The Sun.
London, England, 1865-07-11 00:00:00

THE SUB, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, JULY 11, 1865

a worthy memorial of the gifted man whose name LATEST INTELLIGEbTOE
it bears. It is intended to combine the several
features of a museum, a school of art, and a public (REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)
library, and the good citizens of .Burslem have
taken advantage of the Act of Parliament to esta-
blish the library out of the rates. Very large sub-
scriptions have been raised for the erection of the
Institute, and the able and eloquent address de-
livered by Mr. G LADSTONE on the occasion of
laying the first stone of the building
must be fresh in the recollection of many
of his hearers. The promoters of the scheme are
now anxious to carry their work to completion, and
it is with this view that the interesting Art Exhi-
bition now being held at Alton Towers was or-
ganised. The idea was first suggested during
Mr. GLADSTONE'S visit to Burslem, and on the
authorities at South Kensington being communi-
cated with, they expressed their approval of the
scheme, and agreed to furnish specimens from their
own museum. The Earl of SHREWSBURY kindly
consented to permit the exhibition to take place in
his beautiful domain of Alton Towers, and all the
preliminaries being thus satisfactorily arranged, it did
not take long to collect an art exhibition of very great
and varied attractions. Specimens of the said
WEDGWOOD ware, and modern examples of the
art manufactures of our Midland Counties, occupy
of course a prominent place. Many noblemen and
gentlemen have willingly assisted to furnish
the Exhibition, and one of the most interesting of
the contributions is that of Mr. GLADSTONE, who
has sent the dejeuner service in jasper ware, to
which he alluded in his speech at Burslem. The
right hon. gentleman naturally feels much interest
in the success of the Exhibition, and in the successful
completion of the linstitute to which he lent
such valuable aid. The application of WEDGWOOD
ware to ',ornamental purposes is shown in almost
endless variety, and the beauty of some of the speci-
mens is the best testimony to the genius of the origi-
nator. The ceremony of the inauguration was
presided over by Earl GRANVILLE, who, in a
brief but appropriate address, commented on the
general features of the day, and the fortunate cir-
cumstance that whatever the heat of political dis-
cussion Englishmen of all parties could meet on
neutral ground with cordiality and good feeling.
In a few hours, he remarked, they would many of
them be abusing one another's politics with right
good will, and he laughingly alluded to his horror
on finding his noble host's private room full
of Conservative electioneering papers, with
a pamphlet, " Shall GLADSTONE Represent
Oxford ? " lying on his table. But in all
matters tending to improve the social state of the
people, as well as on all grave occasions of
national emergency, it was the happy privilege of
Englishmen to lay aside all party-feeling and
unite in action and in sympathy. Lord
GRANVILLE was a very suitable president for such
an occasion, not only on account of his association
with all matters of art and education, but from his
connection with Staffordshire, and the friendehip
which the earlier members of his family enjoyed
with the great founder of the Staffordshire potteries.
Of him Lord GRANVILLE justly said that " WEDG-
WOOD was undoubtedly one of the most remarkable
men of his day, one of those constructive geniuses
of men of science, possessing a true sense of art,
who could show to future manufacturers how
to unite the grand and beautiful with the
useful." The great importance of extend-
ing art education among the manufacturing
classes is now becoming widely recognised. Our
schools of art testify to its appreciation, and the
opening of establishments like the South Kensington
Museum has clearly shown how eager the better
class of workmen are to avail thernselveS of the
opportunity of refining their taste and enlarging
their knowledge. The new feature of Industrial
Exhibitions, too, has given unmistakeable evi-
dence of the taste and talent already possessed
by many whose days are passed in the most
laborious and mechanical occupations. Such
powers turned into the right channel and
trained by the experience of those who have
gone before would soon raise the whole style of our
art manufacture and art workmanship. When
first the schools of design were projected the scheme
was ridiculed in many quarters and pronounced to
be visionary and extravagant, but the extraordinary
progress made by our manufacturers in the last
twenty or thirty years gives ample evidence that for
once a theory has produced a practical result. No
more fitting memorial to WED GWOOD could be
chosen than a school of art, to smooth the way of
the young genius . over the obstacles that he
himself had to encounter, and we are glad
to find that such a school forms part
of the plan of the Institute. The very building
will give encouragement to youthful enterprise, and
stimulate that honourable ambition which impels
men to succeed and to excel in whatever they un-
dertake. In this stir and tumult of contending
parties, it is well to pause for a moment and con-
template the solid and lasting good effected by the
life and labours of one man—a working man in the
true sense of the word ; and while many a loud de-
claimer about the rights of the people has passed
away, deservedly forgotten, the thriving trade of
the Midland Counties and the beautiful combina-
tion of art and industy bear witness to the lasting
achievements of honest JOSIAH WEDGWOOD.

AMERICA.

NEW YORK, JULY 1 (Noon).

The Military Commission on the conspiracy trial
have agreed upon their verdict, but the decision is
not yet published. The Judge AdvQcate previously
submitted an argument asserting that four of the
prisoners were fellow-conspirators with Booth, and
contended that the evidence showed that Davis,
Sanders, Tucker, and others planned and assisted
the assassination.

A serious affray has taken place at Ports,„
mouth, Virginia, between the white and coloured
people. Many persons were wounded.

General Herron, commanding in Northern
Louisiana, has forbidden the slaves to leave the
plantations. The Governor of Kentucky has ad-
dressed the people, declaring slavery to be dead,
and urging the adoption of the constitutional amend-
ment.

General Hooker has superseded General Dix.

The City of Dublin has arrived out.

NEW YORK, JULY 1.

Money easy. Gold, 140. Exchange on London,
1521 ; ditto Paris, 3.68/. Stocks very firm. New
York Central, 94i ; Illinois, 1284 ; Erie, 79*.
Cotton quiet. Middling Upland, 45c. Flour,
wheat, and corn, declining. Provisions dull.
Coffee, good inquiry. Sugar, very firm. Molasses,
steady. Petroleum, quiet ; crude, 35i. Refined,
53 to 54f.

MEXICO.

NEW YORK, JULY Ist (Morning.)

Advices received here from Matamoras to the
25th ult. confirm the defeat of Negrete and the
Imperial occupation of Chihuahua. Juarez had
fled.

A Federal sentinel fired across the Rio Grande on
two French officers. Baron Brian addressed a pri-
vate letter to General Brown, expressing contempt
for the act. The latter, however, made no reply.

COLOGNE EXHIBITION.—STEAM FIRE ENGINE
TRIALS.—At the recent competitive trials of steam
fire-engines, at the Cologne International Exhibition, there
were exhibited four steam fire-engines, two being of Eng-
lish, one of American, and ono of German manufacture.
Messrs. Merryweather and Sons, of London, have carried
off the first prize of 500 thalers, placed in the hands of the
exhibition committee by the Colonia Firo Insurance Com-
pany to be awarded to the makers of the best steam fire-
engine, as well as a diploma certifying that they have re-
ceived the first prize for the best steam fire-engine. Messrs.
Merryweather's engine raised steam from cold water, and
commenced working with 1001bs. pressure in 7 minutes
28 seconds from the time of lighting the fire, weighed one
ton less, and was of considerable less cost than either of
the other two competing engines. The German engine
was considered out of the contest, as its jet failed to reach
the water target efficiently.
THE VIOLENT DEATH AT WOLVERHAMPTON.—An
inquest was held yesterday at Wolverhampton on the body
of the man who died in the streets of that town on Sunday
morning under such suspicious circumstances, and after
some evidence had been taken the proceedings were ad-
journed, to await the result of a post-mortem examination.
The man suspected of having caused the death of the de-
ceased isatill in custody.
EXTRAORDINARY BALLOON VOYAGE.—Mr. Joseph
Simmons, aeronaut, of Hull, has furnished us with
particulars of his late night balloon voyage from the West
of England to the Midlands. Starting from Bath just
before 7 p.m. in the Raven, with a strong wind blowing
from the south-west, at 7 5 ho was near enough to the earth
to ascertain the name of the place below him to be Malmes-
bury. At 710 he passed over Tetbury, and at 735 was
heartily cheered by the inhabitants of Cheltenham. The
wind increased in violence, and at 8 10 he heard the words
"Come down here," exclaimed from Stratford-on-Avon.
Soon afterwards he threw the grappling irons into a tree,
from which they speedily broke loose. Presently he again
threw out the grapnels, which clung to some hurdles, but
the Raven, riding gaily with the wind, was not to be
brought to earth in this manner, so getting rid of her bur-
den and shaking herself off she careered away into cloud-
land. When Mr. Simmons looked around ho found him-
self lying in a barley field, close to the river Avon, just
below Warwick, at a distance of more than 100 miles from
the place where ho had ascended and it was now 8 15 p.m.
The aeronaut made the best of his way into the town by a
slower but safer conveyance than his mile-a-minute ma-
chine, wondering whether he should ever recover it. As
soon as possible he followed by railway in the direction
taken by his balloon. On reaching Leicester he was in-
formed that it had been secured. The grappling-irons had
luckily taken firm hold of a large elm tree on the farm of
Ur. Jeffrey, at Stony Stanton, in that county, and his
labonrere thus Oft Ted Yr. Simmoto the loss of £7OO.

LITERATIIED,

Miss Braddon's New Story,

Only a Clod. Three Vols. By the Author of " I,ady
Audley's Secret." John Maxwell and Co.

Already—even before we have been able to
snatch an opportunity for commenting upon the fact
of its collective appearance—already Miss Braddon's
new story, in three volumes, has run into its Fourth
Edition ! If we have any surprise at all, however,
in regard to this circumstance, it is certainly not
that the number of the edition thus rapidly attained
should be the Fourth, our only marvel being that it
is not rather the Fourteenth. For, in proportion as
the Authoress of " Lady Audley's Secret" feels her
mastery over her own great natural powers and—
by her facile exercise of them—extends more and
more widely her already ample reputation, she
evidences, as it appears to us, through each addi-
tional fiction coming from her hand, a keener and a
subtler appreciation of the responsibilities devolv-
ing upon her as an Artist, as one of those rarer
artists (potent beyond all others now-a-days) the
prose-poets of our time, who are perpetually
peopling anew with their creations the ever-halcyon
fields of imaginative literature. Never yet has she
written, what even the most blaA of readers would
venture to call, a dull book. We could hardly fancy
her, under any circumstances, writing ineffectively,
much less could we imagine her, at any time, de-
generating into a bore. She began well, nay,
for that matter, indeed, she must be said to have
begun brilliantly—captivating her readers upon her'
first appearance into a keen and instant attention—
holding them spell-bound to the very end of the last
chapter of her earliest work, a work which it may
be remembered was issued as an anonymous publi-
cation. Beginning thus well, beginning thus bril-
liantly, she has ever since then been advancing from
better to,tietter. Unconsciously to herself perchance,
her motto has been more than simply Onward.
It has been Excelsior. For, while advancing in her
career as a novelist she has risen—risen into a higher
and a purer atmosphere. Whatever there was of
the morbid or of the terrible, of the unwholesome,
we will even say, or of the deleterious (morally) in
her writings, she has been ridding herself of, rapidly,
appreciably, thoroughly. A delicate-complexioned,
blonde-haired bigamist, an insidious and daring ad-
venturess, partaking somewhat in character of the
combined natures of the Lamia, of Becky Sharp,
and of Clytemnestra—a lovely, ghastly, odious, in-
sinuating creature like Lady Audley of Audley
Court, with her grimly ghostly Secret hidden away
for ever, as she supposes, down at the bottom of the
old dry well, at the end of the lime-tree avenue—
such an one, Miss Braddon no longer chooses as her
archetype of a Heroine of Romance. Upon the
character of Lady Audley, in truth, even her very
next creation, meaning the character of Aurora
Floyd, was recognisably an immense improvement.
Aurora--in this wholly unlike her predecessor—
was, for one thing, notoriously, more sinned
against than sinning. Proverbially a second work
is the crucial test of a new writer's capabilities.
And it was a test that upon being applied to Miss
Braddon, demonstrated, beyond all further chance
of denial, her capacity and her originality ! Aurora
Floyd, taking rank, still, to our thinking, as, among
all her works, everything considered, her master-
piece. Not but what Miss Braddon's subsequent
fictions have, in the construction of them, in the con-
ception of them, even for that matter in the detailed
execution of them (reference being here made to the
mere style or manner of the composition), evi-
denced a steady rise, advance, progression, or
general development of the author's powers as a
mistress of her art, in other words as an artistic
novelist of genius, power, and originality. What-
ever may be her other gifts, she:has unquestionably
and very signally, indeed, the most essential of all
gifts for a Novelist. She is, above all things, essen-
tially and intensely, a Story-Teller. She has the gift
of so relating a story, of so recounting the incidents
of a fictitious narrative, of so tangling up the thread
of it into the intricate web-work of a plot, of so un-
ravelling that thread afterwards without snapping
even one of its gossamer filaments, that the
reader's attention is held by her, from first to last,
under a sort of glamour—breathless, eager, spell-
bound ! Following up her first radiant adventure
into fable-land, as the author of " Lady
Audley's Secret," and afterwards, and yet
more effectually, as we have said, as the
author of " Aurora Floyd," she since then has con-
firmed her popularity while very considerably rais-
ing her reputation by works of art as honourably
conspicuous among the prose fictions of our times as
" Eleanor's Victory," as " Henry Dunbar," as
"The Doctor's Wife," and now, very recently in-
deed, by the completion of this wonderfully clever
and admirably constructed narrative of ONLY A
CLOD ! Singularly rapid though sheis as a writer, she
betrays very few evidences of haste, hardly one of
mere carelessness. Pouring out her bright imagin-
ings as a Novelist, in one three-volumed work after
another, as swiftly, one might think, as pen could
well write, to say nothing of the incidental task of
elaborate correction and revision for the press—Miss
Braddon, as a writer of fiction, shows exactly the
reverse of any falling off. Step by step, she takes,
to our thinking, higher and yet higher ground
upon each new adventure of hers as a Popular
Novelist. Of this we conceive " The Doctor's
Wife" yielded a very striking attestation. And
it is a fact yet more apparent, we believe, in the
still later work now before us, this latest story
completed by her pen of fascination, under the
quaint but significant title •of " Only a Clod."
Crime is here in no way the main-spring, so to
speak, setting in motion the elaborate machinery of
the plot. The motive power is discoverable, here,
rather, it should be said, in one of those great coups of
Fortune, of which we have before now occasionally
heard in real life, but which, strange to tell,
seem never, until now, to have been once thought
of as suggestive of the ground-work of a
fictitious narrative by any Novelist. The Hero of
the B9ok—Only a Clod, in
,fact—is a Private
Soldier, born of the soil, so to speak, in the Ranks
of the Army, sprung from the Ranks of the
People, one Francis Tredethlyn, who suddenly finds
himself by a bequest in a will transformed into
something like a millionaire ! that fact lies the
whole charm—out of it grows the whole interest—
of this enthralling narrative. Tredethlyn, who is at
heart a fine fellow enough, one in whose fortunes
the reader never once throughout the book ceases
to feel an affectionate interest, is first introduced
to us as a body-servant to Ensign Harcourt
Lowther of H.M.'s 51st Light Infantry, a regi-
nient then quartered in the neighbourhood of Port
Arthur at our antipodes. Here, whilst Harcourt
Lowther is eating his heart out with vexation be-
cause of his own professional expatriation far away
from the regions of civilised life—there comes to
his man Tredethlyn the startling announcement
that he, Francis, has suddenly inherited from an
old Uncle of his in Cornwall a magnificent income
of upwards of thirty thousand pounds a year. And
thereupon it is that we have abruptly brought
before us the first passion of the book ! Harcourt
Lowther, with his serving man's letter still lying open
before him, sits staring at the lines. " Then
suddenly the blank stupor upon his face gave way
to a look of despair. The ensign flung his head
and arms upon the table, and burst• into tears.
' I have been eating my own heart in this place
for nearly two years,' he sobbed, and not one ray
of light—no, by the heaven above me ! not one—
has dawned upon my life ; and a valet, a private
soldier, the fellow who scours my rooms and blacks
my boots, has thirty thousand a year left him !'"
In the which outburst, there is recognisable, surely,
by any one, even through this fragmentary eitract,
one of those strangely poignant minglings together
of tears and laughter. " There was something,"
adds the writer, "so terrible in this hysterical out-
burst of rage and envy, something so utterly piteous
in this unmanly revolt against another man's good

fortune, that Francis Tredethlyn forgot his own
trouble before the aspect of his master's degradation.
' Don't, sir,' he cried, 'for God's sake, don't do that!

All the riches in the world wouldn't pay a man for
taking on like that. If you want money, you're
welcome to borrow some of mine as soon
as ever I get the power to lend it. There's
more than I care to have, or could ever spend.
You'll be welcome to what you want, Mr