The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-07 00:00:00

Tantalising Re:

. E, L.'s Death,

" No one lands at Cape Coast Castle without pfigrirnag-
ing to the last resting-place of the poetess L. E, L.,' and,
of course, without inquiring into her sad, eventful history'
which has, however, nothing of romance. For 'L. E. L.'
is known where Miss Landon is not, and her fate has been
the subject of curiosity to many that have never read the
' Improvisatrice,' or Romance and Reality.' The graves
of Mrs. Maclean and her deeply-injured husband are on the
large triangular drill ground of the Castle. It is a local
practice to bury dead in dwelling-houses, and the custom
is not confined to pagans—the floor of the surgery, the kit-
chen, and the medical store-rooms of the colonial hospital
have all been used for interment. The tramping of soldiery
upon the pavement had well-nigh defaced all traces of the
tombs, when the pious hand of Grosvenor O'Connor re-
stored them.

"The true history of Mrs. Maclean's death is known to
many, but who in writing the lite of ' L. E. L.' would dare
to tell it ? Owning that de mortuis nil nisi verum should
be our motto, how would it be possible to publish facts
whilst actors in the tragedy are still upon the stage of
lite ? And alter their death it will be forgotten. The
author of a certain report on the Gold Coast during his
short and feverish residence as Commissioner, a guest of
President Maclean, succeeded in casting upon his host's
public efficiency a serious slur, which was alterwirris satis-
factorily removed by a select committee of the House of
Commons. On the other hand, the author of Eighteen
Years on the Gold Coast,' showed himself an injudicious
friend, far worse than any foe, by asserti❑g that after a
certain eselandre, the household was very successful. But
enough of these private matters. Mr. Forster, M.P. for
Berwick, the warmest of President Maclean's well-wishers,
openly asserted that the flood of calumny poured upon him
arose from the enmity of an individual in the Colonial-office
who was pettily jealous because affairs at the Gold Coast,
with a miserable pittance of LlOOO, were managed more effec-
tually than at the pet S'a Leone, where economy has never
been the order of the day. Hence the President of the Coun-
cil of Government, than whom a better servant of Govern-
ment was never known on this coast, was charged with
having encouraged slavery under the local name 'pawning'
—a fatal accusation in those days,—and with neglecting
official duty for private correspondence.
"Standing by graves we heard the story of Mrs. Mac-
lean's death, and nothing could be less probable than the
popular version. A homeward-bound vessel was preparing
to sail. At 7 a.m. she left her husband's room, and pro-
ceeded to write letters before dressing in the little room
opposite, once used as an observatory. A Mrs. Bailey, her
servant, had been sent to the store- room to fetch some
article ; she returned after a few minutes, and found against
the door a weight, which proved to be the corpse of her
mistress. The servant distinctly asserted what has been
since denied, that a phial was still in the dead woman's
hand, and that tke phial contained a preparation of prussic
acid. But here comes the rub. The authoress's spirits
had been weakened, she had ceased to play at ball, and she
was suffering from a heart disease which produced fits or
spasms. The local account, however, is that she was in
the habit of taking prussic acid to stimulate her energies, a
use probably unknown to Scheele. At any rate, calumny
found its way home, and the President was reduced to the
secondary positionof Judicial Assessor at Cape Coast Castle•
There he died in May, 1847, to the deep and lasting regret
of the whole population, black and white."— lVanderings
:n Western Africa.

ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY.—On Monday
evening next, at half-past 8, Sir R. I. Murchison, K.C.8.,
president, in the chair, the following papers will be read :-
1. " Mustakh Glacier;" by Capt. Edwin Austin. 2. " Re-
port on the Non-auriferous Character of West Australia ;"

by E. H. Hargraves, Esq.
BATH ABBEY is to be restored by Mr. G. G.
Scott, preserving, we hope, the corrupt, but very curious
west front, which is decorated with a representation of
Jacob's Dream, angels going up and down ladders, carved
on the whole facade.

THACKERAY can never be placed among the pure
satirists, it has lately been remarked, like Dryden,
or Swift, or Pope, or even Byron—(Byron scarcely ever
shows real ' genius, except when the gleam of the cynical
steel, or at the least his delight in the destructive forces of
nature, bares itself to us in his poetry)—nor even among
the pure humourists, like Addison, or Lamb, or Sterne, or
Dickens—nor among the pure artists, like Miss Austen, or
Sir Walter Scott, or George Eliot—but he will always form
a class by himself as a great satirical artist, blending almost
equally the poignant and destructive venom of the satirist
with the genial fertility of the creative imagination in which
all sorts of life-like images spring up like flowers, and spring
from germs which seem quite independent of the peculiar
bias of the artist's own character.

--- ---
CHURCH OF TORCELLO.—A correspondent of the
Budder describes the present condition of the famous
and beautiful basilia at Torcello, Venice, as a melancholy
one. The Austrian Government, it is averred, about tour
years ago commissioned a mosaicist to restore the invalu-
able and almost unique mosaio representing the Resurrec-
tion and Day of Judgment at the west end of this build-

ing,' a process which he understood, as restorers are
wont, to be best accomplished by ripping off the

old mosaic by wholesale, and substituting his modern
antique in its place. The result was, as may be guessed,
impending ruin of perhaps the whole." But tee Govern-
ment, discovering that the process was taking this unfor-
tunate form, and that the ancient work, as well as
time-
worn, was being removed, stopped the business, and, it is
said, incarcerated the operator. From that time to this the
mosaic has remained untouched; it is bulging, tattered'
falling, and threatening destruction.
A MORGANATIC FAUX PAS.—The brother of the
King of Portugal, Prince Leopold Francis of Saxe-
Coburg-Gotha, born in 1824, and for some time general in
the Austrian service, gave his hand, in April, 1861, to a
Miss Constance Geiger, the daughter of a poor teacher of
music at Vienna. The marriage made a great noise at the
time, being doomed an insult, not only to all the high rela-
tives of the prince, but to German royalty in general. It ap-
pears that Prince Leopold, in the first instance, intended to
make the matter as respectable as possiole, by getting a
title for his young bride—the easiest thing, under ordinary
circumstances, in Austria, titular honours and dignities
being plentiful in the market, and cheap as blackberries—
but that, in his case, he met unexpected difficulties, aris-
ing in high quarters, it being expected, probably, that he
would give up his morganatic ideas on finding himself
driven to unite his lot with an absolute and un-
disguised plebeian. But Prince Leopold, either fairly
in love or with a soul above buctons, thought other-
wise. He not only married Miss Constance Geiger, but
made the ceremony as grand as possible, riding to
church, at the side of his fair bride, in a State carriage
emblazoned with the world-famous arms of Saxe-
Coburg, and with lackeys and out-riders innumerable.
Behind, in a long file, followed all the Geigers, great and
little, and half the personnel of the theaes of Vienna : old
and new acquaintances of the happy famtr ily, whose previous
business had been chiefly with the stage and stage melody.
The word " Geiger" in Geman signifies fiddler, and there
being in the bridal procession several other persons with
equally conspicuous names, such as "Hord," "Piper,"
and "Singer," the Punch of Vienna had a good time of
it for weeks to come. The error of their ways was im-
mediately discovered by the imperial authorities,
who then granted unasked the title and dignities
which they had before refused. Prince Leopold's morgan-
atic spouse is now a Baroness von Ruttenstein, duly en-
rolled in the long list of Austrian noblesse, comprising
notable portion of the population of the empire.—Spectator.
A WORKHOUSE TREAT.—It is pleasant to find
that the genial festivities of this holiday season
extend even to our paupers, who might certainly be sup-
posed to be beyond the pale of Christmas mirth and merri-
ment. A very interesting gathering took place at the
Strand Union on Monday last, when, thanks to the guar-
dians, and the benevolent exertions of Mr. Acres, the
chaplain of the institution, tea and refreshments were pro•
vided for all the able-bodied inmates, followed by a little
rational entertainment. The inmates were assembled in the
large room of the workhouse ordinarily used as a chapel,
where the chaplain and his friends amused them with
music, recitations, the exhibition of a microscope,
&c., with very great success, ' It was gratifying to
see the warmth with which Mr. Thom, the able
and popular master, was greeted when appearing
before them, as it proved how powerful is the influence of
kindness and good feeling, even amid the roughest and
least cultivated classes. In proof that Mr. Thom is no less
effective as a disciplinarian than popular as a master, the
order maintained throughout by the large body of men and
women assembled was perfect, no voice being raised except
in applause or laughter, when something in the perfor-
mances especially delighted them. An interesting feature
in the evening's entertainment was the presentation of a
handsome volume to the labour-master, who was on the
eve of leaving the establishment. The bo kin question
had been subscribed for by the inmates of the house, who
wished to present him with some token of gratitude awl
esteem. In the sick, infirm, and convalescent wards,
Miss Twining and some friends had also provided
tea and cake to the great delight of the poor
sufferers, so that no part of the vast establishment was left
uncheered or uncared for. Several of the guardians were
present, and altogether the affair went off most satisfactorily.
We hope it will not be the last of its kind, since such acts of
spontaneous kindness and evidences of sympathy are
warmly appreciated by those whoee existence is at best but
a dreary and monotonous routine, while anything that tends
to humanize them, to remove the feeling that they are out-
laws and outcasts, for whom anything is good enough, is a
real and substantial benefit. The experience of the other
evening, too, may convince lookers on that these classes are
capable of enjoying rational pleasures, and will, we hope,
induce the managers of other workhouses to emulate the
kindliness and good feeling shown by the authorities of the
Strand Union.
Now that the winter has set in with more than usual
severity, it will be a great boon to the thousands who are
'suffering from coughs, colds, asthmas (all which affections
are intensified by the great change), to know that the best
remedy and the one which alone has stood the test of time is
Powell's Balsam of Aniseed. Whoso is suffering from
asthma, coughs, or colds, &c., will find a safe and speedy
remedy in Clia specific.—ADVT.