The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-07 00:00:00

P AND PEEL.

An honour'd letter would we mention—
P stands for Power—Place—and Pension ;
P for Preferment and Promotion,
The only aims of P--l's devotion.
Describe we Purse—P must begin it,
And eke Pecunia that should fill it-
1' the Premier's name must lead—
P Privy—Punish—Pardon—Plead,
P purchase Parliaments or Pay—
Postpone inquiry or delay.
Ye rival Letters can ye see,
This high distinction shown to P,
And not your numbers bravely try
To probe and find some reason why ?
Push out the Pension and the Place--
Push out the present paltry Race—
Poor-laws and Prisons—Parsons—Pride—
Tamworth Petitions, and what not beside—
Oust all the P's that give us Pain—
But let poor PROBITY remain.

NEW THEORY OF MESMERISM.

At the Queen's Rooms, illanover-square, yesterday,
Mr. Duncan delivered a lecture upon a new theory of
Mesmerism, alleged to have been discovered by Mr.
Baird, of Manchester, "an eminent surgeon." There
were about sixty persons present, many of them ladies,
and, to judge from their appearance, and the numerous
equipages which awaited them at the doors, the corn-
panyvonsistedlor the most part of the: "higher class."
Vlloe-Y,FM4.llAY4thAlAsPkitkofitikaiskalicuAtetadocLiir.-
Duncan s previous lectures in London, it is certain that
on this occasion not more than half-a-dozen entered the
lecture-room without paying at the door. However ex-
traordinary therefore might appear the patience with
which they sat out a dull lecture, and still duller illus-
trations, it could not be accounted for on the supposition
that they were friendly visitors, who came, without
curiosity, merely to support a favoured empiric. Indeed,
there was a good deal in the bearing of the lecturer him-
self to impress any but the most ill-natured that he was
not an imposter (as according to his statement he has
been styled), and that though his theory may be of little '
worth, he considers it supremely grand and important.
The first part of his discourse consisted chiefly of an
apology for the Mesmerists, of whose views and mode of
proceeding he showed the most profound ignorance. He
gave a clear, but somewhat stale and tiresome account
of the opposition which all new theories in science and
inventions in art have met with, and the persecutions
which their propounders have endured since the days of
Copernicus, to Harvey and Fulton ; and he very reason-
ably claimed that the facts offered by the Mesmerists
and his own instructor, Mr. Baird, should at least be
investigated before they were rejected. He_read an ex-
position of Mr. Baird's theory, written by that gentle-
man himself ; from which we learned, that, looking
steadfastly in a particular direction, and at one object,
for some time, produces congestion of the brain, and a
train of inexplicable derangements, in the condition and
functions of the heart, &c., which, he affirms, constitute
the mesmeric sleep ! The absurdity of this doctrine
was not greater than that of the method which the lecturer
employed for proving its infallibility. A very interest-
ing little girl, some twelve or thirteen years of age,
who has frequently been the subject of the experiment,
was placed in a chair. The lecturer then lifted up her
right arm with the index finger erect, opposite to her
face, and directed her to look at that finger. She sat for
little more than four minutes in that position, when he
declared her to be asleep. He then fixed her arms and
legs in a straightened position, extended from her body,
and, upon examination, we found the muscles tense, and
the limbs in the rigid state sometimes observed in mesme-
rised persons. Mr. Duncan, after a time, called to her in
a loud voice to stand up and come to him. It was not
at all wonderful, and (what Mr. Duncan seems not to
know) not at all like anything ever related of mesme-
rism, that she did stand up and go to him ; and more,
that she knelt down when he loudly bade her to do so ;
and clasped her hands together as if in prayer, when
bidden in the same manner.

Five gentlemen afterwards volunteered to subject
themselves to experiment. They were placed in a row
with their backs to the audience, and instructed to fix
their eyes intently upon corks fastened to their foreheads.
Thus they sat, nearly half an hour, squinting, for that is
the mode of regarding the cork, or other object, enjoined
by the new theory, natural squinters being, by Mr.
Duncan's account, not susceptible ! but _they sat in vain,
and arose at length not less awake, though more fatigued
than when they sat down.
If there be any truth in the theory, nothing was said
or done at the Queen's Rooms yesterday that can, in the
slightest degree, advance it.