The Sun.
London, England, 1852-06-01 00:00:00

A CIiARACTER.

There was one individual of whcm for a time I could
gain no satisfactory account. He was called the Cap-
tain; and if a tight-fitting, blue frock-coat, light
trowsers rather the worse for wear, and a well-brushed
hat entitled him to the appellation, he ertainly deserved
it. Although about fifty years of age, ho assumed
the various eccentricities of youth, talked "of fine
girls," " dashing equipages," and " the et ceteras," the
last expression always fully emphasized, with remark-
able freedom, which made the greater impression upon
me, knowing the delicate state of his finances, and his
astonishing celerity in manufacturing I 0 U's. " Done,
for a ducat!" ho would exclaim; " but as I have not a
ducat, I'll borrow one. COMP, Dorrington, lend me the
amount; full security—my Bank of England note. Here
give me paper—the smallest piece in the world; if an
individual can write the Lord's Prayer in tho size of a
sixpence, it won't require much space to put down my
obligation for a paltry half. crown. Giving full credence
to his prrsonal account, he is one of those exuberant
spirits who consider men in the prime of life at sixty,
and think of taking, if it should ever prove their chance,
a third spouse at fourscore, to give ease and comfort to
the remainder of their days. He was continually spin-
ning yarns of his exploite,- wonderful, if true, and
mostly entertaining and romaetic. Few, according to
his own version (and no one was inclined to contradict
him), had travelled so far in foreign countries, or were
so well acquainted with the manners of the wide worlu's
inhabitants as himself. The history of the Pyramids
wai to him a mere nursery rhyme; he spoke of the
height and breadth of the Andes with the philosophic
coolness of a Humbolt; the plains of Siberia, if
you could rely upon his inuendoes, he had specially
traversed, to trace the fate of the devoted but unfor-
tunate exile Elizabeth; and hid Japanese experience
was not to be slighted, if it solely related to their bar-
barous customs, and the delights of cock-fighting. In
truth, to employ his own distinctive phraseology, "the
opinion of an individual who could claim the distin-
guished privilege of having lighted his cigar at the crater
of Mount Vesuvius, and darned his stockings with Cleo-
patra's Needle, was not to be combated or his advice
disregarded."—Bren Tange, or Mercantile Mysteries..

RECENT DEATHS OF OFFICERS IN THE
METROPOLITAN SEWERS COMMISSION.

The work of the Metropolitan Commission of Sewers
devolved mainly upon three gentleman—Mr. Edward
Lewes, the chairman, Mr. Allason, the architect, and
Mr. Frank Forster, the engineer. Others gave only
occasional or incidental attendance. The two principal
paid officers, the chairman and the engineer, worked
anxiously de die in diem. Mr. Allason was as anxious,
and be worked with them incessantly, until a day or two
before his death. They bad all three the promise of a
long life before their entrance into office, and now, after
a short career, their existence, has heen closed by
nervous fevers. Those 'few persons who may be aware
of what it is to have the responsibility of dealing with
large evils, with imperfect means, and to contend against
vexatious obstructions, will fully appreciate the fatal
influence of the mental anxieties which are the ante-
cedents of the diseases which terminated their lives.
.4?ee_engineer, who knew Mr. Frank Forster intimately,
lid, on hearing of his appointment to his office of en-
gineer to that commission—" That appointment is a fatal
mire. I know well the susceptible nature of his
thereeNow mark me; the opposition which he will
b_,encounter nervous el
ver;
him. You will soon hear of
his
dieted, ken
will be kill a nervous fever; and unless he is rescued he
The nervous fever came as was pre-
ItrForster resigned too late. Mr. Roe, the
previous et
attacked
and the vrorr
witgilineert who had been a veteran, was also
a nervous fever, produced by the anxieties
htTstthe office, and he was compelled to
resign, and
efri slowly recovering between two or
three years the
4,11.!et of the service during one. The
um, the first engineer of the con-
health of Mr.
solidated commission,.its failing rapidly, though he is a
younger ncl
his friends interfere
demdrtee with imperfect support, but
autilds rescued him in time. To
meet the public
, undertwith reduced means, Mr.
levees, the chairman
biiity of looking into every ook recently the responsi•
ho___report and order for the
of every single
a state of anxiety, and "Cielicha step which betokened
would have prevented him taking evesll-informed friends
drainage
well dispatched by lait was a duty pre-
viously
deed for taking the office at all. subordinate
i__e..ctooffice.rs),
.or in-
also was too seedily verified. vfhre_die
gienntilenmtahnis casewho
had had expprience in the commission (and had himself
it), head of the p, . _.
withdrawn from oeeedine of Mr.
ay predicted that Lewes, he confiden his health
at he could not be
able to stand it, and that "egth WCIUId give way
under it. The story has itt moral for those ‘eil, repinei
at what they call the " leek of others.—,e3auder.

and Lad"
co%
it Leys t,
le r
new
eaiyyfr
ANTWERP, MAT
29'—Ua
rived h
Main
°e"nrn, R.N
and lady, Kijor Kennedy and family, Sir William,
Miller and family and Captain Price,
morning, by the General Steam Navigation
steam-snip Ravensboarne, after a splendid panagZ°