The Sun.
London, England, 1836-05-31 00:00:00

MADRID.

MAY 19.—1 n the Procuradores yesterday Senor Cantero, a
leading merchant of Madrid, put some searching questions to
the Government upon the state of its finances, drawing a la-
mentable picture of the ruin that would fall upon the holders of
stock in the funds (both Spanish and Foreign holders) by the
alarming fall of the last eight-and-forty hours. The amount
of the loss to the holders he estimated at 216,000,000 of reals
—about 2,160,0001. sterling. The reckoning he made in the
following manner : Reals.
A fall of 8 per cent. on 723 millions of vales no
e onsolidados
A like fall of 8 per cent. on 911 millions of ne-
gotiable 5 per cents.
Fall of 3 per cent. on the debt without interest,
the capital of which is 2,422 millions
Fall of 2 per cent. on the 4 and 5 per cent
stocks, amounting to 700 millions 14,000,000

72,660,000

Total loss to the creditors of the State 216,380,000
He also asked if the Government possessed means of meeting
the obligations upon it which had arrived in Madrid on the
14th, and which, if not paid, would lead to a general refusal
throughout the country to take any Government bills, the ef-
fect of which upon the army it would be impossible to calcu-
late. He also remarkcd•upon the absence of all allusion to
public credit in the circular or programme issued by Senor
Isturitz upon his acceptance of off►ce ; observing, that the
maintenance of public credit having been a principal object
with the late Government, the omission of that topic, and the
known sentiments of the new Ministry against the decree for
the sale of national property, which was destined to the liqui-
dation of the public debt, would give rise to serious apprehen-
sions throughout Spain and in foreign countries. In the ex-
isting state of the country, he said it would be impossible to go
on without a foreign loan ; but if confidence did not revive, a
loan could only be contracted upon ruinous terms, such as the
Cortes could never agree to.
Senor Isturitz answered, that the existing Ministry was not
responsible for the fall in the funds, which depended upon the
opinions of the speculators, not upon any acts of the Govern.
ment. He said he could give no answer to the questions put
to him, because the Government having been only just formed,
had not yet met in deliberation to determine what course
should be taken.

ASCOT RACES.—A paragraph is going the rounds
of the papers, to the effect that the magistrates of the district
have adopted measures to prevent low gambling. Why is the
prohibition limited to low gambling? Would it not be quite
as proper to prevent, as far as practicable, high as well as low
gambling ? Was it to the effects of low or high gambling,
that the life of the Hon. Berkeley Craven was sacrificed?
The plain truth is, that gambling in England is peculiarly an
aristocratic vice ; but like other vices, being capable of pro-
pagation, it is sometimes seen also amongst the people. Not-
withstanding all the conventional cant on the subject of gam-
bling, it is perfectly well known that play, both low and high,
is not only one of the chief amusements of " gentlemen,"
but that it receives the most flattering marks of distinction
from many of the greatest names in the Peerage. Nothing
for instance, is more common—it is seen every day—than for
Noble Lords to be found in close and familiar conversation, in
the public streets and at Tattersall's, with notorious gambling-
house-keepers. It is evident that the effect on public morals
produced by seeing this sort of intimacy between our heredi-
tary law-makers and the blacklegs and Thurtells who live by
play (which is but another name for plunder) must be most in-
jurious. The aristocracy would do well to, at least, veil
this vice a little, as they do some other pleasarit vices, in the
repeated practice of which they possess a proud pre-eminence
over the lower classes.
RUE.—Rue, as it is observed in Martyn's Miller,
was anciently named herb-grace, or the herb of grace; and it
is to this day called ave-grace in Sussex, in allusion, doubt-
less, to Ave Maria, gracice plena; and it is remarkable that
Mary, in Hebrew, means bitter. Warburton says that rue
hied its name, "herb of grace," from its having been used in
exorcisms. Ophelia, in Shakspear's Ilundet, says to the
Queen, " There's rue for you, and here's some for me ; we
may call it herb of grace o'Sundays." Herb of grace was,
indeed, the common name for rue in Shakepcare's time; and
Greene, in his Quip for an Upstart Courtier, has this pas-
sage Some of them smiled, aid said rue was called herb-
grace, which, though they scorned in their youth, they might
wear in their age, and that it was never too late to say miserere.'2
Rue and marjoram arc both evergreens, retaining their ap-
pearance and taste during the whole year, and therefore are
proper emblems of remembrance and grace. Rue seems to
have been used formerly in nosegays for the Clown in nll's
Well that Ends Well, having said of the Countess, " She
was the sweet ma' joram of the salad, or rather the herb of
grace," Lafeu replies, They are not srlad herbs, you knave,
they are nose herbs ;" upon which the Clown, in character,
remark, " I am no great Nebuchadnezzar, Sir, I have not
much skill in grass,"—thus punning upon the name of grace,
as the Gardener in Richard 11. did upon the other name of
rue. ---Arboretanz Britannicum.
SINGULAR ACCIDENT.—AII accident of a most
singular description happened a day or two since in Broad-
street, Bloomsbury, to -a respectable elderly female named
Meredith, who was passing along about two in the afternoon,
just at the moment that the Shannon (a Paddington omnibus)
was galloping by in the-direction of the city, in opposition to
another omnibus, which was proceeding in the same direction
at the same furious rate, when just as they arrived opposite
the shop of Mr. Gurney, situated No.. 44, in the aboee street,
one of the horses belonging to the Shannon threw a shoe with
such astonishing force that it actually flew up against the
second floor window of Mr. G.'s house, and broke two panes
of glass, and in its descent it struck Mrs. Meredith with such
force on the head as to fracture her skull. She was immedi-
ately lifted up and carried into the shop of Mr. Jones, surgeon,
at the corner of Holborn and Drury-lane, who afforded her
every assistance; after which, she was conveyed to her home,
Smart's-buildings, Holborn.
SABBATH BREAKING.—A most appalling acci-
dent has taken plaice in the neighbourhood of Whitchurch.
On Sunday morning, the 15th inst., T. Woodall and W.
Edge, went, with some companions, to take young rooks by
climbing trees ; Woodall proceeding with one party to Iscoyd,
in Flintshire, and Edge, with another party, to Wirswall, in
Cheshire, each place about two miles from Whitchurch. At
about the same hour of the Sabbath morning they both fell
from the trees which they had climbed : Woodall died instantly,
and Edge, in endeavouring to go from one tree to another,
met with a similar fate ; the branch broke, he fell to the
ground, and never spoke more I It is a most singular circum-
stance that 'Woodall went out to shoot small birds on Christ-
mas-day last, that the gun buret and dreadfully disfigured his
face, and otherwise injured him ; on the Ascension Sunday he
is no more, from a more appalling accident.— Chester Courant.
From the observations of Mr. Brainston, .at the
North Essex Conservative Dinner, the Members favourable to
sericulture intend to muster strongly when the question of the
Newspaper Stamp Duty comes before the House.—Chehns-
fhrd Chronicle. —[lf the Tory landlords should he foolish
enough to expose the naked factiousness of their aims by any
such proceedings as are here spoken of, they will add to the
crime of perpetuating a tax upon the bread of the people, for
their own private advantage—the folly of attempting to arrest
the progress of knowledge by fixing a prohibitory duty on the
vehicles by which it is conveyed. Both the Bread Tax and
the Newspaper Tax ought to come off. The Corn Laws in-
flict a grievous wrong on the public, whilst Newspaper duties
deny a most important right to the country at large.l
DESTITUTION.—On Tuesday night, about eight
o'clock, a man was found by Mr. Calvcrly, farmer, in a
cowhouse belonging to him, about a mile from the village of
Seriven. He was partly covered up with hay,'and was dead.
A paper was pinned to his waistcoat, containing the following,
written in an .excellent band :—" Whoever discovers my mi-
serable remains, must be so good as to take very particular
care of the violin, books, papers, &c., and give them to my
brother when he comes. You must write, informing him of
the sad occurrence—his address is Mr. Joseph Dawson,
Ovington, near Newcastle, Northumberland.' lam William
Welton Dawson. May 12th, 1836." Among the papers were
two letters, written by the deceased, to his sisters at Burdon,
near Sunderland, informing them of his intention to destroy
himself. The letters breathe the most fervent religious sen-
timents. The reason assigned by him for destroying himself
is, that he was " a little in debt," and unable to bear life se-
parated from his sisters. Amongst the papers are some ma-
thematical calculations roughly penned, evidently in his hand-
writing, and some pieces of poetry, in a melancholy strain, and
written in pencil. From these it would appear that a disap-
pointment in an affair of the heart had no small share in un-
Ltn
oal Laudanum." ueondnpna
insnuou some
scut* his mind. The handkerchief also contained a razor,
and a bottle
fer fooTmr
elha,tel ehrheenluletewt ;hen
acs'dt;
pennyerien Hagdehael foundinfaoddr
before
thattHh ee
daydied
eady b.
to death.—Halifax Express.
The proceedings of the Bath Friendly
fur-
nish decisive evidence that there is a machinery now in ex-
tensive operation which will rapidly restore to that most valu-
able of all the classes of which the community is made up, that
honest and laudable pride, and that noble British feeling of
independence which the late abominable system of the old
Poor Law had nearly obliterated and extinguished. The be-
nevolence of Henry the Fourth, of France, yearned for the
happiness of his people, but so slender was his intellectual
light that he was satisfied with " wishing that there was a
fowl in the pot of every peasant in the kingdom." Now had
the good Monarch directed his utmost royal power to achieve
this physical object, he would have assuredly failed. The poor
man must be capacitated to provide his own fowl, if he is to
enjoy it often. The kind-hearted King would have given the
fowl, if he could, and often repeated the dole, and thereby de-
graded the character of the whole people. Such providing
for the poor, without money, what money would purchase, is
just the characteristic of the hateful old Poor Law. Such
undertaking to do everything for them—to clothe them—to
feed them—and to educate their children—is the bane of all
wholesome exertion.—Bath Herald.
At six o'clock on Saturday the annual pageant of
mail coaches took place, followed by the mail carts and postmen's
accelerators. The coachmen, guards, drivers, and postmen
and postboys, were attired in their new scarlet and gold
dresses ; new horses pranced in new harness, and what with
the outriders, the animating notes of the bugles, and the ap-
plause of the numerous spectators, a very lively scene was pre-
sented. In passing St. James s Palace, their Majesties and
suite beheld the interesting spectacle from the portico window
of the Queen's House, and appeared to be much gratified by
the sight. The populace here gave expression to their feelings
in loud cheers. There was also a long procession of new om-
nibuses belonging to the " London Conveyance Company."
They were handsome carriages, painted dark green, with gold
letters, drawn by capital cattle, and the drivers and conductors
attired in green liveries edged with scarlet.