The Sun.
London, England, 1845-05-16 00:00:00

TSB NAMELESS ONE.

" I see one of your partners coming in,' said Mick,
making many signals to a person who very aeon joined
them. ' Well, Devilsdust, how are you?' This was the
familiar appellation of a young gentleman, who really
had no other, baptismal or patrimonial. About a fort-
night after his mother had introduced him into the
world, she returned to her factory and put her infant
out to nurse, that is to say, paid threepence a week to an
old woman who takes charge of these new. born babes
for the day, and gives them back at night to their
mothers as they hurriedly return from the scene of
their labour to the dungeon or the den, which is still by
courtesy called ' home.' The expense i 4 not great :
laudanum and treacle, administered in the shape of
some popular elixir, affords these innocents a brief taste
of the sweets of existence, and keeping them quiet, pre-
pares them for the silence of their impending grave.
Infanticide is practised as extensively and as legally in
England, as it is on the banks of the Ganges; a circum-
stance which apparently has not yet engaged the atten-
tion of the Society for the Propagation of the Go%pel in
Foreign Parts. But the vital principle is an impulse
from an immortal artist, and sometimes baffles, even in
its tenderest phases, the machinations of society for its
extinction. There are infants that will defy even star-
vation and poison, unnatural mothers and demon
nurses. Such was the nameless one of whom we speak.
We cannot say he thrived; but he would not die. So at
two years of age, his mother being lost sight of, and the
weekly payment having ceased, he was sent out in the
street to in order to be run over. Even this ex-
pedient failed. The youngest and the feeblest of the
band of victims, Juggernaut spared him to Moloch.
All his companions were disposed of. Three months'
in the streets god rid of this tender company—
shoeless, half-nakt d, and uncombed--whose age varied
from two to five years. Some were crushed, some were
lost, some caught cold and fevers, crept back to their
garret or their cellars, were dosed with Godfrey's
cordial, and died in peace. The nameless one would not
disappear. lie always got out of the way of the carts
and horses, and never lost his own. They gave him no
food: he foraged for himself, and shared with the dogs
the garbage of the streets. But still he lived ; stunted
and pale, he defied even the fatal fever which was the
only habitant of his cellar that never quitted it. And
slumbering at night on a bed of mouldering straw, his
only protection against the plashy surface of his den,
with a dungheap at his head and a cesspool at his feet, he
still clung to the only roof which shielded him from the
tempest."

POPULATION RETURNS.

" Well, Mr, Franklin, be sure of this, that the Popu-
lation Returns of this country are very instructive
reading.'
" I can conceive so.'
"' I became a 'lan when the bad times were begin-
ning,' said Gerard ; 'I have passed through many dole-
ful years. I was a Franklin's son myself, and we bad
lived on this island at 11 ast no worse for a longer time
than I care to recollect as little as what lam now. But
that's nothing ;I am not thinking of myself. lem
preposterous in a fashion ; it is the serfs I live among
of whom lam thinking. Well, I have heard in the
course of years, of some specific for this constant degra-
dation of the people ; some thing or some person that
was to put all right ; and for my part I was not unready
to support any proposal or follow any leader. There was
reform, and there was paper money, and no machinery,
and a thousand other remedies ; and there were dema-
gogues of all kinds, some as base as myself, and some
with blood in their veins almost as costly as flows in
those of our great neighbour here, Earl de Mowbray,
and I have always heard that was very choice : but I
will frankly own to you, I never had much faith in any
of these proposals or proposers ; but they were a change,
and that is something. But I have been persuaded of
late that there is something going on in this country of
more efficacy ; a remedial power, as I believe, and irre-
sistible ; but whether remedial or not,
at any rate a
power thnt will mar all or cure all. You apprehend me?
I speak of the annual arrival of more than three hun-
dred thousand strangers in this island. how will you
feed them? How will you clothe them? How will you
house them ? They have given up butcher's meat ;
must they give up bread ? And as for raiment and
shelter, the rags of the kingdom are exhausted, and your
sinks and cellars already swarm like rabbit warrens.'
"''Tis an awful consideration,' said Egremont

musing.
" Awful,' said Gerard, ''tis the most solemn thing
since the deluge. What kingdom can stand against it?
Why go to your history—you're a scholar—and see the
fall of the great Roman empire—what was that? Every
now and then, there came two or three hundred thou-
sand strangers out of the forests and crossed the moun-
tains and rivers. They come to us every year and in
greater numbers. What are your invasions of the bar-
barous nations, your Goths and Visigoths, your LOM•
bards and Huns, to our Population Returns ?'

RAILWAY TRAVELLING.
" You came by the railroad,' inquired Lord de Mow-
bray, mournfully of Lady blarney.
" From Marham ; about ten miles from us,' replied
her ladyship.
" A great revolution I'

" ' Istiit it?'
" ' I fear it has a very dangerous tendency to equality,'
said his lordship, shaking his head ;. I suppose Lord
Marney gives them all the opposition in his power.
" There is nobody so violent against railroads as
George,' said Lady Marney ; I cannot tell you what
he does not do! He organised the whole of our division
against the Marham line!'
" 6 I rather counted on him,' said Lord de Mowbray,
'to assist me in resisting this joint branch here ; but I
was surprised to learn he had consented.'
" Not until the compensation was settled, innocently
remarked Lady Marney ; George never opposes them
after that. He gave up all opposition to the Marham
lino when tney agreed to his terms.
" And yet, said Lord de Mowbray, ' I think if Lord
Marney would take a different view of the case and look
to the moral consequences, he would hesitate. Equality,
Lady Marney, equality is not our metier. If we nobles
do not make a stand against the levelling spirit of the
age, I should like to know who will fight the battle.
You may depend upon it that these railroads are very
dangerous things.'
" have no doubt of it. I suppose you have heard
of Lady Vanilla's trip from Birmingham? Have you net
indeed! She came up with Lady Laura, and two of the
most gentlemanlike men sitting opposite to her ; never
met, she says, two more intelligent men. She begged
one of them at Wolverhampton to change seats with
her, and be was most politely willing to comply with
her wishes, only it was necessary that his companion
should move on at the same time, for they were chained
together 1 Two of the swell mob, sent to town for pick-
ing a pocket at Shrewsbury races.' "

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REDEEMING THE MALT- TAX.—A jovial old farmer
of this neighbourhood, who is fond of social company and
his glass, was not long ago brought before the bench, on the
old charge of " drunk and disorderly. His numerous visits
to the Court, consequent on similar delinquencies, trenching
further on his time and " tin" than he liked, he asked the
magistrates if they would have any objection to contract with
him for a year, as such a measure would save trouble to both
himself and their honours thejustices ?—Liverpool Courier.
COCKBURNSPATH.—The railway operations in this
quarter, in which is the most extensive and difficult sec-
tion of the whole line, from there being so many deep
cuts and glens to go through in the different deans upon
the estate of Sir John Hall, Bart., Dunglass, are not-
withstanding advancing rapidly. Some of the cuts are
forty and fifty feet in depth. The minor bridges are all
nearly finished, and the great bridge over Dnnglass
Dean was key-stoned on Wednesday evening. This will
be the highest and most splendid bridge in Scotland.
THE WEATHER AND CHOPS.—The land is now
abundantly supplied with rain, and the atmosphere being
remarkably mild, vegetation is making the most gratify-
ing progress. Every description of crop looks well—all
the grain crops being equally and richly braded.
Clover grass is finer than fur several years past, clover
plants being more abundant, and both clover and rye
grass unusually healthy and luxuriant. Pasture lands
are fresh and close in the roll, and afford an ample sup-
ply of food to grazing stock. The weather being highly
favourable for the preparation of summer fallows, great
progress has been made, and altogether the prospects
both of the grower and consumer are of the most cheer-
ing description.—Scctimen.
The Bowery Theatre, at New York, was totally
destroyed by
fire on the,2sth ult,

IMPERIAL PARLIAMENT.

ROUSE OF COMMONS, May 15.

The SPEAKER took the Chair for the first time afar
the Whitsuntide rcc:ss, at Four o'clock.

Colonel THOMAS WOOD presented a petiti, n
against the Westminster Improvements Bill.

ATMOSPHERIC RAILWAY.

Sir G. STAUNTON presented a petition, signed by
upwards of 16,000 persons, in favour of the application
of the atmospheric principle to railways.
Colonel WEMYSS presented a petition against the
Edinburgh and Northern Railway.
Mr. BRO rHERTON presented a petition against the
Chichester, Guildford, and Portsmouth Railway.
CROYDON RAILWAY.

The following Bills were severally read a first time,
and ordered to be committed:—London and Croydon
Railway (Enlargement); London and Croydon Railvt ay
(Chatham and Gravesend) ; London and Croydon Rail-
way (Maidstone, Ashford, and Tonbridge); London and
Croydon Railway (Orpington Branch) ; London and
Croydon Railway (Chatham toChilhatn),