The Sun.
London, England, 1820-01-04 00:00:00

[Morning Post.]

EAST GRINSTEAD, DEC. 31.—A very serious
misunderstanding has occurred between the farm-
ers of the parishes of Hartfield and Withybam,
in Sussex, and the, gamekeepers of the Duchess
of Dorset. The two parties having been on very
bad terms for a long while, the gamekeepers pro-
ceeded to shoot some of the lurchers and other
noodling dogs belonging to the farmers, which
brought on very violent quarrels ; and nearly the
whole neighbourhood, taking up the cause of the
farmers, whom they regarded as greatly oppressed,
the gamekeepers had recourse to the plan of
bringing the affair before the Magistrates, in the
form of informations, on the charge of keeping
an unlawful breed of dogs. An accidental cir-
cumstance, which tended greatly to increase the
Alarm was, that a detachment of the 3d regiment
of Guards suddenly appeared in the village of
liartEeld, where they were billeted, on their way
to Portsmouth; and this circumstance was imme-
diately construed into the arrival of military for
the preservation of the .pcace. The affray, how-
ever, has subsided, it having been determined
upon to refer the disputed point to Lord Whit-
worth, on his return from. Naples.

PROVINCIAL JOURNALS.

The Birmingham Commercial Herald, the loyalty
of .which at a former period exposed the conductor
and his family to imminent peril, and the good sense
as wen as liberal sentiments by which has been
charactitized, was one of-the first of the Coun►ry
Papers which induced us to adopt the plan of
taking extracts from the Provincial Journals,
and in jutice to the persevering spirit and con-
stitutional firmness of that Paper, we subjoin its
Address, -on. the opening of the New Year.

" Were it•not that our duty to our Readers
calls upon &ikon this season to offer some general
observations upon the occurrences of the lost
velve we Should prefer to obstain from
any ednimene:irpon a period, the recollection of
ptiintut to ev:ry truly British
heart,

Wherefore have we, who by our fortitude and
uttanitnity had brared the roughest trials, and
a4tonistted Europe by our fortitude and our ;feeds,
even now, in a time o tranquillity, with all our
tumours thick upon us, plitially fallen into'a con-
dition of levcrisu-dis%eni ion ? Pt,ejudiee will be
really enough With a reply ; tmt the real lover of
his country will weigh the question in au impar-
tial manner.

" Various causes have rendered. the past year
of great difficulty to the Governors and the go-
verned. Peace, that left us triumphant and mas-
ters of our wishes, left us also universally in a
state of mental excitement. With spirits, from
the highest-to the lowest, on the alert for smile
new thing, fLictered'ond fed, even to reple;ion,
with victories stud marvels, we sunk into a state
of apparent repose.
" In an increased population, labouring in
many places under a decrease of trade, and the
local distress consequent upon watt of e1w.,!,,y-
-tHellt, that condition of excits t:ooki
not at once be expected to be totally appeared,
has taken a mt v direction, and the tone of dis-
lfeeio,! has locally supplanted that of loyalty—
s4y Locally, for the parts of the country which
it" ha. occupied, though magnified by malicious
umour ano ready credulity, have borne but a
small inoportinra to the whole ; and even in these
it will probably be found (as it generally happens,
and as we is ive observed upon a former occasion),
that Itie most distressed have not always been the
most clamorous. . .

" In this state of things, other causes have
come into op-ration. The impious end design-
ing, loosed •iirou the unwary, persuaded them to
seat remedies ten times worse than the disease.
Atheism, the most portentous learnt e of the titres,
has profaned the press, and abused the liberty
of it t licentiousness in efforts to skip the foun-
dation of ell laws human and divine.

" Factions agitators, travelling, with mis-
directed Zeal, from assembly •to assembly, with
Order' inixribed on their banners, and the
language of confusion upon their lips, have fan-
ned the flame. ' says the judicious Hooker,
that goeth about to persuade a mu'titude that
they are not governed so well as they ought to he,
shall never want attentive and favourable hearers.'
We forbear to detail how Amply this assertion
has been verified ; it is butter to forget those
tours of turbulence and uncertainty in which the
regularity of occupation was wantonly interrupted,
and the peaceful citizen alarmed.
" Amidst all this, it has, however, been con-
solatory to reflect, that for one voice raised in
the clamour of Itidical Reform, thousands of bet-
ter-judging subjects have preserved a well-dis-
posed silence, from a positive conviction that
such forbearance- Was the best method of preserv-
ing the balance, of securing au undisturbed ad-
ministration of the established check to disorder,
and ministering to the best interests of the com-
munity., These have waited patiently for the
calling together of the regular Council of the
Nation. In the interval, they beheld with satis-
faction and gratittae the dignity of our Judicial
Courts upheld in the just administration of exist-
ing laws, and they are now_ looking to the great
Councils of the Kingdom (or the introduction of
such restrictions as may curb the excesses with-
out impairing our freedom.
" With respect to new and temporary enac9,
meats, called for by necessity alone, be it re-
membered, that hiMself has emphatically
told us, that a time might arrive, at which every
imperious consideration must yield to the safety
of the Sovereign and the general security of the
State. attention let it .he contenr-
plated—is the time. Let us not withdraw our
confidence from those whose situation, character,
and means of information should render them
most competent judges of what may be expedient
at the present juncture. We need not doubt,
that, when the necessity shall be past, the Con-
stitution will again protect itself by its ancient
laws.

" If it were unjust to say that there is up tilt,
tress—if it were too much to assert that there
have heen no occasions for regret or apprchen-
sion,:it were equally unjust and insulting !o pro-
claim that there is no compassion, no redress,
no liberty, or legal remedy for the evils we
deplore.
01 Let this, then, he the consolation of the
true lover of his conntry—that the good sense
and talent of the natio►► are at this moment ac-
tively employed towards the healing of our
wounds. Nor let any be tempted by clamour or
misrepresentation, to abandon the reasonable
hope, that, ''bv the mercy of Providence, and
the combined ciforti of all who are truly pa-

triode, loyal, and dignified, we shall yet stand a
great and glorious nation.'

.• With these sentiments deeply engraven upon
our hearts, we -return our thanks for the support
we have received, from the friends of order, re-
ligion, and good government, trussing- that at the
end of another year, we may congratulate the
whole nation upon its return to subordination and
consequent prosperity "