The Sun.
London, England, 1823-08-15 00:00:00

if A w -LIFE ASSURANCE SOLI ET Y,
qratititig ASSURANCES upon LIVES and SUlt-
v(ol,4ilPs.
OFFICE—No. (if). LINcoLN'S INN FIELDs,
The ittibieriheit Capitol of this Society hi One
Acsticsoces arc dr:, by t hi.. Society up, the Liaas ref
PCIAtI,I4 in the Army,'t he Navy, the Church, the Lew, end
in every Other stittimt Life.

•As lit.rge n prepOrtion or the savingt rut shall be deemed
consistent with the secnrity of the Society, will be periodi..:
cally diviiletl between the Assured and the Proprietors,- as
tollowa :—Fonr-fiftlis will be added to the Stunts specified in
the Policies effected for the whole term of Life to tie payable
at the expiration of Life ; and the remainiOtzdne-fifth will be
carried over to the Proprietors' Guarantee Fund.
Arrangements have been made, under a hich Assurarqes
nosy be effected Num the Lives of Person% retudent tut
derahle distances front Lioofott, withinrt the payment of a
fine for non-appearance at the Oilier.
Attendance daily at the Office, front-Ten till Four, where
a Prospectus tgrirtis), with every other Information respecting
the Society, may be obtained.
n- The Board Days are on Tuesdays and Fridays,-at
Two o'clock.

JAMES ANDERTON, tiecronry.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

COURT OF CHANCERY, Atm 14.
COURLAY v. TUE MIZE OF SOMERSET.

Mr. G.Turiay--renewed-hls aiTtfreSs in this case at the sittin'g
of the Court, and continued it till three o'clock in the after..
noon. He read through, and oecasiotiully commented upon,
all the previous proceedings in the courts of lavi and equity.
A considerable portion .of his xemarks went in depreeen
the Duke of Somerset, the witnesses on the trial, and the law-
yers employed on both sides.
Mr. Haul!
,interposed, to shield the character of, his noble
client from aspersions which were undeserVed, and incouipa-
tibia with the proceedings of the Court.
The Loan GUANO:LIAR suggested; that some allowance
must be made to the circumstances and feelings of the plaintiff,
whom, however, he checked in a course of rather ungracious
reflections cast upOn the Duchess of Somerset, touching female
dominion in matrimony.
Mr. HAUT rePlied.
The Loan CHANCEL Loft took a view of the whole of the
proceedings. Ile observed, that the appeal should have been,
brought earlier, heing•against the original decree of the Mas-
ter of the Rolls. Whereas the Noble defendant, had consent-
ed to go to trial, had paid the six hundred pounds awarded
by the verdict, and had gone to trial a second time on his
appeal against the verdict. His Lordship, however, would
not undertake to determine on a questionwhich was comprised
in papers of such extent and bulk as those in the cause, with-
out reading those papers through ; and he could not, injustice
to the other suitors, who had been longer before the Court,
undertake to read them through in the course of the next two
days. The ease must stand over for the present, and he svoidd
deal with it on the first opportunity at the next sittings of the
Court. With respect to the observations of Mr. Gourley on
the characters of individuals, he must declare that for the greater
part, they were calumnies, and the publication of thou would
render them highly libellous. He had only permitted them to
go on to the length that Mr. Getirlay had carried them, from a
regard to the distressed and anxious circumstances under which
Mr. Gourley had appeared. before the Court.
The proceedings took up the time till five o'clock.

ATTEMPTED SVICIDE.—A female, genteelly at-
tired, and who turned out to be a teacher, took
a hackney coach at the stand in Leicester-square,
yesterday morning, and desired to be driven to
Duke-street, Oxford-street. The coachman, in,
Grosvenor-square stopped to ask the number,
whets he found her senseless at the bottom of the
coach. Ho immediately drove her to the watch-
house, when it was discovered by Mr. `Dolby, a
surgeon, that she had taken a quantity of opium.
powerful emetics were administered, which re-
lieved the stomach from the nauseous draught,
and saved her life. She must have taken the
poison before she got into the coach. She was
conveyed to her relatives in Maryleboue-lane, ici
a very languid state, without the cause of the
rash attempt being known.

Fon. THE SUN.

Itatusgaft, Aug. 13, 1823.

Ma. EDITOR—The name of Mr. Jons HALL,
his 31AJESTY'S Hanoverian Consul-General, being well known
to your Readers, I am sure you and they will be gratified
equally on being informed that this Gentleman has been no-
minated, by our amiable and disinterested Patron of this
Royal harbour, as one of the COMMittCC or Trustees for its
management.

This selection by Sir Wm. ClatT Is, of a man so eminently
qualified for a Trustee of Ramsgate Harbour Committee, as
Mr. Joist r Hau.,refiects the greatest credit on the honourable
Baronet; and whilst carping people here, who, from their agd,
property, experience, or characters; Vainly hoped for the-last
twenty years to arrive at such kdistinction, 1431 v been dim:p-
, po;nted, the public at large will doubtless be benefitted by the
preient appointment, in that .as Mr. h Ar.r, has been so con.
spicuous in promoting the late inquiry into the affairs of the
Trinity Corporation, and the consequent reformatioh of a few
trifling errors &judgment, and also in the expenditure of the
Ramsgate Trust.
lie will now be enabled to probe all the accounts to the
bottom, and render to his country yet greater services than he
has already done, by promoting a still farther reduction in
light and harbour dues and other charges on its commerce.—
Report adds, that Mr. HAT. los objected to these magnifi-
cent turtle feasts annually given at the public expence by the
Trustees to the elder brethren of the Trinity Corporation, on
auditing the accounts and surveying the works of the harbour,
recommending for the future the expence being paid by the in.
dividuals. I sincerely wish the rumour of Mr. JOriti lIALt
being appointed to the first vacancy as a Commissioner of his
:Majesty's Customs may be equally true—it is due to hint for
his manly and useful assistance to the Committee on Foreign
Trade.

In congratulating the Ship-Owners of the country on 'Mr.
JOHN Hates distinction, I have only further to remark on
the noble and disinterested conduct of our Trustees in adopting
into their family a man whose evidence has done more to reduce
their expenditure and income than all other exertions which
have been used for that purpose ; and I am sure the public
must appreciate the motives which have led to the measure.—
Vide, "SIR ROBERT WALPOLE."

TIIE FINE ARTS.

TAB WORKS OF CANOVA.

All Europe has admitted the genius of CA-
NONA, and he needs not the test of the hundred
years to be secure of his rank amongst the most
eminent Sculptors'of any age. His classic purity,
his intense perception of the beautiful, his taste,
judgment, and imagination in design, his ex-
quisite finish in execution, combine to produce
an effect to which the most untutored spectator
cannot be insensible. lie feels rather than
judges, and his homage is not the less honour-
able because it is involuntary. No one possess.
ed of the faculty of discerning beauty can look
at a statue of Canova's, without those peen-
liar sensations of affectionate admiration which
loveliness of form or character can alone
inspire. Every effort to give greater publicity
and consequently greater influence to such works
merits the encouragement of all lovers of the arts,
and it is gratifying that a successful attempt has
been made in our own country to bring within
the reach of the public at large the means of esti-
mating the n'eneral characteristics of the produc-
tions of Canova.i it will be immediately per-
ceived that 'ye allude to the outline engravings of
Mr. Henry Moses, published by Mr. Prowett., of
the Strand. Nothing can skew more clearly how
little of Canova's success depended on mere de-
licacy of workmanship, than the effect which is
brought out by these bare outlines. This effect
is to be attributed, it is true; in a great measure
to the skill of the artist, whose engravings are
bold, flowing, easy, and spirited ; yet all his abi-
lity would have been unavailing but for the corn.
mending excellence of the originals from which
his sketches are taken.

Parts IX. and X. of the work appeared on the
Ist of this month ; they are not loss valuable than
those which hare preceded them. We have first a
remarkably fine line-engraving, by Worthington,
front Fahre's picture of Canova in his Workshop
then an engraving of the simple and elegant monu-
ment to the memory of Count Tadini of Cremona.;
followed by three views of the Statue of the Mag.
da len—a study of infinite value. To these succeed
the Three Dancing Girls; the first in the full spirit
of the dance, with her arms raised above tier head,
and cymbals in her hands—the second niore lan-
guid
, and with an air of fatiguethe third, as theyw
are arranged here, with her hands rt-sting on her
sides, and holding up
t her d rapery, full of life and
"
nature, more brisk and more like a dratzatrice than
the other two, but riot so Grecian nor so nymph.
like. The Venus and the Tattenedes are the last
two engravings. The former is exquisitely lovely
--no attitude can be more expressive Of modesty
shrinking from observation, nothing more per-
fectly fendeine, tender, and delicate. Canova
insisted that this statue should not be placed
whore the Medecean Venus before stood. Great
as were the advances he had made, his modesty
and discernment prevented him front placing him.
self on a level ts ith the great Masters of anti-
quity. The Ptdamedes is a noble specimen of
the human form, full of majesty) 'Power, and
grandeur.
engravings
Annexed to each of these are de-
scriptive remarks from tire Italian of ttr countess
Ibrizzi. They are merely Panegyrical, and of
little value; but written With feeling and aoi.„
mation. Able critical ' remarks, pointing out the
faults and peeuliaritieB, as swell as praising the
importance of the work. VerY few men, beauties of the scuptor, would have trebled ale
holy-
ever, are competent to the task and it is much
better that it should not be attempted
than that
it should be imperfectly performed.

FOR THE SUN.

RUSH-BEARINGS.

Ma., EDITOR —ln your Paper of August 13 is
an extract from the Westmoreland Gazette, giving
an account of the ancient custom of ltusu-nEmt-
iNd at Ambleside. In that extract it is suggest-
ed, that," it is the remnant of an ancient custom,
which formerly prevailed, of strewing the church
fioors with rushes, to preserve the feet from,
damp." This idea, however, gives place to one
more likely to be correct ; namely, " that its
origin may be referred to the days of Heathen-
ism, as a representative of some offering to their
Gods ; and if, in my calling the attention of our
country people to the following remarks upon
the subject, they shall reel gratified, the little
labour they havt. given me will be amply repaid.
I think the custom of Rush-bearing is undoubt-
edly of Jewish origin ;- not because Moses, the
great lawgiver, was preserved by Providence by
means of the . bull-rushes, nor because after he
was born, and had arisen into power, that the
Lord said," And when ye reap the harvest of
your land, thou shalt not snake clean riddance of
the corners of thy fields when thou reapest,
ther shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy har-
vest : thoti shalt leave them unto the poor and
to the stranger ;" not on these accounts is the
custom to be attributed to a Jewish birth, but
,because the harvest season was gaily celebrated,
anti ushered in by the •trihes.
We are informed, that at the gathering in of
the harvests among the Heathens, they adopted
the ancient customs and preparatory feasts of the
Jews, and therefore it is not unlikely, hut pro.
bable, that our " harvest homes" are imitated
from the Heathen customs, since they very
strongly resemble each other. In a book now
laying before me is the following passage, which
approaches in description so near to that in the
,c.azeVe, that if we allow our northern country-
people to. have fallen into our error as to the
time when " The Rush-bearing" ought correctly
to take. place, the account now given may per-
haps give a dawn of intelligence as to the birth
of this ancient custom. " YaCitla (aliter vacuum, a
vacando, the tutelar deity, as it were,of rest anti
ease,) among the antients, was the name of ire
goddess to whom the -rustics sacrificed at. Use
conclusion of the harvest. Moresin tells us that
Popery, in imitation of this, brings home her
chaplets of corn, which she suspends on poles;
that offerings are made on the altars of 'her tutu.
tar gods, while thanks are returned for the col-
lected stones, and prayers are put up 'for ftiture
rest and ease. Images too of straw, or stubble,
he tells us, are wont to be carried about cut this
occasion ; and in England he himself saw the
country people bring home in a cart (t suppose
from a field) a figure made of corn, round
which men and women, promiscuously sing-
ing, followed a piper or a drum ; ti vestige of,
this custom is still preserved in some places in
the North ; not half a century ago they used
every where to dress .up something similar to the
fiAnre above -described at the end of harvest,.
which was called a Kern Baby; evidently a cOr-•
ruption of corn baby or image, (Ceres). In an
ancient Roman calendar. on the eleventh of June,
is written this observation : " The season of
reapers, and their custom with rustic pomp:"
To this may be added, that it is to be remember.
ed that all nations have regarded the harvest and
vintage seasons with particular demonstrations
1 of festivity ; we yet say " A man has made his
harvest, A.e." when we would imply that he has
been successftil ; and the French have a proof 'of
the same tendency, though differently expressed
" A man has made ..elugust,"tqfc.which latter expres.
sion proVes AUGUST to have been the acknowledged
titne of in-gathering. The drawings that are to
-be found in the Saxon calendars, yet preserved,
characterize August by the appearance of a car-
ter standing near a loaded cart of corn, &c. ; in
later times, men mowing grass was the emblem
of' the month,. and still nearer our own period,
but of old 'late, August was delineated as a young
man with a fierce countenance, or rather heatet4
dressed with a flame-coloured garment, hearing
a victim and crowned with a garland of wheat,
having on his arm a basket of summer fruits and
a sickle stuck through his belt. The sign of the
Zodiac, which the Sun now reaches, is Virgo, or
a representation of a young Woman.---7
k. S. X.

P.S. Perhaps the Westmorland Gault* could
ascertain w hat the villagers themselves intend _to
celebrate by their procession and Rush-bearing ;
if they yielded no information, the above account
perhaps will be somewhat satisfactory.

Aria Houssaie's Memoirs, vol 1,
page 43.5, a little circumstance, is recorded concerning the de.
latation of the unfortunate Ann Boleyn, which ilhistrates an
observation of Hume. -our historian notices that her Curti-
tioner was a Frenchman of Calais, who was supposed to be tin-
commonly skilful ; it is probable that the following
dent May have been proved by tradition in France, front the
account of the executioner himself. Anne Boleyn being on the
scafibld, would not consent to have her eyes covered with a ban-
tinge, saying that she had no fear of death. All that the Ali.
raster, who assisted At lien execution, could obtain ftom her,
Was, that she would shut her eyes. But as she was opening
them at every moment, the executioner was fearful of missing
his aim, and was obliged to invent an expedient to behead the
Queen. lie drew ofrhis shOeS, and approached her silently ;
while ha was at her left hand, another person
.advanced at ••her
tight, who made a great noise in walking, so that this eircum,
stance drew the attention of Anne; hhe turned her face front
the executioner, who was enabled by this circumstance to
Witte the littad blow without being disarmixl by that spirit of
affecting resignation which shone in the eye of the lovely. but
.unfortunate '

The black man who 'Was so disabled htst
August, by the wiplosion of . gunpowder at the Trinity pier,
whilst tiring it soluta.on his departure from :Scotland,
hos now receiyol a pension of 15ti. a.tlay from Government.
Ile had become a complete mendicant since the accident, not
being able to make any use of his bands ; and he was almost
in a state of starvation when be heard of thjs benevolent pro.
v^ ion fur his future support.—(Etilnintrgh Obfer.ver.)