The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-01 00:00:00

3 b

SPORTING NOTE'S.

" ME MS. ON THE METROP."
Should the weather prove propitious, a pleasant clay's
sport, at least," may be anticipated, however, on the
breezy downs at Epsom.. The programme contains
seven items, and every stake is likely to command a nu-
merically strong field. Both Metropolitan, and City,
and Suburban Handicap were, until - within the last
three or four days, " dead letters': in the turf market,
and even now they do not seem likely to afford those
delights of book makere—" good betting races." Scar-
cely a dozen horses altogether have been backed for the
two races, and little chance has therefore been afforded
to speculators to get round. Bel Esperanze and Aspasia
received some support at the Corner on Monday for the
"City and. Suburban," but they have been struck
out. A new favourite in Wardermanke was,
however, introduced with considerable force
into the market yesterday. He is in ,T.
Dawson's stable. Last year he was much talked at° it
in connection with the forthcoming Derby, but I e le re
formed so badly that his chance of obtaining the blue
riband was thought to be quite destroyed. Still his
blood and appearance are sufficient to recommend him
to notice. Adamas showed at least a good turn of speed
last week, and he will be better suited over the last mile
and a quarter of the New Derby course than he was
over the two miles at Northampton. I shall expect him
to run forward. Of the three-yr olds, however, I prefer
Admiral Lyons, who, at Doncaster, showed an improve-
ment of form scarcely to be expected from his early
exhibitions. Vaulter "cut up" very badly at North-
ampton but he may like a longer course. His defeat for
the Earl Spencer's Plate has not at any rate diminished
the confidence of his partisans, To represent my in-
terest I shall select
VAULTER, ADAMAS, AND ADMIRAL LYONS.
Fisherman is not so steady in the betting in the Metro-
politan as could be desired by his backers, and, indeed,
many people do not hesitate to assert that he will not
run. Be the adverse reports as they may, I shall not
enter an oppoSition against Fisherman, for he will, with
only one or two exceptions, meet opponents to whom he
can give lumps of weight and a beating. Winkfield has
the advantage of two years and 6 lbs. over him, scarcely
sufficient to make me 'trust Mr Walker's hove, who,
however, should Fishelrman be withdrawn, will be wor-
thy of the most serious consideration. Of the other old
'uns, Pantomime is entitled to attention--he is in run-
ning, but I do not deem him exactly " class enough "
to pull through. St. Giles, with his 5 lb. penalty, will
be formidable enough, but he is not supported with
that steadiness in the market which augurs confidence.
Still should he start I shall not be amongst his opponents.
Logic o' Buchan figured so inglorious at Croxton Park
yesterday that his owner may be inclined to spare the
expense of sending him to Epsom. Janet belongs to the
same stable with Wardermarske, and it is said that Tom
Dawson has really made up his mind to win the two
Great Handicaps at Epsom. lam afraid, however, he
will be disappointed. Madame Rachel is the lightest
weighted animal in the race, and if her party be in earnest
she will take a deal of beating. The Elcot's dam colt
ran fourth last week with 6lbs. more weight than he has
now in a Handicap which is altogether heavier than that
at Northampton. Distrusting Madame Rachel, there-
fore, and stipulating for a start, I shall select from the
top weights Fisherman and Winkfield, and from the three
yr-oles Doles nitre a d The root's dam cult
Either New Brighton or Ruth may win the Rail-
way Plate. The Two-yre-old Stakes I assign to Polly
Peachum and the Inkerman Plate to Flacrow.
Mrs. Beaton, of the far-famed " Dolphin," Milk-street,
Cheapside, has been compelled to give notice to those
gentlemen who for nearly 20 years have been in the
habit of frequenting her house, that owing to the arbi-
trary interference on the part of the Licensing Magi-
strates she is compelled to request them for the future to
abstain from visiting the "Dolphin" for -betting pur-
poses. She has thus been compelled to abandon one set
of customers, and must now form an entirely new busi-
ness connection. No plea can be set up to justify the
proceedings of the irresponsible authorities of the
City, who have only their own caprice to consult
in their dispensation of justice save the mark.
The " Dolphin" has ever been one of the most
orderly conducted houses in the City, and no complaint
was ever lodged against it by the police.
Would it not be a graceful act on the part of those
gentlemen who have long "used" the "Dolphin," and
one which would mark their respect and sympathy for
Mrs. Beaton, if some testimonial wereito be presented to
her? A FRESH MAN.

April 1.

"FEIST'S RACING RECORD."
The Mare'a and April parts of "Feist's Racing Re-
cord," bound po a 3 to form a neat and perfect volume,
are now published. In addition to the racing, they con-
tain a summary of the betting, and a list of the winning
horses made up to the end of the past month. The copi-
ous index, in which pedigrees of horses and trainers'
names are stated, is one of the most useful portions of
this very useful book.

IvIAGAZLIE DAY,

Blackwood.—" All-Fools' Day" is the appropri-
ate title of a hugeous absurdity in the way of a
most inopportune satire upon her Majesty's Go-
vernment. It comes forth at a moment the most
ill-timed imaginable. Precisely at the juncture
rendered remarkable in the constitutional history
of the country, by one of the most complete and
astoundingly overwhelming triumphs ever gained
by an Ad.ininisti ation. Lord Palmerston can afford
to be laughed at nominally by the great mcn'hly
organ of the utterly discomfited Opposition. For
in reality that Opposition is at this present instant
i n point of fact laughing—at the wrong side of its
mouth ! The character of this extravagant and
futile effort at facetiousness on the part of Black-
wood may be readily understood, upon the merest
glance.at some of the motley dramatis persons in-
troduced. First and foremost the Prime Minis' er
is brought upon the stage under the exceedingly
transparent and not by any means funny name of
" Pammerstein, afterwards Harlequin I" Lord.
John figures upon the scene in the no less trans-
parent guise (we won't call it disguise) of "Hans or
Little Jack, afterwards Pantiloon." Sir James
we may conjecture to be discoverable in the person
of " Grime, afterwards Clown." Lord Panmure ap-
pearing under the soubriquet of " Fuchsen-maul,
afterwards Scaramouch." Roebuck under that of
"Ribaldo, afterwards Sprite." Bernal Osborne trip-
ping down to the footlights as "Ralph°, the Comic
Robber." The Attorney-General as " Beetle, a
Prosing Robber"—and so forth I " Shoddy, a
Demon," being, of course, no other than' King
Calico, otherwise the Political Bagman, otherwise
Richard Cobden, the ex-member for the West
Riding, and the ignominiously Rejected of Hud-
dersfield 1 The emptiness and frivolity of the whole
production being sufficiently indicated by the
rather significant circumstance that before one line
of the Extravaganza in Blackwood—appropriately
designated "All Fools' Day, or the Rival Robbers"
—can have been ia.d, Svoidy, the Damon, has
I been exorcised 1 The charming "Athelings," in
this its eleventh instalment, comes suddenly in view
of the denouement, or ecclatrcissement. Charley, no
longer the big boy, but a young man nearly six
feet high, returns home from Italy to Pentonville
—(whither he has been preceded by his kith and.
kin—fresh from the sweet country air familiar to
the Old Wood Lodge)—bringirig with him, in
the person of an antiquated Romeo and
Juliet sort of a Nurse—proof positive of
Louis's legitimacy ! The rest of the dis:lo-
sures consequent upon this opportune arrival
may be readily anticipated. From a critical arti-
cle, headed "Remonstrance with Dickens"—a re- -
view of Little Dorrit, sternly condemnatory of the
story as a work of art—we extract the following
delibious description of the consequence of-
- RECOLLNCTING Pickwick IN CHURCH 1
" One of the most shameful recollections of our almost
irreproachable life lies at the door of the mad wag Dickens.
We were attending service in a cathedral in a city where
we were a stranger, and had been shown into a pew al-
ready occupied by two respectable old ladies. For a time
we behaved with our wonted decorum, till some absurdity
committed by the elder Weller, of which we had been
reading the night before, rose up to haunt us. Had we
been in the open air a good laugh would have at once re-
lieved us, but cabined, cribbed, confined, as it was, the
risibility expanded till our form swelled visibly, our face
grew purple, and we saw a medical man in the next pew
feel in his waistcoat-pocket as he anxiously watched the
veins of our forehead. The choral symphonies of the
anthem invested Mr. Weller's image with fifty fold
absurdity, blending him, as they did, in his top-boots and
shawls with angels ever bright and fair. Despairieg of our
ability to prevent an explosion, and feeling the danger be--
coming each moment more imminent, for india-rnbber it-
self must have given way under the accumulating pressure,
we suddenly dived with our head below the shelf on which
the prayer-books rested, and laughed. silently', while our
tears dropt like rain upon the footstool. We were begin-
ning to grow calm when, looking round, we saw the two
ladies regarding us with pious horror through their spec-
tacles, and sidling off to their own end of the pew. This
set us off again, and down went our head in a vain ostrich-
like attempt at concealment, for our shoulders and back,
convulsively agitated froth nape to waistband, told of the
internal struggle, to say nothing of sounds that occasion-
ally broke forth, noways resembling responses. Conscious
that prebendary and preceptor were regardino• us from
their eminence, we again raised our head witlidesperate
gravity, end shall never forget the agony of shame with
which we beheld an aged verger sternly approaching,
while two churchwardens were quitting their pews with
the faces of men determined to discharge a painful duty.
Nevertheless, at the instigation of Old Weller, off we went
again in a fit now quite audible, and were eventually
marched down the centre aisle, between rows of faces
fixed in devout horror, with our handkerchief crammed
nearly down our throat, and our watery eyes starting out
of our head like a land-crab's, and so, turning a corner, out
under the old Saxon archway, where we exasperated
the verger and churchwardens to frenzy by sitting down
upon a tombstone and giving full vent to our mir h. Next
day, all repentant, we waited upon the dean, wbo, being
himself a Pickwickian, gave us absolution in the most
kindly yap, and we caused a copy of Pick-wick to be bound
in Morocco and gold, with the inscription, ' from a-peni-
tent Sabbath-breaker,' which is to this day conspicuous
on a shelf of the episcopal library, for he is now a bishop.
We are glad to say that, regular church-goer as we have
ever since continued, we have never again remembered
Old Weller in our orisons except with shame and con-
trition." .

Tile reviewer gratefully avowing a little further
on—

" For our own part, when we had read Pickwick over
again for the third time (all three readings being consecu-
tive and unintermittent), we were ready to start on a
pilgrimage to Mecca with peas, uuboiled, in our shoes,
if we could at the end of our journey, an incurable bug
still enthusiastic cripple, have hoped to catch one glimpse,
one word of him, who had so-delighted us."
Dispraise from so genial a reader of Dickens as
this right humorous reviewer in Blackwood thus
proves himself to lie, comes all the more painfully,
of course, to the author of Little Dorrit. A fact
sufficiently obvious even to ourselves—sympatbis-
ing, as we do not at all, with that ire:atm:a of
Mr. Dickens, which has been, for some time past,
so strangely popular amongst the crowd of critics. Re-
viewers who can do little else, when writing about
that illustrious auth or, than carp, and cavi 1, and sneer,
and snarl at everything falling f oin the hand of
the glorious writer of the immortal "Christmas
C'rol," and of incomparable " David Copperfik
A third " Letter from a Lighthouse," and an-
other cluster of " Scenes from Clerical Life," are
conspicuous among the April contents of 131ack-
wood. Besides which, there are four other con-
tributions not sufficiently important to need par-
tieularsiation.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.—(This Day.)

BANKRUPTCY COURT.
(Moro Mr. Commissioner Helroyd.)
THE ROYAL BRITISH BANK.

EXAMINATION OF MR. APSLEY PELLATT.
To-day was appointed for the examination of Mr.
Apsley Peltatt, formerly one of the Board of Directors.
The Court was crowded as on previous occasions.
Mr. Link!ater appeared for the assignees, and Mr.
Voss as the legal adviser of Mr. Pelhtt.
Mr. Linklater :aid that he now proposed to examine
Mr Pellatr, who became a director on the I2th February,
1849, and retired from the Lank in 1850. He had
rxamioed Mr. Esd tile principally with reference to
the latter period of the transactions of the bank, and he
should now examine Mr. Pellatt as to the formation of
the bank.
Mr. Pellatt, in examination, said he was formerly one
of the directors. Thought be first joined in Feb., 1849,
aad was introduced to Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Cameron, and
Mr. Ritchie, when it was proposed that the bank should
be formed under the 7th and Bth Vict. At that time it
was his impression that it was to be a bank of limited
liability. It was so stated in the prospectus. Thought
he should not have joined if he had not thought
so. Did not become acquainted with the fact that
it was unlimited liability until some time after
on perusing the charter. He was introduced by
Mr. 11.1‘Crregor, who was at that time a per-
sonal friend. Thought he saw Mr. Learmouth at the
fir t hard, but could Lot recollect whether he ever saw
him there afterwards. He might have seen Mr. Es-
daile. D;d not see Mr. 3.ifeuzies acting as secretary.
Was not aware that it was originally proposed that the
capital was to be 500,000/ , to be increased to a million.
Mr. Learmouth refused to take up his shares to qualify
himself as a director.

After some further answers,
His Honour a-died Mr. Linklater whether it was
at all necessary to enter into all the preliminaries which
were not agreed t,), but a very different arrangement at
length come to
Mr. Linklater said that the object of the inquiry was
to inquire as to the formation of the bank, and to see
whether the shareholders had been deluded when they
were induced to join.
The examination was then continued at great length,
and• a great number of minutes and a voluminous cor-
respondence, to ascertain whether Mr. Menzies was act-
ing in the capacity of secretary in obtaining shareholders
at Newcastle and the north. Mr. Pellatt's impression
was that Mr. Menzies was not the secretary, and never
saw him acting as such at the board.
His Honour said that in July, 1849, Menzies was in
Whit ecross-street Prison. . _

Mr. Linklater—He was inquiring as to April and
May.
A ay. letter
stating
wasit rheaadd
beenfrom
mentionedllr . l o lgo n
in
,dated
ParliamentM
that
the prospectus of the Royal British Bank tended to mis-
lead, but he aas prepared to defend it in all its details.
Mr. Linklater read several letters, which he contei ded
proved that the persons connected with the board were
studiously concealing from the shareholders, at New-
castle, the real state of the affairs with respect to what
had taken place in Parliament, and Menzies wrote up to
say that the speech of Mr Ileadlatn had made an un-
favourable impression at Newcastle, but they (Menzies
and Co.) were counteracting it as far as possible, and
recommending that the Charter should be obtained as
speedily as possible, when all obstacles would be removed.
Mr. Vosi holed Mr. Linklater did not intend to imply
that Mr. Pellatt was cognisant that these letters had been
written

Mr. Linklater said Mr. Pellatt could speak to that.
Mr. Pellatt said he might have heard of them, hut had
no distinct recollection.

(The case was proceeding when .we went to presP, and
not likely to be concluded this day.)