The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-31 00:00:00

30.17.61

rim SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVEAING, AUGUST 31, 1865.

LAW INTELLIGENCE—This Day.

COURT OF BANKRUPTCY.
(Before Mr. Registrar Brougham.)
IN RE HON. GEORGINA AUGUSTA FREDERICA HENRIETTA
CAVENDISH BENTINCK.

This bankrupt was described as a spinster, of 5, Green-
■treet, Grosvenor-square, to-day being appointed for the
first meeting. The cause of the bankruptcy is said to be
the loss of a sum of money lent to the late Dowager Lady
Rivers, and insufficiency of income to maintain the Hon.
Miss Bentinck's position in life. The debts are nearly
£1,700, Lady Clare being a creditor for £6O, and the
claims on the proceeding 3 being made by a long list of
West-end tradesmen, to the extent of nearly .V.PO. The
debts were proved, and a day named for the next meeting

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.—This Day.

-4.-

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.

ROBBERY OF VASES OF THE VALVE OF £5OO BY A SER-
YANT.—Martin Van Asam, servant to the Hon. Mr. Wm.
Rashleigh, of No. 31, Hill-street, Grosvenor-square, was
charged before Mr. Mansfield, by Inspector Williamson, of
the Detective Department, Scotland-yard, with stealing
two silver vases, of the value of £5OO.
Mr. James Guffen said—l was formerly butler to the
Hon. Mr. Rashleigh, of Hill-street, and the prisoner was in
the same service. I placed the two silver vases produced
(most beautiful works of art) into the strong room. One
of the vases is entitled the " Triumph of Neptune." I had
no idea the articles were gone till I was about to leave,
and then, when looking over the plate to seo if it was cor-
rect, I missed the vases. The prisoner was the under
footman, and had no right to interfere with the articles.
Tho portions produced are those of the other vase which
has been broken up.
Mrs. Kelly, 19, Chester-place, Kennington, said—The
prisoner called at her house last Thursday week, and said
ho had come from Paris, and expected a friend to call the
next day. He brought a large box with him containing
the articles produced. He left without paying for his lodg-
ing, leaving the box behind, and she then looked into it
and saw what it contained. A few days afterwards he
wrote from Liverpool, requesting her to send the boxes
there.

Inspector Williamson—On Friday last, from what I had
heard I went to Chester-place, Kennington, and there
found a largo black box containing the property produced.
I afterwards went to Liverpool and saw the prisoner at the
railway station. I told him 1 had conic to arrest him for
stealing plate from the Hon. W. Rashleigh. He said
" Very well," and suddenly made his escape. He was
recaptured, and after a desperate resistance, it requiring
four or five other constables to take him, he xas secured.
Mr. Guffen—l wish to state that on the day the articles
were missed the prisoner made an excuse that ho was ill
and could not go out with the carriage. In the course of
the afternoon of that day the prisoner absconded.

V
_
Inspector Williamson—Some of the pieces of the vase
which has been broken with a pair of pincers have been
melted. _

The prisoner—l did not take the vases from the plate-
room, but from off a barrel in another place.
Mr. Mansfield committed him foi

WESTMINSTER.

A FEMALE DETECTIVE.-JOllll Butler and John Fitz-
morris, two boys of between 14 and 16 years of age, were
placed at the bar, charged with being found in an unoccu-
pied house for an unlawful purpose.
Mary Hickson, wife of Police-constable James Hickson,
91 B, said that she and her husband were taking care of 51,
Sutherland-street, Pimlico. At half-past 7 this morning
she thought she heard a noise in 49, also an untenanted
house, next door to her, and, on listening more attentively,
she became convinced of the fact. She then hastened to
the front door, and looking over the area railings of 49, saw
one of the prisoners standing near the cellar door, who
immediately exclaimed to the other who was inside the
house "We are caught," and then Butler came out by the
window. Both prisoners then rushed up the stops to get
away, when witness seized Butler and held him. He endea-
voured to effect his escape and struggled hard, but she still
retained him until she got assistance, and he was taken to
the station house.
Butler exclaimed—Let mo speak, your worship. I only
went down the area to help him.
Fitzmorris—l went there, your worship, to change my
shirt, it was so dirty.
Mr. Selfe—What ! put a clean shirt on in a cellar ?
Fitzmorris—Yes, your worship, I often does.
Mr. Selfe—And have somebody to assist you in the
operation ?
James Hickson, 91 B, said that between seven and eight
this morning his wife called out " Thieves in 49," when ho
hastened to the front door. His wife was bolding Butler,
and he pursued and captured Fitz.-norris, and took him in
Clarendon-street. On searching Butler a sharp knife and
sack were found upon him.
Mr. Selfe—ls anything known of either of them ?
A policeman—Butler was in custody a short time ago for
pot stealing, and committed.
Another policeman—He was also charged a short time
ago with being found in an area.
Butler's mother—lt was entirely an accident, your wor-
ship, through his not having anything in his inside.
Mr. Selfe—That made him inside the area ?

The mother—Yes, your worship; he was seized with a
giddiness in the head through faintness, and slipped into
the area.

Mr. Selfe—And this time he went down an area to help
his friend to put on a clean shirt, with a sharp knife and a
sack.

Policeman—He has been long well known to the police.
Mr. Selfe—What is known of Fitzmorris ?

Policeman—He is about commonly with young thieves.
Mr. Selfe—Butler, 1 have no doubt you are becoming a
professed thief. You are committed for three months with
hard labour. Fitzmorris (the younger by two years) is
remanded, in order to see whether he cannot be got into a
reformatory.

The Death of William Aytoun.

The following singularly beautiful, touching, and
eloquent tribute to the memory of Professor Aytoun
—a paper adorning, and yet saddening, the newly
published number of " Maga" for September
—will be perused not without emotion by the
readers of Blackwood's Magazine the wide world
over ! It is a tribute in every way worthy at
once of Aytoun and of Blackwood :
It will not be expected that a now number of this maga-
zine should appear without our attempting to express, how-
ever inadequately, our deep grief and infinite regret for the
loss we have sustained by the death of William Edmond-
stoune Aytoun. Carried off in the prime of life, in the
midst of a brilliant, useful, and prosperous career, and in
the enjoyment of the utmost domestic happiness, he leaves
a blank which will not soon be supplied in the hearts of
those who possessed his friendship, and in the number—
now, alas ! too limited—of the men of genius and literary
power of which his country Could boast. For ourselves,
we have to lament his loss upon a double ground ; as a mast
faithful and valued literary auxiliary, and as a friend bound
to us by the strongest ties of dear and familiar intimacy.
It is with difficulty that we can command our feelings so
as to record with any regularity of method the few facts in
his life which it seems proper here to notice.
He was born in June, 1813, and had thus at his death in
August, 1865, completed his fifty-second year. On both
sides of his house he was well descended and well con-
nected. His father, who was a writer to the signet, and
the partner of an eminent firm in that profession, died when
Aytoun was comparatively young. His mother lived to a
great age, and died only a few years ago. She was an ex-
cellent example of an old Scottish lady, and from her ten-
dencies and traditions her son derived much of his early and
enduring predilections for the Cavalier cause. He was a
most attached son and brother, and his mother and sisters
repaid his affection by the strongest feelings which an
only son and brother could inspire.
Ho was educated at the Edinburgh Academy, and went
through the usual curriculum at the University, of which
he was destined to become so distinguished an ornament.
He afterwards studied for some time in Germany, where
he acquired that love and knowledge of German literature
of which his writings contain so many proofs.
He passed as a writer to the signet, but soon saw that
this was not his appropriate sphere, and in 1840 he was
called to the Scottish Bar. Ile practised for a time with
some success, particularly in criminal causes, and regularly
attended the Western Circuit. His literary propensities,
however, were too strong to be repressed. He became
well known among his companions for various successful
jeux d'esprit, as well as for compositions of a more serious
kind, both in verse and prose. He furnished at this time
several contributions to Tait's Magazine, where, in con-
junction with a congenial collaborateur, his early friend,
Theodore Martin, he began the " Bon Gaultier Ballads,"
which now form the best and most popular collection that
exists of that kind of composition.

In 1839 his connection with this magazine commenced,
and we venture to say with a feeling of pride which we
trust will not be thought unbecoming, that he found here
a peculiarly fit and favourable field for the exercise of his
great and varied powers. These soon began to be appre-
ciated ; but " The Burial-March of Dundee," and " Charles
Edward at Versailles," which were published in the Maga-
zine in 1843, were the first things that made him known as
a true poet, and from that time his reputation, and, it may
be added, his powers of literary execution, continued
steadily to increase.
Shortly after this, the railway mania attained the alarm-
ing height which caused so serious a crisis in that form of
speculation. Aytoun had seen in the circle of his own
acquaintance a good deal of the ruinous effects which fell
upon those "who," as he used to express it, "were out in
the ' Forty-five' of the present century ;" and his reflec-
tions on this disastrous madness led him to attempt an
antidote. In October, 1845, there appeared in
.the Maga-
zine his celebrated paper, "How we got up the Glen-
mutchkin." The picture there presented was not only a
most amusing piece of comic writing, but a true represen-
tation of the existing evils, and a powerful and most useful
satire upon the parties concerned in them. We have
reason to believe, from good authority, that the article had
a marked effect at the time in moderating the frantic specu-
lations of the period, and "The Glenmutchkin" has ever
since been a byword for denouncing those desperate enter-
prises that are undertaken upon no solid ground, and pro-
moted by an atrocious system of exaggeration and false-
hood.

"The Glonmutchkin" was followed by many sketches of
social life conceived and executed in the same happy vein
of combined humour and good sense ; but it was not easy
to find another subject so fortunate or so popular.
In the beginning of 1848 the Magazine contained the
poem of "Edinburgh after Flodden," an admirable compo-
sition, and the best, perhaps, of that collection of lays on
which Mr. Aytoun's permanent reputation is most likely
to stand. We cannot help thinking that, with the single
exception of Sir Walter Scott's ballads, this volume ex-
hibits by far the best and truest specimens of this peculiar
and difficult form of poetry that have ever appeared from
the pen of an individual writer.
We have now beforo us a list of the various papers he
contributed to our pages from the year 1839 to the time of
his death. They amount in number to more than a hun-
dred and twenty, and we cannot look over the catalogue
without admiration of the diversity of subjects which they
embrace, and the persevering assiduity which produced
them. For we have no hesitation in saying that none of
his papers were carelessly thrown off, but that in all of them
he put his heart conscientiously into his work, and labourel
to give it as much completeness and efficiency as it was
in his power to bestow,
It would be endless to notice the various departments
of writing in which he excelled, though we may take an
opportunity hereafter to attempt a review and estimate of
the best things that he wrote. We cannot, however, re-
frain from looking back with peculiar satisfaction to the
political papers which he contributed in the year 1850,
with reference in particular to the matters then agitated
in connection with agricultural interests. They seemed
to us, at the time, to state with singular power and ability
the case which the farmers brought forward ; and we
know that some of the best judges of the subject, who had
no leanings in favour of " protection," considered them to
be unanswered and unanswerable. If the :cause there ad-
vocated was to have been won, we are certain that those
articles would have contributed largely to the victory.
The questions then at issue are now set at rest ; but we
continue to think that the grounds which the Protec-
tionists thus took were rested on fairness and equity, and
such as they had no reason to be ashamed of occupying,
whether as claimants for justice or as lovers of their
country.

In 1845, Mr. Aytoun had been appointed Professor of
Rhetoric and Belles Lettres in the University of Edin-
burgh. This Chair had been occupied by very distin-
guished men before him ; but it was his peculiar merit to
make it more practically instructive than it had ever pre-
viously been. He began with a class of about 30 students,
and ended with having upwards of 150—a result which we
think is to be ascribed, not perhaps to any superiority of
his lectures over those of his predecessors, but to his great
popularity with his student; arising from two different
causes ; the one, his strong :sympathy with their youthful
tastes and aspirations ; and the other, the unwearied in-
dustry with which he laboured to train them to the art of
composition, by his strict :examination and diligent cor
rection of the papers and essays given in by them. This
must have been an irksome as well as an inglorious task,
but he considered it to be a duty imposed on him by his
position, and he reaped the appropriate fruits of it by his
great success and eminence as a literary teacher.
In 1849 he married Jane, the youngest daughter of yro-
fessor Wilson, a most amiable lady, with whom he en-
joyed ten years of great domestic happiness, ' checkered
only by her languid state of health, and clouded at last by
her death in 1859.

In 1852 he was made Sheriff of Orkney and Shetland,
and devoted himself with his habitual earnestness and
assiduity to the duties of his office. He usually passed a
considerabl.e portion of the slimmer months in the islands
that composed his Sheriffdom, and his death is deeply
lamented by all those over whom he was thus placed.
The death of his gentle and affectionate wife was a severe
affliction to him, and for along while his health and spirits
were seriously affected by it. Time, however, brought
consolation ; and it was a great pleasure to his friends
when, in December 1863, he married Miss Kinnear, with
whose near relatives, the Balfours of Trennabie, in Ork-
ney, he had long been intimate. This also was a most
happy union, and his health seemed for a time to be re-
gaining its original vigour. During last winter, however,
bad symptoms appeared, and fears began to be entertained
that some serious constitutional malady was undermining
his frame. Ile complained of great weakness and languor,
and felt labour of any kind to be irksome. Still he was in
good spirits, particularly when he met with any friend ;
and in the beginning of:June he went with Mrs. Aytoun:to
Blackhills, a pleasant retreat near Elgin, of which he had
taken a lease for summer quarters. The accounts received
of him after he went to Morayshire were not satisfactory,
but no immediate danger was apprehended.

We think it may be interesting to our readers to see the
way in which he speaks of himself and his state of health
in the last letter which we received from him, dated at
Blackhills, on the 14th of July, 1865 :
"Dr. Ross, from whose treatment I have received great
benefit during the fortnight ho has attended me, is per-
emptory against my working my brain until I am physi-
cally stronger ; and I am quite sure he is right, for a few
days ago the mere effort of finding rhymes for some maca-
ronic verses I had commenced, wearied me in a way I pre-
viously would have deemed incredible. However, I am,
thank God, much better than Ivrea ; and having, as far as
discoverable, no organic complaint, I may hope, with care
and perseverance in a generous diet, to get back my
strength. As regards the stores of the druggist I am
parcus cultor et infrequens,' taking nothing beyond a
solution of iron ; but, en revanche, I am put upon a most
liberal allowance of animal food, brandy, and claret.
"I have abandoned the idea of going down to the islands
in the mean time, and shall put off my visit until a much
later period of the season. I shall hope to be able to take
the hill on the 12th of August, and would be seriously
grieved if prevented, for my keeper, who was over part of

the ground on Monday, gives an excellent account of the
young broods; and I have purveyed me a steady white
pony—nomine Missy, which name I have elevated into that
of- 'the Muse'—well adapted for trotting through the
heather. Do you think you could come down hero for
that sport ? I need not say how joyfully you will be wel-
comed ; and I can assure you that there are few prettier or
more enjoyable places to be found in the north of Scotland
than this same residence of Blackhills. The range of
grouse ground is very fair, but the extent of the low-
country shooting is immense; and though partridges have
not been very plentiful in the district for some years, there
are hares enough to excite to frenzy the scalping instincts
of a Choctaw. Think of this ; for I certainly shall not
migrate southwards this year until summoned by the ap-
proaching exigencies of the session."
These cheerful anticipations were not to be realised.
His disease latterly made rapid progress, and he gradually
sank under it, and tranquilly expired on the 4th of
August, retaining the full possession of his faculties to the
last, and calmly contemplating with the most pious resig-
nation his approaching end.
His life altogether was a successful and happy one. Its
success he owed to an unusual combination of genius,
industry, and prudence ; and its happiness to his bright
and genial temperament and equable temper. It was
always a pleasure to be with him, as will be acknowledged
by every one who remembers him as a travelling or a
social companion. The little tours that he made from
time to time on the Continent formed often the subject of
pleasant articles in the magazine, but they were not so
pleasant on paper as they were in reality to those who had
the good fortune to be his fellow-travellers.

His domestic affections were of the warmest and most
engaging kind, and the friendships that he formed were
equally cordial and lasting. It is to ourselves a source of
great though melancholy pleasure to look back on our
long intercourse with him, which was never interrupted
by any difference of opinion or estrangement of feeling.
It is rare, indeed, that the relations of business become a
source of so much heartfelt pleasure and familiar inti-
macy ; and we cannot think without painful emotion that
all this happiness is at an end.
It was erroneously supposed in some quarters that Mr.
Aytoun occupied the position of Editor of this magazine.
Indeed, it seems difficult to persuade our friends at a dis-
tance of what is well known to those nearer at hand, that
the proprietors of this magazine have never since its
commencement, now nearly half a century ago, devolved
upon others the powers or responsibilities of an editor.
To this system, perhaps, they owe it that the magazine
has preserved a uniform consistency of aim and purpose ;
and that, while warm in its advocacy of great views and
principleS, it has avoided those petty partisanships and
predilections from which it is so difficult for an ordinary
editor to keep free.
We cannot close this short and imperfect notice without
adding a statement which we think due alike to the me-
mory of the deceased and to the cause of true religion, at a'
time when so much laxity and false liberality prevail upon
serious subjects. Mr. Aytoun was a sincere and humble
Christian. At no time in his most joyous moments of
jocularity did anything fall from his lips or from his pen
that was irreverent, or in any way at variance with reli-
gious views ; and his last moments were soothed by par-
taking of the Holy Communion, administered to him by
the excellent pastor who represented in his neighbourhood
the Episcopal, Church of Scotland, of which Mr. Aytoun
was always a devoted and exemplary, though never a
bigoted, adherent. The letter to ourselves, from which
we have already made an extract, contains another pas-
sage expressive of his firm reliance on the one sure foun-
dation of Christian hope ; and we only refrain from quot-
ing the last words that he thus addressed to us, from an
unwillingness to obtrude our private griefs upon public
notice. _ _

We feel that no apology is due to our readers for what
we have now said. They cannot fail to lament with us
the extinction of a bright light, from which they long
derived such varied pleasure ; and to those who had not
the privilege of Mr. Aytoun's personal acquaintance, it
must be a satisfaction to learn that so great literary gifts
were united with so many amiable qualities and so much
solid worth.