The Statesman. — London, England, 1809-09-01 00:00:00

AGRICULTURE. • MONTHLY REPORT FOR AUGUST. The heavy and continued rains in the early part of this month have beaten down the corn of every description in the Midland Counties, upon the deep fertile soils. The barleys in particular are Muth shucked and twirled about by the succeed ing storms, from which the ears have been blown into clusters, and by their accumulated weight, have pressed the straw to the ground, and, In some degree, have excluded the air, so as to pre►ant their drying between succeeding showers. This, with the continued rains in the middle of the month, has caused the barley to be very much hedge-grown before it was cut. The wheats in the Southern Counties are slight ly grown in the shork ; but in the North, there is not much cut. The oats, being more liable to fall out, than to grow in the ear, are not much injured, but have made plenty of food fur the stubble geese. Peas are in abundance, and the early ones toler ably well harvested ; but the late sown have run very much to halm, and will also require dry weather before they will be in a good condition to Collect. The pntatoe i 3 a large crop, very fine, and par. Ocularly free from the rand. The turnips, cabbage, coleworts, and all the brascia species, have grown most luxuriantly. The -aftermath, ur second crop clovers, are very great, but the weather has been unfavourable to the seed. The natural grasses will produce an abuudauce of food, and will be the means of furnishing us with a plait,- of butchers' meat at Christmas. The mildew has made rapid progress in the wheat, in some particular places ; but it is not so general as might, from the state of the atmosphere, hare been expected. The farmer is loth to cut his wheat in wet weather, although in this state the injury he receives from mildew while he waits for it to be dry, more than counterbalances the trouble sad risk of the corn growing. INVERNESS, Ago. 25. Alrthe accounts which we have received daring the week, relative to the distressing catastrophe at the Aleikle . Ferry, formerly mentioned, concur in representing the number of persons who lost their lives on that occasion as even more considerable than we then stated ; but the precise number can. not yet be ascertained, although we are assured that upwards of 140 names have been collected. Truly mournful, indeed, is the blank thus made among the friends and kindred of the unfortunate sufferers, there being few persons in Dornoch, or the adjoining parishes, who bate not to lament the loss of a father, a mother, a brother or a sister. The business of the fair having been the object of almost all of those who were on board the boat, many of Onto had, of course, all the money they could command about them ; a circumstance which not a little aggravates the irreparable loss sustained by many • fatherless child. The accident is prin. cipally attributed to the misconduct of the boat men, who, it is said, were intoxicated, and who perished with the rest, leaving behind them a drealful example of the fatal effects of rashness and intemperance. EXETER CHANGE IN AN UPROAR. Yesterday afternoon Exeter Change exhibited a scene of confusion which could scarcely have hem exceeded, if some of Pidcock's lions and tigers had descended to greet the inhabitants of the re gion immediately beneath their habitation : thy confusion, however, was occasioned by the fol lowing circumstance :—a man of gaisteel appear ance, who exhibited strong Nympto tn s of having been engaged in making large libations to Bacchus, in attempting to enter the narrow door at the up. per end of the Change, lost his balance, and un: fortunately reeled against the stall of one of the dealers in pocket-books, thread-cases, pin-cush. ions, Ice. and by the violence of the shuck, one of the pocket:books was thrown to the ground : this, fron► the obscured state of his optics, he mis took fur his own, and immediately picked up and put in his pocket; the mistress of the stall, whose sight was rather quicker, endeavoured to convince him of the contrary, but to no purpose, and he insisted on carrying off his prize, which was as strongly resisted ; the Gentleman was now threat. cued with a Constable, but he defied the whole police of the metropolis; several of the inhabit ants of the Change interfering, and the mob tak. ing different sides, a desperate engagement ensued; and it was nut until ruin had been spread widely around, that the combatants were expelled from the Change, and the doors being barricadoed against both friends and foes, order was again restored, amongst those dealers in small wares. Thu principal hero of the piece, however, mein. tained a running fight, till he arrived at South. ampton-street, when he was secured, and con. •eyed to Buw.street, to answer the charge of stealing the pocket-book, which the owner threat ened to prefer against him. A celebrated Geographer, un hi, map of " the Coasts of England, France, and Holland," pub. lished in 1803, has inscribed the following obser. •ations : "To MY COUNTRYMEN—By the rivers and canals of the ci-levant Austrian Netherlands and Holland, schisyts and flat-bottomed boats of great burden can pass from Calais to Amsterdam with out annoyance from British cruisers. Whilst France is in possession of the Netherlands, and can influence Holland, England will never enjoy real security ; those countries arc the hot-bed, the ♦ery focus of invasion : In order to prevent the effect of such a powerful combination against you, take WALCIIERIN, CADSAND, GURU, &C. IN TILE MOUTHS OT THE SCNELDT AND MA► . s ; 6,y so doing ) you will render all attempts at invasion from the most perilous points ) abortive !" On Monday, the Duke of Norfolk gave a sumptuous entertainment to the Corporation of this city, at hb seat, at 11010.—(Ilereford Journal.) • PO LICR. MA sLoottocoe.rratEr.—Yesterday Jane Go. ber, the servant of Mr. Biggs, of Broad-street, St. Giles's, *as charged on the oath of Mr. Lan chester, a pawnbroker, in Little Psiteney-street, with rubbing her master of five silver table forks, and three silver table spoons. It appeared iu evidence that. *bold a month since the prisoner went to the shop of Mr. Lan, cheater, and offered the above-mentioned articles of plate in pledge: She represented herself to be the owner thereof, and said her name was Mrs. Biggs. Iles appearance, however, excited sevpi cious in the shopman's mind as to her honest pos session of the property, and he accordingly in sisted on receiving some more satisfactoryaccount of herself before he would give up the plate or ad. vance any money. The Prisoner appeared much alarmed at this intimation, and availing herself of the opportunity of the shop door being opened, escaped into the street and ran away, leaving the spoons and forks in Mr. Lanchester's hands.— Finding it impossible to secure the Prisoner at that time, Mr. Lanchester proceeded to this Office, and related the occurrence, as it hap pened, to the Magistrate; Mr. Brodie, who pre sided on that occasion, advised Mr. Lanchester to keep possession of the spoons and forks, and lose no opportunity of searching after the Pri soner. In obedience to this counsel, Mr. L. commenced a very diligent search, and after a tedious inquiry, traced her a few days since to an obscure lodging in St. Giles's, and the as sistance of a watchman, tuck her into custody on Wednesday evening, and conveyed her to the pa rish watch.house. Mr.'Lanchester further stated, that in conse. quence of information be received, ho went to Mr. Biggs's apartments in Broad-street, for the pur pose of making some inquiry of him respecting the plate ; but was informal that he was out of town, and was not expected to return soon.. Mr. Biggs's Solicitor however appeared on behalf of the proseLution, and stated, that he had instruc. thins from Mr. Biggs to proceed against the Pri toner, and that by the time the trial came on, he (Mr. Biggs) would be in London. The Prisoner declined saying any thing for the present in her defence, and was fully committed for trial. WHICLCITAPEL.—Yesterday John Squire, R. Heroson, and Etheard Smith, were fully com mitted to Negate for trial, charged with enter, ing the premises of Mr. Ivory, in Mark-lane, be. tween Saturday night and Sunday morning last, and stealing Bills of Exchange to the amount of between 4 and 5001. besides several kegs of butter, and other prisperty, must A. which was found upon them. They form a part of Charley Flow. er's gang, who infest the East end of the town. illicl~acl Mordecai was fully committed to New gate for robbing a sailor of 281. which he had a few hours before received for wages. HATTON.G A K EN.—Yesterday Sarah Plumber was fully committed for trial, charged with de. frauding a poor laundress, named Ann Shepherd, of a large quantity of linen entrusted to her by various families to wash and mangle. The Pri soner had the linen to carry backwards and for. wards, and at all times made a rule to pledge some of the articles. She contrived to amuse customers and her mistress a long .s hile, when too many excuses at length blazed forth the real state of the case. A meagre-looking man, of the name of Bry son, who may be recollected to be seen about Middle-row, Holborn, and Lincoln's lon-liolds, twisting himself in a wooden chair, made appli cation for 4 warraut, considering his life to be in rlawre (roan the continual threats thrown out against him while he lies iu his bed by the Dublin Heil Fire Club, which existed above 50 years ago. He also stated that one 'Tristram Shandq was the ringleader. Being considered insane, his reque st was refused, e hen he wheeled about qui. ctly, and went about his business. Wfrox-lIALL.---Illichacl Milian was charged o n suspicion of stealing two test-pound Bank notes. James Manning, of the India Arms, Gainsforth-street, staled, that he as in com pany with the Prisoner and his wife, at the George, in Long-lane, on the 14th of August; he went to sleep, and, whilst sleeping, he lost the two ten-pound notes. Since that time one of the notes has been paid into the Bank, with the Pri. 'oiler's name written on the back of it. He was remanded for another examination. Louisa Clark, who was detained on suspicion, some days since, by Goff, the Officer, for having in her possession Bank-notes to the amount of 501. of which she could give no satisfactory ac. count, was brought up again yesterday, when no person haying appeared to claim the notes, they were returned to her, and she was discharged. Bow-Srutet.--.The person, IVm. Sallie, who was taken out of the Haymarket Theatre on Wed nesday night, was yesterday brought up to the Police Office, Bow-street. The gentleman who look him out attended, and expressing his deter. minatiun to prosecute, the Magistrate held him to bail to answer for the assault, which bas not been correctly stated. Instead of spitting from the bores into the pit, he continually threw chewed fruit down, materially to the annoysuce of the people in that part of the pit. The Merino sheep lately arrived at Portsmouth, from Cadiz, sae in a fcebbi and exhausted state, owing to their having been driven from Seville to Cadiz with too much haste, and without proper care, in consequence of %thick the mortality which has taken off so many of them, began before they were embarked. Tho ewes are in general with lamb, and we are informed that the distribution of them, in obedience to his Majesty's commands, will not lake place till they yeah. Those who receive them arc to pay a sum per head sufficient to cover the cost of embarkation, the pay of their shepherds, and their provender : the freight is not to be. charged to them, u the expence of the re. turns of transports would have been equally in. cured, whether they had brought home the sheep or not. Not half of the number originally cm. barked are now alive. TH V. STATESMAN. IRE LIND. • COURT OF CONSCIENCE-DUBLIN, Atm. 5. RRE4CII OF RAT-CATCHING CONTRACT, Doctor JOHN SA•AOZ, itinerant rat-catcher ) and WIFE V. J. WIIITCRA FT. This, as stated by Mrs. Savage herself, was an action of assampsit, on promise of paying 11. 2s. W. for expelling all the rats out of the Defendant's concerns in Meath.street, in that city; to which he pleaded the general issue. Mk: Dr. Savage stated the case as follows : After apologising to the Court, in a very in. teresting manner, for being obliged to occupy its time by the particular statements which he felt it necessary to wake, as indispensable to his own honour as a Professional Gentleman, he observed, that the Defendant had contracted with• hies for the expulsion from his premises of those noxious beasts called rats, which, by his extraordinary skill, he completely ef fected—driving them all into the next house ; that, notwithstanding this wonderful proof of human ability, he, the Defendant, had refused to pay him the trilling sum of one guinea, which he had, according to his contract, bena 7 fidedlyi agreed to pay fur the quantity of rat pills neces sary fur the great and important work. The worthy Doctor then gave a short encomium on himself...it was, he said, as modest as he could afford. The Doctor co►►cluded by observing, that it was of all tasks the hardest to speak of one's self, and hoped the Court would make the neces. sary. allowances. Mr. ALLZT, who presided as sitting Magistrate, after patiently hearing the Plaintiff, called on the Defendant for his defence. Mr, Whitcraft began by remarking, that he was not endowed with either the Ulyssean wisdom, or Ciceronian eloquence of his antagonist; but, nevertheless, he would give an ingenuous statement of plain facts. The Plaintiff, he said, had repre sented himself as a man of uncommon skill and knowledge in the Black Art; that amongst other things, his success in destruying rats was only cre dible un ocular demonstration ; that he had once the honour to prepare, by particular desire, a rat feast, at Lord Glandore's, in the county of Kerry, at which his Lordship's servants, and a number of oilier Fashionable', were present—and at which I banquet several hundreds of those noxious creatures fell; that he had obtained a regular diploma from the King and Queen's College of Physicians in Ire land ; with other impressive representations, that induced him to have a trial of the Plaintiff's skill. The Doctor accordingly came, accompanied by his Lady, Mrs. Dociress Savage; and having spread his pills in certain magical directions on the parlour fluor, he pulled out his square box of sand, formed a horoscope, pronounced several cabalistic words, fetched some deep groans, gave some talismanic knocks on the door, and, finally, distorting his countenance, and grinning like a Cheshire cat, he exclaimed, " You are a happy, thrice hippy man ! your house is so swarmed with rats, both young and old, that in a few days you should, together with your family, have been devoured outright; but, all's well—my art will overcome all ! Let no one presume to enter this room till I call to-mor row." He accordingly came, accompanied, as usual, by his sapient spouse—whom he sent in first, to remove some of the pills, as was supposed, and then introducing Defendant into the ruum, he cried out, " Behold a miracle ! all's well, indeed! Yes ! some of my pills, you see, have been bona .fuktlly taken. On my word and honour, confu sion to the rat will be in your house to-morrow— for you will then, at twelve o'clock, see them yourself all marching out, as 'twere rank and file, two and two. In the mean time, let me have the guinea, 'tis a small compensation, I have never yet taken less than five." Defeudant, however, ex cused himself, by saying, he had nothing in the house but bills—and the Doctor was reluctantly compelled to depart without his fee. He, however, called the next evening, when the Defendant taxed him with imposition, as the promised march ,had not taken place. But the Plaintiff, deter mined, if possible, to get his fee, said the Defen dant mistook him—for he meant twelve at night; and that, had he staid up, he would have seen them marching out. The Defendant, however, conceiving himself deceived, had lust all faith in the Doctor's necromancy, and refused to give him his fee. Tor nut rewarding him fur this foul de ception, Mr. Savage bad brought the present ac tion against the Defendant, with an effrontery to be equalled by none but a rat-catcher. But De. fendant said, he appealed nut to the laws of rat catching, hut to (huge of his country, and he hoped they would compensate him fur his trouble, vexation, and disappointment. Mr. A LLZT, with his usual penetration, put sonic questions to the Plaintiff, which he appeared somewhat at a loss to answer ; among the rest the Magistrate requested to see the diploma of m bids ho had boasted ? The Doctor produced a slip of paper, not supposing it would be examined. In this, however, he was disappointed, fur, upon inspection, it appeared to be a discharge from a Gentleman with whom he had lived as servant.— Plain ti ffs non-sifted. On Wednesday, the Ifith ult. the annual meet. ing of the Ross New Reedit% Society was held at the King's Head ism, in that town, when nearly 1201. worth of hooks were disposed of to the re. spective members. The excellence of this Sou. sidling Institution will obviously appear, when it is remarked, that for the annual subscription of 13s. only, all the members have a right to order whatever books they please (professional ones only excepted), and to the perusal of all hooks ordered by the other subscribers. The privileges of enjoying easy and cheap access to every valua ble publication which the English Press affords in situations remote from all great towns, or esta blished libraries, is toduhvions and too great to requite elucidation, but that this should be dune at so small an expence, is admissible on elite r. i enet• alone. We understand this Literary . Institution commenced under the auspices of the Rev. Mr. Thickens, of Ross, nearly twenty years ago, and has remained under Ail direction cv Of Iliaah»-( Ile- Word Journal.) ESCIPE FROM FRINGE. Kk. SLLISOX'S ILICITAL 0/ ANGULAR tSC.%FF 111011 •sfDUM. I.iverpeal, July 3, 1609. ig As you wail to know how I eff e ct e d „iy escape, I shall briefly give you the heads of Last July a friend and myself determined to gir t the rascals the slip ; but as both of us were en. terra into an engagement with eight more to our Commandant to be responsible for each oth e r, and that, if one ran away, the others should be imprisoned—to get clearof that, we missed mug. to one morning, on purpose to get imprisoned, which succeeded. We had ropes round our ho. dies, saws, gimblets, &c. in our hats, and at 12 that night worked our way out, though surround. ed by centinels. We got close to one, where we thought there had not been any ; he hailed us, and we scampered off. Be must have been a young recruit, fur he did not give the alarm, and we gut down the wall. Thu rope was so small, we could not hold it, and both of us fell about 50 feet ; I was sadly hurt about the loins, and fainted as soon as I reached the wood, where we had previously stowed our provisions. My cum.. !minion 'rained his sack, and we stopped in .he wood four days, till he was able to march. We were taken the 13th day, going through a small town at deten at night, and conducted back to Verdun, where they kept ' l me, hands and feet in irons, for seven days, and then sent ns off to Bitche s which is a most dreadful place, and where they kept us in general under ground. It is a strong fort, built upon an amazing high rock, and surrounded at bottom by three different high ram. parts ; the rock is entirely hollowed out, anti C 4. liable of containing the whole garrison, if le sieged. After being there a little time, we made interest with the Commandaiit to live above ground ; and no soonA. had we got possessi v e of a room above stairs, than we began to scheme how to get out of it. There were twelve of us. We first began manufacturing a rape, which we made out of new linen cloth, that ne got from town ; we then got a friend. who resided there, to get Its a gon d gimblet, and on the nth of December N e forced both locks on our chamber dour, and cot through another one with the above instrument, and all of us got clear of the fort before eight o'clock, the titian the additional ceutinels arc put on. It snowed and blew very hard, anti was most terribly cold. We lay the text day in the snow, and at night started bgaiii, and gut within two leagues of the Rhine by day-light. It had froze severely in the night, and was so intensely cold, that it would have killed us to hive stop Pea that day in the woods ; we therchire got into a barn, and lay very sling till Tour o'clock, when a pair of lovers coining in to enjoy themselves, discover. eil us, and gave the alarm. We got clear of them, but they raised the whole country, and at -ten that eight we were surrounded by fifty or six ty peasants; two of, us escaped their clutches by going different ways, but were both taken a few hours afterwards. I was just stepping into a boat out the Rhine, e heietwo eustont.house officers gut hold of me, and dragged me to my unfortunate companions ; we were five of us in our party ; the rest went different ways, and four of them g o t safe home. Wu were conducted back' to the place we had left, and a littleTene after we were sent to Mets hand.cuffed, two and two, acid they chained all in a string, so short that we had barely room to walk. We were sent there as evidence for the gen d'arme who was upon guard' the night we started; we acquitted him, and were twenty days travelling hi that uncomfortable manner. — En coming back, we passed through the depot of Sarre-Libre, where I got a friend to buy.me a gimblet, being determined to escape or break my neck. The day we arrived at &mho ne were all . clapped into a room about 40 feet under ground. We had a guard bed to lie upon, as the bottom was covered with water to the depth of six inches. After staying there for three days,' we got it made known to the Commandant that it Was • impossible for men to exist in that damp place. lie ordered us a room up stairs in the same build ing; we had three doors locked upon us, a d o uble row of iron bars before the window, and a cunti. tiel placed over us ; however, we resolved t o make an attempt by cutting torough the cieAng. —We cut up our sheets, blankets, shirts, and towels, of which we made a tope 130 feet long and on the eh:tenth of February, at six U'CIO: began, and at three in the morning acc.int plished the business. The floor we cut throng!' was two and a half..inch oak. Whet, we got there, we found,two windows without bars, that looked two. different wars; it rained very and we saw the centiliel in his box at tb' opposite side front that we intended to descend, aid :tit got safe out of the building, over two mirparts, when, to our great astonishment. sac found a !laid, which we understood had not gone round that side of the fort ; it was about '25 feet, and ite had no rope for it ; we all dropped safe, ex ce pt the I.lst t who broke his lug; the rest of us separated, bet met again at Saltzburg. There were two whit tnc. . We slept in the woods by day, and travelled he night through a tt tautly neutontaitious country. We took provisions along with us ; and on the seventh day crossed the Rhine, which cost us Is guineas; we then had only nine left. We crossed • Baden, Wirtemberg, awd Bavaria, without pass ports, slept in the mall villages al night, and went rotund all the towns, some of which we found great difficulty in rounding; however, on the 19111 day• we arrived safe at Saltzleirg, and got out passports fur Trieste. Ono of my coin !anions aas entirely knocked up; we gave him all the money we spare to follow us in the Diligence ; and nL: set out that night on foot, and arrived at Trieste the seventh day ; a distance of '2OO English mile• ; and which the natives told us had never been done before in so short a time. We gait a passage in an Austrian brig to Malta, thee obtained a passage in his Majesty's bomb Lucifer, !multi! Plymouth, and gusted in Liscr i buul—in tin, 4, mouths and seventeen days. " SLACOAIE nftbe /Nebel." LONDoN : Pnntetl nwl l'orbli,twel li) 1). Lo‘6is., tt tiTaTtaus Orkit,s, bi. Elret-birret