The Sun.
London, England, 1844-08-13 00:00:00

THE COMMITTEE DINNER.

It is customary for the committee to dine together
on the first day of the show, and the dinner is also
open to members of the Society. The dinner took
place this evening in the Trades' Hall, and was at-
tended by upwards of 200 noblemen and gentlemen.
The Earl of Eglintoun occupied the chair ; and, in
the absence of Mr. Campbell, of Islay, the Lord Pro-
vost of Glasgow filled the office of croupier.
The ball in the Assembly-rooms was attended by a
very brilliant assemblage. Among the distinguished
party present were the Earl and Countess of Eglintoun,
Lord and Lady Belhaven, Lord and Lady Blantyre,
Lady Isabella Gordon, Lord Ranelagh, Earl Cathcart,
Mr. Lockart, M.P., &c.

At a general meeting extraordinary of the United
Service Club, held yesterday, Sir George Seymour in
the chair, Sir Robert Sale, G.C.8., was proposed and
unanimously elected an honorary member of the Club.
This is the only instance of a British officer being
elected out of the regular course ; and the exception to
the rule is well worthy of the distinguished Club.—
Naval and Military Gazette.
A PROLIFIC DUCK.—Mrs. Braithwaite, of the Old
Phoknix Inn, Morpeth, has in her possession a duck
which has laid this season the extraordinary number of
180 eggs ; during the first 70 days she had produced as
many eggs—then missed one day, and for 30 following
laid every day—she then missed another, and for the
last SO days has continued to lay an egg every day ;
57 young ducks may be seen running about, the offspring
of this extraordinary bird, and twice that number more
may probably be reared in the course of the summer.—
Berwick Advertiser.

A WHALE.—STRANGE OCCURRENCE.—On the
night of Friday last, while a fishing-boat belonging to
Thurso was riding at her nets in Murkle Bay, a large
whale came up to the side of the boat, and lifted his
head over the gunwale! One of the crew, who was at
the time sitting lighting his pipe, was considerably in-
jured. Fortunately, another boat was speedily rowed to
their assistance, otherwise the men would, in all proba-
bility, have perished. The mast and four oars were
broken, and the boat had to be towed ashore. The
bottom of the boat being painted white, is supposed to
have attracted the attention of the monster. The man
who was injured has recovered. There were immense
shoals of whales in the Bay that night.—John 0. Groat
Journal.

THE PITMEN'S STRIKE.—Upon this subject nothing
of interest has occurred since our last. The union still
continues, but the arrival of new hands and those who
are leaving the union are fast filling up the places of
those declining to work. The following is the working
state of the colliery districts up to August 3 :
Hewers at Men left Chaldrons
Work. Union. per Day.
Tyne 2,307 ... 524 ... 3,353
Wear

Tees 1,142 ... 520 ~. 1,635

Total
Return, July 27

Increase this week... 488 ... 542 ... 667
A large meeting of pitmen took place in the neighbour-
hood of Pittington, on Friday last, when they again de-
clared their determination to continue the strike. A
number of men who had previously gone to work at Pit-
tington and Belmont collieries were induced, either by
persuasion or intimidation to attend this meeting, and
to give up the substance in their possession in exchange
for the shadow which the speakers promised them. The
Belmont men and their wives had been feasted at sup-
per the night before, by the colliery owners, on the
occasion of their having resumed work! Nothing will
teach such men wisdom. During the present week sixty
families have been ejected from their habitations at Cox-
hoe, and twenty-one at Shincliffe Bank Top. Several
others are to be turned out of their dwellings at different
collieries to-day and to-morrow, and ere many days
elapse the whole of the unemployed pitmen, their wives
and families, will be wandering outcasts. How pleasant
must be the reflections of their " Attorney General"
and of the paid delegates, when they see the misery they
have entailed upon their infatuated victims!—Durham
Advertiser.

THE KNIFE.—At the Stafford assizes Mr. Sergeant
Atelierley, in his charge to the grand jury, made use of the
following remarks :—" On looking at the calendar, however,
1 must take leave to draw your attention to one particular
species of crime, of which I find four or five instances in the
calendar before me—l allude to the crime of the use ofl).sharp
other
and cutting instruments for the purpose of assault. I
I
counties, to which my duty has carried me,
I have observed
haveu
n- English
this crime of cutting and maiming, cowardly and
as it is, has certainly very much increased.
cases of that
found that
to you that there are no less than four or five
request
your at.
sort of crime imputed in the calendar; and
tention to those cases, because it is genleerrea ll
a conviction takes
generally
known that, in
respect to the growth of this crime, w
place to the satisfaction of the
jury and the Court, condign
and severe punishment must bea_
At the last week's
ordinary meeting of h
FRACAS AT EXETE liu
eR
Committee of the Medical Pro-
tectionthSeprrtoleyeeadfitnegrs eightwere
of a somewhat
novel Assembly, at t
Exeter -ha l 1,
ho
character.
o'clock, the time appointedCollege,entered the room, and approach-
ing Mr. Rugg, a
for the meeting, Dr. Blarney,
of University
surgeon, and one of the members of
the assembly, tookhimby the noise,
nso.isteb,e shoulders whilellheervsioNl‘ein
pulled, and struck him a
stick. Indignant at the insult thus offered to him,
who also had a stick in his hand, aimed
aMr Rugg,h'eav
heavy at Dr. Blarney, who received it, fortu-
nately for him, on his hat, his face being but slightly
bruised. llad he been without his hat, his skull must
have been cleft in two. The other members of the as-
sembly interfered, and succeeded in putting an end to
the riotous proceedings. Dr. Blarney's reason for making
this attack on Mr. Rugg appears from the following
statement :—Some time since, Dr. Blarney published
what he termed "an epic poem," containing a chal-
lenge addressed to the students at King's Col-
lege to meet those of University College at cricket.
This poem was publicly recited several times under
the portico of the College in Gower-street : the au-
thor, on each occasion, being carried round the neigh-
bourhood on the shoulders of the students, amidst the
most vociferous cheering. It was stated to Dr. Blarney
that Mr. Rugg had expressed his desire to become a
subscriber to the work, and it was consequently de-
livered to him, and the sum of sixpence demanded.
Payment was refused, on the ground of no order hav-
ing been given, Mr. Rugg at the same time expressing
his conviction that the book was not worth a penny.
This reflection on his poetic powers roused the indigna-
tion of the Doctor, who took summary vengeance in the
manner aboe described,—Observer.

.

CELTS AND SAXONS. •
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN. -'• -d 14.
SlR,—Whe.n:any particular excellence of the British s'--' ----, -- 1
character is brought under notice, it is by no means --.4' \ a_ . -
unusual to find its existence attributed altogether t - :-: =1- • ~ -
some generic superiority of the Anglo-Saxon rac ss: ,-
_:-; ,
and to hear the merits of " our Anglo-Saxon an °./ 5,,..55,:-:-, -- -
cestors," as they are called, extolled upon every suc :;---.sc- ;')::(
occasion ; and as you have at all times evinced a rea-
,;?.' ',-‘&-:
diness to remove erroneous impressions, and to be- Nss2..'-fe'-'l
friend the injured, I trust you will allow me to offer l'fk'sia
a few remarks upon the subject. As, however, this
idea of Anglo-Saxon superiority may have gained pos-
session of some minds, I am persuaded that when the •
subject is duly investigated, the whole will be dis- •
covered to be nothing more than a mere groundless
fancy, and that evidence can be adduced sufficient to
show the fallacy and injustice of the assumption, and to
prove that the Anglo- Saxon blood is not predominant
in this kingdom, nor its virtues so efficacious as to
warrant any idea of its superiority, but, on the con-
trary, that the Celtic is the predominant race.
When the Saxons and Angles first invaded this
island, there can be no doubt that their numbers
were so considerable, that along the eastern coasts they
became the predominant race; and as on their first
arrival they waged a war of extermination, it is pos-
sible that in some districts they were left sole pos-
sessors of the soil ; but according as they extended
themselves towards the interior, it became a war of
subjugation, and not of extirpation ; so that, in those
parts, the bull of the British inhabitants, having sub-
mitted to the new dominion, became mixed up with
the invaders, and, in a few generations, the subjects
of the lieptarchy having become blended together, no
trace remained of any original distinction. Of the
subsequent Danish invasions but few impressions re-
main, as that people afterwards almost entirely quit-
ted the island. But with the Normans the case was
different. They settled in the country, and never left
it ; and being at that time more Gaulish than Scan-
dinavian, the blood they introduced was, in a great
measure, Celtic. So that here we find another deduc-
tion from the amount of Anglo-Saxon predominancy.
It must also be recollected that a great portion of the
island had always continued in the possession of the
original Celtic inhabitants, as Cornwall, for instance,
Wales, Cumberland, and the chief part of Scotland.
Such was the state of Britain previous to the union
of its several divisions in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Since then, the Celtic race has been pouring into
England in such copious streams, as to render it
doubtful whether there is in the whole kingdom a
single drop of Anglo-Saxon blood, except in an ex-
tremely diluted state. In the town of Liverpool, out
of its 200,000 inhabitants, there are, by birth or ex-
traction, 60,000 Irish, 40,000 Welsh, and 20,000
Scotch. In Manchester and Birmingham the propor-
tions are not greatly inferior. Chester, Shrewsbury,
Worcester, Hereford, and all the towns bordering on
the principality, have had their population continually
replenished from that country ; and Bristol, which for
ages has been a kind of metropolis for South Wales,
abounds with families of Welsh extraction, and has
of late received a vast accession of Irish. Indeed, the
latter are in an extraordinary degree supplanting the
old inhabitants of England. Every English town
has its Irish population ; and in harvest time, tens of
thousands of new adventurers come over from Ireland
and disperse themselves over the country, of whom
multitudes settle there and never return. The En-
glish labourer, unable to bear up against the difficul-
ties of the times, emigrates to another hemisphere,
and the more pure-blooled and hardier Celt occupies
his place. If we add to this the continual influx of
the upper classes from the Celtic countries, and their
permanent location in England, we can come to no
other conclusion than that the great mass of the
people of England is much more Celtio than Saxon,
and that there are but few families in the kingdom
who do not possess some portion of Celtic blood. In-
deed, the Throne itself acknowledges such admixture
of kindred. The Tudors and Mortimers of Wales,
and the Stuarts of Scotland, each claim their portion,
and that, too, much less remotely than the Anglo-
Saxon dynasty.
Followinrs up the same train of argument, I think
it may be shown that Britain is as little indebted to
the Anglo-Saxons for its energies and spirit of enter-
prise, as for its population. The most distinguished
characters of the present day have certainly much
Celtic blood in their veins ; whether they have as
much Anglo-Saxon remains to be proved. It re-
quires but a single glance over the intellectual state
of the country to be convinced of this. Whether in
the peaceful pursuits of domestic life, or in the more
stirring and martial occupations of foreign lands, we
continually meet with confirmations of this truth.
Ask those gallant men who have lately achieved such
glorious enterprises in the East—ask Sir Hugh
Gough and his Connaught Rangers if they are
Saxons; I doubt whether they would not resent the
question as an insult. Look at those whose daring
stood pre-eminent even amidst the concentrated valour
of Europe. Of what race were they ? The dauntless
Picton and his " fighting division"—did they acknow-
ledge a Saxon origin ? Even those intrepid and enter-
prising men, who have so lately encountered the
perils of the frozen seas, and explored the unknowii
regions of either pole, are they Anglo-Saxons
Quite the reverse. They are both of them genuine
Celts, Parry and Ross ; the one a Welshman, and the
other a Gael.

I shall not pursue the argument any further at the
present moment ; but I trust I have adduced facts
sufficient, at least, to shake the confidence of those
who may hava been led to adopt the unfounded
notion of Anglo-Saxon superiority; and, when I recur
to the subject, I hope to be able to show, in a manner
equally conclusive, that it is well for Britain that the
Anglo-Saxon blood is not predominant, but than, on
the contrary, that sluggish stream has been so much
quickened by the vivifying impulse of Celtic energy.
A CELT.