The Sun.
London, England, 1824-07-20 00:00:00

FILIAL PIETY.

In China, let a son become ever so rich, and a
father ever so po6r, there is no submission, no point of obe-
dience, that the latter cannot command, or that the former can
refuse. The father is not only absolute master of his son's
estate, but also or his children, who, whenever they displease
him, he may sell to strangers. When a father accuses his son
before a mandarin, there needs no proof of his guilt, for they
cannot believe that any father can be so unnatural as to bring
a false accusation against his own son. But should a son be
so insolent as to mock his father, or arrive at such a pitch of
wickedness as to strike him, all the province where the shame-
ful act of violence is committed is alarmed ; it even becomes the
concern of the whOle empire ; the Emperor himself judges the
criminal. All the mandarins near the place are turned out of
their posts, especially those in the town where he lived, for hav-
ing been so negligent in their instructions ; and all the neigh-
bours are reprimanded for neglecting, by former punishments,
to put a stop to the wickedness of the criminal, before it arrived
at such flagitiousness. With respect to the unhappy wretch
himself, they cut him to a thousand pieces, burn his bones, raze
the house in which he lived, as well as those houses that stand
near it, and sow the ground with salt, as supposing that there
must be some hopeless depravity of manners in a community to
which such a monster belonged. •
The filial duty is the same with the prince and peasant in
China; and the Emperor, every New Year's Day, pays a par-
ticular homage to his mother in the palace, at which ceremony
all the great officers of State assist,
The Persians, according to Herotiotus, held the crime of do-
mestic rebellion in nearly as much detestation as the Chinese,
but they treated it after a more refined manner. They looked
on the striking or slaying of a father as an impossible offence;
and when an accident of the kind happened, adjudged that the
offender could not be the son of the party injured or slain, but
must have been superstitiously imposed on him as such.
Cicero observes, that Solon, the wise legislator of Athens,
had provided no law against parricide : and that being asked
why he had not, he answered, " That to make laws against
and ordain punishments for a crime that had been never known
or heard of, was the way to introduce it rather than prevent it."
In Rome, no less than six hundred years from the building
of the city had elapsed, before so much as a name for the crime
of parricide was known amongst them. The puishment or-
dained for the first who stained his hands with the blood of the
author of his being, was, that he should be scourged till he was
flayed, then sown up in a sack, together with a dog, a cock,
a viper, and an ape, and so thrown headlong to the bottom of
the soa.
Eparninondas, the Theban General, being asked what was
the most pleasant thing that had happened to him in the course
of his whole life, replied, " that he remembered nothing more
pleasant than that he hail achieved the Leuetssian victory,
while his father and 'mother were yet alive to be pleased with
the glory of their son."
Poinponius Atticus, in makingthe funeral oration over the
remains of his mother, protested, " that though he had lived
with her sixty-seven years, he had never been reconciled to
her." The audience seemed struck with surprise at such a
declaration from one who was famed for his attachment to his
mother. " No," continued Atticus, " for in all that time
there never happened the least jar betwixt us, that needed re-
conciliation." _ _

The gallant Sertorious, though fond of a military life, and
though in a situation as General in Spain which promised
him a noble harvest of laurels, solicited permission from the
Senate to return home, that he might once more enjoy the so-
Ciety, of his mother. Before he could receive an answer to this
application, news was brought to him that his mother was no
more. Sertotius was so afflicted with the tidings, that he shut
himself up in his tent for seven days, during all which time
he lay on the ground, lamenting; and would not suffer even
his moat familiar friends to break in upon his sorrow.
The first gilded statue that ever was erected, either in Rome
Or atiy part of Italy, was one by a son to the honour of a father ;
which his father had achieved over Antiochus, at the Straits of
Knight, in memory of the triumph
by M. Acilius Glabrio, a
'Thermopylae. It was erected in the Teinple of Piety.
When our Edward the First was in the Holy Land, he re-
ceived, successively, the news of the death of his only eon, and
of his father, Ilenry the Third, Ile took the first loss, resignedly ;
but on the second, he was quite com forties& and dejected. When
Charles, King of Sicily, expressed his aurprize at this difference,
Edward replied, " God may, setulme more sons: but the death
of a father is irrecoverable."

A CASE or HionoraontA occurred last week
at the Skibbereen Dispensary, in a fine boy,
aged 15 years. He was bluest stverely in the
cheek, five weeks preceeding the attack, by A
young dog. At the time he was bitten, his
balieledeimngloyed
without success.—
friends were not conscious of the animal being
mad, and the necessary precaution of excision
in the wounded part was neglected. He lasted
under the attack three days ; the horror of li-
quids and cow/1140ns was frightful. The transi-
tion bath, injection of the veins with cold water,
blisters, 'and mercurial
togetherfrictions,
were
This case should excite great circumspection in
the treatment of wounds from cats or dogs, and
whenever there is any suspicion of madness, ex-
cision of the wounded part should 1w instantly
effected, as the only Certaiii' preveotive of 11116
frightful malady, .' . .

BIRTHS.
the F of
At Clapham-rise, lady of Charles axebrother, Esq.,
a sou.
On Sunday last, at' Dulwich, the lady of Edward Lodge
Ogle, Esq., of a daughter.

. .
6n Saturday last, at Gravesend,
MARRIED-
Mr. James Gye, of Wel-
brook, London, to Frances, youngest daughter of J. Dennett,
Esq. of the former, place.
On Wednesday, the 14th inst., at Croydon, Surrey, Frederick
-,
John Bassett, Esq., surgeon, Coleman-Street, to Isabello, eldest
daughter of the late James Dickson,. Esq., of Croydou, and
niece to the late Mungo Parke, Esq.
On the 19th inst., at Ashtead, in Surrey, Robert Campbell
Searlett, Esq., eldest ton of James Searlett, Esq.. M.P. to
Sarah, youngest daughter of the late George Smith, Esq., Chief
Justice of the Mauritius:

DIED.
On the lath inst., ofapo lexy, at the house of Mr. Clause,
survon, Shoreham, Mr.,llltornas Bourn, jun., aged 27.. .
('u SundaY evening, Henrietta, the wife of James Wad.
more, Esq., of No. 40, Chapel-street, Paddington.
On Sunday morning last, at his house in Brampton-crescent,
John Philips Dew, Esq., in the 83d year of his age. - •
On the 7th inst., at Newcestle.upon-Tyne, Mr. Thomas
Walton, formerly partner' in the respectable. firm of llankins
and Walton, io that town.
At Dourlans,
Picardy, on the 7th instant, aged .59, the Baron
Jube, Marechs.l-de-Carnp, a distinguished political writer, and
an ercellent member of society.