, for they are all fast asleep, and there is scarcely a bird left to wake them from their state 01 torpor. OM existence therefore, will be hencefor%varil confined to iii-tloor amusements; to blindinsit's-Inilf with the yotiii4 ones, and verse cap pirie;, or clot ipit writing with tire elders : for if we go our, tile aspect of motile stares us nr the face like an ugly %%Antral), and seems to say " What the deuce do you want here. kl'e will therefore take the old lady's hint, and cuulin nu. ',Ave, to the comforts of a lire-side, and so s iciatrie sn.t l net, e Joie iii a few days, that l o ng before the y% niter cf, we shall dread rite idea of partin4 with our lire as we should dread leasing a dear iriend 0•00 May n )I feollo for years. hark ! breeLe is rattimg avainst the window pams, aild tit.; e:ii.iy east wind sues tut admittance at UM key-hole. Not at home, my friend, a brisk fire-side is now the only acquaintance who is henceforth allowed to share the honours of our intimacy, for there is some thing so hottest in his red-glowing coacinnan.like looking flice with.int the science of Lavater, we can niscover in his phisioghomy the traces of a sociable disposition. And o v what is to be done, the lire is already stirred, the tea poured out, and ourselves prepared for a second attack ou the meek heaviness of a quarters* loaf. NVe will turn to a page of Horace, and see what this ancient modern writer has to say for himself upon the subject. He advises us to keep our doors well fastened ; (he must mean with sand-hags placed at the bottom ;) to heap wood upon the fire, " Cigna super loco large reponens," and make the most of our present eojoyments. " Win ter," says he" will not last long, but it is as well to make the most of it while it does last." This is unanswerable logic, and we immediately close the book with a tran3- pott of delight at the sound reasoning of the author. But the clock strikes ten, it must ba supper time surely —accordingly in comes a biscuit or so, (we are no great supper eaters,) kept in countenance by a liberal rotun dity of bowl, glittering itt anticipated replenishitess.— The whisky is introduced. which, after a few decent ceremonies, is christened by tile compound appellation of whisky-toddy, and exulting in its newly-acquired name, invites us us partake of the honours of its baptism, " Thus," as Peter Pinder says, " Thus have I seen an ass baptized a jack, Graced by a chimney sweeper on his back, Fling, snort, and cock his heels with liberality, In imitation of a hot se oh' qoality." And now that we have " tasted the creature," as an Irishman would exclaim, suppose we have a few ghost stories to while away the evening. Awful annuncias non ! Even the candles burn blue at the intelligence, and time fire already smells of sulphur. " But, who begins?"—" I will if you please. lathe black forest in Germany, there was once a tradition"—" Is it a long one, wniipers a drowsy companion ?"—Go on exclaims the yonneest of the party ; we go on accordingly to the end of our story, and are roused by the sound of the hall clock striking ;out the midnight hot • of twelve. " It never sounded so gloomily before," fainters out an affrighted auditor, " Anti bless use there is a thief in the candle, it really looks quite ominous:'—" Hark do you not hear a noise," whispers another, "No ! it is only the ailing of the north wind."—" Mere is certainly a sound of footsteps on the stairs," shrieks a young lady, her glossy hair standing on end, even through her curl papers. " Who'll run and ste hat it is i Not i.e—" And Fut sure 1 won't" ejaculates ant:Oleg " Nor I,' replies a third. The ghost step meantime approaches—tile pause is certainly awful; all the neigh bourhood have long since retired to rest, aud if the sprite has conic to maul its, Ise may do it without interruption. All now is dead silehce ; but the distant sound of the watch dog as it sullenly bays the moon. In the mean while the lights to the room are burning dun, and the extremity is already in darkness. "is tnat a Mall St:tud. ing in the corner there ;" " No! it is only a great coat, and a hat placed on the back of a chair." But hark, the footsteps advance nearer; a dim light burns through the key-hole, and as the door is gently lifted on its latch, a tall white figure slowly approaches towards is—God of heaven it is—it n—the maid ser vant who has come to tell that the sheets and beds are ready for our reception. The charm is accordingly broken, and luckily just in time to save us from the I night-mare. This then is the amusement of our winter evenings, which, if it does not benefit our fellow-creatures, does not, at any rate, diminish their stock of happiiiess.— But while we discuss our own comforts, it is not to forget the unfortunate for whom we have still a tear and a - left, for hard indeed must be the feelings of that person, as he does listlessly by his tire side, can listen unconcerned to the winter wind that roars arouud the unsheltered head of the indigent traveller. Match to do Fifty Miles in Ten Hours.—A gen tleman named Smith, an officer in the army. under took on Wednesday, for 100 guineas to do the above great match, which was made on Saturday night, at a sporting-house in St. James's, to be done within 48 hours. It was considered impossible without previous training, but it see7us ;the pedestrian is always in training, or in other words, he is an ab stemious man who takes wonderful exercise. The work was done over a five-miles piece of ground, on as follows; Miles. 11rP. Min. Sec. 5 0 40 0 5 5 5 I 5 5 30 30 I 5 the Hounslow enclosures, Miles. 51iii. Sec. 1 2 3 4 5 5 5 ... 5 6 7 8 9 . . 10 ► 9 41 48 The pedestrian was much beat after the 45 miles, but he had made good his ground at going off, anti he had leisure to rest an hour at intervals in the last five miles. The weather was his friend, and betting was two to one on him after doing 25 miles in three hours, 42 minutes, and SO seconds. EA FiTtIQU A KE.—The neighbourhood between llarlech and Barmouth, Merionethshire, was much alarmed a lift;.: after nine o'clock on the night of Wednesday se'imight by a slight shock of an elrth. quake. The noise was something similar to that produced by a large ball rolling on a hollow floor, and continued tin. about half a minute. It seems to have been generally heard, and as generally feared by the country people. I