The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-12 00:00:00

FRANCE.

MEETING OF TIIE FRENCII AND SPANISH
SOVEREIGNS.

BIARRITZ, SEPT. 11 (Evening).

The Queen and King of Spain, accompanied by
the Prince of the Asturias and the Infanta Isabella,
arrived here to-day on a visit to the Imperial

The Emperor and the Prince Imperial went at
3 p.m. to meet the Queen at the railway station,

The route taken by the Imperial and Royal party
was thronged with people.
Upon arriving at the Villa Eugenie, the Spanish
Royal family were received by the Empress at the
bottom of the staircase.

After 11.ving rested a short time, the French and
Spanish sovereigns went to Bayonne to visit the
Cathedral, when a Te Deum was sung, after which
a review took place in the Place d'Armes in presence
of the sovereigns and a numerous suite of both
nations. The streets were decorated with French
and Spanish flags, and much enthusiasm, prevailed.
At 6 p.m. the Imperial and Royal party returned
to Biarritz to dinner, after which there was a dis-
play of fireworks.

The Spanish Royal family left by the half-past
10 train, being accompanied to the railway station
by the Emperor and Empress.
Prince Amadeus also paid a visit to the Emperor
and Empress to-day.
The death of General Lamorioiere is announced
to have taken place last night at his chateau at
Pransel.

Prince Amadeus arrived here this morning, and
was recived at the railway station by the Chevalier
di Nigra and the personnel of the Italian Legation.
The Prince alighted at the Grand Hotel and after-
wards started for Meudon.

BOURSE, Sept 11.—Two o'clock.--The atten-
dance of speculators is very limited, and quotations
prevail lower than on Saturday. Threes have de.
dined to 69fr. 20c., and Italian Fives 69fr. 30c
Credit Mobilier Shares are now quoted at 815 fr
New City Bonds are quoted 470 fr. English Con•
Bois show a fall of * per cent. Three o'clock.—
The market, having shown no signs of improve
ment, has closed with the following quotations :-
41 per Cents 96 25
Do. and month —

Ditto Threes —
Roman 74 MA
Mexican Loan 5O 50
Do. Bonds 336 25
Russian
Austrian
Spanish Threes
H 40 ome Debt —
Deferred

3 per Cents. 69 22i
Do. end month 69 20

Credit Mobilier ... 810
Do. end month ... 816 25

Bank Shares

Credit Fonder 1330 72

Italian Loan 66 25
_ _

Do. end month 66 80

Amt.

851 25
1092 50
... 876 25
570 -

LITERATURE.

The North British v. Miss Braddon.

THE NORTH BRITISH REVIEW, in its latest in-
stalment (No. 85), contains one article so ex-
ceptionally unfair throughout that we cannot
but regret its appearance in the pages of this very

able northern quarterly. The other half-dozen
contributions, making up the current number for
September, are of varied merit. But this one
paper, against which in the interests of fair criti-
cism we would here resolutely enter our protest, is of
a de-merit un-varied—namely, the sustained and
monotonous demerit, as it appears to us, of a singu-
larly perverse disingenuousness. " Mr. Mill's Exami-
nation of Sir Wm. Hamilton's Philosophy" having in
its turn been subjected to another reviewer's exami-
tion—by way of contrast and relief, we presume,
after so much solid reading, we have an entertaining
essay on " Burlesque Poetry," flavoured as thickly
as a Christmas pudding is with plums and other con-
diments, with very seasonable and relishing quota-
tions. After a notice of " Carlyle's History of
Frederick the Great"—that is of Frederick com-
monly so called, though we can't ourselves recognise,
and we wonder very much that the author of
" Hero- Worship," and the biographer of Cromwell
should (of all men) ever have recognised Fre-
derick's right to the title in any one particular !
—we have an interesting, and, on the whole, a ju -
dicious survey of the life, writings, and reputation
of one of the greatest surgeons of modern times,
" Sir Benjamin Brodie." Between an ichthyolo-
gical paper about " Mr. Russel on the Salmon,"
and a very elaborate analysis of " Frost and Fire,"
by Mr. Campbell of Islay, already favourably
known among literary travellers by his " Life in
Normandy"—midway between these two papers in
the September number of the North British there
appears the article to which we have here already
taken exception, as one in almost every respect
quite unworthy of the exceedingly clever periodi-
cal in which it makes its most incongruous
appearance. Interesting, this article could hardly
fail to be, under any circumstances, that is to say, no
matter what the spirit in which it might be written,
no matter what the animus of it mightbe. For, under

the title of " Sensation Novelists," it is all about Miss
Braddon ! Therein, in point of fact, lies upon the
very surface of this soi-disant criticism—upon
its very threshold, so to speak, at its very out-
set—its coarse, and almost vulgar ungraciousness !
Before another word, however, has here been put
forth by ourselves upon the subject-matter of this
particular paper about Miss Braddon and her
writings, it will be only fair, alike to herself,
and to us, if we take occasion to remark at once
very distinctly, though quite cursorily, and simply
en passant, that we know of the lady solely
through her books, that we are personally total
strangers to each other, and that, therefore, we may
be presumed to think and to write upon the
North British Reviewer's conduct towards Miss
Braddon, quite dispassionately. A very few years
ago (the North Britisk writer himself says "three")
the name of M. E. Braddon upon a titlepage was
a name unknown—was a name in fact unrecognised
and therefore of course wholly unattractive. And
yet it is, by this time, as thoroughly well known,
as distinctly recognised, as unquestionably attrac-
tive, as that of almost any novelist that could be
named. Again the North British exaggerating
things by way of invidious preamble as-
serts it to have become "as familiar to every
novel reader as that of Bulwer Lytton or Charles
Dickens." According to the North British Review's
own account therefore—three years ago a
lady previously unknown, as a writer at
all, in the world of letters, began building up for
herself—what she has certainly within this very brief
interval built up for herself—a wide and brilliant
reputation. Already, within these three years last
past, she has produced seven distinct works of three
volumes each—otherwise twenty-one-volumes in all!
And works that are, every one of them, known not

only thoroughly well by name, but known thoroughly
well also by having been read and thumbed and cir-
culated through all the circulating libraries of the
United Kingdom ! The mere enumeration of the names
of these Seven Novels, already completely written
by Miss Braddon--to say nothing of those she is
either just beginning or fast drawing to a conclu-
sion—will, as it appears to us, suffice of itself, in a
great measure, to justify the scope and the brilliancy
of Miss Braddon's reputation as a Novelist. Here
are their names—these names with which the reading

public at large have perfectly well familiarised them-

selves-1. Lady Audley's Secret, 3 vols., 1862-2.
Aurora Floyd, 3 vols., 1863-3. Eleanor's Victory,

3 vols., 1863-4. John Marchmont's Legacy, 3
Tols., 1863-5. henry Dunbar, 3 vols., 1864-6.

The Doctor's Wife, 3 vols., 1864—and 7. Only a
Clod, 3 vols., 1865. Now, in the carrying out of the
evident intention of the reviewer at starting—an in-
tention formed by him manifestly from the very
outset, if not with what is called malice prepense,
certainly with a very cold-blooded deliberation—
the intention, that is, coute qui coute, of cutting
Miss Braddon and her writings up piecemeal in
the course of what is vulgarly termed a Slash-
ing Criticism—the North British (as often falls
out in these cases) will be seen to have missed
its aim by the very simple means of over-
doing it ! The animus is too apparent through-
out—and whenever that animus is recognised, as it
is at every turn, it proves to be one in itself so dis-
tressingly little ! And the folly of it all lies in this—
that among works so rapidly written as Miss Brad-
don's, there are faults, enough and to spare, that in fair
criticism might very reasonbly have .been taken
exception to ! Errors of art—slips of the pen even—
evidences of actual forgetfulness on the part of the
authoress in the rapid working out of her narratives
—such, for example, as where, in " Henry Dunbar,"
the hero of the tale, midway
.in the story, meets,
apparently for the first time in his life, one of the
partners in the great Banking firm of which he
(the hero of the tale) is supposed to be the
head partner—Miss Braddon having already
described their first interview in one of
the earlier chapters of that modern-life romance !
Or again—also in " Henry Dunbar"—where the
ring of the murdered man is (upon the disinter-
ment of his remains towards the conclusion of the
work) found upon the bony finger of the skeleton—
although, when the coroner's inquest was being held
upon the body, immediately after the murder, the said
ring was allowed to pass unnoticed by every one
who had to do with the inquiry, even including the
'cute London Detective ! While flaws and blunders,
of this really obvious kind, are scattered here and there
over the radiant pages of Miss Braddon's Seven
very brilliant Romances, it seems almost ludicrous
to note thepetty andquibbling manner in whichtrifles
light as air, trifles, admitting, in truth, of no serious
objection whatever, are singled out with a sort of
spiteful alacrity—mere butterflies to be broken upon
the wheel—are not only singled out but are care-
fully made the most of ! Ex. gr., where referring
to the well-known description of Audley Court at
the very commencement of Miss Braddon's first
and perhaps most famous work, the North British
Reviewer captiously writes—
" Upon everything about the house peace is said to have
laid her soothing hand ;" ay, even upon the stagnant
well, which, cool and sheltered as all else in the old place,
hid itself away in a shrubbery behind the gardens, with an
idle"; handle that was never turned, and a lazy rope so
rotten that the pail had broken away from it, and had
fallen into the water.' The foregoing passage forms, as it
were, the key-note to the work. From the outset every-
thing;is mysterious. It is certainly pnzzling how a well
could hide itself, and a rope be lazy and rotten !"
Than which, we ask, could anything very well be
more feeble or ridiculous in the way of serious
critical objection ! A well hide itself ! A rope lazy
and rotten ! What in the name of fortune, we can-
not but conjecture, would this writer have had to
say in the event of his having to criticise Coleridge's
" Ancient Mariner" on coming to such a line, let
us say, as—
" The silly buckets on the deck I"
Why, to all poets (or creators), whether in prose or
verse, the idealisation, the individualising even,
nay, as it might be termed, the actual sensitising of
inanimate objects, is to our mind not only a license
perfectly allowable in itself, but a right immemorial
and impreseriptable.. Supposing any serious objec-
tions against it, as a right, as a license, as a privi-
lege (valid as privilege or right ever could be)
really to be admissable—adieu to Honor 6 de Balza,

to Walter Scott, to Charles Dickens, to Bulwer
Lytton, to all the great masters of fiction who have
ever lived ! Adieu to de Balzac's bloodybesom—each
clotted twig bristling with horror ! Adieu to Scott's
rusty grate prancing into the room in the miser's
house in the " Fortunes of Nigel !" Adieu to count-
less touches of humour, of grotesqueness, of terror,
of pathos scattered abundantly through the works of
the two great living masters of fiction, but just now
mentioned—each already a classic authority, though
still in his prime, at his very best ! Again—speak-
ing of Sir Michael Audley's subjection to the charms
of Lucy Graham—saith the reviewer with a derisive
quotation—

" Sir Michael could no more resist the tender fascina-
tion of those soft and melting blue oyes, the graceful
beauty of that slender throat and drooping head,
with its wealth of showering flaxen curls, the low music
of that gentle voice, the perfect harmony which pervaded
every charm, and made all doubly charming in this woman,
than he could resist his destiny. Destiny ! why she was
his destiny !' It was not beauty which alone attracted Sir
Michael : he loved without being able to help it. Ile but
fulfilled his destiny. Miss Braddon teaches us to say, with
the followers of the Prophet, 'lt is fate.' She has to ex-
plain, however, wherefor, if it wero Sir Michael's destiny
to fall in love, it was necessary to depict Lucy Graham
as having been so very fascinating."

Surely! The destiny, that is, there spoken of by Miss
Braddon—namely, the perfectly comprehensible
destiny—of being fallen in love with usually
accompanying the possession of good looks ! Sup-
posing the previous extracts taken by us almost hap-
hazard from this curiously spiteful but perfectly
innocuous criticism (so called) on Miss Braddon and
her writings, not already to have quite made out our
case against the reviewer—namely, that he is, for
some incomprehensible reason, at once spiteful and
innocuous, let the following, by way of climax, suf-
fice. It has reference to Robert Audley, the young
briefless barrister, who is really the hero of Miss
Braddon's earliest fiction. "It was his custom,"
says the reviewer, with all-too-manifest a sneer—

"It was his custom, when the weather was very hot,
and he was very tired, to stroll into the Temple Gardens,
where, lying in some shady spot, pale and cool, with his
shirt-collar turned down, and a blue silk handkerchief
tied loosely about his neck, [he] would tell grave benchers
that he had knocked himself up with over-work. The sly
old benchers laughed at the pleasing fiction.' That Robert
Audley should have chambers in Fig-tree Court, should
live there on his income, and spend his time in smoking
German pipes and reading Balzack's novels, is very likely ;
but that he should meet sly old benchers' in the Temple-
gardens, who took any interest in his welfare, is as incre-
dible as that a private soldier strolling through Hyde-park
on a summer's evening should be accosted in familiar
terms by the Duke of Cambridge. It seems difficult to con-
ceive anything more ridiculous than the foregoing pas-
sago"—and so on ! •
We should very much like to know what possibly
can be the reviewer's ideas as to the sanctity and
the grandeur appertaining to the Benchers of our
Inns of Court ! To all appearance, he seems to
look upon them as somewhere about upon the same
level with the Grand Llama of Thibet. He evi-
' dently regards them as mysteriously august crea-
tures, in no way like unto common mortals !
As mighty beings removed into far higher regions
than those inhabited by the ordinary run of man-
kind ! Yet—incredible though it may seem to the
North British Reviewer—we speak from our own
personal knowledge when we assert that we actually
have known certain of these mighty beings, whom
he appears to regard with so much awe—that we
positively have known certain of these amazing
men, called by the roXXot Benchers of the Inner
and Middle Temple, consorting with Barristers,
even, let it be added (astounding though such con-
descension must appear:to the reviewer in the North
British Quarterly) with Briefless Barrister as fond of
smoking German pipes and of reading French novels
as ever could have been Robert Audley himself—
absolutely conversing with them, actually going so
far as to jest with them on terms of intimate fami-
liarity and personal friendship ! Enough, however,
and for that matter more than enough, to our own
thinking, must surely have been said in evidence
of the utter futility of this onslaught upon Miss
Braddon and her writings—an onslaught manifestly
designed by the reviewer to be completely destruc:
tive in its effects upon her reputation, yet one,
according to our view of it, that really amounts,
in its way (indirectly if you will) to a highly-
, elaborated paneygeric on her genius as a Novelist.

LESSONS FROM A SHOEMAKER'S STOOL. By John
Kerr, Inspector ofSchools—(Strahan, pp. 32)
is the reprint from Good TVords of good words very
well worth reprinting. The Old Shoemaker-School-
master, James Beattie of Gordonstown, has had a
long life that is quite as interesting to hear about
as that of George Murray, the shoemaker who
started the Union Industrial Schools at Peterhead :
or as that even of old John Pounds, the famous
cobbler of Portsmouth, whose glory it is to have
been the founder of all the Ragged Schools now
existing in England. Honour, to James Beattie,
to George Murray, and to old John Pounds—proofs
positive, proofs living and breathing (each of them
in his way and in his day) that there are exceptions,
now and then, to be taken to the old golden axiom
which saith ne sutor ultra crepidanz!

A DUTCHMAN'S DIFFICULTIES with the English
Language—(Strahan, pp. 30)—is another reprint
from Good Words, chiefly remarkable as an amusing
philological disquisition.

CASSELL'S PUBLICATIONS.—The Illustrated Don
Quixote, Gulliver, Shakspere, Natural History, and
the Quiver, are this month profusely adorned with
beautiful wood engravings. On completion each
will form a very valuable addition to the many
attractive works which have been published by the
enterprising firm of Cassell, Petter, and Galpin.

SEVERE GALE. —AC CIDENTS AT LEITH —The
wind on Sunday was blowing a gale from the north-west.
So severe a storm has not been felt in this neighbourhood
since last equinoctial. So far as wo have heard no acci-
dents of serious importance took place in town, though
several narrow escapes from injury by falling tiles or slates
are reported. As usual in the case of such storms, con-
siderable damage was sustained in woodyards and other
places where property is unsecured by wall or roof. At
Leith, and in the Firth of Forth, the full force of the gale
was felt, and several accidents took place. The Activ, a
brig belonging to a German port, broke away from her
moorings in Leith-roads, about a couple of miles off the
pier, about mid-day, and drifted down the Firth towards
Inchkeith. Her critical position being observed from
Leith, the Garibaldi (steam tug) wont out under the com-
mand of her owner, Mr. Jamieson, to render assistance.
Mr. Jamieson found the vessel close upon the island,
dragging three anchors, but unable to bring to. He
got a tow line on board, and was tugging the vessel
into the harbour, when the line gave way, and
there being no other on board either vessel, the
Garibaldi was obliged to return to Leith for another rope.
While the Garibaldi was communicating with the Activ an
accident happened to Mr. Jamieson which had nearly ter-
minated fatally. After ho had brought his vessel as near as
poSsible to the Activ Mr. Jamieson was engaged signalling
her commander as to the best means of saving his ship,
when the tiller, near which he was standing, broke loose,
and knocked him off his legs, and in consequence he fell
overboard. He at once disappeared, and not being seen
again for some time, he was given up for lost, when, to the
surprise of his crew, he appeared on deck from a small door
on the paddle-box. On falling into the water he had got
hold of the paddle-wheel, which was fortunately stationary
at the time, as otherwise he must have at once perished,
and succeeded in making his way stop by step, and every
step at the imminent risk of his life, in the narrow space
between the wheel and its wooden covering, the box, to the
level of the deck. As it is, the bravo fellow received two
severe cuts on his head, in consequence of which he was
disabled from further duty. Having been equipped with a
stout rope and reinforced as to its crew, the Garibaldi again
put out to the brig, which was again drifting fast on the
island, and threatening every moment to be driven on the
rocks, on which the breakers were dashing wildly, casting
the spray 100 ft. into the air. Tho Garibaldi's voyage, not
without danger, was witnessed from the pier by a large
number of spectators, who having heard of the accident
flocked thither to learn the result. The Garibaldi was
closely followed by the Victor, belonging to the same
owner, and the two vessels succeeded in establishing a
connection with the apparently doomed vessel, when only a
short distance off the rocks. She was brought into Leith
about an hour afterwards amid the cheers of the beholders.
About 4 o'clock a sloop which was moored in the harbour
dragged her anchor, and drifted from the West to the East
Pier, where she was boarded and taken care of. Towards
evening the gale moderated, but the Firth continued very
rough. The train from the north, due at Scotland-street at
half-past 7, did not arrive till a few minutes before 9, in
consequence of the very rough crossing at Burntislaud.—
Scotsman.

SHOWS HE WAS WANTED.--It is stated that the
fees of the health officer of New York will amount to about
$lOO,OOO for the -year.

-Circular
_ e- ,s 0

HER MAJESTY•

WINDSOR CASTLE, Sept. 11.

The Queen, accompanied by her Royal Highness
Princess Helena, drove in the grounds of the Castle
this morning.

ller Royal highness Princess Louise, attended by
the Hon. Horatia Stopford, went out walking.
Count Gleichen visited her Majesty.
Lord Lyons arrived at the Castle, and had an
audience of the Queen.

Her Majeety the Queen, with their Royal High-
nesses Princess Helena, Princess Louise, Princess
Beatrice, and Prince Leopold, left the Castle this
evening, at a quarter before seven o'clock for Bal-
moral.

The suite consisted of Lady Churchill, lady in
waiting (who will join the royal party at Oxford),
Lieutenant-General lion. C. Grey, Mrs. and Miss
Grey, Colonel the Hon. D. de Ros, Dr. Jenner,
and Mr. Buff.

Departure of Her Majesty for Scotland.
Yesterday evening, shortly before seven o'clock,

her Majesty, with their Royal Highnesses Princesses
Helena, Louise, and Beatrice, and Prince Leopold,
attended by Lieutenant-General the Hon. C. Grey,
Lady Churchill, Mr. Buff, &c., left Windsor Castle
for Balmoral.

The Royal party drove to the Windsor Station of
the Great Western Railway, where the prospect of
seeing the Queen, prince, and princesses, had in-
duced a large number of the inhabitants to assemble.
Her Majesty, on arriving at the station, was re-
ceived by General Hon. C. Grey, Colonel Dudley
de Ros, Mr. Grierson, the general manager, and
Mr. Tyrrell, of the Great Western Railway, Mr.
W. Cawkwell, the general manager, and Mr. G. P.
Neele, the out-door superintendent of the London
and North-Western line, Mr. W. R. Harris, mayor
of Windsor, &c. The Royal train left the Windsor
Station of the Great Western Railway at 6.55 p.m.,
and proceeded, via Slough, to Oxford, and so on,
as was stated by the special train table published
yesterday.
Her Majesty is expected to reach Balmoral about
four o'clock this afternoon. Earl Russell, as
Minister, will, it is understood, join the Court at
Bahnoral.