The Sun.
London, England, 1863-07-29 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JULY 29, 1363

Certainly the authorities cannot be accused, as
Lord PALMERSTON would say of the German Con-
federation, of having acted too hastily, for even
now the boon is to be delayed for
another twelvemonths. It "shames our eyes and
ill
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not come into force until the July of next year. So
the sturdy toll-keepers may count the intervening
months, and treasure the sums gathered in the
interval from reluctant passengers, with a sense
that the days of their glory are numbered, and that
the curious little houses barring the QUEEN'S
highway, the man in ambush, who springs out like
a jack-in-the-box upon defenceless wayfarers—the
white aprons and formidable pockets, are numbered
' with the things of the past. Some years ago a
formidable but unruly band of opponents to turn-
pikes made strong resistance to the erection of toll-
gates in Wales. These unlucky and detested in-
stitutions became the origin of riot and even
bloodshed, until, we believe, some modification of
the original infliction was obtained. No such
frantic efforts have been made on behalf of the
Londoners, who have, in accordance with the na-
tional custom, gone on grumbling at the infliction
until the hope of its removal was almost forgotten.
Turnpikes have certainly given us something to
grumble at, which is said to be one of the necessi-
ties of life to an Englishman, but it is almost to be
questioned whether they are nut too much a matter
of course fully to answer that purpose. It is sur-
prising that the bill has not been earlier introduced ;
that no representative of some metropolitan bo-
rough has earned the lasting gratitude of his con-
stituents by introducing it nine years ago. It is
manifestly an unjust as well as inconve-
nient arrangement, seeing that the rate-
payer, woo contributes his share to keep
the road in order, is free to use the other high-
ways without tax or imposition, but if he enter on
the domain of a turnpike trust, he has to contribute
towards the expenses of his neighbour's road as
well as his own. In the same way the resident in
one of these hapless vicinities, if he goes perhaps
a mile or two from his house, has to pay another
turnpike in addition to his old enemy. This is
merely a sample of the injustice of the system under
its best aspects, and in fact it taxes heavily any
person whose business calls him frequently to some
particular locality where a toll gate bars the way,
while those who have time or opportunity of evad
ing it do not scruple to do so. It is well known
that the system of evasion is carried on to a very
great extent. Omnibuses turn out of the high way
suddenly and then drop in again, while the ditours
and contrivances of carters are endless. Cabs are
happily indifferent, but the fare is not, when a
blockaded turnpike gate loses him a precious five
minutes, which to London men of business is often
invaluable. The same aggravation is experienced
by those who ride in carriages, who suffer from the
inconveniences and delay, if not from the expense.
All these annoyances, and the numerous evils and
impositions connected with the abuses of the system,
are now happily coming to an end, and we shall
soon see the last of a troublesome, unequal, and
officious impost, which is entirely contrary to the
whole spirit of our social regulations.

AN AUSTRALIAN ROBINSON CRUSOE !—ln Davis's

" History of IVPKinlay's Tracks across Australia,"
a work not long since issued from the press by Samsons
Low and Co,, appears the following curious narrative of an
encounter with one who, quite naked, and of a reddish
yellow hue, was seen at once to be no aboriginal native I
On the shepherds seizing their fire-arms, under a sense of
poseible danger, he called out in English, although speak-
ing with difficulty, that he was their countryman. He then
informed them that he had lived for 17 years with the
Aborigines in the neighbourhood, being the sole survivor of
the crew and passengers of a ship that had been wrecked,
so far back as the year 1846, upon a reel off the adjacent
coast, He had been wandering over the country about
Mount Elliott, a lofty hill, above 4,000 feet in height, near
the mouth of the Burdekin, and he must have been but a
short way to the east of M•Kinlay's party, as they passed
down the river. His name was James Morrill, and he was
born near Maldon, in Essex, England, and had been a sea-
man of the wrecked vessel the Peruvian. He was supplied
with clothes by his Lew friends, and after a short interval
taken to Port Denison, where a subscription was made on
his behalf, and where both himself and his narrative were
the subject of very general interest.
SOUTH-TALLEYRA D OR GOLDSMITH.—A corre•
sponoent of the Guardian traces to Hubert south
Talleyrand's celebrated mot, " La parole a ete donnee
l'hotnnie pour l'aider a cacher sa pensee," in a sermon
preached in Westminster Abbey on the 30th of April, 1676,
on "The Wisdom of the World." In his clear logical
English the preacher says —"Men speak with designs of
mischief, and therefore they speak in the dark. In short,
this seems to be the true inward juagment of all our politic
sages, that speech was given to the ordinary sort of men
whereby to communicate their mind, but to wise whereby to
conceal it."—[\lidway between South and Talleyrand—the
same identical thought occurs in " The Citizen of the
World," by guileless Oliver Goldsmith.—ED. SUN.]

A WHITECHAPEL TRAGEDY—recently witnessed
in the larger ofthe two theatres" down east"—is thus
described by a writer in the Spectator of last Saturday
The piece, he says, was entitled the " Fatal Shadow ; or,
the Mau with the Iron Heart." The character may be
gathered from its title. The principal character is certainly
a villain of the deepest dye. Strange to say, he is not an
aristocrat, but an attorney. Of course, the surprising dis-
closures and comings to life again are so frequent as to ren-
der all description of the plot utterly impracticable. This
lawyer—whose " make up" is certainly the ne plus ultra
of villany —cuts the throat of a baronet who had years be-
fore supplanted him in love, and obtains the conviction for
the crime of an innocent but mysterious being, who appears
to be either a great nobleman or a harlequin, I could not
quite tell which. To make sure, he pours poison down his
throat in prison, and swears he saw him commit suicide.
He ruins both son and nephew of his first victim by for-
gery and fraud, and drives his mother by like means to
suicide by suffocation with charcoal—a magic lantern view
of the scene delighting the audience beyond measure,
Whenever ho is thwarted he comes to the front of the stage
and exclaims, with diabolical grimaces and corresponding
gestures, " How soon it would be done—with a twist—of
my wrist; and ends by drawing a razor across his throat
with a guttural "c-click." He loves, but is hated by, a
mysterious being, " the woman with the golden hair," to
whom he offers twice, under peculiar circumstances. The
first time, on her refusal, he chains her down by a barrel of
powder, her favoured lover close by her side, and then
places a slow match in the powder. The next time forms
the " sensation" of the piece. He throws her over a bridge
in Venice, and then flings her a rope, which, in her death
agony, she seises. He then exclaims three times, " Wilt
thou be mine ?" At the third time of asking the golden-
haired one spurns him in a series of articulate screeches,
which bring the house down. He then abandons the
rope, and she sinks , but her lover and the mysterious har-
lequin appear, and the former saves her by a sensation
header a la Myles Coppaleen.
A CONFESSION !—Thackeray, in the new number
of the Cornhill for August, says :—" But that my
age is mature and my habits formed, I should really just
like to try a little criminality. Fancy passing a forged
bill to your banker ; calling on a friend and sweeping his
sideboard of plate, his hall of umbrellasand coats : and then
going home to dress for dinner, say—and to meet a bishop,
a judge, and a police magistrate or so, and talk more
morally than any man at table 1 How I should chuckle (as
my host's spoons clinked softly in my pocket) whilst I was
uttering some noble speech about virtue, duty, charity 1"
L'EMPEREUR !—The only question which men
put to themselves in Paris, in France, and even out of
France,ies,
fa":
hhfa What
everyis ho o doinghe
who ora p
prthinkingoae
hes in
them
Vichyg 100 ?' "y
There, the
scanned,
ef apnr
odc l aa
inm
iinnafl utehnatti al
there foreignw as
gentleman who is at the same
hope
paper
d e
vi
d a friend of Napoleon looked
time a friend of Poland an
h
en went the length
vihi
ch ho was favoured
fors psenalceio,ubselycause a
downcastin the De 1 pahf tiearn aCnh ailnette.rview with
Francois Victor Hugo, the eleventh volume pp at
Of Shakespeare's complete works, trhaansslaat7lbeyd
already.
The Invalide publishes a letter from
dated the 12th instant, stating that the police
an
Warsaw,had
arrested three men, on one of whom was found
order from the National Government to assassinate
the officer by whom, as it happened, the arrest was
made. " Such incidents," the letter says, " are not
es s f ofu l lt;
l enforced.e
uncommon at Warsaw." It also states that the col-
lectionpb ayia up.t h e Russian
Even h
t authorities,
a rrea rsof formeris
being
s
years are being