The Sun.
London, England, 1837-05-18 00:00:00

MIDDLESEX SESSIONS.

Yesterday Matthew Daly, aged 16, a half-starved youth,
foarful of placing luanself under the " guardianship" of the
Poor-lax Co►nmissioners, was convicted of stealing a loaf
from a journeyman-baker's basket left in the street. It ap-
peared that hunger had prompted the venial offence, the
Court adjudged the poor fellow to pay a fine of Is., and
then to be discharged.
A humane gentleman paid the fine, and the hungry boy
was again let loose.

Charlotte Shari., aged 18, a fine-looking girl, was in-
dicted for plundering her mistress, Jane Cooper, an infirm
widow lady, residing at Kensington, of 27 sovereigns, a gold
watch, and a large quantity of female wearing-apparel, bed-
linen, &c.—Verdict—Guilty. Sentence, transportation for
seven years.

A serious! acas took place outside the Court, between
several persons who had preferred indictments against
gaming-houses, and the clerks of a solicitor and others on
the adverse side. A riotous assemblage of nearly 200
persons was the result, and it was
.with difficulty the police
prevented the most serious consequences. The Grand
Jury have returned bills against three of the alleged as-
sailants.

As some men were employed last week in digging
in the garden of Mr. Chew, of Armston, near Oundle, they
discovered, within three feet of the surface of the ground,
six human skeletons of gigantic stature. One of them was
in nearly an erect posture, in a most beautiful state of pre-
servation, and evidently the remains of a young person. The
jawbones of all are of an immense size, and the teeth in ad-
n.irable order, and quite sound and white. Some portion of
a Roman pavement was also discovered near the same spot.
Lincoln Mercury.
On Saturday morning, as some labourers were em-
ployed upon the works of the Southampton Railway, at Sur-
biton-common, near Kingston, they discovered the entire ske-
leton of a man about a foot below the surface. There were
no traces of a coffin visible. The skeleton, which was of very
large size, was subsequently examined by Messrs. Mitchell
and Taylor, medical gentlemen of Kingston, who appeared to
differ in opinion as to the time the skeleton had lain in the
earth, one of them stating that he did not think it had been
there more than six years, while the other considered that it
must have been there a much longer period. The circum-
stance has excited considerable sensation at Kingston, and the
skeleton is very generally believed to be that of a man who
about fourteen years since came to Kingston market to sell a
number of beasts, and received a considerable sum of money,
and who was never heard of afterwards, and it was the general
opinion in the neighbourhood that he had been murdered.
This man was, it appears, last seen very near the spot where
the skeleton was found, arid this strengthens the suspicion al-
luded to. The skeleton has since been placed in a shell to
await the decision of the Coroner as to the necessity of holding
an inquest upon it.
On Tuesday morning, as Thomas Wilson, of Gras-
mere, was watching the motions of a water-hen on an island
in the lake of that name, he observed a bell shaped bubble rise
upon the surface of the water, a few feet from the spot where
he was standing, and immediately burst, when out of it issued
a swallow. His surprise was of course excited, but his atten-
tion was fixed, and he observed a second bubble appear te-
nanted as before, and a third. Others might succeed, but he
had not leisure to wait. At this time swallows were flying in
great numbers about the lake ; and it is worthy of note that
none had appeared previous to that morning. We give this
fact, well authenticated by the parties from whom we received
it, in the hope that it may prove an acceptable addition to the
data on which naturalists frame their hypotheses. What be-
comes of the swallow tribe during the winter months has long
been a controverted question, the theory of migration to warmer
climates being the most prevalent. It has commonly been
imagined by later physiologists, in opposition to the notion of
the country people, that they are organically unfitted to re-
main in a state of submersion, though by the gradual abstrac-
tion of the animal heat the functions of life might for a while
be suspended. A few eminent naturalists (Dr. Edwards in
his profound work on physical agents among the number),
have shown experimentally that the vulgar notion is not alto-
gether without foundation. The fact we now record may
perhaps throw light upon the matter.—Kendal Mercury.
M. Ancillon has died comparatively poor. His dis-
interestedness was so great that he took no remuneration for
his writings from the happy publishers, though they would
gladly have given him whatever he might demand. It is a
proud feeling that a plebeian could act thus.

A bout 3O years ago a collier at Craigenfeoch, near
Paisley, missed his footing at the mouth of a pit, and was
precipitated through a scaffolding many fathoms down to the
bottom. An active search was made for him several days,
but it proved unsuccessful. Shortly after that period the pit
was shut up, and has continued shut ever since, until a few
months ago, when operations were again resumed. On Thurs-
day last, the men employed discovered the body of their long
lost companion, and brought it to the surface, that it might
receive the rites of Christian burial.—Scotsman.
Many of our readers may be surprised to hear that
for some years John Hazlitt, the eloquent critic and essayist,
resided in Stockport. l‘lr. Hazlitt died on Tuesday, in his
70th year, after an illness of inconsiderable duration, but of
unmitigated severity. His connection with Stockport com-
menced in 1532, and from that time till within a month of his
death he earned his livelihood by taking- portraits. He ex-
celled in his profession, and might have realized an ample
fortune, had not an irritable temperament operated to his dis-
advantage. The deceased possessed great conversational
ability, and was distinguished for the extent of his informa-
tion and the versatility of his powers.—North Cheshire
Reformer.

DESTITUTION in the HIGHLANDS.

To the Honourable the Commons of Great Britain and
Ireland in Parliament assembled,
The humble Petition of the undersigned Farmer-Fishermen

of Shetland,
Sheweth,—That owing to the very unfavourable climate
of the Shetland Islands, consequent on their geographical
position, and to the imperfect state of their agriculture,
they do not produce, in the most favourable seasons, grain
nearly sufficient to feed their population.
That other places supply these islanders with great part
of the corn they consume every year, which is paid for by
fish, exported to the Continent, Ireland, and Scotland.
That the produce of last harvest is unequal to the sup-
port of your petitioners, to say nothing of the other inhabi-
tants, for half the year, and the previous harvest was little
better.

That the existing Corn Laws bear peculiarly hard on
your petitioners, because, though farmers, they must pur-
chase corn, for which they pay a higher price than any other
British subjects ; yet they sell part of the proceeds of their
industry, as fishermen, to parties who could supply their
want of corn on more moderate terms.

That the deficient crops of the two last seasons have ex-
hausted the means of many of your petitioners, and if not
relieved they have the certain prospect before them of
being reduced to starvation.
Your petitioners, therefore, humbly pray for relief by re-
peal or suspension of the Corn-law, a law which is so
highly detrimental to their best interests at all times, but
during periods of scarcity, like the present, so cruelly
unjust, as it applies to Shetland, or by such other means

as in your wisdom you may deem mort applicable to their
peculiar situation. And your petitioners shall ever pray.

To the Honourable the Commons of Great Britain and

Ireland in Parliament assembled.

The humble Petition of the undersigned Artificers, Boat-
men, Fishermen, and Labourers, residing in the towns of
Lerwick and Scallaway (Shetland),
Sheweth,—That the failure of the last two harvests,
while it has caused great distress to the cultivators of the
soil in this country, is severely tilt by your petitioners, who,
in favourable seasons, derive part of their subsistence from
the produce of the small farms along its sea coast ; but
are now compelled to purchase imported grain, at.a higher
rate than is paid in any part of she kingdom, and many of
them have been reduced to the brink of starvation.

That while the Divine wisdom has withheld the blessings
of a genial climate and a productive soil, the law has, in
practice, debarred the inhabitants of these neglected islands
from exchanging their commodities for foreign grain---the
cruel injustice and impolicy of which has no parallel, in the
present day, amongst the enlightened nations of Europe.
That the men of Shetland have contributed cheerfully to
the glory and independence of the empire, not, indeed, by a
large amount of taxes, but by sheilding their blood in its
battles.

That Shetland differs from every other part of the em-
pire in this—that the proprietors of the soil would profit by,
and will not object to, cheap corn.
May it, therefore, please your Honourable House to take
into consideratio❑ the state of the Shetland Islands ; to

repeal the existing Corn Laws as respects them ; and
afford them such farther relief as their case may appear
to require. And your petitioners shall ever pray, &c.

To the Honourable the Commons of Great Britain and
Ireland, in Parliament assembled,
The humble petition of Arthur Anderson, of the City of
London, merchant,
Sheweth,—That your petitioner is a native of the Shet-
land Islands, has considerable local knowledge of them, and
for sonic time past has devoted much of his attention to
their present condition, and the best means of improving

That these islands are, and have long been, in a state
of great backwardness, as compared with other parts of
the kingdom, in most of the comforts and conveniences of
social life, and that the labouring classes of their inhabitants
are in a state of great poverty and dependence.
That this state of things does not, in your petitioner's
belief, so much result from the want of natural resources in
the islands for providing the means of comfortable subsis-
tence to the inhabitants, as from a neglect properly to im-
prove those resources.
That the coasts of these islands swarm with fish of a
valuable des'rription. That the inhabitants are universally
addicted to maritime pursuits, and are of a sober and or-
derly disposition. That the islands contain numerous well-
sheltered natural havens ; and although the soil and cli-
mate are not very genial, yet, under an improved system of
husbandry, the land. might be made much mere productive
than it now is.
That twenty thousand, or nearly two-thirds of the
whole population of the islands, were this present season
found to be either partly or altogether without the means
of subsistence ; and although this destitution proceeded in a
great measure from a partial failure of the crops and
fisheries, there is great reason to believe that from the ge-
nerally impoverishe condition of the labouring classes, such
cases of want will be of too frequent recurrence, unless
something be done to effect a permanent amelioration of
their condition.
That your petitioner is of opinion that the chief causes
which keep the people in poverty, and retard the progress
of improvement in the Shetland Islands, are the following :
1. The existing Corn Laws, which prohibit the inhabit-
ants from procuring their bread from the cheapest markets—
a prohibition which bears peculiarly hard upon them, be-
cause the islands, on an average of years, produce scarcely
more than half the corn necessary for the subsistence of
their population ; and, therefore, the remainder required for
that purpose has to be imported from other places, is paid
for by the produce of their fishing, and costs them, including
the expence of transport, more than what is paid for corn in
any other part of Britain : yet, if it were not for this pro-
hibitory law, they could obtain from the very places abroad,
to which a considerable portion of the produce of their
fishing is exported, corn in exchange for it, at little more
than half the price which they are forced to pay for British
grown corn.
2. The want of a certain, easy, and expeditious commu-
nication with the main land of Britain. The islands are
situated about 150 miles N.N.E. from Peterhead, in Abets
deenshire, the nearest practicable point of communication
with them from the main land of Scotland. A very small
sailing packet at present conveys the mail from thence to
the islands, and the times of her departure and arrival are
necessarily uncertain, depending as they do on the state of
the wind and weather. This uncertain and difficult com-
munication prevents, in your petitioner's opinion, the intro-
duction of capital and enterprise into the islands, and can
only be properly remedied by the establishment of a con-
veyance for the mail by steam navigation.
3. The want of adequate internal communication in the
islands, there being no roads, nor any established inland
port, although the principal island of the group is sixty
English miles in length, the next in size twenty, and ano-
ther twelve miles in length.
4. An injurious and oppressive system of local manage-
ment which, by giving a monopoly of the labour of the
ishing tenantry to the proprietors of the soil and their as-
signs, tends to keep the former in a state of poverty and
debasemopt, deprives them of all due stimulus to industry
and improvement, and, by destroying fair competition, im-
pedes the due developement of the resources of the islands
in their trades and fisheries. The best remedy for this, in
your petitioner's opinion, would be to facilitate the intro-
duction into the islands of capital and enterprise ; because,
by such means, more employment would be provided for the
people, and they would consequently become gradually
more independent of the proprietors of the soil and their

assigns.
Your petitioner begs leave to represent to your honoura-
ble house that the improvement of the Shetland Islands is
an object of considerable national importance, because they
contain a useful maritime population, and furnished, during
a period of great public emergency and alarm, upwards of
three thousand hardy and expert seamen, to man the fleets,
and fight the battles of this country.
Further, your petitioner begs leave to represent, that a
reference to the history of those islands will show that dur-
ing a period of nearly four hundred years, that they have
been connected with Britain, their inhabitants have been
subjected to a series of acts of violence, fraud, and oppres-
sion, such as have not been experienced by any other dis-
trict of the kingdom, a circumstance which, in your peti-
tioner's opinion, ought to strengthen their claim to the tardy
measure of justice now sought for.
Finally, your petitioner begs leave to state, that he has
no property in these islands, nor any direct personal interest
in their improvement.
Your petitioner earnestly prays your Honourable House to
make inquiry into the present state of the Shetland Is-
lands, and to adopt such measures for their improvement
and the permanent amelioration of the condition of their
inhabitants, as in your wisdom shall seem expedient.
A. ANDERSON.

A young pig, about six weeks old, confined in a
stable, near the Royal Hospital, was actually killed and de-
voured by a swarm of rats on Wednesday week, and so com-
pletely had these voracious vermin effected their work, that
nothing was left but the skin.—Plymouth Journal.

The inhabitants of Aberavon, Glarnorganshire, being
desirous to divert the channel of the river Avon, from a cir-
cuitous to a direct course to the sea, adopted the following
plan under the inspection of Mr. Palmer, engineer. The soil
of the proposed channel being principally sand, they threw a
strong embankment across the river in the hot weather, when
the stream was nearly dry, and dug a deep trench through the
sand to the sea. In the late floods, they found that the force
of the current carried off into the sea at least half a million tons
of sand, and left in five weeks a straight navigable channel on
the track of their trench.— Worcester Guardian.