Star.
London, England, 1814-08-05 00:00:00

DCGGE7TS COAT AND IfADGE.

The contest for this pt;Te was IYlStrnrdo 'in *9l
Cmint ,if the Jubilee, from Monday, the Ict lily of
August, till yesterday evening. when..is )o lug
waterm.n, just out of th it apprenticeships. eon•
tende I for it, in watermea's whetries. The foloor.
ing are the names of the s.!veral candid Ates, .tut of
the places to which they belong :s
1. Richard Harris
2. Janie. Co* ...
3. Charles Jones Vausha 1.
4. Michael Butcher Wan t worti
5. John head A de:atates.nairs.

6. Samuel Humphries ... I i ormitase s Mrs.
Th.! contest was to be decided in one heat, to row
from the Swan, London.hri.lge, to the Swan, at
Chelsea. Soon alter six n'clia k, the sever.ll
dates h iving taken their station, a signal was given
by the firing of a pistol, when the competitors start-
ed, and an ardent contest took place between three
of them, Harris, Cook, and Humphries--.they not
being a boat'. length a•he.ad fif each other, till they
came throng', the arch of Westminster-bridge. when
Harris twik the lead, and maintained it the whole
distance. w:•ich entitled him to ti.a coat and badge.
James Conk, being seri) id, had a minor prize of five
pi•st4ifi. ‘.‘std S tmuel Ilitmphries, the third and last,
ali'wed three pounds. John Read and Charles
Janes, finding neither •could rain a prize, coatlinde.l
for manly skill, and rowed the whole distance.
chic? liut.cher..be'ng fouled near Vl;:stminster-bridge,
declined the contest. The evening Ming very fine,
a great number of boats were upon the river, and s
vast concourse of persons lined the shores.

•
Dua op WEeeiscroe.—The admirers of our in-
vincible hero will be gt a:i:ied to learn, that they have
now an opportunity of procuring a Most comet and
animated Li kenessut him,e sec u ted uoder die patronage
of his brother, Marquis WELLINLEY, by Mr. Mmast,
and honoured with the truly fiatteriog approbation of
his Royal Highness the POINCIC i aatx r, Iris Nlajesty
the Emperor.i f Russia, Field-Marshal Prince iii.tf•
mien, and other Illustrious Characters. By a pro.
cess peculiar to himself, the artist gives to his proofs
taken off on silk, and on oil grounds, (which, as tois
is the first instance of their application, he has deno-
minated the Wellington Grounds), all the effect of
the most highly •filirshed drawings. These proofs are
considerably advanced in price, but those on India
paper, ma, be had at T•no Guineas each, of Mr. MI-
Kash 23, Foley-place, Portland-chapel.
Since the late rains salmon has been selling is Ayr,
at sd. to a pound. The herring fishery has also
been very successful.
Boston, Stamford, Nottingham. Hull, Newcastle,
and several other towns to the northward, were visit-
ed on Thursday ee'nnight, by a tremendous storm of
thunder and lightning, which lasted several hours.
Fi;day forenoon, there -was s ime heavy rain at
Glasgow. At Chapleton a cow was killed by the
lightning. At Paisley the storm seemed to be central
at ten o'clock. The thunder was very tool, the
lightning frequent, and tie rain heavy. At the :01l
between Paisley and Renfrew, the lightning struck -
an out-house, which was entirely destv
Monday se'nnight, some diabolical savage con-
trived to throw a qmintity of poison into the kennel
D. Scully, of Tirliamaine Castle, Esq.layawhiche
before any thing could be done to check its effects, •
seven couple of excellent hounds were destroyed. By
taking very strong remedies, the rest oi the pack are
likely to recover. The oily cause that can tie assigned
for this savage treachery was Mr. Scully's threatening
to stun the trespasses of some poacher', who were in
vr ‘ctice of killing Lams on his even grouuds, and
tf,e- lands of which he has the royalty.
. The following sensible remarks on the present state
of French Newspapers are extracted from the Journal
del Debts We still meet with many people, who,
from habit, real eur Journals as they were wont, arid
as they ought to he read prior to the 31st of March
this is an error, against which it is the mote important
to guard the politic, as it would prevent us from doing
the good which we wish to do, and often even give us
a pernicious influence which we do net wish to possess.
Uneer the late Government all that appeared in the
public papers came from 'the police : there was not an
article of news, n'or a political roll •ction which was
not revised, altered, augmented, or perverted_ at the
police-office. The action of authority on the jour-
nals was a thing notorious, and manifest to all ate
world. They were, therefore, with reason, cons«.
dcred as so many official, or demi-official, publici-
tions, which expressed merely the ideas and views, of
the Government. In this way articles of news ac-
quired great • importance ; because people el,Jca.
soured to learn from them the intentions of the op-
pressor of Europe ; and articles of eulogy were insig-
nificant, because their insertion WAS ordered : at that
time there were no organs of public opinion, but
only organs of power.
6 Now the case is altered. All that we publisS in
our journals is our own selection. We poi a out the
sources of our intelligence, and give it such as we tilt'
it in the foreign G .zettes, or receive is from our c .r.
respondents fa course it must be at times erroneous,
for our correspondents not being initiated into the
secrets of Courts, cannot communicate to us wit .t
passes there except from external appearances. w!.ich •
are sometimes deceitful ; but at the same time it iii im-
pot tent to remark, that as our articles of intelligence
do not come from government, they cannot be ascrib-
ed to it, nor become for it a subject of diplomatic
bickerings. This is sufficiently proved by the example
of England, where the government is at no tone re-
sponsible for what appears in Ur journals. Our le-
flections are those of literary men, who speak accord.
itio to their conscience and their m erns of ohserea!ino.
We speak freely what we think either on the Id .n of
a law presented by the Ministers, or on propositions
made in the Chamber of Deputies.
" It is in the fr:edom of the journals that the li-
berty of the press chiefly consists—that wise and use-
ful liberty which the King has proclaimed as the
basis of a liberal constitution. From it there is no in-
convenience to be found ; nothing but advantage to
be hoped. A journal must not he confounded with
an ephemeral pamphlet, which has only the printer's
name as a guarantee, and of which the true author
-. The - ffot el•

may always remain unknown. 'L'he guarantee affoid-
ed by journals re►ults from their fixed and permanent
establishment, though their sheets are fugitive. The
proprietors and editors are all men well known, both
to the Government And tae Pnblic. They are always,
ready to answer for the articles which they insert.•l