The Sun.
London, England, 1833-11-18 00:00:00

WOR SHIP-S TREE T.

AN EXTRAORDINARY IMPOSTER IN Low LIFE.—
A young woman, named Mary Veazey, was charged
under the following circumstances :—About a fort-
night since she asked a female in Milton-street
where she could get a lodging, having just arrived
from the country. She was recommended to Mrs.
Beaumont, a laundress, in Britannia-court, Milton-
street, who consented to receive her for one night.
The next morning, however, the lodger said she was
too ill to stir, and she represented that she had come
to town to look after some money in the Bank, and
that she had her luggage at the Belle Sauvage, and
a gold watch and money in the hands of a Mr.
George there. The prosecutrix was completely
taken in by her innocent appearance, and she made
no objection to her further stay. She kept her
bed until the following Sunday, when she got up
and walked with the prosecutrix to Ludgate-hill.
Otf coming out of the office ,she stated that the

The following notes of a paper, by Mr. Bennett,
on the mode of preparing human heads among the
New Zealanders, with some observations on canni-
balism, will be read with interest :—lt is now fully
ascertained that the natives of the New Hebrides,
the Marguesas, New Zealand, and other Polynesian
Islands, are cannibals. Yet it is among the New
Zealanders only that the custom obtains of preserv-
ing the heads of their enemies as tokens of victory,
and as objects of contempt. The New Zealanders
sometimes, however, preserve the heads of their
friends ; but for very different purposes, those of pay-
ing respect to the memory of the deceased, to show
to their relations who have been absent at the time
of their death, and that lamentations may be renewed
over them at certain periods. The preparations of
the head amongst the New Zealanders most effec-
tually prevents decay, and is at the same time com-
patible with the preservation of the features. The
process as practised among them is as follows :—After
the head has been severed from the body, the base
of the skull is broken by a stick or stone, and the
brain removed; the cavity of the cranium is then
frequently washed out until it is well cleaned. The
head is then dipped for a few minutes in hot water,
which causes the cuticle to peel off: they are careful
at this time not to touch the hair, es by so doing it
would readily come off; but it afterwards, when cool,
becomes more firmly fixed than before, as is well ex-
emplified in the specimens brought to this country.
A piece of thin stick is then placed up the septum
?atrium, for the purpose of keeping the nose in shape,
aided also by another piece placed internally to bear
against the nose as a preventive against its sinking.
The nostrils are also stuffed, with flax, or pieces of
soft wool, for a similar purpose ; the eyes
are taken out (if those of a chief they are eaten—
if otherwise, they are thrown away), and the eyelids
are stitched up as well as the mouth, fur the purpose
of preserving their shape. A pit having been pre-
viously dug, hot stones are placed in it ; this pit,
which is, indeed, the usual native oven, is so con-
structed that it is covered over, with the exception of
an aperture above of sufficient size to permit the
bust of the head to rest on it. Water having been
previously thrown on the hot stones, and repeated
as often as is considered necessary, a steam is pro-
duced which is also increased by the addition of
leaves moistened with water to keep up the requi-
site heat and steam during the process, being re-
newed as often as required by the person in attendance
until the preparation is completed. The person
whose duty it is to attend to the preparation of the
head is careful, when any of the skin of the face ap-
pears to wrinkle, to smooth down and preserve it
in shape. The time occupied in this process pre-
vious to its completion, is from 21 to 30 hours. After
the head is prepared, it is removed from the even,
placed upon a stick in the sun, and is frequently oiled;
but this latter process is not considered necessary
for its preservation, but is intended to give it a more
finished appearance. The adoption of this simple,
but, at the same time, excellent mode of preserv-
ing human heads, would enable a valuable series to
be formed, illustrative of the varieties of the human
race. The New Zealanders care not to conceal that
they are cannibals ; they relate the atrocities con-
nected with the practice without any appearance of
shame or remorse ; they only eat, however, of the
bodies of their enemies. if an enemy of rank is
slain, the eyes, hands, and feet are presented to the
highest chief of the conquering partp—as they ob-
serve that with the eyes their enemy saw his ad•
versaries, with his hands he fought, and with his
feet he invaded their territory, and bore him to the
combat. Cannibalism does not appear to be prac-
tised amongst the New Zealanders in consequence
of hunger, but fom believing that by eating the
bodies of the valiant, as all those are considered
who die in the field of battle, they become inheritors
of their courage mid valour. The horrible practice
of cannibalism having been found existing in the
most fertile countries, we must seek for some other
motives for the custom than mere hunger. To
ear the bodies, however, hunger would be requi-
site, combined with the revengeful feeling—
all provision being sent away from the field of
battle, with the women and children hunger becomes
a concomitant with the revengeful feeling, but not
the sole-exciting cause. After a battle it is cus-
tomary to &Meet all the dead bodies of the enemy
togethce, and the heads of those intended for pre-
paration having b,,en detached, are delivered to the
persons who are habituated to it ; the bodies are
cut open, the viscera extracted, and the remainder
cut into pieces; they then proceed to cook and pre-
pare the banquet, in what manner they are not par-
ticular: it is seldom, however, eaten in a raw state;
but it is a common and general custom, on an enemy
falling in battle, for his adversary, excited by the
demoniacal spirit of revenge, to rush immediately
towards him for the purpose of sucking the blood
from his throat before the vital spark has fled. They
also dry the hands of their enemies, and fasten them
near their huts, the fingers having been previously
dried in a contracted form so as to be used as hooks
on which to hang their baskets, &c. They also
preserve the fat from the buttocks, and the internal
fat they melt down and eat with their potatoes; this
is more generally done when the person is a powerful
chief; and they always express it as being a mark
of great contempt towards him. The bones, if of a
chief, are preserved; those of the arms and legs
being used for making flutes and ear ornaments; it
of a common individual they are thrown away. With
respect to the taste of the food they describe it as
being superior to pork. One of the Chiefs at the
River Thames, of whom Mr. Bennett made the in-
quiry whether he had ever eaten the flesh of white
men, and whether it was better tasted than that of
a New Zealander, replied that he had tasted of the
flesh of Europeans, sometimes he found it good,
sometimes bad, but generally very salt. It is a cu-
rious circumstance that the natives of New Zealand
always express a dislike to salt.

Sunday last, at two o'clock, there was a meet-
ing held at the Linen Hall, for the purpose of collecting
'he annual tribute for Mr. O'Connell, when 301. was nub-
q;ribed.—Drogheda Journal.

The state of our marriage laws• antccetTcnt to the
Act of 1753 (26 George IL, c. 33), and the infa-
mous system of legal prostitution which that Act
extinguished, are sufficiently- notorious); From the
novels of Fielding and Smollett, and the scarcely
more faithful details given in the periodical publica-
tions of the day, we become tolerably familiar with
the doings of the Fleet and King's Bench parsons,
hackney and sham, with their tavern chapels, where
the clocks never went beyond the canonical hour;
where contracts of convenience might be made and
unmade in a trice, and where children could be le-
gitimated at half an hour's notice, and for a few
shillings, without troubling Parliament about the
matter; all these things are pretty well known.
Few persons, however, are acquainted with the
fact that registers (such as they are) of these mar-
riages exist ; that a large collection, purchased by
Government, are deposited in the registry of the
Consistory Court of London, and some still remain
in private hands. Mr. John Southerden Burn, to
whom the public are already indebted for a curious
history of parish registers, has directed his researches
into this devious path of reading, and from an ex-
amination of these extraordinary documents, as wed
as the parsons' ‘. pocket-bocks," as they were
termed, and from a variety of historical and antiqua-
rian records, has compiled an amusing as well as
useful little work, comprising the history of Fleet
marriages, the parsons and marriage-housekeepers,
and of the May-fair, Mint, and Savoy chapels, with
extracts from the registers.
The earliest Fleet register in the London Re-
gistry is dated in 1674; but there is evidence of a
Fleet marriage in 1613, amongst the Lansdowne
manuscripts. With a single exception all the Fleet
registers commence about the period of the order of
the ecclesiastical commissioners against clandestine
marriages, in 1686, which checked the celebration of
such marriages at Duke's-place and Trinity Mino-
ries, when it was taken up by certain real and pre-
tended clergymen in and about the prisons, not;
however, on account of any real privilege or ex-
emption attaching to these prisons, but because the
parsons, being generally prisoners, had nothing to
lose by ecclesiastical proceedings against them.
The infamous character of these men, their em-
ployers, plyers, and bullies, and the class of people
who usually resorted to their aid (some were people
of rank), are pretty plainly developed in the entries,
comments, and memoranda contained in the regis-
ters. The parsons took the fees, allowing a portion
to the plyers, &c.; and the tavern-keepers, besides
sharing in the fees, derived a profit from the sale of
liquors drank at the wedding. In some instances
they kept a parson on their establishment at a weekly
salary of 20s. The fee, of course, varied in amount ;
the parsons got as much, and the parties (generally)
paid as little as they could; ss. or 6s. seems to
have been about the ordinary fee; and a memo-
randum by Parson Ashwell, described as " a
most notorious rogue and imposter," who floe-
rithed between 1734 and 1743, shows the
mode of division: " the turnkey had is.; Boyce Is.
clk. ye plyer Is.; and I had 3s. Bd." Parson Wyatt,
who " had a great deal of business in this way,"
rills left a memorandum in one of his pocket-books,
whence it appears that, in the month of October,
1748, marriages were celebrated by him every day,
at home and abroad, and his total receipts for that
month amounted to 57/. 12s. 9d. The same parson,
in another pocket-book, candidly confesses that he ex-
torted money from silly and unwary people " by ly-
ing,bullying, and swearing." It appears from some of
the authorities cited by Mr. Burn, that these "cler-
gymen" were in the habit of " boxing" the bride-
grooms who were not over ready to comply with
their demands. On the other hand, they were in
turn (as appears by their memoranda) served in the
same way, lacing occasionally beaten, and sometimes
forced to refund the fee. One of the notes shows
the cunning mode in which they were revenged :
" N. B. Some material part (of the ceremony) was
omitted."

The Grub•street Journal of January, 1735, eon.
tains a description of the manner in which person•
were sometimes married in spite of themselves,
a set of drunken swearing parsons, with their myr-
midons, that wear black coats, and pretend to be
clerks and registers to the Fleet, and who ply about
Ludgate-hill, pulling and forcing people to some
peddling alehouse or brandy-shop to be married,
even on a Sunday, stopping them as they go to
church, and almost tearing their clothr-s off their
backs."

The indecency of these practices, and the facility
.hey afforded for accomplishing forced and fraudu-

lent marriages, were not the only evils attending
the state of the law. Marriages could be antedated.
without limit, on payment of a fee, or not entered
at all. Parties could be married without declaring
their names. It was a common practice for women
to hire temporary husbands, at the Fleet, in order
that they might be able to plead coverture
to an action for debt, or to produce a certi-
ficate in case of their being enceinte. These hired
husbands were provided by the parson for ss. each ;
sometimes they were wonzen. The hopeful condi-
tion of the brides was often so apparent to the par-
son (when not a Hind parson, or not too drunk to
see it) that he noted the fact in his entry. For ex-
ample :—" After marr I perceived it to be a hired
job. He a thin-jaw'd mean-looking fellow, Irish or
Scotch; she gravida, and very gent." Procrastina-
tion was sorn..times carried too far. A case is men-
tioned (p. 61) in which the bride was delivered
during the ceremony, leaving the legitimacy of the
child a very nice question. It appears, moreover,
that for half-a-guinea a marriage might be registered
and certified that never took place at all, even in
form !

The marriage at the Fleet of the Hon. Henry
Fox, son of the first Lord Holland, to the daughter
of the Duke of Richmond, in 1744, and the increase
of these irregular practices, led to the introduction
of the Marriage Act, which, strange to say, passed
with great difficulty, and which Blackstone, with an
obliquity of judgment not unfrequent with common
lawyers, seems to condemn as an " innovation upon
our ancient law and constitution." Mr. Burn has

given a very particular account of this important
enactment.

The interval between the passing of the Bill and
its coming into operation afforded a rich final harvest
to the parsons of the Fleet and May-fair. At the
Fleet, it appears, from one register-book alone, that
on the 25th of March, 17.54, the day previous to
the Act taking effect, there were no less than 217
marriages. Clandestine marriages continued, how-
ever, at the Savoy till 1756, when the transporta-
tion of a minister and his curate, under the Act, put
an effectual stop to them.

The surviving registers may probably supply
some valuable evidence as to marriages not recorded
in the regular registries, and Mr. Burn has pub-
lished the names of a variety of parties (some people
of rank) who found it convenient, for some reason,
to avail themselves of the services of the Fleet

parsons.
The appendix to the work contains a draught Bill
for amending the law of parochial registration.

CARDIGANSHIRE.—County voters registered
in the 74 parishes, I,o4s.—Cardigan Borough, freemen
171, occupiers 132 ; Adpar, freemen none, occupiers
69; Lampeter, freemen 254, occupiers 29; Aberyetwytb,
freemen 34, occupiers 216 ; total 905, —Shrgtesbury
chronicle.

By the last packet from St. Thomas's, we learn
the arrival of the Serpent, 16. Commodore Sy-
monds, at Trinidad, on the 21st September, from
Halifax and Bermuda, and proceeded immediately
to Jamaica ; the. Arachne, 18, Commander Azar,
arrived about the same time from Curagoa, Cu-
mana, and Porto Cabello ; at the last place she
took on board the bowel anchor the Herrnione was
riding by, when cut out by Sir E. Hamilton. The
report of her being in a leaky state, owing to the
Columbine getting into collision with her, when
heating out of Demerara, is incorrect. The AracLue,
which was on the starboard tack, lost her jib-boom;
the Columbine lost no spars. The Sipphire, 28,
Captain Hon. G.R. Trefusis, and Victor, 18, Com-
mander Russell, were at Trinidad The Gannet,
18, Commander Maxwell, and Racehorse, 18, C,m-
wander Cotton, were at Barbadoes. The Arachne
was to sail immediately, to visit all the Caribbean
Islands under the English Government.
BRITISH MEN-Op-WAR ON FOREIGN STATIONS.—
The Belvidera, 42, Captain Dundas, left Madeira,
15th Oct., for Lisbon, and the Renard packet left
Madeira on the same day, for the Brazils; the
Plover packet arrived at Vera Cruz on 2lst Sept.,
from Falmouth. The Sparrow cutter arrived at
Lisbon, on 31st Oct., with the mails; and the Cat,-
ron steamer, on the Ist Nov., both from Falmouth.
The Orestes, 18, Com. Sir W. Dickson, sailed on
Wednesday, for Falmouth, to take on board Mr.
Grant, Secretary of Legation to the Embassy at
Lisbon, and then proceed to Lisbon. Mr. Grant
left town for Falmouth on Wednesday evening.
The /Etna, 8, surveying vessel, Com. Skyring,
with the Raven, Lieutenant Arlett, sailed on Wed-
nesday, to survey the west coast of Africa.—Hanzp-
shire Telegraph.
His Alajesiy's ship Sparrowhawk, 18, is ordered
to be commissioned in a day or two at Portsmouth,
by Commander Charles Pearson, and the following
officers are appointed—Lieutenants Edward T. Har-
ris and S. F. Harmer, Mr. Rankine, Surgeon, and
Mr. Samuel Allen, Assistant-Surgeon.
The Cruiser, 16, arrived yesterday from Sheer-
ness, on her way from the West Indies.
The Rolla and Saracen, 10-gun brigs, were taken
into dock Friday, preparatory to being commissioned
—the former instead of the Magpie cutter, which is
ordered to be paid off, and Lieutenant Glasse will
take command of the Rolla.

The Caledonia, 120, Captain Thomas Brown, ar-
rived at Malta on the 23d Oct., and the Firefly ciz
the 18th. Satellite, 18, Corn. Smart, was at Bahia
on 7th Sept. Imogene, 28, Captain Blackwood,
was spoken with off Sydney Head, on the sth July,
from New Zealand, all well. Wasp, 18, Corn. Bur-
ney, was to leave Lisbon for Bermuda on the 28th
ult.; her crew had entirely recovered, and none of
the cholera cases had proved fatal after her arrival
in the Tagus.
The Wellesley, 74, was undocked at this port on
Thursday last.
Remaining in Hamoaze--San Josef, Andromache,
Athol!, Magpie, Speedy, Sylvia, Marquis of Huntly
transport, Industry naval transport, Duck, lighter.
In Catwater—Orestes transport.
In the Sound—Cruizer.—Devonport Telegra

'HE NATIONAL TRIBUTE.—The general
election of all the parishes in this city, for the O'Connell
fund, took place on last Sunday. The sum will, we un-
derstand, amount to nearly 150/.—Kilkenny Journal.
At the Cheltnsford petty sessions Mr. Jesper,
miller at Stebbing (Essex), was s ummoned by Mr.
Overall, overseer of that parish, to show cause why he
had not paid 21. I6s. 3d., due from him for the labour
rate. The overseer produced the rate-book, in which
Mr. Thomas Jesper stood rated to that amount. Mr.
Jesper said he considered the demand very unju.t. " I
went (he said) to the vestry, and having no labour whereea
to employ a man, inquired whether, if I found work for a
labourer belonging to our parish elsewhere, thit would be
considered a compliance with the rate. They were agree-
able to my doing so, and I found one of our labourers, who
was then at work for a farmer in an adjoin. g parish,
who was about to leave his master. I agreed t give that
farmer one shilling a week to employ him, an continued
to do so for six weeks, after which they raid I should not
go on upon that system." Bench—Did the par' o refund
the six shillings ? Mr. Jesper—Yes. The Bench were
about to order a distress warrant to be issued, when Mr.
Jesper observed that some magistrates had refused to take
that course under similar circumstances. The Act was
then referred to, and, after some discussion, the magi!.
crates were of opinion that they bad not the power under
it to issue a warrant.

ATTEMPTED MURDER AT KfisoISTON.--•
It is our painful duty to record a deliberate a tempt at
murder, which took place at Kingston fair on Wednesday
afternoon last, under aggravating circumstances. The
unfortunate victim, who up to last night remained in
imminent danger, and, as far as medical judgment goes,
it is almost impossible for life to exist many days, is Jas.
Gardener, a young married man, about 28 years of age,
of somewhat respectable connections, residing at West-
minster. It appears that the unfortunate sufferer, who
was brought up to the business of a plasterer, it being his
father's trade, who (the latter) had been many years fore-
man to Messrs. Francis Bernasceni and Company, plas-
terers to his Majesty, and other branches of the Royal
Family, in Tottenham-court-road, arrived at Kings on
Town on Tuesday evening, in company with his wife, for
the purpose of visiting the fair, which commenced the
following (Wednesday) morning. On Wednesday after-
noon, as he was passing along that part of the fair ground
where cattle are exhibited for sale, he met with one of the
known thimble speculators,oambol
enrg,
he lower orders of society by the nickname
of Cobbler Will,"named James Williams, but better
when, after some little conversation,.
words arose, after which they parted. About three o'clock
they again met in one of Groolay'e accommodating booths,'
elien other words of an aggravating nature on both
sides ensued, consequently it was finally arranged that
the dispute should be terminated in a pugilistic contest
or one sovereign aside the following Tbursday morning,
to come off at or bear Kingston, and as Gardener (the
'offerer) was about to lay down his stake-money, the
fellow (Williams) ran to the bar of the booth, a distance
of about ten yards, and seized a large sharp•pointed
carving knife, which he instantly, in a most deliberate
manner, plunged into his (Gardener's) left side, just
below the heart. The poor flow immediately fell
senseless on the ground, bleeding profusely. The prisoners
who was attired in the first style of fashion, is about
30 years of age, sallow complexion, and stands at least
six feet high. On Thursday the prisoner was taken
before Shrubsole and Thomas Fricker, Esquires,
the town Magistrates, who assembled At the Town•hall
expressly to hear the circumstances connected with the
atrocious act, when witnesses were examined in confirms-
oration of the foregoing statement, after which he (the
prisoner) was committed to the Bridewell prison for re-
examination next week, aed, if in the mean time death
should occur, to await the result of the Coroner's inquest.
The sufferer, wh
„se agonies are great, still remains at
the Harrow public-house, where every attention is p iid
to his perilous situation. His wife is, unfortunately,
pregnant with the seventh child.