The Sun. — London, England, 1812-08-29 00:00:00

BTIITLSIT .-t"PIIT IN SPAIN. "ramp -lei; r'uellnr, Aug. 4, IEO2 " The posit' , -n of our division, previous to the attack on the uh.was aloug the top of ridge of hills, but so exposer! to the cannonade of enemy (who were on a ridge. paralleVto pis; `opt the other side of a valley, as wide ” : jitSt to be within range of each others . artillery), that we were obliged to lie down On our bellies, while they nlied us lustily with round shot and shells, but luckily threw most of them too far. In 'this state we were kept, twenty minutes, till the columns whiCh were moving to the right (to prevent out. right being turned, which' was the view of Mar inont), had got their several . stations. All then being ready, the attack commenced by the sth di vision standing.up,' and' advancing in _line down the bill, across the valley,' and up their hill, at the bottom of which we met their sharpshooters, who kept up a very sharp fire upon,us during ..?ktr Vance, because ire never condescended to single sbot: r‘ From the moment we rose to ~.advance, the fire from the enemy's guns increased upon us, afid` when we got to - . the bottoth of our own hill, they began .to send showers of grape and canister amongst us, and continued it till we got - across the valley, and about half way ep their hill, when I suppose, 'seeing ,nothing could stop us, they thought it prudent to remove their guns, for fear we should get hold of them, and allewed Os to, come in contact with their infantry, which, on reaching the top of the hill, we found in contigu ous columns Of battalions, at six'. pates interval, consisting of the 6th and ith divisions of French infan trY. " Till within forty yards of them, we never, but for a moment, once sawthem. At the above dis tance we gave them throe cheers, received their. iire (one of their ranks kneeling) ,returned' it,,and directly charged; on which they immediately fared about, and get off, but ranked again for a short time, when ending. ns inclined idr noth 7 pg but the bayonet, they set offhefori us altogether, and our cavalry dashed in among them,. and played the de Our gallant-general (Leith) who lea us on in the most brilliant style, is doing well, and we hope will soon join us. " We do not expect to advance to Burgos with out heavy artillery, which we can never get up in this sandy country. "-Marmont died of his wounds' on the 31st July *t a short distance from this place." In a former letter from the same officer, he states that his regiment (Ist Batt. 38th) marched from Lisbon, a distance of 350'miles, in 17 days, and joined the army of/ Lord Wellington on the 21,a duly, the day before the battle. _ _ THE'ATAUQUIS WELLESLEY.—We had renieutly the pleasure of mentioning the munificence Noble Personage to, the poor confined , debthis of London, on the occasion of the late victory of his brother, whereby he enabled so many unfortunate Englishmen to celebrate the new triumph of our Irish Hero.—We feel, however, additional gra , tification in recording, at the same time, .the Warquis's liberality to his own countrymen : dur ing the late scarcity, he promptly commissie - ied his agent to apply a considerable sum of money to the relief of the poor classes ofhis Lordship' s ten an - try, and dependants in the patish.of Trim, in the county of Meath. A large proportion of this sum was handed over to Jams Fox, Esq. of Fox brook, in that county, who immediately distri buted' it according to the intentions of the bene volent donor. Thus we see that the Marquis . WELLESLEY not only enables the poor prisonerto share in general exultation, but, while far from . Ireland, he watches over the injuries of his eve country in the hour, of want and hi the sea. son of calamity—an example truly worthy of imi tation. - (Dublin Evening Post.) The Spanish Executioners were naturally indig nant at the intention of their rulers to invest them with the insignia of the Legion of Honour, as an unmerited disgrace, very properly urging that they as ere executioners according to law and justice; but the French, for whom the order was founded, are the executioners of law and justice, and the perpetrators themselves of every species of horrjble enormity. Mrs. JORDAN, it seems, is.preparing some mti nificent dresses for an' intended provineialtour. is probable, however, that they are intendid • to grace the opening of the new theatre inDrury. lane. But such an actress " needs not the out , ward aid of ornament," as' she has the powerful recommendation of first rate comic genius. ;feu- d'esprit of Mr, Sheridan.--When Mr. Dun das (afterwards Lord Melville) first obtained a seat in Parliament, his language was strongly tine , tured with the Scotch pronunciation. Having upon some occasion observed, that he did not conceive a Zneasure then in contemplation to be within the power of the House; he pronounced the word power in the broad Scotch manner, the same way as poor. A Member sitting next Mr. Sheridan, asked him • ivhom Mr. Dundas could mean by the poor of the liouse? " Why," replied Mr. Sheridan, " he • Means the forty-five Scotch Members." Yesterday, in. the gardens of Chelsea College, • Captain . M‘Gulaa (whom the King of PERSIA has appointed his chief engineer) again repeated .his Ingenious - improvement on the method of blowing up fortifications, - ships, &c. in the preSence of several General Officers. The machine was sunk et high water close to an old barge. moored Orr! purpose, but being too near the shore when the explosion took place, it did considerable damage in blowing up part of the wall. The company present expre sse d th emse i ve S hi g hl y gratified, an d' bestowed their praises on the merits of the gallant inventor, who was assisted by that intelligent and 41)Ie Engineer, Captain MIN.-N. We .understand atother trial will be' made on Thursday next, 'when the Commander in Chief is expected to be resent, and , who will no doubt honour it with tis sanction: • During the sailing match for the , cup and cover, aivcn by the Proprietor' of the New Ranelagh, on Thursday evening, a boat, in which were two gentleMen,and a lady, upset in Chelsea Reach 'but fortunately, by the prompt assistance of those 3q the boats rOund them, the-; were extricated from their dangerous situation, without having, sustained any other injury than a complete ducking. tot ;k: ON ASTLEY COOPER, ESQ, Ltt Nome rare Sculptor, With aspiring aim, Adopt the task now offer'd to his fame, And, by the impulse of creative Art, To Varian marble CoopEa's form impart; For Heav'n adorn'd him, in profusive; hour, With all ArotLo's symmetry acid pow'r. E. J. M R?IAIDS. Mg. EDITOR,--4 think it is now about a year ago, the London Newspapers gave a very curious account of a Mermaid which had been seen on sonic part of the coast of Scotland. The existence of such an extraordinary animal / has beeo, and no doubt is still considered by many people as tabu ' louts. Indeed, 1 have been myself one of those who held the Mermaid as the mere offspring of the imagination, and preserved in the catalogue of substantial beings by credulity. • But•I am now convinced of my error • and if you think it will interest or amuse any of your readers by giving publicity to the following account relating to this ' animal, I beg you will do so. It mar, moreover, call the attention of some able naturalist to the subject ; and perhaps he may favour „the public, through the same channel, ',with his opinion as to.. the probable economy of, this Wonderful being. - The day of yesterday being very fine, I joined a party, of ladies and . gentlemen in a sailing excur sion. ' When we had got about ti mile to the S.E: of Exmouth Bar, our attention was suddenly. ar rested bya very singular noise, by no means un pleasant to the ear, but of which it is impossible • to give a correct idea by mere description. It was not, however, 'unaptly - cotepared by one of our Ladies to the wild melodies of the .harp, combined with a noise, similar to that made:by a stream of Water falling gently, on the. leaves of a tree. The soUnd„ however, bad not 411:the va riety, nor the soft cadence of the /Bohan notes, but appeared like four or five different notes,- each tone repeated,severel times on the same key. In the mean time we observed something about one hundred yards from us, to windward. We all ima gined it to be some human being, though at the same time we were at a loss to account for this, at such a distance from the shore, and no other boat near. We hailed, but received no reply, and we made towards this creature as soon as possible; when, to the great astonishment of us all, it eluded our pursuit by plunging under water. In a few mi mutes it rose again, nearly in the same place, and ,by that time we had got sufficiently near for one of ; the boatmen to throw into the water a piece of boiled fish which he had in his locker.— This seemed to alarm the animal, though it soon recovered from its fears, for we presently observ ed it to lay hold of the fish, which it ate withxap .parent relish. Several other pieces were. thrown out, by which the creature was induced to keep at a short distance from our bOat, and afforded us the. opportunity of observing it with 'attention, and found, to our astonishment, that it •was no other than a mermaid. As the sea was calm, and in a great degree transparent, every part of the ani mal's body became in turn visible. The head, from the crown to the chin, forms rather a long oval, , - and the face seems to resemble that of the seal, though, at the same time, it is far more agree , able, possessing a peculiar softness, which renders the whole set of features very interesting. The upper and back part of the: head appeared to be furnished with something like hair, and the fore part of the body with something like down, be , tween a very. light fawn and Ver;pale pink colour, -which at a distance had the appearance of flesh, and may have given rise to . the idea that the body , - of the mermaid is, externally, like that of the hu man being. This creature has two arms, each of which terminates into a hand with four fingeTs ,con nected to each other by means Of a very thin elastic membrane. The animal used its arms with great agaily, and its motions in general were very grace ful: From the waist it gradually tapered so as to font a tail, which had the appearance of being covered with strong broad polished scales, which 'Occasionally reflected the rays of the sun in a very - beautiful manner; and front the back and upper •part.lB,f the neck, down to the loins ; the body a h 3 o appeared covered with short round broad feathers, lOf the eolOur of down •on the fore part of the body. The whole length of the. animal, from the crown 'of the head to the extremity Of the tail, was supposed to be about five feet, or five feet and a half. , In akout ten minutes, from the time we ap 7 proacTed, the animal gave two or three planges in quick succession, as if it were at play. After this, it gave aisudden spring, appearing to swim away from us very rapidly, and in a few seconds we lost sight of this wonder-creati;7g animal. • Crowds of boats are this day on the water' in the hope of witnessing such a novel sight, and a medical gentleman of Exeter has offered a reward of 201. to whoever may succeed- in catching the animal, and will bring it to him for, disseetion.— . In consequence of this, all the fishermen are'very. busy iri making preparations' to endeavour to en-, tangle in their nets this fair nymph' of the ocean, lam, Sir, your most obedient servant, J. TOUPIN. , . 1 - v- Ixmouth, Aug. 13, 1812. . , S. It was reported here a few days ago, that a large strange• fish had been seen in the neigh bourhood of Torbay, and is supposed to have been this animal. A TRITON.—On the .11st of July, an extraor dinary animal was seen by five fishermen, in the creek of Port Main (111orbian). Its shape re sembled that of a man. It had arms, and the bust was completely human, hut the lower part terminated in a fish's tail. Its head was bald, with the exception of the fore part, on which was a bunch of black hair, and another buneh'was • perceptible upon the chin. The seafaring people, whoA have sent us these particulars, had time tq 'observe the monster at their leisure ; it was with in half a musket shot of tlie shore, between two boats, but they were afraid of it, and did not go any nearer.—(From a French Paper.) ttEcdtroil OF BOOTH. Booth, NWy executed at Stafford, flattered himself with hopes of pardon till within a day or or two of execution ; his conduct in prison, after condemnation, was rather weak than otherwise, and he frequently wept with almost infantine sor row. Co the day before his execution, his wife and children took' their final leave of him ; - the. scene was of the most affecting description.- 7 - Booth lay under sentence of condemna tion, sonic implements were found upon WM; for the purpose of assisting - in effeeting.his escape; and on'the morning of his execution, when the gaoler took his leave of hini, Booth said he hoped he bore him no malice o that account. The Gavel:nor assured him of feeliug.no such resent ment, and with the benedietion of " God 'bless, you !" 'finally bade him adieu. There are many reports respecting the property of Booth. Some represent him to have left almost 'a princely for tune, and others that he had nothing to leave:---, The truth lies, as it commonly dries, between the two extremes ; there is good authority for •he' lieving that.he pussessed about 6800/. which he assigned ,to his family previo4s to his trial There are also reports in circulation that he denied some crimes of which be had been suspected, and that he confessed others ; the, fact is, he was never presSed to do either, find that be made no confes sion of his crimes. On this subject there is no , thing : more to hope that-1011e Sincerely repented of them l--- 7 1-lis house was secured like a Bastile, and . the stories which are in circulation of the crimes which have been perpetrated therein resemble the most. romantic and extraordinary fictions. Of the death of his brother, of Which crime he had been violently suspected, , the Tury:acqUitted him r and • every just and merciful man will,'on a perusal of the evidence, be convinced that it was ncit SuiE ekent to establish his glint, although, at the .same time, it was not fully.convincing in respect to his innocence. The most extraordinary circumstance which has yet been narrated, and which stands at present un cOntradicted, is, that a person Of the name Of Mises Hall, after receiving a considerable sum of money, accompanied Booth to his house at Perry Bar, and was never afterwards heard of. A fe male, connected with the- said HallOialso went to Booth's house to inquire for him, and she also Was never after seen or heard of. A part of their clothes. was found in Booth's premiSes, as was also a halter,. with a noose, -and which apparently had been used for the purpose of hanging or strangling. -Some years ago a man was executed for forgery ...an-the bank of - Messrs. Webb and - Co. of Staf ford ;.-\v"lien Booth's house; Vias" sv4l-claetU, the plate was found from which the forged notes were taken—Lit" Was Very badly executed. Elizabeth. Chidlow, his servant and accomplice, who was sentenced to fourteen-years • transportation, might, from her means of information, have diseloSed most important facts, if 313 e. had berm induced to confess, but she refused to turn king's evidence, and was, to use both a, sporting;a4 gad' phrase, bottom. However, on receiving, sentence, she burst into a violent paroxysni of rage and grief, and imprecated 'curses on the head of Booth and her accueers, affirrl ing that the latter were sall'peiji.ired. - -The conduct of Booth towards this woman had the appearance : of ingratitude; she expected' to nave been assisted on her trial by the same Counsel who were engag ed for Booth, but when she appeared: at the bar she found herself entirely undefended. One of the Ingle-is, who was admitted evidence for the Crown, was 'brought up frorri hiS Irli r ncy . with Booth ; and his testimony against his master: af fected him more than any other circumstance on his trial.--Booth is said to be 33 years of age, but he appeared much older. - Lancaster Assizes commenced on Saturday last. The Calendar, we observe with regret, contains a long list of commitments, some of which arc on, charges of ,murder and burglary, and 39 for he jag present at, and consenting to . , the administra tio6 of - Unlawful oaths, purporting to bind the parties not to reveal or discover an unlawful coat= - bination or confederacy. There are also several, principally women, to be tried for rioting - and stealing provisibns. A cause of considerable import.ince to land pro prietors was tried at Newcastle assizes. hi an action respecting a hedge ; it was declared . bv Mr. Baron WOOD to be the hiw, that the person t() the . bedgeblongs has a right to.five feet of his neighbour's'field, for a ditch 'or other pur pose ; nay, that he may hielOsefive feet and plant it, and ; also claim five arid- Mineral which may he conttined'untler tliat:rspace. _Against this. decision, it is, we understand determined to afi• peal to the House of Lot-as. • INVe'regKet to state . ' th;lt--an itninentHolise in Siluth Shields has stopped payMent-,. and' that the - ilematills . against it will amount to littie short 'of 250;0001. , , • A' Cheshire 'Varincr states, that, fr:l - In his ex periments . 6n. a 'lime-stone roc icy soil, be found, that by laringrout 'At the rate of 101. an acre in manure, With . lime, he is able to obtain two white I win crops folhag. 'Pugi/Wa.---Thursdav afternoon, a, pitched bat tle was (ought for 4 OL'a side; in a field 'n(nr Black ...wall; between a. Lancaster man, of the name of SCOtchard, and Riley, an Hibernian, both navi gators,' and athletic young men ; they, met with their seconds at the , place - appointed, at two o'clock, where a great number of spectators as 'sembled upon the occasion, and a ring being formed, the combatants ,set-to with equal cou rage and spirits, but without any science in the art of : boxing, when they exchanged very severe blows; real hard fighting, repeatedly knocking down each other* both of them fought mostly at the head and face; bets ran four to three in fa vour of the former, who appeared to he the quickest hitter. The contest was maintained for - two hours and five minutes, which, at length, ter- Minuted in, favour of the Lancaster man, his an tagonist being so dreadfully bruised as not to he able to stand or see. 'They were both very much beaten, and irere taken to their respective homes by their friends. A great deal of money was de riending,npon the issue. • Partridge, shooting, which commences on Tues day next, is likely to be abridged for some time, owing to the great extent of still standing corn, 'and particularly of beans, which, in the Eastern Counties will not' be fit to cut for a fOrtnieht: POLICE. Morstow-HonsE.--Yesterday a Pawnbroker, in Fleeet-street, was summoned before the LORD noroa, on a charge of detaining stolen property in hip possession. Fr om t h e el:Cc - knee of the pro setutar it appeared, that he took' a female to his apartments on a certain evening, about , two months ;ago, but the Lady, seemingly more atten tive to her own interest than his entertainment, got out of the house early, and witheut ledge, but not till she had robbed him of Various articles of jewellery, to the rplue of 20/, ano nymous letter was afterwards sent him, stati ng where the articles were to be found, when he ac ; eordingly called upon the Pawnbroker to restore therm-: This wr.s, however, refused, until the prosectita• should give all the information in his power reipecting the person whom he suspected to , ,have stolen-theth. The prosecutor for a 'con sider:able time•hesitated to give the. LAiy's 'name, but being pressed to it •by the Lord Mayor. he Said her name was Mary Green. The farther consideration of the busies was postpone:f to this day, when it is expected Miss Green_will - be found to attend. . • • GttiLbnALt.—Yesterday a ypung man was taken to, Guildhall on a charge of riding violently over a bricklayr's labourer, carrying :a hod \ full .of mortar, in Newgnte-street. It appeared that the youth in custody had :endangered tne lives of se renal persons; by 'galloping a grey mare, govern . - able only by a halter, violently through the streets. The man with' the hod was looCked down and sorely bruised, but had no bones broken. The Sitting Magistratti (Sir John Anderson) . having leff the Office when the charge was brought: in, the Offender was reinanded till this day. _ Umos HALL - ..---Edward Collins was charged by Mr. Carnage, of the Kent Road, with attempting to steal hiS watch on Thursday morning last.— Carna k l-e stared, that, as he was mating his way through the crowd which was coiiected at the ihiTh. of Vauxhall Gardens, on Thursday ~, ing,' — hb'telt sonic one pull at his ‘vatc i an,i; p.it-- . lu tin;; his liulr.! . down immediately, be found 0,% chain, which he had previously put. inside hi,;l : c,',, hanging down on the outside. The pr;soner ,v ?s. hear him at the titrie,,and, he had no •douht, %u_ theVerson who had attempted to draw his 4 - ateu. lie was ordered to find bail. • John Robinson was also charged by Mr. FloOd, on suspicion of having stolen his watch, chain, and seals, whilst in the Gardens, on Thursday morning, Ile was committed for reexamination. -JohnSmith was brought up by Goff, under the Bum-boat Act, charged with having in bis posses sion thiity 6pper-bults, of which he could give no accoculit:'kle was fined 40s. and costs. A youtvvornan, of most interesting counte nance. ,tditi demeanour, and apparently. not more than seventeen yearS of age, but who had before been obliged to make a similar somplaint to a Magistrate, agaiicappeared before Mr. Evance, to claim his protection againt the brUtality of her husband, who did not appear to be burthened with many more years than herself, and to whom she: had been united but a short time. The worthy Magistrate, after animadverting lii terMS of suit able severity, on the baseness and cowardice of the 'defendant's conduct; in his thus ill-treating a female, and one whom• it was his bounden duty to protect, ordered him to enter. into securities to keep the peace towards his wife for two years. AUG. 25.—0 n Monday morning last, as 'Pierce. O'Brien Butler, Esq. of Dunbovne Castle; and his family, consisting of Mrs. Butler, and their‘twodanghters, were proceeding on their way from iyqi - thgr to Michaelstown, on the road to MallOw.; a Mr.-Butler, who was foremostin a dog-cart with Miss Butler; was stopped, within two hundred yards of Tincurry-gate, and within sight of four or five cabins, (some of whose in habitants were looking on at the transaction) by dsingle footpad, armed with a blunderbuss, who demanded his 'money. Mr. Butler, perreiving from the fellow's manner that he was no veteran :tithe business, parlied with him to gain which was the only advantage he could expect, as he .was not armed ; whenthe fellow called out to a colleague to come forward, and, on Mr. Butler'slonkinrtonud, ; he itnmediately saw the second freebooter on the ditch, armed also with a - short blunderbuss on the rest, and levelled at his (Mr. B.'s) 'person. Mr. Butler then gave the first assailant his watch; with which he thought to satisfy him ; and the ruffian looked and eKa mined it, during which his coinraL saying some thing to him, he threw back the watch, and re solved that he Would not be fobbed off in- that Manner, swore vehementiy. that he 'would lodge the'contents - of the blunderbuss in Mr. Butler's body, unless he instantly gave up 'his' rooney.— Mr. Butler, however, escaped by giving up eight guinea notes, which he had that morn ing received in change at Caller, and which he 'had loose in one of his waistcoat pockets ; very luckily for himself, as he .had dextrously con trived, while the robber was examining his watch, to slip his pocket-book, containing nearly 300/. irf notes, 'under the cushion of the seat. We understand that wheat fell at Wakefield market:On Friday 12: , , a load, and it was expected. to have fallen Jas. but that some Gentlemen with drew their corn on account of some little bustle which took place, but which ended without any other conBequenCel. At Horneustle fair, the supply of horses was very large, and inconsequence of the attendance of considerable nnalber of buyers, a grant clearance was made. - High prices were generally obt..;led for horses of a superior kind, but inferior ones were hardly saleable. Melancholy accident. —On Monday morning last, aiatalacCident occurred at Poldier mine, is the' nci , s ,hl3ourhoocl of Gwennap. One of the Agents, Cept,, Robert Williams, having- occasion to go under ground, called on a poor man of the name of Pascoe, who was at that time at work in the mine whilst . conversation, they stood on a quantity of attic, or loose stud, of no value, that was supported by sortie tinibe'r, which giving way, they were "precipitated into the water at the bottom of .;the 'mine, •above forty fathoms front where they .stood, and as the q4antit , 4 of stud' which fell with them is very great, the bodies cannot be got '&t without considerable expense Two persons who were near the spot had a very 1.1 •1 %. n. •