The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-20 00:00:00

THE YELVERTON CASE,

The Hon. Theresa Yelverton presented a petition
to the House of Lords on Wednesday last, through
her agent, praying their lordships to order the ap-
pellant, Major the Hon. W. Yelverton, to pay to
the petitioner the sum of £5OO, or such sum as to
their lordships shall seem meet, either in nature of
alimony or for the purpose of enabling the petitioner
to complete her case ; and, further, that the hearing
of the cause may be postponed for three menthe, or
until such time as the said £5OO is paid to the peti-
tioner. The petitioner states that in January, 1860,
she raised an action of declaration of marriage before
the court in Scotland, and on the 19th December,
1862, the judges declared the marriage to belawful,
and ordered Major Yelverton to pay the costs of the
proceedings, but he had never paid any such costs.
In 1860 an action was brought in the Court of Com-
mon Pleas in Ireland, against Major Yelverton, by
Messrs. Grant and Gash, merchants, London, for
£2O 9a for necessaries supplied to the Hon. Mrs.
Yelverton, and judgment was given in their favour,
with costs, on the 5.1 July, 1860. The petitioner
goes on to state that in January, 1861, another
action was brought in Dublin against Major Yel-
verton, by Mr. Thelwall, an iron master, in York-
shire,
for £259 17s 3d, for board and lodgings sup-
plied to Mrs. Yelverton, at the request of Major
Yelverton, and that the cause was tried before the
Lord Chief Justice and a special jury, in March,
1861, when, after a trial of many days, the jury
returned a verdict in favour of Mr. Thelwall for the
amount claimed. In this case a rule nisi for a new
trial was granted, and, after having been argued
before the full court, the rule was discharged on the
7th July, 1862, with costs; but Major Yelverton
has not paid any part of the debt or costs in which
ho has ben condemnel. And the petitioner further
states that her husband never contributed anything
towards her support, but that ho is living in con-
cealment, and his solicitors and agents refuse to
give any information as to his place of abode. The
petitioner then goes on to state that in consequence
of the enormous law expenses she incurred in defend-
ing herself and maintaining her rights as his wife,
her private means are nearly exhausted, and that
she is now dependent for maintenance on the assis•
tance of her friends. The privations and hardships
to which the petitioner has been exposed through
the cruelty of her husband, and the mental anxiety
which she has suffered during the last five years
and a half, have produced a total prostration of
strength. She was taken ill in the south of France,
when on her way to England, and her medical
advisers are of ovidion that it would be dangerous
to her life if she was to be removed at present
. Their lordships considered the petition, and have
. ordered the question with reference to the Biala to
be referred to the next appeal committee.

LITERATURE,


The North British Review. No. ',XXIX. Ed-
monston and Douglas.
Although several articles of importance lend an
especial interest to the current number of the North
British Review—conspicuous among them a reve-
rential treatise upon the " Vie de Jesus," such as will
hardly satisfy the egotism of M. Renan should it
fall under his observation—we have turned, as we
conjecture every person taking up this ever-welcome
blue covered northern quarterly will turn, must
perforce turn, instinctively, inevite.bly, to the last
paper of all—the eighth—aimp;y entitled
" Thackeray." Of all the many memorials of
Thackeray yet given to the eager multitude of his
lamenting admirers since his startling demise, this
paper in the a 1 orth British is, to our mind, in•
comparably the very best. To our think-
ing, it is beyond all comparison the best.
Nothing, it is true, could by possibility have been
more exactly what it ought to'have been, what we
should (in our thorough appreciation of the tw o
men) have wished it to have been, could our wishes
have had any influence whatever in shaping out the
result—nothing could possibly hate been in more
exquisite taste as an expression of manly sorrow
and fraternal sympathy than Charles Dickens's In
Memoriam paper leading off the last number of the
Cornhill. But then it was—though of the best—so
very brief! As for Mr. Anthony Trollope's tribute
to Thackeray in the same number of Thackeray's
own especial periodical—well, it was most gene'
rous in tone and feeling, only, in point of
fact, it was too much so, for, while it was
all that, it was also to the last degree extra-
vagant. The finest novel in literature, the
most perfect creation of a character in the whole
range of fiction—why, these superlatives were
simply preposterous as applied even to " Esmond"
(that exquisite romance !), even to Colonel New-
come, that worthy companion to other imaginary
beings, each, let us say, as Sir John Falstaff or
Sir Roger DJ Coverley. The charming little me-
moir published by Mr. Hannay, first of all, in his
own Edinburgh newspaper, and afterwards in a sepa-
rate form as a slight pamphlet, was—in bulk, or
rather in the lack of bulk—insufficient. The corn
pilation prepared for the press with such surprising
rapidity by Mr. Theodore Taylor, and published so
very promptly the other day by Mr. Hotten of Pic-
cadilly, turns out to be, when the kindest thing that
can be said of it, is said of it, wholly and solely a
compilation. Bearing in mind, therefore, all that
has yet appeared in regard to Thackeray since the
date of his lamentably sudden demise, this eighth
and last contribution, in the current number
of the North Britith Review, is, we repeat,
to our thinking, the very best, because in
every way the fullest, the most searching in its
criticism, and, therefore, all things consi-
dered, the most satisfactory. It is enough of itself
to secure to the number, as we can hardly doubt but
what it will, an unusually large and widely scattered
circulation. Often, throughout it, we don't the
least atom in the world agree with the writer in the
North British in his estimate of this or that among
Thackeray's writings. For example, we cannot for
the life of us regard that great writer's Lovel the
Widower as in any ono respect a masterpiece, On
the contrary, it seems to use among all his
writings, to be in almost every particu-
lar one of the least satisfactory. It is
the old story he had so often and often related
before, told once more all over again—the tone of
it, meanwhile, as caught from one of the most pro-
minent characters in the fiction, to wit that horrid
butler, being inconceivably vulgar. Barring, how-
ever, instances like these, where our own judgment
flies to quite an opposite conclusion to the one
arrived at by the North British Reviewer, we have
to thank the latter for a memorial chapter on
our great humorous satirist, Thackeray, the
eager perusal of which has on the whole given us
the liveliest satisfaction. Among the scattered
treasures of Thackeray's own inimitably
comical writings, not to be found among his
worke, even in his collected Miscellanies, we have
reason to be greteful to the North British for giving
113 in its grotesque entirety, what we have often
heard sung, but never reakereher before this to have
seen any where in print—Thackeray's wonderfully
'tinny impromptu song of—

LITTLE BILLEE.
There were three sailors in Bristol city,
Who took a boat and went to sea.
But first with beef and captain's biscuit,
And pickled pork they loaded she.
There was guzzling Jack and gorging Jimmy,
And the youngest he was little Billet).
Nuw very soon, they were so greedy,
They didn't leave not one split pea.
Says guzzling Jack to gorging Jemmy,
"I am extremely hungaree."
Says gorging Jim to guzzling Jacky,
" We have no provisions, so we must eat we."
Says guzzling Jack to gorging Jimmy,
"0 gorging Jim, what a fool you be I
There's little Bill is young and tender,
We're old and tough, so let's eat be."
"0 Bill, we're going to kill and eat you,
So undo the collar of your chemie."
When Bill received this infumation
He used his pocket-handkerchie.
"0 let me say my catechism,
As my poor mammy taught to me."
"Make haste, make haste," says guzzling Jacky,
While Jim pulled out his snickersneo.
So Bill went up the maintopgallant mast,
Where down ho fell on his bended knee.
He scarce had come to the Twelfth Commandment,
When up ho jumps, " There's land, I see.
There's Jerusalem and Madagascar,
And North and South Amerikee.
There's the British fleet a riding at anchor,
With Admiral Nelson, K.C.8."
So when they came to the Admiral's vessel,
He hanged tat Jack and flogged Jimmee.
But as for little Bill, he made him
The captain of a seventy-three.
Our obligations ought also to be expressed here to
the North British Review for recalling to our re-
membrance that charming dedication of our great
humorist's " Paris Sketch Book," in the very grace-
ful terms to his Tailor, M. Aretz, of No. 27 in the
Rue Richelieu. Sev3ral perfectly original reminis-
cences of Mr. Ttiackeray, here published for the
first time, lend a peculiar interest to a paper that
altogether claims from us our very cordial com-
mendation.