The Sun.
London, England, 1837-07-04 00:00:00

Academy in Dublin, he read those letters, and also ef)';iii-
bited the pictures which he had drawn in illustration of his
design, and declared his intention of preparing a petition to
your Honourable Ilouse, that nil:ler the sanction of the
imperial legislation what he proposed should be carried into
execution.

Petitioner, a native of Ire"an 1, presumes to hope that
even on an occasion of this kind, your Honourable House
will permit him to indulge in an expression of personal
pride ; and he does feel proud that the resolution passed
on the occasion when he read the foregoing letters and ex-
hibited his pictures, was proposed by that illustrious Eng-
lish philosopher, Professor Sedgwiek, of Cambridge, who
condescends to honour petitioner with his private friendship.
The general principle of petitioner's architectural design
having been thus laid before your Honourable House by
these letters, he earnestly prays that it may be distinctly
understood by the representatives of the people of the
United Empire, the Right Honourable the House of Com-
mons, that petitioner does not presume to suggest any
particular architectural plan beyond the erection of some
such solid, and well-ventilated structure, as mny for centu-
ries longer protect and perpetuate the existence of the
house and astronomical observatory of one, of whom it has
been most truly said, " the scientific character of Newton
is the glory of England."
If, however, it were a thing which a petitioner address-
ing your Right Honourable House might do with pro-
priety, your present petitioner would, without hesitation,
affirm that in this case the protecting building
,t The dome of thought, the palace of the soul,"
in order to be worthy of the mighty British empire, and of
the memory of him whose scientific character is the glory
of England, ought to be a majestic pile, vast in its dimen-
sions, and magnificently executed ; but this, however, is a
matter of secondary consideration.
The magic interest in the present case is, in the building
saved from ruin, protected and perpetuated, and not in the
surrounding tower, and super-incumbent dome, even al-
though that dome were to be as gorgeous as the dome of
the Vatican.

Lord Byron wrote in his " Childe Harold" the following
passage of resplendent beauty :

There is given,
Unto the things of earth which time bath bent,
A Spirit's feeling, and where he bath leant
His hand, but broke his scythe—there is a power,
And magic in the time-worn battlement,
To which the palace of the present hour
Must yield to pomp, and wait till ages are its dower.

Your petitioner most respectfully presumes to hope that,
however intensely just and beautiful the sentiment of this
passage may be, and is, as a general principle, the British
House of Commons will be of opinion that the observatory
of the writer of the " Optics," and of the " Principia," and
inventor of the " Fluxional Calculus" forms a transcendant
and refulgent exception. He dares to feel confident that
our honourable House will give proof by the passing of a
Bill to preserve it as long as possible from ruin, that it is
not considered by the Representatives of the British people
as one of the " things of earth," which " must yield its pomp,
and wait till ages are its dower," for its spiritualization, for
its " power and magic," and " spirit's feeling."
Petitioner respectfully presumes to call to the memory of
your hon. House as a precedent in confirmation of his prin-
ciple, the immense sum which has been expended, and so
honourably to England expended, in the renovation of the
mere exterior of that exquisite Gothic structure, Henry
the Seventh's Chapel in 'Westminster Abbey.
Petitioner bath read in the newspapers what he believes
to be perfectly true, although he has not actual knowledge
of the fact, that the late venerable Earl Fitzwilliam, even
as a private contribution, subscribed 60,0001. towards the
restoration of Yorkminster Cathedral after the conflagration

In order, however, that your Honourable House shall
not be without an alternative in case the execution of the
proposed building on a scale of great magnificence should
be deemed by the representatives of the people of the em-
pire inconsistent with public prudence, petitioner thinks it
his duty to embody in this petition another plan, taking
occasion to observe that if either the one or the other be
adopted, the site, by the removal of four or five old houses
in Leicester-square and St. Martin's-street, is an incompa-
rable situation for any public monument or public edifice
of any kind, in consequence of the splendid opening afforded
for viewing it by Leicester-square, (as will be clearly per-
ceived by the accompanying map) and its central situation
with relation to London, the metropolis of the world.
Petitioner's second, and, to an empire, very.cheop plan,
of protracting the duration of the house and observatory
of Newton, is the following :-
1. Let the underground story of the house bo filled to
the level of the street, with stone and mortar very well
grouted.

2. Let a great column of the most durable granite, and
solid and perfectly executed masonry, be erected, of proper
dimensions, ascending through the house, until it come to
join the bottom of the observatory, and let it be so con-
structed as that the observatory shall derive its future ver-
tical support from this massive and most firmly-constructed
granite column. The column to be of such dimension as
that every point of the bottom of the observatory shall rest
upon it.
3. Let the observatory itself, a very small room, be in-
crusted with marble.
4. Let the brick-walls of the house be incrusted both on
the outside and inside, with massive masonry of solid
blocks of the most durable granite, and after this external
and internal incrustation shall have been formed, let a solid
and massive wall of the same material be reared above this
incrustation until its elevation be several feet above the
summit of the observatory, and then let the whole
building be roofed in and covered in the most durable
manner which human ingenuity has as yet invented. For
this purpose an arch of granite will be found not to be ex-
celled.
Now, consequently, the observatory of Newton, instead
of being, as at present, exposed to the dilapidating effect
of the weather, of frosts, and heat, and rains, and winds
would be protected by being thus placed under the solid
roof of the general building.
Inscription on the tablet in Westminster Abbey :
11. S. E.
Imams Newton, Eques Auratus,
Qui animi vi prope divina,
Planctarum motus, figuras,
Cometarum scmitas, Oceaniquc wstus,
Sua mathesi faccm preferente,
Primus demonstravit.
Radiorum Luck Dissimilitudincs,
Colorumque lode neseentium proprietates.
Quas nemo ante Yet suspicatus crat, pervestigal it,
Naturze, aniiquitatis, S. Scriptune,
Scdulus, sagax, fides interpres,
Dci. opt. max. majcstateim Philosophia asseruit,
Evangelii simplicitatcm moribus exprcssit.
Sibi gratulentur mortales, tale tantumque cztitisse,
flumani generic decus.
Natus XXV. dccemb. MDC XLII. obiit XX. Mart.
MDCCXXVII.

An intellectual power, " almost divine," is the descrip-
tion of his intellect, on the tablet in the sanctuary of
England.
The Omniscient and Omnific God is described by Mil-
ton, in his Paradise Lost, as going forth from heaven in the
full effulgence of his glory, for the purpose of evolving
order out of chaos, by the creation of the universe ; and as
kin.- attended on that occasion by the gorgeous seraphim,
with° their dulcet voices, and the radient cherubim, with
symphonious harps. and the archangels and angels, and all
the inferior host of heaven.

If
it May be permitted that petitioner should give ex-
pression to the sentiment, which he does not irreverently,
but with the most sanctimonious recognition of the deep
solemnity of the subject, he will conclude his appeal to the
British House of Commons by saying, that after Newton
wrote his " Principia," and his " Optics," and had invented
the ethereal " Fluxional Calculus," if God, the Omnipo-
tent and Onlnific, the great " I am," who fills infinity in
contemplating the system of the creation, had deigned,
while contemplating the work of his own omnific word, to
he attended in the empyrean by any intellectual existence
inferior to the host of Heaven, Newton, whose ethereal
spirit, penetrating into the mystic abyss of space, animi vi
rope divina, discovered and expounded the eternal laws
of Nature, and whose name, consequently, belongs not to
England or this world alone, nor to time, but to the uni-
verse and eternity, might perhaps have been found the
‘ pure intelligential substance" most nearly approximating
in sapience to the celestial essences.
" Sibi gratulenter mortalcs," and let the people of Eng-
land exult above all others, " talc tantumque extitisse hu-
mani generis dccus."

Petitioner respectfully, most respectfully, hopes that this
appeal to the House of Commons will not be made in vain,
especially in an epoch like the present, in which the light of
science sheds an Elysian effluence on the world, although it
be now, in comparison with what it will be hereafter, only
as the cool dewy roseate dawn of the rosel blushing morn-
ing, in comparison with the meridian torrid glory of " the
arch-chemick sun."

This must be the case, in consequence of the inevitable
progressive development through future ages, of portions,
to use the words of the mighty metaphysician Locke, of
" those masses of knowledge which still lie hidden in the
secret recesses of nature."

And petitioner will ever pray,
THOMAS STEELE.
Shore of the Atlantic, County Clare, July. 1836.

For some days past the town has been full of a re-
port of the discovery of a treasure said to have been merle in a
house which has lately changed owners. It was said that the
workmen employed in pulling down an old wall had found a
quantity of gold coin, worth at least 300,000 francs. The
truth is, that numbers of ancient gold and silver coins, some
worth five florins, the others two florins, have been found. Tl•e
♦alue of the whole is said to be 3,000 francs.—Brussels Paper.