The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-03 00:00:00

LORD DITNDREARY'S CHARACTER SPORTING
As MR. BOTHERN MS CONCEIVED IT.

What he has so marvellously worked out is the
complete disappearance of all such intellectual
power as involves even a momentary cffoit of atten-
tion from a supercilious mind by no means devoid
of natural clearness, eager for amusement, and re-
sentful that almost every amusement does draw
upon the power of attention. lie catches at straws
floating on the surface of thought, and resentfully
abandons it the moment he finds that he cannot
even follow the indolent train of association it
suggests without some effort of discrimination,
There is a chronic crave in him to individualise
his own thoughts without effort to himself, and
chronic anger because he can't succeed, Lord
Dundreary would be even a lucid-mindid man if
be could attend to anything for two consecutive
minutes. If he calls everyone and everything "a
fellah," even to the candles on his dressing-table, it
is not confusion of thought, but simply indolence in
expression, which induces him to use the abstract
instead of recalling the specific term. When he can
explain binoself without an effort, there is something
graphic in it notwithstanding the lassitude of his
exposition—as when he defines the game of draughts
by "wound piece of wood hopping over each on
squares of leather," or illustrates his own assertion
that he is a good-natured fellow, by explaining that
" two out of every thwee mon who know me would
think so," and adds, after a brief pause, that
" the third knell who didn't think so
so would be an ass." Then the habitual angriness
of his state of mind is only the natural disgust
attending the discontinuity of his own thoughts,
and the perceived impossibility of remedying it
without an effort. When ho says of the peacock,
"I hate a bird all tail and no head," and reviles the
pigeons for tumbling head over heels because " I
hate a bird that doesn't know its own mind,"—the
irritation he feels is merely a mode of cuttieg short'
his thoughts about a rather singular phenomenon
which be feels would haunt him if he didn't get up
temper and abuse it. None of this is native imbe-
cility—it is a haughty sort of lucidity which is
furious because in this universe nothing is isolated
and comprehensible at a glance, so that you are in
danger of being led on from one thing to another
in a very perplexing way which does not suit a
man anxious to find adequate amusement in the
straws floating on the surface of his thought. Even
the uphill triumphant catch in his voice or crow
which is his equivalent for laughter, admirably ex-
presses this momentary character of his perceptions,
for his sense of the ludicrous is not the full meeting
of two incongruous ideas in his imagination, but a
mere point, a spark, an infinitesimal gleam of in-
congruity, which it is a triumph in him to have
caught at all, and which vanishes from his grasp
just as ho catches eight of ft. The angry stare with
which his lordship looks at us when he gets into
difficulties about folding his arms, and can no more
remember how the double junction is effected than a
child learning to tie its shoe for the first time, is one
of Mr. Sothern's moet effective touches in this carica-
ture; the difficulty represents somehow the single
threat of his associations, which is never quite equal
to the mastery of any two simultaneous actions, end
the resentment which be evidently feels at the failure
of memory and the need of recollection, betrays the
indolent pride which is at its root. Even the lop-
sided rut: with which he mekos his exit from the
room is expressive of this utter want of coherent
mental effort. One leg drags the other after it, as
it were, instead of their both marching together,
just as one thought succeeds and excludes another
which ought to be combined with it. Of course the
worth of the whole conception is is the caricature.
and in that alone. But it is wonderfully subtle
caricature, in which almost every movement of the
muscles of the face, every tone of the voice, and
every grotesque discontinuity of thought, contri-
butes something to the effect.
Of course the mere power of caricature is by no
means rare in comic actors, but the powers of
subtle intel'ecitsul caricature such us Mr. Sothern
shows in this character, we take it, exceedingly
rate. It is a caricature, for instance, which even
Mr. Dickens—an accomplished actor, we believe,
as well as a writer of caricature—could scarcely
have executed. The whole conception is grafted
on the social eondition in which Lord I)undreary is
supposed to have been brought up, and with all his
rudeness and eccentricity the notion of an aristo-
cratic substratum of manners as well as of pride and
indolence, is always perfectly conveyed. It is all
subtle caricature, though it is caricature of the
most extreme and doubly-distilled character.

EXPENSIVE SAVING.

--

When Susan's brother, John, who is a cashier at a large
linendraper's. came to dinner on Christmas--lay, and we
told him how be had been saving, he burst out a
laughing." "What are you laughing at ?" I dye,
" What am I laughing at P" bo•saye, almost choking himself
with a mouthful otgoose—" why, at you." " What for,"
I says. "For being so jolly green," he says. " Jolly
green 1" I rays; "is it jolly green to lay by money for a
rainy day P—leamtways for a Christmas-day, when a family
r, quire', extras ?" "Fiddlesticks 1" John says. "Let roti
ask you a question, George." " Twenty," I eays ; go ahead,
John. " Well," ho says, " When did you begin to pay into
the goose•club at the Yorkshire Grey P" "At Mtieuminor."
I says. "And you paid in sixpeuce every week for 2G
weeks?" " Yee," I says, " I did." " Which made 136.,
George " Exactly," 1 says. " Well," he says, "is the
goose and the liquor worth it?" "Judge for yoursolf,
John," I says. "Could I la.ve bought such a goose as
that you are now partaking of for less then eight •
and-6x in the shop'?" No," he s►ys, " I don't• think
you could. " Very well," I says,
." where's your fiddle-
Nil( lot, and how do you make rue out jolly green ri.
Why this way, George," ho says—" iu
.tho first place,
you've been losing the interest upon your money for six
months." " That's not much," 1 says. " Na," ho says,
"perhaps not; but that's not all. I'll be bound to Kay,
George, if you'll only be candid enough to confess it, that
every time you wont to the Yorkshire Grey to pay in 6d, to
the goose-club, you had a glass of something?" " I don't
deny it," I says; "you can't well go to a publichouse without
having a glass." "Sometimestwo," ho says. " Well," I says,
"sometimes two; perhaps three, when I happened to meet
a friend." Then, let us say, George, that every time you
went to pay is 61. to the club, you spent, on an average,
another 64. on drink." "It might be about that," I says,
" Very well then, George, upon your own showing, your
goose, and bottle of gin, and bottle of rum, have cost you
2Ga., to aay nothing of your loss of time, and injury to your
constitution through drinking more than was good fur you."
" I never thought of it in that way, John," I says. " No,
of course not, George," he rays; "for if you had thought
of it in that way, you wouldn't have been such a fool
Os to do it." "But you'll admit," that Susan hits
has had her money's worth at tho grocers's, and
not paid more than she ought?" I'm not going
to dispute that," ho says; "but you must remember
that the grocer has had the use of her money, and supposing
ho had failed about the beginning of December, what would
have became of Susan, and all the other Christmas-club
geese ? I'm surprised at a sensible man like you, George,
doing such things, when there's a Post-office Savings Bank
close to your door."—J)ickcns's "All the rear Round."

i'. AREA OF THE 11111'11st' EMPIRE is 4.369,729
square miles; its population (1861) is 224,389,000.
hence our Queen reigns over nearly ono-third of the laud
of the earth, and about n fifth of its population. Scarcely
fewer than thirty native languages arc spoken by her sub-
jects : for instance--English, French,
Malian, Dutch,
Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, (Ireek, Persian, Ar
abic,
Maltese, Chirkso, Armenian, llindostance,
Mahratti, Tamil, Telflgfi, Carnatien, t4,iog4l`'sel
Malay, Burmese, llottontot, Kew, Negro, Maori, besides
.
many barbarous tongues which lava not been formed tub.
written languages. In her Majesty's realm there are four
great established religions—the Christian, the Brahman, the
20,000,000; the
Mohammedan, the Buddhist. Of these the Chriatiatts
number, at a rough estimAte, 34,031,161 ; the disciples of
frho i:Utduaruene'habitti of life, and
subjects exhibit as many
IBlruadldinhlias,t,6oo,ooo,ooo,oo,ooooo ;
possibly exst in the members of the human
dmievderessitoief thought,
s atshcreAun, the British
i
family. Place auto by aide an Englishman, Hindoo from
British India, an Arab front Aden, a Chinese from Hong
Kong, a Negro from South Africa, tin Indian from North
America, and n native Australian, and we shall have speci•
men, of each of the great types of the human nice.
Assemble together Reeducated Englishman and a heavy
French Canadian and a grave
untutored Hottentot ; a lively
arise-eating Htndoo and a roan-
and bellicose Red Indian ;
eating New Zealander; a graceful lonian and a lumpish
Esquitnaux; and between all these subjects of ono Sove-
reign there would be as little in common as could possibly
exist between inhahitnuts of the same planet.
Mr. MAIN FRISWELL'S recent little volume of
618131•" Thu Gentle Life," a reprint of papers from the
Saturday _Review, lots succeeded to well as to.induce that
geetleteau to arrange another series for publication.

E--This D

(nY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.)
DERBY }LACES--!ms DAY.

Love Letter..
Amazon

Three ran.

RACING FIXTU

MA
Nottingham Spring 1
Derby Spring 3
Liverpool
Sbrow•abury
Doncaster Spring

Crox ton- park 1
Edinburgh Spriag 2
A bergnvenny
Thirok • 5

RES FOR, 1864.
LCIL.

Chester .. 3
York Spring
Sulit•bury l2
Baal

Warwick • • 1G
Durham
Nort hamptuu 29
Cattcricl• ..

Epsom Spring
Newmarket Craven
Newmarket First Spriug 2i

Manchester
II apendon
Epson . 24

JUNE

Ascot ..
Hampton l5 New Forest Hunt
Newton
Odihsin
tVoroest.r (Sumner) .. 30
Bibury
Stockbridge

V LT.

Newmarket July
Carliele ..
Abingdon
Liverpool July
Stamford l4
Pontefract

Nottingham
Winchester ....
Southampton .. 2O
Chesterfield
Goodwood ...... 29

13rigbf on 2
Brighton Club
Lewes 6
Rending
lighrm
Oxford lB
Yarmouth

SErT:

Weymouth 1
\Varwiek September 6
Leicester 8
Doncaster
Brecon l9

York August • 23
Plymouth
Derby
Lichfield
Stockton .. .. 'lO
Devon and Exeter

Richmond
Monmouth 22
Manchester Autumn
NewmarkutFiret Octubcr 27

Ocrourm.

Northallorton 6 Gloucetter
Newmarket Second Oct. 10 Newmarket Houghton 24

llNovnuirAt.
Shrewitbury Autumn .. 11 I Worcester Autumn 30
Leamington& War. Hunt 22
STEEPLECHASING FIXTURES FOR 1864.

MARCH.
Grand Military (Rugby Hunt) l4
AruiL,

Abergavenny .. 6

r'o~•L:unt:n.

Leamington and Warwickshire Hunt 22

Our Heroes and our Statesmen.

A PA

Sing* a song of gre nbael s.
l'oe.stla fu l of track,
over head and ears in &Id,
And out of ready cash.

UODY.

Forne, under Abe's chair,
llarA:ng 1 ko a d,g.

Schenk, (low at Ba timore,
D, 1,1; d fly work ;
Butler, Lt NorlulK,
As say.iso . a Tur:.

Helps of tax col retort!
An busy aa a bee ;
A'nt we iu a pretty flx.
With d at fifty-three.
Ab in the White Hou e,
Prce'antatio,b writing;
31e the. tin the Rapidan,
Atratd to do the fighting.

Hanks. cut in Texam,
Cutting ructi a fl,uri ;
I etcher, Ia i•rooriyn,
11ow,h:g lot the ntiAer.

Seward, In the i abin t,
Surrounded by his spies ;
ui eek, with the telegraph,
Busy forging lies.

Chen, In the Treasury,
mrtllless notes ;
Cul tls, at Harrisburg,
31:.kt,,g shoddy cats.

Gintr.ore, in ( harleinon,
Ludt in a tog;

Lots o! Ab
litat • a up a ye•l,
In c roes r. rs n Ilrownhw,
Ant stn them all to h- 1L

Iternaide, at linoxvi!le,
la n k tat of flx;
ahlgrlcu et. z;uniter,
ng a, the takks.

Grant, at Chattanooga,
T‘y.ng brag to thr.en ;
Is it at.y wonder,
The Union's gJne to smash 2

Foreign Mail Packet Lint.

MAILS DUE.

Australia and Mauritius, via Soutliampton Mar. 20.
via alureeillea Mar. 11.
iirazil and Cspo Vents, by British pathut. Mar. Cp.
Cape of Good Hope, Ascension, and St. ilolenn 111sr. 30.
China, Penang, and Singapore, via Southanipten.Mur. 3
__ via Marbeilles Mar. 14,

Falkland Wanda

Gibraltar, via Southampton ..
India (Calcutta), and Ceylon, via Southampton Mar. 3.
via 51 greedier. Mar. 14.
India (Bombay), via Southampton Mar. 13.
via 51aracillea Mar. 7.
P0rtuga1..........
51alta, Egypt, and Men, via Southampton Mar. 3,
via 51arseillea Mar. 7.
Newfoundland
Oporto and Vigo
U. 0. and Mitten N. Atnarica, Ly lint. p.tvicet .... Mar. 2

' by. U.S. packet....
by Canadittn pockct.Mnr 4.
W.C. of Africa, hlndoira, and Tenoriilo Mar. 10.
Bshamar, via New York Mir. 11,
Mexico
All carteof West lndioo, including Wlli, Peru, I mar.
—,
California. and Britiph Columbia.

Tho Price of Gold.

The quotation of gold at Parts is about 4 per mille pm., and
the short exchange on London is 25.35 prr £1 sterling. Ou
comparing these rates with the English Mint price of .0
17e. Wid. per ounce for standard gold, it apps, s that
roll u
about 3-laths per cent. dearer in London than in Part I.
fhe course of exchange at New York on London for bills at
CO days' sight is 174 to 175 per cent., and the pren.ium on
gel iis about A9l per cent. At these rates there id a profit
on the importation of gold from the United States.

Tho Court of Ass'is-e of tho Rhone hag just tried
a man namod Margotton, aged 49, a weaver by trade, on a
charge of having by false representations caused (ho child
of a woman with whom he c,iliabited to bo registered
as tho legitimate offspring of his wife. It appeals
that the prisoner was mirried at 'foram iu ISI9 to a
woman named Mario Givro, by whom he hid (Iva children.
In 'SU, having funned an illicit connec:im with a woinsn
namod Berard, he deserted his wife and family, and went
to live at Amplopuis, where he and Berard lived as man
and wife. In February, 1869, the woman Berard gave
birth to a male child, whom the prisoner got
registered as the son of his wife, and Palls-
fled the registrar of the fact by producing the certifLato of
his marriage with Marie Givre, In July following the
local authorities were informed that Berard was not the
prisoner's wife, and ho was arrested. In his defence the
prisoner stated that his only object ill committing the
fraud was to save the child fror, the disgraca of ille•
gitimacy, but the Mayor of Atnplepuis dip3sed that
the prisoner had stated that his object in washing
tho child to bo regarded as legitimate was that
it might Share the property coming to Lis children from his
wifeislamily. The jury having found the prisoner guilty,
ho Court sentenced him to two years' imprisonment.

UNIVERSITY BOAT RACE.—Some changes since
our last notice have taken plaice in the position of
the Cambridge crow. Mr. Selwyn has been removed from
No. 2 oar to the stroke, Mr. Kinglake front the stroke to
No. 6, and Mr, Hawkins from No. 4 to No. 2. The orew
commenced rowing on Monday in a very largo outtrige race.get
not the new b3at by Mr. Matthew Taylor, expressly built
for the occasion, and in which they purpose rowing the
Although they cannot be raid to have improved 00 :ouch as
their friends could wish, yet it is contideatly hoped that by
the day of the race (the 19th inst.) this powerful crow will
have attained that perfection of style wowli has for 80 many
years characterised the rowing of univetsity wen. Betting
is brisk at 6 and 6 to 4 on Oxford.
THE GREAT EASTERN STEAMSHIP.---LIVERPOOL,
Wednesday.—Cur readers will no doubt remember
that on the 17th of last month the Great Eastern wits put
up for unreswehrovi.l :reel; att2:oloic
faourcttihoen,vAo•stilllemi. thlenhcigor,h:s.t
bidder was a Mr. John Rote, of 117, St. James's-street,
n
'some difficulty in reference to the payment of the
tfl,qtihheruetrpoi:4llvstocaolatltwidonseniftuoynnelcrl:ftri the
.ailultocntaieo.unsedebri,fict.ohn.e,nldeihoinpt.hbMerorkv.aecr:su,enlrawerpdaus,
repudiated
the
wooly knocked down to Mr. Yatos, of the Great Esstern
steamship Company (Limited) for a sum similar to that
offered by Mr. Rae. Today, however, Mr. Rae, acting
upon legal advice, proceeded to Mr. Cunard's and hero
tendered
£25,000, and claimed the great ship as Lie pro-
perty, stating that as he was the first bidddr of £25,000 on
the 17th February, ho had au indisputable right to the ship.
We understand his money was telused and his claim of
course dismissed.

MDLLE. AnkLINA PATTI is heard of this season,
as lest year, as captivating not only the Parisians, but
Rossini: by her pretty singing. The patriarch lived wally
years, ,it Is said, .hearing no music whatever. lle now
gives soirees, at which Mdlle. Patti and other artists slog
little pieces of his composition.
THE MASTER OF THE ROLLS AS MT. FOR THE
CITY OF LONDON.—A movement is on foot is West-
minster for the purrose of securing the return of SU .101. n
Remaly, the Master of the Rolls, as member fur the city
at the utat general election. The Master of the Rolls is
the only judge who is at liberty to livid a seat in the lloure
of COIIIIIIOIIP.
MARSEILLES, Feb. I.—Letters from Rome of the
aay
27th announce thit Ole duty on fbur bas been
abolished by a Papsredibcto Advnced be and the
, captain of the Ponti-
fical Gendarmery, vo.oa
frontier, has been arrestd. 14iftoen persons have
been taken into custody at Rome, in constquerce of
the murder of two clerks of a money•chenger.
total visitors, 1,112,
CRYSTAL PALACE.-oao Shilling Day, Wednet,-
day, March 2.—Adarissiens on payments, 469; ditty lly
season tickets, 643 i