The Sun.
London, England, 1826-06-20 00:00:00

THE WALLACE CiAK.

There is, perhaps, no name in the annuls of Scotland more
justly celebrated than that of Wallace; one of the bravest of her
heroes and must disinterwted of her patriots. Hence his steps
are pointed out, wherever they can he traced, with almost re-
ligious reverence; the mountain path which he may have tracked,
the headlong torrent which he may have crossed, the rugged fast-
ness in which he way have entrenched himself, still bear his name
in many parts of the country, and still invite the wanderings and
charm the imagination of those who are capable of feeling the
force of the sublime sentiment.

" Duke e decorum est propatria mori."

Among the memorials to the fume of Wallace, which the gra-
titude of posterity ha* delighted to point out, the trees tinder,
which be is known to huve reposed or encamped, have heed treat-
ed with a degree of attachment, which, defeating its aim in its
excess, has ultimately caused the destruction of the object it wish-
ed to commemorate, Hence. the famous oak in Torwood is no,
longer remaining. It stood in the middle of a swampy mots,
having a causeway round it ; but the last fragments of its ruins
have been carried off by the pilgrims whom its fame
attracteAl, and only the spot on which it stood now re-
mains for them to pay their devotions to. Of Earnside
Wood, where Wallace defeated the English on the 12th
of June, '1299, and which formerly stretched four miles along the
shores of the Frith, not a vestige is left ; and in the same manner,.
many other individual trees and woodland tracks, once rendered
interesting by being associated with the valiant darings and hair-
breadth 'gapes of Wallace., have bowed before the - warring ele-
ment', or the unpitying axe. One oak, which hears his name,
still, however, survives, and is, perhaps, more interesting than any
of thinly we may otherwise lament, on account of its standing im-
mediately at the place of his birth, which was Ellealie, or Elders-
lee, three miles to the south west of Paisley, in Renfiewshire. It
is mentioned by Semple, joint, continuation of Crawfurd's History
of Renfrewshire ; as "the large oak tree, which is still standing
alone, in a little inclosure, a few yards south from the great road
between Paisley and Kilbarchan ; being on the east side of Elderalee
rivulet, where there is a, atone bridge with one arch, the manor
of Eldendee being a few yards distant from the rivulet on the west
side." They say that Sir William Wallace and three hundred of
pia men hid themselvee upon that tree, among the branches, (the
tree being then in full blossom,) from the English. The.
tree is indeed very large, and well spread in the branchee,
being about twelve feet in circumference. The present di-
mensions of the \Vallee() oak,. as communicated by Mr. ,
Mac-
quitter, an accurate land surveyor, are twenty-one wet in cir-
cumference at the ground ; and at five feet from it, thirteen feet
two Indies. It is sixty-seven feet in height, and its branches
extend on the east side to forty.five feet, on the west to thirty-
six, on the south to thirty, and on the north to twenty-five, co-
vering altogether an extent of nineteen English, or fifteen Scotch
polls, land measure. According •to the testimony of aged resi-
dents in the neighbourhood, the branches of this tree, SC) years
ago, covered above a Scotch acre of ground ; and one old person
nt particular, a lame man, who watt present at its measurement,
pointed out a spot on the ancient turnpike road, forty yards north
from the tree, where he said that, when young, he used to, strike
the branchea with his stilt. This renders the account of the
extent of ground it formerly covered w thy of belief; as well as
,
the number of men which tradition sorts it to have concealed,along with their brave leader,
by whose name it is known. It
is a peculiarity in the trees in this pert of Renfrewshire, that their
branches generally extend more to the south and east than to the
north and west. The Wallace oak seems destined in sharing the
fats of others of its brethren, who have been honoured by shel-
tering the hero Wallace, to share their fate likewise of despolia-
tion; every year its branches pay tribute to its renown, and the
western Highlanders in pertteuler carry off relics from; it. in
abundance, which threatens extinction at no very distant period
to the parent stem, unless it be prevented from further violence.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.
COURT OF CHANCF,RY, ham 19.
IMPORTANT PRACTICS IN LUNACY.

To-day his Lor4i:hip sat to hear Lunatic Petitions, and dis-
posed of a great number of them off hand, as having, of course,
previously read them all.
Mr. MiaIVALE interrupted his Lordship, requesting permis-
sion to have a petition, in the ntatter of Margaret Blair, pot at
the bottom of the paper, it having been omitted to have been
putinto the paper.
His Loßnsinp said he bad no objection to its being put into
the paper, but he would take this opportunity of stating, and of
having it publicly understood, diet he never would again hear
a lunatic petition mentioned in the course Of mornings-as he had
been in the habit of hearing, for though the orders prayed in these
petitione were quite olcourse, yet many of the petitions were stated
at an enormous length, , so as to incur such costs as that, if he had
seen them, be never would have made any order upon them. For
instance, in a matter where the master had appointed a committee,
and there was a petition praying to confirm the roaster's report,
in that petition the whole of the proceedings in the lunacy, per-
haps for the course of 20 years, would lie stated ; whereas nothing
more ought to have been stated than that it had been referred to
the muster, and that be had reprimanded such and such a person.
When these petitions were mentioned, as of course at the bar, his
Lordship'scalioto attentiontm nner wildia which
they were drawn ; hut from hisn from the other Imeine*:s of the day,
he
Lordship's experience he felt perfectly satisfied, that there was no
greater evil in lunatic matters, and nothing of more importance to
he remedied than this, with regard to the enormous unnecessary
expense so incurred.

IN THE MATTER. OF SIB, OILEGOEY I'AGE TWINER, A LUNATIC.
There were seven petitions before hu Lordship in this matter.
Mr. SoonEr; was instructed to _ask, on behalf of his client,
Capt. Turner, before the discussion on the different petitions were
entered into, that he might be at liberty to attend the trial of the
traverse. Capt. Turner was the brother of the lunatic, and the
petitioner for the Commission.
His Loansun' could see no objection to Captain Turner's being
at liberty to attend the trial; but he thought that this application
might as well he postponed till eorue of the other points
were disposed of. There was a petition preying for an ad-
vance of J,500/., to enable Mr. Corbett to try the traverse;
and one of the grounds for applying for this Kum was, that Sir
Gregory was made to represent it would be necessery to call a
hundred witnesses. His Lordship, however, could not but sup -
pose t!:..t. Sir Gregory's solicitor was able to inform his Lordship
what it was those witnesses had to say; and more particularly as
his Lordship had heard elsewhere that some of those witnesses had
made depositions directly against Sir Gregory.
There was another petition quarrelling with Sir Henry Dryden,
and other persons, committees of the estate ; but it was impossi-
able the Court could enter into a discussion of such things when the
pending traverse was to determine the whole.
Mr. Maui) did not understand in what character . Captain
Turner wished to attend the trial. It was clear he could not be
allowed to oppose the trial.
His L.:mummy was of opinion, that it would he better not to
occupy time at present in arguing upon, this subject until it was
known whether there really was, or was not to he a trial. His
Lordship was quite unable to say, where the money was to come
from. He certainly would not order the expense of such a num-
ber of witnesses to be paid, even if the money was forthcoming,
without first being informed that they bud something, and what
they had to say. The order he would at present make should be,
that all the 'petitions should stand over till Wedneiday next, and that
he should then be informed where the 1,500.1. was to he got, and
upon what calculation it was that this sum was considered to be
necessary.

Mr. thmsLove said, that last Friday was the day of the com-
mittees of the estates receiving the half yearly rents.
His Lonnstne also desired to be informed on Wednesday, what
money, belonging to the lunatic, was in the bands of any body.
Mr. Hv.►r.n intimated that with Friday's receipts there was
not sufficient, even to pay the creditors whose names were men-
tioned in the schedules and affidavits, and that there were
150 creditors whoSe names had not yet found their way there.—
Mr. Heald had likewise to apprise his Lordship, that this was the
morning by which the traverse had been ordered to be left in the
Lunatic Office. It had not yet been left, and if it were not
left to-day his Clients would be too late to subpoena their wit-
, 111,54411.
the Loansntr peremptorily ordered the traverse to be left to-
day. _

ELECTION Or SCOTCH VEYAR.

Lord Forester took the oatlm of tivemacy and allegiance in
the Court of Chancery to-day, to enable. him to vote in the election
of the Scotch Peers.

COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, JUNE 19.
VAI:ICEL V. HK NT.

This wns an action brought by a house agent at Kingston, Sur-
rey, to recover of the defendant, the proprietor of Marble Hall,
Twickenham, commission for the sale of that estate, which was
ultimately disposed of by the defendant. The plaintiff, besides
commission, charged 71. bs. 15,1.
The Jury returned a verdict for the plaintiff, with 101. in ntl-
dition to his bill for expellees, which made the damages 171. M. 6+l.
with costs.

COURT OF
,KING'S 'BENCH, JUNE 19.
CADMIRY V. SitiaLS.

This was an action of trespass for cutting down 92 trees. The
defendant claimed them as his own property ; this was the matter
at issue, which depended upon the evidence, and involved no
public interest.—The Jury gave a verdict for the defendant.