The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-03 00:00:00

himself to the republic as willingly as to royalty,
provided the republic had unity, grandeur, and

power.
He has, I repeat it, a very lively feeling of nation-
ality, a clear and rapid insight into the comme, cial
interests of France, a laborious and assiduous pti-
tude for business, a brilliant and refined stye of
converse, and court-like manners. What is the
ancestral name which he lacks ? The name of M.
Mauguin is fully equal to that of many dukes and
peers who drag along their title in oblivionand
beun-
considered. Why should not M. Mauguin
come Minister of Foreign Affairs ? If it lay in
my power to give the wheel of his fortune a turn, I
would make him so willingly. M. Mauguin is
another man of July, whom the dynasty, as you will
see, will use in its services as a last resource.
We have seen the political side of the man, let
us now paint the orator.
The gestures of M. Mauguin are noble—his
words are clear and sounding—his attitude is firm.
He is not so long, so diffuse, in short, so much of
an advocate, as the other advocates. He occa-
sionally spoils his diction by excess of care ; but
his phraseology is rather declamatory in the tone
than in the words, rather in the accentuation than
in the ideas. He may be blamed for calculating
too much on his oratorical effects, for allowing the
thread of his discourse to be visible, and for not re-
signing himself sufficiently to nature. His exordi-
ums are neat ; he disposes well the different parts
of his subject ; follows them out ; pushes them
forth with vigour in every direction, while his
manner is judicious and carefully elaborated. Above
all, he is very clever.
From his long bar-practice, from the peculiarity
of his studies, from the extension and suppleness of
his mind, M. Mauguin is well fitted to throw light
on all questions of civil and criminal law, of com-
merce, customs, and finance, and will be, when he
pleases, one of the most useful Deputies in the
Chamber, as he is now one of the readiest speakers.
Sometimes when he grows animated, and nature
overcomes art, he ceases to be a rhetorician, and
becomes an orator, rising even to the highest
eloquence. Then he makes his hearers tremble,
turn pale, and weep at the lacerations of expiring
Poland. He cries from the depths of his heart,
he sighs, becomes agitated, and moves us. How-
ever, these effusions of soul are not common with
M. Mauguin, and do not readily escape but from
more genuine, more vehement, and more irregular
orators. M. Mauguin is too much master of him-
self to find the pathetic, which is only to be met
with when one does not seek it. But he wields
with decided advantage pointed sarcasm and fine-
r edged irony.
M. Mauguin is a rough questioner, fruitful,
ingenious, daring, and pressing. He is not to be
intimidated by sneers or by murmurs, and becomes
more cool at the anger of his adversaries.
I saw him when from the height of the tribune
he struggled against his formidable adversary, Casi-
mir Perier. The Minister, exhausted, out of
breath, darted at the tribune the lightning of his
fiery eye, bounded on his bench, and ground
broken menaces between his teeth. M. Mauguin
from his smiling lips discharged those darts :which
do not draw blood, but quiver beneath the skin.
He flew round the Minister, and settled in a
fashion on his forehead, like the gadfly, which
stings the roaring bull. He entered his nostrils,
and Casimir Perier foamed, writhed under him,
and prayed for mercy.
Let us consider the whole man. He is a bad
politician rather from carelessness of conviction
than weakness of character, but an excellent ora-
tor—equal at times to the greatest. At in-
tervals he is eloquent. He is always full,
lucid, concise, firm, " incisive." His mind is
fertile in resources, extended, penetrating, and
flexible. He is a quiet calculator in a storm, a
master of his passions, has less to repress than to
conduct them, and only restraining his impatience
that he may better sharpen and fling back the spent
darts that have been thrown at him. He is a
graceful and fascinating man, somewhat presump-
tuous and greedy of praise, and, to sum up all in
one word, a person whom one cannot strongly love
or hate.

Prince Napoleon Louis has sent a subscription
tof 2,000 francs to the fund now forming in Paris fcr
she relief and liberation of French prisoners said to be
still detained in Siberia. _ _

A HAUNTED HOUSE AT DOVER.—On Sun-
day week, the Misses Keys, of Limekiln-street, Dover,
soon after going to bed, heard a knocking at their cham-
ber-door. It commenced with a gentle tapping, as
though some one was at the dcor rapping with their
knuckles wishing to come in. The noise increased
louder and louder until it became as loud as one knock-
ing with all his might, when it left off. Ever since that
time the same noise has been heard in various parts of
the house. At one time it appears in the cellar ;at an-
other under the floor, from thence in the chambers,
and at other times in the parlour or sitting room.
Neither is the noise confined to time, for it is heard at

..-....... . .
various times in the day as well as in the night, and by
any person who visits the apartments. Sometimes the
noise will leave the house for a whole day, and return
at night ; at other times nothing is heard all night, but
returns with the rising sun. It always commences in
the same way—a gentle tapping as with the knuckles
until it becomes of the most violent description. A
few days since it camp while a party were sitting in the
parlour, when the door was a little way open ; the
rapping then appeared to be on the top of the door,
and when it increased to the highest pitch the door
went to and fro as though some one was shaking
it in a very vehement manner. Several scores of per-
sons who have visited the house declare the noise to be
most awful ; and many who have gone to the house
laughing at the folly or the superstitions of those who
have previously visited, have returned trembling. As
to the cause of this extraordinary affair various are
the conjectures. The house has been in the posses-
sion of this family for many years past, neither has
anything ever been heard till up to the time above
stated. The effect produced by this circumstance on
the family, and many others who have visited, has been
exceedingly great ; and the young ladies can on no ac-
count be prevailed on to sleep in the house. The
floors have all been taken up, and every search ima-
ginable has been made to ascertain, if possible, the real
cause ; but hitherto their exertions have proved una-