The Sun.
London, England, 1832-07-09 00:00:00

LITERATLM F.

GARDNER'S CABINET LIBRARY; No,IX.
LONDON, 1832.

The first volume of the Life, &c. of the Duke
of Wellington (the present number concludes
the second) was but a so-so affair, dealing too
much in sentimental commonplaces—as we
observed at the time ; but the present is every
way improved, and, so far as we can perceive, is
penned in a spirit of very creditable impartiality.

GARDNER'S CY CLOPiEDIA, No. XXXII.
LONDON, 1832,

Contains the third volume of the " History
of Spain and Portugal," a work which we have
noticed in the favourable terms it deserved, and
which equally apply to this last and concluding
volume. The history is full of facts, and the
various characters who figure in it are well and
truly portrayed.

EXECUTION OF SMITHERS.-(TIIIS

MORNING.)

This morning the Old Bailey was thronged from an
early hour by persons of all classes, to witness the execu-
tion of Smithers for the murder of Miss Twamley. The
miserable culprit had conducted himself since his condem-
nation on Saturday morning with surprising fortitude,
and appeared perfectly prepared for the dreadful dodo he
was about to meet. On Saturday afternoon Mrs. Stni=
thers, with a little girl said to be a child of her former
husband, presented herself at the prison, and with tears
requested leave to see her unhappy husband. Her request
was immediately granted, and she was conducted by the
turnkey to the condemned cell wherein her husband was
incarcerated. He was, according to custom, permitted to
go into the convalescent room, where the interview took
place. Mrs. Smithers at first appeared terribly af-
fected, but a flood of tears gave some relief to het
distressed feelings. Smithers smiled at bet, arid
desired her to bear up against her trouble, as•
as well as she could, for he felt perfectly happy and re'
signed to his fate. The interview lasted about twenty
minutes, but it was divested of that harrowing effect,
which, upon almost every similar occasion, is produced on
the feelings of those whose duty leads them to he witnesses.
Yesterday the miserable criminal conducted himself with
great fortitude, and from his general demeanour it was an-
ticipated that he had a due sense of his awful situation,
and that he was penitent for the crime for which be h ,c 1
been condemned. During the day he wrote a ►etter to his
wife (in which, it is believed, he has made an admission of
his guilt), and enclosed it to the lady of Mr. Sheriff Pirie,
requesting her to hand it over to her after his death. This
letter he delivered to Mr. Wontner, who kindly undertook
to see it delivered.

Last night he became communicative, and in conversa-
tion said "he thought it very hard that he should be
hanged for the murder of Miss Twainley, and that he
should be selected to be the first to suffer under
Mr. Peel's new Act; " thereby tacitly acknowledging
that be set fire to the house. Certain it is, he all along
entertained a hope that he would have been tried for the
arson.

At about ten minutes before eight o'clock, the two Sbe-,
riffs and their Under-Sheriffs arrived at the prison, and
precisely as the clock struck, the culprit was brought
forth from the cells. As he entered the press-room, he
smiled at all around him, and firmly stepped up to the
officers of justice, to undergo the ordeal of pinioning.
Putting on a pair of black gloves, Smithers submitted his
wrists to be tied, and also his elbows. Mr. Under-She-
riff Wood spoke kindly to him, and told him that these
preparations were essentially necessary—indeed, they were
to render his awful situation as comfortable as possible.
The miserable man then raised his eyes, and replied,
Ah, very well, Sir ;" and then turning round to Mr.
Wontner, shook hands with him, and bade him good bye,
at the same time enjoining him to attend to the letter to
his wife.

The procession then moved on towards the scaffold, in
perfect stillness, there being no burial service or bell..
tolling. On reaching the steps leading to the gallows, the
culprit ascended them with the same degree of firmness
which had marked his demeanour throughout the trying
ordeal. He was placed under the beam by the executioner,
where he stood perfectly unmoved till the cap was drawn
over his eves, when his frame began to totter, and, by the
convulsive movement of his lips, he appeared to be suffer-
ing much mental agony. After every preliminary was
arranged the fatal bolt was drawn, the drop fell, and the
criminal appeared to be dead in an instant.
Some female in the crowd gave a convulsive shriek, and
many said it was the wife of the miserable man, but upon
inquiry we ascertained such was not the fact—but the
female, who was so affected, was a total stranger to him.
At about nine o'clock the body was cut down and de-
livered over to the surgeons for dissection. pursuant to the
remaining part of the sentence.

SUDDEN DEATII.—Died this afternoon, in
an apoplectic lit, Lieut.-Colonel W3l. FENvvicx, aged 55,
K.C.B. &c., Lieutenant-Governor of Pendennis Castle.—
This gentleman was much respected in this neighbourhood
for amiable and excellent character; he entered the army
at the early agt of sixteen years, and distinguished himself
greatly in the whole of the Peninsular war.—Falmouth
Packet of Saturday.
" Captain Skinner's Excursions in India, in-
cluding an account of a voyage of 1,200 miles up the
Ganges, of a visit to Merut, Cawnpore, the city of Delhi,
and other places in Hindostan, and of a walk over the
Himalaya Mountains to the Sources of the Jumna and
the Ganges, will be published on Saturday next. Orders
should, therefore, be given immediately to insure early
copies of the work.
ABSENCE OF MIND.—Two reviews of sol-
diers, which took place lately in Paris, have jfroduced
two instances of absence of mind rather striking. At one,
a Colonel, who was exciting his regiments in favour of
Lours-Pr-m.lFr, had fleur-de-lis on his buttons. At the
other, a Lieutenant-Colonel struck up,—" Vive le Due.
d'BoßnEaux," instead of " Vive le Duc d'OaLEANs.—
The Parrot.

We have been informed by a respectable cor-
respondent that bonfires blazed on Friday night on the
Ballyhooly mountains, and the mountains that lie on the
borders of the counties of Cork, Limerick, and Water-
ford ; and what was not a little singular, al tending to
show the concert that existed between the parties,all the tires
for a distance of several miles were lighted within eight
minutes of each other ! Of course we are not in igno-
rance of the motive for such rejoicing, but of this we are
confident, it cannot be for any lawful purpose. —Cork
Constitution.

.
An American, expatiating on the merits of a
certain " severe colt," belonging to that " 'cute Yankee,
Uncle Ben," relates, as a proof the animal's agility, that
it was once chased several times round the circuit of a
meadow by a flash of lightning, and that the lightning
could not " come within a rod of the colt."—Atheneum.
RE-APPEARANCE OF THE SEA-SERPENT.
Captain FERGUSON, of the sloop Meriaian, from Charles.
ton, declares that he saw the sea-serpent on the 7th inst.
off the Capes of Virginia, and represents the appearance of
the monster as hitherto described.—New York Evening
Post.

The cholera is still on the increase in Dublin.
Several respectable citizens have fallen victims to the ma-
lady within the last two days. The epidemic has at length
appeared in Waterford.
A report is revived, which was very current
a fortnight since, that the dissolution is not so near as has
been generally imagined, but the present Parliament will
be prorogued and meet again in November. Certain de-
fects in the Reform Acts are given, among others, as a
reason for this.

The lead mines of the t\larquess of WEST-
MINSTER, in Flintshire, produce his Lordship a revenue o
about fifteen thousand pounds per annum. The annual
rental of this property has much decreased during the last
few yeat s.
TIIE IRISH GENTRY AND THE IRISH
POOR.—The classes of society in Ireland are ill arranged.
There is a wide hiatus between the gentry and the labour-
ing class; for the class of small farmers, which consti.ute
the tenantry of the country, cannot be ranktd much above
those who labour for their daily subsistence. The class of
farmers in England and Scotland, which forms the pride
and the strength of Britain, is unknown in Ireland. Until
such a class is created by some means, there is little hope
of the improvement in agriculture of that country. As
society is there at present constituted, the nobility and
gentry can live in apparent splendour, while their te-
nantry, the farmers, as they are called, eke out an existence
more pitiable than the class who labour for hire. A
bond of sympathy is awanting betwixt them, and, un•il the
connecting link is supplied,
.a recyrocal dt sire of mutual
support, arising from an assimilation ofinterest, cannot be
expected to exist among so widely separated classes of com-
munity.— Quatferk Journal of Ayrieul lure.