The Sun.
London, England, 1848-12-27 00:00:00

THE IVIARSEILLAISE.

At a time when this extraordinary and exciting air
has been resounding through the whole world—
played in every company, sung with enthusiasm at
every concert and theatre, and at the corner of every
street in London, and sung by assembled multitudes
in the Champs Elys6es at Paris, in a forest of bayo-
nets, and amidst the roar of the Republican artillery
--a few words on its origin and its history may pro-
bably prove acceptable to our readers.
In the early part of the French revolution of 1793,
when the armies of France were threatening to over-
run the whole of Europe, the army of the Sambre and
Meuse, the cradle and the birth-place of the " Marseil-
laise," was assembled ready to rush forward and carry
all before it in the neighbouring states, and shake to
their very foundations the thrones of more than half
the monarchs of Europe. The general officer com-
manding this army, which was composed of raw re-
cruits and conscripts, all full of enthusiasm and
panting for glory, knew perfectly well the materials
of which his army was composed, but,
at a loss how to raise their enthusiasm
to a pitch that would suit his purpose,
and transform the raw recruit into the wild
enthusiastic Republican—knowing well the influence
of music on the French character, he caused inqui-
ries to be made if there were in the army a man
of poetical talents and a musician, when some of the
officers of his staff said they believed there was an
officer of engineers who was considered by his com-
rades as a poet and possessed of considerable musical
talents, and he accordingly had the officer in question
immediately summoned to his head-quarters, when
the General explained to him the nature of his wishes,
and, stating that as the army was to march the follow-
ing morning at an early hour, asked him if he ceuld
in that short space of time compose a song or tune
that would excite the soldiery. This officer, gentle
reader, was no other than Rouget de Lisle, and who
boldly replied that he thought he could do both, and
would wait early the next morning on the General
with the result of his night's operations, and he did
so. Retiring to his humble barrack-room, he indus-
triously set to work, and the morning's sun saw a
band of wild enthusiastic Republicans march to vic-
tory singing the " Marseillaise," and rending the air
with its soul-inspiring notes, and then sweeping hostile
armies before them with the fury of a tempest which
nothing could withstand.
The name of " Marseillaise" was given to:this air from
the circumstance of a body of troops from the city of
Marseilles having been ordered up to Paris, and which
they entered, the bands of the several regiments
playing this air, which was then not generally known
in the part of France in which Marseilles is situated,
and which had not had a name given to it.
Louis Philippe, who in a great measure owed his
elevation to the throne of Citizen King, in 1830, to
the enthusiasm created by the above air, as soon as
he was fairly installed, set on foot inquiries to ascer-
tain if the author, Rouget de Lisle, was still in exis-
tence. He was found in a garret in Paris, in wretched
and miserable circumstances—and Louis Philippe
ordered an annuity of about six or seven thousand
francs a year to be settled on the poor officer,
and who probably did not live long to en-
joy it. No certain account remains as to the
time he died, but it probably vas about three
or four years after Louis Philippe's accession to the
throne, as about that time the books and manuscripts
of Captain de Lisle were seen at an auctioneer's office
in Paris for sale, and we believe there is an English
officer of rank now in London who saw the original
manuscript of the "Marseillaise," which is described as
being written in a beautiful bold hand, and without a
single erasure. The officer in question was most
desirous of purchasing this valuable piece of writing ;
but was informed by the auctioneer that it had been
ordered by Louis Philippe to be purchased in at any
price, and no doubt it has shared the fate of many
other valuable documents and papers in the universal
destruction of those belonging to that ill• fated
monarch, in his flight from the Palace of the Tui-
leries, in February of this eventful year, 1848.

NEW APPLICATION OF GUN COTTON AND AS-
DESTOS.-Mr. Robinson, the dentist, in a communica-
tion to the Medical Gazette, says:—l have frequently
applied collodion, in severe cases of toothache, arising
from exposure of the nerve, with perfect success, when
no persuasion could induce the patient to submit to ex-
traction, either with or without the use of chloroform or
ether. The method I adopt is to let the patient first
wash the mouth with warm water, in which a few grains
of bicarbonate of soda have been dissolved. I then re-
move from the cavity any foreign substance likely to
cause irritation. After drying the cavity, I drop, from
a point, the collodion, to which have been add, d a few
grains of morphia; after which I fill the cavity with
asbestos, and saturate with collodion. Lastly, over this
I place a pledgot of bibulous paper. In a few seconds
the whole becomes solidified, and forms an excellent non-
conductor of heat and cold to the exposed nerve. By
occasionally renewing this, I have been enabled to effect
a more durable stopping with gold.
An inquest was held on Tuesday last before R.
Palmer, Rig., at Shevington, on the body of William
Bentham, aged six years. It appeared from the evidence
that the boy, on taking some dinner to a coal-pit in
Standish, was attempting to put the dinner in an empty
basket which was being lowered into the pit. On reach-
ing his band towards the basket he lost his balance, and
was precipitated to the bottom. When taken up he was
quite dead. Verdict " Accidental death."—Preston
Chronicle.

MUNIFICENT BEQUEST.—The late Mr. Allan of
Midbeltio, besides malting various bequests to his rela-
tives, has devised a great part of his fortune, nearly
20,0001., to form a fund for granting annuities to widows
of respectable character in Aberdeen and Old Maclaar.
The annuities to be allowed are not to be less than 51.,
nor more than 151. to each widow; and the selection of
the parties to whom they are to be granted is left very
much to the discretion of the trustees, named by the
deceased, several of whom are official gentlemen con-
nected with the city 91.4budeeni-4bordeGn Journal,