The Sun.
London, England, 1836-08-30 00:00:00

POLITE CORRESPONDENCE.

" DEAR
" We never stirred film:: the open space where tl,e intYrAeys
are, yet we did not see you I " Yours, &c.
" DEAR
" You do say the most charming things in the world—you
never stirred from the monkeys, and yet did not see me. I
was looking into the dove.cages, therefore did not see you.
" Ever yours, &c."

At Antwerp, a few days since, a man having en-
tered a room where some poison mixed with syrup had been
placed to attract and destroy flies, smelt of it, and finding it
sweet drank it off. A few minutes after he was seized with
violent pains, and expired in extreme agony.
Mr. WALLACE.—The Hon. and patriotic Mem-
ber for Greenock has intimated to the constituency, through
the medium of the Advertiser, his intention to render in pub..
lic, as he has hitherto annually done, an account of his Par-
liamentary stewardship during the last session, and again to
resign into their hands and place at their disposal the repre-
sentative trust.—Greenock Paper.
A frightful accident occurred at the Mother-bank
on Monday last :—A small boat, containing two young men
and a waterman, was proceeding to the ship Fairlie, bound to
Van Diemen's Land, when, within a very short distance of the
vessel, a sudden squall upset the boat, and the three persons
in her were thrown into the water; the situation of the parties
being witnessed on board the Fairlie, every effort was instantly
made to save the unfortunate persons, two of whom were seen
supporting themselves by swimming, and the waterman was
upheld by clinging to his boat, bottom upwards. An embar-
kation ladder had been previously erected alongside the
Fairlie, upon which about fifteen persons, several of them
fathers of families on board the ship, rushed to afford aid to
the persons in the water, by throwing ropes, when, to the horror
of all on board, the stage gave way, and in an instant every
soul upon it was precipitated into the sea. The dreadful
shrieks of wives and children on board the ship rent the air;
several yachts and boats in the neighbourhood did all they
could to reach the spot, but being to leeward could not ; ropes
were thrown overboard, the quarter boats lowered, and one
fine fellow, the third mate of the Fairlie, jumped from the
poop, at least 20 feet high, into the sea, to afford aid. Most
providentially, although the wind was blowing fresh, with a
short sea, every individual was rescued, after being nearly 15
minutes overboard, from a watery grave. The last person ex-
tricated from his perilous situation was Mr. Marshall, agent of
the Emigration Committee, who had that morning arrived
from London, to superintend the embarkation of Sir John
Franklin and the passengers proceeding by the Fairlie, and
was reached by the ship's boat and saved just at the moment he
was sinking from exhaustion.—Hampshire Telegraph.
As Abraham and George Taylor, and George Pul-
lin, who had been engaged as musicians at the Benham boat
races, were returning to Bristol between 7 and S o'clock in
the evening in a boat with eight other persons, it came in con-
tact with a canal barge, and instantly upset, precipitating the
whole party into the water. All the persons but the three
above named were rescued from their dangerous situation.
The river was innaediately dragged, and the eaxe.;3ed
were found lying together in the middle of the stream. At the
Coroner's inquest a verdict of " Accidental death," with a
deodand of Is. on each boat, was returned.

IGNORANCE AND SUPERSTITION.--We have
had occasionally to record instances of the remains of old su-
perstitions which still linger in some country districts, and par-
ticularly in the highlands, but would have been slow to credit
the possibility of their existence to the extent below stated,
had the facts not been placed beyond doubt in the course of
the judicial investigation to which they gave rise. It appears
that in a parish to the northward of Dunkeld a suspicion had
gone abroad lately, that in a particular family, doings of a
secret and mysterious character had been going on, the nature
of which, however, puzzled the neighbours to divine Some
averred that a human skull bad been seen in the house, or in
the hands of some of its inmates ; and, in the course of the
progress of the story, others supplied the remaining parts of
the body, and it was finally conjectured that body-lifting had
been practised in the first instance, although for what ulterior
purpose could not be discovered. Unpleasant and aggravated
reports spread through the district, until the information as-
sumed a shape which required the personal investigation of the
proper authorities, when the following circumstances were
elicited :—lt appears that two junior members of the family
referred to had been subject to epileptic fits, and the mother,
impressed with belief in the virtues of a horrid and barbarous
superstition—viz., that food prepared in a human skull was
an unfailing remedy for that disease—had, in the absence of
her husband, procured one for the purpose of proving its effi-
cacy. This, it would appear, she had effected through the
medium of a medical student, and as it was a principal part of
the charm that the mess should be boiled upon fire raised
upon the march between two large properties, a fitting oppor-
tunity having offered, a mess of oatmeal porridge was boiled
at the proper hour and at the proper place, a human skull
forming the pot I Although the operation was performed with
all due secrecy—for the charm was imperfect if the patient
was made aware of the circumstances—still some whispers
of the fact got abroad, from which the rumours above referred
to originated. Both patients, it would appear, had partaken
of the mess, unconscious of the mode of its preparation, al-
though with reluctance by one of them, who expressed dislike
of their darkish appearance ; the popular rumour in the neigh-
bourhood leans, however, to the belief that both have benefited
by the charm. It is needless to add, that the result of the in-
vestigation proved that the case was one which called for the '
strongest pity and commiseration rather than the interposition
of the law.-...Glasgow Evening Post. 1