The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-20 00:00:00

LITERARY AND scxENTxrsc.

The friends and—ad-mirers of Sir Humphrey Davy are
endeavouring to promote a plan for a statue to his me-
mory, and the front of the Athenaeum Club-house is
spoken of as an appropriate site. Efforts also are making
in Cornwall for a like purpose.
SPORTING.
In Kensington-gardens on Tuesday, the ice was upwards
of two inches thick, and from 1,000 to 1,500 persons were
up-on it. There were large numbers on the Serpentine :
800 to 1,000 were in St. James's Park, and a greater
number in the Regent's. In the latter park, a concus-
sion took place between two skaiters, and one of them
had his skull fractured.

0 OURT-PASHIONABLE.
A grand ball was given at Naples on the sth instant,
in honour of the birth of the Prince of Wales, and the
brilliancy of the fete could not be surpassed. Among
the company were Don Sebastian, and his nephews, the
sons of Don Carlo; who return to Rome next month.
The Duke of Richmond .left town on Saturday for
Goodwood Park.

The Marquis of Hertford has been suffering during
the past week from a severe cold.
The Earl and Countess of Darling-ton have arrived in
town from Ponton Hall.
The Earl and Countess of Gainsborough have arrived
in Paris from Barham Court, near Maidstone. _

Viscount Melbourne has been visiting Viscount Pal-
merston during the past week at Broadlands.
Lord and Lady Carrington have returned to town
from Lincolnshire.

The. Earl of Aberdeen has been invited by the Queer
to Windsor Castle, during the stay there of the King o
Prussia.

The Marquis and Marchioness of Londonderry en
tertain a succession of visitors during the week al
Wynyard Park.

MISCELLANEOUS.

The present is the second occasion ofa visit of a reign-
ing King of Prussia to this country. The last visit was
in 1814, when the father of the present King came over
with the Emperor Alexander of Russia, now twenty-
eight years ago.
Costa Rica, the late scene of the earthquake in Central
America, is called the' The Rich Coast,'' from its actual
fertility, abounding in gold mines, cocoa, pasturages,
sugar, and corn. San Jose, the capital, contains about
16,000 inhabitants, and has.. two fine harbours. The
whole country is mountainous in the extreme.
Owing to some new regulations of the Ironmongers'
Company, with regard to the letting of their Irish
estates, no less than 360 tenants are on the point of being
dispossessed of their lands in the manor of Lizard, in
Derry. Most of them are linen-manufacturers to the
Coleraine market, cultivating flax on their ground ; and
are nearly all Presbyterians.
A man named Jupp, who kept the Star at Reigate,
threw himself under the Brighton train, at Redhill, on
Monday, and was smashed to pieces. The cause of this
determined suicide is not known.

The relation of two Queens, viz., Mrs. Wyndmore,
cousin of Mary, Queen of William the Third, as well
as of Queen Anne, died in Emanuel Hospital in 1772,
having been supported fifty years on charity.
The anniversary of St. Paul's conversion in the
year 85, A.C., falls on the day of the Prince of Wales's
christening.
The Prince's nurse, Mrs. Brough, is to have a com-
mission in the army for her eldest son.

RUMOURS or THE DAY.
Not fewer than seven candidates for the vacant see of
Chichester, are mentioned. They are Dr. French, the
Master of Jesus College; Cambridge, an electioneering
friend of Lord Lyndhurst, Mr. Anderson, Dr. Hook,
an ardent Puseyite, Dr. Wordsworth, Mr. Arch-
deacon Wilberforce, Archdeacon Lyall, and the Rev.
John Peel, a canon of Canterbury and a brother of the
Premier.

LETTER TO SIR R. PEEL.

Chateau de Talhouet, Pres de L'Orient, France.
Sir Francis Mackenzie presents his compliments to
Sir Robert Peel, and takes the liberty of addressing him
on the subject of an alteration in our British postage from
ld. to 3d., which Sir Francis, before leaving England,
was assurd by one who believed himself possessed of
true information, would be proposed on the opening of
Parliament. Mixing as Sir Francis does with every
variety of society, in both Scotland •and England, -he
begs to assure Sir Robert of the unpopularity of such a
measure, and that the public opinion is decidedly favour-
able to a 2d. postage, which, without being —so -high as
to check the. present amount of . correspondence,
would at once double. the Post-office revenue now re:.
ceived ; ,whilst a 3d. postage would be most unpopular,
and deemed oppression by, the lower classes, thus Pre--
vented by the triple postage_ from continuing that
friendly communication between distant friends and re-
latives so deserving of encouragement, as, producing the
best and kindest feelings of human nature:
Sir Francis also takes the liberty of asking Sir Robert
Peel if he is .aware that a combination exists amongst.
the master manufacturers to continue, if not increase, the
dissipated and vicious habits of their operatives ? Sir
Francis has more than once heard it asserted by them,
that if temperance habits prevailed' to any extent
amongst the working classes of our manufacturing towns
'the ruin of England must follow. It is scarcely six
weeks ago that Sir Francis met, when travelling in the
railway from Nottingham to Leicester, an extremely
respectable and intelligent manufacturer, who paid, he
said, above 1,000/. every Saturday- evening to his work-
men, every shilling of which he believed was spent in
debauch .or unnecessary expense before Tuesday morn-
.
ing, when they were compelled to return again to work,
only from the craving desire to- repeat the same indul=
gence of the grossest appetites. This gentleman had ab-
stained from all fermented liquors for the last six years,
on account of his health; and Sir Francis and his family
having happily embraced the principles of total abstinence
above two years ago, with the best effects, in all the
towns and villages near his country residence, thought
it a duty, as President of all the Northern Societies, to
press this gentleman to sign the abstinence pledge—.
powerful as his example would be amongst his people,
and not requiring any sacrifice of taste or habits on his
part, but no arguments had any effect. His reply was,
that it was his wish, and the interest- of all master ma-
nufacturers, to conceal rather than make knowir his tem-
perance habits ; for this reason, that so soon as an ope-
rative became converted from habits of vice and drunk-
enness, so common to their class, they immediately com-
menced saving money; which, after a few years' accu-
mulation, was invested in manufacturing operations, in
conjunction with their .reformed brethren—that the
union of such working reformed men enabled them to
manufacture goods of a better quality and at a cheaper
rate than master manufacturers and large capitalists
could do—who were thus in danger of ruin, caused
wholly by the reformed habits of those men, who, whilst
degraded by intemperance, were the sole source of those
immense fortunes often realised by master manufacturers
of large capital. He also said that he feared temperance
and good habits were creeping on too fast already,
and that unless checked, and an alteration should take
place, twenty years would not elapse ere the investment
o 1 large capitals and the making of large fortunes would
be at an end. How different is the treatment of their
labourers by landed proprietors, who always take the
strongest interest in the encouragement of sobriety,
savings' banks, provident societies, and every other means
in their power to render them independent and virtu-
ous. Which population, therefore, deserves the greater
encouragement, the manufacturing or the agricul.7
tural? Which is fittest, from their habits, to defend our
country if called on to oppose a foreign enemy? Yet,
any one wbo has within the last twenty years travelled
frequently through Britain, must see even now, at this
time of general complaint, the immense increase of build-
ings in all the manufacturing districts over those which
are agricultural. Sir F. can, for instance well remember
the picturesque town of Lancaster wholly defoid, but a
few years ago, of a single tall smoking chimney-top--
observe it now, despite the continual cry of distress, and
examine the changed state of its population, debased
by those vices which ever accompany manufactures.
Does the same misery and vice accompany an increase
in agricultural population even if it were doubled in
number to what it now is in Britain? Belgium,'Jersey,
and Guernsey, answer the question and speak for them-
selves, and at once decide in favour of the agricultural
population. Is then that better race of men to be at
once sacrificed by the enormous change, the sudden, un-
avoidable ruin, which would accompany the admission
of foreign corn at a duty of eight shillings? Sir F. has
ever been, and hopes over whilst life remains, a Re-
former of all abuses where they are proved to exist, but
at the same time he knows the danger of even the best
reforms if too suddenly made. The introduction of fo-
reign corn at once on a' duty_ of only Bs. would, is well
districts all men who
poalraenda,ccquouairniatendd, sHviuthngtahrey,coscren.:
pk
rnoodwune
ntog
np oartarenderityh se
eno
then,
te,;-hal f u
ywahog
Ti
whole of
landed
gradual
aoluragr decreasepi
agricultural
Ipot proprietors
reatt re s
dittyb a n
population.l
for
ru p_ atd
m,
ihnil
sion of foreign grain? Why not lay on at first a higher
duty than Bs., and gradually reduce that duty by
one shilling yearly? There would then be time and
facts by which the question of such difficulty as that of
our Corn-laws could be truly and well decided. The re-
duction of one shilling duty annually would soon
show what was best for the greatest interests of our coun-
try, and we could proceed or retrace our steps as might be
proved most advantageous to the nation without that vio-
lent contention which at present disturbs Britain. Sir
Francis has always stated in.society his opinion to be in
favour of a gradually falling duty on foreign corn, and
seldom has that opinion been opposed, which induces him
the more willingly to intrude his ideas on the much occu-
pied and valuable time of Sir R. Peel, who will, however,
he trusts, forgive the intrusion, perhaps, when he knows
it to emanate solely from the sincere desire he entertains
for the virtue and happiness of his country.
To the Right Hon. Sir Robert Peel, &c. &c.

MORE CONVERTS TO CATHOLICITY.--On
Thursday last, the Feast of the Epiphany, the two eldest
daughters of Thomas Tennison, Esq., of inistiogue, late of
Rock Hall, were publicly received into the bosom of the
Mother Church by the Rev. Mr. Butler, C.C.—Kilhenny
Journal.

ST. JAMES'S PALACE.—Tuesday several of
his Majesty's (the King of Hanover's) light baggage
waggons arrived at the apartments of the King, in the
Ambassador's Court, from Kew Palace, laden with de-
corative furniture ; and although much mystery is ob-
served by his Majesty's domestics on the sukect, it is
believed that the suite of rooms is in a state of prepara-
tion, to be placed at the disposal of King'Frederick Wil-
liam of Prussia during his approaching visit. The suite
forms a very magnificent coup d'ccil, and the sleeping-
.rooms, dining-rooms, and kitchens, are eligible and con.
venient., A number of workmen are employed in em-
bellishing the apartments, which have not been occupied
Bice the departure of his idtje4ty for Epilmr,l4lB37. •