The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-15 00:00:00

SIIREWSBUIY, WOLVERHAAIPTON,
DUDLEY, and BIRMINGHAM RAILWAY.
At a numerous and most respectable public meeting of the in-
habitants of Wolverhampton, convened pursuant to a requisition,
held at the Public Office, the 14th October, 1844,
THOMAS HARLEY, Esq., in the Chair,
There were present on behalf of the Shrewsbury, Wolverhamp.
ton, Dudley, and Birmingham Company—
WILLIAM ORMSBY GORE, M.P., Chairman.
The lion. R. H. CLIVE, M.P., Deputy Chairman.
WILLIAM CHAD Vs ICK, Esq.
There were on behalf of the Grand Junction Company present—
T. GLADSTONE, Esq.
Captain HUISIL
J. SWIFT, Esq.
And on behalf of the Oxford, Worcester, and Wolverhampton
Company—
GEORGE BENJAMIN THORNEYCROFT, Esq.
Proposed by JOSEPH WALKER, Esq., and seconded by RICHARD
FRYER, Esq., and carried with seven dissentients.
"That as the inhabitants of this important town and neigh-
bourhood have derived but few advantages from the pre.
sent railway communication, it is the opinion of this
meeting that the projected Railway from Shrewsbury to Binning.
ham, through the mining and agricultural districts of Wellington,
Kerley, and Shiffnal, and also the important manufacturing towns
of Wolverhampton and Dudley, and the densely populated
districts of Oldbury and Smethwick, will be of considerable public
advantage, and of very great benefit to those several towns and
neighbourhoods, and this meeting pledges itself to use every ex-
ertion to promote such a measure.
Proposed by SIDNEY CARTWRIGHT, Esq., and seconded by JOSEPH
COOPER, Esq., and carried unanimously,
That a railway communication, as proposed, from Wolver-
hampton to Birmingham, by way of Dudley, through a population
almost unequalled in density, and a neighbourhood unparalleled
for the extent of its trade and manufactures, Cannot fail to insure
very great advantages to all parties locally connected with such
trades and manufactures ; and that the inhabitants of Wolver-
hampton would experience great convenience by having a First.
ela3l Station in their important town.
Proposed by ROBERT SIDNEY, Esq., and seconded by J. R.
ANDREWS, Esq., ai.d carried unanimously,
" That the thanks of this meeting be offered to the gentle-
men forming the deputation from the Committee of the
Shrewsbury, Wolverhampton, Dudley, and Birmingham line of
Railway, for their candid explanations, and the interest manifested
by them towards this town and neighbourhood.
Proposed by the Hon. ROBERT CLIVE, M.l'., and seconded by
WILLIAM ORMSBY GORE, F.sq., MP., and carried unanimously,
That the thanks of this meeting be given to the Chairman, for
his impartial and able conduct in the chair.
By order,
HILTON THOMAS JENKINS, Secretary.
3, Mcoriate-street, Oct. 15,1844.

NEW INVENTIONS IN DRESS AND

USEFUL LUXURIES.

The forms and verities of costume, and the multi-
plicities of elegant articles of personal and house-
hold luxury, have attained to such hi. ;11 artistic per-
fection, that one can hardly, with justice, refuse to
the inventors the merits and honours hitherto
exclusively accorde 1 to the professors of what are
designated, par excellence, the fine arts. The utilita-
rianism of the age is beginning to make little dis-
tinction between the creators of what is ideal
or abstracted, and what is real or of positive use, un-
less it be in favour of the latter. People now
argue—lf the sculptor require genius, to dispose
gracefully the drapery around his marble images—if
the painter must be gifted with divine inspiration, to
give beautiful shapes and brilliant colours to the ac-
cessories of his paintings—must not he who clothes
the living man with classical and tasteful garments,
or he who invents new and exquisite articles of re-
finement for daily purposes, be equally endowed with
the highest mental attribute ? Sculpture, painting,
poet, and music will not much longer be allowed
to monopolise the fame and glory of the fine arts—
they must condescend to share them with the other
branches of creative genius. At this moment, visit
the capital of the Russian empire, admire the fault-
less form of some fascinating princess, us she passes
you on her prancing steed, the Chances are you will
be told she is indebted,. for more than half her ele-
gance, to the Messrs. Nicoll, of Regent-street, who
are the artificers of her splendid riding-habit. See
the Emperor himself in his sable pelisse,
looking, as
he does, every inch a monarch—you will be in-
formed that he too has received the embellishments
of his outer man from the same London fashioners
To the Prussian metropolis, likewise, Prince 'William
bears with him many samples of the perfect taste of
these artists, while the young and handsome Due de
Montpensier is about to astonish the Parisians with
novelties in dress derived from the same source. Talk
of poets and painters—here is indeed a substantial
European reputation. Take another instance. Enter
the boudoir of some fair aristocrat ; note the rare col-
lection of superb bijouterie that surrounds you on
every side, the glittering albums, the fancifully em-
bellished writing-desk, the gorgeous inkstands, the
matchless vases of Bohemian glass and other crystals,
the innumerable nick-nackeries, brilliant and beautiful
beyond expression—with each and all of these the
name and fame of Messrs. Barry and Son, of the
Egyptian Hall, are linked as indissolubly as those of
Corregio and Raffaelle with the Magdalene and the
Saint Cecilia. Examine the perfumed notes of invi-
ration and the visiting cards that adorn your drawing-
room table, and mark the admirably-emblazoned
crests of the fair senders engraved and painted
thereon ; these, too, proclaim the art and skill of these
inventors of all that is brilliant in such articles of
luxurious fashion. Upon taking up Mrs. Postan's
agreeable work, " Facts and Fictions," the other day,
we were much amused with a description of the
anxiety and impatience evinced by the ladies of Bom-
bay, on the arrival of each vessel from Europe, to
possess themselves of the latest inventions of the cele-
brated modistes, Mesdames Herhault Nieces, of the
Rue Menard, Paris. Not a pelisse, nor a mantelette,
nor even a ribbon, would one of them select until she
had heard the last fiat pronounced by these oracles of
extreme goiit. Here is a fame, not merely European
but universal. The renown of Alexander the. Great
reached not so far eastward as that of these famous
Parisian milliners. Remark any strikingly delicate
green, porcelain blue, or dahlia-tinted silk, of surpass-
ing richness; or admire any of those most stylish
combinations of tartans, woven into the loveliest tex-
tures of unnumbered dies—infallibly you will be
answered that they are the produce of the looms of
Lyons, and that they have issued from the magazine
of Messrs. Gay and Denis, Rue de la Vrillire, Paris.
The inventors of novelties in dress and useful luxuries
have no right to complain of any want of appreciation
in the present generation.

LITERATURE.
ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 2 Vols.
Bentley, London, 1844.

The title of this work is not warranted by the con-
tents. It is too ambitious, and raises expectations
which a perusal of the volumes will be pretty sure to
disappoint. However, there is much that is enter-
taining in them—many clever sketches of French
character—especially of Louis XIV. and the well-
known Madame du Deffand—Horace IValpole's great
favourite, and who figures so conspicuously in his
correspondence—and also an intelligent memoir uf
Lady Rachael Russell. The work is essentially of a
desultory, gossiping character; is often subtle and in-
genious, seldom or never profound, in its reflections ;
and among the most amusing chapters, is one on the
subject of the introduction of operas into France. In
speaking incidentally of Charles 11., and of the trying
reverses and vicissitudes. of fortune to which he was
subj•icted in the earlier portion of his life, the author
justly remarks that nothing was capable of making a
deep impression on him, and that the numerous shifts
to which he had been reduced, both here and on the
Continent, in youth, "had sharpened his wits without
enlarging his intellect."