The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-05 00:00:00

MR, SERGEANT SHEE.

Our contemporary the Morning Advertiser,
after quoting in its impression of to-day the para-
graph given by us on Saturday from the Law
limes in reference to the late legal appointments,
observes

" We entirely agree with our law contemporary
that an ast of greater injustice than that of passing
over Mr. Sergeant Shea was never committed by
any Government. For years the learned sergeant
has not only been at the head of his profession, but
it is admitted on ail hands that no one in West-
minster Hall possesses in a more eminent degree the
leading qualities necessary for the Bench. To pass
him over in favour of a gentleman of no note is,
therefore, an outrage on all those principles of jus-
tice which ought to guide the conduct of Govern-
ment in making their judicial appointments."

THE NEW LEGAL CHANGES.—On Saturday the
Hon. Mr. Baron (late Sergeant) Pigott, of Sherfield
Hill, near Basingstoke, was sworn in as one of the Puisne
Barons of the Court of Exchequer, before the Right Hon.
the Lord Chancellor, at his private mansion, Hackwood
Park, Basingstoke. At the same time Sir Roundel'
Palmer, Q.C., the late Solicitor-General, took the oaths as
Attorney-General; and Mr. R. P. Collier, Q.C., one of the
members for Plymouth, was also sworn in on his appoint-
ment to the office of Solicitor-General. The two latter
appointments create vacancies for the boroughs of Rich-
mond and Plymouth. Both the hon. and learned gentle-
men have issued addresses to their respective constituents,
offering themselves for re•election.—Observer.
OZONE is still a mysterious agent. If we do not
yet actually comprehend the fullness of its agency,
Mr. W. C. Barder has, after eight years' study, discovered
something of its whereabout. Wind, which has recently
come over the sea, he tells us, is almost invari ibly heavily
charged with none
while land breezes bring but little of
it on their breath.

A GOOD AMERICAN PUN about Prince Alfred
is mentioned by Manhattan in the midst of
the dismay caused throughout the North by the
news of the disastrous defeat of Rosencranz in
Tennessee. It is this :—" Why would not his Royal
Highness Prince Alfred have anything to de with foreign
Greece ?" The answer being, "Because his Royal English
Highness preferred his own domestic and native Ile."
MUNIFICENCE OF PARSEE LONDON MERCHANTS.
—An eminent Parsee merchant firm iu the City
of London, has presented £2,000 to the Royal National
Lifeboat Institution, through its chairman, Thos. Baring,
Esq., M.P., to enable it to form a lifeboat establishment on
the English coast, and permanently to keep it up. Their
firm is now under dissolution, and in order to show their
gratitude to the people of this great metropolis, from whom
they have received for many years every courtesy, they
have presented this munificent amount to one of England's
greatest and noblest benevolent institutions, whose lifeboats
know of no distinction of race or religion when their ser-
vices are required during the storm to save the drowning
shipwrecked sailor. Between 500 and 600 lives are thus saved
every year by its lifeboats, and by the crews of shore boats to
whom it grants rewards for tneir gallant exertions. The
eminent philosopher, Sir David Brewster, has just written
in a popular miscellany :—" In order to enable the Lifeboat
Institution to maintain its existing life fleet of 125 boats in
a state of efficiency, and to place a lifeboat on every danger-
-0118 shore, the public must add liberally to its funds. There
is not a family in the land that has not a relative or a
friend exposed to the dangers of the sea ; and there is not a
family or an individual that can escape from the obligation
of contributing to the grandest and holiest of our societies—
the National Lifeboat Institution. If it is a high privilege
and a still higher duty to feed the hungry, to clothe the
naked, to heal the sick, and to teach the ignorant, it is surely
a higher privilege, and a higher duty still, to save from
sudden death lives that have long to live and that are to live
for ever."

How " STONEWALL " JACKSON BECAME A
SOLDIER.—When Jackson was in his 19th year,
the member of Congress for that section of Virginia had a
presentation to the military academy at West Point, in the
State of New York, which was offered to, but declined by, a
boy in the neighbourhood. Jackson as seized with an
eager desire to avail himself of such an unusual advantage,
for he had imbibed a great ambition to become a soldier. In
vain his uncle attempted to dissuade him • in vain did his
friends point out the deficiencies of his own education, and
the obstacle his age presented, he being nearly three years
beyond that usual on admission. Nothing daunted,
though fully alive to these drawbacks, the youth
resolved to go, and set to work to prepare himself for
the ordeal. One day, in a pelting rain, he burst into
the office of a friend—an intimate acquaintance of
_M.r. Hayes, the member of Congress who could procure
him the cadetship. The rain was streaming from his
clothes, and he was in the highest state of excitement
His friends, starting and wondering at his unexpected.
appearance, inquired what had brought him hither in
such a storm. Young Jackson blurted out his errand.
He wanted a letter of introduction to Mr. Hayes, at
Washington—be was going to set off for that place
immediately—being desirous to obtain the cadetship, and
fearing his opportunity would be lost. His friend regarded
the scheme as an utter absurdity, said that Jackson could
never stand the preliminary e °Lation, and many other
discouraging things. Jackson was hopeful and importunate
and finally obtained the letter. That very evening he bor-
rowed a horse to ride to Clarksburg, where the stage, proba-
bly a weekly one, was about to start on its eastern journey.
He mounted the steed ' • a negro boy, who was to ride back and
return it safely to the owner, being perched behind him.
Thus and then did the youthful aspirant take leave of his na-
tive county. Heavy rains had been falling for weeks, as rains
can fall only in Western Virzinia, and the roads in such a
state as they can be nowhere else. Not much business was
transacted in those parts • not many people travelled in
those days, and in
such weather. An hour before or after
time was of no great moment, and the postmaster, with
prudent foresight,
had despatched la's mail bags and the
great unwieldy stage that conveyed
them over those toil-
some roads, a full hour before the usual. time. No m-
clucement could tempt young Jackson to break his promise,
and the negro boy was duly sent back with the borrowed
horse ; nor was he himself to be easily turned from his pur-
pose; so in the midst of such rain and such mud, he set off,
on foot, in pursuit of the stage•iFour miles an hour is toler-
able travelling at the best of times in those mountain dis-
tricts; but this was a toilsome march on a dark stormy
night, and thirteen weary miles were traversed
before the youth overtook the stage. I am not ac-
curately informed how far this said stage was bound
towards Richmond or Washington, either city being
neareing
near upon 200 miles from his home, and several days jour-
ney over the mountains. Probably he indulged in this
mode of travelling only as far as
Romley, or at most to
Winchester, or to Staunton, in the Valley. It would ap-
pear that his first introductions were to be obtained at the
State capital, Richmond, for we hear of his being there;
but one thing is certain—that he carried his scanty
wardrobe in hand, and made the greater part of his long
journey on foot ; for we aro assured that on his arrival at
Washington, he presented his letter, " all muddy as he
was" to Mr. Hayes, who received hire kindly, and, in his
turn, presented him to the Secretary of War, who re-
warded his praiseworthy ambition and perseverance by
granting the much-coveted presentation.—life of " Stone •
wall Jackson."
THEATRICAL Os PITS.—" A new nautical
drama," says the Sunday Times, "is in active rehearsal at
the Surrey. Mr. Leigh Murray will shortly re-appear at
the Strand in a new and original character. The Lyceum
is
definitiyely fixed to open, on Saturday, 24th October::