The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-01 00:00:00

UNIVERSITY INTELLIGENCE.

OXFORD, DEC. 30.—Messrs. C. J. Webber, C. V.
Harcourt, H. A. Hervey, and C. S. Fortescue, have been
elected students of Christ Church.

The Rev. T. Dry, of Merton College, has been unani-
mously elected head-master of Sir W. Paston's Free
Grammar School, North Walaham, Norfolk.
The following clergymen have been installed as pre-
bendaries of Hereford cathedral :—The Rev. W. E.
Evans, Rev. J. Veen, Rev. J. B. Webb, Rev. W. J.
Thornton.

The Rev. W. Grigsen has been presented, on his own
petition, to the rectories of Whinbergh and Westfield, in
the county of Norfolk—value 243/. per annum.
The Dean and Canons of Windsor have presented the
Rev. S. J. Lott to the perpetual curacy of Branniuch,
Devonshire—value 1021. per annum.
F. Nassau, Esq., has presented the Rev. B. Poring to
the rectory of Fersfield;,,in the county of Norfolk—value
325/. per annum. •
The Marquis of Bristot has presented the Rev. J. A.
Smith to the rectory of Shotley, in the county of Suffolk
—value 6041. per annum.

The Dean and Chapter of Norwich have presented the
Rev. J. Spurrell to the perpetual curacy of West Beck-
ham, in the county of Norfolk—value 61/. per annum.

SUPPOSED CHEMICAL CAUSE OF TIM FIBS AT
LIVERPOOL.—We have received the following from a
correspondent :—" It is known that the strong smell of
sugar, proceeding from the stoves of sugar-houses, is a
gas liable to ignition. The places about the stoves are
kept very air• tight. The particularly heavy atmosphere
which has prevailed for a length of time may have
assisted the accumulation and favoured the chemical
changes to which this gas is liable to a point when explo-
' sion must take place, without any contact of flame, but
from the affinities and particular state of electricity
governing the elements composing the sugar gas, to re-
; solve itself into now combinations. We trust the sub-
ject will be taken up by scientific men." It was currently
reported through the town that the men were locked in
when at work, but there is no truth whatever in the
tatatement.—Liverpool Journal.

MAGAZINE DAY.
BLACKWOOD'S 2kIAGAZEVE.

It is curious to see this high-Tory periodical—
this staunch advocate for prerogative—this un-
flinching assertor fur years of " the right divine
of Kings to govern wrong"—now, at length,
coming forward and acknowledging that,
" hitherto, the municipal laws and institutions
of this country have been defective, inasmuch as
they have made or little or no provision for the
adequate instruction of the people. Much, no
'
doubt,"bas been already done, but much still re-
mains to be done." What, is it Maga that thus
insists on the education of the " vulgar masses,
and alludes without a sneer to the " Great Un-
washed?" Is it Maga that has at last found out
that the old " municipal institutions" were de-
fective—she who strenuously resisted every pro-
position for their reform when brought forward
by the Whigs? We look to the title-page, &c.,
of the Magazine to see whether we are not in
error—but no, the grave, but abominably ugly
face of old George Buchanan oii the wrapper,
convinces us that there is' " no mistake,' and
that Blackwood is really becoming a very re-
spectable Reformer, like the rest of civilized
humanity. What a striking evidence is here
of the irresistible force of public opinion !
Five years ago we should as soon have
thought of seeing this desperate Tory pe-
riodical advocate the education of the people, as
of seeing the Bishop of Exeter play Columbine
in the pantomime. The " State Prosecutions,"
in which the above remark occurs, is, we pre-
sume, the production of a lawyer, or, at any
rate, of one who betrays in every page quite a
nervous anxiety to display his legal lore to ad-
vantage. It is a heavy article, and as dry as a
chip. The " Adventures in Texas" are resumed
this month, which we are glad to see, for the
series abounds in stirring variety of incidents,
which are put together with the dramatic tact of
a practised workman. In the political diatribe,
headed " Position and Prospects of the Govern-
ment," the writer rings the Tory tocsin, and calls
on all his party to organise, so as to neutralise
the influence of the Anti-Corn-law League.
" Let every existing Conservative Club, or As-
sociation," he says, be stirred up into increased
action, and put into real working.trim forthwith."
This is energetic advice, but it- is too late. The
vantage ground on which they have stood for
the last two years, is gradually giving way be-
neath the feet of the Conservatives; there is
discord in their councils—vacillation among
their chiefs—distrust and perplexity among their
subordinates—and instead of rallying or organis-
ing, they are far more likely to split into sections,
each of whom will make a point of keeping
jealously aloof from the other. With their great
opponent, the League, on the other hand, all
is strict combination—strenuous, persevering
action. Every move they make is as nicely
calculated as the moves on a chess-board.
They sound their way with the utmost precau-
tion—heave the lead so as to keep clear of shoal-
water. Hence their extraordinary success, which
is the natural result of boldness chastened by
judgment. In the present chapters of " Mars-
ton, or the Memoirs of a Statesman," we have
some life-like sketches of the advance of the
allied armies upon France under the Duke of
Brunswick, together with a portait of that
Quixotic republican, Lafayette, after his deser-
tion of his own troops. The Duke is painted in
far too flattering colours, for he had little more
of the soldier about him than his uniform, and
with all his resources was never able for any
length of time to make. successful head against
the raw French conscripts. The " New Art of
Printing." is a whimsical quiz upon the present
mania for illustration, wherein it is ironically re-
commended that artists should be everywhere
substituted for authors, and that novels,
politics, reviews, &c., should be engraved in-
stead of written. The " Banking-house" is now
brought to a close, appropriately winding up
with the crash of Mr. Allcraft's establishment,
his own utter ruin, and subsequent fall in a duel,
where he received ample " satisfaction" right
through the centre of the brain ! His last inter-
view with his clerk is worth quoting, and we give
it accordingly :
" ' Do not take on so, my dear Sir,' said Burrage,
running to him. Pray, be calm. lam sure you are
unwell. You have been ill for some time. You
should see a doctor—although I am very much afraid
that your disease is beyond their cure—in truth I am.'
" Burrage,' said Michael in a whisper, and still
sighing convulsively—' It is all over. It is finished.
Prepare for the crash—look to your own safety.
Hide yourself from the gaze of men. It will strike
us all dead.'

" You frighten me, Mr. Allcraft—you are really
very ill. Your brain is over-worked—you want a
little repose and recreation.'
" Yes, you are right Burrage—the recreation of
a gaol—the repose of a tomb. We will have one, at
least—yes, one—and I have made the selection.'
" ' Have you heard any bad news to-day, Sir ?'
" None—excellent news to-day. No more hopes
and fears—no alarms—no lying and knavery—eternal
peace now, and not eternal wretchedness.'
" ' Ilad you not better leave the bank, Mr. Allcraft,
and go home ? Your hands are burning hot. You
are in a high fever.'
" Put up the shutters—put up the shutters,'
muttered Michael, more to himself than to his clerk.
Write bankrupt on the door—write it in large letters
—in staring capitals—that the children may read the
word, and know why they are taught to curse me.
You hear me, Burrage ?'
" ' I hear what you say, Sir, but I do not under-
stand you. You want rest—you are excited.'
" I tell you, Burrage, lam quiet—l never was
so quiet—never sounder in body and mind. Will
you refuse to listen to the truth ? Man,' he con-
tinutheed,farcaei:in, i raising his voice
ean—d
aloobeggar. The bank isking the clerk steadily
in
at its last gasp. The doors are closed to-night--
never to be re-opened.'
" God forbid, Sir ?'
" Why io ?—would you drive me mad ? Am I
to have no peace—no rest ? Am Ito be devoured,
eaten away by anxiety and trouble ? Have you no
human blood--no pity for me ? Are you as selfish
as the rest ?'

" ' Is it possible, Sir ?'
"' It is the truth. But speak not of it. I will
l,los,
.n more.
tale.llYou
ho
yu
hearVhave your life if you betray me until the event tells
its
They are very simple
‘o
if you could nt
guess their meaning ?'
" ' Oh—l have dreaded this—l have suspected it l'
said Burrage, wringing his hands; ' but it has always
Idoe closey theou words.ts htae re door
so,
as
no to-night, to open it
seemed impossible. Poor Mr. Allcraft l'
" ' Poor!' exclaimed Michael. 'Do you begin
already ? Do you throw it in fny teeth so soon?
You are in the right, man—go with the stream—
taunt me—spit in my face—trample mein the dust !' "

BENTLEY'S MISCELLANY.
The most attractive feature in this month's
Miscellany is decidedly Mr. Murray's " Phy-
siology of London Life." The theme has been
often discussed, but it is one of those few of which
we may say with truth that it is inexhaustible.
For London is not a mere wealthy capital of
vast dimensions, but an epitome of the whole
world. It has its races-omits tribes—its colonies
—each of which is as distinct from the other,
and has as little in common with it, as the
Yankee has with the Red Indian. Moreover, it
has its strictly defined boundary lines which
separate the regions of civilisation from those of
barbarism; and we firmly believe that the inha-
bitant of Belgrave-square knows less of the
manners, tastes, habits, &C., of the half-savage
mountaineers of Islington or Brixton-hill, than
t
he knows of the usages of the Esquimaux. It
is not ten years since Mr. Croker publicly con-
fessedsesqu haisreig;
dis-
covery has been so tardy since that period, that
we believe even now
.the latitude and longitude
ignorance n
tciel e of
progresshe of northern
geography of Rus-
sell-square
this all but terra incognita are not correctly
ascertained. We once heard of a man of fashion
who by accident found his way into it, and when
some hours after be returned to his acquaintances
at the Carlton, and
.described the impression
made on him by the singular appearance of the
natives, it was considered a miracle that he
had escaped the scalping-knife and the toma-
hawk. Many books have been written on " Ger-
many and the Germans," " Italy and the
Italians," " Ireland and the Irish," but we think
a work on ‘, Islington and the Islingtonians"
would be far more curious and novel, revealing,
as it would do, primitive modes of life, costume,
tastes, and prejudices, of which the fashionable
West-end has little 9r no conception. To say
nothing of other striking differences, midnight at
Islington is high-noon at Belgrave-square; and
when the civilised denizens of the latter locality
are just sitting down to dinner, the unsophisti-
cated tribes of the former have concluded their
supper, and are journeying bed-ward. Mr.
Murray, who writes so well about London and
its suburbs, should take this theme in hand. We
know quite enough about Africa, and it is high
time we should know something of that un-
travelled district lying eastward of Gray's Inn-
lane, or of the still more remote region
of Brixton, which among other primitive
luxuries, rejoices in the comforts of a treadmill.
The " Fortunes of the Scattergood Family" opens
with a lively sketch of the Essex marshes, and a
journey in a night-waggon from Romnford to
London. The author is Albert Smith, who always
writes best when he relies on his own resources,

and does not imitate Boz. The illustrations by
Leech are excellent. The " Genuine Remains
of William Little" is to us wholly unintelligible.
It is well-timed, however, forming, as it does, an
agreeable Christmas puzzle. In the " Fish-
street Catastrophe" the denouement is too long
delayed, and the poem frequently hangs fire.
The " Gaol Chaplain" contains a narrative of a
" Banker's Clerk," which is supposed to be re-
lated by a policeman. The story is ably told,
particularly that portion of it which refers to the
Castlereagh spy-system. The observations, which
we subjoin, on head-waiters, &c., are from an en-
tertaininti article entitled " The London Hotel-
keeper :"
" Among the memorabilia of hotels is the übiquity
and insomnolency of head- waiters. At all hours of
the day, and night these wretched creatures are
primed for service. The family which returns at
four from a ball, or the family which rises at five to
start on a journey, finds them equally alert, after
having waited at all the tables, and slaved after all the
rings of all the bells the preceding day. It may
be doubted, indeed, whether they behold their beds
throughout the season,—a slight ablution or change
of wig, being their utmost refreshment. Hence the
curious weazoned old-boyish air of this peculiar and
much enduring race of men, compelled to curtsy and
submission to as many masters as the toad lying under
the harrow, when ilka tooth gave her a tug !" Be
it not supposed that we have aught to urge against
the venerable dignity of the Clarendon, or the modern
refinements of Mivart's Apartment des Princes.
These, and many others, are excellent after their
kind. Moreover, if people choose to be victimized
by a hotel-keeper, the act and deed is their own. We
are ready to attest that, when an Irish peer adduced
to a Brook-street hotel-keeper a charge of three-and-
sixpence a-bottle for soda-water in a former bill as a
reason for having betaken himself elsewhere, mine
host urbanely replied, Your Lordship ought to have
told me what you intended to give. When properly
arranged with, I can charge as reasonably as anybody.
What can an hotel-keeper say more ?
" But for this highway and byway robbery during
the haivest of the season, how, in fact, could the
hotel-keeper enable himself to get through the autumn,
when his house might just as well be closed as her
Majesty's theatres, for any moneys taken at the
doors? Saving painters and white-washers, not a
soul crosses his threshold ; unless, now and then,
some skinflint of a dowager, on her way through
London from Broadstairs to her dower-house in some
midland county, who saving for the sops of her parrot,
and the board of her maid, expends not a sixpence in
the hotel ;—or a brace of tender parents conveying
some young hopeful to Eton, and spending four- and-
twenty reluctant hours in London, for a preparatory
visit to the dentist. For six or eight months, in short,
every caravanserai stands empty as the heads of the
honourables and lordlings who frequent it in May
and July; its kitchen-range rusting; its curtains and
hangings being required to down with their dust,'
instead of its customers. Nevertheless, rent, taxes,
and waiters, must be paid as regularly as if the
hotel-keeper were not taking his pleasure at Rams-
gate, and his customers at three hundred miles dis-
tance. And how is this to be effected, we should
like to know, unless by charging three-and .sixpence
a bottle for soda-water while the sun shines, and the
town is crowded ?"