The Sun.
London, England, 1817-12-18 00:00:00

THE FORTUNATE YOUTIT.

As so (Mich has been said respecting this person,
whose reported surprising success has indeed been,
and still- is, a topic of general conversation, we
shall avail ourselves of an article which appears
in The Morning Chronicle of this day, and it is but
justice to that Paper to say,-.that it has been
laudably industrious to' prevent the Public from
bring deceived on this extraordinary occasion :
This young man's name is ABRAHAM W.
CAWSTO.N. His father is a farmer at Chipper'.
ham, near Newmarket. The early promise of
shining talents induced his father to send him to
school, under the tuition of the eminent Dr. But-
ler, of Shrewsbury ; and there his attainments and
abilities gained him universal admiration. He was
not seventeen years of age when he paid his ad-
dresses to a young lady of fortune in that place,
and from that time the st range artifice or imagina-
tion of this enormous fortune, that had dropt to
him as it were front the clouds, had birth. He
first opened the wonderful secret. to his father, and
the story he told was, that an aged gentleman had,
at one of his journies from home to school, fallen
in with him in a stage coach going to Birming-
ham, and that he had afterwards made him a deed
of gift of his whole fortune ! It did not, in the
'first disclosure, swell to the maghitude which it
afterwards attained ; but the fit st feeling that he
manifested was to settle a part of his wealth on
his parents and brother. For this purpose he
was introduced to. Mr. Weatherby, to whom he
gave instructions to make a will ; and as his for-
tune was stated to be all personal, Mr. Weather-
by saw no objection to the deed. His distribu-
tion of wealth, though uncommon, did not strike
Mr. W. as improbable, so clear and consistent
were the boy's statements-in their different Toter-
views, and so filial and brotherly were the be-
quests. From this time ,nothing could equal the
romance of his story, the unblushing efirontory
with which he maintained it, and the ingenious
stratagems he devised to keep up the deltision.—
lt would fill a volume to recount the history of
the youth for the last two months ; and we are
possessed of so many curious anecdotes, that we
shall otntertain our readers with the relation of a
few of them, since the affair has afforded a strik-
ing example of the courtesy which is shewn to
appearance, and the eagerness with which a meteor
is contemplated in the hemisphere of rank and
fashion. That tradesmen of all descriptions should
crowd round his doors for the advantage of his
orders was natural--but that Bankers should con-
tend for his account—Duchesses fur the honour
of his acquaintance—and Candidates for his Par-
liamentary support—prOve how- much all condi-
tions of society are on the alert for gold and
power. He prevailed on his father to enter his
elder brother, who is 24 years of age, and had
been brought up in the line of farming, as a lel-
low commoner of Emanuel College, Cambridge.
He instructed one solicitor to enter into a nego-
elation for the purchase of several estates, and
surveys had actually been made. He applied to
Government for a grant to take the name and bear
the arms of Devereux, and the Herald's College had
begun to take steps to exemplify the arms, and.wait•
ed onLefor infotmation as to.which branch of the
idolise of Devereux his benefactor belonged. He
instructed another solicitor to insert an advertise-
' meat in the public papers, calling on the credi-
tors, it any, of Don Gaspar de Quintilla, deceased,
to bring in vouchers of their: demands; in order
that they might be forthwith liquidated. (Mean-
ing to couple him with Don Joachim de Quint ills,
a rich Portuguese:diamond merchant.) He stated
that it was his determinations to purchase ten Bo-
roughs, that he might have twenty Members in
the House of Commons, to procure him an Earl--
dom. He said that his halt-year's dividend, due
ou •the sth January next, was 92,000/. and that
he held annuities front Several of the Crowned
Heads of Earoye, to the amount of millions. He
was in the habit of suffering drafts on bankers
for thousands, nay at times for tens and hundreds
of thousands, to drop fro in his pocket-book, as it
by accident, that they might be seen ; and he
talked of loans to persons of the highest distinc-
tion, on whose estates he had mortgages. ile
said that the account in the Bristol Paper was
inserted totally without his knowledge, and Vet,
in his own conversation, he gave the same extra-
vagant account of his possessions. When strongly
pressed for an explanation as--to the Deed of GO
by which the Legacy Tax had been evaded, he
said that it was a secret which he was bound to
conceal for a time., but it was in an iron chest,
buried in the garden of his benefactor. So entire
was the conviction of his friends 'is to the -cer-
tainty and extent of his wealth, that a consulta-
tion was held with two eminent Lawyers, to de-
vise the means of making. him a ward of Chan-
cery—and
as his wealth was all his own, and con-
sequently there was no ground for the interference
of the LORD CHANCELLOR, it was settled that he
shoithl ?resent 30,0001. to his 'fattier, - and file a
frieinny bill, upon which application might be
made to the Court to constitute him a Ward.
These are but a few of the practices by which
the delusion was catried on—and it was not till
within these two days that the eyes of Mr. Wea-
therby were fully opened to the deceit. All the
references he obtained from the , youth have
proved totally false, and it appears that in - the
whole management of the affair the lad had nut
a confederate."

A Mr. O'CALLAGHAN, a pupil Of NALDI, has
made his first appearance as a Singer on the
Dublin Stage in the character of Don Ccesar,
the Opera of the Castle of Andalusia, with much
success.

Previous to the Secoad Day of Drawing of the
present Lottery, there was not a whole Ticket
to be had at any of the Lottery Offices in London;
and many individuals were in consequence dis-
appointed. Since that period, a few have been
returned from Inland, and some of the coma-
try agents ; and T. BISH begs to inform his
Ft lends he has received Fourteen, Part of which
he has on sale at his Office in Cornhill, and the
remainder are at his Office at Charing-cross.—
The Lottery will finish Next Saturday, when all
the Four 20,00 W. Prizes and other Capitals must
be drawn.