The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-04 00:00:00

says: --

" I recognise your love of accuracy and certainty, your
great outlay of research and studious examination,
laborious reading of documents, otherwise repulsive rather
than interesting—and in result I report to you my clear
conviction. 1. That Napoleon's campaign ended
in four days so tragically for him, by Napoleon's own mis-
management, by the fact, which you have rendered
evident, that he was hebcte, sunk in somnolence, negli-
gence, and not himself any more. 2. That in subsequent
times he, with unconscious, and now and then with con-
scious mendacity, endeavoured to lay the blame on
others—Grouchy, Ney, &c., and has now, as his
fate was, been convicted of that sad offence, and
will have to pay the penalty before the whole
world. In young years, especially in the Hudson-Lowe
time, I was greatly an admirer of the Great Napoleon ;
but I confess, for a long while tack, the essential men-
dacity, egoism, charlatanism, of his procedure and relation
to the world, have been more and more apparent to me,
and the greatness of him, even as a soldier, being steadily
diminishing. ' A great general ?' as Kleber said ; Ah,
yes very great general—a general of 10,000 a month 1
Ce petit coquin, no bigger than my boot !' "

ANOTHER EVENING WITH THE SPIRIT

RAPPERS.

Another meeting of the committee on spiritualism ap•
pointed by the London Dialectical Society has just been
held, Dr. Edmunds presiding. Several gentlemen, not
media, gave evidence.

Mr. C—, a gentleman on the Stock Exchange, said
that some years ago, soon after he had arrived in New
York, he called upon Miss Kate Fox, the celebrated
American medium, and expressed his curiosity to learn
something of spiritualism. While seated•by her side on
the sofa three loud raps were heard on the table (which
was in the centre of the room)., apparently in answer to
some jocular remark he bad made. In thespiritualistic sys-
tem of telegraphy three raps are generally understood to
imply an affirmative. " Shall we come to the table?" Three
raps. "Is there any spirit here waiting to communicate
with me T"llree raps again. " Will ycu tell me your
name?" he asked. The answer was spelt out by means of
an alphabet. " Your stepson Harry." (The medium
could scarcely have known the fact of his having a step-
son of that name, for he was an entire stranger in the
city.) "Is there another spirit present who wishes to
communicate with me?" asked Mr. —. "Yes."
"Are you a relative of mine ?" " Yes." " Your
name ?" " Annie." Mr. assured the committee
that he bad been unable at the moment to recollect
any one in his family of that name, and that he
had accordingly denied stoutly that he had any such
relative. The words were then spelt out. " 0 how your
voice recalls the memory of the past. How rejoiced lam
to be able to thank you for your kindness to my daughter
Eliza." It was his wife's mother who had "passed away"
twenty-five years ago. Mr. also mentioned a "rather
remarkable " fact that had occurred while he was staying
at Malvern. He had been conversing upon the subject
of spiritualism with the family at whose house he was
lodging, and had afterwards gone out to visit a friend in
the neighbourhood. On his return he was proceeding
stiaigbtway to Led, when the master of the house
came and asked him, for heaven's sake, to come
down stairs immediately. He accordingly went, and
in the drawing.room Miss —, a young lady who was
staying in the Louse, was lying on the sofa in violent
hysterics, and a small tripod table was dancing frantically
up and clown the room. On Mr. ---'s entrance the
table ambled towards the door, made a low Low to him,
and then proceeded to execute a scr:es of Terpsichorean
extravagances. Mr. strove to calm the young lady;
she was just beginning to recover when the table came
lol.bing towards her and sent her off again. Mr.
then went to the table, and, placing his hand upon it,
said, "We have bad enough of this nonsense. In God's
name, go ;" when the movements instantly ceased.
It appeared that during his absence they thought
they would try for themselves whether there was
any any truth in spiritualism or not. A circle was formed,
consisting of the father, mother, and daughter, her friend
Miss —, and a bluff, incredulous Yorkehireman. The
most surprising results were obtained. "It was the most
extraordinary thing I ever saw," said the Yolkshireman
afterwards to roe, " that table talked to me and told me of
my father and mother for all the world like a human"
(sic). Mr. C— said that biology might explain some of
the phenomena, but there were others that it could not
possibly account for— such, for instance as spirit drawings.
Such drawings were still in Lis possession, and he would
be glad to exhibit them to the committee. The modus
operandi for the production of these spirit drawings was
very remarkable. Clean pieces of paper, with crayons,
itc., were placed in a covered Lox ; a rapid scratching of
the paper was then la area, and in a few seconds the
crayons were heard to fall, and the drawing was reaily for
inspection.
Mr. J. Jones, Dimon Park, South Norwood, the sr
related what he had witnessed last autumn at Stockton
House, Fleclpontl, where he was on a visit, with three of
his family. The night was dark, as the moon bad not
risen ; but a: there was a cons,natory at the side of the
drawinCiree,n, in which some eight persons sat round the
100 table, and a window in front, be could see all in the
room inclistim tly. As it was unueual for Mr. Dome to
sit in a dark room for physical phenomena, he (Mr.
Jones) mentally determined to fay the sceptic. A
sofa behind him moved away from the wall, passed the
rear of his and Mr. Home's chair, no one being near it.
By the sounds and raps it was said,
" Mrs. rest on
the sofa." She got up and did so. He (Mr. Jones) then
saw the vacant chair rise in the air, float over the lady,
pass in front of Mr. Home, whose hands were on the
table, ascend till vertically over his (Mr. Jones's) head ;
then the chair descended, and the under portion of the
seat rested on his Lead. On mentally declaring himself
satisfied the chair rose again, floated in the air, and de-
scended on to the 100 table.

PRESENTATION TO AN UNSUCCESSFUL CANDI-
DATE.-Mr. P. W. Clayden, one of the Liberal candidates
for Nottingham at the last election, was last week pre-
sented with a very handsome ormolu clock by the working
men of Nottingham, as a testimonial of their gratitude
for the manner in which be fought their battle at the
election.

THE DANGER OF SAVING A LADY.—The Phila-
delphia Star reports :—" Our readers will recollect the
attempted assassination of Samuel Temple, of Yardley-
vale, Bucks County, he having been shot at three diffe-
rent times while working in a mill. The cause has just
transpired. A few mornings since Mr. John Bitting, of
Newtown, found a letter under his door addressed to
Temple. It was dated New York, March 20, and signed
`Viola,' in a neat hand. The writer stated that some two
whenyears asghoe sII
was wase
rd
thrown i g nearfrom
the Fairmount
saddle,P a
and
k , this ce
m ipt y,
l e
came to her rescue. She fell in love with him at once,
and afterwards wrote him two letters, telling him so. As
he paid no attention to them, she resolved that no other
woman should wed him, and employed four Spanish
assassins at $l,OOO apiece to kill him. She afterwards con-
cluded to make no more attempts at his life, but she had
not an opportunity to get word to her hired accomplice
before the last attempt was made. She says she is wealthy,
and highly educated ; that she is now going to Europe,
and that he is in no more danger, as she has now lost her
love for him, and would not marry him. Temple says he
remembers the circumstance of rescuing the lady; that
he asked her if she was hurt; she answered in the negative
and they parted."
MR. HORSMAN'S ADDRESS TO THE ELECTORS OF
LIBREARD.—In the address posted by Mr. Iforsman at
Liskeard occurs the following passage :—" I do not in this
address presume to announce myself a candidate. The
days are gone by when elections are to be infleeneed by
mere personal pretensions. We are living in an active and
earnest age, and power has been given to enlarged con-
stituencies that they may inaugurate a new state of things,
and elect men to Parliament who make the business
of Parliament their study and accept its duties as a trust,
and not as a mere personal distinction. And as the
choice of a representative no longer rests with a section
of the community, but is the privilege of the electors
at large, so it is acknowledged to be the duty of that great
body to see and hear and judge for themselves—to insist
that no preference shall he expressed until they have
had every candidate publicly before theirs, and shall
have brought their own intelligence and indepen-
dence to bear in judging of the qualifications of candi-
dates that are offered to their choice. It is because I
feel that to be the constitutional course, the most respect.
ful and satisfactory to you, and the most honourable to
me, that I shall request you to give me an opportunity of
meeting you in public as soon as the last sorrowful rites
have been paid to your late lamented representative. I
shall invite from you then the most searehine. examina-
tion of my public principles, and my opinions on all the
great questions of the day, with the fullest explanations
of my past votes and speeches, and of my
views as to the
future. If it be found that my views accord with
those of the majority cf the constituency, and that you
choose me as your representative, I shall endeavour to
justify that choice by honest and faithful service, and to
uphold the character of a constituency that has ever been
foremost in the cause of liberty and progress. If it should
be found that my opinions are not iu unison with those of
the constituency, and that I could not fitly represent its
views, I shall at once bow to that decision. I presume to
ask for no more than an impartial hearing and a fair and
deliberate judgment."

TILE VICAR OP Fl?OlVIE ON SEPARATION

OF CHURCH AND STATE,

The Rev. W. J. E. Bennett, in a sermon at Bristol on Sun-
day night, rebuked his clerical 1 rethren who dread the separa-
tion of Church and State, which Mr. Bennett believes to
be coming. If free from the State, which was.composed of
all sorts of creeds and no creeds, the Church might, Mr
Bennett said, go and preach the Gospel to the poor from the
old doctrines of the Catholic faith, as handed down to them.
They would have no more bishops to sit in the House of
Lords and bring in discipline laws. Even the slightest
symptom of a return to such a golden era was so cause of
grief or fear—they ought rather to rejoice and be ex-
ceeding glad. Within the last thirty years there was no
sign of any deliverance, and the idea of Church and
State was so deeply imbedded in the people and
priesthood, and, of course, in tho bishops, that even
to rise up from their chair in their prison and look through
the bars would have been thought an intolerable piece of
audacity. Those here the days when the matin and the
vesper bell sounded in their churches once a week, when the
blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist was remotely announced
once a quarter, when preachers fed their people with essays
out of heathen moralist., and the name of Jesus never re-
ceived the adoration wl.ich they had just now given to
it in that place ; when the clergy lode in the hunting-field
in scarlet coats along with their squires, and to be called
"priests" world have be en an insult rather than honour.
Those were the palmy days of Church and State, and the
consequence was the people fell away by thousands, and
there was every conceivable schism. There was—he was
going to use a strong expression, but ho was warranted by
it in the Word of God—" an adulterous" love between
the kingdom of the world and the kingdom of God; so close
it seemed that no purification would ever be at hand to save
it. There were not very many of them who remembered
perhaps those days, but he had passed through them all.
Might he not say now they had passed through the dark-
ness, and there was the light shining? Let them go free,
and they would be a Church such as had not been for 800
years.