The Sun.
London, England, 1840-07-27 00:00:00

ANTI SLAVERY CON VENTION.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SIR—I beg to state through your columns, that
ist Seniir
the
Luis de Usoz-y-Rio, whose name appears in the lof
General Anti- Slavery Converiti•)n, N. 431, was intro-
duced as a gentleman from Madrid, and not as a delete
from that city.

I am, kc.,
J. H. TREDGOLD, Secretary.

ASSESSED TAXES.--L;AUTION.—..kn elderly
agricultural gentleman appealed at Greenock against the
of his assessed taxes. "I am charged," said he to the
amountb encii,.. eight shillings for a watch dog ! I have only a
cocker—a little thing." " Indeed !" says the advocate fo: the
" then' In place of eight, you trust now pay fourte..en
Nt' hat for—it's but a little animal ?" " Ay,"
was the reply, " but it's a game dog—a cocker—and from the
fourteen shillings I am sorry I can't make the slightest
abatement." The discomfited agriculturist paid his taxes,
with the determination, no doubt, to keep a stricter watch over
his canine establishment. The other case was that of a legal
gentleman, who unfortunately sealed his appeal with his pencil
case, on which was engraven a small crest. With great want
of luck he was not only amerced in the full amount of hi*
assessment, but was assessed in the further sum of IL 4s, for
armorial bearings,--Paisley Advertiser.

INC 4 EDI !lON.

:BRIT of the PU -BLIC JOURNALS.

(From ' be Globe.)

The Duke of Welling
,ton on Thursday night, on
presenting a petition 10 sus the University of Oxford
assainst the Ecclesiastic al Duties and Revenues Bill,
dealt out in homely phrase a few of those salutary
truths, accompanied bap poignant reproofs and admoni-
tions, such as that bd ly has long needed to have ad-
ministered from a qu, .rter which, if not successful in
commanding their as' sent, would at least prevent them
om treating them with the affected scorn they would
;lave shown to the sa-,ne truths if proceeding from another
,ounce. The Standard is evidently astounded by the
,roc of the ,Duke's language, and endeavours to
eakee its crier gy. His Glace, as a plain, straightfor-
-ard man, knei sr that if the language addressed to such
!-::finds was not so explicit as to set sophistry at defiance,
ta:el so power Fut as to penetrate the treble-coated
prejudices with which the petitioners arc invested,
it would be spoken in vain. The reporter of the
Sandard is trade accountable for the Duke's severity ;
;Ind more 3.lft and soothing expressions than these
'::hich app sarsad in tae Standard's original report of his
`.grace's spice h are supplied in the annexed edition of
'atHis Grace expressed his dissent from
lc petition in strong language, though, we are bound
confess, sin language nothing like so strong as that
ours eporter very improperly ascribed to the
ius!rissus D ake in the Second Edition of yesterday's
./.frizdaro'—a n error on the reporter's part for which
cannot a acount, but for is hich it is our duty to .
sllo%ise." Whoever has ha 1 the opportunity of ob-
,;es.rving the D uke of Wellir gton in his place in Parlia-
rnel.4t, knows vi ell that his 'sirace speaks on all subjects
=with the pl.sio stra'ghtlorsaard bluntness of a mind
scorns to use dissimulation. Conscious of his
position, and of tins importance his co-operation con-
~!rs on his pa .sty, he ali,ovvs no one to question his
wer ; nor will' Sic mea;nre his notions of what is

igl,t by the star 41grd of others. Hence the confusion
lnd dismay whic..l he e ccasionally spreads among his
°flowers, who inn ,agine that mere party objects can in-
fluence a mind lik e his.

:Fro' m the Standard.)
The House of Lo rds last night was principally
occupied in he aring the argument of Mr. Hope
azainst the Ee,:lesiast teal Duties and Revenues Bill.
Wo yesterday :stated, f ally and freely, our views upon
he subject of, this E ill, and we find nothing ad-
-..anced by Mr. Hope that can induce us to change
or to modify those views. The Learned Gentleman
chiefly relied upon the necessity of adhering strictly to
the intesation of the donors, in dealing with Church pro.
porty ; this rigour, ho.vever, can be carried too far. We
are bound in this, and in every cam, to give to the letter of
a danatioat an intention su&ciently liberal to fulfil its plain
:ntentiont.. It were a libel upon the pious men who
ive bestowed their possessions upon the Church to
doubt that their intention was to promote true religion
among their countrymee, to the utmost extent that
these pons essions could be made available for the pur-
:ion. It ;is upon this ground, and upon this ground
only, that we can defend tile retaining of its property
by the Church at the Reformation. The object of the
benefactors of the Church was to promote the truth of
the Gospel ; that object was advance& not impeded, by
the property which they conferred being applied to the
teaching of a purified faith with which they unhappily
were themselves in many casas unacquainted.

(From the Courier.)

The Waterfiv?-1 eh ronicle of Thursday replies to some
remarks on ftibbonism, which appeared is this journal
on 'Monday. Oirs c ontemporary seems to view this in-
famous and dangem is conspiracy with a pair of coloured
spectacles peculiarly its own, and makes some curious
:.:;sections, of whirl we are at a loss to conjecture
whether they will excite more the wonder than the
laughter of the read. Abundance of evidence is ex-
tant that the Ribbot societies consist solely of Roman
Catholics,—that the:r ol,ject is twofold, political and
religious ; the former to obtain a repeal of the Union,
end the latter to render else papacy the predominant
power in Ireland ; arrA that one of their principal roe-
oas for banding together is the extermination of Pro-

,:3tants. or Orangcrnev, as the natives choose to term
::.ii who have not enter,d the pale of the Roman Church,
and ate attached to :the Constitution of the united

,^l:p:re.

their boat and mend their sails—that now the work was
done, and to-morrow they must die.
" In order to gain grpater confidence with the pirates,
Captain Antonio Peloso informed them that he had
picked up on the coast an English sailor, who probably
had escaped from this vessel, and tc-morrow when they
came off to breakfast they should have him. Thus they
parted for the night. On the morrow the pirates,
faithful to their engagement, came on board Captain
Peloso's schooner to breakfast, and at a signal given he
and his crew rushed upon them and secured the whole
that came off in the boat. After confining them, Capt.
P. manned his boat and went ashore and took the two
pirates who were guarding the two sailors, prisone:s.
There then wes a scene beyond the power of pen to de-
scribe, the liberator and the liberated rushing into each
others arms. The pirate,; and four fishermen are now
safe in the Punta prison, and next week will suffer death.
J. S. JENK INS, formerly of Columbia (S. C.)
" Havannah, June 19, 1840."

ROMANCE OF REAL LIFE.

ESCAPE FROM A LOCKUP.

An occurrence which has caused a good deal of con-
versation in this town took place last Saturday morn-
ing, the particulars of which we believe to be pretty
nearly as follows :—On Thursday last, a lady and gen-
tleman in a very smart gig, drawn by a capital grey
horse, drove up to Mr. Vcst's, the Brownlow Arms, in
Ciitheroe. They remained there all night ; and next
morning, when the bill ought to have been paid, it
was found that the gentleman was in the unenviable
situation of being without cash. As credit was not to
be had, he left the gig and the lady, as a pledge and
a hostage, while he mounted the horse, and rode over
to Blackburn, putting up at Mr. Rothweli's, the Dun
Horse Inn, Market-street-lane. Here he bargained for
the sale of the horse, and gig, and harness, which the
buyer was to take on the seller's description ; and the
sum he was to receive for the whole was 151. One
sovereign was given to him to seal the bargain, which
done, be exchanged his horse for a pony of Mr. Roth-
well's, hastened back to Clitheroe to release his
wife and the gig by the payment of Mr. West's bill.
With these he returned to Blackburn, the latter being
deiivered to its new owner, and the purchase-money
handed over to our traveller. Thus matters stood on
the evening of Friday, when the suspicions of our active
and intelligent superintendent of police, Mr. Burke,
were awakened on the fact of this extraordinarily cheap
bargain coming to his knowledge. He accordingly
made it his business to inquire into the affair, and being,
in plain clothes he had no difficulty in getting into con-
versation with the gentleman and lady at the Dun
Horse, the result of which was that he was convinced
the horse and gig were stolen. The parties were imme-
diately taken into custody ; and the male prisoner,
being of highly respectable appearance, was granted
the privilege of a room upstairs in the Police-office,
apart from the herd of common offenders, drunkards,
and the like, until the case could be heard before a
magistrate. He was placed in a room on the third
story in the building, the window of which was secured
by a row of iron bars, and in this situation was visited
at intervals of about an hour, apparently perfectly
safe. Mr. Burke himself, we understand, saw his pri-
soner a little before one o'clock on Saturday morning.
However, soon after that hour, the fellow very inge.
niously and dexterously contrived to make his escape.
First, he removed one of the iron bars which secured
the window, by what means does not clearly appear ;
after which, having torn his shirt into strips, and made
a sort of rope thereof, he attached it to a remaining
bar, and let himself down into the street, getting clear
off without discovery by any of the inmates of the po-
lice-office. 'When the escape was discovered by the
means of descent hanging from the window, a hue and
cry was raised, and men were despatched in pursuit in
all directions ; but the runaway evaded his pursuers,
and has not since been heard of. From the statement
made by the woman, it appears that the swindler's
name is Charles Hodson ; he is said to have been in
business in Kendal for ten years as a brush manufac-
turer, and having failed he is understood to have been
afterwards engaged as a commercial traveller. He was
married to the unfortunate woman who accompanied
him at Manchester, on the 10th of March last, though
we hear that he has a former wife living, by whom he
has three children. The horse and gig, worth probably
not less than fifty guineas (for the gig is a very hand-
some one, and apparently new), are supposed to belong
to Mr. S. Daxon, Griffin Inn, George-street, Halifax,
from whose house the woman confesses that they were
taken several days before the celaircissement.—Black-
burn Standard.—[This gentleman was apprehended in
Huinie on Thursday last, and committed, at the Sal-
ford petty Sessions, to take his trial at the ensuing
Assizes, on several charges of stealing horses and gigs.]

LIFE AND MANNERS IN SHET-

LAND.

The introduction of a weekly steam-boat to Shet-
land has begun a new era in this country. Formerly
all communications with other places became so tedious
and uncertain, that none could be safely depended on.
A few years since, one of the principal merchants
here, who possessed more than twenty ships of his own,
became so anxious for letters, that he sailed off to in-
quire for them personally at Edinburgh. There the
postmaster objected to deliver any, saying it would be
too great an advantage to give him over the other mer-
cantile houses at Lerwick, if he obtained his corres-
pondence so prematurely, and it was not till after the
greatest difficulty, and legally proving his identity, that
he could obtain the packet.

Before inns ►cere itivented at Lerwick, the proprie-
tors and merchants kept open house for all strangers
without exception, and must often, I should guess,
have found occasion to look over the inventory of
their plate, when exercising such boundless hos-
pitality. A party of well-dressed, plausible-looking
foreigners arrived here once, and, having previously
ascertained the names and connexions of all the chief
inhabitants, they passed muster during several weeks,
living at the principal house on the island. One Sun-
day, however, their hospitable host was privately beck-
oned aside by a friend, who bad observed his com-
panions in the pew at church, and recognised them as a
party of well-known blacklegs from Paris. He recom-
mended their being ejected from the house in the most
expeditious manner possible, but their entertainer re-
plied, with characteristic liberality, that, " though he
would now be on his guard against imposition, yet, while
his guests corainued to behave like gentlemen, he
should persevere in treating them as such." Previous
to departing, the ungrateful visitors attempted some
mUidling transactions, which were, of course, counter-
acted, owing to this timely detection, and they were
opprobriously dismissed from Shetland ; but, unfortu-
nately, their schemes prospered better in Orkney,
where they afterwards cheated some merelants to a
large amount ; and it was a curious t,:imination of the
whole affair, that, upon leaving Kirkwall, they very
handsomely transmitted toile parish clergyman 5/. for
the poor !

Among countless instances of peculiar hospita;ity, it
may be mentioned that a Mr. Bruce received into his
house some years ago forty Russian shipwrecked sailors,
maintained them during the whole winter, and sent the
entire crew, at his own expense, back to their native
country. He declined receiving any recompense ; but
the Empress Catherine privately obtained an impression
of his family seal, sent it overland to China, and ordered
magnificent dinner-service, of the finest poraelain, to
he manufactured for him without delay, ty some un-
fortunate oversight, the box containing this precious
gift was seized at the Custom-house, and sold to a Mr.
Reid, in whose possession it still remains, though I
e;:.nnot but grudge him every dinner be Cl.tB o 5 it. Mr.
truce, while he lived, lighted a large fire every winter
night close to the chore, and had a barrel of meal ready
to be cooked into porridge, for distribution among any
number of poor sailors visiting those distant shores.
They were also allowed clean straw to sleep on at night,
when unable otherwise to procure a bed.
I expected to o'nserve Shetland ponies galloping in
every field ;out they arc chiefly running wild among
the a:glint unenclosed hills, where, in must instances,
",:no forelegs arc manacled together. Nothing is trusted
to the honour of a Shetland pony, but they arc all
shackled in a most uneasy manner, hobbling along like
rabbits, which inconvenient contrivance ruins their
paces afterwards. an ; earlybu t s
oage,
they grow nearly
to "t'hhee n
heightwell ofef d frodonkeyat
' • high—notyears ago, Mi.. Hay reared a perfectly well-formed
pony,
which measured only twenty-.c1% inches so
tall u-sized hobby-horse:. have heard
of horse that would canter
' sportsmen
a cabbage-lent,
a s a(1
k c a
in t
praise
but here was one literally
capable of doing so.
The very largest men
ride these tiny little creatures at full speed,
looking from a distance as
if they had merely
hooked-on a pair of additional legs,
o 7
being scarcely. raised
a foot off the ground, and yet racing rapidly alone.
flow would a regiment of cavalry look, mounted,
or lowered rather, on these stout little chargers ?, Many
very curious arctic birds stray over this country ; and I
have seen one most beautiful snow-owl, which had been
killed in this neighbourhood, as large as an eagle, and the
colour of a swan-down muff. Eider ducks are very
abundant, and eagles so very destructive, that ss. a-head
used to be given for shooting them. Swans appear in
great flocks during spring,
I The youngest children in Shetland can make an in-
come of 20s. per annum, by catching the small fish '
named " sillocks," or " pars," abounding in swarms here,
which owe their value to the oil extracted from them,
2,000 barrels of which were manufactured in one year
from those diminutive fry, not measuring above four or
five inches long. Thus food aud light become easily
accessible in a country where grain is scarce, and where
the days are not over long.—Shetland and the Shet-
landers.