The Sun.
London, England, 1847-10-21 00:00:00

Tliti RSl).ll_ ule mvawrival ' OCTOBE

THE COMIC HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By
Gilbert Abbott a Beckett. No. XVL
The reign of Charles I. is concluded in this
number, and the author thus discusses the question
raised by the manner of its conclusion :
" The king being now dead, the Republican beggars
were on horseback, and began at a rapid pace the ride
whose terminus we need not mention, On the sth of
February, 1649, a week after the execution of Charles,
the Commons had the impudence to vote the House of
Peers both useless and dangerous.' One of the next
steps of the Lower 'louse was to vent a sort of brutal
malignity upon unfeeling objects, and having no longer
a king to butehnr, it was resolved to break up all his
statues. The Commons thought, no doubt, to pave the
way to a republic by macadamizing the road with the
emblems of royalty.
" Considerable discussion has been raised upon the
question of the right of a nation to decapitate its king;
and, of course, if the people may do as they please
with their own, they may do anything. The judgment
or posterity has very properly pronounced a verdict of
'Wilful Murder' against the regicides, and we have no
wish to disturb this very fair decision. It is very
unlikely that a similar state of things will ever arise
again in England ; but, it such were to be unhappily
the case, there are, in these enlightened times, numerous
pacific and humane modes of meeting the emergency.
Betwe«-n dethroning a prince and punishing him, there
is,' as Hume well observes, a wide difference;' and
unless the professed humanity-mongers should get fear-
fully ahead—unless the universal philanthropists should
gain an ascendancy over public opinion—there is no fear
that kings or aristocrats will ever be butchered again,
for the promotion of ' universal love' and brotherhood."'
The fun is kept up with great spirit, and the descrip-
tion of the dissolution of the Long Parliament is
capital. The illustrations by Leech are full of
humour.

POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTION.
A most ingenious contrivance for registering the
speed on railway trains has within the last week been
deposited in this establishment, and if adopted gene-
rally on railways would, no doubt, prove a great
check to those who have the management of the train
whilst on the journey,inasmuch as it would show,
beyond
the
train had
been d.spute the precise rate at
which travelling
throughout every
record of the journey, what time they arrived at the
different stations, how long they stayed there, and, in
short, every particular connected with any change of
speed that might arise. It is, however, one of those
things that a description, unaided by diagrams, will
barely be sufficient to convey an adequate idea of;
we may briefly say that the paper which is to receive
the register is a long slip, about one inch broai, and
length proportioned to the time the trains may be
upon the journey; this paper is rolled upon a small
cylinder in the first instance, and one end is made
fast to a cylinder of a larger size (about eight or nine
inches in diameter), this cylinder is then made to
revolve by means of a clock attached to the apparatus,
so that it turns once round every half-hour, conse-
quently about three-quarters of an inch of the paper
passes any given point every minute. A pencil is
now fixed to the upper part of the apparatus, so that
it presses on the paper, and, consequently, as tht.
paper moves round would make a straight line upon
it, were it not that the pencil itself had a lateral mo-
tion given to it; the arrangement is so attached to
the train that the pencil moves from one side of the
paper to the other every quarter of a mile that the
train travels ; by this compound motion a series of
diagonal lines are produced upon the paper, the num-
ber o
of
lines indicatinguas the train arrives
at a station a straight line is merely produced, and by
ces time; distance,
as coon whilst the length
observing the length of this lineit indicates how long
the train has at the station. The apparatus is the
invention of a gentleman by the name of Richard
Ricardo ; the idea is certainly ingenious, but the
mechanical portion of the arrangement will admit of
simplification to a great extent.

_UICIDE OF A MAN OF COLOUR.—Considerable
excitement prevailed in the neighbourhood of Clement's-
lane and Clare-market during the whole of yesterday, in
consequence of a report to the effect that a man of colour
had destroyed himself under the following singular cir-
cumstances.—The name of the deceased was William
Douglas, by trade a cooper, residing with his wife at 17,
Clement's -lane. On Tuesday night he went to bed
about eight o'clock, apparently quite well in health, but
about four o'clock his wife was awoke by the sound of
the fall of a heavy substance in the apartment, and upon
getting out of bed she discovered her husband upon the
floor, bleeding profusely from the head, and quite insen-
sible. Supposing that he had injured himself whilst in
a fit, assistance was obtained, and he was conveyed to
King's College Hospital, where he shortly after expired.
Mr. Baker, the beadle of St. Clement Danes, upon hear.
ing the above particulars, about eight o'clock the same
morning- went to the house of the deceased, and upon
looking around the apartment, discovered beneath the
bed a pistol,. and in a corner of the room a bullet, and a
subsequent examination of the body of the unfortunate
man showed beyond the possibility of a doubt that his
death had been caused by a pistol shot. In the after
part of the day it was ascertained that the deceased had
obtained the pistol found by Mr. Baker from a shop in
Great Wild street, in exchange for an old sword.
Neither the wife of deceased, or any one in the house, 1
beard the report of the pistol.
MURDEROUS AFFRAY.--Lata on Thursday night
the precincts of the Royal-square were the theatre of a
savage attack made by an Italian on two young men. It
appears that a young man of the name of Nowlan had
some words with the Italian, when the latter drew a
large clnsp knife, and stabbed him twice, once in the
abdomen and once in the chest. A comrade of Nowlan,
named Treadaway, who was with him, went to his
assistance of Dr. J. Dickson, jun
assistance, when the Italian struck him several times in
different parts of the body ; once under the region of
the heart. The fellow immediately made off. The
who dressed the wounds of the iwo sufferers. The stab
under the heart must have proved fatal, had not the
fame, yr. Centenier Du Parcq'
blade of the knife touched the bone and glanced off
obliquely. Treadaway is not out of danger. The
assassin (named Buenoforte, a painter, aged about 23)
was besteda early on Friday - morning in a house of ill
and,was speedily procured,
taken to gaol.—
Guernsey Star.
THE LOST AERONAUT .--A letter from St. Peters-
burgh of the sth states that no intelligence has been re
ceived of the French seronaut M. Ledet, who, it will be
remembered, ascended in a balloon on the 12th from
that city, and has not since bee heard of, though his
balloon fell into the Lake of Ladoga, On the evening of
, at the
the day on which M. L; let made ''his ill-fated ascent, his
sister was attacked with sickness of which she died the
next day. Madame laldet, his wife, who was at Mos-
cow, immediately
on
learning that he had disappeared,
set out in the hope of finding h' notwithstanding her
advanced state of pregn him,
env,
MALICIOUS AND UNFOUNDED CHARGE OF POISON-
ING A WlFE.—Yesterday afternoon Mr. Baker resumed,
of Good Hope, Com-
mercial-road East, an
inquest on the body o Mrs.
Louisa Brown, aged 37. The deceased was the wife of
for the third time
Mr. James Brown, who formerly practised as a surgeon,
Cape
though unqualified, but recently was employed as an
accountant. She died on Tuesday week; and since,
these rumours had been circulated—that her husband
had given her some medicine to procure abortion—that
the child was killed—and that she herself died from the
effects of the medicine. Dr. Letheby, lecturer on
chemistry, at the London Hospital, has been for the last
five days engaged in testing the contents of the stomach,
stated the result of
and yesterdaythe analysis. He said,
that he thought he perceived traces of arsenic, but upon
analysing the contents of. the stomach,
he was not
detect the existence of
enabled to any poison. Mr.
Cummings, surgeon, said he attended the deceased, who
inflam
was suddenly attacked withinflammation of the stomach,
and died the next d
on Monday week, _ longft giving
birth to a dead child. The jury,cr ter a discussion,
returned a verdict—" That the_
,the died a natural
death, from inflammation . 9.l„.,,he___ stomach, and after
giving birth to' a dead child . There was not the
slightest cause for suspicion against the husband of the
deceased.
We
ANECDOTE OF PIUS .1X • find the following
anecdote in some of the Paris
....
.journals ~.. Cardinal
Lambruschini wrote to several religious communities en-
gaging them to offer up reyer tba the Pope might be
removed from his state of blindness.
One of these
letters was sent to Pius IX, who
o caused the Cardinal to
be invited to come and see him:, The Cardinal having
replied that he was ill, and could only go the next day,
the Pope sent a message that h
hastened would
wait on the Car-
dinal. On this the Cardinal e
Pope, ened to the Quirinal,
and on being introduced to th
placed in his hands the letter which he had addressed to
the communities. When the Cardinal had read it, the
Pope said, You now understand that I could not go to
'„ a
bed without pardoning you t
DOING PENANCE.—It having been reported that, in
consequence of a
decision of the Ecclesiastical Court,
a young mail named Laurence would do penance in
Saturday
Cheltenham parish church, at t ten o'clock on
the character of a Mrs.
morning, for having defamed
was filled by several hun-
dred
Lucas, the venerable edifice
specified. Half an hour
dred persons at the hour
elapsed before the penitent
e appeared, and then he imme-
vestry-room. There, we
imme-
diately disappeared into t
readsome words from a paper
were informed, a proctor
—an acknowledgment, we
suppose, of the offence—
which the penitent declared to be true, Mrs. Lucas, at
the same time, facing hits-
This was the commence-
merit and conclusion of the ceremony, much to the dis-
appointment of the persons
Present, who fully expected
white sheet, with taper in
to See the man enveloped in a
hand, standing up in the church to do penance.— Chel-
tenham Journal.

•
is conveyed to her father's, and recovers her senses
on giving' birth to a son. William Dobbin still loves
her to distraction :
" This child was her being. Her existence was a
maternal caress. She enveloped the feeble and uncon-
scimus creature with love and worship. It was her hie
which the baby drank in from her bosom. Of nights,
and when alone, she had stealthy and intense raptures
of motherly love, such as God's marvellous care has
awarded to the female instinct—joys how far higher and
lower. than reason—blind beautiful devotions which only
women's hearts know. It was William Dobbin's task to
muse upon these movements of Amelia's, and to watch
her heart ; and if his love made him divine almost all
the feelings which agitated it, alas ! he could see with
a fatal perspicuity that there was no place there for him.
And so, gently, he bore his fate, knowing it, and con-
tent to bear it."

COURT CIRCULAR.
WINDson, WEDNESDAY.—The Queen and Prince
Albert took their usual early walk.
The Prince of Wales, Prince Alfred, the Princess
Royal, and the Princess Alice, took walking and pony
exercise this -morning in the slopes adjoining the
Castle. The Princess Helena was also taken an airing.
Her Majesty rode out this forenoon, in a pony car-
riage and four, attended br the Duchess of Suther-
land. The Equerry in Waiting was in attendance on
horseback.
His Royal Highness Prince Albert went out
shooting this morning with his Serene Highness the
Prince Lowenstein. His Royal Highness was attended
by the Earl of Morley and Colonel Seymour.
The Duke of Wellington, the Right Hon. Sir Fre-
derick Pollock, and General' Sir George Pollock, left
the Castle to day.
The Countess of Desart has arrived, and succeeded
the Countess of Gainsborough as the Lady in Wait-
ing to the Queen.
The Earl of Morley and Mr. R. Ormsby Gore
have arrived at the Castle, and have succeeded Lord
Byron and General Sir Edward Bowater, as the Lord
and Groam in Waiting to her Majesty.
The Duke and Duchess of Argyle are expected to
arrive this evening on a visit to the Queen.
The royal dinner party at the Castle this evening
is expected to include her Royal Highness the Duchess
of Kent, his Excell ncy the Chevalier Bunsen, the
Duchess of Sutherland, his Serene Highness Prince
Lowenstein, the Duke and Duchess of Argyle, Lady
Anna Maria Dawson Baroness de Speth, Miss L.
Dawson Darner, and Sir George Couper.
The Band of the Grenadier Guards will attend
during dinner. Her Majesty's private Band after-
wards attend in the Castle.
The Band of the Royal Horse Guards attended
yesterday evening in the Castle, and performed the
following pieces :
Overture—" Stradella"
Selection —" Huguenots" Meyerbeer,
Waltz—" Hyacinthe"
Andante e Final—" Eighth Symphony" Beethoven.

His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge left
town yesterday morning for Fawsley Park, North-
amptonshire, to honour Sir Charles Knight with a
visit.