The Sun.
London, England, 1812-03-03 00:00:00

&OILY.

PALtiltotO BAY, JAN. 2t.-.-Since the appoint*
ment of Lord Wm. Bentinck as Captain-a-neral of
all the troops in the island., Major-Genera! M'Far-
lane has been appointed to command at this place.
The Queen has been in a sad rage at the fugitive
Princes returning. There were more than ri'o
carriages went out of Palermo, on the Montreal, to
meet Prince Belmonte and the rest of the Princes,
who have not, however, arrived, owing to the bad-
ness of the weather; as yesterday we had a dreath.,
ful gale of wind, when the Chatham transport,
Captain Weldon, went ashore, with an ordnance
store-ship, and both must be lost. I The E.perviei'
gun-brig cut away her masts. The Millbrd and
other ships in the Bay were in a' perilous situation.
The Swallow is arrived this day frOm the By of
Naples ; and the Espoir from Utica, with the
Prince de Achi. The Swallow Was. chased by a
French frigate, which the Menelaus, Sir Petet
Parker, went in cha9e of.

Lord Wm. Bent mck was to have gone to Messina .
this week, in the illiy'ord, to inspect the troops, &C.
but the Sicilians were in such alarm and ferment,
lest they should, front the want of his presence,
fall a sacrifice to the rage of ihe Quten's party, that'
hi Lordship gave up his intentions 'for the present.
Had not the matters in dispute been adjusted, ihtt -
massacre would have been dreadful, train the ani•
mosity the Sicilians bear to the Queen's party.--4
Lord Wm. Bentinck is held in the highest estima-
tion for his firm and judicio.us 'condu6t in this busi-
ness. The increased duties on our merchants' goods
are already taken off.

Letters have been received froM Malta o 1 the
25th ultimo; they contain nothing new of a poi,-
tical nature, but state that the exchange had, risen
17 per cent. and was at that period as high as 6.8-.
PROMOTION BY PURCllA§R.—Returrs of all Offi-
cers prepared to purchase Promotion ate to be rep+
lady transmitted from each regiment and corn: in
the service, on the 25th days of March, June,
September, and December, 10 each year, to the
Commander in Chief's Military Secretary, Horse
Guards; London. The Returns must be prepared
according to 'the prescribed form, and must p Ird-
culatly state where the money of each individual
who is desirous of purchasing is lodged, or to be
obtained.
The Nottingham Riper of Saturd.”, does not
make any mention of' disturbances during the last
week : but a disposition to tiot, we regret to
state, has manifested itself near Huddersfi
in Yorkshire. Last Saturday week a number
.of
persons assembled near the premises of Mr. Joseph
Hirst, of Marsh, with their faces blacked, and
their persons in other respeas disguised,' and having
forcibly obtained admittance into the dressingi-shops,
proceeded to destroy all the 'machinery used in the
dressing of cloth, such as dressing frames, sheats,and
other implernents;used in what are commonly called
gig-mills, the whole of which they coin pletely demo-
lishe.d. The same, or a similar party, then proceeded
to the workshops of Mr. J. Balderson of Crossland
Moor, where michinery of a sihair description is
employed upon which they committed similar de-
predations, completely destroying or rendering use-
less the, whole of the machinery. Thedepr,-dationi-
appeared to the MagistrAeslo be of so alarming ,
nature, that they were induced to apply to'Getterol
Vise, at Beverley, for military, aid, who dispatched
an express to Leeds,• with art order for the troop of
Scotch Greys stationed there, to proceed immedi-
ately •tO Huddersfield. It not thing t hoogl4-expe,-
client to leave Leeds without ;military, a squadron `of
cavalry was marched from Shetfild, and arriv4d
about nine o'clock on Tuesday morning ; and in the
afternoon of the same day a squadron of the 2d Ora-
goln C'Tuards, stationed at the barracks near York,
~,ere dispatched to Huddersfield, to relieve the
Scotch Greys, who returned to Leeds on TiiklrB lay.
A divi;ion of the Scotch nova's has passed thro'
Chichester, on their route to Portsmouth, for ern.-
barkation.

The exhibition of cattle in Smithfild yesterday
evinced, in a striking manner, the highly improved
management which the spirit of agricultural im-
provement has introduced into this country. The
sheep attracted particular notice, and the Merino
breed got up, from the day's show, full twenty per
cent, in general estimation.

Wild rabbits throughout the country
have, we are informed, alarmingly increased since
they were put under the protection of ►he game.
laws. The consequence is, that held crops of
almost all kinds suffer greatly. Wheat (espe-
cially if it be sown on thin gravelly land) is
their favourite winter food ; the damage' done by
theirs to such crops is incalculable, many acres of
this most valuable grain in the different counties be-
ing annually much injured, or totally destro.ie(l,. Sri
the great detriment of the farmer,-and most seriotts
loss to the public.

The fecundity of the rabbit is truly astonishing. It
breeds seven times in the year, and generally-pt o-
duces eight young at a lime ; from which it is ealcu-
la,-ed that one pair may increase, in the course of four
years, to the amazing number of 1,274,840 ; so that,
it frequent reduelions were nth made in various
ways, there is reason to apprehend they ;souk soon
ekceed the means of their support, And over- run the
face of the country.—lu Spain they formerly in-
creased to such a degree, a's to becorne so noxious,
that the inhabitants were obliged to procure tenets
from Africa to destroy them.
The fruits of the earth ought not to given up a
prey to vermin, especially at a rime when our crops
are defective, and the means of procuring a foreign
supply is both so difficult and unprofitable ! Rabb is
are the greatest enemy of the planter; their ravages
among young plantations are well-known : frus-
trating, where they are numerous, all attempts
of the kind. Young hedges and the tops
of seedling trees (which might furnish a fu-
ture navy), are to them a choice repast, disbarking
those whose tops they cannot reach ; and. wire
they are suffered in a wood, and occasionally
shot at there, the trees seldom escape being so Is.
ccrated by.. the shot, that their growth ;is im-
peded, and the timber turns out .inferior. To all
this may added, their burro-ws not on;y endanger-
the limbs of cattle, but waste and disfigure the
surface of the ground. Under these impressions
we think that something should be dont, 11,, th.

LA iv REPORT.

COURT OF KING'S BENCH, MARCH z.

SEEGROVE y.. WILSON.' •-•
Tis was an action brought by a Gentleman re-
sidi7eg in Charles-sqoare, Horton, against a Mer-
chant
-in Frederick's-place, I,;r. damage done to the
plaintiff's gig, by the negligence of the defendant's
coachinarrindriving against it. The accident 'hap-
pened in the road between Ball's Pond and Kings-
land, but the evidence on both sides was most con-
tradiainry ; the plaintiff's son and his servant, who
were thrown out of the gig by the- concussion,
testifying that they could not go nearer to their pro.-
per side of the road, and the defendant's coachman
cwearing that he could. not have gone above a foot
tearer to his, although the road was eighteen feet
wide, and there were no other carriages in the way :
two witnesses estimating the rate at which the
plaintiff's son was driving-at nine or ten miles an
hour, and three at five and a halt ; and the ev
dence on the plaintiff's part proving, that the defen-
dant's coachman drove his -hind wheel into the
plaintiff's gig ; whereas that on the part of the de-
fendant went to say, that the track of his wheels
spewed at the time that he deviated from and not
towards the plaintiff's carriage, and that the plain-
tiff's son drove against the coach, to his own de-
struction, mistaking the left-hand rein for the right.
It appeared, however, that both the defendant's
coacnman and his female servant, %rho was in the
catriage, at, first refused to give the plaintiff's sun
their, master's address, and the former required him
to deliver his address fist, for which there could
be no pretence, as the coach sustained no damage
whatever ; and the Jury gave the plaintiff a verdict
for the amount of the repairs, 71. 3s, Gd.
Lord ELLENBOROUGO decided that the son of the
plaintiff needed not to be released by his father, be-
fore he could give evidence. No action could be
maintainable by the father against the son : the loin
of the gig was gratuitous, and the son had no duty
to perform, as a servant might have. Assrimpsit
would not lie that the son had undertaken carefully
to drive, &c.

Another obje6tion was also made on the part of
the defendant, that his coachman was the servant of
a jobman, and that the action should therefore have
been against him, and rot against Mr. Wilson. Bet
it appeared, that the man boarded at the defendant's
table, and Lord ELLENBOROUGH therefore held that
he was in part paid by the defendant, and he aced
under his diredion entirely,