Star.
London, England, 1824-12-06 00:00:00

THE LAOCOON.

The Messrs. Duncan, of New College, Oxford, have
just presented a very fine cast of the 1-aocoon (theonly
one taken from the original statue), to the. Radcliffe
Library. This celebrated monument of Greek sculp-
ture was executed in ma:ble by Polydorus, Atheno-
dorus, and Agesander, the three famous artists of
Rhodes.. It was found at Rome, in the ruins of the
Palace of Titus, in the beginning of the sixteenth cen-
tury, under the Pontificate of Julius IL and was de-
posited in the Farnese Palace. Laocoon, the priest of
Apollo and Neptune, with his two sons, is represented
with two hideous serpents clinging round his body,
gnawing it and injecting their poison. Virgil gives a
beautifid description of the circumstance in his se-
cond ./Eneid.
This statue exhibits the most astonishing dignity
and tranquillity of mind in the midst of tbe most ex-
cruciating torments. Pliny says of it, that it is, " opars
omnibus, picture et statuarite artis, preferendum ;" and
our own Poet, Thomson, tires describes 44 Scnlpture's
utmost masterpiece:"
The miserable sire,
Wrapt with his sons in fate's severest grasp.
The serpents, twisting round, their stringent folds
Inextricable tie. Such passion here r
Such agonies! Such bitterness of pain
Seems so to tremble through the tortur'd stone,
That the touchl heart engrosses all the view.
Almost unmark'd the best proportions pass
That ever Greece beheld ; and, seen alone,
On the rapt eye th' imperious passions seize ;
The father's double pangs, both for himself
And sons convuls'd ; to Heaven his rueful look,
Imploring aid, and half accusing, cast ;
Ws fell despair with indignation mix'd,
As the strong-curling monsters from his side
Ilis fun-extended fury cannot tear.
More tender touch'd, with varied art, his sons
All the soft rage of younger pas;ions chew :
In a boy's helpless fate one sults oppress'd,
While, yet unpierc'd, the frighten'd other tries
His foot to steal out of the horrid twine !"

A Comet may now be seen soon after sun-set, with a
tolerable glass, in the ninth, between the right hand of
Bootes and the tail of Drago, tight amen. 2:3 N. dcc. 58.

The affair of Mr. Fauntlany has occasioned a great
distrust towards paper-money among the farming and
ill-informed classes of people in the country. The notes
of country banks are 'dosed, and this refusal is becom-
ing so general in the southern parts of England, as to
amount to a very considerable inconvenience. This
feeling of the insecurity of Bank notes has arisen evi-
dently from a general distrust towards banks, caused by
. the late disclosures in the case el Fauntleroy.
During the late storm, the vicarage house at South-
leigh, Somersetshire, was comile:ely destroyed by the
wind, but happily no lives were lost. Mr. Thorn, of
Seaton, a tenant of I'. M. Charter, Esq. lost fifty-two
sheep, drowned in the marshes, and several neighbours'
sheep, colts, 8;c.
'Miturclay seunight. as Thus. Blevin, a baker, in the
asiiil'oyment of Mi. Ball, Fkiiallanci, Liverp,!ol, was at
dinner in the.honse, a circumstance nccurred between
his'. fella* Workrien, who had dined, and the servant,
which caused a laugh among them, .in Which Blevin
heartily joined, and continued his laughter while in the
act.ef eating, whim, he rose suddenly from the table,
and attempted to put his finger down his throat, to ex 7
tract something which. had 111) ucted it. This he could
not effect ; but he made his comrades understand what
was the matter, and one of them tried to relieve him
with a wire, without success: in the meantime, a stir-
germ was quickly obtained, but. the poor man died, al-
though every means were used to extract the substance.
On ooetting the throat, a piece of beef, half an ounce in
weight, was found in the trachea.
Last week a murder was committed near the Tennis
Court puilic Lome, at Warmley, al tit forr miles
from Bristol. A man nailed Isaac Galdeit, a wag-
goner, had caused the hot se of one at his neighbours to
be pounded ; this man was in the poblic-house drink-
ing, when several others came in, some of whom began
to throw tobacco-pipes at him; this led to further quar-
relling; and ultimately when Gal:en left the public li
-
house to go home, be was* waylaid, knocked down
with a large pole, and one of his inhuman companions
stabbed him in the forehead with.a huge French clasp-
knife, the blade of which was broken in the blow; they
left him a corpse. Seven 'pea have been taken up as
accessories, viz. Robert England. Mark. Whitting,
James Caines, Thomas Wiln.ot, Francis Britten, Isaac
iitliton, and Samuel Peacock. A Coroner's Inquest
sat. .
on the body, and brought in a verdict of Wilful
rigainA several persons unknown."
tie gable end of the c ..ttage• of a labourer named
Casvley, near Wootton Bassett, was blown in during the
strum of Tuesday se'nnighr, and a fine girl, fourteen
years at age, was killed in bed, while two other children,
between whom she-Slept, received but.liAtleinPrY•