The Sun.
London, England, 1856-09-11 00:00:00

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CONSTITUTIONAL LAW AND LEGAL HISTORY.

The public lectures to be delivered by the Reader on
Constitutional Law and Legal History will comprise the
following subjects :
Temper and Character of England at the Accession of
Charles I.—Privileges of the House of Commons—Charac-
ter and Result of Political Struggles daring his Rein—ln-
fluence of the Church—Attempts to make it Independent
of State Control— Conduct of the Judges during the
Reigns of the Stuarts—Progress and History of Jurispru-
dence—Reigns of Charles and James U.—Causes of the
Revolution—Reign and Policy of William 111.
Review of the Origin and Causes of the English Consti-
tution from the Reign of Joh❑ to the year 1688.
Comparison of the French and English Governments
and Jurisprudence.
In his private lectures the Reader will proceed from the
of Charles 11. to the year 1782.
Books—" Millar's View of the English Constitution,"
" Clarendon's History," and "May's History.," "Barnet's
History of His Own Time," Hallam's Chapters on the
Reigns of the Stuart Kings," and the " Reign of William
tho Third," "The State Trials," " Stephen's Blackgtone,"
" Macaulay's History" (fourth volume), " Rapin's History
of Charles L and II.," " Tindal's Continuation," " Reign
of William the Third."

The Reader on Constitutional Law and Legal History
will deliver his public lectures at Lincoln's-inn-hall on
Wednesday in each week (the first lecture to be delivered
on the 12th of November) commencing at 2 p.m. The
Reader will receive his private classes on Tuesday, Thurs-
day, and Saturday mornings in each week, at half-past 9
o'clock, in the Bench & dreading-room Liocoln's-inn-hall.
(The first private class to be held on Thursday, the 13t1
of November.)

EQUITY.
The Reader on Equity proposes to deliver during the
ensuing educational term a course of six lectures on the
following subjects :—" The Influence exercised by the Nor-
man Conquest on Judicial Procedure in England." "The
History and Constitution of the Court of Chancery," "The
Principles of Pleading in Equity," and " The Jurisdiction
in Bankruptcy."
The Reader on Equity proposes to form two private
classes, a senior and junior, according to the amount of pre-
liminary knowledge possessed by the students using in the
junior " Smith's Manual of Equity Jurisprudence" as a
text-book ; and in the senior, while following the division
adopted in the manual, illustrating the subject by a more
frequent reference to cases.
The Reader on Equity will deliver his public lectures at
Lincoln's-inn-hall on Thursday in each week, during the
educational term, commencing at 2 o'clock p.m. (The first
lecture to be delivered on the 6th November. The Reader
will receive his private classes on Mondays, Wednesdays,
and Fridays, at half-past 3 p.m., in the benchere reading-
room. (The first private class to be held on Friday, the
7th November.)
LAW OF REAL PROPERTY, &C.
The Reader on the Law of Real Property, &0., proposes
to deliver in the ensuing educational term a course of six
public lectures on the following subjects :
1. A comparison between th old and new law of wills.
2. The statutes 1 Vic., c. 26 and 15, and 16 Vic., c. 24.
3. The decisions upon those statutes.
In his private classes the Reader on Real Property Law
will explain the common form of wills, give suggestions as
to the best mode of framing wills, and examine minutely
the latest decisions on the Wills Acts.
The public lectures will be delivered at Gray's-inn.hall
on Friday in each week, at 2 p.m. (the first lecture to be
delivered on the 7th November). The private classes will
be held in the North Library of Gray's-inn, on Monday,
Wednesday, and Friday mornings, from a quarter to 12 to
a quarter to 2 o'clock (the first private class to be held on
Monday, the 10th November).
JURISPRUDENCE AND THE CIVIL LAW.
The Reader on Jurisprudence and the Civil Law pro-
poses in the course of the ensuing Michaelmas Term to de-
liver six public lectures on the following subjects ;-
1. The elementary principles of Roman law respecting
proprietary and possessory rights, modes of acquisition and
transfer, and the classification of things.
2. The departments of international law which have been
affected by Roman jurioprudence, particularly capture in
war, maritime and territorial dominion, sovereiguty, occu-
pation, possession, and prescription.
With the private classes the Reader will proceed regu-
larly through the principal departments of Roman law, be-
ginning with the law of persons. The " Institutes of Justi-
nian" and the " Commentaries of Gaius" will form the
basis of the lectures, and will be read together ; but on
certain days selected portions of the digest will be taken.
Reference will frequently bo made to the •'lnatitutiones "
and *. Commentarii Juris Romani Privati" of Warnkoniz,
and to the " Explication Historique" of Ortolan.
The private classes will assemble at the Class-room in
Garden-court, Middle Temple, on Tuesdays, Thursdays,
and Saturdays, at a quarter to 4 p.m., the first meeting
to take place Nov. 13.
The first public lecture will be delivered in the Middle
Temple-hall on Tuesday, Nov. 11.
COMMON LAW.
The Reader on Common Law proposes to deliver (luring
the ensuing educational term a course of six public lectures
on the subjects undermentioned :
Lecture 1 will be introductory to the study of our com-
mon law, will indicate the various matters of which it
takes cognisance, and specify its leading branches and sub-
divisions.
Lectures 2 and 3 will be devoted to an examination of
certain maxims and principles of our common law which '
concern the Crown, especially of the following rules :—That
the Sovereign can do no wrong ; that the rights of the
Crown cannot be barred by lapse of time ; that where the
King's title and that of a subject concur the King's title
shall be preferred. These rules will bo considered, not in
their constitutional bearing, but strictly in reference to
private rights and remedies at suit of or against the Sove-
reign.
Lectures 4 and 5 will treat of the nature of legal rights
and remedies as between subject and subject.
Lecture 6 will be devoted to an inquiry concerning such
rules of legislative policy as are recognised and ordinarily
applied in courts of common law.
With his private class the Reader will pursue in detail
the various subjects and topics above sk3tched out ; and in
so doing will refer principally to the following works :
Blackstone's or Stephen's Commentaries, vols. 1 and 3 ;
the " Treatises of Messrs. Chitty and Allen on the Royal
Prel og dive ;" and ‘'Dwarris on Statutes," 2a editi,n.
The public lectures will bo delivered in the hall of the
Inner Temple on Monday in each week, at 2 p.m. (The
first lecture on Monday, Nov. 10.) The private class will
be held in the hall on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday
mornings, from a quarter to 12 to a quarter to 2 o'clock.
The first private class to be held on Tuesday, Nov. 11.
By order of the Council,
RICHARD BE PHELL, Chairman.
Council-chamber, Lincoln's-inn, Aug. 4.
Note—The Michaelmas educational term commences on
the Ist Nov. and ends on the 22d Dec.
The first meeting of each private class will take place on
the usual morning or evening of meeting next after the first
public lecture on the same subject.

THE NATIONAL LIFE-BOAT INSTITUTION
AND SHIPWRECKED MARINERS' SOCIETY.

These two societies have, within the last two or three
years, made great exertions respectively to increase their
usefulness along the coasts. Indeed, the National Life-
boat Institution has incurred a debt of upwards of 3,0001.
in its efforts to augment the number of its life-boat esta-
blishments on the shores of the United Kingdom. A
correspondent of the Nautical Magazine thus ingeniously
proposes to relieve both institutions, Ile says :
" Leaving to others to act according to their several op-
portunities, I have taken some pains lately to arrive at the
amount of tonnage owned and sailed by yachtsmen in Great
Britain. I can give names and particulars of nearly 1,200
yachts, and the proportion of each rig, viz. :
250 schooner yachts, averaging about 60 tons 15,000 tons.
1,000 cutters „
„ 17 „ 17,000 „
60 yawls „
/1 „ 35 „ 2,100 ,„
6 loggers
7 sloops
2 wherries BOO „
70 „
6 steam-yachts

36,470 tons.
"This enormous amount of yacht tonnage, contributing
Gd. a ton, would yield 9001. for one year, besides additional
subscriptions, to which these contributions, when known,
might give rise. In three or four years the National Life-
boat Institution might pay off all its debts, amounting to
3,0001., from this source alone. I propose, therefore, that
the sister societies make a joint appeal to yachtsmen. I, as
one, having a small vessel, will cheerfully subscribe ten
times its tonnage in sixpences, pro rata, as a beginning.
ndetead tonnage
eve of
Let other yacht owners come forward, for only one year,
and a trifle
Again, a
Greatblessing B Britain
ttaoi then i s
fpr,"athe
each
mercantile wil
estimatedcoasLA
at 3,637,231 tons. Is it likely that one British
shipowner in three would refuse his farthing per ton, or
his half•farthing ? If all subscribed, these farthings would
amount to nearly 4,0001. for one year. This, with what
might reasonably be expected from shipping societies, each
contributing its mere trifle, would raise such an amount
as would do more real good than the public—ignorant of
the actual working of these societies—would believe ; and,
what is more important, would, before the winter, enable
the whole system to be put in more perfect working
order."

A remarkable instance of the fatality which sometimes
weighs on certain persons is related in the Droit. A mar-
ried couple living in the Faubourg Saint Denis were, by
no misconduct of their own, reduced to the most frightful
distress. The husband at last succeeded, a few day, ago,
in obtaining a place as letter•carrier, and Saturday was
fixed for his entrance on his duties. On Friday evening
they had literally not a morsel of bread in the house,
and no money to buy any. ; but the wife, being a dress-
maker, sat up all night to finish a gown she had to make,
and on Saturday morning she took it home to get '
money to buy a breakfast. She left her child, five years
of age, asleep in bed, and on her return was horrified to
find that the little creature bad, on awakening, began
playing with the chemical matches, whereby bhe had set
ifire to her clothes, and had burned herself dreadfully.
The child was conveyed to the hospital, but she died in
a fevi hours.

Few who have adopted the actor's life as a.profession
ever leaped so quickly into the good opinions of all good
playgoers as the Charles Mathews who forms our pre-
sent sketch. But few men have been indulged with
greater advantages, by nature and circumstances. His
parents were as liberal as they were affectionate. He
was educated like a scholar and an artiste, having been
originally destined for a profession more " cairn and
classical" than his present one. He had the advantage,
from his boyhood upwards, of mixing not only in bril-
liant, but also in good society, assembled in his father's
hospitable house, and these good chances fell on one
thoroughly prepared by nature to profit by them.
Charles Mathews, the younger, was apt at acquiring
languages, and at hitting off all the humours in national
life and manner. He not only knew French, Italian,
Neapolitan, Venetian, and Heaven only knows how
many strange dialects besides, but he could act them to
the life, could sing the song, dance the dance, and assume
the nationalities of any country, of dray class. During
his residence abroad, as one of Lord Blessington's travel-
ling party, the frequency of his mystifications, and the
skill with which they were maintained, must have made
it evident that he was his father's own son, and that no
creations in marble, stone, or brick, were to be expected
from ore so versatile and mcsreirial. Yet, ib was not till
his youth was in some degree advanced that he suddenly
took the resolution of throwing architecture to the
winds, and, in place of building theatres, of making him-
self a theatrical pillar of stremith, by flinging himself
gaily into the gayest (sometimes the slightest) comedy,
as his profession.
Whereas most actors have studied in a provincial
school before making a London debut, Mr. C. Mathews
at once (in 1835) came out complete in the theatre,
among all metropolitan theatres, which boasted of on
assemblage of such first-rate talents as the names of
Farren, Liston, Madame Vestris, and Mrs. Orger recall
to us. Daily practice with artistes like these would
have influenced one less impressionable and accomplished
than Mr. C. Mathews ; but t•) him it did not so much
instruct as ripen. He had no rough edges of provin-
c'alisin to rub off; but launched at •ace into proficiency,
and went forward, without drawback or delay, to per-
fection.

Mr. C. Mathews has made for himself a style of acting
which may be said to be peculiarly Ells own. He is unlike
anyone who has preceded him—unlike anyone of the pre-
seat time, and all those who have attempted imitation of
him have [Ailed signally. The sound of the true from the
false Metal has in no case of attempted counterfeits
been more distinguishable. For buoyancy of spirit,
such as might be owned by a creature made of quick-
silver, for gentlemanly ease, for cool assurance, and for
rattling volubility, he has no rival. There are some
characters with which Mr. Charles Mathews has iden-
tified himself so completely that they can only live and
will die with him. Look at his Sir Chas. Coldstream, in
" Used Up ;" see that air of ennui which marks the
walk, the action, the speech ; and contrast these with
his performance in the second act, where we find him
roughing it as a countryman, enjoying his homely fare,
revelling in the fun of the situation ; mark the merry
twinkle of his eye, and the look he wears when listen-
ing to the reading of his will. Can anything he more
different and yet more in keeping with the same cha-
racter ? Or, take him in " The Game of Speculation,"
where, as Mr. Affable Hawk, he is to be seen on the
verge of ruin, battling with all his energy to keep clear
of the edge of the precipice ; mark with what avidity he
seizes upon every scheme, and, as each bubble bursts,
how eagerly his mind forms new plans and fancies new
sphereS of action. His hope at finding a prize in a rich
son•in law—his disinay at finding that prize a blank—
his subterfuge as to his partner's return, and his asto•
nishment at finding he has returned—are points which all
who have seen can testify to their being truly great.
Green-room historians tell that this piece was written in
thirteen hours and produced after two rehearsals-s-a won-
derful piece of unrehearsed stage business, but one not
to be risked without peril. Who that has ever heard
his Captain Patter in "Patter versus Clatter," has not
felt astonished at the unceasing rattle of words rushing
from the tongue at "Fast train, high pressure, express"
speed, yet no one word is lost, the articulation being
always clear, always distinct ? Who that has seen, by
the mere altering the position of a wig, how miraculous
a change takes place, will deny him the praise of a first-
class mime? The features are no longer the same ; the
whole man has changed—face, figure, voice ; yet it is
Charles Mathews, for he has never left the stage. Or,
to specify something of a higher order, recollect his Sir
Fretful Plagiary and Puff in "The Critic ;" who would
suppose that the old man in old-fashioned suit, with old-
fashioned habit to match, by turns pettish, snappish,
and passionate, could
.be the same man who suddenly
dashes on tho stage in modern-diesel, with white kid
glove and even the flowers in the button-bole ? It is
as if the wand of some harlequin had brought about
the change, and not the bands of a "mortal dresser."
As in aspect so in acting are the two parts dissimilar.
It would be impossible to count a tithe of the pieces
in which Mr. Charles Mathews, like an Atlas, has
supported the whole burden of the story— how he
has carried the audience away, through dull or light
dramas, on the wines of his never-flagging spirits. "Cool
as a Cucumber," "Practical Man," "An Appeal to the
Public," " Aggravating Sam," may le named as illus-
trating these remarks.

Did the fashion of the times permit some of the comc•
dies being acted we should be at a loss to find a better
representative of Charles Surfa.Ce, Doricourt, Young
Rapid, and all those fops, scapegraces, and good fellows
(who are good for nothing) who used to keep the come-
dies of the past century alive by their airy impudence,
than Mr. Charles Mathews. His Dazzle in " London
Assurance ' will long be recollected. Nor is this all. Mr.
Charles Mathews claims a few passing words as author
and manager. In the former character he has often ap-
peared witli success, as " My Wife's Mother," " The
Ringdoves," " the Dowager," " Littie Toddlekins,"
will testify. They are all sparkling, neat, witty, kept
a-going with stage tact. As a manager he had toiled on
through difficulties (how made is not here the question),
reaping nought but anxiety, loss of time, and that for
which we all labour—money. But what care the public
for all these things so long as they owe delightful even-
ings to such talent as he can display, and call forth ap-
plause from those who surrounded hien ; to the magnifi-
cence with which he dresses and decorates the banquet
which he set before them ? That better days may come
for him, that he may rise above all the difficulties which
have beset his path, and make for himself a happy old
age, is a wish in which all his admirers and friends, and
they are myriad, will cordially join.—Daily Yeses.

TILE ITALIAN LEGION.

LIVERPOOL, WEDNESDAY.

The steam-transport City of London (No. 9), arrived
in the Merseylto-day from Malta, having on board 22
officers and 321 non-commissioned officers and privates
of the Italian Legion. She Failed from Malta on the
27th ult.

The sailing-transport Tudor Railed from Malta on the
211th ult. for this port, with 750 officers, non-commis.
sioned officers and privates, two officers' wives, and six
children belonging to the same Legion.
The troops on board the city of London will diem-
hark at the landing-stage tomorrow morning at seven
o'clock. They are the head-ouat ters, and have the band
along with them, said to be one of the finest bands con-
nected with the British service. Immediately on land-
ing, the corps will proceed to York. The following are
the officers in command of the troops on board the City
of London :—F. Berrington, Major ; G. Benson, Staft
Paymaster ; R. Desanges, G. Lambert, and R. J. S.
Simpson, Paymasters ; S. Curran, Quartermaster;
C. Deparez and G. Gallassie, Surgeons ; L. Rowlbech,
Intendant ; F. Cormity, G. Filaret, E. , Silvagne, B.
Pactet, C. Devastofris, and G. Pesca, Captains; M. Cav-
anna, Adjutant.