The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1870-02-27
EXCERPTS.

| burns New Monthly Magasine gives o sketch of
William, Duke of Cumberland, to whose name
| the odious title above quoted is generally
affixed. The sketch is chiefly composed of ex-
| tracts from the letters of Horace Walpole, but
the following passages will be found of inter-
est: On the occasion -of George Ills funeral,
the Duke of Cumberland was chief mourner.
Z" He had, says Walpole, "a dark brown adonis
| and cloak of black cloth, with train of FIVE
yards. Attending the funeral of a father could
not be pleasant; his leg extremely bad, yet
forced to stand upon it near two hours; his
face bloated and distorted with his late para
lytic stroke, which has affected, too, one Of his
eyes, and placed over the mouth of the vault,
into which, in all probability, he must himself
so soon descsnl; think how unpleasant sisua-
ton He bore it all with a firm and unaffected
countenance." A contrast in every respect to
the preposterous old I uke of Newcastle, who
blubbered and threatened Mysteries, and ran
about the chapel with his glass to his eye, to
spy who was there, and anon became all anxi-
ETY. about his own precious health, in those
damp, cold precincts of the grave. So, in his
precautionary measures against taking q chill,
as they stood over the vault, his Grace makes
use as foorcloth of His Royal Highness' train;
for the Duke of Cumberland, who was sinking
with heat, felt himself weighed down, and,
turning round, found it was the Duke of New
castle standing upon his train, to avoid the
chill OF the marble" Thus do tragedy and
farce jostle and discommode another in
this motley scene of life. Not quite so soon as
Walpole seems to have taken for certain did
William descend to the tomb, on the brink of
here described. He survived George III. until
the fifth year of George Ills reign. But the
late stroke from which he SO palpably suffered,
together with his gross habit of body, might
well be taken to augur badly for his term of
life, even though he wrote himself forty as yet
His corpulence was an evil that long had in
creased was increasing, and onght to be dimin-
ished. The Prince Regent of another century
was nothing at all, " fat FRIEND" compared
with William. Bubb Doddington makes out
that even the Princess Dowager would have
l,n- r.,.f ,A lao. ILL.,
capacity, saying that she had seen her great,
great, fat FRIEND" etc. The stage of corpulence
at which His Royal Highness had arrived when
thus designated lSy the gliding widow was no
ace Walpole from time to time reports pro-
gress in his recovery. In November he writes
that 1.-The Duke of Cumberland is quite recov-
cred, after an incision of many inches in his
knee" and relates how Randy, the operating
surgeon, did not dare to propose that q hero
should be tied, but was frightened out of his
senses when the hero would hold the candle
himself, which none Of his Generals could bear
to do. In the middle of the operation the
Duke said, q oldw Randy said, For Gods
sake, sir let st me pro proceed now-t will be worse
hold J" and then bade them give Randy a clean
waistcoat and cap; for said he, I" the poor man
has has clean 1,. sws a through these at was
utter groan." Eight days afterwards comes
word that the Duke of Cumberland has had q
dangerous sore throat, but is recovered. In one
OF the DlttereSt days Jnat could be felt, he
would go upon the course at Newmarket with
the windows of his landau open. Newmarket
heath, as Walpole observes, is at no time
of the year placed under the torrid zone. 81
can conceive hero welcoming death, or at
least despising it; but if was covered with
more laurels than a bears head at Christmas, /
should hate pain, and Randy, and an Grafton"
If any one were to look at the Great Pyra-
mid, he could not say exactly how long time
was occupied in the building of it; but he
might with perfect certainty say that it was
not built in day, or in year. 1t is just the
same with the coal measures: the maximum
time of their formation cannot be fixed, but
the minimum may be fixed with certainty. 1
am speaking very long way within the limit
when say 1t is impossible to suppose that tho
coal-measures accumulated faster than at the
rate of ene-tenth of an inch in n year. Two
thousand feet are equal to twenty-four thou.
sand inches, and that multiplied by ten gives
100000 years. 1 am speaking with excessive
moderation when L fix that time as the mini
mum for the formation of the coal measures.
l. hen that was but fragment of geological
time After the coal-measures came many
gigantic strata, and you might multiply the |
igure of years have given by almost any fac |
or you ike 10 get an approximate estimate
or that Is all you can gct-of the time that |
las elapsed since these spore-paSes dropped |