The Sun.
London, England, 1822-10-01 00:00:00

JOHN BULL.

READING SUBSCRIPTION BILLIARD AND
READING ROOMS, SEPT. 21, 1822.

A General Meeting of the Members of this Society, convened
by public advertisement, was this day held, for the purpose of
having laid before them a letter received by the President from
MT. Nicholas Bull. The Hon. DAVID ANSTRUTHER, Pre-
sident, in the Chair.
The President's letter to Captain N. Bull, and his letter to
the President in reply, being read, it was resolved unanimously,
1. That the letter of Mr. Nicholas Bull is evasive, and alto-
gether unsatisfactory, and completely at variance with the state-
ments in the John 'Bull of 'the 15th and 22d of September,
Which, if we believe to be true; cannot but impress on our
minds a moral conviction that Mr. Nicholas Bull ,vas con-
cerned in the original statement of the Editors of the John Bull.
2d. That these rooms are strictly speaking private rooms,
seeing that no person can be:admitted therein but on ballot or
by special introduction ; this Meeting, therefore, cannot but
consider that any individual admitted by courtesy, becoming
primarily or otherwise instrumental to the publishing of the
paragraphs in question, even supposing the matter therein con-
tained to have been as true as it has been proved to be false and
unfounded; has been guilty of insidious and ungentlemanly
conduct.
3d. That Mr. Nicholas Bull having been admitted by cour.:
tesy as a visitor to the club, has, taking, the evidence of his own
letter to the President and the Jahn Bull together, abused such
privilege, by communicating some particulars or circumstances
of a degrading character pretended to have taken place in his
presence in these rooms, and by being instrumental to or other-
wise concerned in the publication of such particulars in the
John Bull newspaper. It is therefore resolved; that unless Mr.
Nicholas Bull do exculpate himself from this charge, he be not
again admitted to these rooms ; and any member introducing
him be apelled this society.
4th.' That these resolutions be signed by the Chairman, and
inserted in the Beading Mercury, and such other papers as
the President may think proper, at the- expense of the club.
D. ANSTRUTHER, President and Chairman.
The unanimous thanks of the meeting to the Chair Man were
proposed by Mr. Henry Marsh and Dr. Mitford; for his im-
partial and honourable conduct in the chair.

KABRIS,
Son-in-law of the King of Noukahiwa.

The famous KABars, son-in-law of the King
of the Savages of the island of Noukahiwa,
lately died suddenly at Valenciennes, where he
went, as to many other towns, to show himself
for a small sum. The Biographie des Hommes
vivans contains the following notice of this sin-
gular character :
"JOSEPH KABRIS, born at Bordeaux, was taken prisoner
on board a French ship, in which he was serving as a sailor,
and conducted to England, where he obtained permiSsion to
enter on board a whaler, destined 'for the South Sea. He
escaped from the wreck of this vessel, which was lost on the coast
of Noukahiwa (St:Catherine) in the Great Ocean, and fell into
the hands of the Anthropophagi, who were preparing to make
him suffer the fate of Marion, and perhaps of La Perouse ;
the club was actually lifted that was to fell him to the earth,
when Valmaiska, the young daughter of the King, demanded
and• obtained mercy for him, and shortly afterwards married
him, to the great disaiipointrnent of the gastronomes of the
country, in whom the good condition of Kabris had excited a
hope of enjoying the most exquisite cheer.
" The morning after his-marriage feast, in which Kabris had
appeared with a mantle made of the bark of a tree like that
worn by the King, the Monarch tatooed him himself as the
Nobles of the land are tatooed ; lie traced On the left side of
his face the sign which distinguishes the Royal Family of
Noukahiwa. Tie was then invested with the functions of
Grand Judge, and acquitted himself with much prudence and
ability,, which was promoted by the simplicity of the lan.,
guage and laws of this people, who do not yet embarrass the
march of justice with numerous forms. There, the thief is tied
for several days to a tree ; the assassin is killed by the family of
the deceased, and his body divided between the different tribes;
the traitor is flayed alive, and thrown into the sea, as he is
thought not worthy even of being eaten. Kabris had been for
nine years the father of a family, and enjoyed, in his eminent
character of Judge, domestic happiness and the favours of for-
time, when he was carried away, as he says, in his sleep by the
Russian Capt. Krusenstern.
44 When lie arrived at Petersburgh,
.he was appointed Pro-
feisor of Swimming in* the Imperial School for the Navy, and
he returned to France in 1817, on board the vessel which went
to Russia to bring back the remainder of the French troops.
It seems that Captain Krusenstern had no other motive for car-
rying away Kabris but to shew this prodigy to his Sovereign.
When lie awoke far from Valmaiska and his children, he made
many useless complaints, but forced to resign himself to his
fate, to make it more agreeable, he solicited permission to re-
turn to France. Soon after his arrival at Paris he was presented
to the King, who gave him proofs of his good will, and some
time afterwards he received a similar reception from the King
of Prussia, who was then in that capital.
" Before returring tá his native town, Kabris shewed him-
self to the public to levy on it the funds necessary for his jour-
ney to Bordeaux, from whence he proposed to return to the
South Sea, desiring again to propound the oracles of justice to
the savages of Noukahiwa, whose manners he pretends to have
improved. Kabris was possessed of good sense and some in-
formation, and in his answers displayed a degree of frankness
which does not permit us to apply to stories, at least not too
rigorously, the epithet of tiresome, which originates in that
country where he was born. People who are fond of observing
curious relations have remarked that this man, whose greatness
had departed like a dream, chose the Cabinet des Illusions for
the place of his exhibition at Paris, and the Solon of Nouka-
hiwa supplied the phee of the dog Muni:to, at a theatre for
puppet-shews."