The Sun.
London, England, 1827-06-29 00:00:00

LETTER READING.-_I never read my letters
in the evening before going to bed, or in the after-
noon before dinner. Letters generally contain more
bad news than good ; and in reading them, we
call up subjects of inquietude, which disturb our
repasts and our repose.--Huet.

Of all the countless passions about which hu-
man nature is interested, none has ever yet excited
such bewildering enthusiasm as love. In every
age, and in every class of society, it has inspired,
and still continues to inspire, an equal infatua-
tion the poet and the philosopher, the fool and
the knave, the man of war and the man of peace,
here meet on the same vantage ground ; none is
superior to the other, all tire members of one
commonwealth, and their great leveller is—Love.l
Yet notwithstanding the omnipotence of this
passion, even "the march of mind," so conspi-
cuous in the poresent day, would be somewhat
puzzled to define it. Novelists and poets have
made it a thing exclusively of sentiment, the mere
abstract creation of romance ; but nothing can be
more absurd than such a notion. Love, no
doubt, like every thing else, has its sentiment,
hut as far as one class (and that the most inte-
resting) of its subjects is concerned, we would
venture-to say, that in seven cases out of ten tile
most sentimental wooer that ever existed would
stand little or no chance against the superior at-
tractions of a raw underdone and extensive Irish-
man. Sentiment is the mere glitter with which
a writer of tact tricks out a common-place love
tale, the tinsel with which he gilds its homely
realities. Look, for instance, at that far-famed
story " The hide of the Village," in Washing-
ton Irving's Sketch Book. As penned by him
and heightened with his utmost ability, nothing
can be more exquisitely touching—beautiful—
or romantic. A lovely young virgin dies of
" a broken heart " for a gallant cavalier, who has
somewhat cavalierly deserted her ; he is de-
scribed as every thing that is seductive, she every
thing that is angelic—he is an Adonis, she a
Venus ; when she expires he raves, attends
the, lowering of her coffin into the grave,
plants 'a rose at her head, and then returns
home, with his pocket handkerchief at' his eyes,
to make every suitable arrangement for an in-
teresting and speedy consumption. Now, what
are the probable facts of this affecting narrative,
stripped of their varnish and translated into com-
mon sense ? Why, something to the following
effect :—Patrick Mahoney, a dashing Corporal
in one of the Irish foot regiments, formed an
attachment to a thumping village lass with red
arms and black worsted stockings, daughter of
the publican in whose house he was quartered.
The usual, results followed : the Corporal was
pressing,•the bar-maid frail, so that in a few
months synlptoms of a young Corporal appeared,
which coming to the ears of that very unsenti-
mental personage the parish officer, he instituted
an immediate inquiry into the case, in conse-
quence of which the seductive soldiei:,:w4s com-
pelled to " pack up his traps" and bolt with
such amazing precipitancy from the village, that,
in the hurry of the moment, he forgot to dis-
charge his reckoning with the landlord. The
frail fair one after his departure married t4e, bar-
her from spite, and happening one Imla y day
to be caught in the ram when. xeturning home
from market, was seized with a violent sore
throat, and ultimately died, not of " a broken
heart;" but of an inflammation of the kidneys.
As for the Corporal,.**he took shortly afterwards
to drinking, and being (to use Mr. Irving's
phraseology), somewhat " deficient in moral
sensibility," was transported at the next county
Assizes for bigamy. Such, stripped of their
romance, would be most likely the plain facts of
this notorious love-story. Its author, a shrewd
man of the world, knew that the mere truth
would never suffice, that in fact it possessed less
sentiment than a Chancery Report, so wisely gar-
nished it with the graces of fiction, and thereby
rendered it acceptable. The realities of life,
like a dose of physic are in themselves trite and
unwelcome, they must therefore be seasoned
with romance, or the taste will infallibly reject
them. Let us by way of illustration, refer to
matrimony; that ne plus ultra of love. It reads
well in a novel or a comedy, yet what, after all,
is the plain fact ? Why this, that in three out
of four cases it is a mere speculation, founded on
principles of mutual convenience ; first to the
parents, secondly to the contracting, parties. We
read in fiction of the graceful agitation of the
young bridegroom, as blushing and absorbed in
thought, he presents the ring to his susceptible
bride : he is there, of course, made to be pen-
sively ruminating upon " the mind, the music
breathing from her face," when in reality, lie is
reflecting (at least if we may credit the authority
of a writer in the ",New Monthly Magazine ")
on the probable contingency of 10,0001. three
per cents. now, and something more when the
old fellow dies. Love, then we contend, is a
passion purely physical ; it is the child of health,
youth, a sanguine temperament, and above all,
of idleness :
" Yet marked I where the bolt
LoveofCinupliddlefnelels,s
It fell upon a little Western flower,
and isc
na Called e dmb
more
r yew
an
ng
abamaidensstrc t mental quality than
the Marquis of Londonderry's late speech on the
Foreign Office Expenditure. It is in this light
that the Editor of the present volume has
viewed it. He has discarded all thoughts of
sentimentalizing his subject, but has illustrated
it ; not, indeed, with the minuteness with which
old Burton anatomized melancholy, but with
facts, gleaned from history, which display its
varying powers as they influence an Abelard or
an Eloise, an Antony or a Cleopatra, an Alboin,
all Attila, an'Alfieri, au Alcibiades, or an Alex-
ander the Great. We here see how it softens the
severity of some, and lends energy to the weakness
f others; how it tempts to crime or dissuades from
it; pow it prompts or prevents great actions. This
is precisely what has been long wanting to our
literature;. a desideratum in the history of human
passion, which the present Editor has success-
fully supplied. Strange to say, however, though
he has entitled his volume " Illustrations of
Love," he has most diligently omitted all men-
tion of melancholy and moonlight. We have
carefully perused the volume—being amateurs of
the science—yet have not yet detected a zephyr,
a bower, or even a stray nightingale. Had we
met with this last, we should infallibly have shot
it ; for critics may be looked upon as the game-
keepers of Literature, whose duty it is to see
that all improper subjects are kept off the pre-
serves.

The Editor proposes to extend his illustra-
tions to six volumes; discussing his lovers

To fortify himself in this resolution, he cut off his hair,
as none but clowns and sailors could appear at that time in
short hair ; and what is still more curious, caused himself
to be tied with cords to a chair, in order to prevent him
from leaving the house to visit his mistress; his. servant
being strictly commanded never to release him until the
paroxysm of his daily amatory conflicts had subsided. The
cords were concealed under a Large mantle in which he
was enveloped, leaving one hand only at liberty ; and he
remaraed.in this situation for whole hours, and was seen
'by malty who called on him, without any one suspecting
that he was tied to the chair.

He thus passed more than two months in a state almost
bordering on frenly, but at length was led to think of lite-
rature as a relief, and attempted the composition of some
verses. The Cleopatra' of Cardinal Delfino also fell into
his hands, and reminded him of the papers which he had
fortunately withdrawn from the cushion of his mistress's
sofa a few days before he left her. Astonished at the re-
semblance between the state of his own heart and Antony's,
he resolved to retouch his scenes, and have them performed
by the actors who visited Turin in the spring. Pursuing
this fortunate idea with his characteristic impetuosity, after
several months of poetical consultations, and a laborious
ref!reuce tor grammars and dictionaries, he produced the
tray of Cleopatra,' which was represented at Turin
in June 1775. " If," writes Alfieri, " I have since been
deemed worthy to rank "among our celebrated tragic or
comic authors, this first step must be regarded as the most
important of my life."

e liereAake,leave of our author, grateful for
the entertainment, not uniningled with instruction,
'Aid; .he has afforded us. He has satisfied us
math eßiaticany," vtr. by proof, that love is the
root from which springs the majority of. human
actions, shooting up in some instances into
healthy . and expansive luxuriance; but in far the
greater part rising only like the Ifpas tree into
rank and poisonous vegetation. We hope
(for we find him rather negligent in some few
of his " Illustrations") that when he comes to
the R's, he will do Rousseau justice. No man
ever yet made or wrote of love like him ; it was
his food, the element in which he lived, moved,
and had, his being. In the world of fact he was
a mere humble abstraction—in that of sentiment
a despot. His sensibility, however, produced
madness and what was worse, "La Nouvelle
Heloise," a book which, whatever may be the
fascinations of its style and sentiment, has ruined
and has yet to ruin thousands.

Sed ille

Si foret hoc nostrum fato tlilatus ad mvurn
Detereret sibi multa, reeideret omne quod ultra
Perfect= traheretur--

FRANCE AND MEXICO.

The Custom-house at Havre has received, in re-
lation the declarations exchanged on the 9th of May
last, between the Baron de Damas and M. Camacho,
the instructions, the tenor of which follows :
The commercial relations between France and
Mexico have just been regulated by declarations
provisionally obligatory on the two countries, com-
mencing from the day of their date, and it is of im-
portance, that, with as little delay as possible, the
Mexicans who may arrive in France, should be put
in possession of the special privileges which they
are in future to enjoy, in the ports of the kingdom,
where they have been for several months admissible,
in consequence of the orders issued by the Ministry
of Marine.

The privileges consist in the following modifica-
tions of our general regulations :
I- Cotton of, long staple, imported direct from
any of the ports of Mexico, in French or Mexican
vessels, shall pay no higher duties than what are
leviable on cotton of short staple, in cases of impor-
tation. This extension to the Mexican trade of an
abatement of the tariff, which abatement at pre-
sent, enjoyed only by Brazil, is a necessary conse-
quence of that article of the above-mentioned decla-
rations, according to which the respective produce is
to be placed, in the one part, and the other, in re-
spect to the duties for entry, on the same footing as
similar produce of the most favoured nation; and
you are aware that the reduction acceded to in fa-
vour of the cotton of long staple coming from Brazil
is the only exception hitherto made to the general
principle of the tariff, according to which there ought
to be no respect paid on account of origin in collect-
ing the duties of entry.
2. The proclece of tlit soil or industry of Mexico,
in order to be admitted into France must be accom-
panied by a certificate of origin, delivered and signed
by the competent authorities of the Customs of the
port where they are loaded. The certificates of each
vessel must be numbered progressively, and joined,
by the seal of the Custom-house, to the manifest,
the latter document having been visee by the French
Consuls. In the same way, when the produce of
the soil or industry of France shall he sent to
Mexico, the Custom-house of the port whence the
vessel tares her departure shall be bound to deliver
certificates of origin, which shall be numbered and
joined, as has just been described, to the manifest;
and the shippers shall receive notice that the latter
must be visee, by the Mexican Consul. It is always
that, in
iett theare
ports of the one or
the cer-
otothbeer understoodcountry where
tificate of the Custom-house, always numbered pro-
gressively,. and joined to the manifest, shall suffice to
establish the origin ; and that in those where there is

neither Custom-house nor Consul, the certificates
of origin will be delivered and signed in the same
forms by the local authorities. It will be easily seen
that this reciprocal obligation of proving the origin
of the cargoes arises necessarily out of the conces-
sion made in favour of these cargoes, of the treat-
ment enjoyed by the most favoured nation ; and
that, in that case, it would not have been suitable
that a formality, which our commerce, as well as
that of other nations, must submit to in respect to
Mexico, from motives inherent, in its special situa-
tion, should not have its equivalent in our ports,
with regard to Mexican commerce.
3. No other taxes shall be levied on the Mexican
commerce, nor any navigation dues, that are not •
paid by the flag of the United States of America—
that is, that the vessels shall pay, in lieu of all
charges, the sum of five francs per ton, according to
their Mexican register; the port where they enter
being bound to reimburse the pilots and brokers for
the difference of their respective fees, which, in con-
sequence of this regulation, they cannot demand
from the Mexican vessels. The object of this order
is to fulfil the engagements respectively entered into,
not to impose on the one part or the other on the
vessels of each respectively any other dues for ton-
nage, lights,
.portage, pilotage, and other analogous
matters, than those paid by the flag of the most
favoured nation, excepting always, from. tbis
nations which enjoy the same privileges as natives
by virtue of treaties founded on a system of exact
reciprocity. Now, the flag of the North American
Union is the only one among those, whose naviga-
tion enjoys in France privileges to which this last
exception is not applicable, and to which, of conse-
quence, the Mexican has a right to be assimilated.
As to the discriminating &hies on the cargoes, it has
been agreed that these shall never exceed the rate
fixed for the most favoured nation, except only such
nations as, by special stipulation of reciprocity, are
altogether exempt from discriminating duties in the
same way ; but this clause still leaves in operation,
in respect of cargoes imported in Mexican vessels,
our general surcharges, as they are fixed by tariff, it
being understood, in terms of convention, of the
24th of June, that the cargoes of the United States
shall enjoy, dating from the Ist of October next—
that is to say, from a date sufficiently near to be
considered as the actual state of things—the same
privileges as natives, which English and Brazilian
cargoes at present enjoy, always, however, in return
for a reciprocity, which in this respect has not been
stipulated for by Mexico..
4. All vessels shall be considered as Mexican,
and privileged as such, of whatsoever build they
happen to be, which bona fide.belong to one or
more Mexicans, and whose Captain and three-
fourths of the crew are Mexican, or legally natu-
ralized in that country. The said vessels must,
moreover, be provided with a register, passport, or
security bond, stating, in the first place, the name,
occupation, and residence of the proprietor or pro-
prietors, pointing out each individual, and in what
proportion each of them is a sharer; then the name,
the dimensions, capacity, and, lastly, all the pecu-
liarities of the vessel which may lead to her recog-
nition, as well as establish her nationality. Subse-
quent instructions will point out the form in which
this .document is to be drawn up, and by what func-
tionary it is to be delivered, and until these are given
no difficulty will be raised, either as to the form of
the document nor of the persons who subscribe it.
The conditions to which Mexican nationality is sub-
jected, are none other than those, which, according
to our rules, constitute French nationality, except-
ing always, that respecting the build of a vessel in
the country to which she belongs.
5. Damages sustained by Mexican vessels on the
high seas when coming to a French port, shall be re-
gulated by the Mexican Consuls, except in cases of
stipulations to the contrary, entered into by the own-
ers, freighters,-and insurers., If, however, French-
men are interested in those damages, they shall be
arranged, at least in so far as they are concerned, by
the general laws of the kingdom. You will be ap-
prised that on this point, a perfect reciprocity has
been granted to us in the ports of Mexico.
6. All-operations relative to salvage of vessels from
Mexico, wrecked-on our coasts, shall be directed by
the Mexican Consuls. The French authorities shall
interpose, however, to preserve order, guarantee the
interests of the salvors, if they are strangers to the
shipwrecked crew, and to ensure the execution of
regulations for watching the entry and going out of
the merchandize saved. In this respect, also, we
have the right of reciprocity, in cases of French ves-
sels wrecked on the coasts of Mexico.

Such are the regulations to be observed, in order
that the arrangements agreed on by the one side and
the other, for the double interests of commerce and
navigation, may be completely realised on the part
of France. It is unnecessary for me to add, that, in
regard to any particular that has not been anticipated
by these instructions, the conduct to be observed
towards Mexican vessels and their cargoes, are those
of common right enjoyed by others.

Receive, &c.
(Signed) CASTELBAJAC,
Councillor of State, and Director General of the Customs.
Seen and approved, (Signed) VILLELE,
The Minister of Finance.
A true Copy, Rouen, June 9, GALOT,

Director of the Customs.

On Saturday, the 2d inst. there was a dread-
ful thunder storm in East Lothian. The plough-
men on the farm of Skateraw were engaged in
preparing a field for turnips ; but the horses were
so frightened by the thunder and lightning, that
they had to unyoke them about five o'clock in
the afternoon. There was a boy harrowing with
an iron harrow in the same field, at a small dis-
tance. On the way home, it was remarked
that he was not following them ; and,
.upon
looking back, his horses appeared very flat like.
—The observers immediately went to the spot,
where they found the boy and the horses struck
down by the lightning. One of the horses was
dead, and lying upon the boy's legs ; and the
other was struck blind, and so much debilitated,
that it had to be killed. The boy's clothes and
shoes were hanging in pieces ; sokr.e of them
were scattered around him. There was a hole
in one of his shouldeTs ; and his arms, body, and
legs, are much scorched.—Caledonian Mercury.

LAWS OF HONOUR.—As much talk has.been
expended with regard to the right of the chal-
lenged party to choose his, weapon, perhaps the
following story may settle the question :—Some
years ago, American captain was challenged
by a French gentleman, .at Paris. The captain
had been a whaler, and chose the 14orpoon for
his weapon. The Frenchman shrugged up his
shoulders—." E d ble, je ne sias pas at is de
harpoon r 101 meet you, as un jentil-homnze
vid my small sword"—but the old whaler was
inexorable. The dispute was subinitted to
a court of honour, which cit.cidcAl that the
Frenchman must fight With the harpoon, or apo-
logise. He Shrugged up his shoulders a second
time—;-" Monsieur captaine,' I beg your par-
don, I ave no skill in de harpoon ; I am not
one whale, I beg pardon began" Thus matters
ended peaceably, and the harpoon of the Nan-
tucket whaler did not make a pincushion of the
body of the Gaul.—New York Paper.

" The superiority of the law of Scotland (says
our contemporary), in one branch of the criminal
law, has just been strikingly and beautifully ex-
emplified in the decision pronounced by our
Court of Justiciary, on Monday last, in the case,
" His Majesty's Advocate against James Crow,
gamekeeper to the Earl of Home." This
person having been arraigned for the crime
of murder, inasmuch as, he had set a spring-
fmn in the Earl's preserves, by which John
Guthrie had been killed, objected to the re-
levancy of his indictment. He had acted by
his employer's orders, and his main ob-
ject was, by intimidation only, to preserve the
game The Judges—Lords Justice Clerk, Gullies,
Pitmilly, Mackenzie, and Alloway—held unani-
mously that the crime libelled amounted to mur-
der. Lord Gillies could see no difference be-
twixt shooting a man with a gun and deliberately
placing an engine so that he might be shot. His
Lordship put the case that an Indian had been
aationed on the spot with !orders to fire upon
any intruder.
.The Indian would obey his orders,
and kill. The 'spring-gun would kill also ; and
it was indifferent whether the killing was accom-
plished by the agency of a moral being or by
physical force. There must, it was true, be
malice aforethought; but. if one intending to. kill
B, fires by mistake on his friend A, the deed is
one of murder. Malice is presumed wherever
homicide is committed by a lethal weapon. This
is the law both of England and Scotland. The
spring-gun is- a lethal weapon, and it is admitted
to have been set deliberately and intentionally
for the purpose of killing or doing grievous bodily
harm, and it was of no moment whom. But let
the law of England be what it might, their Lord-
ships were not bound by it. They were not
hound by it, as their Lordships showed, even in
Ireland. Lord Pitmilly concurred. If a man do
an unlawful act, whereby death ensues, a charge
lies for murder, though he had no particular in-
dividual in view. To set spring guns is an un-
lawful act, and therefore notice of having done
'3O is no justification. Mr. • Hume has laid it
down as unlawful to kill a poacher who persisted
in searching for game. It could not, therefore,
be lawful to plant an engine by which he might
be killed but besides poachers there are stupid
old women, children, and insane persons. Lord
Mackenzie held it clear that no one could.
legally prevent the wrong of entering a planta-
tion by killing the transgressing party. The law
of Scotland is tender of human life, and does not
•
permit it to be taken away, except an. cases of
urgent and overwhelming necessity. He went,
farther than Lord Gullies, and held not only that
the Procurator Fiscal, but also an immediate
neighbour, might apply for interdict against, or
removal of spring guns. children might elude
the watchfulness of parents,' and thoughtlessly
expose themselves to destruction. If spring-
guns were allowed, where would the owners
of property stop ? A landlord might dis-
lodge a refractory tenant by a hand••grenade,
or burning the house about his ears. Such things
could not be tolerated. If a man sharpened a javelin
and pitched it into a crowd, it was murder. So it
was in this case of setting a spring-gun. Lord
Alloway held there was less risk from an
armed gamekeeper, placed in a wood with orders
to fire on trespassers, than from a spring-gun,
which has no moral feeling, and destroys who-
ever approaches it. At the last York Assizes,
a gamekeeper was tried, and found guilty of
murder, for shooting a poacher in the act of
destroying game. But his Lordship showed
that they were not bound by the English law;
and the late Lord Justice-clerk Rae would not
allow an opinion obtained from the Attorney-
General and the Recorder of London, to be
read in Court. The Lord Justice-Clerk
concurred. The general doctrine of the law,
even in England,. was, that it will not suffer
with impunity any crime to be prevented by
death, unless the same, if committed, could be
punished with death.' Poaching would not be
io punished. Spring-guns, his Lordship ob-
served, were secret, deadly, and, at the same
time, dastardly engines. The persons who set
them were frequently killed by them ; •and it was
an aggravation that they did in a secret, clandes-
tine, and dastardly manner, what durst not be
openly attempted. The indictment was clearly
relevant to infer the pains of law.
" Whether desiring it, or caring for it, the
Justiciary Judges will, by this decision, obtain
the most decided popularity. But why should
Judges be indifferent to popular approbation ?
This, generally speaking, will only be awarded
in favour of what is right ; and when the feeling
is different, it will generally be in cases where
the law is inexpedient, and runs counter to
moral justice and sound reason.
The Judges must, no doubt, administer
the law, even in such cases, but with the ut-
most leniency, and, instead of taking offence at
the unreflecting, who attribute blame to the
Judges instead a the Legislators, they -should
amend the law ; or if the popular prejudice arise
from their not having embraced all the principles
And objects of the law, the Judges should then,
through addresses to Juries, endeavour to
public,en-
and reconcile them with the
sensitive Judges are to a fair dis-
llaigwh. tenTthhee
less
cussion of all the errors, real or imagined, of
the law, or the errors which they, through
human infirmity, may commit themselves, the
higher, unquestionably, will they, and the laws
which they administer, stand with the public.—
In this respect, we believe, times are greatly
improved through the whole United Kingdom.
—There is less distrust of the public on the one
hand, and less distrust of those in powerm 'by
the people, on the other' —a state of things
which; if continued, will lead to in-numerable
blessings."

The following awful occurrence happened in
Gorbals, Glasgow, on Sunday last. A man of
the name of James M'Ewan, 'aged 71, a la-
bourer, belonging to that place, after having had
a violent altercation with his son-in-law, wherein
a great deal of blasphemy had been used on
both sides, went into a public house in the
neighbourhood, and called for some ale, uttering
the most horrid imprecations till the liquor was
brought, which he instantly drank, and fell dead
upon the floor.-....Caledonian Mercury.