The Sun.
London, England, 1832-10-23 00:00:00

HISTORY OF THE COMMONERS OF GREAT
BRITAIN AND IRELAND..--The novelty and utility of this
undertaking combine to invest it with no common claims
to public attention. The highly influential and extensive
class to whom it refers have at present no work of refe-
rence exhibiting an entire and authentic account of their
respective Families, although it is obvious how large a
share of interest attaches to such an object, both for th e
pieties themselves, and for all connected with them, by
the ties either of alliance, friendship, neighbourhood, pa-
tronage, or political constituency. That so desirable a
dig.st should not before have been executed, has been
doubtless owing to the extreme labour and research de•
mantled for the purpose: but this obstacle has, it seems,
been in the present instance overcome by efforts and ar-
rangements of long continuance, the effect of which, it is
fully trusted, will ensure the steady and satisfactory ful-
film.-nt of the design.

A celebrated phrenologist once remarked,
that neither the cat nor the horse deve!oped the organ of
music. " Very strange," remarked a hearer, " since we
mike music of the guts of the one and of the tail of the
other."

SINGULAR CUSTONIS.—There is a custom
proper to Sicily, which I must not forget to mention
This is a right of purchase of a singular kind. If any
man buy an estate, be it house, land, or vineyard, the
neighbour of the purchaser, for the space of an entire year
afterward, may eject him by an advance of price. In vain
would the first purchaser give more to the original owner.
This singular law is generally evaded by a falsehood.
The purchase-money is stated, in the articles cif agreement,
at a higher sum than has been agreed upon in the presence
of four witnesses. There is another no less singular law
in Sicily, according to which any 'titan can oblige his neigh-
bour to sell his house, if he will pay him three times its
value. The intention of this law was the improvement
of the towns. It was to encourage the possessors of large
houses to purchase the humble abodes of the poor.—Count
Stolberst's Travels.

CAUTION TO MUSHROOM EATER6.—On
Tuesday the 25th ult. the son of a labouring man residing
at Ponsanoath, on returning home from Pengreep, ga-
thered a number of large mushrooms, which he gave to
his mother, by whom they were dressed as a stew. The
whole family partook of the stew for supper. The woman
only ate a little ; and the boy by whom the mushrooms
were gathered partook more sparingly of the stew than the
rest of the family. In the course of the night they were
all taken ill. In the morning they sent for an emetic,
which they took. Aft rwards a medical man was sent for,
but lie did not arrive till the evening, by which time the
younger child, a fine boy of three years of age, had die;l.
Every assistance was given to the other sufferers, but,
notwithstanding this, two others, a girl about five, and a
bay about seven years of age, died on Thursday morning.
On Friday a girl of ten years of age expired ; and on Mon-
day last the father, who was supposed to have been better,
also died. The mother has not been very ill, owing to
her having only tasted the fatal meal ; and the boy who
gathered the supposed mushrooms was so far recovered
on Tuesday as to be able to go to the spot where he found
them. On examining some of a similar kind found there,
they proved to be large fungi, five or six inches in dia-
meter, sprouting from the stock of au oak tree that had
been cut down.-- West Briton.

At two o'clock yestet day one of the most respectable and
numerous meetings that ever took place in Glasgow assem-
bled at the Town Hall, to consider the propriety of itnrne-
diately commencing a subscription for a monument in this
city to the memory of Sir Water Scott.—the Loan PRO-
VO T in the Chair, supported on the right and left by Mr.
Sheriff ROBINSON and Mr. CAateatt.r. of Blythswood.
The LORD PROVOST introduced the business nearly as
follows :—Gentlemen, it would ill become me to antici-
pate the details of this meeting, and to attempt an eulo-
gium on the illustrious character whose memory we this
day delight to honour. I know no theme more inviting,
none more inspiring, none better fitted for the pen of the
poet or the tongue of the orator, none more calculated to
rouse every Scottish mind, and to warm every Scottish
heart.—(Loud cheers.) In this very place it became my
duty, a few evenings ago, to venture on a faint outline of
the genius of the mighty magician, and to throw out the
suggestion of a monument in our own city, which, I am
happy to observe., has met with almost unanimous
approbation. (Cheers. )
Sir DANIEL SANDFORD spoke nearly as follows :—My
Lord, every act of homage to the greatest genius of our
age and country is an honour to our city and ourselves.
It was right, perhaps, that the foremost step should be
taken elsewhere; we will not, in this matter, grudge
precedence to the capital—in his own chosen and
cherished residence, in the heart and pride of Scot-
land, it was a meet and graceful thing that to Scot-
land's brightest ornament the first honour should be
shown. But had the metropolis stood alone in its
devotion to that glorious memory, we might have
blushed for our city—we might have blushed for
our intellectual character; we might have continued
still to be the rival of the capital in splendour, opu-
lence, and numbers, but never more could we have
nisei' up our heads in the rivalry of taste, or claimed
equality with her in the appreciation of mental excellence.
But, toy Lord, a glance round this room is sufficient to
show me that that opprobrium is already escaped. Here,
in a seat of honourab'e traffic, not unadorned by science
and by literature, I see before me men of all professions
and pursuits ; here, at a season of the keenest political ex-
citement, I see men of every shade and aspect of political
sentiment and feeling. This is what I looked for—this is
as it should be. Ou other questions, and at other times,
we can encounter in open manly opposition—but here a
sacred armistice prevails—we throw away the weapons of
hostility, and kneel down—as sometimes in the pause of
battle, to drink at the same stream, which has its source in
all the purest and beet emotions of the heart of man. I
gladly dwell fist a moment upon a part of the mental cha-
racter of Walter Scott, to which justiee has sometimes
been denied. I never have admitted—l cannot admit—
that the tendency of his writings is unworthy of a free
country, or that there is anything about them repulsive
to the friends of liberty. I know that the recollections
of past pomp and grandeur were dear to him; lie may
be almost said to have lived in an age of recollections;
his imagination revelled among scenes of feudal glory,
anti deeds of chivalrous enterprise—but with the grace
and the grandeur of times that have passed away he
forgot not to blend the gloom. If he showed you the
chief in his pride, he showed you too the serf in his
bondage ; if he traced for you the gallant deeds and the high
bearing of the warrior, he threw no veil around his vices
and his crimes. If he painted Marmion with his ban-
nered train, did he forget to paint in Constance,
the victim of his baseness? or have you forgotten
that immortal portraiture of loveliness and woe ? If he
delighted to exhibit the Monarch in his circle, the Knight
in his career of arms, or the feudal Baron in his ball,
has he drawn with less vivid colouring the captive in the
dungeon, the persecuted Jew in his terrors, or his elprioty
scorn repulsed and reprobated chivalry? I fain would
have concluded this feeble tribute to the genius and cha-
racter of Walter Scott with sonic observations on his private
excellence. But I had not sufficient knowledge of his
personal character to do anything like justice to such a
subject. Virgilium tantum oidi—though I shall always
esteem it a matter of pleasing recollection that I have
grasped the hand of the grey-hair, d minstrel and exchanged
words with him in the intercourse of thought. Sir
Daniel conc'uded by moving the first resolution, and sat
down amidst the most enthusiastic cheering.
Principal IMACTARLAN seconded the resolution.
Mr. SMITH, of Jordanhill, moved the second resolution.
He said, where would they find human nature reflected
in colours so vived and yet so true as in the page of Wal-
ter Scott? Here he was not excelled by Shakspeare him-
self. lie would give an anecdote, to show that there was
no part of the world, however remote, into which his
fame had not penetrated. Mr. Smith here read an ex-
tract from a letter from our distinguished countryman,
David Douglas, who, lie said, was carrying the torch of
science into the remotest regions of the new world—ac-
quiring fame for himself and conferring benefits on his
country—enriching our forests with the tallest pines, our
gardens with the fairest flowers—be writes to a friend of
his from one of the remotest missions in Upper California,
from a place into which indeed the rays of British genius
had penetrated, but which had never before been trodden
by British foinsteps,—that there he had experienced kind •
ness and friendship as the countryman of Walter Scott,
and that on the table before him was lying a Spanish
translation of Ivanhoe, which his host preferred to every
book of the kind, except Dim Quixote, an exception
which, in a Spaniard, only strengthened the general rule.
He would quote his friend Sir Daniel Sandford, and never
would forget the electric effect with which, after quoting
the lines, " Three poets in three distant ages born," he
boldly named the three great names, " Homer, Shak-
apeare, Scott."—(Great applause.)
The force of Nature could no farther go ;
To form the third, she joined the other two."
And assuredly, in the wide realm of literature, no writer
could be Mund who united the excellencies of Homer and
iShakspeare, but Sir Walter Scott.—(Great cheering.)
i‘ r. ALEXANDER GRAHAM seconded the motion of Mr.
SiDlr.. ROBERT FINDLAY, after some appropriate obser-
vations, moved the appointment of the Committee, which
was done with great cheering; and after several Gentle-
men had put down their subscriptions, the assemblage
broke up.

ENGLISH SOCIETY IN INDIA.---" Though
it is well known that the habits and manners of our
countrymen and countrywomen are materially changed by
a residence in the East, scarcely any lively and satisfactory
description of Anglo-Oriental society has yet been given.
" The East India-Skeich-Book," which has just appeared,
is reported to he the work of a lady, who seems, with the
privilege of her scx, to have noted the pecuiiarities (to give
them no other name) of the English in India, which she
has drawn in a very diverting spirit. Whatever may he
said of her discretion, she is thought an any rite to be
correct in the main, and to have depicted stubborn like-
nesses of persons and coteries now existing in Calcutta,
Bombay, &c."—Morning Post.

Last week as a female residing at Defford, i❑
this coun•y, was stooping down in the garden gathering
potatoes, she was suddenly struck in the neck by a bullet,
which tore off part of her ear, and took a direction round
the back of her neck, ultimately lodging on the opposite
side, under the collar hone ! Had it entered her neck
within a quarter of an inch of the spot where it struck
her, death must have ensued. Though she is not out of
danger, hopes are entertained of her recovery. She is
the mother of eight children. On inquiry it has been
discovered that the shot was fired from a musket by a young
man named Ha wt. Err, who was firing at a mark.— Wor-
cester Journal.

BITE OF THE TONGUE,.--A young woman
was admitted into the Hotel Dieu li:st week, under the
care of M. BuEscurr, complaining of a severe wound
of the tongue. She lived, it appeared, with a man of a
violent and jealous disposition, with whom she had frequent
quarrels. In the midst of one of their family jars, the
man suddenly seemed app•ased, and offered to make it up
with a tender embi ace : the simpll girl had soon cause to
rue her consent, for the fellow seized her tongue between
his teeth, and nearly severed it in two ! The pieces of
the tongue were put together by sutures ; and the patient
was reprted to lie going on well in the course of a few
days. Wounds of the tongue get well without much dif-
ficulty. Besides the great number of vessels which the
organ possesses, and the vital activity with which it is
endowed, its surface is consuntly Moistened with saliva, a
liquid very proper for keeping the divided parts it) a state
favourable for cicatrisation,—ltredical Gazette.

The LORD MaYoß—Well, and how did you pro-
ceed when you came to London ! Thompson—l
went to Mr. Ady, but the moment he saw that my
face was black instead of white, he said, " Poo,
poo, you are not the man," and wouldn't have any
thing more to say to me.
Mr. Hobler—Did you pay him any money ?
Thompson—No, Sir, I paid nothing but the post-
age; I thought that the recommendation of an
Alderman was quite enough.
One of the principal officers informed the Lord
Mayor, that Ady, who was in the habit of looking
over names in the " Unclaimed Dividend" book in
the Bank, and against whom numerous complaints
had been made at the Mansion-house, had given the
reference to Alderman Copeland, not only because
such a reference would assist in the " humbug,"
but because the Alderman had sonic time ago used
very active arid honourable exertions to punish him
for the distress and annoyance occasioned by him to
several poor people.
Mr. nobler stated that Mr. Ady used formerly
to refer to Alderman Heygate for a similar reason ;
and that the Alderman's franks were frequently ex-
hausted by applications made to him from all quar-
ters, in consequence of Mr. Ady's communications.
The City Solicitor and Mr. Hobler were then
consulted by the Lord Mayor on the liability of
Mr. Ady, but the result was that the Lord Mayor
told the applicant he could have no redress. His
Lordship, however, gave him a letter of introduc-
tion to Mr. Pixie, the late Sheriff, a gentleman by
whose beneficence a Jkreat,, 4,the,,ttaringh.tPc
circumstances of the case, immediately gave the un-
fortunate black a passage back to his native land.
SHOCKING BRUTALITY.—A drover, named John
Collier, was charged with having used a sheep with
extreme cruelty.
An officer saw the defendant carrying a sheep on
his shoulders, and afterwards stick a knife in it, and
actually kill it. in the street.
A gentleman named Windsor said that before the
defendant teak the sheep on his shoulders, he acted
in the most brutal manner to the poor animal. The
sheep had been going along, but rather at a slower
pace than the rest of the flock, when the defendant
gave it a desperate blow with a thick stick, and
smashed the leg. The sheep of course dropped,
and then the defendant began to prick it in the body ;
but finding that it was wholly disabled, seized it by
the legs and threw it over his shoulders.
The drover's employer said that his servant had
acted from mere humanity.—(Loud laughter.) He
knew it was from nothing but kindness, "because,
as the sheep was tired, he took it upon his shoul-
ders for to make the passage easy."
The defendant—l assure you, my Lord, that
ere gentleman has told you a lie. You see, my Lord,
the sheep, as he goed along you'd insist upon walking
upon the railings, so he slips his foot, and he cracks
it, and that wan't none of my fault, so I tuck him up
and carried him.

The LORD MAYOR—I shall fine you to the
utmost. I see a good many of your brother savages
here waiting to hear the result of this, and I advise
them to take warning.
The defendant was then fined 209. and costa.
B 0 W-STREET.

DANGEROUS JOKE.—Joseph Lloyd,Thomas chan-
dler, and James Green, who stand charged with
having uttered a forged cheque for 150/., purporting
to be drawn by a person named alley upon Messrs.
Coutts and Co., the bankers, in the Strand, were
yesterday again put to the bar along with a fourth
man named Bale, who had been apprehended since
the former examination.

Lloyd, who is a hair-dresser, living in Bell-street,
Edgware-road, presented the cheque for payment,
and Green and Chandler were subsequently taken
up, upon (heir own confession, of having been privy
to the transaction. Bale wa; arrested on Saturday
under the following circumstances:—
On Saturday, Robinson, the officer, in company
with Mr. Bush, the solicitor for Messrs. Coutts and
Co., went to a beer-shop in Stingo-lane, Padding-
ton, for the purpose of endeavouring to make some
discovery respecting the origin of the checque.When
Robinson went into the house, he, from some in-
formation which he had received, called out a young
man named .lephtha Lloyd, who was seated there.
Upon corning out, Mr. Bush asked him if he could
give hint any information respecting a cheque for
1501., which had been presented at the banking-
house of Messrs. Coutts and Co. ? He said lie
could ; and stated, that some days before, having
an old cheque-book of Messrs. Coutts and Co. in
164 possession, he produced it in the presence of a
young man named Bale, who took it to a desk, and
wrote something upon one of the cheques.
He (Lloyd) then went into the brewbouse, at
the back of the premises, when Bale coming to
him, and presenting to him the cheque, which he
had filled up, and which was made payable to Mr.
.lephtha Lloyd, he said, " Here Lloyd, here is some
money for you." His own name, Bale, was signed
to it; but he afterwards added the letter y, thus
making it Bliley. This cheque they mutually agreed
to di-op in the street, for the sake of a lark, and ac-
cordingly dropped it near to the door of the pri-
soner Joseph Lloyd, and this was all he knew of
the case. Bale accidentally came in at the moment
and confirmed Lloyd's statement, upon which Ro-
binson took him into custody. Jephtha Lloyd yes-
terday attended for the purpose of giving evidence
to these facts, when Mr. INlinshull, being apprised
of the part which he had taken in the transaction,
desired him to be put to the bar with the other pri-
soners, not a ►ittle to his consternation.

Mr. Isaacs, the attorney on the part of Jephtha
Lloyd and Bale, asked Mr. Bush, the attorm y for
the prosecut►on, whether there was any such firm in
existence as Messrs. Thomas Courts and Co., the