The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-26 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, SEPFEMBER 26, 1863.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE—This Day.

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.

A REGULAR TRAINED FEMALE PICKPOC KET.—Eliza
Mills, a young woman, who gave an address at Hackney,
was charged before Mr. Knox with attempting to pick the
pockets of several ladies in Oxford-street.
Edwin Coathuyse, detective officer from Scotland-yard,
deposed to seeing the prisoner in New Oxford-street, and
suspecting her he followed her and saw her place herself on
the right hand side of a lady looking in a shop window and
then put her left haul in the lady's pocket. The prisoner
then moved away and again placed herself by the side of
another lady, and after following her about for one hour
and a half and seeing her make at least 14 attempts to pick
ladies' pockets, he took her into custody.
Mr. Knox ask ei the officer whether he knew anything
of the prisoner, and he said that on the 4th September,
while in company of Sergeant Thomae, he saw the prisoner
in Oxford-street, and then cautioned her.
Sergeant Shore, 11 F, said he had known the prisoner for
three years, and had frequently seen her attempt to pick
pockets, and had cautioned her. The prisoner—who when
he first knew her was very small in stature—used to be
brought out by an elderly woman, who regularly trained
her to pick pockets.

Mr. Knox committed the prisoner for three months with
hard labour.

WESTMINSTER.

COW Al MISCONDUCT TO MAIDEN LADIES.--Jos.
Tanner, a man recently fined £5 for a violent assaulr, was
charged with wilfully breaking two panes of glass.
Miss Eliza F. Bague, a lady residing with a maiden sis-
ter at 19, Copesall-street, said that on Thursday night she
saw a man come up to her street door and put a letter into
the box. She found the communication was an anonymous
one of an offensive character, with a caricature of his sata-
nic majesty. Last evening, while sitting at dinner, two
men were observed on the steps of the front door doing
something, and it was shortly discovered that they had
securely tied the knocker of the street door to the area rail.
ings with ropes, so that the door could not be opened. The
rope was cut, but in the course of the evening it was again
tied and the annoyance repeated. Complainant believed
the defendant to be one of the men who tied it, and she had
an opportunity plainly of seeing him from the drawing-
room window. A gentleman residing next door kindly
fetched the police, and a watch having been kept upon the
house the defendant was taken into custody.

Inspector Butler said that these maiden ladies had been
for some time past subjected to considerable annoyance
from a number of men, and in order to relieve them as much
as possible the police kept a sharp watch on the house.
Defendant was a stableman, and the rope found was such
as was used with horses.

Thomas Bedford, police-constable 305 B, said that he was
set to watch the ladies' premises, and at two o'clock this
morning he saw the prisoner in company with another man
They came down the street hastily, and arriving opposite
the ladies' house, the prisoner stooped down and threw a
number of stones at the kitchen window. He could hear
the glass rattle. He went over and took the defendant in
charge.
Defendant said he met with u marine-store dealer, and
was going home when he was accused of breaking the win-
dows, which he denied. The other man might have done
it instead of him, but he had also denied it.

Mr. Arnold said he should have an opportunity afforded
him of calling the other manif he liked, and remanded him,
offering to take bail, until Wednesday.

THAMES.

" MORE YET."—Bridget Lee, an Irish woman, dwelling
in Brook-street, Ratcliff, was brought Wore Mr. Partridge
charged with stealing 1l lbs of lead, value 2s 6ci.
Mr. George A. Day, foreman at Messrs. W. W. John-
son's lead works in Limehouse, said the prisoner had been
employed there for some time. On the previous evening,
when the people were leaving the factory, he suspected the
prisoner had been stealing lead, and asked her if she had
any about her. Sha produced a small piece, which she took
from her bosom. He said, more yet, and she took another
piece of lead ft om her pocket, and she said that was all she
had. He said more yet, Mrs Lee, and then she handed
him a third piece. He went on saying more yet, more yut
—(a laugh)—and a fourth lump of metal was forthcoming.
More yet—(loud laughter)—and she took from under her
clothes piece the fifth. More yet—(roars of laughter)—and
a sixth piece of lead was forthcoming.
Mr. Partridge—Any more ?

Witness—l said more yet--(increased laughter)—and
she said "That is all, Mr. Day." I searched her and found
some more lead upon her. It weighs in all 111 lbs, and is
worth 2s. 6d.

Mr. Partridge—Were there no females present ?
Witness—Only my wife.

Mr. Partridge—l think you ought not to have searched
the prisoner. That should have been done by one of her
own sex.

The prisoner admitted her guilt. She took the lead, and
was very sorry indeed for having done so. She had a large
family to maintain. She begged for mercy, and premised
not to offend again.
Mr. Day was recalled, and in answer to the magistrate,
said the prisoner had been employed three years at the
lead works, and was a very industrious woman. He be-
lieved this was her first offence. It was not the wish of his
principal or himself that the prisoner should be severely
punished.

Mr. Partridge was glad to hear the witness say so. The
prisoner had committed a serious offence in robbing her
employers, but in consideration of the good character she
received, and believing this was her first offence he should
deal with her leniently, and fine her 20s. for the unlawful
possession of the lead.

MARKETS—This Day.

;ARDEN.
market was only moderate,
'ge. There was a fair average
itins

s. d. s d
Raspberries,pr pt 0 4to 0 6
Cherries, per lb. 0 3to 0 0
Foreign ditto, pun° oto 0 0
Filberts, per lb .. 0 Bto 1 0
Walnuts, per 100 1 oto 2 0
Cobnuts, per lb .. 0 oto 0 0
Almonds, per bus 0 oto 0 0
Figs, rer doz. .... 5 oto 6 0
Peache5.......... 4 0 to 10 0
Currants, per li.sv 4 fi to 6 0
Plums, per dn. 3 6to 4 6
Greengages, pr do. 6 oto 7 0

Heavy Storm on the Goodwin Sands.

Captain Cannon, R.N., the honorary secretary to
the Walmer branch of the National Lifeboat Insti-
tution, writing on Thursday night, reports :
We had a tremendous storm last night of wind and hail,
accompanied by thunder and lightning, such as we have not
had for some time past. I send the report of the coxswain
of the Walmer lifeboat relative to the launching of the
boat on the occasion :

Sept. 23, 1863.
At about 11.30 p.m. we observed the light-vessel at the
South Sand Head fire four guns and throw up five or six
rockets in a E.N.E. direction, indicating that a vessel was
on the Goodwin Sands in that direction. It was blowing
frt sh from the S. W. at the time. The lifeboat's crew was
immediately assembled, and the Walmer lifeboat launched
about midnight, and proceeded under sail in the direction
indicated by the rockets. On reaching the Sands, at 1.15 a.m.,
we could see no vessel upon the Goodwin. We tacked and
went to the light-vessel. They informed us that they had
seen two flare-ups or signals of distress in an E.N.E.
direction, but they had seen no vessel. After this we re-
turned to the Sands, and ran alo3g the inside edge towards
the beacon. At this time, about 3 a,m., it came on to blow
heavily, the wind shifting abort, accompanied with rain
and hail, thunder and lightning. We took in sail, and
anchored the lifeboat near the ecge of the Sands, and there
waited for daylight. At 5.30 am:, being good daylight,
we could see that no vessel was on. the Goodwin, or other-
wise requiring our assistance. We weighed anchor and
returned to the shore about 6.30, and housed the lifeboat,
which had behaved remarkably well.—(Signed) TmomA.s
BUSHELL, coxswain of the Walner lifeboat, of the Na-
tional Lifeboat Institution.

The expense to the institution of the launching of the
lifeboat on this occasion was £lslos. The cost of the boat
was presented to the society by tie Royal Thames Yacht
Club.

Loss of a Hull Steamer and Seven Lives.

Intelligence has been received in Hull of the total loss of
the screw steamer Zealand, a fine vessel of 700 tons re-
gister, the property of Messrs. Bailey and Leetham, ship-
owners, Hull, with seven of her crew, during a storm in the
Baltic, on the 11th of September. The ill-fated vessel was
on her passage from Konigsberg to London with a cargo of
oats, and had on board, in addition to a crew of 14 men, 12
passengers. During the progress of the voyage, on the 11th
inst , and when distant about 40 miles from the Home reefs,
the Zealand was caught by a heavy gale of wind from the
W.N. W. There was also a very heavy sea, and the vessel,
owing to the light nature of her cargo, rolled very much. One
of her engines broke down, when all sails were set, and the
remaining engine was kept in motion, but, of course, the
progress of the steamer was seriously impeded. The second
engine soon broke down, and the vessel becoming unman-
ageable, she was left to the mercy of the raging seas. This
latter mishap was accompanied with one of more serious
consequ- nces, for the engine in its fall started one of the
iron plates in the ship's hull, and caused a considerable
leakage. Water was fast gaining on the vessel, the fires
were quenched, and the position of the Zealand appeared
hopeless. The boats were then lowered, and the mate (Mr.
Walker), the chief engineer (J. Sciby), carpenter (J. And-
sell), and four of the crew, named J. Brenton, E. Morris,
W. Page, and W. Andsell, and 12 passengers, left the
steamer, and were received safely on board the Norwegian
barque Christina, which vessel was luckily in sight about
three-quarters of a mile distant from the Zealand. Captain
Lewis and seven of the crew of the Zealand remained on
board that vessel in order to save some valuables and await
the return of the boats. The mate, as soon as he had placed
the passengers on board the Christina, endeavoure d to re-
turn to the Zealand, but owing to the violence of the gale,
it was found to be impracticable. The barque attempted
to approach the Zealand, but as she was lightly laden,
she was driven considerably off to the leeward, and as
the night set in she lost sight of the steamer. During
the night, however, the men on board the Christina ob-
served that rockets and blue lights were being fired peri-
odically as signals of distress from the Zealand, but at
length they suddenly ceased, and nothing more was seen
or heard of her. The barque vaited about during the
night, and when morning broke apt a vestige was to be
seen of the ill-fated steamer, The Christina made sail for
Laurvig, in Jutland, where she landed the crew and pas-
sengers that were saved. From that port they lett in the
steamer Scandinavian for Hull, where they arrived yesterday
morning. Nothing has as yet been heard of Captain Lewis
and the remainder of the crew, and it is supposed they have
met with the same melancholy fate as attended the vessel to
which they belonged. The followingtelegram from Thisted,
dated Sept. 17, has been received :—" Yesterday a vessel
was observed from Steenberg Strand, distant from the coast
one English mile, sunk in 10 fathoms water. She was exa-
mined, and found to be a ship with three masts, one of which
was broken, and according to the distance between the masts
supposed to be a steamer. Some yards were driving by the
wreck, but nothing else was seen of it. W eather very bad,"

LITE It A T U R, E.

Aurora Floyd. By M. E. l3raddon. Sixth Edition.
One vol., pp. 487. Tinsley Brothers.

Remarkable though the success at once achieved
by Miss Braddon's first work, that is to say, her
first work of any importance, " Lady Audley's
Secret," its successor speedily attained for itself a
yet wider popularity. Nor can this be very well
wondered at upon a comparison—no matter how cur-
sory—of these two romantic narratives. The extra-
ordinary capacity possessed by our authoress for
fixing the attentio❑ of her readers, for awakening
and sustaining their curiosity, for enthralling their
interest, for mastering their sympathies, not inter-
mittently, but continuously, by a sort of glamour,
from the first page to the last, from the instant her
story commences down to the very moment of its
completion—agreeably noticeable in the instance of
"Lady Audley's Secret," was pre-eminently so in
that of " Aurora Floyd." The mainspring of each
plot was, in a manner, so to speak, curiously similar
—almost, as one might say, identical. Although
the circumstance was not again frankly announced
I upon the second title page, Aurora Floyd had her
Secret no less than Lady Audley herself. But the
Secret of Aurora was better preserved, was more
artful in its concealment, was less ghastly of its
kind—more lamentable, less criminal. Something
morbid there is, no doubt, in each tale, affecting the
imagination as we read on, almost at times as if' we
were breathing an unwholesome atmosphere. By
a strange monotony of contrivance on the part of
the authoress in building up the machinery of her
second plot, the root idea of it, is so far like that of
the first, that it has to do with Bigamy. While Lady
Audley, however, is to our mind simply repulsive
throughout, a wicked, sly, cool-brained, iron-handed
Lucretia-Briuvilliers in little, with her Lamia-lik..,
halo of golden hair, her Becky Sharp-like blueness
of eye, and her Madame Lafarge-like deliberation
in sweeping out of existence, as though he were
some mere troublesome gnat rather than a " fellow
human," a husband who happened to be in her way
—Aurora Floyd is, on the contrary, often wonder-
fully attractive, occasionally nothing less than
bewitching, in spite of her wild, bold, sometimes all
but masculine impulsiveness. The reader—hardly
less, first of all, than handsome Talbot Bulstrode, or
than afterwards good, gentle-hearted John Mellish
—falls in lcve with her, in very despite of her
Secret, of her unladylike predilection for Bell's
Life, of her intimate knowledge of turf slang,
of her wielding so fiercely that pretty, stinging,
snake-like, jewelled riding-whip of her's over the
deformed shoulders of yonder wretched pale-faced
lameter, Steeve Hargraves, the Softy ! In defiance
of all which, the reader is fain at times to stumble no
less completely than does the proud heir to the Cor-
nish baronetcy, the fastidious Talbot himself, into
the pitfalls of her eyes, and to get entangled no less
inextricably than honest John in the meshy network
of her blue-black hair ! And no marvel, either,
that so strange a heroine as this should exercise so
peculiar a fascination. Does not our authoress her-
self say of her, through the lips of Talbot Bulstrode
—" She is like Mrs. Nesbitt in the zenith of her
fame and beauty ; she is like Cleopatra sailing
down the Cydnus ; she is like Nell Gwynne selling
oranges ; she is like Lola Mantes giving battle
to the Bavarian students; she is like Charlotte
Corday with the knife in her hand, standing behind
the friend of the people in his bath ; she is like
everything that is beautiful and strange, and
wicked, and unwomanly, and bewitching." She
—this impulsive, terrible, captivating Aurora, for the
loss of whom as a wife that same Talbot Bulstrode,
late Captain of the Eleventh Hussars, haughty as a
Hidalgo, daring as (what he was) one of the cavalry
heroes of the famous Charge at Balaklava, sobs
aloud in an agony of despairing pride behind his cold
clasped hands! Of whom, as he weeps, our authoress
says so exquisitely, " Do not despise him for those
drops of anguish : they were the virgin tears of his
manhood. Never since infancy had his eyes been wet
before. God forbid that such tears as those should
be shed more than once in a lifetime ! The agony
of that moment was not to be lived through twice.
The hoarse sobs rent and tore his breast as if his
flesh had been hacked by a rusty sword ; and when
he took his wet hands from his face, he wondered
that they were not red: fur it seemed to him as if he
had been weeping blood." It is a woman who can
write thus powerfully and tenderly who has penned
this enthralling story of "Aurora Floyd"—it is of a
heroine who can be thus wept for that she writes !
No marvel is it to us that the book has won for itself
so wide a popularity. Whether it is a popularity
that will be lasting is another matter altogether.
But, for seizing upon the attention, for taking cap-
tive the imagination of her contemporaries, the
genius of Miss Braddon as a story-teller is indis-
putably great. It is purely and entirely as a
story teller, as the inventor of a plot, as the nar-
rator of a fictitious series of events, a linked
chain not of " sweetness" but of terrors and
wonders and mysteries long " drawn out," that
Miss Braddon, among our romancists, extorts
from ns, while we read her—at first our un-
questioning, but at last (we cannot but con-
fess it) our reluctant—admiration. Reluctant
we have said, and for this simple reason, that we
make acknowledgment of our admiring these stories
of Miss Braddon as we might make confession of a
predilection for bang or opium ! The atmosphere
we seem to breathe while wandering through the
ghostland of" Aurora Floyd" or "Lady Audley" we
cannot, it is true, venture to pronounce distinctly
pernicious; but we must in candour admit that
it appears to us decidedly unwholesome of
its kind. Yet, while quaffing the literary
bang poured out for us by this Syren,
we can't, for the life of us, help smacking
our• lips over it. While masticating these delicate
morsels of intellectual opium, we are gazing upon
scenes t►nd creations only to be gazed upon in
Dreamland. The popular edition of " Aurora
Floyd," hero published as a companion volume to a
similar issue of "Lady Audley's Secret," will open
a yet wider field to the already extended popularity
of a work which, in spite of, so to speak, its deleteri-
ous flavour, is still undoubtedly replete with nisei-
! nation.