The Sun.
London, England, 1865-10-23 00:00:00

SOUTHWARK.

A DARING CABS OF GAR,OTTING AND ROBBERY.—Henry
Ziill an d George French, two young men of ruffianly appear-
ance, wore charged before Mr.Woolrych, this day, with the
following assault and robbery.
Thoinas Brown, the prosecutor, an old man, said that he
was a bill hanger, and lived at 10, Brent-street,
Borough. On Saturday evening between seven and
eight o'clock, ho was going up Lant-street. He had a
short time before that changed a sovereign, and had
about 9s. left. The money was in his right hand side

trousers pocket, and he had his hand on it. French came
up to him and wanted to get the money out of his hand,
which he pulled out of his pocket, and cried loudly
" Thieves." He then felt another man's hand round his
face and neck from the back. At the moment an
officer came up and the prisoners were t,dzon
into custody. He found all the money except
25., and he was quite positive that he had more than 7s.
at the time he was attacked. He also lost his hat, a
pocket handkerchief, 'and a specification of the work for
which he had been paid that evening. He could swear to
French, but not to the other prisoner.
French said that he was drunk, and that he joined in a
row that was going on in Lant-street without knowing
what he was about.

The prosecutor said that in his opinion the prisoner
was perfectly sober. He was quite sure that he lost the
25., and he was not the worse for drink.
George Holmes, a detective attached to the South-
Eastern Railway, said he was going up the Borough in
company with another constable, about a quarter to 8
o'clock yesterday, when he saw the prisoners and two other
men following the prosecutor up Lant-street. In conse-
quence of what he saw he watched them, and when they
got about four yards up the street he saw the prosecutor
struggling with the four men, while he cried out "Police,"
"Thieves!" He and the other constable went up to them,
and ho took hold of French, while the other constable
seized Hill. The prosecutor at the time was insensible.
He saw one of the men with his arm round the neck of the
prosecutor. The other two men ran away.
Britelle, 167 M, corroborated the evidence of tho last
witness, and said that ho took Hill into custody.
It further appeared that the two shillings, the handker-
chief, and the specification were found on the ground near
the spot where the prosecutor was attacked, and were iden-
tified by him.

Tho prisoners, who steadily denied the charge, were fully
committed for trial.

Fall of Five Railway Arches.

On Sunday night, about eight o'clock, during the time
the rain was falling in torrents and the wind was whistling
loudly, the inhabitants of Battersea and Wandsworth were
aroused from their usual state of quietude by hearing a
tremendous noise, similar to four or five separate severe
claps of thunder. For a few minutes speculation was of a
varied form—some imagined that a dreadful collision had
taken place upon the London, Chatham, and Dover Rail-
way, and many persons ran out of their houses to render
assistance to the supposed ill-fated passengers, when the
cause of the alarm was soon apparent. Near Battersea-
bridge, and close to the last-named line, the contractors
for the extension of the Brighton Railway have
been turning large brick arches, in order to form
the supports of the permanent way. Owing, however, to
the great quantity of rain that has fallen during the past
few days—more especially on Sunday—it is supposed that
the water had penetrated the concrete foundations before
the material had obtained that solidity necessary to keep
up the weight of the arches ; but one thing is quite certain,
that all of a sudden one arch came down with a loud and
rumbling noise, and fell almost as flat as a sheet of paper
upon the ground. In a minute or less afterwards, another
fell in the same way, and a third succeeded, and one on
either side followed in a similar way, making, in the whole,
five of the massive arches that have been razed to the
ground. Fortunately, it being Sunday, none of the men
were at work, consequently no one was injured.
The other arches, from the examination made, appear
not to have suffered the least from the violence of the
heavy rains.

NEW ROYALTY TIIEATRE.—A new comic operetta,
entitled, "Felix ; or, The Festival of Roses," will be per-.
formed this evening, for the first time. Felix, Mr. Eliot
Galer.

VICTOR HUGO (unquestionably one of the greatest
French writers of the age), is also, says a Paris
letter, one of the most successful in a pecuniary sense. Ile
received 400,000 f. (£16,000) for " Les Miserables." lie
has sold a prose work, "Les Travailleura de la Mer," to
Lacroix, of Brussels, for £6,000, and five volumes of
poems, "Les Chansons des Rues et des Bois," the
first of which is announced to appear next week, have
been disposed of to the same firm for £B,OOO. Accord-
ing to the Athena:urn, however, thus within five years
Victor Hugo has made £30,000 by his pen—a very hand-
some sum, but I must say I can hardly understand how
such heavy prices can possibly pay the publishers. The
Figaro, to which I am indebted for these details, adds some
curious particulars about M. Hugo's mode of composition.
It seems that up to this time he has never allowed a single
line of his writing to go to the printer's. Ho has all his
" slips" copied out by his wife or daughter, and forms a
kind of autographic museum of the original MSS. of all
works. From that rule, however, ho has departed, as re-
gards the new poems, which were jotted down chiefly in
pencil on an album ; the slips were torn out of the book
and taken directly to the printer's, at Brussels, where they
aro being set up under the author's own eye. It is a
curious fact that Victor Hugo should labour under the
delusion that ho has mistaken his vocation, and that
as a painter ho would have achieved greater fame.
The house of Lacroix and Co., of Brussels and Paris, has
purchased the right of publication for twelve years for the
sum of 40,000 f., or £1,600.