The Sun.
London, England, 1852-02-06 00:00:00

SUIT,

but the prisoner

and his companion -remained larking with the female
lodgers who were sleeping in the parlour. The witness
then gave the same account of the stabbing that was
given by the last witness, and stated that when the de-
ceased reused to drink the gin, the prisoner threw the
cow( nts of the glass on the table. Almon was taken to
the hospital the same night. He had given no provo-
cation but refusing to drink the gin.
Cross-examined—She was charged last April with rob-
bing a map, and tried at the Clerkenwell Sessions, where
she was convicted and sentenced to six months' imprison-
ment. She robbed the man of two sovereigns, and since
then two warrants had been issued against her fur as.
saults, and on both occasions she was tined 10-. and 12s.
Two women broke her windows and she returned the
compliment on their beads. On another occasion, while
she we' in the streets she was taken up for robbing a
man of his watch. and tried in the City. She was con-
victed and sentenced to six months' irnurisonna,nt. She
did not know how many Tim( s she had been fired and
imprisoned for assault, but it was a good many.
This witness was a tall gaunt-looking woman, about
thirty years of age, with an exceedingly cuurse and re-
pulsive expression of features.
Emily Willis, a prostitute, gave a similar account of
the scene in the brothel.
Cro,s-examined—The deceased skylarked with Mary
Ann Smith. He had a cane in his hand. It was not a
poker. The prisoner's companion wanted to stay with
Smith, but she refused as he would not pay before
hand. The prisoner e (mid have been very civil to me,
but I would have nothing to say to him. When the
prisoner and his companion brandished their knives
some one certainly did seize the poker, but it was not the
deceased.
Mary Ann Smith, another prostitute, also gave corro-
borative evidence.
Cross-examined—I was to have had four shillings and
Emily Willis the same, but the money was not forth-
coming.
Mary Donovan confirmed the evidenco of the previous
witnesses.

03
41/8

32%
14:y
47
92

911,
587
91%

Cross-oxamined—There was a man named Wifferman
in the room, and he had a poker in his hand when the
stabbing took place. She believed he took it up in his
own defence.
John Wifferman, a German sugar baker, and the man
referred to by the last witness, gave confirmatory evi-
dence.
Cross-examined—l secured the poker to protect my-
self. I was afraid they would stab me too. I did not
brandish it, but I took it from one side of the fireplace to
put it on the other, so that it might be handy in case I
wanted it.
The circumstances attending the arrest of the pri-
soner were then detailed by two men and a policeman.
Mr. Daniel Ross—l am a surgeon, and on the morn-
ing of the Bth of January I was called in to see the de-
ceased, He had a serious wound in the abdomen, and I
ordered his removal to the hospital, where he afterwards
died.

The surgeon who attended the deceased in the hospi-
tal was too ill to be present today, but another medical
gentleman who saw the deceased at the time he
was dying, stated that he had no doubt whatever that his
death was the result of the wound.
This was the case for the prosecution.
Mr. BALLANTINE then addressed the jury for the de-
fence, and insisted that the prisoner must have received
great provocation before he drew his knife upon the
deceased. It was clear, he contended, that an at-
tempt was made to rob this man and his companion,
and while they were labouring under the excitement
which such an impression must have produced, they
drew their weapons in self-defence. It was quite evi-
dent that there had been no premeditation in this case;
the act was the result of an accidental quarrel, and it a as
preposterous to suppose that it could be treated as a
murder wilfully and maliciously committed in cold
blood after calm deliberation.
The LORD CHIEF BARON having summed up the
evidence,
The Jury returned a verdict of Manslaughter.
The prisoner was sentenced to twelve months' im-
prisonment and hard labour.

BOW-S'FREET,—.-{THIS DAY.)
Thomas Lambert was charged with stealing a watch
and chain, or the value of 101, the property of Mrs.
idary Osborne.
The statement of the prosecutrix was that, on the
sth of November last, as she WAS passing through
Tottenham-court-road on her way home, there was
considerable obstruction on the footway, and the pri-
sorwr, who seemed to know her, accosted her by name,
with an offer to conduct her through the mob, and see
her safe home. She accepted the offer, supposing that
the prisoner had some acquaintance with her, although
she could not recollect anything of him. He attended
her to her house, No. 9, Warren-street, and spent the
greater part of the evening with her. He renewed his
visits, and ultimately made her an offer of marriage,
which was accepted. She provided him with money to
discharge other preparatory expenses. The banns were
accordingly published, and a day appointed fer the
wedding; but in the meantime the prisoner represented
that he owed about 1801,, which he hoped to bo able
to pay off within three weeks or a month, and sug-
gested that it would be better to defer the
marriage until after that time, lest her property should
be attached for his debt. She consented, and lived with
him as his wife, in her own house, from that time till last
Monday week, letting him have on different occasions
sums of money amounting to nearly 601. On that day
his real wife presented herself with his child, and conse-
quently the prosecuteix ordered him to leave the house.
He refused to do so, and violently assaulted her. Before
he left the house he broke into the room where the
watch was deposited, ,and took it away without her
knowledge. He had since come to her house repeat-
edly, and annoyed her very much. She wished only to
recover her watch, and to obtain protection from further
annoyance.

The prisoner, in his defence, said that the prosecu-
trix had given him the watch and chain. lie added
that she knew he was a married man from the time that
the marriage was put off.
Mr. JARDINE having heard all the statements and re-
criminations of the parties, told the prosecutrix that
she had acted very foolishly, and had herself only to
blame. She could have expected nothing better than
what she now complained of. But he advised the pri-
soner to give her up the watch, and her to give him his
clothes. If the prisoner, who must be discharged at
present, gave her in future the slightest annoyance, he
(Ur. Jardine) would afford her effectual protection.
The parties then left the office.

POST. OFFICE NOTIC E.-MONEY ORDEEB*—Barrow-
upon-Humber, Lincolnshire, will be opened as a minor
money-order office, on the 6th February next. The issue
and payment of money-orders has been discontinued at the
minor money-order office at Bodenham, Herefordshire; post-
masters will, therefore, cease to draw orders for payment at
that place, and will erase its name front the printed lists ac-
cordingly.

•
The Australian Steam Company (via the Cape of
Good Hope) have announced that their first iron auxiliary
steamer of about 1,500
tons regi-try and 3eo-horse power,
will be ready to start for Port Philip, Adelaide, and Sydney,
early in April. It appears that thecompany have purchased
two boats, out of six which have been recently built at
Glasgow for the Cunard Company, with the view, since
entirely given up, of establishing a cheap line to Neiv York
in conjunction with their present steamers, and that, at the
same time the option has been obtained of taking two more.
Eventually the Australian Company contemplate the em-
ployment of vessels of a larger size, but under existing cir-
cumstances promptitude was all-important, and those they
have now purchased are capable of accommodating a great
number of passengers, and are expected to realise a cora
partitively high speed.
Advices from Sydney bring the report of the Bank
of New South Wales, adopted at the half-yearly meeting
held on the 22d of October. The gross profits for that
period, including the balance from last account, was 14,6651.,
leaving the disposable amount, after the deduction of expen-
diture, 11,4371. Of this 6,3201. has been appropriated to a
dividend at the rate of 10 per cent. per annum; 4.3661. has
been placed to the credit of the reserve fund; and 7511. has
been carried to the account for equalising future dividends.
_ LAUNCH OF THE AMAZONAS STEAM-FRIGATE.--
Etesterday was launched at Blackwell the auxiliary screw
tonnage is 1,676 R
ptoor
oinvse, r
mesasmsrs'frigate called the Amazonas. She was built by
• 1, ,gram and Sons, of Blackwall-yard, end is to be
long 68-pounders on the main deck. Her
aanrrdaenhgeembeelnotnsg. s to the Peruvian Go-
vernment. The
ENGINEERS
Littledale, and Messr:al harbourmaster of the city of London
edlliaorn
who
I I:::ereLcihvosen ascomns.ferent •—The Mayor, Mr.
core between the men and their
and men. The latter had by and Lloyd, town councillors,
e yesterday with both masters
employers, had a
chief
interview, and stated
gineelerwsfhoiLiverpool of men be-
their views in writing, their
objection being the em-
they excluded men
ployment by the master en
e?; said, rather than
longing to other benefit societie,;
connected with the Amalgamated Society.
They were wit-
rt of the
anithe
ling to submit to almost any terms, t?.:•
sacrifice altogether the benefits to which,
tion, they were entitled. On the retirement of
subscriP.
Messrs. M‘Gregor, Willie, and Preston, on the% the
of
employers, had an interview with the mediators,
requirements of the men were handed to them in
They took away the document, and promised, after• graving Writing.
it
a full consideration, to return an early reply.
yesterday issued an address to the electors
THE REPRESENTATION OF GREENWICH._..
Houston Stewart
of Greenwich, in which he states that in soliciting their
suffrages he neither presumes upon official influence (the
gallant officer being one of the Lords of the Admiralty),
nor upon private friendship, but rests his pretensions upon
an honest and anxious desire to support the author of the
first Reform Bill in his promised measure for an existence of
reform.

CANTED lIURY, YEB. 5. —The retirementPlumptre from the representation of this division
county has plunged the district into all the bustle of elec-
tioneering excitement. The High Sheriff has received her
of
theMr
of
Majesty's writ directing the election of a knight to serve the
eastern division, and the nomination has been fixed to take
place on Monday, the 16th inst., on Bareham-down. The
contest is likely to be rather a severe one between Sir Ed-
ward Dering, Conservative, and Sir Brook W. Bridges.
INsPLOTION OF COAL MiNEs.—The district hitherto
inspected by Mr. Dickenson comprised the counties of Lan-
casnire, Cheshire, Staffordshire, Sh ropsh ire and Worcester-
shire, and also North Wales. The district has been divided :
Mr. Dickenson now takes Shropshire, Staffordshire, and
Worcestershire, and Mr. Wynne is appointed to inspect the
coal mines in Lancashire, Cheshire, and North Wales. Mr.
Williath Lancaster, formerly of the Ince Hall Coal and Can-
nel Company, takes part of Mr. Dann's district, §coaand.

LITERATURE,
THE HEIR OF ARDENNAN. 3 Vols. By
the Author of "Anne Dysart" album and Co.
Regarding the second work of a writer as the se-
vet est test of his or her abilities, we are gratified to
remark in the effusion before us no tokens cf retro-
gression, perhaps we might even say evidences, here
and there, of progress in the way of improvement.
" Anne Dysart," we took occasion on its original ap-
pearance, to commend as a fiction raised above the
ordinary level of the domestic or romantic tales con-
tributed by the novelists of the day to our literature.
Remembering the satisfaction with which we perused
that production at the time, and remembering, more-
over, the earnest praise which we deemed it but right
to accord to the narrator, we have recognised with
no small degree of pleasure the fulfilment in some
measure of that promise, and the justification of those
encomiums in the very charming story in which are
here recounted the adventures and vicissitudes of
" The Heir of Ardennan." In her second
composition, we perceive, it must be acknow-
ledged, but little more than the repetition,
and it may be also the development to some extent
and in sonic particulars, of the merits which in her
first commended for the authoress at our hands very
sincere and cordial commendation. There is ob.
servable in both fictions, for example, the same de-
lightfully surprising skill in the discrimination of
character, the carne graceful recognition of the balance
of good and evil in human nature—a truth inculcated
very admirably by Sir Bal wer Lytton in his drama
of Not so Bad as we Seem—and, above all, the same
generous insinuation of that most sweet and most pure
morality which takes its root in the sanctuary and
blossoms under the censers of religion. Not that the
novelist is perpetually thrusting impertinent clip-
pings of this morality upon the reader, but that she is
ever indirectly infusing its influence into their minds
through the medium of the creations and the inci-
dents flowing from her imagination. For ex-
ample, the heroine of her present story—a story of
domestic life in Scotland—is one of those truthful
and loveable delineations in which the heart instinc-
tively beholds the incarnation of goodness. Caroline
Irvine, nevertheless, is no model young lady—per-
haps we should say the very reverse—but something
immeasurably better, a susceptible and bewitching
character distinguished by the blending of passion,
simplicity, and tenderness. It is impossible to trace
the narrative of her fortunes without loving her in
the end as earnestly as the most infatuated of her re-
latives. Conspicuous in the midst of the latter, of
course, are her sister Agnes and her father the
Major—Agnes a quiet, ladylike, thrifty, and industri-
ous spinster, who would infallibly have dwindled into
a nonentity but for the amiability which is her dis-
tinguishing characteristic, and the Major, a testy, self-
willed, self-opinionated veteran, whose affection for
his child would have called forth the sympathies of
Parson Adams, and whose devotion to his profession
must have infallibly secured for him the friendship of
Uncle Toby. Associated with the graces and the sensi-
bility of Caroline Irvine the reader always thinks, with a
sort of forgiving respect, of the sister drudging over her
Berlin wool, and of the father babbling over the
charms of his incomparable " Carry." Several of the
personages introduced in the course of the story, the
scene of which is only once removed to London
and once to India, being otherwise restricted to the
highlands or the lowlands of Scotland, are remarkable
for the brilliant and yet natural colours in which they
are depicted, the authoress dashing her sketches off
with a rapid and masterly pencil, every touch replete
with expression and every shade and outline suggestive.
Nothing can be happier than the description of Mrs.
Howard, the vain, silly, simpering simpleton, who at
nearly forty, continues the girlish airs of a coquette,
and who is not unjustly regarded by Mr. Ross as
" only one remove from an idiot." Then, again, the
whole family of the Bosses are painted with a felicity,
of manner worthy of all praise, the good, vulgar, un-
assuming and hospitable mother (one of the most
thoroughly agreeable among all the imaginary
beings in the book), the sublime and sorrowing
Maria, the inquisitive chatterbox Isabella, and
William, who with his everlasting stories about the
Countess Ida and the gifted Vervier, is little better
than a nincompoop. Besides these, among the low-
lenders, there are the Yurvises—Mr. Purvis, a little,
vulgar-minded, consequential cockatoo, always
talking grandly about his titled acquaintance; Mrs.
Purvis, larger in bulk, more vulgar-minded, more
consequential,: and altogether more intolerable, and
jabbering, moreover, with a perpetual emphasis
which the authoress is obliged to italicise by way of
distinction ; John, silly-looking, helpless-nosed, and
awkward : but, more terrible than all, the daughter
Jane, with her corkscrew ringlets, and her streaming
ribbons, and her flowers, and her fine airs, with her
eyes goggling up to the cornice, and her petticoats
swaying to and fro with the affected "gentility" of
her carriage. The hutnour;of the chapters in which
these same vulgarians are introduced is delicious—as
may be seen more especially in the laughable record
of the love scene in the pantry. Wattle, the gar-
dener, looking after his " floors," and Peggy the
old domestic, marvelling at the wisdom of " the
bairn," must not be overlooked as lending additional
charms to the homely villa of Wallacefield, where
Caroline is born and educated, and whence she pro-
ceeds at the age of sixteen on her first journey to
visit her married half-brother in the Highlands at
Locharrocb. Here it is that the real interest of the
story commences. Here it is we encounter for the
first time the silent but in reality gentle John Gor-
don, his grim but also warm-hearted wife Catherine,
and—the hero of the novel—Malcolm. Mixed up in
the plot with these and the before-mentioned per-
sonages are the beautiful Violet Smythe and the
handsome Arthur Cornish. Out of the history of
these two characters come the two most enthralling
passages in the whole work—the incident on the ice
where Arthur is nearly drowned while skating, and
the death- bed scene of the unfortunate and broken-
hearted Violet. As we cannot but think that our
authoress has in the person of Mr. Gordon, other-
wise Locharrocb, taken a hint from her own delinea-
tionshe hasof Mr. Bolton,
a leaf
so
from
, Bz,
w: , cannote, but think also that
in herore nor eserliepstsi
Sir Arthur Cornish, who is nothing m
a married Steerforth. Again, in the final love scene,
description
of
n
the love scone that brings the fiction to a close, the
influence of Charles Dickens is perceptible—the de-
claration of Caroline being merely a paraphrase of
that simple, and because simple, most eloquent and
touching acknowledgment of Agnes to David Copper-
field—" I have loved you all my life !" And here in
this very scene we are compelled in justice to avow
that we consider the authoress to have shown herself
the least artistic. She should have refrained, we
mear, from rendering the hero contemptible in our
estimation, by making him act in a manner which he
himself afterwards endeavours to repudiate—repre-
senting him as declaring his love to a girl be believes
at the very time to be engaged to another. Apart
from this, we must plainly avow that Malcolm Gor-
don, with all his amiable qualities and shrewdness of
intellect, appears to us rather " slow" than
otherwise. At any rate, we regard him
as several degrees below Caroline Irvine in cha-
racter—and, therefore, as somewhat ill.selected
for the hero, what though.he is the Heir of Ardennan. ^
Insomuch is ibis the 'feeling with which we close the
narrative, that we can scarcely forgive the heroine
for rejecting -Mjor Smythe, fop though he- was at
times, white though his hands, and sparkling his
brilliant. Poor Violet's story is what alone casts
a ray of romance over the pages of the work under
consideration, pages which are otherwise dedicated
exclusively to a very clever, and in many respect., a
very charming delineation of domestic life in Scot-
land. With this life the authoress every where be-
trays herself familiar, whether it be in depicting the
trim parterres of Wailacefield, or the gleaming lochs
and purple heather of the highlands, or the woods of
Ardennan, or the solitary precincts of Locharroch,
or the busy streets of Leitb, or the urban and sub-
urban splendours of the most princely capital in
Europe—Edinburgh. If for nothing else, these three
they
insight
into the peculiarities of the scenery
inasmuch
ag
and the society of
vaofflourmdes
this
suld
gberaapchcieeptaba!reid for
admirable
not less
Scotland. But besides these the story, as we have
shown, has a variety of other andestimable
excellences. It unfolds anew some of the minor and
which the writer confesses to regard with the humility
with the lofty
unnoticed mysteries of the human heart—mysteries
of the student, and yet, at the same time,
purpose of the philosopher. It delineates, as we have
observed, and occasionally with consummate skill, a
variety of curious but natural characters. It relates
a story of love, elevating and not enervating in its
in-
fluence, and through the career of the heroine, Caro-
line Irvine, inculcates, as we have already remarked,
indirectly but most persuasively, some very noble and
chastening principles. From all these considerations,
it will be comprehensible with what satisfaction we
follow up the encomiums pronounced by ourselves
upon "Anne Dysart" with others as deservedly pro-
nounced upon its successor, " The Heir of Ardennan."
A

I.IDDLESEX HOSPlTAL.—Yesterda the annual
general court of the governors of the above-named charity
was held at the institution, Sir Robert H. Inglis, Bart„
M.P., in the chair. The minutes of the several weekly
board meetings recorded the bequests of various legacies, and
of the presentation to the Museum by Mr. Jacob 13e1l of
the specimens exhibited by him at the Great Exhibition.
The income of the charity for the first year exhibits a fall-
ing-off to the amount of 600/., compared with that of the
year before, and has been exceeded by the expenditure to
the extent of upwards of 2,0001. Several thousand patients
were relieved in the course of the year, and 256 are at pre-
sent in the hospital. The report having been adopted a
vote of thanks was passed to the Marquis of Westminster, as
Lord Steward, for a present of three large sacks of waste
linen from the Palace for the use of the hospital. The govern-
ing officers for the ensuing year were then appointed, after
which, on the motion of the Hon. Admiral Percy, the thanks
ohfeltdieaycotuerrtmwineartegthiven to the chairman, and the business of

A Manx fisherman lately sold some Lancashire
cotton-spinners a quantity of dog-fish, at large prices',
auadiug them that they were Manx mountain trout.