The Sun.
London, England, 1830-01-07 00:00:00

will make you argol'btel with the eondition and useful
employment no 6.,t branch Of Mir service during the pre-
sent year. Cou.tituto.z, as it. does, the best standing se
cur;ty of this comary .cainst foreign aggression, it claim.
the especial arention of Goveimm•rit.

In time of peace we have tired of no more fibir,
of war than are required to the protection o
our commerce. Those not wanted for this object
must Iry in the Harbours, whe:e, without prope,
covering, they rapidly iiecav, and, even under the bes!
precautions for theirpreservation, uw•t soon become useless.
Such is already the case with many of our finest
vessels, which, though unfinished, will now require

immense sums of money to be restored to the condition
in which they were when committed to their proper
element: On this subject there can be but little doubt
that our best policy would be to discontinue the building
of ships of the first and second class ; and lcok rather to
the possession of ample materials far the emerg. neics o'
‘var, than to the number of vessels which we can
float in a son in peace, as the index of our aavai power.
I row commend you, fellow-citizens, to the guid-
ance of Almighty God, with a full reliance o❑ his
merciful Providence for the maintenance of our free
institution : and with an earnest supplication, that who-
ever errors it may be my lot to commit, in discharging
the arduous duties which have devolved on me, will find a
remedy in the harmony and wisdom of your counsels.

ANDIIENV JACKSON.

CONTEMPT OF COURT.

In 1793, when Swift executed the revision of
Gulliver's Travels, he made the most bitter addition
to the passages affecting the law and its professors.
About the same time he indulged his humours with
a most extraordinary mock trial in ridicule of the
assizes then about to be held in the county of
Meath. The scene was Ardsalla, in the house of
Mr. Ludlow, where the Jacksons, Grattans, Mr.
Stopford, and other favourites of the Dean, were
assembled. Sheridan, it seems, had been guilty of
a petty delinquency in his chamber. The rest shall
be abridged from the narrative of Mr. Theophilus
Swift :—" A tribunal is erected, and all things pre-
pared in dile and regular, form. A plain kitchen-
table is turned with its top downwards, and into
this dock Sheridan is put wigless and bare-headed,
while Swift himself mounts the seat of justice with
his own wig, frizzed arid bushed into a full bottom,
and set inverted on his head. A servant maid%
scarlet cloak is flung over his shoulders, to represent
the robes of a judge, and Aaron's band is converted
into that of a chief justice. The grand jury are
sworn and the bill found; the petty jury sworn in
their turn, and the prisoner put on his trial. The
crier commands silence, and the laWyers are ranged.
The utmost gravity and decorum prevail, and
the only smile that passed on the occasion arose
from the ludicrous circumstance of Mr. Stop-
ford, who, being feed for the Crown, declared
he could not do his duty as a true lawyer un-
less he should be feed on both sides. A se-
cond fee is therefore given him, in open court,
on behalf of the prisoner; and he told my mother he
actually received, by the double fee, eighteen
shillings. He is said to have conducted himself with
wonderful huinour and address through the whole of
the trial. The Jacksons and Grattans had likewise
their respective stations in the cause. Most of the
servants are examined, and, in spite of prayers and
entreaties, Mrs. Ludlow herself, who is made to
swear on the vessel alleged to have suffered pollu-
tion. Their verdict, as might be expected, is that of
guilty ; and Swift, with all the solemnity of justice,
pronounces sentence of death on the trembling She-
ridan, awfully concluding with, The Lord have
mercy on your soul !' A rope is produced; She-
ridan sees he shall be hanged pro forma; out of
the dock he springs, and flies up stairs, the whole
court in full cry after him. But fear having added
wings to his feet he had sufficient time to bolt his
chamber door, which he barricadoed as well as he
could with what furniture was in the room. Here
for two hours he remained besieged; at length he
capitulated on a solemn assurance that he should not
be hanged. In a day or two the judges arrive, and,
hearing the contempt that Swift had put upon them,
send an express with the account of it to the Lord
Lieutenant, who very wisely laughed at the frolic.—
Not finding the redress they expected they made a
formal complaint to the Bishops, who had nearly re-
solved to take up the matter seriously ; but one more
prudent • than the rest recommended that the whole
should be hushed up."—Sir Walter Scott': " life
moirs of Swift."

THE ARMY.

COURT MARTIAL.

Mad Quarters, Kingston, Jainai, a, Oct. 23, 1829.

At a District Court Martial, assembled at Port
Royal, by order of Lieut.-Colonel Keyt, C.B.com-
manding the Forces, on the 13th, and continued by
adjournment to the 19th inst., was tried gunner and
driver John Robertsbaw, R.A. who was arraigned
upon the following charge :—For highly unsoldier-
like-conduct, in writing, or causing to be written,
on or about the 29th of September, 1829, to the
Lieutenant-Colonel commanding in Jamaica, a let-
ter containing false statements against Lieutenant-
Colonel Durnford, his Commanding Officer, and
Lieutenant Stewart, the Officer Commanding his
Company, and not forwarding such letter through
his ComManding Officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Durn-
ford."

The Court having most attentively and minutely
examined, weighed, and considered the documents
and evidence adduced in support of the prosecu-
tion, as likewise what the prisoner has stated and
brought forward in his defence, is of opinion that
he, the prisoner, gunner and driver John Robert-
shaw, Royal Artillery, is guilty of all and every
part of the charge exhibited against him, which
being in breach of the Articles of War, and con-
trary to the rules of the service, the Court does,
by virtue thereof, sentence and adjudge the said
prisoner, gunner and driver John Robertshaw, to
receive a corporal punishment of six hundred lashes,
in the usual manner, at such time and place as the
Lieutenant-Colonel Commanding the Forces may
be pleased to direct.

The Court having thus discharged its duty, how-
ever painful, in patiently inquiring into the matter
connected with the charge, and in according what it
deems a punishment commensurate with the serious
offence of which the prisoner has been convicted,
cannot but express its regret at the occurrence of
such a glaring instance of unwarrantable interfer-
ence with military discipline, by irresponsible per-
sons, as i manifest in the case of the unfortunate
prisoner, who has unequivocally avowed to the
Court that he has given play to " persuasions," and
which has resulted in bringing him to punishment!
The Court is also desirous of recording its sense
of the wrong done to Lieutenant-Colonel Durnford,
it appearing in evidence, that so far from denying
the prisoner that redress the soldier is entitled to
expect at the hands of his Officers, he in two dif-
feren: instances sent his Adjutant and the Officer
commanding the company to which the prisoner
belongs to ask if he had any complaints,which inquiry
Was in both instances replied to in the negative.
The Lieutenant-Colonel Commanding fully ap-
proves the finding and sentence of the Court; but
after a careful examination of the evidence, for and
against the prisoner, gunner and driver John Robert-
: shaw, taking into consideration all the various cir-
cumstances connected with the case, arid more espe-
cially the very good character of the prisoner which
appears upon the face of the proceedings, he has
been induced to remit the punishment; at the same
time he uishes it to be clearly and distinctly ex-
plained to the prisoner, that his former good charac-
ter has been the sole motive with the Lieutenant-
Colonel Commanding for granting an unconditional
remission of the sentence, most properly awarded,
for such a serious breach of military discipline.
The prisoner will be released and returned to his
duty, and the Lieutenant-Colonel Commanding
directs that gunner and driver John Robertshaw
may he sent to join the detachment of his company,
at Honduras, by the earliest opportunity.
G. HILLIER, Acting Deputy Atijt-Gen.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOTJRNALS,

In the Journal des Delats of Monday we
find another article on the understood nominatim
of Prince Leopold to the throne of Greece,
which betrays more soreness towards the English
Government, and makes a fiercer attack on the
French Ministry for their supposed submission
to English dictation, than the last. The ob-
jections of the journalist seem, indeed, directed
almost exclusively against the parties who have
made the selection of the new Sovereign, and not
'gainst the object of their choice. His personal
character is not assailed,—his principles are not
questioned,—his general fitness in point of
knowledge, and rank, are tacitly ad-
mitted. He is not even contrasted with any of
the candidates formerly mentioned, as to his qua-
lifications for a throne : nor does the .Delats
mggest any new competitor whose latent merit
and modest virtues, brought forward for the first
time, would give him a superior claim. Prince
Leopold may unite in his own person all the vir-
tues and talents which fit him for the arduous
office with which he is to be invested ; but he is
connected with England, he is the son-in-law
of George IV.,—and the proxy which Russia
put into the hands of Prince Polimuac ought not
to have been employed to promote even the
model of rulers, if in his elevation any credit
was to be reflected on the English Ministry!!
Such is the great argument—such is the only
argument employed by our French contempo-
rary against the claims of the Prince. We no
more hear of his being a pensioner of England,
because it has probably just been discovered that
in itself money can be no objection among the
Greeks, and that the enjoyment of his allowance
from the English nation cannot affect his inde-
pendence in his new station, as he is entitled to
it so long as he lives and chooses to draw it,
whether in Greece, in Germany, or England.
At any rate, an objection of that kind would
come with a bad grace from a journal which
applauds the generous advances of money made
by the French Government to the present ruler
of Greece, and censures the English for its
almost hostile parsimony. But we cannot ac-
cept of the argument with which the journalist
supplies us against himself, at the expence of
truth and of English generosity. " Great
God I" says he, " was there a necessity to pass
the Straits to find a Sovereign for Greece
in the land that had refused it succours when
France was collecting charitable subscriptions
for its relief?" Has he forgotten that the
first and most effective assistance and encou-
ragement proceeded from England to that un-
fortunate country ? What are all the fruits of '
the theatrical charity of Paris,-7of the begging-
boxes carried from door to door by liberal
ladies,—of the sale of trinkets for the establish-
ment of national independence,—compared with
what England advanced at first in the shape of
free-will offerings, and subsequently in the shape
of loans,—to be paid probably at the Greek
Kalends ? What nation more effectually inter-
fered to protect the Greeks from massacre by
our volunteers and ships of war, or what Go-
verment stirred before ours in effecting the
treaty of intervention? It is true that the ardent
sympathy of our countrymen was latterly some-
what abated from accidental causes, among which
not the least was the misconduct of some of the
parties, who pretended to imitate the extrava

pant generosity of our neighbours, while they
endeavoured to turn their/Ail/lel/clam to their
own advantage ; but for some time nearly all the
substantial aid which the struggling Greeks re-
ceived proceeded from this country. It is not a
little inconsistent to hear French writers, who
boasted that their expedition to Greece had no
selfish or ambitious object, now declaiming
against their rulers because that enterprise has
not been rendered more profitable to France,
because it has not been employed as the means
of perpetuating their influence or extending their
power. In passing the self-denying ordinance,
that no Prince belonging to any of their three
houses should be elevated to the Greek Sove-
reignty, the Allied Courts intended to cut off at
once a source of jealousy in making their diffi-
cult election, and of future favour with the can-
didate elected. The proxy of Russia (if given
to France as the Journal des Debats says) has
for these ends been discreetly employed ; and as
the suffrages of the three Powers have fallen,
without any active canvass on our part, on a
Prince unobjectionable to either of our Allies,
and unopposed by any stipulation of their com-
pact, so England expects no farther advantages
from the appointment, either private, political,
or commercial, than if they had elevated to the
Greek throne some tenth cousin of a German
Landgrave. or the Royal Youth commonly
called in Paris " Prince Paul of the Opera."—
Tim es.

The Sixth Report of the Commissioners of
Aroods and Forests has been now for some

weeks before the public, and we do not know
_ _

that any thing could be recommended of greater
usefulness, either to the Government or to the

country, than an occasional examination of the
matters contained in those records of mad and

ruinous prodigality, the reports of the above-
mentioned Commissioners, rendered as they
have been at once more intelligible and more
exasperating by occasional discussions in the
House of Commons, and perhaps in some few
instances—but of that we are •not sure—by do-
cuments produced on the motions of members

less easily satisfied than their colleagues to take
the words of Court minions for indisputable
truth. Ministers, who are responsible by lay
for misappropriations of the public money, can
hare no rational motive for withholding the
knowledge of the difficulties under which they
labour from the people. They, the Ministers
(as contra-distinguished from the Court), not
being sensible of any interest apart from the
nation, must be anxious to reinforce themselves

against any wrong tendency in quarters not re-
sponsible, by making the people. of England wit-
nesses and judges of the manner in which, and
the degree to which, the efforts at economy made
by those servants of the state, who are constitu-
tionally answerable for their actions, have been
thwarted and embarrassed by a pretended zeal
to gratify tastes which may, indeed, by due
firmness be restrained, but which are no other-

wise amenable to punishment than as public re-
proof or indignation may affect them. We
therefore do a service to the State, and to those

Ministers who serve the States by strenuously
advising every man in office or out of it to scru-
tinize these reports from the Commissioners of
NVoods and Forests: The reports ought not to
be triennial: they would never have been so,
had they not, by such long, intervals between
their appearance, affurded opportunities for in-
dulging in monstrous and profligate expense,
unchecked in its progress because it was unseen,
until, after a three years' saturnalia, the heaped-
:lp enormities rose at once upon the view ; and from
the very magnitude of the offence, then for the
first time visible, an argument was raised for pro-