"SIR,--Having already borne my testimony to the occurrences of the night of the 15th ult. in the Parsonage at Syderstone, and finding that _ventriloquism and other devices_ are now resorted to as the probable causes of them (and that, too, under the sanction of certain statements put forth in your last week's paper), I feel myself called on to state publicly that, although a diligent observer of the different events which then took place, I witnessed no one circumstance which could induce _me_ to indulge a conjecture that the _knocks_, _vibrations_, _scratchings_, _groanings_ etc., which I heard, proceeded from any member of Mr. Stewart's family, through the medium of mechanical or other trickery:--indeed, it would seem to me utterly impossible that the scratchings which fell under my observation during the night, in a remote room of the house, could be so produced, as, at that time, every member of Mr. Stewart's family was removed a considerable distance from the spot. "While making this declaration, I beg to state that my only object in bearing any part in this mysterious affair has been to investigate and to elicit the _truth_. I have ever desired to approach it without _prejudging_ it--that is, with a mind willing to be influenced by _facts_ alone,--without any inclination to establish either the intervention of _human_ agency on the one hand, or of _super-human_ agency on the other hand:--at the same time, it is but common honesty to state that Mr. Stewart expresses himself so fully conscious of his own integrity towards the public that he has resolved on suffering all the imputations and reflections which _have_ been or which may be cast either upon himself or upon his family to pass without remark; and as he has, at different times and upon different occasions, so fully satisfied his own mind on the _impossibility_ of the disturbances in question arising from the agency of any member of his own household (and from the incessant research he has made on this point, he himself must be the best judge), Mr. Stewart intends declining all future interruptions of his family, by the interference of strangers. "Perhaps, Mr. Editor, your distant readers may not be aware that Mr. Stewart has not been resident at Syderstone more than fourteen months, while mysterious noises are _now_ proved to have been heard in this house, at different intervals and in different degrees of violence, for the last thirty years and upwards. Most conclusive and satisfactory affidavits on this point are now in progress, of the completion of which you shall have notice in due time.--I am, Sir, your obedient servant, "JOHN SPURGIN. "DOCKING, _June 7, 1833_." (_Norfolk Chronicle_, June 15, 1833.) * * * * * These Declarations were inserted in the _Norfolk Chronicle_, June 22, 1833:-- "SYDERSTONE PARSONAGE