The Sun.
London, England, 1825-10-01 00:00:00

COMBINATIONS.

BOW.STREET.—At no time within the recollection of the
oldest person connected with this Office, has so much of the
time of the Magistrates been occupied in the hearing of com-
plaints by master tradesmen against their journeymen for mis-
conduct, as within the last few months; and perhaps the recur-
rence of offences of this description would be less frequent but
for the reluctance which the Magistrates feel to commit men of
honest and industrious habits (generally speaking) to a prison,
where they must of necessity herd and be confounded with
common felons and vagabonds of every description. This feel-
ing on the part of the Magistrates is, in one view of it, doubt-
less a laudable one, but we much fear that the lenient course
which they have pursued has been rather productive of mis.
chief, for cases of this kind are almost every day multiplying.
—No class of tradesmen in London, we believe, has suffered
more from this refractory spirit than the coachmakers ; and
as there are a great map/ of that trade in the immediate
neighbourhood of this Office, the attention of the Magistrates
has necessarily been a good deal devoted to the sub-
ject. There have been four cases heard in the course of the
present week, but in every instance the offender has escaped
with a reprimand, upon a promise to return to his work, and
to avoid a repetition of the offence. In many instances the
masters have complained of serious injury, in consequence of
these delinquencies; but in no one instance has the sitting Ma.
gistrate, for the humane reasons which we have before men.
timed, been able to make up his mind to condemn a useful
and ingenious workman to the treadmill. It will be seen,
however, by the statement below, that the Magistrates will in
future pursue a very different line of conduct ; and it is much
to be hoped that workmen will avoid punishment and disgrace,
by acting in a manner that will at once secure them the respect
and approbation of their employers and of themselves.
The last case that came under the notice of the Magistrates
occurred yesterday, when a man named James Rogers, a coach_
maker, in the employment of Messrs. R. George and Co. in
Long-acre, was brought up, charged with having left his em-
ployment, contrary to the contract existing between them.
The case was proved by Mr. George, who stated that the
defendant was employed at his house for six or seven years
some time ago, and was discharged only , consequence of
there not being sufficient work for him. As soon as Mr. G.
had occasion for his services, he was again employed, as being
a clever workman, and generally a very well behaved man.—
The rule of the trade is, that a fortnight's notice shall be given
by the master before he can discharge the man ; or by the
latter before he can leave the service of the former. A short
time ago, Mr. G. had occasion to go to Scotland, and he had
left town but a few days, when the defendant, without notice,
quitted his service, and did him great injury by leaving work
unfinished.

The defendant, in answer to the charge, acknowledged that
Mr. George was an excellent master, and that he would sooner
work for him than for any man in England, and said that he
should not have left him but for the evil persuasions of others.
lie should have given notice if his master had been at home.
Mr. HALLS—I have often before had occasion to observe
upon the extremely foolish conduct of journeymen, in acting, as
they have two often done, to their masters. We have often, I
fear, acted too leniently to men in your (defendant's) situa-
tion ; but the time is come when it is absolutely necessary that
the law should be strictly acted upon. As I have said upon
many other occasions, I have a reluctance, which I feel it ex-
tremely difficult to conquer, to commit a man like you to the
tread-mill. You belong to a highly useful, and, indeed, in.
valuable set of men—the mechanics of Great Britain, and I
can with great difficulty make up my mind to disgrace one
of that body by committing him to gaol, where he will
be clothed in the dress common to all who are sent there,
and be ever after liable to be taunted by every one who
knows him. If, however, journeymen will not do their
duty, I, and the other Magistrates, must do ours ; and
let it be known, that there is a determination amongst
us, for the future, to do our duty inflexibly. Under
the Act of Parliament, you are liable to be committed
tor three months to hard labour; but I will give you an oppor-
tunity (if your master consents) of returning to your work, and
atoning for your misconduct by your future good behaviour.
Let it be understood, however, that this is the last time that I
will overlook a charge of this kind; and even now I can tell
you, that I convict you of the offence, and the conviction shall
be entered upon our books ; and if you do not behave in a per-
fectly exemplary manner, I will, upon the complaint of your
master, commit you for the full term of three months. Let it
be understood, I repeat once more, that all future cases will be
dealt with the utmost severity.
Mr. George humanely consented to withdraw the charge,
upon the condition mentioned by the worthy Magistrate; and
the defendant humbly apologised, and promised to do his
duty to his master.

BOBBIN NET TRADE.
(From the Nottinearn Mercury of Sept. 28.)
At a General Meeting ot the Journeymen of the above busi-
ness, held at the sign ot Sir Isaac Newton in this town, yester-
day, several resolutions were passed, of which the following
are the substance)—

That it is highly expedient and proper that the bobbin net
hands work only eight hours per day for two months : to begin
at eight each day, and end at four.
That provided any owners of machines, or others, refuse to
abide by such regulations, this meeting pledge themselves to
adopt such lawful means as may seem to them just or expe-
dient, to induce such owners of machines to adopt them, by
maintaining their workmen in an unemployed state or other-
wise.

That n copy of the above resolutions be transmitted to the
Bobbin Net Committee at Calais, Lisle, and St. Quentin, re-
questing their assistance in case of need, as required in the
foregoing resolution.
A meeting of the owners of twist machines was also held
yesterday, at the Durham Ox, in this town, when several r_ so-
lutions were passed, which, we understand, were in unison
with those passed by the journeymen.
It appears that one month was the original demand of the
men—that two months was an amendment of the masters, to
which the journeymen have acceded. The Committees the
respective parties meet again to-day, at two o'clock, finally to
arrange the business of the trade.

'Major RUSSELL'S new mansion at Brighton,
that was rcently burnt down, is now even without the walls, e x-
cepting those in front, the grand portico, &c. the other walls
having tumbled down since the fire. 'Though there may be
reason to believe that the place was intentionally set on fire, no
clue has been got to the incendiaries. The day before the fire
15,0001. had been ',tiered for the place; it Was not insured, but
the 41iajta w:o about to ibsure it.

ARABIAN NIGHTS.

HISTORICAL AND CRITICAL ACCOUNT OF THE
ARABIAN NIGHT'S ENTERTAINAIENTS.

(From the Oriental Herald.)

The accomplished and indefatigable Orientalist, M. Von-
HAMMER, has recently published a German translation of all
those tales and anecdotes of the Thousand and One Nights,
which had not before been seen in any European language.
Some of these are beautiful and interesting ; some, as will be
readily supposed, are of very inferior merit ; and some are poor
imitations of tales already known. A secdnd Preface contains
a valuable and highly-interesting essay on the origin and pro.
gress of the Arabic work itself. M. Von Hammer traces it to
an Indian source; and then ingeniously shews the various ad-
ditions of Persian, Arabian, and even Grecian romance, made
from time to time, to the first collection.
The following remarks form a Third Preface, and contain a
brief account of all the MSS. which are known in Europe.
The manuscript from which M. Galland made his translation
and which is to be found in the Royal Library at Paris, contains
only 282 Nights; which are, moreover, much shorter than the
same Nights in our manuscript. The translation of Ualland
agrees with it, as far as touches the arrangement of the Nights,
till the sixty-ninth, where, in the original, the story of the Three
Apples commences; while in the French translation, it begins
on the ninetieth Night. This disagreement arises from M.
Galland having there inserted the story of Sind bad, which he
took from another manuscript, his own not containing it. In
this way he arbitrarily confounded the number of the Nights.
The remaining part, from the 90th to the 282 d Night, contains
The Story of the Three Apples—of the Little Hunchback—of
the Christian Merchant—of the Purveyor—of the Jewish Doc-
tor—of the Tailor—of the Barber and his Brothers.
The Story of the Abu'l Hasean and Shemselnihar—of Nou.
reddin and the Fair Persian—of the Persian Prince, Bedr—and
of Cainar.alzaman ; with which the manuscript concludes.
These tales, in the translation of M. Galland, follow in the
same order, with this difference only, that the story of Carnal..
al-zaman precedes that of Prince Bedr, and that the number of
the Nights is changed.
The translation of M. Galland contains besides, the Story of
Ganem, the Son of Abou Agub—of Zein al Asnam, and the
King of the Genii—of Khodad and his Brothers—of the Prin.
cess of Deriabar--of the Sleeper Awakened—of Aladdin, or
the Wonderful Lamp—of the Adventure of the Caliph If aroua
al Rashid—of the Blind Alan, Baba Abdallah---of Sidi Noman
—of Coja Hassan al Ilabbal—of Ali Baba and the Forty Rob.
bers—of Ali Coja—of the Enchanted Ilorse—of the two Sisters
who envied their youngest Sister.
Of all these tales the manuscript contains only two ; namely,
the Story of Ganem, and that of the Enchanted Horse. /11. Gal-
land appears to have taken all the rest from the Arabic, Turk-
ish, and Persian collections in the Royal Library at Paris ;
since, in another manuscript of that Library, in twenty-seven
parts, ten of which are wanting, a series of 870 Nights is con-
tained, in which these other tales are equally missing. In lieu
of them, are found therein the Story of King Noman and his
Son ; with other fables and anecdotes, some of which are ahead
known, and some are yet untranslated, but will soon appear in
print at Paris.
The third manuscript, which in completeness surpasses both
of these just spoken of, but which is yet behind ours in that re.
spect, is the one which formerly belonged to Wortley Monta-
gue ; and which afterwards, through the hands of Dr. White,
became the property of Mr. Jonathan Stott, who published, in
the Oriental- Collections of Sir Wm. Ouseley, a table of its
contents.

Besides the deficiencies which appear in the succession of the
Nights, we have only to compare the table of contents with that
of our manuscript, to be convinced, at the first glance, of the
greater copiousness of the latter.
Mr. Scott possesses also a fragment of the Thousand and
One Nights, brought from Bengal by his friend Mr. Anderson.
In his work, called " Tales, Anecdotes, and Letters, translated
from the Arabic and Persian," London,lBoo,he has published,
from this fragment, the story of the Flying Chair, and that of
the King, his Mistress, his Son, and the Seven Viziers. The
second of these tales is contained in our manuscript, hut not the
first.
The fifth known manuscript of the Thousand and One Nights,
is that which Dr. Russel brought from Aleppo. Itcantainsonly
280 Nights, and the stories contained in it are already trans.
lated. Dr. Russel is said to have found in it some tales which
are contained in the " Continuation of the Thousand and One
Nights," by Cazotte, translated from French into English, and
published at Edinburgh.
We readily believe that the substance of several of these talcs
may be found in Russel's manuscript ; but the form of them
belongs entirely to M. Cazotte, who appears to have translated
them from the oral narration of an inhabitant of Aleppo. The
greatest part of these tales seeming to have an Oriental foun.
dation, offend, too, by the mutilation of names, and introduc-
tion of French manners, against all local truth. Others are evi-
dently altogether of the invention of Cazotte ; as, for example,
the story under the title of Les Promesses et la mort du Capi-
taine Franchemont, et des ses Braves.'
The Story of Maugrabi, and that of the Lover of the Stars,
are ornamented imitations Of the tales translated by Ga11and......
The only one among the stories of this so styled translation that
we have found a genuine Oriental one, and met with in a col-
lection of Arabian Tales, is the History of Sinkarib and his two
Viziers. We are convinced that by far the greatest part of the
remaining stories belong to M. Cazotte.
The sixth manuscript is that which was in the possession of
the immortal Sir William Jones, and of which Richardson has
given a specimen in his Arabic Grammar. We know how
far the contents of this manuscript extend, as it is in that re-
spect the same as the one which is to be found in the Vatican
Library.
The Imperial Library at Vienna has an imperfect manu-
script, which contains 200 Nights, a parsof those translated by
Galland.

In the last place, we know three manuscripts, which, like
ouza, were bought in Egypt ; and, in regard to the succession of
the tales and order of the Nights, resemble it exactly. This,
however, prevents not a difference of style appearing.
The first of these belongs to the valuable collection of Oren.
tal manuscripts of Count Italinsky. The second is that which
was procured by the English travellers, Clarke and Crippa, at
Cairo, but which, by the damage it sufered in a shipwreck, has
become illegible. The third, at the title of the French expe-
dition to Egypt, was in the possession of M. Varsy, a French
merchant, who formerly resided at Rosetta, and has since re-
turned to. arseilles.

Not one of these three manuscripts can, for the beauty of the
writing, be compared with ours, which, although not of choice
beauty, is yet correct and legible.
1 By this review we see, that, of twelve manuscripts of the
Thousand and One Nights known in Europe, only four appear
to be copies of the same original; and that the compilers and
transcribers of these collections alter, according to their plea-
sure, the order of the Nights—inserting, in this frame, tales,
anecdotes, and fables, which belonged not to the original de-
sign. Thus the Thousand and One Nights are a medley of
Persian, Indian, and Arabian tales, of various ages and of
various character, mixed together according to their taste and
humour, by the lovers of this kind of reading. The frame-
work always remains the same ; the length of the Nights must
increase in proportion as the original matter is enriched ; and
since the modern inhabitants of Egypt exceed all other Orien-
tals in their passionate love of romance, so must the substance
of the Thousand and One Nights increase there much more
than in Persia, India, or other countries inhabited by the
Arabians.

ST. BRIDE'S CHURCH, FLEET-STREET.-In pur.
suance of the following Requisition, a Meeting of the most re-
spectable Householders and Inhabitants of this Pariah was
hoiden in the Vestry of the Church, last evening.
" Parish of St. Bride, London.—Notice is hereby given, that
a Public Vestry will be held in the Vestry-room of the above
Parish Church, on Friday next, at seven o'clock in the evening
precisely, to take into consideration the entering into a Treaty-
for the Purchasing a piece of Ground, now vacant between
Fleet-street and Bride's-passage, for the purpose of an additional
Burying Vault.

(Signed) " Jos. SMITH, Vestry Clerk."
Mr. Snoxall, the Churchwarden, was called to the Chair, and
briefly explained the nature of the business for which the Meet-
ing had been copvsn,ed.

After a good deal of discussion, it was resolved that the
Parishioners of St. Bride's do not deem it advisable to enter into
any treaty at present for the purchase of the ground.