The Sun.
London, England, 1831-12-26 00:00:00

VICE.CHANCERY COURT-(THIS DAY.)

His Honour the VICE-CHANCELLOR was occupied the
whole morning with bankrupt petitions, possessing no
points of importance except to the parties.

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE-(THIS DAY.)

PROM LLOYDS.
PORTSMOUTH, Dsc. 24 AND 25.—Light airs, and va-
riable.—Arrived his Majesty's ships Curacos, Tweed, and
Wellesley, from the Downs.
PLYMOUTH, DEC. 23 AND 24.—Wind N. W. light.—
Arrived the Clarence, Croker, from St. Übe's.
FALMOUTH, Die. 23 AND 24 —Wind N.N W., mode-
rate.—Arrived the Maria, Ouston, from Virginia. Sailed
the Eclipse packet, for the Brazils and Buenos Ayres; the
Magnet packet, for Lisbon ; the Plover packet, for St.
Domingo, Jamaica, and Mexico ; the Briseis packet, for
the Leeward Islands ; and Bengal Merchant, Campbell,
for Madrid and Bengal.
LivaarooL, DEc. 24.—Arrived the Carahoo, from
Buenos Ayres. Off port, the Bounty, Hall, from Bengal
and the Mauritius ; and Wexford, from Quebec.
GREENOCK, DEC. 24.—Arrived the Salus, Welsh,
from Miramichi.
STANDCATE CREEK, DEC. 25.—Arrived the Mantura,
Croft, from St. Petersburgh ; Mignie, Murray, from
Riga ; Bolivar, Petrie, from Ulsbory ; Amelia, Lista,
and Prince of Orange, Goldiers, from Hamburg.

The Eden, Lattimore, from Demarara, has arrived off
the Wight.
The Hannah, Walker, from St. John's, New Bruns-
wick, to Liverpool ; the Bello, from the Bay of Fundy to
Kinsale; and the America, Millamore, from Newbury
Port to Stockholm, have been abandoned at sea.

A Cabinet Council was held this day at two
o'clock at the Foreign-office. The Ministers were in de-
liberation when our Paper went to press.

EQUIVOCAL TESTIMONY.- A witness was
called upon to testify concerning the reputation of another
witness for veracity. "why," said he, "I hardly know
what to tell you. Mr. sometimes jests and jokes,
and then I don't believe him ; but when he undertakes to
tell any thing for a fact, I believe him about as much as I
do the rest of my neighbours."

In 1590 Prince MAURICE NASSAU took
Breda by the following stratagem. A boat was loaded
with turf, under which seventy men were concealed, the
Spaniards themselves assisting to bring in the boat.
MATTHEW HELT, a Lieutenant of the seventy, not being
able to suppress a cough, begged his comrades to kill him,
lest the enterprise should be frustrated by so inconvenient
a compmion. —SWAIN E.--/Ifirror.

MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE OF THE
Ray. MR. GRIFFITII.—A strong sensation has been excit-
ed in this town by the unaccountable disappearance of the
Rev. Mr. GRIFFITH, Minister of the Methodist Chapel,
in Morice-street. It appears that Mr. GRIFFITH visited
Kingsane, a village about a mile and a half on the other
side of the Tamar, on Tuesday evening last, where he
preached, and received the quarterly ticket money. He
left that place about nine o'clock, in company with a man
named SANDERS, a mason by trade, and a member of the
Society, who says he parted with him at half-past nine,
near the Old Hospital, on Maker Heights, about a quarter
of the distance to the Cremil Passage, since which no trace
of him has been discovered, and there is too much reason to
fear that he has come by an untimely end. There is no
motive whatever for supposing that it can be otherwise.
He was engaged to sup on that evening with several other
dissenting clergymen at a friend's house in this town, and
a boat was ordered to be in waiting for him at Cremill
Passage at half-past nine o'clock. His character stood
high with all that knew him, and he was a young man
of considerable promise in the Wesleyan persuasion.—
Devonport Telegraph.
EXTRAORDINARY CASE.—We find the fol-
lowing extraordinary case (a name which it well deserves)
in the Lancet of Saturday, where it is published on the
authority of Mr. HOARE, M.R.C.S., of Warminster:—
The wife of a Mr. HIGGINS, a farmer of Baltonshorough,
near Glastonbury, Somerset, having brought him three
daughters in succession, and no son, he was so disconcerted
at the repeated disappointment, that he vowed, should his
next child be a daughter, he would never speak to her.—
On the approach of his wife's fourth confinement, he
repeated this vow. To his great joy, his wife gave birth to
a son, and nothing occurred to lessen his satisfaction until
the child began to speak. To his astonishment and dis-
tress he then found that while the boy would readily ad-
dress his mother and sisters, and, indeed, any female, no-
thing could induce him to utter a word to his father or any
male person. This singularity continued during the whole
of his father's life (30 years); entreaties, threats, or pro-
mines, were of uo avail, and the unhappy man frequently
bewailed, with tears, the distressing consequences of this
rash vow. On the death of Mr. Jimmies, which hap-
pened about two months since, the young man, to the
astonishment of all who knew him, began to speak fluently
to males as well as females, although for 30 years pre-
viously he had never been beard to utter a word to any
one of the former sex. Mr. Hicones had no other son.
The young man is in good health, and is ready, as are his
mother and sisters, and many other respectable persons, to
attest the truth of this narrative.
DESTRUCTION OF A THEATRE OF ANA-
'roux' IN ABERDEEN.—On Monday last the city of Aber-
deen was thrown into a state of indescribable consternation,
arising from what we cannot but consider the very cub.
psble negligence of some persons connected with a theatre
of anatomy, which had been opened there by Mr. MAin,
a surgeon, a few weeks ago. On the morning of Monday
some boys observed a dog scratching up loose earth from a
piece of ground forming part of the premi,es, in a manner
which excited their suspicion. They gave an alarm, and
a crowd instantly assembled, when it was found that the
dog had been tearing up a part of a human body. A shout
of horror was instantly raised, and the crowd was quickly
increased to not less than 20,000 persons. The door of
the theatre was opened on demand for their admission, and
Mr. Mates apprehensive of personal attick, escaped by
leaping out of the window. Two of the students had a
still more difficult escape. Three dead bodies were found
in the theatre. The people became infuriated, and their
cries for•vengeance were indescribable. " Burn the Burk_
ing-shop !" resounded on all sides. Shavings, fir, and
tar-barrels were quickly procured, and within a few rub.
notes the whole building was in a blaze. The walls fell
down in succession ; but so determined were the people to
ensure the destruction, that they undermined the small
portions of wall that continued standing, and stock to it
till eight o'clock at night, by which time there was not
one stone left upon another. The Lord Provost and a
number of Magistrates came to the spot, and assured the
people that every investigation should take place. They
al•o took the precaution of calling out the military, and the
night passed off quietly. Every intelligent person must
admit the necessity of Anatom ica I study ; but every bene-
volent mind must fsel that the bodies should be disposed of
in a manner that should not outrage the feelings of our
common nature.—Observer.
THE SMUGGLER'S CAVE.—A RECENT
P;scovaaY•—During a cold and dreary night, about the
beginning of last November, a smuggling vessel arrived off
Whitehead, at the entrance of Carrickfergus Bay, and
landed her cargo, consisting of brandy, gin, and to-
bacco. These precious articles were conveyed into
an adjoining cavern : the trim vessel was soon clear
of the coast, without exciting the smallest alarm in
his Majesty's lieges, the water-guard, who lay snugly
moored in their watch-house, at a little distance.—
About a fortnight afterwards, some boys, gathering
' bramble on the shore, observed, amongst the un-
derwood and withered grasses, several bars of rusty
iron ; and, in attempting their removal, they disco-
vered that these bars formed a grating to a spacious
apartment under ground, lined with boards, and filled
with kegs of liquor and bales of tobacco. Their friends
were soon made acquainted with the circumstance; and
they proceeded to lay i❑ an ample stock of the treasures
of the cave; and, as plenty still remained in store, the
liquors were hawked about the country in jars and bottles
at very moderate prices. In the mean time. the neigh-
bourhood was the scene of the utmost hilarity ; the farmers
ceased to grumble about high rents, or even tithes; the
merits of the Reform Bill did not for one moment attract
their attention ; none were heard to complain at the con-
duct of their reverences the Bishops ; even the old wo-
ne,n did not murmur about the terrible price of to-
Inca); and the approach of the cholera was as little
regarded as the ten plagues of Egypt ! But, alas !
this good cheer was doomed to experience the fate of
all sublunary things. Some good fellows, in their fond-
ness for thtse excellent beverages, got rather muggy, and
boasted of their good fortune in words so unreserved, that
their exprtaiions reached the ear of the water-guard. A
strict search immediately took place—the cavern was dis-
covered and its utmost recesses explored. Kegs, jars, &C.
were arrested in the neighbouring houses ; and some per-
sons were committed to prison for having foreign spirits in
their posiession ; and to such lengths has this search been
carried, it is feared that scarcely as much brandy or gin
remains in this once happy district, as will bear out a
merry Christmas, Glasgow Free Press.

THE CHOLERA AT NEWCASTLE.

(FROM OUR OWN CORRRIPONDICNT.)
NEWCASTLE, Dsc. 14.

The official report of this day is not so favourable as that
of yesterday. It states that there are 12 new cases, 10
recoveries, and 7 deaths. A great proportion of the cases
is still at Dents and St. Peter's, three miles from New-
castle, and a still ereater proportion both of the new and
old cases of a mild description. It is so far from being
common to see aggravated cases of malignant cholera, or,
in other words, well marked malignant cholera, that when
two or three cases of that description do occur, the hearts
of some of the medical gentlemen seem to be rejoiced, and
they express great anxiety to induce the sceptical to go
with them to witness them. I say the sceptical, for how-
ever absurd it may appear to you at a distance, there are
absolutely still some few intelligent persons in this town
who doubt the fact of our having the Asiatic cholera here at
all. The moment I was myself convinced we had it, I
candidly stated that such was the conclusion I had come to.
Nothing has since occurred to induce me to change that
belief ; but I am daily more and more satisfied that the
all- air is now, and has, from the beginning, been grossly
misrepresented. It is stated that there are at this moment
31 cases of malignant cholera under treatment. I doubt
very much if there are IS. The majority are diarrhea,
ordinary bowel complaints, or fever. There has been a
great meeting of the medical gentlemen here to-day, Dr.
Headlam in the chair, in consequence of an opinion that
the disease is likely to spread into the different streets of
the town, high as well as low, and it being thought neces-
sary to have affairs better organized to meet it than they
have hitherto been. Dr. 111'Whirter brought forward
some resolutions, to the effect that the town should be di-
vided into districts, certain medical gentlemen being ap-
pointed to each, so as to give immediate assistance when
any individual may be attacked ; also that depots should
be provided with such medicine+, &c. &c. as the sick
might have occasion for. These were carried.
The cholera is now, I am told, very mild at Seghill.
We hear it is getting worse at North Shields, but by some
d'eg aceful mismanagement, we at Newcastle, though only
distant eight miles, either receive no official reports at all,
or receive them very irregularly.

COURT OF EXCHEQUER, DEC. 24.

SMALL V. ♦TTWOOD.

Sir EDWA no SUGDEN resumed his arguments in this
case to-day, at nine o'clock, and was occupied for the most
part of the day in reading and commenting upon corre-
spondence which passed between the different parties, re-
lative to the works in question, and also the answer of Mr.
Attwood to some parts of the bill. In conclusion, he reca-
pitulated the evidence which he adduced, expressing his
conviction that the Court, in considering all the circum-
stances of the case, would not rescind a contract which
had bee❑ entered into after mature deliberation, and which
was now impeached solely on account of the incompetency
of this unwieldy Company to manage the works. He con-
cluded a few minutes after four o'clock.
Lord LYNDHURST was not then prepared to name any
time for resuming the subject, and could not say whether
he should take it again before the next Term ; for be ap-
prehended he should sit in the Commission at the Old
Bailey, in consequence of Mr. Justice Gaselee being named
in the Special Commissio❑ for Bristol.