The Sun.
London, England, 1865-05-05 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Le Bain Turc. Par L. A. Gosse, Docteur en
Meclecine. Pp. 150. Joel Cherbuliez : Gevene

et Paris.

This is another and a very significant indication
that the spread of the Turkish Bath as a Social and
Sanitary Institution among the various races of
Europe is, really, to borrow an Americanism,
progressing satisfactorily. Take—in evidence of
the fact that The Turkish Bath is spreading as an
institution of this character among the nations of
Christendom—take, we say, in proof of this clearly
demonstrable fact, the simple coincidence of the
publication of three notable brochures upon the
subject (of which little group of three the pamphlet
here referred to is one)—the publication, within a
comparatively brief interval of each other, of three
kindred works upon the subject of the Turkish
Bath—at London, at Geneva, and at Lisbon. The
London work we have already commented upon
at some length in these columns, and that, too,
but very, recently—reference here being made to
" The Manual of the Turkish Bath," compiled by
Sir John Fife, M.D., from the writings of Mr.
Urquhart. The Lisbon work—upon the same theme
indentically, as the very title of it at once indicates
—is a pamphlet describing " Os banhos turcos e as
suas applicaciies a hygiene e a theraputica," penned by
Dr. J. R. Marques. The Geneva work being the wel-
come little brochure, now more immediately under con-
sideration, a disquisition, as its able and outspeaking
author entitles it, "Du Bain Turc modffle' par
l'emploi du Calorique Rayonnant et de Son Introduc-
tion en Suisse." So that it has been formally intro-
duced, and—what is more to the purpose—appears
to be now firmly and securely established in Switzer-
land. As unmistakeably established there, though not
by any means, of course, upon a similar scale, as it
has been here in England amongst ourselves—
taking its place as the Turkish Bath does now in
London, and in various parts of the provinces as
amongst our recognised, national, insular, English
institutions. Already, as Dr. Gosse takes occasion
to remark with empressement in his preliminary pages,
already the number of Turkish Baths, whether
Public or Private, which have been opened within
the very few years, has multiplied so rapidly in
Great Britain that it has reached a total, even now,
of upwards of Two Hundred. These 200 Turkish
Baths, public and private, ranging of course from
Baths of very moderate dimensions up to such noble
establishments of the kind, as the one• in Victoria-
street, Westminster, or as that finest bath of all,
not only in this country, but, we believe, anywhere
to be found, THE HAMMAM, at No. 76, Jermyn-
street, St. James's. Guide-books to the Turkish
Bath, of one shape or another, have already
become so familiar to us, that the arguments
running through any new comers of the kind
amount really and truly to little else than a simple
repetition of the same facts and statements—irre-
fragable facts and unanswerable statements, in their
way:we would add, from our own experience of them.
Nevertheless, the theme is so (literally) refresh-
ing in its nature, that, repetitions though they
may be, these new handbooks to or commen-
taries on the Turkish Bath still continue to be right
welcome to us. Thrice welcome they can hardly
fail to be, every one of them—as affording additional
attestations of his sagacity and even, we might say,
of his prescience—thrice welcome they must neces-
sarily be to Mr. Urquhart as the far-seeing reviver
of the Turkish Bath as a sanitary institution
among Europeans —as the introducer of it over here
in England, and (as Dr. Gosse's pamphlet now
shows him to have been also) yonder in Swit-
zerland.

The Railway Traveller's Book of Information. By
R. Bond. Pp. 203. Murray and Co.

" Information—is the w-o-r-d !" would hardly be
said here even by that fatuous fine-gentleman in The
Mountebank., meaning Mr. Fechter's Lyceum-version
of " Belphegor." Information—is nevertheless the
word put down on Mr. Bond's titlepage. It is by
no means, however, the word we should have in-
scribed upon that titlepage. For "information" we
should have been far rather disposed to say—read
" gossip." And that gossip, too, a circuitous,
meandering, circumlocutory gossip that would have
done credit to the inconsequent small-talk of Mrs.
Nickleby herself! Winnowing away the mere
prattle and illustrative anecdotes lavished upon this
little book of the compiler's, the amount of
positive " information" vouchsafed to the Railway
Traveller is in truth but very small indeed. A
string of Railway Phrases at the end of the book
might suggest a useful hint or two to Mr. Rotten
for his next issue of the Slang Dictionary. The
range of themes touched upon here by the compiler
of the little hand-book is certainly something
remarkable. The worst of it is that he
touches upon each of them so very cursorily.
Lugggage, Fares, Parcels, Season Tickets,
and so forth are of course legitimate subjects
for consideration in a volume of this description.
But we should hardly imagine that it should have
been deemed advisable, as it evidently has been
deemed advisable, by the author and his publishers
to render a guide-book of this kind (as it purports
to be) for Railway Travellers generally, the medium
for a diatribe against Smoking ! Even though we
were not smokers ourselves, we should say this. It
may be all well enough fora pragmatical Sove-
reign like King Jamie the VI. of Scotland
and I. of England to issue a counterblast
against Tobacco. But the putting forth the ipse dixit
of a mere private individual against it coached in
terms of unmeasured reprobation is really and truly
in its way nothing less than an impertinence. For
—after all—when everything has been said upon
both sides, for and against the Smoking of Tobacco,
it is simply—a matter of taste ! And, as the old
threadbare proverb has it, de gustibus non disputan-
dunz. So much can we say, and no more, about
Murray and Co.'s Book of Information for Railway
Travellers.

Monsignor Dupanloup's Remarks on the Encyclical.
Translated by W. J. M. Hutchison, S.C.L.,
Oxon. Pp. 49. Burns, Lambert, and Oates.
A translation (this is announced to be upon its
very title page) from the 7hirty-Second Paris Edi-
tion ! Already ! For, it was only a very few weeks
since that the famous pamphlet of the Bishop of
Orleans, commenting upon the Encyclical and
the Syllabus, made its appearance. Already
therefore, we say—the thirty second Paris edition !
A wonderful success it may appear to those who
have not read it—but to those who have read it a
success in no way at all wonderful. The wonder
would have been had it not achieved it. For, never,
certainly, was an argument put forth at one and
the same time more boldly or more eloquently—
with, if it may be so expressed, more of audacity,
and yet in the self-same breath more of captivating
persuasiveness. Whatever may be thought amongst
us English People about the document upon which
these remarks have been uttered so very impressively
by Mgr. Dupanloup, about the Remarks themselves
that that document has thus elicited, there can
hardly be any difference of opinion at all. They
are utterances that, in the mere splendour of their
eloquence, yield an explanation at once to the fair
fame enjoyed, not in France alone, but throughout
Europe, by Mgr. Felix Dupanloup. The brochure
has been here very carefully and idiomatically done
into English by the scholarly hand of Mr. Hutchison.

The Enterkin. ByJohn Brown, M.D. Pp. 31.
Edmonston and Douglas—is another (the fourth)
of that pleasant little thoughtful prattling series of
Odds and Ends recentlyissued at uncertain intervals
by the popular author of " Rab and his Friends,"
and others of his Edinburgh contemporaries. It
will take its place beside his other whimsical little
publications, entitled " Our Dogs"—" With Brains,
Sir"—" Minehmooe—and " James the Doorkeeper."

It can hardly hope, however, to attain the almost
fabulous success achieved by Dr. Brown's most
famous section of the Hone Subsecivts " Rab and his
Friends," the which last work is now actually in its
forty-fourth thousand !

Dr. Websters's Complete Dictionary of the English
Language. Part V.—Bell and Daldy—has advanced
in this, the May instalment of it, from Harp to the
end of K, with Kyx, the obsolete word for the bung
of a cask ; the letterpress being still enlivened with
a number of little woodcut illustrations,

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.—This Day.

-~ -

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.

EMBEZZLEMENT—AN UNGRATEFUL RETURN FOR KIND-
NESS.—DanieI Millbank, a traveller and carman in the em-
ploy of Messrs. Nurdin and Peacock, the well-known and
extensive egg importers, of Berwick-street, St. James's,
was charged before Mr. Knox with embezzling the sutra of
£2l 3s. 9d, received for and on account of his employers.
Mr. G. F. Cooke, of King-street, Cheapside, appeared for
the prosecution.

Mr. W. J. Brown, cheesemonger, of Canonbury-place,
proved paying the prisoner, on the 23d April last, the sum
of £2l3s. 9d, on account of Messrs. Nurdin and Peacock,
of Berwick-street. The prisoner signed a receipt for the
money, and three of the notes produced were the same he
gave the prisoner, and bore his endorsement.

Mr. John Thomas Pea Cock, of the firm of Nurdin and
Peacock, said the prisoner had been in the employ of the
firm 17 years, and about two years ago embezzled money
to the amount of nearly £2l, but was then forgiven in
consideration of his family and promises of amendment.
The sum he received from Mr. Brown had not been
accounted for in any way, the prisoner leaving his employ
last Saturday and not returning.
In answer to Mr. Knox, Mr. Peacock said it was the
prisoner's duty to account for all the moneys he received
at the end of each day.
Sergeant Cole, 23 0, proved taking the prisoner into
custody last night at his lodgings, 12, Little Guildford-
street, Russell-square, and received from him three £5
notes, with the remark that he had only spent £6, and that
he had taken the money to pay some debts he owed.
Mr. Cooke said it was not intended to prefer more than
the one charge. He wished to state that the prisoner
received £2 a week wages.
Committed for trial.

SYSTEMATIC AND NUMEROUS ROBBERIES AT WEST-END
DRESSMAKERS.—EIizabeth Hunter, a good-looking young
woman, who refused her address, was charged before Mr.
Knox, with stealing 16 yards of silk, value £6 65., the pro-
perty of Miss Josephine Timothee, of 19, Warwick-street,
and 41 yards of silk of the value of £9, the property of Miss
Day, of 28, Glasshouse-street.
It appeared from the evidence that on the 24th of March
the prisoner called at Miss Timothee's, a dressmaker, in
NS, arwick-street, telling her that she was to make some
dresses for a lady, and while Miss Timothee had gone to
get an envelope to write her address upon it the prisoner
took the opportunity of stealing some silk. On a subse-
quent day she went to Miss Day, a dressmaker, in Glass-
house-street, and having been left in a room for a short
time stole a quantity of silk. Information having been
given to the police, it being alleged there are about 100
charges against the prisoner—she was from a description
given of her detained at a dressmaker's in Piccadilly, yes-
terday, and given into custody.

Cowell, 109 C, said on taking the prisoner into custody
she admitted taking the silk from Glasshouse-street, but
not from Warwici-street.

The prisoner, who repeated the statement she made to
the constable, was committed for trial.

THAMES.

MAD DRUNK.—George Carr, a smooth-faced, active
youth, in tho service of Messrs. Wigram, shipbuilders, at
Blackwall, was brought before Mr. Partridge, to answer
two charges of assault.
James Ball, a very heavy man, said he was in a public-
house in Old Manor-road, Stepney, yesterday evening; and
while seated in a corner, the prisoner who was there
chaffering and laughing at every one, struck him a severe
blow on the mouth, which cut his lip and caused him to
lose a good deal of blood. He was about to return the
blow, and if he had done so he should have annihilated the
prisoner, who was only a stripling; but, on the intercession
of the landlord, he called a police-constable and gave the
prisoner into custody.

Robert Stuart, a police-constable, No. 499 A, said the
prosecutor came to him with his mouth bleeding, and said
the prisoner had struck him. He saw the prisoner
stripped and acting like a madman, fighting and swearing
at every one with whom he came in contact. He tried
to secure the prisoner, but was unable to do so, as he
had nothing on but his trousers. The prisoner tried to
throw him, and they both fell. He laid hold of the pri-
soner by the trousers, and he loosened himself and kicked
him on the right eye.
Mr. Partridge—And gave you that black eye.?
Witness—Yes, sir ; he was like a madman. My eye is
very painful.

The prisoner said he was very drunk yesterday.

Mr. Partridge—And committed two cowardly assaults.
Some men would not have been so forbearing as the barge--
man. He could have inflicted some punishment upon you.
I fine you 40s. for each assault, £4 in ;or forty-two
days' imprisonment.

MARKETS--This Day.

MARK-LANE.

The arrivals of English wheat fresh up to our market
to-day were very moderate. Selected parcels ruled firm at
quite Monday's currency. For inferior produce the trade
was quiet, but at full prices.
There was a limited supply of wheat on the stands. The
trade for all descriptions was firm at fully late rates.
Floating cargoes of grain were in fair average request at
full quotations. _ _ _

The supply of barley on sale was but moderate. Both
for English and foreign produce the trade was firm at full
currencies. •

Malt changed hands slowly at late rates.
The market was well supplied with oats. Most descrip-
tions were in steady request at full quotations.
For-beans and peas the trade was firm at full prices.
The market was scantily supplied.
A fair average business was done in flour at quite pre-
vious rates.