TIIF: NATIONAL REGISTER. thew latter saluting the fort and having their salute returned. --The most beautiful part, however, of this spectacle was the last scene, which represented the setting sun in a view of the port of Maiseilles ; the luminary slowly descends to wards the horiz .n, at length teaches it, sinks behind it, and lc succeeded by-a soft twilight, which gradually deepens till it ends in perfect night, leaving the spectator of sensibility to fed, for a tew instants, all the calm and meditative emo tions which the reality of the scene, contemplated in a picturesque country ) has so often, perhaps, inspired hint with before. LAW INTELLIGENCE. plo. my N. COURT OF KING'S BENCH, THURSDAY, Nov. 17. REX V. STEPHEN 11A - 1N...S AND IA M. PACEV. The Attorney-General prayed the judgment of the Court upon the defendants ; the first of whom had been found guilty at the last Stafford Assizes, before Mr. .1. Dallas ; and tire second had suffered judgment by default, to prosecutions glum the statute again s t o bt a i n ., ing money under false pretences. The defend2nts were both excise officers, and had overcharged i persons. mho were kubject to duties more than they had actually - paid to the collectors. Mr. Puller addressed the Court on behalf of the first, and Mr. Scsrlett on behalf of the second. The Court sentenced them to seven years' transportation. ORIGIN AND ANTII,q7ITY OF CARDS. Cards were always made of paper: and seem to have been invented about the year of 1:390, to• divert Charles VI. of France, who bad tulle a into a mel.echoly diqmsition. One Jaluentin Gringonrrtor, a painter in Paris, appears to have been the inveteur, from the following [wide in the Trtrasurio's ac c:ittnts :—" Paid h 6 f Paris to Jaquemin Gringonneur, the painter, for three packs of cards, gilded with gold, and painted with divers colours and divers devices, to be carried to the King, for his amusement, ice.."—A great price in those times ; but their carving and gilding required much art. file tom suits were made to represent the four classes of men in the kin . edont. Tine hearts denoted the ecclesiastics. The nobility, or prime military' part oT the kingdom, were represented Ly points of lances, or the Spades. Diamonds designed the order of merchants or tradesmen ; and the trefoil leaf, or Clubs, nlleded to the hushandawn and peasants. The four King. represented David, Alexander, Ctesar, end Chinks, which names were son.the French cards formerly ; they exhibit the four celebrated monarchies of the Jews, Greeks, Romans. and Franks. By the Queens are represented Archie (anagram for Regian) Esther, Judith o send Pallas—typical of birth, piety, fortitude, and wisdom. Iy the Knaves were designed the servants to knights, or the kniAts themselveS. The first certain notice of their havi . e been known in England oc curs in a record in the tin e of Edward IV. on an apillkation of the card makers to Parliament, in the year 1643, when an act was made against The importation of plainpeards, :id Edw. IV. c. 4. Prom this statute it appears, that card•plin ing and card-making were known and practised in England before this period, or about. S 0 years after the era of their, sußposed invention. Mr. Gough observes; the use of cards among the Chinese is evident, not .only from teChinesepnintine refire. , enting their playing - with sonic thinK much. like cards,, bat al.o from a pack of Chinese cards in'his poases , ion, made. of the 'seine materials as the Etiropean, but the dUvices ere very different. Tfe mchod of making playing cards seems to hove given the first Lint to the invention of printing, as appears from the first specimens of printing ut Ilaerfem, and those in the Bodleian Library. • • Lord \Valsingham retires from the office of Chairman of the Committees of the House of Lords, with a pension of 20001. per annum for life, and a reversion of Wool. a year to his daughters. The Rill introduced by Mr. Craker for the encouragement and reward of petty officers, seamen, and marines, for long and faithful services, enables the Commissioners and Go nors of Greenwich Hospital, out of their present or future 'fluids, to grant pensions, remunerations, or allowances to petty officers, seamen, and marines, for length of service or good conduct, on the same principle as pensions arc granted to the wounded and disabled, but subject to the regulations of Orders in Council. The body politic and corporate of the chest at Greenwich is to he extinguished, and its powers trarv , ferred to the Hospital Commissioners, and all funds of the said chest are to belong hereafter to' the said Commis sioners, in aid of the objects of the Act. The Cotnmissi goners are enabled to make compensations to such persons as lose their employments by this change. A paymaster and arrountant is to be appointed, whose letters and packets arc (to be free of pustage. TIIE KING V. ALEXANDER Mr, Guerney prayed the judgment of the - •C"iwt upon this defendant, who had been convicted of the conspiracy with De lierenger. Mr. Alley addressed the Court on. his behalf, Mr. Gnerncy supported the prosecution. The Court in consideration of his not having had any money in the funds by which he meant to benefit by the fraud, and of his having made no defence, sentenced him only to the same pugisliment as the other minor actors in the conspiracy, viz. twelve months imprisonment in the Marshabra. George Houston, the author of a blasphemous pamphlet, entitled Ecce was sentenced in the Court of King's Bench, on Mon day, to be imprisoned two years in Newg►atc, and to pay a fine of two hundred pounds. This is the person given up am the author of the infamous pamphlet in question, by the late Daniel Isaac Eaton, who was convicted as its publisher- COURT OF KING'S BENCH, SATURDAY, Nov. 19. THE KING V. THE INHABITANTS OF LYMINGTON. This was a question arising out of an order of sessions, whether Hans Peters, a soldier, had gained a settlement under the following circumstances:—Peters, it appeared, was a private in the invalid battalion. -In iNa l a regulation was introduced, by which men be longing le-the were allowed to enter into husbandry service on givihettp-theirPortion of pay for a time. Under this regulation Peters went Ito work for a person named BoWles, at Lymington ; here. be contimied tor two or three months, and, in September of that year,•propesechao hire himself for a year. An application was made by Mr. Bowles to Peters' Commanding Officer, who con sented that - the man should so hire himself. On 0 .15th of Sep. tember, 1810, a furlough was granted to Peters for three months, and was, front time to time, renewed till January, 1310, he - having in the mean time served a year to Mrs. Bowles; and the question now was, whether this was a lawful hiring, and such as gave the pauper a settlement in Lytrington. Mr. Selwyn now conteneed that it did not, since, if MS igerVir* had been required by the country, his hiring to Mrs. Bowles would ' not have Len bindiez. contended that the case of a soldier could not be weaker than that of an apprentice, who being bound to his master, as the soldier was to the King, could hire himself law- Full , so as to gain a settlement, whilst that obligation con. tinned. Mr. Searlett, on the other side, contended, that the pauper having been hired by Mrs. Bowles, with a know ledr of the liability which existed allaying the contract interrupted. Nett, the scniee having been compleated, the hiring was a lawful one, and the pauper had • ga:ntd &settlement under it. The Court delivered its opinion against the hiring and settlement, and laid it down in distinct terms, that no c. n eat on the part of the ComManding Officer could enable a soldier to make such an hiring • as would gain him a settlement. The COMMERCIAL HALL WINE COMPANY respectfully invite their numerous Customers, the Nobility, Gentry, and Buyers of Wincs and Spirits in general, to their Concerns in SKINNER STREET and OXFORD STREET. - In Skinner Street they will have the Opportunity of viewing and tasting the LARGEST STOCK of the FINEST WINES in the King limn; in Oxford Street, Samples only are kept. For Patti eulars of. the Compangs Aricles and Prices, see the Adver ti..emeut, last Pale. NOV. 21. l