The Sun.
London, England, 1823-11-20 00:00:00

Pamplona, and inferior Agents, who, as far back
as July last, proposed to introduce a certain
number of French Officers into the Portuguese
service, and by other low ,intrigues, with the true
nature of which our Ministers must have been
made acquainted by Mr. Ward, our Envoy, to
destroy at once the preponderance of English in-
fluence at Lisbon, and prevent the renewal of the
Commercial Treaty, which is about to expire.—
It is not at all improbable, that the partiality of
the Noble Duke at the head of the Ordnance, may
have induced him to overrate the power and ta-
lents of the Marshal, his worthy second ; but be
this as it may, the project has not entirely failed, for
the Marshal is, it seems, flattered by the display of
much parade and a tten tion,and it is understood that
he has succeeded in obtaining permission for two
Generals (Campbell, and to ----), and these
Colonels, with a proportionate number of inferior
officers to rejoin the. Portuguese service ; a step
which it is believed will be followed by the
Marshal's re-appointment to be Commander-in-
Chief.—(lbid.)

[MORNING GERALD.)
We understa;►d that upon Madame Riego's ar-
rival in this country some generous persons, who
were informed of her situation, transmitted to one
of our contemporaries several sums, amounting in
the whole to 801 or lOU, with a request that
they should be forwarded to her. It appears
that some of that Lady's countrymen, actuat-
ed by high national feeling, took it upon them
to dissuade her from accepting the remit-
tances offered, and they were in consequence re-
turned to the subscribers. It is impossible not
to admire the pride and delicacy evinced on this
occasion by Madame Riego and her friends, but
she was not then a NVidow, and she had hopes
that her husband might, in course of time, repair
their fortunes.—That hope is perished—the agony
of her mind forbids her to look forward to any
relief now except the grave.—But let it not
be said that Englishmen was slow to afford
'her every consolation which it can offer on
such an occasion. There is not a man in
the country whose heart has not thrilled with
indignation on hearing of Riego's death ; for
he was not an ambitious man, nor did he dip his
hands in blood, though the leader of a great re-
volution. It is becom►ng in us, as a free nation,
to honour his ashes by cherishing her to whom in
life he was dear. Perhaps there is no necessity
for a public meeting. A. better result may be
obtained by leaving it to every person to reflect
upon the matter in silence, and to contribute ac-
cording to his means and the impulse of his feel-

ings
We are sorry to learn that one of those melan.
choly disasters, which human precaution canoe
always guard against, has occasioned an appeal
to our countrymen, which we trust will not be
in vain. The conflagration at Sarepta, a Mora-
vian settlemwit in the coldest climate of Asiatic
Russia, has reduced to desolation and the in-
clemency of the season its wretched inha-
bitants. Sarepta is a town in the Govern-
ment of Saratof, on the east side of the Volga,
where travellers arc frequently found frozen to
death. In another part of our Paper will be found
some of the particulars of this dreadful calamity,
as well as the names of those charitable indivi-
duals who have already contributed to the relief
of the unfortunate sufferers. When the claims of
suffering humanity are advocated, our country•
men are ever prompt to lend their succour;
it
no case can their generosity be more happily
exhibited than in the present, when hundreds of
their fellow-creatures are, by the ravages of one
element, exposed to those of another scarcely less
, fatal in its violence. But we hope, that by di-
recting the attention of our readers to it, the ear-
liest possible assistance will be afforded.—(ibid.)

LBUITISII PRESS. T
The murder of the hapless Riego at Madrid
on the 7th, is full of horror. The agonizing de.
tails, while we read them, make the blood rut
cold in the veins. The manolos and wretches o
that capital were not, it appears, the exclusive
actors in the scene : the French garrison were
abroad ; they patrolled through the streets,
and kept order during the time the work of
death was going on. While a murder so foul
as this rests on the French arms, perpetrated
on a man whom Angoulerne surrendered to
his assassins, and who was executed under the
guardianship of his armed platoons in noonday,
how can the Bourbons hypocritically affect to
reprobate the sacrifice of the Duke (rEegelen ?
ce Blood will have blood, they say," in the words
of Shakspeare ; and a further retaliation may
yet attend this family. They are fast dragging
down execration and ruin on their own heads.
We hope we may live yei to see their final down
consummated. It is unnecessary for us to 'Nita
attention to the correspondence, which will he
found in our columni, by which Madame Riego and
the brother of her unfortunate husband made au
agonising anti despairing effort to save the pa.
triot's life. There will be but one feeling on
ii
throughout England, Again we say, public
meetings ought instantly to be called, to expr,ess
the indignant sense of the nation on this most
atrocious act, the most liberal subscriptjous also
should be entered into, to afford to Madame,
Riego all 'the comfort ,and consolation she
can receive' in this country, under her pre-
sent most dreadful circumstances. It will
he the only decided way for this country
to strew its abhorrence of the present exe-
crable system in Spain.. This is a time when
the people 9f, ',lnland should not he quiescent ;
the character and safety of Great Britain are
involved in the issue. Could the tyrants of
Europe succeed in their combinatiens, the horrors
that are now enacting in Spain would be vepeuted
here. The shocking accounts from Madrid describe
a population resembling demons ; the dark port,
raiture of their infernal carnivnl resembles Dante's
hell • it is dreadful to see priests and monks, the
ministers of a meek. Redeemer, crowding the bal-
conies and sending forth their yells of joy at an
execrable murder. The very .graves of•the de-
parted not :sacred from the sacrilegious
Wretches who fate 4 that!-vile capital on ,this occr
sion ; they celebrated.the festivals of their, saints,
by defacing and despoiling the tombs of the dead;

they tore the very bodies of the patriots from
their graves, and scattered their limbs around.
The infernal detail of another murder, perpetrated
by those licensed monsters, on a constitutional
officer attached to the corps of the celebrated
Empecinado, will be read with horror. These
are the results of the French invasion—this the
Saturnian reign of happiness the tyrants of Eu-
rope combined, at Verona, to entail on Spain :
this is the liberty and happiness in store for
the nations of the New World, if the arma-
ments now in contemplation reach those shores.
Let the French Cabinet fling its hordes there,
and Mexico, Peru, and Colombia, will become a
common Golgotha ; murders and proscription
will multiply in thousands. The first Cabinet
Council of our Ministers met on Tuesday, at
which nearly the whole Cabinet were present.
The state of Spain, and the consequences arising
from it, must occupy their most serious attention.
We trust measures will be adopted which will
preserve the character and iufluence of the coun-
try, in a crisis every way so important.

MURDER OF MR. IVEMIE.

The refusal of the Magistrates to admit Mr.
FENTON the Solicitor, to 'Kee Thurtell professionally on
Saturday last, continues to excite a strong sensation among
some of the county Magistracy who dissented from the refusal.
There was a county ball on Tuesday night at the Town-hall,
where the Marchioness of Salisbury, for .the first time, presided,
and the subject was talked over by some Magistrates present.
It is said that it was by no means the intention of Lord Dacre
and the principal Magistrates who signed it to p'ut so rigorous
a construction upon the rule which they framed, as that it
should exclude the recognized town-agent of any country So-
licitor : but it is equally true, that before Mr. Jay was ad-
mitted, on Thursday last, to see Thurtell, he was fully apprised
by the Rev. Mr. Lloyd of the construction which he ( Mr. Lloyd)
pot upon the order, and of the determination that it should be
literally enforced. Mr. Lloyd has, however, become rather
uneasy since he was apprised of the intention of the parties to
bring the subject before the Court of King's Bench s he still,
however, perseveres in assigning and enforcing the restrictive
interposition, and is represented (it is hoped erroneously) to de-
clare that the decision of the Magistrates.must be deemed final,
and that he cares not either for a mandamus or a Secretary of
State's order. The independence of a Magistrate cannot be too
highly prized ; but an opinion may be obstinately, as well as
independently, maintained,
Yesterday, Mr. Jay arrived in Hertford, having come up
express from Norwich,- in consequence of the arrival, by a
special messenger, of the account of Mr. Fenton's reception by
the Magistrates on Saturday. Mr. Jay immediately repaired
to the jail, and was politely allowed by Mr. Lloyd the neces-
sary confidential communication with Thurtell, with whom he
remained two hours at his first visit, and nearly the same time
at a visit which he repeated later in the day. Thurtell, we un-
derstand, supplied him with very voluminous - instructions for
his defence, and continues to maintain towards those Magi-
strates who have had access to him a collateral demeanour; and
when pressed upon certain points of, evidence which are inti-
mated to bear very strong upon his case, he asserts that his de-
fence will entirely remove the force of Hunt's confession. It is,
hoWever, a fact, that while such obstacles have been thrown in
the way of professional access to the prisoner, the Rev, Mr.
Lloyd, as well as other gentlemen, have repeatedly visited him,
and suggested certain parts of the testimony to Thurtell, ap-
parently with the view of inviting his disclosures.
Some alteration was thought to have taken place in Thur
tell's manner on Tuesday, as if his firmness was shaken by
the absence of any professional communication ; but his con-
fident manner returned after the arrival of Mr. Jay. Probert is
quite dejected, and expresses the greatest anxiety about his
family, respecting whose particular situation he has been in-
formed. Hunt is also low spirited. To neither of these two
prisoners . has there yet .been any professional visitor. Mr.
Williams; a solicitor of lierkhampsteatl, it is said, visited Pro-
ben on Tuesday, but it is doubtful whether his visit was con-
nected with that prisoner's defence.
At half-past one o'clock yesterday, the High Sheriff drove
into Hertford, and in company with two visiting Magistrates
immediately repaired to the gaols from the circumstance of
their having had an instant interview with the Rev. Mr. Lloyd,
whose zeal in diScharge of his duty (as his friends express it)
induces him to spend six or seven hours daily in the prison, it
was whispered that the High Sheriff's visit was connected with
the subject of the refusal to admit Mr. Fenton. A long and
confidential interview took place between these gentlemen, and
a disposition was said to be evinced to relax the severer con-
struction of the order.
Whilst upon the subject of the absolute power contended for
by some of the visit in g agistrates, to make whatever regulations
they please respecting not only prison discipline but the mode of
detention of prisoners, it is right to mention an anecdote, which,
if true, ought not to be withheld from the public, and, if false;
ought to be contradicted without delay. It applies directly to
this county gaol at llertford, at the conduct of one of the pre-
' sent visiting 111agiatrates. Injustice to Mr. 'Lloyd, it is neces-
'airy to say that he is not the individual. (The name has been
communicated to us.)
• On the eve of the late Lord Ellenborough's last home circuit,
he received a letter from a lady, apprising his Lordship that in
the gaol of Hertford, there was then conflned,where•she
had been in custody for •• three years and a half! a female
pauper, named Ann Burton—that she bad been committed
under the Vagrant Act, by a particular Magistrate wheal the
writer named, and had never been since ber committal dis-
posed of, during the successive gaol deliveries. which had
elapsed since her committal. The writer, utter stating the fact
and duration of the detention, added, that she understood the
wretched woman was detained at the county expencev as a half
lunatic and half depraved pauper (which in fact she was under-
' stood to be), to save the particular expence of her maintenance
by her own parish, when her behaviour might call for restraint.
The female writer accompanied her intimation 'to Lord Ellen-
borough with a threat, that if the Judge at the gaol delivery
then about to take place left this 'woman in the condition in
which she stood, that higher authorities should be applied to
upon the subject. • , . . • -
Lord Ellenborough, on the day before the Assizes, met the
Magistrate who had committed the woman in, the drawing-room
of the Marquis of Salisbury's house ut Hatfield, and sternly put
the letter into his hand, without making any remark. The
Magistrate, when perusing It, betrayed by his manner the sense
lie entertained of the communication ; anti the wretched woman
was on the following morning, before the Assizes commenced,
furnished with clothes, and some little pecuniary aid, and die.=
charged from the prison, of which she had been for three years
and a half areininate.—( Thnes.)

ALLEGED PROPERTY OF THE THURTELLS.
MARY.LA-BONNE.—Yesterdity, Mr. STEDMAN, of No. 4
Cumberland-street,. New-road, requested the Magistrate's as-
sinuince to extricate him from a most provoking difficulty in
which he fbund himself entangled.
Mr. Stedman being desired to
.proceed, said, towards the
close' of last month, his wife, during his absence in the coun-
try,.let the first floor of his house to two gentlemen at a rent
of 244 per annum. He did not see them,. but, from their ap-
pearance, he,. from subsequent events, knew them to be the
persons charged with the murder of Mr. Weare ; and they,
' having brought into his house a certain quantity of goods, took
possession of the 'apartments, as they said, for a gentleman
named Brown. tin bearing of the murder, he judged it prudent
to give some information relative to the property in his house, to
the Police, and the inquiry that took place was already be.
fore the public. In Consequence of that inquiry, a claim by
the officers of _the Commission of Bankruptcy, appointed in
Thomas Thurtell's case, was made on this property, and an
attempt was Made' to gain possession;but being. advised, he
refused admission to the officers of tile Commission for some
time; but they, by a stratagem practised about eleven o'clock
On Tuesday night, got 0, man into the house whom he bad
locked in, being determined- not to allow any thing to be re.
Moved, and now was on the one hand threatened with the visi.
tation of the Lord Chancellor's Order, on the other witlitan
moan,
gac-
tion fbr falsely imprisoning the and hourly expected an
Order from John Thurtell or Hunt, eallin on him to fives up
gi st the
rPartelse property.
interference.
iltiiis awkward e requested the Ma.
Mr. Griffiths inquired what rent was due ? Mr. Stedman
None. liet 1110 add, that 1 wish for an indemnity front any
future action on the part of the Crown, for the recovery of this
property. But I will not be forced into an action at law, and
ruined by its expences. The officers of the Commission annoy
me terribly, The. man in possession will not shew me any au-
thority. But I hat elocked him up, and will' starve him out.
The Magistrate ultimately desired him to consult u solicitor,:
for which purpose he retired.
In about an hour Mr. Johnstone, the messenger to the. Co-
mmissioners, applied, and stated that . he. had gut a man in pos.
session; but as the people refused to admit the conveyance of
food to him, he was apprehensive be would be starved, anti.
Wished to knoW whether they could prevent his receiving food.
,
Receiving ,no satisiaetory answer, Mr; Johnstone retired, luiltilY
• proclaiming his intention of applying to the Lord Char.c.:ilor.

ARTS OF CONJURATION.

The only part of Europe in which the arts of
sorcery now obtain any credit is Lapland ; where,
indeed, supposed wizards still practise incanta-
tions, by which they pretend to obtain the know.
ledge of future events, and in which the credu-
lity of the people induces them to place the most
implicit confidence. On such occasions a magic
drum is usually employed. This instrument is
formed of a piece of wood of a semi-oval form,
hollow oft the flat side, and there covered with a
skin, in which various uncouth figures are de-
picted ; among which, since the introduction of
Christianity into that country, an attempt is
usually made to represent the acts of our Saviour
and the Apostles, On this covering several brass
rings of different sizes are laid, while the attend-
ants dispose themselves in many antic postures,
in order to facilitate the charm ; the drum is then
beaten with the horn of a rein-deer, which oc-
casioning the skin to vibrate, puts the rings in
motion round the figures, and, according to the
positions which they occupy, the officiating seer
prononnces his prediction. It is unfortunate that
of all the books (and there were several) which
treated of the arts of conjuration, as they were
practised among the ancients, not one is now ex-
tant, and all that we know upon that subject has
been collected from isolated facts which have
been incidentally mentioned in other writings.
From these it would, however, appear, that
many of the deceptions which still continue to
excite astonishment, were then common. A
century and a half before our sera, during a, re-
volt of the slaves in Sicily, a Syrian of their num-
ber, named Eunus, a man of considerable talent,
who, after having witnessed many vicissitudes,
was reduced to that state, became the leader of his
companions by pretending to an inspiration from
the gods ; and in order to confirm the divinity of
his mission by miracles, lie used to breathe flames
from his mouth when addressing his followers.—
By this art the Rabbi Barchochebas also made
the credulous Jews believe that he was the Mes-
siah, during the sedition which he excited among
them in the . reign of Hadrian ; and, two
centuries afterwards, the Emperor Constan-
tine was impressed with great dread, when
informed that one of the body-guards had been
seen to breathe out fire. Historians tell us that
these deceptions were performed by putting in-
flammable substances into a nut-shell pierced at
both ends, which was then secretly conveyed into
the mouth and breathed through. Our own fire-
eaters content themselves with rolling a little
flax, so as to form a small ball, which is suffered
to burn until nearly consumed; more flax is then
tightly rolled round it, and the fire will thus
remain within for a long time, and sparks may be
blown from it without injury, provided the air be
inspired, not by the mouth, but through the nos-
trils. The ancients also performed some curious
experiments with that inflammable mineral oil
called naphtha, which kindles on merely expos-
ing it near a fire. Allusion is supposed to have
been made to this in the story of the dress of
Hercules, when it is said to have heen dipped
in the blood of Nessus. Many authors assert
that it was with this substance Medea destroyed
Creusia, by sending to her a dress impregnated with
it, which burst into flames.when she drew near the
fire of the altar ; and there can be no doubt that it
was used by the priests on those occassions when
the sacrificial offerings took fire imperceptibly.
The trial by ordeal, in the middle ages, in which
persons accused of certain crimes were forced to
prove their innocence by walking blindfold
among burning ploughshares, or by holding heat-
ed iron in their hands, was probably little else
than a juggling, trick, which the priests conducted
as best suited their views. The accused was
committed to their care during three entire days
previous to the trial, and remained in their cus-
tody for the same space after it was over ; the
ordeal took place in the church under their own
immediate inspection ; they not only consecrated,
but heated, the iron themselves; mass was then
said, and various ceremonies were performed, all
calculated to divert the attention of the specta.
tors ; and, when the operation was over, the
part which had been exposed to the tire was
carefully bound up and sealed, not to be opened
until the.entl of the third day;. doubtless, there-
fore, the time before the trial was occupied in
preparing the skin to resist the effect of heat,
and that afterwards in obliterating the marks of
any Injury that it might have sustained. That
such was the fact has, indeed, been acknow-
ldged in the works of Albertus Magnus, a Do-
minican friar, who, after the trial by ordeal
had been abolished, published the secret of
the art, which, if his account be correct, consist-
ed in nothing more than covering the hands
and feet, at repented intervals, with a paste made
of the sap of certain herbs mixed together with
the white of an egg. This deception was, however,
practised in times far more remote than the period
to which we have alluded. There was ancient-
ly an annual fe,>tival held on Mount Soracte,
Esturia, at which certain people tiled Hirpi used
to walk over live embers, for which performance
t
t
n
I,‘ilt it;
va were
dt
Cappadocia
allowed
silt
eal otttiliasie'eteaeci
tli(e:lsniot,aletinioic)lleiirteeaidssi
era
opamf
Decol
wn iuesi
art)
tlie:.ialavearsite:
on
aittpiyji
trainall
our
del
baal
leeesce,teghsain:i
tbeistjay.ctublialsydeo:
wrote nearly five centuries anterior to our :era, to
tnteticveedr.y—lspnercnioeds eortri times, much notice has fre-
twhelloeupdraocrtistehde odueecenptltyionbseen4letxtlcifiterde.bylj,oultgalredrss,
17th century, one Richardson, an Englishman
excited great astonishment at Paris by pretending'
troeactshe burning coats and to swallow melted
lead,
so withrne
of manywh
coitihaerre
extraordinaryethquusairieycorde
—recorded
i nE
ve.
lyn's
of my -« October
ilctoher the. Bth,
Sunderland, who wll6ls72loin;tg toookleave
Lord, now ambassador there.
stay`
tay dinner at Leicester House and
Shel i
afterwardse
madeH a „o
He
me esteo mynt for Richardson, the famous fire-
eater. e, before us, devoured brimstone on
glowing,l a
t e coals,re{;lassochewing' and swallowing them.—
melteand eat it quite up ' • then
otayksitlii.gr ; a the t live
coal •
w°l lw
his
ot on:: on tongue,
h‘e'put nn v
bellows s r tillaw
it. fißmed and sparkled in his mouth, and see re.

mained until the oyster was quite boiled ; then
he melted pitch and wax with 'sulphur, which
he dranke down as it flamed." Many of
readers must recollect Signora Girardelli; and
Miss Roggers, the American fire-eater, who
was announced as having entered'a heated oven
with a leg of mutton in her hand, and having
remained there until it was baked ! This young
lady exhibited all the tricks usually performed
by such persons ; she washed her hands in boil-
ing oil, and then suffered aquafortis to be poured
over them ; but below the oil, there, no doubt,
was a quantity of water, the air from which, when
heated, forcing itself through the supernatant
oil, gave it the appearance of boiling, when, hi
reality, its temperature probably did not exceed
a hundred degrees of Fahrenheit ; and when the
hands were once well coated with oil, there was
no danger from the aquafortis. She had also a
ladle of melted lead, out of which she appeared
to take a little with a spoon and pour into her
mouth, and then to return it in the shape of a
solid lump ; but in pretending to take the lead
into the spoon, it was, in fact, quicksilver that was
received, through a dexterous contrivance in the
ladle, and this she swallowed, the solid lead hay
ing been previously placed in her mouth. She,.
besides, repeatedly placed her foot on a bar 01
hot iron, but the rapidity with which she removal'
it scarcely allowed time to injure the most
cate skin, even had it not been previously pro'
pared : the cuticle of the hands and of the sole?
of the.feet may, however, be easily rendered am'
ficiently callous to support a longer experiment'
This effect will be produced if it be frequently
punctured, or injured by being in continual con-
tact with hard substances ; repeatedly moistening
it with spirit of vitriol will also at length render
it horny and insensible ; and thus it is not un-
common to see the labourers at copper-works take
he melted ore into their hands. den..