The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-08 00:00:00

THE SUN LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, APRIL 8, 1F65.

from the natives, not hang about in useless places
dying of fever and malaria, and possibly only ex-
citing the ridicule instead of the awe of the

same number of votes ; M. Jules Janin, 11, M.
Prevost-Paradol, 14, M. Autran, 2, Marmier, 2,
Geruzez, 1, Chasles, 1. Second ballot : AI. Jules
Janin, 14, M. Prdvost-Paradol, 14, Autran, and
others, 1 each. Third ballot : M. Jules Janin, 14,
M. Prdvost-Paradol, 16, blank 1. In consequence,
M. Camille Doucet and M. Prdvost Paradol were
declared to be elected.

The Minister of Agriculture, Commerce, and
Public Works has just appointed M. Carron, for-
merly Consul-General at Edinburgh, to be Com-
missioner at Dublin, to watch over the interests of
the French subjects who have sent articles to the
Exhibition there.

The five academies of the Institute held a quar-
terly sitting the day before yesterday, under the
presidency of M. Ambroise Thomes, of the Beaux-
Arts, assisted by MM. IVolowski, Villemain; Egger,
and Decaisne, delegates from the other academies.
In this sitting the president laid before the assembly
the first volume of the " Histoire de Jules Cesar,"
presented to the Institute by the Emperor Napo-
leon 111.

The Emperor and Empress arrived the afternoon
before yesterday in a private carriage at the St.
Lazare terminus, and proceeded to St. Germain by
rail to visit the works now going on for the restora-
tion of the palace. Their Majesties were recognised
at St. Germain and saluted with acclamations by
the people assembled on the Place du Chateau.
After having examined those portions of the build-
ing now restored to their original style of the period
of Francis 1., the Imperial visitors returned by train
to the Tuileries for dinner.

The Aloniteur du Soir publishes the following
note :—" Several journals have disseminated the
rumour that the Empress was about to publish a
Life of Marie-Antoinette.' That assertion is de-
void of all foundation."

M. Baroche, Minister of Justice, two days back
gave a grand dinner, at which 'were present the
Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Ambassadors of
Austria, Turkey, and Piussia, the Ministers of
Bavaria, Saxony, Portugal, Belgium, and Mexico,
and many other members of diplomatic corps, the
Duke de Bassano, Marshal Magnan, the Duke
d'Albufera, and the Prefect of Police, together with
several senators, deputies, members of the Council
of State and of the Court of Cassation. In the
evening there was a brilliant reception.
The annual sitting of the Society of the Prince
Imperial for Granting Loans to Working Men was
held yesterday at half-past one, at the Tuileries, in
the. Salles des Mar6chaux, the Empress presiding,
and the young Prince by her side. The Archbishop
of Paris and several other distinguished personages
were present. M. Fremy, Vice-President of the
Superior Council, read the report of the year's pro-
ceedings, after which her Majesty spoke a few kind
words in reply, and the meeting separated with cries
of " Vive l'Empereur !" " Vive l'lmperatrice !"
" Viva le Prince Imperial !" During the three
years that the society has been in existence, it has
advanced in Paris and the departments nearly 5,000
loans, amounting to a total of 1,300,000 f.
A communication from Toulon has the following :
—" The-Admiral commanding the experimental
squadron has received instructions from Paris to
hasten the repairs of the vessels under his orders,
and to hold himself ready to put to sea about
the 20th.

BOURSE, April 7.—The market is not very active,
and prices are somewhat variable. Threes, for the
Account, are now at 671. 90c. Italian Loan 65f.
85c. Mobilier has been done at 832 f. 50c. In
Railway Shares there is no material change to note.
The following are the last quotations:—

41 per Cents 95 40 Italian Loan 65 80
Do. end month — Do. end month 65 95
3 per Cents. 67 60 Ditto Threes —
Do. end month ' 67 95 New Mexican
Credit Mobilier ... 830 ' Russian
Do. end month ... 826 25 ' Austrian
Bank Shares 3560 Spanish Threes ... 46 50
Credit Fonder, — Home Debt —
Roman — Deferred

AYS. •
Cash. Acct.
Orleans
Northern 1057 50 1066 25
Lyons and Mediterranean 9BO 982 50
Southern 6lO 612 50
Western 538 75 537 50
Eastern
Sardinian —

RAIL'

Austrian
Lombard..
North of Spain..
Saragossa
Ditto to Barcelona

438 75 ... 441 25
551 25 ... 555 -
302 50 306 25
390 - ... 392 50

LITERATUR.E,

On Guard. A Novel. By Annie Thomas, author
of " Denis Donne." 3 vols. Chapman and Hall.
The brilliant author of " Sir Victor's Choice" is
rapidly attaining a prominent rank among the
' favourite novelists of the day, and we are glad to
notice a steady improvement in her latest efforts.
Since the successful issue of " Sir Victor's Choice,"
about a year back, the reading public have been
startled by the continuous and occasionally the
simultaneous publication of various three-volume
novels, and other works of fiction, from the same
hand ; the most striking of which, "Denis Donne,',
we had the pleasure of noticing last summer. We
had remarked with regret that some of the later
works recently issued by the same writer had not
equalled the ability of the two above specified pub-
lications, but now the cause of this difference, and
also the secret of this wonderful and almost in-
credible fertility of composition is revealed to us.
In the preface to one of her latest issued works,
" A Dangerous Secret"—itself a very interesting
and. enthralling narrative—the fair authoress tells
us that many of her earlier works, which happened
to be in the hands of others, have been, since the
success of " Sir Victor's Choice," hastily given to
the public. Hence the amazing rapidity with which
" Sir Victor's Choice," and "Denis Donne," and
" Bertie Bray," and " Bryan O'Byrne," and "A
Dangerous Secret," and others which we forget,
and, lastly, " On Guard," have succeeded each
other in the short space of a year 1 Before the
mystery was revealed to us we had recognised
the superior merit of " Denis Donne " to the
other (and, as it now appears, earlier)
works of the same writer simultaneously issued
from the press, and that steady development of
her abilities we are glad yet more fully to recog-
nise in her new work, " On Guard," which is, in
many respects, one of the best productions
of that industrious hand. With some of
the same faults that were prominent in its pre-
decessors, with a little too much of an inclination
to the " fast" school, as evidenced by an occasional
oath, hardly suited to the pen of a lady writer, and
an occasional introduction to questionable company,
with such drawbacks—and we the more willingly
draw attention to them on account of the writer's
manifest abilities—" On Guard" is a very able and
a most enthralling novel. Bella Vane, the Beauty
and the Coquette, is as fascinating, but not as heart-
less as the brilliant heroine of "Denis Donne." The
authoress, who evidently inclines to these sparkling,
treacherous types of womanhood, had not the heart
to render Bella heartless. She frankly tells us, " I
like the girl whom I have created, or rather, I
the prototype from whom I have drawn her, so
well, that I feel there will be pain in telling how
little worthy she was," &c. The other heroine
Florry Villars, the good, gentle, loving Florry, is
represented as so weak and easily led that she suffers
her nearest and dearest to have cause to doubt in
her affection::- Throughout the book, as one of the
chief characters sums up at the conclusion, every
one is " on guard". against the wrong thing. Most
vigilant of these most mistaken, self-constituted,
guardians is young Lady ,Villars, the sister-in-law
of poor amiable Florence and of Stanley Villars,
the unhappy hero of the tale. Her husband, Sir
Gerald, lives in a wholesome dread of " Carrie"
being " upset" about anything. With a heart in-
clined to his falling brother, he suffers his wife to over-
rule his best desires. Perhaps, the happiest specimen
we can give of the lively style and animated interest
which characterise this story, is the following scene
when Lady Villars stands so faithfully and cleverly—
ON GUARD.
She had done no more than humanity had a right to ex-
pect from her. She had found a man in dark despair, in
penury, in ill health ; and the certain conviction was hers
that she had been the cause of his fall into these things.
However weak and erring he had been—however blindly
perverse, and wickedly wasteful of the good gifts God had
given him, which no woman could destroy—she could but
feel herself to have been the first cause of the weakness
and error, of the blind perversity and reckless wasteful-
ness. What amends she could it was her bounden duty to
make. This she knew. She also knew that she had set
about making it in the wrong way. " Why didn't I write
and tell Claude about it yesterday, before it grew?" she
thought, as she found herself walking alone into Lady
Villars' room, having thought it well that Marian should
wait in the carriage till the ice was broken.
There were three of Lady Villars' sisters in the room
when Bella entered. She saw at once that they were
sisters, and shrewdly guessed that they had come up for
the wedding.
" I think Florence is taking off her habit," Lady Villars
said, "or else she's trying on some dresses ; would you
hear ?" addressing one of her sisters ; " she'd so like to see
Mrs. Walsingham."
"And I want to see her very much," Bella commenced
in an agitated tone. "The fact is—l hope you won't think
"' She broke down, and Lady Villars began to smile,
and continued the same till her little short nose was almost
lost in the plumpness of her cheeks.
" Think you late in your congratulations ? Oh, dear,
no ! It's a very recently arranged affair—a brilliant match
for the dear girl—if she were my own sister I could't have
desired a better.
"I suppose not," Bella replied, looking at the aforesaid
sisters. She did not mean to look sarcastic or anything
else antagonistic to the "Carrie" interest just now ; but
she could not help feeling and showing that she felt that
Lady Villars' fraternal toleration would not have been
very severely taxed. The marriage that was pronounced
fitting for Miss Villars, might surely have been held suit-
able for one who owed all of social consideration that she
enjoyed to the Villars alliance.
"I suppose not. No, it was not congratulations I came
to offer." Then she rose from the seat she had taken on,
first entering the room, and said hurriedly, " I had better
not ge round the subject. Stanley is dying—and his wife
has comp here with me (she's in my carriage) to tell
you so."
Lady Villars shook her well-arranged little head reso-
lutely.
" I'm sorry you've permitted yourself to bo made a tool_
of," said she. Then she turned her head slightly over hdr
shoulder, :fixed an obedient sister with her cool blue eyes,
and whispered in atone that was- not intended to reach,
and that did 'not reach ear—" Stop Florry from
coming."
" A tool of !" Bella repeated the words warmly. She
had anticipated its being such easy work, as far as- the
Villarses were concerned. The sole difficulties she had
foreseen had been with Stanley and her husband.
"A tool of ! you don't understand—"
Lady Villars stopped her with an ejaculation.
Good gracious ; ihow cruelly have you been imposed
on !" she cried. " We know all about it—the whole
story."
"And you're leaving him to live if he can, and die if he
must ?" Bella asked it with a biting scorn, that made
Lady Villars tingle. " You can't know the whole story ;
your brother has struggled till ho can struggle no longer;
don't stay to think whether he has been to blame or not,
but help him up again."
"I am sure you mean well," Lady Villars replied, in the
tone evil-disposed people use to little children when wrath
is in possession of the latter ; "but you are so dreadfully
mistaken. It's shameful of Stanley—it's the worst thing I
have heard of him yet—to have let you mix yourself up
with the matter !"
"Won't you see his wife ?" •
His wife, Mrs. Walsingham !"
" Won't you send his brother to him 2—there's his ad-
dress ;" she forced a card, on which she had written down
the name and number of the street in which Stanley lived,
into Lady Villars' unwilling hand.
" Sir Gerald will please himself about going," Lady
Villars replied, adjusting her fair plump face and insignifi-
cant features as severely as she could ; " but as a married
man, I should hope he'd have the good taste to keep clear
of a den of profligacy!
"You do not believe what you are saying, Lady Villars!
Yen are trying to harden your own heart with phrases."
" I am striving to save myself from being influenced by
unhealthy sham emotions," Lady Villars replided spite-
fully.
"Let me see Florence !" Bella urged, not heeding the
insinuation.
The third sister, who had remained quiescent during the
interview, now rose, and said she would "ge and look for
Florry." Presently she came back. "Florence is not
come home," she said.
Bella gave vent to an impatient exclamation.
" She is out, you tell me, now ; but will you tell her
what I came about when she comes home ?"
Lady Villars paused for an instant or two before she
answered ; then she said—
" You can hardly be serious Mrs. Walsingham, in wish-
ing to bring Miss Villars into communication with her
brother's mistress ; if you choose to risk your own reputa-
tion so recklessly, I must ask you to consider Miss
Villars'."
" No woman's reputation will be endangered by inter-
course with the poor young girl Stanley has married, to
their mutual cost—"
" Married !" Lady Villars struck in scoffingly. "Really,
Mrs. Walsingham, if you persist in showing yourself all
over London with her I must beg that you will not again
subject me to the insult of having that creature seen at my
door. I wonder Major Walsingham permits it—if he
knows anything about it !"
She added this last clause suddenly, on seeing Bella

wince when surprise at her husband's " permitting it" was
expressed. It was a very telling volley. It routed the
already nearly exhausted enemy.

"My husband will judge for himself, Lady Villars."
"And I will judge for myself in this matter," Lady
Villars replied. She was very much afraid that Florence
might perhaps escape from her guileless detainers, and
come down and find Bella, when the whole thing would
explode in an explanation.

Bella Vane and Florence Villars, Claude Walsing-
ham and Stanley, are the centres of a brilliant
throng of minor heroes and heroines, all more or
less skilfully depicted. The readers of "On
Guard" will agree with us that the fair writer has
in this work fully justified the most favourable
promises of her earlier productions. We would
advise her, however, not to be too eager to reap the
laurels of popularity. In these volumes, in her very
vivid description of the sufferings of the overworked
author, she betrays a fatal familiarity with tho con-
sequences of over-brain work, and, in fact, exclaims,
after enumerating " the singing in his ears, the
pain at the back of his head, &c.,"--" All you who
can write can comprehend his sensations." If, as
appears probable, the fair authoress speaks from
personal experience, we would certainly exhort her,
who exhorts others, to be "on guard" herself. We
whisper this caution while we congratulate her upon
the successful issue of her last literary undertaking.