The Sun.
London, England, 1844-11-16 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

KNIGHT'S WEEKLY VOLUME.
C. Knight, London, 1844.
Three Parts of this Weekly Miscellany—which,
considering the amount of information which each
Part contains, is unquestionably the cheapest of the
day—are now lying before us, and deserve a word of
notice, if only for the skill with which they are got
up, and the judicious manner in which the materials
are arranged and condensed. One part contains a re-
publication in two volumes of Fairfax's translation of
'lasso's "Jerusalem Delivered"—the best, because the
most accurate and characteristic version that has yet
appeared of this epic ; another Part contains " Sketches
of the History of Literature and Learning in Eng-
land," also in two volumes, in the second of which we
find an interesting biographical memoir of Chaucer,
together with copious extracts from his poems, and
criticisms on his genius; and a third Part contains a
"Natural History of the Elephant," written with
considerable tact, and abounding in a variety of
curious anecdotes illustrative of the singular sagacity
of this animal. Each part is embellished with a pro-
fusion of wood-cuts, which add not a little to its
attractions, executed, as they are for the most part,
with very respectable talent. The" Weekly Volume"
can scarcely fail to become a favourite with the
public, for each part contains as much matter as a
volume of Murray's "Family Library," and is only
half the price. We subjoin an entertaining account
of an elephant hunt in Africa from the Natural
History of that animal. It is extracted by the editor,
we should premise, from the narrative of Bruce, the
traveller :
" An hour before day, after a hearty breakfast, we
amounted on horseback, to the number of about thirty.
But there was another body, both of horse and foot,
which made hunting the elephant their particular busi-
ness. These nen dwell constantly in the woods, and
know very little of the use of bread, living entirely upon
the flesh of the beasts they kill, chiefly that of the ele-
phant and the rhinoceros. They are exceedingly thin,
light, and agile, both on horseback and foot; are very
swarthy, though few of them are black; none of them
woolly-headed, and all of them have European features.
They are called Agageer, a name of their profession, not
of their nation, which comes from the word agar, and
signifies to hough or hamstring with a sharp weapon.
More properly it means the cutting the tendon of the
heel, and is a characteristic of the manner in which they
kill the elephant, which is shortly as follows :
" Two men, absolutely naked, without any rag or
covering at all about them, get on horseback; this pre-
caution is for fear of being laid hold of by the trees or
bushes, in making their escape from a ♦ery watchful
enemy. One of these riders sits upon the back of the
horse, sometimes with a saddle, and sometimes without
one, with only a switch, or short stick in one hand, care-
fully managing the bridle with the other; behind him sits
his companion, who has no other arms but a broadsword,
such as is used by Selavonians, and which is brought
from Trieste. His left hand is employed in grasping
the sword by the handle; about fourteen inches of the
blade is covered with whip-cord. This part he takes in
his right hand, without any danger of being hurt by it;
and, though the edges of the lower part of the sword are
as sharp as a razor, he carries it without a scabbard.
" As soon as the elephant is found feeding, the horse-
man rides before him as near his face as possible; or, if
he flies, crosses him in all directions, crying out, lam
such a man and such a man ; this is nay horse, that has
such a name; I killed your father in such a place, and
your grandfather in such another place; and I am now
come to kill you; you are but an ass in comparison of
them.' This nonsense lie verily believes the elephant
understands, who, chased and angry at hearing the noise
immediately before him, seeks to seize him with his
trunk or proboscis; and, intent upon this, follows the
horse everywhere, turning and turning round with him,
neglectful of making his escape by running straight for-
ward, in which consists his only safety. Mier having
made him turn once or twice in pursuit of the horse, the
horseman rides close up alongside of him, and drops
his companion just behind on the off side ; and while he
engages the elephant's attention upon the horse, the
footman behind gives him a drawn stroke just above the
heel, or what in man is called the tendon of Achilles.
This is the critical moment ; the horseman immediately
wheels round, takes his companion up behind him, and
rides off full speed after the rest of the herd, if they
have started more than one; and sometimes an expert
agageer will kill three out of one herd. If the sword is
good, and the man not afraid, the tendon is commonly
entirely separated : and if it is not cut through, it is
generally so far divided, that the animal, with the stress
he puts upon it, breaks the remaining part asunder. In
either case, he remains incapable of advancing a step,
till the horseman's return, or his companions coming up
pierce him through with javelins and lances : he then
falls to the ground, and expires with loss of blood."

THE NEW SUGAR BILL.
The Act of last session, admitting foreign sugar,
the produce of free labour, into this country at a duty
of 345. per cwt., came into operation on Monday, but
there is scarcely any sugar, either in this port or in
London, which is entitled to be entered under its pro-
visions, and very little is likely to arrive before the
spring of next year. It will be remembered the Act
requires that all foreign sugars introduced shall be
accompanied with a certificate of origin, signed by
the British Consul resident at the place where they
are shipped. Now there are no such Consuls in any
of the sugar growing countries to the east of tk,
Cape, unless it is in China, and there is, therefor,, no
sugar of any consequence that can be adir,itted at
present from that part of the world. A. i.;onsul has
been sent out to Manilla, but no intelligence has yet
been received in this country of his arrival, so that the
sugar of the Philippine Islands, of which several
cargoes have recently arrived in the Channel for
orders, is not admissible. For the same reason, the
Java sugar is inadmissible, and will remain so until
the English Government has either arranged with the
Dutch Government for the appointment of a regular
Consul, which it is understood that it has not yet been
able to do, until it has given some one authority to act
as Consul at Batavia for this particular purpose.
When this matter of Consuls is arranged, there is no
doubt that the arrivals of sugar from beyond the
Cape will be very considerable. The only lot of
foreign free-grown sugar in Liverpool, entitled to ad-
mission, of which we have heard, is a small quantity
of Venezuela sugar shipped at Laguayra. There is
very little of it, and no more can be got at present,
owing to the demand on the spot for refining. A friend
of ours has given us a sample which shows it to be a
most beautiful sugar, full of saccharine matter, and
of an excellent colour and quality. If a sufficient
quantity of sugar of this kind can be obtained either
from America or Asia, or both, it will be a most
valuable addition to the existing supply, and will have
a great effect on prices.---Liverpool Times.

FEMALE PEASANTRY IN THE SOUTIL—In the re-
moter extremities of the county of Limerick, I saw, for
the first time, young females and grown-up women
carrying large wooden pails full of milk on their heads.
This was to me a wonderful as well as novel sight. They
walked at as rapid a pace with these wooden pails on
their head, without a hand touching them, as if they had
been so strapped to their head as to render it impossible
for them to fall, or the milk in any way to spill. Neither
men nor women in this country could per form this ex-
ploit, though so easy of performance to the female
peasantry in the south of Ireland. The further south
you go, the more frequently do you see women carrying
pails of milk or of water and other heavy burdens in
this way. Not only can they walk at full speed with
these utensils full of milk or water on their head without
the aid of their hands, but some of them can leap over
short hedges or small dykes, without the pails being dis-
placed, or even a single drop of their contents being spilt.
The female peasantry in the south of Ireland are allowed
on all hands to possess finer figures than the women in
the rural districts of any other part of that country ;
and the reason is supposed to be the erect manner in
which they are obliged to walk when carrying burdens
on their heads which require a certain stateliness as well
as steadiness of carriage.—Impressions of Ireland and
the Irish.

The Earl of Eldon, it seems, has anted most libe-
rally towards the biographer of his grandfather, having
presented Mr. Horace Twiss not only with the copyright
of all the Eldon papers, but with a cheque for 1,0001.
into the bargain.—Wiltshire Independent.
REWARDS FOR HUMANITY AND COURAGE, BY THE
FRENCH GOVERNMENT.—The Moniteur publishes a list
of the names of 230 persons who have just received me-
dals, as honorary rewards, for humane and courageous
acts, reported to the Minister of the Interior between
the 31st of January last and the 9th of the present month.
These acts consisted chiefly of rescues from drowning,
fire, and other perils attended with personal risk to the
parties performing them, and of devotedness and seal on
the part of the public functionaries in the discharge of
their duty. The medals awarded are all of silver, with
the exception of one of gold granted to M. Carlus, the
deputy-mayor of Salvagnac, in the Tarn, for the extra-
ordinary courage and intrepedity manifested by hies in
rushing upon a ruffian, who, after having shot a female,
and snapped another loaded pistol, which fortunately did
not go off, at a priest, was snaking his escape, threatening
to fire upon any person who touched him, when he was
was overtaken by M. Carlus, who boldly, although at
that time quite alone, called upon him to surrender. The
assassin, awed by the energy of the magistrate, instead
of firing upon him, put the pistol into his own mouth,
and blew out his brains.

I 'TIM SURREY TOLLS.—Thursday the tolls arising
at the several toll-gates, namely, Newington-gate, Ken-
nington-common-gate, &c., to East Grinstead-gato, in
the county of Sussex, which were let last year for 28,5001.,
were let to Mr. Levy for 26,5001
It is reported that a legacy of 6,0001. has been
bequeathed by a deceased member to the Cambridge
Camden Society.—Cambridge Advertiser.
RUNNING MATCH FOR 101.—On Thursday a 200
yards race came off near the Brocknock Arms, Camden-
town, between Stevens and Williams. At the start the
men got off well together, and at the nearing the win-
ning goal Stevens went away, and won cleverly by five
yards. Tho diatance was run in thirty-seven seconds.
FOOT-RAGE AT DERBY.—On Monday last, a fell
contested race of 140 yards, for 25 sovs., took place on
the London-road, between John Shaw, of Doncaster, and
S. Aston, of Ifandsworth, near Birmingham, which was
won by the latter by about half a yard. 4 second race
took place between B. Hand and G. Day, both of
Derby, foi and' after a desperate ilbrugglas it was
given in a dead hot,

- -
SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—When commenting recently on the case
of Mr. David Salomons, we took occasion to refer to
the unsatisfactory state of the law respecting as to
the form of the declaration required, as a preliminary
qualification, for municipal offices. The following
case illustrates the necessity of revising the law and
regulating the practice in the Court of Chancery
with reference to judicial oaths. The present state
of the law is obviously a source of inconvenience to
suitors in that Court, seeing it increases the costs
and occasions delay. The case alluded to, which
occurred yesterday in the Vice-Chancellor's Court,
will explain the mode by which these results are pro-
duced :
Mr. Lloyd moved for a special dedimus directed to
Commissioners, to take the answer of a defendant named
Pringle, and to administer such oath to him as would be
binding on his conscience. Mr. Lloyd, in support of the
motion, said the party was a Seotchinan, and be had
some religious scruple to kissing the book when taking
the oath, and he desired lie should be sworn by holding
up his right hand. The former Commissioners had
refused to take the answer in that way.
"Mr. Bethel!, without opposing the motion, suggested
whether the Court, upon the mere statement of counsel,
would grant the application without requiring an affi-
davit of the facts.
" The Vice-Chancellor having consulted with the
Registrar, said the thing could not be done without an
affidavit.
" The case was, therefore, ordered to stand over for
that purpose."
For an oath to be worth anything, it must be bind-
ing on the conscience of the party. Yet, such is the
absurdity of the practice with which the Chancery
Commissioners in this case, and probably in other
cases, are enamoured, that they insist upon swearing a
witness by a form which he avows is not . binding
upon his conscience ! They require a Sewchnian to
" kiss the book ;" when the religion which he pro-
fesses, and the universal practice of the courts of law
in that part of the United Kingdom of which he is a
native, require him to " hold up his right hand," when
taking the oath. The tender of a declaration "on
the true faith of a Christian," to a member of the
Jewish faith only equals this. The mockery of that
which all men agree to regard as sacred, and the insult
it offers to the individual, are alike to be condemned.
To obtain the requite testimony of a witness by an
oath, the forms of administering which his conscience
will recognise and approve, an affidavit of the facts must
be made; and then a special dedimus must issue, giv-
ing permission—as a personal favour, and as an act of
condescension in the Court to the weakness of the
witness—to the Commissioners, to swear him by the
form which, he alleges, will be binding on his con-
science. Without here entering upon the question as to
the potency of oaths to extract truth from reluctant or
mendacious witnesses in courts of justice, we may
venture to ask, whether it be advisable to adhere to
specific forms, when those forms are objected to, on ap-
parently conscientious grounds by witnesses; and
whether they do not rather defeat than aid the object for
which they are employed? A party produced as a
witness in a court of justice, whether civil or
criminal, or before any commission authorised and
directed to take evidence in any suit or inquiry,
should be allowed to test the truth of his testi-
mony by any form of oath which he renders
apparent to be that binding upon his conscience ;
or if he conscientiously object to judicial oaths, in any
form, then to make and sign a declaration.
This, Quakers, Moravians, and Separatists (?) are, by
special statutes, allowed to do. Let a law be passed,
substituting a declaration in lieu of an oath in all
judicial investigations in which members of the now
exempted sects are permitted to substitute a decla-
ration for an oath. The penalties of perjury
should attach to an engagement by the wit-
ness to " speak the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth." Great practical advan-
tages, without being accompanied by the slightest
inconvenience, would result from abolishing (ex-
cept in the case of the sects referred to) the im-
perative obligation to be sworn in a judicial proceeding
by a specific form. The truth is, that adherence to
a specific form in many cases, weakens the force of
the obligation. The form is evaded; and the trick.,
successfully performed, is supposed to abrogate the
obligation. An ignorant and mendacious witness of
the Roman Catholic Church, considers that the form
of a cross upon the cover of the New Testament
is requisite to compel him to adhere to the truth in
giving his testimony ; and that he is relieved front
this obligation if the book he kisses, when taki%,l2,
the judicial oath, be without that figure. A Protes.7.
taut swearer, who is indisposed to comply v;ith the
terms of the oath, thinks he has escaped fro...n the obli-
gation if he can manage to insert his tb.ktrab between
the cover of the book and his lips, an kiss the former
instead of the latter. Persons wh.o are in the habit
of attending police-offices and ot!,ler courts of criminal
jurisprudence, are familiar wi4,:n such attempts to evade
the obligation. Such ir.6tances show the influence
which mere forms eur'cise over ignorant, and there-
fore superstitiwas, Minds ; and suggest that where the
forms art retained, the oath should be solemnly and
impressively administered by the presiding judge, and
7..0t, as now, slobbered over by one of the lowest un-
derlings of the Court.

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS.
CITY, E.
CHRONICLE.—The circular ofHURSDAY Mr. JohnVENING lisilton
and Son, share-brokers, of Manchester, for the 11th
inst., states that since their last monthly circular of the
14th of October, there have been put forth flirty-one
new prospectuses of railway schemes, and the shares
applied for in each have far exceeded the number to be
issued. On the 14th of August upwards of ninety new
lines, requiring more than 60,000,000/. of subscribed
capital to complete them, were put forward, to which
add the above forty-one, stating a requirement of
35,265,0001., together upwards of 131, needing an inve.t.,
meet of 95,265,0001., with the power of borrowing; one-
third more, devoted to the same object, making a grand
total of 127,020,0001. The five per cent. which Parlia-
ment requires to be advanced on the subscribed capital
must give a speedy circulation to 4,762,166/. It, there-
fore, clearly behoves all the least experienced not to un-
dertake more engagements than they can permanently
support, for the instances are but few where works have
not had the most severe reverses long before they were
completed. Moreover, should any sudden change take
place in the Money Market, the present prices of many
stocks will be with difficulty supported. " The draw-
ing forth so much new labour, as works to the above
extent require, ought to impress the Board of Trade
with the importance of exercising a sound discretion
in their decisions." Messrs. Railton and Sun do not
allude to the stringent character of the New Bank Char-
ter Act. The public ought to keep in view that the
country banks cannot now " create money," to foster
speculations, as they did in former years of excitement.
They are tied down to a maximum of issues, and if the
active demands upon their tills for paper should exceed
the specified limits, they must draw on their deposits or
reserved funds, and obtain Bank of England paper by
the sale of securities or gold. This consideration will no
doubt render the banks cautious, and prevent an infla-
tion of prices, to be followed, as on all similar occasions,
by revulsionary panic. It is proper to observe that there
is not much reason to suppose that of the whole
127,000,0001.. alluded to by Messrs. ltailton and Son,
as being required to make the newly proposed railways,
so much as one-half of that sum will ever be actually
" called," and that the payments will be diffused over a
series of years. The sum stated, therefore, looks more
formidable on paper than it will be in reality.
HERALD.—An impression has very generally pre-
vailed in the monetary circles for a week or two past,
that the Directors of the Bank of England were resolved
upon raising the rate of discount to three per cent.
This impression has doubtless induced many persons to
withhold their money from employment, in order to get
it more advantageously placed, the feeling in the
banking circles being general, that if the Bank of Eng-
land would take the lead, they would establish a higher
rate at all events to the beginning of the year. We have
reason to believe, however, that there was no good ground
fur such an impression being entertained by the Direc-
tors of the Bank. As we mentioned yesterday, the
Directors have no longer the responsibility of the circu-
lating medium of the country on their shoulders ; and
therefore, that as a banking institution they may
be fairly and reasonably expected to consult their
own interest as to the terms upon which they will
accommodate their customers, and without reference
to the position of other parties. Supposing, indeed, that
the Bank Directors still felt themselves responsible for
the general currency of the country, no circumstance
has occurred beyond the railway speculations to render
any advance in the value of money a matter of pre-
sumable expedience. As it respects the speculations in
railway shares, taken as a justifiable ground for restrict-
ing the currency, it can scarcely be said any longer to
exist in a dangerous form, since public attention has
been so pointedly directed to the inevitable consequences
which will follow if it be persisted in. There is every
reason to believe that for the present undue speculation
in shares is pretty well knocked on the bead, and all
that remains to be done is for the Board of Trade and
the Legislature to take the necessary steps to prevent
the expenditure on railways exceeding the amount of
capital thrown off from the current industry of the
country. The expectation, as we have above stated, was
very general, that tho Directors of the Bank would, at
the usual weekly meeting hold to-day, increase their
rate of discount, but we believe we may aver with safet3>
that no such change has yet been in contemplation,

EXTENSIVE SALE OF HOUSES.—TIDE VALUE Or
FREEHOLD PROPERTY.—On Thursday a s:de by auction
took place at the Auction-mart, by Mr. G. Robins, of
property situated in Lisson-grove, consisting of several
valuable freehold ground rents, producing a clear income
of 2401. per annum, secured upon fifty-six freehold houses,including shops and corner houses, the annual
value of which was near 2,0001,, the reversion in fee a
which went to the purchaser in seventy-five years, which
was the period of the several leases. The auction room
was crowded, and several gentlemen of large capital were
present. The total ground rent amounted to 2401. 55.,
and the yearly root of the houses to 1,9131. The pro-
perty fetched 7,4861. 10s. Among the lots was the Lle,pe
and Anchor public-house, which was subject to no
ground rent ; the rent was 1501. per annum. It was a
ee-farm rent, and the reversion tell to the purchaser in
seventy-five years, This went for 100 guineas.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.
COURT OF CHANGERE—Nov. 15.

The Lord Chancellor heard cause petitions, lunatic
petitions, and appeals to-day.

IN THE CASE OF THE FEVERSHAM CHARITIES.

This case came before the Court upon petition,
praying the confirmation of the Master's report, ap-
pointing two new trustees to certain extensive charities
in Feversham. A reference was directed to the Master
to appoint new trustees in the room of two gentlemen
who had left the parish, one now residing at Dover, and
thi other at Finsbury. The Master appointed two
gentlemen, and the object of the present application was
to confirm that report.
His LORDSHIP ordered the report to be confirmed.
The Court then disposed of the several lunatic peti-
tions bn the paper, and afterwards proceeded with the
part-heard appeal of Livesey v. Livesey, which occupied
the Court the whole day.