The Sun.
London, England, 1845-05-12 00:00:00

THE CONDEMNED SERMON.
(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)
On Wednesday, in answer to a question from Captain
Polhill, in respect to condemned sermons, Sir James
Graham observed that "communications had taken
place between his predecessor, Lord Normanby, and the
Corporation of London ; and that, in consequence, the
Corporation had made a regulation prohibiting the ad-
mission of the public to hear the condemned sermons on
the Sunday previous to an execution." He also added,
" that he (Sir James Graham) had ordered a prison in-
spector to proceed to Newgate to inquire into the cir-
cumstances connected with the last execution, and to
examine the transactions both of the Sunday and the
Monday morning." ..Alderman Copeland, after ex-
pressing his satisfaction at such a proceeding, observed
that "he thought the time had arrived when these public
exhibitions should be dispensed with altogether : after
the execution, he, in his capacity of magistrate, had
committed many persons for trial, and had con-
victed three for picking pockets even under the
gallows." There are many who defend the pu-
nishment of death for the sake of the bene-
ficial example it affords ; but surely their opinion
would be changed if they but regarded the police re-
ports after an execution—if they witnessed the feverish
excitement such an event creates among the lower or-
ders—if they beheld the eager multitudes waiting for the
verdict, or crowding to the chapel, not •to hear the ser-
mon, but to see the prisoner—above all, if they knew
the horrors of the scene of death. Can there be a mere
awful spectacle, than a public execution ?
—" It is a fearful thing
To see the human soul take wing
In any shape—in any mood"—
but at such a time death is robed in all his terrors; pain
and sickness have not prepared the way to the grave ;
faith and piety have not opened the path to Heaven; and
he, the least prepared to die, is "cut off in the very
blossom of his sins," and hurried from an earthly tribunal
to appear before a Judge " who is of purer eyes than to
behold iniquity." But if it be a mournful sight
to behold the sinner on the threshold of eternity, is it
not even worse to look upon the spectators ? Do we
find them sorrowing for a brother's fall ?—do we hear
the voice of pity or compassion ? No ; they crowd
round the scaffold to behold the show—brutal ferocity
depicted on their countenances—their only feeling for
the prisoner, admiration for his firmness, or contempt
for his pusillanimity—some even engaged in breaking the
commandments beneath the very gallows on which a
fellow-creature expiates his crime. Children are there,
raised in their parents' arms ; and even women look on
the scene with curiosity, and not emotion. Truly it may
be said that—

" Every woe a tear may claim,
Except an erring brother's shame."
A public execution is the most demoralising spectacle
any age or country can produce. Instead of warning
by example, it offers a premium to crime ; it holds
up a man stained with another's blood as a theme for
interest—an object for wonder and notoriety. In this
"age of intelligence" we look with horror at the com-
bats with wild animals, which amused the ancients ; but
even the fights of the gladiators were less terrible in
their consequences than the gloomy scenes which are
constantly recurring in this civilised country, in the
nineteenth century. Sir James Graham expressed his
opinion that such proceedings require investigation: we
trust he will find on considering the matter, that if
capital punishments are absolutely necessary, they shall
no longer afford gratification to the morbid tastes of
ignorant multitudes, or debase humanity, by rendering
crime an object of admiration and not of horror.

INNOVATIONS OF THE DAY.
One of the old poets, IN ho flourished in the days o.
Queen Be•ss, observed,
" In England's happy land,

Fashion and fame go always hand In hand."

_ .
This old distich, which has survived the wear and tear
of nearly three centuries, is more than ever true at the
commencement of the present season. The weird sisters,
Fashion and Fame, still roam together " hand in hand,"
and have deigned to pay a lengthened visit to the esta-
blishment of Messrs. Nicoll, in Regent-street, who have
done so much to welcome their wayward guests, that
there seems but little probability that they will abandon
their present abode, and " the men, the horrid men," as
Lady Booby says, are doing their utmost to set off their
persons to the best advantage, and for this purpose
those who are endowed with taste and judgment inva-

riably repair to this Establishment, which is always
supplied with the last caprice of the Parisian lions. The
trite and homely proverb says, that it is impossible to
make a silken purse out of a certain porcine appendage;
but although this remark has stood tbs test of ages, the
Messsrs. Nicoll have shown its tut:A-thy, as some of their
clients, on whom nature has been somewhat chary of
her bounty, when turned out in registered paktuts, and
other necessary habiliment% by the artists of this Esta-
blishment, would pass mutter with the most elegant of the
slim beaux who talk scaAal in the bow window at White's.
The Count de Grar.Lmont, who was seldom known to
go to bed-, at least; or the purpose of sleepivg, would
perhaps have bow a more drowsy mortal if he could
have repos,A Isis pleasure-worn frame upon such a
luxurious lied as that which has recently been invented
by Wilsr4r, the upholsterer, in Wigmore-street, Since
every new pomaturn or hair oil is now a Greek compound,
th.',s novel bedstead, out of deference to the established
usage, has been christened the Philokathanistic, for the
definition of which term we refer our unlearned readers
to their lexicons. As the old yellows," with their
four posters, have been swept away by the railroad en-
croachments, so are the old massive four-post bedsteads
destined to be supplanted by these light and elegant
couches. The unwieldy masses of mahogany which for-
merly propped up the tester are replaced by four light
brass rods, supporting the canopy, which, by means of a
simple piece of mechanism in the bedstead, can be lifted
up and down at pleasure, thus enabling the servant to
clean, adjust, and brush the whole bed- furniture within the
space of a few minutes. We recommend a visit to Wig-
more-street, to judge respecting the merits of this inven-
tion. Whilst our readers are in Wigmore-street, we would
suggest that they would do well to look in at the atelier
of Clark, the statuary, who has a superb collection of
casts from- the antique, as well as from little scraps and
corners of Gothic atchitecture, which he has collected in
his rambles through Normandy and other parts of the
continent. his designs for monuments and emblazoned
tombs arc remarkable for the correct taste which he has
displayed in their selection. Whilst looking over the
" storied urns" and monumental efiVg,es, we see how—

" The sculptor's art exhausts the pomp of woe,"
and we are shown a thousand different designs by which
we could re, ord our respect for departed friends or rela-
tises. Mr. Clark has also recently completed several
statues and busts, one particularly, that of Salmacis,
one of Diana's attendant nymphs, which is exquisitely
beautiful. Pope talks about a lady who possessed such
tender feelings that—
" To make a wash she'd hardly stew a child."

Now, the ladies of China, Japan, and Persia, who are re-
markable for the beauty and dearness of their com-
plexions, attribute this delicacy to the use of a cosmetic,
which, whether it be made of stewed children or no, is
certainly endowed with wondrous properties. We are
told that the ingredients are principally herbaceous ;
but, then, Professor Liebig declares that " man is a
vegetable," which relieves the cannibals of a very
serious imputation. This cosmetic is called " Nieen
Fun," and the long secreted recipe was revealed by
a priest of the temple of Teen 'ran to Dr. Charles
Malcolm, who has appointed Fabian and Co. to be his
agents for dispensing it to the ladies of this country.
It' Mrs. Commissioner Lin has as good a complexion as
has been bestowed upon her in the wax-work representa-
tion, we should need no stronger proof of the efficacy of
the Celestial skin powder. We can assure our lady
readers that we are in earnest, and that we do not mean
fun merely when we advise them to give this cosmetic a
trial. We recently had the pleasure of recording cur admi-
ration of the choice collection of articles of verb!, hijouterie,
and orfeuerie, which is displayed at Piot's establishment
on the Boulevard des Italiens in Paris. We learn from
persona who have just returned from the French capital
that he has lately made an immense addition to his
stock, and that his shop has become the " Storr and
Mortimer" of Paris. The most flattering accounts are
received in this country of the tuste and workmanship
which are displayed in all the articles exposed for sale in
his establishment.—itforning Post.

THE WINE TRADE.—We understand that Mr
Dixon, the chairman of the Wine and Spirit Association of Liver.
pool, who made application in January to the Lords of the Trea.
Bury on behalf of the trade for an increase in the allowances for
the natural wastage of wines in bond, and also again in the begin-
ning of last month, for a revision of the order, and a still greater
increase in the allowances on the different sized casks in the bonded
warehouses or vaults of extra security at the outporte, to both of
which representations their Lordships returned a favourable reply,
after consideration of the reports and opinions of the revenue
officers on the matter, has recently made a further application to
their Lordships, praying that the wines which were delivered in
the interim between the date of the first and that of the second
order, may have the benefit of the increased allowances sanctioned
by the latter order; in other words, treating such wines retro.
spectively, in a manner somewhat similar to the recent Treasury
or.ler with respect to the return of the sanctioned allowance on
duty paid sugar in bond. Their Lordships have rejected the
application, as being contrary to the principle and established prac-
tice observed in cases of the kind, and have directed that the in.
creased allowance is to take place from the date of the latter order
sanctioning the same. We understand also that a memorial has
been made to the Lords of the Treasury by a number of wine-
merchants in one of the great cities in the west of England, we be-
lieve Exeter, setting forth that neither of the two orders issued
provides any allowance for casks under a certain size ; that Sicilian
or Marsala wine, of which so large a quantity is now imported and
consumed in this country, is generally brought In very small casks ;
and praying that the order may be further amended, so as to in.
elude casks of the size alluded to. The memorial is at present under
the consideration of their Lordships, and from the spirit and inten.
tinn of the former orders on the matter, it is not improbable that
the request will be conceded.
Tare remains of the late Earl of Stamford and
Warrington, which were removed from Greville Hall on Monday,
were interred in the family mausoleum at Bolton Church, about
two miles from Dunham Massey, on Wednesd'.
On Wednesday afternoon, a resp,,ctably-dressed
man, having the appearance of a mechanic, was observed by the
police chalking, in large letters, on the pavement between the
fountains in Trafalgar- square, the words " Napoleon for ever I "
Upon being desired to desist, he positively refused, and they
water was,
drawnhowever
him
out, , toohe
was shal
f
imme-
diately proceeded to take him into custody, when he broke from
their gratp, and threw himself into one of the reservoirs. The
Icoavirritedo drownona
sthreirc,hearntdo thethe policeGir d
having .
uet s•lsne dation. He i supposed
to Lse insane,