The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1824-06-16 00:00:00

INDIA.

Yesterday we received Bombay Papers to the s.!lgh Ja-
nutty, from which we copy the following
:--
(From the Bombay Gazette.l
We have seen letters by the Ann from the most respectable
hodses in Canton, of as late a date as the sth of December, and are ,
sorry to say, that they represent the opium market to be in a very
depressed, and still declining state.
Patna opium is quoted at dn. 1350, and Benares at dn. 1250 per
chest, and at is added, that it is impossible to say to what point of
depreesion it may not eventually arrive. 31alwa opium of the Ben-
gal
males of July and August last is stated to be at IhN. SO and 950
per chest, but only saleable in small quantities t whilst the Malys
opium sold at this place, from being from font to live conies, or !
(rem 41 to 64 lb. lighter than that from Calends, was not at all in.
(mired for, and not a chest could be got off in conequence , unless
at • reduction of about SO dn. below the latter description. The
most serious apprehensions appear to be ertertainal by all parties, 1
of the result of the adventures of the past season, should the sales
in India be carried to the es tent of last year; and some of the most
intelligent and experienced persons in Cantou seem to consider it
very unlikely that any persons will, in the state of things we have
described, have been found sufficiently bold tb purchase opium at
the Calcutta sales in last moth on almost say terms, et least for
shipment to the China market.
Cotton continued to improve a little in price, the quotation for
Dembay on the 30th November being eleven tales, and for Bengal
twelve tales per pccul, but even these rides do not promise much
advantage to shippers from hence, if prices advance as they appear
likely to do proportionably at this place.
BOMBAY. JAY. 21.
burr Litexcit.—At midnight on Saturday, the 17th January,
was floated out ral dock the new ship Asia, of 84 guns, built for his
3lejesty's navy.. The Asia is the seventh line of battle ship that
has been built in the H. C. dockyard at Bombay. sad is not only
the largest ship that has been built in India, but also that has ever
been on this side the Cape of Good Hope. The ASIA on pawing
' the Dock received her name from his Excelleaey Commodore C.
Grant, C. 8., the Naval Commander in Chief.
[Yvon the Dever Husker:4, Januar, 2.1
The following h an extract from a letter dated Chittagong,
December 21 :
" We have not yet had occasion to draw trigger to the annoyance
of anything but poor innocent d ,leer, peacock, jungle fowls, &e.,
i but it s more than probable we shall, before mantes are amicably
adjusted. Weave to 'nimbi here till the sentiments of the King of
Ava are known, and it Is thought as well al wished tat, that he
will be disposed to enter into hostilities. The troops under Col.
Shaplaed, C. 8.. art encamped here anxiously waiting the answer
of the Burmese Monarch. It was repotted in the camp yesterday,
that the Dutudoe and Siortine had entered into atonfederacy against
us, and designed making incorsions on our territories as soon a,
their forces meld be Quern-together, but no olden' triton has bee,
mired to that effect, or shy dell founded intelligence."

The emphatic al places tl—n=ymist as much above the
ordinary chymist, as the gold which he obtains is superior
to other metals. Germany still swarms with persons who
axis the philosophers stone, as the water of immortality has
been sought in Chios, and the, :dr:tax of rota in Europe.
In France, some have been known to ruin themselves in

this pursuit.
The number of those who have believed in transmuta-
tions is prodigious, and the number of chests has been in
proportion to that of the credulous. At Paris wohaveseen
Signor Damml, Marquis of Conventiglio, obtain some hun-
dred lonia from several of the nobility that be might mike
them gold to the amount of two or three crowns°.
The best trick that has ever been performed in alebytny
was that of a Rosicrucian who, in 1620, went to Henry, '
Duke of Bouillon, of • the house of Turenne, sovereign
prince of Sedan, and addressed him as follows: " You have
hot a sovereignty proportioned to your great courage, but I
will make you richer than the Emperor. I cannot remain
for more than two days in your states, having to go to
Venice to bold the grand assembly of the brethren : I only
charge you to keep the secret. Send to the first apothecary
of your town for some litharge ; throw into it one grain of
the red powder which I will give you; put the whole into
a crucible ; and in a quarter of an hour you will have gold."
The Prince performed the operation, anti repeated it
three times, in presence of the virtuoso. This man had
previously brought up all the litharp from the apothecaries
of Sedan, and got it re-sold after mixing with it a few ounces
of gold. The adept, on taking leave, made the Duke of
Boadillon a present of all his transmuting powder.
The Prince, having made three ounces of gold with three
grains, doubt: d not that with three hundred thousand grains
he should make three hundred thouiand ounces, and that
he should iu a week Poseiss eighteen thouriand seven hun-
dred and fifty pounds of gold, beskW whet he should after-
wards make. It took at least three months to make this
powder. The philosopher was in haste to depart; he was
' withoat anything,having given all to the Noce, and want-
ed some ready Money in order to hold the states-general of
' hermetic philooopby, He was a man very moderate in his
desires, and allied only twenty thousand crowns for the ex-
penses of his journey. The Duke, ashamed to give so small
a emu, presented him with forty thousand. When he had
consumed alb the lithatge in Sedan, he made no more gold,
' nor ever more saw his philosOpber or his forty thousand
!crowns.
All pretended alchyrnie transmutations have been per-
formed nearly in the same manner. To change one natuntl
production into another, as, for example, iron into silver, is
a rather thfficult operation; since it requires two things a
little above our rower—the denilildtiue of the iron and the
erealiun of the silver.
We rental not, however, reject all discoveries of secreta,
and all new inventions. It is with them as with theatrical]
pieces, there may beone good out of a thousand.
• The moms of Count Cagliostro, both in France and England,
since the tinve.of Voltaire, proves that the credulity has nut Wee
'Ong es Live it' 11,p_be entirely so at present. The aforesaid Coast,
like the Vertlithrliare spo'kn of, knew how "o tutu the follies of
the people et quality to his own account, as his scheme of a re.
vived order of Egyptian masonry In London proved. There was
so be a for_ale bratklt, had Several women of fashion, to add to the
splendour of silly terwriday, lent their jewels, which, it is need-
less to observe, they never saw again but they were wise enough
to prefer the loos to public ridicule. Modern Chemistry has done
as ay with much of the delusive founded= of Alehyrny, although
the pretensions to form diamonds by a chemical process, is net much
unlike the elder fefiy. Science has, and ever And, bubbida as
the water Itath." The something out of ambit*, to be emoted by
nominal sinking funds, and the clearance of public dept by the
same is sat a jot low reify/sena than tae pretended geld-making
—it Cs postal, rows so.

We are informed ln moat respectable authority, that
the Right Rev. Hr. rue, R. C. Aishop of Kerry, is
alarmingly in.—ltish ever.
Mr. Jephaon, who was alluded to in the Marlborough-
' street ‘report, in all the newspapers on Saturday last, has•
written a letter to the Editor of a Morning raper, denying
the conduct Imputed to him by the officers of the Afeirdi.
city society, and declarii.g his intention .of proceeding
against the party.
• At the tiurrey Bi-salons, yesterday, a tnemotial was foe-
witted from Mr. Callaghan, who convicted, as we
stated yesterday, of an assault on the Rev. J. Saurin, and
sentenced to a month's imprisonment in Ilorsernenger-
lane praying that he might be allowed to provide himself
with other food than the county allowance, which is bread
and water. The Magistrates prment, after some consul-
tation, decided that they could not interfere in the case,
which fell within the ituirtliction of the visiting Justices.
The following information was
.yesterday afternoon re-
ceived at Lloyd s:—
ullaisvoe, Just 14 (4 onuck.).—The Pitt it lust arrived
from cape Coast Castle, which she left on the 29th 11 arch. The
Pilebardvas to tell in two or three dos. The Ashanisearmy was
between 1)1* Cove and Elmina, and the Cape Coast people was
goiog to-attack than. Sir Charles 2111'Carthy was dead, and the
other officers who accompansed him into the Bush were also sup.
posed to ha dead, incept Mr. Williams, who was at Males."

•••

LAW IXTELLtGEACE.

INSOLVENT DEBTORS' COURT, Wci7imayza,
TUESDAY, JILINZ lb.

EMBEZZLEAIENX„_
John noose came up to be heard on his pc-fifion for his discharge,
and Was opposed by Mr. Portoe it, on the part of Mr. John Wat-
son, carpet manufacturer, of Liekerimm-street, for having ember.,
sled the sum of 1,1551. Is. Old.
Mr. Pottier would not offer any remarks to the Court by
which the feeling, of the insolvent might be wounded. lie should,
as was hi. universal practice upon so serious a case, spare the
feelings of all parties, and proceed to call his witnesses.
Mr. Watson Walker examined by 41r. Pottock.—l am agent
for managing ,Watson's business in town; the insolvent had
I been in the sopacity foe years, until I succeeded him In De,
icember last, u scovering the fnutdolent transactions. It was
I Iris duty to have 'paid over all ninnies he received to the banking-
' house el.' 31r.Wauon, in Watling-street.-4A paper which the WO.
ineva here produced contained a lot of nearly all the sums owing to
31r.Watson by the Insolvent, and was in his own handwriting.]—ln
the insolvent'sacenunt.booksgoods were charged as havingbeen sold
Ito certain customers who had never received them. Two pieces of
Brussels carpet were charged to Mr. Must°, of Ilattan.garden 121.,
I that gentleman had never bought them, still they were misusing from
the !chop. Three other pieces were charged to Mr. Price, at 23/. lee.
but were never purchased by him, and were missing from the stock,
las well as several other pieces; but these only were selected. In
the insolvent's entries he had sold the goods at 16.6 d. pee Yen!,
which be had set down in the account-book at es. 24. This was
done in many instances.
Air. 3lusto was culled, and deposed that he never received the
carpet, and he had informed the insolvent to that effect. Aecom-
pamed with some other goods, a bill was sent to him for accept-
ance, which included these goods. Although he had never received
them lie accepted the bill, part of the amount of which has since
been refundel.
Examined by 31r. Coeur for insolvent.—Witness thinks such a
mistake might easily occur.
Mr. Thomas Price de,. shed that he had never received the three
pieces of carpet chergeti to him at 231. lets.
blichael Barbee deposed that six pieces only of that pattern,
charged to Mr. Price, mine into Stoat, and of those, three were
carried into Wdbeck-street, f.faveadislusquare, by Mr. Home's
orders.
3.1 r. POLLOCK Said lie should not trouble the Court with any
more witnesses. It cerOdeir was .no ordinary case of embezzle-
ment; it came eithin the nth **Son of the Act and he should
leave the Commissioners to apportion such punishment to the inset.
I vent as the weight of his cam merited.
3lr. 'learn, for the insolvent, said he was sure when the Court
perceived the manner in which the ease had been left by his
Learned Friend, it would not deal out so harshly by the insolvent
as was asked for. There was no proof of the oontractelgency.
Ills client became a debtor only for the sum owing, anti nothing
like embezzlement could be shown. The insolvent had been en-
eight years with the opposing creditor, and was never once
en-
gaged
to an account. which showed an acquiescence on the pert of
I 11r. Watson. In February last he took the whole of insolvent's
household furniture, &c. by appraisement, at 1301. and leantedistcly
afterwards arrested him.
The Came Commtseroxta, in passing judgment, said, a
pinta facia case had beep made out, which threw tire onus on the
Insolvent. He was fixed by the evidence which he had not rebut-
ted. The sentence of the Court was, that he should be imprisoned
12 months from the date of filing his petition, and confined within
the wails of the prisbn.