The Sun.
London, England, 1855-10-25 00:00:00

THE SUM LONDON, THURSDAY EvENALKO. OCTOBER 25,. 1855.

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' nestly to impress upon the shareholders, policyholders, ant it
every one interested in the welfare of the office, that th o
sure and true way to sustain the successful results which
have already been achieved, and to increase the business of
the society, is for each one to be active and energetic in
canvassing his friends and connexions, making apparent
the great and manifold advantages which the adoption of
the provident principles of Life Assurance presents to all
classes of the community, and thoroughly revolving, with
that perseverance and energy so characteristic of the race
whose name the office bears, to contribute his proportion
to the general success which may be predicted for the Saxon
Life Assurance Society during many ensuing years."
The CHAIRUAN, in moving the adoption of the report
just read, said that the success that had attended the
operations of the society had been exceedingly gratifying
considering the fact that the society had been only in
operation eight months. The expenses of the first
year of a society were generally the greatest, but they
now bad a bodyof agents in the provinces that few offices
could boast of, and the fruits of the expenditure would
be found in an increased and increasing business. The
society possessed as an agent abroad a gentleman of
great ability. He had forwarded between 40 and 50 po-
licies, and on his return to Berlin he had no doubt that
his exertions would not be relaxed. The Chairman
then urged the importance of life assurance, and con-
•luded by moving the adoption of the report.
Mr. UTTING seconded the resolution.

her. He shook her, and the damp shirt that
had been wrapped round her body under her
clothes fell down. The little girl said her mother
took it to sell to procure victuals with the money. The
mother wag afterwards apprehended in a public-house.
The mother, in answer to the Lord Mayor. said she
to ok the shirt to get some victuals for her-ielf and three
oh ildren, who had had only 11b. of bread between them
to eat for the last two days.

SUN OFFICE, Seven, o'clock.

The prisoner's two other daughters, who were in court,
sn d presented a very decent appearance, said they
worked at the satin back work, but were unfortunately
no w much distressed from the want of employment.
The police said the mother was separated from her
hi sband and was much addicted to drinking.
His Lordship reprimanded the mother for training so
young a child to dishonesty, and sentenced her to 10
(Nays' imprisonment. Commiserating the position of the
children, the two elder of whom were evidently indus-
trious girls, and had to work to supply their unnatural
mother with money to spend in drink, his Lordship
directed that they should be given 10s. with which to
meet their present necessities.

The children thanked his Lordship and retired.

GUILDHALL.

The CHAIRMAN then put the resolution, which was
passed unanimously.

Armin= Swam—William Holder, of 27, White-
friars-street, London, 42 years of age, was charged, be-
fore Alderman Finnis, with attempting to destroy him-
self.

R. H. Bing, Esq., and the Rev. James Patteson, the
retiring directors, were unanimously re-elected.
Mr. R. H. BING then moved the re-election of the
auditors, which, having been agreed to,
Mr. POTT returned thanks, and bore testimony to the
admirable manner in which the accounts of this society
were kept. He begged leave, as a proprietor, to move
a vote of thanks to the directors for the great success
with which they have conducted the operations of the
society, and that the sum of three hundred guineas be
placed at their disposal.
The motion having been seconded, it was put to the
meeting and carried unanimously.

Police-constable 54 stated that he was on duty this
morning in Shoe-lane, about 10 o'clock, when he saw
the prisoner and his wife in an excited state, the latter
endeavouring to take a phial bottle from her husband.
Witness rendered her assistance, and conveyed the pri-
soner to the station-house, where another bottle was
found on him. Both bottles contained laudanum, and
the prisoner told him, if he took them away, he would
adopt some other means " to do " for himself.
Alderman Finnis remanded the prisoner, to enable the
surgeon of the prison to examine the state of his health.
EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCIL—john. Johnson was
charged with stealing a purse, containing Bs. 6d., from
the person of Elizabeth Freeman, servant at the Ball
Hotel, Holborn.

Mr. M'ALPIN moved that interest at the rate of 5 per
cent. upon the paid-up capital be paid at Christmas next,
free of income tax.

This resolution was also carried unanimously.

The CHAIRMAN then moved a vote of thanks to their
excellent secretary, Mr. Roberts, and assured the meet-
ing that the directors felt they had got the right man in
the right place.

Last night, about half-past 6 o'clock, the prosecutrix
was standing looking into the shop of Messrs. Meekin,
of Holborn-hill, when the prisoner stole her purse and
ran off, pursued by several persons, and was apprehended
by police-constable 232, in Hatton garden. When
searched at the station-house, the purse was not found
on him. This morning about seven o'clock, the police-
man went to Hatton-garden, and in front of a house he
found the purse with the money in it, lying across the
area grating, near the pathway. The purse was identi-
fied by the prosecutrix.
Alderman Finnis summarily convicted the prisoner,
and sentenced him to two months' imprisonment. The
purse and money was given up to the proseeutrix.

The SECRETARY returned thanks, and stated to the
meeting that his best endeavours would be exercised for
the interest and prosperity of the society.
Thanks having been voted to the other officers of the
society,
The proceedings then terminated.

FORGERY BY AN ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH CLEM—Mor-
ris Nash, was charged with obtaining 1/. 12s. 6d. from
the Electric Telegraph Company, by means of a forged
ord

It appeared from the evidence that the prisoner was
engaged in the office of the Telegraph Company, at
Lothbury, and that it was his duty to make out orders
for the repayment of surplus money deposited for the
transmission of messages, which orders were signed by
the assistant-secretary, and were payable on presentation
at any of the company's stations. On Saturday last the
assistant cashier received an anonymous letter, appoint-
ing a meeting with the writer at Tom's Coffee-house,
Holborn. He went there, and found the prisoner. After
some conversation the prisoner showed him two orders,
one signed by the assistant secretary, the other bearing
a forged signature of that officer, and asked him if they
were both presented, if he could pay them, and offered
him half for it. The assistant cashier said he would
consider the matter, and on Monday morning gave in-
formation to the assistant secretary, and at his request
made a second appointment with the prisoner, who then
informed him he bad presented the forged order at the
London-bridge Station, which was for 1/. 12s. 6d., and
had it cashed. At the prisoner's lodgings a quantity of
blank orders were found, many fictitious signatures of
the under-secretary, and one with a genuine signature
which had been obtained by the prisoner making out a
fictitious return paper, and obtained the Assistant-Se-
cretary's signature to it. The signature of the order
paid was a clever imitation of the Assistant-Secretary's
writing.

A clerk from London-bridge Station proved paying
'e order for 11.125. 6d.

The prisoner was remanded till Saturday.

LITERATURE.

Passing Clouds : A Talc of Florence. A. Play.
Longman, Brown, Green, and Longinans.
An exquisite dramatic love story, this " Tale of
Florence"—the production of a refined taste and
of a chastened and fruitful ii,.aginatiou. We have
perused it more than once already, and have done
so, moreover, at intervals sufficiently lengthened
to enable the judgment to revert with freshened
zest to the task of analytic examination.
It is, therefore, we may remark, with the
emphasis of deliberation that we commend thus
play of " Passing Clouds
warmly the anonymous
a Tale of Florence." Whether the composition be-
fore us be a maiden performance or not, is a ques-
tion left altogether to our unguided conjectures.
From the exhilarating freshness apparent through-
out, we should be tempted to surmise that the
work under notice is the achievement of one entirely
unhackneyed to the dusty pursuits of the real or
ideal, the scholastic or histrionic conlisses. But
that with this bloom of novelty and of youthful
day-dreamings, it would be difficult not to recog-
nise the skilled ability visible in every scene of the
five acts, from the earliest "entrance" to the latest
exeunt ; or rather from the first suggestive page,
giving us the list of the dramatis persona down to
the final grouping of the principal characters, prior
to the fall of the curtain upon that mystic line (the
last line of every acted or matted drama), along
which the heroes and heroines assemble side by side
under the shadow either of an actual, or, it may
be, of a purely imaginary proscenium. Never-
theless, after all, it matters little, if anything,
whether the play, read or witnessed, examined
by the homely flame of the argand burner, or by
the gassy glare of the footlights, be the product of
some timorous tyro or of some practised playwright.
What we have really to do with is the drama and
not the dramatist. Watching the progress of the
piece as a reader placidly turning over the leavesin
an armchair, instead of excitedly following its inci-
dents through the palpable medium of a living and
breathing representation—we are deprived of the
time-honoured privilege of the playgoer, the right
to summon any successful author to the front of
his box, there to receive the spontaneous tribute
of our cheers of felicitation. Reading a play in
privacy it is always so, and that, of course, inevit-
ably:, we close the drama, as thesupposititious green
baize descends upon the hypothetical stage, think-
ing more of it than of the dramatist. Whereas, upon
the witnessing of any first night's performance it is,
as we have indicated above, directly otherwise—
the play itself, if triumphant, is no sooner com-
pleted than the spectator almost instantaneously
loses all recollection of it in a not irrational and
easily comprehensible curiosity to behold, with all
his blushing 13.-mours thick upon him, auctor opens
prcecipui, bowing in confused exultation to the
plaudits of the gods and the groundlings. In lieu
of those resounding acclamations, the published dra-
matist, as contradistinguished from the acted drama-
tist, must solace himself perforce with the sedative
tokens of victory percolating to him from the press
in the honey-drops of praise vouchsafed at rarest
intervals by the public reviews. Such words we
are now happily enabled to pronounce conscien-
tiously upon the unknown writer of this charming
" Tale of Florence," be the author he or she,
young or old, veteran or stripling aspirant. The
play is to our thinking, from first to last, emi-
nently beautiful. It appears without the affecta-
tion of either explanatory note or apologetic pre-
face—simply and modestly relying upon its own
merits in the way of lucidity. The principal per-
sonages introduced scarcely number a dozen in all.
The scene is restricted to Florence and its imme-
diate neighbourhood. The incidents are supposed
to transpire somewhere between 1295 and 1300.
Everything essential in reference to the accessaries
of the story might be told in a few minutes, so
clearly defined is the drift of it, so natural and se-
quential are the stages of its development. Sant
Angelo, a Florentine patrician, and De Beaufort, a
French nobleman, are the old men of the piece—
the fathers of the two heroines—obdurate, of course