The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-01 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY MORNING. MARCH 1, 1841.

admitted free of duty for a year, or for such other limited pe-
riod as Parliament might deem fit and proper, but at the
suggestion of Sir Robert Peel he withdrew his motion.

The Report was then brought up and ordered to be received
this day ( Tuesday), and the House adjourned at Half-past
One o'clock.

SIR WILLIA,IVI WRAXALL.
(No. I.)
TO THE EDITOR, OF THE TIMES.

No. 8, Albion-place, Feb. 25, 1842.
SIR,—I called on Sir William Wraxall, in the Times of the
24th inst., to produce theletter returned to him by me on the
20th Dec., 1841, to which he refers in his letter in the Times
of the 23d inst., as evidence of his imputations against my
veracity and courage. He has failed to produce it. I will do
it for bim. He must, he says, write to Tours to obtain its
transmission. I have its contents nearer home. With a view
sole'y to protect myself from that falsification of it which has
occurred, a copy of that letter was verified by Richard Napier,
Esq., Sealed, and kept by unopened until this day.
Allow me to illustrate the, veracity of Sir Wiliam Wraxall
by a brief extract from its contents, in juxta-position with his
representation of what passed at our interview on the 18th
Dec. Speaking of that interview in his letter in the Times of
the 23d inst., he says
I did not refuse to retract any insinuation against Mr.
Symons, unless he proved them to be false.' But;- on the
contrary, required proof of my having made 'any such insinua-
tions as would justify either tile demand or the alte native pro, •
posed."
In his letter referred to of the 18th of December last and re-

turned by me as above stated, he writes thus of whit passed at
the interview in question :
" That there may be no mistake s to what my answer to you
was this morning, I think it necessary to send it you in writing,
viz.:— That I will not retract that phrase of my last letter to
you from Versailles, in which I stated that Mr. Symons played
the same game at Stroud in 1E37, as he did lately in 1841. 141 y
meaning being, that after becoming a candidate, he ret'red, in-
stead of gone to the poll, on bOth -those occasions. Before he
has a right to call upon me for satismetion he must first dis-
prove this."
In Sir Wm. Wraxsll's letter in the Times of the 23d, Sir

Wm. Wraxall deliberately asserts, " That at the moment when
Mr. Ley and Mr. Symons, one or both, were asking fer me at.
the Parthenon Club, I was in the act of addressing to Mr. Ley
a letter, written in, and dated from my 6wn residence in the
Regent's Park, a letter, too, repeating in writing what I had
said at the interview ; namely, that I was ready to name a
fi iend upon proof of any insult, or insinuation anigunting to it,
having been made by me against Mr. Symons ; and, finally,
inasmuch as Mr. Ley received that letter, opened it, and re-
turned it to me at my residence, it is to be regretted that his
valour shoubt have so soon evaporated, for he surely knew then
where to find me."

Now the letter here referred to contains no mention what-
ever of his residence. It is dated solely as ‘ollows :-
3 o'clock Saturday evening, 18th Dec., 1841.
No place whatever is named from the beginning of the
letter to the ending, nor could the porter at the Parthenon give
me his address; it was therefire left with the porter for Sir W.
Wraxall, and not at his residence ; my first knowledge of
which was obtained through the police report in the newspaper,
after he was bound over to keep the peace.
I have said that Sir W. Wraxall's letter to me would de-
termine the truth or falsehood of our respective asserti in,. I
am now perfectly content to abide the judgme:.t of the public,
as to whether I am the liar, pr Sir W. Wraxall.

I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient servant,
JAMES PEARD LEY.
P.S. Sir William Wraxall, in his letter to the Time 3 of
. . . . .

the 24th inst., is pleased to conclude that my valour
eva-
porated, because, as he affirms, I addressed the returned letter
to his residence, and therefore knew where to find him. It
may be proper to observe, that when I left the letter with the
hall-porter at the Parthenon Club. I had myself no personal
quarrel whatever with Sir William Wraxall, nor, as he ex-
presses it, any " dire intent" towards him, but as the frient
of Mr. Simon•. 1 have n 9 wish to speak of my own courage,
be it much or lit:e ; if much, there is no occasion to talk about
it ; if little, the less that is said of it the better.
(No. 2.)
68, Upper k eley-stre et , Portman square.
Sir,—The letter I now deliver into lour hands, marked on
the cover, " Copy of Sir Wm. Wraxal s letter to Mr. Ley,"
and scaled, has been in my possession from the day I received
it uctil the present moment.
I compared it with the original letter shown to me, as from
Sir Wm. Wraxall, and finding it to be a correct copy of such
letter, I sewed it up immediately, and the seal has never been
broken open.—l have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient

sorvant,

Rican. NAPIER.

To Chas. Augustus Tulk, Esq.
(No. 3.)
February 25th, 1842.
Sir,—The sealed letter which you delivered into my hinds
this evening, marked on the cover, " Copy of Sir Wm. Wrax-
all's letter to Mr. Ley," I opened in your presence, and the
enclosed is an accurate copy of its contents.—l have the honour
to be, Sir, your very obedient servant,
Richard Napier, Esq.

CHAS. AUG. TULK.

Unaltered is thy graceful form, -
Thy trusting heart is still the same,
Kee; ing those true affections warm
As when, bef re I dreamt of fame,
You sang me that old strain.
Yes, sing !—as in those golden hours •
Wh.n life, aid love, and hope were young,.
When fancy s reared our path with dowers,_
Oh I sing the strain that then you sung I
Your voice may have a sad& r tone
Than made sweet music in that time,
Ere grief or trials we had known
When first you sang in youthful prime
That old familiar strain.
Methinks that on thy placid brow—,.
So lightly tour:he-I by furrowing years,
Since first we plighted love's fond vow—
Thought's graver shadow now appears ;
But yet ii,in thy very mirth
Ren embrance of cur Dead will come,
Strong ti s yet bind thee to the earth—
So breathe once ano-e within our home
The old familiar strain.

NEW MONTHLY MAGAZINE.

Mr. Poole here continues his piquant story of
"Phineas Quickly," and shows himself in every chap-
ter a shrewd and caustic observer of the every-day
world about us. We relish his tale the more, that it
is not pitched in too high a key, but represents life as
it really is. Much of the dialogue is dramatic enough
fbr comedy, and the descriptions are invariably spi-
rited, without being overcharged in the colouring.
" Sketch on the Road" (which we subjoin) is by
Mr. Hood, as the peculiar tone of observation will at
once show :—" It is a treat to see Prudery get
into an omnibus. Of course she rejects the hand
that is held out to her by male Civility. It might
give her a squeeze. Neither does she take the
first vacant place ; but looks out for a seat,
if. possible, between an innocent little girl, and an
old woman. In the mean time the Omnibus moves
on. Prudery totters—makes a snatch at Civility's
nose—ar his neck—or anywhere—and missing her
hold, rebounds to the other side of the vehicle, and
plumps down in a strange gentleman's lap. True
Modesty would have escaped all these indecorums?'
The particulars, which are detailed with infinite
gravity of the "Life and Writings of that remark-
able• Child, the late Miss Margaret Daw," forms an
amusing quiz on precocious genuises. We must con-
fess to an innate distrust of all precocious genuises.
In seven cases out of ten they end in confirmed
blockheadism. Is it not a little singular that in this
article, as also in another in the present Number, the
memorable couplet written by a'young London pick-
pocket on the walls of Newgate—as was duly stated
in the Police Reports of the day---;are twice quoted,
and twice quoted erroneously. .The following is the
correct version :

Him as prigs vot is'nt hisin,
Ven he's cotched, will go to pris'n.
Never had poetic couplet so many commentators as
the above ! It has been honourably noticed by Oliver
Yorke, by Christopher North, and most of the ima-
ginative spirits of the day; yet all have'quoted it
erroneously, and it is with a :justifiable critical pride
that we now (for the second time) give the true read-
ing. But, alas, for the destiny of genius ! We have
every reason to believe that the author of this immor-
tal distich is now wearing away the cheerless hours,
with a chain round both legs, in the imaginative re-
gions of Botany Bay ! He was transported—your
true poet is very apt to he transported—for making a
mistake with a gentleman's watch and seals in
the Strand—no very flagrant offence, for great
gofuses are proverbial for their absence of
mind, and are not to be tried by the laws of
ordinary humanity ! " Graduates and Under-
Graduates" furnish us with whimsical details of
certain fishing excursions on the Thames and else-
where. " Recollections of Eton," will be read with
pleasure by every Etonian. They are genuine and
heart-felt reminiscences. " A Record of the Police
Office" is an affecting anecdote told with an earnest.;
ness and simplicity worthy of Dickens. The
" Schoolmistress" is a highly humourous journal of
a pedantic schoolmistress's excursion to the Continent.
We quote a portion of her prudish and characteristic
letter to a young pupil :
For your amusement and improvenfent Fetid hope to com-
pose a journal of our continental progress, with such references
to Guthrie and the School Atlas as might enable you to trace
our course on the map of Europe. But unexpected vicissitudes
of mind and body have totally incapacitated me for the pleasing
task. Some social evening hereafter I may entertain our little
juvenile circle with my locomotive miseries and disagreeables ;
but at present my nerves and feelings are too disconiposed for
the correct flow of an epistolary correspondence. Indeed,
from from the Tower-stairs to Rotterdam I have been in one
universal tremour and perpetual blush. Such shocking scenes
and positions, that make one ask twenty times a day. is this de-
corum ?—can this be manners an this be morals ? But I
must not anticipate. Suffice it, that as regards foreign travel-
ling it is my painful conviction, founded on personal experience,
that a woman of delicacy or refinement cannot go out of Eng.
land without going out of herself!
The very first step from an open boat up the windy shipside
is an alarm to modesty, exposed as one is to the officious but
odious attentions of the Tritons of the Thames. Nor is the
steamboat itself a sphere for the preservation of self respnt. If
there is any feature on which the British female justly prides
herself, it. is a correct and lady-like carriage. In that particular
I quite coincide with Mrs. Chapone, Mrs. Hannah More, and
other writers on the subject. But how—let me ask—how is a

dignified deportment to be maintained when one has to skip
and straddle over cables, ropes, and other nautical hors d'oeuvre
—to scramble up and down impracticable stairs, and to clam-
ber into inaccessible beds! Not to name the sudden losing.
one's centre of gravity, and falling in all sorts of unstudied at-
titudes nn a soppy and slippery deck. An accident that may
say reduces the elegant and the awkward female to the same
level. You will be concerned therefore to learn that poor Miss
Ruth had a fall, and in an unbecoming posture particularly dis-
tressing—namely, by losing her footing on the cabin flight,
and corning down with a destructive launch into the steward's
pantry.
For my own part, it has never happened to me within my
rinuembrance, to make a false step, or to miss a stair ; there is
a certain guarded carriage that preserves one from such spraw-
ling denouentens—but of course what the bard calls the
poetry of motion," is not to be preserved asnidet the extem-
pore rollings of an ungovernable ship. Indeed, within the last
twenty-four hours, I have had to perform feats of agility more
fit fur a monkey than one of my own sex and species. Par
example—getting down from a bed as high as the copybook-
cupboard, and, what really is awful, with the sensation of grop-
ing about with your feet and legs for a floor that seems to
have no earthly existence. I may add, the cabin-door left
ajar, and exposing you to the gaze of an obtrusive cabin-boy,
as he is called, but quite big enough for a man. Oh, je ne
jamais I