The Sun.
London, England, 1848-11-21 00:00:00

eartnins

LONDON, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1848,

One of our most eccentric essayists has written
what he called the autobiography of an old house
situated somewhere in the Minories. As might be
imagined, the entertainment arising from the con-
ceit, consists in the extraordinary variety and incon-
gruity of the occurrences transpiring at different
periods in the same apartments. Ingenious, how
ever, as may be the fictitious incidents depicted by
the romancist, they are as nothing when contrasted
with the realities of existence. The reflection occur-
ring to "Boa" in one of his most felicitous "Sketches,"
to the effect that tragedies and comedies might be
written from the mere enumeration of the successive
occupants of a hackney coach, is realised a thousand
times by every thoughtful man who crosses the lintel

of a public edifice. And never, perhaps, was
• the singularity of the contrasts afforded by these
shifting scenes and fluctuating emotions more con-
spicuously observable than it has recently been in
the Round-room of the Dublin Rotunda. Orange
meetings have been there followed by assemblies of the
most democratic character ; harangues, fraught with
the principles of Conservatism, have hardly ceased
resounding between the walls of the building at the ex-
tremity'of Sackville-street, before the same walls have
reverberated with the voice of demagogues who have
striven to ring the tocsin of Revolution. Only as re-
cently as 1847, the Irish Confederation collected toge-
ther in the Rotunda ; and now, in 1848, the Rotunda
has witnessed a very different• spectacle—a banquet
given in honour of the Hero and Conqueror of Sinde.
On the former occasion the auditors were addressed
by THOMAS MEAGHER, by WILLIAM SMITH
o'l3aux, by JOHN MITCHEL, and by their colleagues.
On the latter the speakers were Prince GEORGE of
CAMBRIDGE, the Duke of LEINSTER, and Sir CHARLES
NAPIER, while, as if to render the confusion of events,
names, and principles still more striking, the gallant
and illustrious company, assembled to express their
admiration for the military and administrative suc-
cesses of a Great Captain, were addressed by the emi-
nent Irishman whose genius and eloquence have been
recently employed in the defence of the rebel confede-
rates.

It is a circumstance not unworthy of consideration
that England is by no means stinting in the honours
and felicitations showered on her most distinguished
citizens. Whatever may be said of public ingrati-
tude as regards the treatment of any great public
servant, or of parsimony in the distribution of re-
wards to those who have deserved well of the nation,
it is beyond denial that that ingratitude is only inci-
dental, and that'parsimony only exceptional. The splen-
did munificence of a man like Mr. VERNON, a man who
has exercised his purse and his intellect, alike, in behalf
of the
population and of posterity, might undoubtedly
with grace have been responded to by the gift of a
baronetcy. The gallantry and promptitude of such a
man as Lieutenant EDVVARDES, might, unquestionably,
and without the squandering of the guerdons' of war,
have been promoted to the rank of full Colonel, and
invested with the higher insignia of the Order of the
Bath. But, viewing matters in the generality, and
not in regard to a few isolated particulars, England is
not chargeable with blindness to the services performed
by her more meritorious citizens. In addition to the
stars and ribbands of knighthood, to munificent die- _

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