The Sun.
London, England, 1840-09-23 00:00:00

SIERRA LEONE.

(From the Liverpool Mercury.)
We have received the following communication from
a gentleman long resident in Sierra Leone, and but re-
cently returned. The information which it conveys is
important, and shows the necessity of some more effec-
tive measures for the prevention of the slave trade than
any that have yet been adopted. It will he seen that
a vessel belonging to this port has been seized, and con-
d coned as a slaver :

By the schooner Henry M'Cormick (late the Courte-
nry), we have accounts from Sierra Leone to the 13th
of August, the date of the above vessel sailing. The
colony, generally speaking, was healthy, but the mis-
.ionaries out but a short time from England had suf-
fered severely, and many had died. The Governor was
well. Mr. Macaulay, the Mixed Commission Judge,
had been sojourning at the Banana Islands to recruit
his health, which had been a good deal impaired by un-
remitting attention to the duties which his office im-
poses upon him. He was about to leave for England, via
Ascension, in the Wanderer man-of-war. The men•of-
war on the station occasionally call in—the Harlequin,
Wanderer, and Persian. The Wanderer was goiug
into Sierra Leone as the schooner came out.

Several vessels had been brought up and condemned

_ .
for being connected with the slave trade. The Plant,
under American colours, with a slave cargo, detained by
her Majesty's brig Persian, from Lagos, arrived on the
24th of July—not yet tried. The San Pablo Loando,
from the Havannah to the Galinas, condemned and
cut up. Two New -York pilot-boats—one condemned
and cut up, as Spanish property ; the other one wait-
ing adjudication. The brigantine Anna, prize to the
Saracen, taken off the Galinas about the 22d of July,
had not reached Sierra Leone. The English brig Guy-
ana, belonging to Mr. Logan, a merchant of Liverpool,
was condemned on the 12th of August, for aiding and
abetting in the slave trade. It appears this vessel
sailed from Liverpool on the 17th of October, 1839,
with a general cargo to Bahia, to Edwards and Co., and
was there chartered through the agency of the same house,

and with the sanction of the- British Consul. (Mr.
Wheatley) to carry a cargo of merchandise to the coast
of Africa, touching at various places for the purpose of
trading. That on the 26th of March, in lat. 431 N.,
and long. 5 W., her Majesty's schooner Viper, Lieut.
Burslem, brought her to by firing a shot. After over-
hauling her, a prize crew and officers were put on board,
with orders to take the vessel a prize to Cape Coast,
and from thence to Sierra Leone, where she lay 102
days before she was condemned. The cargo is not dis-
posed of. The aquadicnle has nearly all leaked out,
and the roll tobacco, from the heat of the climate, the
length of time it has been exposed, and the rough usage
it has received, must have been rendered useless and
unsaleable. As the decision with regard to this vesel
will naturally lead to inquiry, and as it is important in a

commercial point of view, the above particulars may not
be without interest.

The merchants complain very much of the frequent,
sales of the slave cargoes brought into Sierra Leone
ruining their business, and not without much reason.
They also complain very much of the little attention,
3n the part of tlie colonial authorities, to the complaints
made by the merchants of the aggressive acts of the
natives in the neighbouring rivers adjacent to the colony,
the factories of the colonial merchants having b.•en
burnt down and plun,lered, exactions and heavy pre-
sents extorted under the threat of stopping the trade,
and the Governor, when applied to, alleging it to be
out of his jurisdiction to interfere.

LATE ATTEMPT AT MURDER IN

LUDLOW.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR,—As I have been, by the mercy of Providence
and the high professional skill of the medical gentlemen
who have attended me, restored from the very brink of
the grave to my usual health and strength, I trust you
will allow space in your columns for the following re-
marks I shall make in reference to the Angel Inn at
Ludlow, where a most diabolical attempt was made to
destroy my life with the intcntion of afterwards robbing
me of whatever property I may have had in my pos-
session.

'rho great attention paid to my every want and corn.
fort by the kind host and hostess of the Angel Inn, and
their sincere sympathy for my sufferings, are deserving
of my warmest thanks and commendation.
And it is with sorrow I have heard it rumoured, that
in consequence of the late melancholy occurrence having
happened at their inn, a prejudice exists in the minds of
some commercial gentlemen against it on the plea that
they had neglected that caution which every innkeeper
ought to exercise.
A sense of justice towards Mr. and Mrs. Cooke, the
duty I owe them, and my gratitude for their past kind-
ness, induce me, to appeal most strongly to those com-
mercial gentlemen and others. who, have been in the,
habit
,of staying at the Angel Inn, and to entreat them
that they will not- allow the late unfortunate eircum-
istanee to be, any cause to make them forsake their
usual -abode while at Ludlow, for I most distinctly as-'
sect that Icannot attach the least blame either to the
landlord (Mr. Cooke) or his servant, for any want of
caution in admitting Josiah Misters into their house.

It was apparent Co myself and to the waiter (as his evi-
dence before the Magistrates will show) that the pri-
, sonar entered the house to all appearance as the friend
and companion of Mr. Ludlow, was in close conversa-
tion with him, and took tea with him at the same board,
and for the sake of the person whose companionship he
had thus sought, that precaution was not considered ne-'
cessary which, under other circumstances would have
been adopted.
It is lunch to be deprecated, the too indiscriminate
admission to the Commercial-room, at nearly all inns,
of all persons in decent dress, without reference to
their business or calling ; and it may be hoped that
my unfortunate calamity will be the means of greater
caution being used for the protection of the lives and
property of commercial gentlemen than has hitherto
been practised.
In this case, had the prisoner been in any other room
than that appropriated to commercial men, the same
event would; without doubt, hare happeaed to me, for
it is the general opinion that I was only the mistaken
substitute for the intended victim. If I sincerely
acquit Mr. Cooke of all fault in this business, I do
hope that other commercial men will not differ in
opinion from me, or attach blame where I am fully
satisfied none exists.

The deep interest I shall ever feel in the welfare of
the kind-hearted and worthy landlord of the Angel in-
duces me to appeal thus strongly through your columns
to the commercial world, and I do hope that his hi-
therto past prosperity wi l never be lessened 'by a cir-,
cumstance which it was decreed by Providence should
happen, and that likely no human power could have
averted.

I am, Sir, your's most respectfully,
W. M. MACKRETIL
Lead Smcltiag Works, Bristol, Sept. 19.

LORD ELIOT'S REPORT ON NEW

ZEALAND.

With respect to the rejected document which the'
speculators wished to joist upon the Committee, a single
specimen or two of its crafty and deceptive spirit may
serve as a sample of the whole. The first paragraph of
that document is in the following terms :
" The mass of evidence in New Zealand, taken in
1838 before the Select Committee of the House of
Lards, has made it unnecessary for your Committee tol
seek for futile information as to the fitness of that
country for the purposes of colonization. The excel-
lence of its geographical position, the fertility of its soil,
the salubrity of its climate, its rivers, its harbours, its
natural productions—all these advantages have already
been pointed out, and have attracted t3ritiA emigrants
in large numbers to its shores."
What the speculators wanted to effect by the intro-
duction of this artful passage was manifestly the two-
fold impression, that the Committee of the House of
Lords had reported favourably as to the propriety of
colon zing New Zealand ; and that the large numbers
of perions who have emigrated under the lures of the
New Zealand Company had been induced to do so by
the advantages pin'ed out in their Lordships' report,
and had therefore proceeded in some degree with the
sanction of the Legislature. Now, bath of these insinu—
ations are palpably false. In the report drawn up by the
Lords' Committee their Lordships distinctly decline to
give any opinion either as to the fitness of New Zealand for
the purposes of colonization, or as to the expediency of
making it a British colony ; while, us far as concerns
its supposed advantages or attractions, the Committee
of the Lords cautiously abstain from pronouncing any l!
opinion upon the subject. We mention this, to show'
the little dependence that can be placed upon the
statements of the Company. The preceding assump-
tions, had they been adopted by the Select Committee 4
of the House of Commons, would doubtless have
rescued the Company from the insurmountable diffi-'.
culty of proving the preamble of their much-cicsired
charter : but the tribunal they had to deal with was
not to be imposed on by any such sly manceuvres ; so,
for the present at least, the Company's hopes, as far
as Parliamentary sanction goes, must be considered to
be on the decline.—Tinics.

I
vAMES SAIITII AND SIR E. BULIVER.—I
dined yesterday with E. L. Bulwer, at his new residence
in Charles•street, Berkeley-square, a splendidly and
sically fitted-up mansion. One of the drawing-rooms is
afacsimile of a chamber which our host visited at
Pompeii vases, candelabrn, chairs, tables, to correspond.
He lighted a perfumed pastille modelled from Mount Ye-
suvms. As soon as the cone of the mountain began to
blaze, I fancied myself an inhabitant of the devoled city;
arid, as Pliny the Elder, thus addressed Bula.er, my sup-
p 'sod nephew :—" Our fate is accomplished, nephew,
band me yonder volume shall die as a student in my
vocation. Do you then hasten to take refuge on board the
fleet at Misentnn. Yonder cloud of hot ashes chides thy
longer delay. Feel no alarm for me—l shalt iive in story.
The author of ' Pelham' will rescue my name from obli.
vion." Pliny the Younger made me a low bow.—Jsincs
Smith's Memoirs, c.

ERECHTHEIUM CLUB.
THE COMMITTEE having taken the
MANSION in ST. JAMES'S-SQUARE, corner
of YORK-STREET, lately in the occupation of the Earl of
Romney, for the CLUB-HOUSE of this Society, it will be
opened for the use of the Members as soon as the necessary
alterations are completed, of which due notice will be given.
(Signed) JOHN DEAN PAUL, Chairman.
London, Sept. 18,1840.

THE NEW NOVEL.
rp HE CLANDESTINE MARRIAGE,
A Story of the Present Day,
By MISS ELLEN WALLACE,
In 3 vols. post
IS NOW READY AT ALL .THE LIBRARIES.
Richard Bentley, New Burlington-street.