The Sun.
London, England, 1841-08-10 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIRS Allow me a corner of your valuable.paper to
point out one of the many fallacies by which the advo-
cates of monopoly seek to delude their weaker brethren.
Two gentlemen of some consideration amongst the
Tories having (I suppose to neutralize the denunciations
contained in the Scripture againtt the oppressors of the
poor) re3)rteci to the sacred volume' for the purposes of
learning political economy, have discovered the astound-
ing fact that Tyre owed her submission to Ilerod from
her being compelled to import corn, and they tri-
umphantly point to this fact as an argument tbr the
maintenance of the present system of Corn-laws.
These learned Thebans " who have calumniated chro-
nology by a most preposterous anachronism," are a re-
negade Whig statesman and an ambitious parson.. Sir
James Graham having written against the Corn-laws all
his life, has now resorted to a clerical tutor for arguments
in support of his new-fangled opinions, with what suc-
success I will leave you to judge.
He quotes from the Prophets passages applicable to
Tyre when " her merchants were princes," which were
written about 400 8.C., as descriptive of her condition in
the year of our Lord 44, when those very prophecies had
been fulfilled,, when she had been " swept with the besom
of destruction," and when her site was a " mere rock
for fishers to dry their nets on." 'When the occurrence
referred to in the Acts took place, New Tyre, which
had been built near the site of the old city, was an insig-
nificant town, subject to Rome, under the immediate do-
minion of the Prmtor of Syria, and might well fear the
wrath of Herod, -the Vicegerent of the Emperor of
Rome. But their very argument may be turned against
them. Tyre, the mart of the East, in her days of greatest
prosperity imported all her own corn (Ezek. xxvii. 17)
from Judah and the land of Israel; they were thy merchants ;
they traded in thy market wheat of Paimay, and honey,
and oil, and balm, and so did every nation of import-
ance in the ancient: world—Rome from Sicily and
Africa, Athens from the Black Sea, Carthage from
Sicily and Spain, &c., and this fact is never alluded to
as a cause, even a secondary one, of their decline.
A misstatement of this kind can only have arisen from
ignorance, or a deliberate intention to deceive ; of the
latter I would fain acquit an English clergyman and a
would-be statesman ; of the former I fear, disgraceful as
it is to both, they must plead guilty. If the guides of
the flock aro so deficient, how benighted must be their
followers ! _ _

With respect for your zeal and activity in this and
every cause you advocate, believe me, your's truly,
King's Bench-walk, Temple. A BARRISTER.

THE SURREY' TH EA T R E.—This theatre hating
been originally built for an equestrian place of exhibi-
tion, possesses many facilities—as spacious stables, the
foundation of a ring under the pit, and a capability of
enlarging the audience part to a great extent. All these
aids have been skilfully rendered available by the ma-
chinist of the theatre, Mr. Lowe, who has constructed
(in the short space of time allowed by closing the house
one night), the very finest ring in the kingdom, enlarged
the pit to the extent of nearly 350 seats more than be-
fore, converted the solid stage into an ingeniously shift-
ing one, with gas-lights, orchestra, and more than ten
feet of the part before the proscenium, all made to re-
cede and give place for a perfect equestrian circle. Plat-
forms and moveable machinery of the most ponderous
nature, and of such strength, that,wlaole bodies of cavalry
are sustained by it, have been prepared, new scenery
painted, new appointments completed, and the whole
newly, brilliantly, and ingeniously lighted on a novel
plan, in a space of time scarcely sufficient apparently
for a tithe of the extraordinary preparations. Such en-
deavours to merit, deserve success.
A PICTURE OF DESOLATION.—At six
o'clock we rose upon a beautiful table of land, on which
stood another gigantic church. It was the seventh we
had seen that day ; and coming upon them in a region
of desolation, and by mountain-paths which hunian hands
had never attempted to improve, 'their colossal grandeur
and costliness were startling, and gave evidence of a re-
trograding and expiring people, This stood in a more
desolate place than any we had yet seen. The grass was
green, the sod unbroken even by a mule-path ; not a
human being was in sight, and even the gratings of the
prison had no one looking through them. It was, in
fact, a picture of a deserted village. We rode up to the
cabildo ; the door of which was fastened and the shed
barricaded, probably to prevent the entrance of straggling
cattle. We tore away the fastenings, broke open the
door, and, unloading the mules, sent Augustin on a fo-
raging expedition. In half an hour he returned with
one egg, being all that he was able to procure ; but he
had walked up the village, and the alcalde, an Indian
with a silver-headed cane, and several alguazils, with
long thin rods or wands of office, came down to examine
us. We showed them our passport, and told them where
we were going ; at which, with their characteristic in-
difference of manner, they expressed no surprise. They
could not read the passport, but they examined the seal
and returned it. We asked them for eggs, fowls, milk,
&c., to all of which they answered what afterwards be-
came but too familiar, "No hay"—" There is none"—
and in a few minutes they retired and left us to our-
selves.—Stephens's Travels in America.
CUSTOMS OF THE COUNTRY.—The proprie-
ties of life are matters of conventional usage. Our host
was a Don ; and when we presented our letter, he re-
ceived us with great dignity, in a single garment, loose,
white, and very laconic, not quite reaching his knees.
The dress of his wife was no less easy ; somewhat in the
style of the old-fashioned short gown and petticoat, only
the short gown and whatever else is usually worn under
it were wanting, and their place supplied by a string
of beads, with a large cross at the end. A dozen men
and half-grown boys, naked except the small covering
formed by rolling the trousers up and down in the man-
ner I have mentioned, were lounging about the house ;
and women and girls, in such extremes of undress, that
a string of beads seemed quite a covering for modesty.
Mr. C. and I were in a rather awkward predicament for
the night. The general reception-room contained three
beds, made of strips of cow-hide interlaced. The Don
occupied one ; he had not, much undressing to do, but
what little he had he did by pulling off his shirt. An-
other bed was at the foot of my hammock. I was dozing,
when I opened my eyes and saw a girl about seventeen
sitting side Way upon it smoking a cigar. She had a
piece of striped cotton cloth tied around her waist, and
falling below her knees ; the rest of her dress was the
same which nature bestows alike upon the belle of fashion-
able life and the poorest girl ; in other words, it was
the same as that of the Don's wife, with the exception of
the string of beads. At first, I thought it was something
I had conjured np in a dream ; and, as I waked up per-
haps I raised my head, for she gave a few quick puffs of
her cigar, drew a cotton sheet over her head and shoul-
ders, and laid down to sleep. I endeavoured to do the
same. I called to mind the proverb, that " travelling
makes strange bedfellows." I had slept pell-mell with
Greeks, Turks, and Arabs. I was beginning a journey
in a new country ; it was my duty to conform to the cus-
toms of the people, to be prepared for the worst, and to
submit with resignation to whatever might befal me.
l
As guests, it was pleasant to feel that the family made
no strangers of us. The wife of the Don retired with
the same ceremonies. Several times during the night
we were waked by the clicking of flint
and steel, and
t
saw one of our neighbours lighting a cigar. At day-
light the wife of the Don was enjoying her morning
good morn-
ing, slumber. While I was dressing she bade me -
from her shoulders,
and arose dressed for the day.---,tephens's Travels in
America.

.•••
THE LAND BELONGS TO THE
1.•,, .......
Pwere well that the landlords knew theirEpr°oPpLerE.s—ocilatl
position, and that is, that they are in law merely the
tenants of the community. This is no fiction. In law
the land belongs to the Queen—the whole land of the
country (see Blackstone) ; and as the Queen is nothing
more than the chief servant of the nation, it follows that
the whole land of the
of the whole people, the country
is in reality the property
l
violate their tenure, it is surely full time that the na-
tion merely holding it in
trust for the public
g°
And
shouldespeei especially
tioan
; accountand wofhetnheitrhesytewasaradbsohcilpy.
‘.
monopoly yis
present, this necessary when we find the
landlordscombining as atto uphold a
in legislation as well as in. land, and
using their power and influence as means of coercing and
oppressing thelndustrious classes of the community. It
!natters not whether the property now held by the land-
lord class was obtained justly or unjustly—whether
William, the Norman brigand, obtained a genuine right
to the soil by virtue of " conquering" the people who
then lived upon it, or whether Henry VIII., the " De-
fender of the Faith," who robbed the Church of its pos-
sessions, was justified in parcelling them among his
minions, pimps, panderers, and hirelings ;—the question
now is, should the community renounce their natural
and indefeasible right to live upon their own soil, and to
possess and enjoy the fruits of their own skill, industry,
and labour ?—Leeds Times.
Last week, at the Chippenham ploughing-
match dinner, Mr. Little said he was glad to see that
bigotry and prejudice were fast giving way, and that
three-horse ploughs were becoming more rare every
year. The Society had been established five years, and
he had never yet seen a three-horse plough win a prize ;
as it was necessary- that farming operations should be
carried on in the least expensive and most effective man-
ner, it was clear that the third horse was a waste of la-
bour. Mr. Little also said he had attended the meeting
of the Royal Agricultural Society at Liverpool, and
could assure the company that if the worst ploughing at
Chippenham had not been better than the best ploughinc.-
. there, the judges would not have felt themselves justifies
in awarding the prize.—Southampton raper.

MORNING SUN.

•
EARTHQUAKES IN GREAT BRI.
TAIN AND THE BRITISH ISLANDS.
Although earthquakes and their attendant and awful
phenomena are happily of rare occurrence in ourcountry, '
slight shocks or tremblemens de terra have been' moue ire- A
quent in the British Islands within the last fifty or sixty
years, than we supposed until we perused an article on
the subject in " Jameson's Edinburgh New Philosophical
Journal" (April to July, 1841.) The title of the paper is
as follows :—" Notices of Earthquake shocks felt in
Great Britain, and especially in Scotland, with inferences
suggested by those notices as to the causes of such shocks
by David Milne, Esq., F.R.S.E., M.W.S., F.G.S., &c."
The chronological table of Mr. Milne enumerates the
various shocks of earthquakes felt in Great Britain from
the year 1608 to October, 1839, and it is particularly in-
teresting on account of the coincidences which it exhi-
bits between the subterraneous convulsions in our own
islands, and similar, but more formidable phenomena in
other and distant countries. Such coincidences have
often been noticed, and it has been supposed by some
writers that there are subterranean communications con-
necting all the countries of the earth. When the dread-
ful earthquake took place at Lisbon on the fatal Ist of
November, 1755, the workmen in the Derbyshire mines
were much alarmed. " The rocks that surrounded them
were so much disturbed that soil, &c., fell from the joints
or fissures, and they likewise heard violent explosions, as
it were of cannon." It is also an extraordinary fact that
the shock of an earthquake 'experienced in the West
India islands on the 23d September was sensibly felt at
the same time at Algiers, which is, perhaps, the most
striking coincidence of the kind ever known.
On examining the elaborate enumeration of slight or
greater shocks of earthquake which have been witnessed
in the British islands during the term already specified,
the extraordinary frequency of the phenomenon at
Comrie, in Perthshire, in Scotland, must excite the sur-
prise of the most superficial observer. Comrie is a
Highland parish, remarkable for its beautiful and ro-
mantic scenery. "It is thirteen miles in length by about
nine in breadth, comprj,sing several glens at the head of
Strathearn ; Loch Earn,a fine expanse of water eight
miles long, bounded by lofty hills, and its banks fringed
with valuable wood ; and Ben Voirloch, a mountain rising
to the height of 3,200 feet above the level of the sea."
It appears that this spot has been visited with between
seventy and eighty light or ruder shocks of earthquake,
from the year 1783 to 1828, an extraordinary, and. in
Great Britain, an unprecedented circumstance, which
merits the particular attention of geologists and scienti-
fic men.

In aonclusiort, we subjnin a few desultory paragraphs
from Mr. Milne's tables :

" 1608, Nov. B.—People of Aberdeen, about 9. P.M.,
dreadfully alarmed by an earthquake, on account of
which a day of fasting and humiliation was appointed
by the magistrates and clergy. The particular sin, on
account of which the scourge was thought to have been
sent, was salmon fishing on Sunday, and accordingly the
proprietors of salmon fishings were called before the
Session and rebuked. ' .Soine (says the Session record)
promist absolutely to forbear, both by himself and their
servands, in time coming ; others promist to forbear
upon condition subcreyvant, and some plainlie refusit
any way to forbear."' . _

1750, April 2.—Liverpool, at 10, p.m. ; Chester,
Downing, near liolywell, in Flintshire, at half-past 10,
p.m. It reached Wrexham to the south, and Lancaster
to the north—in all, seventy miles. From Flintshire to
Stockport and Altriugham. The earthquake extended
over a district forty miles N. and S., and ninety miles
E. and W. Direction said to be N.W. to S.E. A per-
son went into the open air during the shock, and saw
multitudes of blood-red rays converging from all parts of
the heavens to one dark point, but saw no luminous
body. The phenomenon disappeared in fifteen minutes.
(Gent's May.) A person at Liverpool who felt it, says,
`I was in a sitting posture, and the motion I felt was
like that of a vessel fulling from the .top of a wave, and
rising again upon the next.' "*
" 1755. Oct. 20.—At Scallaway, in Zetland, the sky
being very hazy, as is usual before thunder and light-
ning, there fell a black dust over all the country, though
in greater quantities in some places than in others. It
was very much like lamp black, but smelled strongly of
sulphur. People in the fields had their faces, hands,
and linen blackened by it. The same phenomenon was
observad in Orkney, where it received the appellation of
' black snow :'
iand on the 23d of the same month, a
shower of dust fell ou a ship twenty-five leagues from
Shetland."

" 1755, Nov. I.—At Madeira, at half-past 9, n.m.,
there were three shocks (With a few minutes between_
each), felt at Lisboit at 35 minutes past 9, a.m. The
sea rose on the coast theke from 40 to 50 feet perpen-
dicular, in three successive waves. The sea retired first."

" Same day, geese swimming in a pond gave alaron
before the water was observel to be agitated."
" Same day, at Tangiers and Morocco, the earth
opened and swallowed up 8,000 persons. At Cadiz a
wave, about sixty feet high, dashed on shore about 11
a.m., and that was followed by three others. At Swan-
sea a wave came a mile and a half up the river ; at 45
minutes past six p.m., after two hours ebb, with a great
noise, fell back suddenly."
" 1761, March 31.—At Dublin, at six o'clock

near dead low water, the tide suddenly rose about two
feet, and then retired. This was repeated several times:"
" 1789, Dec. 30.—The same day with the earthquake
at Bergo di: San Sepulchro, in Italy, three distinct shock s
of earthquake were felt at the house of Parson's-green,
on the north side of Arthur's Seat, Edinburgh."
Mr. Egerton Smith, when a child, has often heard
his father mention the sensation he experienced at feel-
ing. the slight shock here noticed.. .
The following paragraph, originally from the French
scientific publications, may be very appropriately intro-
duced on the present occasion :
EAnTnQuAxEs.--Accorcling to a research made for
thirteen centuries—namely, from the third to the six-
teenth—by Perrey, and presented to the French Aca-
demy of Sciences, it appears that they have been in diffe-
rent months, as in the following table:—
January 21. April 14. July 9. October -.17.
Februaryl2. May 12. August l4. November 10.
March 10. June 13. September 15. December 98.
Thus the months of January and December have been.
the most fruitful in earthquakes, and July the least.
Winter has produced 43, spring 39, summer 31, and
autumn 55 ; also, the six months from October to March

have given 112, and from April to September 79.
Subsequently to the year 1839, we understand that
numerous slight shocks of earthquake have been expe-
rienced at Comrie.—Liverpool Mercury.

LESSONS IN YUNMANSHIP.---Mr. T. Hood,
professor of punmanship, begs to acquaint the dull and
witless that he has established a class for the acquire-
ment of an elegant and ready style of punning, on the
pure Joe-Millerian principle. The very worst hands are
improved in six short and mirthful lessons. As a speci-
men of his capability, he begs to subjoin two conun-
drums by Colonel Sibthorpe