The Sun.
London, England, 1837-01-26 00:00:00

THE INFLUENZA.

We rsrU happy to bear that this dire epidemy, which has
provetl not only troublesome but fatal in too many cases, is
now on the decline. It is difficult to say whether this happy
alteration is the result of the change of wind, which has
verered round within the last two days; or that it proceeds
f.om the natural diminution of the virulence of the disease.
From whichever cause it proceeds the result is satisfactory,
as, on inquiry at the several hospitals, dispensaries, and work-
houses in the metropolis and its suburbs, it will be found
that in the majority of cases a decided improvement in the
health of the"patients has taken place.
,The influenza prevails to a great extent in Huntingdon ;
scarcely a family is to be found in which some of its members
are not affected ; but in one instance only has it been fatal.
A concert announced to be given by Miss Wagstaff is post-
poned until March, in consequence.—Stalnford Mercury.
In Brighton the influenza has been general, scarcely a
family escaping its effects ; but they have not, except in two
o: three cases, been fatal. Numbers of persons have been
prevented from attending their usual occupations for some
days ; and in one instance a lady of rank was obliged to
answer her own street-door, every other individual of the
family being laid up with the prevailing disease. The doc-
tors have been unusually busy, both in attending. their pa-
tients and curing themselves, for half of their profession have
fallen ill.—Biighton Guardian.
A report was current in Edinburgh on Saturday that the
Earl of Dalhousie had died of influenza, but it is not correct.
At. Southampton it is raging with great severity, the
attacks being in most instances both sudden and severe.
The mortality of Brechin and suburbs, during the last ten
days, has been greater than in the memory of the oldest
inhabitant. In one day there could have been numbered,
from the Gallowhill to the Bridge, and East Toll, the extra-
ordinary number of 17 corpses; and 8, 10, and 12, have
)een the number for severs?! days of this week. Influenza
has cut off many advanced in Kars, and it has also paved the
way for the ravages of other disorders.
The disease still continues to affect a great number of

• our citizens, and cases are almost daily occurring in which
it proved fatal, chiefly to aged individuals and others of weak
constitutions. Indeed, the number of funerals at present
is most extraordinary.; and almost every medical man has
more employment than be can properly attend to. In the
great proportion of eases, however, the disease lasts merely
a few flays. To the porth of the Tay it also continues to
rage with undiminished force ; and in Glasgow we find that,
what with influenza and fever together, the mortality is
greater than • in -any year since 1832, when cholera was so
prevalent ; that the number of interments in the Glasgow
Iligli
.Church burying-ground on Sunday was 37 ; and that
since then there have been 30 a-day, and yesterday (Friday)
43. Additional bands have been employed to prepare the
graves. In one of the bury ing-grounds in the suburbs of
Glasgow, there were 30 interments on Sabbath last.—

The Twopenny-post letter-carriers of London had a
numerous meeting on Monday last at the Hole-in-the-Wall,
Chancery-lane. Their object, we understand, was to peti-
tion for an increase of salary, the stipend they now receive
baring been granted twenty-four years since, when the la-
bour of the Post-office was not one half what it is at present.
When we reflect on the labour and misery they have sus-
tained in the late inclement weather, in addition to their
usual fatiguing occrpaticn, we cannot but wish them the
reward they so hardly earn.

The bulletins of the King of Sweden's health are
again signed by Dr. Fervor. Those of the last three days
continue to be more and more favourable.

The following is an extract from the report of the
London Orphan Asylum, for 1837 :—" The number of
children repm-ted to be on the foundation at the last election
was 340 ; since then there have been admitted by election
50, and by the nineteenth rule 6 ; making the number of
admissios 36. During the same period 62 have left the
Asylum, and 7 have died. The number, therefore, remain-
ing' ender your care is 327 : the entire number who have
left is €32 ; making the number of beneficiaries who hare,
and who arc rceeking, the benefits of your charity, 959:
which, by the election of this day, will be advanced to 984.
Institution has derived decided benefit from the fo!lovii-
ing legacies :—J. Shewell, Esq., 101. ; Henry Wilson, Esq.,
2.60/. ; Charles Peiscliell, Esq., 3001. ; Mainwaring Davies,
Esq., 2,0001. Consols ; and share of residue, 7341.175.4(1.
financial statements of the board, connected with the
past year, have afforded general satisfaction to the patrons
of the Institution."

The total number of ships that passed the Sound in
1836, were—from the North Sca 5,637, and from the Baltic
6,118 ; total, 11,925. Among them were—English, from
the North Sea, 1,57.5, of which 897 were in ballast ; and
1.620 from the Baltic, of which two were in ballast. Total
(backwards and forwards), 3,195, which is 700 more than
in the year 1896.

The appointmen's of Superintendents of the Dock-
yards, consequent upon the recent prJrnotior, arc as follow :
Portsmouth, Rear-Admiral P. Warren ; DevoEport, Rear-
Admiral John Hayes ; Woolwich, Capt. Sir J. Louis, Ba-rt.;
Chatham, W. P. Cumby, C.B. The three sinecure ap-
pointments of Cohneli of Marines, vacant by the promotion
of Captains Skipsey, Irby, and Bouvcrie, will not be filled
up ; neither of coursL! the Lieutenant-Governorship of
the Naval Caege (which establishment is to be abolished
i i M:ircli), vacant by Capt. Loring's promotion, Tc.e com-
mands in the Mediterranean, East and West Indies, South
America, Lisbon, and Chatham, are vacant by the promo-
tion of the officers now holding them. Sir Charles Paget
gas the West India and North American stations, and Sir
Robert Otway the command at Chatham.—Devonport
Telegraph.

The Emperor Nicholas having as usual left his pa-
lace drawn by a single horse, and with very few attendants,
met an officer who omitted to treat his Majesty with be-
coming res,'wct. He saluted as he passed, but without stop-
ping. The Emperor felt annoyed, and reproached the officer
with not having rendered the homage that was due to him.
The officer excused himself upon the plea that he was going
to fetch a doctor for his wife, who was dangerously ill. On
bearing that his Majesty replied, with an air.of kindness,
that he might proceed on his errand. The Emperor pre-
sently despatched his own physician'to the residence of the
officer, to inquire after the health of his wife. The- former
having reported to his Majesty that the lady, after suffering
severely, had got well over her accouchement, he sent word
to the husband that he would be godfather to the newly-born
infant. He subsequently caused an order of the day to be
published, to the effect that the services of officers whose
Wives should be dangerously ill would be dispensed with.—
French Paper. •

An extraordinary instance of escape with life oc-
curred o.i Sunday, the Bth inst., at Newport Pagnell. Some
young men were amusing themselves with a double-barrelled
gun, and being alarmed by the sudden appearance of a
gentleman, to whose grounds they were contiguous, the
owner of the gun endeavoured to take it to pieces, with the
intention of secreting it in his pocket. By some means the
trigger was pulled, and the whole contents of the gun, con-
sisting of a very heavy charge, passed through the body of
a man named John Smith, who stood as close to the muzzle
as he well could without actual contact. He was knocked
down, and rolled into a ditch ; but such was the instanta-
neouh passage of the charge, that he merely thought him-
self stunned by the explosion. When, however, he was ex-
tricated from the ditch, he was horror-struck to find that
he had received a wound in the abdomen, of so apparently
serious a nature, as to lead him to conclude that he had re-
ceived his death-wound. He walked home (a distance of
a quarter of a mile), led between two of his companions.
Mr. Daniell, the surgeon of Newport, was instantly sent
for. Ile found that the contents of the gun had entered
about half an inch from the navel, had passed in an oblique
direction along the right side, and made their exit immedi-
ately below the short ribs, bearing towards the back. The
wound in the front was about the size of half-a-crown, and
the one in the right side somewhat smaller. From the line
which the charge took, it must have passed immediately un-
der the right lobe of the liver, anterior to the great arch of
the colon, and within a little distance of the epigastric artery,
the material injury of either of which parts would have in-
volved consequences fatal to life. From the symptoms it
would appear that these essential parts have not been in-
jured, and it is a curious fact that it would have been im-
possible for either an instrument or the contents of a gun to
have passed through the body at the same depth in any
other part without injuring organs essential to life. The
pow man, though not entirely free from danger, is in a fair
way of recovery.—Northampton Mercury.
During 1836 there arrived at Havre 603 foreign
and 501 French vessels, besides 109 large coasters, and
18,5 English packets ; making a total of 1,398 vessels, mea-
suring together 304,537 tons. The departures were 641
foreign and 404 French vessels, with 76 coasters and 182
packets ; in all, 1,303 vessels, measuring 249,608 tons.

TO THE ELECTORS OF THE
COUNTY OF LIMERICK.

" Anger is a great enemy to beauty."—Old Proverb.
Athlone, Jan. 22, 1837.

FELLOW COUNTRYMEN—I have read the splenetic effu-
sion of Mr. Smith O'Brien, in reply to the temperate, and,
I think, rational, expostulation which I felt it my duty to
address to you. I am exceedingly sorry that he has been
induced, by overweening vanity, to give so ill-tempered a
reply to my Address. There is, indeed, some talent in
that reply ; but alas! alas ! it is characterised with so
much pride—and, I think, of presumption—that I fear it
will be considered as one proof more of his intended re-
lapse into his original—and, I now dread—congenial,
Toryism.
Let me, however, call your attention to some topics which
he has introduced into his hot and hasty epistle. In the
first place he gives us a very disinterested eulogium on his
own father. It would have been, I conceive, more delicate
to have left that praise, when occasion required it, to less
suspicious advocates, and there would have been no difficulty
in finding such advocates. I did not say one word in dispa-
ragement of the general public character of Sir Edward
O'Brien, or of his private character at all. On the contrary
no man is more ready to bear his candid testimony to that
character. I know quite enough of him to he able to
state, and, if necessary, to proclaim, that a more valuable
or exemplary gentleman, in all the relations of social life,
never lived. He spends his large income at home ;he en-
courages agriculture by precept, protection, and example.
From the extent and beauty of his improvements, he must,
in my judgment, have paid more money in wages to la-
bourers than any other country gentleman I ever knew. If
there were but half-a-dozen such gentlemen in every county
in Ireland we should have no occasion for Poor Laws ;
and that cry, which is now the " war-word" of many
honest, but deluded individuals, and the cant of a still
greater number of hypocritical pretenders to humanity,
would be heard no more.

But I did say that there was persecution of some tenants
of Sir Edward O'Brien for their votes in, 1828. I delibe-
rately repeat it. I recollect well the persecution actually
commenced on his estate. lam bound to add also, and I
do readily add, that it also first ceased on his estate. The
very first person, or one of the first, who voted for me in
the barony in which Newmarketson Fergus is situate, was a
tenant of Sir Edward, a tradesman—l think a smith. He
was distrained on the very next day for his rent, as an ex-
ample to others. But the rent was paid for hi:n. It was
Si. some shillings. It floats on my mind that it was 8/. 17s.
But it was paid ; and the people of the town decorated the
man with green ribbons, and cha'red him, with no Email
acclaim, on their shoulders through the entire village._

If this incident does not remind Mr. Smith O'Brien of
the persecution on his father's estat°, I will give him an-
otheil clue. There were several of the forty-shilling free-
holders to whom abatements had been made in their rents,
but, as usual, made only verbally, by parole, as it is called
in law, and receipts given on account only. Several of
these tenants having voted for me, were distrained for the
entire rent. The money was paid by us in some instances ;
in others replevins were issued ; but none of the cases were
tried. Sir Edward shortly after -stopped the persecution,
and the matter ended.

It is quite true that this prosecution might have
.been
carried on, while it lasted, without Sir Edward's know-
ledge ; but of the fact of persecution there really is no
doubt. And yet, sooner than enter into an angry contro-
versy with Mr. Smith O'Brien on this point, I would ad-
mit that I am wrong and that he is right, as to my recol-
lection of the facts, because it is not necessary for my ar-
gument in favour of" the ballot," to attach even the shadow
of persecution to Mr. O'Brien's tenants. There is one
thing I defy Mr. Smith O'Brien to deny ; that is—that a
most ,relentless and long-continued persecution of the free-
holders of Clare ensued upon their voting for me in 1828.
The Catholic Association paid more than 14,0001.—eye,
mere than 14,0001.—t0 protect the tenants from that persecu-
tion ; and in spite of all our money and exertions, there
were many freeholders ruined by that persecution. My
argument in favour of the ballot is complete, w•ithont resort-
ing to the name of Sir Edward—and I am now sorry that
I alluded to him at all.

The scond topic in Mr. Smith O'Brien's letter to which
I allude iq, his still more extravagant cuingium upon him-
.:elf. He praised his father highly, and he deserved praise.
He praises himself infinitely more highly, and I think he
does not deserve that praiSe. It is really ludicrous. He
draws the " beau ideal" of a Member of Parliament., and
whilst he indicates indistinctly that he is himself the " great
perfection" which he thus drew, he affects—" Oh, how deli-
cate !"—he. affects to blush, and with maiden, modesty he
exclaims, " Oh, la! do not write the name of Smith
O'Brien under the picture I draw!"
What childish affectation—and what still more silly self-
gratulation ! The young gentleman has a deplorably bad
memory. Why, he totally forgets that I saw him in Par-
liament for two sessions, the constant voter—no Treasury
hack ever voted more uniformly with Peel and his gang of
rotten-borough Members. Why, if I had the Min-or cf
Parliament here, I could point out twenty votes, at the
least, of the rung gentleman, as utterly inconsistent with
his present Re!'orm principle as ever one opinion was with
another, and as strange votes for such a model of Parlia-
mentary purity as he now represents himself, or it is impos-
sible to imagine.

I had, indeed, hoped that the young gentleman had seen
" the error of his ways ;" and my address to you was founded
on that hope. I shall wish to cling to that hope, and to
anticipate that he will abandon, as he did his anti-reform
spirit, the idle petulance which dictated his reply, and turn
himself in sober earnestness into the paths of his duty to
you and to his country.

Tha third topic is, the solemn announcement of his de-
termination to blast my reputation, if I should dare again to
interfere between him and his constituents. You will he
surprised to learn that this awful threat does not deter me
from offering you respectfully, but earnestly, my advice to
insist upon his voting for " the honest and conscientious
ballot."

I still venture to urge this advice upon you. Of this more
hereafter. I now mean only to declare, that, in despite of
.Mr. O'Brien's menaces, I will still discharge the duty I owe
you, in offer inn to you such an advice as experience and love
of Ireland tell me ought to he offered. I will do it in de-
fiance—aye, and as he has treated my civil letter with such
discourtesy, I will add, in utter contempt of his menaces. I
contemptuously defy his utmost rancour and malignity. Ile
has abundant materials for calumny. Let him use them at
his discretion. The Evening Mad, and the Standard, the
Times, and the Andy Watsons, will furnish him with false-
hoods which he is at full liberty to call truths, and fling them
at me in any shape or form he plaascs. My consolation is
this, Electors of Limerick County there is not an enemy
to Ireland that does not hate WC ; and believe me, beloved
fellow-countrymen, that every day I live—there is not one
day I live—that I will not endeavour to deserve that
hatred more and more. It has, indeed, been said of hap-
less Ireland—

" That it is treason to love her,
And death to defend."

Be it so. I abide the event.

The fourth topic in this letter, worthy of my considera-
tion, is, the declaration- that I am disqualified from giving
an opinion on the subject of the payment, by the State, of
the Catholic clergy. To prove this assertion he prints an
extract from my evidence in 1825—an extract which has
been so often brought before the public, that I wonder he
himself is not tired of it. Ileaven knows I have been
taunted enough for years after 1825, on account of having
candidly given in evidence the opinions which I at that
time entertained.
Now, I respectfully submit to you, electors of Limerick
county, that he has given a reason which bears in di-
rectly the contrary direction. I am the better qualified
to be heard on this subject, simply because I have not
stupidly or doggedly persevered in an opinion I once con-
ceived, but never yielded up that opinion to arguments,
and, above all, to the evidence of subsequent facts—thus
rendering me a wiser man than I was when I formed that
opinion.

The arguments I need not repeat—the subsequent facts
ere, perhaps, too obvious to be repeated ; however, I will
state a few of them. They are these ;
First—ln the year 182.5 I was strongly impressed with
the conviction, and the entire of my evidence shows it, that
emancipation would terminate in Ireland religious feuds
and sectarian animosities. .1 thought the ascendancy party
would, when legal superiority was taken away, abandon all
pretence to practical masterhood. I believed that in poli-
tical equality would be found the sources of Christian cha-
rity and mutual benevolence ; and that it would then be
safe to leave to Protestant Government dominion over the
temporality of a Catholic priesthood. These then were
my conscientious opinions. But the subsequentfacts proved
directly the reverse. The facts showed that the bitter spirit
of religious bigotry had so envenomed the mind of the Pro-
testant ascendancy party, that the present generation could
not be humanized by any change of law or of right. The
Catholics did their part nobly, as men and as Christians.
There was not the least insolence of triumph—not one word
of insult accompanied or followed our success. I spent
five years endeavouring- to conciliate the Orangemen. They
only bQcame the more ferocious. We have since seen
Haddington and Hardinge at the Castle—Shaw and Lefroy
made Privy Councillors What sincere Catholic—aye,
or honest friend of the Catholics—could endure to see any
influence over the Catholic priesthood vested in such men
No. The subsequent facts in Ireland destroyed the very
groundwork of my opinion in 1825. I, a sincere Catholic,
abandoned that opinion. Mr. Smith O'Brien, an honest—
oh : how honest—friend of the Catholics, maintains it in
despite of all experience.

.Secondly—Since 182'2 this experiment was tried in
Prussia ; the great increase of Catholic subjects acquired

by Prussia, by means of the Holy Alliance, has placed
the experiment on a great scale—and that experiment has
proved to a demonstration that it is utterly. unsafe for a
conscientious Catholic to place his clergy under the direct
influence of a Protestant Government. ThePrussiin Pro-
testant Government, it is now known, has'exereiied the most
base, continuous, and emaciating treachery, in its conduct
towards its Catholic subjects.
Thirdly—Since 182.5 the same experiment has been
fully developed in Belgium ; the King of Holland obtained
dominion over the Catholic Church—his Protestant preju-
dices made him the wily tyrant of that. Church—he op-
pressed the parochial clergy, and actually had every bishop-
rick vacant save one. The connection of the Catholic
Church with a Protestant State became intolerable—and,
blessed be Heaven, the Catholic people of Belgium drove
the tyrant from his throne, and dissevered much of the fatal
connection between the Church and the State.

Fourthly—Since 1825 this experiment has also been ex-
hibited in its native horrors in another shape, in the con-
nection between a Catholic Church and a Catholic State-4
I mean in Italy. The late Emperor of Germany was a
pious Catholic in his own way—certainly a sincere one—
yet, in his Italian States, he tyrannised over the clergy, and
asserted the principle of spiritual supremacy in the tempo-
ral monarchy, to the very verge of heresy.
Fifthly—ln 1825 the principle of voluntary church es-
tablishments had been but little if at all discussed. My
own mind was not familiar with it. I had not then, as I
since have, imbued my mind with the full conviction which
I now entertain of its salutary efficacy. I am now per-
fectly convinced that the voluntary principle can alone
produce justice to all—that the truth is shielded and sup-
ported by that principle, and that error cannot prevail to
any great extent unless that principle be violated, and
temporal advantages held out for the promotion of erro-
neous opinions. Religion, pure. and undefiled, in the pre-
sent state of the world, requires that it should be left to
shine by its own light, and not borrow any false lustre
from the glitter of the putresceney of the Mammon of
this world.
Electors of Limerick, I address these reasons to you, to
show you that I, a Catholic, as most of you are, am better
entitled to be heard on this subject than he, a Protestant,
can be, consenting as he does to the adulterous union of his
own Church with the State—a connexion from which it
certainly derives no spiritual treasures.
There remains lane more topic—it is the ballot. On
this subject he still retains his (I fear) not very honest opi-
nions. Although his letter bespeaks, some indulgence for
his intellect, I can scarcely believe that he can attach any
weight to the assertions which he calls arguments for open
voting. First, he says that, in the absence of all sinister in-
fluences, the open voting is preferable. There is a rea-
soner for you! Aye, in the absence of all sinister in-
fluences—but the case is just the reverse. It is the one in
which sinister influence of every kind is most likely to be
used ; yet he talks of it as if it were a scene of pure
innocence and amiable neutrality. Second, that it
enables the unrepresented to exercise a moral influence
over the voter. But the vote was given to him to
exercise his own judgment upon it, not to be con-
trolled by others ; and if it lets in the moral in-
fluence does he not see, as plain as the nose on his
his face, that it lets in also every immoral influence—.
that of the tyrant landlord, that of the heartless agent,
that of the employer, that of the customer, that of the
armed or unarmed mob ; in fine, on his own showing it lets
in all that ought to be excluded, for the sake of an in-
fluence extremely doubtful in its operation for any thing
but mischief. Third—he tells us that if there were a
violation upon an extended mile of the electoral right, lie
would be for the ballot. Why, where has he been for the
last five years ? What else has been complained of and
demonstrated save such violation ? Has he never heard
of Carlow, or Clare, or Waterford, or Longford ? Did he
ever know a contested election where that right was not
assailed and systematically violated ? What absurd non-
sense it is of him to venture to deny a fact clear as the
open day ! Fourth—he admits it would prevent individual
bribery. Here, then, is your honest representative perse-
vering against your wishes to reject that which would pre-
vent individual bribery—which would prevent two crimes
—the bribing of individuals, and the commission of perjury
by those individuals. How, lightly does perjury sit upon
his philosophic mind! lie sets off against it nothing
but his moral influence of the unrepresented. Bah !
was perjury ever yet treated so cavalierly ? To him
perjury seems a trifle light as air. Fifth—But he
says the ballot would favour wholesale corruption.
Not in large constituencies clearly. Their numbers would
plainly render it impossible. But in smaller constituencies
it may be practicable ; that would be an argument against
small constituencies, not against the ballot. Would it have
that effect ? It is highly improbable, because it would be
reore easily discoverable than ordinary bribery. It would
be too cumbrous a machinery to be easily concealed. Be-
sides, wholesale corruption of that description would be an
indictable offence—amongst others, a conspiracy ; and one
would have the benefit of the process of the criminal law to
detect and punish the delinquents. Any one of them would
have the rest in his power—a predicament in which no man
would like to remain. In short, Mr. O'Brien has not ad-
duced one single iota of argument against the ballot, but
what has been already one hundred times refuted and
laughed to scorn.

Electors of the county of Limerick, I appeal to your
good sense and kindly feelings. Mr. O'Brien addressed you
on two topics of vital interest to us all. There is not a single
elector, nor one single individual, in Ireland that is not in-
terested in these two questions, involving the independence
of our votes and of our venerated Citurcli.—'‘ I only followed
him." Am I such a stranger to Limerick, that I should be
taunted, and jeered, and insulted, and 11,1ve unworthy and
,•base motives attributed to me by this young man, for no
other reason than because I also called for the expression
of your opini:m on these subjects ? Electors of Linte-
-1 rick county, did any one of you deem mu presumptuous
in offering you my advice and honest counsel ? Do I,
then, deserve the treatment he has given me ? I
spoke of him in terms of perfect courtesy—l violated
no decency—l indulged in no ribaldry ; and for this he
turns upon me with more of the fury of a half-maniac
than the sober language of a statesman. Whilst he ex-
hausted his puny eloquence in praising his futherand lauding
• himself to the skies, he pours out the vial of his wrath upon
my unhappy head. Ile even sneers at me for growing
old. Why, electors of Limerick, have I not grown old in
the service of my country ? But, perhaps, in constitption I
am not as old as he is. In my fondly I have known a
gentleman 25 years older than I am, who would have
beaten Mr. Smith O'Brien at every manly exercise ; nay,
as I would wisj to part with him in good temper, I offer
to walk the mountains against him for three days, and
see whether, after I beat him hollow, he may not die of
the pip—the disorder that kills the chickens—and leave
his fame obscure and unnoticed.

But this is trifling. It is, however, on that account, the
more suited to the -bull-frog inflation of self-importance of
Mr. Smith O'Brien. Seriously, I protest to you, electors
of Limerick, against his unbecoming, and, I think, to all
of us, audacious conduct. I complain of the unworthy
motives he most gratuitously imputes to me—l complain of
the contempt he displays of his duty towards you, and I
conclude by deploring the hard fortune of my unhappy
country, whose destinies are in the hands, upon one side,
of the higotted and dishonest, and upon the other of the
waspish and virulent, who have not temper enough to know
their friends, nor firmness to assail their real enemies.
I am, beloved fellow-countrymen, your long-tried, faith-
ful, and devoted servant,

DANIEL O'CONNELL.

General the Marquis de Lama's died a few days ago
in the neighbourhood of Paris at the age of 81.
THE CELLAR. AT CROCKFORD'S.—However
extraordinary it may appear, there seems to be no doubt
that the locale of the forthcoming novel, called the
Gambler's Dream, is Crockford's Cellar. What revelations
are to be expected, or rather feared, from this dream, can
at best only be judged from the epigraph to the novel
which speaks, in the words of Milton, of
" A solemn Council forthwith to be held
At Pandemonium ; the high capital
Of Satan and his PEERS."

Tuesday information of the following desperate
outrage and robbery was received at the various police-
offices and station-houses :—As Mr. James Esdaile, hat-
manufacturer, of Oxford-street, Manchester, was proceed-
ing along the Stretford New-road, on his return home, at
a late hour on the night of the 14th instant, he was sud-
denly attacked by three men, who, with the most horrid
imprecations, demanded his money. Finding Mr. Esdaile
hesitate, one of the villains seized him by the throat, and
made a determined attempt to strangle him by thrusting
his hands between his stock and neck. Mr. Esdaile strug-
gled violently with his assailant, when he called to his
companions, who instantly knocked him down with iron
bars. They then all three fell upon him, and beat him with
the bars in the most inhuman manner, inflicting several
deep wounds on his head, and also a number of severe
bruises upon different parts of his body ; and after robbing.
him of a silk purse with ivory slides, containing twenty so-
vereigns, which was in his pocket, which they tore away,
they decamped, leaving the unfortunate gentleman for dead,
in which state he was discovered some time afterwards by
some persons who were returning along the road to Man-
chester. They immediately conveyed Mr. Esdaile to the
nearest house, when on the application of proper restora-
tives, he revived ; and after the wounds were dressed he
was conveyed home to Manchester, where he lies in a very
precarious state. The only description Mr. Esdaile is able
to give of the villains, for whose discovery a reward of 501. ,
has been offered, is, that two of them wore short coats,
such as are worn by carters, and the third wore a long ;
light-coloured coat,