The Sun.
London, England, 1834-12-19 00:00:00

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THE CAT BY THE FIRE.

(From Leigh Hunt's London Journal.)
A blazing fire, a warm rug, candles lit and curtains
drawn, the kettle on for tea (if rich you may have a silver
kettle and so partake the pleasures of the poor), and finally,
the cat before you attracting your attention—it is a scene
which every body likes, unless he has a morbid aversion to
cats, which is not common. There are some nice inquirers,
it is true, who are apt to make uneasy comparisons of cats
with dogs—to say they are not so loving, that they prefer
the house to the man, &c. But agreeably to the good old
maxim, that " comparisons are odious," our readers, we
hope, will continue to like what is likeable in anything for
its own sake, without trying to render it unlikeable from its
inferiority to something else—a process by which we might
ingeniously contrive to put soot into every dish that is set
before us, and to reject one thing after another till we were
pleased with nothing. Here is a good fireside, and a cat to
it ; and it would be our own fault, if, in removing to an-
other house and another fireside, we did not take that the
cat removed with us. Cats cannot look to the moving of
goods as men do. If we would have creatures considerate
towards us, we must be so towards them. It is not to be
expected of everybody, quadruped or biped, that they should
stick to us in spite of our want of merit, like a dog or a be-
nevolent sage. Besides, stories have been told of cats very
much to the credit of their benignity ; such as their follow-
ing a master about like a dog, waiting at a gentleman's
door to thank him for some obligations over night, &c.
And our readers may remember the history of the famous
Godolphin Arabian, upon whose grave a cat that had lived
with him in the stable, went and stretched itself, and died.
Poor Pussy ! she looks up to us again, as if she thanked
us for those indications of dinner ; and symbolically gives a
twist of a yawn, and a lick to her whiskers. Now she pro-
ceeds to clean herself all over, having a just sense of the de-
mands of her elegant person—beginning judiciously with her
paws, and fetching amazing tongues at her hind hips. Anon,
she scratches her neck with a foot of rapid delight, leaning
her head towards, and shutting her eyes, half to accommo-
date the action of her skin, and half to enjoy the luxury.
She then rewards her paws with a few more touches ; look
at the action of her head and neck, how plea Sing it is,
the ears pointed forward, and the neck gently arching to
and fro ! Finally she gives a sneeze, and another twist
of mouth and whiskers, and then, curling her tail towards
her front claws, settles herself on her hind quarters, in an
attitude of bland meditation.
What does she think of ? Of her saucer of milk at break-
fast ? or of the thump she got yesterday in the kitchen for
stealing the meat ? or of her own meat, the Tartar's dish,
noble horse-flesh ? or of her friend, the cat next door, the
most impassioned of serenaders ? or of her little ones, some
of whom are now large, and all of them gone ? Is that
among her recollections when she looks pensive. Does she
taste of the noble prerogative sorrows of man ?
She is a sprightly cat, hardly past her youth ; so happen-
ing to move the fringe of the rug a little with our foot, she
darts out a paw, and begins plucking it and inquiring into
the matter, as if it were a challenge to play, or something
lively enough to be eaten. What a graceful action of that
foot of her's, between delicacy and petulence—combining
something of a thrust out, a beat and a scratch. There
seems even something of a little bit of fear in it, as if just
enough to provoke her courage, and give her the excite-
ment of a sense of hazard.

Cats at firesides live luxuriously, and are the picture of
comfort ; but lest they should not bear their portion of
trouble in this world, they have the drawbacks of being
liable to be shut out of doors on cold nights, beatings from
the "aggravated.' cooks, over-pettings of children (how
should we like to be squeezed and pulled about in that
manner by some great patronising giants ?) and last, not
least horrible, merciless tramples of unconscious human feet,
and unfeeling legs of chairs. Elegance, comfort, and se-
curity, seem the order of the day on all sides, and you are
going to sit dowa to dinner, or to music, or to take teas
when, all of a sudden, the cat gives a squall as if she was
smashed ; and you are not sure that the fact is otherwise.
Yet she gets in the way again, as before ; and dares all the
feet and mahogany in the room. Beautiful present suf-
ficingness of a cat's imagination 1 Confined to the snug
circle of her own sides, and the two next inches of rug or
carpet.

LIVERPOOL COTTON-MARKET, WEDNESDAY,
pEc. ba4 again had a dull market for cotton. The
transactions to day, are confined to about 1,000 bags, chiefly
American descriptions, at 9d. to 104 d. per lb.
SUICIDE OF A YOUNG FEMALE. Yesterday
morning, about ten o'clock, the watermen plying at the stairs
of Vauxhall Bridge observed a young female hastily throw
herself from the bank into the river. Several of the water-
men immediately put off to endeavour to rescue her, and in
the course of a short time the body was got out of the water
and taken on shore, when she was taken to the Swan public-
house, in the immediate neighbourhood. Mr. Hastings, sur-
geon, in the Vauxhall-road, was sent for, and every thing
possible was done to restore animation, but without success.
The body has not yet been owned.

The utmost exertions have been making at Broad-
way, to discover the guilty parties in the atrocious act of
throwing gunpowder down the chimney of the room in which
the parishioners were assembled in vestry, on the evening of
the 2d inst, as mentioned in our last, and we rejoice to say,
with some prospect of success. On Saturday two men named
Smith and Jackson, were brought to the county gaol, charged
on suspicion of being concerned in the diabolical deed, and
warrants are out for the apprehension of others supposed to be
implicated in it. We understand the gunpowder was thrown
from the top of the chimney by means of a ladder raised against
the building. There were about three quarters of a pound of
it, and it is one of the circumstances suspicious against Smith
that he had recently purchased that quantity of powder, and is
unable to account for the disposal of it. Both prisoners live
at Broadway. Smith is a working gardener, 37 years of ago,
and Jackson a farming labourer, aged 36. They were com.
mitted for trial upon the capital charge of attempting to "kill
and destroy, 8.7 c." the overseer of the parish, Mr. Stephen
Savage, being the prosecutor. We are still in the dark as to
how the explosion of the gunpowder was prevented, but, we
arc told by those conversant in such matters,- that if it had
ignited, the room being very small, the destruction of all pre•
sent would have been inevitable.—Worcester Herald.