The Sun.
London, England, 1831-04-08 00:00:00

THE TAILOR AND THE MIDDIES.

Some people imagine that their sons, if unlit.
for other professions, will do well enough for tly.
sea. As a warning to them not to assign such
a reason before the young gentlemen in the cock-
pit, we shall quote the following anecdote :-
44 This reminds me of a tailor at Halifax, who,
on being sadly provoked by some of the scampish
band amongst us, for nor paying his abominably
long bills, said, in a rage, in the cockpit before
us all, that, after having tried his son in half a
dozen professions, without any chance of success,
he was now resolved, as a last resource, to make
a midshipman of him ! This sarcasm was me
tered during the short peace of Amiens, when
we first visited Halifax ; a period when the mids

had so little real business to attend to, that they
seized eagerly upon any opening for a joke. As
soon, therefore, as the tailor had quitted the
ship, it was resolved to punish him for his un-
courteous speech. It had not escaped the notice
of his tormentors; that this vulgar fraction of his
species prided himself, in a most especial degree,
on the dignity of a very enormous tail or queue,
which reached half way down his back; and it
was resolved, in secret council, that this append-
age should forthwith be docked. Nothing, I
must fairly own, could be more treacherous than
the means devised to lower the honour and glory
of the poor tailor. He was formally invited to
dinner with us; and, being well plied with grog,
mixed according to the formidable rule for
making what is called a Northwester, which pre-
scribes that one half of each glass shall consist
of rum, and the other half of rum and watee, our
poor guest was soon brought under the table-.
Being then quite incapable of moving, he was
lifted in noisy triumph out of the berth, and
placed in the tier, across the bends of the small
bower cable, where, after many a grunt and
groan at the rugged nature of his couch, he at
length fell asleep. His beautiful tail, the pride
of his life ! was presently glued, by means of a
lump of pitch, to the strands of the cable ; and
such was the tenacity of the substance, that in
the morning, when, on the daylight gun being
fired immediately over his head, poor snip awoke,
he could no more detach himself from the spot
on which he lay than Lemuel Gulliver in like
circumstances. His noddle was still so confused,
that he knew not where he lay, nor what held
him down. After tugging at his hair for a minute
or two, he roared out lustily for help. One of
the .raids, seized with the brilliant idea of making
the tailor the finisher of his own fate, hurried to
his assistance, and, handing him a knife, roared
out, " by all means to make haste, as the devil
had got hold of him by the tail !" The poen.
tradesman, terrified out of his wits, and in great
horror at his mysterious situation, instantly did
as he was desired, and cut away lustily, little
dreaming that his own rash hand was shearing
the highest and most cherished honours of his
house ! On turning round he beheld with dis-
may the ravished locks which, for half a century.
and more, had been the joint delight of himself
and his tender partner Rebecca. As the thoogilt
of returning tail-less to his home crossed his
half-
bewildered brain, he exclaimed, in an agoq ()
01), Lord •
spirit, to his malicious tormentors,
revenge
nLuoer do
f!.
the
eammaalilcoisotus man
middiesto
now cour-
t,
by-word in the
man to one's Becky" became a
denote the
afterwards, to
ship for trany years
I ot into a scrape,
ally 011 E, 10 g
_Basil
predicanlent. of _ ,cerp
am
qinikeaine out -oFlt A, IRE
Hall's li-ragworts.
plete; and this expression of being a lost
rny,,B.aescky !" Tb.o

Y'ORUMN INTELLIGENCE.

FRENCH PAPERS.
aolra." ,e Journal du Commerce, and the Monitcur of

Tuesday, April 3.)
MADRID, MARCH 26.—The direction which the
-.public mind in Spain has taken for some time past,
-does not leave a doubt that a violent commotion
Avill shortly throw this country into confusion, if
those who govern us continue to refuse to the nation
the amelioration which it desires in the political
system by which we are governed. The anger of
the people is at its h&ght, partic:rlarly since the
Government rminifests itsdistrrist by the most odious
mersures, and they do not fear to express it openly.
In these critical circumstances, prudent men,
equally friends to the monarchy and the people, re-
double their efforts with the -King to prevent his
falling into the pit which the apostolic party has dug
beneath his feet.
The following is the manner in which these esti-
mable persons endeavour to persuade the King to
compose his Ministry :
General Castanos to be Minister for Foreign
Affairs, and President of the Council.
The Marquis de Lasmarilla, Minister of War.
M. d'Arjona, Justice.
M. Rallastero, Finance.
Zaluza, the Marine.
_ . _ _

This change, shOuld it he realized, will surpass
mur hopes. The sentiments and political life of
General Castanos will gain him the confidence of
the majority of the Spaniards. As Captain-General
of the royal armies, he vanquished the foreign in-
vaders at Baylen in 1808; he %vas afterwards ap-
pointed Regent of the kingdom at Cadiz; after the
restoration the King conferred on him the post of
Captain General of Catalonia; from 1820 to 1823
he was a constitutional Counseller of State, and has
not ceased to be a counsellor of his Majesty since the
restoration, and has always manifested in the Council
moderate sentiments, opposing the acts of violence
and persecution to which his countrymen have been
frequently expose.l.
One of the first acts of this new Ministry would
be the convocation of the Cortes par Estamenlos,
according to the ancient fundamental laws of the
kingdom. Spain would afterwards receive instill!.
tions more analagous to its wants and the ideas of
the age.---Mcnrorirre Bordelais.
PARIS, APRIL 4.—The Coitstitraiorme/ of the
t-.Bth of March contains the details of a combat said
to have taken place on the 23d at the bridge of
Kehl, between a detachment of troops of France
and one of troops of Baden, in consequence of an
attempt made by two deserters of the latter to go
over to France. According to this journal, we had
two men killed in this pretended action, and a large
force was displayed on the banks of the Rhine.
We are authorized to announce, that all the state-
ments announced in this account are wholly ficti-
tious, and that no event of any kind whatever on the
frontiers of France and the Grand Duchy of Baden
had interrupted the good understanding which.has
not ceased to prevail between the two states.
The Chamber of Peers will have a public sitting
to-morrow, at two o'clock.

(From the Constitutionnel.)

The PolM Mercury publishes the following let-
ter, sent from Warsaw, dated October 27, 1830,
from the Grand Duke Constantine to the Count
Alopeus, the Russian Minister at Berlin :
" I learn with the greatest pleasure that all the
necessary measures have been taken in the States of
his Prussian Majesty to defeat all the projects of
disturbers. Your communications relative to the
Grand Duchy of Posen appear to me to be the re-
sult of an imagination sometimes operated upon by
fear, sometimes by personal motives. I think we
ought not to fall from one extreme to another ; and
hitherto I have seen no well-grounded cause for
alarm. It is true that for a long time past many
individuals, imbued with ideas of an unquiet and
exaggerated patriotism, desire to distinguish them-
selves among their compatricts; but they are known
to me, and I have, as you must remember, already
made theirs known to you. Still this is far from re-
sembling the Sicilian Vespers. An active surveil-
lance on the part of the Government will be suffi-
cient to repress the disorders of these disturbers.
As to what has been told you with regard to the
Poles residing at Paris, I have had for eight yews.,
past information as to their conduct, and lam in a
condition to watch all their movements. We are
entirely tranquil here, and nothing induces me to
think that we ought to fear any disastrous event.
The system of active surveillance which I have esta-
blished here enables me to be aware of every thing.
" CONSTANTINE."

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