The Sun.
London, England, 1844-09-27 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 27.

of the grossest description daily and nightly t:tiLe pLec,
which, it is reported, are leased by the Dean and Chap-
ter of Westminster to other persons, and then sub let to
the most infamous characters. The district which this
comprises consists of Orchard-street, New I'ye-street,
Duck-lane, New Tothill-street, and the vast number of
courts which diverge from them. The whole of these
buildings are to be taken down, and a most excellent
improvement, not only morally, but sanatorily, will be
effected.'

On Friday last, as Henry Studdy, Esq., was out shooting,
in company with Mr. Poole and another gentleman, Mr.
Poole shot at a partridge in the direction where Mr.
Studdy was standing, when the contents of the gun
struck that gentleman in the forehead. At, first it was
supposed that extensive injury had been done to the un-
fortunate sufferer, but from the circumstance of Mr.
Poole being at a distance of 60 yards when he fired, the
shot had not so great an effect ; still, as it is, the sur-
geons on Saturday morning gave it as their opinion that
Mr. Studdy will lose ono of his eyes.
It is reported that the splendid mansion in Stephen's-
green, Dublin, rented by the Earl of Cardigan during
his residence here has been taken by the Marquis of
Waterford, who intends to reside for some time in the
Irish metropolis.
John Cartwright, Esq., her Majesty's Consul at Constan-
tinople, has received a highly flattering dispatch from his
Government, in reply to his request to be permitted to
withdraw from the cares of public life. After enume-
rating his various and valuable services, be is requested
to withheld his application for three months longer,
when be will be entitled to the full retiring pay:

THE MERCHANTS OF OLD
EN GLAND.

The following beautiful verses, so truly descriptive
of the wealth which England .has acquired by ships
and colonies, and of the power of her merchant-
princes, are taken from "Historic Fancies," the pro-
duction, as many of our readers are aware, of the
Hon. George Sydney Smythe, son of Lord Strang-
ford. We have already noticed the work with
approbation ; but it improves on acquaintance, and
we therefore recur to it with pleasure. Most of the
pieces, in verse as well as prose, are written with
great spirit, showing at the same time a generous and
impartial disposition, and an anxious wish, a rare
(circumstance in a political partizan) to view the
principles of men to whom he is opposed in the most
favourable light. The touching lines on the death of
Armand Carrel afford a fair specimen of this amiable
feeling. Several other pieces equally deserve praise,
among which we may mention " The Aristocracy of
France" and " The Catholic Cavalier." The collec--
tion altogether is highly creditable to " Young Eng-
land," and, if we may judge from what has fallen
within our own experience, has made a very favourable
impression upon the rising generation. Some of our
young friends can recite the whole of the poems ap-
parently without having taken the trouble of commit-
ting them to memory, and seem to regret that they
are so few—a sure test of merit :

The Land, it boasts its titled hosts,--they could not vie with
these,

The Merchants of Old England, the Seigneurs of the Seas ;
In the days of Great Elizabeth, when they sought the Western
Main,
Maugre and spite the Caesars' might, and the menaces of
Spain ;

And the richly freighted argosy, and the good galleon went
forth,
With the bales of Leeds or Lincoln, and the broad clothe of
the North ;

And many a veteran mariner would speak 'midst glistening
eyes,

Of the gain of some past voyage, and the hazards of emprize ;
Or in the long night-watches the wondrous tale was told
Of isles of fruit and spices, and fields of waving gold.
And the young and buoyant-hearted, would oft that tale
renew,

And dream their dearest dream should be, their wildest hope
come true.
So with brave hearts and dauntless, they sailed for the Ua-
known ;
For each he sought his inmost thought, and a secret of his

own.
And reason fair, how wild soe'er had been each young belief,-
0 reason fair ! had they to dare with Raleigh for a chief I
Then, when long years had glided by, in those colonies they
made,

The same free spirit, which was theirs, in those Plantations
staved.

As refuge here and shelter full many an exile found,
When the Old World grew in dotage, and by Priests and
Kings was bound. _ _ .

And in some far savannah, where man had never been,
They came with thought as simple as was that savage scene;
Or in the lonely prairie they kept their solemn tryst,
When Sacred Word and Hymn were heard, and the equal
laws of Christ.
And the young and strong Republic was by these in virtue
bred,

She was cradled in Adventure, she was nursed in good men's
dread,

The young and strong Republic that has filled the world with
fame,

And with great praise and marvel of the Anglo-Saxon name.
And well she shows her origin in the deeds that she has done,
With her Franklin, and her Whitney, and her hero Wash-
ington.
Then glory to the Fathers who had such sons as these,
The Merchants of Old England, the Seigneurs of the Seas !

The land, it boasts its titled hosts,—they could not vie with
these,

The Merchants of Old England, the Seigneurs of the Seas.
In the days of the Guelphic Georges, when the dream had
come again,

Of a Treasure land, where a daring hand had only to glean

and gain.
And all that in past times our forefathers had told,—
Of the gorgeous Mississippe, and the Southern seas of gold,—
Was now outdone, where the Eastern sun poured its fire in
lava streams,

Through bold Dupleix's, and Labourdonnaya's, and Lally's

conquest schemes ;
But little they knew what he could do, when on fair Plassy's

vale

The bright-eyed young Adventurer flung his sword into the

scale ;
And like the Roman Legend the fate of nations swayed,
With the glory of the impulse, and the greatness of the blade.
For the Fiat had gone forth, and the Orient was to be
The slave of a Northern mistress,—the Island of the Free.
And of the three Great Races that met in conflict there,
The fierce Mahratta swordsman, and the Mussulnian Ameer,
Was high above all standards, the Company's displayed,
Was high above all war-cries, the war-cry of the Trade.
And from that hour there grew the power, was made by no
human hand,

But as erst was given in grace from Heaven to a free and
chosen land.

For, lo! by a sign that was divine, there were revealed once
more,

The greatness, and the courage, and the soul that were of
yore—

And onevast mind, itself combined, the Ancient and the New,
The ardour of the Christian, and the calm of the llindoo.
And after Hastings, still there came a great and glorious line,
Of Proconsul on Proconsul to tend his high design ;
Of councillors and heroes, whose names shall live fur aye,
With the Wellesley of Mysure, and the Wellesley of Assays.
Then glory to the merchants, who had such chiefs as these,
The Merchants of old England, the Seigneurs of the Seas.

The land it boasts its titled hosts—they cannot vie with
these,

The Merchants of old England—the Seigneurs of the Seas,
In the days of Queen Victoria, for they have bore her sway
From the far Atlantic islands, to the islands of Cathay,

And, o'er one-sixth of all the earth, and over all the main,
Like some good Fairy, Freedommarks and blesses her domain.
And of the mighty empires, that arose, and ruled, and died,
Since on the sea, his heritage, the Tyrian looked in pride,
Not Carthage, with her Hannibal, not Athens when she bore
Her bravest and her boldest to the Syracusan shore,

LITERATURE.

HISTORY OF THE HOUSE OF
,COMMONS.
Colburn, London, 1844.

This is the second volume of the Memoirs of the
House of Commons from the period of the Convention
Parliament of 1688, down to the passing of the IVhig
Reform Bill in the memorable year 1832. The
author is Mr. Townsend, Recorder of Macclesfield,
who has executed a difficult and somewhat com-
plicated task with uniform diligence—not to say, im-
partiality—and enlivened his historical account with
several cursory sketches of the most eminent indi-
viduals who have figured in St. Stephen's within the
period of which he treats. Among the various curious
matters referred to in his Memoirs, is that ceremony of
kneeling, which offenders against the majesty of the
House of Commons were compelled to practise in the
presence of the Imperial Senate. This degrading
ceremony was insisted on with the utmost rigidness
by Parliament, and continued to be acquiesced in for
a long term of years without the slightest re-
monstrance on the part of the public. At length the
peremptory refusal of Mr. A. Murray, brother of
Lord Elibank, to kneel humbly and submissively at
the bar while his sentence was pronounced on him,
had the effect of putting an end to the ignominious
practice, as we find by the following entertaining
extract :

" After the interval of a century, during which all
offenders, real or supposed, against the majesty of Par-
liament, had continued to kneel without open resistance,
a similar scene of rage was re-enacted in February, 1751,
on the peremptory refusal of Mr. Alexander Murray,
brother of Lord Elibank, to kneel at the bar to receive
his sentence. He was charged with having, during the
late Westminster election, incited the High Bailiff, say-
ing, Will nobody knock the dog down?' but the words
were not satisfactorily proved, and Mr. Murray per-
sisted in denying that he had ever uttered them. The

House, however, -acted on the complaint of the returning
officer, and resolved that he should be committed to
Newgate, and receive his sentence on his knees—an in-
dignity to which he peremptorily declared nothing on
earth should ever induce him to submit. In vain did Mr.
Pelham explain that kneeling was no acknowledgment
of guilt, but only a testimony of respect : in vain did the
Speaker, horrified at his insubordination, exclaim in his
deepest tones of displeasure, On your knees, Sir! you
must kneel down.' Mr. Murray persisted in standing,
and the sentence could not be spoken. The House, in a
tumult of indignation at such contumacy, resolved,
' That Mr. Murray, having in a most insolent and
audacious manner, at the bar, absolutely refused to be
upon his knees, is guilty of a high and most dangerous
contempt of the authority and privilege of this House.'
"If bitter words and strong epithets could have
availed to whip the rebellious Adam out of him,' these
resolutions might perhaps have sufficed. The Speaker
strongly urged ulterior measures, insisting that, if insub-
ordination of this alarming character were to pass with-
out exemplary chastisement, all respect to his authority
was at an end. It was therefore ordered that Mr. blur •
ray should he committed close prisoner to Newgate, and
that no one'should have access to him without leave—
that he should not have the use of pen, ink, or paper,
and that a Committee should consider and report what
further methods might be taken. As the rack and
thumb-screws were abolished, and the power of inquisi-
tors before torture, between torture, in torture, and
after torture,' had passed away for ever; as the House
could no longer impoverish by fine, or add hard labour
to imprisonment, no further or more effectual remedy
than duress could be devised. The prisoner lingered in
Newgate four months, till the prorogation in June, with
spirit unbroken.
" As soon as the gates of his prison were thrown open
by the rising of Parliament, he made a triumphant caval-
cade along the streets of the metropolis, amid the cheers
and huszas of the populace. As the natural effect of
persecution, a lately despised Jacobite became the idol of
the hour. This-popularity was remembered to his pre-
judice by a vindictive House of Commons, who, as soon
as they met in November, on the motion of Lord Coke,
voted that he should be recommitted to Newgate, and
receive the sentence of re-committal on his knees. But
the bird was flown. Mr. Murray had prudently with.
drawn to the Continent. A reward of 500/. was pro-
claimed by the Privy Council, at the instigation of the
House, for his apprehension. Public feeling revolted at
the violence of this persecution; his enemies became in
time ashamed of their intolerance, and Mr. Murray had
the consolation of learning that, by his firmness and suf-
ferings, an end was silently put to a practice which, with
reptile tenacity of life, had lingered for centuries. The
name of the wag ought to be known, who had previously
expressed his indignation by rubbing his knees, after
ristng from the bar, and exclaiming with an excusable
double-entendre, 'This is the dirtiest house I was ever in
during the whole course of my life."

PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS on the PRE-
VENTION, CAUSES, and TREATMENT of
CURVATURE of the SPINE. By Samuel Hare,
.r
many years past
rsLtohnadto uhicahr
ei 4hasl 8 4f, to
SltuiZpe;en
devoted considerable attention to the subject of dis-
eases of the spine, and the results of his experience
are contained in the work now under review, which
is certainly one of the most understandable books on
the subject we have ever read. His treatment seems
to have been most successful. The apparatus which
he uses is thus described :

" It consists of an inclined plane two feet in breadth
and six and a half in length, furnished with feet or
made to rest securely on a proper framework. At the
upper end are three pulleys, of which the two outer are
about four inches, and the middle one six inches in
height above the plane, the former ones being about
eight inches asunder. Two pulleys are also attached to
the lower end of the plane, and about one-third from its
upper end, and six or eight inches from the sides, two
openings are made, into which also pulleys are intro-
duced. A very thin and firm mattress may be placed
upon the apparatus, and on this the patient reclines.
It is also furnished with weights for extension and with
springs, and compresses, according to the circumstances
of the case ; a support for the head, made of soft
leather, stuffed with curled hair or cotton wool and in-
tended to pass under the chin and occiput, is attached to
a cord, which passes over the centre pulley, to which a
weight is suspended ; shoulder-straps composed of the
same materials, and attached in a similar manner, pass
under the axillfe of each arm and over the outer pulleys,
having weights also adjusted to them ; similar means of
extension are also applied round the ankles, and occa-
sionally in the male sex above the pelvis ; these are
passed over the pulleys at the lower end of the plane.
The openings in the upper part of the plane are for the
purpose of admitting a cord, to one. end of which is
attached a shoulder-strap, and to the other a weight ;
this is very useful when the shoulder projects, as else in
cases of excurvation. In instances of projection of the
sternum, when the patient is said to be pigeon-breasted,
a piece of padded leather or other similarly firm sub-
stance, is used with great advantage, being made for the
purpose of passing over the projecting part, and the
pressure is gradually increased or diminished as may be
found necessary."

Patients are placed on this inclined plane in a
re-
clining
and position, and the weights are properly ad-
justed, observing this reclining posture, and
attending to other remedial measures some months,
by
the distorted spine is gradually restored to its natural
shape and form. The progress of the cure is de-
noted by the increased quantity of air the patient is
able to expire after taking a full inspiration, which,
of course, shows the increased capacity of the chest,
which, in cases of distorted spine, is invariably con-
tracted. The quantity of air thus expired is ascer-
tained by a very ingenious contrivance, which may be
" called a pulmometer—that i 3 a glass vessel, marked
with cubic inches, from ten to two hundred; this is
filled with water and inverted in a pneumatic trough ;
the patient then fills his or her chest, and breathes
through a glass tube into the meter—the additional
quantity of water displaced, showing, of course, the
increased capacity of the lungs."
In a very elaborate introduction, the author treats
of the causes which tend to produce distortion of the
spine-=among these tight-lacing, of course, holds a
prominent place. From this portion of the work
we extract the following passage, to which we would
particularly draw the attention of parents, denouncing
as it does a practice which has grown into fashion of
late years, but of the injurious tendency of which we
presume few are aware
A custom at present prevails to a very considerable
extent, of using a leather belt buckled round the waist
of boys, when they commence wearing their clothes of
woollen cloth ; this practice, unless adopted with great
care, has a direct tendency to produce a contracted state
of the chest and upper part of the abdomen, similar in
effect, though not in degree, to that produced by corsets
.
in growing girls . is hoped, that it is only necessary
to point out the evil, and that parents will at once see
the necessity of avoiding it."
The book is copiously illustrated by plates, and
the cases recorded, in which Mr. Hare has succeeded
in restoring to comparative health those who had
been suffering for years from the most severe forms
of spinal distortion, are very numerous, and exceed-
ingly interesting.

174 4 •1: 17
ME
KNIGHT'S WEEKLY
ond:
We have here lying,night's Weekly Volume"—a
op our table the eighth and
ninth Numbers of "K
miscellany which is incomparably the cheapest of the
day, containing as much matter for one shilling as
" Murray's Family Library" used to contain for the
more aristocratic sum of half-a-crown. The Num-
bers in question comprise republications—each in one
small neat duodecimo—of Miss Martineau's tale,
entitled " Feats on the Fiord ;" and Mr. Davis's
" History of China." The last work is, we under
stand, considered by those who are conversant with
the subject, as the best history of the Celestial
Empire that has yet appeared in print, being singu-
larly minute and circumstantial in its details, and
not less scrupulously impartial in its statement of
facts, or.sagacious in the inferences which it deduces
from them. One of its most curious chapters is
devoted to a consideration. of the prevailing Chinese
religion of Budhism—an interesting theme on which
the author descants at great length, and with an eager
wish to throw as much light on a mysterious question
as possible. The volume is embellished with several
passably executed wood-cuts. As regards Miss Mar-
tineau's tale of " Feasts on the Fiord"—as we noticed
it in The Sun on its first appearance, a short while since
—we shall here content ourselves with observing that

is written in the author's most, careful a.al spirited
manner; is remarkable for its familiar acquaintance
and exact sketches of Norwegian manners and cus-
toms; and more especially for the beauty and rich-
ness of its description of Norwegian scenery. Miss
Martineau excels most novelists of the day in descrip-
tive power, as she showed in her story of the " Hour
and the Man," in which she placed before her readers
most vivid and gorgeous pictures of the landscape
scenery of St. Domingo. We quote her opening
sketch of a Norwegian Fiord :

"Every one who has looked at the map of Norway
must have been struck with the singular character of its
coast. On the map it looks so jagged, such a mixture of
laud and sea, that it appears as if there must be a per-
petual struggle between the two—the sea striving to
inundate the land, and the land pushing itself out Into
I the sea, till it ends in their dividing the region between
them. On the spot, however, this coast is very sublime.
The long straggling promontories are mountainous,
towering ridges of rock, springing up in precipices from
the water ; while the bays between them, instead of
being rounded lc ith shelving sandy shores, on which
the sea tumbles its waves, as in bays of our coast, are, in
fact, long narrow valleys, filled with sea, instead of being
laid out in fields and meadows. The high rocky banks
shelter these deep bays (called fiords) from almost every
wind ; so that their waters are usually as still as
those of a lake. For days and weeks together, they
reflect each separate tree-top of the pine-forests which
clothe the mountain sides, the mirror being broken only
by the leap of some sportive fish, or the oars of the boat-
man as he goes to inspect the sea-fowl from islet to islet
of the fiord, or carries out his nets or his rod to catch
the sea-trout or char, or cod, or herrings, which abound,
in their seasons, on the coast of Norway. It is difficult
to say whether these fiords are the most beautiful in
summer or in winter. In summer they glitter with
golden sunshine ; and purple and green shadows from
the mountain and forest lie on them ; and these may be
more lovely than the faint light of the winter noons of
those latitudes, and the snowy pictures of frozen peaks
which then show themselves on the surface ; but before
the day is half over, out come the stars—the glorious
stars which shine like nothing that we have ever seen.
There the planets cast a faint shadow, as the young moon
does with us ; and these planets and the constellations of
the sky, as they silently glide over from peak to peak of
those rocky passes, are imaged on the waters so clearly
that the fisherman, as he unmoors his boat for his even-
ing task, feels as if he were about to shoot forth his
vessel into another heaven, and to cleave his way among
the stars. Still as everything is to the eye, sometimes
for a hundred miles together along these deep sea-val-
leys, there is rarely silence. The ear is kept awake by
a thousand voices. In the summer, there are cata-
racts leaping from ledge to ledge of the rocks ; and
there is the bleating of the kids that browse there, and
the flap of the great eagle's wings, as it dashes abroad
from its eyrie, and the cries of the whole clouds of sea-
birds which inhabit the islets ; and all these sounds are
mingled and multiplied by the strong echoes, till they
become a din as loud as that of a city. Even at night,
when the flocks are in the fold, and the birds at roost,
and the echoes themselves seem to be asleep, there is
occasionally a sweet music heard, too soft for even the
listening ear to catch by day. Every breath of summer
wind that steals through the pine-forests wakes this
music as it goes. The stiff spiny leaves of the fir and
pine vibrate with the breeze, like the strings of a musical
instrument, so that every breath of the night-wind, in a
Norwegian forest, wakens a myriad of tiny harps ; and
this gentle and mournful music may be heard in gushes
the whole night through. This music, of course, ceases
when each tree becomes laden with snow ; but yet there
is sound, in the midst of the longest winter night. There
is the rumble of some avalanche, as, after a drifting storm,
a mass of snow too heavy to keep its place slides and
tumbles from the mountain peak. There is also, now
and then, a loud crack of the ice in the nearest glacier ;
and, as many declare, there is a crackling to be heard by
those who listen when the northern lights are shooting
and blazing across the sky. Nor is this all. Whereever
there is a nook between the rocks of the shore, where a
man may build a house, and clear a field or two ;
wherever there is a platform beside the cataract where
the sawyer may plant his mill, and make a path from
it to join some great road, there is a human habitation,
and the sounds that belong to it. Thence, in winter
nights, come music and laughter, and the tread of
dancers, and the hum of many voices. The Norwegians
are a social and hospitable people ; and they hold their
gay meetings, in defiance of their arctic climate, through
every season of the year."