The Sun.
London, England, 1846-10-03 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

HINTS ON ANGLING. By Palmer Hackle, Esq.
Piscator will revel over a book so thoroughly
worthy of " the gentle craft" as this, by Palmer
Hackle, Esq. It condenses a whole library of in-
formation into the compass of 339 pages, and this
without being superficial upon any one given topic.
The author has evidently entered upon his labours
with a gusto; nevertheless, with all his. enthusiasm,
he never forgets that his principal office is to be
practical. His work will prove as useful as it is de-
lightful, as fraught with wholesome advice as with
agreeable reflections. Those who love the craft of
angling will find a singular fund of information in
the lucubrations of Palmer Hackle ; those who love
to sit with Izaak Walton under a woodbine hedge
while a shower is passing over, will delight in many
passages from the pen of the said Palmer Hackle.
Charles Cotton would have listened to his voice with
pleasure, and, seeing that there are hundreds of
Charles Cottons in existence, our author is tolerably
secure of becoming a general favourite.

NOTES ON TILE EPIDEMIC CHOLERA.
By R. Hartley Kennedy, M.D., late Physician-Genera
and President of the Medical Board, Bombay. Second
Edition.
The first edition of this work, published in 1826,
has long since been considered a medical classic. It
is the authority on the subject on which it treats, and
Dr. Kennedy has conferred an obligation on the
public and the professsion by the publication of this
reprint of it.

WHO WERE THE NORMANS?
The period from which the English aristocracy dates
its origin is that of the Norman conquest. Aristocracy,
indeed, there was in the country before, but that was an-
n bilated by the Normans ; and this epoch is the vaunted
birth-day of our nobility. There is nothing of which
we hear so much as of the pride of a descent from these
first Norman nobles ; of the pure and immaculate blood
derived from this long descent. To say nothing of the
wretched fallacy of blood and descent—for the most
wretched and mischievous fallacy it is which ever cursed
the human race—being the pretext for every insolence,
and every species of tyranny amongst men, and being
besides, the most hollow bubble that ever was blown by
pride, for, there is no beggar who, if he could trace his
pedigree, would not find himself descended from kings,
and no king who is not descended from beggars,—we will
take the trouble to refer to the histories of the time, and
:chow what these Norman conquerors really were. Ws
shall then find that, so far froni"being a set of men to be
proud of as ancestors, there cannot be a more scanda-
lously disgraceful origin. They were, in fact, a swarm
of the most desperate and needy adventurers ; " a rascal
rabble" of vagabond thieves and plunderers. They were
not, in fact, one half of them, what they aro pretended
to be—Normans ; but collected by proclamation, and by
lavish promises of sharing in the plunder of conquered
Engis .d—vultures from every wind of heaven rushing to
the field of British carnage. We shall find that, allowing
the claims of such families as now can trace a clear descent
from these men—and these are very few indeed—even
such of them as were Normans were but of the lower
and more rapacious grade. The great vultures fleshed
themselves to the throat with the first spoil, and returned
home, while their places were obliged to be repeatedly
supplied, through renewed proclamations, and renewed
offers of the punder of the Anglo-Saxons, from the still
hungry tribes of knights who were wandering and fight-
ing anywhere for bloody bread.
Again we shall come to the curious question, who the
Normans actually were ? Who actually they were who
actually were Normans ? And here will come another
singular laying bare of the proud pretences of our proud
nobles. Forsooth, they are descended from the gal-
lant and chivalrous Normans. They will be de-
scended from them and them alone. There is
not a soul of them who will claim the honour
of descent from the Danes. Oh no ! The barbarous and
bloody Danes, they are a scandal and an abomination
They are thieves, pirates, plunderers, and savages. No-
body is descended from them, except some plebeians in
the North of England, and except that the rabble rout
of the common people are contaminated with their blood.
And yet, who are the Normans ? Why, the Danes !
Yes 1 the proud aristocracy of England, such of them
as have any long known descent at all, are actually de-
scended from the Danes ! They are the legitimate issue
of this bloody and barbarous people that nobody
wishes to acknowledge as ancestors. The Danes,
driven from England, fell on the shores of
France, and amid the distractions of that kingdom,
laid Paris in ashes, and seized on that district which
thence received from these Northmenner or Normans,
its name of Normandy. Here, though settled too com-
fortably for their deserts, they never ceased to keep an
eye on the far richer prize of England, from which, for
their cruelties and fiery devastations, they had been
chased away. In the time of the Conqueror, they had
been settled about two centurias in France ; and though
they had acquired a considerable degree of external
civilisation, and much martial discipline, yet, if we are
to judge by their proceedings on the acquisition of Eng-
land, they had lost none of their greedy hunger of
spoil, nor of their reckless and ruthless disposition
shed blood.—Hampden 's History of the English Aris-
tocracy.

A rumour has reached us of a very painful occur
rence, affecting the members of two noble families, which
is likely at no distant period to form the subject of legal
proceeding in one of the Civil Courts.—Post.
EMPLOYMENT ON RAILUOADS.—It IS computed
that there are 200,000 navigators employed on railroads.
Sereral of the flax mills in the north of Ireland
have been converted into corn mills.
THE NEEDLES.—An important discovery has re-
cently been made by commander Sherringham and the
officers of the Dasher, surveying vessel, of a great error
in the Admiralty charts, representing the depth of water
and some dangerous sunken rocks in the Needles passage.
For many years there have appeared in the charts issued
from the Hydrographic-offiae marks of soundings near the
Needles' rocks, pointing out sunken chalk rocks in the
narrow passage, with the water over them not exceeding
three or four fathoms ; and in consequence there is an
order in force from the Admiralty that no captain of a
ship of the line is to make that passage, down or up the
Solent, to or from the Channel, through the Needles. The
Dasher, surveying vessel, has been occupied for the last
year in surveying and sounding the water over the
shoals, and in the channels, bays,&c., leading from Christ-
church Bay to Cowes, and a week or two since came to
the Needles, and minutely examined the passage bs•
tween that part of the Isle of Wight and the shingles,
including Alum Bay, &c. Soundings were taken in
Three lines over the supposed dangerous chalk rocks, the
width being quite 500 yards, and the leads were dropped
as quick and as close as possible, first from a boat, and
afterwards from the Dasher, when it was ascertained
that at low water there was never less than five fathoms,
or thirty feet water over every part, and that a line of-
battle ship could with ease work to sea by that channel
much quicker when.the wind is from E. than by having
to beat up from Spithead to the Nab light, and round
by Bembridge
.ledge. A full report of this important
fact, with a descriptive chart, has been made by. Co-
mmender Sherringham, and transmitted to the Admiralty
who will doubtless represent to the Trinity Board the
advantages which will arise to the mercantile shipping,
when it is known that vessels of great draught of water
can use the Needles' passage in any weather, without
risk. The last ships of the line which passed through
the Needles were the Spartiate and Wellesley ; the latter
had the flag of the late Rear-Admiral Sir F. Maitland,
K.C.8., bound to India, but she was without her lower
deck guns. On one days survey Commander Sherring-
ham was accompanied by Vice-Admiral Sir G. E.
Hawed, Bart., of South Yarmouth, known to be one of
the best pilots of that part of the Isle of Wight. and he
was agreeably surprised at the soundings which were
obtained.—Shipping Gazette.
Offence was lately taken by the " sovereign
people" at Saratoga, in the United States, that Madame
Jumel (the widow of the famous Aaron Burr) should
presume to drive in a carriage with four horses. The
lady was grossly insulted. This is something of the
same character with an expression of public opinion to-
wards an innovator a year or two ago. The offender
was a gentleman of wealth, who had resided some time
abroad : returning with his English servants, ho was
stoned in the street of New York for riding with a
mounted servant in livery behind him.