The Sun.
London, England, 1838-01-08 00:00:00

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.

On Saturday the sitting Magistrates were called upcn to
settle a charge of assault made by Jonathan Griggs, shopman
to W. Sprigs, agai:st one Solomon Biggs. The plaintiff is
a rising genius, and the eeendant, full 60, very deaf, half
blind, and had a wooden leg.
It appeared that while the complainant was engaged in
serving a customer with a pennyworth of patent starch, the
old gentlerm n popped into the shop and demanded two bundles
of vood, to which lie sail 11.: was entitled. On being re-
ferred to the .account betwixt Spriggs and Higgs, he became
vi,,lent, and lowering his umbrella fenced the complainant
into a corner, finally capsizing him into the tieacle-tub by a
blow on his head,

The defendant began his defence by admitting there was a
sort of running account between the Higgses and Spriggses.
The day on w hich the alleged assault took place he sent for a
shillingsworth of wood, which came in due course. Had I
sent for a penny bundle, said Mr. Higgs, rising in wrath, I
should have expected but one, but sending as I did for a shil-
lingsworth, I was justly entitled to fourteen bundles to the
dozen. I counted the number myself—my wife and family are
witnesses to the fact ; and I solemnly assure your Worship
there were but twelve bundles. Now there is not a trades-
man in Landon, nay, in Great Britain, who would not have
sent 14 for the shilling. I instantly took my hat and um-
brella with the determination of obtaining the other two
bundles, or of entering my firm resistance against the fraud.
I went into the shop and asked for the two bundles, and
giving way to the indignation I felt—for you must own I had
ample cause, I might have dropped something about not being
mate " the victim of unparalleled plunder" and " wholesale
robbery." Instead of handing me over the two bundles, he
came round the counter to show fight. Every man has a right
to protect his own person—every man has a right to use his
umbrella when attacked. I did only that which every mars
has a right to do ; I did no more than every Englishman
would have done.

A boy was called to prove the assault.
The complainant asked him if it warn't a regular whop he
received from Higgs.
It warn't exacly a regular whop, raid the boy, nor was it a
rum'un, but it was what I should call a tidy crack.
The " tidy crack" testimony turned the scales in favour of
the complainant, and Mr. Higgs was fined ss. and costs.
amounting to 9s.

MENtouts OF JOSEPH HOLT, General of the
Irish Rebels in 1798, edited from his original M S., by T. C.
Croker, Esq., 2 vols. (Colburn.) This is a remarkable
piece of autobiography, teeming with romantic and painful in-
cident, though not altogether unmixed with consolatory ,re-
flections. To the fatalist, perhaps, these pages may seem
to offer a strong illustration in support of his favourite doc-
trine—a doctrine to which the hero of these adventures himself
appears to have been somewhat inclined. Without pretending
to discuss the question, however, we must certainly admit that
if Holt's account of himself be correct, which substantially we
have no doubt it is, he was an extraordinary instance of a most
loyal, industrious, and inoffensive man, made a rebel of against
his will by the force of cruel fortune.—Morning chronicle.
PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE OF SARAH,
DUCHESS OF MARLBOROUGH, &c., 2 VOLS., (CoLnuass.)--
This is one of those books which are sure to please—showing
us a Sovereign and her courtiers in their undress. In these
volumes we have letters from Queen Anne, who had a great
memory and a great appetite ; from the Duke of Msrlborough,
who seems to have loved his wife (rare virtue !) better than
glory or money ; from the Earl of Peterborough, who flattered
quite as well as he fought ; from, Lord Sunderland, who was a
Court politician; from Dr. Hare, who seems to have rather
had rather more political philosophy than most of his curse-
. spondents, including the renowned Sal herself, to whom he
tells some not very flattering truths ; from Mr. Maynwaring,
who had in his time a great reputation as a talker, and who
wrote very pretty letters ; and from various other gallant, say,
and great persons of the reign of the good Queen Anne.
JAIL BROKEN.—Thursday morning a prisoner,
sentenced to nine months' imprisonment at hard labour, was
let out into the court as usual to his work at knapping stones,
and by breakfast time, he was nowhere to be seen. Thous h
his escape was considered mysterious, it seemed most pro-
bable that he had got over the wall, which is twenty-five feet
high. By what means he effected his purpose is unknown to
all except a fellow-prisoner who was in the court at the time,
but who is unwilling to give any information on the subject.
A meeting of the Jail Commissioners has been held since,
when Mr. Hill, the Government Inspector of Jails, suggested
that there might he made a few lasge iron cages, wherein to
accommodate such stone knappers as cannot be detained by
ordinary means.—Scots Times.

" friend B--," said a waggish Quaker to an ex-
Magistrate t'other day, " why is it that the renegades of the
Council are likened unto stink-puts ?" The Bailie only an-
swered with an umph and a smile. " I perceive thou art puz-
zled, friend," rejoined Broadbrim; "then I will tell thee ; it
is because every honest citizen turns up his nose at them."
" And by the same token," said B , laughing, " every
honest citizen smells a rat." " Yea, verily," said Broadbrim,
"it is eYen 30. And rats and stinkpots now are all the go."

PR I Z E CU P S.—New and Second-hand SILVER
PRIZE CUPS are offered at very Reduced Prices, and swlectiou
may be made from a great variety, both of Sizes and Patterns, at.
'l'. COX SAVORY'S, Goldsmith, and Watchmaker, 47, Cornhill
London. A Sheet of Drawings of Cups will be forwarded 11
post, as a single letter, in answer to a post-paid application.