The Sun.
London, England, 1835-07-03 00:00:00

NEWSPAPER STAMPS.

" Cunningham and Salmon, Printers, Crown-court, No. 72,
Fleet-street."

DEATH OF MR. MATHEWS.

(From the Plymouth Journal of Thursday.)
The Yorick of the stage is dead ! He, whose " jests were
infinite," whose " fancy was most excellent," and (we shall
add) whose satire was most wholesome ; whose " flashes of
merriment" not only "set the table in a roar," but carried with
them a moral essence ; whose portraitures, " though coloured
by mirth, were designed by benevolence," and whose public
celebrity was not more distinguished than his intrinsic sub-
stance—Charles Mathews is no more I He died upon his
birth day :—so did Shakspeare. There is something pleasing
in such coincidences. The 28th day of June was proud of the
being to which it had given life, and claimed the privilege of
" lighting him to dusty death."
We have several times reported the continued sufferings of
Mr. Mathews during his stay at Mr. Franklyn's, in the Victu-
alling-yard, and since his removal to Lockyer-street, Plymouth.
The nature of his disease (water on the chest) was such as
to allow little or no hope beyond the mere protraction of his
last hour, as we understand that an examination has fully con-
firmed the opinions entertained by Sir Giorge Magrath and
Mr. Harris, whose attention to their celebrated patient has
been constant, and whose professional character has been not
less honourably manifested than their faithful attachment as
friends of the deceased. Mr. Mathews had entered upon his
60th year only half an hour before his death, which took place
between twelve and one o'clock in the night of Saturday last.
He will be interred in the Vestibule of St. Andrew's Church,
to-morrow morning (Friday), with such honour as can be'
shown him, by the attendance of public functionaries of the
thre • owns.
His symptoms, since his arrival at Plymouth, were as fol-
low :—Distress of breathing, without pain, especially on the
least exertion ; great irregularity in the action of the heart,
so that it was quite impossible to note the state of the pulse,
the pulsations being extremely irregular, and approaching
very nearly to a general fluttering—appetite impaired—great
drowsiness; he slept at first tranquilly, and with but little dis-
turbance at night—on turning in bed, he was obliged to
move slowly and cautiously ; his disease had now evi-
dently returned, so that the symptoms became daily more
aggravated—paroxysms of difficult breathing, with 'a dis-
tressing sense of suffocation, gradually assailed him—his
nights became disturbed and painful; he had severe nausea,
and loss of appetite, with an intolerable thirst. His suf-
ferings for upwards of three weeks, during which time
he was under the hospitable roof of J. - Franklyn, Esq.,
at the Victualling Office, were continuous and most alarm-
ing. He submitted to them with great courage, cheerful-
ness, and resignation ; at length some remission of the more
violent symptoms was obtained,- and he was enabled to remove
to Plymouth. His strength here visibly declined, notwith-
standing the pulsations of the heart had been reduced to a state
of regularity, and he suffered but comparatively little inconve-
nience from difficult respiration, except at intervals ; the lower
extremities, which had become much swollen, were greatly
reduced, and up to midnight on Saturday, excepting an easy
cough and a mucuous expectoration, he was comparatively in
a favourable state. Soon after midnight he was seized with a
severe spasmodic action about the heart, which very suddenly
put a period to his existence. He died on Sunday morning,
June 28thybetween twelve and one A.M., being the day of his
birth. Thus terminated the life of this truly eminent man, so
celebrated for delineating the men and manners of this and many
other countries, who laughed at our foibles, liberalized our preja-
dices, and awakened in us a sense of our national peculiarities : his
wonderful talents were so exercised as to enlarge our minds
and improve our understandings, whenever we had the good
sense to view his delineation of character with a philosophic
eye. He may be justly considered as the great Hogarth of his
age. The living portraits which he called into existence will
be remembered by those who were so fortunate as to have be-
held and studied them.
The following appearances presented themselves on exami-
nation of the body after death, which, for the sake of the ge-
neral reader, we give, without very strict adherence to Anato-
mical phraseology:_._.
On opening the cavities of the chest, they were found quite
full of water—the heart was extremely large, its muscular sub-
stance was generally dense and solid, and exhibited in some
places externally, a semi-cartilaginous appearance—the ventri-
cles and auricles were large and dilated, especially the former ;
on the right side—at the lower part of the right venticle,
where appeared a layer of some adventitious substance,
which seemed to have once been coagulated blood and lymph,
but which was now in a semi-organized state—on cutting into
the substance of the heart at its apex, immediately in the neigh-
bourhood of this deposit, there appeared a sort of striated
structure, as if the fleshy part of the heart had in that part un
dergone some change from previous inflammation ; this ap-
pearance gradually interlaced with the continuation and more
perfect portions of the fleshy columns and fibres ; and presented
a very distinctive trace of previously existing disease. The
valves about the entrance of the large vessels and auricles
were perfect, except that a very small osseous deposit was
found in one of the semilunar valves, at the root of the pulmo-
nary artery.

The lungs were generally dense, but crepitus in some parts;
and on being cut into, were somewhat of the character of the
spleen. The right lung was loaded with a sort of purulent
secretion, and from the general state of the lungs, respiration
must necessarily have been difficult. The viscera of the ab-
domen were for the most part sound and healthy, although the
liver was large and ponderous. The abdominal ring on the
right side was enormously dilated in consequence of an old
Hernia.

It will be in the recollection of many of our readers that
Mr. Mathews, about 18 years since, was throw# out of his
gig in the Haymarket, in company with the late Mr. Terry,
and contrary to the anticipation of some of the most eminent
men in London, has been lame ever since. Many conflicting
opinions appear to have arisen as to the cause of this lameness :
some persons considered it arose either from a total or partial
dislocation, in consequence of the great shortening and gene-
ral appearance of the limb. We believe that Sir A. Cooper,
Brodie, and Carpue all contended that no dislocation had oc-
curred. The result of this dissection has set the point at rest ;
the head of the thigh bone was found quite in its situation,
but had been obliquely fractured through its neck and head,
within the capsular ligament of the joint. Both the head of
the bone and the articulating cavity were rough and unequal :
the muscles of the hip bad greatly contracted, and the spine
in the regions of the loins curved forward in consequence of
his lameness.

THE TEA TRADE.—The following notice was
issued yesterday by the East India Company

" East India House July 1, 1835.
" The Court of Directors of the East India Company do hereby
give notice, that the undermentioned Teas, which are bought at
the Company's sale in March, 1835, and not paid for on the prompt
day, viz., 29th March, and the buyers of which have failed to make
the further deposit of 1/. on each chest, as required by the Court's
advertisement of the 22d May, will be again put up to sale without
any taxed price on Monday, the 27th of July, 1835—prompt the
30th October following, viz :—Of Bohea, 100,0001bs. ; Congou,
253,0001b5. ; Sonchong, I,ooolbs. ; Twankay, 116,0001b5. ; Hyson,
17,0001b5. Total, 487,0001b5."

The sales of free teas commenced on Wednesday, and were
continued yesterday. The total quantity declared amounted
to about 4,800 chests and packages, and in consequence of the
notice did not sell so well yesterday as on Wednesday.

(From the Morning Advertiser.)
We find the following in the columns of an Evening Con-
temporary, and-we reprint it for the benefit of the Chancellor
of the Exchequer. It will suggest to him, if we mistake not,
some change in the Taxes upon Knowledge, if not a total al-
teration of the system which has been acted upon so long and
so disgracefully by the Whig Government, which, when out
of power, was perpetually harping upon the necessity of abo-
lishing these Taxes; but after it attained it, never attempted
to lighten the burthen, even with its little finger:—or failing
such rational conviction, it may impress upon the Metropolitan
Journals the necessity of self-defence, by taking advantage of
the leniency of the Government, and appearing, like the in-
tended Journal alluded to in the following handbill, without
any stamp. In such a case the Government durst not prose-
cute, because it would find no Jury to convict ; and we have
no hesitation in putting the matter in this form, because we
have always been advocates for a reduction, at least, of the
Taxes in question, and merely call, in justice to ourselves, for
that protection to which we are entitled, but which we do not
receive. The following is the handbill alluded to. It may,
for all that we know, be a hoax ; but the fact of 200,000 un-
stamped Newspapers being sold in one week in the Metropolis
is capable of ample proof:—
" GREAT DAILY JOURNAL,
" Price only Three-pence.
" The press is the most powerful engine of civilization.
The Press must be free—the Press shall be free.'—Lord
BrQugham. _

" 'through the medium of the unstamped Weekly Press,
;he people are now intrepidly supplied with a considerable
portion of cheap intelligence. It is a positive fact, that up-
wards of 200,000 unstamped Newspapers are sold in this me-
tropolis every week, in triumphant defiance of the infamous
taxes on knowledge. The want of a cheap and good Daily
Journal has long been felt by a large class of the community.
Stimulated by the desire of affording the industrious classes
full and correct information every day on all subjects of inte-
rest ; and desirous of instructing—and thereby of improving__
the best portion of the people of England; anxious also to
show that it is possible to supply that great desideratum, a
really independent Daily Paper, a society of influential Gen-
tlemen, among whom are several leading Members of Par-
liament, have determined to commence, on the Ist of August
next, the pl,lication of a Newspaper, to be called
t, THE DAILY NATIONAL GAZETTE.
" Sold at the price Z*4 three-pence only. This journal will
be of the same size as the 211
orning Herald. The best reports
of debates in Parliament, of tri.7.ls in Courts of Law and Jus-
tice, of police investigations--indeed, of all occurrences of in.
terest abroad and at- home—will be given. The Editorial
Department will be under the management of a gentleman of
high legal eminence and literary talent • and, as a feature of
public interest, the 'Daily. National Gazette' will contain all
the leading articles of the Times, Morning Chronicle, Morning
Herald, &c. of the same day, with appropriate comments—yet
will this great Journal_ be published within two hours of the
earliest publication of the Times.
" The 'Daily National Gazette' will be, in every sense of
the word, the People's Paper. To their interests alone will it
be directed, regardless of the party struggles and selfish quar-
rels of Whigs and Tories.
" VOX POPULI, VOX DEI
" The place of publication will be duly announced to the
Newsvenders, who are to receive Advertisements, on which a
liberal commission will be allowed.