The Sun.
London, England, 1839-04-04 00:00:00

we are more or less affected or sensible. It matters
not, though we cannot see the pestilential particles
that affect the bodies of mankind ; but we feel them.
As little can we see those animal, moral, and intellec-
tual effluvia, which are diffused through the atmos-
phere of man, but we can feel them, at least those of us
who arc not completely animalised and seared. We resist
or fall prostrate before them. Hence those sympathies,
and antipathies that affect us in our private social
circles. Hence the yawnings that irresistibly
seize on a whole party. Hence, also, the disagreeable
feelings with which we sometimes retire from a circle.
We cannot tell how or why it is, but so it is ; we feel
unhappy, and wish before the proper fashionable time
to be gone. Some disagreeable organizations have af-
fected us, and provoked our low propensities ; and, by
not endeavouring to sift the matter to the bottom, we
remain an total ignorance of the cause. Hence also, the
happy feelings with which we with regret leave the com-
pany of some individual of a noble and amiable organiza-
tion. Such an individual spreads around him a highly
moral and intellectual, and consequently a happy and
healthy atmosphere ; and hence, all animals become
more or less affected. Fortunately, his organic exist-
ence says, be happy, and he is so. But the fact of bad
men or existences manifesting hatred to good organiza-
tions or men, which is often seen in society, does not af-
fect the case. These bad men wish to destroy them
because they are good—because they merely in con-
trast condemn them. Kindred minds, it has been re-
marked, are drawn to each other by expressions that
elude description, and like the gentle breeze that plays
on a smooth lake, are rather felt than seen. John it is
said, leaned on the bosom of Christ 1 These sympa-
thies require no teaching from men. They are the fixed
and unalterable decrees of Heaven,.which no tyrant, or
moralist, or dogmatic theologian can alter or even
modify, which none of these men should ever have im-
piously dared to alter, or change, or darken. Hence
children, particularly those of a sensitive constitution,
throw themselves at once into the arms of some, while
no persuasion, nor bribes, nor threats, nor punishments,
can induce them to be familiar with others. They
feel that they are safe ; and, likewise, men act on the
feeling. There are some individuals of both sexes, who,
I ,have seen the sentiment expressed in Blackwood,
can impose, or rather think they can impose, on every
one and anybody, except these fools, the child and the
dog, by delicious morsels of less consideration and cun-
ning prostration. This is highly sympathetic. It is right.
But we grown up men and women, even highly educated,
as it is called, well acquainted, forsooth, with the world--
meaning by this phrase, men as they have made them-
selves—we wise in our own eyes, wiser than the light
from heaven, tell, order, and command our children, by
a strange fatality, to disregard and despise these holy
laws. Let us be wise. We, in short, teach for doc-
trines the commandments of men, and trample, as we
think with impunity, upon these laws of infinite wisdom
and benevolence. It may, indeed, be said, that if
children held their peace in favour of a good man,
the very stones would cry out. Woman, often reviled
for her likes and dislikes, for her foolish attachment to
some of these laws, has sometimes resisted to the death
the barbarian attempt to force into her bosom the man
that she dislikes.
We endeavour to find out, and when found out to re-
spect, the laws of what we in our wisdom call those of
sluggish, inert, blind, matter, which can neither walk,
but this is not Otte, for it does walk ; nor hear, but this
may be questioned ; nor feel, but this also may be
doubted ; nor understand ; while we, by an insane igno-
rance even ridicule the very laws of mind. But the child
and the woman may now be able to render a reason for
the hope that is in them. The light from Heaven,
common sense, asks the cause of all these likes and
dislikes, these loves and hatreds, these sympathetic
tendencies which dark men cannot darken. She main-
tains that they cannot arise from nothing. No teaching
produces them, for even in spite of teaching to the
contrary, the child often listens to them. No particu-
lar climate produces them, for they are the produce of
all climates. No particular circumstance creates them,
for they are to be seen in all circumstances. In school
and out of school, in the nursery and out of the nursery,
at home and abroad. In short, it must be concluded
that these sympathies depend on innate corresponding
tendencies of the brain ; and, therefore, that brains must
differ—hence the different manifestations, or tendencies,
or effects.

I beg to close this extract of my lecture, observing
that it will be seen, by those gifted with a considerable
share of intellect, that I have not drawn the argument
so close as it is capable. The subject, however, requires
much attention ; but the crowd have given it scarcely
any consideration. I hare not seen any exhibitions of
annualising, and am, therefore, unacquainted with the
extraordinary modes which are practised. In my
lecture I allude to the more common processes, which
are always going on in life, to which the whole state of
society is more or less liable.
I am, Sir, yours, respectfully,
London, March 27. JOHN WHITE, A. M.

THE LATE ROBBERY OF GOLD
DUST.

APPREHENSION •f the SUPPOSED ROBBERS.
During the whole of yesterday morning a considesable
degree of excitement prevailed in the City, iu conse-
quence of a report being extensively circulated, that the
parties implicated in the late ingenious and well con-
trived robbery of two boxes of gold dust, valued at
6,400/., consigned to the Brazilian Mining Company,
which it will be recollected took place on Monday
week last, had been apprehended.
Since the affair, Roe, the officer of Guildhall police-
office, and Lee, of Lambeth-street police-office, have
been incessant in their endeavou,s to trace out the par-
ties concerned in the robbery, and to their own merit
have succeeded. There is no doubt entertained of the
parties apprehended being the thieves. On the discovery
of the robbery an investigation was instituted by the Di-
rectors composing the Dublin Steam Wharf Company,
and those connected with the Brazilian Mining Com-
pany ; and from certain particulars which were submit-
ted to their consideration, suspicion rested on some of
the clerks in the employ of the two Companies, but the
matter was so nicely done, that how to proceed was a
subject of great difficulty. The reward of 500/. was then
offered ; and since then circumstances have come to•
light which justified the taking into custody of one of
the. clerks in the service of the steam-packet wharf, of
the name of
,Casper, and his father, Ellis Casper, a
watch and clock maker, carrying on business in Fins-
bury Pavement. Their apprehension took place last
night, the son was taken by Lee, at the wharf of St.
Katherine's at six o'clock, and the father at his residence
in Finsbury Pavement at nine o'clock, by Roe, the
officer ; they were both conveyed to the City Compter,
in Giltspur-strect, where they were lodged for the night.
It having become generally known in the City that
the prisoners would be brought up at Gui!dhall Police
office this forenoon, for examination, a great number of
persons assembled about the avenues leading to the of-
fice. At twelve o'clock they were brought from the
Compter to the office in hackney coaches, but they were
kept separate, and not allowed to have any conversation
with each other. At half-past 12 o'clock Mr. Alder-
man Kelly took his seat on the bench, and shortly
afterwards the prisoners were placed at the bar. Their
appearance excited very great curiosity in the justice-
room, which was crowded to excess.
The father stated his name to be Ellis Casper, and of
the Jewish persuasion, lie was respectfully attired
and appears to be about 45 years of age. The son,
Lewis Casper, who also had a respectable appearance,
was 25 years of age. They were entered on the charge
sheet with being concerned with the robbery.
Mr. RATES, a Jew solicitor, came forward and stated
that he appeared on behalf of the prisoners.
On the worthy ALDERMAN being informed of the
the case, he inquired of the gaoler, whether the robbery
took place within the precincts of the city of London ?
Mr. PAYNE, the Chief Clerk—l understand not.
Roe, the officer, said that the offence took place in
the county, but as one of the prisoners had been cap •
tured in the city, and been locked up in the City Comp-
ter, he considered it proper to bring them before his
Worship.

Mr. PAYNE—The prisoners are charged with being
concerned in an extensive robbery, and you (addressing
himself to Roe) must state to the Alderman what the sus-
picions are against the accused parties, so as to justify
his remanding them to another police office.
Roe then stated that in consequence of certain in-
formation he received respecting the robbery, he appre-
hended the prisoners.

AldermAn KELLY—Is it your firm belief that they
are concerned in the robbery —Roo replied he was
certain.

Alderman KELLY—That is sufficient : and told the
prisoners that it was his duty to commit them to
another office.
The prisoners were immediately removed from the
bar, and conveyed to Lambeth-street Police Office,
where they will undergo examination this day.
We understand that there is every probability of re-
covering the stolen property, though it is converted
into bars.

(From a Work, entitled " Insurrection of Poland.")
La Harpe, his preceptor, and others who knew
the Czarewitch personally, have given him credit for
kindheartedness ; and the death of Paul produced very
different impressions on the two brothers. Alexander,
in reigning, forgot all besides. Constantine forgot
nothing, and for his father's death vowed hatred to aii
Russians, determined some day to take exemplary
revenge on them. All those whom Paul had perse-
cuted (and the number was considerable, for he had not
fallen by the hands of a few obscure assassins, but
through a widely spread conspiracy) became, after his
death, partisans of his successor. Constantine swore
eternal hatred against them. Alexander, en the con-
trary, looked to those very men for the security of his
throne, st fined with the blood of Lis father and his grand-
father. Yet this ecntrast of feeling did not disturb the
harmony bets e n the brothers. No Czar, Paul him-
self not excepted, had been so savage and violent as was
Constantine. It is one of the mysteries of Providence,
that such a man should have been destined by birth to
possess absolute power. To have allowed him tore-
main in St. Petersburgh, would only have been exposing
him to his father's fate ; to regard him as heir-presump
tire would have compromised, not only the empire, but
autocratisin itself. The only alternative was to keep
him at a distance. An inhuman tyrant, possessed of
exalted genius, may revolt, but he does not degrade
his subjects. He may rouse their intellect, and
stir up their spirit of revenge ; but he does not debase
their national character. But the endurance of a
harlequin with a Field-Marshal's staff dreaming
of craft and despotism is a satire on the sense and coe-
rage of the sufferers. Such was Constantine. This
persecutor of students and of Jews ; this terror of de-
graded women, with whom he often quarrelled, and
ordered them to shave their heads ; this spy, trembling
and suspicious, listening with a thousand ears to the low
whispers, to the loud complaints, and to the secret coun-
cils of the nation ; this executioner of soldiers, whom
for a button fastened contrary to regulation, a false step
in march, or an ill-adjusted knapsack, he deprived of
honour, liberty, or life ; this architect and gaoler of state
prisons ; this distributor in person of blows and stripes ;
this doubtful, intermediate point in the hierarchy of beings,
placed on the confines, where the brute race ceas-s and
the human begins, half-man, half-monkey, in whom the
Asiatic physiognomy, Kalmuck features, bristle eye-
brows, flattened and turned-up nose, and hoarse and
stifled 1" o ice struggled for mastery, with some few traces
of the European countenance, and a studiously polished
manner ; this type of the savage of Mu-covv as propa.
gated under the Tatar rule ; this incarnation of her
spirit, institutions, and history, ruled Poland for fifteen
years. Perhaps destiny would not or dared not push
further this irony of 4bl-tune. What the hat of ae-
thority placed upon a staff was to the countrymen of •
William Tell, such was Constantine's, with its white
feather, to the Poles. For fifteen years were they
doomed to bow to this hat, unless warned in time by
the rattling of his carriage wheels to escape in all di- I
rections.

Conscious of his guilt, but defying public opinion,
Constantine established the most perfect system of
secret police that ever existed, for denouncing not only
every spoken word, but even unuttered thoughts and
feelings. The Belvedere Palace, fitted for his residence
at the expense of the citizens, was the head-quarters of
this police, whence it extended throughout, and even
beyond, the kingdom. It was divided into two branches,
exterior and interior. The first of these consisted again
of two departments ; one of which, directed by the Polish
General Roznioski, took cognizance of the countries im-
mediately adjacent to the kingdom ; and the reports for-
warded to Warsaw by his agents in Prussia contained
details as accurate of the military stations, fortresses, gar-
risons, &c., and other resources of each of its provinces,as
if that country had belonged to Russia. Amongst the
papers afterwards found in the Belvedere was the plan
for an invasion of Galicia and Hungary. 'I he other
department, under the control of Colonel Fanshawe, an
Englishman by birth, extended to Germany, Italy,
France, and England. The reports transmitted from
those countries contained curious illustrations of their
respective governments, their public characters, the
hopes and wishes of their subjects, and, in many in-
stances, of their military force and resources. Let not
this warning be disregarded at the present moment,
when Russian writers and Russian spies, both male and
female, are carrying on their intrigues in all the capitals
of Europe.
The police of the interior was under the special di-
rection of Constantine himself, aided by the municipa-
lity of Warsaw and the post-office. To penetrate the
privacy of domestic life, all families were compelled to
hire their servants at an office established for the pur-
pose
at the municipality. Not only were public assem-
blies, public walks, the theatres, and private conversa-
tions, watched by police agents, but the very looks and
gestures of individals. Cemeteries, the tombs of pa-
triots, state prisons, became so many tests for loyalty ;
and the mournful look, or unbidden tear of the passers-
by, was construed into high treason, and punished ac-
cordingly. Every honest man was marked, the esteem
of his fellow-citizens being an influence dangerous to
Government. To such a degree did Constantine carry
persecution, that even birds, taught to sing the national
melodies, were taken from their owners and
individuals often disappeared, no one knew how ; and
time whispered lamentations of a mother or a wife alone
bore witness to her loss. Many such victims lingered
for years in prison, without being told the cause of their
captivity ; and if at length set free, it was usually under
an extorted oath never to divulge the secrets of the
dungeon. The cries of persons under torture were heard
by night. in the Belvedere, and it was rumoured that
Constantine himself was the torturer ; a statement con-
firmed by the death-bed confession of the late 'Warsaw executioner, as to the nocturnal executions which he bed
been compelled to inflict. The food usually adminis-
tered to the prisoners was salted herrings, without drink
of any kind ; but even this exquisite torment was, in one
instance at least, surpassed. A Pole, named Adam
Cichovvski, disappeared from his home under circum-
stances of more than usual mystery, and was supposed to
have been drowned in the Vistula, on the banks of
which his clothes had been found. Seven years after-
wards, on the outbreak of the insurrection of 1830, he
was discovered in prison. He related subsequently that
two Cossacks had been employed to stare alternately at
him, without intermission, until the diabolical invention
sickened him to madness. For months after his return
to his family he was unable to recognize either wife or
children, making no other reply to their questions than,
" Let me be at peace ! I know nothing :"

FLOGGING IN BA RBA DOS.—TIIC Legislature of
Barbados have re-enacted the barbarous punishment of
flogging. Thirty-nine lashes may be inflicted on any pri-
soi.er, for any breach of prison discipline, at the discretion
of any magistrate I

SPIES IN RUSSIA.—\iot even the correspond-
(once of Ministers with the Court of St. Petersburgh, nor
that of the Pr; ssiao and Austrian Consuls at Warsaw,
was exempted from this investigation, nho thus felt com-
pelled to send, not only their despatches, but their private
letters, by express. The only exception was in favour of
Paince►a Lowieka's letters, as Constantine read them be-
fore hand. Colonel Sass, who was assassinated in the
insurrection, had, during his residence several years in
England, invented means of opening letters and resealing
them, without leaving any trace of the operation. More
remarkable than all, the Imperial family themselves were
surrounded by the same halo of treachcry. That very Co-
lonel Sass was the Czar's spy over his brother ; who, in his
turn, bad agents to report to him every word uttered within
the Court of St. Petersburgh. A curious account was
found at the Belvedere of a visit made by Nicholas to 13er-
lin, detailing the most trifling act;ons of the then exam-
witch and his consort.