The Sun.
London, England, 1824-10-21 00:00:00

koRN[NG HERALD.]

Our renders will remember that on Mr. Fauntle-
roy's second examination, at Marlborough-street,
some observations, not of a very courteous
Niniaatugriset,rawteesreWrler
triatedd
ctoomhnalviteteldwehliimm,
arteklabtiyvetitioe
a visit said to have been made to him by Mr.
Hanson, in his character of one of the Visitors of
the gaol. • These observations of Mr. Hanson were
answered at the time, in a letter which appeared
in most of the papers, and which placed his con-
duct in a very satisfactory point of view ; and
there, one would have supposed, the matter
would have ended, if it did not produce some
apology for the imputed harshness of the mis-
statement. This, however, appears not to have
been the ease. Mr. Hanson, in a long letter to
the ralitor of a Morning Paper (an extract from
which we gave yesterday), has stated, that in
consequence of this he was, on the County. Day
of the last Sessions, removed from being one of
the Visiting Magistrates, an appointment which
he had held for many years ; and he goes on to
state the ground upon which he thinks the ori-
ginal affront was put upon him, viz. that he had in-
terfered last year with the Secretary of State (after
in vain soliciting a reconsideration of the matter
from the Committing Magistrate), in obtaining a
free pardon for two persons who had been impro-
perly committed, under the Vagrant Act, from
the same office. The fact that the persons in
question obtained an instantaneous free pardon
from the Crown, is a sufficient proof that they
must have been improperly committed. So far,
therefore, Mr. Manson appears to have been right.
And as to his subsequent interview with M r. Faunt-
leroy, If it was wrong (which does not appear to
have been the case),it was at least fit that his eon-
'net should have been fairly examined, and he al-
lowed to defend it, before a sentence of degrade-
Lion was thus passed upon him in his absence. If

• •
this is*the way in which Magistrates, both in and
out of Sessions, treat each other, they must not
wonder if the lookers-on give their opinion of the
matter ; and we confess that it appears to us
neither very just nor seemly, that men who hold
their authority in trust for the public, should act
towards each other with any thing like personal or
vindictive feelings. If it is to be understood that
the visiting Magistrate of a prison, because he does
what he conceives to be his duty, is to he hunted
out of society by these who may not take the
same view of the matter—if it is to he contended
that erroneous commitments are to be connived
at by Visiting Justices, lest they should offend

their magisterial brethren, what man of ho-
nour and integrity is likely to undertake
the office ; or what protection or redress is
there for persons who may happen to be
immured in prisons through the ignorance,
the hurry, or the mistakes of Magistrates ? Thus
far Mr. Hanson's CRUSE! is that of Iho public.

There are other parts of Mr. Hanson's statement
which, as
,they do not materially concern the
tuhlic, we .would dismiss with this remark, that

it would seem from them that there are persons
who'would not injure themselves or their calling,
were they now and then to spare an hour or two
from Burn's, Justice, to con over a page or two
of Chesterfield, or of some other treatise on good
manners.

SERIOUS A CCID eNr.—While Wynnes, the Bris.
tol Youth,-and the veteran Spencer, were fight-
ing the second battle on Tuesday, two persons
were standing on
the roof of a post-chaise, When
on a sudden, from the shouting in the ring, the
horses took fright, and made a sudden start off;
Both ,were precipitated in a moment from 18 feet
to the ground, one falling upon the other. The
undermost was taken in a senseless state to Fish-
wick.booth. There was no medical aid at hand,
and we have since heard that he died on the road
home. The horses drew the post-chaise among
a cluster of gigs, and did much mischief.

THE LATE DR. OUDNEY,
THE AFRICAN TRAVELLER.

( From the Glasgow Courier.)
We insert an interesting letter from Lieutenant
CLAPPEIITON, regarding the death of his fellow
African traveller, Dr. OUDNEY, on the western
frontier of Boman, in the interior of Northern
Africa. His journals and papers, which must be
extremely interesting, he has recommended to
the care'and revision of Mr. Barrow, of the Ad-
miralty. The immediate cause of his death
opens to our view a new and astonishing feature
in the geography of interior Africa. Instead of
burning sands and a country arid from heat, we
learn that the cold was so severe, that it froze
the water skins to a solid mass. The part where
this took place, if former accounts from these
travellers be correct, is in about 12 deg. north
latitude. It is scarcely necessary to observe that
this degree of cold can only take place in that
parallel from a very great elevation, and which
every elevated country, while it bars the progress
of the Niger to the eastward and to the Nile of
Egypt, must give birth to innumerable powerful
streams, which will tend to swell, not decrease
its stream as it flows eastward and south-
ward. Considering this, we are at no loss
to account for the mighty floods which enter the
Atlantic, in the Bights of Benin and Biafra. Leo
Africanus told us, that the country of Zegzeg,
situated about this part of Africa, was exceed-
ingly cold, but his narrative was treated with

ridicule. Subsequent travellers gave us similar
reports, but they were laughed at, and the low
swamps which absorbed the Niger, were placed
where we find a country so elevated as in 12deg.
north latitude, to be visited by frost in Decem-
ber, equal to any we feel in this parallel of lati-
tude. On the summit of the Blue Mountains

in Jamaica, in 18 deg. north lat., and at an ele-
vation of 8,000 feet above the level of the sea,
frost is altogether unknown. From this we may
judge of the great elevation of that part of Africa
where Dr. Oudney died. Before frost could be
felt to such a degree, the elevation in 1 degrees
north lat. would probably exceed 14,000 feet
above the level of the sea. Captain Laing ascer-
tained that the sources of the Niger do not ex-
ceed 1,500 feet above the level of the Atlantic.

Its passage eastward, therefore, to the Nile, may
be set down as physically impossible.

EXTRACT OF A LETTER FROM LIEUT. CLAPPERTON TO
MR. CONSUL WARRINGTON, DATED XAN 0, FED. 2, 1824.
"The melancholy task has fallen to me to report to you the
jo u
kingdomr nie s arrived
o.
Ilarn at
ou. Bedukarfea,
Daring
this t !'
ever-to-be-lamented death of my friend Dr. Walter Oudney.—
We left Kuka on the 14th of December, 1823, and by easy
le)alryteostfernthme ojosturthnewyn, liein wasthe
recovering strength very fast; but on leaving Bedukarfea, and
entering die 13eder territory, on the night
of the 2Gth and morn-
ing of the 27th, we had such an intense cold, that the water
was frozen in the dishes, and the water-skins as hard as boards.
Here the poor Doctor got a severe cold, and continued to grow
weaker every day. At this time he told me, when he left Kuka,
he expected his disorder would allow hint to perform all his
country expected from him ; but that now his death was near,
and he requested me to deliver his papers to Lord Bathurst,
and to say he wished Mr. Barrow might have the arrangement
of them, if agreeable to the Wishes of his Lordship.
" On the 2d of January, 1824, we arrived at the city of Ka-
tagum, where we remained till the 1001,* partly to see if the
Doctor, by.staying a few days, would gain a little strength to
pursue his tourney. On leaving Katagum he, rode a camel,
as he was too weak to ride his horse. We proceeded on our
road for ten miles that day, and then halted, and on the follow-
ing day five miles farther, to a town called Murmur. On the
morning of the 12th he ordered the camels to be loaded at day-
light, and drank a cup of coffee, and I assisted him to dress.
When the camels were loaded, with the assistance of his ser-
rant and me, he came out of his tent. I saw then that the
hand of death was upon him, and that he had not an hour to
live. I begged him to return to his tent and lie down, which
he did, and I sat down beside him ; he expired in about half an
hour after. _ _

--'74lsellt immediately to the Governor of the town to acquaint
him with what had happened, and to desire he would point out
a spot where I might bury my friend, and also to have people
to wash the body and dig the grave, which was speedily com-
plied with. I had dead-clothes made from some turbans that
were intended as presenti and as we travelled as Englishmen
and-servants or his Majesty, I considered it my most indis--
pensable duty to rend the service of the dead over the grave,
according to the rites of the Church of England,. which happily
was not objected to ; but on the contrary, I was paid a good
deal of respect for so doing."