The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-06 00:00:00

1864,

Doctors' Commons.

All.the houses in the Commons have a tumble-
down look, several were apparently uninhabited;
the closed shutters blankly proclaiming " our doctor
has departed." Indeed there were signs of emigra-
tion in several of the tenements, and Messrs Lowndes
and Co. (I think), though still abiding in the Com-
mons, have other offices in an adjoining lane. With-
out any spirit of prophecy we may say of these
ancient haunts of the long-robed generation,

"Ichabod," the glory is departed ; for in the next
crop of railway bills who can doubt that there will
be a scheme to break them all up, to facilitate a new
plan of locomotion ? Emerging from the Commons
and crossing the lane, I stumbled on the Heralds'
College, also a brick edifice, but rather fresher than
the clamp of time-browned dwellings we had just
left ; yet it is probably quite as old. In appear-
ance it resembles a second-rate city hall, and has
nothing notable about it, except a narrow enclosure
on the right, the back wall being adorned with some
heraldic devices, and the front surmounted by gilded
turns or vaees. Desiring a glance at the inner
sanctum of the tabarded sages, I sought permission
of the janitor, but was curtly told there was "no
admission except on business." A few steps brought
me to Harrow-court. Entering by a narrow,
dark, dirty passage I found myself surrounded by
a dismal square of tenements, tall and smoke-
blackened; a century since, doubtless, the resi-
dence of well-to-do Londoners, but now evidently a
mere refuge for the destitute. The central open
space was hung with ,clothes.lines, and wet
garments in every variety, except that none of
them were whole, but as they flapped to and fro
raggedly eccentric, proclaimed the poverty and
wretchedness of their wearers. A few half-clad
women were bending over wash-tubs, and labour-
ing in the suds; while a few children, uncombed
and shoeless, stared inquisitively in my face, and
one bolder boy said, " Good morning, sir." Frym
this area a view is commanded of some hundred
feet of a grievously smoky atmosphere, for the
cracked chimney-pots remorselessly belch out their
contents and obscure the whole neighbourhood,
already too dark.— City Press.

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE—(This Day.)

LONDON, June 6.—Wind this day at noon—South-
West; moderate breeze and Ane weather.
CARDIFF, June s.—Wind S.W.—Sailed—Britannia,
for New York. .

SWANSEA, June 3.—Wind N.W.—Sailed—Georgiana
Stephano, for Coquimbo.
FALMOUTH, June 4 —Wind S.W.—Arrived—Superior,
from Smyrna—Thora, from Porto Rico. Sailed—Dora,
for Mogadore.
PORTSMOUTH, June s.—Wind N.W.—Arrived—Anna
Kay Harrison, from Bahia for Bremen.

(BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH)
PLYMOUTH, Monday, 10 a.m.
Her Majesty's screw steam corvette Pearl, 21, Captain
John Borlase, from China, is now entering the Sound.

(n MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH;)
GRAVESEND, Monday Morning.
Sailed—Leon Raymundo, for Madeira; Seine, steamer,
for i;soulogne.

DEAL, Monday Morning.
Passed, ~`,2ne s—Crusader, from the West for the North ;
Seaton, screw et,`eamer, of Sunderland, from the North, for
the West.
Raymund°, for Madeira; the
as--,Berb.ice, for Cardiff—
Le'ineti, from London..
Passed, Tune 6
March Hare, for Syra—
Anchored—Strong, for Heath.:
Claudia, for Demerara—Helene, for laneriffe—Argali, for
Algoa Bay—all from .London—Hermo Hill, from Porto
Rico, for London—Commerziou Rathin, from Haupt, for
Alexandria—Marley Hill, screw steamer, from the west, for
London.

LORD BROUGHAM AND JOSEPH STURGE.--I re-
member a very graphic description which Lord
Brougham gave me in conversation at his house in Grafton-
street of Joseph Sturge's conduct in the matter pf the ap-
prenticeship system,
which he adduced as an illustr..Ation of
our friend's indomitable energy. He told me of Mr Storfe
coming to him to arraign the conduct of the masters in ti.:e
West(Brougham)
re a
glhnadmi e) s oppartehssiimng,
laughed lrin this fashion
deridingth eir
for proposing to abolish the apprenticeship " Why,
aphpimrentices ; how he
Joseph Sturge, how can you be such an old woman as to
dream that you can revive the anti-slavery agitation to put
an end to the apprenticeship"—how the quiet Quaker met
him with this reply, "Lord Brougham, it, when Lord
Chancellor, thou hadat a ward in chancery who was
apprenticed, and his master was violating the terms of
indenture, what would'st thou do ?" how he felt this as a
home thrust, and replied, " Why, I should require good
~
proof of the fact, Joseph Sturge, before I did anything
how how our friends rejoined, "Then I must supply
h
proof •" how he packed his portmanteau and cliita'entlt,
em-
barkedy for the West Indies, made a tour of theioin
that was
being practised on the negro apprentices
•
lected the necessary evidence of the "
andytheir masters
commenced
un
the planters : how he returned to Englandr
to abolish the ap
prcnticeship, to accomplish which
country y
was necessary to re-
organise all the old Anti-slavery
Societies which had been
dissolved, or had laid down their arms, happy to be relieved
a
frcm their long and arduous
the
narrative ; how he brought them
again into the field and attained
in conclusion, ho awarded the whole
narrative of Lord Brougham, and. well do I remember the
"Joseph Sturge," said he, " won the
merit to our friend..
very words in which,
game off his own bat.—.Rtchards's Life of Joseph Sturge,
just Published.
OSTRICH FARMING.—At the Swellendam Agri-
cultural Show, Mr van Dyk said that he had many ostriches
running on his place; he had formerly got £1 for them
each year, but now he got from £lO to £l5 sterling. Be
considered that every tame ostrich was worth £2O sterling
a year.—Port Elizabeth. (Cape of Good Hope) paper.