The Sun.
London, England, 1863-02-16 00:00:00

LITERATURE,

THE THEFT OF £1,145 ON THE LANCASHIRE AND
YORKSHIRE RA ILWAY.—At the New Bailey, on
Friday, Ralph Wignell, a guard in the employ of the above
company, residing at Miles Platting, and Joseph Bond, a
clogger, carrying on business in Woodward-street, With-
ington, were charged with being concerned in stealing
£1,145 from a train on the Lancashire and Yorkshire Rail-
way. Mr. Edward Young said he was a clerk in the trea-
surer's office of the Lancashire and Railway Company. On
Dec. 24 he made up the cash to pay the wages of the com-
pany's servants in the Yorkshire district. He placed the
money in small boxes, each of which had the name of the
station for which it was intended marked on the cover.
' These boxes were locked, and were placed in large cheats.
There were five chests, each containing about 13 cash
boxes. The cash boxes were taken from the cashier's office,
and witness saw them given into the charge of the prisoner
Wignell, who was the guard of the train by which the
money was to be conveyed. Subsequently three cash boxes,
containing £1,145 19s. 2f d. were missed. Charles Howell
said he was a guard in the employ of the company. On
Deo. 24 he was guard of the train which left Liverpool at
2 30 p.m. via Heywood for Rochdale, where it joined the
Manchester train. At Rochdale he received into his van
three chests, containing the money to pay the company's
servants, but he did not open them. When he arrived at
North Dean he missed eight cash boxes, but it was subse-
quently ascertained that five of them had gone on the
wrong branch. As soon as he missed the cash boxes he
gave information at the stations for which they were in-
tended. Two of the missing cash boxes were intended for
Wakefield, and the other for Mirfield. Mary Storey said
the prisoner Bond was her brother-in-law. At half-past 9
on the night of the 24th Dec., she was at Bond's house,
and while she was there Bond came in at the back door. He
and his wife went up stairs together, where they remained
about 20 minutes. She heard the sound of money rattling
for about a quarter of an hour. After they came down
stairs she left. At 2 o'clock in the morning the prisoners
and Mrs. Bond came to her house. Wignell was tipsy, and
as she was going to be married that morning he gave her a
sovereign as a wedding gift. She was married late in the
morning, and after she came back from church she went to
Bond's house. Wignell was still there. He sent out for
something to drink. He also gave her another sovereign,
which she handed to Mrs. Bond. Wignell said he gave it
to her because he liked her. Since Christmas Bond had
bought a quantity of furniture. Witness had seen Wignell
at Bond's house twice. One of Wignell's children was
stopping with Bond.—Mr. Trafford said there was quite
sufficient evidence adduced to justify a remand, and the
prisoners were accordingly remanded to Monday.
THE WINTER IN AMERICA.—The Montreal Ga-
zette says :—A winter so violent was never known
here before. The weather-wise say we are going to have no
severe cold this winter. They tell us we are going to have
an English winter, and for the same reason, namely, that
the Gulf stream of the Atlantic Ocean has taken a change
of course, and thus has influenced our Climate in the manner
we notice, and at which we are all surprised. The codfish
I have left their usual places of resort, it is said, and gone
to cooler places, and that is the reason we have heard of
'poor catches.' Then, again, what is the reason of so many
seals coming up to Montreal, and amusing the citizens by
disporting themselves in open places in the ice ? It has
been suggested to us that they have found it rather warm
in their usual homes this winter, and have come this
way in search of adventures and cooler weather; in the
discovery of the latter they find themselves mistaken, and
will probably take themselves off again." To this the
Quebec Gazette adds—" In Portland on Wednesday, the
dust was flying as thick as on any summer's day. In
Montreal it rained heavily on Thursday and Friday, the
temperature on the afternoon of the latter day being
like that of May." At New York the Tribune tells,us the
weather is indescribable. At one time it is all fog, mud,
and mess ; then the mud freezes up, and the skating ponds
ditto. This continues for a couple of days ; then
comes a little snow, a little sleet, a little drizzle, s
and
rain, and much mud, and a great deal of discomfort, and
more expected for the next two days. There has
not been a week at a time this winter that plough-
ing could not have been done in all the country around
New York, and since the commencement of the season the
Tribune says there has been no sleighing within fifty miles
of the city. In Maine and Vermont the maple trees have
been tapped and sugar made. In New Hampshire, Mr.
Charles Shipley, about a fortnight ago, found a chickadee's
nest on land near his premises, with three fresh eggs in it.
The Saginaw Republican says no snow has fallen in the
Saginaw region, and the lumbermen are idle. The Green
Bay Advocate of the Bth pronounces .this a most extraor-
dinary season, the river free from ice, and everything in
the logging way was at a standhill for the want of snow,
The Denver City .Commonwealth speaks of the winter as no
winter at all. In Illinois up to the .middle of January the
farmers continued to plough, and the Erie Canal has been
navigable a great part of the time through November,
December, and part of January."
SCOTCHING THE SNAKE.—We learn from the
Scotsman that a newspaper proprietor has been
denied a deacon's office in the Crieff Free Church on the
ground of having suffered unchaste and quackizlirretiosnie;
ments to be inserted in his paper. This decisi(T.sravged
ex-
to at a meeting of the elders, the
tracts" (whatever that mayln the interests
appeal to the Presbytery mean,hteenrd proprietorga ve notice of
of Christianity as well asof Athhuocsae
posfalcozlnlizer: common-sense,
Punch sincerely trusts that tepif
be
only
knew it ;
would use the proper law phrase
Scot-
tish friends in resy7'ing tbiswdivlelrtiplseettraseertappthlyatthcieubareekalts
exist-jaw
de ) It is mainly by a
words.) •
and thrive, and
every newspaper admitting these un-
cleanly puffs d lies abets the filthy trickeries by which
doctors live. Mr. Funch regrets to say that there
shama lecertain English journals defiled in the same
way, and be would vastly like to see their pro•
prietors tabooed not merely from all deaconships, but from
all decent dwellings, so long as they permit the publication
of quack pufferies, such as in no decent dwelling ought ever
to be found. Lunch thanks his Scotch friends heartily for
having Scotched the snake, and he will rejoice to hear that
so far as concerns Crieff, the Auchterarder Presbytery do
their best to kill ft.—Punch.
BARON LIEBIG.—An admirable medallion of
Liebig has just been issued in Munich. The like-
ness is perfect. Every detail of the face is reproduced with
care and fineness of workmanship incredible on so small a
scale and such low relief, while the general expression is
not weakened by two literal copying. English admirers of
the celebrated chemist may be glad of the opportunity of
procuring a cheap and portable likeness; casts of the medal-
lion are to be had for rather less than 3e. each at Cate'
"Litterarische Anatalt,"

Verner's Pride. By Mrs. Henry Wood, Author of
"East Lynne," " Mrs. Haliburton's Troubles,"
See. 3 vols. Bradbury and Evans.
The authoress of this work has become one of our
moat famous novelists. Her great success is chiefly
owing to her accurate descriptions of life. It is se
do m that we meet with such faithful representations
of men and manners as in these works, and it is
to be questioned if, in this peculiar branch of her
vocation, she could be surpassed. This book is
not pleasing in its narrative portion, since it con-
cerns a set of characters who are quite beyond
the pale of sympathy, with but one or two ex-
ceptions. It gains upon us, however, as we pro-
ceed, and when the interest reaches its height,
the reader is borne along irresistibly to the close.
Sybilla's character is singularly well drawn. We
see before us an extremely selfish woman. Sel-
fishness is the root of her nature, the mainspring
of her actions, and the desire of her heart. This
sin is one of the most obnoxious to the better
feelings of human nature, and hence it is with
almost a sensation of satisfaction that we see her
unworthy objects frustrated, and her mean wishes
fall short of their accomplishments. It is a strik-
ing instance of retributive justice when she is
turned out of Verner's Pride. She had married
twice, with the sole object of becoming mistress
of that fair domain. She had outraged the first
principles of an honest and honourable nature,
her secret wishes that her
by openly declaring
first husband might prove to be alive, and come
back to ciaim her, so that, at any rate, she might
keep the property. All went against her. She
was turned out. Lionel bore the shock with equa-
nimity ; he was grieved, but looked not on riches
and worldly goods as the only end of existence.
He was a man who thought them the adjuncts of life,
not its essentials. Sybilla fretted herself into her
grave ; and such was her conduct, that her death
must have been a relief to all connected with her.
Another person who received a terrible warning from
this catastrophe was Dr. West. This unprincipled man
had insisted on his daughter marrying Frederick,
because he had been witness to the will which had
bequeathed to him the estate instead of Lionel.
Then, when he found that there was a codicil which
restored the property to its rightful heir, he had
contrived to possess himself of the document. He
met with a series of rebukes for his crimes. First
of all, he lost the codicil, and then, after the death
of Frederick, Sybilla married Lionel, who took
possession of Verner's Pride under the belief that
both the brothers Massingbird had died in Austra-
lia. The elder one, Sohn, however, was not dead,
and returned to claim his rights. If Dr. West
could have produced the codicil he might have still
kept his daughter in possession ; but as it was, she
was turned out to die. In her last moments she
sent a message to her father telling him that this
sad reverse had killed her. Little did she know it
was all her father's doings. Dr. West had a heavy
burden to bear, which was the more bitter as he had
brought it upon himself by wilfully and profanely
tampering with things beyond his ken. No one
ever took the regulation of affairs out of the hands
of Providence without rueing the day he commit-
ted the grievous error. Had Dr. West let things
alone they would re illy have been for the best as
regarded Sybilla's worldly interest; and if they
had not, she would never have missed a grandeur
she did not know of by experience. Another mis-
take, the root of all similar actions, is making such
splendour and wealth the one thing needful in life.
Riches gained by tampering with wills never
prosper even in this world. Their doom seems
written on their face, and the la: gest fortunes gained
by doubtful means are squandered away before the
astonished sight of men. Dr. West and his daughter
might well reflect when too late on their impotent
desires, and acknowledge the falsity of their hopes
and the sin of their wishes. It has been truly
written,—

" In all your plans of future life be wise,
lie builds too low who builds beneath the skies."
Truly was this axiom carried out in the life and
death of this guilty pair. As a contrast to the
glare and glitter of the youngest daughter, the two
elder ones really merit regard. Poor, simple well-
meaning creatures, who passed a dull, uncared-for
existence, they were honest and upright, and did
the best they could with their small means. "Jan"

Verner, the brother of Lionel, is a very quaint cha-
racter.
There is something very refreshing in his

open, honest style after the subterfuges of some and

.he wilful deceit of others. His scorn of appear-

antes and his contempt of the frippery of fashion,

exaggerated as they are, gain our sympathy when
we see such fearful evidences of the errors they may
lead their votaries to commit when they are indis-
criminately sought after, and madly worshipped.
The liberality with which he gave out of his small
means was a reproof to the stinginess of some
around him. Frederick Massingbird is the villain
of the piece. He is early removed from the stage,
which is a good thing, but the evil he committed
lived after him. He had been concerned in a nefa-
farious transaction before he left, and the commital
of it had been imputed to Lionel. Hence it was
that old Mr. Verner had altered his will in favour
of his stepson, instead of leaving the property to its
rightful heir, his nephew. Lionel had a double
claim, as it happened ; his father having
been older than his uncle, but the original
proprietor had favoured his second son to the ex-
clusion of his grandchild, Lionel's father being
dead. Some might suggest that this entanglement
of claims and relationships is too complicated for
real life, and indeed these confusions may not often
occur, but the merit is the same in the picturing
of scenes and delineation of characters. It is not
when walking in the beaten track along the cool,
sequestered vale of life that the passions of men are
roused,to their full fury, or their prejudices enabled
to mar their own fortunes and stand in the way of
other's advancement; sin does not intrude with its
deadly snares, the tempter does not whisper of
earthly gains to be had by stratagem, and worldly
benefits that wait upon the craft of the cunning
or the wile of the destroyer. Yet if the absence of
these dangers preveits the occasion of trial, neither
does it afford scope for the exercise of the grander
qualities of human nature. It is also in such con-
flicts that the good shines forth, and he who has
overcome can alone wear the conqueror's crown.
Thus, when the novelist would relate a stirring nar-
rative, and present us with a glowing transcript of
life, he must talee for subject one of those exciting
passages of existence where men and women, under
the influence of excitement, and wound
utheir
up
y the
pressure of circumstances,
"em
alternateto
oevil spirits
and as if they were now possessed by b
and anon led on by the guidance of their guardian
angels. The authoress has chosen an appropriate
sphere for the exercise of such qualities, since no-
thing can for so long a time inflame and irritate a
number of persons as the tenure of au estate, or the
posses3ion of a large property. There is no sacred
warning more ignored from the cradle to the grave
than the one which reminds the heirs of mortality
that they brought nothing into the world, neither
can they carry anything out. They persist in
getting and hoarding, or, foiling that, throw con-
science to the winds, and attempt to obtain by
fraudulent means the opulence they cannot secure
in the ordinary way. " Verner's Pride" is a first-
rate novel in its breadth of outline and brilliancj of
description. lts exciting events, its spirited scenes,
and its vivid details, all contribute to its triumph as
a whole. The style is always natural, whoever
appears on the scene. Whether the actors are on
the village green or in the gilded saloon, they are
all most apt representations of real life. It islui nwnheo•
cessary to predict a success for this work, a
study attentively a novel by its authoresss ° will be
sure of the result. The interest it awakens and
the admiration it excites in the minds of
its readers
must infallibly tend to the renown of the writer,
while they herald the welcome reception of the
work wherever skill in construction of no ordinary
kind, or a ready
appreciation of character which few
possess can arouse attention or win regard. Per-
haps this work may not be among the most bril-
liant, but it is certainly worthy to rank with its
predecessors, and will prove an object of attraction to
many lovers of fiction weary of the monotony of
the daily romances prepared for their perusal,