Star.
London, England, 1826-09-25 00:00:00

HASTINGS!

Of all the Watering places recommend me to Hast-
ings. At Margate, you are suffocated by rank cock-
neyisin; at Broadstairs you are-cooped up in paltry liitle
pigeon boxes, like so many tame sea-gulls ; at Ramsgate,
you are frozen to a st 4nd-still by frigid genkelativeness ;
at Sandwich there is nothingbut sand, salt-pans, and the
ruins of old R;chborough Castle ;at Deal—de el tak
the hindmost ! is the cry of every traveller as he rattles
through its dirty streets t• get out Of it as soon as pos-
-1 sable ;at Dover you are overdone with carts, coal-dust,
and Custom. heuse officers; at Sandgate you see no:hi ng
but the domiciles of half a dozen dowagers, three fa-
mily bathing-machines, and a twenty gun battery, duly
displayed by the side of a vile candy road through which
no horses can travel faster than three miles and a half
an hour ; and at Hythe, Folkestone, the two Romneys,
Rye, and Winchelsea, they have nothing to spew you
except some auld-world works ; heaps of ancient British
and Danish skulls, assorted ; the Gothic window, from
which Heary Brougham, Esq. addresses the free and
independent electors of this ancient Borough ; fine fat
marshes, covered with fine fat peripatetic mutton; a
church steeple like a nest of extinguishers one a top of
'tother ; beds of mud ; and here and there a melancholy
non-preventive preventive-service man. But at Hastings
you have every thing that the heart of a man, with SO
KIVU in his pocket, and a fortnight's leisure before him,
can reasonably desire—a fine expanse of sea, a clean
and very pretty town, interspersed with terraces and
gardens, and stately trees, surrounded by an amphi-
theatre of venerable cliffs, and sweetly swelling hills,
abounding in beautiful walks acrd rides; witness the fish
ponds and dripping well

Where in cool pet and mossy eel,
The rural Faye and fairies dwell;
and where bevies of fair dames sit in the shade of am-
ple sycamore, cracking filberts with their gentle teeth,
and singing a Home, sweet home r until the woods
echo again ; and the Dryads and Hamadryads wish
themselves marriageable Gentlemen for their sakes, and
the little girls of the party clap their hands with de-
light. (May the home of the Lady I heard singing
there last Saturday afternoon be a blessed one !—and
may the cracking of filberts never give her the tooth-
ache !)-t—Witness also, Fairlight Glen; and the cascade
y'cleped the " Old Roar!" and Cove Hurst, with its
tree-crowned cliffs, and rich underwood fringing
the ocean foam; and the Castles of Hastings, and Pe-
, vensey, and Bartel Abbey, and many other beauties,.
natural and artificial, too numerous to be here set down.
Then for boarding houses, and lodging houses, and
libraries, sad a Marine Parade, Hastings is second to
none ; and her company is polite as well as " genteel ;
and her pleasure boats are admirable, and their owners
civil, intelligent, reasonable in their demands, and as
good seamen as any in the world. Her markets abound
with " creature comforts" of the best; and her perm.
neat inhabitants, rich as well-as poor, generally speak-
ing, are quiet, unassuming, and respectable_
She has her praise. Now mark a spot or too,
Which so much beauty would do well tomcod.
" It is not seemly, nor of good report," that her
bathing machines are devoid of awnings; and in that
particular she might take a lesson even from Margate.
A Correspondent at Dieppe is much scandalised at
the mode of bathing there; but at Hastings they are
not a jot more delicate, though their mode is not the
same. The beach is steep and shingly, so that the
machines cannot be drawn out into the sea at various
distances; but they are let down side by side, close to
gether, and all of a row ;—and out of one pops a Gen-
tleman, and out of the other the bathing women haul a
Lady ; and so on through the whole line; and there they
are ducking and diving, and kicking and plunging in
very innocent sociality—to the very great amusement
of the idlers and preventive service men who line the
beach ! It is true the Ladies wear bathing dresses ; but
the Gentlemen do not ;—they plunge boldly out, in
pais naturalihus ; and there certainly is a great lack of
decency in the exhibition ; however the exhibitors may
think to qualify it by the old commodious " he ti soit
qui teal y pease f' If the bathing machine proprietors
cannot afford awnings, no good reason can be rendered
why the Gentlemen should not bathe at one part of
the beach, and the Ladies at another. There has often
been a great outcry against"finishingaeminaries i" but
a fashionable watering place flushes' young Maidens
much more completely.
Then the parade;—" the parade," quoth the Hastings
Guide—" is considered one of the best promenades on
any part of the coast ;" and an inscription on one of the
lampposts informs the stranger that it was completed
" by the voluntary contributions of the visitors, by per-.
mission of the Corporation." Certainly it is a fine prome-
nade, and it was very kind of the Corporation to permit
the visitors to improve the town by making it; but since
it is made, it is a pity it is not swept and sprinkled oc-
casionally ;—and why should the -boarding-house
keepers shake their carpets alongside of it? The Lady
visitors make wry faces enough to keep the sun out of
-their eyes, without having to guard against the dust
also. Perhaps the Corporation would be kind enough
to permit the visitors to sweep and sprinkle it at their
own expense; and if so, no doubt a notice stuck up to
that effect would be immediately attended to by the
visitors; for Hastings is very full of them—noble, gentle,
, and simple; as may readily be supposed, by their giving
from ten to eighteen guineas a week for houses to hide
their heads in. Fish ofal, too, is an awkward appendage
to a fashionable promenade; and perhaps the Corpo-
ration would condescend to direct that the fishermen
shall keep it to themselves, at their own end of the beach,
instead of scattering it abroad as they now do. I would
also recommend the waiters at the hotels to keep larger
glasses for soda-water; and if that is not possible, let
them keep a spare cork in their pockets, instead of stop-
ping the bottle with ablaut and redinger : and it would
not be amiss if some of them used vie hair-Intsh less,
and the soap more ; but above all things I, would re-
commend them to remember that they are waiters, and
that, as Sir Richad Litt nie says, civility is a nice com-
modity ;—it costs nothing—it is easily carried; and it
is !Aire to find its reward. The proprietors of the hotels,
too, would do well to see that they have cooks and bar-
maids who understand their business;—which they may
well afford to do, seeing that they get four shiHrags for
A mutton chop or two, seven shillings for a bottle of
port, and two shillings for a sixpenny glass of brandy
and water.
Thaw matters, and a few others well amended, wW make Hut-
ings a much pleason4r place for spendine money in than it is at
present ; and if she does amend them, I hope she may never be in.
freseil with blaek-legs and demireps, like Ikishton; nor with swarms
of tan-sllppered talkative cockneys, like Margate; nor with cues-
give rtoli ms towns gentility, like Ramegate; but contiuue to reap
a fair and handsome profit from the rational aad polite.
The Valetudinarian' bout that the way to " take p
sew least efomis lye" is to go to Grows end. •

THE POOR WEAVERS.
The wages at present given for weaving are utterly
insufficient to aford barely fond to the weaver and his
familt. The man that makes the mule—the spinner,
who konverts the cotton into yarn--the warper, who
prepare, it for the weaver—the bleacher, who receives
it from the weaver, and prepares it for the printer—rand
the latter, who rend'rs it fit for Ladies' wear,—all these
are paid for their labour, some two, others three, others
four, and some even five times as much. as the poor
weaver, tvho in fact has the most laborious and un-
healthy part of the whole process to perform. The
present distressed appearance of this useftr; body of men
is but ton aptly described in the folios. g lines, taken
from an old book, called Popular Opinions :
" See the poor weaver, ghastly, lank and pale,
Redue'd by sale, oak wart and water-kail;
Like piper's bap hang down his thread-bare ?reeks,
And deep indented are his lantern cheeks ;
Demure and grim, dress'd like a scare-craw bogie;
I'll on him shortly mak' this single stricture,
He wed may sit for Famine's kauard piastre !"

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-HOUSE.

Saturday, Frederick Justice Latham, and a young man of respect-
able connections, named Saglam, the former an apprentice in the
house of Mr. It. Warner, a wholesale grocer in Reod-lane, the
latter prisoner a clerk in the Ordnance OMce, Tower, were brought
up
for a second examination.
The prisoner Latham had some time since become acquainted
with Singleton, who was his superior in rank, and they became
companions during the evenings, after business. On Wednesday,
the 13th inst. Singleton suddenly disappeared from his lodgings,
and absented himself from his vice In the Tower without leave.
On Thursday be was proved to have been at the French Ambassa-
dor's to procure a passport, and there was reason to suppose that
Latham was with hint in the course of the same day. On Friday,
at Mr. Warner's, it was the duty of Lathan to take a sum of money
and pay some duties with it at the Custom House. The money
was kept in a drawer of a desk belonging to the aim, and be bad
access to it. He took out the sum required to pay the duties, and
also about 1501. beyond that, amounting in the while to 7504 or
thereabouts. One portion of the money consisted of a chetque for
1731. 17s. 4d. upon the Bank of England, which be received. He
paid no duties, and absconded with the whole amount. He took
no clothes from home, and it was proved that be and Singleton
were together that day, at the West-end of the town, making par.
chases of wearing apparel, of which neither before had any stock.
Singleton got a passport for France in his own name. Latham
got one in the name of Johnson that day. In the evening
they were seen together at the Hyde Park Coffee House,
and Singleton paid for refreshments, and at the same time dis-
played a large roll of notes. They took a post-chaise, and set off
from thence to Dartford. At the Inn where they stopped, at the
latter place, Singleton paid for some refreshments with a ten i
pound note, which note was proved to be the property of Mr.
Warner. In the mean time, Mr. Warner,suspecthig that Latham bad
absconded, promptly dispatched one servant to Liverpool, another to
Dover, and concerted measures to have a watch upon other places,
where it was thought the prisoner might embark. On the Saturday
morning, the servant sent to Dover was walking on the pier, when
he met with Latham, whom he immediately apprehended and
searched. He found upon him about £550 of the money taken
from Mr. Warner, and brought him to town. Oo the same night,
Singleton arrived in town, and wrote a note to a young man, re-
questing to know where Mr. Warner lived; and in the course of
Sunday went to him, and gave up to him .570, representing that
be bad been told by Latham, that he (Latham) had received a
legacy, and was desirous of taking a trip to France. and wished
his friend Singleton to accompany him. The latter did not refuse;
but, finding grouad to suspect the truth, he had returned to re-
store the money. Mr. Warner did not believe this statement, and
soon after gave him in custody as an accessory to the robbery or
embezzlement, whichever it might turn out to be. ' •
The Loan MAYOR said, that with respect to the law of the ease,
be bad consulted the City Solicitor, and he was of opinion that it
was requisite to shew that Singleton had cognizance of thelact at
the time it was committed, in order to prove him to have been an
accessory ; but his Lordship considered that the offence was created,
net by changing the checque, or taking the money out of the desk
(which the prisoner was authorised to do), but in Converting it to
his own use; and at present his Lordship thought there was reason
to suspect that Singleton had a guilty knowledge of that fact. '
Mr. Power requested that the case might be remanded, as he
bad evidence coming from Dover, to show that Singleton there
made use of an assumed name, and was made aware of his compa-
nion's apprehension before he returned.
The Loan Karon remanded the prisoners for further examina-
tion. There was a crowd of friends in attendance on both sides.

GUILDHALL
A Lieutenant of the Navy, seemingly u hair-brained a young
blide as ever stepped on ship board, was charged with hiring a hack-
ney coach, without having a suMcient stock of cult to pay his fare.
For riding in a cab, from Holborn to the Old Bailey, be generously
gave the driver Xs. and a glass of gin and water. He then hired the
complainant's coach, which he ordered to Hoiloeray-gate, where be
said some relative lived ; but when begot there, he felt an overpow-
ering reluctance to arouse his friends, at so unseasonable an hour as
two in the morning, end therefore desired Artery to drive him about
until breakfast. The latter, however, wished to see the colour of
his mooey, before he commenced upon this roving commission; and
as it was not forthcoming, he drove him back to the watering house,
in the Old Bailey, and from thence to the derkey.
Mr. Alderman Ammar asked him what he had to my for himself?
The defendant, who was evidently very drunk, exclaimed, " In-
stead of driving me, my Lord, why d—n me, I drove him. 'Twas
1 steered the horses ; he was too drunk."
Mr. Alderman Amstar mid, he must certainly have been too
drunk himself, at that time, to tell whether anybody else was drunk
or sober. He dared-to my, from the button be wore' be had no
ides of bilking the man, and be had, therefore, better retire and
settle it.

" Ak, but," replied the drunken Lieutenant, "1 have no blunt.
I bad four sovereigns last night, but it is all gone now."
This appearing to be the fact, the Alderman eventually took his
addeoss privately, and dismissed him, upon his undertaking to send
the coachman his demand, Ss. advising him to bring out less cask in
kis locker when he nest set forth upon his adventures.