The Sun.
London, England, 1855-05-21 00:00:00

so circumstanced. As evil weeds did the thoughts I
grow up amid the flowers of hope in Grisell's ex-
istence,
and cast their blighting influence on the
summer of her heart. But it is in seasons of deep
and utter misery like this that the true worth of
noble characters appears, and the superiority of the
spirit in its innate aid integral majesty to all that
can make the flesh weak is best developed and
most fully seen. 'From the first moment When
her sorrow overshadowed her she was equal to the
emergency. " Whither should Igo ? Not to any
living being could I have told the wild thoughts
within me, so I wandered away to Mother Nature.
Over the fields ripening for the harvest, through
quiet woods I went." After hours of self-commu-
nion and reflection Grisell returned borne in the
Still solemn twilight. " Creeping slowly along
the dim and ancient streets, my thoughts wandered
away from myself into the past. How short a time
we have to suffer after all ! In those quaint houses,
whose fronts were pencilled by clear moonlight
touches, how many generations had moaned
through their brief hour and gone to their rest.
In a few years my heart, which ached so now,
would be dust also—the little sum of my miseries
would be ended." It is not those who give way to
their passions and indulge in the pomp and cir-
cumstance of woe who best display the force of
their sentiments or the veracity of their attach-
ment. It is when passion is surmounted•by prin-
ciple, and grief is subdued by the adamantine
chains of self-government and right feeling, that
the fervent expression of the heart's devotion
is sublimed, exalted, and made perfect—
that " earthly love doth then show likest
Heaven's." Thus Grisell shone superior to
her fate, and rose high and lofty in her calm
self-command, and pure self-sacrifice to the
lover who' deserted and the sister who betrayed
her. In her defeat so well sustained she was hap-
pier by far than in the victory so ignobly won.
Her plans succeeded for their welfare, and one hour
of peace and reconciliation was spent in the old
home, by the family who were never to be re-united
on earth. Some years afterwards they received a
summons from the wanderers, for Mr. Langley and
his bride had left England directly after the mar-
riage. Grisell and her aunt went to them. "We
talked gaily of Little Sunshine's merry days, we
wondered if we should find her changed, but
neither of us could imagine a line to have fallen on
her fair brow, or one rose-leaf to have faded from
her bright cheek." The reality was very different
from the vision. " Meeting but for one brief heart-
clasp on this side of eternity. Alas 1 it was no
longer Little Sunshine of the bright May morning
who greeted us, but a faint rayless lingering on the
hill-tops, dying in a still warm twilight, with the
roseate flush of love upon it. She opens her eyes
and smiles, then closes them, and sinks softly to
sleep. Oh, Little Sunshine Ito wake in this weary
world never—never more." A brighter ray illu-
mined the life of Grisell when she returned from
her sister's grave in foreign lands, to see her
brother reinstate himself and family in the halls of
their race. When first coming to London together,
the enthusiastic Hugh pointed out to his sister
where stood Thorney Hall, and whispered "Grisell,
if there should ever be a Randal of Thorney again."
" Dreams; brother Hugh, dreams," answered she.
Years went by from the day when the pilgrims on
life's highway lett the proud place which bad for
generations belonged to those who owned theirname.
Again the b other and sister came that way, and
Hugh now exclaimed, " Dreams, Grisell, dreams."
The whole truth flashed into" her mind at once.
"Randal of Thorney, said I, yes, Randal of Thorney
once more." The fruit of that day's harvest was
not lost, though once it was threatened with .de
struction, and the brother and sister are left there
together at last. Each had married, but had
buried their partners ; and, to use G-riselrs words,
the windings in life's high road had made them
once more fellow-travellers. Looking back from
the eminence of years on the path they had trod
there was much to be thankful for, many to la-
ment, and rich materials for thought. The pre-
vailing feeling was a holy calm, for the retrospect
was softened by sorrow, and sanctified by affection.
" Death is a true refiner.- From our memory he
purges away the dross of little faults, which in life
we perhaps saw with too quick an eye, leaving us
nothing but the sense of vacancy and te recollec-
tion of how good our lost ones were, and how we
loved them." The same idea may illustrate the
genius of the work, which is a chronicle and record
of the mighty ones laid low, and the young ones
early gathered. No scenes of the work-day world
were to interest and awaken those who were for
ever more informed that their day of action had
gone by. " What remains was summed up long
i ago by a great king—all is vanity." Their existence
was henceforth iu the world within, whose vital
principle was kindled at the shrine of memory.
Thus their present held communion with the dream-
land of the past, whose golden vistas looked up to
the spirit-home of the future.

MR. LA YARD AND SIR J. GRAHAM.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

Sir,—As the forms of the House of Commons do not
permit me to answer the speech made by Sir James
Graham last night, I trust that I may be excused in
taking a somewhat unusual course, but, considering the
grave charges brought against me, not, I hope, an un-
becoming one, if I request yon to insert the following
statement in your columns.

Sir James Graham said (T quote his words from the
report in your journal)

"Captain Christie had served well and honourably,
and was recommended to me as competent to fill the
situation to which I appointed him. I believe that the
first time any question was raised about his fitness was
when the hon. member for Aylesbury referred to hirn in '
this house. .. My only fear that I have yietled some-
what too much to clamour with respect to this officer.
I ordered on inquiry to be instituted, after the debate to
which I have alluded, by the commander-innhief on
the naval station as to whether, in his opinion, Capt
Christie had effectively and well discharged the duties
of the post that had been assigned to him. Two faults,
and only two, were alleged, to the best of my recollec-
lecti m, in reference to the manner in which Capt. Chris-
tie had performed Lis duties. The fiat related to the dis-
cretion exercised by him with regard to the transports
outside the harbour of B ilaklava on the dayof the storm,
the I,4th of November. The second question which arose,
and one to which the hon, member had alluded, was whe-
ther Capt. Christie had not made a serious mistake with
respect to ordering a portion of the Turkish troops which
were conveyed from Varna to the Crimes to come to Ba-
laklava instead of to Eunatoria. Now, having received
this answer to my inquiries, instead of handing over
Captain Christie to the committee of which .the hon-
ourable member for Aylesbury is a member, and over
which the honourable and learned member for Sheffield
presides, I thought it was more just upon the whole,
mild infinitely better, to submit the conduct of a
gallant officer to the constituted tribunal of his brother
officers—(hear, hear)—who should investigate the charge
and pronounce an opinion upon his professional conduct.
This course I thought it better to adopt, rather than to
subject Captain Christie to the ordeal to which I haVe
referred."

The speech in which I spoke of Captain Christie's age
and consequent incompetency to discharge the duties as•
signed to him was made on the 19th of Febraary. On
the 23d of the same month Mr. Gladstone, speaking in
the name of his colleagues, Mr. Sidney Herbert and
Sir James Graham, who had just left Lord Palmerston's
Government because the Sebastopol Committee was to be
appointed, while they bad been led to believe that 3.1 r.
Roebuck's motion only ir.ferred a vote of censure on
Lord Aberdeen's Administration, thus allude I to the
care of Captain Christie. I quote from Hansard :
" I heard the hon. member for Aylesbury the other
night state that, whatever else might be obscure, it was
quite clear that it had become the -duty of the Govern-
ment at once to proceed to the dismissal of Capt. Chris-
ti.e, the head of the transport service, on account of his
inefficiency. Well now, how stands the case as regards
Capt. Christie ? Let me point out the facts to the house,
for they show that the Governmen t are beforehand with

you in all cases which are at all clear. The hon. mem-
ber for Aylesbury said, and he made it a part of his case
in attacking the Government, Why do you nit dismiss
Capt. Christie ? Why do you not put him out of office ?'
Now, had Capt. Christie been put out of office ? He had,
then, already been dismissed by my right hon. friend near
me (Sir J. Graham). But is that all ? Capt. Christie
was on his way home ; he had r ached Malta, when my
right hon. friend, hearing that Capt. Christie had been
chargeable with mismanagement, sent to stop Capt.
Christie and made him return to the East, in order that
he might take his tr al by a, court-martial. The hon.
member said Capt. Christie had been guilty of misma-
nagement, and in that respect his opinions agreed with
the presumptions of the case as it came before my right
hon. friend.
The Sebastopol Committee was nominated the same
evening as and after Mr. Gladstone's speech.
A comparison of the two speeches above quoted, and
of dates, will thus prove beybond question :'—lst. That,
so far from " the first question of Captain Christie's fit•
snes"s" having been raised by me, he had been dismissed
by Sir James Graham before I had spfiken of Captain
Christie. 2. That, instead of, " having instituted an in-
quiry
into Captain. Christie's conduct after the debate"
Minded to, he had done so before. 3. That, instead of
Captain Christie having been dismissed partly in
consequence of anything I had stated, the Govern•
merit, of which Sir James Grahatn was a member,
claimed credit to themselves for having done
so before I had drawn their attention to Captain
Christie ; and 4, that whereas
hands
James Graham
states he ordered Captain Christie tos
in the
triedram byt ae
existence'
sSteenbeae:,
court-martial in the Crimgeean,tiettonaislave
pceactptathinatcihtreisvteire
ordeal of passing through my
topol Committee, that Committee was not. inth
he irecteectx
nor did the fight hon.
his conduct to be investigated.
tow olbunel dmd be, at z
eiaQatslet
fdhoera
mtitinedhe
whenpübic
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myself witnessed in the Crimea, I was led in the heat of debate into an inaccuracy a very peculiar nature arising
glect which I hadasnudbinece:
on which I could have no
of Mr. Christie—an personal knowledge—the age
poAant it6elf, inaccuracy which, however unite-
;deeply regret, as it has been tba cause