The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-13 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 13, 1863.

LAW INTELLIGENCE.---This Day.

COURT OF BANKRUPTCY.
(Before Mr. Commissioner Goulburn.)
IN RE BAKER-•A BETTING MAN IN A DIFFICULTY.

This bankrupt was described as of Notting-hill, out of
business, and this was a meeting for last examination and
discharge.

On the case being first called on the bankrupt did not
answer, and Mr. Godfrey, from the office of Mr. Aldridge,
said that he understood that the bankrupt was a betting
man, and had gone to the races; and after waiting for up.
wards of half an hour his Honour ordered an adjournment
sine die, but shortly afterwards the bankrupt entered the
court and declared that he had been about the place all the
morning, into Mr. Commissioner Holroyd's Court, round
about, and was of aware that his honour was sitting in
this (Mr. Commissioner Fonblanque'e) Court; besides, he
was almost dead and almost blind.

His Honour said that eyesight had very little to do with
it, and he might have heard his name called,
After further delay, Mr. Aldridge having arrived, his
Honour consented to hear the case.

Mr. Aldridge said the bankrupt was a betting man, and
he had been required to furnish a cash account from
January, 1563, and he now accounted for £BO won on
Maccaroni, and losses to about the same amount. He (Mr.
Aldridge) did not see that any further information could be
obtained. The solicitors to the petitioning creditors were
of the same opinion.

The bankrupt, in answer to questions by the learned
Commissioner, said he only betted slightly, and dil a little
on commission. He was not a professional betting man,
but did it because he was out of businees. He had been in
trade as a corn and seed merchant, and failed in 1859,
owing £15,000, and he assigned property which reaiised
£i,500, but some of the creditors would not accept the com-
position ; others had received 4s. 61. in the pound.
His Honour, under these circumstances, considered the
bankrupt was entitled to his discharge.

RE C tTON.

This bankrupt is a cheneille and umbrella manufacturer,
of Chester-street, Spitaifields, and this was a meeting for
examination and discharge.
Mr. W. R. Buchanan, Basinghall-street, was for the
bankrupt, who passed without opposition,

LITERATURE,

The ../Eneid of Virgil: In English Blank Verse.
By John Miller. One vol., pp. 508. Macmillan
and Co.

The circumstances under which this remarkable
translation of Virgil's great epic masterpiece, has
been written and published are very peculiar. It
was penned as the solace to a bitter grief, by one
who has conspicuously evidenced, through this very
medium, his ripened scholarship, and his many
rare natural endowments. A foot note upon one of
the fly leaves briefly apprizes the reader that the
work afforded its author three sears' daily occupa-
tion. It appears now posthumously. As in the
instance referred to by us only yesterday, when
reviewing the posthumous publication of a volume
of poems by Mr. Francis Weedon, a young man-of-
letters, prematurely deceased about a year or
two since, after the manifestation, by him, of
very considerable abilities as an aspirant to
literary distinction—so also in the more notable in-
stance before us, the generous hand of encourage-
ment appears to have been extended by Lord
Macaulay with a view to hearten onwards, thereby,
a comparatively humble fellow labourer. It is true
that the name of that great critic, poet, historian, and
essayist is not here once mentioned, as that of the one
who thought so well of Mr. Miller's daring enter-
prise, in undertaking to produce, as he has here pro-
duced, a complete translation into English blank
verse of Virgil's .1E aeid. Macaulay's name, we say,
is not here actually given as the promoter or approver
of that bold enterprise. But it is, nevertheless,
quite plainly enough intimated. No one can be in
one instant's doubt, as to who it is, the editors of the
volume under notice actually means, when they re-
mark, in the course of their few introductory obser-
vations upon Mr. Miller and his translation, that
" he had been moved by the favourable judgment of
a late noble critic, justly celebrated as among the
ablest of his time, to contemplate its publication."
These little unlooked-fer revelations of Lord
Nlacaulay's readiness to allow the claims of a gene-
rous literary brotherhood to be recognised, are, we
cannot but think, very charming indeed to contem-
plate. They betoken the large sympathies of the
great-hearted man, as well as the keen and ready
perception of merit of all kinds and of all degrees,
by one whose radiant genius as a critic
was so peculiarly formed to appreciate it. In
its way, Mr. Miller's translation of " The .2E aeid"
of Virgil into English blank verse is as extraordi-
nary a performance as Mr. Worsley's recently com-
pleted English version of "Toe Odyssey" of Homer
in the Spenserian stanza. Essentially different of
their kind as are these two productions, there is, it
appears to us, something very kindred in the endow-
ments of the two men by whom they have been
might, we are satisfied,
produced. Mr. Worsley
quite as readily (had he chosen to do so) have syl-
labled his translation of " The Odyssey" in flowing
and melodious blank verse, as Mr. Miller has here
done by "The .2E acid." Of this many of that
young poetic scholar's other metrical writings yield
to us, as it seems, the fullest possible evidence.
And so again vice versa might it be said on the
other hand, that had Mr. Miller so listed, he, upon
his part, might as easily have done by" The .2E neid"
as Mr. Worsley has done by "The Odyssey"—
turning it, that is to say, from Coe original into the
stately and elaborate stanza glorified by the genius
of Spenser, and thence called after Spenser's name.
That it is, in fact, precisely as we have said, let the
exquisite Prefatory Stanzas in this volume, be-
tween pp. xi. and xxiii. (each inclusively) attest.
Spenserian stanzas they are—surpassing, for that
matter, in their facile grace and beauty
even the ablest penned by the accom-
plished translator of "The Odyssey," And in
saying this, we speak not here in any way invi-
diously —for it should be borne in mind that these
Spenserian stanzas by John Miller are the original
utterances of his own thoughts and feelings,
whereas the Spenserian stanzas referred to, as from
the hand of Philip Worsley, are penned throughout
by that gifted writer under the weight of all the
responsibilities appertaining to a conscientious
translator. Turning, however, to the text of this
careful translation into English Blank Verse of
Virgil's ornate and lovely masterpiece, as it has
been here penned deliberately by the able scholar,
who expired, it would seem, very soon indeed
after its completion, we find it to be as conscien-
tious as a version, and yet for the most part as
unfettered to a slavish conformity to the
original, as even the best parts of Mr. Worsley's
masterly version of the Odyssey. It would appear,
indeed, that Mr. Miller, while turning the har-
monious verse of Virgil into English, endeavoured
as sedulously to avoid dwindling to the mere, line
for line, word for word, bald literalness peculiar to
some of the translators of the " sEneid," as
to avoid expanding to the equally reprehensible
paraphrase of others. His vigilant glance is turned
alternately, equably, intermediately, here to the
Scylla, there to the Charybdis. He steers his bark,
as a translator, with consummate adroitness and
apparently with an easy precision, as remarkable
for its nicety as for its precision, that as he passes be-
tweeen the two perils where his predecessors have
so often suffered shipwreck, he is almost always, so
to speak, equedistant from each. In one of our
weekly contemporaries on Saturday, we observe a
fragmentary passage of Mr. Miller's version of the
" eßaeicl." contrasted with the parallel passage from
six other earlier versions of the same celebrated ori-
ginal. These half dozen being in effect the Earl
of Surrey's (1557), Filter and Twine's (1607), Dry-
den's (1683), Pitt's (1740), with two others far more
modern, namely, the French of M. Delille and the
English of Dr. Kennedy, well known, this last, to
the present generation as the learned head-master of
Shrewsbury. The particular passage (a very brief
one) selected for this telling contrast or comparison,
is no other than that furnished by the opening
lines of the second book of the " sEneid :" lines thus
faithfully translated by !,jr. Miller, as quoted by the
Athenceurn

Silent were all and turned their eyes intent,
When sire /Emu from his high couch began :
0 mighty Queen, thou orderest to renew
Unutterable sorrow ; how the Greeks
The Trojan splendours and that hapless realm
O'erthrew; those dark calamities which I
Both saw and largely shared,
We are tempted to transcribe the very same passage
thus given by our contemporary, because, in the
first instance, we would fain add to the series of
contrasts supplied by the Athenceum, another still
more apposite in its significance than any of the six
already enumerated, to wit the following
JOHN OGILBY, 1650.
All silent and with deep attention sate,
Then thus the Prince spake from his bed of State :
Unheard-of griefs, great Queen, you bid renew;
How Troy's unhappy Realm the Greeks o'erthrew ;
Whose sad destruction I myself have seen,
And in her loss have no small sharer been.
As literal even as old John Ogilby's, John Miller's
version previously given above, reads, it will be
allowed, quite as flowingly. And Yet.—
(this being
in truth our chief reason for referring to identically
the same passage selected by our contemporary for
quotation)—and yet there are flaws in Mr. Miller's
version that we find not even in Old John Ogilby.
That very second line of the second book moves not
onward with the trailing sweep of the Virgilian
toga: There being besides that, a jumble, so to speak,
in the music of the blank verse in the echoing sug-
gestion of an unintended rhyme, furnished by the
close of the third line and the opening of the sixth
in the words renew and o'erthretv. An unlucky
fragment in effect, it certainly does appear
to us to be—to have been thus selected from
with a View to its this version of the Xaeid,
espe-
cial commendation. Rather than that pavane in
particular we would give by preference almost any
other. Opening the volume hap-hazard, IA its say,
for example, this fragment from the ninth book—.
Euryalus rolled in death ;
O'er his !*ins limbs went forth his blood, and back
Upon his shoulder drooped his neck declined :
As when a purple flower cut by the share
Pales all away in dying; or as when
With weary neck the poppies droop their head
With chance o'eicharged with rain.
Enough, however, if we add after that one flavour-
ous morsel, as we may call it, from this ripened
fruit of the poetic and scholarly labour of John
Miller, the last, and not least gifted among the
many translators of Virgil who have already lived

and died and flourished—enough if we add that,
regarded apart from its high merit as a translation,
if it can possibly be so regarded, that is apart from
those peculiar merits, it is intrinsically, so to speak,
as an English poem, pure and simple—a work that
may be read throughout with delight and re-
membered afterwards with a long-enduring ad-
miration.

MARKETS---This Day.
--
HAY MARK2TS.

SMITIIPIELT).-I‘IeaCIOW hay, £3 OR to £4 10s Od ; clover,
£4 Os to £5 17s dG ; and straw, Gi to £1 14s per load,
Trade dull,

OuAtasERLAND.•--Ileadone hav, £3 Os to £4 103; clove*,
£4 Os to £5 17, Gd ; and straw, £1 8s to £1 14s per load.
A slow demand.

Wort'EctrA,PEL —Meadow bay, £3 Os to £4 103 ; clover,
£/ Os to £6 Os; and straw, Ll 7s to £1 14s per load.
Trade inactive.

COLONIAL.
TEA —A firmer tone has prevailed, and good and fine
qualities of Coagou have fully sustained previous prices.
SUGAR.—A rather active business has been done in \Vest
India, and late prima are well supported. In the refined
market there ars a few inquiries at previous quotations.
COFFEE.—The demand for colonial descriptions has been
steady, and, in some instances, n slight advance has been
maintained. The stocks on band, compared with those of
lass year, still show an increase.

EicE —A limited amount of business has bean done,
without any material change in prices.
TALLOW,---The market has continued without material
change
as regards prices. P.Y.C., on the spot and for
December delivery, is eitleted 46s per cwt.

The French Chambers are to meet on the 9th of
November. The real business will not commence till a
month later.

WRECK OF A STEAMBOAT ON TEES BAR.—It was
reported yesterday in The Sun that the steamer
Energy, of Middlesboro', had been totally wrecked on Tees
Bar on Saturday last. We also added, on the authority of
the Rev. John Lawson, hon. secretary of the Seaton Carew
branch &f the National L;feboat Institution, who wrote late
on Saturday evening, that although apprehension had been
entertained in the morning that the crew of three men of
the steamer had been lost, yet that it was subsequently dis-
covered that the poor men had been picked up by a Prus-
sian vessel far out at sea, and that they had afterwards
been safely brought into the Tees. Some of our morning
contemporaries of to-day report that the crew had perished,
but, such is fortunately not the case.
iiT haEppci K I'
YOF A DUTCH VESSEL ON THE GOODWIN
R
sANDs....-WALMER, KENT, Monday Night.—Yes-
terday, while it was blowing hard from the S.S.W., and a
heavye sin
was running, signals of distress were observed to
rday,
from a vessel on the Goodwin Sands. The Weimer
be flying
lifeboat, of the National Lifeboat Institution, was at once
manned, and put off to the help of the crew. On arriving
at the Sands, it was found that the vessel was the Ketch
Snips," of Amsterdam, and that she was leaking fast,
both her pumps being choked. The captain, fearing his
vessel would break up, requested the lifeboat to remain by
him till his vessel was in safety. The lifeboat assisted in
the Ketch off the Sands, and the Ramsgate steam
soon afterwards, the captain employed her to
tow the Ketch into that harbour, where she arrived about
i. 30 a.m.,
with loss of anchor and chain.
tguegtti:rgriving
i
NEW WORK ON MEXICO—Among the new pub-
lications promised by Messrs. Maxwell and Co., is
one
that
will be anxiously looked for by both the general
reader and the politician, from the nature of its topic and
the interest created for it by events actually in progress and
approaching a climax. This is no less than a
work
on
Mexico by M. Michel Chevalier, who holds the
gradually
highest rank in France as a political economist, and is be-
sides known to Europe as an acute thinker and an elegant
writer. To his other qualifications for this particular task,
M. Chevalier adds that of a personal acquaintance with the
country; Ancient and Modern,"
the title ofthethreefovreoluiti;" nMoewxiinnn'the printer's hands—will
form a delightful text-book of information when that part
of the world becomes the great topic of discussion, both in
the press and at the clubs, as must be the case more and
more before the Archduke Maximilian is definitively seated
on the throne
Montezuma. The past, the present, and
the future handled in an easy and lucid style, by one
ethr on
are
da y,disputed,
claim to the three-fold title of historian, politician,
and philosopher will
the not be
present
SLANG.--la
slang is assimilated
with lamentable facility. It enters largely into the
composition
of Parliamentary wit; it helps to point the
style and enforce the arguments of writers in the press.
People now are not
."
lengthy." courageous—they
are "plucky." No-
thing is ever long—it 18 We form resolutions
not immediately, but " right away ;" we enter into engage-
ments "on our own hook." The desire to write in a popu-
lar style is the cause of this, and the public encourage
it. slanginess is considered smart, and indicative of a
knowledge of affairs and soeicty. It is amusing to observe
the complacency and quiet self esteem with which most men
will utter a cant phrase of the day, as if they had themselves
invented it on the spot, and it were something superla-
tively brilliant and felicitous. "Neither you, nor I, nor
an other man,"
has induced many a foolish fellow to think
y
himself a born wit. "How's your poor feet r' a year ago
cheated half the natives of Cockaigne into the belief that
they were gifted with a special genius for repartee. The
heaviest face kindled with unwonted delight, the dullest
voice chuckled with conscious fun, as the words came forth.
And every one laughed, and was fully persuaded that he
had heard the sarcasm for the first time, and was delight-
fully surprised its readiness, point, and applicability.
This, however, is a habit of the uneducated, and has not yet
infected the higher classed of our periodical literature,
though it is unpleasantly conspicuous in the cheap comic
1 Dickens's All the Year _Round," just lourna pub-
lished,
s.—
THE
REV. W. BEECHER'S REFINED TASTE is
thus commented upon by the 'Spectator :—He stated
the other day, at Glasgow, that wine was early regarded as
a nuisance by himself and his brothers, that he had never
seen rum in his father's house; that a man who is a
Christian is in blossom, that he himself is in blossom, that
he has said offensive things because he has said things
"folk needed and didn't want," that Abraham didn't put
Isaac on the altar " half eo quick" as he will put his sons
on the altar of his country, and, therefore, we conclude,
that he is twice as much the friend of God as Abraham.
We have no wish to undervalue a father's sacrifices in
sending one son after another to this war, and, no doubt,
Mr. Beecher thinks it holy; but he certainly takes a very
offensive way to persuade Englishiuen that it is so. It is
not easy for us to swallow conceit and rhodomontade as
bad as ever Dickens mimicked. " When it became evident
that the Great Dragon (slavery) must be destroyed, with
hands outstretched and swords of fire in their hands, they
rose like one man, and with a voice which reverberated
throughout the whole world,' cried, Let it, with all its
attendant horrors, go to hell " /cow is that one of " the
offensive things which people needed but didn't want r'
We at least do not feel guilty of needing any denunciation
of slavery, but this tumid and exasperating nonsense strikes
us as an offensive thing which we don't want and don't
need, and which, if given without either need or want, gives
us the most painful of all sensations—fruitless intellectual
retching.
LABLACHE.—Of all the great artistes of our day,
in every sense of the word, either as regards rotun-
dity of body-, ditto and power of voice, intellect,
talent and
genius as an actor, grandeur, and conception of characters
—either grave or gay—downright, earnest, and good vo-
calisation, with genuine and unaffected fun, combined with
much sterling sense and depth of vocal organ—give us
Lablache I Ho was an artiste that any country might be
proud of, and the " Lazzarom." may very well smile at us
more northern " chanters" for Naples having given birth
to so excellent, so grand, an " en-chanter." To add to
which, Lablache's mind was pure, enlightened, and noble ;
his feelings hospitable, his hand generous, and his heart
good ; by this tribute we mean nothing to the disparage-
ment of other artistes, such as Braham, Rubini, Donzelli,
Mario, Ivanhoff, Tamberlik, Dupres, Sims Reeves, Santley,
Ronconi, Staudigl, Pischek, Tarnbutini, &c., most of whom
we knew, many intimately—to whom be all honour due—
and who, as sterling artistes themselves, we are sure, will
agree with us in saying, that with Lablache died the greatest
basso singer that ever lived.—The Orchestra.
SINGULAR SUICIDE OF A IIiGHLANDER.—On
Sunday evening about a quarter past seven o'clock,
a private, named William Nicol, belonging to the 92d
Highlanders, stationed in the Castle, at Edinburgh, com-
mitted suicide in St, Margaret's Loch, Queen's-park.
Whilst taking a walk with three of his companions—two
men and a boy--deceased proposed to bathe in the loch.y
The night being dark, his companions—namedrespentivelo.
pose,
Strathdee, Dove, and Nicol—laughed at the foolish pro
l but Nicol insisted on carrying out his wish ,
his feathered
pulling off his tunic and throwing down
.l
who,
althoughhat a,
walked into the water. The boy N.lOO ;skins.
if the water
namesake, es no relation, called
es. le, him,
a., g thcleel then called
46 y -tr
was cold, and he replied,
but no answer being received,
out if he intended returnin
in g'
ho stripped and waue- to try and rescue Nicol. He went
but was obliged to re-
up to the waist., keeping shouting,
turn to the embankment on account of the coldness of thewater. v.
On his return . '- went into the
leo water, while
]love
ran to the gamekeepers lodge at the eastern entrance
to the park for the purpose of getting a lamp and boathook,
but nothing of the kind was in the house. The old man
Dove a piece of candle and a few matches, with which
're
-vied to the search for Nicol. A message was sent
he retes. , Palace, and the guard was turned out. A mes-
to Holyroe.ct • gtspatched to the police-office, and a boat-
sage was next . ,r‘ immediately sent down, In the mean
hook and ropes we,- .
search made for the missing man,
time a raft was got at
e body was found. Deceased
After a search of two hours ts.,
lv 20 years in the army,
was 37 years of age, had been neak., ncli, Turkish, and
and wore four medals—Crimean, -wing returned
Indian—also two good -conduct badges. he mths ago,
to this country from India only three or four in,. sn the j
it is supposed the deceased committed the rash act fro.
effects of sunstroke,

The Great Eastern—Meeting of Shareholders
in London,
• ___. OP"

The adjourned special general meeting of the
shareholders in the Great Ship Company was held
at the London Tavern yesterday. A report pre-
pared by the committee appointed at the last meet-
ing was read. The following is an extract(:_" The
Committee state that they have directed their atten-
tion to the following:-1. To the exact financial
state of the company. 2. To the state of the ship.
3. To the means of profitably employing her ; and
lastly, 4, To an inquiry into the means of relieving
the company from financial difficulties. On the first
head the committee state that they have come to the
conviction that the statement of the chairman that
a peremptory sale was inevitable in 14 days, unless
£30,000 was raised on or before Friday next, the
16th, was a mistake.' As to the state of the ship the
committee say Without entering minutely into
the details obtained from the captain and your
engineer, your committee are of opinion, from the,
information afforded by both, that every repair and
alteration required to fit the ship for sea may be
efficiently completed for a comparatively small sum;
the hull of the ship is sound and seaworthy, and
capable of performing any duty assigned to her;
the engines are in good condition, but the boilers
want thorough overhauling." With regard to the
best means of employing the ship the committee
say—" Three voyages to India or Australia (one
and a-half each year) would give a little more than
70,000 miles, subject to the expense only of six
loadings and discharges; six set of port and pilot
dues; six set of agencies; six coast and harbour
risks instead of 18, and only two years victual-
ling, wages, insurance, staff, expenses, and interest
instead of three. There would be but little com-
petition in the rates of passage and freight.
Passengers and cargoes would be available to any
extent, and the result, under proper and efficient
management, cannot for a moment bo doubted."
After examining the plans for relieving the company
from its difficulties, the committee thus conclude :
" Here is our policy—here are our plans-1.
Economy at home. 2. Placing the ship on the
longest voyage, where there can be the least
competition and the highest receipts—the share-
holders contributing what may be required for the
liquidation of the existing debts and outfit, which
will be amply provided for by the suggested
contribution." After some discussion, the report
was unanimously adopted, and it was decided to
summon another meeting for the 3d of November
to fill up vacancies in the Board of Directors, and
for the transaction of other business.