The Sun.
London, England, 1836-09-08 00:00:00

VAUXHALL GARDENS.

Last evening these delightful gardens closed for the sea-
son—a season distinguished by a series of attractions supe-
rior, in many respects, to any hitherto offered. The extra-
ordinary performances of the Ravel Nay, the various
balloon ascents, and the numerous and picturesque altera-
tions conferred by the taste of the proprietors on the spot,
have all tended to collect an accession of visitors more nu-
merous than we have for many years had the gratification
of witnessing. The following valedictory address was im-
pressively delivered by Mr. Buckingham :
Ladies and Gentlemen,—The gratifying duty of thank-
ing you for your kind patronage and support during the
past season has devolved on me. A leave-taking is at all
times unpleasant, but it is doubly so in the present instance,
when we are about to part from a friend, whose smiles, I
may say, are our food, whose applause our greatest luxury ;
nay, whose breath is our very existence. Such a friend is--
the public ! Still, ladies and gentlemen, disagreeable as
this parting must be, it is rendered in some measure pleas-
ing by the thought, that during the present season we have
crought forward those novelties for your entertainment which
have secured your kind approbation r we have endeavoured
to produce amusements acceptable both to the higher
and middling classes, and I am proud to say that the ye
nerable edifice above me has never, in the most prosperous
days of the Royal Gardens, looked down upon such as-
semblages of grace and fashion as have flocked around it
during the past season. It is, indeed, gratifying for the
proprietors of such an establishment as this to see their pro-
menades honoured by the presence of the nobility and
gentry of their country. Although this evening is the last
of those termed night-entertainments, the Gardens will be
opened on Friday for a day fete, with a novelty unknown in
this or any other nation. I allude to the Vauxhall Bal-
loon, constructed in these Gardens by Mr. Green, which
has recently occupied no inconsiderable portion of the
public curiosity. Mr. Green will make a voyage through
the aerial regions, with from eight to ten persons. I have
only now, Ladies and Gentlemen, to tender you the heartfelt
thanks of the performers of this establishment, as well as
my own, for the uniform approval of our bumble efforts to
please, and most respectfully bid you farewell."

AN ORANGEMAN'S VISIT TO THE

HOUSE OF COMMONS.

(From the Cork Evening Herald.)
Sir Robert Peel brought a large roll of papers under his
arm, laid it on the table, and put on his hat—Members I was
told since enter the House uncovered in respect to the
Speaker. He took his scat next Lord Stanley, and spoke
to him very closely—rubbing his right hand over his left
one, both perched up at the time on the cap of his knee,
for his legs were crossed. All the world has seen Sir
Robert's portrait. I therefore will not stay to say what
sort of a face be has. His person is running gently into
bon point, height five feet ten and a half—perhaps eleven—
the ieft shoulder a trifle lower than the right one, which in
walking gives him the appearance of a short arm. He
dresses always the same way—blue frock, buff waistcoat,
black stock, well made trousers and boots ; the hat, I must
say, smells terribly of Bond-street—scarcely sober enopgh
for a man of 48 years.
Lord Francis Egerton was busy preparing to bring on
his amendment on the Municipal Bill, and kept tying, un-
tying, and settling papers and documents all the time I was
there until he rose.

Sir James Graham, Sir Robert Inglis, Sergeant Jackson,
Charles Ross, and such Members of the Opposition filled
the remaining seats on the front bench appropriated to the
Conservatives.

Lord John Russell, Lord Howick, Mr. Spring Rice, and
Lord Palmerston sat next each other at the Ministerial
side—the back benches at each side meanwhile filled with
the retainers of both parties. Joe Hume sat stretched
out on the second form above Ministers, and made room
for O'Connell when the latter came in ; when he did, the
strangers' gallery was all excitement to see that notorious
gentleman.

The House was inordinately full on that particular day
before the Speaker came in—a very rare thing—so that
both armies sat pitched in camp viewing each other long
before

" The sun peeped o'er the heath,
To lighten all the field of death,
And show wha' would be best."

When the first Commoner did come in, all the Members
arose until he took the Chair. Then a very well-looking,
dignified man in a surplice, and with a book in his hand,
read prayers—impressively, and in a clear, loud tone : from
all the marks and tokens I took hint to be a parson. I
took especial notice that O'Connell was not in the House
during that divine service ; nothing less than the Latin
tongue, it seems, satisfies the Kerryman.
I considered the prayers quite long enough, to be candid
with you, for we were terribly disturbed about this time for
room in the gallery. As we resumed our seats, my com-
municative friend gave me a short dig in the ribs, accom-
panying the gesture by telling me, before I could recover
my breath, that the stout white-headed " man" I might
have noticed kneeling with one knee, and who blessed him-
self after prayers, was Mr. Callaghan, the Member for
Cork. Of this being fully aware, I had no need of infor-
mation on the subject, having voted for him at the last
election.

I was just pondering on the great advantage of dying in
Cork, if a man makes up his mind to die any where, in con-
sequence of all the fine epitaphs spoken about you after,
when I got a smart knock on the sconce from a tidy little
man in black silk stockings, intended to apprise me that I
broke silence too loud. This threw me, as the newspapers
say, and my "immediate vicinity, into a state of the utmost
alarm and consternation," and for the next three quarters
of an hour I was roasted and half smothered in perfect
silence. I waited until the business part of the evening was
transacted—that, I saw, consisted of Members standing up,
and seeming to say something—judging from their mouths,
which opened and shut like people talking, and the thumps
and swings of their arms ; after which they marched round
the table and gave a paper, about which they were talking
the minute before, to all appearance, to the Speaker, who
gave it to a gentleman in spectacles, who stood up, and said
it was " the humble petition of the undersigned,"and crammed
it, no more to do, into a sort of vault between his legs, where
it was under consigned for evermore. At this fine there
was as much noise in the house as there generally is in a
school-room when the master is out, so that you could not
hear one word. The next day, the papers said that Mr.
supported such a petition " very ably"—perhaps they ar-
rived at the conclusion from the number of knocks, or the
various twists and turns of the speaker's body during his elo-
quent address, but it shows what a difficult art reporting
accurately is, when the force and beauty of a man's senti-
ments are understood from all the wry faces be makes, and
from the specific gravity of his sledging on the benches.
This doubtless gave rise to the term, a " decided hit."
You see how one improves by travelling. At long and at
last there sprang up a faint breeze of hope—Lord Francis
Egerton stood up, and silence enchained all tongues, as
Tom Moore says. The Noble stopped settling himself—
hemming and clutching his hips with his hands for about
five minutes, and then proceeded. I listened patiently for
a long time, afraid to think he wasn't a" splendid speaker,"
but my friend drew his under lip over his upper one, and
bobbed up his head, in which opinion thus expressed I
agreed, and exchanged signals with him, betokening that
our minds, as they say of new married people, were in a
state of most undisturbed harmony. There was an absence
of violence and proper energy about the man that I thought
very odd : what he said was sensible enough and well
rounded, yet 1 could not account for the wilful omission
and neglect of either stamping or striking the small desk
that was put under his knuckles, so that th ere could be
no apology for want of opportunity or proper materials to
strike. Then the audience, -I protest, was infamous in the
extreme—a breathless silence and profound attention, so
that every man seemed to me to be weighing his argu-
ments and listening to his reasons for proposing the amen,
d..
ment at all. I thought the assembly altogether a regu ar
humbug.