The Sun.
London, England, 1838-11-27 00:00:00

HATTON-GARDEN.-(THIS DAY.)

CAUTION TO CARTERS.—A man name William Seale, in
the employment of Mr. Walker, of Fulham, was fined in the
sum of 51. or in default of payment committed to prison for a
term not exceeding six months, for driving a waggon laden
with filth and offensive rubbish, through the public streets,
this morning. By the wording of the Act under which he
was convicted, " the driver, or person who causes such to
be driven," arc equally liable to the penalty.
Joseph Martin, the driver and proprietor of a cab, was
summoned by Mr. Woodhouse, an operative chemist, residing
in Bedford-place, for having charged him more than the legal
fare. The parties had been here on a previous summons,
when they determined to have the distance, which Mr. Wood-
house was taken by the defendant, measured. Hall, an officer
of this establishment, surveyed the ground, and found it to
measure less by 45 yards than two miles, the distance charged
for. The penalty imposed by the Act is any sum under 40s. ;
and at the request of the complainant it was mitigated to Si.,
which with costs amounts to 17s, 6d.

LITERATURE.

110 W TO LEARN ALANGUAGE IN SIX
MONTHS.

A New Method of Learning to Read, Write, and Speak a
Language in Six Months. Adapted to the German : For
the Use of Schools and Private Teachers. By H. G.
OLLENDI,RFF, Professor of the German Language and
Literature, Author of " La Diclinaison Aliewande Deter-
mince.

London: Whittaker and Co., Ave Maria-lane; and Duku
and Co., Soho-square. 1838.
Mr. 011endorff, whose skill in the art of teaching was
favourably noticed lately by Captain Basil Hall, has pub-
lished a German Grammar, -in-vrhich he lays down and il-
lustrates by exercises a new method of learning to read,
write, and speak German, or any oilier language, in six
months. This is good news, "if trill.," as the American
Journalists say ; but, no doubt, it will appear untrue to
many, and particularly to our learned Proress,rs of the
Greek and Latin languages, who fur ten or twelve years
hammer Greek and Latin into the rising generation, and
at the end of that period cannot produce more than ten
good scholars out of a hundred. If true. the rapidity of
the railroad is nothing compared with the rapidity of this
royal road for the acquisition of languages. We cannot
speak from personal experience as to tho results of this
method in teaching German, fa- any knowledge we have
of that language was acquired under the old jog-trot sys-
tem ; but on examining the grammar, and judging from the
principle on which the method is founded, we are con-
vinced it must afford great facility in acquiring speedily a
general knowledge of the language sufficient for most pur-
poses of lite. No foreign language is acquired so quickly in
any country as in that in which it is spoken. There every
one the learner meets performs the duty of schoolmaster ;
he must speak or be dumb, and even when dumb he is
learning, by hei.ring the same word or phrase often repeated
he repeats it himself by instinct, and, like the infant, inhales
the language with the air he breathes. For this best of all
schools Mr. 011endorff's plan is an excellent substitute.
He begins with the simplest words and the simplest ques-
tions, to which the scholar as to make similar replies, the
same verb and the same tense being used, and only the
nouns and pronouns varied, throughout several lessons.
" My system," he says, " of acquiring—
" A living language is founded on the principle, that each
question contains nearly the answer which one ought or which
one wishes to make it. The slight difference between the
question and the answer is always explained before the ques-
tion : so that the learner does not find it in the least difficult,
either to answer it, or to make similar questions for himself.
Again, the question being the same as the answer, as soon as
the master pronounces it, it. strikes the pupil's ear, and is there-
fore easily reproduced by his speaking organs. This principle
is so evident, that it is impossible to open the book without
being struck by it.

"'Neither the professor nor his pupils lose an instant of their
time. When the professor reads the lesson the pupil answers;
when he examines the lesson written by the pupil, he speaks
again and the pupil answers ; also when he examines the ex-
ercise which the pupil has translated, he speaks and the pupil
aliswers : thus both are, as it were. conti►,ually kept in ex-
ercise."

The last four words, in fact, explain the whole secret
" Pupils," he says elsewhere, " desirous of making rapid
progress, may compose many phrases in addition to those
given by the masters, but they must pronounce them aloud,
as they write them." The French explain the system in
two words, parlez toujours. M. 011endorff proceeds from
this simple beginning to sentences more complex and idio-
matic, and in one hundred and five lessons, and 249 exer-
cises, contained in about 600 pages, exhibits almost every
possible peculiarity of the German language. These 600
pages, however, are frightful to behold. An octavo in
in small print, nearly as larg.. as the Bible, in the shape of
a Grammar, " for the use of schools and private teachers,'
must be an appalling sight to any but a German student,
and we would therefore advise Mr. 011endorff to transform
it into something like an English shape. He forgets that
he is a German, he forgets also one of the great arts in
teaching, to make the task as inviting as possible, and to
hold out sonny briAt prospect through the dull and dreary
path, %Mich every boy travels in learning- a Grammar.
We appr.ve plan, but he encumbers it with end-
less cletaik

Yesterday an inquest was held at the Middlesex
H•ispital, on the body of William Bourne, a fine young
man. aged nineteen. It appeared from the evidence that
the deceased rr-sided with his parents, who are muffin-
bakers, residing. at No. 13, Rupert-street, Haymarket.
He was of remarkably quiet and steady manners. On Mon-
day, the 12th instant, he had been some time at a public-
house in George-street, Ruprrt-street. About. five o'clock
his mother fetched him home to tea, and he then asked
-her to give hint one shilling, as his na was all gone,
hut she refus d, desiring him to stop in doors. He then
went up stairs, arid shortly alter hearing a heavy fall in the
street, she looked out, and saw her son without his coat on
lying in the road, within one foot of the curb-stone. She
raised an alarm, when he was conveyed in doors, and from
thence to this institution, where it was found that his right
thigh was broken, his skull fractured, and that he had
sustained other severe injuries. He never rallied, and lin-
gered up to Friday night, when he died, before which he
never accounted for the accident. His coat was subse-
quently found on the parapet of the house, but there was
no reason to suppose he had thrown himself off. Verdict—
'. Accidental Death."

On Saturday morning a fire, supposed to have been
the work of an incendiary, broke out in Mr. John Furni-
val's tannery, Mersey-street, Warrington, which destroyed
property of about 8,000/. value.