The Sun.
London, England, 1829-10-19 00:00:00

NOTE SECRETE.

All Paris knows that M. de Vitrolles was die
author of this Note. What has not the same pub:-
licity is, that Comet Gregoire Orloff, -Russian Se-
nator en conga, and celebrated by several scientific
works, was the bearer of it. He received it at the
Pavilion Marsan, from the hands of Monsieur him-
self. The intention of the Prince was, that Orloff
should carry it unsealed; hut the Count entreated
his Royal Highness to seal it, which was done, On
taking leave, he was addressed by Monsieur in these
words :—" Ce qui surtout me rend penible la mis-
sion que je vous confie, c'tst de devoir volts charger
de dire a l'Empereur que c'est son Ambassadeur qui
Timis met 3i la mort, What especially afflicts me
in the mission I am confiding to you is, to feel it my
duty to desire you to say to the Emperor that his
Ambassador is our destruction."
Count Orloff passed by Stutguard, where he
visited the Queen (la Grande Duchess Catherine),
and disclosed to her the object of his journey. He
was even induced to confide the manuscript to that
Princess. Some time after it reached the liberals
from Stntgard, arid caused, and still causes, an infi-
nity of ill to the Royalist party.
, When Count Orloff arrived in Varsorie, 143.1 was
very indifferently retie veal I y the Emperor.
Laeden, Oct. 15. E. F,

We have just received a letter in the shape of
a pamphlet, addressed by Sir Andrew Halliday
to Lord Robert Seymour, with a Report of the
number of Lunatics and Idiots in England and
Wales, which is well calculated to alarm the
stoutest heart among us. Sir Andrew obseives
in the outset " that this Report presents a very
fair view of the statistics of insanity hi Great
Britain. It is calculated to set at rest a ques-
tion that involves much of our character and
conduct as a Christian nation, and that affects
more or less, in all their relations, the happiness
and comfort of every member of the community.
The prevalence of insanity in England is no new
doctrine. Foreigners of all countries have uni-
versally asserted it, and many among ourselves
have implicitly believed the assertion ; but tip to
the present moment the soundness of that doe,
trine has been firmly disputed and I.?ombated,
though, as one of its ablest opponents candidly
confesses, little else than conjecture has ever
been brought forward on the subject.' Now,
however, I am enabled to lay before your Lord-
ship and the public a series of returns au-
thentic, and tolerably accurate, which not
Only shows that insanity, in all its forms, prevails
to a most alarming extent in England ;
but that the numbers of the afflicted have be-
come more than tripled during the last twenty
years." This is a most fearful progression. If
the number of insane is tripled every twenty
years, what proportion will -the sane bear to the
end of two hundred yews? Si.e Andrew gives
a report of the state of matters respocling in-
sanity throughout the different counties of -Eng-
land and Wales, and throughout Wades and
Scotland. The total number of lunatics and
idiots in England is as follows:—Lunatics,
6,806 ; idiots, 5,741—t0ta1, 12,547. Allowing
for defective returns, he thinks the number may
be taken at 14,000. The average is about one
to every thousand of the population. i‘ The
disease (he says) appears to bit more prevalent
in the agricultural districts than among the ma-
nufacturing population. It is also more frequent
in our inland counties than in those that are
bounded by the sea; and those who labour in
mines are much less subject to its ravages than
those who toil upon the surface of the earth."
In Wales the numbers are :--Lunatics, 133 ;
idiots, '763—total, 890. Adding for parishes
which have not made returns, the number may
be taken at 1,000. However, taking the aseer-

tamed lunatics, amounting to 896, the population
being 817,438, the proportion is one to every
800 of the population. It has long been
known that Scotland contained proportionally
' greater number of idiots than any other part of
the island. " The population of Scotland in
1821 (says Sir Andrew) was two millions
ninety-three thousand four hundred and fifty-six ;
and by my Returns from the several parishes,
which are corrected with great attention and ac-
curacy, the number of insane persons in Scot-
land in the same year, viz. 1821, was 3,652,
beimg about one to every 574 of the population."
Sir Andrew has appended to his Reports nine
tables, in which the subject is exhibited in all
its details. In twelve agricultural counties of
England, the proportion of the insane to the
total population is about one to 820, and the
lunatics are to the idiots as five to seven. In
twelve manufacturing and mining counties, the
proportion of insane to the whole is one to
1,200, and there are considerably more lunatics
than idiots. "In mountainous districts (he
observes) the food is more scanty, and with more
difficulty procured, the atmosphere is more change-
able and more humid than in level plains, and both
affect, more or less, our physical powers ; and in
whatever way a monstrosity or irregularity of
structure may be engendered, we know that it
is easily:propagated ; the child will more or less
resemble the parent in his hereditary as well as
acquired defects ; and one great cause of the in-
crease of this species of insanity (idiotcy) has
arisen from our careless inattention to suffering
female as' well as also male idiots to procreate

their species. The cretins of the Alp; and the
idiots in Scotland and Wales have become nu-
merous from this cause alone ; and should the
people of England continue to view the subject
with that apathy they have hitherto shown, the
increase of the malady in another half century
will he such as to endanger most seriously the
comfort and well-being of the whole commu-
nity." We consider Sir Andrew Halliday en-
titled to great praise for his persevering exertions
in procuring, amidst every species of discourage-
ment, these Returns: His reasoning appears to
us questionable. If there arc more insane in
agricultural than in manufacturing districts, as
England is the most manufacturing country in
Europe and generally a level country, how should
it contain more insane than the Continent ?
Again, as there is, at all events, mare care be-
stowed now than formerly on idiots, why should
they have tripled in the last twenty years ?
Morning Chronicle.
When the Russians, in their first campaign,
met with some disasters, the flatterers of the
Duke of Wellington's statesmanship attributed
the passiveness of the British Cabinet to the
prophetic sagacity of the Premier, who foresaw,
as they assured us, from the beginning, that
Russia, by invading Turkey, was only rushing on
her own destruction. From the same authority
we leant that the colossal power of the empire of
the Northern Autocrat existed, as to all pur-
poses of conquest, only in imagination ; that it
was a great mistake to suppose, because the em-
pire was of vast extent, its resources and ener-
gies were gigantic. They gravely informed us
that none but ignorant and shallow politicians
believed Russia capable of moving a large army
to any distance beyond her own frontiers, with-
out soon letting the whole world into the secret
of her poverty and weakness. They described
her as an empire more unwieldy than great—
more menacing than formidable—more imposing
in a quiescent state than dangerous inaction. In
fact, they represented the Power that crushed Po-
land—that grasped Finland—that seized upon
the Crimea, Moldavia, and Wallachia—that over-
threw Persia, and annihilated the veteran legions
of Napoleon—as a State feeble and ill-organised,
which only the ignorant fears of those who
looked no farther than the surface of things in-
vested with imaginary terrors. Such was the pie-
tare drawn of Russia by the political " instruc-
tors," who, when the armies of the Czar were
checked before Varna, and experienced some san-
guinary resistance under the walls of Shumla,
extolled the Duke of Wellington to the skies for
the " foresight" he evinced in alloWing Russia
to go headlong into an enterprise, which, if it did
riot lead w her utter ruin, would at least break
the charm of her supposed ascendancy, and make
her ambition appear more ridiculous than terrible
in the eyes of Europe ! What do those political
Solomoris say now ? The second campaign was
sufficient to rea4se all that the most sanguine
hopes of the Northern Autocrat could have an-
ticipated. Turkey is beaten to the earth—she
lies at the mercy of the conqueror. The terms
of her exispence are dictated by the leader of a
victorious army almost within view of the Se-
raglio, where the deseendant of the Amuraths
and Solvmans, whose arms once made all Europe
tremble, resigns himself to his fate in sullen sub-
' mission, or puts his last hope of retaining the
ccptre a Mahomet in the " moderation" of his
conqueror. Mo4eration, indeed ! It is a fine
word, but the moderation of ambitious Princes
is like the devotion of hypocrites—a prudent
covering for the deep and resolved treaehery of
the heart. The, Empress Catherine was as mo-
derate in her tone, ea meek in her dissimulation,
just before the unprincipled partition of Poland,
as the Ilnaiparor Nicholas is now, when a country
more ardently nlesired by Russian ambition
than Poland alsaa rasa—when fairer provinces
than Russia ever before poaaessed—lie de-
fenaeless at his feet. 'The terms tat' his " mode-
ration," ea, contained in the treaty, and in the
separate articles, are known to every body. They
leave about as much national independence to
Turkey aa victorious Rome left to her ancient
rival Carthage, in that treaty which naturally led
to the catastrophe of t,li,e last Punic war.—
The ona article alone, that 4ussian subjects
should live in Turkey exempt from the Turkish
laws, is a badge of the Fact slavery and degrada-
' Lion of a State. The vulgar notion about con-
quest is the smiting away of territory. That is
only physical coiNziest, which, while it impairs
the resources of a State, may IpAye its spirit un-
broken pp watch the crisis of retaliation and
vengeance ; bnt the moral debasement implied
by a submission Bite f,jaiat to which we have ad-
i
• veoted shows that the living energy of inde-
pendence
has expired. Russia is nat now the
ancient Scythian empire, guided by no notions 1
of wannest than those of a, yehement and bar-
barous
violence, The Calainet of
.i;t. Peters-
burg!), which cajoled na into the Treaty of tiia ,
6th of
,July--whieh, in the faee pf its own de,7
claration, accomplialned the blockade of the Par-
dandles, and obtained tha tse of the British
Navy to awrsep the fleet of her enemy from the
waters—that Cabinet is too well versed in the
tactics of ambition to display 411 at once the ex-
tent of the advantages which her recent victories
have conferred upon her, To do so would be
to alaro too much those rival Powers of Europe
which have hitherto so complaisantly looked
upon the progress of her aggrandisement.--
• Were she to Seize upon Cow tantinople, or lay

it in ashes—to depose the Sultan, aid set up
a Muscovite Satrap upon the throne of the
Constantines—it might, even in this the " ele-
venth hour," excite a confederacy between
England, France, and Austria, that would se-
riously incommode the Russian Eagle, even
with its prey clutched in its rapacious talon S—
. : the Russian Cabinet is wiser than
to incur even the remote risk of such an
event. It is safer and better, and more effectual,
to gto on as she has done, cajoling the Cabinets
of other States, and making them accessaries to
her designs by superior policy, than instigating
them to some acts of spirit by reducing Turkey
at once to the name as well as the conditions of
an integral province of the Muscovite empire.
Russia knows she can do this when she pleases.
She has the Sultan as safely within her grasp as
Tamerlane had Bajazet ;—the only difference is,
that the one was secured in an iron cage, and
the other within the cage of his own subjugated
capital. If Turkey could, by any miracle, raise
the vast sum of six millions, at which she is sup-
posed to be allowed to ransom herself, would
not the imperium in it:Teri° which Russia has
established by the treaty within the Turkish do.
minions be a fruitful source of complaint and
quarrel before the expiration of ten years ? The '
article of the law of nations which makes
foreigners owe a temporary allegiance to the
State in which they reside is blotted out as re-
gards Russian subjects in Turkey. Russian
ships may violate the revenue laws, and cannot
he searched in the Russian waters. The order
of things which the victorious General has esta-
blished is not to be disturbed so long as Russia
holds any part of the Turkish territory ; and yet
we talk of the moderation of Nicholas ! We
might as well talk of the wisdom and energy of
the Wellington Administration, which looked on
quietly while those evils were preparing for " our
ancient Ally," and saw them ripen into this con-
clusion.—Morning Herald.
There is one benefit which we think may be
indisputably claimed as the result of the late dis-
cussions at Whitby and Barnsley, on the merits
and demerits of the free-trade system—and that
is, that the minds of almost all who do not con-
sider calm inquiry into such au important subject
wholly foreign to the business of life, have been
thoroughly satisfied that whatever may be the
amount, or whatever the causes, of the distressed
state of the country, the change which was
effected by Mr. Huskisson in our commercial
policy is not to be classed as one of them. No-
thing, in fact, can be more contrary to the real
facts of the case, or so totally destitute of foun-
dation, as the assertion that the greater facility
of commercial intercourse, afforded by the
policy alluded to, has been the cause of de-
creased trade—decreased profits—or decreased
wages. The declamation of its. few remaining
adversaries is plausible enough, we allow, in ap-
pearance ; but bring it to the touchstone of
documents—pass it through the ordeal of figures
and documents, and it turns out to be but " the
airy vision of a fabric," without substance and
without foundation. With the exception of
the shipping interest, which appears from par-
liamentary documents rather to have gained than
suffered in consequence of the reciprocity sys-
tem, it is worthy or remark that those branches
of our manufactures and trade which are suffer-
ing the greatest depression, are precisely those
to which that system has only an indirect refer-
ence. In the cotton trade, for example, though
we are not unrivalled- in the foreign market—
because foreigners are pleased, in some instances,
to pay a greater price for articles of their own
production, though inferior in quality, than for
those which are manufactured in this country—
we are unrivalled at home ; yet, although the
free trade system has had no effect here, because,
with all our advantages, there could not be any
thing in the shape of competition, the cotton
manufacture is that which languishes most—in
which profits are smallest, and wages lowest !
In the linen trade, again, where the reciprocity
system has had fair play, what have been the re-
sults ? The Custom .house returns declare, first,
that the quantity of flax imported, has greatly
increased since the adoption of the reciprocity
system ; second, that the quantity of foreign
linens imported is less, not more; and, third, that
the quantity of British linens exported has in-
creased, not diminished ! Is further proof neces-
sary? The silk manufacture, which it has been
confidently averred during the last three
or four years, would be totally destroyed by the
reciprocity system, exhibits similar and equally
gratifying results. There also the balance is
wholly in favour of England, and of the en-
lightened commercial policy to which she is the
first to have given birth ; and in fine, there is no
department of trade, no branch of industry which
the reciprocity system has touched, which has
not exhibited a growing and satisfactory im-
provement. Do we then say, that in those
branches of trade and manufactures to which the
principles of free trade have been applied, that
there is no distress—that profits are high—and
the workman duly remunerated for his labour ?
By no means. We know the contrary to be the
ease ; that profits and wages were never lower,
or the country generally involved in so much
distress ; but these unsatisfactory results do not
originate in the reciprocity system, which, if it
had caused them, would have exhibited returns
at the Custom-house of a very different ciia-
meter from thoge to which we have appealed.
They would have shown in the linen and silk
trades, for example, that the quantity manufac-
ture,' in England had diminished, and the quan-
tity imported from abroad had increased, since
' the adoption of the new system ; but the con-
trary is the case; and until the tables are turned
npon us, no one in his right senses will believe
that the policy in question has had any thing to
do with the matter, lout, on the contrary, infer
that it has originated in canses of a more general
and permanent nature, affecting all the depart-
ments of industry, but least of all those where
British 'enterprise has had to contend, even some-
what disadvantageously, with foreign rivalry.—
Morning Advertiser.

SEttiOt3F; ACCIDENT ON THE RIVER.—
For two or thaw hours yesterday afternoon, a small boat,
with five young men on board, was olK.ervpd sailing up
40(1 down the river, between the Red-house and Batte(s7;ea-
brhige, 0 the imminent danger of their lives, from their
total ignorance in at;riaing the boat. Between four and
five o'clock, as the boat was uear p*ersea-bridge, those
on hoard tried to turn her head against the tide, tiqwo the
river, *lien- as was to be expected from their preyious
conduct, the boat ut-,::, and the whole party was turned
into the stream. Three of them i:ail the good fortune to
seize 41,1 cf the boat's keel, by which they held fast until
relieved from their perilous sittiati,n by a waterman who
happened to be pas Sing near the spot at the time ; but the
o*A. two young men were not So fortunate ; for, before
any asista4,--te could be rendered to them they sunk to rise
no more. Boats were immediately out to look for the
bodies, but they were not discovered at six o'clock. We
understand that the unfortunate sufferers were the sons of
respectable tradesmen residing in Paddington, but we could
not ascertain their navies. From its being flood tide at
the time, the boat was carried against one of the abutments
of the bridge, and destroyed,

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-HOUSE.

About a fortnight ago the warehouse of Mr.
White, in Basinghall-street, being one of a range
of warehouses in a large building, was broken open,
and plundered of kerseymeres to the amount of
between 2001. and 3001., by some very expert
thieves. The LORD MAYOR has been for some
days privately investigating the circumstances, and
has had no reason to commend the zeal and activity
of the police appointed to the district.
On Saturday, William Walker, the brother of the
two unfortunate men who are now in Newgate
under sentence of death, was brought before the
LORD MAYOR, charged under suspicion of having
been concerned in the robbery. At about six o'clock
in the morning on which Mr. White's warehouse
was robbed, a coach was seen in the neighbourhood
by the foreman to a warehouseman in Basinghall-
street. Two persons were soon afterwards ob-
served on the pavement, one of whom beckoned to
the coachman, who accordingly moved off. These
persons had come from the back entrance to the
premises of Mr. White; and the foreman alluded
to, suspecting that they were concerned in some
depredations, gave notice to two of the patrol, who
went towards the place where the men had been
lurking about : they were, however, gone. The
officers then went up to the coachman, and asked
him what he waited for, to which he replied that he
had got a fare, and was driving to Billingsgate. At
that moment they were addressed by a person in the
coach, who said that he was going to Billingsgate,
and desired the coachman to drive on. The officers
did not see any goods in the coach, which drove on
at a quick rate, but turned away in a short tine
from the direction of Billingsgate.
The LORD MAYOR was greatly surprised and dis-
pleased at the, conduct of the patrol, in not ob-
serving the necessary vigilance on this occasion.
They both declared that they saw nothing more
about the person in the coach than that of an ordi-
nary stranger; and as they had no idea at the time
that a robbery had been committed, they felt a natu-
ral reluctance to run the hazard of taking him into
custody. They, however, recollected him well, and
could swear to him.

On 'Wednesday last the prisoner, Walker, was
taken into custody; and the two above-mentioned
officers swore positively that he was the person
whom they saw in the coach on the morning of the
robbery.
It appears that soon after the coach moved off
from Basinghall-street, it was found that a small
door leading into the warehouse of Mr. White
through a passage, had been broken open, the panel
having been burg through. The front door of the
warehouse was then opened, and several large pieces
of kerseymere were taken -out. It is supposed by
those who are aware of the plans of housebreakers,
that the coach in question had already taken away
one load of goods, and was just about to take away
another, when their object was suspected.
When Walker was brought up, he assured the
Lord Mayor that he knew nothing whatever of the
robbery.
The LORD MAYOR—WeII, it is in your power to
clear yourself, by proving what you did at Billings-
gate on that morning.
Walker—l am sure I don't remember being in a
coach any where; but I often do go into a coach,
and drive from place to place. I don't remember
ever seeing either of these men.
The Patrol—We saw you in the coach, and you
asked us what we wanted, and told us you were
going to Billingsgate market.
Walker—Well ! what did you see in the coach ?
Did you see any property ? Patrol—No, we saw
nothing.

Walker—No I that's well; I can't be charged
with the robbery, at any rate.
The LORD MAYOR—You were in the neighbour-
hood under the most suspicious circumstances; you
could not have been in the coach at six o'clock in
the morning without an object. Walker—l have a
great deal of business to do as a horse-dealer, and I
ride about from place to place at all hours, on bu-
siness.

The LORD MAYOR—I do not require you to tell
me with whom you did business on that morning, at
Billingsgate; but you must recollect, and it may be
serviceable to you to explain. Walker—l recollect
nothing at all about it. I have been otherwise em-
ployed than in committing burglaries, my Lord;
both of my brothers are under sentence of execu-
tion, and I am otherwise employed than in robbing
now.

The LORD MAYOR—How are you employed ?
Walker—ln endeavouring to save the lives of my
brothers ; I am too seriously employed to contem-
plate a robbery.
The LORD MAYOR said the prisoner could have
been occupied in no other than a bad way on
that morning, whatever he might be doing for his
brothers.

In answer to a question from the Lord Mayor,
INIr. Brown, the Murshal, said the prisoner was a
common thief.

The LORD MAYOR (to the prisoner)—l am not
at all anxious to keep a person in confinement under
such circumstances as those under which you are
placed with regard to your brothers ; but I cannot
think of discharging you. I. shall take time to con-
sider whether the case is not, as it now is made out
a case for a Jury. The prisoner was then remanded.
Hand-bills have been sent about the town, and a
reward has been offered for the housebreakers.