The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-11 00:00:00

N°. 22,322.

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JANUARY 11, 1864.

UNDER THE ESPECIAL PATRONAGE OF HER MAJESTY.
Now ready, Thirty-third Edition, 1 vol., with the Arms beau-
tifully engraved, handsome y bound, gilt edges, 31s 6d.,
LODGE'S PEERAGE AND BARONETAGE
FOR 1861.

WHERE CAN WE MEET AF TER THE
PANTOMIMES? My dear Fellow, Gentlemen sup
at EVANi', Covent-garden.

opinions were irreproachable. If so, so much the worse for
Dr. Winslow's theory. If Townley had always been mad,
it would have been one thing. If he was only mad since
the murder, and while conversing with his doctor and his
chaplain, the affair alters its complexion. Mi. Dolan, a
friend of Townley's—who was not called at the trial—next
made statement on oath that in London on one occasion

was certainly their duty as interpreters of English opinion
to advise the Danes to surrender Holstein rather than fight
—and as they did advise they were bound to see that the
advice once taken did not involve utter ruin to those who
took it. If Holstein were used a stepping-stone by which
Germany might cross the Eider, then British advice would
have ruined the nationality which looked to Britain for
help. Such a result could not be endured by a power
with any sense of self-respect, and frightful as the collision
may be, it is on the invaders that the consequences and the
responsibility must rest. The Government is bound to
relax no effort to preserve the nation front a war which is
not one of F elf-defence ; but that duty fairly performed, it
is right that, as the Admiralty announce, " the Channel
Fleet has been ordered to repair to a port in the British
Isles."

KINAHAN'S LL WHISKY v. COGNAC,
BRANDY.

Corrected by the Nobility.
"A work of great value. It is the most faithful record we
possess of the aristocracy of the day."—Morning Post.
Burst and Blackett, 13, Great Marlborough-street.

This celebrated Old IRISH WHISKY rivals the finest
FRENCH BRANDY,

It i 4 Pure, Mild, Mellow, Delicious, and very Wholesome.
Sold in Bottles, 3s. Bd., at the Retail Houses in London ; by
the Agents in the principal towns in England; or wholesale

Townley had purchased seven white hats and three um
brellas, and had cut holes in the hats to distinguish them
from one another. On another occasion Townley had jumped
into the water with his clothes on, in apparent ignorance
that he was not undressed. The evidence looks strangely

On January 21, in 2 vole , post Bvo.,
BELLA DONNA ; or, the Cross before the
Name. A Novel. By GILBERT PYCE.

8, GREAT WINDMILL-STREET, W.
Observe the Red Seal, Pink Label, and Cork branded
‘,Kinahan's LL Whisky."

Richard Bentley, New Burlington-street.

suspicious. It given, it was given on an affidavit without
cross-examination, and ex parte statements of this kind—we
mean no disrespect to Mr. Dolan—are worth as a rule about
as much as the paper on which they are written. But where
was Mr. Dolan at the trial ? Explanations, we are informed
have been given to the Home Secretary as to his absence.
We shall be very glad to see them. As Townley's friends
had got three months's notice of his trial, it is rather strange
so important a witness was not present, though he is
able to turn up a fortnight after, when the judge and the
cross-examining counsel have gone back to their Christmas
fireside, But even if Mr Dolan's evidence were all irre-

fragable, to what & ludicrous nothing does it amount?
Townley is absent in mind. Townley is eccentric in the
way he treats his hats. Therefore Townley, when he cut
Hiss Goodwin's throat, did not know what he was doing.

Station.

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THE READER.--Those who had taken part in the oppo-
sition to the motion for inviting Mr. Thackeray to a Vice-
Presidency of the Shaksperian Committee have been recently
anxious to explain they had done so on mere grounds of
form, and proposed that the portion of the minutes of the
previous meeting which registered the unfortunate vote
should be erased. The majority, however, were not satis-
fied with this mode of obliterating an act which all now re-
gretted ; and it was at length agreed that the minute of
the unfortunate vote should remain, but that there
should be inserted in the same minute-book a resolution
expressing the participation of the committee in the com-
mon sorrow for Thackeray's premature decease, and their
regret that, owing to circumstances, his name had not been
added before that event to the list of the vice-presidents.
As respects Thackeray or his memory the whole matter is
now of inconceivably small consequence. Little will he
reek, if they let him sleep on. But, from the extreme acer-
bity with which the matter is being commented on in the
public papers and in private talk, it is to be feared
that it will affect the unanimity and success of the
proceedings, already so far advanced, for the
adequate celebration of the coming Shakspeare Tercen-
tenary. This would be a great pity. There are but
three months and a half between us and that 23d
of April which, it had been determined, by the consent of
so many who are far enough from any passion for pageants
or popular demonstrations, should be made, as far as our
British and nineteenth-century habits will permit, a great
national festival. The organisation that, under the name
of the National Shakespeare Committee, has been formed
for this object, and especially for making arrangements for
the erection of a monument to Shakespeare in London, is as
complete and suitable, if we may judge from the names it
includes, as any such organisation could be. If it should
collapse or be crippled, we do not see how, in the brief time
that remains, new arrangements can be made for a Shake-
spearian commemoration on the great scale that was con-
templated. There are a good many, we believe, to whom
this would be a matter for no particular regret—who would
not care although on the approaching 23d of April there
should only be such scattered Shakespeare dinners as there
have always been on that day of the year wherever the
Shakespearian enthusiasm is rife, without any grand de-
vices for the centralisation or inter-connection of them, or
any attempt to swell the feeling on this anniversary of the
event that has made Stratford-on-Avon dear to the world.
But these perhaps peculiarly constituted persons, who turn
their backs upon everything, or in whom sociability is
deficient ; and, recollecting how well the Burns Festival
went off five years ago, most people have been thinking
that it would be, to say the least, no bad thing to make a
still greater experiment, in a Shakespeare Festival, of our
powers, even in these morose days, of giving shape and
simultaneous expression to a joyous national sentiment. It
would be a pity if, while affairs were in train for such an
experiment, there should come unnecessarily an interrup-
tion. And we do not see why an interruption should be
necessary on account of what has recently happened. Why
should not that ungraceful and unfortunate act, which all
now regret, be regarded as simply the act of one scantily at-
tended Committee meeting, rectified, so far as it could be rec-
tified, by a restrospective resolution in another ? And why
should not the National Shakespeare Committee still
carry on the work which they were constituted to pro-
mote—that of collecting funds for the erection of a
Shakespeare monument in London, and at the same time
corresponding with whatever local bodies are preparing for
local celebrations of the Tercentenary, so as to give some
sort of unity and centralisation to the whole design ? It
may, indeed, be necessary that more of the General Com-
mittee than have yet taken an active part in the business
should now begin to do so. Were the Johnsons, the Gar-
ricks, and the Burkes of our day to take a little pains in
arranging for this Shakespeare jubilee, and to lend a little
of their personal co-operation as well as their mere names
to the preliminary proceedings. there would be a general
restoration of confidence. We should be glad to see
Mr. Dickens, for example, who is one of the
Vice-Presidents, bringing his great popularity and
his well-known powers of organisation to bear
upon the arrangements. A good deal, it seems,
remains to be done and thought of. In particular there has
been dissatisfaction at Stratford-on-Avon on the ground
that the National Committee, instead of paying due regard
to the pre-eminent claims of the dear little town in any
celebration of the tercentenary that may be arranged, have
been drawing all the elements for the celebration into a Lon-
don vortex. On this ground we see that the Mayor of Strat-
ford has been holding meetings and otherwise stirring up
teal in mid-England for an independent Shakspearian fes-
tival, of which Stratford shall be the centre. For our
part we think that Stratford should be made the centre
of as much of the total national ceremonial of
the celebration as it can be made to accommodate. On
the anniversary, when it comes, most people will dine
at the Shakespeare dinner that chances to be nearest to
them ; but who is there that, if he could choose, would not
a thousand times rather be at the Stratford-on-Avon din-
ner than at any of the others ? It might bo so arranged
that Stratford should have at least a fair proportion on the
occasion of those celebrities whose time is their own. In
matter of monuments agreement between London and Strat-
ford might be more difficult; but even that might be brought
about by judicious management. What seems immediately
essential is, as we have said, that more of the members of
the General Committee shall take part in the business.

Destructive Fire at the Brighton Railway

Yesterday morning, shortly after five o'clock, a police-
constable, in passing along Tooley-street, Southwark,
noticed smoke hovering over the great terminus of the
Brighton and South Coast Railway at London-bridge.
At first he imagined that a special train had just arrived,
but in the course of a few seconds the crackling of glass
and a lurid glare, Which shot up almost instantaneously,
led him to the belief that a fire had broken out
either within or near the station. He theretore sounded
his rattle, which quickly brought to the spot other
officers, and they then found that the Crystal Palace depart-
ment station was in flames. This particular part of the eta-
tion is about 55 feet broad and about 62 feet long. The roof
was formed of thick glass, supported by iron columns and
cross-bars, but none of them were able to withstand the
intense heat of the fire, and the flames extended with un-
usual rapidity to the electric telegraph department, includ •
ing the lobby, and also to another portion of the station 60
feet long and 50 broad. The fire next seized upon four
goods trucks standing on a aiding on the line, and also on
the adjoining offices. One or two of Shand and Mason's
powerful engines are always kept at the station in case of a
fire breaking out, in charge of a well-disciplined fireman;
but after the ordinary traffic is over this person leaves, ge-
nerally at 1 a.m. In the present case he had gone home,
and those left behind appear not to have known where the
fire plugs—of which there were plenty in the station to meet
any emergency—were situated ; consequently the men could
render no assistance, except by removing property from
contiguous offices. Mr. Henderson, the foreman of the
London Brigade; Mr. J. Gerrard, the head of the steam
land engines ; Mr. Swanton, and various other officials,
came up with landsteam and manual-power engines, as did
also another, which was brought from Hodge's Distillery,
at Lambeth. Unfortunately another obstacle then pre-
sented itself, for the inhabitants, by some means, had for-
gotten to send for the turncocks, and the fire being thereby
unrestrained continued to spread, and seizing upon the book
and newspaper depots belonging to Messrs. W. H. Smith
and Son, the whole presented one blaze, and the heat was
so intense that the glass in the roof became molten, and the
iron rods and supports twisted into a variety of forms.
The turncocks at length arrived, and a splendid supply of
water having been obtained the firemen went to work in
their usual intrepid manner, and happily succeeded in cut-
' ting off the further spread of the flames ; but they were
unable to get them extinguished until about sixty or
sixty-five feet of the roof of the Crystal Palace department
station were destroyed, and another part, GO by 40, almost
riddled by the action of the fire. The telegraph lobby, &c.,
are almost burned out, and the offices adjoining severely
damaged by fire, and four trucks partially burned. The
total loss will be very considerable, and it is not known
whether the property was insured. The book depot and the
offices of Messrs. Smith are also burned down, and the
patent slate foot path which led to the trains was parted
asunder by the heat of the conflagration and fell below, so
that a temporary wooden platform was obligated to be laid
down yesterday to enable travellers to reach their respec-
tive carriages.

Another fire happened yesterday morning, on the pre-
mises of Messrs. Blumenthal and Co,. horsehair manufac-
turers, No. 11, Grey-street, Commercial-road East. The
engines of the parish and the London Brigade, and the
escapes quickly attended, and a bountiful supply of water
baying been procured the fireman went to work, but they
were unable to get the fire subdued until some tons weight of
valuable stock were destroyed. Insured in the Commercial
Union Office, The origin of the fire is unkEowL.

PRICF ..4d.
STAMPED ....sd.

CHINA AND JAPAN.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Times.)
SHANGHAI, Nov. 26.
The hope that all cause for apprehension from
the foreign element in rebel interests had ceased
has been some what rudely dissipated. The steamer

Firefly—next to the Hyson the most useful boat at
Gordon's disposal—was seized last week by a body
of foreigners while lying at anchor in the Won gpoo,
and carried off in triumph to Soochow. The Firefly
came down on Friday afternoon, and was to have

Left again on Saturday, but was detained at General

Brown's request, as he desired an interview with

Gordon, and was unable to leave till the following
day. At daylight on Sunday morning, however, her
quartermaster made his appearance at headquar-
ters with the announcement that she had been carp
ried off during the night, that the rest of her crew
had been made prisoners, but that he had escaped
by jumping overboard. The Firefly had on board
the armaments for the Tsatlee, another small steamer
which has just been chartered by the Futai for ser-
vice with Gordon, and it was feared that her captors
might by a bold stroke succeed in carrying off this
vessel too; that her change of masters being un-
known, she might run through the Imperialist lines
alongside the Tsatlee, as though for the purpose of
discharging the stores destined for the latter and
overpower the small crew. A mounted messenger
was despatched in all haste to warn Gordon of his
danger ; but, as it turned out, the apprehension was
unfounded. The captors of the Firefly were satisfied
with one prize, and took her directly to Soochow,
where no doubt they were welcomed with einpresse-
went by the ilowang and handsomely rewarded.
Suspicion at once pointed to Burgevine as the in-
stigator of the deed; it was like one of his bold
strokes, and no one else could be thought of who pose
sensed the ability to plan or the courage to carry out
so daring an enterprise. Whether or not he were con-
cerned in the affair is likely to remain a mystery for
the present, as he of course will not confess it, and
his only confidants, if confidants they were, are now
safely under the walls of Soochow. The next day a
rumour got abroad that he had in person endea-
voured to seize another Chinese steamer, the Fei-
loong, but it was not till Tuesday that the story as-
sumed a definite shape, through the receipt of infor-
mation that Burgevine was a prisoner in the hands
of the Fatal. Immediate steps were taken to obtain
his release, but in the meantime his Excellency had
become frightened at the breach of treaty of which
he was guilty in detaining an American subject, and
sent him, under a strong guard to the American
consulate. The circumstances which led to his
arrest are very differently narrated by Burgevine
and by the Chinese. The former says that he wished
to see Gordon, knew the steamer was getting up
steam to go to Soochow, and went on board to ask a
passage ; that he had been on board an hour or two
waiting for her to start, when a posse of mandarin
soldiers came on board, seized and bound him, flung
him down, spat and jumped on htm, and robbed him
of all his valuables. The Chinese, on the other hand,
say that shortly after Burgevine's arrival three other
Europeans came alongside in a sampan, refused to
answer when hailed, were fired on, and sheered off;
that Burgevine, directly they appeared, attempted
to stop the firing, caught up a hatchet, cut one
man down and split another's face open, and endea-
voured to sever the Feiloong's hawser, and cut her
adrift. However this may be, Burgevine was at
once set at liberty by the United States' Consul,
greatly to the disgust of the Chinese, and took to
his bed in consequence of the injuries he had re-
ceived at their hands. The following day, however,
he was again arrested, this time by the United
States' Consul himself, and is lodged in the Con-
sular gaol until his health will permit him to be de-
ported from China. Nothing has, I believe, been
proved against him, but the feeling is general that so
long as he remains in Shanghai captures of Fire flys
and despatches of boatloads of arms to the rebels
are always to be dreaded. Besides, the Chinese
regard him with suspicion, and permitting him to
remain at large will certainly engender ill-feeling
on their part toward both the English and American
authorities, for they do not discriminate very
lucidly between the two nationalities in such a case
as the present.
In the meantime Gordon has captured another
stockade, after one of the sharpest actions that has
yet taken place. The rebel position was not far from
Sikow, the scene of his last encounter, and lay be-
tween that village and the city, from which it was
not far distant. Early on the morning of the 11th
he set out with about 1,200 disciplined Chinese and
some field pieces, with which he opened fire shortly
before noon. The shell di►d not seem to have their
usual effect on this occasion, and an assault was
ordered so soon as a breach had been effected in the
earthworks, without the defenders having shown
any symptom of wavering. Capt. Gibb fell, shot
through the heart, while leading the stormers ; and
Lieut. Parker was badly wounded, besides a num-
ber of Chinese put hors de combat; but the position
was eventually carried at the point of the bayonet,
and the rebels driven with heavy loss under shelter

of the guns of Soochow. It is.reported that Gordon
has now extended his lines as far as his limited force
will permit him, and purposes soon to commence
to bombard the city itself. I am inclined, how-
ever, to think that he will await the arrival of
further bodies of mandarin soldiers whom it is
hoped the Fatai will be persuaded to send.
Macartney has been cruising through the Tae-ho,
or Great Lake, to the south west of Soochow, with
2,000 men and 50 gunboats, and has effectually
cleared it and the numerous is'ands with which it
is studded of rebels, capturing several stockades
and receiving the homage of the inhabitants, who
seem perfectly indifferent as to who rules, pro-
vided they are allowed to attend in peace to their
silkworms and mulberry trees. They offered to
shave their heads, but Macartney deferred exacting
this mark of submission to the Tartar until he
should be in a position to permanently occupy the
district.

In Ningpo, the Mandarins and Franco-Chinese,
on the one hand, and Colonel Cooke on the other,
seem to be resting on their laurels, acquired at Foy-
ang and Wantaquan respectively, Cooke, however,
is on the point of starting for the former city to
endeavour to arrange with the Fanti for an attack
on the departmental city of Hangehow, formerly
one of the richest and most beautiful in China, and
at which an old saying of the Chinese affirms that a
man ought to have passed a portion of his existence
in order to enjoy life thoroughly.
A meeting of all the foreign consuls was held on
the l'lth at the British Consulate, her Britannic
Majesty's Consul in the chair, to deliberate on the
best means to be adopted for suppressing the row..
dyism, which has lately been increasing to an alarm-
ing extent in the settlement. England, France,
Russia, America, Prussia, Portugal, Denmark, the
Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Italy, Spain, and
the Hanse Towns were all represented. The Ameri-
can settlement has of late became a perfect nest of
loafing, unemployed vagabonds, whom the necessity
for earning a livelihood, apart from any natural
proclivities, drives into all kinds of crimes. The ab-
duction of the Firefly was a climax to the robberies,
murders, and piracies which have of late been com-
mitted with grave frequency, considering the com-
paratively small number of the foreign population,
and forced on the representatives of the several
treaty Powers the conviction that it was due
to their own nationals and to the Chinese,
who are jealously excluded from all juris-
diction over foreigners, to endeavour to place some
check to the evil. The matter, however, is diffi
cult to deal with. It is easy enough after a crime
has been committed to punish the culprit if he be
caught; but it is far from easy to bring any preven-
tive agency to work in the case of a host of loafiing
ruffians who have no legitimate means of livelihosd,
land are known to be capable of any villany that may
be practicable, but have not as yet brought them-