The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-10 00:00:00

The Ex-Attorney-General.

(Frain the Law Times of To-day,)
We are assured—and we hear it with a regret which the
profession will share—that ill-health was the real, and not,
as surmised, merely the assigned cause, of Sir W. Ather-
ton's retirement. He is very ill, and his physicians advised
that nothing but perfect rest from mental toil will restore
him. Ho retains his seat for Durham, because that will
call upon him for no active serlces for some months,
whereas the duties of Attorney- General made daily demands
upon his care. All will heartily join us in the expression
of earnest hope that rest will speedily restore him in health
and to the profession.

A YANKEE BOOBT—(woree than Dogberry)—
fairly " written down An Ass"—by Consul Nathaniel
Hawthorne, in his new book of " Our Old Home."—One
day a queer, stupid, good-natured, fat-faced individual came
into my private room, dressed in a sky blue cut-away coat
and mixed trousers, both garments worn and shabby, and
rather too small for his overgrown bulk. After a little preli-
minary talk he turned out to be a country shopkeeper (from
Connecticut I think), who had left a flourishing business,
and come over to England purposely and solely to have an
interview with the Queen. Some years before he had named
his two children, ono for her Majesty and the other for
Prince Albert, and had transmitted photographs of the littlo
people, as well es
Queen had
ofhiswifeangdrahteimfuslely kn
himself, to
acknowledged
driothues
godmother. The
favour, in a letter under the hand of her private secretary.
Now the shopkeeper, like a great many other Americans,
had long cherished a fantastic notion that he was one of the
rightful heirs of a rich English estate; and on the strength
of her Majesty's letter, and the hopes of a royal patronage
which it inspired, he had shut up his little country store
and come over to claim his independence. On the voyage a
German fellow-passenger had relieved him of his money on
pretence of getting it favourably exchanged, and had disap-
peared immediately on the ship's arrival, so that the poor
fellow was compelled to pawn all his clothes except the re-
markably shabby ones in which I beheld him, and in which
(as he himself hinted, with a melancholy yet good-natured
smile) he did not look altogether fit to see the Queen. I agreed
with him that the bobtailed coat and mixed trousers consti-
tuted a very odd looking court dress, and suggested that it
was doubtless his present purpose to get back to Connecticut
as fast as possible. But no; the resolve to see the Queen was
as strong in him as ever,and it was marvellous the pertinacity
with which he clung to it amid raggedness and starvation,and
the earnestness of his supplication that I would supply him
with funds for a suitable appearance at Windsor Castle.
I never had so satisfactory a perception of a complete booby
before in my life; and it caused me to feel kindly towards
him, and yet impatient and exasperated on behalf of com-
mon sense, which could not possibly tolerate that such an
unimaginable donkey should exist. I laid his absurdity
before him in the very plainest terms, but without either
exciting his anger or shaking his resolution. Oh, my dear
man,' quoth he, with good-natured, placid, simple, and
tearful etubborness, if you could but enter into my feel-
ings and see the matter from beginning to end as I see it 1'
To confess the truth, I have since fell I was hard-hearted
to the poor simpleton, and that there was more weight in
his remonstrance than I chose to be sensible of, at the time ;
for, like many man who have been in the habit of making
playthings or tools of their imagination and sensibility, I
was too rigidly tenacious of what was reasonable in the
affairs of real life. And even absurdity has its rights, when,
as in this case, it has absorbed a human being's entire 110
turo and purposes. I ought to have transmitted /Jeff
Old
Mr. Buchanan, in London, who, being a good-natured
gentleman, and anxious, just then, to gratify the7o't him
Yankee nation, might, for the joke's sake, have
. herself open
admittance to the Queen, who had fairly laidou'r
r country-
to his visit, and has received hundreds of was inexor
, men on infinitely slighter grounds. hubcie proximity of
able, being turned to dint by the insufferssbuslinceasns in
see any
a fool, and refused to interfere with hid
way except to procure him a passeg!,is moment, and ap_
For years and years,
face of mild, ridiculous despair, 8::"
bow awfully cruel he
Queen Victoria had
preciate, better than I couldott.
must have felt my obduranieiy,
the idea of an intervie%d;
and hew, when he really
an iron-hearted
wtiihtielpalace. doer was h •
"u
haunted his poor foolislisei
stood on English ground, an g g
second-class
ri3do_se.
I(ss oi lowseveral
e. ticketrhaal lialatilsledreamilafuotrl
cote(' to turn back, a penniless and
ajar for him, he was e:P merely because
Consul refused to
Ile
bamboozled sinipleto-n,da
ultimately sunk)
limes after-
London I that e
, bsisting on a pittance allowed him in the
wares, so
starving him back to C
visti°tedu)the Consulate
cnnecticut, assail-
hope of ir the old petition at every opportunity, looking
ing 11 visit, but, stl
shabbier at every l, thoroughly good-tempered,
sha gradually .
wildly stubborn, and spelling throuperceptiongh his tears, not without
ludierousnesa of his own
Finally he disappeared altogether. pseition
THE EARTHQUAXE.—It appears from inquiry
made bye cilicers of the City police of the respective
man
who were o duty on the morning of the 6th inst.,
th tho shock of the earthquake did not in any way affect
htheearCdq oriu',as each and all of those men state that they neither
saw anything that aroused either their fear or
curiosity. This inquiry was made by order of the head
commissioner, and a similar order has been issued at the
head-quarters of the Metropolitan force, whose report is not
WI yet returned.

'FLORAL BAROMETERS.—Chickweed especially is
Weather-telling. It the flower is fully open n
rain need be feared, for some hours, at least; if however
the little flower is partially closed, the weather is generally
rainy; if it becomes quite shut up, then a waterqh.:
and an umbrella are necessary out-door appendages
various sorts of trefoil will usually close their leaves,aci,seh.e
approach of bad weather. Tulips, and several otrhaoinn. ~ '
The
with yellow colouring in them, shut up betoroup
before a
wild sorrel! will completely double its
storm. Innumerable plants and fie
ni never niis.
that the weather invariably affects,
awl that willwerloeaveisght be cited
lead the oi)server.