The Sun.
London, England, 1822-02-19 00:00:00

which the contemplated increase of the Sinking
Fund would produce in the way of relieving the
embarrassments of the Country Gentlemen, by
lowering the interest of money. It was shewn
last night satisfactorily by Mr. Ricardo, that
these views were altogether delusive; that the
rate of interest could not be affected by the state
of the Sinking Fund; that it depended on the
rate of profits, and the rate of profits again de-
pended on prices ; that, for instance, when prices
were low profits were high. As Mr. Iluskisson
in his speech on Friday night took care to pro-
claim his knowledge of the doctrine of prices
and profits, we wonder he could not contrive
to infuse some portion of that knowledge into
Lord Londonderry and the Chancellor of the
Exchequer.—A press of interesting matter will
not allow us to enter into farther observations at
this time on the important subjects to which we
have been alluding.

The news containd in the last arrival of Irish
papers May be arranged briefly under three heads
the College Election, another Catholic meeting,
and a repetition or multiplication of outrages in
the South. On Tuesday last the Provost, Fellows,
and Scholars of Trinity College, proceeded to a
new election, to supply the vacancy caused by
Mr. Plunkett's acceptance of the office of At-
torney-General. That Right Honourable Gen-
tleman was re-elected without opposition. Mr.
Plunkett, before the question was put, made
a speech to the Electors, which appears worthy
of notice only for the assurance conveyed in
it,' that the Right Hon. Gentleman had not,
by the acceptance of his office, made the slightest
" compromise- of his principles." Mr. Plunkett
is a man of eminent talents, and in many circum-
stances not be classed with the vulgar herd of
Placemen. This declaration, however, on behalf
of his own consistency, he shares with the mean-
est of them all. No one ever secedes from
his party, without boasting that he retains his
principles ; and such principles as he had, no
doubt he keeps. But not meaning any irreve-
rent allusions to individuals, it really does appear
to us, that Ludy Teazle's speech to Joseph Surface,
when he preached about his 44 honour," while
he was debauching his ideal's wife, would not
come amiss on certain other occasions—" Now,
don't you think we may just as well leave honour
" out of the question ? " The Right Honourable
Gentleman was, immediately after his election,
to proceed, it.was said, to the South of Ireland,
where he would conduct the prosecution of the
insurgents under the Special Commission at Cork.
The Catholics have had what they are in the
habit of calling an Aggregate Meeting, where a
small degree of contradiction in their measures
seems to us to have been introduced by a more
than usual quantity of unmeaning violence, and
misshapen eloquence in their orators.

Letters, dated the 29th of December last, have
been received from Port-au-Prince, which state
that President BOYER had issued a decree, pro-
hibiting, under severe penalties, the exportation
of gold or silver. This measure was likely to
produce much inconvenience to commercial ope-
rations. The decree is dated on the 15th of
December.

According to advices from Havannah, received
at Charleston, it appears that Vera Cruz finally
surrendered to the Independents, or Imperial
['ones, on the night of the 26th of October. Ge-
neral DAVILA being left without all support in
the Castle of St. Juan de Ulloa, had been com-
pelled to make an unconditional surrender, and
his opponents had agreed to bury all past offences
and differences in oblivion. An address to the
people had been published by the Intendant of
Vera Cruz, calling on them to submit cheerfully
to the new order of things. Thus the revo-
lution orMexico is completed ; for the rest of
the country, it will be recollected, had long be-
fore embraced the cause of independence. _ .

SLAVE TRADE.—By a recent decree of the
Spanish Cortes, all Spanish vessels- employed in
the Slave Trade are to be forfeited, and the
owners, fitters out, masters, and officers, con-
demned to ten years' labour on the public works.
All foreigners entering Spanish ports with Slaves
on board shall be liable to the same penalties,
and all slaves found on board shall be set free.
REMARKABLE CIRCUMSTANCE.—The High She-
riff for Berkshire for the current year is the Hon.
FREDERICK West; the Gentleman appointed to
that office for the year ensuing is Sir GILBERT
Eaa, Bart.
SIIOCKING CATASTROPHE.—On Friday morn-
ing a young man, named John Gales, ser-
Vant to John White, farmer, of Branking
near Darlington, met an untimely death, through
the insanity of his master. White has at dif-
ferent times of late exhibited strong symptoms of
mental derangement, and on the evening preced-
ing the melancholy event which we are about to
describe; was strongly impressed with the idea
that his house was infested by robbers. Under
thiS impression he would not retire to rest, but
he waudered about the house with a loaded gun
in his hand the whole night, to shoot (he said)
the robbers as they came in, fancying he heard
and saw them at the windows. A young man
from Darlington, named Bowser, who was with
him all night, endeavoured, but without effect,
to divert and drssuade him from his wild
idea. Early in the morning, White left Bow-
ser alone
,in the kitchen and again traversed
the house with his gun. The unfortunate de-
ceased came down stairs about six o'clock, and
proceeded to go out to his work, but finding the
outer door fastened so as to prevent him, he re-
turned and went into the kitchen, where Bowser
was standing by the fireside. White at that time
being in the passage, suddenly approached and
fired, lodging the contents of his gun in the body
of the unfortunate Gales, near the hip bone. He
fell at the feet of Bowser, and in about two
hours expired. A Coroner's Jury, after a care-
ful inquiry into the circumstances, returned the
following verdict :—" That John Gales came to
his death by John White firing a gun, loaded
with gunpowder and shot, whilst the said John
White was in a fit of mental derangement."—
White has been committed to our County
,Gaol,
:to take his trial for murder at the ensuing As:
sizes .---(Durhani Advertiser, Feb. 16.)

QUADRAGESENIA,
Or, The FIRST SUNDAY in LENT.

The name of the first Sunday in Lent having
been distinguished by the appellation of Quadra-
gesitna, and the three weeks preceding having
been appropriated to the gradual introduction of
the Lent fast, it was consistent with propriety
to call the three Sundays of these weeks by names
significant of their situation, and reckoning by
Decades, or Tens. The Sunday preceding Qua-
dragesima received its present title of Quinqua-
gesima, the second Sesagesima, and the third
Septuagesima. The great and solemn fast of Lent
received the title of Quadragesima, because
our Saviour was under the dominion of death
about forty hours, and when it was settled to
keep the fast as many days as at first hours were
appropriated, the name was considered as still ap-
plicable. The preceding Sunday of Septuage-
sima Sunday is dependent upon Lent as that sea-
son is upon Easter, as was instituted as the com-
mencement or preparation for the serious fast of
Lent : its observation was instituted by Pope
GREGORY the Great to withdraw the minds of
Christians from the festivities of Christmas, and to
qualify them for the fasting and humiliation en-
joined during Lent. Ash-Wednesday is actually
the beginning of Lent, but the Sunday imme-
diately following is called Quadragesima Sun-
day, or the first Sunday in Lent, not that it is
exactly, but about the fortieth day before Easter,
and thereby expressive of the number of fasting
days of w hick Lent consists. Quinquagesima
Sunday has been called also Shrove Sunday, as
introductory to the season of which the following
Tuesday is the commencement. The term
" Shrove" signifies to Confess : hence the Tues-
day governing the title of this Sunday, having
been the most solemn period of confession, was
called also CONFESSION TUESDAY, or SHROVE-
TIDE, Confession time. Tide or Tid was the
Saxon word for Time, and is yet applied to par-
ticular periods, such as Whitsuntide. This season
was formerly called also FASGUNTIDE or FA ST-
INGTI DE, and also FASTENS and FASTMAS, by all
ofwhich titles it is still denominated in different
parts of the North. In the reformed church,
the ancient practice of Shrieving or Confes-
sing at this season is only known by name ;
but in the Romish Church, CONFESSION, with
its accustomed formalities, is continued to the
present time, as a preparation for the more
religious Observance of Lent, which, as before
stated, commences on the following day. Prior
to the glorious Reformation, every communicant
throughout the kingdom was obliged individually
to confess to his parish priest ; the great bell
which summoned the parishioners early in the
morning .to this duty is yet rung in some parishes
on this day, to give notice of the commencement
of the service of our Reformed Church, and re-
tains in some parts of the country the name of
the Pan-cake bell, a title evidently dnrived from
the custom, which, though declining, continues
to exist, of eating pan-cakes and fritters at this
season ; the custom of eating these things at
Shrovetide, which has given the Tuesday the
common appellation of Pan=cake Tuesday, was
that the people after confession, which the
discipline of the Ancient Church required,
were permitted by their priests to indulge in
festive amusements, although not allowed to

partake of any repasts beyond the usual sub-
stitutes for flesh : and the Monday preced-
ing this Tuesday was called Collop-Monday,
from a custom originating in the same cause.—
On these days of authorised indulgence the most
wanton recreations were tolerated, provided a due
regard was paid to the abstinence commanded by
the Antient Church: and from this origin sprang
the POPISH CARNIVAL, and all its attendant profli-
gacy,appropriately derived fiom"CARNIVALE,i.e.
farewell to flesh," in allusion to the Lenten season,
which was to commence on the succeeding morning :
from the loose pastimes of the age in which the-Car-
nival originated, are also to be traced the nearly
exploded diversions of Cocx-FrawriNo,and
COCIa-
THROWING, as well as the discontinued custom
of WHIPPING TOPS, ROASTING OF HERRINGS,
JACK OF LENT, &c. &c., which three last named
sports were evidently meant as types of the rigour
of the discipline of the Romish Church. The
Cock-fighting and Cock-throwing in England,
which, much to the credit of the present genera-
tion, have been of late sinking into disuse, were
formerly general throughout the kingdom. For
many years our public diaries and monthly
publications took infinite pains to impress upon
the minds of the populace a just abhorrence
of such barbarities ; and by way of strengthen-
ing their arguments, they failed not to detail in
most pathetic terms the following fact, which is
selected from the Gentleman's Magazine, of April,
1799:—" Died, April 4, at Tottenham, JOHN
Esq. a young man of laTge fortune, and
in the splendour of his carriages and his horses ri-
valled by few country gentlemen. His table
was that of hospitality, where it may be said he
sacrificed too much to conviviality. Mr. A—v
was very fond of cock fighting, and had a fa-
vourite cock upon which he had won many pro-
fitable matches. The last bet he laid • upon this
cock was lost, which so' enraged him that he had
the bird tied to a spit and roasted alive before a
large fire. The screams of the miserable animal
were so affecting, that some gentlemen who were
present attempted to interfere, which so enraged
Mr. that he seized a poker, and with the
most furious vehemence declared that he would
kill the first man who interfered : but—in the
midst of his passionate asseverations—he fell down
dead up6n the spot !" The above customs have
been attributed to the Athenians, from them
to the Romans, who introduced it here. WIL.
malt FITZ STEPHEN, who wrote the Life of
BECKET, in HENRY the Second's time, is the first
of our writers who mentions the custom.—
CRANE3TEIN, an old German author, gives the
origin of these customs here to the Danes, when
they were in England ; and other authorities
say, these customs bore allusion to the indignities
offered to our Saviour, previous to his death.
W. F. D.

*.* We are sorry that we could not comply with our Cor-
respondent's desire of having this article inserted on Satur-
day.