The Sun.
London, England, 1849-04-26 00:00:00

Obieninit

LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 26, 1849.

Cant has gained tha day in Parliament. One hun-
dred and thirty-one of our Representatives have
negatived the Bill by which the Hon. Gentleman
the Member for Honiton has been striving to beat
down the sanctimonious insolence of the Sabbata-
rians. There is, consequently, as we intimated only
the other evening, no further doubt as to the neces-
sity of a hand to hand encounter with these arrant
humbugs, the religionists. After a little sharpshoot-
ing in the way of sundry petitions up to the Le-
gislature, after the succession of skirmishes between
the belligerents on the occasion of the first and
second readings, they have eventually thrown aside
the weapons suitable for a more distant encounter,
and closed upon each other, foot to foot, knee to
knee, for the settlement of their very serious differ-
ences. Now that we have lost, for the time being,
the measure introduced to the Commons by Mr.
LOCKE, we are only the more eager to accept the
gauge of battle, and we do so cordially on the simple
understanding that there shall be No Quarter!
When we had last the gratification of express-
ing our opinion upon this moot question as to
Sunday travelling, we avowed at once that the saints
of Scotland would very soon drive the vast majority
of the population of the United Kingdom to the alter-
native of riot in the streets, or of submission to their
ignorant domination. They are fulfilling our pre-
diction faster than we had anticipated. For we looked
to the Imperial Parliament for the prevention of such
a calamitous alternative, and the Parliament has merely
shown itself to be infected by the prevailing hypocrisy.
As to the choice of the multitude, there is not the
shadow of a moment's hesitation. Submission to the
decrees of a wretched minority of fanatics is altogether
out of the question. As well expect the English
people to revive the age of the Roundheads. To
state the case distinctly in little more than half-a-
dozen syllables—the: population will not submit to the
dictation of a contemptible squad of psalm-singers,
whatever a few whining petitioners may say to the
contrary, in spite of that very clerical layman Mr.
JOHN PE3IBERTON PLUMPTRE, and in defiance of an
accidental superiority on the part of the Sabbatarian
voters in. the Commons House of Parliament. The
fanatics in the present instance are the aggressors,
and they must abide the consequence of their aggres-
sion. They are endeavouring to cram their very
corruptible sanctity down the throats of the multi-
tude, and they must not feel surprised if, in retalia-
tion, or rather in self-defence, the multitude hurl
back their impudence in their teeth—with a slight
accompaniment! Theirs is the provocation—theirs
be, the consequence. We can promise them no
sympathy. Not a jot. Their tyrannical affectation of
morality has removed them for ever beyond the reach
of our condolence.

A few words as to the absurdity, not to say the in-
decency, of their late proceedings. . Within
the present week it would appear that a deputation
from Newcastle-on-Tyne waited upon the Home
Secretary for the purpose of urging upon the Govern-
ment the necessity of opposing the Bill introduced by
the Hon. Member for lioniton—this highly moral
deputation consisting of the Rev. LEWIS PARGE, of
one Mr. GEORGE BELL, and of a most extraordinary
functionary, the Reverend T. BAYLEE, designated
in the Court Circular as Secretary to the London
Lord's-day Society. The Country Lord's-day being
of course quite a different sort of an affair altogether
All that we can make out of the official character of
this same dignitary being, that he bears some
relation to the great civic authority at the Man-
sion-house, the LORD MAYOR being the only
Londcn Lord we know of, and the London
Lord's- day, meaning, of course, the ninth of
November! As to the moral of the deputation,
however, in which this Rev. T. BATLEs occnied

such a very conspicuous position, as Secretary of
the London Lord's-day Society, it is merely neces-
sary to remind the public that the principal mem-
bers of the deputation were from Newcastle, to
disclose the religious hypocrisy of the whole tran-
saction. From Newcastle ! where so many wretched
beings, not less benighted in soul than in body, are
kept toiling like beasts of burden underground in the
coal pits, without any regard to the recurrence of the
Sabbath, or of the Sunday, from Christmas to Christ-
mas. It is the parable of the mote and the beam
realised. Get you back to your districts of collieries
you Reverend and Ir-reverend members of the New-
castle Deputation, and render your own neighbour-
hood reputable before you presume to come preaching
your mock morality to the population of the three
Kingdoms Cleanse your own consciences before
you arrogate to yourselves the right of purifying the
lives of the general community ! Remove from
yourselves the odium of your own short-comings
before you have the insolence to foist your own
spurious doctrines of sanctity upon the mass of an in-
telligent empire ! Think not that in the middle of
the nineteenth century the million can swallow a
species of cant so gross, that at the very sight of it

the soul of SURFACE would have sickened and the
stomach of CA.NTWELL have revolted. Thank GOD
the time for superstitution has gone by, and not all
the galvanic experiments of the Sabbatarian conspi-
racy can lead to its resuscitation. Majorities of nine
may be gained in the House of Commons, but the
people are, nevertheless, not to be deceived by peti-
tions, or humbugged by deputations, or bamboozled
by the sophistical arguments of the sanctimonious.
It is maintained that by carrying such a measure
as the one rejected last evening, the Legislature
would be doing violence to the consciences of the
religionists. As if those religionists were not a

most paltry minority And as if by conceding to
their requirements we should not be doing most
grievous violence to the vast majority—their anta•
gonists ! Again, it is insisted that the prevention of
travelling on the Sundays is essential for the regenera-
tion of the community, although the criminal
returns p.ove that vice and depravity are fourteen per
cent. greater in Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, and
Edinburghshire, than in Yorkshire, Lancashire and
Middlesex It is declared by the Sabbatarians that
their aim is the prevention of the desecration of Sun-
days by the diminution of labour. And yet in the
face of this it is demonstrated by unanswerable sta-
tistics that the stopping of the line between Glasgow
and Edinburgh has conduced to a very demoralizing
consumption of malt liquors_ and ardent spirits on
days that might otherwise have bees innocently em-
ployed in rambling through the fields and between
the hedgerows It is shown, moreover, by the most
simple calculations that the system of obstructing the
lines of the Scottish railways on Sundays, instead of

diminishing the manual labour of the inhabitants
of Scotland, has tended materially to its increase—
stage-coaches, postchaises, flies, cabs, steam-boats,
hacks, gigs, and other conveyances, being called into
requisition, besides the guards, stokers, engine-
drivers, gatekeepers, and pointsmen required in con-
nexion with the working of the mail-trains. Mr.
Locaz himself declared yesterday, on the floor of the
Commons, that while on the same occasion the pas-
sengers arriving by the Caledonian Railway only
employed five cabs, he himself had, on Eater &o-
day, seen in waiting at four churches in the Lothian-
road, in Edinburgh, thirty-one two-horse carriages,
thirteen one-horse carriages, and one hundred and

Arty-nine cabs ! So much for the consistency, the
trurifb, the decency of these highly moral sticklers
for periodical sobriety. So much for their precepts,
and so much, just so much and no more, for
their example! Out of the sixteen railways
intersecting the shires of Scotland it would seem
that at the present moment eight are working and
eight are not working passenger trains along their
lines on Sundays—the former moiety comprising an
extent of 280 and the latter an extent of 240 miles.

Taking the distinction between these companies given
to them by the Hon. Member for the city of Dublin,
the reasoning is inevitable, that while the 1,623,000
persons who travelled by the irreligious railways
" were driving at a railway pace to a place that shall
be nameless," the 1,572,000 persons who journeyed
within the same interval along the religious railways
were going at an equally smart pace along the path
leading directly to salvation. Or, following out the
supplemental argument of Mr. REYNOLDS, the
logic of which is impassable, if the thing
be looked upon as culpable in one quarter,
and is not culpable in another, then,
morality must be regarded as a mere conventionality,
and sin must be looked upon as geographical.
In conclusion, we warn these fanatical pretenders
to godliness from the prosecution of their endeavour
to obstruct the railways throughout Scotland ; and
we earnestly put to them the simple, but touching
and beautiful application of that expression of
a great poet, which was yesterday repeated by the
Hon. Gentleman the Representative of Honiton
(notwithstanding its being so hackneyed by quota-
tion)—we put it to them whether they will not
elevate the hearts, and purify the morals, and in-
crease the religious fervour of the working classes
by enabling them to pass on their only day of leisure
from the fetid impurities of our large manufacturing
towns into the green lanes and meadows, there to
commune with the CREATOR through his creations,
and to _

"Look from nature up to nature's God !"

There are many peculiarities about the case of Mr.
DYCE SOMBRE (to which we alluded at some length
yesterday) which invest it with a deep and melan-
choly interest. Born in an eastern clime—brought
up and educated in the seclusion of a Zenana, as the
adopted child of an independent sovereign—embued
with every Asiatic prejudice and habit—he was at an
early age entrusted with almost despotic power. To
his hands the BEGUM delivered over the administra-
tion of her kingdom and revenues, and he exercised
the regal functions as an Indian monarch for several
years, until the death of the BEGuM, in 1836, at
which time he was in the 27th year of his age. Al-
though he slid not succeed to the throne of the BEQUM
he was left in the uncontrolled possession artd enjoy-
ment of a princely fortune, and, as her sole repre-
sentative, entitled to all her claircs, or fancied claims,
against the East India Company. Shortly afterwards
he abandoned his native land for ever, and made
England the land of his adoption. To its highly
lauded hospitality he entrusted his liberty and his
fortune. He became an English citiaen, and was
even selected to fill the position of one
of the representatives of the people. In
order to connect more closely his connexion
with his adopted country, he determined to marry an
English lady, and although clearly warned that his
previous education and habits wholly disqualified him
for such an alliance—which, from his peculiar notions,
founded on Asiatic customs, must inevitably lead to
a disastrous result—he unfortunately persisted in the
intention, and his marriage with the Hon. Miss Jilt-
ins, daughter of Lord ST. VINCENT, was shortly
afterwards solemnized. It soon became but too pain-
fully apparent that the predictions that had been
uttered respecting the contemplated union were
fully verified. Mr. DYCE SOMBRE soon exhibited
great irritability and jealousy of disposition ; he
could not bear to see his wife mingling freely in
society. His Asiatic prejudices taught him to con-
sider as crimes of the deepest dye acts which to an
European would appear to be perfectly harmless, or
at least venial. It is but natural to suppose that his
orders were not received and acted on with that slavish
submission, which he might have considered the duty
of a wife, and which, undoubtedly, they would have
received from a female accustomed to the discipline of
a harem and to Oriental usages. His anger was
influenced to the utmost degree, and his
conduct became so extravagant, that the certificates of
twoMr.4DE si:
csyokcni persona"lfiuglsnoe
ru
Roclose
the‘ovsaes,cuisntody a
tmonthiianovoefr ALloadrgche:
St. Jame,s's Park, where he was detained for four
months before any further proceedings were inst.
tuted. In the month of July following a writ /-
lunatico inquirendo was sued out of the Court of
Chancery, the large fortune of Mr. SOMBRE ren-
dering such a proceeding necessary. The case was
submitted to a jury ;. able counsel appeared,
on behalf of the petitioners, the parties who insti-
tuted the proceedings, while Mr. DYCE SOMBRE,
to whom the results of the investigation were of such
vital importance, was wholly without professional

assistance. The unfortunate gentleman treated the
supposition of his unsoundness of mind as a palpable
absurdity ; he considered the charge as unworthy
of a serious defence. The result may easily be anti-
cipated. lie was declared a lunatic, of unsound
mind, incapable of taking charge of his own affairs,
and he remained for some time a prisoner, under the
strictest surveillance. The circumstances of the case,
however, attracted the attention of a gentleman
who had filled an important situation at Delhi, where
for six years he had been in constant official and
social communication with the BEGUM ; and he lost
not a moment in directing the attention of the East
India Company to the case. On the 19th August,
1843, shortly after the jury had returned their verdict,
Sir CHARLES TREVELYAN forwarded a communica-
tion to the Board of Directors, in which, in the clearest
and most satisfactory manner, he demonstrated that the
jury might have arrived at an erroneous conclusion, and
he submitted, that under the entire circumstances of the
case " immediate steps should be taken for the pur-
pose of obtaining justice, or, if it should prove, on a
full and proper investigation that, contrary to his
belief, justice had already been done, of satisfying
the minds of all persons, both in this country and in
India, and in other parts of the world, who might take
the same general views of the case, which he himself
had taken."

These disinterested exertions, so highly honourable
to Sir CHARLES TREVELYAN, were, however, ren-
dered unavailing, by the escape of Mr. DYCE SOMBRE
from the durance to which he had been subjected.
The unfortunate gentleman fled to France, to enjoy
that liberty which was denied to him in England. He
was net, however, suffered to remain unmolested ;
an application was made to the French Government
to surrender him as an escaped lunatic, that he might
again be subjected to the strictest incarceration in a
mad-house, where he had committed the highest
offence known to "keeper law," and where his treat-
ment would in consequence have probably been of
the harshest character. This attempt was, however,
defeated. The French authorities refused to sur-
render Mr. SOMBRE without being fully satisfied as
to his actual condition, and it was accordingly re-
ferred to some of the most eminent physicians to in-
quire and report on the state of his mind. These
gentlemen, after a close and searching investigation,
stated their opinion to be that he was of perfectly
sound mind, able to govern his own affairs. He
was, therefore, freed from all personal coercion,
so long as he was satisfied to remain out of
England; but he was left without means or resources.,
notwithstanding the large fortune that was accumu-
lating for the benefit of his successors, or next of kin,
in the English Court of Chancery. Being anxious,
however, to obtain additional evidences as to his
sanity Mr. SOMBRE travelled to St. Petersburgh,
where he obtained a similar certificate from ten of
the most distinguished medical men of the Russian
metropolis—a certificate which was further confirmed
by Belgian physicians, whose opinions were taken on
the subject.
Armed with such powerful testimony, Mr.ISOMBRE,

in January, 1846, presented a second petition to the
Court of Chancery for a supersedeas of the Commis-
sion of Lunacy (that which had previously been filed
having been rejected by Lord LYNDHURST). Drs.
BRIGHT and SOUTHEY were appointei to examine
and report on his condition, he being secured by the
order of the Court against any attack upon his per-
sonal liberty pending the examination. These
learned gentlemen differed from the physicians of
Paris, of St. Petersburgh, and of Belgium. They
reported that it would be unsafe to himself and
others to withdraw from him the protection (?)
of the Court of Chancery. They, however, recom-
mended that, as he seemed "perfectly to understand
the nature and extent of his property," his allowance
should be enlarged, and the payments made with
greater punctuality, and that any small debts he might
have contracted should also be discharged. Subsequent
petitions were presented and various examinations held.
After a searching examination at Brighton, in
August, 1847, the same Drs. BRIGHT ard SOUTHEY
reported that they " were bound to admit that they
were unable to elicit any positive delusions," though,
at the same time, they regretted to add that they
" felt no confidence that he was entirely free from such
delusions." They also added this remarkable pas-
sage :

" Sofar as respects the management of property, we en-
tertain no doubt of his competency to take cure of it, and we
think that if he were entrusted with the surplus of his
unappropriated income, one great cause of uneasiness
would be removed; for there seems no doubt that much
painful feeling has rankled in Mr. Dyce Sombre's mind
from the reduction of his allowance to an amount so
much below the rate of
.expenditure at which he for-
merly lived."
Here, then, a gentleman, who had been pronounced
by the most eminent professional men of France, of
Russia, and of Belgium to be of perfectly sound
mind and competent to conduct his own affairs, from
whom the doctors selected by the LORD CHANCEL..
LOR were unable to elicit any positive delusions,
about whose perfect competency with respect to the
management of property they entertained no doubt
whatsoever, is still branded as a lunatic—obliged to
remain an exile from the land of his adoption, and
deprived of that perfect liberty of action
which is the right of every free-born man,
soley because those " skilful persons " could " feel
no confidence that he was entirely free from such
delusions." If this be indeed the rule, we can scarcely
conceive what evidence would be sufficient to satisfy
such fastidious gentlemen; nothing could be detected
to indicate unsoundness of mind, or the existence of
delusion; but a lurking suspicion remained behind, and
therefore he was still deprived of his natural liberty,
and of the control and management of his princely
fortune. We should like to see the manner in which
the judge of a criminal tribunal would receive such
evidence if it were set up as a defence to a capital
charge. It was, however, sufficient to retain the
" alleged lunatic" within the meshes of the Court of
Chancery. Other petitions were subsequently pre-
sented, to which our space will not enable us to
allude more fully, but with no better result. Doctors
BRIGHT and SOUTHEY could not be convinced of the
rem—oval of delusions, and till they were satisfied no-
thing could be done. At length a final effort was
resolved on. Doctors Pains, President of the Col
lege of Physicians; Mayo; Sir ALEXANDER Mom-
SON, Physician to Bethlehem Hospital, and to the
Surry County Lunatic Asylum ; COPELAND ; FER-
GusoN, Physician to the QUEEN; and Commix), the
talented proprietor of the Wyke House Lunatic
Asylum, were requested to examine the mental state
of Mr. DYCE SOMBRE in the month of December
last, and after the strictest scrutiny and repeated
examinations of the patient, and consultations with
each other, these gentlemen arrived at the unanimous
conclusion that Mr. SOMURE was of "sound mind, and
competent to manage his person and property." A
petition was accordingly presented founded on this
report, and verified by the affidavits not only of
those six eminent physicians, but of many other gen-
tlemen well acquainted with Oriental habits and pecu-
liarities, which fully explained the nature of the
opinions that had been characterised as delusions.
The decision of the Court was given on Friday, as we
have already stated, and we have seen with what
result. The petition was dismissed, no further appeal
to a jury was granted. Even protection to
reside in England was not allowed, nor
was he permitted to appear before the Master
either personally or by his solicitor and
counsel in the inquiries, and on the taking of the
accounts respecting the management, care, and appli-
cation of his real and personal estate and effects—
this reasonable request being rejected, although Drs.
BRIGHT and SOUTHEY, in whom the most implicit
confidence was reposed by the Loan CHANCELLOR,
" could entertain no doubt as to his competency with
respect to the management of property."
These are facts worthy of notice, facts that indi-
cate the necessity of an immediate alteration in the
law of lunacy, and the extension of the benefit of
" trial by jury" to those who are alleged to be
labouring under mental delusion.

One of the most gratifying festivities in which the
present Administration has taken any conspicuous
part must assuredly have been the sumptuous banquet
given yesterday evening, at the Mansion-house, to
the members of her MAJESTY'S Government,
by the Right Hon. the LORD MAYOR. Every
circumstance united to enhance the satisfaction of
the statesmen entertained at the hospitable board
of the first Magistrate of the capital. In the LORD
MAIOR of London they met one wbo had lonS