The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-13 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENII\ G, SEPTEMBER 13, 1865.

The Elopement of a Clergyman's Daughter

with a Groom.

EXAMINATION OF THE PRISONER THIS DAY.
George Smith, who was charged with the abduc-
tion of Miss Crosse, daughter of the Rev. Robert
Crosse, rector of Ockham, and who will become
possessed of considerable property on attaining her
majority, was brought before Mr. Ingham at the
Wandsworth Police-court, this day, having been
remanded from Wednesday last. The prisoner was
liberated on bail, two substantial tradesmen in the
neighbourhood having become security for his ap-

pearance.
From the romantic character of the case it natu-
rally excited much interest, and at an early hour
the doors of the court were crowded by persons,
amongst whom were several ladies, eager for ad-
mission ; but the court not being constructed with
a view to " sensational cases " is of very limited
dimensions, and hundreds were obliged to go away
much disappointed.
The young lady did not appear, and the prisoner
became the great object of attraction to the crowd
assembled outside the court, and was greeted with
'some favourable demonstrations, of which he ap-
peared to take no notice. Although short in stature
his appearance generally is rather prepossessing,
and presents nothing to indicate his menial capacity.
Mr. E. D. Lewis, of Great Marlborough-street,
attended on the part of the Rev. Mr. Crosse, and
Mr. Haynes, jun., for the prisoner.
Mr. Ingham inquired if any further evidence was
to be adduced on the part of the complainant.
Mr. Lovelace—No, sir ; there is no further prose-
cution of the case.
Mr. Ingham—Let the prisoner be discharged.
Mr. Haynes said that, as a matter of course, the
money taken from the accused would be returned.
The Magistrate replied in the affirmative.
As the prisoner was about leaving the dock,
Mr. Lewis said that he wished to make a few -ob-
servations on behalf of his reverend client. After
the discovery of the young lady's elopement, Mr.
Crosse immediately instituted inquiries, with a view
to ascertain where she had gone, and all the circum-
stances connected with her departure from his roof.
However, when he (the Rev. Mr. Crosse) heard the
evidence given last Wednesday, he resolved to with-
draw from the further prosecution of the case. The
young lady had returned to her home by her own
consent, and with the exception of the indiscre-
tion of having eloped with Smith, there was no
ground for imputing any impropriety to her, she
being as virtuous as when she left her father's house.
The prisoner then left the court and was loudly
cheered by the crowd outside, who had been in-
formed of the result of the proceedings.
It is rumoured in the neighbourhood that the
young lady having expressed her determination to
adhere to her lover, her father has consented to
their marriage, which it is stated is to be solemnised
at Wandsworth Church to-morrow morning.

The Wealth of France.

The following very able article we quote from
the Herald of yesterday :
The advent of Prince Louis Napoleon to political power
in France spread universal disquietude amongst us—as

well as amongst most other European nations—and this
dread of the consequences which might ensue was by no
means• allayed as he progressed step by step towards the
attainment of the object of his ambition, until, by the al-
most unanimous will of the French people, he was placed
in triumph upon the Imperial throne. It was feared that,

smarting under the reminiscences of the deposition of the
founder of his race, and anxious to consolidate his power

by yielding to the wishes of a gallant nation panting for
an opportunity to avenge past reverses, he should seek
to wrest from their present possessors the territories
torn from France by the Treaty of Vienna, and thus

prove himself to be the inheritor of his uncle's policy
and the redresser of his country's wrong. Few believed
in the sincerity of the declaration, " L'Empire, c'est la

)aix ;" but one consolation remained to those who dis-

trusted his intentions, "he had not the funds necessary to
embark in war," and capitalists smiled as they buttoned

lair pockets, and declared that none should he get to

carry out his aggressive projects. It was then the general
conviction that money could only bo procured to the neces-
sary extent in England, and as those who could control its
supply had determined to withhold it, it was hoped that

the peace of Europe might be preserved from the lack of
means to disturb it. When the Emperor, passing over the
great capitalists whose trade it was to negotiate loans for
the Powers who required them, determined to appeal
_ _ _

directly to his people for pecuniary support, the project I
was received with mocking incredulity by our men upon
'Change. The attempt to obtain any considerable sum from a
nation composed of petty landholders, in which there were
no great proprietors, and but comparatively few ex-
tensive merchants, must, according to them, as a matter
of course, end in signal disappointment ; but the sagacious
sovereign persevered; he knew, none better, the vast,
though widely disseminated resources of his subjects ; he
tapped the spring of national wealth, and it flowed in super-
abundance, for three times the amount required was in-
stantly subscribed by the middle and lowest classes of so-
ciety. This unexpected result was attributed by our wise-
acres to the intrigues of the French Government. The
market was supposed to have been " rigged," and it was
almost generally believed that the success achieved was
more apparent than real, most of the applications for in-
vestment being set down as fictitious, while even those
who believed in the reality of the offers considered the
first loan as an experiment which could not be again re-

peated. Two subsequent appeals, however, eventuating
in tenders largely exceeding in amount those made
on the first occasion, con vinced the most sceptical

that money could be bound out of England. T hen
the question arose as to the sources from whence it
came ; and to this inquiry the recently published letters of
our Special Correspondent travelling in France furnish,
we think, a full and satisfactory reply.
The advocate of farming on an extensive scale must be

not a little surprised at his statements, although their
truthfulness will be readily admitted by those who have

resided for any time in France, and occupied themselves
in investigating the condition of its inhabitants. Farm-
ing on a large scale, and on the most approved principles,
may prove most remunerative to the individuals engaged
in it. They, however, are but the few. And it may be
fairly asked whether it tends to the general advantage
thai those few should prosper, while the agents of their
prosperity, their labourers, are steeped in ignorance and
misery, or whether small holdings should become the
rule, with their occupants, as is the case in France
living in comfort, the national wealth being at the
same time enormously increased by their industrious exer-
tions? When we find that our home growth of cereals,
which in 1841 was sufficient to support 23,250,000 of our
population, is now, with all the boasted modern improve-
ments in tillage, inadequate to the maintenance of 13,000,000,
reduction has taken place in the
amountwilea
ofc oarlrledsepsocndiripntigons of live stock, we may fearlessly
assert that there is a progressive and rapid decline in our
agricultural products, indicated but too truly by the re-
duction of the rural and the unnatural increase of the urban
population, which, the moment a check is given to manu-
factures, becomes a burden on the land. On turning to
the statistics of the Irish Registrar-General for 1864
we find that the number of horses in Ireland has di-
minished by no less than 50,000 within the last two
years, while there was a deficit of 10,606 head of black
cattle, and of 28,354 sheep in the stock brought for sale to
the groat fair of Ballinasloe in 1864, as compared with those
sent there in 1858. Whether a similar reduction has
taken place in the number of live stock we cannot posi-
tively say from the want of official statistics, although the
fact that one-half of the number of beasts now sold in the
Metropolitan Cattle-market are returned as of foreign
growth goes far to support the supposition that such is
the case ; and while this is the condition of agriculture in
Great Britain and Ireland under the boasted system of ex-
tensive holdings, we find that the cereal productions of
the small holders in France have been doubled in amount
during the last twenty years ; their black cattle being
now more than double in number what they were
forty years ago, and their sheep having increased by about
five millions since 1852. That the French peasantry are
content with their lot is made evident by their disinclina-
tion to emigrate even to Algeria, which lies at their very
doors, although every inducement is held out to encourage
them to do so. The secret of their prosperity and happi-
ness lies in the subdivision of land, which stimulates them
to exertion in the hope of becoming proprietors ; and this
grand object of their ambition they almost always attain,
although as tenants they pay higher rents, hold under shorter
leases, have less encouragement from their landlords than
the farmer of any other country; and what no doubt would
be by Irishmen considered more discouraging still is, that in
one month after a half-year's rent falls due, and remains
unpaid, they are liable to summary eviction, without any
right of redemption, by the simple order of the justice of
peace of the canton to which they belong, their cattle,
crops, and furniture remaining in the hands of the proprie-
tor, to be sold by auction in discharge of their arrears.
Those small proprietors whose value is so little appre-
ciated in this country from the veritable conservative
power of France—as proud of their petty and hard-won
possessions as the long-descended baron is of his ances-
tral estates, and consisting, in a great proportion, of
the annually discharged soldiers, who, while serving in
the ranks, have received an education which enables
them to appreciate the value of their social advantages ;
deeply imbued with the imperishable renown of the First
Empire, and having been many of them participators in
the glory of the present one, they form the bulwark which
will defend the Government of the people's choice against
the assaults of Red Republicanism or the intrigues of
Legitimacy, and, should need be, they would quickly teach
those who sought to overthrow the Sovereign who has so
signally benefitted themselves and their beloved country
let Paris is no longer France.

FAMOUS INHABITANTS OF SOUTHWIRK.—That the
great William Shakspere lived near the Bear-garden '
in 1596 is asserted by Malone from a paper in his posses-
sion. Another document, belonging to Mr. Collier, affords
evidence that he continued to reside in Southwark to the
year 1608. And a note taken from the poor's-book of St.
Saviour, at the date a April 6, 1609, states him to have
been then assessed to their relief at 6d. weekly, the highest
sum of any one in the Clink Liberty. On Dec. 31, 1607, a
brother, Edmund Shakspere, was buried in the church.
It is probable that our great poet and dramatist retired
to his native place about 1611 or 1612, not long after the
production of his last play. On Bankside lived Beaumont
and Fletcher. They lived together, and composed their
celebrated joint productions. "Both bachelors lay together,
and had ono wench in the house between them. There
was the same clothes, cloke, &c., for them." Old Wit, in
Shadwell's ;Bury Fair, is made to say, " I knew my friend
Fletcher, and his maid Juan well. I shall never forget him.
I have supped with him at his house on the Bankside. Ile
loved a fat loin of pork of all things in the world."—South
London Chronicle.