The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-24 00:00:00

ful owners. The good faith of the Premier may be
tested by a very simple inquiry—Was there a
single lot in the catalogue marke 1 at an
exorbitant or extravagant price ? It is true
thatl*the reserved bidding on Toxophilite
was three thousand guineas, but *I at were the
value of Toxophilite's engagements ? Would they
not have been readily purchased at more than half
the price ? In fact, considering the prices that
have frequently been paid for animals of very in-
ferior pretensions, the stipulated sum seems to have
been marked at a very moderate figure.

Of twenty lots, it appears, on the Times' own

showing, that twelve were sold. This simple fact
showed the bona Ales of the sale. The hungry
seekers after profit did not get things at ridiculously
low prices. It was not a case of Jew or Christian
speculation, and the " greed of gain " is
developed in the one class as strongly
as in the other, attending at a sheriff's sale,
and enabled, by combination amongst themselves,
to obtain things at quarter their actual value. It
was the offer of a nobleman, and one fully meriting
the designation, to transfer his property, if fair and
reasonable tenders were offered.

- -
Perhaps -no more powerful argument could be
adduced in favour of the DERBY Administration
than the simple fact that the Times, its most un-
scrupulous opponent, could find nothing more
tangible to bring forward in its two first leading
articles than the non-publication of the Treaty with
China before the ,time when such documents are
usually given to the public, or the refusal to permit•
animals of established reputation to be sold at less
than their fair value, especially as, it was well
known that there would be a reasonable reserve
price on every lot.

The magnificent oration delivered on Tuesday at
Grantham by Lord BROUGHAM will take high rank

even among his own immortal masterpieces of
eloquence. The affluence of imagery, the depth of
learning, the splendour, the vividness, and the

variety of illustration, combine to render this
harangue remarkable, even though coming from'
the lips of so renowned and practised a rhetorician.
Certainly no grander Eulogium ever was pronounced.
It is the very acme of the climax of panegyric. Yet is
there not in all those words of homage—one particle,
nay, even the possibility of a particle of exaggera-
tion. The theme was too grand, the speaker him-
self was too just and wise ; his audience (among
whom were observable men like OWEN and
WHEWELL) included in it men of . too vast

and comprehensive intelligence to admit, in all
those superb praises, of the mere idea of anything
like hyperbole. Yet the philosopher whose me-
mory was the subject of these resplendent enco-
miums was pronounced at the very outset of the
harangue to be " the greatest genius" ever vouch-

safed to this earth by DIVINE PROVIDENCE !
The universe was sublimely said to be his monu-
ment. And as the great architect has embla-
zoned upon his tomb, under the dome of the
stately temple raised by his art to the clouds of
heaven—Si monumentum requiris, cireumspice
So Lord BROUGHAM exclaimed—lf you ask for
Sir ISAAC'S monument, for the monument com-
memorative of the fame of NEWTON, look
up to that more grand and awful dome of the sides,
upon which is written imperishably the record of
his almost preternatural intelligence It was a
majestic imagery, but applied as it was to the dis-
coverer of the eternal laws which regulate the
movements of the solar system, it was a figure of
speech in no way characterized by extravagance.
As if to justify every encomiastic syllable in his
Eloge on Sir ISAAC NEWTON, Lord BROUGHAM
heaped together, at the close of his splendid ora-
tion, the homage of LAGRANGE, of LAPLACE,
of LEIBNITZ, of HALLEY, of FONTENELLE —as

though laying wreaths of immortelles at the foot
of the noble statue just inaugurated. He told

how LEIBNITZ had said at the Royal table
at Berlin, when asked his opinion of his

great contemporary, that a taking mathematicians
from the beginning of the world to the time when
NEWTON lived, what he had done was much the
better half." He told how LAGRANGE had
described NEWTON as the most illustrious genius
then existing, adding, how fortunate he was also,
"because there could only once be found. a system
of the universe to establish." He reminded his
hearers how BLOT had pronounced NEWTON, " in
mathematical and in experimental science, without
an equal and without an example, combining the
genius for both in its highest degree." He recalled
to mind how LAPLACE had observed that the " Prin-
Cipia" stands pre-eminent above all the other pro-
ductions of the huMan mind✓-that HALLEY had even
gone the impiouS length of saying that NEWTON'S
was a nearer approach to the Divine nature than
had been ever permitted to mortals—that FONTEN-
ELLE had remarked' sententiously and wittily of
LEIBNITZ, that in first giving to the world NEW-
TON'S system of flu xions, like PROMETHEUS he had
stolen fire from Heaven !
Perhaps the most remarkable portion of this most
remarkable oration was the introductory part, in
which Lord BROUGHAM, with a prodigal variety of
illustration, commented upon the generally gradual
advance of human knowledge. Previously the noble
and learned lord—one whom genius entitles him,
in the 'literal meaning of the words, to that singu-
larly appropriate and not merely complimentary
designation—the noble and learned lord previously
descanted with matchless ease, with the ease of one
who is perfectly master of his subject, upon GALI-
LEO'S proposition on curvilinear motion, upon KEP-
LER'S laws upon the elliptical forniof the planetary
orbits, upon HUYGENS' theorem on centrifugal force,
upon CAVALLERI'S geometry of indivisibles,upon RO-
BERVAL's method of tangents—all leading the way to
those sublime discoveries of NEWTON, by means of
which he was enabled, at twenty-five years of age,
to lay the foundation of the sublime science he
alone among men has the glory of having esta-
blished—the science of celestial dynamics.
Happiest, possibly, among all the subsequent por-
tions of the harangue was the one in which, after com-
paring NEWTON to CoLumnus,the orator added,—
"But COLUMBUS did.not invent the mariners' compass
as. NEWTON did the instrument which guided his
course, and enabled him to make his discoveries, and
his successors to extend them, by closely follow-
ing his directions in using it. Nor did the compass
suffice to the great navigator without making any
observations, though he dared to steer without a
chart ; while it is certain that by the philosopher's
instrument his discoveries were extended over the
whole system of the universe, determining the
masses, the forms, and the motions of all its parts,
by the mere inspection of abstract calculations and
formulas analytically deduced." Enough, however
—the speech itself should be read in its pntirety
by every . thinking man. It cannot fail
to impress those who do read it with
sentiments of most respectful admiration. It is the
speech of a great man, about a great man. It is such
a speech as certainly was never delivered before by
an octogenarian: It is an epitome of the wisdom
of the past viewed from the height of this 19th
century. It is homage to NEWTON—but. it also an
honour to BROUGHAM. We hhve read delighted,
down to its last syllable, this latest address from
the lips of-7--" the Old 3.10 n Eloquent !"