The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-12 00:00:00

FOREIGN CORN.

The accounts from the Baltic are of much the same cha-
racter this as the preceding week. Prices of wheat have
risen so rapidly there that few of the orders from hence to
purchase wheat have been executed, higher rates having
been paid by speculators than the limits of the British orders
have admitted.

Letters from Dantzic, of the Ist instant, state that about
16,000 quarters of wheat had changed hands during the week
almost entirely on speculation. There was not much being
shipped to England ; but vesels being very scarce, high
freights had been paid fir the few ships engaged to load
wheat ; 53. 6d. to 6s. had been paid for London, 53. 3d. to
ss: 9d. for the East Coast, and 6s. to is per quarter for Liver
pool.
At Hamburg, on Tuesday last, there was not much doing,
the very high prices asked for wheat having checked the dis-
position to buy.
From the south and east the reports also represent the
value of wheat as rising rapidly, and a letter from Mar-
seilles states that it was the belief there that the exporta-
tion of grain would be prohibited in the Ottoman empire;
and a similar step would, it was thought, be adopted by
the Neapolitan Government. In consequence of these ru-
mours, and the lively advices from Great Britain, a good
deal of speculation hail taken place in wheat at high prices,
say' 50s. to 525. for fine Polish Odessa and Marianople, and
from 455. to 48s. per quarter for secondary qualities.
From Leghorn we learn, under date of 31st October, that
a brisk inquiry had been experienced there for wheat for
export, and that equal to 495. Gd. had been paid for Polish
Odessa.

At Trieste, on the 30th ult., the greatest excitement pre-
vailed, and rather large sales appear to have been made there
at prices varying from 365. 9d. to 40s. per quarter free on
board, according to quality.
At Odessa, according to the most recent accounts, prices
of wheat were also moving up, as much as 31s. per quarter,
having been paid there for the best Polish.—Mark-lane
Expre4S.

MILEAGE OF A MAN.— The number of square
inches of surface in a man of ordinary height and bulk is 2,500 ;
the number of pores, therefore, 7,000,000 ; and the number of
inches of perspiratory tubes is 1,750,000; that is, 145,533 feet,
or 46,600 yards, or nearly twenty-eight miles.—Wilson.
DEATH OF THE REV. DR. SMART.—This esteemed
minister died on Tuesday last, in the house of his son, Campbell
Smart, Esq., Elm-row, Edinburgh. He was the senior minister of
the first United Secession Church, Stirling, in which he laboured
for the long period of 57 years, and was only the fourth minister
who has presided over this congregation since the famous disrup-
tion in In% when the Rev. Ebenezer Erskine left the Established
Church with his congregation. Dr. Smart was, we believe, in the
84th year of his age.—Scotsman.
ROCHESTER.—The staunch: Conservatives of this
ancient city dined together last evening at the Crown Inn, to cele-
brate the election of Robert Clements, Esq., to the civic chair,
which he so ably filled to the satisfaction of his fellow-citizens a
few years since. His known integrity and kindness of manners,
accompanied by an indefatigable disposition to uphold and secure
the rights of his fellow citizens, shows the esteem he must be held
in by their again placing him at the head of their corporation.
The dinner and wines were of first-rate character, the whole well
served under the superintendence of Mr. Calder.

ROBBING A UNIONI:VOIIfiHOUSF.—On Monday a
man named George Green, was finally examined before the Bench
of Magistrates, at Brentford, on a charge of having stolen a dial
clock from the board-room of the Staines union workhouse. It
appeared from the evidence, that sometime between Monday, the
3d instant, and Wednesday, the sth, the eight-day dial clock was
found to have been stolen from its place in the board-room of the
Staines union workhouse, between Bedfont and Staines, an entry
having been effected by the thief breaking a square of glass in the
window of the ante-room leading to the board-room. Immediate
information of the robbery was forwarded to the police, but no
trace of the thief was obtained until about noon on Friday last,
when that prisoner entered the shop of Mr. Upjohn, clock and
watchmaker, New Brentford, and offered an eight-day dial, with.
out a face, for sale. The prisoner was fully committed to New-
gate for trial.

FAILURE OF THE NEGOTIATIONS FOR AMALGAMA-
TIM—The long pending treaty for an amalgamation of the
Leeds and Dewsbury, the Leeds and Thirsk, and the Hud-
dersfield and Manchester Railways, although at one time
promising so favourable a result, and which would have
been beneficial to the West Riding of the county of York,
from the combination of the interests of these important lines
of communication, and their contemplated branches, have
entirely failed, at least for the present,—we wish we could
add, with a reasonable hope of their renewal at lone future
tirae,4ocedi Zorcury.

* Or 1,500,000 quarters. It may be convenient to remind the
reader that the American barrel of flour contains 196 lb., and jauken
by act of l'arlttuaat to Do equal to 38)4

UN, LONDO'. W 1

REMARKABLE EXPOSURE OF AN

ANTI-MESMERIC DOCTOR.

The following castigation (revised and abridged from the
Leamington Spa Courier), was recently administered by Mr.
Spencer T. Hall. It was at the close of a course of lectures,
before a numerous and highly respectable audience, that Mr.
Hall calve forward and said— He held in his hand a news-
paper—the Warwick Advertiser of Saturday—upon a letter
in which not mesmerism only, but humanity, demanded that
he should now make some remarks. That letter, entitled
" Mesmerism in a Dilemma," and signed " Scrutator," could
not originally have been intended for the paper in which
it appeared, but for the Leamington Courier, for it began as
follows : •
"To the Editor of the Warwick Advertiser.

"Sir,—l happened to be in Leamington in the early part
of this year, when a person named Donovan was lecturing on
Mesmerism, and also on Wednesday last, when Mr. Spencer
T. Ha'l gave his first lecture on this subject. I was amused
and gratified, in common with the visitors and inhabitants of
your beautiful Spa,—(do any of you know of a Spa at War-
wick; asked Mr. Hall, amidst laughter ?)—"by the straight.
forward, prompt, and effective manner in which Dr. Lietch
exposed the hollow pretensions of the former lecturer, and by
the manner in which he followed it up, as I saw by your pa-
per proving that the four Leamington boys who ex-
hibited the 'phenomena' on that occasion were 'rogues all.'
I was glad to see that the aulience on Wednesday last,
warned, I suppose, by their farmer mistake, did not attempt
to hiss down the gentleman alluded to. In my own
opinion, and it was the opinion of many who sat near me on
Wednesday evening, Mr. Hall's exhibition was the most
lame, ridiculous, and transparently artful, on the part of the
b iy-s, that could well be shown to an andiene: a-gape for
wonders. The two young rogues should he well whipped,
and taught some honest way of livelihood." • * • " Mr.
Hall, though evidently wishing to shirk the subject of clair-
voyance, was compelled, by the questions of the querist, to
assert that he believed in clairvoyance." * * " Havin
got all this distinctly asseverated by the lecturer—as, indeed,
with his book, and all books on the subject staring him in
the face, he could not well avoid doing—Dr Lietch then very
naively declared that, for his part, he believed in the old
fashioned way, that people saw with their eyes, and with
nothing else.'
Then comes (said the speaker) Dr. Lietch's challenge, with
further compliments to Dr. Lietch, and abuse of myself ; and
the letter ends with a date from " Leamington." Now, it
will be found in my book of " Mesmeric Experiences,"
which Dr. Lietch says he has read, that there is a history of
my connection with the cases of Wm. Holbrook and Henry
Wigston, the youths alluded to, one of whom is a native of
Nottingham, and the other of Leicester, in which towns re-
spectively they are known to persons of station and in-
iluence, who can speak to their characters—characters in
which I knew no blemish. I have at my command, at
least four hundred cases in different parts of the
country, for any one of which I could send on
an adequate occasion, but I prefer, at present, to
operate upon these, because I have the most per-
fect faith in their integrity. " Scrutator" has ventured to
assert that they are " rogues ;" and, away as they are from
their parents, by whom they are entrusted with me as their
temporary guardian, I have felt myself called upon to repu-
diate, in the most emphatic manner, such a fa!se imputation.
—(Cheers.) It was in this capacity, and from a due regard
to the feelings of Henry Wigston, who is more specifically
alluded to in this gross libel, and to the feelings of his
parents, to whom his character and future prospects are most
dear, that I called this day upon Mr. Sharpe, the publis'er
of the Advertiser, to demand the naive of the author.
Having myself been connected with the public press, for
nearly sixteen years, and having in that time been identified
with the man sgement of several leading provincial journals,
I am not unaware of the liability of an editor to be imposed
upon by unconscientious contributors. Although knowing
that the publisher of the paper was liable to an action for libel,
in consideration of what I have now stated, I felt that it
would be sufficient for the present case if the name of the
writer were given up to me, that I might deal with him
alone. Calling upon the publisher (Mr. Sharpe), he told me
that he did not know the author, and argued somewhat irra-
tionally in extenuation of the libel ; but referred me to the
editor (Mr. Hersee), who, without hesitatior, and in the
most prompt and courteous manner informed me that Dr.
Lietch himself was the guarantee for its insertion—(Cheers
and confusion.) As a further confirmation that it was Dr.
Lietch who bad thus been complimenting and endeavouring
to raise himself 'sy abusing me and my patients, I can now
repeat what I have already stated, that the day before that
paper was published, Dr. L. used precisely the same lan-
guage to me which lie there applies to the boys, against
whom he cannot prove a single act of dishonesty. In
whom, then, is the deception ? The boys or Dr.
Lietch ?—(Cheers, hisses, and signs of interruption from
some individual in the back seats.) Now all that I require is,
a fair hearing and clear justice. When Dr. Lietch wrote
that letter, I was not there to interrupt him, nor will I now
be interrupted by any man in my reply. Dr. Lietch has
complimented himself on the " naive' manner in which he
professes to have drawn me into certain admissions regarding
clairvoyance; and having told us that he regards clairvoyance
as the key-stone to Mesmerism, and that if it fails the whole
structure falls, he considers that he has completely established
his point. You have most of you heard the anecdote of " the
brow-beating barrister," in Tyas's "Heads of the People,"
who, having done all in his power to shake the testimony of
a conscientious witness without success, boldly asks him if he
has ever been at Birmingham? Being answered in the
negative, he repeats the question with still greater pertinacity,
"have you never been at Birmingham?" " No. " Then
tell me, and remember you are on your oath, have you
never been at Manchester?" " Yes.' " There's a pre-
varicating fellow," concludes the barrister, and turning
to the jury with a leer, says, " I do not think it
necessary to ask such a witness as this any more
questions." Just such was the course of conduct pur-
sued by Dr. Lietch. When I was lecturing upon a class of
phenomena totally different from clairvoyance, and whilst
confessing that at that time I had no certain means of illus-
trating it, he "naively" drew me into the simple admission
that I believed it, and then professed to have disproved all
the rest I had shown, and you, Mr. Chainnan, and others
had tested. As well might he have argued that because

clairvoyance could not. In circumstances-inimical to its de-
velopment be proved, that would be sufficient evidence that
James Wombell's leg had not been amputated without pain.
Presuming (and fairly too for the reasons I have shown),
that Dr. Lietch, either wrote or dictated "Scrutator's" letter,

he further compliments himself, and endeavours to depre-
ciate me and Mesmerism, by alluding to the "naive" manner
in which he exposed Mr. Donovan and his boys.. Not being
acquainted with Mr. Donovan, of him in this case I can say
nothing; but there are gentlemen of veracity and honour in
this room, at the present moment, who have furnished me
with incontrovertible documentary evidence as to the trap
baited hyDr.Lietch to catch one or more of the boys ; gentlemen
who will come forward and support it with their names should
it be questioned. After these boys had been mesmerised by
Mr. Donovan, Dr. Lietch took a policeman.—(Cries of "No,
no.") Well there was one present at Dr. Lietch's house, as
if in attendance to apprehend a criminal.—(Mr. H. Young
here exclaimed—" Only part of the time.") This observation
was followed by mingled cheers and jeers.) Mr. Hall con-
tinued—Be it so—" only part of the time." That a police-
man was there, with handcuffs, is established by the fact that
he received a fee for his services, and was subsequently repri-
manded by his superior for taking any part in the transac-
tion.—(Cheers.) By way of invalidating mesmerism, Dr.
Lietch then told one of the boys, in a stern manner, that if
he did not confess that he had been tricking those who b

lieved in mesmerism (the handcuffs having been displayed
before his eyes), he would be taken to gaol.—(Sensation.)
After this confession, thus wrung from him, he received
from Dr. Lietch five shillings as a reward for his
delinquency.—(More sensation.) You have all heard
of Jonathan Wild, the thief-trapper, who, to satisfy
his own selfish ends, bribed Jack Sheppard and
others into one crime, and frightened them into another, that
he might afterwards receive the benefit of their conviction.
—(Hear, hear, and hisses.) Is not Dr. Lietch, so far as
science is concerned, in a position strictly analogous to this ?
—(Cheers.) Have we not many instances in the history of
our race, not of merely poor uneducated boys, but of great
men who for years have endured the severest persecution
rather than relinquish a faith upon which they believed the
eternal salvation of their souls to depend, but who at last
have been driven by fear of the screw, and other tortures, to
confess to imaginary crimes rather than incur the pains and
obloquy of further persecutions. And may it not, therefore,
have followed that the boy to whom I have alluded, with the
handcuffs and gaol before his eyes, and with no extraordinary
degree of moral courage to sustain him, was, by the stimula-
tion of his fears, and the other means used on this occasion,
driven into betrayint,r his conscience, unjustly to Mesmerism,
and for the gratification of its opponents ? And let me ask
whether or not, if a professor of Mesmerism, had ever
employed similar means to induce a boy thus to belie himself
in his favour, any man would have been more ready to con-
demn, and to hold him up to shame, than Dr. Lietch ?
(Cheers.) There is at the present time in Leamington a do-
cument, signed by the same boy, in the presence of a gentle-
man of the highest respectability, in which he avers that he
really had been put into an abnormal condition by Mes-
merism by that gentleman, subsequently to the scene at Dr.
Lietch's, and further that he bad been induced to confess what
he had done there, although that confession was false, by the
fear of the punishment, and the hope of a promised bribe
from his tempter and convictor—Dr. Lietch !—(Cheers). Now
for myself, it is of comparatively little consequence what Dr.
Lietch says of me. After all that I have done and endured,
in defence of this great truth—to say nothing of the reputa-
tion I enjoyed as a literary man before—l may be considered
as one belonging to his country and his age, and not to
be judged by a single locality or the doings of a single hour.
Misrepresentation has done its worst forme,—persecution has
been carried to my fire- side, and invaded the sanctuary of
my dearest affections; but whatever I may have done,—
and we all do something to repent of,—although there may be
errors of judgment which were life to come over again, I
would carerully avoid ; I defy any one to injure my moral
character, either as a private or a public man, if I can only
have art impartial hearing, and both sides be fairly judged;
and that hearing I can obtain, because I have not only
some degree of influence with the public press, but can,
if occasion require it, write my sentiments in a book,
and print, arid bind it with my own hands. But it is
different with these boys whom I have brootght before
you; and considering the faith they have in me, and
in humanity,—a faith that no one is justified. in abusing,
—considering that, from time to time, they have allowed
ins to pass them into conditions, for the elucidation of truth
and the promotion of science, conditions in which they have
no command of themselves; 1 should ill be perfenx ,ing my
duty to them, their parents, and my own conscience , if I did
not stand up and defend them with as much en ergy as I
would defend myself from the libellous attacks of Di Lietch,
or any other man.—(Cheers.) Two very strong it Lotives to
good conduct, especially in youth, are self-respect, and the
estimation in which others hold us. Take away these, by
imputing to a boy faults of which he is not guilt: .--perse-
cute him for those imaginary faults, and you will SI ion make
his existence so degraded or so intolerable that it b ecomes of
little consequence to him, so far as this lite is concerned
whether his practices be right or wrong. Theref pre, I hold
it to be one of the highest crimes, first to pollute. the mind
of a youth by stimulating his fears, or temptin with
a bribe, and then to damn humanity in his estimation
for ever, by his tempter turning round and be:toi ning his
accuser.—(Cheers), And who after all is Dr. LL3tch ?
(Cheers). Cuvier, the great naturalist; Liebeg, le great
chemist; Archbishop Whateley, a divine; Shelley, Cae poet;
Combe, the mental philosopher; Dr. Elliotson, flan physio•
logist; Dr. Dick, the astronomer, and others scan .ely less
eminent in every walk of science and literature; to ese are
virtually called dupes and impostors, by Dr. Lietch, w ho im-
putes imposture or delusion to all who believe in, or al .vocate,
Mesmerism;—and again I ask, who is Dr. Lietch?----4 Cheers
and laughter.) One word more for him, and I have don e. Had
he known me better, he had let me alone ; but since w e have
become acquainted, this I can promise him, that shc iuld he
on any occasion think fit to apply for the situation of a police
spy, a thief-trapper, or a minister to some inquisition, if he
will refer to me I will give him a recommendatior 1.--(Con-
fusion.) Dr. Lietch has chosen to attack me the ough the
newspapers ; let him if he will defend himself. in the
same way; or if he does not prefer that course, by t has still '
the same chance that I have, that of hiring a room
and giving a lecteti, :in which he my, if he
likes, speak as boldly and as honestly of me, as
I have now done of ' him.—(Cheers.) For the
satisfaction of this large, respectable, and attentive aualence,
I have now to state that, as I have to stay in this town for a
4193 end lAo pretecvtics of aty private Mail* if a