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

THE LATE MR. THACKERAY,

ARTESIAN WELL AT DONCASTER.—The boring
having penetrated into a fissure, water in great volume has
been obtained. The present yield is estimated by Mr.
thtle, the engineer, at four million gallons a day.

A very interesling sketch of Mr. 'MackPray, from
the pen of `i►•. James Hannay, the well known
writer, has appeared in the Edinburgh Courant. The
following are a few extracts :
By birth Mr. Thtckeray belonged to the upper middle
class—a section of oar curiously divided society which con-
tains many cadets o! old families, and forms a link between
the aristocracy and the general bulk of the liberal profes-
sions. He used sometimes to say that " it takes three gene-
rations to make a gentleman," and though this was not a
maxim which he would have applied strictly in the case of
another man, he was far from insensible to the advantage in
himself. He was descended from an old Saxon stock long
settled inYorkshire. His great-grandfather was Dr. Thacke-
ray, of Harrow, whe went to Cambridge in 1710, an excel-
lent scholar and cle'cer man, who partly educated Sir Wm.
Jones, and whose epitaph was written by his pupil Dr. Parr.
The son of the doctor married a Miss "Webb, of the old Eng-
lish family to which the Brigadier Webb, of Marlborough's
wars, belonged—whose portrait is drawn with something of
the geniality of kinsinanshiP in " Esmond." This Thacke-
ray, we believe, was the first of the race to settle in India,
where his son also sought his fortunes, and where his grand-
son the novelist was corn, at Calcutta, in 1811. There are
numerous descendan:s of the scholarly old headmaster of
Harrow scattered over the English Church and in the
Indian service, and traces of the influence of family con-
nections are found al. through the books of the man who
has made his name famous.

Like other English children born in India, young
Thackeray was sent home early, and the voyage—during
which he had an eager and wondering peep at the great
Napoleon in his island prison—was among his earliest re-
collections. He received his education at Charterhouse—
the well-known Grey'riars of his stories—an ancient and
famous public schod. From Charterhouse he went to
Cambridge, which he left without taking a degree; and he
entered on life with health, strength, a noble figure, an
excellent genius. and £20,000, the last of which blessings
was the first (owing, it is said, to unfortunate speculations)
to leave him. But this loss was not complete till he had
had the full benefit of s good culture and a good experience.
He travelled over Europe, and resided in its capitals,
while his mind was young and fresh ; and laid in those
stores of observation to which we owe sketches with
which everybody is familiar, He had an interview with
Goethe at Weimar, his description of which may be
seen in the " Life of Goethe" by Mr. Lewes ; and he
studied art at Rome. If he had had his choice, he
would rather have been famous as an artist than as a
writer ; but it was destined that he should paint in
colours which will never crack and never need restora-
tion. All his artist experience did him just as much good in
literature as it could have in any other way ; and in travel-
ling through Europe to see pictures, he learned not them
only, but men, manners, and languages, He read German ;
he knew French well, and spoke it elegantly ; and in market
places, salons, hotels, museums, studios, the sketch-book of
his mind was always filling itself. Paris was one of his most
important headquarters in every way, and to his stay there
the world owes perhaps the best of his poems—the " Chro-
nicle of the Drum."
Thackeray was still young and opulent when he began to
make the acquaintance of London men of letters. Certain it
is that he lent—or in plainer English, gave—£soo to pour
old Maginn, when he was beaten in the battle of life, and
like other beaten soldiers made a prisoner—in the Fleet.
With the generation going out—that of Lamb and Cole-
ridge--he had, we believe, no personal acquaintance. Sydney
Smith he met at a later time ; and remembered with satis-
faction that something which he wrote about Hood gave
pleasure to that delicate humourist and poet in his last days.
But his first friends were the Fraserians, of whom Father
Prout—always his intimate---and Carlyle, always one of his
most appreciatint friends—survive. From reminis-
cences of the wilder lights in the Fraser constel-
lation were drawn the pictures of the queer fellows
connected with literature in " Pendennis," Cap-
tain Shandon, the ferocious Bludyer—stout old Tom
Sergeant—and so forth. Magazines in those days were more
brilliant than they are now, when they are haunted by the
fear of shocking the Fogy element in their circulation; and
the effect of their greater freedom is seen in the buoyant,
limit, and unrestrained comedy of Thackeray's own earlier
Fraser articles. "I suppose we will begin by being too
savage," is the phrase of a letter wh:ch ho wrote in 1819 ;
"I know one who lid." He was alluding here to the
"Yellow plush papers" in particular, where living men
were freely handled. This old, wild satiric spirit it was which
made him interrupt even the earlier chapters of " Vanity
Fair," by introducing a parody, which he could not resist,
of some contemporary novelists. In the last 15 years of his
life, he wrote under greater restraint, and with a sense of
his graver responsibilities as one of the leading men of letters
of the country. But his satire was never at any time malig-
nant; and the fine freedom of his early writing, developed
his genius, as the scenes of the arena developed the athlete.
He was writing for'_'?. or 13 years, as a professional author,
before " Vanity Fair" made him really known to the world
at large. The best works of that epoch will be found in the
"Miscellanies" published by Bradbury and Evans iu 1357.
But there is much of his writing buried in periodicals, some
of which have been long dead. Ho was connected with at least
one failure. TheParthseon--an ill- omened name,borne after
a long interval by another journal quite recently defunct. He
certainly contributed some things to the Times, during
Barnes's editorship—an article on Fielding amongst them;
though not, we should think, leading articles, a kind of
work for which he had no relish, and for which he believed
himself to have no turn. Fraser was the organ with which
he was most successfully connected till the dabs of his I
Punch engagement. It was, indeed, as a magezinist that
he educated himself for a novelist. The offer of " Vanity
Fair" was declined by one publisher ; and good judges said
that a necessary impulse was given to its appreciation by
an article during its progress in the Edinburgh _Review.
When Thackeray wrote "Vanity Fair," in 1846-7.8, he
was living in Young-street, Kensington ; and here, in 1843,
the author of this sketch had first the pleasure of seeing
him, of being received at his table, and of knowing how ea--
sentially a kind, humane, and p erfectly honest man he was.
" Vanity Fair" was then unfinished, but its success wagmade, and he spoke frankly and genially of his work and his
career. " Vanity Fair" always, we think, ranked in his
own mind as best in story of his greater books ; and he once
pointed out to us the very house in Russell-square where his
imaginary Sedleya lived—a curious proof of the reality his
creations had fur his mind. The man and the books wore
equally real and true, and it was natural that he
should speak without hesitation of his books, if you
wished it ; though, as a man of the world and a
polished gentleman who knew the world thoroughly, litera-
ture to him only took its turn among other topics. From
this point of view, his relation to it was a good deal like
that of Scott. According to Lockhart, people were wrong
in saying that Sir Walter declined at all markedly to talk
about literature, and yet his main interest was in active life.
Just so, Thackeray was not bookish, and yet turned readily
to the subject of books, if invited. His reading was un-
doubtedly large in memoirs, modern history, biography,
poetry, essays, and fiction—and, taken in conjunction with
his scholarship, probably placed him, as a man of letters,
above any other novelist except Sir Bulwer Lytton. Here is
a characteristic fragment from one of his letters written in
August, 1854 and now before us
I hate Juvenal," he
says ; " I mean I think you a truculent brute, and I love
Horace better than you de, and rate Churchill much lower;
and as for Swift, you haven't made me alter my opinion. I
admire, or rather admit, his power as much as you do ; but I
don't admire that kind of power as much as I did 15 years
ago, or 20 shall we say. Love is a higher intellectual exercise
than hatred ; and,when you get one or two more of those
young ones you write so pleasantly about, you'll come over
to the side of the kind wags, I think, rather than the cruel
ones." Passages like this—which men who knew him, will
not need to have quoted to th m—have a double value for
the world at large. They not only show a familiar com-
mand of whom it is by no means easy to know well,—
but they show what the real philosophy was of a man whom
the envious represented to the ignorant as a cynic and a
scoffer. Why, his favourite authors were just those whose
influence he thought had been beneficial to the cause of
virtue and charity. " 1 take off my hat to Joseph Addison,"
he would say, after an energetic testimony to his good effect
on English life. He was, in fact, even greater as a moralist
than as a mere describer of manner; and his very hatred of
quackery and meanness was proved to be teal by his sim-
plicity, humanity, and kindliness of character-. In private,
this great satirist, whose aspect in a crowd was often one of
austere politeness and reserve, unbent into a familiar naivete
which somehow one seldom finds in the demonstratively
genial. And this was the more charming and precious that
it rested on a basis of severe and profound reflection, before
the glance of which all that was dark and serious in man's
li'o and prospects lay open, The gravity of that white
head, with its noble brow, and thoughtful face full of feel-
ing and meaning, enhanced the piquancy of his playfulness,
and of the little personal revelations which came with such
a grace from the depths
of his kindly nature. When we
congratulated him, many years ago, on the touch in
f'Vanity Fair." in which Becky "admires" her husband
when he is giving Lord Steyne the chastisement which
ruins her for life, " Well," he said, " when I wrote the
sentence, I slapped my fist on the table, and said 'that
is a touch of genius h The incident is a trifle, but it will
reveal, we suspect,
an element of fervour, as well as a
heartiness of frankness in recording the fervour, both
equally at variance with the vulgar conception of him.
This frankness and Lenhommio made him delightful in a
tete-a-tete, and gave a pleasant human flavour to talk full
of sense, and
wisdom, and experience, and lighted up by
the gaiety of the true London man of the world. Though
ho said witty things now and then, he was net a wit in the
sense in which Jerrold was, and he co.-ordained, sometimes,
that his beet things occurred to him after the occasion was
gone by,
After " Vanity Fair," Thaeleerave fame steadily in-
cease I. " Pendennis" appeared during 1349 and 1850, and
though it was generally considered inferior in mere plot to
its predecessor, no inferiority was perceived in the essential
qualities of character, thought, humour, and style. The
announcement in the summer of 1851 that he was about to
lecture on the English Hareourists gave a thrill of plea-
sure to intellectual London ; and when he rose in Willis's
Rooms to commence the course with Swift, all that was
most brilliant in. the capital was assembled to hear him,

The Late Fight Between King and Heenan,

LEWES, Wednesday Night.
At the quarter sessions, this day beforo the Earl of Chi,
cheater and a full bench of magistrates, the matter of the
prizefighters committed by the bench of magistrates at Mark
Cross, for taking part in the recent fight at Wadhurst, again
came before the Court, the bench of magistrates here having
deferred giving judgment upon an application made yester-
day by Mr. Edward Bexley.
The defendants were in attendance, and it may be advis-
able to give their names :
Thomas King, John Carmel Heenan, Thos. Sayers, John
Tyler alias Boa Tyler, John Calvin Noon alias Jerry Noon,
John Macdonald, James Mace, and Robert Travers, were
called upon to answer an indictment for " riotously assem-
bling, together with divers other persons., to the number o
500 and more, to disturb the public peace, and riotously as- -
saulting and beating the said Thomas King and John Came
Heenan at Wadhurst, on the 10th Dec., 1863.
Mr. Roupell and Mr. Willoughby, instructed by Messrs
Stone, Wall, and Simpson, clerks to the Rotherfield bench
of magistrates, conducted the prosecution. Mr. Edward
Besley, instructed by Mr. J. G. Langham, of Ucklefield, de-
fended Thomas King, John Calvin Noon alias Jerry Noon,
James Mace, and John Tyler.
Mr. Besley begged leave, before the defendants were called
upon to surrender, to renew the application he bad made to
the bench on the previous evening. That application had
been for a postponement of the trial of those defendants for
whom he appeared, and his lordship and the bench had de-
ferred dealing with it, in consequence of tho absence of some
of the other defendants. He (Mr. Besley) understood that
those parties were now present before the bench, and were
able, therefore, to answer for themselves. He did not know
that it was necessary for him to repeat anything that he
said on the previous day, but would press upon the atten-
tion of the bench the fact of the depositions having been
signed at such a recent date, and the prosecution being at
the instance of one of the magistrates of the county of Sussex,
The depositions had bean taken on the 22d of Dec , and he
(Mr. Besley) thought he ought to put the bench ih posses-
sion of the fact that from that time up to almost the last
moment, indeed up to Monday afternoon, the patties were
all represented by the same solicitor, Mr. Thomas Beard, of
Basinghall-stret t, London; but owing to some disagreement
amongst the defendants themselves, as to the mode of ar-
rangement of the issue of this writ of certiorari, that gen-
tleman no longer represented Mr. King, and the other de-
fendants, who had since they had been in Lewes em-
ployed Mr. Langham, a solicitor at Uckfield, who now re-
presented them, and had instructed him (Mr. Besley).
The noble Chairman—Who do you appear for, Mr.
Besley, because at present the bench do not hear of any one
except the defendant King ?
Mr. Healey—l appear, my lord, for Thomas King, Jas.
Mace, John Calvin Noon, and John Tyler. He (Mr. Bes-
ley) felt sure that his lordship and the bench would forgive
him :or saying, that men situated as the defendants were
might we;,
object to being tried in the county of Sna•
sez, especially
wil:en they knew that the prosecution had
been instituted by one F
the magistrates on the very bench
t,I
and who was himself a prin-
that would have to try them,
Besley) thought that
cipal witness against then/ He
pplieb:tion to Mr. Justice
that might well account for the a
Shee for the removal of the place of trialt and those who art
around him, would rather prefer such a course ban taken,
if they considered it consistent with their duty'.
The noble Chairman made a gesture of dissent.
Mr. Begley continuing, observed that he did not know
whether the writ of certiorari would:be granted, inasmuch
as the recogniaances had not been entered into, but Mr.
Justice Shee had intimated that it would be granted upon
the usual conditions. On his own behalf, he (Mr. Besley)
begged to urge on the bench that it was only on the pre.
vious day, late in the afternoon, that he had received his
brief, and he felt that he should not be doing justice to the
case by going into it at present. He, therefore, asked the
magistrates to exercise the discretionary power vested in
them, and postpone the trial till the next sessions. Beyond
that which he had already stated he would press upon their
attention the difficulty he felt in taking up such an imper-
taut case, and he really had not had the necessary time to
examine thoroughly the form of the indictment or the legal
effect it might have upon his clients. He therefore respect-
fully asked for a postponement.
Mr. Roupell hardly thought it necessary to say anything,
but felt bound to notice that the grounds upon which the
application for a postponement had been based on the pre-
vious evening were essentially different from those just
urged on personal grounds, which he (Mr. Roupell) would
of course at once have acceded to; but his learned friend had
put forward, as a new reason, that a fair trial could not, or
had inferred that it could not, be had in the county of Sus-
sex, and yet asked for a postponement to a time when it
would come before identically the same tribunal. With re-
gard to the writ of certiorari the bench knew nothing of it,
as though it had been so reported in the newspzpers, those
reports could not always be taken as exactly correct. It it
had been desired to remove the trial the writ could have
been completed and served upon the Court, who could have
dealt with it. As to his learned friend having been so re-
cently instructed, that fault lay with the defendants' attor-
ney, who neglected his duty, or with defendants themselves,
who did not urge the matter on. The prosecution ought not
to be put to additional expense ; nevertheless if the applica-
tion rested on the fact that the parties were not prepared to
go on with the trial, he felt, on the part of the prosecution,
that he could hardly resist the application.
The noble Chairman observed that the bench wished to
know whether those defendants who were not professionally
represented agreed in the request preferred by Air. Bealey
en behalf of the others.
A consultation then took place between Mr. Charles Bush,
Mr. Coney, Heenan, Sayers, and the others, which resulted

in
Mr. Bealey informing the node earl that all the defen-
dants agreed in the application for a postponement.
After conferring with the other magistrates,
The Earl of Chichester said—As it appears all the defen-
dants concur, the Court feel that that being the case, they
are justified in postponing the trial. For myself, I confess
I do not think the grounds are very strong ; but if they all
concur, we will grant it. Of course the parties must renew
the same recognisances.
The required bail having been renewed, the defendants
left the Court, Heenan and Macdonald returning to London
immediately,Tom Sayers betaking himself to Brighton. Tom
King remaining. to indulge in a constitutional over the
downs, the invigorating air of which ho had so much reason
to be grateful for in his recent contest. The crowd that
thronged the court quickly dispersed when the heroes of the
hour had vanished, and Lewes was left to its wonted quie-
tude.

LUDGATE suggestion has been made in
the Builder for raising the whole line of street in the valley
of the Fleet from Blackfriars-bridge. The gradients of
Ludgate-hill and Fleet-street would be thus improved, and
it might bP then practicable to carry the much-deprecated
railway under, instead of over, the main approach to St.
Panrs.