The Sun.
London, England, 1838-03-26 00:00:00

BEGGARS FOR A BADGE.

We have often been amused by the efforts made by the
Committee of Baronets, to obtain the Royal licence to wear a
collar and a badge; and if those simple gentlemen would like
to mount a badge, whether in the form of a livery-button, a
shoulder-knot, a gold hat-band or any other outward mark of
distinction, we see no reason why her Majesty should not gra-
tify them by granting so innocent an indulgence. Her Majesty
must be yet young enough to recollect with pleasure the toys
wherewith her nursery hours were solaced, and surely her
kind heart cannot refuse a toy to these grown children, aye,
and a place in the raree show of the Coronation also, if they
require it A good thing cannot be made too cheap, and
if titles of honour, ribands, and baubles be good things,
they should be diffused amongst the community as much
as possible. But the Committee of Baronets have all
the beautiful simplicity of mind which characterises
childhood, as well as its fondness for toys ; for we
find them addressing a circular to each member of
their "order," requesting concurrence in their petition for a
top knot, in which they say, '6 If you do not positively ex-
press your dissent in writing, on or before the day of the ge-
neral meeting, the Committee will deem that you assent, and
will accordingly append your name to the petition."
Some of the most valuable discoveries have been made by
accident ; the safety-valve of the steam-engine is said to have
been the invention of a lazy child, and we think the " Com-
mittee of Baronets" have here struck out a plan of getting up
petitions which must take, especially in Conservative circles,
to which we suspect these big boys generally belong. Fancy
what shoals_ of petitions we should have for the repeal of the
Roman Catholic Relief Bill if tine Bishop of Exeter should
write to all the freeholders of a county, or to all the
electors of a city, or to all the male adults of his diocese,
and say, " If you do not positively express your dis-
sent in writing on or before the day of the general
meeting the Committee will deem that you assent, and
will accordingly append your name to the petition."
What hosts of names would be " appended to the petition"
whose owners had thrown the circular behind the fire with an
exclamation of "confound his impudence." Or suppose Mr.
Minter Hart or Mr. Savage of the Haymarket, should address
circulars to the monied men of the city, informing them that
unless they " expressed their positive dissent in writing"
before a specified day their names would be " appended" to
certain bills of exchange ; what would the Old Bailey lawyers
(sad foes to many clever contrivances) say to this ingenious
invention ?

Now it so happened that one of these circulars was sent to
Sir J. S. Sebright, a Baronet whose mind had grown to
man's estate, and we suspect the Committee of the " lately
breeched" must have felt their ears and seats tingle with
the recollections of scholastic correction, when they read
Sir John's manly and sensible reply to their Secretary's cir-
cular:_

"I shall be obliged to you to inform the Committee that it
would, in my opinion, have taken a most unwarrantable liberty
with my name by appending it to any petition without my con-
sent, and more particularly to one that would have subjected
me to ridicule.

As the Committee may, perhaps, upon some future occa-
sion, consider silence as assent, I must take the liberty of
stating, in answer to several circulars that I have received
from them, that I disapprove all their proceedings, which can
only tend to throw ridicule upon the order, and to make it
even less respected than it now is."
Poor little fellows I After all we are not quite sure that
Sir John has not been too hard upon their childish agitation.
Only the " appending his name" to a petition without his
consent, looks like carrying child's play too far. Some order
must be kept even amongst children, and forgery is an awk-
ward practice, whether for little or great boys._ IVeekly True
Sun.

LONGEVITY.—Died, on the 7th instant, at Bal-
lybrow, in the parish of Powerscourt, aged 110 years, Mary
Heffernan. She was eleven years of age at the time of the
hard frost which commenced 1739. She wet nursed the late
Mr. Robin Walker, who died about eight years since at the
advanced age of 80. This aged woman's faculties continued
perfect till within a few hours of her death. During the last
year of her life she was able frequently to walk to Ennis-
kerry, a distance of two miles, and return the same day.
An old man lately died in the Rue de Tournon, who
was was well-known in the quarter, and has left a considerable
sum of money. Nothing could equal the avarice of this man.
During the late cold winter ho imposed upon himself the
greatest privations : he only warmed himself once a-day, and
that at a candle, which he li,gh:ell for a few minutes before
throwing himself on a miserable bed. His food consisted of
almost putrid meat, which he procured at a low price ; and
the only coat of which he was possessed was inherited by him
from an uncle in 1796 1 He used to say, What particularly
distresses me is my feeble sight. When I meet any of my ac-
quaintances I sometimes mistake them for poor men, and say
to them, God bless you It is so much lost I"—Galig-
nani's Messager.

There is said to be now living in Switzerland a man,
who, in consequence of successive attacks of paralysis, has lost
his sense of seeing, hearing, and speaking, but still retains
those of feeling and smelling. The only mode of conversing
with him is through the peculiarly exquisite sensibility he has
in the nape of the neck, where the most minute touch is per-
ceived by him, and by means of which his friends have con-
trived to create a species of language for the communication
of his wishes,