The Sun.
London, England, 1824-09-08 00:00:00

BRISTOL AS:,EZES, SEPT. 6.

ITOW v. MITCH.
This was an action to recover a debt of 141..55. The names
Of the parties' furnished the" facetious Sergeant," as Mr. Ser
geant Pell is now generally called by his brother Barristers,
with a copious theme to revel in." He first of all took the
names in their individual form, and after driving unfortunate
" How" through all the changes and vicissitudes which it
ever experienced, had " yet," as he himself observed, " a dif-
ficult task to perform," for " Aluch" remained behind. He as-
sured the Jury, that slight as the case was, and brief as should
he the prOof, yet, if they gave their verdict for the plaintiff;
allan d events,rang
then
they would be for ever remembered as on that day having done
collectively, e/1' at e tenngewents
uponn to "
end.ospeakw moufc thh'e' namest
o n

After which Mr. Cleland read the inscription on a metal
plate, and then deposited it in the foundation. When the
operatives had finished their part of the ceremony, the Lord
Provost laid the foundation-stone with all the honours usual
on such occasions, pronouncing the Masonic Benediction, vikt—
" May the Grand Architect of the Universe enable us sue-
cessfullyto carry on and finish the work of which, we have now
laid the foundation-stone, and every other undertaking which
may tend to the advantage of the City of Glasgow and its inha-
bitants, and may this building be long preserved from peril ~............--...__.
and decay."
JAMES ST
-- -- '''''' • REM' DUBLIN POLICE 0 FFICE.--
,
On which the assembled crowd gave three cheers.
On Saturday evening, between eight and nine o'clock, Major
been placed in the centre of an enclosed area, and spoke aDAWVON received information that property to the amount of
s
follows : 1,0(101. was concealed in a. gravel pit off the Long-lane,near the
" GENT LEMT W—l need not inform you that the
,cause of
Royal Hospital : he proceeded to the place, anti found an fin.
manufactured goods, which he secured and
our meeting this day, to lay the foundation of a Parish Church mense quantity of raw silks, together with a variety of other
for the City of Glasgow, is, the unexpected and premature
materials in raw
caused to be lod
decay of a church erected only a century ago. in
ged the Police-office James's-street, where
" It is one of the happy effects of the Judicious system of
those articles remain for the inspection of the public. A woman
economy which has distinguished the conduct of our predeces-
was apprehended on .Bow Bridge, with two parcels of the samesore in the management ,of the City funds, and which I trust quality of articl
will ever continue the characteristic of the Magistracy of Glas- FEMALE Ses as those found in the Long-lane.
ITU:JIM—An inquest was holdyes.
mow, that while we are always found ready to afford reasonable Willa)? evening, at the Hums, Gutter-lane, on the body er Mary
aid to every public improvement, we are at the same time never Wilkinson, aged 21 years, a servant to Mr. Coles, a ribbon.
totally unprepared to meet a sudden and unexpected call, such manufacturer. The deceased had lately been observed tolabour
as the present; and lam sure It must be matter of satisfaction under great depression of spirits ; when called to on Monda
to every one who hears me, that while renewing an edifice de- morning, she was missed front her rooml and on the h youse
voted by the piety of our ancestors to: the service of the Al- being searched, she was found suspended in the cellar. 'Verdict
mighty, we are enabled, without an undue encroachment on —" Insanity."

Mrs. How proved that she had gone to Mr. Much for the
amount of the bill; that he told her to go to Mr. Parry, with
whom he said he had left the money; and when she refused to
do so, he told her either to go to Parry or to go to 11-11.
Cot:l./sm.—And I suppose you declined to go to either ?
Indeed, I did.—(A laugh.) Verdict for the plaintiff.

FOR THE SUN.

if, like the Priests of old upon the Tripod, fully
possessed with their cruel Divinity, they could
only bring forth sentences worthy of the oracle,
or of the God who presided over them, as they
were stirred up by lashes and by tortures to a
demoniac phrenzy.
This surely is such a madness as none but the
mad can enjoy ; all well consistent with the hy-
perboles of ancient poetry, but not with our life
of prose. We pedestrians must take the hum
bier and more natural course, and leav
ing the argument a posteriori to its merited
obscurity, address ourselves' directly to the bead
itself a priori at once. Not anxious to improve
our health at the expellee of youthful blood, Wo
will no longer follow the savage example of these
" conscientious prigs of the ancient system," al
they are humorously stiled in the Tales of the
Travellers, " who think to do their duty by.
their scholars in flogging them soundly, and that
they may do this in order, arrange them in
classes, and flog them in droves along the high.
ways, just as cattle are driven to market, whet&
those which are heavy in gait or short in leg,
have to suffer for the superior alertness and longer
limbs of their companions•"
As now it is not so much the fashion to belie"
in the mental efficacy of corporeal flagellation,
but to think that though we spare the rod, e'o
need not spoil the child ; and that many a chil;1'
on the contrary, has been spoiled by too
boot
as well as too lenient discipline, we Would re•
commend, in mercy to the rising generation, an
easior and less complicated machine than was
formerly set to work for the manufactory of scho•
larship—a plainer and more familitir Gramm,"
than any yet published should be written by
one who is not a mere Grammarian, odePleti
the capacity of youths in general, as brief es A
it
can be made, so that it may be easily committed
to memory, and yet comprehending all thata
is necessary for the first elements:
grammar which may teach the scholar to learn
as he is taught to pray, not by recollection only
or by rote, but with the understanding also; and
one which gives boys credit for some share of Ile
derstanding, which, as it blossoms forth,
among the Classic Authors naturally makes I
Grammar of its own, and acorns to be ,hackled
one moment longer than is necessary leadiogid
strings, which after a time only encumbers it 'ft°
their irksome and officious assistance. Su"
Grammar I would recommend to be publish?'
under the auspices of the Head Masters of 10
great public schools, and proclaimed, as LILL7'...
was formerly, to be taught throughout the lant11"
all schools, public or private, under the peueltid
of any master breaking the law to be dogged
soundly by his own boys for the first offence;
and rovess
and for the second to be obliged to teach the
Westminster Grammar every day without inter'•
mission for the whole year. I should not only
recommend this proclamation of one Grammar
for its utility in itself, but when boys are taught In
the different schools, and there are as many Books
of Elements as there are teachers of them, whe,"
the pupil goes from one school to another, he is
often sadly perplexed with the difference, and
has the most difficult of all tasks to unlearn wind
he has been taught almost from infancy.

GRAMMAR.
MR. EDITOR—It has always been a wonder
to my mind how much Grammarians have from
the beginning puzzled themselves to puzzle their
scholars in the very first elements of Grammar.
Instead of imitating the simplicity of nature in
her, elements, they have tried all they can to
make the science as complex as possible, bring-
ing forward parts of speech as original, which
have no more claim to originality than the lan-
guage which they talk; dividing and subdividing
nouns and verbs, without mercy, upon the poor
victims of their caprice; heaping up one definition
upon another till the sense is buried in midnight
darkness ; and, instead of making Syntax a beau-
tiful order of agreement and government, agree-
able to its real meaning, flowing from a few
simple principles and level to the common capa-
city, bringing back, by their jargon of what are
any thing but rules as they are called, old chaos and
anarchy itself, and concluding the chequered
' scene with such a prosody, without rhyme or rea-
, son, as makes a concordia discors to the juve-
nile poet, rather than the true harmony of the
ancient Muses. Why all this confusion and dif-
ficulty has been introduced into elementary trea-
tises, which are designed for children in general,
it is not easy to tell, wlien they are known
to issue from the pen of writers who are
by no means children in understanding, and
who have been the most celebrated for genius of
their age. If I may be allowed to guess—may
it be the same principle which they have
imbibed at school, when they were in the
first classes, to fag others, having been so
fagged themselves ? Or, in Grammar, is it as in re-
ligion—in order to excite curiosity and make the
more awful impression, that they make the whole
a mystery ? Or do these great men, whose object
is to instruct others, stoop to so low a vanity, as
to wish to magnify their own powers in the sight
of ignorance, and interpose clouds and darkness
round, about the throne of learning, that they
themselves may be thought to have pierced with
an eagle flight above them all ?
Whatever may be the cause, the effect is too
certain ; and a plain, short, and at the same time
comprehensive Grammar, is yet one of the desi-
deranda in this land even, which has been so
long and so eminently enlightened by the greatest
luminaries of Greek or Roman fame. Lilly's
Grammar, which was in such high repute with
a former age, as to be proclaimed throughout the
country as the only legal passport to Latin, is
now exploded at some schools, and melted down,
in others, into the Westminster and Eton. Of
the first of these, I have heard it has been said
by a man of learning who had taught it there for
30 years, and of course had known it for nearly
30 years more, that lie did not yet under-
stand it. The other seems to have monopolised
the attention of most public schools as well as
private, in one form or other, and excepting the
Charter 'louse Grammar, which yet Is, founded
upon it, is most assuredly one of the most luminous
and instructive. But neither of these has yet
dared to travel far out of the aucient record, and,
like pious children, appear to treat with delicacy,
and a sort of veneration, the errors of their fa,
there, forgetting that mercy to those who went
before them, is, like the " tender mercy of
the wicked, cruelty" to those who are to come
after them ; and nothing can be more cruel than
to torment children with rules and definitions,
which they are to learn by rote, or by heart, as
it is termed, for no other reason than it goes to
the very heart of a boy of genius to be obliged
to pore all day upon two or three lines in a to-
reign language which he cannot understand, in
order to "make him comprehend that language it-
self. Such unnecessary impediments could never
be thrown in the way of the scholar, if the
teachers were not influenced by the motives
which have been surmised above, or by a fa-
vourite notion with some of the stricter and more
austere disciplinarians, the Martigophori of old,
whose maxim it was (I suppose, as Nature is said
to run so rapidly from one ektreme to the other),
that the only solid and effectual way of penetrating
the head or citadel was to make a breach at the
other extremity. Or perhaps the modern Or-
bilii, may be pleased with these impediments, as
they tend to that exercise of the arm which has
been by some reckoned so salubrious to them who
are natural heirs of the gout, or have as just a
right or title to it, through their own sedentary,
or less official and less innocent habits. How-
ever this may be, there is nothing more certain
than that the publication of grammars has been
hitherto too much like the publication of banns,
to illustrate the cause or impediment, why scho-
lars should not be called into the precincts of
literature, rather than to introduce and qualify
them for its understanding or enjoyment.
I know it has been said that the memory is the
only faculty of a boy, whose understanding is
seldom open to the reception of ideas ; and there-
fore it is right to store his brain with words which
are so readily received at an early age, when
sounds supply the place of sense, that lie may be
ready furnished with a copia verborum, when his
sense may be able to interpret the sound. But
the question is, whether if the boy has been from
the first in the habit of taking sound for sense,
he will not continue to do so all his life,
particularly if he is not endued with a more
than ordinary share of common sense, which is
only called common, because it is so commonly
useful, or like lucus d non lucendo, because it is
so uncommon. It appears to me, that the best
way to instruct is to begin well, dimidiunt foal
est incipere, and no good beginning can be corn.
Alex. The foundation, whether of Grecian or
Roman architecture, must arise like Nature her.
self from simple elements. Babes must be fed
with milk, and, not like men, with strong meat,
nor even with black broth, like Spartans, for
whom it might have been expedient as well as
the cruel scourgings to which they submitted
their youths, as they were to be trained up to
scenes of blood and violence, and to any but a
taste for polite literature. This is the chief taste
which we would inspire our children with, and
a curious and novel mode of inspiring It would
be, to suffer genius to expire and writhe under
the bloody lashes of infuriate pedagogues) as