The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-01 00:00:00

we must suppose, then, that ghosts have at last re-
solved to deal with our ears exclusively, and that
spirit-rapping is the substitute for spirit-seeing.
A good substitute, too, since the spirits, we believe,
rap to order of the rappists, while in the old style
the spirits did not always come from the vasty deep
when we did call them.

Or is it that another kind of ghosts have driven
the old sort off the stage ? In this hard, unsparing
age of change, misnamed, some say, Reform, many
have been the deaths of mighty entities of the ages
gone by, and their bodies being hardly inter-
red yet, their disconsolate, and, in truth, some-
what formidable shadows, still wander about
on this side the dark river, and the
inexorable ferryman declines to ferry them to their
last home. Well may the hnmbler private spectres
retire before those which now ever and anon flit
before the public gaze. Minds full of Parliamentary
Reform and Commercial Reform, of Law Reform
and Prison Reform, of Sanitary Reform and Sewers
Reform, of Church Reform and State Reform, of
Reform of all the great and glorious institutions of
our forefathers—minds full of these great imagina-
tions have no organs to discover the old vulgar
ghosts. They are haunted by the ghosts of old
feudal customs, of long lingering Protection, of
Protestant ascendancy in Ireland, of Anglican
Popery here, and of all the shapes and forms which
Bigotry, Monopoly, Aristocracy once wore on earth.
It was supposed by the many, at the time, that
the Reform Bill of 1832 had buried Toryism for
ever; yet ever since its shade, Conservatism, has
followed and warned and frightened many, and,
by its mysterious noise, almost mace us believe
that the new house we have lived in for a quarter
of a century or more was like to tumble about our
ears. And, now that Conservatism hardly owns
its name, " Progress," " well considered progress,"
or, as Mr. HENLEY has it, " one-foot-at-a-time pro-
gress," rattles all the possible danger of Reform
about our ears, till we are compelled to acknow-
ledge that the shade of old Toryism has not
got quietly into Hades yet. Nor do we know who
is the politician that can lay the restless spirit of it.
As to the ecclesiastical ghosts their name is
almost legion. Stir which way you like they will
make you hear. There are ghosts Episcopal, ghost s
Presbyterian, ghosts Papal, ghosts of the Establish-
ment, and ghosts of Dissent—ghosts :which rise out
of cathedral endowments, out of church rates, out of
Regium Doman, out ofpoor curates, out of spiritual
destitution, and out of rich bishoprics and incum-
bencies—you can hardly move without meeting
some uneasy spirit, wailing and deploring that its
life and vigour are gone. When the monks and
friars of all colours, as MILTON describes them,
covered the face of the land, they did at least keep
the old sort of ghosts in some kind of order, but
now that they and the monks are vanished both,
and that a profane toleration first, and a yet pro-
faner cry of religious equality now, has half mur-
dered the churches by law established, there is no
rest for us. Not a session of Parliament passes
that bishops and a few other peers, or Dissenting,
Catholic, and Quaker members in the Commons do
not disquiet the spirits of our venerable ecclesi-
astical institutions, Wand almost kill with fright
many a SPOONER and a NEWDEGATE, a MARL-
BOROUGH and a SHAFTESBURY.
For ourselves we must confess that these latter
kind of ghosts have as little terror for us as those
of the old sort. The squeaking and jibing of the
trembling ghosts of dead notions and habits of ,
thinking can only make us smile. Our age is quite
as unsparing in scrutinizing its old institutions as
it is in experimenting on and ransackings the facts
and laws of nature itself. The old bodies of things
and the spirits which dwelt in them no longer suit
us of this generation ; they must be content to have
served their turn, and allow us to believe that we
can best arrange for ourselves. We have got rid
of witchcraft and evil spirits, and spirits of all
sorts, and, incredulous, we only send the policeman
to settle any visions which may trouble a weak
mind here and there. We do the same in sub-
stance with all who would terrify us by appari-
tions from the good old boroughmongering, Church-
and-King, and Protection-to-native-industry times
We mean to go on renovating and rebuilding, and
getting rid of rats, and ivy and owls, and ghosts,
from wing after wing of the edifice, until, indeed,
the ghosts of the past would not know the old
haunted chamber if they came to it.

IMPROVEMENT OF GALWAY HARBOUR. The
government are about to send three gentlemen, experienced
in engineering and maritime matters, to Galway, who will
report to the government upon the state of the harbour and
roadstead, and who will also inquire as to what works may
be necessary for rendering that port safe and commodious.
Freeman's Journal.
RUMOURED ACCIDENT TO THE STEAMSHIP PRO-
PELLER.—Yesterday (Thursday) a telegram was posted in
the Liverpool Exchange News-room, to the effect that a
letter had been received in Dublin from Galway, in which
it was stated that the steam-ship Propellor was run a-
ground to prevent her sinking.
- • _ _

We have to record the demise on Saturday last
of John E.'mont Brooman, Esq., Paymaster of H.M.S.
Cornwallis, stationed at hull. This officer has seen service
in all parts of the world ; amongst others in New Zealand,
on the coast of Africa, in Austen 's expedition to the Arctic
Regions in search of Sir John Franklin, and during the late
war was under fire in the Baltic and in the Black Sea, for
which the Arctic, Baltic, and Black Sea medals were
awarded to him. Mr. Brooman dies deservedly lamented by
his brother officers in the service, as well as by his bereaved
widow, his aged mother, and by a large circle of relatives
and friends. His gentlemanly and honourable bearing and
kindness of heart, added to a well-stored mind, made him a
kind friend and delightful companion. He secured the
esteem and affection of all with whom he was brought in
contact.

MIDDLESEX REGISTRATION. Yesterday Mr.
Shadwell, the revising barrister, held his Court at the New
Globe Tavern, Mile-end, to revise the list of voters in the
several parishes at the east end of the metropolis. In the
parish of St. Mary's, Whitechapel, a Mr. Newin was ob-
jected to as having claimed in respect of a "part freehold."
Mr. Shadwell declared that he did not know what was
meant by a " part freehold." The agent stated that Mr.
Newin claimed on the Bridgwater estate, and his part free-
hold was situated on it. The claim was amended and
allowed to remain on the register. The other business was
to correct the register, and the officers of the various
-panics attended and assisted the learned gentreniiiit in
making a correct list of voters.
ELECTION OF MEDICAL OFFICERS IN ST. 'PAN-
CRAS.—Yesterday a contest for the appointment of district
parochial medical officers took place in St. Pancras. Out
of the candidates six were reported by a committee of the
vestry as eligible for election. However, notwithstanding
the candidates had beencarefully examined and interrogated
by the committee, they were called before the full bench,
and passed through the same ordeal again. One member
of the vestry, a Mr. Fisher, made himself conspicuous in
his examination into the qualifications of the candidates by
asking, " Where do you live ?" and " How long have you
lived in the parish ?" A great deal of time was wasted in
this way, and at length the candidates went to a ballot, the
result as reported by the scrutineers being as follows :
Haynes, 51; Slight, 18 ; Dalton, 5 ; Rawlings, 5 ; Naggs,
4 ; Davis, 1. Mr. Haynes was therefore declared duly
elected. A Mrs. Hoffman was at the same time elected
female superintendent of the lunatic department in the
workhouse, against which appointment Mr. Farrer handed
in a protest numerously signed, it being urged that other
candidates had not had an opportunity to attend by due
notice being given them of the time the election would take
place.
SUICIDE OF A GENTLEMAN UPON A RAILWAY.—
During the last week the family of Mr. Gerard B. Smith,
Warwick-square, Belgravia, and proprietor of the well-
known Pimlico heel Works, have been thrown into the
utmost state of affliction in consequence of the said gentle-
man putting a period to his existence by throwing himself
before a railway train at Wandsworth. An inquest was
hold at the Wandsworth Union-house, before Mr. Carter,
coroner for West Surrey, and a most respectable jury, when
the evidence went to show that the deceased had been in a
low desponding ,state of mind for some time past, for which
no cause could be assigned, as he was in affluence ; nor did
it come out that any domestic annoyance had preyed upon
his mind, or that any hereditary mania had ever existed in
the family. He was connected with many scientific socie-
ties, and had within the last few months laid out a large
capital in mercantile transactions, which had resulted to his
advantage. He left his residence with the intention, as he
stated, of going upon business in the country, and was not
heard of again until the sad intelligence reached his family
of his dreadful and melancholy death. Evidence was
brought to prove that the deceased deliberately threw him-
self across the tramroad when the Hampton Court train was
approaching the Wandsworth station, and before the driver
of the engine could stop the train the whole of the car-
riages went over him, causing instantaneous death and
mutilating his body in a most frightful manner. A long
discussion took place as to the deceased's state of mind, of
which the jury were eventually satisfied, and accordingly
returned a verdict of "Temporary insanity." The deceased
has left a widow and young family to lament his premature
and awful death,