The Statesman.
London, England, 1815-09-28 00:00:00

WILSON THE PEDESTHLIN.

Wilson slept at Mr. Dyer's on Tuesday night, intl
yesterday walked across tire Wadi'. with more thee
usual netivity, to the Hare and Billet, where, in
the course of the day, he wan visited lay crowds of
noxious spectators, aho (IMP frr.rn :ill parts, and
from many of whom he received *Or; litteral !presents.
We understand he is to be seen every day at the
flare and Bine', where, by an arirrrtkarrielif on the
window, he arerounces, that he will thnek fatly re-
ceive, i:, person, the smallest subscriptions which
mat be given to him.
We ere happy to state, that the Gentlemen of the
Stnck Eschange have come forward or a mast hand-
some manner for his relief. As soon ns it was use
certaitied yesterday morning, that the Magistrntea
had actually prevented the conclusion of the per-
formance, a subscription nal immediately aeon in
the house, and upwards of one hundred ;mottle
were raised in little more than two boors. A sim'.'sir
sum was subset ihed for him at the Barking llovse of
Perrilig and Co. Mr. Samuel Diva), of thy' City,
has also declared kic wish to lend his interest to the
furtherance of Wilson's welfare. It ha• been pcoe
posed to enter into a subscription to &flay the eau
pence of an application to rue Court of Kittg's 11-I.ch
to try the legality of hie Rues', which is very cages.
rally disputed; and legal opinions have dread's,
beet' taken on the warrant, w hich are at variarice
its propriety.
Its a few days, it is understood, that atreege:••
meets will be made for the reception of aele:..rip:.
lions, and it is not improbable that the venture...ra-
tion %hick has been Incited for the I"ml...trials's rote,
will produce to Lim a reward fully atleqopte to his
exeriona.
'laving performed so much of on Herr uleatt task,
it was natural that the poor ft'llew should hew. 4'L
cited much ie.terest, and we must confess nor ve:•ret
that if it was necessary to stop him it had not hest!
_done more eat!), as this would hare prevented soy
thing like cruelty, by depriving an individual at once
of tile fri:its of a hat was a prodigious exertion, and.
might have been a harmless one. We are now to
understand, for the first lime, that perlestriani-m is t 1•
public offeece : on looking over the ti*vg.te of
legal crimes, we cannot find any derietnerotiert
which it can come under, except that of eagronr
cy ; and we are to suppose, that the vagrancy con-
sisted in the mere act of his walkit'g along a cer.
tain road or pathway for mom's.. Now, sup•
posing this to have been an act of vagrenry, and
a nuisance, for which tire person committing it was
liable to arrest and punishment—We ask, why did
not the Magistrates put a stop to it at the moment
of its commencement ? For sixteen dais they
knew that this offence was going on; and, with the
exception of Sunday last, when, to all appearacce,
their object was solely to frame a shirt observaoce
of religious duties, they never interfered to abate the
nuisance. In fact, they permitted it to exist in its
very worst state; for, at the commencement of the
walking match, the symptoms of tumult *ere at their
greatest height, and just at the time when the ttui.
fiance lost all its pernicious qualities Ind became corn.
pletely harmless, they began to discover aome:leing
very dangerous in the walking match, and caused toe
offonder to be dragged away from the place Where he
did so much mischief !—This 'Talking match either
was a public offence, or it war not. If it was a pub.
lic °Melee, we maintain that the Magherafelt neg.
teeter! their duty in not having put a st. p to it in its
commencement ; and if it was not an offence, we
ask, under what colour of law or of justice have
they ordered a poor man to be taken up, as a public
criminal, mete'', for a alkieg backwards and forward,
upon a public mid ?
Yesterday he was. waited upon by Smith, the Ilight
Cons.a.de of the Upper Hundred of Blacklieeth, to
know " when it would be convenient for hint to wait
upon the Magistrates at the Bench ?" as they were
not wiling to pie hint to any unnecessary trouble.—
Wilson appointed next Wednesday for this inter.
view. We are at a loss to entireive, however, what
the result of the deliberations of this august body
can be—and more especially when we cell to mind,
that before even Wilson started on his match he
showed his printed.bill, which we have already pub•
fished, to the Bench of Magistrates, at the Mitre
Tavern in Greenwich, and received not alone their
special permission to walk, but t'..eir promise to pro.
test him as far as they could in his labours.
Wil,on intends in a few days to wait in person
upon all his friends within reach, to return his grate.
fel thanks for the kindnesses which he has teceived
at their halals. Ile is still under the hospitable roof
of Mr. Dyer, who has received many presents on his
account, and alio, we trust, wi:l receive many more.
In the course of Wednesday .evening, he was
weighed, and was found upon the whole to have lost
four pounds.
In viewing the extraordinary match which Wilson
had undertaken, various cpinions have been enter-
tained as to its difficulty. Some have thought that
it was not equal to that which is termed the Barclay
Match, while others have pronounced it far more
difficult. 'Wilson himself considers that the Barclay
match was far less arduous, and declares his readi-
ness to undertake it fora competent premium.
It seems that, throughout life, Wilson has been
celebrated for pedestrian excursions, fie has been
for tunny years employed by Mr. Cary, the mapseller,
in the Strand, in the measurement and delineation of
roads both in England and Scotland. In the courte
of those rregritiations his walks have been as varied,
as they have been extensile. There are few hills in
the ilighlends of Scutlrand the summits of which he
has not explored, and in the performance has en-
countered serious privations. Ili, last match hat
been the subject of his thowehts for several years
• and to it he looked for the means of relict from the
incumbiances by which the weight of a large family
-has oppressed him.

A Letter from Constantinople mentions the failure
of the house of Cott.i.awytlve-MAt.t.rlt for the sum
of one million two hundred thousand piav res.
Two chiidien having cot into a cart in Holborn
yestertlay,by their antics frighteued the horse, which
rail nir with great speed, and comli.g in contact with
a p,,.t, overturned the cart, and threw the childien on
the pavement ; one of them had its skull fractured;
the other escaped unhurt,