The Sun.
London, England, 1859-03-02 00:00:00

THE THAMES TUNNEL.

The annual meeting of the proprietors of this
company was held yesterday at Itadley's Hotel, New
Bridge-street. The chair was taken by Mr. Wor..-
LASTON.

From the statement of accounts for the last
twelve months it appeared that the cash in hand
on the 31st Dec., 1857, had. been £540 14s. 6d.;
the tolls received during the year amounted to
£3,637 12s. id.; the receipts from stalls to £421
Os. 3d.; rents of leases belonging to the company,
£525 14s. ; and from the sales of descriptive books,
£7 17s. 6d. ; making the total receipts, £5,133
4s. 4d. The total expenditure during the same
period had been £3,648 14s. 9d. In addition to
this there had been paid balance of income account
to the Public Works Loan Commissioners £925,
leaving a balance in hand on the 31st of December,
1858, of £559 Os. 2d.

The CHAIRMAN, in moving the adoption of the
statement of accounts, said that last year had been
very much the same in all respects as the one be-
fore, with the exception of a slight falling off in
tolls to the extent of £3O, which they attributed
mainly to the offensive state of the River Thames.
During the last twelvemonths they had completed
the pavement in the tunnel, the surface of which
was now perfectly level, instead of as formerly,
full of inequalities, and with a raised footpath on
one side.

In reply to a Shareholder,
The CHAIRMAN stated that the amount of the
claim of the Watermen's Company had been fixed
at £3,820 ; but no steps had been taken towards its
payment, and he did not know when they would
be in a position to do so. The matter rested alto-
gether with the Treasury.
Mr. Nolloth, the retiring director, was re-elected,
and the proceedings terminated with a vote of
thanks to the chairman.

UNIVERSITY INTELLIGENCE.

OXFORD, MARCH 1.

A deep gloom has been thrown over the Univer-
sity by the sudden death of one of its most eminent
and most popular members—the Radcliffe Observer,
who expired yesterday evening, about six o'clock,
at his residence, the Observatory. Mr. Johnson
entered Oxford in 1836, comparatively late in life,
having previously been devoted to astronomical
studies, and in particular having accompanied and
assisted Sir J. Herschell in, his observations in the
Southern Hemisphere. He passed through the
usual academical course at Magdalene Hall, and
took his B.A. degree in 1839. In the same year,
on the death of the late S. P. Rigaud, who was
both Professor of Astronomy and Observer, he was
appointed by the Radcliffe Trustees to the latter
office, which he has thus discharged for nearly 20
years. His great excellence in the capacity of an
astronomical observer is well known to all scientific
astronomers; hig active mind and indefatigable
pursuit of every kindred science arc, perhaps, only
recognised fully in the University, where his per-
sonal qualities have likewise deeply endeared him
to all who possessed the privilege of his acquain-
tance. • His loss will be severely felt by a large
circle. We believe that the cause of his death was
disease of the heart.

THE LATE POISONINGS AT BRADFORD.—The
Watch Committee of the Bradford Town Council have at
last placed on record an acknowledgment of the extraordi-
nary services of the police in reference to the late extensive
poisonings. At the meeting of the committee on Saturday,
the following resolution was passed :—" That the committee
, take this opportunity of expressing their full sense of the
prompt and judicious conduct of the police force on the
occasion of the recent calamity brought on the public by
the sale of poisoned lozenges, and have much pleasure in
according to the chief constable and the force under him
their cordial thanks."—Leeds Mercury.
MEMOIRS OF THE COURT OF GEORGE TIIS
Founni.. By the Duke of Buckingham. 2 vols.—lnde-
pendently of its value in an historical point of view, this
work is unusually interesting from the great amount of
personal anecdote and court gossip with which its pages
are filled. Among other distinguished persons of the time
of whom we have many new and curious particulars, are
George IV. himself and Queen Caroline, the Dukes of
York, Gloucester, Clarence, 'Wellington, Bedford, &c. ; the
Marquises of Londonderry, Hastings, Hertford, Wellesley,
Anglesey; Lords Eldon, Brougham, Liverpool, Goderich,
Grenville, Winchelsea, and Fitzroy Somerset; Sir Robert
Peel, Sir Walter Scott, Sir T. Lawrence, Canning, Husk's-
son, Wilberforce, O'Connell, Lady Jersey, Lady Conyng-
ham, &c., &c.

LITERATURE,

Rival Rhymes, in Honour of Burns.
Trovato. Routledge and Co.

By Ben

A delightful wag has here had his fling boldly right
and left—at poets and poetasters. Whoever Ben
Trovato may be, he is of the school of Bon Gualtier.
His Rival Rhymes are played off lightly in the key
of the immortal Rejected Addresses. The satirist
reveals here and there, however, in the midst of all
his•fun and frolic, true poetic feeling. There are
bits of the introductory lay—" The Bard of Ayr,"
attributed to F--r Pr t that reallyare worthy
of the pen of Mahony. There are fragments of
" A Remonstrance to the Directors of the Crystal
Palace," by a Proverbial Philosopher—that M. F.
Tupper might not have disdained. There is audible
" A Voice from the Far West," signed H—y W—h
L—w, that might almost have dropped from the
pen of the author of " Evangeline." "A Penny-a-
Liner's !Hope" is a whimsical parody on " The
Sea" of Barry Cornwall. " The Poet's Birth"—a
mystery—the most elaborated of all these fantastic
effusions, is put forth as a veritable production of
the Laureate. It reads here and there incontestibly
like the utterance of "some maudlin poet much
be-mused with beer." The funniest morceau among
them all is one entitled "A Song of Sorrow,"
capable of being carrolled ad libitum to the tune of
"The Groves of Blarney." It is designated "An
Objurgatory Monody," addressed by an Enraged
Bard to—" Groves of Sydenham !" As though
contributed from Holly Lodge, Campden Hill, by
Baron Macaulay—we have, towards the close of the
volume, from " the author of the Lays of Ancient
Rome"—" The Battle of Lake Gleulivit." An
earlier division of the work has given us " A Spirit
Lay from Hades," by T—s C-1. Another,
"A Few Words on 'Poets, &c.," by the Ghost of
Thomas Hood—a very impalpable, intangible ghost
—mere moonshine ! Another shadowy spectre in-
dulges us with the " Lay of the Rapt Spirit," in
the name of the bard of Twickenham. There is—
beyond all this medley, or melange, of fun, wit,
humour, and urlesque—an unpublished poem, sup-
posed to'be by Robert Burns, and communicated in
a letter from. Fergus M'Fash—there is an Ode, if
not by Milton, by one of Milton's ardent admirers
—there is, to crown all, a prose letter signed W.
M. T., that any one who lists may read more at
length ag W. M. Thackeray. At the tail of all
this frolicsome comicality—of all this ground and
lofty tumbling in rhyme—there is dragged forth
again' clattering into the sunlight the actual letter
on Burns and Scotland, written at Cannes on the
17th of January, 1859, by the master hand of
Lord Brougham. The effect of this Appendix
is like that suggested by the classic mask
of the same noble and . learned lord trailed
after Silenus Punch in the bacchanalian
procession depicted by the pencil of Richard Doyle
upon the weekly cover of our London Charivari.
Let Ben Trovato's variable voice, however, be
audible itself—now in the tones of Father Prout—
No school oppress'd him,
No rules distress'd him
A fearless had o'er
His harp ho flung;
The string rebounding
With bolder sounding
Than e'er was heard since
Young Greece had sung.
Now in the style of Tupper's Proverbial Philo-
sophy—

Dwellers in crystal palaces, tremble to think of the adage,
That " tenants of vitreous houses should not be the
throwers of stones."
Pebbles you have in plenty, paving your tesselated courts ;
But cast them not in the teeth of the gaping open-mouth'd
mob.
What are your pavements when compared to the pave-
ments, without ?
Celestial pavements of stars, and terrestrial pavements of
flowers,
Buttercup, primrose, and blue-bell, and daisy, and lip of the
heifer,
These, and a thousand others, rival your pavements Pom-

peian,
And gorgeous Alhambra,—bright mockery, daztling with
pomp Saracenic.
Shame 1 in a Christian land to set up a Moslem worship.
Now in the Yankee hexameters of Longfellow—

And Time with his sithe makes a notch in themoss-cover'd
branch, as a record,
Whittling his stick, as it were, in a kind-o'-like almanac
fashion,
Even as castaway Crusoe his rails nick'd, his lone days to
measure :
The earliest example we have of a time-table kept by the'
railway,
Ere railways restricted the steps of our wide-roving child-
ren of freedom,
Compelling monotonous movement in paths parallelo-
gramical.
Thus singeth Ben after the fashion of Tom Hood—
It needed not for him his race
In heralds' books should shine;
What pride of ancestry compares
With his illustrious line ?

So he, with heaven-ennobled soul,
All heralds held in scorn,
Save one, the oldest of them all,—
" The herald of the morn."
Call'd by his clarion, up rose he,
True liege of Nature's throne,
Fields to invest, and mountain crest
With blazon of his own.
His Vert the morning's dewy green,
His Purpure, evening's close,
His Azure, the unclouded sky,
His Gules, " the red, red rose."

His Argent sparkled in the streams
That flash'd through birken bowers;
His Or was in the autumn leaves
That fell in golden showers.
Enough, however : the extracts already given are
surely sufficient to justify every syllable of praise
here cordially bestowed upon this new Rigdum
Funnidos--or Master of the Revels in the realms
of Burlesque.

Memoirs of the Court of George IV., 1820-30,
from Original _Family Documents. By the
Duke of Buckingham. Two vols. Hurst and
Blackett.
These volumes are the continuation of the valu-
able series of works which have been published
under the auspices of the Duke of Buckingham.
The preceding volumes, it will be remembefed,
gave us the history of the Courts and Cabinets of
George 111., and of the Court of the Regency.
They sketched anew some of the most eventful
years of modern European history, and included
the careers of some of the most eminent political
and military commanders of modern times. The
years which are chronicled in the volumes before
us, if they do not tell us of sieges and campaigns,
of European convulsions and empires overturned,
are yet the records of an eventful and exciting time,
of perplexed governments and discontented
people. The disturbed state of the country, and
the unpopularity of the Ministry at the time of the
Regent's accession, are described in the opening
pages, and this state of affairs was soon brought to
a crisis by the return of Queen Caroline. The
events which followed are fresh in the recollection of
many; the general enthusiasm for the Queen's cause
as that of the ill-used and oppressed ; the warmth
and ability of her defenders, the fixed determina-
tion of the King, and the awkward position of the
Ministers, are all shown in vivid colours in the
numerous letters relating to that period. The next
public difficulty was the Catholic Relief Bill, ren-
dered more important by the state of Ireland. Look-
ing back fromthe advanced opinions of the present
day, the viruleneo of the opposition it encountered
appears, scarcely credible. It was not, however, till
1829 tharthe'ineasure was finally carried, after one
at least o:itditblest supporters had passed beyond
the reach of political disputes. The correspondence
relating to this question is full of inte-:est. The
Grenville party were the warm supporters of the
Catholic cause ; and Lord Grenville writes to the
Duke of Buckingham, April 14, 1829—" I cannot
forbear writing one line to congratulate you and
myself on the account which I have just now
received, that the bill for repealing the Roman
Catholic disabilities is actually a part of the law of
the land. I may now say that I have not lived
in vain." The disputes and intrigues of poli-
tical parties occupy a large share of the corres-
pondence and memoirs. In those days party
feeling ran high, and the excitement on man y
political questions was very great. The long
administration of the Earl of Liverpool, the brief
tenure of office by Mr. Canning, the unsuccessful
Ministry of Lord Goderich, were succeeded by the
Cabinet of the Duke of Wellington, whom the
death of George the Fourth left in power. Besides
these great changes, there were many alterations
in each successive Government, and some space is
occupied by an account of Lord Liverpool's nego-
tiations with the Grenvilles. As for the details of
the Court which occasionally appear, they merely
strengthen the general impression of the character
of George the Fourth. The Duke of Buckingham
takes a partial view of the King and the
Duke of York ; but the opinions and anecdotes
incidentally introduced do not tend to remove
the unfavourable opinion generally enter-
tained of .the Royal Brothers. As showing
us the under-currents of political existence
in an epoch whose prejudices and passions we have
outlived, thhese volumes possess an interest and
an historical value not often met with. We are
able to appreciate the difficulties with which the
public
men of that day contended, to make some
allowance for those who guided the helm, if the
vessel of state was not always steered rightly
through such troubled waters. It shows us also the
prejudices
and factions which were suffered to in-
terfere with the national interests. It forms a most
valuable continuation of the records of the pre-
ceding reign, and will, we trust, be succeeded by a
history of the events which followed the accession
of William the Fourth. The volumes before us will
be deeply interesting to those who would study i

our own history, or trace the political progress
of the last half century, and the whole series is one
of such standard value that a library will be incom-
plete without it.

Temptation and Atonement: a Tale. By Mrs.

Gore. Knight and Son.

These cheap reprints of Mrs. Gore's most cele-
brated ;works, in an elegant form, cannot prove
oth.erwise than desirable to novel readers. They
will thus meet with many of those brilliant and
famous productions of fiction which delighted the
public many years ago, and whose merit cannot
decrease, if the scenes described do not bear such
actual reference to the events of the day as they did
at the period of their first publication. The present
story is in every sense a painful one, but it is very
vividly portrayed. There is also great ingenuity
in the elaborate construction of the plot. The
character of the chief actor in the dark drama, Sir
Mark Colston, is very cleverly sketched, and the
alternate terror and remorse of the unhappy clerk,
John Downing, are described in a most natural
manner. It is a satisfaction to find the guilty
usurper at last denounced in the very church
whose sanctity he had profaned, and among the
congregation before whom he wished to appear an
honoured landlord. The talent which has com-
posed this tale will ensure for it a favourable re-
ception in its new form.

Ghosts and Family Legends. By Mrs. Crowe,
authoress of " The Night Side of Nature."
Newby.

In this volume there will be found a delightful
collection for the lovers of the mysterious. All
who experience a strange satisfaction in dwelling
on the legends of the land of shadows should pro-
vide themselves with this interesting work. The
authoress has before distinguished herself in this
style of literature, and the present production can-
not fail to enhance her reputation among her
numerous admirers.

The Maid of Avenel. _ A Ballad Opera. By D. M.

Aird. H. Bale.
A graceful adaptation to the stage of Sir Walter
Scott's celebrated novel, " The Monastery." Mr.
Aird has already shown his skill as a playwright
through " The Love Trap," " The Stolen Kiss," and
other ingenious productions of a character at once
dramatic and melo-dramatic. Here, however, in
" The White Maid of Avenel," in his happiest
effort, as an adapter—in the which he appears to
have been considerably aided by the musical
abilities of Carl Anschuez.