The Sun.
London, England, 1849-05-28 00:00:00

2. THE PENSHER BRANCH.

-.--- - ----------
This intended branch railway is of about seven
miles in length, commencing near the Victoria-bridge,
over the river Wear, on the main line, and termina-
ting at Sunderland dock. The engineer's estimate of
cost is 150,000/. The directors resolved to let the
contract for the works, on the 2d April last, to
Messrs. Ruh and Lawton, for 60,0001., but on the same
condition as the Auckland branch, viz., that they
should not make any arrangement for executing
the works unless they receive instructions from the en-
gineer. The compulsory powers of the company for the
purchase of land on this branch will expire on the 27th
July next, and the usual notice has been given by the
directors for taking these lands. The company have yet
two years' time for completing the works, and your
committee have, therefore, suggested to the directors
that, on this branch also, they should delay any present
proceedings upon the contract.
Your committee will attend at the adjourned meeting
advertised for the first of June, which is necessary to
remove the suspension on the Bills in Parliament, which
took place by the resolution of the meeting of the 4th
instant, but they think it due to distant shareholders to
apprise them that having in this report set forth all the
information they have it in their power for the present
to communicate, the committee will then move-
1. That this report be received and adopted; and,
2. That the meeting be further adjourned to the 11th
of July next, when your committee hope to be able to
present their final report.
JAMES MEEK.
HORATIO LOVE.
D. M‘LAB.EN.
,1 AMES LEECHMIN .
JOHN KIPLING.
JOHN SHIELD.
R. P. PHILLIPSON.
GEORGE LEEMAN, Secretary.
York, May 26, 1849.

PEOPLE WHO DO NOT LIKE

POETRY.

(From Eliza Cook's Journal.)
We have often heard poetry spoken of by certain
shallow-hearted, hammer-headed people, as an indefi-
nite something of meretricious nothingness, if one
may use an Irishism. They look upon poetry as a
sort of fantastic, gossamer cobweb, woven by the
hand of unrecognised insanity, and wonder it should
be permitted to flit about the highways of the world ;
they flout it as a trumpery and contemptible pro-
duction of no earthly use, and of course their plracti-
cal statistics never descend to the question of orna-
ment. They are totally ignorant that poetry is iden-
tified and incorporated in the primitive elements of
all that makes God visible, and man glorious ;
they know not that poetry is co-existent 'vith
a flourishing state, and a great people ;
they know not that it is poetic instinct
which prompts a Washington to free his country,
and calls the tear of repentance into the felon's eye, as
he wakes from a dream of green fields and his mo-
ther. They only comprehend there is something, ar-
ranged in syllables, that this something is unprofit-
able and ridiculous, composed of imaginary trash, and
called poetry. It is "stuff," "rubbish," " nonseese,"
and in the arrogance of their self-sufficiency, we have
heard these people rash enough to assert, that they
could see no use in Shakspere's plays. To listen to
the arguments, or rather declarations of these dealers
in hardware, one would think the great Creator had
sadly wasted his might and ingenuity in scattering
the prolusions of exquisite matter about us, which
we have yet been unable to convert into tangible
utility, or mercenary profit. One would be in-
duced to fancy that the myriads of sweet-bosomed,
bright-headed flowers, flung on the untrodden vallies
and mountain sides, should be exterminated from
the land, since they cannot be packed into bales of
merchandise, nor cast up in day books. We should
begin to interrogate the wisdom of sending unnum-
bered nightingales and thrushes, for the express
purpose of whistling away all their might in the
green boughs, and yet yielding nothing in the great
" commercial account. Be it understood, that by
" people who do not like poetry," we have no inten-
tion of alluding to those who may have no special
devotion to measured feet and gentle rythm. 'We
advert not to the myriads who go about their business
in every-day sobriety ; who live, die, woo, wed, make
fortunes, or become bankrupts, and fill up the ranks
of life without the slightest knowledge of poetry in
its tangible and professed sense.
Such heads may be totally unacquainted with the
classical existence of a Helicon. They may never
dream deliciously in the fairy land of a Spencer, and
even be unfamiliar with the voice of a Goldsmith.
Yet, we see hundreds of these people with the
spirit of poetry playing about them in revelling gam-
bols, at every opportunity the chances of fate may
offer. The most exquisite love of the Ideal, and the
most ardent glow of enthusiasm, often abide in the
bosom that knows not the names of its residents, and
many a rough-hewn denizen of earth goes from his
cradle:to his; grave full of rich, sweet poetry, with-
out even a suspicion of the " divinity that stirs within
him." No ! it is not these people we anathematies,
for these are the mysterious and ceaseless echoings of
d
the first great Voice that pronounced all things good
and beautiful. These unconsciously pour forth
th the
perfumed perfumed incense of immortality, pu.rifying
Godn 's Caetholic
vapours that gather so chokingly
temple.
worship
honour] it
iis
othet
cmrurdeeadmaaslsinoefo
and feel poetry in its noblest essence, yet, never
tuhnestenldwenudmienhoeurincwetnfotrhiwnke
breathelt
is ,t
hand
fi snetlyd,o taltilsez.the
standing in upright
hard, unbending, unit of creation,f'Purtiinlitteadriac
no speculation, but,
tfrozenhat
de selfishness,
pend depending
u p
railway, and entertaininga
thriving
wle ge save that denominated
respect-
inghondoeplarsevesiabtuetall those
knnof Blackstone tone and Coke ; those
wworldly ;" a knowledge too frequently testified b,
conduct that would bear the less equivocal term o,
" craft;" those who sneer at a sentiment, and despise
a feeling that may go an inch beyond the very com-
monest of sense ; it is such we most heartily pray to
be delivered from during our soj urn here below.
They may be useful and necessary—so may the
cholera, but in honest simplicity, we desire to keep
clear of both inflictions.

These people have no ear for music in a " babbling
brook," without the said brook turns a very ,
pro-
fitable mill. They find no " sermons in stones,'
beyond those preached by the walls of a Royal Ex-
change. They see nothing in a mob of ragged urchins
loitering about the streets in a spring twilight, busy
over a handful of buttercups and daisies, lugged with
anxious care from Putney or Clapham—they see
nothing but a tribe of tiresome children who deserve,
and sometimes get, a box on the ears for " being in
the way." They see nothing in the attachment be-

„rt a poor man and ig/c-ti? dog but a crime worthy
_ imprisonment of one, and the hanging of the other.
Indeed, we lave remarked that these ” people who do
not like poetry" seldom have sympathy for inendicity _
of any description. If a sick woman with a sicklier j,
child, or an old man with palsied limbs, solicit a
halfpenny, these people have a stereotyped knack:';_'
of parading the comforts of the " Union," and the
audacity of " goirg about begging." If an orphan
boy of Seven-dials' genealogy is recommended by
some benevolent idiot to clean boots and shoes,
" they will have no such young scamp about them."
" But he has not yet done anything dishonest,"
says the pleader for poverty. "No matter,"
is the reply, " I shan't take him, and there's
and end of it." Ah I these people are doubtless
" wise in their generation." It is too true that im-
position and ingratitude are stalking about us every-
where; the pale woman and the trembling man may
not be quite as wretched as they seem, and the off-
spring of ignorance and misery may not prove a moral
Crichton; yet, with a" day of judgment" in the Chris-
tian's distance, we have a prejudice in favour of giving
an odd penny now and then, without too strict in-
quiry as to whether the applicant's cup of sorrow is
brimfull ; and we have a prejudice equally ,strong,
that it is not contrary to human philosophy, to en-
deavour to " snatch a brand from the burning," and
give the chance of honest pursuits to the children of
infamy, even though they have " no character" to
begin with.

11 People who do not like poetry" have rarely much
participation in the elasticities of our mortal lot.
Eating, drinking, sleeping, and " looking to the main
chance," generally form their whole consecutive occu-
pations, but, if any occasional development of humour
and cheerfulness occur in the genus, we have ob-
served that it usually tends to " practical joking and
coarse badinage." This is the lowest and apparently
the only gt ade of wit they are capable of exercising
with any facility; but with the utmost touchiness, at
the same time, if any responsive liberty be taken with
their own respected person. The spirit of poetry at
least instils the justice of bearing that which we are
eager to award ; but our utilitarians have no notion
of this. Some of them even advocate the strong
practical joke of killing off the superfluous popula-
tion, but we never find their own names on the super-
abundant list.

" People who do not like poetry" are invariably
the most revengeful in their animosities. They hold
malice with strong tenacity; forgiving and forgetting
are not in their creed ; and their bosoms seem
charged with an ascetic vengeance, that is never neu-
tralized by the weak, ridiculous, humanizing spirit of
poetry.
" People who do not like poetry" are the worst
possible companions, in any shape. Take them on a
tour through a lovely country, and they see nothing
at all in the tumbling waterfall or Elysian valley, but
are eternally breaking in on your rapt admiration,
with some abrupt and common-place jargon, that
raises an incipient desire to serve them as Crooked
Richard did his nephews. Have them at a social
dinner party, and they strenuously seek to limit the
conversation to " dry and dusty business" of some
kind or other ; party politics, state of dividends,
joint-stock companies, the cotton market, or some
such themes, are all they can dilate on; and with
loud and pertinaceous determination they " stick
to their last," to the exclusion of general and polite
interchange of discussions and opinions. Walk with
them into an exhibition of paintings, and most likely
you will have to blush up to your ears, for they treat
things connected with "Fine Arts" as mere trumpery,
and, of course, make very audible and very ignorant
remarks on matters concerning which the slightest
poetical delicacy would make them silent. Meet
them when you are attired in a new garb of deep
mourning, and their first question will be, " Who
have you lost?" Let a child cry in their presence,
and they instantly express an impatient disgust, that
would warrant one in supposing that they had passed
through infancy without a single kick or scream.
Let an old horse, that has worked twenty years in
their service, be pronounced unfit for his duty, and
they coolly take sixty shillings and consign the worn-
out beast to cruelty, starvation, and " a sand-cart,"
without a ghost of conscience.
Oh ! these " people who do not like poetry " are
sad thorns in the side of refined humanity. We re-
peat, they may be useful ; but we honestly confess,
if we have one prejudice stronger than another,
it exists against those animated fossils who " do not
like poetry."

ELIZA COOK.

TO THE SECRETARY OF THE
AIETROPOLITAN REFORM ASSOCIATION.
Sir,—On Thursday the 24th, motion was made by
Mr. Henry Berkeley, for leave to bring in a Bill to en-
able the votes of Parliamentary electors to be taken by
Ballot; when there appeared the old steady number
of active Reformers, the Ayes being 85, and the Noes
brought against them 136.
The process is going silently on, as surely as men
are growing older ; but no palpable progress can be
expected on such points, till the Russian allies are
' driven from Hungary.
On the same evening, leave was moved to bring in
a Bill " for the better government of certain of our
colonial possessions," meaning or including Canada.
It is undeniably desirable, that there should be
"better government" everywhere; but it does not
absolutely follow, that every Bill containing these
words is well-timed and promising. And what are
the circumstances under which the Bill is proposed ?
There is, or was when the mail left Canada, as much
of a rebellion as would be made here by burning the
Houses of Parliament ; a rebellion of disappointed
Tories finding themselves in a minority, and
rising upon the majority and the Government,
as would be exemplified here by a Tory rising
to prevent the royal assent being given to the alters .
tion in the Navigation-Laws. Under such circum-
stances, is it wise to unship the Executive, and say
Canada shall be governed by the votes of the House
of Commons ? if it is, why should not it be un-
shipped here, where there is no actual storm to call
for its operation ? And of the contending parties in
Canada, which side is it that is to be encouraged ?
Is it the rebellious minority, or is it the threatened
majority with inclusion of the Government? If it
is the first, ought not this to be resisted ; if it is the
last, would not the very persons proposed to be
assisted, implore you to choose another time ? If the
statement is, that it is an act of justice and propriety
and such acts can never come at a wrong time ;—it
might as well be argued that it is an act of justice
and propriety that a man should blow his nose, and
therefore he should interpose that ceremony in the
middle of his declaration to a lady. There are times
and seasons for all things, however absolutely good ;
and the mere fact of being good, does not prove that
the thing was well applied. Any man in the habit of
being responsible for ; results, must be inclined to
admit, that no time could he chosen when it was more
desirable to act in concert with an existing Govern-
ment and through an existing Government, than when
that Government is struggling with a rebellion, in
which it has manifestly got the right side.
An odd misapprehension seemed to exist among
some of the Liberal party, to the purport that the
Government in Canada ought not to have made the
Tories desire to rebel. In other words, that it ought
to have let the Tories have their way, without the
trouble of rebelling. I wonder where this principle
would take us, if practised here. Who will be re-
sponsible for when Tories will rebel ? And when
would they not rebel, if the mere demonstration or
presentiment of it was to be enough to make them
have their way ?
On the whole it will probably he conceded there
was cause, why some of the professed Liberals should
be found on one side of the division and some on the
other. The motion was finally negatived by 116
against 73.
The metlon for the reconsideration of the Rule on
the exclusion of strangers, was brought forward but
not pressed to a division, in consequence of the ap-
pearance of a disposition to accede to it with certain
changes. It consequently will in all probability
make its appearance again in some form.
for almost
occason
onftsAodfmaitrtaalct attack,
in which the Protectionists fell into their perpetual
adjournment of the
House,unlimitedO narinddda iyfs truhstesii meo
nSos tuidopenpsol i7eifison, for the
ih i,
not omitting the
Am
oofngthoethßeorarpdoi
salariescumeibuuspdoannithaeili's.
was
error of representing the whole country as in a con-
dition of loss and damage because they were losing,
always forgetting the other half who were gaining by
it, and the general additional coat of gain spread as
with a brush over all these hills and holes besides.
Not but that it would be very well to reduce the
salaries of the Board of Admiralty if the Board liked
it. But the statement of the reduction of the coun-
try's means through Free Trade, is not a reason.
The House on its rising adjourned till the 31st.
I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
AN OLD REFORMER.
London, May 28, 1849.

The admirers of Mr. Disraeli will be gratified in
observing that a new edition of his most remarkable
work " Coningsby," has been just issued in a cheap and
popular form, which will render it accessible to every .
one. This, it appears, the fifth edition that has been
published in England, whilst numerous reprints have
appeared on the continent, and 50,000 copies have been
circulated in the United States. This new edition is in-
troduced by a new preface, in which the author refers to
the political views of which he has been the advocate,
particularly with respect to the Christian Church.
FATAL ACCIDENT ON THE RIPER.-01 Sant. lay
afternoon, about two o'clock, a boat, in which wore two
youths named Parkinson, sons or Mr. Parkinson, of
Vauxhall- road, struck the third pier from the Surrey
shore of Battersea-bridge. The collision stove in her
side, and she instantly filled and sunk, and both lads
were immersed. The accident was observed from the
shore, and several boats put off, but before assistance
could reach them they sunk, and were drowned.

THE WEATHEE.—SuN OFFICE, MAY 27.
MuIIXOMETEII, Lowest, 50; Highest, 71; Noon, 74,

BABOICLETER, 30.15.
WIND S.W.—fine weather.

MAY 28.

TiIERNOMETER, Lowest, 49; ilighost, 74; Noon, 54,

BAROMETER, 3 0.2 5.
WIND N.E.—heavy rain at three in the morning, and
thunder and lightning at five, with heavy showers.
Morning, rain; Afternoon, dull, cloudy weather.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRLDGE.
Tim DAT —Morning, 19 min. after 6 I Eveafne, 47 min. after 5
To-Moaxow—Horning, 19 min. after 7 j Evening, 47 min. after 7

, ...,,„_x. 9 _
...
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i, It
~,,,,, pll I • /414 „. . F., „ ' 0
Ee-. , - .-,,,,0„.
4,0
AT • AO'.
1. DIET: ",,
r• - - *-

a vast and symmetrical Constitution. And while
accomplishing all this it has emerged from the ordeal
of this extraordinary and perilous epoch undi-
minished 'in dignity and unsullied in reputation.
Not one finger can be raised to point out
a single crime in the annals of the Na-
tional Assembly. It nobly fulfilled the aspirations so
nobly evidenced during the glorious days of February.
Recognising the sanctity of that cause, which had
with an abrupt explosion vindicated the wrongs of
more than thirty-five millions of the human race,
knowing, as it did so well, the justice of that popular
decree which had shaken to the winds the pomp of
the Orleans dynasty, and had driven forth its chief-

tain as a vagabond and an outcast from the country
whose glory he had outraged—the National As-
sembly verified the decree which had been pronounced
from the faqade of the Hotel de Ville by the voice of
LAMARTINE, it consecrated to the homage of the
population those institutions which had been pre-
figured in the orations of the poet-statesman, it
solemnly proclaimed the triumph of those democratic
principles which he and his colleagues had first had
the courage to legalise in the preliminary acts of the
Provisional Government. Born itself from the urn
of the Ballot, and from Universal Suffrage, the Na-
tional Assembly confirmed the system adventured upon
by the glorious statesmen of February. It did
more, it confirmed most of those august edicts
which ha 3 almost all emanated from the pure and
patriotic heart of LAMARTIIE, and had been enforced
by the approbation of his coadjutors. Among those
beautiful decrees will remain for ever conspicuous
before the admiration of posterity the sublime decree
which declared the abolition of the punishment of
death for political offences.
Having proceeded thus far, having announced by
acclamation that the Provisional Government had
deserved well of the country, having either con-
firmed or rescinded the different acts of that
Cabinet of Emergency, the National Assembly, it
will be remembered, encountered a succession of
those appalling and almost irresistible assaults which
twice threatened to accomplish its annihilation.
During those probationary struggles, it will never
be forgotten with how much serene bravery the
diabolical efforts of the anarchists were encountered.
It cannot yet be lost to recollection, how BUCHEZ, in

-
.he chair of Presidency, emulated the valour of

ISNARD. And BUCHEZ was worthily succeeded by
SENARD, by MARIE, and by ARMAND MARRAST,
nine times the elected President of the Parliament.
Surprised into an apparent abdication at the close of the
month in which the Assembly was inaugurated, the
representatives in June crossed swords in defence of
Order with the insurgent rabble of Terrorists, and
some died gloriously at the foot of the barricades,
fighting with body, and soul, and strength against
vvretcbes worthy only of the terrible definition of the
Annalist—men who are literally "heathens in the

midst of Christianity, and savages in the midst of
Civilization".* As was very admirably said of the
National Assembly by M. MARRAST, in
his farewell address on Saturday—the policy of
that Assembly has been consistent throughout, from
;he opening chapter of its career to its conclusion.
The embodiment of sincere and moderate Repub-
licanism, it has ever opposed those who endeavoured
to drive things to extremes. In the first instance it
lid battle right bravely with the anarchists of Social-
ism, with the men who lived upon the pestilential
doctrines of LEROUX, men who did not blush to listen
to the hideous and bestial blasphemies of PROUDHON.

In the last instance it has found devolving
upon it the equally difficult duty of repel.
ling the anarchists of reaction, men who dream
of restoring to vitality what is already so far decom-
posed as to stink in the nostrils of the people, men
who are eager for the alternative of betraying Li-
berty like DELILA, or of crushing it like APPIUS.
Against both of these antagonistic bands—those
hungering for anarchy as the road to pillage, and
those eager for it as the means of obtaining power—
the National Assembly, turn by turn, has had to
wage an almost uninterrupted warfare. Yet in
spite of this continual distraction of its attention
and perpetual occupation of its energies, the Assembly
has deliberately germinated, developed, and ripened
1-the most lasting of all the fruits of its patriotism. It
has created, and consecrated, and pronlaimed a

Republican Constitution. This is its chief claim upon

the gratitude of the country, and it is a
claim which will go far to mitigate the severity
with which all things in retrospect are judged by the
historian .

While we speak thus in the language of farewell of
the departed Parliament, we cannot but declare that
France has disgraced herself by her ungrateful treat-
ment of some of its most brilliant ornaments, and
of some of her own most noble and most illustrious
benefactors. When we hear that ARMAND
MAMBAS; for nine months the President
of the National Assembly, has no :seat in
the Legislative Chamber, when we know also
that that Senate-house is closed in like manner against

DUPONT, the venerable patriarch of French Repub-

licanism, against GARNIER. PAGES, one of the first
and ablest of the administrators of the Democratic
Government, against BITCHEZ, against SENARD,
against MARIE, against PAGNERRE, against GOUD-
GLUEY, against BETHMONT, and against CARNOT—we
regard the fickleness of public enthusiasm with a pity
magnified in proportion to our astonishment. But when
we find that among the personages subjected to this
electoral ostracism appears the name of M. DE LAMAR-
TINE-a name renowned over the whole world as the
name of one whose genius is only surpassed by the
purity of his reputation, whose courage is only ex-
ceeded by the vigour of his patriotism, and whose
eloquence is only eclipsed by the magnanimity of his
proceedings—our pity merges into contempt, our
amazement gives place to indignation. LAMAR-
TINE conferred the blessings of the Ballot and
of Universal Suffrage upon France, it was,
at his suggestion that the punishment of death
for political offences was abolished, he it was who,
at the peril of his life, saved France—and not only
France, but Europe—from the horrors of a de-
luge of ;human blood, by repulsing the red flag
of terrorism with a sublime inspiration of

oratory and this is the reward of his glorious
deeds, of his burning words, of his courage in the
streets, of his toil in the Cabinet, of his efforts in the
tribune, of his patriotism everywhere ! The event
affords but a sinister augury for the career and
fortunes of the Legislative Assembly.

The first public meeting of the Metropolitan Fi-
nancial and Parliamentary Reform Association, which
took place on Tuesday, affords the most cheering
auguries of the probable results of the labours of the
association. The movement has been responded to
in the most enthusiastic manner by the great body
of the people ; and the leaders, under whose auspices
they have already attained so many political triumphs,
have buckled on their armour for the conflict, and are
prepared to enter upon a course of vigorous, extensive,
and constitutional agitation. The nation is now
fully aware of the manner in which such victories
may be achieved. The proceedings of the Anti-
Corn-law League afforded many valuable lessons that
will not be forgotten in the approaching contest.
Truth and justice, reason and argument, are the only
weapons required, and these are easily available, and
if properly made use of, must prove irresistible. The
crying grievances, the unmerited wrongs under which
the great body of the people have so long suffered, and
are still suffering, must be brought prominently
forward. The abuses which have sprung up
during a long series of years must be traced to their
very foundations. The injustice of the oppressive and
unequal system of taxation under which the industry
of the nation is paralyzed must be clearly and une-
quivocally exposed. It must be shown that the
burden is placed upon those least able to sustain it,
and who in common justice should not be made in any
degree responsible:therefor. The interest of the public
debt, contracted for the preservation of property, is
chiefly paid by those who unfortunately have no pro-
perty to preserve, whose labour is their only capital
and only inheritance. Our military and naval esta-
blishments are also maintained by the proceeds of
indirect taxation. The hard working operative, the