The Sun.
London, England, 1823-08-25 00:00:00

[BRITISH PRESS.]

Sir John Downie, employed for some years in
the Spanish army, has addressed, from the arsenal
of the Caracca, in Cadiz, where he has been for
some time confined with others as a state prisoner,
a petition to the Minister at War, to be presented
to the Spanish King, complaining of the hardships
he has experienced ; requesting, that as long as
the law has not declared him guilty, be may be
treated with the distinction and respect due to

his rank and services; and thai the same
consideration be shewn to the officers who were
arrested with him. lie also requests that some
assistance should be sent to him, together with a
month's pay ; and at the same time an order for
terminating the inquiry us soon as possible, so
that he and his fellow-sufferers may be restored
to that freedom and honour which they value be-
yond a thousand lives. MI this he asks, as he says,
in justice, which he deserves at the hands of his Ma-
jesty, whoe life he prays 'leaven long to preserve
for the happiness (not of the people) but of the mo-
narchy . Sir John Downie does not address this

petition to the Cortes, or Spanish Ministers, who,
if he merited it, could institute the inquiry he
claims, and afford him redress; his memorial
is intended for the King; whom he served as an
absolute tyrant; and by whom he was subse-
quently employed, because he aided to make him
so; and it is clear that his petition was drawn up
and made public just at this period, not with the
iew of obtaining the results he calls for, but merely
to show his untningled devotion and attachment
to Ferdinand, and to obtain his reward on Cadiz
surrendering, as he probably anticipated, and the
tyrant of Spain, to whom he is so devoted, beconi-
ing absolute again. Sir John Downie declares
in his petition, be does not know the offences
imputed to him ; yet he almost instantly after ad-
mits his crimes, and the treason he was planning
with his armed associates against the Spanish Con-
stitution. Ile acknowledges his meeting with Vigo.
det and 17 officers in the Palace of Seville, on the
11th of June; at midnight. They were assem-
bled in arms, with the approbation, he alleges, of
the Governor, of the Palace, Lieut.-Gen. Don
Francisco Copons, to defend the persons of Fer.
dinand and the Royal Family against the attacks
then apprehended from a part of the local militia.
The petitioneradmits he was in conference withVi-
godet the greater part of the night ; and it is
clear the entire were met as traitorous conspi-
rators against the Constitution and Liberties of
Spain, that their real object was to emancipate
the treacherous Ferdinand, and let loose a flood
of proscription and carnage on unhappy Spain.—
Sir John Downie does not dissemble his hatred
to the Constitutional Government ; be avows
it openly, and, we think, with very little pru-
dence too.

Ma. GARNERIN.—The celebrated GAaNERIN
died on the 10th instant at Paris, in consequence
of the wound he received eight days before at
the Theatre Beaujon; ft appears that it was a
terrible attack of apoplexy which caused him
to let go the cord of the curtain, which returned
upon his head ; a considerable hemorrhage,
caused by this wound, retarded his death, which
otherwise would have immediately followed the
apoplectic fit. Mr. GARNERIN was fifty-three
years of age ; he was the first who ventured
upon the dangerous experiment of descending in
the parachute.
On Friday last, as a person of the name of
ROBERT MEACOCK was engaged in hay-making
at J. Sxpowictes, Esq. of Mole, a sudden gust
of wind, of the nature of a whirlwind, lifted him
up from his legs, and elevated him to a consi-
derable height—persons that were present say,
not less than three yards. The same gust .se-
vered a strong branch from the trunk of a poplar
tree in front of Mr. Sziociwtcit's Ifall.--(Chester
Courant.)

TIIE ARMY.
War Op, Aug. 22, 1823.
BlEatonalnium.— His Majesty has been pleased to ap.
prove of the 86th Regiment of Foot bearing on its colours and
appointments, in addition to any other badges or devices which
may have heretofore been granted to the Regiment, the words
" Douro" and "Peninsula," in commemoration of the dis.
tinguished conduct of the late 2d Battalion of the Regiment
in the passage of the Douro, in the month of May, 1809, and
of its services in the Peninsula, under Field Marshal the Duke
of Wellington, from Bth April, 1809, to 12th July, 1814.