The Sun.
London, England, 1824-12-16 00:00:00

FOR. THE SUN.

TILE DOG OF MONTARGIS.
Mu. En ITO 11-1 ti the great hall of the ancient
castle of Montargis, a small town in the former
province of Orleanois, there is a sculpture, in
basso relievo, placed over the chimney-piece,
which represents a large mastiff dog fighting
against a man. Of this subject MO N TVAUCU N
the celebrated antiquary of France, has given a
representation in his learneil work.' The event
which this sculptured monument is intended to
perpetuate is recorded as follows in the Memoirs
sur les Duels :

As a gentleman of family and of fortune, Aubri
de Mondidier by nan►e, was journeying, with -no
other companion than an English blood I►ound,
through the Forest of Bondy, he was assassinated
and buried upon the spot. The faithful slog, who
had alone witnessed the horrid deed, remained
for several days upon the grave of his murdered
master, from whence the cravings of hunger were
aloue capable of removing him. He repaired to
the house of a friend of the unfortunate Aubii
at Paris; and there, by his mournful how lings, he
seemed anxious to exj►ress then irreparable loss
they had each of them sustained. His howlings
were frequently repeated ; he would run to tPu
door, and look back to see if any one was follow-
ing him. Upon finding that this, was not the
case, he returned to his master's friend, often►
pulled Mtn violently by the sleeve, and employed
all his efforts to induce the gentleman to accom-
pany him.
So singular a conduct could not fail to attract
the notice of every one in the house. The cir-
cumstance of his coming alone, considering that
he ever was -the inseparable companion of his
master, at length induced some one of the family
to humour the dog, and follow him whithersoever
he intended to bring them. With unerring pre-
cision, the sagacious animal led them to the very
spot where he knew that his master lay buried.
There he renewed his howling, and by violently
scratching the earth with his feet, plainly inti-
mated his wish that a search should be made in
this particular spot. This was accordingly done,
and soon the mangled remains of the murdered
Aubri were brought before the eyes of his friends.
His remains were properly interred, and the dog
seemed for the present, however, perfectly sa-
tisfied.

lint it happened, that not long after this he
chanced to meet, and immediately recognized,
the base assassin, who is said to have been a
Chevalier Macaire. No sooner did the dog per.
ceive him, than he seized him by the throat, and
not until absolutely compelled by force slid he
consent to quit hold of the man, who he knew
to be the assassin of his beloved master. More
than once did they meet after this, and whenever
they did so meet, the animal, with no less fury, in-
variably pursued and a ttacked the guilty Chevalier.
What effect this may have produced upon the
mind of the criminal, we are left at a loss to con-
jecture, but this obstinate attack made by the dog
upon him alone, could not but awaken the astonish-
ment of all those who witnessed it. To those
who knew the remarkable attachment of the dog
for his deceased master, and who had perceived,
on more occasions than one, that Nlucaire felt
nothing but envy and hatred for Aubri de Mon-
didier, this singular circumstance appeared snore
singular still, and strange suspicions, highly un.
favourable to the Chevalier, could not avoid be.
ing entertained.

Meanwhile, the assassin, undismayed by the
attacks of a mere brute, and fully aware that
no human being could come forward against him,
stood his ground apparently without fear. lint
many fresh discovered circumstances ►creating ad•
ditional and stronger suspicions, the whole busi-
ness at length reached the ears of the reigning
Monarch of France, Louis VIII. The King,de.
sirous of witnessing the truth of w but he had
heard, sent for the dog, who behaved with th.,
greatest possible gentleness; but no sooner did
he perceive "%wake in the midst of several gen-
tlemen, than he began to growl, and rushed
towards him, and attacked him in the usual
manner.

In those days the fate of arms decided upon
the justice or the injustice of a cause. The King,
greatly struck by this unaccountable enmity of
the dug, and by all the mass of cireuntstantial
evidence which had been amassed, resolved that
the decision of this intricate and mysterious afnir
should be left to Providence. Accordingly he
gave orders for a combat between the Chevalier
and his canine accusor. Macuire was allowed to
use no other weapon but a thick cudgel; whilst
the dog had an empty cask allowed him as a
place of refuge, to enable hint to recover breath.
Upon the appointed day, and in the presence
of an immense concourse of people, which the
singularity of the scene had attracted, the cham-
pions met in a place fitted for the purpose in
the isle Notre Dame, et Paris, then an uoinclosed
spot. No sooner was the generous animal let
loose, than he fearlessly rushed upon his adver.
sa could exceed the skill and saga-
cltr.
yy Nbidisplayedotng by this novel champion during
the whole of the combat. lie n hided round !kis
adversary, threatening him on every aide, avoid.
ed the blows that were aimed at him, till he con-
trived to exhaust the force of the chevalier.
Then, with a growl of triumph, he sprung; forward
upon his enemy, seized him Lay- the throat, and
threw him upon the ground, and there held !din
fast until he compelled him to confess his guilt,
in presence of the court anti all the spectators, la
consequence of his own confession he was con.
demned to die, and a few days after expiated his
crime upon the scaffold, near the spot where his
fate had been decided ; whilst the dug received
the caresses which his fidelity to his master; his
courage and his prudence, so well deserved.
A. r,

_--
LAUGHTEIt.—The last production of the cele.
brated Zeuxis was a picture or uu old woman.
The infirmities of age, the lean, form,
the florid eyes, the hanging cheek, the toothless!
gums, the far obtruding chin, all were pourtray-
ed in such a strikingly ludicrous st de, that 'When
ZEttxts drew back to contemplate this otrepripg
of his imagination, he fell into such an itntoo.
derate fit of laughter, that he is said to have ex-
pired upon the spot.

THE LONDON JOURNALS.

DAILY
Extracts from the Morning Papers, Dec. 16.

[MORN/NG CHRONICLE.]
We are glad to see that the country seems at
'length roused to the consideration of the case of
the starving Spaniards and Italians. The Lord
Mayor has received intimations from some of the
highest persons in the kingdom, that his humane
views upon the subject will find powerful sup-
poi tern where aid can most eiTectually be admi.
iiistered. Lot no time be lost—Never. did a
eilW require less deliberation..

Perhaps our friend 7'he courier, who lays claim
to a knowledge of the exact movements of
lli-
uisters, will this day inform us that Mr. Robin-
son, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, retires
from his situation before the Meeting of Parlia-
ment, and that he will be succeeded by Mr.
uskisson.—( Ibid.)

No express had bean received yesterday from
Pai is, and there was not any political news from
any foreign station. The Consols have been very
inanimate, and the few transactions which have
been effected in them were at the same prices for'
which they could have been purchased on Tues.
clay, 92+1, being the only quotation for the set.
clement on the 18th proximo. It is, however, the
general opinion that nothing is likely to occur in
Europe for some time in any degree calculated to
depreciate their value. At present it is the inte.
rest of Kings to permit mankind to enjoy repose,
and so long as this is the case, there is little
chance of the tranquillity of Europe being dis-
turbed. Hopes may therefore he, and are enter-
tained, that British National Securities will gra-
dually advance, and that the Chancellor of the
Exchequer will before long be enabled to create
a two and a half per cent. Stock on which he may
found a system of Finance by which one-half of
the actual amount of the National Debt may be
extinguished without the addition of an iota► to
the existing burdens of the people. This will be
one of the many benefits which the continuation
of peace must, from necessity, bestow on the
British nation.—(Mief.)

(Tlll 'PUBLIC LIMGEIO
It is the Earl. of Harrowby and Lord Sid-
month who retire, we Understand, from the Ca-
binet ; and, as there is no intention, it is said, of
up the vacancy occasioned by the retreat
of the latter, who had a voice, but no depart-
' oleo:, the appointment of a successor to Lord
Barrow by presents a number of di !lieu !ties. When
we say that it will give the ascendancy to one of
the parties, into which the Cabinet is now divid-
ed, the Public will at once see its importance.
Each party, of course, is exerting itself to the ut-
most to introduce one of its own friends; and the
issue Will pour It stream Of light into the pew.
tralla of our Government, by which -even the
vulgar will be enabled to see the spring by which
its wheels are moved. Should the nomination
fill! On one who is an opponent to political im-
provement and conciliation, it would be down-
right nonsense afterwards to speak of the popular
bias of our Government; It might be mentioned,
way of rhetorical flourish, or perhaps employed
to Justify some constitutional anomaly ; but as a
practical illustration it
.NV OU Id be absolutely ridi-
culous. If the public feeling were consulted,
every one is aware how the matter would be de-
dided ;or the national interests were considered, •
we know on what side the balance would turn.
in this view of it alone, the question assumes a
deep interest ; for the country has been Ha tier-
ing itself for some time that omr policy has
undergone a great and favourable change? 'and
that things would gradually come round to their
former state, when England, by a conformity be-
tween her measures and the spirit of her institu-
tions, presented ascetic or happiness such as had
been, perhaps, never equalled. This hope would
be dashed to the ground, were the vacancy in the
Cabinet to be filled up in a manner that should
sheer that all that has been said about liberality
lately, wets merely for show. The people of Ire-
land would be actually driven to despair; and
the brilliant prospects that were opened abroad,
would fade more rapidly than they .had arisen.
But our hopes on this occasion, we freely confess,.
far exceed our doubts ; and it is ow strong per-
suasion that the liberal party in the Cabinet will
triumph In the appointment of a successor to the
Earl of Barrow by.

[rivrisit ettEss.]
The Pali Papers of Monday crime to band
last night. The approach of the Session of the
Chambers is Infusing activity into the French
politicians, especially those who have ranged
themselves on the side or the Opposition. To
say the truth, if they were inclined to repose, the
violent measures pursued by the Ministry anti
the Jesuitical party would not leave them at
leisure to enjoy it. One of the objects of
attack with the ecclesiastical bigots is, the burial-
ground in the vicinity of Paris, well known
under the denomination of the Cemetery of
the Pere La Chaise. A pamphlet ha, Iwo, ex-
tensively and gratuitously distributed, styling it.
the " atheistical cemetery." Every artifice
re-
sorted to by the Jesuits to concentrate again, in
the hands of the Romish Church, all the dim-
gerous power it formerly possessed. For thii
purpose it is deemed necessary that the Priests
should have under their absolute controul the
places of sepulture ; and this pamphlet is an ex-
Pedient to excite the mistaken zeal of the fana-
tical portion of the community to regard s ith
disgust and horror that public usylum of death in
which almost ovary ;family lwrasioilttri.some mem-
ber interred. The ground of Note Lachnise 064
bought by the Municipal Authorities. by whom
the grants we made to individuals forthe recep-
tion of the,mortul remains of their relatives.—
It ig rather singular, that at the wry rno.,
meat this outrageous ,complaint is tiaistgl,
against this remelt-4y, a sort ,of prospeoltits
has been issuetl in Loutlem for iniyibir
institution, under the title of the Necropolis, ,or
City of the Dead. The disgusting finconveithmufts

resulting from the cramped space of the metropp-
, litan church-yards have long been felt and re-
gretted. Lord Stowell, in giving judgment on
the case respecting the allowableness of iron cof-
fins, observed, that the church-yards in London
could not be made 46 commensurate to the de-
mands of a large and increasing population: the
period of decay and dissolution did not arrive
fast enough, in the accustomed mpde of deposit-
ing bodies in the earth, to evacuate the ground
for the use of succeeding claimants." All con-
siderations of decency are, however, overborne
by the ecclesiastical agitators in France. Whe-
ther they succeed or not in restoring the un-
healthy custom of burying the dead in the midst
of the habitations of the living, we shall be glad
to lend our aid towards abolishing the practice
in this country.

[MORNING HERALD.]
Monday's Paris papers arrived last night. They
contain some articles of intelligence from Spain,
which, however, are unimportant. One state-
ment is, that bands of Constitutionalists have
taken the field, which, under the circumstances,
is neither desirable nor probable. The Curate,
or rather Rector Merino, is said to have taken
the field against them. Arrests, punishments,
and persecutions still continue, and with the me-
rit of impartiality—for Liberals and Royalists,
peasants, artisans, and grandees, are alike visited
with the tender mercies of the Apostolic Junta.
This Junta, not satisfied with directing every
thing from behind the curtain, is about to restore
the Inquisition. The name will be different, but
the power and its depositories the MM.—The
Paris Journals, especially those of the actual
Ministry, have taken up the cause of the Irish
Catholics with earnestness. They undoubtedly
have the right, even by way of retaliation. On
this side of the water we arrange with no little
self-complacency the politics of our neighbours.
We have afforded also precedents of interference.
Queen Elizabeth and Cromwell, the only Sove-
reigns who made England respected abroad, from
the accession of the House of Tudor to the Itevo-
lo►ion, interposed their influence and their arms
for the protection of foreign Protestants. There
was also, be it remembered—and be it. remem-
bered honoris causa—a Committee, in 1816, in
Loudon, for the protection of French Protestants
from persecution.

[MORNING POST.]
French Papers to the 14th inst. and tte Eloile
of Tuesday reached us last night by express.—
They contain intelligence from Madrid to the
3d, at which time the King's health was so en-
tirely re-established that no more bulletins were
to be issued. Prince Maximilian of Saxony, and
the Princess Amelia, his daughter, had not yet
arrived, although they had been daily expected
at the Escurial for a considerable time. They
are said to have been detained at Burgos " by
the wish of seeing the antiquities' bf that city."
We believe that a truer reason may i(n' assigned
for the delay. A father who comes from a dis-
tant land to embrace his daughter is not 'apt in
general to linger on the way in search of old ruins.
But a Prince who sees with his own eyes the
contempt and detestation
is viewed by his subjects, and who finds that SOD-
abandoned by the Allies whose arms fornt-
ed his only force, may well pause and ascertain
what will be the result of this desertion, before

he needlessly rushes into the midst of the dan-
ger. hail the French remained at Madrid,
Maximilian would long since have reached the
capital, but he stays at Burgos, where he is still
tinder their protection, as in a post of observa-
tion, and his sudden love for antiquities is only
a just and prudent regard for his own safety.—
The Madrid Gazette publishes new regulations
approved by the King, relative to the steps to be
taken by such of his subjects, conformably to
the Treaties of 1814 and 1815, have any claims
to make on the Royal Treasury of France. Be-
fore adopting any direct steps, they must have
those claims approved by the Committee of Li-
quidation.

[Num- Times.]
This day will be held a Special General Court
of the Equitable Society, to consider the motion
for referring to the Court of Directors various
matters connected with the disposal of the large
surplus eltisting beyond the present value of the
claims on the society. We need not repeat
what, we have already said of the great in•
terest felt in this question by a large part of the
Tho Equitable Society is, in point of
fact, n partnership of which the different
classes of Members stand in different relations to
the common Fundfati to their actual or contingent
interest4in it. The,Surplus applicable to their
benefit is said to amount to betwooO ,Two and
Three Millions Sterling ; and it may not
perhaps be easy to determine at once how this
vast sum is to hi, ;Worth:flied among those
who are entitled to a participation. One thing
is cortain, that the '4)Ciety will proceed with
that equity, with that tiwavroim., and whit
that prudence, which have hitherto charac-
terised all their measures. The motionvf to.
day is to refer the con,idoratioo or ttwc $o _
Wtect
to the Directors, with foil itistturtion, act°
the points on which (for the satisfalloriL of
On; Proprietary at large) they will have to re.
port. This mode" of proceeding'at Once attests
tiholenocu°rnflad of the:dkneeintegrity of t.
ft.gil(;(l:ati:tn6tluert n
ai'eiii who
have so ably administered the concerns of the
society ; and at the,:satne tuft it relieves the
!Ater from a situation of some delicacy in
k which they might have stood had they offered
their sentiment., to the prpprietogs,xithout being
exactly await. of the points"'nn which the latter
required in formation. If this motion' be carried
(of vihich, ftwn the onatamity, of the last Court,
there can be little douV)pthieDfrectors will .not,
,o 11) ha ve 'to report 3)t:Ui4,l4llitißk[iir 'rcbjection
of the measures submitied,ip,AaitAleliborationi
but they will have to.state-tiT'grottnds op whicli
their recommendation iii both prititeeds.
L Thus a document ot great importance, both
" Tor its general reasoning and for its par-
Ocular application, may be eipected to be
produced. he Members of tl4lPlirtneribip
*lone have a right to its benefits ; but their lute-

rests are to be considered on a broad scale,
weighing the future against the present, and em-
bracing both the actual and the contingent. A
singular method is observed by this Society to
insure a regularattendance at the General Courts
in points of time. Every one must have observed
how much time is lost at public meetings in gene-
ral by the delay of their commencement. If the
hour fixed be eleven, the business rarely begins
before twelve. To obviate this, in the Equitable
Society, every Member of the Court who arrives
before eleven o'clock receives a ticket entitling

him to half-a crown; so that those who attend
Punctually not only have the advantage of un-
derstanding all the business that is transacted,
but save their coach hire into the bargain.