The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-21 00:00:00

N°, 22,225,


NEWSPAPER
fr --f•tr.77 "
ttneral
of-tffe late Count Alfted:itlitVW'
Count Alfred de Vigny was buried.lmititaix'
morning. He was born in 1799. The timylltas s
the chosen profession of his family, and ho himself,
at the age of 16, entered the Red Mousqnetaires of
Louis XVIII., just in time to quit France with him
on Napoleon's return from Elba. In the following
year he exchanged into the infantry. He accom-
panied the Duke d'Angouleme on his military pro-
menade in Spain and left the service, a captain, in
1823. Of his works, chiefly poetical, probably the
best known to English readers is his historical ro-
mance of " Cinq Mars," a work of great interest and
merit, which appeared in 1826, went through four
editions in three years—at that time an almost un-
precedented success in France—and which the
Debats, in a rather high•flown eulogium, bays is
perhaps the choicest gem of modern romance. He
published a translation of" Othello," performed at
the Theatrercanelis in 1829, and two other plays,
"La Mai echale d'Anere" and " Chatterton." His
death was precededbyr
' Ylo
ill-
ness.
,Alfred
‘e`a tic VignyFormany
had
ye a
b•
t 8
i
,Ie slowly
amassed fragments, poetical materials, murmuring always,
like Ancli6 Cheuicr,
Bien n'cst fait aujourdhui, tout sera fait demain '
The morrow has come and his artist hands are cold in the
'y very
d the
nothing.ng
p e andb a painful
tomb. But in the mystery of private life, under the inspi-
ration of the only Muses who have dictated to him his
work of honour and of pity, he accomplished other works,
the best, which only his most intimate friends had oppor-
tunity of admiring. Eight months ago, from his bed of
agony, he presided at the funeral of Madame do Vigny, his
valetudinarian companion, for whom during 20 years he had
been the most indetatigable, the most exquisite sister of
charity on whom angels ever smiled. Absorbed in these
pious cares, entrenched in his poetical solitude, isolated from.
coteries noble and proud, he died as a poet, without a stain
on his ermine robe. The moment has not come to revert to
the beautiful works which will immortalize his name. But
he was large of heart and good. It is soothing to say that,
before all else, while we still are weeping his loss. France
has lost one of her purest glories."

//--e

PUICE..... --Ad.
STAMPED ....sd.

SMOKING ON RAILWAYS.

The Saturday Beriew pleasantly enough
argues thus, that a system should be
adopted—as, in fact, on a few lines, it has
been for some time past—of attaching smoking
carriages in the rear of all trains, to which
smoking rooms at the stations might reasonably be
added. A. small fee might be charged, if thought
worth while. Thousands would gladly pay it ; and
the company would soon realise enough to defray
all the fines levied on them for casualties by juries
in the excursion season. Morals would be purer,
the carriages less reeky, the risk of fire less,
the public more comfortable, the servants
relieved of an invidious charge, the company
enriched. Under the existing system there is a
constant call for dodging, shifting, " tipping," and
equivocating, and there is desultory smoke ever
flitting about, and the stale aroma, which even to a
votary of tobacco is a nuisance, sticking in the
cushions. Wherever the practice which we suggest
has been adopted, no ill effect whatever has been
known to follow from its use. But we will take the
prejudices of mutually antagonistic sections of the
community, and show that such a change as We
propose would best meet the views of those who
condemn and those who defend smoking.
First, let us take the extremest possible view—
that of the eminently ascetic Dean, whose example
of temperance shows itself in his drink, but does not
extend to his language, and who, under the paternal
rule of James I. and VI., would certainly have risen
to be an archbishop. The Very Rev. Dr. Counter-
blast might say :—" Tobacco is a gorging fiend, let
us do what we can to intercept his ravages by pre-
venting contagion between smokers and the un-
tainted residue of the public. 13y all means let them
not ride in the same carriage, lest the doom which,
sooner or later, is the smoker's portion fall upon inno-
cent and guilty alike. The man who would light a
pipe would pick a pocket ; but if the Legislature will
not take my advice, and exclude smokers from the
benefit of railway travelling, let the latter at least
feel the ban of social excommunication, and bo
treated even as negroes are in the Northern States
—thrust forth, as an unclean offscouring of
humanity, into a vehicle by themselves."
We next proceed to consider the views of an old-
fashioned gentleman of the grand Georgian era,
who has taken " Prince's mixture " these .50 years,
but hold the ignited weed in polite abhorrence. He
will recount his acute sufferings when, there being
family affairs of importance to be settled, ha took a
place in the mail train, and was kept from sleep all
night by the fumes of a lively party of subalterns
in the next apartment, who regularly opened fire
as soon us the train was in motion, and had their
whiff over before it reached the station, evading his
detection, and defying his throats. Ho woke next
morning from hurried slumber in an hotel, and
found his peruke—faugh! not all the perfumes of
the Georgian era were able to overcome the per-
tinacious odour of the weed. Following the tra-
ditions of the same golden age, be sent a challenge
to the whole party, but discovered that one of the
subs was his own nephew, and wrote at once to get
him cashiered. He could not obtain that favour, but

struck him out of his will, and also brought an
action to compel the railway company to deodorize

their own cushions and his perukes. "Why," he
concludes, " not have a dickey' behind every train
to receive these riotous young savages, and erablo
a gentleman—the few who are left now-a-days—
to breathe freely daring his journey, and feel pre-
sentable on getting out ? "
On the other hand, our smoke-consuming lieu-
tenant thinks it " a shame a fellow can't have a
weed without all this botheration. Always smokes,
except when there is danger of being rude to a lady,
or, since his uncle had cut him, of a forty-shilling
fine. Tho present regulation leads to a great waste
of matches, by which many holes ere burnt in a
fellow's coats and wraps. Had paid the fine once,
and must have paid it many times over in tipping
the guard. Remembers that night in the mail train.
Nunkey' was great fun, and wanted to fight the
whole lot of them, but has cut him dead ever since,
and where is the money for his captaincy to come
from now ? Knows a stunning line, where the por-
ters always whisper, ' Do you want to smoke, sir ?'
at least, to others, never to him—to him they bring
a cigar as a thing of course. Capital good weeds
they are, tool Is aware that it is forbidden to give
money to the servants. Lots of things are forbidden,
in the army and out of it, but no one makes himself
unhappy about them. Should he object to a emok-
ing carriage ? Of course not. It would be the very
thing for keeping one out of the way of uncles and
other aged or dyspeptic humbugs, who were the
victims of the prejudices of a bygone age. If there
had been a smoking carriage, he shouldn't have been
cut off with a shilling."

Another, a steady-going old smoker, "dislikes
the discomfort of feeling that a man mustn't do what
he can't do without; hates the risk of being bothered
by police, and badgered by old ladies. Doesn't
want to annoy other people, that would effectually

prevent his enjoyment. Likes a pipe above all
things, but dislikes asking a lady if she has no ob.
jcction. In the chilly weather, especially, tobacco
is indispensable to the well-being of the human
frame, and after the wretched comestibles which the
so-called ' refreshment' rooms furnish, some real re-
fresher is, in his opinion, necessary. Why should
people of opposite tastes be forced into familiarity
and made uuncighbourly, when a simple arrange-
ment might preclude any such necessity ? Tobacco
rightly applied conduces always to mutual good-
humour. Why should a man waiting for a train an
hour and a half have his pipe put out ? Thinks
that the smoking room at the station is as necessary
as a smoking ce.rriege in the train ; and believes the
companies might make a deuced good thing of it,
if they would only open their eyes, and look that
way." Wo will not add to the argument by any
less original comments. The public must judge
whether the allegations of these Vatiol.l4 malecn,
teats are genuine or fictitious.

MR. INGLAKE's "Invasion of the Crimea," the(
fourth edition of which has inst appeared, has
already srread over the continent. Tauchnitz, at Leipzig.,
has not only published a Germantranslation of the work, but
likewise a cheap English Continental edition in four small
volumes. A French translation, which will most likely
create more ill-blood, and be read more t han any other one on
the other side of the Channel, will, it is stated, be brought
out in Brussels in the course of the ncmt month,