The Sun.
London, England, 1825-09-03 00:00:00

POETRY.

SONNET,
Addressed to the late Lady ANN BARNARD on her Ballad of
Auld Robin Gray.

BY JOHN TAYLOR, ESQ.

As long as genuine pathos shall prevail,
And Pity hope that Fortune Worth may bless,
So long with sympathy shall all confess,
The simple charms of thy affecting Tale ;'
Yet while with hapless JEN:q.v.-we bewail,
Through all her filial and her fond distress,
We scorn the Churl who then his suit could press,
And sigh that LOvE oppos'd by wEALTir should fail:
But with a Muse so gentle, so refin'd,
Fraught with resistless pow'r the breast to sway,
And who, invok'd by thee, would still be kind,
Inspiring many a soft and soothing lay,
Ah ! Why to FAME art thou no more inclin'd,
Since FAME with pride records AULD ROBIN GRAY.

** As there have been several reports respecating the music
to which this interesting Ballad has been sung, it is proper to
state that Lady ANN BARNARD informed the author of the
above lines, that she wrote it to accord with an old Scotch air,
the words of which she did not then 'know; but hearing the
words some time after, she found them so different from what
she expected, that she regretted having adapted her Ballad to
that air. The music to which the Ballad has hitherto been
sung, and is so much admired, was certainly composed by
the Rev. Mr. LEEVES.

ANECDOTES, &e.

Sift BENJAMIN WttExcrr.—This Gentleman was a cele-
brated Physician about a century ago, in Norfolk. His fee at
that period was two guineas, a proof of the estimation in which
he was held. On one occasion, having received -but a single
guinea, he asked for a candle, though it was noon-day, and
began to search the room ; being asked what he was looking
for, he said, he " believed he had dropped a guinea." The pa-
tif•nt took the hint, and completed the usual fee. Dr. Monsey,
who had been pupil to Dr. Wrench, pronounced him the best
Physician that he had ever known. He was so mild in his man-
ner, anti so gentle in his tone, that he went by the name of
" Silver-tongue Sir Benjamin." He was, we believe, the Great
Grandfather of the present popular Actor.
BOERIIAAVE.—This great Physician used to say, that he had
always disarmed slander and satire by neglecting them, and he
compared their darts to those sparks which fly out of a great
fire, and are extinguished as soon as they are dope blowing.
Krr:o JAMES I.—His Majesty ordered Lord Salisbury to
give 5,009/. to his favourite Rochester : the Treasurer, who
thought it an extravagant present, where there was so little
merit, laid the whole .sum in specie on a table, in the room
through which his Majesty was to pass, who, very much asto-
nished at the sight of such heaps of money, asked him for
what purpose those vast sums were assigned ? The Earl told
him that he .bad his Majesty's orders to pay them to Lord
Rochester. " Ooons mon," said the King, " like a heap
o' Biller is too much for any one subject :" and ordered him but
half.

SPANISH DELTCACr.—There was s!tid to have been an old
law in Spain, which decreed, that if a Gentleman was con-
victed of even a. capital offence, he should be pardoned on
pleading his having been intoxicated at the time he committed
it, it being supposed that any who bore the character of genti-
lity would; more readily suffer death than confess himself ca-
pable of/committing such a vice.
PAPAL SurnEMACY.—While the title of King or Emperor
of the Romans was upheld in' the Germanic Empire, the Papal
See fif Rome was extremely scrupulous of the maintenance of
the.iuprernacy of the triple crown. A t the coronation of Henry
of Suabia, the Pope being placed in a chair, had the imperial
crown laid at his feet, which, when Henry bowed low to kiss
his toe, he put upon his head, and then with his foot kicked it
off again, to chew that he could take it away as well as give it.
The crown being then taken up by one of the Cardinals, was.
presented to the Pope, who put it again on the Emperor's
head, and was so gracious as not to kic it off a second time.
How many kicks have not had subsequent kings at the papal
mitre, to avenge the prostrate submission of their ancestors!
FRENCH BULL.—An old man in Paris attempted to kill
himself last Tuesday, at three o'clock in the morning. He
did not succeed in his slaughterous intention—on which the
Quotidienne rem • -ks, that " Lc SUICIDE vivant encore sur
matin !" The suicide was alive this morning. If this hap-
pened to the west instead of the cast of us, we should consider
it something like a Bull.
A COMPLIMENT TO us !-,-The Duchess of Berri mounted
the pharos at Calais on the 27th, whence she had a view 6f the
English coast, with the 'coup d'ail of which she was pleased to
express herself satisfied.—(Quotidienne, Aug.. 31.)
DUKE DE N-ivEityoi§:--When this 'Nobleman landed
at Dover as Ambassador from France in 1763, two or three
sailors were walking on the beach. Observing the, bustle,
" Hey, what's this ?I' said one ; Oh, the French Ambassador
—he has just come out of the boat."—" Zounds," exclaimed
another, " to what have we reduced the French during last war
—only look, when I was a prisoner in France, tw6 or three
years ago, that emaciated Ambassador, who is now like a
withered apple-john, was then by far one of the fattest men
who walked the streets in Paris ; he absolutely waddled."
THE LATE Mlt. SIIERIDAN.—A lady, not very learned,
hut intimately connected with the family of this gentleman,
lamenting his death, observed, that though he had not been
strictly religious in his life, he had become very devout towards
his last days, and read nothing but "Shylock on Death."

UNIVERSITY INTELLIGENCE.

OXFORD, SEPT. 2.
ECCLESIASTICAL PREFERMENTS.

The Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells has instituted the Rev.
Francis Charles Johnson,- B.A. to the vicarage of Whitelack-
ington, void by forfeiture, under the provisions of the statute
of the 57th Geo. 111. at the presentation of the Rev.. Charles
Johnson, M.A. Prebendary of Whitelackington, in Wells Ca-
thedral, the patron by reason of his prebend.
The Rev. Mr. Pretyman, son of the Lord Bishop of Win-
chester, to the Livings of Alverstoke and Havant, in the room
of the Rev. C. A. North, Prebend of 'Winchester, 'deceased,
which Stall is also expected to be filled by the same Reverend
Gentleman.

The Rev. Daniel Nantes, to the rectory of Powderham,
Devon.

The Rev. J. H. J. Chichester, rector of Arlington, to the
rectory of Loxhore, Devon, void by the resignation of the Rev.
J. L. Harding.
The Rev. Ralph Harvey Leeke has been instituted to the
rectory of Longford, Shropshire, on the presentation of Ralph
Leeke, Esq. of Longford-hall.

LAUSANNE, AUG. 26.—A very EXTRAORDINARY man-
RIAGE has lately taken place at Bruyere. The husband is 86
years of age, and is an old soldier, who had both his legs shot
off in a battle, about 50 years ago. The wife is 70, and was
born without arms, which however does not prevent her being
remarkably active for a woman of any age.
AMERICAN STATISTICS.—TiIe whole number of
people in the United States, by the late census, is 9,629,000.
—Of this number it is stated that 2,065,000 are engaged in
agriculture, 349,000 in manufactures, and 72,000 in com-
merce. Only the efficient or labouring persons in each
class appear to have been enatnerated. Add the ,women, the
children, and the invalids, and there will be found to be
about 8,000,000 in the agricultural class, 200,000 in the com-
mercial, and 1,300,000 in the manufacturing. In England
the agricultural class does not exceed one third of the whole
population. This one third is not only sufficient to produce
bread stuffs and provisions enough for themselves and
the other two thirds, hut also to -produce enough wool, for
all the extensive woollen factories in the kingdom, -with the
exception of a small quantity of fine quality. The wool pro-
duced amounts annually to twenty-eight millions dollars in
value. Four-fifths of our nation are employed to produce the
same effects that follow from the labours of one-third of the
British nation.—(American Paper.)
_ _ _

We may c;.11 the attention of the faculty to the
following surprising and efficacious treatment for the cure of the
chincough; which we witnessed on Monday morning in St.
Mirren's Wynd. An Irishthan and his wife, having observed
one of the long-eared and patient four footed tribe standing
demurely in a little car loaded with ale and porter, immediately
brought out an infant sick of the chincough, and having sta-
tioned themselves one on each side of the ass, the man tossed
the child over its hack to the woman,
.who catching it is her
arms, handed it under the animal's belly again to her husband.
The child, after performing this revolution three times, was
carried back to its cradle by its parents, who assured the won-
dering spectators, that what they had done was the " ouit/y
true cure for the chincough, and all them troubles ; and a grate
dale better than all the doctor's drogs in the kingdom."--
(Paisley Advertiser.)