The Sun.
London, England, 1851-07-10 00:00:00

SUN,

LO N DON,

meat after come on as the profligate, revelling,
voluptuous Lysisca, drinking and singing, and shout-
ing " Aimes." This is one of the most extraordinary
of the performances of 111.dlle. Rachel, it is unique of
its sort, and should be seen once at least by every
admirer of fine acting. The house was crowded to
_suffocation.

e understand that Maine. Rachel will repeat the
character of Valeria on Saturday and Monday ;
that on Wednesday next she will repeat the charac-
ter of Camille for that only time this season, and ap-
pear in a new character—that of Lydie, in Horace
et Lydie for Mr. Mitchell's benefit; and that on Tues-
day, the 22d, she will appear in a morning perform-
ance at Willis's-rooms, and deliver passages from the
most celebrated of the French classical dramas.

THE QUARTERLIES.
THE WESTMINSTER AND FOREIGN
QUARTERLY. .Nos. CIX. and XCIV.
Notwithstanding a recent change in the editorship
of this double Quarterly, there appears to be no dimi-
nution of excellence in the contents of the current
number; on the contrary, a yet greater anxiety being
evinced to impart interest and variety to the contri-
butions. Foremost among the articles before us, both
in position and importance, is the one relating to the
"Enfranchisement of Women," a paper curious in its
character and thoroughly independent in the tone of
its argument. As may be conjectured, the review of
the question here indicated has been suggested not by
the now nearly forgotten theories of Mary Wolatone-
craft, but by the agitation lately excited by certain
enthusiasts in the United States of America. Hence
we find the article itself introduced by reference to
the .New York Tribune for Europe. At; the very,
outset of the discussion of the subject in the West-
minster it is candidly avowed that the subjection of
the fair sex is attributable solely to a custom, and
thereupon, of course, it is earnestly maintained that
the evil complained of at once admits of remedy.
First of all, the world being governed by physical
force it came to pass clearly that the weaker sex fell
under a certain law of subordination. Wars of con-
quest, however, according to the judicious reasoning
of the reviewer, have latterly been superseded by
democratic revolutions. A new phase of society has
therefore begun to develop itself, and injustice has at
length begun to be dissipated. "We deny," says the
critic, " the right of any portion of the species to decide
for another portion, or any individual, what is and
what is not their proper sphere." Further on, it is
insisted upon that "it is neither necessary nor just to
make imperative on women that they shall be either
mothers or nothing ; or that if they have been mothers
once, they shall be nothing else during the whole
remainder of their lives." Rather coarsely we think,
but at the same time very correctly no doubt, it is
remarked that " there is no inherent reason or neces-
sity that all women should voluntarily choose to de-
vote their lives to one animal function and its con-
sequences." One pithy and, emphatic observation is
deserving of remembrance : " Surely," says the West,
minster, " weak minds in weak bodies must ere long
cease to be even supposed to be either attractive or
amiable." The sentence is anything but gallant in
its application to the sex, while at the same time,
fortunately enough, its truth is in a multitude of in-
stances contradicted, a fact that, we conceive, cannot
be very readily denied in an age adorned by the
genius of such a woma❑ as Mrs. Somerville.
Further reference might be made with some
effect to the rest of the arguments comprised
in this very able contribution, but a lack
of space compels us perforce to turn our regard upon
the other papers which follow, and therefore it is
that we must content ourselves with directing the
attention of the public to the article itself, as the ex-
ponant we hare recently seen in favour of a general
female enfranchisement. Additional doubts are thrown
upon clairvoyance by the writer of the paper which
followa immediately afterwards on "Electro-Biology."
An examination of it will repay the curiosity of those
who happen to be inquisitive in reference to recent
progress made in the developement of mesmerism.
Thereupon we have a generous article upon "The Ex-
tinction of Slavery," a subject which can never be
exhausted so long as a single mortal remains upon
the face of the earth, demanding the blessing of
manumission. In an interesting and well-timed
chapter on the " industrial Exhibition," occurs the fol-
lowing admirable paragraph in illustration of the
inalienable rights of inventors, and their direct claim
upon the sympathy and assistance of the community :
" There ex►sts in the community a considerable num-
ber of original-minded men, upon whom the onward
progress of the nation wholly depends. By the very
constitution of their minds this class of persons is the
reverse of accumulative. They discover and give con-
tinually, to all mankind, whether in philosophy, litera-
ture, art, chemistry, or mechanics. Their knowledge is
above all price, and they cannot hire it out. They
ought to be essentially a leisure class, pursuing labours
of love, giving books and arts to the world, for which
there is no direct payment. A discoverer in optics, it is
clear, can be better employed than in becoming a manu-
facturer of spectacles. We do not want a Liebig to
' keep a farm end carters,' or a Dalton to retail soda
water or chloroform. We may talk as we please of the
duty of all men to be frugal and saving, but it is not so
frequently the want of power to save, as want of the
strong cupidity, that insists on obtaing leave to work,
that is the difficulty. A certain refuge from positive
want, giving time to work, is frequently the ono thing
needful. Commonly they need little bodily sustenalice,
but they need mental sympathy; the want whereof
frequently drives them into difficulties. There is needed
a metropolitan college for these original-minded men,
where they may assemble together without trouble or
expense or loss of time, where they might mutually
benefit by each other's many attainments, and draw
around them all the intelligent men of the community
seeking to become their disciples. The groves of
Academus might be revived; the poets, painters, sculp-
tors, musicians, rhetors, chemists, and mechanics might
therein walk and lecture. Socrates and Plato might re-
appear."

Speaking of the Crystal Palace, the writer insists
that its construction is traceable in a very great de-
gree to the advances already made by our national
" sinayshe
railways.
buildings‘‘wi "without s,
bweaeyns
nt es
uuchs e
sotfa
tiron
anda
progress; their manufacturera, without the large demand,
could nut have constructed the means of supply. With-
out railways, the mass of objects would scarcely have
been transported to the scene of exhihition ; and without
railways, the mass of the world's denizens could not
have been collected together to commence the era of
human brotherhood, to show practically that God bath
made all men of one blood,'—to show the remarkable
tact, that whilst almost all Europe is ruled, and kings
and princes protected by soldiery, here in England the
love of order practically suffices."
It might have been added that without railways the
mere notion of the enterprise would have probably
never entered into the Prince Consort's imagination.
There is one capital sentence in behalf of the princi-
ple of humanity a little further on in this same con-
tribution ; we mean where it is said that, " Lead !
don't drive," is the cry of all nature, "from the ex-
periment of the carrot-persuaded donkey, down to
the atmospheric railway, wherein the drawing out of
the air, and not forcing it in, is the efficacious method."
Altogether, the article here quoted is singularly
clever and very ingeniously elaborated. Next to this
we have a vigorous protest against the management,
or rather mismanagement, of the " Royal Academy."
Among other tokens of this, we are rejoiced to
see mentioned in the Westminster the circumstance
that Danby, incontestably one of the most illustrious
artists of our generation is still—in the autumn of his
life—merely an associate. The fact of his not having
been long since named R.A. is disgraceful—and we
say this deliberately, we, who have no knowledge of
Mr. Denby whatever, having not the remotest notion
even of his personal appearance. An ethical treatise
on "The Creed of Christendom," is followed by poli-
tical papers on "Organic Reform" and "Explanations
of Education." Such are the contents of the West-
minster, and its supplementary Foreign Quarterly
is mainly composed of criticisms on M. Itomien's
" Spectre Rouge," on M. Pretre's, " Souvenir d' un
Voyage dans la Tartaire, &c.," and on F. W. Bar-
thold's " Geschichte der Deutschen Stadte and des
Deutschen Burgerthums." These rather elaborate
reviews are succeeded again by miner notices, critical
and miscellaneous.

THE SELF-ACCUSED MURDERER AT MANCHESTER.
—A youth from Dublin, named Eugene Keenan, gave him-
self up to the county police ay Manchester as the murderer of
a fellow-clerk in the Government Valuation Office at Dublin,
by mixing oxalic acid in his porter, and has been proved to be
insane. He had exhibited symptoms of madness for upwards of
three months past. It appears that, in consequence of his state-
ment, the body of his late fellow-clerk, Conellan, had been
exhumed, but no trace of poison was discovered. The imme-
diate cause of death had been a rupture of the aorta. He
was given up to his father at Manchester on Saturday last.

SIR FRANCIS SIMPKINSON, KNT.—During yester-
day the bell of Lincoln's Inn Chapel tolled for about an hour,
in consequence of the death of Sir Francis Simpkinson, Knt.,
one of her Majesty's counsel. The Learned Gentleman for-
merly enjoyed an extensive practice in the tithe causes, which
before the Act of 1841 were heard on the Equity side of the
Exchequer. He was not latterly much before the courts of
equity, but was constant in his attendance upon his duties
as a bencher of Lincoln's Inn. Sir Francis was highly es-
teemed for his kindliness of disposition, his uniform vivacity,
and for his classical attainments. was very partial to
the stlidy. of antiquarian lore, especially in connexion with
ecclesiastical history and the law of tithes.

ADVERTISING.—Townsend, the sarsaparilla man,
says that lii
s books exhibit an outlay for advertising, in the
course of five years, in the various papers of the United
States of 800,000 dollars. He saysAfor six months he cut off
an
all his advertisements, to see if his medicines would not go
t. se
merits, justal s
himdswi drop ,they
went on advertising
heavily, and got the start of him.—Great Western, American
donolltahresirby i
Paper.
LICENSED DISTILLERS.—According to a return to
the House of Commons, printed on Wednesday, there were
11 distillers in England allowed to send out spirits before the
duty was paid. The net actual loss to the revenue was
8,9141. 12s. 10d. The highest amount of duties on spirits
iowing at, any one time by the distillers to whom credit was
t iVeLI was 95,3364 16s. 2d.