The Sun.
London, England, 1836-02-03 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

It is an oriental proverb:" that the last straw breaks I
the back of the camel." We have hitherto obstinately
refused to pin our faith to the doctrine, that the popu-
lation of these kingdoms is excessive. Within the last
few days, however, our convictions have wavered on
this point ; we begin to feel that the " last straw" has
been put on the camel's back, and that there is at least
one individual more in the country than it can with any
dcgree of patience endure. Were we to stop here, and
not to utter a syllable in the way of describing the op-
pressive burden to which we allude, there is hardly a
school boy throughout the empire who could not at the
ArSt guess solve the enigma. Upon this subject there
is no second opinion. We speak of a truth univer-
sally admitted—of a wish universally entertained, when
we say that a certain Hanoverian now amongst us,
thank God ! not (2f us, has been unwelcomed to our
shores, and that the only act by which he could
ensure our gratitude would be, as the judges
direct, on certain occasions, speedily to "re-
turn to the place from whence he came."
Who is there that does not understand the
recoil of feeling with which we ever light upon
this man's name in the " Court Circular," or in that
column of the daily journals which chronicles the
movements of those who are " illustrious by courtesy ?"
We read of his consultation with lawyers, distin-
guished by a course of public conduct which has ren-
dered them obnoxious to the country ; and yet we pity
those men for the honour which such a presence has
conferred upon them. We hear of his preparations
for the festivities of the season, and lists are given of
those who are to be his peculiarly-favoured guests.
Read the names, and find amongst them, if it be pos-
sible, that of a single individual who has not suc-
ceeded in obtaining high rank amongst the " damned
to immortal fame :" and yet do we not all acknowledge
a sort of good-natured desire that those persons were,
by some happy turn of fortune, rescued from the taint-
ing—the fatal splendour that awaits them ? What is
the cause of the universal scowl with which this
Prince of the blood is received, after so long an ab-
sence ? Is it that lie prefers the climate of despotism
to that of liberty during the season when he can do us
no mischief ? Is it that the moment his power as a legis-
lator is renewed, he comes back on the wings of the
wind, counting every day truly lost on which he
cannot hover round our Constitution, to watch the
moment for assailing it in its most vital part ? Is it
that he has ventured to tamper with the fidelity of the
army, in order to feel his way through a course which
he durst not recognise, and will not disclaim, with
views which may be conceived without difficulty, but
which we will not more particularly describe ? No, no,
these are all so many elements of hatred, which are,
indeed, mingled in the cauldron ; but there is one
greater than these—one which boils up to the top of
the " hell-broth," and ie more offensive than them
all—his very person—it is rank in the nostrils of the
nation. But that another event, which every faithful
subject of our Gracious Sovereign would deplore, must
precede the moment when this Hanoverian is to be
blotted from the registry of our population, we should
have uttered the wish that the hour of that divorce
were arrived I What an impulse of joy will shoot
through every fibre of this land, when it shall be re-
lieved from the pressure of his heel I—when that ill-
constituted mind, now so mischievous for intrigue,
shall be for ever-exiled from our shores!—when that
voice that has never been raised but for war against
freedom, shall for us be silenced as in the grave !
Morning Chronicle.
As the day appointed for the meeting of Parliament
approaches, expectation and conjecture are more and
more upon the qui vive as to coming events, and espe-
cially, as a leading preliminary, to the numerical state
of the two contending bodies in the House of Com-
mons. After the best inquiry that we can make, we
learn that the most sanguine of the friends of Ministers
do riot place their actual majority at more than five,
while their opponents, with more diffidence of their
strength, state the numbers as exactly equal. Of course
there must be considerable uncertainty attending any
such calculations as these ; and where parties are so
nicely financed, it is not at all improbable that several
days of the Session may elapse before an actual divi-
sion sets the uncertainty at rest. Like armies of pretty
equal strength drawn up in front of each other, there
will probably be much manoeuvring before the actual
conflict begins. In the meantime, the country awaits
the issue with an anxiety proportioned to the impor-
tance with which it is fraught. We only trust that in
a mere struggle for place, the vital interests of the
country, at so interesting a crisis, will not be lost sight
of.—Morning Herald.

MR. LISTER'S " GRANBY.”—We are glad to see
this worthy successor to " Pelham" introduced thus early
into Mr. Colburn's series of " The Modern Novelists," of
which it forms the eleventh volume. Well may modern li-
terature be termed cheap, when we recall the enormous
sums paid for the copyright of the novels published in this
popular and beautiful edition, and think of the small sum at
which these productions of the most celebrated men of the
*IT can be procured. We are lost in astonishment at the
amazing demand there must be for works of the imagination,
to render it worth a publisher's while to run the risk of
sending them forth at so low a price, in so beautiful a manner.
A GOOD INDEX.--A gentleman was wading
through the index of some law reports the other day, and
under the " G's" he found " Great mind—Mr. Laing," and
knowir, that his Worship was not possessed of a very large
body, he was naturally curious to learn something of the
dimensions of his mind, and turning to the page referred to,
he found the following, " Mr. Laing said he had a great
mind to commit John Thomas for the misdemeanor."
" MEMOIRS OF THE PRINCE OF THE PEACE•”—
The original manuscript of this important work is wholly in the
Prince's hand-writing ; the copy confided to the press has
been revised, corrected, and compared by himself; his
flourish at the end of each page, and his signature at the
end of each chapter, attest its authenticity. "It is impos-
sible for an authentic autobiography of such an extraordi-
nary pearsonage as the Prince of the Peace (Don Manuel
Godoy)", observes the Literary Gazelle, " to be otherwise
than politically and nationally important. He played a
grand part in one of the most remarkable revolutions of
our remarkable age ; and whatever he here says must, whe-
ther for agreement or contradiction, belong to history.
Such are the general scope and bearing of this book, and
we will now present its author to the English public. He
must be numbered amongst the distinguished characters of
his age. In 178-1, when only seventeen years old, and a
mere life-guardsman ; he was soon promoted to superior
ranks ; a general 'Aker in 1791 ; a grandee of Spain ;
closely allied to the Royal family by his marriage with a
Princess of Bourbon ; the head of all State Councils and
public establishments ; adorned with every decoration
awarded to merit, to favour, or to high birth ; envied,
courted, calumniated, and proscribed, his career runs
through a long period fertile in revolutions."
BRAZILIAN POLlCE.—According to a recent tra-
veller, the police at Rio consists of 600 men, taken from
the very dregs of the people—such as thievish shopmen, in-
capable clerks, ruined operatives, unhappy gamblers, disobe-
dient sons, and idlers and profligates of all descriptions.
On Saturday morning at an early hour a man was
found lying in the road at Holloway with his head entirely
smashed. Half-a-mile from the spot a waggon and four
horses were stopped, and it is supposed the deceased met
h:s death by falling from the shafts when asleep.
Captain Chamier, R.N., the popular author of
" The Life of a Sailor," is about to produce a new naval
novel under the title of " Ben Brace, the last of Nelson's
Agamemnons." It has transpired that this fiction, inde-
pendently of the stirring scenes and nautical humour by
which it will be characterized, will embody the whole ca-
reer of the illustrious Nelson, of whom Ben was the con-
stant follower and coxswain. The battles of the Nile, Co-
penhagen, Trafalgar, and other exploits of the great hero,
are graphically narrated ; and this happy idea is followed
up by episodical descriptions of contemporary actions under
the command of other naval chieftains. In " Ben Brace"
the public will be presented with the only historical ro-
mance of the sea yet produced ; and the author's established
celebrity is a warrant of the ability with which it will be
executed.
CHILD MURDER.—On Saturday evening in in-
quest was held at the Barley Mow, in Mount-street, Gros-
venor-square, on the body of a newborn male child, un-
known, which was found dead by the keeper of Grosvenor-
gate, Hyde-park, on Thursday night. Mr. J. T. Fergus,
surgeon to the infirmary of Mount-street, handed in an ela-
torately written statement, from which it was gathered that,
in his opinion, the child had been born alive, but some days
before the natural time. It was a large, well-formed, and
healthy child, and its death, from certain medical appear-
ances, had been caused by suffocation. Thomas Peck, the
keeper of the gate, stated that, in his opinion, the body
might have been dropped by some person outs'..le the Park.
The jury returned a verdict of " Wilful murder Ire7inSt
sonig person or persou* unknown,"