The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-27 00:00:00

ordinary fame as a bard. Here is a charming ()oncei t;
worthy of Herrick
Often have I beard it said
That her lips were ruby-red.
Little heed I what they say,
I have seen as red as they.
Ere she smiled on other men,
Real rubies were they then.
"When she kist me once in play,
Rubies were less bright than they,
And less bright were those which shone
In-the palace of the sun.
Will they be as bright again ?
Not if kist by other men!
Throughout his writings, Landor betrays little affects•
tions, such as the peculiar spelling of sovranty, and the
splitting asunder of the word can not ; but such trivial
eccentricities we are almost inclined to welcome in the
shape, as it were, of authentications. His verses to
Charles Dickens, Robert Browning, Barry Cornwall,
Macaulay, and John Forster, indicate his readiness to
lavish generous applause upon contemporary bookmen--
no mean sign that his heart is pure and sound. These
'two volumes by Walter Savage Landor are infinitely
above the ordinary stamp ; they will live in the libraries
and be read by the students of posterity.

A HISTORY OF INVENTIONS, DISCOVE-
RIES, AND ORIGINS. By John Beckmann,
Professor of Economy in the University of Gottingen.
. This, the first volume of a reprint of Johnston's trans-
lation of Beckmann's celebrated work " the History of
Inventions," a work which may be classed as a com-
pbund of learned research and light reading, suitable
both to the popular reader and the scholar, forms one of
the numbcrs of Bohu's Standard Lib' ary a series in every
way worthy of its title. The revision of this edition has
been confided to the care of Drs. Francis and Griffith,
who, by the alteration of names, characters, descriptions,
and opinions which have become obsolete, or have been
discovered to be erroneous, and by numerous additions
where such were required, have rendered the work com-
pletely au niveau
.des connafssances actuclles.

MILITARY FLOGGING.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sitt,—ln the hope that a statement of facts, which came
under my own observation, may tend to strengthen the
argument of yourself and others, who are desirous of abolish-
ing the horrid system of flogging in the navy and army, or,
at all events, of preventing any tyrant, who may happen to
be placed in the command of any ship of war, from flogging
any person without a regular trial by competent authority,
I beg to submit the following:—
During the late war, I was surgeon of a ship in the royal
navy ; that ship (on one occasion) sailed from Spithead in
the evening (I avoid dates and names), and as soon as we
had got clear of the land the captain went round the decks to
see that all was in order, when finding an empty cheese cask
on the deck, he immediately had the boatswain's mate
(whose duty it was to have had the said cask struck down
into the hold) and the unfortunate purser's steward (who
had committed no offence, but had emptied the cask in the
line of his duty), to be tied up and flogged by lanthorn light.
without even turning up the ship's company and officers, or
requiring the presence of the surgeon, to witness the punish-
ment. For such conduct the captain ought to have been
dismissed the service, but in those days, if anyone complained
of his captain he was sure to have his promotion stopped, and
many acts of tyranny and oppression were suffered to pass
unpunished in consequence thereof.
Whilst cruising in the same ship, a seaman being danger-
ously ill with fever, and the weather being very hot, I repre-
sented to the captain the necessity of having the sick man
placed in a cool, airy place, and he was accordingly placed in
a screened berth under the half deck. We one day fell in
with another man of war, whose captain (an Honourable)
came on board to visit our captain, when seeing this screened
berth, he asked what it was for? and our captain informed
him that the surgeon had considered it necessary for the
preservation of the man's life. The Hon. Captain replied,
"Put him down into the cockpit, let him die and be d—d."
And this man is now, I believe, a member of the House of
Lords.—l remain, Sir, &c.
July 26.