The Sun.
London, England, 1841-06-17 00:00:00

ST. DOMINGO.

The following picture of the present condition of the
once beautiful and flourishing Island of St. Domingo, is
furnished in a letter from a French naval officer :

" We embarked on board the frigate Nereide, on the
24th December. On the 28th we were at Fort Royal, to
receive orders from the Admiral, who despatched us on
the 29th to St. Domingo, where we were to take on
board the five millions of francs which the Consul Ge-
neral had informed us were ready. We have been three
days at anchor in this famous Republic, and all that I
can say to you of the misery of the people will scarce
suffice to give you any idea of it.
"I have been every where, and every where have seen
nothing but degradation and corruption. Men in rags
compose the army and exhibit a most ludicrous military
masquerade. Cavalry on foot manoeuvre like horses at
the word of command,. trot, gallop, &c. Both officers
and men soldiers are without shoes ; one has spurs tied
by a cord to his naked feet, another has made himself
spurs with a piece of iron drove into a wooden sole tied
to his foot, and one whole company, which I inspected
minutely, has not a single musket which would go off.
The officers in rags ask charity.
" Slothfulness, poverty in its most hideous form—and
in the negro it is most hideous— alone meet your eye at
the town of Port' au Prince. The fields are overrun by
brambles, logwood trees, and the rapacious lichens,
which obstruct the roads and destroy the old planta-
tions. With the exceptions of a few gardens which are
here and there cultivated by the negroes—gardens far
inferior to those of our worst slaves—there is no culti-
vation whatever.

" The only product of the island is coffee, and that
every year diminishes so materially, that the time is not
far distant when it will produce none at all. No more
is planted, and the old coffee plantations are not even
taken care of. The owners gather the crops from their
own fields, in the midst of briars and weeds—no la-
bourers to be had, the one not being willing to work for
the other.

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.

OLD COURT.

Richard Stait, 28, was charged that he, having been
before convicted of uttering counterfeit coin, and sen-
tenced to two years' imprisonment, did afterwards utter
a counterfeit half-crown to a person named Sarah Per-
reau, well knowing the same to be counterfeit.

Mr Bodkin and Mr. Doane conducted the prosecution,
and Mr. Payne defended the prisoner.
It appeared from the evidence that the prisoner went
to the Royal Standard public-house, in Fleming-street,
Kingsland-road, and asked for a glass of gin, which he
paid for with a sixpence. Be then asked for change for
half a sovereign, and shortly after the prisoner said
" Give me five shillings for the two half-crowns," and at
the same time laid down two half-crowns, and she dis-
covered that the 'underneath one was a bad one, and she
told him so, and also that she was sure it was not one of
those she had given him, and he took up the counterfeit
coin and left the house. The prisoner almost imme-
diately afterwards went to the house of Mr. • Poole,
the Whitmore's Head, Hoxton Old Town, where he tried
the same trick with more success. He obtained the change,
but the fraud was discovered and the prisoner was fol-
lowed and brought back, and Mr. Poole accused him of
uttering the bad half-crown, and told him he knew it
• was a bad one, and that he should detain him. A servant
was then sent for a policeman, and while she was gone
and the prisoner and Mr. Poole were sta:ding together,
the former struck Mr. Poole a tremendous blow on the
head which felled him to the • ground, and he then ran
out of the house. Mr. Poole followed him a short dis-
tance and the prisoner turned back and knocked him
down a second time, and while he was upon the ground
he kicked him in a most brutal manner. The police
soon afterwards came up, but the prisoner made a most
&sperate resistance, and it was found necessary to tic
him hand and foot and strap him on a stretcher before he
could be taken to the station-house.

Mr. Justice WIGITTMAN summed up the evidence, and
the jury returned a verdict of Guilty.
The Learned JUDGE told the prisoner he had been
convicted of a serious offence under very aggravated
circumstances, and he sentenced him to be transported
or fifteen years.
William Marchant, 28, was indicted for forgeny, and
uttering a check for 11/. 10s., with intent to defraud
George Howard.

Mr. Doane defended the prisoner.
It appeared that the prisoner, representing himself to
be a cattle dealer, took lodgings at the house of the pro-
secntor, who keeps the Half Moon public-house, West
Smithfield, and when some money was due for refresh-
ment, &c., he tendered the check in question in payment,
and the prosecutor . gave him Si. 15s. in change.. The
check purported to be drawn by a person namSlater,
upon Messrs. Masterman and C 0.,. butt,. on the check
being.presell4, po such person as Slater was known at
th'eTankers. When the prisoner was taken into custody,
a similar check, signed with the name of Cole, was found
in his possession, and this also proved to be a forgery.
The prisoner was found guilty of tittering the check,
knowing it to be forged, and it was stated that there
were other indictments against him of a similar character.
Mr. Baron ROLFE sentenced him to be transported for
fifteen years. •

The Judges left the Court at five o'clock, and they
were succeeded by the Recorder, but the cases disposed
of during the evening were of no public interest.

THE SPAS OF ENGLAND.—We understand
that 1)r. Granville's forthcoming volume, which will com-
plete his important and highly interesting work, entitled
" The Spas of England," will offer detailed estimates, es-
pecially adapted to the unprofessional reader, of no less than
Live-and-twenty English spas and watering places—indi-
eating the precise maladies for which each is respectively
fitted, the proper periods for visiting them, and every
other species of local and popular information concern-
ing them, which can be acquired either by the invalid or
the mere idler. Among the most celebrated spas de-
scribed and estimated in this volume are Buxton, Mat-
lock, Malvern, Leamington, Cheltenhfun, Clifton, Bath,
Torquay, Dawlish, Exmouth, Teignmoitth, Weymouth,
Brighton, Hastings, St. Leonard's, Tunbridge Wells, &c.,
besides two or three new and highly important springs,
containing the newly discovered and extraordinary prin-
ciples,
lodine and Bromine, which have never before
been alluded to in any similar work.