The Sun.
London, England, 1847-05-20 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, MAY 20, 1847.

and 7 to 2 agst Chemise. Won cleverly by half a
length, Bletsoe Lass a good third, Tell a moderate
fourth, Sylph fifth, and Bretwalda sixth, Bedouin
beaten off.

ASCOT RACES.
We are authorised to state that Alarm will not start
for the Emperor's Vase.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SU?.

Sin,—Tuesday's racing ended as I anticipated it
would by the triumphant victory of Plates teller for the
Woodcote Stakes and Crozier for the Craven Stakes.
Most extraordinary success attended my prognostica-
tion, I having in both instances named the first and
second.
A mistake crept into my list of starters for the Derby
in Mathematician, who was scratched on Monday.
As I did in my last epistle, so shall I do to-day, in
giving the list of starting horses for Thursday and
Friday's races, I shall place an asterisk (*) against those
who are in all probability likely to prove the winners.

THURSDAY.
DURDANS STAKES.
*Queen 11fary
Marquis of Conyngham
Teresina
Pineapple
*Miles's Boy.
D PLATS.

Widred
Anna tho Third
Binnacle
*Bedlam
Dean Swift

GRAND STA
yrs. st. lb. yrs. st. lb.
Laundry Maid ...4 8 8 Mr. Martin 3 7 6
*Brayissimo 4 8 4 Sir Simon 4 7 5
Gian‘ess 5 8 2 Alkali 5 7 4
Gannett ...... ..5 8 2 Polka 4 7 0
Little Jack 5 7 13 Eryx 3 6 13
Conjugation ...aged 7 10 Christopher 3 6 8
*Colt by Amato...4 7 10 *lleloraine 3 6 5
Attorney 5 7 8 Sultana 3 6 3
And perhaps two or three more.
COBHAM STAKES.
I Conceit.
DENBIES STAKES.
ICapt. Pepper
*Clemanthe
*Treacle.

*lcicle

Carissima
Satyr
Sarah Sykes

FRIDAY.
OAKS STAKES.
Brown Bess
Miss Whip filly
Maid of Saragossa
Emerald Isl©
*Vanity
lonia
Gift
Mangosteen
*Lady Lift
Noiseless
Slander
Jumble.

•Clementine.
Filly—Quilt Arnold's dam
Cosachia
Kite
Maid of Motherwell
Exhortation
So Nice
Nannette filly
Palma
Marie Louise
Farmer's Daughter
*The Queen

The remaining stakes—the Members' Plate, and the
Derby and Oaks Stakes—are so much dependent on
those preceding them that it would be impossible to
give a correct list of the starters.
I am, Sir, yours, &c.,
May 19. THE SPIRIT OF THE TURF.

LITERATURE.

ADVENTURES OF THE CONNAUGHT
RANGERS. 2 Vols. By William Grattan.

Little if anything could be desired with reference to
thea ste
rDi
yu
vk
ee
uo
mf
eWs We if! n
Ng taopni
eirn.
tthhee vpicetnoirniosuulsacaumftepraigtnhse omf
O f a
after purely
th
eh i snt,oeritkcsa h
tchaatr act
havee r
alreadyth i nothing indeed is
beenpublished,
requi-
site
but of the anecdotal adventures, of the hair-breadth
escapes, and the personal rencontres of that stormy
epoch much—very much—remained unchronicled. Mr.
Grattan has done well towards the filling up of the
hiatus. As Lieutenant of the Connaught Rangers
during the days when that valorous regiment was ac-
quiring its chief renown and covering itself with im-
perishable glory, he is in a peculiar manner entitled to
command our attention when speaking of the military
achievements of a body of men whose bravery, and
ardour, and audacity, and perseverance, and
success have imparted to them the distin-
guishing title of the Fighting Eighty-Eighth. But
Mr. Grattan is no dry didactic narrator of events. Ile
can describe a siege or a pitched battle with all the pre-
cision of a Napier and all the minuteness of a Siborne,
if not with the eloquence of a Gibbon or the enthusiasm
of a Tacitus. Beyond this, he tells an anecdote with the
gusto of Harry Lorrequer—proving himself to be a
rare companion over a dish of walnuts and a flask of
Madeira. There is an unction, too, about his humorous
passages that irresistibly tickles ono into laughter. And
all the aJvantages are " set off" by a winning modesty
as regards his oiNn personal movements, and a delightful
and unaffected bonhommie. Where, moreover, could a
soldier find a fairer field for discursive chat than the
peninsula of Iberia and Lusitania, when the marshals of
the Emperor Napoleon and the generals of England were
contending for the mastery amidst a fruitful vegetation,
a delicious climate, and a distracted people ? And
where could the lovers of military adventure look
for incident, for merriment, for daring, for vicissitude,
and for a very forgiveabla rascality, if not to the Con-
naught Rangers—the Boys—the Fighting Eighty-Eighth?
Surely nowhere. Mr. Grattan has chosen a glorious
theme, and he has treated it gloriously. The book,
though rambling and discursive to an inordinate extent,
is enthralling from page 1 to page 675. As Phia-like
illustrations to Napier's Peninsular History, these
chapters are excellent and invaluable. They testify in
a brilliant manner to the indomitable courage, the un-
repining endurance, and the national peculiarities of the
British troops ; but, like the descriptions of all battle-
grounds, they are mournful in their very pleasantry, and
ghastly in their very facetiousness. We honour Mr.
Grattan, especially because ho shows here and there
throughout his volumes that there is a tender
core to his Heart of Oak that he has a
bosom to feel for the suffering as well as to bear the
brunt of the bayonet—that he can, in no maudlin tones
of affectation, but with a manly candour and explicitness,
lament over the desolations and woes of war as well as
exult over its glory and its heroism. In this respect he
effects a sort of compromise between Captain Pea and
Captain Sword. As a specimen of the drolleries con-
tained in these adventures, we extract the following
characteristic remarks upon Wellington from the lips of
a Connaught Ranger with the felicitous name of Paddy
Aisy:—.... _ .

"I Well!' said he, now ids all past and gone, and wasn't
it the divil's own dthroll business, the taking that sam e place ;
and wasn't Long-nose (meaning the Duke of Wellington) a
quare lad to sthrive to get into it, seeing how it was denuded!
But what else could he do, afther all? didn't he recave
ordhers to do it ; and didn't he say to us all, Boys,' says he,
ids myself that's sorry to throuble yees upon this dirty
arrand ; but we must do it, for all that; and iv yees can get
into it, by hook or by crook, be the powers, id 'ill be the
making ov yees all—and ov me too !' and didn't he spake
the thruth ? ' Sure,' says he, ` did I ever tell yees a lie, or
spake a word to yees that wasn't as thrue as the Gospil ?
and, iv yees folly my directions, there's notion can bate
3 ees ?' And sure, afther we got in, was he like the rest,
sthriving to put us out before we diverted ourselves? Not
he, faith. It was he that spoke to the boys' decently.
Well, boys,' says he, when he met myself and a few more
Rising a house ov a thrifle, well, boysisays he (for he knew
the button), God bless your work ! ids myself that's proud
to think how completely yees tuck the concate out uv
the Frinch 88th, in the castes last night.' Why sir,'
says I (forgettin to call him my Lord), the divil a Frinch
Connaught Ranger ever was born that the Irish Connaught
Rangers isn't able to take the concate out ov;' and ids what
he said upon the same, splitting his sides with laffin, that it
was thrue for me there wasn't ; and blur-an-ouns, boys, aint
he the man to stand by? Don't he take the rough and the
smooth with us, and wouldn't it be a pity not to give him
his dew? don't he expose himself to the wet and the cowld
with us, lie out on the grass at night, like any other baste?
and aint he afthnr kicking the French before him, just as
we'd kick an old foot-ball? Be the powers, whin I see him
commin next or nigh me, my heart gets so big that my body
isn't big enough to hould it, and it jumps up clans into my
throat—to get room I And don't think that I'm romancin,
when I tell yees how he said we tuck the concate out ov the
Frinch 88th; he said every word ov it, and more too—iv I
could repate it in his own words.
Why,' replied Corney Fagan, what you say is per-
fectly thrue; we ought to stand by him—and didn't we?
Sure yees remember how Misther Mackie ran up the laddher
as nimble as a cat, and poor Misther Martin thought to do
the same, till he was kilt ! and didn't Captain Seton owe his
life to his being so thin that the French couldn't hit him? and
whin we have such a man to direct ns, and such officers to
lade us on, why, what else can we do but folly them through
thick and thin ? '"
With such an opinion of the capacity of their leader,
and with such an aptitude for fingering the trigger
and plunging forward with the pike themselves,
it is not difficult to comprehend how the British
arms became predominant over a dejected an-
tagonist and estranged commanders. In review-
ing the campaigns of the Spanish and Portuguese
Peninsula, it must never be overlooked that England
was then enabled to concentrate all her military
strength upon those two countries while France was
battling against the leaguered arms of northern, eastern,
western, and southern Europe. A very mournful sub-
ject is brought under consideration in the present work,
namely, the anomalous character of the immortal
Picton. Though the conduct of that illustrious warrior
was certainly of a very questionable, if not of an entirely
reprehensible, kind towards the 88th Regiment, it is cer-
tain that he has entitled himself to the respectful and
lasting remembrance of his countrymen by his enter-
prizing life and his heroic death. Mr. Grattan speaks
out boldly, and with apparent reason, upon that General's
behaviour to his comrades. We cannot resist the feeling of
antipathy we have, however,for the contemplation:of these
doubtful blemishes in the disposition of a popular hero
like Picton. The hero of Sinde would have afforded
him a very different notion of the care duo to privates
and subordinate officers—and so also would the hero of
Aliwal. To desist, however, abruptly from this painful
topic, here is a picture for the contemplation of those who
see only the laurels and not the blood, who hear only
the triumphal symphonies and not the shrieks and
blasphemies, who note only the bauble medals, and not
the agonised victims of the battle-field and the pillaged
city. It is an incident thus mentioned by the author in
telling about the terrific storm of Ciudad Rodrigo:—
" During a contest of such a nature, kept up in the night,
as may be supposed, much was of necessity left to the guid-
ance of the subordinate officers, if not to the soldiers them-
selves. Each affray in the streets was conducted in the best
manner the moment would admit of, and decided more by
personal valour than discipline, and in some instances officers
as si ell as privates had to combat with the imperial troops.
In one of these encounters, Lieutenant George Faris, of the
88th, by an accident so likely to occur in an affair of this
kind, separated a little too far from a dozen or so of his regi-
ment, found himself opposed to a French soldier who appa-
rently was similarly placed ;—it was a curious coincidence,
and it would seem as if each felt that he individually was the
representative of the country to which he belonged; and had
the fate of the two nations hung upon the issue of the combat
I am about to describe, it could not have been more heroically
contested. The Frenchman fired at, and wounded Faris in
the thigh, and made a desperate push with his bayonet at
his body, but Fads parried the thrust, and the bayonet only
lodged in his leg ; he saw at a glance the perit4of his situation,
and that nothing short of a miracle could save him ;—the
odds against him were too great, and if ,he continued a
scientific fight he must inevitably be vanquished ; he sprang
forward,aem ueeach
mutual
oas,tltheyh eeaffr n dr:
ythsesereiteirozmiwngegean nhpooofl d of the Frenchman by the collar,
agw t
what
a struggledisengagedtt of the most nervous kind took place; in their
an
s nearly
werea dv a
equalnotfa advantage
neo a theystrength,va lostibt
utwth
aeisi:a doubt-
fulci
Faris
p at
he issue
hwouldimselfbe.fremThtheye
grasp
sowehnicthanh
heldgled whiimth,
length
he as able to use his sabre; heaspi;hedt e French-
man from him, and ere he could recover himself he laid his
gohefat,dilloymeandenepaorlrytutgoiteteoncehinw;upblade,w tdahheeftze,
hisas oustleCi
of the blow, and retained some pieces of scullthe th
hair ! At this moment I reached the spot with about twenty
men, composed of different regiments, all being by this time
mixed pall mall with each other. I ran up to Faris—he
was nearly exhausted, but he was safe. The French gre-
nadier lay upon the pavement, while Fads, though totter-
ing from fatigue, held his sword firmly in his grasp, and it
was crimson to the hilt. The appearance of the two com-
batants was frightful !—one lying ',dead on the ground, the
other faint from agitation and loss of blood; but the soldiers
loudly applauded him, and the feeling uppermost with them
was that our man had the best of it I It was a shocking
sight, but it would be rather a hazardous experiment to
begin moralising at such a moment and in such a place."
As a kind of companion-story to this very ghastly
anecdote, we give the following account of the execution
of deserters:—
"At eight o'clock the division was under arms, and formed
in a hollow square of small dimensions ; in the centre of it
was the Provost-Marshal, accompanied by his followers,
with pick-axes, spades, ,shovels, and all the necessary et-
ceteras for marking out and forming the graves into which
the unfortunate delinquents were to be deposited as soon as
they received the last and most imposing of military ho-
nours—that of being shot to death ! In a few moments
afterwards, the rolling of muffled drums—the usual accom-
paniment of the death march—was heard; and the soldiers
who guarded the prisoners were soon in sight. The divi-
sion observed a death-like silence as the prisoners defiled
round the inside of the square ; every eye was turned to-
wards them; but Mangin, from his well-known good cha-
racter, was an object of general solicitude. The solitary
sound of the muffled drums at last died away into silence—
the guard drew up in the centre of the square, and the pri-
soners had, for the last time, a view of their companions
from whom they had deserted, and of their colours which
they had forsaken ; but if their countenances were a just
index of their minds, they seemed to repent greatly the act
they had committed ! The three men of the 60th were in
their shirts, as was also Mangin, of the 88th, but Curtis
wore the old red rag,' most likely from necessity, having,
in all human probability, no shirt to die in; a circumstance
by no means rare with the soldiers of the Peninsular army.
"The necessary preliminaries, such as reading the crime,
and finding the sentence, had finished, when the Adjutant-
General announced the pardon granted to Mangin, who was
immediately conducted away, and placed at a short distance
in rear of the division; the rest staggered onward to the spot
where their graves had been dug, and having been placed on
their knees, their legs hanging over the edge of the grave, a
bandage was tied over their eyes; the Provost-Marshal
then, with a party of twenty musketeers, their firelocks
cocked, and at the recover, silently moved in front of the
prisoners until he reached to within five paces of them, and
then, giving two motions of his band—the one to present,
the other to fire—the four men fell into the pit prepared to
receive them. The three Germans were dead—indeed they
were nearly so before they were fired at! And if the state
of their nerves was a criterion to go by, a moderate sized
PV-gun would have been sufficiently destructive to have

finished their earthly career; but Ctirtis sprang up, and with
one of his jaws shattered, and hanging down upon his
breast, presented a horrid spectacle. Every one seemed to
be electrified, the Provost-Marshal excepted; he, I suppose,
was well accustomed to such eights, for without any cere-
mony, he walked up to Curtis, and with the most perfect
composure levelled a huge instrument (in size between a
horse-pistol and blunderbuss) at his head, which blew it
nearly off his shoulders, and he fell upon the bodies of the
Germans without moving a muscle.
"The ceremony over, the division defiled round the grave,
and as each company passed it, the word Eyes right' was
given by the officer in command,' by which means every
man had a clear view of the corpses as they lay in a heap.
This is a good and wholesome practice, for nothing so much
awakes in the mind of the soldier, endowed with proper
feeling, the dishonour of committing an action which is
almost certain to bring him to a disgraceful end, while it
deters the bad man from doing that which will cost him all
that he has to lose—for such persons have no character—his
life. It was ten o'clock before the parade broke up, and we
returned to our quarters, leaving to the Provost-Marshal and
his guard the task of filling up the grave. Several Portu-
guese peasants crowded near the fatal spot, and so soon as
all danger was past, they flocked to witness the interment,
making, all the time, divers appeals to the Virgin Mary ;
but whether they were intended for the preservation of the
souls departed, or their own bodies corporate, I neither knew
nor inquired.
" Mangin, the man who had received his pardon, was still in
a state of stupor; after the lapse of an hour or so his captain
went to see him; but the shock he had received was too se-
vere ; he had not nerve to bear up against it ; he replied in
an incoherent manner, soon fell asleep, and awoke an idiot I
Every effort that could be made by the medical men, and
every assurance of favour from his captain, proved vain—
he became a palpable, irreclaimable idiot, and shortly after-
wards died of convulsions."

In justice to the officers and soldiers who partook in our
Peninsular victories and campaigns, and whose services
have been so long and shamefully unacknowledged, we
transcribe two passages from these volumes. The Duke
of Wellington would evince no little anxiety to ingra-
tiate posterity with his character did he but take a hint
from what follows. The author has just mentioned
Wellington's applications to the Duke of York and to
Earl Bathurst respecting the Waterloo medals, when he
proceeds—
" Now, is there any disinterested man to be found who
cannot, at a glance, discover the cause, the mainspring, of
this wonderful solicitude—this maiden effort of the Duke of
Wellington, to obtain a badge of honour for his army, nine-
tenths of which he had never seen before that day, and who,
as a matter of course, had never laid eyes on him? Is it to
be supposed that he who could, and did, quietly accept the
immense riches, honeurs, and titles that were showered on
him, and gained for him by the best blood of his Peninsular
army, without once raising his voice in favour of a medal for
his old and tried veterans,—his companions during six years'
terrible war, and victorious in every battle ! the men who
had carried him, it may be truly said, on their very shoul-
ders, and placed him in the exalted position he now occupies ;
is it, I say, to be supposed he felt, or could feel,
any interest in an army that he had but just
seen, and an army that had fought under his
command for little more than as many hours as his Penin-
sular soldiers had fought for years, except for the gratifica-
tion of his own personal vanity ? If not this—but who can
doubt it?—why did he write to the Duke of York on the
subject? Why! because he had beaten the great man in
person, and he was determined that Wellington' and
Waterloo' should be banded about on the breast of his
hundred thousand soldiers, more than a half of whom had
never seen a shot fired before that day, and many of whom
were not only not in the battle, but knew nothing about it
for a day afterwards; yet all these men—absentees included
—got a medal! I therefore ask what interest—except to
gratify his own ambition—could he take in this Waterloo
army, or any other army the world could produce, when he
forgot the services, and trampled under his feet the applica-
tion of an army that made him what he now is? But having
written to the Duke of York, as his dispatches avow he did,
why did he not say so in his reply to the Duke of Richmond ?
Does he not, in point of fact, deny in his speech that which
we have, printed by his own authority, in his book of dis-
patches? and his assertion that since the battle of Waterloo
'not a shot has been tired in Europe' is perfectly contemptible
when adduced as a reason for granting a medal for that
battle, and refusing one for the Peninsula. Why has there
not been a shot (an hostile one we presume the Duke
meant) fired in Europe since then? Because Napoleon was
properly secured after Waterloo, and had he been so secured
after Toulouse Waterloo would never have been fought. But
how did the Duke of Wellington know (for I put the good
and amiable Duke of York out of the question, as also the
Ministers), that there would be no more fighting in Europe?
lie knew not, nor could he know any such thing; but in a
few months after his beating Napoleon (this was the hobby!)
we find his Waterloo army with their medals dangling at
their breasts."

" Had the Duke told the House of Lords," he continues,
" and told the army that he had suggested to the Duke of
York the expediency of granting this medal to his Waterloo
army, he would have told that which a great number of
people had never heard before ; and he might have added,
with the most perfect safety, that if he had asked the same
favour for his Peninsular army, it would have been as freely
granted as his Waterloo suggestion,—and, his Peninsular
army will add for him, that it would be granted even now
but for the heartless opposition he gives it. But the whole
secret has been already told: Napoleon, the greatest general
of this, or perhaps of any other age, was beaten in person;
and it would seem that this all-absorbing thought
haunted the Duke df Wellington so early as the night
of the battle, for Captain Sherer tells us, in his history, that
on the night of the,battle, when at supper, Wellington re-
peatedly leaned ba'ek in his chair, and, rubbing his hands
convulsively, exclaimed aloud—" Thank God I have met
him! thank God I have met him."' How different were
Nelson's meek but fervid words after his great victory at
Trafalgar! The dying hero's last words were—' I thank
God I have done my duty—l hope my country will be satis-
fies that I have done my duty!' But the Duke of Welling-
ton, according to Captain Sherer, was thinking much more
of himself and his beaten adversary than of his country.
However, he did not forgot his army, for, as has been seen,
in ten days after the battle, he begged leave to suggest'
(in plain English, he asked the Duke of York to give the
medal, and it was given,) the expediency of giving this
medal to his army."

Mr. Grattan records a multitude of the most inte-
resting and diversified adventures, savouring sometimes
of the romantic, sometimes of the horrible, and always
of the remarkable. We scarcely know whether to him
the flavour of mulled wines, the smell of gunpowder,
the sheen of the green herbage, the vermillion
lips of a donna, the elastic amble of a horse,
or the cheers and rush of a forlorn hope
are preferable. Everywhere and in everything be finds
matter for disquisition, and he either "points" an
episode with an Irish witticism, or " colours" it with an
English pleasantry. As a decoction of all sorts of ad.
,
venture Mr. Grattan has imparted the raciest taste
imaginable to the outpourings of his memory ; and he
has nobly fulfilled a duty incumbent upon an officer
who can write so well---a duty honourable to his soldier's
heart and his soldier's intellect.

THE PEACE SOCIETY.
The thirty-first anniversary of this society was held
on the 17th and 18th instant. The meeting of mem-
bers, on the 17th, convened by printed circular, was
in the large room at the White Hart Inn, Bishops-
gate-street, Joseph T. Price, Esq., in the chair. The
report of the committee was read by the Rev. J.
Jefferson,and ordered to be real to the public meeting in Fins-
burychapetlh.e sTehereeofficers for the ensuing year were
appointed, and the general business of the society at-
tended to. The following gentlemen took part in the
proceedings :—John Allen, Esq., W. Astbury, Esq.,
R. Barrett, Esq., Mr. E. Clarke, It. Ransome, Esq.,
E. Smith, Esq., Mr. A. B. Stevens, and Mr. F.
Wheeler.
__

At the public meeting in Finsbury Chapel, on the
18th, the chair was taken by C. llindley, Esq., M.P.,
and afterwards by J. T. Price, Esq., and the follow-
ing gentlemen addressed the meeting :—Rev. T. Ave-
ling, Rev. J. Burnet, J. Brotherton, Esq., M.P., J.
S. Buckingham, Esq., Mr. Elihu Burritt, of
Worcester, Mass., and Mr. Clapp, of Lynn, Mass.,
United States.
The resolutions were embodied in a petition Ivhich
was unanimously adopted, and ordered to be signed by
the chairman on behalf of the meeting, praying that
suitable measures may be taken to settle interna-
tional disputes by arbitration or other legal process,
without having recourse to arms,
From the report it appeared that the cause of peace
is gradually advancing. It was stated that by the
agents of the society and other persons there had been
delivered, under the immediate sanction of the com-
mittee, about 500 lectures during the past year, to
110,000 persons ; half a million of tracts have been
distributed ; the periodical press bee bean employed
both in England Wal.‘ ; the sale of the herald of
Peace is increasing ; fairs and markets have been
visited ; Sumner's Oration and Bowring's Lecture on
the Commercial Importance of Peace have been
many
distributed.
a 51,500 persons, and
cir-
culated ; petitions for a legalised system of arbitra-
tion have been extensively adopted ; and on the con-
tinent of Europe twenty lectures have been delivered
—someofthousandsthem
The report referred also to the dock-yards and the
coming general election, as also to the decease of J.
ft o
tracts
as
cts
J. Gurney, Esq., and T. Clarkson, Esq., and others.
Including a balance of more than 5561. at the com-
mencement of the year, the income of the society has
been 2,147/. 19s. 10d. There is a balance of more
than 1000. on hand.

0, n
from
lwhich
h Tuesdayich
—ine stalk, which
near the School-
yarddous crash in the di-
rection of the School-brae ; destroying one house of four
storeys in height, and another of one storey.
el
eint
Bo'ness,tle erected
fe beforelbly;t
Johnei
tnh oa' cltivroeicln
tremendous
o,e
ni ;
The inhabi-
tantsone female was taken out dead, and several others severely
mhaosrinaitnoegfl3;he buildings were buried in the ruins
Pits,_ba
injured, but who are since progressing favourably. It is re-
markable that more lives were not lost, as the road over
which the stalk fell is the one leading to the parish school,
and the accident happened at the very heur of the assembling
of the school. Some narrow escapes took Place. The erec-
tion was upwards of 100 feet in height—Liverness Journal.
ASCOT RACES.—'The alterations which had been
for some time past in progress in front of the grand stand, for
the increased accommodation and convenience of the public,
have just been completed under the superintendence of Mr.
Hibburd, the active clerk of the course. A great improve-
ment has also been effected in front of the royal stand, which
is now undergoing the usual epibellishments for the recep-
tion of her Majesty and the Prince Consort, who, with the
distinguished guests who have been honouredwith
invita-
tions to honour to the Castle, are expected the course with
their presence on two days during the races. It is also ex-
pected that their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales and
the Princess Royal will accompany the Queen and the Prince,
for the first time, to the course.
DEATHBLOW TO THE LOCOMOTIVE.—We had the
privilege yesterday of a " private view" of I
a new invention
by Mr. William Martin, the national philosopher, which, to
I use his own expressive phrase,,,_Ny_ill " hobble Hudson." It is
to "supersedethe locomotive.' Mr. Martin dispenses with coke
and steam, and falls back upon hand labour. Two or three
men, turning a crank, will move a trin at the speed (as the
Americans would say) of " greased lightning." We congra-
tulate Mr. Martin on his great mechanical achievement. Its
simplicity is realarksblei—Gateshead Observer.

THE RAGGED SCHOOLS.

Yesterday evening a public meeting was held at the
Clerken well Parochial School-rooms, Amwell street, in
support of the Lamb and Flag Ragged School. The
meeting was densely crowded by a most respectable
assembly, who appeared to take a warm interest in the
proceedings. Lord Brougham presided on the occasion,
and the Bishop of Norwich opened the business of the
evening with prayer. A hymn was then sung by the
children of the school, who, raised on a platform at one
side of the building, maintained a propriety of de-
meanour which wonderfully contrasted with their ragged
and wild appearance.
Lord BROUGHAM said he was sure that he spoke the
sense of all present when he expressed his gratification
at seeing them meet on such an occasion. They were
really engaged in doing one of the very best works that
it was possible for man to be engaged in, for they were
endeavouring to rescue from a state of helpless and
hopeless ignorance, which was the parent of crime, a
great and important body of our fellow-countrymen.—
(Hear, hear.) It was the cruel lot of the poor of
our land, that at all times, as well in seasons
of plenty as in those when Providence had
visited us with a scarcity or any other calamity—
unhappily there must always be in this and every
other fully peopled country—every country where
there was not as infinite amount of land unsettled, that
was to say, over every country in the old world and a
considerable part of the new—there must of necessity
be this deplorable result, that the wages of the poor were
reduced to the lowest ebb, far, far below what every
humane mind must wish to see them at; far, far below
what was sufficient to minister to their comforts, and, he
was afraid truth compelled him to say, reduced as nearly
as possible to the lowest amount on which man could
subsist.—(Hear, hear.) He did not say this to make the
poor discontented ; God forbid ; but he said it to make
the rich mindful of their less fortunate neighbours, and
to render them anxious by every means in their power
to alleviate the necessarily hard lot of the humbler
classes. Now, various men had various opinions as to
the best way f carrying into effect their humane inten-
tions in this respect. Some thought it best to interfere
with the employment of labour, and to tell the poor man
he must only work a certain number of hours in the
day; while others, considering that the labour of the
poor man was his only wealth, thought he should be al-
lowed to labour unrestricted and in the best way he
could. He would not say which of these two
opinions he held, and he stated them only to
show how much different minds differed as to
the means, though all agreed in the great end,
that of promoting the good of the humbler classes.

It was natural, then, to ask whether there was any neu-
tral ground on which men could meet, which would not
raise controversies between different religious sects, be-
tween the Jew and the Gentile, between the Christian
and the heathen, who dwelt in utter darkness. He found
that neutral ground in attempting to promote by all
means in their power the free education of their fellow-
citizens of the working class. The children of that class
were a burden to them, and would grow up to be a curse
to them and a pest to society at large, if they were al-
lowed to remain in that state of ignorance which led to
vice and immorality and the infraction of the laws both
of God and man. The question then was, how could
they rescue from this deplorable state creatures born in
misery and bred in crime; and this led him to remind
the meeting that they were assembled to perform one of
the most acceptable services which men could render to
their Maker, and to show forth not only by thanksgiving,
but by good works, their gratitude for being placed in
happier circumstances than their brethren of the humbler
classes. His Lordship then proceeded to touch upon a va-
riety of general questions having a more or less direct
bearing on the subject of education for the children of the
poor. He referred to the preponderance of crime among
that class, and contended that it was not to be effectually
counteracted by any reform of criminal law—the ex-
ample of punishment operating only in preserving the
good in their habits, and not in deterring those who had
once become depraved. He admitted that some pro-
gress had been made in the reformation of offenders in
France and Germany, the example in that respect hav-
ing been set at Stretton, in the county of Warwick. He
was, however, for beginning a step earlier, by educating
the children of that class which produced nearly all the
criminals in the country. Ills Lordship concluded by
saying that, as the greatest satisfaction had been ex-
pressed at the improvement of the children at the Lamb
and Flag Ragged School, he hoped that its numbers and
means would increase, and with them the satisfaction of
its patrons, who would thus derive the sweet consolation
of benevolence, attended by that without which benevo-
lence was a barren plant—beneficence; the doing good
as well as the meaning good.—(Cheers.)
Mr. C. WHITE read the report, which stated that 300
children were on the books of the school, and which gave
a most encouraging view of its usefulness.
In moving the adoption of the report,
Tho Bishop of Noawxcn said, that he had heard
since he came into that room one argument in favour of
ragged schools which scattered to the winds a thousand
arguments against them. He had heard these children
praising God with lips which would have otherwise
blasphemed him. The Right Rev. Prelate here addressed
himself to the children, and told them, for their instruc-
tion, a very affecting story of an accident in a coal mine,
by which many people had perished. Among them was
a boy, who had written on a slate with a rusty nail the
following words:—" Mother, dear mother, grieve not for
us, mourn not for me; we are singing the praises of God
in our last hours, though we shall see you no more."
The Right Rev. Prelate then proceeded to point out the
prejudices with which the cause of educating the poor
had hitherto been opposed. Their Noble Chairman had
lately expressed a doubt as to whether this was the year
1847; but the reason why he (the Bishop of Norwich)
believed that it was so was the signs which he saw of
increasing interest in the instruction of the humble
classes. Even if the ragged schools did nothing else,
they would secure cleanliness, which was a great point,
for he made bold to say it as his experience that he had
never known a very wicked man with a very clean face.
—(Laughter.) Mr. Peto, by educating the navigators
working on the railways in the county of Norfolk, had
beat the beer-shops out of the field. The Right Rev.
Prelate concluded by an earnest appeal to the meeting
to promote with hand and heart the cause of instruction
among the poor.
The Rev. Mr. HUGHES, in seconding the motion,' bore
witness to the good results which had attended the Lamb
and Flag Ragged School, not only to the children but
also to their parents.
The resolution having been carried by the meeting,
Mr. WIRE moved the second resolution, which was—
" That this meeting, recognising the important truths
conveyed in the report of the committee, earnestly in-
voke all parties to co-operate in removing the evils
arising from and incidental to juvenile delinquency."
In reference to a statement made by Mr. Wire,
Lord BROUGHAM, at the close of that gentleman's ad-
dress, rose and said that it was, he was sorry to say,
thirty-seven years since he presided at the first meeting
in founding the British and Foreign School Society,
the object of which was that, without interference, schools
might be established to teach all classes secular in-
struction. That was their principle, and he was sorry
to say that it had placed him between two fires.—
(Laughter.) He had the Church on the one hand, of
which he was a humble member, and the Dissenters,
whom he very much respected, on the other, and it was
hard to say from which he had encountered the most
opposition at different times. As he was about to state
a thing in which they all would agree, he would also
state on what they might differ also. The Dissenters
proved themselves excellent friends to the cause of edu-
cation, and indeed began it. The parochial clergy, also,
were excellent agitators, and both agreed in doing a great
deal about it; but there was one thing both were a little
more agreed in, and that was in endeavouring to gain a
victory over each other. Some slight confusion followed
this expression of opinion, in the midst of which his
Lordship left the chair, which was filled by the Bishop
of Norwich.

The meeting terminated after hearing addresses from
Mr. Bellenden Ker, Mr. Payne, and other gentlemen,and
adopting resolutions supporting the objects for which
they had assembled.

FATAL FIGHT.—On Saturday evening a fight took
place at Cramlington, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, between
John Walton and Joseph Simms, pitmen, when the former
was unfortunately killed. An inquest was held on Monday,
before Mr. S. need, coroner, at the Bay Horse public-house,
Cramlington, when it appeared in evidence that on the day
in question the parties bad been at the Town Moor, New-
cestle, at a bowling match, and that some words afterwards
ensued between them. Simms, however, being afraid of mis-
chief, left the house in company with a friend, took the train,
and reached Cramlington at 7 o'clock. The deceased seems
to have been in the same train, for on reaching the station he
came up to Simms and challenged him to fight, but at that
time he declined. Some irritating expressions having soon
after been made by the deceased, both parties threw off their
clothes, and, after exchanging blows, the deceased seized
Simms by the hair of the head, and both fell down, Simms
falling against the fence, and the deceased into the ditch.
On getting up, and while the deceased was advancing
towards Simms, in a fighting position, the latter struck him
on the side of the neck, when he fell on his hands and knees.
The deceased got up, but after walking a yard or two, fell
down, and soon afterwards expired. There were altogether
but two rounds. The jury returned a verdict of " Man-
slaughter against Joseph Simms," who was committed, under
the coroner's warrant, to Morpeth Gaol, to await his trial at
the next assizes. The deceased is understood to have been
of a quarrelsome disposition, while, on the contrary, Simms
bears the character of a well-disposed man.

THE GREAT BRITAIN.—SIHCe the fine weather
has set in, pedestrians and equestrians, by dozens at a time,
have been visiting this ship. the great point of attraction
being the breakwater. The spring tide beginning en Wed-
nesday last, the labourers along the bay were taken on board
the leviathan, and it was soon known that the effect of the
work which had been going on inside with smiths and car-
penters seas to be tried. The pumps were known to be
working as the tide rose, by the streams of water seen issuing
from her in several places. As the tide rose it was perfectly
evident that the ship rose slightly also, but the tide was not
a high one. Thursday morning, however, it rose much
higher, and the same efforts were repeated ; and at high
water it was quite visible that the vessel was nearly upright,
and very little by the head. At low water, it was evident
that she stood out of her old bed two or three feet, and an
amazing quantity of large and small stones were thrown into
the hollow left from her rising. Some of the labourers who
have been on her from the the first are intelligent men, and
they stated that she was all in motion and quite afloat
everywhere. It blew strong, and the sea was very high.
The ship seemed to have settled back a little, but it is
quite clear those in authority have her
in hand, although
the large hole is still not high enough for patching.—Xeicry
Telegraph of Dlay 18.
SWING._A farmer near Retford, Nottinghamshire,
having several corn, stacks in his farm-yard, has received an
anonymous letter stating that unless} he thrashes out the
grain, and puts it into market, it will e thrashed for him.
Count Torre del Lago and suite arrived at Black-
wall yesterday afternoon by the General Steam Navigation
Company's steam-ship Venezuela that left Ostend in the
morning.
CHEAP STEAM TnAvELLlN6.—Yesterday the, boats
running from London-bridge to Harwich and Ipswich re-
duced their fares to it. 6d. for the entire distance.