The Sun.
London, England, 1827-12-20 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OP THE MORNING HERALD.

During a long professional, and somewhat public, life, l
have ever been indisposed to notice occasional misrepre-
sentations, or to solicit the attention of the press. Seve-
ral very recent calumnies, unkindly and wickedly obtruded
on the papers, I have treated with disregard ; convinced
that the general estimate of my fortune and character would
afford me sufficient defence against all such assaults. From i
that practice I am, however, induced to deviate, by a pars-
graph in your Paper this day, stating that you was informed
by a Correspondent that I am indebted to the Parish of St.
Luke in the sum of Six Thousand Pounds.
That statement could only be intended to wound my
feelings—distress my family—agitate my friends—and de-
ceive the world. That Correspondent should have known
that any clai4 is totally denied by me—that I run a cre-
ditor, and not a debtor, to the parish—that I am a bond-
holder on its rates—that I possess, within that and the ad-
joining parishes, estates producing more than 7001. per 'an-
num—end that I have ever been prompt and happy to
satisfy any real demand. That Correspondent can only
intend to produce a public prejudice by a partial and exag-
gerated statement, or ho would not have intruded a matter
on the public that was in a state of litigation, or would
have stated the real faeti. Then he would have added that
no public Board, or well-informed parishioners, doubt my
integrity or honour, or pretend that I have withheld from
the parish one farthing that I ever received. lie would
have informed you that, in consequence of certain. losses al-
leged .to have been occasioned by the misconduct of one of
my clerks, and of some of the parish collectors, a party in
the parish are desirous to recover the amount of 3,0001.
from me, under a pretence that the loss was occasioned
by my official neglect. To that information he would
have added as my reply, that I contend that any loss has
originated in the heedlessness of some members of the
Public Boards—in their infringement of their own rules—
and in their signing drafts privately and improperly at
their own houses, or leaving orders for money with ser-
vants, contrary to their own specific regulations; and not
only without my privity, but in opposition to every rule
established for the public protection and my security--and
to all which regulations they were bound to adhere. But
as that statement was not made, I must be allowed to as-
sure you, that I deem myself neither conscientiously nor le-
gally subject to any demand—and fearlessly await that de-
cision from a Coutt and Jury, for which I am prepared—
and which cannot fail to evince that all these efforts to ex-
cite prejudice and to extort money from me are indeed un-
founded,
state g ungrateful—cruel, tefu el,maunsdt unjust. As the
litigation,l—cru
frattderedisabstainfrom .details
which I should else gladly insert--acd shall not be induced
to further controversy on a subject which a legal tribunal
will decide.
•
Finsbury-Place, Dec. 6, 1827. JOHN WILKS.

AN INTERCEPTED DESPATCH.
FROIL THE MARQUIS OF TO SIR

Dear Sir Thomas, 1 hastily drop you a line,
Just to state that I think our affairs are thriving ;
There's Goderieh already intends to resign,
And the rest to the Devil are rapidly driving.
'Ea true, that as yet we have little to boast,
But be on the alert and preparing for action;
For myself, I'm quite busy in doing the Post,
And contriving to get up a nice little faction.
But, between you and me, 'tie a difficult thing
To get a few brains on our side of the question,
Tim' G.—y, it is hoped, will be fast in a string,
If he isn't reliev'd front his late indigestion.
Then'there's P-1, but so cold and so stately and dull,
And I have my suspicions he is but a trimmer;
When he tries to warm up the contents of his skull,
The poor effervescence but reaches a simmer.
As for W—g—n, tho' I have taken some pains
In the North, to brush up his decay'd popularity,
I fear he'll be useless; for what are his brains !
One would think they were given him only in charity.
Then E—n, and B—th—t, and such
May do well enough to increase a division;
But the weight of their talents is somewhat too much
To he borne by the strength of the New Opposition.
But-as you are so brilliant, no doubt, we shall do,
in the Commons you'll take your old place in the steerage
Witile I shall be just as illustrious as you,
The first of the mal-content Stars of the Peerage.

Out of doors our auxiliaries are not amiss—
Onr fame, though some villainous Papers bedaub it,
Shall be saved from oblivion's woeful abyss,
In the Pc.-t and the Standard, the Herald and Cobbett.
So Lansdown, and Tierney, and Burdett, and Brougham !
From your triumph, depend on't, we'll speedily firk ye ;
Your policy stout, whether foreign or home,
And rail about Papists, the corn-bill, and Turkey'.
And now, my dear L—th—e, I'll only just add,
That I hope we shall soon meet again and be merry ;
Our condition at present I own is " too bad,"
And trusting 'twill mend, I am yours, L—n—y.
Dec. 19, 1827. Morning Chronicle.

Lieutenant MACALASTER, 98th Regiment,
has
Succeeded the late Lieut. WHYTE in the mTaly
ewn
t •
man—
dof Listowell.—Dublin Morning Register.
il
HIGH COURT OF JUSTICIARY YeSter-
day, IInGII Atrl!,Las, and Enettestra. .LAwsow or
dictment for naurde
111.1111aLaw, his Wife,t
were brought up for trial, on an in-
t., and a statutary offence laid under Gth
Gen. IV. chap. 126,Lntaittutelemdptahnig Atoemt
atiomiowrevderdt
guthree
malicious shooting at, a
any of his Maars.rr's subjects,
~
orl each In a°
house, in faror one or other of
them,October as on the 17th of
theuploanst,dbeletshtairleading to the au
in the High
Street, in which they lived, and when
ARCHIBALD CAMPBELL, painter and teacher of deceased
dna g
also resided, did throw upon the head and face, andocin
other
parts of the body of the said AB.CHIBALD CAMPBELL, a
quantity of sulphuric acid, or other corrosive or burning
substance, which inflamed or burned him in so violent a
degree, that he died in the Royal Infirmary on the 30th of
October; or otherwise, that the pannels, or one or other of
them, at the time and place aforesaid, did throw a quantity
of sulphuric acid, or corrosive substance calculated to injure
1 the human frame, with the intent to murder, maim, or
disfigure the said ARCHIBALD CA3lrant.—The Jury ac.
quitted the husband, but found Euritustra. III'3IILLAN
guilty ; who was accordingly sentenced to be hanged on the
'23d of January. This is the first conviction under the
Act—Edinburgh Observer.
SHIPWRECK.—Thursday last was truly a
dreadful night ; the sea, on our coast, ran mountains
high, and amidst the violence of the tempest, the brig
Alexander, of Liverpool, laden with a valuable cargo from
Quebec, either missed, or was driven from her course, and
by passing St. Bees in a wrong direction got involved in
the intricate navigation of the Solway. , From the dark-
ness of the night, and other circumstances, the crew were
ignorant both of the bearings and dangers of the coast.
The Alexander, in this way, soon got to windward of the
narrow channel, and after a shock that might have started
the very stcsatect timbers, stuck fast on a sand-bank, lo-
cally known by the name of Drumrcof. To move her was
impossible, to save her equally vain and hopeless; 'and
from the first moment she ceased to float, the waves lashed
her sides,, and •sponted-over her deck with such fury,
that she began to break up at the approach of the high
morning tide. ' The crew, though placed in, the greatest
%jeopardy, remained on board as long as • they could ; but
when every hope of saving the vessel had fled, they betook
thernselvet to their boat, and in place of tempting the dan-
gerous surf that was whitening and chafing against the
.Scottish coast, made for, and reached the harbour of Mary-
port.:
At Southwick, Burnfoot, 12 logs of oak, 43 do. of
pine, and 45 cart-loads of staves have been cast on shore;
ae also the head and part of the stern of the unfortunate
%brig. From
,other parte of the wreck the Alexander
appears to have been copper-bottomed, and was not only a
valuable ship, but contained a very valuable cargo. Since
writing the :above, -we have learnt with regret, that the
:stern of another vessel has been cast ashore. The coast
near the Brow is currently reported to be strewed with
staves and other wreck, and there is some reason to fear
that a Greenock vessel has also gone to pieces in the Sol-
way. Of the crew we have heard no account whatever.—
' Dumfries Courier. - , •
~ , , .

THE NORTHUMBERLAND YEOMANRY

CAVALRY.

The Newcastle Paper, the Tyne .21fercurg, of
Tuesday last contains the following
There was a Meeting on Saturday last of the Magistrates
of this town, for the purpose of addressing a letter to his
Grace the Doke of Northumberland, as Lord Lieutenant of
the County, expressive ef a desire that the Northumberland
and Newcastle Volunteer Cavalry should not be disbanded.
Our readers are no doubt aware that the Home Secretary
of State has addressed a circular letter to the heads of the
counties of England, calling for the disbanding of the local
troops in all cases where their presence is 'considered unne-
cessary. This we thought highly creditable to the policy
of the Marquis of Lansdowne. It looked like a wish for
retrenchment—a determination to abolish the useless ex-
penditure of the public money. The Marquis of-Cleveland
accordingly, as Lord Lieutenant of the county of Durham,
has caused the South Tyue Hussars to be disbanded. Can
the prudence of such a proceeding be questioned ? Is there
any reason to believe their services are necessary to the
peace or safety of the district ? Such, however, does not
appear to have been the opinion of the Newcastle Magic.
trates with regard to the troops under the command of Col.
Bell. They seem to have thought the presence of the
Northumberland and Newcastle Cavalry necessary. We
confess we cannot see any reason fur their continuance,
though of course other people's powers of vision may extend
further. The poet tells us that some persons see—
" Where otherfolks are blind, .
As pigs are said to see the wind."
The magistrates or this,town, however, probably not agree-
ing as to the propriety of this application to the Duke of
Northumberland for the continuance of Colonel Bell's
corps, resolved on reconsideration to put the officers on
another footing, and have applied to his Grace, that if the
Northumberland and Newcastle cavalry are disbanded, the
number of the military ut the barracks may bo increased.
In this application they were not even unanimous, and we
should have been much surprised if they had been. We
intend to say nothing against the Northumberland and
Newcastle Cavalry, officers, non-commissioned officers, or
privates ; but we repeat, at present we cannot see the
slightest necessity for their services, and we do not thinkit
a little extraordinary in the Newcastle magistrates to step
forward,, at the very. anoment the Administration are en-
deavouring to lessen the public, expenditure, and say,.
" Hold, don't abolish this--continue this expense." We
should rather have expected the reverse. But what is the
effect of their procedure ? It seems to us to be neither
more nor less than constituting themselves a local par-
liament, to lay on taxes for the community at large.
This it certainly is doing, as far as it can, in miniature.
Can any man acquainted with this district seriously say
that he thinks the inilitari,depot, though strong at Sunder-
land, Tynemouth,• and Newcastle, are insufficient, without
either local troops or an increase to the present regular
military establishment ? If there were any danger of the
Minister's laudable desire to retrench being counteracted in
this respect; we should call on the inhabitants of this
town` to hold a public meeting and express their sentiments.

FROM A CORRES£ONDENT.

The disbanding of volunteer corps, we find, is not un-
attended with opposition. Electioneering intereets will
have their influence. In the county of Durham, indeed,
the volunteers have been " released from their services"
without an observation being made on the propriety of the
measure; not so, with the volunteer force in Northumber-
land. Representations we understand have been made to
the Duke of Noraturnberland to induce his Grace to use
his influence with Ministers to keep on foot the different
volunteer corps in this county. We cannot imagine any
reason, as regards the tranquillity of this part of the
kingdom, why the services of the volunteers may not very
safely be dispensed with. The working people here are
in general well employed, and never, we may venture to
say, were they snore peaceably inclined. Why. than; to
say nothing of the expence, should it be deemed necessary
to keep up a volunteer force? We are led. to these re-
marks by a meeting of the Magistrates here on Saturday.
It is not always that the public become acquainted with
what passes at a meeting of such important personages.
We hear, however, on this occasion, that the Aldermen or
Magistrates of Newcastle, at the suggestion of whom we
shall not say, thought proper to hold a meeting here on Sa-
turday, for the purpose of offering to, or rather obtruding
on, the Lord Lieutenant their opinion on the propriety of
a measure of which his' Grace must at least be as capable
of judging as themselves. There were hnt six Aldermen
present, via. the Mayor, Messrs. Cookson, Craniling-
ton, Surtees, Forster, and Wright. .Mr: Alderman Smith,
being the sitting Alderman for the day, was unable to at-
tend; a note, however from him was determined to be *keen,
as Isis vote. The principal question was, whether, under
all the circumstances of the case, the Aldermen of New-
castle should take upon them to offer to the Lord Lieutenant
an opinion unfavourable to the disbanding the volunteers?
The discussion upon it was very warm, and upon a division
there were—for addressing the 'Lord Lieutenant S, vie.,
Messrs. Cookson, Cramlington, mid 'Forster ; against ad-
dressing his Grace 3, viz., Meek*. Smith, Surtees, and
Wright. The Mayor gave bis casting vote in favour of the
motion, which was of course carried. Thus the Lord
Lieutenant will have communicated to him, the opinion of the
Aldermen of Newcastle, that in the present perfectly tranquil
state of this district, the keeping up' f a volunteer force, at
a considerable expence to the public, is a measure not to he
abandoned ! We should say much more on this subject,
were it not that his Grace, we are sure, must be anxious
to see done away with every branch of useless expenditure.