The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-05 00:00:00

LONDONs MONDAY EVENING, NOVEMBEit 5, 1855.

seats himself will be under the magic spell, and appear to
the audience, under circumstances least expected, in a posi-
tion as peculiar as perplexing.
Act 11. The Mystery of the Charmed Chest ; or, the
Nucleus of the Night's Wonders. To comprehend which the
audience will have the goodness to observe, in an earlier part
of the evening, the chest suspended (like Mahommed's coffin)
in mid-air, into which all things will travel, and out of which
all will produced. . .

Act. 2. The Homological Evaporation ; or, the Shortest
Route to the Antipodes. Illustrating the easiest mode of
,ridding our, elves of a troublesome friend, and the advantages
of the newly-discovered dia-terrestrial passage from the west-
ern to the eastern hemisphere.
Doors open each evening at half-past 7 ; commence at S.
Private boxes, li. lls. 6d. and 1/. Is., to be obtained at the
Box-office, or at the principal libraries; stalls, 4s. ; dress
circle, 3s. ; upper boxes, 2s. ; pit, ls. ; gallery, 6d. The
Box-office is open daily, from 11 till 5, under the direction
.)f Mr. Chatterton, jun. Grand fashionable Morning Per-
formance on Saturday November 10, at 2 o'clock. Doors open
et half past 1.

BANK OF LONDON,
Threadneedle•street, and 450, West Strand.
NOTICE.—The rate allowed on deposits has been raised from this
day to 5/. per cent,

October 18, 1855

TO LOVERS OF FISH.-100 GENUINE
YARMOUTII BLOATERS for Gs., package included.
THESE HIGHLY ESTEEMED DELICACIES AND CHEAP

QIR WM. BURNETT'S DISINFECTING
FLUID, for destroying all Offensive Smells and purifying skit
&c. Its cost is less than One Farthing per Gallon when
diluted for use.
Sold by all Chemists, and at 18, Cannon-,treet, City.
Gallons, 55. Quarts, 2s. Pints, Is. Half-pints, 6d.

A LLSOPP'S PALE ALE.—Reduction in Price.
EX —HARRINGTON, PARKER, and CO., Wine and lieer
Merchants. 54, Pall-Mall, are now receiving orders for the rctober
Brewings of the above celebrated Ale, in Casks of 18 Gaßod§ and up-
wards, at the reduced price. Also for

ALLSOPP'S PALE ALE IN BOTTLE.
Quarts, Pints, and Half-pints, Imperial measure.
5%, Pall-mall, Oct, 20, 1855.

The Third Eiition.—Just published, price 55., by post, free, ss. ticl.
N TRUE & FA LSE SPERMATORRENEA ,
with the View of distinguishing the Imaginary from the
Real Sufferers under this disease, and Correcting of wide-spread
Errors in relation to their Treatment and Cure. From 'he Germar.
of Dr. PICK FORD. With an Introduction by the Editcr, containing
a complete exposure of the system of terrorism and extortion pursued
by the advertising quacks of the metropolis towards those who are
credulous enough to seek their aid.

" fir. Pickford is known to English readers by his frequent practi-
stal ccntributions to German medical literature. This is the first
;ime, he informs us, that he has addressed himself to the non-modi-
n-.1 reader. We trust this may not be the last, if he shall toted any
)thor equally flagrant evil which it may be in his • ower to cor-
rect."—London Medical Gazette. " The tribe of Quiet Sympathisers,'
and 'Medical Friends,' are mercilessly exposed; and if this book
:oald find its way into the hands of those who stiffer from the com-
)laint of which it treats, we are satisfied that many hundreds would
oe saved much needless suffering of body and mind, and what is of
,ess importance, though it is that which the quacks most prize—
nuch money This volume is well qualified to, put an end to the
empirical system of treating Spermatorrhcea, and to place the treat-
ment upon a more rational and physiological basis. It is, therefore,
likely to do much good."
London: H. Balliere, 219, Regent-street.

PUBLICATIONS.

Now ready, at all the Librariez, In 3 v 01..,
%, fir ILLICEN T; or, The Trials of Life.
By the Author of" The Curate of Overton."

" This novel is One of the most beautifully-written and powerfully-
conceived works that has ever come under our notice. It is full of
incilent and roma, Xe intere•t. we can honestly say that we do not
think a more deli. h'ful novel has appeared for very many years, and
we most unhesitatingly recommend it to all who can appreciate a
work remarkable far its truthful del!neation of human virtues and
fail i ngs."—M.,rning Herald.

Hurst and Lilackett, Publishers, successors to Henry Colburn.

This Day is Pub:l:lied, in Bvo., with Map and Ilustrations, price
I 2s. 6d. cloth,

MI N NuyELS
uORTE
NAcE aonLdiplithiNeT,FE.Aq.,R WES T.
Late Civil Secretary and Superintendent General of Indian Affairs in
Canada ; Author of" Russian Shores of the Black Sea," &c.
Originally published in Blackwood's Magazine.
William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London.

MARRIAGE AND DIVORCE. Price h.
REMARKS upon the LAW of MARRIAGE
and DIVORCE ; suggested by the Ron. Nrs. Norton's Letter
to the Queen.

James Ridgway, Piccadilly, and all Booksellers.

THE SURVIFINq RELATIVES •OP DR.

SAMUEL JOIINSON.

In the month of May last there was presented to Lord
Palmerston, as head of her Majesty's Government, a
memorial on behalf of a certain aged Miss Lowe and her
sister, which memorial will sufficiently explain itself, and
indicate who the Misses Lowe are to those who read it
here :

" Tee undersigned
.beg respectfully to submit to Lord
Palmerston a statement of reasons which appear to them
to constitue, on behalf of the two aged surviving daugh-
ters of Mauritius Lowe, therein described, a claim to
such small yearly pension as in his lordship's judgment
may consist with other claims and demands for the en-
suing year, upon the fund appropriated to literature.
" In Dr. Samuel Johnson's last will is this passage,—
" also give and bequeath to my godchildren, the
son and daughter of Mauritius Lowe, painter, each of
them 1001. of my stock in the Three per Cent. Consoli-
dated Annuities, to be disposed of by and at the discre-
tion of my executors in the education or settlement in the
world of them my said legatees.'
"The Mauritius Lowe mentioned here, who was once
a man of great promise in his art, favourably known in
the Royal Academy and in the world as a man of refined
manners and real talent and worth (though probably
with something of morbid or over-sensitive in his charac-
ter), died 10 years alter Johnson without fulfilling the
high hopes entertained of him. The godson, or younger
Lowe, mentioned in the will, who at one time (1810-13)
appears to have held some small appointment in Bar-
badoes, creditably to himself, but with loss of health—
the crown and consummation of various other losses he
had met with—is also long since dead. Of these Lowes
and their hopes and struggles there is now nothing to be
said. They are sunk under the horizon. Nor cau they
pretend to have any hold of the world's memory except
what is derived from the father's intimacy with Johnson,
of which and of Johnson's helpfulness and real esteem
and affection for the man there ara still abundant peoofs,
printed and not printed, besides this of the will.
" But the goddaughter mentioned in the will has not
yet sunk under the horizon. She still survives among
us, a highly respectable old person, now in her 78th year,
with all her faculties about her, living with her younger
sister, aged 72, the only other remnant of the family, in
a house they have long occupied—No. 5, Minerva-place,
New-cross, Deptford with numerous memorials of
Johnson in their possession, which vividly bring home
to us, and present as a still living fact, their connection
with that great man. They have lived there for many
years in rigorous though not undignified poverty, which
now, by some unforeseen occurrences, threatens to be-
come absolute indigence in these their final years.
"They are gentlewomen in manners ; by all evidence
persons of uniformly unexceptionable conduct ; veracity,
sense, ingenious propriety, noticeable in them both, to a
superior degree. The elder, especially, must have been
a graceful lively little woman, something of a beauty in
her younger days, and by no means wanting for talent.
She still recollects in a dim but ineffaceable manner the
big, awful figure of Samuel Johnson, to whom she was
carried shortly before his death, that he might lay his
hand on her head and give her his blessing ; her awe
and terror were very great on the occasion. Both
sisters are in perfect pesse,sion of their Seen t. ; th
younger only is slightly hard of hearing ; the elder (on
whose head lay Johnson's hand) has still a light step,
perfectly erect carriage, and vivacious memory and in-
tellect. The younger, who is of very honest and some-
what sterner features, appears to be the practical intellect
of the house, and probably the practical hand. They
ara very poor, but have taken their poverty in a quiet,
unaffectedly handsome manner, and have still hope that,
in some way or other, intolerable want will not be per-
mitted to overtake them. They have an altogether
respectable, or, we might say (bringing the past and the
present into contact), a touching and venerable air.
There, in their little parlour at Deptford, is the fir desk
(capable of being rigorously authenticated as such) upon
which Samuel Johnson wrote the English Dictionary;
the best dictionary ever written, say some.
"It is in behalf of these two women, of Johnson's god-
daughter, fallen, old and indigent, that we venture to
solicit from the Government some small public subven-
tion, to screen their last years from the worst misery. It
may be urged that there is no public fund appropriated
for such precise objects, and that their case cannot, ex-
cept reflex way, be brought under the head of lite-
rary pensions :' but, in a reflex way, it surely can ; and
we humbly submit withal, that this case of theirs is, in
some measure, a peculiar and unique one.
g, Samuel Johnson i 1 such a literary man as probably
will not appear again in England for a very great length
of time. His works and his life looked at well have
something in them heroic, which is of value beyond most
literature, and much t eyond all money and money 'b
worth to the nation which produced him. That same
English Dictionary, written on the poor fir desk above
spoken of, under sternly memorable circumstances, is
itself a proud possession to the English nation, and not
in the philological point of view alone. Such a dictionary
has an architectonic quality in it ; and for massive
li
solidity of plan, manful correctness and fidelity of execu
tion, luminous intelligence, rugged honesty and great-
ness of mind pervading every part of it, is like no other.
This, too, is a Cathedral of St. Paul's, after its sort ; and
stands there for long periods, silently reminding every
English soul of much that is very necessary to remember.
" Samuel Johnson himself is far beyond the reach of
our gratitude. He left no child or representative of any
kind to claim pensions or distinctions from us ; and
here, by accident, thrown upon the waste seabeach,
something venerably human with Johnson's mark still
legible upon it ; Johnson, as it were, mutely bequeath-
ing it to us, and what humanity and loyalty we have,
for the few years that may still be left. Our humble re-
quest, in the name of literature withal is, that the Eng-
lish nation will, in some small adequate way, respond to
this demand of Johnson's.

" Henry Hallam, Wilton-crescent.
" James Stephen, Trinity-hall, Cambridge.
" S. Oxon, Cuddesdon Palace.
'`Thomas Carlyle, 5, Cheyne-row, Chelsea.
" Alexander Dyce, 9, Gray's-inn-square.
"B. W. Proctor, 32, Weymouth-street, Portland
place.
" C. L. Eastlake, 7, Fitzroy-square.
"John Forster, 58, Lincoln's-inn-fields.
" T. B. Macaulay, Albany.
" W. M. Tbackeray, 36, Onslow-square.
"Alfred Tennyson, Freshwater, Isle of Wight.
"A. W. Fonblanque, Board oTrade.
" Charles Dickens, Tavistock-house.
" E. Bulwer Lytton, 1, Park-lane.
"G. R. Gleig, Warwich-square.
" Richard Owen, Royal College of Surgeons.
" Rod. E. Murchison, Belgrave-square.
" B. Diseaeli, Grosvenor-gate.
"H. H. Milman, Deanery, St. Paul's."
To this memorial his Lordship made answer, with
great courtesy and without undue delay, that the fund
set apart for encouragement of literature could not be
meddled with for a pension to the goddaughter of John-
son ; but that, in consideration of the circumstances, his
Lordship, from some other fund, had made her a dona-
tion of 1001. Which sum of 1001. was accordingly paid
to Miss Lowe in June last—a very welcome gift and
help—all that the Prime Minister could do in this mat-
ter, and, unfortunately, only about the fifth part of what
it was, and is, indispensable to get done.
It was still hoped that the last resource of an appeal
to the public might be avoided ; that there might be
other Government helps, minute charitable funds, ade-
quate to this small emergency. And new endeavours
were accordingly made in that direction, and new expec-
tations entertained ; but these likewise have all proved
ineffectual ; and the resulting fact now is, that there is
still needed something like an annuity of 301. for the
joint lives of these two aged persons; that, strictly com-
puting what, pittances certain and precarious they already
have, and what they still want, their case cannot be sa-
tisfactoi ily left on lower terms—that is to say, about 4001.
to purchase such an annuity, is still needed for them.
If the thing is half as English as we suppose it to be,
a small pecuniary result of that kind is not doubtful,
now when the application is once made. At all events,
as the English Government is not able to do this thing,
we are now bound to apprise the English nation of it,
and to ask the English nation in its miscellaneous capa-
city—Are you willing to do it ?
Messrs. Coutts, bankers, will receive subscriptiOns
from such as feel that this is a valid call upon English
beneficence ; and we have too much reverence for Samuel
Johnson, and for the present generation of his country-
men, to use any soliciting or ignoble pressure on the oc-
casion. So soon as the requisite amount has come in,
the subscriptions will cease, of which due notice will be
given.

THOMAS CARLYLE.
CHARLES DICKENS.
AtheriMUM Club, Oct. 31. JOHN FOlitiTER.

MR. COBDEN ON THE ARMY AND TTIE

WAR.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE LEEDS MERCURY.
My dear Sir,—l beg to invite your attention and that
of the public to some considerations of grave moment
relative to the state of our army, as-connected with the
policy of the present war.
The people of England can never have been aware of
the state in which oar army has been left, from the first
moment of its landing in the Crimea, owing to the insuf-
ficient number and defective quality of its reinforce-
ments. Had the people been, as they ought to have
been, frankly and honestly dealt by in this respect, they
would in their own persons—if the war has been as
popular as has been alleged—have long ago supplied
the deficiency. lam bound also to assume that that
large portion of the newspaper press of this country
which has advocated the landing of our forces in
Russia must have been equally uninformed of this vital
defalcation ; otherwise, whilst vaunting of the unani-
mous support which the people were tendering to the
Government, it would not have concealed from them the
greatest and most urgent of all wants—men—and thus
have prepared for us the ignominious dilemma to which
boastfuLprofessions and abortive performances have, I
fear, consigned us. For the Government alone no plea
of ignorance can be put forth : they have known all, and
the fact of their holding office invests them with entire
and exclusive responsibility. .
What are the facts, so far as we have been allowed to
glean them, up to the close of the inquiry before Mr.
Roebuck's Committee? . The following statistics I have
derived from the valuable appendix to their report :
It appears that the number of British troops, officers,
and men of all arms who landed in the Crimea before
the battle of the Alma was 26,800. At that engage-
ment the English outnumbered their French allies. On
the death of Marshal St. Arnaud, and after the flank
movement upon Balaklava,, Lord Raglan became the
senior commander, and, in apportioning the ground for
siege operations, took upon himself the same extent of
work as was assigned to General Canrobert's army.
From this moment, according to the evidence of the
highest military authorities before the committee, our
army began to sink under the effects of overwork. Then
came the battle of Inkerman (brought upon us by our
exposed situation, owing to the smallness of the force ,
in proportion to our extended lines), which was followed
by the still more deadly trench work, exposure, andFri-
nations of the winter ; and the following is the horrible
result of the monthly report of the sick and wounded of
all arms in Lord Raglan's army :-
1854, October, 11,988 sick and wounded.
„ November, 16,846 if
„ December, 19,479
1855, January, 23,076
(January is the last month for which we have a complete
return.)
Notwithstanding the reinforcements which had arrived
from home, and from our garrisons and colonies abroad,
our army was reduced at one time to less than twelve
thousand effective bayonets.
That much of the sickness, and its attendant morta-
lity, arose from the insufficient number of men sent to
reinforce our army, is conclusively proved in the evi-
dence before the Sebastopol Committee. General Evans
and the Duke of Cambridge speak most emphatically to
this effect. According to the evidence of the latter "it
does not admit of a doubt" that if 8,000 or 10,000 men
had been sent in the course of a few weeks, instead of
the " driblets" which arrived, a great portion of the
sickness arising from overwork might have been pre-
vented. And the Duke of Newcastle, whilst confessing
his inabilty to find men, stated that ". the overwork
arose from the extent of the lines which had been origi-
nally undertaken by the English army being too great
for the reduced numbers." Now it was only from the
ranks of the people at home that the vast chasms created
by death and disease in our army could be filled up ; and
I wish to call your particular attention at the rate at
which, at this very time, enlistment was going on. The
following is the number of recruits finally approved for
cavalry, infantry, and artillery.

Total In each month.
1854, October 2,091
„ November 5,374
„ December
6,000
1855, January
„ February 4,073
~ March
(These are our latest official returns.)

It will be seen by a comparison, that whilst our sick
and wounded, exclusive of killed, averaged-for the fcur
months, October, November, December, and January,
nearly 18,000 a month, the recruiting was going on at
the rate of only 5,100 a month. It was admitted by
Lord John Russell in the house, last December, that
the recruits fell short by 20,000 of the number voted by
Parliament. And in the session of the present year an
independent member of Parliament asserted, in the
presence of Ministers, without contradiction, that the
deficiency amounted to 40,000. And during all this
time, when our army was wasting a say from want of
that succour which the Government could not send,
"owing "—to quote the evide6ce of the Duke of New-
castle—" to the unwillingness of men to enlist to the ex-
tent to which the House of Commons had increased the
English army"—during all this time (I say it only as a
warning for the future)—our war journals and orators
were assuring us that the people were far more eager for
the war than the Government or Parliament.
I have said that the reinforcements sent to the Crimea
were defective in quality, as well as insufficient in num-
ber—and upon this subject the testimony of the Coln-
wander-in-Chief before the Sebastopol Committee, which
I shall give without any comments of my own, is quite
conclusive. Lord Hardinge says :
" We made our men pretty perfect in drill in the
course of sixty days, and when we had to send them out
instead of being composed of bone and muscle, they were
almost gristle ;in fact, they were too young." . •
" But when we came to send in ()ether, November,
and December, to pass the winter in the Crimea, our
raw recruits—and we had no others—it was impossible
to expect that they could stand the inclemency of the
climate, and the hard work in the trenches, in the same
manner as a similar number of soldiers would have done
in 1808."
• • • •
.
Tcahney h
are ave
"Give us a good stout man, and let us have him for
60 days to train him, and he will be as good a soldier as
you
thoughtless boy; who come in, and not men
of 25 ; they are generally boys of 18 to 20 ; the num-
bers of that age are very large, in proportion to those
who are past 21 and 22." . . • • • '
"The thoughtless boy enlists ;" the grown-up man of
25 will not, or seldom."
I could give extracts from the evidence of Sir De Lacy
Evans, the Duke of Cambridge, and other officers from
the Crimea, confirmatory of Lord Hardinge's statement.
And once for all let it be observed that their testimony
disposes of the plea for a larger standing army during
forty years of peace. " Give us," says the Commander-
in-Chief, " a good stout man, and let us have him for 60
days to train him, and he will be as good a soldier as you
can have." But it is the bone and muscle of men, and
not the " gristle" of boys, that he wanted for this pur-
pose. In the same spirit was the reply of General
Evans, who, when asked by a member of the commit-
tee to explain the word " inefficient," which he applied
to the reinforcements sent to him in the Crimea, and
whether he meant that they were " untrained," answered
—" nearly untrained, but that did not signify ; they
were too young." These boy-recruits, on their arrival
in the winter season in the Crimea, served scarcely any
other purpose than to encumber the hospitals. They
added so little to the strength of our army that at length,
after enduring unparalleled hardships and sufferings, in
the vain attempt to maintain an equality with our allies,
we surrendered to them a part of our ground (that part
which has been the site of the final triumph), and from
that time to the present our force has been gradually as-
suming the character of a contingent to the French army.
The evidence befa,:e the Sebastopol committee brings
us down to May only ; but unfortunately we are not
without ocular proofs that the quality of our recruits
has not since changed for the better. Anyoae who walks
the streets of the metropolis, and casts an eye at the
sentries standing guard at our public buildings, or glances
at a batch of recruits at drill, or who observes the group
of youths with which the recruiting sergeant is busy in
our villages, will need no further evidence that it is still
the " gristle," and not the bone and muscle of the coun-
try, which is passing into the ranks of our army. And
unhappily recent events in the Crimea have startled
us into a conviction of the dangers of (to borrow from
the brilliant pen of the Times' correspondent) "trust-
ing the honour, reputation, and glory of Great
Britain to undisciplined lads from the plough
or the lanes of our towns and villages." For it
is well known, and ought, in justice to the offi-
cers, to be publicly acknowledged, that is the late un-
successful attack on the Redan the men became massed
n inextricable confusion, not from any lack of individual

courage, but owing to an absence of the coolness, nerve,
and self-possession which age, and age alone, can give.
And how is it, I would respectfully inquire, that the
purport of what I have narrated should be better known
and appreciated everywhere than in England ; and that
whilst, to quote the words of the Times—the truth of
which I can coo,m from recent personal experience, on
a restricted field of observation--" in every add and
promenade in II atope the,ponversation has been of the
sorry figure which England has made in the present war,"
not one word of warning has been addressed to the
country, or a single appeal made to the people, for a
supply of efficient men to fill the vacant ranks of the
army, which the people, and the people alone, could fill ?
How is it, on the contrary, that whilst the most unmea-
sured censures have been heaped on the Parliament, Go-
vernment, aristocracy, and military commanders, our
press, platform, and even pulpits, have, during all this
time, teemed with more fulsome laudation of the people
of England than was ever before lavished on a commu-
nity in the same space of time ? I will not be tempted
at present to pursue this inquiry ; it would lead me aside
from the practical question to which I beg to invite your
attention, and that of other leading advocates of the
continuance of tne war.
owwhiiesh I proposeditamtoid is
tothreais
raise men"battle o (nnt
f E
civili-
sation and liberty against a despotism which aims at
nothing less than universal empire r If this and kindred
phrases which have rung in our ears for the last two
years mean anything but sound and fury, Englishmen
European
an to fight
thatn