The Sun.
London, England, 1829-12-07 00:00:00

MIDDLESEX SESSIONS, DEC. J.

Edward Harris, a youth, about 17 years old, who
was convicted of an improper assault on a young fe-
male, a few days bark, was brought up and sen-
truced 10 51X menths' imprionment. .

Upon the tai 1, t,vo I;it.dical gentlemen said the
prisoner vas irbouring under a local disease. Dr.
Gordon Smith, the Professor of Medical Jurispru-
dence in the London University, gave evidence in
favour of the prisoner upon this surgical question,
contradicting the statement made by the surgeons
examined for the prosecution; and Mr. Whitmore,
a surgeon, this day spoke to the same effect ; but
The CHAIRMAN sari, that the sentence he pro-
nounced had been suggested by a Magistrate, before
a full Bench, and unanimously approved of, and that
in pronouncing it he was the mere organ of the Court.

A KEY TO "BEAUTY'S ALPHABET.''*

(From the Court Journal.)
A Lady Augusta airing.
B Miss Baillie.
C Lady Emily Cowper.
D Miss Doyle.
E Lady Exeter.
F Miss Fanny Stanhope.
G Miss Gerttude Brande.
Miss Hardy.
I Lady Ingestrie.
J Lady C. Jenkinson.
K Miss Kionaird.
L Lady Elienbor,ugh.
M Miss Macdonald.
N The [lon. Mrs. Norton.
O Miss Olivia tie Roos.
P Lady Emily 13,!get.
Q Mts. St. Quentin.
It The Duchess of Richmond.
S Miss Sheridan.
'f Lady Tullamore.
U Miss Upton,
✓ Miss Vtiliere.
\V Miss Wellosley.
See The Sun of Nov. 25.

GRANI3Y LISTER iS going abroad, he :3:0-s,
fim some years ; at which certain Ladies that I wot of are
in despair ; —we men ran reconcile ourselves to his absence
in the body, if he will only ba present in the spirit, and
give us " words, Sir, words ;" but the peliles deincls:lle;
that I am thinking of, hold our friend LisTER to be the
" paragon of animals."—Court Journal.

STEAM-CARRIAGES.—Even with a velocity
of thirty miles an hour, journies would 1:e performed with
a rapidity, the very thought of which makes the head
giddy. In the latitude of Petersburgh or Stockholm, a
person starting at sunrise in June from the eastern part of
Europe, and travelling at this rate westward, would add
one hour to the length of his day ! Supposing the ve-
hicle to proceed at half the full velocity during tie night,
600 miles could he passed over in 21. hours. Three days
would thus carry the traveller from Calais to Constanti-
nople; and four days would suffice to transport him from
the midst of civilization in Amsterdam, to a Tartar horde
on the banks of the Wulga !—Scotsman.

BRADFORD.-I am sorry to inform you, that
the sales at our market on Thursday have gone far to damp
the ardour of many (myself amongst the rest), who had
begun to hope fur a speedy return of prosperity. In conse-
quence of the quantity of goods sold for several market-days,
it was expected heavy sales of stuffs would be again efflcted,
but the truth is, the business done was by no means exten-
sive, and no improvement in prices for those which were
sold. This, in my opinion, is the touchstone by which to
try commercial prosperity ; and although you were correot
in stating in a late Paper that fine goods were a shade
higher, yet the pleasing anticipations which this held out
-has not been realized, and the demand, even for that descrip-
tion of worsted goods, is not equal to the supply.—(From
a correspondent in the Halifax Chronicle.)

I3OLTON, DEC. 4.—A visible improvement
Lis taken place this week in a certain kind of fabrics
used for printing, and ore house has advanced 6d. per cut
on the weaving. Several looms' work have been taken
nut; but in other kinds of cloth there is not any material
alteration. Oa Monday evening the master bed-quilt ma-
nufacturers met at Mr. Goontrat's, the Crown Inn, to
take into consideration the best measures to be adopted
during the present depressed state of trade ; when an una-
nimous vote wus agreed to not to reduce wages. The
weavers were recommended to lodge informations against
all persons who manufactured quilts from embezzled mate-
rials; and the Meeting pledged themnelves to defray all the
costs of prosecuting the offenders.

A lamentable accident oceured at Llanymy-
neeh. A lady and gentleman drove up in a gig to the
Cross Keys inn. He alighted to give the horse some
water, and, imprudently tahiny the bridle off, the animal
plunged immediately, threw him down and trampled on
him : the wheels passed over him and dreadfully lacerated
his face. The horse then set off at full speed, with the
lady in the gig, down the road, across the bridge, and
along the Pool road about two miles, when she threw
herself out, and escaped with little injury. The animal
still pursued his course about three miles, and was then
stopped. Mr. LLEWELLYN, surgeon, returned with the
lady in his gir, and the meeting of the gentleman with
his distressed partner, after an awful suspense, will be bet-
ter felt than described.—,Shrewsbury Chronicle.
We are sorry to learn that the issue of local
paper has at length taken place, if not in this town, so
nearly connected with it as to came to much the same
thing. The Manchester and Liverpool District-Banking
Company, who have just started in business at Stockport,
having already put notes fur various amounts. We have
already seen notes for 51., 101., and 201. ; and we have
heard of others for other• sums. Of course we have no
desire to say any thing in depreciation of the Company by
whom this issue has been Made ; indeed, we could have no
temptation to do so, for we do not happen to know the
'lamas either of a single member of the Board of Direc-
tong* even of a single shareholder in the establishment;
and, we believe, the same sort of ignorance is pretty gene-
rally prevalent, even amongst the best-informed mercantile
men in the town.-21faachester Guardian.

THE CHAIN BRIDGE AT PONT KENIEYS.-
The bridge, which is situated three miles above the town
of Usk, is now completed, and open for the accommodation
of the public. When the new line of road is formed, the
distance from Aberg■avenny to Usk will be shortened two
miles ; and what will be of still greater advantage, all hills
will be avoided so as greatly to facilitate the intercourse be-
tween these towns and the communication with Bristol:
There is now an approach to the bridge along a good
parish road, entering a mile above Usk and coming out
into the turnpike road above Pontygoitree House. The
following is an account of the dimensions of the bridge:—
Length of the suspension chains 242 feet.
1)o. from pier to pier 152 do.
Breadth of driving way 22 do.
Height of piers above the level of: the water 10 do.
Weight of iron 4O tons.
—Monmouth Merlin.

An attempt to land a considerable quantity of
contraband goods at Shoreham, on Wednesday night, ter-
minated most disastrously to the parties concerned. It
had been arranged that a crop of goods, as the smugglers
term it, should be landed at Shoreham-bridge, and a large
party of the Blue Boys, as they arc called, were there as-
sembled, in order to convey the cargo into the country._
Meantime a large cutter, it is believed from Flushing,
arrived in the offing, and a tub-boat, with 16 hands well
armed, having on hoard 30 loaded mmkets and about 600
tubs of spirits and packages of tea and tobacco, was sent
from her. From what we can learn, their instructions
were, in case of meeting any impediment on entering the
harbour, from the Blockade-men or Custom-house Offi-
cers, to keep up a running fight until they reached th
bridge, when, in conjunction with the party there waiting,
they would be able effectually to repel any attempt to seize
the goods or make them prisoners. Providentially these
precautions proved useless ; for, on the boat entering the
harbour, either owing to the strong current, to misma-
nagement, or to ignorance as to the proper line of channel,
the night being very dark, she ran on the wicker-work,
or on some of the piles near the dolphins, and made consi-
derable water. The crew, comprised chiefly of Dutch-
men, fearful they were sinking, gave an alarm, upon
which the Blockade-man on the Pier iretantly made sig-1
nals to his comrades on tho adjacent stations. The smug-1
glers lost no time in getting on shore, leaving their boats,
arms, and cargo, an easy and valuable prey to the Blockade.
Soon after, a Dutchman, of colossal stature, was taken by
the Officers, who found him wandering on the beach, and
was brought to Brighton for examination before the Ma-
gistrates, on suspicion of having been one of the crew.—
It is feared that one or more of the boat's crew have been
drowned, or suffocated in the mud. The same cutter landed
last week, at Goring, near Worthing, 300 tubs, which
were all worked clear.

THE PINE MARTEN (MARTES A BIET U I.

(From the British Naturalist.)

The Pine Marten differs from the commoo
marten in appearance only by being a little
smaller, and having the throat and breast yel-
lowish instead of white ; though the latter is
said not to be always the case, and is by some
supposed to be the effect of ege. The pine
marten is most abundant in Scotland the wild,
wooded ravines of the mountains, waere it either
builds a nest for itself on the tops of trees, or finds
one ready made by dislodging or destroying a
'Phis
the
fb(i)riaml .e
anti uannl sima la
t ilaunitnlovrehustescliz,ledaerd et.sialilia
woods, it seldom approach. ..a the habitation of
man, or interferes with his property. The
habits, as well as the superior ttrittness aid
softness of the fur, may be the result of the more
rigid climate, as it is found that the marten of
countries that are still colder has finer fur than
the pine marten of Scotland.
But if those circumstances soften the fur,
they do not appear to soften the courage of the
animal, for the pine-marten is juet as bold to
attack, and as stanch as the common 117411 en, if
indeed it be not more so. In mountain situa-
tions, it not only attacks and vanquishes the:
wood-cat, but is said, by its stratagem, to bring
down the pride of the mountain—the eagle
herself, if the first and formidable clutch of lice
talons does not transfix its vitals. With the cat
it is in a state of open hostility; and often with
she is crouching, with her eyes intent only "its
her prey, and just ready to . pounce, the pilase
marten will spring upon her, fasten upon the
vessels of her neck, pin her to the spot, and put
an end to her hunting. It is also said that the
cat, thoughrever so much pressed with hunger..
will not venture to spring upon the marten. The
pounce of the cat is not a death-stroke, like ;lai,
of the eagle—indeed, death at one blow is not
the practice of any of the feline race, from the
lion downwards. Catching, crippling, and then
torturing to death, is the cat eystem ; and catch-
ing a marten, without killing it, by any animal
whose throat it call reach. is " catching a tartar."
Thus the cat does not williegly attack, but stilt
she knows her enemy, and as she knows that it
will attack if she does not, and as she is rather a
brave anima!, she generally offers battle.
The onset is one of some skill on ~tilt
The aim of the cat is to pounce with her r"a"
upon the head of the marten, in such a Way as
that the claws may destroy or wound is eyes,
while her teeth are embedded in its neck ; and
if she can accomplish that, the fate ofthe marten
is decided. That, however, if dcre a-. all, mites
be done in a moment, and if it le lost, there is
no repairing the mistake. TI e eyring of the
wood-cat is larger than that of her opponent,
and the cat takes up her position so that site
shall, if possible, alight upon his head with bee
full spring and impetus. To distract her atten-
tion, he keeps moving his head from side to side'
and if he succeeds in his object, he rush ve to
close quarters by a side movement. If the
spring of the cat take proper effect, there is a
struggle, but not of long duration ; and it is th
same with the opposite result, if the cat mis:aart
the marten fasten, during the short pause of ee..
haustion after the spring. Here we may notice
another curious feature in the economy of all the
1 feline race. It has been remarked even of the
most powerful of them, that if they miss their
object when they spring, they sneak cowardly
away, and do not return to the'attack for some
time, if indeed they return at all. Now the fact
is, that it is not cowardice, but exhaustion.
The gnashing with the teeth and the talons seems
to be the re-action by which the motion of the
spring is balanced, and the tone of the animal
kept up ; and if it fail in that, it takes a while to
recover the use of its springing muscles. Pro-
bably the violence both of the spring and the
exhaustion are connected in some way or other
with the electric state of the body ; but that is a
point not easily to be settled. Should both
miss, the contest is renewed, and seldom, in the
observed cases, (which are not indeed very nu-
merous,) given up until one is killed ; and in a
protracted contest, the marten is always the vic-
tor, as the cat is first exhausted by the greater
weight of her body, and the violence of her
leaps. In the year 1805, a gentleman, en
whose veracity we can depend, witnessed
one of those combats in the Morven district.
of Argyleshire. In crossing the mountains
from Loch Sunatt southward, he passed along the
bank of a very deep wooded dell, the hollow of
which though it occasionally showed greed
patches through the trees and coppice, was one
hundred and fifty, or about two hundred feet
from the top. The dell is difficult of access.
and contains nothing that would compensate for
the labour ; and thus it is abandoned to wild
animals, and among others to the marten, which,
though the skin fetches a high price, is not so
much hunted there as in more open places; be-
cause, though they might succeed in shooting
it from the heights above, they could not be sure
of removing the body. Thus it is left to con-
tend with the mountain cat for the sovereignty
of that particular dell, and both are safe, ex-
cept when they approach the farm-house at the
bottom of the hill. The contest there lasted for
moie titan half an hour, and both combatants
were too intent on each other's destruction, to
shun or fear observation. At last, however, the
marten succeeded in falling upon the light side
of the cat's neck, and jerking his long body
over her, so as to be out of the reach of her
claws; when, after a good deal of squeaking and
struggling, by which the enemy could not be
shaken off, the martial achievements of puss were
ended in the field of glory.
The victories of the marten over the golden
eagle, though there be a tale of one of them at
every place where eagles and martens are com-
mon, are not quite so well authenticated ; and
wood-cats, pole-cats, and even weasels, which,
though lithe and active enough in their way, are
certainly nothing to the martens, are often the he-
roes of the tale. It runs uniformly in the same
manner :—Down conies the eagle in the pride
of her strength, slash goes her talons into the
lint') of the marten, and with a flap of her wings
she is soaring toward the zenith. The prey,
however, is only scotched ; and the marten or
the weasel, or whatever else it may be, jerks
round its head into the throat of the eagle, and
both fall lifeless to the earth. These accounts
may be true; but they belong to that class, of
which there is a separate edition for every dis-
trict, and therefore they would need verification
by an eye-witness.

S
sequences
UToHf At
hNel Pr
eTceOnNt
nvpoF,Cti tSi 0 n
tOt
in of the c
me
Cus
tomhon- o
usu
is, that an Exchequer puocess has been issued against the
landing waiter, and an agent to the proprietors of the
packet which brought over part of the intercepted silks.
The sum for which they are exchequered is about 5 0004
each, being treble the duties on the first goods seized by
the Col'eetor of Customs. had the penalty sued been •
treble the duties on all the seizures, it isbelieved the amount
would have eiceeced $0)0004