The Sun.
London, England, 1825-10-13 00:00:00

ANECDOTES, &c.

STURDINESS OF OLD ENGLISH PARLIAMENTS.—
MATTHEW PARIS tells us, that when Henry 111.
asked money to defray the expences of a foreign
expedition, " which his people thought did not
at all concern England," that his Parliament
told him " it was very imprudent in him to aNk
for money for any such Vurposes, and thereby
impoverishing his subjects at home, by his squan-
dering it in idle expeditions, and that they flatly
refused to his teeth supplying him on any such
account." Upon remonstrating, " that he had
engaged his Royal word to go abroad in person
that year," and that he must have a supply, they
asked him what had become of all the money he
had already spent, and how it came to be lavish-
ed, " without this country being one shilling the
better."

IRISH ABSENTEES.—It is not generally known
that the grievance of Irish absentees was early felt in the sister
kingdom, and various penalties attached to it, by several sta-
tutes. Sir JOHN Davis, Attorney-General in Ireland to James
1., has observed, in his historical relations, that the absence of
the great lords (who had large estates in Ireland, and yet re-
sided in England) was the principal cause of the slow progress
made in the reduction of Ireland, and of the frequent rebellions
of the people, who were thereby encouraged to make encroach-
ments upon the English settlers, and dispossess them of their
lands ; and that the Kings of England were thereby obliged to
send over armies from time to time, to reduce and re-conquer
the provinces that were so lost. For which reason an ordinance
was made in the third year of Richard 11. against such as were
absent from their lands in Ireland, which gave two-third parts
of the profits thereof to the King, until they returned, or placed
a sufficient number of men to defend the same; which ordi-
nance was for many years put in execution, as appears by
sundry seizures made therefrom, in the time of Richard 11, and
Henries IV., V., and VI., in the Remembrancer's Office.—
Amongst the rest, the Duke of Norfolk was impleaded on this
ordinance, for two parts of the profits of his lands in the county
of Wexford, in the time of Henry VI., and afterwards, on the
same reason of State, all the Irish lands of the house of Nor-
folk, the Earl of Shrewsbury, Lord Berkeley, and others, were
entirely resumed and vested in the Crown, by the Act of Ab-
sentees, made t 1 28th of Henry VIII. IVithin the last cen-
tury there were some acts of a similar nature passed by the Irish
Parliament. By one in 1715, all salaries, fees, or pensions, in
the hands of ab.,entees, were taxed at the rate of 20 per cent.;
but the King received a dispensing power which nullified their
operation ; and in the year 1753 these penalties were abolished.

Sir CHRISTOPHER MUSGRAVE, in the time of
King WILLIAM, was a very high Tory, but had in some in-
stances been serviceable to that monarch, and been very liberally
paid for it. Once the unsuspected old Tory patriot, coming
out at a private entrance after being closetted with the King,
from whom he had received a large bag Of guineas, the bag
burst and discovered at once his business and sly reward. It is
to this circumstance that Pope alludes in his epistle to Lord
Bathurst, on the use of riches
Once, we confess, beneath the patriot's cloak
" From the crack'd bag the dropping guineas spoke ;
• " And, jingling down the back stairs, told the crew,
" Old Cato is as great a rogue as you."

ARTHUR MOORE, Esq., one of the Commis-
sioners of Trade and Plantations, in the time of Queen ANNE,
who was afterwards proscribed for malversation, anti excepted
out of the Act of Grace in 1717, was married to a. lady who
happened to be a violent politician, but always in opposition to
her husband. This lady happening once to he in company with
Lord Bolingbroke, his Lordship, alluding to the humour then
prevailing of impeaching seine members of the preceding ad-
ministration, of whom he was one, said, " Madam, I hope
that you will favour use with your company to Tower-hill, on
the day that I am to he beheaded." To which she immediately
replied, " I assure you, my Lord, I should be very glad to
wait upon you on such an occasion, but lam afraid that I shall
be obliged on that day to attend my man to Tyburn."
RED BEARDS.—M. le Comte de Soissoms had a
red beard. Being at his country seat, whither Henry IV. had
come to enjoy the chase, he, in the presence cf the King, asked
his gardener why he had no bead ? The gardener replied
that the Almighty having the distribution of beards, he had
come into the world when there were none but red ones left,
and that he rrefe Ted having none to one of that colour.
MISS ANNE PlTT.—When Miss ANNE PITT,'
sister to Mr. PITT (afterwards Earl of Chatham)got a pension
from L rd Butt, her brother sent her a very angry letter upon
the or asion, and a nongst other things said, " he had hoped
that t! e ne.ne of Pitt and pension would never have appeared
togetli, r." When Pitt himself got a pension of 3,0001. a year
afterwards from the same Lord Bute, his sister, in congratu-
lating him upon this accession to his pecuniary fortune, sent
him a true copy of his former letter.
A Way FACE.—A Citizen was saying in com-
pany that he had never seen an ear of rye in his life. A young
Lady, then present, whose name was Miss Rye, said (at the
same time shelving him one of her ears), " Here, Sir, is an ear
of which, if you please, you may behold." The Gentle-
man immediately caught hold of her ear, and gave her a pinch.
••Now, Madam, (said he), you have a Rye (wry) face too."
TIIE EARL OF LEICESTER.--In a letter from
the Earl of LEICESTER to his son, the celebrated Algernon
Sydney, is the following passage :—" It is said that a Mi-
nister, who bath married a Lady Laurence, here at Chelsea,
hut now dwelling at Copenhagen, being there in company with
you, said, " I think you are none of the late King's Judges,
(meaning Charles I.), nor guilty of his death." " Guilty,"
said you, •'doyou call that guilty ? Why, it was the justest
and bravest ection that ever was done in England, or any where
else," with words to the same effect.

NATURAL Lire OF TR RES.-There are various
opinions respecting the full age or natural life of frees. The
few following instances will show the length of time which
trees have been known to exist :—Mr. Galyne and others
imagine that front 300 to 400 years form the natural life of
the oak tree. An oak was felled in April, 1791, in the park
of Sir John Rtishout, Baronet, at Northwick, near Blackly, in
Worcestershire, judged to be about 300 years old. It was per-
fectly sound, contained 634 cubical feet of timber in the trunk,
and the arms were estimated at two hundred feet more. In
Mr. Gilpin's work on forest scenery there is an account of
oak trees in the new forest, which had marks of exi►tence
before the time •of the Conquest. The tree in the same forest
against which the arrow of Sir Walter Tyrrel glanced, and
killed King William Rufus, remains still a tree, though
much mutilated. In Mr. Robert Low's View of the Agri.
culture of Nottinghamshire several trees are said to have
been lately felled in Sherwood Forest, which were found
to have cut in them I. R. or In. R. (Rex.) and some had a
crown over the letters. Mr. WWilliam, in his Essay on the
Dry Rot, goes still farther; he says, that many trees might be
mentioned, in this and other countries, which bear sufficient
testimony of their being far above 1000 years old ; and he gives
reasons for believing, that several trees now exist above 3000
years old !

MEXICAN MANNTEas.—The ladies of Mexico
ride on the same horse with the gentlemen, but reverse our fa-
shion.—ln Mexico the lady rides before, sitting on the contrary
side to that used in
.England, and supported by the arm of
her companion, frequently a man servant.
SNEEZING.—!'he custom of saying 64 God bless
you," when a person sneezes, is generally said to be de-
rived from a disease which prevailed in England about
400 years ago, in which those who sneezed commonly
died. But this cannot be the true account of it, for we
are assured it was a custom in the days of Nero, and was
found by our earliest navigators in distant parts of Africa and
the East;—therefore the ground of this ancient custom was
probably, that the ancients held sneezing to be a good
or bad sign, and consequently used to congratulate the
one, and deprecate the other, by this salutation. If we
may give any credit to Plutarch, Aristotle, and other fine old
Grecians, sneezing was at certain times co:tsidered as a lucky
omen. St. Austin writes' that the Ancients were wont to go to
bed again, if they sneezed while they put on their shoes.
LORD BURLEIGII'S HAT.—At the sale of the
property of the late Mr. Fryer, of Stamford, a very curious hat
was sold for a trifling sum, and it proves to be the hat formerly
worn by Lord Treasurer Burleigh. Its manufacture is of the
finest texture ima,inable, the crown low and pointed, and sur-
roury!ed with black glass bugles and beads, sewn on black
velvet. It becomes the property of an Officer belonging to the
Royal South Lincoln Militia.

About half-past five o'clock on Friday night the Duke
of Norfolk coach, from Sheffield to Manchester, was over-
turned on this side of the canal bridge, at the half way be-
tween Ashton and Manchester, owing, as we are informed, to
the breaking of one of the axletrees. There were several
passengers, both inside and out ; and three of the latter, namely,
two men and one woman, received very severe fractures and
other injuries; but we believe none of them are likely to be
attended with fatal consequences.—(Mcmcicater Advertiser.)

P E It Y.
TO THE RISING SUN.

SWEET Orb ! how fair dost thou appear
Emerging from thy wat'ry bed !
'The shades that veil'd our hemisphere
Before thy presence all arc fled !
To thee we owe the cheerful day,
And all the vegetable world ;
Creation soon but for thy ray,
To ancient chaos would be hurl'd !
Thou speaks't the wonder-working hand,
The power and wisdom of our God,
And, like Himself, thro' ev'ry land
Dost shed thine influence abroad !
I love, in thy refulgence bright,
To contemplate His works below :
And rise, thro' these, to worlds of light,
Where more resplendent planets glow !
But, ah ! fair orb ! how faint thy gleam !
How mean the blessings thou canst give,
Compar'd with Ills more glorious beam,
Beneath whose ray believers live !
'Tis Christ the Sun of Righteousness,
W 17,1 drives the shadows from the breast !
Gives to the troubled conscience peace,
And makes the soul supremely blest !
Did thousand suns around me shine.
All would be gloom without His light !
And darkest caves, if He were mine,
Would seem divinely fair and bright !
Dear Saviour, o'er my bosom still
Thy sacred, healing beams display!
And guide me to Thy holy hill,
Where reigns an endless, blissful clay !

SPORTING INTELLIGECL

BURTON HUNT RACES.—TUESDAY, SErT. 11.
The Hunters' Stakes of 501., and 25 in specie for the 2d hor.:3.
Major Habert's Dilemma . - - 1 4 0 1
Mr. Harrison's Jubilee - - . 2 1 0 2
Mr. R. Udney's Julia - - 3 2 dr
Mr. Colburne's Mistake - - 4 3 dr
A fine race, each heat having been nicely won ; 10 started.
Sweepstakes of 5 soy. each.
Mr. Houlton's Sir Godfrey - - - - 1
Capt. Smyth's Leopard - . - - 2
Mr. Gosling's Joke . - - . 3
Eleven started ; Sir Godfrey the favourite.
The Hack Stakes was won by Mr. Colburne's Harlequin,
beating lour others.
PERTH RACES, OCT. 6.
Sweepstakes of 30 soy. each, for three year olds.
Sir D. Moncrieff's gr. c. Benvorlich - walked over.
A Plate of 50 soy. given by the City, for all ages. Heats,
three miles.

ford Kennedy's North Briton, 4 vrs . . 1 1
Sir D. Illoncriefic's gr. c. Benvorlich, 3 yrs - - 2dr
A Plate of 50 sov. for all ages. Heats, two miles.
Mr. Quarton's b. c. by Ardrossan, 3 yrs - - 1 1
Mr. Farquharson's North Star, 5 yrs - - 3 2
Mr. Fraser's Richmond, 4 yrs - - - 2dr
Mr. Grant's c. John Grant - . - - fell