The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-27 00:00:00

Dockyard Accommodation, '

The second and final report from the select com-
mittee upon dockyard accommodation was made on
the 15th inst., and has been printed as a Parlia.
mcntary paper.

As to Devonport and Kellam, the committee are
of opinion that a third basin at Devonport equal in
extent to the present north basin, and at least two
additional first-class docks are among the works
which are required; and that it is desirable that
the entrance to the basin and docks be so constructed
as to admit ships at all times of the tide.
As to Cork the committee advise the immediate
construction of a first-class deck in some convenient
site in the harbour; and also an arrangement, if
practicable, to deepen one of the existing private
docks for occasional naval requirements.
As to Malta the committee are decidedly in
favour of a dock at French Creek, and hope that
the difficulties, owing to the interpretation placed
by the Imperial and Colonial Governments as to the
agreement for a dock at Mersa, will be overcome.
In the event of French Creek being placed at the
disposal of Government, the committee recommend
that this country should eifer to construct a deck at
Mersa for the use of merchant ships.
In regard to foreign stations, the committee are
of opinion that a Government deck at Bermuda,
suitable for the accommodation of first-class ships,
is required. They have also taken evidence as to
the accommodation required at various colonial sta-
tions, and think that the plan adopted at Hong
Kong might be followed with advantage, viz., ad-
vancing a reasonable sum to private parties con-
structing a dock, provided it be constructed of suf-
ficient dimensions otherwise, and be at all times at
the disposal of her Majesty's ships when required;
the sum advanced being in proportion to every foot
of depth attained beyond `2O feet up to 24 feet.
The committee are also of opinion that similar
arrangements could be made with private firms in
this country for the construction of first•class
graving docks, or the enlargement and deepening
of existing docks ; it is desirable this should be I
done.

The committee, although not recommending ex-
tensive alterations beyond what is immediately
pressing, consider the whole question of foreign
dock accommodation as of great importance, and
that much expenditure will be required to preserve
the naval position of this country. Steam vessels
mast have their bottoms cleaned frequently, and
great loss is caused by their absence from their sta-
tions, and the wear and tear of sending them home
and bringing them back. The committee, in re-
commending large expenditure, suggest as worthy
of consideration whether Deptford, Wool vaich, and
Pembroke D)ckyards might not be suppressed
altogether and disposed of, and the business now
carried on in them transferied to the yards to
which such importcnt and costly additions are in
progress or in prospect. In all probability the
money realised by the sale of these valuable sites
would provide a considerable sum towards meeting
the capital expenditure which must be incurred in
improving the larger dockyards of the United
Kingdom and the colonies.
The committee also direct attention to the evi-
dence of Mr M'Lean and Mr Goode, two eminent
civil engineers, who think that the saving by con-
vict labour is counterbalanced by the loss caused by
the increased length of time the works are in pro-
gress, and they recommend the completion, as
speedily as possible, of every work undertaken.

MISS MARGARET ADDIS'S CASE.—A eorrespon,
dent of the Daily Naos writes :—Daring the present
session a bill was brought into the House of Lords proposing
that the punishment of flogging should be added to im-
prisonment in cases where a man had outraged a woman,
and the bill was carried in that house. In the House of
Commons it was lost by a small majority. One of the ob-
jections made was that it would degrade the man. Query—
Can a man guilty of this horrible crime bo degraded ? and
if he can, why should not he who has degraded a virtuous
woman bo degraded himself ? Surely this is only the barest
justice, Had the wife or daughter of ono of the majority in
the House of Commons met with the same fate as that unfor •
tunate Miss Addle, would the bill have been lost ? I think
not. Indifferent as Englishmen appear to be to the honour
and safety of their women, such an outrage on the daugh-
ter of one of the members would have aroused a different
and a better feeling. The it jury inflicted on this unhappy
girl is worse than death, and the best hopo her parents can
have is that she may die. Dishonoured, deprived of all
hope of happiness during her life, what can she pray for
but death ? And what punishment will be thought Buffi.
cient fir this monstrous criminal ? A few years' impri-
sonment with hard labour, and then, in all probability,
turned out upon society to repeat his crimes. Our laws
aro merciful indeed to criminals, bict how unmerciful to
the innocent I

TU E OUTRAGE IN GOVAN.--We regret to state
that on Sunday night the unfortunate victim of this atro-
cious assault was considered by her medical attendants to
be in a dangerous condition.—Glasgoto
SIGNOR VERDI AND M. DUMAS.—Tsvo new
operas have been ordered by the Grand Opera in Paris of
Verdi, to one of which Dumas the elder is to write the
libretto.
MADAME TUSSAUD'S.—One of the best executed
figures recently added to Madame Tussaud's
Exhibition is a life-size pc trait model, in the costume of
the period, of the youthful Edward V., who "%Vith his itifant
brother, the Duke of York, was foully murdered, by order
of his untie', the Duke of Gloucester, afterwards liiichard
111., in the `Power of Londun.

LITERATT7--
. AZ,

Atherstone Priory. By L. N. Comyn, Author of
i;
esdice, a Tale." Two volumes. Longman and
Company.
A Domestic Novel, this is, of the most charming
character, Perhaps altogether it is rather too diffuse
in style, too " spun out" in some of its incidents and
descri
pti:a. But—in this, like that " dimpled, sur-
iirtsed-looking capital face" of Scrooge's nephew's
wife, with all its shortcomings, whatever they
may be—"satisfactory, oh, perfectly satisfactory !"
As in one sense a mere material objection,
and yet es in another sense a wholly int-
material objection to the book es a book,
we would say at once that it seems to us
rather a pity thet it should have been published
precisely in the form in which it has been published !
.In other words, that it should have appeared as two
rather unwieldy volumes, instead of, in the old
orthodox novel-form, as three volumes of reasonable
dimensions. For although Miss or Mrs. Comyn's
book—(which it ought to be, we know not, but the
sex of the work, as we may say, is altogether uns
mistakeable I)—although this newly published
fiction by the author of " Ellice, a tale," comas forth
merely as a domestic story in two volumes, the two
volumes within which it is comprised have been ex-
tended to the length of no less than 1,102 pages.
Yet balky though the beok is, the reader of it will
hardly find it a bit too long. Hemely though the
incidents it relates, it will securely hold the atten-
tion of the lovers of a purely domestic nerrative—
through it's upwards of Oae Thousand and One
hundred pages of thoroughly English Entertain-
ment. It might be objected to it by the more cap-
tious, that the title is somewhat of a misnomer—
seeing that the larger of these two volumes—that is
to say the second ond—refers hardly at ail, except
towards the close of it, to that scene of all the varied
incident recounted in the first, to wit, " Atherstone
Priory." Still, even in regard to that at once specious
and captious objectionewe conceive that the authoress
might reply, and with good show of reason enough,
that "the cottage by the sea," where the more sor-
rowful incidents of the plot are described as having
occurred, solely enquire an interest for us during
the chief part of the second volume by reason of its
being inhabited for a while by people we, still, to the
last, mainly associate with Atherstone Priory.
Once, and once only, does the writer forsake
the even tenour of her way in order, we
presume, to afford her admirers come notion of her
capabilities-2if she pleased—as a Sensationalist.
Whatever her motive in doing so, we would earnestly
recommend her never again to adventure into those
regions of extravagantly romantic and impassioned
sentimentality which may be said to hey° dictated
the chapter in which—(this is the one fl w in the
narrative, even, we would say, in the writing of it'
certainly in the conception of it)—the chapter in
which Peroy is described as waiting, in a
sort of ambush, with murder in his heart,
by the moonlit " pool among the hills,"
for his supposed enemy, Arthur Darrell. The
authoress may take our word for this, at least, that
she can never hope to compete with Miss Braddorr
as a sensationalist, though she may, if she lists,
count very confidently upon proving a for-
midable rival to Miss Yonge, that most charming
among all our living domestic novelists. And we are
very much mistaken, indeed, in our estimate at once
of the powers and of the predilections of L. N.
Comyn, if the latter would not herself
immeasurably prefer entering the lists with
the authoress of a "Daisy Chain," instead of with
the authoress of " Aurora Floyd." There is some,
thing kindred, indeed, in the genius which wove the
"linked sweetness" of the " Daisy Chain," and that
which has here built up the homely architecture of
" Atherstene Priory"peopling it afterwards with the
numerous Family of good Dr. Tennant of Atherstone.
A manufacturing town is that said town of Ather-
stone. A place dingy and smoky enough in itself.
But with a green oasis in the midst of it, in • the
shape of that large ecrsmbiing old garden, full
of flowers, and fruit, and vegetation of all kinds,
grassy-lawn end shadowing lime trees, rose bushes
and orchard boughs, embowering three sides of that
old Priory Mansion, which presents its fourth side to
the main street of the beforementioned manufactur-
ing borough-town of Athsreteee! It is surprising
now that we have come to the end of the story, as
it is told to us in these two bulky volumes, it is
surprising to ue—hechneyed, and, as we had
fancied, somewhat used-up novel-readere—how
profound an interest the writer has here
contrived to awaken within us in regard
to the various members of this home groupe !
Doctor Tennant himself, although the very embodi-
ment of good-nature, appears too slightly and
casually in the course of the narrative, to secure
from us, we must confess, very much of our
sympathy. His second wife again is such a cross-
grained cantankerous old harridan that even when
she relents at the very end of the book we don't
care for her the snap of a finger and thumb !
Doctor Tennant, it should be here mentioned at
once, has two children by his first wife—dead, this
latter, long before the story opens, dead CO long
indeed by that time that the Doctor has been
married again for a good many years, having by
Mrs. Tennant No. 2 as many as seven children.
Captain, afterwards Major, eventually Col. Percy
Tennant, is the good doctor's first-born by his first
wife—and this Percy it is who is the hero of the
book. His sister Mary might be described as the
good angel of it. Nat the heroine of course, however,
—as will have been manifest in the mere fact of its
being her brother who is the hero. The heroine's
part is allotted, almost avowedly, as one
may say, at the outset to the adopted child
of the house, an orphan cousin, wilful. charming,
lovely, loveable, Ha :a Lisa! The child wife.
as sh© becomes (just midway in the story) of Percy
Tennant. As to the seven children brought to Dr.
Tennant by his second wise, the cold-eyed, cold.
hearted matron already mentioned by us in
terms strongly expressive of oar repugnance,
they partake, most of them, we suspect, rather
too much of her nature, and too little cf
the kindlier nature of
.her husband, to win
our regard vary cordially. Isabel, until towards
the end cf the book, is simply odious, with her
jealousy and her slandlers—her jealousy the meanest
her slanders at once the most detestable in their
nature and the most disastrous in their consequences.
Her sister Elinor, again, is barely tolerable all
through the work—a sly, silent, secretive valetudi-
narian lover, not in the least worthy of Arthui
Darrell, who, while in the earlier chapters one of
the most delightful of all the characters introduced
to our notice, lighting up, as he does, the old-
fashioned sitting rooms and the green orchard-
garden at Atherstone Priory, with his wild fun
and frolic, becomes really and truly quite spoilt for
us directly he falls into that fatal attachment of his
for Elinor. Fatal, that is, not to him, but to one
upon whom the mystery of it throws for a while
such very lamentable euspicions. Charming little
Lisa, that is—the child wife of poor, deceived,
purblind Percy Tennant. The tangled skein of-the
plot of the novel, however, we will not precisely
attempt here to unravel. The gordian knot of it
may be found by those who list, unwound most
by the authoress—unwound by
dheefrtliyn
aanllais skilfullyytksilifnutlricate involutions save one—the
which central core of the knot of the plot, as one
may say, is severed only by the grimly sheers of
Atropos ! Compensation, however, of some kind is
given to us at the very last, where -compensation
has seemed at first a thing impossible—namely, after
the grief caused by our loss of poor Lisa! The
-young wife and mother leaving in solace
to her huebend and to the reader Little Lisa's own
alter ego Tiny May •An enthralling home story—
eery real of its kind—is this new domestic tale by
L. N. Comyn : a fiction in which the fair promise
given by the writer through the gracious outlines
and delicate colouring of her "Ellice" (so far as we
know, her maiden
work), are not simply fulfilled,
butare, we would rather Say, realised so very
happily, that we have every cenfidence in the still
further rise, advance,
and development of her
reputation.

EATING LIVE RATS.—George Whittin gton
been fined £5, with the alternative Of '3O days' imprisonment;
by the Glasgow magistrates, for having an exhibition of a
r?'"1 and a woman eating live rate it his show booth in
Gt.A9•l E (NEtre,

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