The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-02 00:00:00

the young—" The Band of Hope"—and most will
agree that for that age such a society may be a great
blessing.

Mr. SPURGEON'S lecture was, as our readers
will doubtless see for themselves, on the Gorilla
and his country ; the accessories were all in keep-
ing. The borough member, himself such a tra-
veller, Mr. LAYARD, was his chairman. A huge
gorilla stood on the table, the orchestra con-
sisted of the children of the Band of Hope,
and dissolving views of the country wound up
all. Of the amusement furnished our report
leaves no doubt. The lecturer was evidently in
his element. Indeed it is quite evident that Mr.
SPURGEON is one of nature's genial souls
—not made for an ascetic. His sympathies
with every :new position are almost instan-
taneous. He was as much at home with the Gorilla,
with an audience come for entertainment, and
with the scenes and folk of Central Africa, as he is
with a congregation on Sunday. In deed M. CHAILLU
thanked Mr. SPURGEON for the way in which he
had brought African life so vividly before the
meeting, " In fact he himself felt as if he knew
more about it than before." Such is the prero-
gative of naturally quick sympathies and descrip-
tive genius, and this is one—and one not to be
acquired by any study—of the great elements of
Mr. SPURGEON'S popularity.

Our readers will see that, after a close perusal of
the Book for the special purpose of forming his own
judgment, Mr. SPURGEON gives his decided verdict
for the truthfulness of M: Du CHAILLU. Mr. S.
has been, doubtless, accustomed to notice the appa-
rent discrepancies of the Gospel narratives, and to
3..417 Lpav7it3v.. vvu 1.1144
nothing like imposture in their getting up. Im-
postors do not make mistakes which a child can
detect. "He took up the book and looked
first at the pictures—children always did.
After reading the letterpress, he said to himself
that those pictures were the ruin of the book, be-
cause, although very well done, they were not cor-
rect. Having pointed out various important and
humorous discrepancies between the illustrations
and the printed matter, the lecturer said that if the
man was an imposter he would first have looked to
his pictures, because such an individual would not
have left a hole big enough for a mouse to have
crept through." We must say that the application
of so well known a principle is perfectly fair in this
case ; and as a juryman, to decide not from mechani-
cal comparison, but from the general impression left
by a narrative, of its fidelity to fact, there are not
many men better qualified than our shrewdly-ob-
servant and vivacious•minded lecturer.

We cordially wish the reverend gentleman success
in his new vocation; and we are quite confident
that if health and strength hold out, he will be a
public benefactor, by adding to his other labours
that of furnishing sober but thorough entertain-
ment for the million.

What NAPOLEON 111. is reported to have said
the other day in regard to the Roman Question,
may be applied also with peculiar force to the
Polish Question. It was little more than the echo
of a remark made originally in 1797 by the Founder

of his MAJESTY'S dynasty. " The Pear is not yet

ripe," said the First NAPOLEON. " The Pear is so
ripe that it will fall of itself," said the Third NAPO-
LEON. And that remark—is it not directly ap-
plicable to the Question of Polish Independence. It
is understood to be 80 applicable by the Polish
people themselves that they are designedly holding
their hands, as it were—they are almost, we might
say, holding their very breath—simply waiting
for the dropping of the pear now pendent, mellow
to its very core, upon the bough. For there is as
surely a political law of gravitation to bring down
the ripe pear when it is ripe, as there is that grand
natural or physical law of gravitation which was
discovered by the dropping of the rip° apFle in biz.
ISAAC NEWTON'S garden-orchard. And in the
mere fact of this universal expectancy throughout
Poland there is assuredly a peculiar significance.
Among the most warlike races of Europe the Poles
stand:forth in many respects conspicuous and pre-
eminent. The greatest of modern conquerors de-
clared them to be "the people who most rapidly
become soldiers." And he had certainly by his
immense experience acquired the right to express
an opinion of that kind—he who had first of all
contended with so many different races upon the
field of battle, and who had afterwards martialled
so many different races under his own banners.
The History of Poland, in truth, in many of its
pages, is at once about the most warlike and heroic
among the annals of the various kingdoms of
Christendom. Under SOBIESKI, her warriors were
the champions and defenders of the threatened
liberties of Europe ; and it must ever remain among
the most glorious recollections of the prowess of
the human race, that in 1683 under the walls of
Vienna the Polish warriors, led by their hero-king
SOBIESKI, swept bask the legions of the Turk—not
only preserving Austria to LEOPOLD, but all
Western Europe to Christianity. Again—coming
down even through all the terrible misfortunes in-
cident to Poland, coming down even to our time, to
the very commencement of this nineteenth century,
we find the Poles faithful, in the midst of all their
sufferings, in spite of their reiterated and seemingly
irreparable partition, faithful through every ima-
ginable obstacle to their heroic and martial antece-
dents. Insomuch that NAPOLEON the Great is
constrained to speak of them as we intimated; he is
compelled to characterize them as the people who
the most rapidly become soldiers. He might have
said more than that of them, however. He might
have added in their regard that as the Poles become
soldiers the most rapidly, so they remain soldiers
the longest ! They are the most faithful to the
sceptre of the sword : they are the most loyal in their
military allegiance. Among all the motley races
that fought under NAPOLEON'S banners they were
about the most heroic—they were, without a doubt
of it, the faithfullest. History has told what glory
the Polish Legions won for themselves during
the long wars of Spain and of Italy.
Who does not recollect how resplendently
they were led onwards by the matchless
valour of PONIATOWSKI, in the stupendous army of
the modern SISOSTRIS, across the Bug, across the
Dneiper, through the victories of Smolinsko, and
the Moskowa—back from the ashes of Moscow,
through all the horrors of the Bersiva, remaining
still faithful to the falling fortunes of NAPOLEON
upon the field of Leipsic, in the midst of the
general defection of the Allies of the Great EM-
PEROR. Yet it is this warlike race, this
Polish people that becomes an army the most
rapidly and remains an army the longest, that
twa n
innogw
arne caog ttni
tins ed,e ct lahei nn
most
piatesi
firights byt a
smwaoi
rnd-
drawn, not a-blade sharpened. The whole mul-
prayer and expectation. And
titude simply in
this purely because they are one and all conscious
that the hour of their delivery is close at hand—
that nothing can retard its coming--that the pear
is so ripe that it must fall by the simple force of
political gravitation.

Hence in fact—because lie also recognised this—
the late Prince ADAM CZARTORYSKT, left as his last

advice to his compatriots the one earnest recom-
mendation—" 'Wait." Their rational motto in

truth at this epoch might not inaptly be that verse
of the American Poet LONGFELLOW—
" Learn to labour—and to wait."

Particularly remembering the impressive reversal
of the Count DE MONTALEMBERT of the old monkish
I saying, Laborari est Orare, its reversal thus
Orare est Laborari ! Accepting the truth of which
Latin dictum—as every Christian heart surely may
do, in the presence of the Eternities—it may most
certainly be:said now of Poland that she has already
—" Learnt to labour—and to wait." And her pa-
tience in this is now securely earning its recom-
pence. She will not have to wait much longer thus.
Italy, alone, within the last two years has furnished
her with a magnificent augury of success. Hun-
gary has every reasonable prospect of doing the
same. It is the Age of reviving Nationalities. And
—the fact being thus, visibly and undeniably—
Poland is secure of extorting from Europe the ex-
piation of her wrongs and the restoration of her
Rights among the great races of Christendom.

The Irish are retrieving in America their Euro-
pean Bull's Run of the Italian campaign. They are
serving Mr. LINCOLN far better than they served
his Holiness the POPE. They seem to think, indeed,
that there are two sides to the question ; for " down
South," they enlist for the Southerns ; while in
the North they form some of the best Federal regi-
ments. We felt a kind of pride in our Irishmen,
when we read in the telegram, in the accounts from
Missouri, that " the Confederates were scattered by
a bayonet charge of the Irish, Brigade." The num-
bers, too, opposed to them were far greater in pro-
portion than those to whom the Irishmen at Spoleto
nest the pints of thoir bayonets, but
their whole skins, on the 1 8_1) 3_o wnd Lou.-axcadc. rnrk
dition that their skins remained whole, and were
sent whole to the Green Isle again. Are the men
better, or do they like their cause and their pay
better ? Both, we believe, have much to do with
the explanation. We have certainly never found
our own Irish soldiers, well fed, well led, and well
cared for, inferior to any of our soldiers. Dr.
CULLEN'S heroes, saints, and unscathed martyrs
were, doubtless, men out of condition, morally and
physically, as much as they were out-at-elbows.
But an Irishman on United States fare, and fighting
as he considers it, for—dearr libberrty—not to keep
down his fellow Catholics, is again worthy the
name of an Irish soldier.

The Semaphore of Marseilles announces the
arrival in that city on Saturday of Sir Henry Bulwer,
English Ambassador at Constantinople.
The Siamese Ambassadors arrived on the 28th
ult. at Marseilles, to take their departure from France.
They embarked on Saturday on board the steam frigate
Asmodee, on their return home, via Alexandria and Suez.
THE PUNJAUB RAILWAY.—Mr. W. P. Andrews,
the Chairman, says, " that the Punjaub Railwaywill be com-
pleted and stocked for £B,OOO per mile, which will be about
£250 per mile less than the average cost of American lines."
Three seamen belonging to the sohooner Francis,
of Belfast, at present lying at Kigstown, retired on Sun-
day night to the forecastle, which they closed down. On
turning into bed, they neglected, to put out the fire. The
place soon became filled with smoke, which had no means
of egress, on on the hatch being opened on Monday morn-
ing one of the men was found dead, while the two others,
who remain in a precarious state, were taken out in a state
of insensibility.

THE LATE COLLISION ON THE NORTH LONDON
RATLWAY.—Yesterday morning Mr. Humphreys opened
an inquiry at the Wellington public-house, University..
street, St. Pancras, touching the death of Sarah Essex,
aged 37, one of the unfortunate sufferers by the late acci-
dent at the Kentish-town Junction of the North London
Railway. The jury, after half an hour's consultation, re-
turned a verdict of " Manslaughter against the signalman,
Rayner."
FIRES AT SHOREDITCH AND CAMBERWELL.—
Yesterday morning two alarming and destructives fires
happened—one in Shoreditch and the other at Camberwell.
The first fire occurred in the premises belonging to Mr. T.
Smith, a coffee-house keeper, High-street, Shoreditch; and
the other fire took place in the premises of Mr. A. L. New-
man, rag merchant, termed the Grand Surrey Canal Works,
Albany-road, Camberwell. Unfortunately neither the
building nor contents were insured.
The liabilities of Mr. Nicholson, the broker who

failed on Monday hi the Stock Exchange, are stated to be
about £lO,OOO, to meet which there appear to be no assets
whatever. It is stated also that he is under equally large
liabilities to persons unconnected with the Stock Exchange.
The South-Eastern Railway Company's new
boat, the Victoria, has been placed on the Folkestone and
Boulogne line, and is now performing her part of the day
tidal service. She accomplished the voyage on Monday
last from Boulogne to Folkestone in an hour and 27 minutes.

PILCHARD FISHERY.—On Saturday last 2,800
hogsheads were caught at St. Ives, and 220 hogsheads off
Gurnard's Head. The whole are valued at not less than
£9,ooo—that is, at £3 per hogshead. The Gurnard's Head
boats at once sold £BO worth to the country buyers, which
is considered a great boon just now.

CHILD MURDER AT TOTTENHAM.—Yesterday
morning Mr. H. Raffles Walihew, the deputy corner for
East Middlesex, held an inquiry at the Eagle, Chestnut-
road, Tottenham, on view of the body of a male child,
unknown. It appeared that a man named Wm. Day was
in company with another on their way to Mr. King's, the
agent of Northumberland Park, on Friday morning last,
when the former observed a bundle lying in the hedge. He
drew it out, and the cloth came off, when to his astonish-
ment he found it was the body of an infant. His companion
suggested that they should take it to the station, which
they did accordingly. John Turner, 82 N, took possession
of the body, which was wrapped in a blue and white printed
shawl. Dr. William Hall was sent for immediately. He
found the umbilical cord tied. It had been cut. He be-
lieved the child was born alive, and that it was a full-timed
child. There was evidence of its being forcibly compressed
at the nose. From a mark on its lip and the corresponding
jaw, he believed it died by the hand, and that two persons
had been concerned in it. The deputy coroner suggested
that the parish authorities should offer a reward for the
discovery of the guilty parties, as this was clearly a case of
wilful murder ; and the crime of infanticide, from some
cause or other, was largely on the increase. The jury re-
turned a verdict of wilful murder against some person or
persons unknown.

BREACH OF PROMISE OF MARRIAGE.—On Mon-
day a jury was sworn at York Castle, before the Under-
Sheriff for the county, to assess the damages in a breach of
promise of marriage, the damages being laid at £5OO. Mr.
Smith was counsel for the plaintiff, Mrs. Margaret Lidney,
and Mr. Shaw for the defendant, Mr. Robert Tait. The
latter had carried on the business of a clogger at Skipton,
and having been placed in the position of a widower, he was
smitten with the charms of the plaintiff, who had been
deprived of her husband, and left to the charge of an
only son. She was a kind of overlooker, or tutoress,
in a cotton factory, and the attachment being re-
ciprocal, the defendant had promised that they should
be married. In February last, however, he ceased keeping
company with the plaintiff, who in August presented him
with a living pledge, which it appeared had entailed upon
him a weekly payment of 2s. He had since married a Mrs.
Phillips. An action was brought at the last assizes, but the
defendant withdrew his plea, and the question now was,
what was the amount to which the plaintiff was entitled.
It was shown that the defendant had made an assignment,
and it was stated that he was now working as a jowneyman.
at Colne. It was submitted by his counsel that the plaintiff
had suffered no loss, that she ought to have been satisfied
with the order of affiliation, and that the defendant was not
in a condition to pay one farthing. The Under-Sheriff
summed up, and the jury awarded £BO to the plaintiff.
SALE OF THE AMERICAN CIRCUS STUD.—The
whole of the horses and equestrian properties belonging to
Messrs. Howes and Cushing, the proprietors of the well-
known American Circus, were yesterday brought to the
hammer, at their repository in Barbican. The first lots
that were put up consisted of horses that had principally
been used in the baggage-waggons, and they fetched very
good prices. A very good-looking black mare, Fanny,
fetched twenty-four guineas, and a cream-coloured mare
Little Siss, was knocked down at twenty-six guineas,
Among the baggage horses, Colonel fetched thirty guineas,
Jack thirty-eight guineas, and Wallace, a very good-look-
ing cream gelding, was bought by Jem Myers for forty-
four guineas. The ring stock was next brought forward,
and they also fetched very good prices. A cream gelding,
Eagle, was bought by Tom Sayers for twenty-five guineas,
and a dam gelding, Prince, a good bare-back horse, fetched
thirty-seven guineas. A skewbald mare, Lily, a single-act
horse, fetched forty guineas: and a very handsome and
clever cream mare, Big Siss, was bought by Jom Myers
for sixty guineas. A cream mare, Eliza, a single-act horse,
shiae
and
d i n
mtrh. e
pi .T Smith
m i
fetched 50 guineas. Among the following lots were the
boughtt S a d
two " extraordinary performing mules," as they were de
cr imb •
catalogue,thPaentdo Barney,riaity Tharn.dlBtohgney
guineas
b the horses
Tom
hadye rr
been , after .
After h
disposed of, t competitioncar carriages
iagesw
betweenere
put up for auction.
The Riga and Dunaberg Railway was opened
throughout for traffic on Tuesday last,