The Sun.
London, England, 1836-08-20 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY . AUGUST 20, 1836.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

One of the measures which Baron Lyndhurst plumed
himself in his well-studied harangue, on Thursday evening,
for destroying, was the Bill for the reformation of the mu-
nicipal system in Ireland. We shall be much surprised,
indeed, if the destructiveness displayed by the Learned
Baron in reference to that Bill be a second time paraded
by him, either in or out of the House of Lords, as a pru-
dent or creditable trait of his legislatorial character, or as a
discreet ground of pretension to the confidence, esteem,
and respect of the nation. Though the people are calm,
they are not apathetic, and the Tory leader will yet learn,
to his sore dismay, that the victories he has won on the flaor
of the Upper House in the session which terminates this
day, by aid of a dense phalanx of factious Peers—the self
interested advocates and natural guardians of abuse and cor-
ruption—are as fraught with disaster to Toryism, as those on
a different field were to Pyrrhus. Baron Lyndhurst,we know,
cares little for the consequences to his party—or, speaking
more truly, to the party whose instrument he is, and whom in
turn he uses for his own purposes—that must inevi-
tably result from the pernicious and insane course they
have, under his reckless counsel, pursued during the last
six months : he has satiated his own revenge for the loss of
office in the blood of slaughtered measures, and he has
puffed himself into notoriety, and made a name as a public
speaker—matters that to a man of his elastic principles and
India-rubber-conscience are of no small consideration, since,
being in the market, he may hope not only to get a pur-

chaser, but enhance his value. He may, therefore, gloat
over the mischief he has been doing ; having, in the cloud
of prejudice, passion, and vanity which surrounds him, no
perception of the feeling of the country. But we tell him
his present exultation will be short-lived, and his fiendish

joy-
at the ruin he has been able to effect will soon give
way to the bitterness of remorse. Drunk with vanity and
flattery, he knows not into what a pit he has reeled. A
few months will restoro him to the use of reason—and then
will he behold with horror the awful predicament in which
an ungenerous spirit, the lust of power, the rage of disap-
pointed ambition, and the flattery of corrupt parasites have
placed him. Meantime,let us glance once more at the abuses
of those Irish Corp9rki9wWhose corruptions he denliks, of
• hose abuses he - diselifins all knoWledgei and whoselsol-
luted and demoralising existence he and his compeers have
prolonged ; an achievement for which, on Thursday, he
took to himself and his Noble Friends such credit. We
will begin with Dublin, the abuses of which Corporation
far exceed in magnitude those of any other town in Ireland.
If in other respects that Corporation was nearly blameless,
its enormous delinquency in the Pipe-water affair would
suffice, to render a sweepinc, reform necessary. The par-
ticulars of this case, which a'Tory journal has found it con-
venient to call " a story," are these :—The Corporation
(of Dublin) obtained, in 1796, an Act of Parliament,
authorising them to levy a certain rate off the occupiers of
houses in the city, for the supply of water. This water was
supplied by means of wooden pipes laid down throughout the
metropolis. The Act did not notice any debts due to or by
the Corporation with respect to the water-works. After this
Act passed, what was the very first act of the Corporation ?
They voted to their treasurer 1,500/. a year out of the
rates, in part, compensation of expenses incurred by them
on the water-works, though, as has already been mentioned,
the Act gave no colour of authority for this proceeding.
Up to 1809, the corporation illegally retained out of these
rates, and out of money borrowed on the security of these
rates, no less than 47,600/, on account of this 1,500/. a
year which they illegally granted to their treasurer. In
1809, they got an Act passed empowering them to substi-
tute a metal for the old wooden main. This Act recited
that there was a debt of 67,000/. secured upon the rates,
and that 33,000/. would be necessary to perfect the new
works ; and it granted, accordingly, a power to levy new
rates, called the Metal-main rates, until these two sums,
amounting to 100,000/., should be liquidated, and no
lonizer. The Corporation were to apply the funds pro-
vided for this liquidation. Did they do so ? Did
they liquidate the debt ? Did they take a single step
towards paying it off, and relieving the citizens from the
heavy annual rate ? Not one of these things did the
honest Corporation do. On the contrary, they jobbed away
the rates, increasing the annuity of 1,5001. to their trea-
surer to 2,5001., and increasing the appointments of the
several other officers connected with the water-works. For
fourteen years the high rate was levied, and in 1823 the
debt remained undiminished. Indignant at this barefaced
swindling, some of the citizens in that year filed a bill in
Chancery for an account of the rates received. In 1824

the corporation put in their answer, in which they stoutly
insisted that the rates levied, as has been seen, under the
provisions of the Act of 1809, were their own private pro-
perty, with which they were at liberty to deal according to
their pleasure, without being accountable for the outlay in
anywise to the citizens. That profound lawyer, the Lord
Manners, whom a corrupt Government first made a
puisne judge in England, and then Lord Chancel-
lor of Ireland, for no assignable reason than that he
was a membef -of a great boroughtnonive, ring fainili.;"and
that the Government of the day was profligate—that sage
personage dismissed the Bill with costs, alleging that he
had no jurisdiction in the matter! From this precious
decision the citizens appealed, and the House of Lords re-
versed the Chancellor's decree, ordering the account to be
taken. In July, 1831, the Master reported, declaring that
the tax ought to have ceased in 1825. The Master of

the Rolls pronounced his decree upon this report, directing
the Corporation to pay off the 74,0001. (we were wrong in
formerly saying 78,0001.), which remained due to the
holders of securities issued on the rates, and to pay also the
costs of the suit. The Corporation appealed, and in the
mean time endeavoured to evade the force of the decree, by
issuing new securities upon the rates. The citizens had re-
course again to the Equity Court, and an injunction issued re-
straining the Corporators from proceeding thus infamously,
and June, 1835, the House of Lords affirmed the decree of
the Master of the Rolls, with costs. In 1827 the Corporation
ceased to levy the rate, so that for eighteen years they pe-
culated to the amount of 74,0001., or about 4,1001, a-year,
out of one municipal tax. We also find that in the years
1833-4, the law expenses of this body amount to 10,000/.
This enormous sum was doubtless expended in these two
years in the attempt to justify the previous robbery of
74,0001. And this is the body in whom Lord Lyndhurst
untruly asserted that he had not admitted the existence
of corruption or abuse ! This is the pet Corporation of
the Tories. This is the system which the Tory Peers
have continued—an achievement upon which Baron Lynd-
hurst plumes himself, as though he were another Curtius
—and for which the unprincipled Swiss of the Tory Press
extol their Lordships to the third heavens !—Morning
Chronicle.

We said yesterday that Lord Lyndhurst's speech was
well timed. It was delivered on Thursday night, a Levee
was held yesterday morning, and Parliament is to be pro-
rogued to-day. 'What with the King's speech and Lord
Lyndhurst's speech, the Government have had a pleasant
week of it. The impudence of these fellows ! A few weeks
back, we detected them while hatching a conspiracy to
smother the division on the appropriation clause by a point
of privilege. We sent the news throughout the country.
It circulated like lightning. All England responded to our
appeal to their sense of every thing that was fair and ho-
nourable in revolting opposition to this pitiful and sneaking
subterfuge of the Government. The country sympathized
with our address. And what did the Ministry's creatures,
their agents, and their organs ? They denounced our rea-
sonable and solemn admonition as a " Tory lie ;" they
openly and zealously declared that such an idea as getting
rid of their direful difficulties in regard to the Irish Church
by an evasion had never entered the besotted brains of their
masters. They taunted us with issuing forth a probable
circumstance, in order to obtain the credit of circulating a
positive truth ; though the first were false, and the last im-
possible. And what was the result The Leader of the
Ministerial party in the House of Commons, though forced
by our vigilant interference to relinquish his felonious pur-
pose, could not so far command the ebullitions of his small
and ill-regulated soul as to conceal the primary purpose,
the " original sin " of his distempered polity. Forsooth, he
must tell us why he did not think fit to moot a point which
if successful, would have been a disgrace, and if a failure, a
defeat. Circumspect and magnanimous senator! And
yet these miserable simpletons fancy that the same juggle
is again to gull their credulous audience. The same pea is
at work, though under another thimble. The fact is our
well seasoned and vigorous interference has balked their ill-
digested and feeble machinations. The bubble is blown.
Our warning has permitted the country to anticipate by
its opinion what otherwise it could only have stigmatized by
its verdict. The attack on the Lords, especially in the
teeth of that masterly vindication that is echoing through-
out the island, won't do. The Government is baffled and
beat. They betake themselves to a milk. and water ad-
dress, full of the prosperity of the country, which in their
private conversations and in the loose talk of their orgies
they acknowledge to be their greatest curse; and to
common place thanks about granting matter of fact sup-
plies. What a wretched career must be that of the
literary organs of this degraded Administration ! How
ludicrous is the article on the King's speech last night in the
evening instrument of Downing-street. Poor whimpering
galley-slave ! When we first exposed the disgraceful trans-
action, the thing was instructed to make a reply which
virtually admitted the veracity of our statement, and
gloried in the circumstance. We followed up our vigorous
attack in an article which made all Downing-street pale,
and the thing was silent. When utterly discomfited, when
forced, through the indignant sense alike of the King and
the nation, to relinquish their wretched plot, the baffled con-
spirators sought a miserable refuge in their miserable organ ;
the thing, forsooth, in a mincing tone vows we have misrepre-
sented those choice and favoured beings, the King's Mini-
sters. Was ever such low impudence ? Why, the privilege
case was nothing to this. There we heard the projected tac-

tics announced and recommended and boasted of in our own
hearing by official characters scarcely excluded from the Ca-
binet ; and yet our report of these bold bad sayings was libelled
as a " Tory lie ;" but here, and we speak without fear of
contradiction, we declare, upon our knawledge, that the
subject has not only been discussed in the Cabinet, but
that a paragraph in due relation to the topic has been offi-
cially concocted by a Cabinet Minister ; that a well-known
individual has been employed with infinite cajolery to
sound the Royal ear upon the . subject ; that a Cabinet
Counsel has, in consequence, been held ; and that other
most "rich and rare" adventures have occurred, which, if
tempted, we may yet deliver. Now, at the eleventh hour,
the literary thing belonging to these men is ordered to
scrape together an article, to whitewash their damaged and
desperate reputations, by imputing falsehood to their op-
ponents. No, no ; it is for them the poor imbeciles" to
lie ;" we need no such arts ; our revenge is " to speak the
very truth" of them.—Tinges.

It is a matter of but little consequence whether his Ma-
jesty's Speech to-day, upon the prorogation of Parliament,
shall or shall not contain any inculpation of the conduct of
the House of Lords during the present session of Parlia-
ment, for that conduct has been such, that whether it be
or be not inculpated, no one can, by possibility, mistake
that the House of Lords, with their Belial at their elbow,
have, from the beginning to the end of the session, swamped
every measure which was calculated to benefit the people by
an enlargement or confirmation of their rights and privileges.
The Tory Papers have used all their influence to persuade
the public that his Majesty's Ministers had proposed to . .
in-
corporate in the Royal Speech a direct censure upon the con-
duct ofthe House of Lords, for rejecting and mis-amending the
numerous Bills sent to them by the House of Commons. It was
an artful trick on the part of the Times to endeavour to per-
suade the public, in two of the most silly and contemptible arti-
cles that ever appeared in the pettiest journal that ever existed,
that his Majesty's Ministers had attempted to persuade the
King to have inserted in Ins Speech a sentence directly in-
culpatory of the conduct of the House of Lords—inasmuch
as the Times might afterwards take credit—the charge be-
ing utterly false--for having, by itself or its party, dissuaded
his Majesty from having any such inculpation inserted in
his Speech. We reply to. the Times in something like the
language of Lord Melbourne on Thursday night, in reply
to Lord Lyndhurst—there will be no such clause in the
Speech ; but there will be, if we are rightly informed, such
an expression of regret at the want of harmony between the
two Houses of Parliament, as cannot by possibility fail to
produca ail the results which would have arisen from a direct
censure. Delicacy restrains us, as well as a just regard for
those who have kindly furnished us with information, from
saying more upon the subject.—Morning Advertiser.
The discussion in the House of Lords on Thursday even-
ing deserves, and is calculated to excite, much more than
the usual and fleeting interest of an ordinary Parliamentary
debate. The whole kingdom is now—not agitated ; for,
happily, Mr. O'Connell failed in that patriotic object—but
deeply and earnestly absorbed in the grand question as to
what sort of influence shall henceforward prevail in the Go-
vernment of this nation. The House of Commons has, by a
small majority throughout the now expiring Session, coun-
tenanced principles and encouraged tendencies which, if pro-
ceeded with, could have no other ultimate result than that of
the most important organic changes in the Constitution.
There is no use in mincing the matter ; for common sense
can come to no other conclusion than this—that our Con-
stitution is not worth three years'purchase if the political spi-
rit, avowed by a small majority of the House of Commons,
should become the paramount political spirit of England. Our
Constitutional monarchy could not stand such repeated shocks
as have been directed against the institutions with which it
is so indissolubly connected, if these shocks should prove to
be national. If they are, as we firmly believe, but the work
of a faction which the nation does not approve, then a
different, and a far more glorious result may fairly be anti-
cipated. The Prime Minister, though a Member of the
House of Lords, has become completely alienated from
the prevailing sentiment of that body ; and, it is to be
feared, is scarcely less alienated f'som another branch of the
Legislature, to which, according to the spirit and form of
the still existing Constitution, he ought to be most inti-
mately attached. It is much to be feared that, under the
peculiar circumstances of his position, the Prime Minister
almost forgets that he is the servant of the Crown. Evi-
dently disarmed, at least so far as political sentiment goes,
by the aristocratic branch of the Legislature to which he
belongs, and driven to shelter himself under the shield of a
trifling majority of the Commons, he seems to forget that
he owes a duty to any other power but that of the Commons,
and he actually deports himself in the House of Lords, as
if he were the Minister of that body, and not of his Majesty
the King. The House of Lords has, however, taken upon
itself throughout the Session, to act firmly and steadily under
the influence of principles and sentiments very different from
those which prevail by a minute majority in the Commons,
and which are acted upon by the present Ministers. It sets
itself against organic change ;—it determines to abide by the
Constitution as it is ; and, especially, it holds fast to the 'Pro-
testantism which, by our fundamental laws,is interwoven with
the existence of the Constitution as established at the era of
1688. For doing this it has been arraigned by a Minister of
the Crown, as giving insult to the House of Commons, and
disgust to the whole country. This charge was the subject
of discussion on Thursday evening in the House of Lords,
and it is under various forms, and with various degrees of
directness, the actual subject of political discussion in every
part of the British empire. There is no " collision"—no
tumult ; but be it remembered that the Ministerial party
spared no pains to bring matters to the arbitration of pub-
lic clamour and violence. There is, however, an intenie
anxiety in the public mind upon the question whether the
Lords have been guilty of a factious opposition to the
House of Commons and the public sentiment, or the ma-
jority of the Commons have been guilty of factious opposi-
tion to the principles of our Constitutional Monarchy, and
our Protestant Constitution ? We have not the slightest
doubt that the more the debate of Thursday evening is
studied, the stronger will be the impression upon calm,
honest, and sensible minds, that the Lords have done
their duty ; and that the complaints against them are
dictated by party spite, and not by manly constitutional
sentiment. Englishmen will consider what are the princi-
ples of duty upon which men in any particular situation are
bound to act before they pronounce for or against these men.
We are persuaded that when the principles of duty by which
the Peers of Parliament ought to be bound, are • taken into
consideration, it will be seen that they have acted steadily
and faithfully in conformity with these principles in all they
have done. If they have differed with the House of Com-
mons, it is because they have adhered more strictly to the
letter and the spirit of that Constitution, under which Great
Britain grew to the height of glory and prosperity which she
has enjoyed. We believe it will be found that the Lords
have not only restrained themselves within limits which the
Constitution prescribes, but have forborne many things
which they might have done, had they been disposed to exer-
cise an insulting, or even a triumphant spirit. Let Ministers
say what they will of the small, yet motley and uncertain
majority which they boast of in the House of Commons, it
is, either in number or in respectability of individual cha-
racter, a mere nothing; compared with the majority against
them in the House of Lords ; yet no one occasion can be
pointed out in which the majority of that House went out of
its way to inflict a defeat upon Ministers. Had the Lords
chosen to imitate the conduct pursued by the opponents
of another Administration in the House of Commons,
might they not have done so ? What was to prevent them
from carrying resolutions quite as strong against the Ad-
ministration as those carried by Lord John Russell in
March, 1835, against the then existing Administration ?
Tiil-4. they might have done, but they refrained from this
factious embarrassment of an existing Government. They
patiently waited for such measures as that Government
might bring forward. Such of them as they approved they'
passed, others they amended, and some they rejected as
impolitic and unconstitutional. This was the conduct of
the Lords, and we are sure it will not meet with censure
from the people of England—but the very contrary.
There will be abundant occasion, we have no doubt, to
recur again and again to this topic ; in the mean time, we
offer these observations upon it in what we think the well-
.
grounded confidence, that while we espouse in moderation
and sincerity the cause of the Protestant Constitution of
Great Britain, we shall displease no one whom it would be
our wish to conciliate.—Morning Herald.
If six days ago Lord Palmerston had been asked what
his opinion was of the Spanish Constitution of 1812, and
whether he deemed it expedient that the money and the
blood of the people of England should be employed in the
attempt to re-establish it, what would have been the manner
and the matter of- his Lordship's answer? Those who
know the Noble Lord can be at no loss to answer this
question. His Lordship, shruggins, up his shoulders, and
putting on all the other airs of official sagacity, would un-
doubtedly have said, " we have nothing to do with the Con-
stitution of 1812. The object of the quadripartite alliance
is not to restore the Constitution of 1812. We arc the
allies of the chaste and amiable Queen-Regent of Spain,
who cares as little as we do for Constitutions, and who
hates, as we do, any Constitution so democratic as that
of 1812." This is in substance what every body knows
the Noble Lord at the head of the Foreign Department
of England would have said six days ago. But the
ime
tdoe:n,
nose raantdi c
ioenss Constitution Spain of n IsBpilt2o
of
fs pr
Lordoe! a
Madame Munoz ; and to that Constitution Madame
dm
Palmerston
t so' anr iaonu(si
Munoz, the Noble Lord's amiable ally, has been compelled
to accede. This of •course- will make much difference in
the opinions of his Lordship. The Constitution of
1812, much too democratic six days ago, is to-day
the purest invention of human wisdom for the good
government of a country. What Madame Munoz has ap-
oved, although constrained to do so by force, is sacred
in the eyes of the Foreign Secretary of England. It is no

longer of any importance to his Lordship whether the
Constitution of 1812, or any other Constitution, or no
Constitution whatever, be predominant in Spain. His
Lordship is the auxiliary of the Queen-Regent, and, what-
ever Constitution she accepts, whether freely or b'y con-
straint, is, in the Noble Lord's opinion, no doubt, the
very best of all possible Constitutions. It is to him a
matter of indifference what form of Government the mob
of Madrid may prefer. For him it is enough to say, that
when the Queen-Regent approves, he is bound not to con-
demn. His Lordship, after expending much English .trea-
sure and much English blood in the Spanish warfare, upon
the sound Whig principle of non-intervention, obtains at
last the satisfaction of being heartily laughed at for his
pains. Spain chooses for herself a Constitution--a Con-
stitution of all others the most unacceptable to him ; and
he shelters himself behind his desk while he lisps out,
" Let Spain do as she likes. We have nothing to do with
the internal condition of that country. We have, in a
word, been fighting for a Constitution of which we
knew nothing, and for a cause entirely above our com-
prehension." Such is the language in which the foreign
policy of Great Britain is now expressed. Such was not
the language in which the foreign policy of England
was expressed in former days when the alliance of England
was deemed the harbinger and the guarantee of good go-
vernment, in the States which felt themselves to be under
her high protection. Heretofore it has been deemed a
matter of some importance under what constitutional re-
gime the people whom we had protected by our swords
were to be governed. Thanks to Lord Palmerston and
his colleagues, this influence on the part of England is at
an end. We have sounded " the base string of humility."
We are as abject as lackeys. To spend money and blood
is now the only duty necessary to maintain the character of
the English Government. To be cajoled by some Sove-
reips, and fascinated by others, is the height of our am-
bition. How the people are henceforth to be governed
in the States for which we have employed our arms, is a
matter of profound indifference, or a matter in which we no
longer think we have a right to interfere. 'We honour ex-
ceedingly the Constitution of 1812, just as we would have
honoured any other Constitution. In a word, we may fight
for Spain and Madame Munoz as much and as long as we
like ; but to say anything in reference to the Constitution
for which ,our blood and treasure prepared the way is to
be illiberal, and Lord Palmerston will not 'be illiberal. To
him one Constitution is as good as another. Madame
Munoz and King Alfred are alike—with this difference in
favour of the former, that there is a chance just at the pre-
sent moment of making something by her.—Morning Post.

ACCOUNT GIVEN OF THE ESCAPE
OF HENRY WILLIAMS FROM NENTGATE
BY HIMSELF.

It was stated some days ago in the Observer newspaper,
that Henry Williams, alias Thomas Whitehead, who escaped
from Newgate by climbing the wall of the capital convicts'
yard, was apprehended in the county of Hants, for commit-
ting a burglary at Lyming,ton, and lodged in Winchester
gaol. The Lord Mayor having been officially informed of
the fact, sent the communication to the Sheriffs, at whose
desire Mr. Cope, the Governor of Newgate, wen down to
that place to ascertain whether the report was correct, and
upon entering the gaol immediately recognised the unfortu-
nate fellow, who most willingly and fully gay the details of
his wonderful adventure.

It is necessary, for the purpose of giving something like
an adequate idea of the perpendicular journey which Wil-
liams made, that of the numbers of persons who have visited
the prison of Newgate to view the path which he took in
his ascent, almost every body went away laughing at the
extreme improbability of the enterprise, and convinced that
the whole mystery was solved by ascribing to the turnkeys
such negligeuce as left an easy transit through the several
gates and doors of the gaol.

The statement of the man himself, however, correspond-
ing as it does exactly with the more accurate examination
of the ascent, and with all the particulars with which those
who have the superintendence of the prison are well ac-
quainted, entirely banishes doubt of the miraculous nature
of the escape.
The capital convicts' yard, viewed from the top of New-
gate, presents an appearance of the most perfect security.
The walls by which it is surrounded are between sixty and
seventy feet in height, and form four right angles. In one
of these angles, near which there is built, some feet from the
ground, a water-cistern, the granite has been rendered more
rough, and what builders call rusticated, in consequence of
the burning of a large quantity of scaffold-poles and ladders,
which were deposited against the side of the wall at the time
of the riots of 1780, and which caught fire and were totally
consumed. About fifty feet from the pavement of the yard
is erected a revolving iron-work, or chevau de frieze, to
prevent the ascent of any person who might have the aid
'ropes from above, and considerably higher than that are
fastened in the wall, between the prison and the adjacent
buildings, a number of large sharp projecting iron spikes.
Supporting the frieze, there is an iron railing with upright
spikes, upon which a man who wants to escape must walk,
after having accomplished the task of scaling the walls.
The adventurer has then to spring from the railing eight or
nine feet, in order to reach the top of the day-room to the
cells, and the least slip, after having mounted a few feet
above the cistern, must be fatal.
Through all these difficulties and perils Williams had to
pass ; but although he knew, as he says, that " he had his '
work to de he did not expect to encounter such tedious
labour, for he supposed that at the angle at which he had
contrived to reach the iron-work, he should have been
enabled to reach the top of the wall by getting between the
revolving spikes and the wall ; but in this expectation he
was disappointed. He could by no means thrust his body
into the narrow space, and was obliged to go routd three-
quarters of the square by means of the iron-work, until he
reached the projecting bars of iron under the top of the day-
room to the cells. He then mounted the topmost wall, in
doing which he broke away a little mortar with his foot, and
he believed that if a little more had given way, he would
have been plunged into the tremendous abyss. He did not
trouble himself with looking back at the dangers he had
passed, but most philosophically cast his eye round the tops
of the houses in New,gate-street, to find some passage
to the street, but perfectly convinced that if he could
not effect his object by means of the skylight, or ac-
cidental ladder, he could successfully prosecute his
journey down a chimney. The poor devil, however,
neither wished to frighten any body by entering an
apartment from a chimney, nor to expose himself to the
danger of detection. After having overcome the immi-
years at the house of the late Sir J. Miles at Hoxton ; had
been taken from thence on the 6th instant by order of a
Mr. Saunders, who, upon being applied to, said that she
came from India with a relation of his five years ago, and
having been insane upon her arrival was placed and main-
tained by him until the Gth, at Hoxton, when, by the ad-
vice of his attorneys, Messrs. Barrow, Vincent, and
Plumley, he discharged her, and she was taken into custody
by the police, and taken before the Magistrates of Wor-
nent peril of his enterprise, and moving over the top of
the cells day-room, he passed on to the roof of the Ordi-
nary's house, and finding all possibility of entrance denied
there, he climbed over the Nets gate-street roofs, not one of
which presented any hope, and then turned to the roofs of
the houses in Warwick-lane, upon one of which be saw a
woman, who, he says, appeared to him to be an angel, hanging
out some clothes to dry on the leads. He hid himself be-
hind a chimney until she disappeared down a step-ladder,
and then followed her gently, and presented himself, with an
appeal to her compassion, stated in the evidence submitted
to the Court of Aldermen. He had been, after he gained
the free passage over the houses, obliged to avoid the gaze
of the workmen at Tyler's manufactory, formerly Apothe-
cary's Hall, in Warwick-square, by incurring other hazardi;-.
and finding his coat an incumbrance he left it oa the
top of the third house in Newgate-street, so that when
he made his appearance before the woman on his de-
scent, all the clothes he had on were the gaol shirt and trou-
sers. In passing through the house he had to, encounter
another woman, and a girl about fourteen years of age, but
his assurance to them that he was running from the gallows,
soon cleared the way to the hall door, out of which he walked
with sixteen pence in his pocket to begin the world again.
He immediately crossed over to Christ's Hospital, where
there are some new buildings, but was told by the workmen
to leave the place, as there was no thoroughfare, and there
was no business on the spot for naked beggars. He then
walked up Newgate-street, along Cheapside, and over Lon-
don Bridge, from which, after giving a parting glance at
the city, he proceeded on to Wandsworth. The first
house into which lie entered after quitting his prison-house
was a beer-shop in this village, where he drank "a pint of
heavy that gave him comfort." It was now about eight
o'clock, and lie walked on till he reached the entrance to
Kingston, in a field close to which he stretched himself,
and slept soundly till four o'clock in the morning, when
hearing the cry of " sweep" in the town, he followed it,
and succeeded in getting employment in his old trade from
a widow, who gave him what he called his " bob and grub,"
and cighteen-pence for nine days' work. This sort of re-
muneration not suiting him, he determined to cut the
neighbourhood of the metropolis, and in a few days he
reached Gosport, where he drank with several persons who
knew him, but not one of whom ever " peached'. upon him.
The story of his adventures, as told by himself, ends here.
He could not, he declares, get any work to do, and was
obliged to look for a bit of bread in any company he could
fall into, and he was at last apprehended by a pol:cetnan,
and charged with having found. his way into a house with-
out entering by the usual place of admission.
Mr. COPE asked Williams bow he contrived to spring
from the spikes to the top of the wall, at the side of the
day-room to the cells, especially as he was barefooted.
Williams replied that he felt some inconvenience from
the spikes, which stuck up in his feet, and one of which
poked a hole in the small of his back, but he found that

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believed that at one time that he should have fa ,),*tr:.;g
the skylight of one of the houses in Newgat .stro*A4 --2-'.4f.-",.
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part of the mortar gave way, but his good hick sit-Aicip wiroz
him all through, and although several persons from fhe gg.: 111
ret windows of the neighbouring buildings and houses saw
him, and looked with curiosity at him as he laboured for
his release, nobody made the least noise ; and be believed
the reason no alarm was given was, that those who beheld
him in his perilous situation had humane fears for his life,
and determined not to endanger it.
Mr. COPE asked him by wha means he managed to
mount the wall from the cistern ?

Williams replied that he had contrived, by keeping his
back to one side of the angle, and working with his hand
behind him, while he worked with his bare feet in the
nook, but without touching his shoulders, or any other part
of his back to the wall, he reached the revolving iron-
work, but he did not think that if he knew the difficulties
would have been so great in passing the iron work he
would have thought it worth his trouble. Once however
up, he felt as if he was in a chim/ey, and he resolved to go
through with the job. He expressed a wish that Mr:
Cope would take him back to London, and appeared much
dejected on being told that the Governor must return
without him. Upon being asked if he was not afraid of
being dashed to a mummy at some particular points of
his ascent, he said, that there were two or three things lie
did not like much, and that lie felt more comfortable when
he was drinking the beer at Wandsworth.
It is stated, that this unfortunate fellow never committed
any violence, nor occasioned any great fright, although
report says, that he has more than once visited a house
through the chimney, and returned with stray spoons and
forks, &c., by the same aperture.
Mr. Montague, the City Surveyor, upon looking at the
capital convicts' yard, immediately after the escape of Wil-
liams, said that the story of a departure by such a path as
a perpendicular wall, with right angles, was quite absurd.
Mr. Elmes, the Port of London Surveyor, on the contrary,
upon hearing that the fugitive was a chimney-sweeper, was
of opinion that the experiment had been tried and recom-
plished. The latter has, in the prisons which lie has built,
uniformly made the convicts' yards of the octagon shape,
from the apprehension that sweeps or sailors might conquer
the difficulty of scaling walls of which the angles were not
obtuse of more than 45 degrees ; and in the Waterford
Gaol he proved the practicability of escape by angular
walls, by directing a chimney-sweeper to ascend. What
ever might have been done, however, upon former occa-
sions, in the miraculous way, it is most certain that Williams
has shown more agility, and more also of what is called by
the class to which be belongs " pluck," than any unfortu-
nate man who has for many years tried to avoid one evil by
exposing himself to a much greater.

FROM LAST NIGHT'S GAZETTE.

WHITEHALL, Auc. 19, 1836.

The King has been pleased to direct letters patent to be passed
under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom, appointing Thomas
Henry Lister, Esq., to be Registrar-General of Births, Deaths,
and Marriages in England.