The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-24 00:00:00

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR,—My recent perusal in The Sun of the account of
the execution of the five pirates at Newgate—a sight which,
1 suppose, has not been witnessed since the memorable
execution of Thistlewood and the Cato-street conspirators
in the year 1820, when I believe six men were hanged at
Newgate—has reminded me of my description of a London
execution—when only one man was hanged—in the year
1856, and which I described in my recent book, "Curiosi-
ties of Occult Literature," reviewed in The Sun Bth Sep-
tember last, In that book I alluded to that interesting
work, " Boswell's Life of Johnson," where the great moralist
regretted the recent removal of executions from Tyburn
Gate to the Old Bailey. It is singular that the plan of
hanging at the Old Bailey should have survived even the
removal of Smithfield Market

On the 231 June, 1781-80 years since, less four months
--Boswell saw fifteen men hanged in that same place—
part of a batch of 21 persons sentenced to death. " They
came upon the scaffold a little before seven o'clock ; the
platform dropped about a quarter before eight, and at the
same moment they were all launched into eternity. The
windows and roofs of the houses were crowded, and many
thousands of people were assembled in the Old Bailey."
Then, as on Monday, the 22d that,. although the ribaldry,
coarse language, and general character of King Mob of
1781 and of 1861 may be identical, it is at least satisfactory
to know that the prison discipline of Newgate has been
improved, and that such a rare popular spectacle in all
human probability will never again occur in London.—
Yours, obediently.
THE ..kuinoit or " OURT43ITIES or OCCULT
LITER4TVI3,I4."
23d February, 1861.

" SOIIN IN A MESS I ''—Surely nothing can well be
funnier, or more aptly to the pUrpose,than Tenniel's
cartoon in the new number of Punch, published
this afternoon :—" Mrs. Britannia—Put down that
Pen directly, you troublesome boy. A nice mess
yon have got yourself into!" It is a comic sketch
coming so exactly " pat " to the ocoasion—with a very
aplomb of truthfulness, amounting to pictorial wit
—that it forms a worthy companion cartoon to
that famous ono years and years ego in Punch,
representing Mrs. Peel wringing her hands at the
plight of Master James Graham (after the latter had
been rolling in the mud and making dirt pit:B) with
a—" Drat that boy, he's always in a mess!"

NATIONAL GRANTS FOR STATUARY.—The Nelson I
Column has, sines 1858, been honoured with an
aggregate of grants amounting to £26,800. In 1851,
the statue of Charles 1., at Charing Cross, cost
£I,000; in the same year, £2,500 was granted for
royal monuments in Westminster Abbey. In 1842,
an equestrian statue of George IV. is entered for
£6,301 ; and we find the pedestal of Baran Marochetti's
Richard Ccour-de-Lion cost £1,650. In the three years
1843-4.5, a total of £1,500 was paid for monuments to Lords
Exmouth and Do Saumaurcz, and Sir Sidney Smith. This
grant is humorously placed under the head of ' Educa-
tion, Science, and Art.' In 1858, £20,000 was voted
for a statue of the Duke of Wellington; the Havelock
statue at Woolwich is charged at £3,152; and on the now
lonely shore of Scutari a noble monument has been placed,
which is said to have cost £17,500. Far Sir John Franklin
a statue has been raised, which in 1855 cost the modest sum
of £BOO, and again in 1863 a similar amount,--t: ombers's
Journal, New and Improved Series.
THE PROCESS OF Benin' once begun, an in-
definite multiplication of sects follows, until we
arrive at the ultimate result in the following list of deno-
minations taken from the American census :—" Democratic
Gospel, Ebenezer Socialists, Now-lights, Tunkers, Supera-
lists, Cosmopolites, Free Enquirers, Children of Peace,
Inspired Church, Pathonites, Believers in God, Perfection-
ists, Spiritualists, Universalists, Puritans, Hopkinsonians,
Moderate Calvinists, Strict Calvinists, Destructionists,
Restorationists, Denials of Original Sin (? Pelagiane), Pre-
existents, Sand-killers, Soul-sleepers, Come-outers,
Lutherans, Churchmen, Congregationalists, Hardshells,
Roman Catholics, Rationalists, Methodists, Christiana
(denying the Trinity), Quakers, Unitarians, Moravians,
German Reformed, Dutch Reformed, S wedenbor-
gians, Socinians, Shakers, Independents, Methodists,Epie-
copalians, North Episcopalians, South Episcopalians,
Seventh-day Baptists, Campbellite Baptists, Freewill
Baptists, Ironside Baptists, Six-principle Baptists, North
Presbyterians (Anti-Slavery), South Presbyterians (Pro-
Slavery), Old School Presbyterians, New School Presby-
terians, Cumberland Presbyterians, Associate Presby-
terians, Reformed Presbyterians, Associate Reformed
Presbyterians."
LITERARY NEWS,—The following new books arc
announced by Mr. Bentley:--'rho third and fourth
volumes of the " Dean of Chichester's Lives of the Arch-
bishops of Canterbury," bring the history down to the'Re-
formation. " Memoirs of a Minister of State," by M.
Gaizot, from the year 1840. A third edition of the Rev.
T. Bontell's " Heraldry : Historical and Popular," with 850
illustrations, of which work two large editions were absorbed
in one year. " Viscountess Strangford's Eastern Shores of
the Adriatic," with chromo-lithograph illustrations and
'photographs. " Legends of Iceland," translated by George
E. J. Poweli and Eniker Magnusson, profusely illustrated
by Zwecker, &c. "In Spain : a Narrative by Hans Chris-
tian Andersen, the Danish Poet, of his Wanderings in the
Peninsula, in 1863," in one volume. " A Century of Anec-
dotes, from 1750 to 1850," by John Ticabs ; and "St.
Petersburg and Warsaw : stirring scenes witnessed during
a residence in Russia and Poland, during 1863-64," in one
volume, with portraits of Mouravieff and the Grand
Duchess Constantine and her family. Of new novels,
among the most popular of the season are—" Bella Donna,"
" Wylder's Hand," by the author of " The House by the
Churchyard ; " Meadowleigh," by the author of " The
Ladies of Bever Hollow;" " The Shadow of Ashlydyat,"
by the author of " East Lynne;" and " Old Court," by
the author of " Whitefriars."
SITE OF ST. THOMAS'S HOSPITAL.—The question
between the Corporation of London and the Governors of
St. Thomas's Hospital is now directly raised by the filing,
yesterday, of a bill in Chancery by the Governors against
the Corporation of London, join'ly with Mr. Scott, the
Chamberlain. to restrain the corporation from using a cer-
tain retainer to the City Solicitor, sealed by the corporation,
and from affixing the hospital seal to any instruments with-
out the previous consent of the governors. This proceed-
ing, involves the whole question of the power of the
Corpo-
ration to interfere in their corporate capacity in the matter
of the future site of this invaluable charity. Tho sealing
or, the retainer without the intervention of the donation
governors is raid to have been done at the suggestion of the
Attorney-General.
A NEW AND COMPLETE,EDITION OF THE WORKS
or THE roaTE Sus B. C. Bnonrr. will shortly be pub-
lished by the Messrs, Longman. It will be edited by Dr
Charles llawkins.