The Sun.
London, England, 1855-11-28 00:00:00

The 937 letters. on the subject of spirit-rapping, which Pro-
fessor Anderson has received, from the time of opening the
heatre up to the present date, bear witness to the great in-
terest taken on the subject of this singular delusion ; whilst
many of them bear melancholy evidence to the dangers which
sttend a belief in the superstitious nonsense of the " Spiri-
ualists." Judging slmply by the correspondence which has
resulted, Professor 1110 erson's expose of spirit-rapping and
his illustration of the so-called table phenomena, have pro-
duced a sensation unequalled by any previous attempt to ex-
pose a mischievous and impudent juggle. It is impossible
for Professor Anderson to reply at length to a tithe of the
communications which reach him on the subject. Ho regrets
that many of these should come from ladies and gentlemen
who, from their position in society and their well-known in-
tellectual attainments, he would least have expected to have
hen converts to a belief so preposterous in itself, and so
easily susceptible of being controverted and disproved. Every
evening, from the Lyceum stage, Mr. Anderson's opinions ea
spirit-rapping are expressed, and every evening, within th,
Lyceum, how tables can be made to rap is exhibited
ind elucidated. It is respectfully requested that this
public exposition will be accepted generally as Professor
Anderson's only mode of replying at full length to his
multitudinous correspondents. He regrets that the
names of the great and learned of the land should
have been made to figure in the documents emanating
from the spirit-rappers, as for instance the following, ex-
tracted from the Morning Advertise?. of Thursday, Septem-
ber 20, and taken by that journal from the New York Spiri-
'sal Telegraph. It purports to emanate from an American
spirit-rapper, Mr. D. D. Hume :—" Sir David Brewster
frankly confesses that he is sorely puzzled' at what ho has
witnessed, and Lord Brougham acknowledges himself to be
thoroughly nonplussed. Both of these noted men brought
he whole force of their keen discernment to bear upon the
-olution of the phenomena ; but the presence of substantial,
actual hands, and the demonstrative strength of the spirits
who thus clothed themselves for the time, and moved mate-
rial objects about the room, proved to be too much of a ques-
• ion for them to master." Mr. D. D. Hume the author of the
above, has recently left England, and the following account of
who, and what he is, occurs in the Family Herald, No. 648:
—" This young man, who is a Seotehman by birth, and now
in Italy, is a remarkable medium for all the manifestations
without apparatus. Barnum, who is well-known throughout
the Anglo-Saxon world as a splendid humbug, offeredliim 2,000
dollars per annum if ho would perform at his museum iu New
York. Barnum then took it for granted that mediums could
be bought. He was somewhat astonished when his offer was
refused. Hume, on telling the fact in London lately, simply
aid honestly remarked, that the money would have been very
acceptable to him, for he was poor, young (under 20), an or-
phan, and in very had health : but he would have been afraid
of losing his power as a medium, and he would sooner lose
his life. The refusal, however, made Barnum thoughtful.
Ho inquired into the subject; and now Barnum, one of the
greatest humbugs in the world, and withal a conjuror, is
one of the firmest believers in spiritualism." It is cer-
tainly surprising to find such a paragraph as this in the
editorial article of an established journal, the editor of whom
might be supposed to be sane. Even if Barnum does believe
in spirit-rapping--does spirit-rapping gain or lose by
this accession to its adherents ? and, with Barnum's endorse-
ment to it, is this bill, drawn on public credulity, more likely
to be negotiated ? Professor Anderson would believe not ;
hut, when he finds that educated clergymen of the Church of
England have the temerity to subscribe their names to so gross
a swindle, when he finds that the Incumbent of Wortley (the
Rev. N. J. Godfrey) positively asserts his belief in it, and
writes a book on the subject, he considers it to be time for
him to state that which he knows of the mechanism by which
it is effected, and the mischief to which it tends. In the
Morning Advertiser of October 3 appears a letter from Sir
David Brewster, relative to that which he saw at Cox's Hotel
in company with Lord Brougham. Ho distinctly states that
which the Wizard of the North proclaims every night—that
spirit-rapping is nothing more than conjuring applied to bad
purposes. In the Morning Advertiser of the following day,
ts phretsheentspwirilitean,
inhewhai
however, there is an answer to Sir David's letter from one
nd e
thee Lord
dw r
ißt
er
ro usgahyaam, t
hhaatd thei"ther
radl.arge dinner-table, I believe) moved about in the most
wmaasrYconinvaenyneedr'hayndan, aimnvoinsighloother things, a large ac-
cordion
d
then to Lord Brougham's, in which, agencyheld
by
tto mys
y hand
lordship'sa n
right hand, apart from any person, it played an air through-
out. With such a statement, printed for the edification° of
e
the people of the 19th century, with the facts before us that
tsewélhabt
seance
weo( aw
the most talented men of the day are permitting' themselves
to be deluded by these juggling spirit-mongers—that
greatest novelist of the age is now engaged in makin it the
subject of a new work, and that a " spiritual convention"g
has actually been advertised to be hold in St. Martin's-hall,
Professor Anderson trusts that his exposures of the spiritual.
ists of America, as given by him nightly at the Lyceum, will
be received by the people of England as genuine honest at-
tempts to provide an antidote for the bane of the spiritual
jugglers.
In the course of the last five weeks 100,017 persons have
Lyceum Theatre,—a larger number, it is believed,
than hatshee verbefore been assembled within its walls in so
visitedshort
a
period. Magic and Mystery is repeated every oven.
ing, the programme being continually changed. Grand
fashionable Day Performance,l on Saturday, December 1, at
2 o'clock ; the programme being.thus arranged
Capabilities of the Atmosphere : in which the Wizard will do
;
Part 1. —Act I. The 11,resmeric Couch •. or, the Clinical
ism, and illustrate the possibility of sleeping unsupported iu
by magic that which some suppose to be effected by mesmer-
the air.
Act 2. The Aqua-Avial Paradox ; exemplifying the power
of producing animated nature frog lire SJI water oulyi and