The Sun.
London, England, 1832-08-27 00:00:00

CORPORATION FREAKS.

(From the Kent Herald. )
Tuesday a Court of Burghmote was held in this
city for the despatch of business; and, much to the
surprise of the whole Court, Alderman Browne
introduced a subject which threw the members into
the greatest possible confusion. He prefaced his
motion by saying he anticipated the greatest unani-
mity on the occasion, as it would in some degree
remove the great disgrace which had fallen on the
city of Canterbury. The Alderman concluded by
reading an address to the Archbishop of Canterbury,
congratulating him on his appointment to the head
of the Church, which took place five years ago, and
expressive of the regret felt by the members of the
Corporation on the hissing and hooting which his
Grace experienced on his visitation. This address,
which was couched in violent languago, and redo-
lent throughout of party spirit, was seconded by
Mr. Pout, supported by Mr. S:toulion and Mr. E.
Kingsford. It was strongly opposed by the Mayor
and Alderman H. Cooper, who deprecated the mea-
sure as brought forward from party considerations,
and as tending to keep alive a spirit of animosity
and discord amongst the inhabitants, besides attacl -
ing a considerably greater degree of consequence to
that which had occurred than was necessary. It
was also opposed on the ground that it might tend
to prejudice the cause of those who were now under
recognizAnce to answer for their conduct at the ses-
sions. During a very angry discussion,which lasted a
considerable period, the Alderman was repeatedly ad-
vised,even by some of those who supported the mea-
sure,to withdraw the address, as from the feeling of the
Court it was calculated to cause the most painful re-
flections in the mind of the Archbishop, who had
lately expressed himself so well satisfied at his re.
ception. The Alderman, however, advised by some
who may well feel ashamed of their conduct in this
affray, obstinately persevered in taking the sense of
the Court by a division, when the whole he could
muster from 30 members present was 16—there be-
ing for the motion 16, against it 12—and 2 would
nor vote on this question.

Unwisely have-the Tories acted in bringing thi•
unpopular topic once more before the public; and a
very equivocal compliment they have concocted for
the Archbishop a Corporation address from a
Court almost equally divided against him, and with-
out the sanction of its head, the Mayor, and of its
two most important functionaries, the Sheriff and
Town Clerk. ludeed, these gentlemen, in the most
expressive terms, declared their disapprobation of
the proceedings, and the Mayor concluded a pro-
tracted conversation in the following emphatic man-
ner :—" I beg most solemnly to protest against my
name being included in the address as an official do-
cument." It surely cannot, in common decency, be
presented. These exploits, added to several recent
exposures, have contributed thoroughly to disgust
the citizens with the corporation; the inherent cor-
ruption of all self-elected bodies is now very gene.
rally admitted, and we know that many who not
long since held a different opinion, concur with us
now in thinking that the sooner this Court is abo-
lished, the better for the public interests.

RECOLLECTIONS OF LORD BYRON.

(From the Court Journal.)
(BY A FOREIGNER OF DISTINCTION.)

In 1817, Monsignor Ludovic de B ern?, for-
merly head Almoner to the (then) King of
Italy, Napoleon, was accustomed to invite toge-
ther, in Milan, in his box at La Scala, a society
of twelve or fifteen young persons of his more
immediate acquaintance.
One evening a young man entered the box,
he was short in stature, and had the finest eyes
I ever beheld : as he came forward to the front
of the box, we remarked that he limped a little.
Monsignor de Breme said,—Gentlemen, Lord
Byron, and then he recited our names to his
Lordship. Having had some slight experience
of the English character, always retiring from
the appearance of being sought after, we took
good care not to speak first to Lord Byron, nor
even to look at him. There was in the box a
very tall and handsome man, whose manner
s?emed to betoken a soldier. Lord Byron
seemed to depart, -on his account, somewhat
from his usual reserve. At subsequent meetings
we thought we could perceive that Lord Byron,
whilst he was an enthusiastic admirer, was, at
the same time, jealous of Napoleon Bonaparte.
He more than once remarked, " We are the
only public characters, he and myself, who sign
our names N. B." (Noel Byron.) The evening
on which his Lordship joined our party, he had
been given to understand that he would meet, in
our box, an officer who had made the campaign
of Moscow. In 1817 that event still retained
Theto a
c nextkire s day, a
iyn,
eo Lord
the charm of novelty. Lord Byron took our
friend with the mustachios and military air for
the
Byronwtathe
the
fugitive
edm
fr oem
the honour
objecto
of commencement
the
greatestof our friendship.esteem
ad
He was
br ees peeocnt
eteo a a
edl of u s I
that
one.
evening,t stmu nor,o n
haotw eve
ques-
tion I do not recollect, he gave us incidentally
to understand that he was entitled to carry the
point with a high hand, seeing that he was a
nobleman, and a peer to boot. This little sally
of impertinence did not escape rebuke. Mon-
signor de Breme immediately quoted the anec-
dote told of the Marechal de Castries, who, iiri-
sence to the arguments of d'Alembert, exclaimed,
patient at the deference once shown in his pre-
' A pretty fellow, that, to attempt to reason—
a man who has scarcely a thousand crowns
a-year.' Some of our friends, it must be con-
fessed, thought Lord Byron somewhat haughty,
eccentric in manner, and, indeed, a little timbre.
It was amusing enough to hear him, one even-
ing, defending himself, with great warmth,
against what he termed an attack upon his cha-
racter, made by some journal or other, wherein
he was compared to Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
He worked himself up to a violent passion, in-
sisting that there was nowhere the slightest re-
semblance between them. The true reason for
all this bluster, a reason which he took good
care not even to hint at, was, that Jean-Jacques
had once been a servant. The mind of Lord
tsßiti
ryeor
toligndleyrae
as esomfh bihsl
estiehnl a of Rousseau
being constantly
aenodasotfantye effectoccupied n nothing
ip rodproduced
est
dr)
by him on others. Hence his marked dislike to
Shakspeare : sometimes, even, I am tempted to
believe that he despised him, for having, in the
Noble Bard's opinion, condescended to meta-
morphose himself into Shylock, the vile Jew of
Venice, or into Jack Cade, the vulgar de-
magogue.
Lord Byron piqued himself on his conquests
with the women. His vanity on this head was
egregious, but harmless. At Milan, and espe-
cially at Venice, some months afterwards, his
fine eyes and hair, and the eclat of his name,
had their effect on several very young, noble,
and certainly very pretty women. One of them,
to my knowledge, travelled upwards of one
hundred miles to be present at a masked ball to
which Byron had been invited. He was by some
means aware of it, and either from pride or timi-
dity, took not the least notice of her. " He's a
clown,' she exclaimed, on her return home.
Passion had certainly its share in the composi-
tion of his soul ; but owing to the effect pro-
duced on him by all the affectation and littlenesses
of civilization, his attentions were directed exclu-
sively to that kind of woman, even in good so-

ciety, in whose eyes the wealth and rank of an
admirer form his greatest merit.
Not contented with endeavouring to be
thought the handsomest man in England, Lord
Byron had serious pretensions to being the best
dressed and most fashionable. When in his
character of a Dandy, it was with a deep thrill
of admiration and of jealousy that he pronounced
the name of Brumtnel. " That man," he would
frequently remark, " was the arbiter elegantia-
rum, the monarch of the fashionable world, from
1796 to 1810." On these occasions, when
personal beauty was not the theme of his dis-
course, he would contrive, very adroitly, to turn
the conversation to the subject of high birth.
When the folly of birth or of personal appear-
ance was not dominant with Lord Byron, he
would suddenly reassume his character of a great
poet and man of sense.