The Sun.
London, England, 1844-11-25 00:00:00

of a forty-shilling freehold, and if they—prize a county
frote, there is no reason why their savings should not be
so invested. There would be nothing illegal or improper
in this, no creation of fictitious qualifications. The vote
thus acquired would be acquired on the grounds origi-
nally contemplated by law. It would be acquired by
those only who had that degree of industry, frugality,
and interest in public affairs which the possession of a
property qualification is presumed to indicate. A
class of such freeholder; too, would hare that deep
interest in the preservation of peace and order tied
the stability of sound institutions ivhich is sup-
posed to arise. from having " a large stake in the
country," but which, in fact, is quite as sure to be found
in the possessors of small properties. Very important
indirect advantages would thus arise. New links be-
tween different classes would be created, new motiv*s to
industry and accumulation would be presented, and the
whole !tru,_!ttire of society in tli manufacturing districts
would be improved by the influence of a hody.of humble
but independent proprietors. That this scheme will be
carried into effect with the usual energy of the L-ague
there can be no doubt. The Rochdale meeting shows
how they are at work. They very properly begin at
home. In South Lancashire the example must b.-.! set.
Success there is indispensab!e. The example of South
Lancashire, however, will soon be followed. When that
greet constituency has been reformed Mr. Cobden and his
coadjutors ivill have little difficulty in any other manu-
facturing county.

MISS MARTINEAU-MESMERIS3L

The eferienccum of Saturday contains a long communi-
cation from Miss Martineau detailing the particulars of
a wonderful cure which, she says, has been effected by
mesmerism, after a serious illness of five years and a
half. Of the character of the disease under which she
suffered she thus speaks :—" This is not the place in
which to give any details of disease. It will be sufficient
to explain briefly, in order to render my story intelli-
gible, that the internal disease under which I suffered
appears to have been coming on for many years ; that,
after warnings of failing health, which I carelessly over-
looked, I broke down, while travelling abroad, in June,
1839 ; that I sank lower and lower for three years after
my return, and remained nearly stationary for two more
preceding last June. During these five years I never
telt wholly at ease for one single hour. I seldom had
severe pain, but never entire comfort. A besetting
sickness, almost disabling me from taking food for two
years, brought me very low, and, together with other
evils, it confined me to a condition of almost entire
stillness—to a life passed between my bed and my sofa.
It was nut till after many attempts at gentle ex-
ercise that my friends agreed with me that the cost was
too great for any advantage gained ; and at length it
was clear that even going down one flight of stairs was
imprudent. From that time I lay still, and by means of
this undisturbed quiet, and such an increase of opiates as
kept down my most urgent discomforts, I passed the last
two years with less suffering than the three preceding.
There was, however, no favourable change in the disease.
Everything was done for me that the best medical skill
and science could suggest, and the most indefatigable
humanity and family affection devise, but nothing could
avail beyond mere alleviation. My dependence on opiates
was desperate. My kind and vigilant medical friend—
the most sanguine man I know, and the most bent upon
keeping his patient hopeful—avowed to me last
Christmas, and twice afterwards, that he found himself
compelled to give up all hope of affecting the disease—
of doing more than keeping me up, in collateral respects,
to the highest practicable point. This was no surprise
to me, for when any specific medicine is taken for above
two years without affecting the disease, there is no more
ground for hope in reason than in feeling. In June list I
suffered more than usual, and new measures of alleviation
were resorted to. As to all the essential points •
of the disease I was never lower than immediately before
I made trial of mesmerism." Miss Martineau then giv(
the following narrative :—" On Saturday, June 22, Mr.
Spencer Hall and my medical friend came, as arranged,
at my worst hour of the day, between the expiration of
one opiate and the taking of another. By an accident,
the gentlemen were rather in a hurry—a, circumstance
unfavourable to a first experiment. But result enough
was obtained to encourage a further trial, though it was
of a nature entirely unanticipated by me. I had no
other idea than that I should either drop asleep ar fed
nothing. I did not drop asleep, and I did feel something
very strange. Various passes were tried by Mr. Hell ;
the first that appeared effectual, and the most so for
some time after were passes over the head made from
behind, passes from the forehead to the back of the head,
and a lido way down the spine. A very short time after
these were tried, and twenty minutes from the begin-
ning of the seance, I became sensible of an extra-
ordinary appearance, most unexpected, and wholly
unlike anything I had ever conceived of. Some-
thing seemed to diffuse itself through the atmosphere,
not like smoke, nor steam, norhaze—but most like aclear
twilight, closing in from the windows and down from the
ceiling, and in which one object after another melted
away till scarcely anything was left visible before my
wide-open eyes. First, the outline of all objects was
blurred; then a bust, standing on a pedestal in a strong
light, melted quite away; then the opposite bust; then
the table with its gay cover; then the floor, and the
ceiling, till one small picture, high up on the opposite
wall, only remained visible, like a patch of phosphoric
light. I feared to move my eyes, lest the singular ap-
pearance should vanish; and I cried out, • 0 ! deepen
it ! deepen it !' supposing this the precursor of the
sleep. It could not be deepened, however; and when I
glanced aside from the luminous point I found that I
need not fear the return of objects to their ordinary ap-
pearance while the passes were continued. The busts
re-appeared, ghost-like, in the dint atmosphere, like
faint shadows, except that their outlines, and the parts
in the highest relief, Wood with the same phosphoric
light. The features of one, an Isis with bent head,
seemed to be illumed by a fire on the floor, though this
bust has its back to the windows. Wherever I glanced
all outlines were dressed in this beautiful light; and so
they have been, at every seance, without exception, to
this da3 ; though the appearance has rather given way
to drowsiness since I left off opiates entirely. This ap-
pearance continued during the remaining twenty mi-
Lutes before the gentlemen were obliged to leave me.
The other effects produced were, first, heat, oppression,
and sickness, and, for a few hours after, disordered
stomach, followed, in the course of the evening, by a
feeling of lightness and relief, in which I thought I could
hardly be mistaken."
The second application of mesmerism was made by
Miss Martineau's maid. "Mr. Hall," says Miss Mar-
tineau, " was prevented by illness from coming over, too
late to let me know. Unwilling to take my opiate while
in expectation of his arrival, and too wretched to do
without some resource, I rang for my maid, and asked
whether she had any objection to attempt what she saw
Mr. Hall do the day before. With the greatest alacrity
she comp!ied. Within one minute the twilight and
phosphoric lights appeared ; and in two or three more
a delicious sensation of ease spread through me—a cool
comfort, before which all pain and distress gave way,
oozing out, as it were, at the soles of my feet. During
that hour, and almost the whole evening, I could no more
help explaining with plc asure, than a person in torture
crying out with pain. I became hungry, and ate with
relish, for the first time for five 'Tars. There was no
heat, oppression, or sickness during the seance, nor any
disorder afterwards. During the whole evening, in-
stead of the lazy, hot ease of opiates, under which pain
is f,-lt to lie in wait, I experienced something of the in-
describable sensation of health, which I had quite lost
and forgotten. I walked about my rooms, and was gay
and talkative. Something of this relief remained till the
next morning, and then there was no reaction. I was no
worse than usual, and perhaps rather better.
" Nothing is to me more unquestionable and more
striking about this influence, than the absence of all re-
action. Its highest exhilaration is followed, not by
depression or exhaustion, but by a further renovation.
From the first hour to the present, I have never fallen
back a single step. Every point gained has been steadily
held. Improved composure of nerve and spirits has
followed upon every mesmeric exhiliration. I have been
spared all the weaknesses of convalescence, and carried
through all the usually formidable enterprises of return
from deep disease to health, with a steadiness and tran-
quillity astonishing to all witnesses. At this time, before
venturing to speak of my health as established, I believe
myself more firm in nerve, more calm and steady iu
mind and spirits, than at any time of my life before.
So much in consideration of the natural and common fear
of the mesmeric influence as pernicious excitement---aa a
kind of intoxication." -

Miss Martineau mentions several incidents.—"
other striking incident occurred in one of the earliest of
my walks. My mesmerist and I had reached a headland
nearly half a mile from home, and were resting there,
when she proposed to mesmerise me a little—partly to
refresh me for our return, and partly to see whether any
effect would he produced in a new place and while a
fresh breeze was blowing. She merely laid her hand on
my forehead, and in a minute or two the usual appear-
ances came, assuming a strange air of novelty from the
scene in which I was. After the blurring of the out-
lines, which made all objects more dim than the dull
gray day had already made them, the phosphoric lights
appeared, glorifying every rock and headland, the
horizon, and all the vessels in sight. One of the dirtiest
and meanest of the steam tugs in the port was passing
at the time and it was all dressed in heavenly radiance—
the last object that any imagination would select as an
element of a vision. Then, and often before and since,
did it occur to me that if I had been a pious and very
ignorant Catholic, I could not have escaped the persua-
sten that I had seen heavenly visions. Every glorified
object before my open eyes would have been a revelation,
and my mesmerist, with the white halo round her head,
and the illuminated profile, would have been a saint or
an angel."

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ADVERTISEMENT. -- ANOTHER EXTRAORDINARY
CURE OF ASTHMA. BY HOLLOWAY'S PILLS !—Patriek
Casey, residing
at No. 1, Compton-place, Brunswick-
square, had suffered from a chronic asthma for more than
three years. This poor man was so groat a sufferer that
he did not dare go to bed for fear of the phlegm choking
him ; indeed, he could not even lay his head upon a
table for half an hour lest he should be suffocated ;
nevertheless, this person is now labouring from morning
to night, sleeps as well as ever he did in his life, and, in
fact, is completely cured by the use of Holloway's Pills.
Sold (also Holloway's Ointment) at 244, Strand (where
advice may be had gratis), and by almost all respectable
vendors of medicine throughout the civilised world.

---
THEATRE ROYAL DRURY-LA.NE.—Nothing is now
talked of but the forthcoming opera, on Wednesday
next, at this theatre, of The Daughter of St. Mark, of
which Mr. Balfe has composed the music, and Mr. Bunn
written the libretto, as in the instance of The Bohemian.
Girl. We hear, on all sides, that, in addition to the
character of the music being of a much higher order
than any Balfe has yet composed, there are some beax-
tiful melodies in it, peculiar to this gifted artiste. Mdlle.
'
Dumilatre's last performances are to• night and to-
morrow.