The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-29 00:00:00

TEE SUN, LOMB DON, FRIDAY EVE NG, APRIL 29, 1864.

the verdict of a member of the Calcutta Medical
College, who said, "If a man is fortunate when he
first comes out he will have fever; if he is unfortu-
nate he will have dysentery; if he is very unfortu-
nate he will have cholera." Such a picture may
be an extreme one, but it is only too evident that
there is urgent need of some change. We are pay-
ing a dear price for the cuipable indiff,rence and
neglect which has hitherto been shown in
these matters in the lives of valuable public
servants whose official duties oblige them to
undergo the risks attending a prolonged resi-
dence in Calcutta. Mr. MILLS, Q.C., the new
judge, is, we regret to learn, the latest victim. Some
efforts have lately been made to mend matters;
and the report of the chairman of the newly ap-
pointed Sanitary Commission, only :comprises the
most that has been said of the state of the city. The
Government is preparing for its move to Simla, and
is therefore, in common with th. 3 public, awaiting
anxiously Sir CHARLES TREVELYAN'S Budget.
That anxiously looked for event is not likely to be
quite so welcome this year as last, since recent
events have interfered with the expected eurplus.
Fortunately, the unusually large receipts from the
customs have compensated in a great measure both
for the depression of the opium trade and for the
tightness of the money market. Unfortunately Sir
CHARLES TREVELYAN has lost much of his popula-
rity among the trading community by his inaction
during the late commercial crisis. Matters are now
mending, but from the restricted state of the cur-
rency the recurrence of such panics is but too cer-
tain. Why cannot our financiers try the experi-
ment of a paper currency under proper limitations,
based on the national credit. Such a course would
relieve India from her monetary difficulties, and
would avoid the possibility of a crisis like the pre-
sent. It would also give a stimulus to enterprise
and an encouragement to trade and commerce,
which could not fail to affect the general prospe-
rity of the country and to develop its resources,
Had the panic occurred in a less favourable year
its results would have been far more serious, but we
have no seourity that it will not recur when the
Exchequer is embarrassed and the crops failing.
According to English, and still more to Anglo-
Indian custom, we must we suppose wait for that
day before we can hope for a substantial change.
Reforms of all kinds are, however, likely to go on
under the new Governor, whose energy and industry
have startled officials of every degree from their
comfortable dolce far nunte. None can complain of
overwork when they see the amount of labour
accomplished by the chief of the State, and accord-
ingly a long accumulation of arrears is being cleared
of in every quarter. The Viceroy does not spare
sharp words and practical hints to indolent
or supine officials; and by example, precept,
and keen supervision, he has succeeded in
stirring up the various departments to a degree of
vigour and inactivity long unknown. Neither is
his supervision a mere form, since almost every re-
port bears, it is said, in its marginal notes a proof of
its having been read by the Governor himself.
Afraid apparently of the reaction which would fol-
low his absence, the Governor takes the whole
secretariat with him to Simla, where, if they get
change of air, they are not likely to get too many
holidays under such a chief. India wanted such a
' man at her head, since the immense accumulation
of neglected public questions placed a formidable
barrier in the way of her social and political pro-
gress. There are in all quarters of the country
abuses to be rectified, reforms to be instituted, im-
provements to be effected which have been talked of
year by year but have never been forthcoming.
The present session has seen many important
measures passed in Calcutta, and one of them for
the registration of deeds is interesting to many in
this country, since it secures the purehaser of land
from fraud and litigation, thus encouraging the
formation of enterprising companies, and the in.
vestment of English money in India. Altogether
the news is satisfactory, and we may hope that the
active and enlightened spirit now infused into the
Calcutta councils will before long produce still more
marked effects.

CHARLES DICKENS'S NEW STORY,

Part I. of ii Our Mutual Friend."

The " two green leaves" dear to us all by reason
of so many delightful recollections are putting forth
anew, this once, appropriately enough in the spring-
time. Upon the average, hitherto, if we remtuaber
rightly, they have begun to burgeon in the
autumn, generally speaking, somewhere about
October, Anyhow, they come forth upon this occa-
sion in every imaginable way most seasonably.
Where the last story of our Great Humourist
ended, his new story now begins. As we
open the first chapter we are, with him—afloat
again upon the Thames. Not participating
in the flight of another convict, such as that
wonderful Meg witch in " Great Expectations,"
hut sculling, in the autumn twilight,over the great,
river in a ho it propelled by the daughter of a " 'long-
shoreman," one Gaffer Hexam, a creature not unlike
Shakspere's Samphire-Picker, for inasmuch as he
has to do with the borders of the great deep, and
that his, also, is indeed a " fearful trade !" The
Bird of Prey, es Hexam is dubbed by oar novelist,
sits in the stern of the boat when we first see him
—On the Look Oat ! As an opening chapter, this
first one of " Oar Mutual Friend" is wonder-
fully striking. It influences the reader, like
a glance from the Ancient tlariner's eye :
we needs must listen. In its way, as an introduc-
tion to a serial story, it is equal—more than this we
could not possibly say of it—it is equal to that
opening chapter in the graveyard by the marshy
flats, giving at once a landscape and a haunting in-
terest to" Great Expectations." And as the little boy
Pip and that shuddering,hunted Mag witch stood out
vividly there from that congenial background of the
wild fiat and the weedy graveyard—so here upon the
instant we have indelibly imprinted upon our recol-
lection—afloat upon the river Thames—at their un-
holy work towards nightfall—the 'longehore•man
Hexam, and that foul creature's fair young daughter!
Already, in truth, there is abundant promise in this
Part I. of an enthralling story. The ravelling cf
the thread of it into a most intricate plot is, to our
mind, in these thirty-two pages, even now pretty
well accomplished. Insomuch that we can readily
understand at once the initial hieroglyphic on
the green cover. Four chapters make up this
first instalment. The preliminary chapter we
have already characterised. The one imme-
diately following it introduces us to a throng
of genuine Boz characters. The Veneerings—
to begin with— occupy the foreground, A wonderful
couple ! Everything new about them : they them-
selves being—as newly married, whenthe tale begins,
we are gravely told, "as was la wfdly compatible
with their having a bran new baby." The new•
ness of their friends, moreover, is suggestive
to our author of the drollest incidents
imaginable: among others, take the following,
" fearful circumstance," as he ca.ls it—occurring
when the guests are assembling it a dinner-party
given by these same Veneerings—
" Mis-ter and Mig-sis Podsnap 1"

"My dear," says Mr. Veneering to Mrs. Veneering,
with an air of much friendly interest, while the door stands
open, "the Podsnaps."
A too, too smiling large man, 1% a fatal freshness ciL,
him, appearing with his wife, instantly deserts his wife and
darts at Twemlow with :

'How do you do? So glad to know you, Charming
house you have here. I hopo we are not late, So glad of
this opportunity, I am sure !"

When the first shock fell upon him, Twemlow twice
skipped back in his neat little shoos and his neat little silk
stockings of a bygone fashion, as If impelled to leap over a
sofa behind him ; but the large man closed with him and
proved too strong,

"Let me," says the large man, trying to attract the at-
tention of his wife in the distance "have the pleasure of
presenting Mrs. Podsnap to her host. She will be," in his
fatal freshness he seems to find petpetual verdure and eter-
nal youth in. the phrase, " she will be so glad of the oppor-
tunity, I am sure I"

In the meantime, Mrs. Podsnar, unable to originate a
mistake on her own account, became Mrs. Veneering is the
only other lady there, does her bob; in the way of hand•
homely supporting her hu.thand's, by looking towards Mr.
Twemlow with a plaintive countenance and remarking to
Mrs. Veneering in a feeling manner, firstly, that she fears
he has been rather bilious of late, and, secondly, that the
baby is already very like him.

It is questionable whether any man quite relishes being
mistaken for any other man ; but, M. Veneering having
this very evening het up the shirt-front of the young An-
tineus (in new worked cambric just come home), is not at
all complimented by being supposed to be Twemlow, who
is dry and weazm and some 30 years older. Mrs. Veneering
equally resents the imputation of being the wife of Twem-
low. As to Twomlow, he is so sensible of being a much
better bred man than Veneeringi that he considers the large
man an offensive ass.

In this complicated dilerAla, Mr. Veneering approa--1108
the large man with ext:inded hand and, smailint,j, assures
that incorrigible'
ersonage that he is deligb'.o to see him :
; -
who in his fa'
41 freshness instantly reples
" Thar'
you. I am ashamed to `,,ay that I cannot at this
Inwir,nt recall where we met, 'out I am so glad of this op-
-1" atattity, I am tur© I"
I Then pouncing r.pon Twemlow, who holds back with all
his feeble might, he is haling him off to present him, as
Veneering, to Nits Podsnap, when the arrivals of mere
guests unravels tte mistake. Whereupon, having re-shaken
hands with Veneering as Veneering, ho re-shakes hands
with Twemlow as Twetnlow, and winds it all up to his own
perfect satisfaction by saying to the last-named, " Ridicu-
lous opportunity—but so glad of it, I am sure I"
Now, Twemlow having undergone this terrific experience,
having likewise notei the fusion of Boots in Brewer and
Brewer in Boots, and having further observed that of the
remaining seven gn, ets four discreet characters enter with
wandering eyes and wholly decline to commit themselves as
to which is Veneering, until Veneering has them in his
I grasp ; Twemlow having profited by these studies, finds
his brain wholesomely hardening as he approaches
the conclusion that he really is Veneering's oldest
friend, when his brain softens again and all is
lost, through his eves encountering Veneering and the
large man linked together as twin brothers in the back
drawing-room near tae conservatory door, and through his
ears informing him in the tones of Mrs. Veneering that the
bEtllle large man is to be baby's godfather.
Among the retainers in attendance at this dinner party
there is one, by the way, who is so depreciatory in
his manner of everything and everybody that, when
he precedes a guest up the staircase, with a mourn-
ful air, he does so " as who should say, Here is
another wretched victim come to dinner : such is
life." Bottle in hand, he goes the round of the
table " like a gloomy Analytical Chemist : always
seeming t o say after Chablis, sir ? '—‘ You
wouldn't if you knew what it's made of." Hence-
forth, naturally, ho is never mentioned, this same
melancholy retainer, but as the " Analytical Chemist"
—every time more and more ludicrously. Commend
us—among the
guests waited upon by the Analyti-
cal Chemist to the Podsnaps already introduced—.
he " with two little light-coloured wiry wings on
either side of his else bald head, looking as like his
hairbrush as his hair" she " fine woman for
Professor O wen, quantity of bone, neck and
nostrils like a rocking horse, '' et cetera. Or,
better still, commend us to the Mature Young
gentleman " with too much nose in his face, too
much gieger in his whiskers, too much torso in his
waistcoat, too much sparkle in his studs, his eyes,
his buttons, his talk, and his teeth." Or bel",t of all
—Lady Tippins " with an immense obtuse drab
oblong Ulu, like a face in a tablespoon," An old
lady, who, in her gaiety of rots.iner, enhances the
humour of her remarks
a certain yellow play
'legs of scratching poultry."
in her throat like the
The Four Buffer-, of the party, moreover, including
among them,
portion amazingly. The only rational
of tee story
'Boots and Brewer, help the fun of this
by the way,
pen ,e among the whole set being
Mortimer Lightwood, the Solicitor, and his friend,
formerly his schoolfellow, the gloomy Eugene,
Barrister-at-Law. The way in which Mortimer
tells a story at the dinner table—a story directly
bearing upon the whole plot of the serial here com-
menced—the way in which Mortimer relates it,
with all the byeplay and all the interruptions
well, to our mind Mr. Dickens has never written
anything more delightful in the way of quiet, play.
fel humour, has never written anything more plen-
tifully marked' mith touches of that life-like reality,
in respect to which his writings are—simply, in
one word, inimitable. The chapter coming next,
chapter three, that is, entitled " Another Man"
—as the one before it has been typically called
(in reference to the plot) " The Man from Some
where"—carries•us onward into the intricacies of
that labyrinth the readers of "Our Mutual Friend"
are happily destined now to track out through
all its manifold windings daring the next nineteen
months consecutively. The Police Station—the
Police Inspector, cool and deliberate, like an abbot

in his monastery, even while the drunken
drab in the cell hard-by is clamouring in
her shrieks for some other woman's liver—the said
Inspector's alert satellite—these and other scenes and
people, thereabouts, are described as Mr. Dickens
only can describe London localities and specimens
of the London population. Finally, in the fourth
chapter completing this opening number of the new
story, we ere introduced, in the purlieus of Hollo-
way, to divers members of " The R. Wilfer
Family." The chubby paterfamilias in the group,
R. Wilfer himself, to wit, bears, it is hinted,
a resemblance to the conventional cherub grown up
and clothed! R. stands for Reginald, but the cheru-
bic Wilfer being a poor clerk merely, with a very
small stipend, modestly contracts into R, a Christian
name for which his facetious associates, thereupon
Eubstitute a variety of preposterous adjectives and
participles beginning with R, as Ripe, Ridiculous,
Roaring, Raffi3h, and so forth, the favourite substi-
tute for his own name, the one sticking to him
like a burr, being—absurdly—Rumty !,Mrs. Wilfer,
his wife, who ties her head in a handkerchief, and
wears a pair of gloves in doors, "as a kind of
armour against misfortune (invariably assuming it
when in low spirits or in difficulties) and as a
species of full dress"—promises to be as amusing
in her way as Mrs. Micawber. Two out of the
daughters of the house, Bella and Lavinia, are
already, here. among our acquaintance. Inducted
also into the Wilfer establishment, as the new
lodger on the first floor, is one in whom we are
fain to recognise not only " three gentlemen
in one," like Mrs. Malaprop's Cerberus, but the
hero of the narrative. Can lie be " Our Mutual
Friend ?" Already we know not how to call him !
Mr. John Harmon—Mr. Julius Handford—Mr.
John Arrowsmith. By the way it almost seems to
us as if—out of the very confusion there is in regard
to his identity, or rather out of the very reduplication
of his—how shall we term them?--well, in Cockney
Latin ,aliaaes —the wrong name, is, as it seems to us,
for the moment, by an oversight, applied to him
in the very last sentence of Part One, that is to
say, the wrong name (again we would inter-
ject here, as it seems to us), in Bella's regard !
It is, namely, where Mr. John Arrowsmith is spoken
of as one whom she (Bella) might have regarded
with different eyes had she known that he rather
resembled a twin brother of—(a person wholly un-
known to her as yet even by name)—" Mr. Julius
Handford!" The allusion could only have been
comprehensible to us had it here been said—
" Mr. John Harmon." However, this apparent con-
fusion in regard to the name referred to, may be
our own exclusively. The sequel of the story,
under any circumstances, will for certain clear up
the seeming difficulty. As certainly as the
ninth chapter of it (p. 84) we perceive
by a fly-Mem, is to clear up the difficulty
about the popular phrase suggestive of
the book's title. At any rate, we may now most
cordially congratulate Mr. Dickens upon the bril-
liant commencement he has here made of his new
serial fiction—as we may certainly congratulate
his countless readers upon the treat before them.
Ae the new illustrator of Charles Dickens, vice
"Pile," Mr. Marcus Stone makes a very creditable
beginning. The river scene with the Bird of Prey,
afloat with his Child upon the Thames, is excel-
lent. And cleverly, too, in the other illustration to
Part 1., has the artist depicted—how shall we call
him ?—Our Mutual Friend ?—with his back to us !

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

LREUTER'S TELEGRAMS.]

AUSTRIA.
VIENNA, APRIL 29.
The Emperor and Empress of Russia are expected
on the 15th May at Kissengen.
His Majesty will remain a fortnight.
The Emperor and Empress of Austria are also
about to visit Kissengen, and a meeting of the
Sovereigns Rill probably take place.