The Sun.
London, England, 1801-07-03 00:00:00

PARIS, juNE z§.

A FRENCH Privateer arrived at .eghori• from
,
Longano, reports that:Porto Ferritio obstinately per-
sists in refusing to surrender: The Besiegers were,
in consequence, preparing to make a fresh assault.
The Prefets of La Meurthe, Jura, and tha Upper
Saone, have informed the Minister of Police; that
they have apprehended a, numlier of Emigrants. tnlio
had returned without permission from the doVern-
Ment. •

According to Letters from Dijon; a oniid-eraliie
body of Troops is expeded there to assist iii coiii~
pleting the canal of the COte d'Or.
PE'rEaSBOROH, MAY 30.-L-'l'here is in circula-.
tion an anecdote of PE ciur, called Chevalier; for-
merly Assessor_ of the College, and Master of
the .Ballets at Court, of such a dreadful naiute, that
it could scarcely be credited, if the goodness of the
.new Sovereign had not.given it a pubiicity, which,
proved tbi innocence of the viaim as .thuch as it
shews the justice of the EMPEROR. The Papers
formerly mentioned the condemnation and punisb-
menr, but they did pot state that the cause was
imaginary. The following are the circumstantial
details

A person named IV.lrk st BS, a native of Chamberry,
formerly Secret-at); 'of the Sardinian Legation at
Naples, and Captain of the Piedmont Militia, had
lived for eight years at. Moscow he had been in.
tiodgced to the world under the auspices of a re..
spedable Minister, Barbn DE LA TIMBRE, An..
basstidor from the KING of SARDINIA, and his
condud made hint esteemed by all good men. He
lived its the house of a Nobleman.narned NARtscx.
KIN, whose daughter had contra&ed an unfortunate
marriage, as far as related to tht temper and dia_
rafter of her husband. •

The only means of restoting happiness to this
young:persen, already separated from her husband,
WAS to obtain a divorce the EMP.EROR aione pos
sesses the right • of pronouncing a sentence of di_
and Pitut, objeEted:to aceeding to a deMand
Which was cleen...d in opposition to the dielates
Religion. Mt 11.1 ES. was fixed upon to go to Peters-
burgh, and solicit • He got introduced
into the house of CaEvAr.z f. a, and. by., a lure of
k fifty thousand rouble:, and diamond nr!eldace, ob-
tained a piomie of en"-:iging Count Pt KENTAI_
sow to overcome the F.,,r Eit oß's reptigtiarice.
MERMEs havihg returned to Moscow, received
a letter, desiring him:to cone back to,Petersburgh,
adding, that the affair was so far-advanced:Aar it.
would pro!)ithlY be finished before his at ri Full
of hope, MERhit *returned, bringing . it'll. him the;
articles promised; and went:to qatschinai wheie the
Count was. CHE V AL I E R corifirmedwhai-he had wti r_
:ten, and exhotticf him: to give hi wife nor.only,the
necklace, but:half of the, co,ago roubles. MIL.P.SEe
did all that was desired of Mtn. Threcwecks, how-
ever elapsed,
.and the above was nor pronounced. L--•
At length he perceived.be was tricked, and went.
to Petersburgh,. where be 'told story to I\vll%.laMe
PE Bou U ;Lj• 'whp ..relate-d 'it ..to EjE-

The prime.Ministcr, who Would have proofs;,
sired to hear the Etas from. KERMEVS 6%,vr) Mouth.
The latter was .accortlinly inviter to , dinner 14
Madatne 1J E Bdu:s L 's, where IC4. DE ROSTOP-
Snvi.hid in an ad joining closet, lieard all that. pOised..
The Minister iiiformea PAUL of the. affair : the
Emperor; "italignOtit at, any- one's daring-to sell his
favourS, coMmande'd the Procurator_ General to take
infofmation respeding the conduet of. CHEVALIER
and,his wife: • •

ABEt.EXNLNOW, tt creature 'OfJC ENTA ISO:W,
stead of fulfilling the intentio6s of his Sovereign,
consented, with 'Madame.be CHEVAtiik's lover,
to destroy'MEßmts,. as. the only means of saving
their iepLl6tion..: ME RNIES was arrested as a )e_
mocrat, and a PrOpagandiSt. The f'roeurator, who
interrogated him alone, forced him to :Jame the per-
sons whom he knew at Mosco‘O; and to renderhim
odious to the
.Publici twenty-two
_person's' were
taken up and sent to Pctersburkll. ConfrOnted with
•the- accused,. no one said a word
,against him, .and
not having any, thing to say agairrst them himself,
they were set at liberty in three-or. four. days;
.yet
it
,was necessary that the unfortunate man should'
suffer the punishment destined for him. It is said,
that CHEVALIER declared, at the moment Of his ar.
rest, MERM es is taken up, and shall have the
knout, for having dared to mention my name' a9d
Madame CHEVALIER'S."

In IVIERYtEsis house were hidden, on purpose,
some Papers found upon some Propagandilts; and
this proof, discovered by the Police in searching
the house', was sufficient. ME RM ES received forty
strokes of the knout, had his nostrils slit, and was
sent to Siberia. He suffered his punishment with-
out speaking one word. As soon as MERMES was
represented to PAUL, as an enemy to the Govern-
ment, the family of CHEVALIER was reinstated
his good opinion, and Madame CHEVALIER became
so much in favour, that it was expeaed she would
be declared the EMPEROR'S Mistress.

Every body preserved silence respeEting this at_
fair, until ALEXANDER, informed of the severity ex-
ercised against MERMES, gave orders to bring him
back to Russia, and gave him a pension of i z,OOO
roubles, with leave to live where he pleased. The
people, indignant against, Madame CHEYAL I V 2,
would have torn her to pieces, goodness and
indulgence of the Emperor alone saved her life.

111 woman has set out from, hence loaded with
riches, which she is gone to spend iria foreign coml_
try with her love;. It was this affair that caused
the disgrace of M. DE ROSTOPS3 N.

LAIVIE-I'6kli!

COUR I. 01. KlNG's' BENCII,I-t;t.V

SITTZN,C3 L0:214..t:,,:.:1Y(3it•AN1! A s?Eqi4L.

,i.t'Ls-1:.!3TE.r,.-11ALL

DELATIif COPLEY'.
This was an Affion brought b.-;, the Plaintiff,
who is an Engraver, against the Defendant, who
is a Painter, to recover tiles= of 5.501‘ being the
temainder of the sum.of 8034 which the Defendant
undertook. . to pay to the Plaititi.i for engraving,
upon a
.smaller.pt ceintraded scale,- the resemblakiee
of the Picture of -,the Death of- Lord CHATHAM;
which the Plaintiff was to do from another engrav-
ing, ekecuted by nartolozzi, from a. drawing of
Cipriani, &c.
The Plaintiff.had eXeCutesi thispiece of
.Engrav-
ipg, which took him tip three years.ankupwards to
perform,. and Bartolozzi had two thOusand guineas
' for. that of which his was to be the copy.
. It appeared by; the evidence of Mr.. BAiTo...
tort, that this piece of Engraving was very Well
executed; Considering that it was a copy three times
removed from the original; that is, a. copy of
a copy; &c'
.. and . that it : was upOn...a reduced
scale,. which made it the-more difficult -to Pre-
serve. the likenesses of all•the figures in the• groupe
of the piece, .whiCh are fifty.twO in number.; • that
the... Plaintiff was a man of verj7. 'considerable skill
in his profession; ;And; as a-.proof that such was
the opinion of Mr. /..Bartolozzi, he hiniself employed
him in the enkraving.a part of,the other work, for
which he gave -him seven bundled guineas,
that. the piece of Digraving in question; was a very ,
respeaable one, i'uid certainly the best'performance
of the Plaintiff's gra'ver, and suet', as ought to have
satisfied Mr. Copley, ,but who, Mr. Bartoloz,zi
thought; Was never: to be satisfied with the per,
formance of any Engraver who had to engrave for
him; in itnitation of ai+y of his; pictures, and. there- :-
fore he was dissatisfied' with this performance, &c..
, •-
Mr. tiot.FoßD, Mr. RYDER; Mr. 'BiliN; Mr.
BROMLEY, Mr. PfCkEN,S6N, mr.•LANDSEER,
NEAGLt; Mr. A. SMITH; Mr. ARTOIS, Mr.
TolUx eminent Engravers, were of,- opinion
-that this Engraving was a very good and respeaable
performance ). so was Mr. jos. EvANs, -a Prints-el-
ler and. Mr. Jos'..C6L-E and Mr. ANTHONY MON,
Artists';. and also Mr—Gto. BAKER; a
Merchant', who had been in the habit of purchasing
these Works of Art, &c.
On the part of the Defendant it was contended,
that this performance, was so. far from being respec-
table, that it Was extremely ill executed; that the .
Piece
being a mOdern Historical Piece, made up of
agroUp of fignres, who were supposed to attend the
catastrophe which the Piauredescribed, the great
merit of it consisted in the resemblance of the por-
traits,- that unless :they were likenesses, the Piece
was good for ,nothing ; that the' figures. were Most
Of them very. defectively done, and
.same of them,
ridiculously so, and such as.might be called carica-.'
tures, &c. ; that this being the Case, it wai so far
'from being worth' Sool. to PAT. Copley, that it
Would be better for him to give a thousand gui-
nea's to buy up the copy, to preVentitfrom coining
into sale, on account of the injury it would do to
the •qpittation of' Mr. Copley, if it came into cir-
culation; '&c. and th.e Plaintiff was ' entitled to
nothing, although- he had received .7:561. • anit that
thetefOre theygrciio ought to be for the Defendant,

In support of this defence,
Sir VIM. BEECIIy was examined, who thought
the work: every defedive, and inadequate to the
purpose for which. it was designed ; he thought the
groupe so, ill that he should hardly have
any of them, Sze. in a word, if Mr. Copley
c yecieti any thing froth* this. Engraving that was
c...mducive. to his interest or his fame in publishing
it, ~he must certainly be totally disa?pointed.
. E Was of the same, opinion, and so was
Mr. COSWAY., •
Mr. WEST, the President of the Royal Academy,
.was aiso of this opinion, the reasons for whiCh he
gave very elaborately, and
Mr. lioi,i;AEß, Sir FRANCIS 43ouitcF.Ois, Mr.
Po, cosii.A-1.5: Mt. Jo i a BOX DELL, were also of
the sane opinion, and some of these Artists treated
this`performince .as perfaity contemptible in some
of its parts ; but, they a-Ought its fiiults were rather
the effe& of ignorance thaii Want of skill.
Such being the outline of the Case, and more than
an outline we cannot at present pretend, to. give, in
which the highest authorities' in this. COuntry, in
regard to the Arts, differed ; the one set.9l' Wit-,
nesses being the most eminent among the En-
gravers, who were for , the Plaintiff ; the other
among the, most erain,ent of the Painters, who were
for- the Defendant,

Lord KENYON said,-he should not make many
observations. The TAW, of the Case his' Lordship
said, had been corrrealy stated, when it was said
that the Plaintiff should recover the whole of the
sum of 8001. or none, because the Contraa was an
entire Contraa,. If the performance was equal to
the Contraa, the whole sum was earned by the
Plaintiftl—ii it was not equal to the Contraa,
then nothing wes:due, -because there was no divid..

ing, fox( there was no division in :the engagement,
so that ,there could not be made any thing like what
was_to he called a reasonable allowanCe for what

the plaintiff had done. The question was, whether
the bargain was wholly performed or'not ? There
was, in this case, no Such
,thing.as performing it in
'part.: His
,I.ordship said," he knew -nothing cif the
Fine Arts, ,a deficiency which he very Muth lament-
ed, since a knowledge_of them, jraproVed the self..
sibility of the. human charkter, and he believed,
thereby enlarged the sphere of huMan pleasure. He
was therefdre quite unable to lend the Jury any as.:,.
sistance whatever : he did not say' this from.a, de_
sire to save himself the trouble of giving an opinion,
for that, however laborioas, he should not shun,
nor did he say it out of affeetation, with a view of
having it understood, that he wished to speak.with
reserve, but he said it fairly as a confession of an

unfortunate ignorance of what he wished he kneW.
Here he stood in the midst of the greatest dif-

ticulty, which he could have to encounter, if he
lad to decide the case; which, however,', he
tivas gtad lie had - not: There were l'Oartecti

labirintrit Qa hii rizht'hnd,, and 6uilecn•:m•the

. .. .
; lett :--•• He Meant, there were
;fourteen Winitlss,
on the one. side, and fourteen on the -tiler; --
they, were most respeetable- -in the profession 67
whiCh. they• belonged z —They: -were exaeily„ that
number on the onaside, and exaaiy that number on
the other--,His Lordship wouAi not be so presump,'
tuorts as to.affea to .hav",e an opinion Upon a case
where there was such a difference, ! His Lordship
paid handsome compliments to -several of the Wit.
nesses. on both sides, and particularly to Mr. WEST,
who was the
.worthygucces!:or ~of the hire delebrated
President of the Royal Academy., There. Was no
difficalty.on the law of the. cast i he: Tut -il statedhow. that stood already. The Plaintiff either was
'entitled to the whole, or none, in this business;. tbr
thecontrata was an entire enntraft, and it was either
performed_Completely, in which case the whole w:t3
due, or else not, at
,all, in which.-case nothing was
due., His Lordship. said, he Shoqld take care rent
to expose himself as the Philosopher did with the
-Cartbaginian General, who, ,did well enough, while
he spoke orr toPicS he iinderstocid, bait when he
tame to .discourse on war, obtained. the 'thaultffer
.0f....'a babbler. —His Lordship w..t. .determined to
shun the imputation. of -dart charitaer. The
sit-m.)le .que'stion,.Undbubtcdly, in tliis case wag this:
---`,Vase this a- fair repre!,entation, such as ,coulA
haver been expected, notfront tli:_ skill of Mr. gar.
toluzzi, whose- skill is, perhaps, inithitabie; but
such suat as migFit be extithed fro'm the 'skill of a, man of
considerable eminence, sucn as Mr. Delittre was
allowed to be ? For that, bitt , no. more, the Dv.
fendant, Mr. Co ley, had a right to exped:.
The Jury withdrew, and in about half an hoar
brought in 'their verdia for the Plaintiil; damages
5501. , being the remainder of the 8001. originally,
agreed upon. , ,

SUMMER- CIRCUITS, 1801.,

HOME..
'Lord Chief Justice KEN YO4l, 'Justice GROCEi •
ifertford,,. July 20 ; CileL,l4.lSfOrd, July 22 ; Malustotlei
July 27; LeyveS, 'luly ; Crcydon; August 3.