The Sun.
London, England, 1829-04-24 00:00:00

THAMES POLICE.

Yesterday considerable excitement appeared to
have been produced at this office, by the appre-
hension of Aaron Smith, commander of a merchant-
man from Batavia, upon charges of piracy and mur-
der. The prisoner escaped from Antwerp, where
he was recognised, and was apprehended at his
lodgings in Stepney, by Mr. Evans, Chief Surveyor,
and Mr. Bligh, a surveyor attached to this estab-
lishment, on Wednesday week, but his capture and
examination before Mr. Ballantine was kept per-
fectly secret until yesterday, when several comman-
ders of merchant-ships, whose vessels had been
plundered by a piratical schooner, commanded by
the prisoner in 1822, were in attendance. Amongst

Yesterday being St. George's Day, the Society of An-
tiqoaries met at their Apartments, in Somerset-place, in
pursuance of their Statutes and Charter of Incorpora-
tion, to elect a President, Council, and Officers of the So-
ciety for the year ensuing ; whereupon
George Earl of Aberdeen Hudson Gurney, Esq.
Thos. Amyot, Esq. Henry Hallam, Esq.
Nicholas Carlisle, Esq. W. 11. Hamilton, Esq.
Francis Douce, Esq. IJ. H. Marklarol, Esq.
Henry Ellis, Esq. Right Hon. C. W. W. Wynn
John Gage, Esq.
ElevenoftEe Council, wi
cil ; and
M. Bland, Esq.
John Britton, Esq.
T. F. Dibdin, D.D.
Hon. G. A. Ellis
Charles Lord Farnborough

Edward Lori Bishop of
Muni
Edmund Lodge, Esq.
Rt. Hon. Sir G. Ousely,i Bart.
Thomas Phillips, Esq.
E. V. Utterson, Esq.

Ten of the other Members of the Society, were chosen of
the New Council; and they were severally declared to he
the Council for the year ensuing. And on a report made
of the Officers of the Society it appeared that
George Earl of Aberdeen was elected President ;
Thomas Amyot, Esq., Treasurer ;
John Gage, Esq., Director ;
Nicholas Carlisle, Esq., Secretary; and
Henry Ellis, Esq. B. C. L. Secretary for the ensuing year.
The Society afterwards dined together at the Freemasons'
Tavern, in Great Queen-street, according to annual custom.

PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS.

COALS.

An ACCOUNT of all COALS brought into London (not Sea-borne),
for the Years 1826, 1827, and 1828.
Quantity of Coals brought into London
by Inland Navigation.
Years. Tons. Cwt.
1828
18-27
• 1828
WILLIAM
Inspector General of Imports and Exports,
Inspector General's Office, Custom House,
London, April 11, 1829..

AN HOUR'S CONVERSATION WITH

JONATHAN MARTIN.

I spent nearly an hour with Jonathan in pri-
son, and found him a man of great powers of
language, great acuteness of remark, fervour of
expression, cheerfulness of temper,—and who,
on every topic but the one respecting which his
brain is turned, is precisely the man with whom
it is a pleasure to converse ; whose sharpness,
originality, and readiness, afford constant matter
for thought. But on the subject of religion he
is obviously a reasoning madman. His case
instantly recalled to my mind a similar one which
I had witnessed in Germany, where the lunatic
fancied he had discovered the eleventh com-
mandment—and it was " Shoot your father."—
So he got a rifle, loaded it, and laid the author
of his being prostrate at his feet. This man
talked very sensibly of every thing but his
‘, eleventh commandment," which he said was
the hardest of all—the fulfilment of the law, the
great test of obedience to God, and the most
difficult to be received ; -but that God had in
mercy communicated it to him. So Jonathan
Martin fancies that, in his dreams, he constantly
receives the Divine mandate in special communi-
cation ; and he gave me a picture, drawn by him-
, self, and well executed in Indian ink, of the
dream in which he was told to destroy the Min-
ster. It represents a flaming sword in the midst
of a cloud, out of which God is speaking—a
hideous figure with its mouth wide open ; under
which he has written—

That's the aord, I am the hand ;
That's the dud that God command.
This is the sord I saw in a viaheon at noun day,
This is the dud I saw on the Minestra.
Jonathan Martin., York C. G., Apin the 15th, 1829.
His two visheona.

He said he knew that the Lord would protect
him in doing the Lord's work ; and that he was
kept for greater things yet ; and that he had been
visited in dreams since he came into prison, but
it was not yet time to tell what they were.—
" When I was taken into the Court," he said,
" the peace of God entered with such power into
my soul ;" and " when the Archbishop's son
came to visit me, and to ask me to look to my
defence, and to find a Counsellor, I told him
that Christ would be my Counsellor, and that I
had the best council in my own breast," placing
his hand upon it. " Had my enemies hanged
me," he added, " I knew I should go direct to
glory ;" and no one can doubt that, had sen-
tence been passed on Jonathan, he would have
gone triumphantly to the scaffold. He repeated
to me the particulars of the dream in which he
was instructed to shoot the Bishop, and said an
angel appeared with a bow and arrow, and
he pulled the bow, and the arrow flew
straight to the heart of the man ; and when
he (Jonathan) doubted, the vision appeared
again, and commanded him to be doing.—
'I asked him if he had not read the com-
mandment " Thou shalt not kill ?"—" Aye,"
he answered, " I know the commandments of
Moses ; but what did Moses do when he saw
the Egyptian mistreating one of his brethren ?
Why, he looked round, and found nobody was
;looking on, and he smote the Egyptian, and
slew him." " Yes, Jonathan," 1 said, " but
`the prophets of old had outward and visible
signs, by which the world was able to see that
they were appointed by God—they had their
columns of smoke and their pillars of fire."
" And had I not my smoke and my fire ?" re-
torted he, impatiently. " True," said I, " Jon-
athan—of your own making—when you burnt.
the Minister." "No ! no !" he replied, " I
don't mean that—but what I saw in my dream."
In this way conversation was kept up ; and you
will be able thus to estimate the state of this
singular man's mind. I ought to add, that the
gaoler, Mr. Kilby, seems to have formed a most
correct estimate of the character of his prisoner,
and says he has found him uniformly correct and
veracious—and to be trusted, .except where re-;
ligion is the topic. Mr. Kilby appears a very
courteous and judicious man—and Martin
could not have been in more appropriate hands.
The accounts of Martin's having attempted to
destroy himself are pure fiction.—Morning
Paper.