The Sun.
London, England, 1830-05-06 00:00:00

THE AUTHOR OF " LACON."

It is melancholy to reflect that men of the
greatest genius are frequently the victims of their
own waywardness, vices, or indiscretion:. The
most brilliant talents too often eclipsed and ren-
dered useless to society by errors of conduct..—
.There is, perhaps, no human being now living
who affords a more striking example of the truth
of these remarks than the Rev. C. C. Colton,
Lae rector of Kew, and author of one of the
most valuable works in the English language,
exclusively of many other scattered and fugitive
productions. This gentleman, it may be remem-
bered, disappeared under very mysterious cir-
cumstances about the time when the murder of
\Veare by Thurtell and his associates caused
such an extraordinary sensation in the public
mind. It was well known that the Rev. Mr.
Colton was in the habit of carrying large sums
of money about his person, and that he was
not unaccustomed to visit those dens of iniquity
commonly called " Hells," in some of which
he had met with John Thurtell. These circum-
stances, and the reports which obtained circula-
tion of that criminal's murderous plans, induced
a very general suspicion that the Rev. Gentleman
had been inveigled and destroyed by Thurtell and
his companions. Thurtell, however, on beiog
questioned a short time prior to his execution,
on the subject of Mr. Colton': remarkable ab-
sence, denied all knowledge of what had became
of him, a denial that turned out to be perfectly
true. Mr. Colton, by gambling and other ex-
travagancies, had become involved in debt to a
very large amount, principally for jewellery,
and, unable to meet the demands of his cre-
ditors, he embarked with the utmost secrecy for
the United States. He continued in America
for a considerable time, and afterwards returned
to Europe, but not to England. He took up
his abode at Paris, and there became well known

to the frequenters of No. 9, and the othergaming
saloons of the Palais Royal. So successful was
he in his speculations, that in the course of a year
or two he acquired as much as five and twenty
thousand pounds sterling, and happy would it have
been for him if he had then forsworn gambling for
ever, and invested his money, as he often talked cf
doing, in the American funds. He collected
a considerable number of valuable paintings,
and his lodgings in the Valais Royal, though
the interior sufficiently marked the eccentric
character of the owner, afforded a great treat to
the admirers of the fine arts. But inveterate
attachment to the gaining table rendered him
some time since a beggar. He became the vic-
tim of a conspiracy, and the fancied security
with which he conducted his operations was the
fatality by which he was ruined. Outlawed in
England, he made a vain attempt to prevent the
deprivation of his living at Kew : he lost it by
a decree of the Ecclesiastical Court. He is
now living at Paris in the most pitiable circum-
stances—a melancholy example of the vice of
gaming. With a m►nd eminently endowed by
nature, with the stores of inexhaustible learning,
with powers of conversation of the highest order,
with talents and acquirement fitted to adorn any
rank or station, he now prowls for a subsistence
in the vilest haunts of the French metropolis,
and among the most infamous wretches that in-
fest the Palais Royal.—Northern John Bull.

Mr. ROTHSCHILD was under the gallery of
the House of Commons on Monday night, fur the purpose
of hearing the debate on the Bill for eba removal of tie
civil disabilities of the Jews.