The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-09 00:00:00

DEATH OF GENERAL THOMPSON.

The death is recorded of Lieutenant •General
Perronet Thompson, }I.R.S., which has just taken
place at Blackheath. A few years ago the announcement
would have made some sensation, for during a certain
portion of his career General Thompson was one of
the most prominent of public men. He was born at Hull
in 1783, and was first educated at the Grammar School
there, which was at the time conducted by Joseph Milner,
the Church historian. He afterwards went to Cambridge.
After serving about four years in the navy he became a
soldier, and saw a good deal of active service. On his
return to England he began to take a great interest
in politics, and in connection with the Anti• Corn Lan
League took a very active part in the promotion of
free trade. He was first returned to Parliament in 1835,
for Hull. General Thompson was for many years the
editor and proprietor of the Westminster _Review, and a
very industrious political economist and scientific writer.
In this review appeared the Corn Law Catechism so effec-
tive in that discussion. In his social circle ho was one of
the most gentle, considerate, and kind of men.

THE CAS F; OF TIE E COUNTESS
D'ALTEYJL4 C.

The case of this lady was again brought before the
Court of Bankruptcy yesterday, in the form of an appli-
cation to take the matter out of court under the 185th
Section. The lady, who is described as Junia Maria
d'Alteyrac, commonly known as the Countess
d'Alteyrac, otherwise Willoughby, of 32, Park-
street, Grosvenor-square, of no occupation, was made
bankrupt on her petition about five months ago,
and, being in custody at the time, her release
was granted chiefly on the ground of her illness. Assignees
have since been chosen, and accounts filed shewing debts
of £5,973, against which she estimates the present value
!of her annuity at £30,000. The principal creditor
!in amount is stated to be M. Longchams, a son-in.law
of the bankrupt, who makes a claim on her of upwards
of £2,500. A resolution was now submitted to the
creditors to the effect that the assignees should receive
the annuity of £1,200 a year, the lady to continue in the
receipt of £lOO a month penalty so long as it should be
payable ; and on its ceasing to be so, the annuity
to be equally divided between her and the assignees ;
this arrangement to continue until the debts are paid
in full ; and the bankruptcy to be annulled on the execu
tion of the usual deed. It was also part of the arrangement
proposed that M. Longcham's proof should not be pressed
till after the other creditors were paid in full, and that
the bankrupt should have an allowance of £3O a month
from the date of the adjudication till the next sitting in
November. On the part of the assignees, objection was
taken to one part of this proposal ; they contended that
the annuity should not be equally divided between the
Countess and the creditors, but that the former should re-
ceive £5OO a year, and the latter £7OO. Thereupon the resolu-
tion was withdrawn until the next sitting; and it was
ordered that the countess should in the meantime receive
an allowance of £3O a month from the date of the adjudi-
cation. The countess was present during the proceedings,
and was briefly examined respecting one or two disputed
proofs ; but the details were uninteresting.

THE COMIC PAPERS.

(From Punch.)

THE HEIGHT OF ASSURANCE.—The Management of the
" Albert."

WHISPERS IN CHURCH.— "Mamma, dear, is that the
piano ?" "Hush ! no—the organ ! " " Then where's the
noonkey?"
" QUITE ANOTHER."—Tunny Passenger (the conversa,
tion turning on the bard life of the horses) : I see
you're not a believer in the Transmigration of Souls !"
" Driver : " Well, I don't know, sir. For my part I
likes 'em fried in the usual way ! !"
To INI'ANTINE SMOKERS.—We saw the following adver.
tisement in the Lirerpcol Mercury :—" Wanted, a smart
boy, well acquainted with a tobacconist's counter."—
Wishing, if possible, to supply the want, Mr. Punch
looked round at a lot of boys whom he knew, but found
that they would not do, for such of them as are well
acquainted with tobacconists' counters are very far from
Smart, been usually stupid, slangy, pert cads. However,
having found one that he thought might possibly answer,
Mr. Punch despatched him to Liverpool. Ife was:returned
by the next train. The boy wanted was for the other side
of the counter, the side on which brains are required.
THE MILTONIC MARE'S NEST (An American Sensation
Story).—The truth about John Milton is out at last. We
knew already, as a kindred spirit said of him, that he
" was a harsh, sire, odd spouse." That was a fact, and
not to be denied. "For the first Mrs. Milton left his
house." Why did she skedaddle? Milton is well known
to have been a Dissenter from the Episcopal Church of
England. The reason of his dissent has always been
taken for granted to have been conscientious conviction.
We know now what it was. It is a fact, which his bio
graph ers have unaccountably overlooked, that the maternal
parent of old Mr. Milton, John's father, lived to a very
advanced age. She was the cause of .John Milton's sects
sion from the English Church. She was also the cause of
his disagreement with his wife, which occasioned the first
Mrs. Milton to absquotilate. The Anglican table of the
Prohibited Decrees of Affinity and Consanguinity begins
with the declaration that " A man may not marry his
Grandmother." But for that Milton would have remained
an Episcopalian, and not have married the woman he
first did. He told her so immediately after their mar.
riage, when they were starting for their honeymoon, with
a volley of oaths and curses. She was jealous. He gave
her cause. The foregoing statement is genuinely reliable.
We guess nobody a cut above Brigham Young will
ever read a line of " Paradise Lost " again.

The Dublin Gazette announces that the Right
lion. Geoffrey Dominick Augustus Frederick, Baron
Oranmore and Browne, has been chosen by a majority of
totes to be the peer to sit in the House of Lords of the
United Kingdom, in the room of Richard, Baron Castle-
tnaine, deceased,

• Since the passing of the first Industrial Schools
Act in 1857, and clown to the end of 1868, 9,231 children
have been committed to these schools in Great Britain-
-6,665 boys and 2,566 girls. Of the whole number 3,282
have been discharged. About two-thirds of these
—viz., 2,lll—have been placed in employment on
land, or sent to sea, or enabled to emigrate or
enlist; 173 died ; 230 have been committed to reforms.-
tories ; 391 have been specially discharged as diseased, im-
becile, illegally committed, or incorrigible ; 333 absconded,
and were not recovered.

THE HARVEST.—The harvest may now be con-
sidered finished in the Newmarket district, in which the
crops have been secured in excellent condition. Harvest
work hag been greatly facilitated and accelerated this
year about Newmarket by the extended use of reaping
machines. An Ipswich letter says :—" With another
week of fine weather the farlngrs in the earlier districts of
this neighbourhood have secured thu whole of their crops,
and, with the exception of the first carted ',heats, all in
the finest condition. In the later districts some tp,qntity
of barley and beans, with here and there a field of wheat,
is yet abroad. The last three or four days have been
much warmer, and on Sunday and Monday we had some
heavy rains, which were greatly needed by the turnips
and pasture lands."

The inquest on the bodies of the young persons,
Thomas Hardakor and Emma Carmack, who were found dead
In a field at Stanningloy, after the thunderstorm on Sunday
evening, was held on Tuesday attheSun Hotel, Stunningley,
by Mr. Taylor. A verdict was returned to the effect that
the deceased had been killed by lightning. The unfortunate
occurrence caused a wide-spread feeling of sympathy
throughout the villages of Pudsey and Stanningley, and an
anxious crowd gathered round the hotel until the bodies were
removed home. The lightning had apparently struck the
young couple each on the forehead; for marks like burns
were plainly visible on the side of the nose. There were
some boles in the shirt-front of the man, and some coins in
his pocket were partially melted by the electric fluid. Tho
young woman's clothes were uninjured. The deceased
were engaged to be married in November next, but they are
now to be buried in the same grave.
The newspapers have greatly contributed to
enrich the English language. We shall shortly have—
thanks to the gentlemen of the press—a pretty delicate,
idiomatic turn of speech for all the principal affairs of life.
Thus, a widow is a "fair relict ;" a young woman making
her (Zelda at a police court, is " an interesting female."
Formerly a criminal used to be hanged, but now he is
"launched into eternity." .Amau was sometimes drowned
in olden times ; but that never occurs now; he may
indeed be "immersed in the liquid element till the fire of
life be extinguished." When a man fell down in a fit a
surgeon used to be sent for, but now "medical ai"d
is said to be "iu attendance ;" should lie die
before the surgeon comes, " the vital spark had
fled." In the times of our plain-spoken ancestors horses
and cattle were sometimes killed by lightning, but they
are now " struck by the electric fluid." Again, a ship
used to be launched, but there is nothing of the kind now.
"We are losing all our amusements," as Crockery has it;
the :ship now " glides majestically into her native ele.
ment," in which native element, by the way, she never
was before. In old-fashioned thnes bridegrooms and brides
used to be married, We are Nally quite ashamed to say
there is no such thins as marriage now ; the bride Is "led
up to the hymeneal altar," API the wedding guests,
instead of dancing 110 W, "nip it gaily gn tin light fan.
Wig WV'