The Sun.
London, England, 1845-01-13 00:00:00

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VALENTINE M.CLUTCHY. 3 Vols.
Duffy, Dublin, 1845.
This story is from the pen of Mr. Carleton, already
favourably known to the public by his admirable
sketches of Irish character, in which there was more
of truth and force,-and less of exaggeration, than in
any similar sketches yet given to the public, with the
sole exception, perhaps, of those by Mrs. Hall. In
the volumes before us, Mr. Carleton reads a useful
moral lesson to the hardhearted Irish landlord and
the flagitious agent; and we would specially recom-
mend his story to the attention of all Irish absentmes,
for it will show them hciw often their poorer tenantry
are in the habit of being oppressed and despoiled
while they are absent from their estates, on which
they ought to be frequent, if not constant residents.
The tale is written with point and spirit, and is full of
characteristic sketches, not the least amusing of which
is the sketch of an Irish Squire of the Old School. The
third volume is the most entertaining; in the second,
the-interest flags occasionally, and there are some
irrelevant matters introdnced, which might have been
omitted, or at any rate curtailed with advantage.
JOURNAL OF A CLERGYMAN.

Blackwood, Edinburgh. 1845.
This Journal is the record of a visit paid to the
Peninsula by the author, the Rev. W. Robertson,
minister of the New Greyfriars, Edinburgh, in the
summer and autumn of the year 1841. The Journal,
on the whole, is carefully written, but there is a
languor and heaviness in some of the descriptive
sketches, as if" the author's heart was not in his sub-
ject, which may perhaps be accounted for by the state
of his health, which he tells us in his preface, "owing
to the influence of climate and other causes, was such
as to weaken the energies of both body and mind."
His destination was Gibraltar, which he was induced
to visit at the instance of the Colonial Committee of
the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.
On his way thither he paid flying visits to Lisbon,
which he calls " the filthiest capital in Europe," Cadiz,
and Seville, whose local peculiarities he describes in a
more animated style than is usual with him. On the
subject of Gibraltar, its scenery, excavations, bat-
teries, street-population, &c., he is very minute and
circumstantial ; and we quote his account of a mili-
tary execution which took place soon after his arrival
in that town :

" There was a gloom overhanging Gibraltar at the
iime of my arrival, 'owing to a circumstance happily of
very rare occurrence—a court-martial on a soldier ac-
cused of a capital crime. The criminal was an English-
man, a very tine young man, a private in the 7th Fusiliers.
He had hitherto borne a most excellent character, and
was a good soldier. Love and jealousy seem to have
turned the poor fellow's brain. The object of his affec-
tions was a woman employed in the mess-kitchen—a
person of very indifferent reputation ; at the very time
said to be enceinte by another man. He had had a con•
siderable sum of money bequeathed to him by a relation
in England, and it was his intention to purchase his dis-
charge from the army, make this woman his wife, and
return to settle in his native country. The woman had
promised to marry him; but persisted, notwithstanding
his remonstrances, in keeping up an intercourse with
another admirer. The consequence was, that in a fit of
jealousy and madness he stabbed her with a knife in the
side; the wound proved mortal, and the unhappy woman
expired very soon after. The court-martial sat for
several days; and had not finished its proceedings at the
time of my arrival. Malice prepense was proved against
the soldier, chiefly from the circumstance of his calling
the woman aside into a room, shutting the door, and
making it fast with a bench before he gave the fatal
blow. He was found guilty accordingly, condemned to
death, and was executed on the neutral ground on the
morning of 23d July. It is described as having been a
most impressive scene. The whole garrison, with the
exception of those on guard. were marched out to the
ground in solemn silence. The gibbet was erected on
the neutral ground; and when the troops had arrived at
the place appointed, they were formed into three sides of
a square, the scaffold occupying the centre of the vacant
side. The criminal was then marched handcuffed round
the square, inside the ranks—the Dead March playing,
and the chaplain reading the service. It was observed
how regularly the poor soldier, from the force of old
habit, kept time to the music; and when he happened to
be put out, how he changed the step, though his whole
mind seemed occupied by the religious service. The'
steps to the fatal scaffold were exceedingly steep and ill-
constructed ; but even with his fettered hands he as-
cended calmly and firmly without assistance. After the
execution the body was laid on the top of the coffin, and
the troops were marched slowly by it in single file, with
the order ' eyes right,' as they passed, so as to force
every soldier to contemplate the ghastly spectacle. It is
said that many, b ,th officers and men, shed tears on the
occasion. lam at a loss to divine the reason why the
soldiers should have been compelled to contemplate the
body of their comrade after the execution. Such exhi-
bitions produce no good moral effect, but serve only to
disgust, and to excite sympathy for the criminal, instead
of indignation against his crime. There was no
executioner in Gibraltar at the time ; but the office was
accepted by a private of the 4Gth Regiment, who received
his discharge beforehand, and was duly installed in the
honourable office of hangman to the garrison, with free
quarters in the old Moorish tower, a salary of eighteen-
pence per day, together with a doubloon, and the usual
perquisites, when called upon to perform his duty."

SUPPRESSION or Lecestrntaisst.—A public meeting
was held in the Town Hall, Gainsborough, on Tuesday,
at twelve o'clock, for the purpose of forming an associa-
tion to arrest the progress of incendiarism. Several in-
fluential landowners and farmers were present, but the
meeting was not so numerously attended as might have
been expected on such an occasion. The chair was
occupied by the Right Hon. Sir John Beckett, Bart.
The meeting was unanimous in adopting a resolution to
form a district society in Gainsborough for the suppres-
sion of incendiarism. It was also deemed expedient to
confine the operation of the assocation at present to the
Lincolnshire side of the Trent. The proposal of a Secret
Committee was also favourably received, who should have
power, in case of a fire, to adopt some active measures
on the spot, without losing time in sending for advice and
authority to the General Committee. No less a sum
than 7001. was realised before the meeting separated.
The Committee are to meet in the Town-hall, Gains-
borough on Tuesday next, to report progress and trans-
act the general business of the association.
UNWHOLESOME MEAT.—Wednesday night, a meet-
ing of salesmen and master butchers, was held at the
King's Arms, Snow-hill, Mr. Moray in the chair, to put
down the present practice of certain salesmen is New-
gate-market, College-market, and Warwick-lane, letting
their premises after six o'clock on Saturday night, to
certain parties who sold at reduced prices measly pork,
" cag meg," and " crokers," to the great injury of the
metropolitan butchers, and the detriment of the health
of the poor. The Chairman, Messrs.lligham, Hawkins,
Atwell, ThOrpe;Reignart, and Otheri, exposed the evils
complained of. It appeared from those addresses, that
a few salesmen let their stalls on Saturday nights to in-
dividuals who purchased wherever they could get it, dis-
eased meat, which they sold to the poor at very reduced
prices, and thus left the master butchers idle for hours
on those nighti, as they could not compete with those
that imposed the most unwholesome food on the poor,
who imazined that they were getting great bargains.
One speaker said that he knew several parties who pur-
chased measly pork that was returned .upon the sales-
men by master butchers, and which they sold in 61b.
pieces for ad. and 4d. a pound. One of those parties
sold in one day 60i worth of this meat. Another said
that this trade was carried on in the College-market
with the greatest impunity, as there was neither clerk
or beadle attached to it. A third speaker alluded to the
conviction of a vendor of measly pork, who was sen-
tenced at the last Maidttone Sessions to nine months'
hard labour for that offence. All the speakers declared
that they only, sought protection to the fair traders, and
to guard the poor against being poisoned by unwhole-
some food. Resolutions were ultimately adopted, pledg-
ing the meeting to carry out, by every possible means,
the objects for which they had been convened. The
Secretary read a long list of salesmen and master
butchers favourable to those objects; after which thanks
were voted to the Chairman, and the meeting broke up.
ATTEMPT TO ROB A MAGISTRATE AND CAPTURE
or THE DELINQUENT.—Tuesday last, being the market-
day at Penrith, in Cumberland, a number of suspicious-
looking characters were in the town, one of whom was
observed by a constable watching and following Joseph
Salkeld, Esq., one of the sitting magistrates for Leath
Ward, in the, same county, which circumstance the con-
stable communicated to the worthy magistrate. In the
evening it was agreed that one constabl;shsoauilkdeigoa
short distance before and another, behind big.
his way home to Croft Howe, which is situated aboutt
half a mile out of the town: Between seven and eight
the same individual was standing
o'clock, on his going up the back lawniethinto. war
sgahteomoef,
the field leading to Croft House, and Mr.
dthe person fol-
lowing
hSalkeld, haring
pas hear
passed him a short distance, be
wing him, and he begun to run up the field towards
home, when the man also ran after him. Mr. Salkeld,
finding that he was aining ground upon him, called out
for the
he assistance of the constables, when one of them,
villain, on
Sa 1 kt he
lad swaai ll ,
butof theth e
who
hearing n the field again towards
field,
the constable, ran down "s
area xis; corveet dt
o M behindr
the lane, making his escape, but at nearly the bottom of
the field he ran into the open arms of the other constable,
who was waiting on the pathway for him. He was a
most resolute fellow, and struggled violently. He was
taken up to Croft House, where some of the servants
knew him, and had seen him a day or two before lurking
near the house. He had.an accomplice with him, who
was seen to go out of the plantation at the lower end of
the field, who, no doubt, had been 'concealed there for
the purpose of rendering assistance, if necessary, or of
receiving the plunder had the other person succeeded in
robbing Mr. Salkeld. On Wednesday the villain was
brought before the magistrates at Penrith, but, having
been disappointed in carrying his design into effect, and
not having committed an .assault npou Mr. Salkeld, he
was discharged, and banished the town,

Tnis bacchanalian priest, now mouthing patriotism, and
now venting libertinism, the scourge of bad men, and
scarce better than the worst, debauching wives, and pro-
tectincr his gown by the weight of his fist, engaged with
Wilkes in'his war on the Scots ; and sometimes learn-
ing, and as often not knowing, the characters he attacked,
set himself up as the Hercules that was to cleanse the
State, and punish its oppressors ; and, true it is, the
storm that saved us was raised in taverns and night-
cellars ; so much more effectual were the orgies of
Churchill and Wilkes than the daggers of Cato and
Brutus. The two former sated their country, *bile
Catilino could not ruin his—a work to which such
worthies seemed much better adapted."