The Sun.
London, England, 1841-08-20 00:00:00

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DE ?AIX.

The Author—Would to heaven that I had a few more!
—(Laughter.)
Lebattu—Do you hear the heartless fellow ? I vvaill
tell you how he served me. About three mouths ago he
came to me breathless, and said, " Well, it. is finished !"
" What is finished ?" said I. " Oh, it is finished, and
my fortune is made," continued the man, in a sort of
exstacy. "So much the better," said I, to the last part
of the sentence. They will play it for me in two
months at the Boulevard—it is all vetted—a drama in
five nets, which is received with the most overwhelming
applause you will, therefore," said he, jumping to a
conclusion, " lend me a hundred crowns."--(Laughter.)
" Yes, I say the business is done, and I wilt give you
two bills, payable the day after the first representation
of my play."
The Judge—And you accepted them ? Lebsttu--,
Rekts out. Thinking the security good, I allowed tey.
self to be influenced by my feelings ofhuthanity, and the
six per cent.—(Much laughter.) But there was one
thing upon which I did not reckon—namely, the probs•
bility of a failure of his play. But so it was—the play
was laid on the shelf, instead of being overwhelmed with
applause.
The Author—And I know why ! It was because I
had not a sufficient number of creditors present.
Lebattu—Well, it was not my fault if it did not suc-
ceed. I clapped like a madman' (naively). It was to,
my interest.—(Laughter.) The audience, finding that I
applauded incessantly, cried out ala porte, le cama-
rade, it aun billet de l'auteur."—" Turn him out ! He is
a friend of the author's, come in with an order." I got
up in the pit, and declared that the gentleman who said
that was not adhering to the truth.
The Judge—What, had you not got one then ? Le-
battu (with sang froid)—No, not one—l had two.—
(Laughter.)

The Judge—What, two orders for one person ? Lo•
battu—Oui, Monsieur. Two for fifty crowns each, which
have this day been duly protested !—(Laughter.) In
spite of the poorness of the piece, howevey, je claquait
toujours—l continued to applaud, until at length I found
myself handed to the door.—(Laughter.) I now insist
upon the re-payment of my money.
The Author consented to pay the debt at the rate di
30 francs per month.

Lebattu sympathised with him in the failure of his
piece. The Author protested that it was his 0%-vn fault ;
" for had I (said he) had a hundred sucb "creditors aa
you, the success of my piece would have been trium-
ph an t."—{ Laugh te r.)
The contracting parties then quitted the Court, in
which their presence had afforded not a little amusement.

MESMERISM, BY DE LAFON-
TAINE.
On Wednesday we attended the adjourned exhibitim of
Mesmerism, at the Queen's Rooms, Hanover-still:lm
where a very numerous audience was assembled at three
o'clock, and continued with tolerabk patience until half:
past five to await the promised ixoduCtion of mad tie
results in the various volunteers who presented them.
selves for experiment. In three cases, which occupied
half an hour each, no visible effect was obtained. la
two other cases the manipulations of the Professor
seemed to induce sleep in the patients ; but he himself
declared that he was exhausted by his exertions, and
would make no further attempts on this occasion, ve77
great dissatisfaction was expressed, and most loudly and
harshly by some gentlemen, who in our opinion have
been both intemperate and ungenerous in their inter-
ruptions of the proceedings on each of the former occa-
sions, and have tended greatly to embarrass and irritate
N. de Lafontaine, while his demeanour has been-through-
out courteous, frank, and, we must say, very forbear-
ing. It would be out of place here to offer an explana-
tion of the causes of failure, but we think that so far
from confirming, the charge of imposture the failure may
fairly lead to an opposite inference. Success in all cases
is not pretended, and if the exhibitor wished to make a
false impassion iby the aid of collusion, be would have
obtained a sufficient number of subjects for any of tha
last exhibitions to counterbalance the effect of his defeats
with genuine patients.
We shall continue to attend his exhibitions, and note
impartially all that we observe.

THAMES STEAMERS.
TO THE .EDITOR OF THE SUN.
Stn,—Your eye rests on abuses for their correction,
and tempts me to place a few remarks before it, on the -
delay and confusion consequent on several steamers
stopping at the Old Swan Pier, near London-bridge, on
Sunday evening last.
I bought a ticket for. an iron-boat, and, on reaching it,
was informed it had to call on the other side of the.,
river, and would return at its prope- que. This wile,
e. enable and I waited.
trinnatrartr-wfteti-
there it stayed ; and, on applying to flit cltrk, he said,
" If it had been only five minutes Over its time, he
would return the money ; but as it had been seven, he
could not ; and could only account for its delay by
some part of the machinery being out of order."
This was not the worst. On its arrival, twelve mi-
nutes after time, whilst waiting to take in passengers,
it became completely jammed in between four other ves-
sels—one small, and three Greenwich and Woolwich,
larger. Thus nearly another quarter of an hour IV SWI
consumed, making almost half an hour's delay, in which
time I could have walked. leisurely enough to Wattr.loo-.
bridge, without standing a very good chance indeed of
catching cold.

But the remedy—what is the remedy ? There should
be a distinct place for the larger, longer voyage boats,
to stop at ; and they should be in a tier—one only to
take in and let out passengers at a time, or forfeit
heavily; and when a small boat is over-time, the money-
taker should be compelled to return the money for not
fulfilling the agreement as to time, which is valuable
nearly to all, as well as your obedient servant,
A PASSENGER AGAINST HIS WILL,
AND NOT THE ONLY ONE.
Aug. 17, 1841.

COMMITTAL, ESCAPE, AND RE-CAPTURI
OF A BURCLAR.—On the morning of Saturday last War- _
mation was received at the station-house of the
sion in the town of Staines, that on the previor, yid44
the premises of Mr. E. Carruthers, of that tow' had be
burglariously entered, and that the thievePlad been ditii
turbed in their proceedings, having only stolen a silvig
watch, a tea-caddy, a pair of sugar-tongs, a glass sugar.
basin, and a rosewood workbox. Serjeant Burton of the *1
division, having,
reason to believe that a vvell-latown chs.
racter, named Collyer, had been concerned in th
e
robbery, traced him to Hounslow, told. frow thence to Cho ham, Surrey, where heisuecetaKd in apprehending
him, and on searching Lt
him foly- the duplicate of the
watch in his pocket. On Monde.y` he wits conveyed before
the petty sessions at Feltb...in, and fully committed to
Newgate for trial. W,; awaiting the arrival of a cart
to convey him to Newtgate, he was allowed teremuise in
the bench-room on the ground-floor of the inn, the win-
dows of which, owing te the crowded estate of the room, were wide open, when, watching .a favourable wettest..
nity, he jumped out of one of the
'Windows, and hoW3d4k
with the speed of a deer across the .country. Us
Spector Otway of the T division, and InspeetorDeufr
sing, of the V 'division, who were both present, iiinnie
diately mounted their horses and galloped off in pursuit,
followed by a number of policemen and other persons,
when after a severe run the prisoner teak refuge in Han-.
warth Park, the seat of Mr. Henry Perkins, the brewer
whose demesne being closely wooded for some time
afforded him a
mnsecureshelteriediteai)d
fromiyidehdistphierrinsseueirsve.s The
police, however,
small parties and scoured the wood, and ultimately the
ahrtaenrdc mucKtift'
eA
prisoner was discovered in
hae washigh tirneset,anattiltyi
difficulty got down, when
and brought back to Feltr-on, whence he was conveyed!
to Newgate.
Unpropitious weather, still ! Rain and cold.
winds 1 what will become of the sliding scale ? What'
of those who have taken their stand upon it. The difn.
culties of Sir Robert Peel begin to take shape and dis-
tinctness as the hour for his inauguration draws nigh„
Five hundred Sir Roberts rolled into one would nut bar
able to maintain the present Corn-laws—to abandon them
will disappoint and kindle the, rage of the long list of
country gentimen, M.P.s, who imagine that the seasons
were made to wait upon iheir pleasure, and the heavens
themselves to revolve about them as a fixed centre.
These sapient ptilosophers would not allow of
man's having done his duty, if beaten lA. last, even if omnipotence were his antagonial
—and should Sir Robert sacrifice himself in a bootie*, attempt to preserve his political consistency, these would
be the first to trample upon his remains. They axe sel-
fish and ignorant enough to gnash their teeth at rrovi,
dence, because Providence is against them—br,t seeing that would be fruitless, they would gladly vor.i their dis-
pleasure upon the unhappy statesman wb:ini Providence
shall overcome. The accounts from "irious Quarters of
the country represent the crops 44 )'.aving sustained very
partial, it' any, damage. Such 'tepresentatiocs, however,
arc not to be relied
.0r: They are usually com-
municated by farmer, to journals circulating prin-
cipally among triners. And it is to the far-
mers' intero7l, now, to prevent corn from rising
until after the harvest. Few of our agriculturists could
eel themselves of high prices until their corn is housed,
for the simple reason that most of them have disposed of
their stock already—and if, in consequence of the next
averages, bonded wheat should come into the market before
harvest terminates, the golden prospect now before the far-
mer would turn out but a gloomy one. It is, therefore,
importance to the landed interest to have favourable rep
ports--that present prices may not be raised until the
farmers can avail themselves of the advantage.'We
be-
lieve the authority on which we thatstatedvil
hethe
foundcr o
crops
were already a fifth below the average,
•
general
crash._j‘reoinfo
be..borne out by the event. If countrysoe,ntiennst
must be
prepared for a
MR. HopEp s MANSION IN FARIS:7The
large
flue n
house which[ Mr. hlope is building ig
is approaching to completion.
the
Commerce says the expense of this building, includ-.
and
dS satii6tnlldiodm inione,
jog the furniture and ohiects of art, is estimated at LI
millions of francs (600,0001).

HE DRAMATIC AUTHOR. i; L -4.-V-
- L'Audienee—Paris
.jourinti.)
Marie-Ange-Charles-Polycarpe-D.sire-Lebattu, whe
described himself a banker, had lent money •to an 'authoi;
upon a very singular kind of security—namely, a five act .
play which had never been performed. He now appeared
before the Court, much discontented at the result of
his negotiation, and had summoned the author (whose
name we shall abstain from mentioning) before the Court
of Justice de Paix.
Lebattu (with warmth)—lt is abominable to cheat tp
man out of a hundred crowns in such a manner !
The Judge—Cannes roes, Monsieur.
Lebattu—Calm ! How can a man be calm when he
has lost 300 francs ?—(Laughter.)
The Judge--Be calm, and we will see justice done you.
Lebattu—That, lam afraid, is out of your power,
Monsieur, for the defendant has an innumerable host of
creditors.