The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-14 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 14, 1863.

DO NOT FORGET YOUR APPOINTMENT.
—We Sup at EVANS', Covent-garden, after Jullien's
Concert.

KINAHAN'S LL WHISKY v. COGNAC
BRANDY.
This celebrated Old IRISH WHISKY rivals the finest
FRENCH BRANDY,
It i Pure, Mild, Mellow, Delicious, and very Wholesome.
Sold in Bottles, 3s. Bd., at the Retail Houses in London ; by
the Agents in the principal towns in England ; or wholesale
.÷

L
8, GREAT WINDMILL-STREET, W.
Observe the Red Seal, Pink Label, and Cork branded
Kinahan's LL Whisky."

THE best TROUSERS for gentlemen to wear
are those mad, by ELSTOB, of 60, New Bond-street
They are neither so low in price as to necessitate their being
carelessly put together, nor so dear as to gain only the
wealthy purchasers. "In medio tutisimus ibis."
ELSTOB'S TROUSERS, TWENTY-ONE SHILLINGS

MR. CHARLES KNIGHT,
The Veteran Author, Editor. Printer, Pub-
lisher, Historian, Encyclopaedist.

(From the Athenteuin.)
Mr, Charles Knight may be considered as a Literary
Elder in many senses, and in every sense a good one.
Byron said he hated an author who was all author. Byron
would, it may be presumed, on this account at least, have
liked Mr. Knight: as many of the poet's successors have
been proud and happy to own they did on higher grounds.
Certainly, he has been awauthor : yet hot all an author,
Indeed, it may be said of him, that he has been a professor
in every branch of the book trade, from the humblest to the
highest. He has been a printer. He has been a publisher.
He has been a compiler, a reporter, an editor, a critic, an
author; and it is not too much to say of him, now that he
puts his case befoie us, as a whole, in his ripe age, that in
all these departments of intellectual trial he has gained some
distinction. There may be cases of a somewhat similar kind
in our rich literary annals. Richardson was a printer,
Dodsley, the publisher, wrote plays. Jerrold set up copy
before he supplied it. Cottle " sold the books he did not
write." Lackington wrote a book, but it was only about
his own experiences. Lord Campbell reported the House
of Commons. Tom Moore wrote leading articles. Byron
started a newspaper. But we do not remember an instance
in which, oie and the same gentleman could boast of the
same infinite variety of literary occupation of Mr. Knight.
What man has set up newspaper copy and written a History
of England—published Poor-law reports, and composed a
tragedy in verse—reported the Parliamentary debates, and
edited a compendious cyclopaadia of universal knowledge?
Even in the amount of effort achieved, the number of
.pages printed, Mr. Kuighkliterar7 labours are remark-
able. His works would fill a very large shelf—almost
a library. They are on all sorts of subjects ; but chiefly
perhaps on those connected, more or less closely, with social
reforms and popular education. Probably Mr. Knight has
written and edited more pages than Hume, Gibbon, Byron,
Moore, and Wordsworth all put together. Within the last
ten years he has produced more literary matter, original
and edited, than Dickens, Lytton, Tennyson, Trench, and
Browning all combined. We happen to be writing these
remarks away from books of reference, but we have a very
recent and pleasant recollection of eight octavo volumes of
history, twenty-two quarto volumes of Cyclopeadia, four
volumes of " Half-Emirs with the Best Authors," ten
volumes of the "Stratford Edition of Shakspere," one
volume of " Shakspere Studies," and two octavo volumes
of " Once upon a Time." When it is considered that these
works are the productions of a man otherwise engaged as a
publisher, they become still more remarkable. People were
amazed that Richardson should have found time, in the
course of a long life as a man of business, to write the
stories of "Pamela," " Clarissa Harlowe," and " Sir
Charles."

In these several capacities of printer, publisher, reporter,
editor, and author, Mr. Knight has seen a good deal of
mankind, and especially of the eminent of mankind. In
his early youth, as the son of a Windsor bookseller, he
was familiar with George the Third and his Windsor
circle; a little later, as a local printer, he became ac-
quainted with a knot of young Etonians who were barn
for fame, including Praed, Moultrie, and Macaulay. After
his removal to London, his friendships extended right and
left round the circle of poets, wits, philosohers, and politi-
cians ; and in this magic circle Mr. Knight has lived for
nearly 50 years.

Is Sergeant Shee to get the Vacant

Judgeship ?

It is w a
saw
whn
indignationo great m
two eminent
emyienaernst
from the ordinary course of preferment in
lawyersi
n the
their
s hp shut
utpborl
oui c
-t
fession on account of their political opinions or for
reasons connected with the zealous exercise of pro-
fessional duties. Mr. Brougham and Mr. Denman
had no special right to the rank of King's Cuunsel,
nor would it have been decorous or even reasonable
in any public speaker or public writer to clamour
for their advancement. But when it became notori-
ous that they lay under a ban by reason of their
politics, and that it had been Jeclared they never
should be alto wed to rise above their then positions
at the Bar, the public protest was very loudly made,
and their exclusion was felt as a general grievanee.
Unless we are lunch misinformed, something of the
same kind is now happening, and a very eminent
lawyer has been avowedly excluded from the English
Bench because he is a Roman Catholic. It is very
commonly believed that upon the last vacancy this
gentleman was named for the appointment, and that
his religion was made a ground of objection. The
whole profession will agree that no other objection
could have been urged. It can be nothing to us or to
the public what competent man succeeds Mr. Justice
Wightman, but it is of great consequence that any
remnant of the old rags of bigotry and intolerance
should hang about our Council Chamber, and
should narrow the choice of selection of our public
servants. If it be a homage paid to the baser pre-
judices of the nation, it is very cowardly; if it be a
real substantive conviction that a Roman Catholic
can never be an upright English judge, it is a mon-
strous folly. _ _ .

There ought to be only one rule in the selection

of judges, both in England and Ireland—to choose
the man who will make the best judge. The best
judge is the man who, possessing the learning of
his profession, has strength of mind to put off the
form of his politics and the form of his faith at the
door of his court, to take them up again as he goes
out. If he cannot do this, be he Whig or Tory,
Churchman, Dissenter, or Catholic, he must be a
partisan judge; if he can do this, it is of no conse-
quence what his politics or form of religion may be.
In Ireland, where the Protestants are the most edu-
cated and wealthy part of the community, it is
almost a qualification for the Bench to be a Protes-
tant; in England, where the Catholics, although
very few, are second to none of our fellow-subjects
in respectability and loyalty, it is declared to be an
absolute disqualification to be a Catholic. All this
is an anachronism, and we ought to be ashamed of
such folly. In a Liberal Government such an os-
tentatious intolerance is especially odious.— Eines.