The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-03 00:00:00

GILBERT A'BECKETT.

The death of a Very gifted man—which we have
recorded—cannot he passed by in silence. Mr.
A'Beckett, the son of a solicitor in extensive prac-
tice, was educated at Westminster School, and was
launched at a remarkably early age into the excite-
ment of that profession of which he became a con-
spicuous ornament. Gifted with a wondrous and
peculiar humour, even as a boy, he started comic
periodicals with his schoolfellow Mr. Henry May-
hew, and was dealing with public reputation at an
age when most youths confine their ambition to the
delicacies of knuckling down, or the diplomacy of ,
peg-in-the-ring. Before he had reached man's
estate ho had seen many periodicals rise and fall
under the auspices of himself and his literary part-
ner ; some having obtained a temporary success,
others having failed at once. But undoubtedly
the great success of the two boys was Figaro—the
journal which, it may be fairly said, prepared the
public mind for the appearance of our prosperous
friend Punch ; upon which they were destined to
found a lasting reputation.
The fortunes of Punch are patent to the world ;
and with them the name of Mr. A'Beckett is inse-
parably associated. The jovial spirit in which Mt
Dunup has borne his adverse fortunes ; the fun
found in Blackstone ; the showers of jeux-de-mots
in the " Comic History of England ;" the weekly
comments of exquisite humour on passing events,
in which the touch is unmistakeable—and then
the genial, simple spirit of the writer—these are
among the claims by which the name of A'Beckett
will be remembered in the literary history of
the century. Is one of the originators of that
wise fun which has distinguished the periodical
literature of the present time he must hold a con•
spicuous place ; while thousands who remember sly
hits and droll turns of thought, and exquisite plays
upon words, that bear his name as author, will also
remember, as a charm, that none of them were
unjust, and none made telling by their ill-nature.
lie was before all a just man, who never allowed
his moral sense to be distorted by his wit, and who
never slaughtered a name with his irresistible ridi-
cule while he believed that name to be honourable.
Few men could have held the two opposite posi-
tions he occupied—as metropolitan magistrate and
Punch contributor—without incurring charges of
incompetency on the one hand, or snobbism on the
other. Mr. A'Beckett was a wise magistrate and
a conscientious contributor. He buckled bravely
to his magisterial duties, while he cherished an
affection for the periodical in which he had won
his way. It was his delight to have at least a few
lines in every number of Punch.
Mr. A'Beckett must not be judged, however,
simply as a contributor to Punch, and therefore as
a man who never devoted himself to solid and Ee-
rious work. It should be widely known that for some
time his light and vigorous pen was in the service
of the Times newspaper, and that ho contributed to
the leading columns of that journal some of the
more remarkable articles it has put forth. Indeed,
on one day, the whole of the leading columns of the
Times were the production of the gentleman whose
death we now deplore. Entrusted by the late
Charles Buller with an inquiry into the iniquities
practised at the Andover Union, Mr. A'Beckett
framed so mwite,rly a report that he was at once re-
cognised as a man of clear and sound j udgment, who
combined with this valuable qualification the power
of explaining his views in language at once brilliant
and vigorous. His Andover leaders in the Times
are articles to which reference is still constantly
made. The genius with which the Andover question
was treated gave Mr. A'Beckett strong claims upon
the gratitude of the country, and secured for him
the metropolitan magistracy, which he has held
with honour and dignity during the last seven
years.
An earnest, a wise, a hearty and a kindly man
has passed from among us, and we note his loss
with soirow. It is something to say that a man se
largely gifted with the power to wound leaves no
scar behind him,-and that all men of 'letters now
living unite in acknowledging the ability of the
writer, while his personal intimates bear witness to
his goodness as a friend, and to his devotion to his
domestic circle. He has left a widovi, whose gifts as
a musician are not unknown to the world, to deplore
his sudden death, and children to bear a name upon
which he has gathered many honours,• against
which there is not a word of reproach.—Daily
News.

His Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, accom-
panied by Col. the Hon. J. Macdonald, has left his resi-
dence in St. James's Palace for Gordon Castle, near
Fochabers, N. 8., on a visit to the Duke and Duchess of
Richmond.
The Marquis of Ely, Lieutenant-Colonel Lord West,
and Lady Elizabeth Hope Vere and Miss Hope Vere,
are among the recent arrivals at the Lord Warden
Hotel, Dover.
The Earl and Countess of Westmorland are receiving
a select circle at Apthorpe Park, Northamptonshire.
Emily, Duchess of Beaufort, has arrived on a visit to the
noble Earl and Countess, from town.
The Turkish Ambassador has subscribed ].Ol. towards
the proposed English (Christian) church at Constantino-
ple, which is intended to be a monument to the memory
of the gallant men who fell in the late war with Russia.
Miss MARSHALL—Among the passergers who take
their departure to-day on bocud the Atlantic, for a voyage
across the Atlantic, with a viaw to a professional tour
through the United States—there is numbered, we be-
lieve, one of the most charm7ng of the histrionic favou-
rites of our old London playgoers : Miss Marshall, late
of the Princess's. Success go with her ! say we, and so
too, no doubt of it, say all those who remember the freaks
of her gay humour as one of the merriest and prettiest
of soubrettes, and the frolics of her nimble feet as one of
the most sprightly and agile of danseuses. Success,
moreover, can hardly fail to he her travelling companion
—making a third (as such) with the mother and sister of
the young actrest-dancer. Brother Jonathan, with all
his idolatrous devotion to the Almighty Dollar, having
a rare perception of whatever is most agreeable in the
graceful turn of an allele, or in the roguish glance of a
bright eye I Mr. Ledbury himself, not possessing a
more delicate appreciation of the charms of the genuine
grisettes—even the "too-susceptible Tolman" having no
keener sense of the witcheries implied under the compre-
hensive terms of beauty and fascination. With auditors
and observers thus appreciative, Miss Marshall can
hardly fail,
we repeat, to win her way triumphantly.