The Sun.
London, England, 1853-12-13 00:00:00

.~.~----

FORGERIES ON THE BANK OF ENGLAND.

A PUFF FOR SMITH.

SHAIi MARKETS-(TIIIS DAY).

On Saturday, a young man /lathed John Wilson was
committed for trial by the Sheffield magistrates for
uttering. forged notes on the Bank of England.
During the past twelve months repeated instances have
occurred of bad notes being passed upon the tradesmen
of the town, and more than a dozen cases have come to
the knowledge of the police. The trick was the same
in every instance, and, from the statements of the vic-
tims, it was clear that the utterer was the same indi-
vidual in all the cases. The busiest hour on the
Saturday evening was generally selected for the ac-
complishment of his purpose. Ile would then present
himself at the shop of some butcher or grocer, with
face begrimed as though just come from work, and
telling a plausible story to account for possession of
the note, offer to make some slight purchase to get it
changed. His arts were generally successful ; but in
one instance, where the counterfeit was detected, the
fellow left the note in the hands of the shopkeeper and
took to his heels, whilst the tradesmen made an entry
in his ledger of the circumstance, along with such a
description of the man as would enable him to speak to
his identity at any future time. Notwithstanding
these repeated frauds, the guilty party eluded de-
tection until last -week. The police then obtained in-
formation which induced them to visit a low house
in a back street of the town shortly after the postman
had been seen to deliver a letter there. They were ad-
' mitted by the wife of Wilson, who made an attempt to
burn the letter, but was prevented by Inspector Linley,
who with considerable difficulty got it from her. The
letter was addressed to " John Wilson, 28, Sims-croft,
Sheffield," and bore the Birmingham post mark. It
contained two forged Bank of England notes, and the
following curious specimen of the vernacular :
" sir i ham very (sorry) it was My fault i Could not
send them sooner but i hope thes Will be soone a nof for
you i shall be [very glad to beer of you duino. Whell
Write to yr Brother for sertin next monday send me all
the nuse you can. good night"

(From, Diogenes.)

BRITISH RAILWAYS.

They want a column—what they always want
Just when a man's the least inclined to do one ;
Of all the devils that our species haunt,
The printer's—but the joke is not a new one.
Still, every little helps ; scruples avaunt !
A column's wanted, and we must get through one.
Be off with these eight lines ! a good bold heading—
Print in long primer, with no end of leading.*
[Exit Devil, with the above.
Let's puff old Smith, of Drury-lane,
To finish up the column;
For who the deuce is in the vein
For aught that's grave or solemn?
So, as we've said, and say again,
Let's puff old Smith, of Drury-lane !
We say o'd Smith for fun, although
Ho may be young and hearty,—
Not twenty-five, for aught we know ;
We never saw the party.
But never mind, our course is plain,—
To puff old Smith, of Drury-lane !
Not only will it fill the page
(Our object, we assure ye),
But put the fellows in a rage
Who prate about " Old Drury"—
The ancient bores, who look with pain
On seeing Smith in Drurylane.

Closing Prices
yesterday.

Easiness done
this day.

We like old Smith ; he's made it pay
When others have been bitten.
Besides, he'll p'raps accept a play—
(We've half-a•dozen written ;)
And on the free list we would fain
Be put by Smith of Drury-lane.
The great Macready took the house,
But couldn't make it answer;
And Bunn, with all his tact and " nous,"
French Opera, and dancer—
(You see another verse we gain,
By puffing Smith of Drury-lane).
And Anderson, the tall and stout,
And Nokes, and Styles, and Stiggins—
(What is there we can rhyme about7?—
The Californian Diggins !
We needn't give ourselves the pain—
Three cheers for Smith of Drury-lane !)
He's done what no one else could do,
He's kept the theatre open,
And paid his actors, authors too,

The notes were numbered 46505 and 56045, bore date
12th April, 1853, and were signed " For the Governor
and Company, J. Vautin." In these instances the imi-
tation of the genuine note was very good, though from
the roughness of the water mark, and its indentation on
the paper, it was apparent that it had been obtained by
stamping, while the paper was in a wet state. Many of
the notes which the prisoner had succeeded in passing
were clumsy counterfeits, got up in a way to present an
appearance of having been some time in circulation.
The police apprehended the wife at the time of their
visit, and subsequently her husband surrendered him-
self. Five or six of the cases have been proved. The
prisoner made no defence. His wife was remanded at
large.

Diticouraging to no pen.
(You see what profit we obtain
Out of old Smith of Drury-lane).
Next week he gives a masquerade,
Or bal—the phrase is masque ;
We want to go—this puff will aid
(We hope so) as a pass-key.
If not, we mean to change our strain,
And bully Smith of Drury-lane.
In fact, the game he's fairly won,
For spirit justly vaunted ;
Talk about Kemble, Elliston—
What ? No more copy wanted ?
From further puffs we shall abstain,—
Adieu ! old Smith of Drury-lane.

EXTENSIVE AND DARING ROBBERIES.

,b-_-

Information was yesterday transmitted to Scotland-
yard and the various metropolitan police stations, of the
commission of two of the most daring burglaries which

'have been perpetrated for some time, the locale of both
being that part of Walworth which is in the immediate
vicinity of the intended new Kennington Park, and but
a few yards from each other, giving ground for the pre-
sumption that both had been effected by the same gang.
It appears that the first robbery took place between the
hours of six and eight o'clock on Sunday evening, at 10,
Sarah-terrace, Aldred-road, the residence of a gentle-
man, named Cundell, during the absence of the family
at church. The burglars first attempted to force open
the street door with a jemmy, but the lock, although
severely strained, withstood the test ; and they accord-
ingly, it is supposed, contrived to raise themselves to the
first-floor window, and thus gain access to the premises.
About the above time a man of apparently respectable
appearance knocked at the door of No. 11, Sarah-ter-
race, and inquired for a Mr. Young, and upon being
told that no such person resided there, he left and
commenced knocking at No. 10, (the scene of the
depredation), thus throwing off all suspicion of his
reason for going to the house. During the evening
the police-constable on duty, observing the parlour-
window open, obtained the assistance oflhe occupier of
the next house, and, upon going over the premises, disco-
vered the rooms in a state of the greatest disorder, and
a formidable jemmy lying on the floor in the front par-
lour, clearly indicating that a robbery had been com-
mitted. On the return of the family from church it was
ascertained that the thieves had succeeded in carrying off
a large quantity of plate, &c., comprising silver tea-
spoons, table-spoonu, silver butter-knife, silversalt-spoons,
sugar-tongs, silver toast racks, gold bracelets, gold
brooches, silver watches, gold chains, and several arti-
cles of wearing apparel. From the fact of the parlour
window being found open, there is no doubt the burglars
escaped therefrom.

Between the hours of 10 and 11 on the same evening,
the house of Mr. Gays, No. 2, Grosvenor-park, was
entered, when seven 51. Bank of England notes were
stolen, together with 12 silver tea-spoons, several silver
egg and salt spoons, six silver forks marked "H," a
silver butter knife, one gold watch, maker's name
Boyer ; several gold pencil cases, a gold bracelet, three
gold rings, two gold brooches, and a beautiful amethyst
brooch. The robbers in this case opened the street door
of the house by means of skeleton keys, departing by
the same way, and leaving the keys behind them.
Upon the discovery of the robberies, Mr. Superinten-
dent Lund, of the P division, despatched several con-
stables to the respective premises, and both cases have
been placed for investigation in the bands of Sergeant
Quinnear and Police-constables Baker and Butt, of the
detective force, attached to the P division.

Notwithstanding the utmost vigilance of the police,
these daring and extensive robberies occur from houses,
containing most valuable property, being left without
any protection.

THE SUN. LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 13, 1853.

THE BOURBON FUSION.

M. de la, Guerronnibre's expected article on the "fu-
Sion" appeared on Friday both in the Pays and the. Von,-
stitutionesel. It contains some very hard and not unfair
hits at the Orleans princes, and abounds with argil-
meats, of no recondite nature, tending to show how
small the chance is that the Count de Chambord will
ever obtain the throne of France, and how much smaller
still that he would keep it long. So far the task was easy,
and M. de la Guerronniere has successfully performed
it, in a composition remarkable for that elegance of
style to which he owes his reputation as a writer of the
French language—an elegance which entirely evapo-
, rates in translation. But the main object of his essay
seems to be to prove that the fusion has damaged
the prospects not only of the Orleanist, but of the
Legitimist party, and in this he has failed. The Or-
leanist ranks, are no doubt, thrown' nto great confusion.
The bulk of the party slO not follow their leaders. A
good many notabilities embrace the • opportunity, by
no means unwelcome to them; to proclaim their adhe-
sion to the empire. Others, who alike Jetest divine
right and democratic despotism, are diapered, in the ab-
sence of all chance of a constitutional Monarchy, to rest
their hopes of rational liberty in the revival of the re-
public. Many, however, still continue to think that if
any unlooked-for event were to shake the apparent
solidity of the present Government, it would not be
found that the principle represented by the " branche
cadette" had been materially weakened by the fusion.
A "mot" attributed to M. Thiess describes the views
of this section of the Orleanists. He is reported to have
said, "The fusion is nothing but the addition of four
members to the Legitimist party." But M. de la Guer-
renoiere, so far from conceding to the-legitimists even
this trivial accession of strength, will have .it that the
Count de Chambord, by consenting to receive the un-
qualified submission of his cousins, has note irreparable
injury to his cause, and he produces neither fact nor
argument to support this proposition. - •
The only new fact of importance—if, indeed, it may
be called new—announced by M. del la GuerronniZle, is
that the fusion is the work of M. Guizot. He says in
the opening paragraph of his article
" A great writer, whose talent a,cl • M.
Guizot, has shown us in a celebrated
wokhomwirereplub-
lies come to an end. The genius of the authorr
3iais
taught nothing to the pride of the statesman, fo Guizot seems. to forget how monarchies rise and fall.
After having, by the exaggeration of the m
. of
which he was the organ, urged traditional royalty to
its fall, and dragged to a fatal revolution that constitu-
tional royalty of which he was the minister and the most
eloquent councillor, he has now reconciled the two both
in exile by a suicide. In 1830 and 1848 monarchy was
only vanquished. Now it is distorted in its principle,
extinguished in its existence by the fusion."
The severe part of the article on the Orleans family is
as follows :
" We have mentioned what profound alterations the
fusion has produced in the monarchical right of which
the Count de Chambord is the heir. We have still
the painful duty to perform of pointing out the
situation which the younger branch has just
accepted in carrying to Frobsdorff the abdication,
the suicide, and the repentance of the mo-
narchy of 1830. What is the Orleanist party! It owes
its birth to an expression of Sieys, who, finding that
the tiers (~tat was nothing, came to the resolution thatit
ought to be everything. The Orleans party surged up
with the revolution, of which it accepted the principles,
tendencies, and even jealousies, and it exaggerated them
even to crime. Nourished by the philosophy of the 18th
century, admitted to the suppers of Diderot, formed
according to the code of morals of Mine. de Geniis,
it was ready to play its part when the great drama
of the destruction of the ancient regime corn-
menced. It felt and reproduced all the commotions
of that terrible drama. Of the philosophical school with
Condorcet, liberal with Mirabeau, republican with
Vergniaud ; Jacobite with Robespierre' terrorist with
Danton, it accepted everything, dared everything for
the satisfaction of its ambitious views, and it went the
length of giving to the Revolution, which did
not ask so extreme a sacrifice, the horrible pledge
of the head of a king by the hand of a prince who
was that king's cousin. The expiation of the scaf-
fold and of exile neither instructed nor changed it.
When the elder branch returned to the Tuileries to
reign, the younger branch returned to the Palais
Royal to prepare its accession to the throne. It assumed
the lead in the liberal movement during the fifteen years
of the Restoration. The Duke of Orleans became the
friend of the enemies of his family ; the prince turned
bourgeois ; he sent his children to college with the chil-
dren of every one else ; in a word, he personified the
opposition, at first cavilling, and soon after revolu-
tionary ; he accepted a crown torn from the weakness
of an old man, and disputed with the innocence of a
child ; he was king ! He allowed himself to be conducted
from Neuilly to the Hotel-de-Vile, to there deny the
monarchy of his family, and to confess there and glory
in the rights of insurrection."
M. de la GuerronniZ.Te concludes as follows :
"There is now but one monarchy—that which twice
in the course of half a century has been founded or re-
established by the hand of the French people, to orga-
nise and apply in Government the principles of the new
society. That monarchy of regenerated France is the
Empire. Between the elder branch which has just
altered its principle, and the younger branch which
has just abdicated its political situation, there re-
mains no other representation, strong, serious, popu-
lar, and national, of the monarchical institution,
but the dynasty of the Eonapartes. That dynasty re-
presents neither the aristocracy, nor the burgess class,
nor the democracy; it represents every one : it is not
the image of a party, but the image of the whole people.
Such is its right ! Such its character ! Such its
legitimacy ! Men of the monarchical principle, you who
have given an example of a noble fidelity, you have no
longer any flag. Men of time principle of the revolu-
tion, you who had bound your con victions and your hopes
up in the younger blanch you have no longer any object
in view. But the patriotism which survives all decep-
tions will be the refuge of all the fidelities betrayed
and of all these convictions deceived. To those per-
sons who have no longer any party to serve, there re.;
mains the country to love and to defend. The fusion
does not disquiet the empire ; it would consolidate it,
had it need of any consolidation, for in altering the
monarchical situations it only allows a principle of go-
vernment, a force of authority to subsist ; and that is
the principle whence it has issued, it is the force which it
carries in its hands. It is besides to be remarked that
the fusion is so well convinced of its weakness that it
does not think of triumphing by its own force. It knows
well that it would not have the slightest chance of
success, except by a disaster of the country, or by the
disappearance of the man of genius who now occupies the
throne. It is consequently reduced to make itself
dauphin ; it does not aspire to replace the Emperor, but
to succeed him. It could not succeed him unless he
carried away with lam his prudence, his cleverness, the
prestige of his name, the confidence and faith of the
people. It would then place itself in the void of anarchy
merely to disappear in it, and soon to be itself anni-
hilated. What, then, is the fusion ? A word, and
nothing more. It is not a power—it is not a principle—
it is not even a party. It is not either monarchy or re
volution ; it is the result of the monarchy completely
deteriorated ; and of the revolution disavowed ; some,
thing vague, indefinite, which has neither precedent in
history nor root in the country ; a bastard royalty, with
double face, one looking to the past and the other to
the future ; the half of a throne joined to the half of tribune, not for the purpose of destroying itself by inevit-
able antagonism of pretensions which have al 1
opposed each other, and the collision of
',NV hways
been the cause of all our revolutions. The fusion phiraes-
sents itself as the trial to be made of a new Goevelrantmeinttl.f
France is tired of such trials. Within
th
century she has tried enough of government land of
constitutions. The alliance which has just been.
more
ac-
complished between the two families cannot any interest than influence her. She issatisfied with
the fusion which she has made with the Government
that has 'issued from herself, and in which she
has found order, justice, and the grandeur of her
immortal destinies. In what has just taken place
in Germany, there is consequently nothing that con-
cerns politics. The situation of France is
changed nor affected by that event. It is one of those
neither
matters which instruct nations by these lessons of the
rad
n.
tiny of royal races. It shows the cause of
rtheir gdeur and of their downfall in the
forgetful-
ness of the principles
for parties as for
from which the
y rdersapwect th
r existence.
In fine, it prove 4 once mire the truth,. sso
profound in
men, of that expression of Arm?
itself—' What is most difficult, t3ingont to live well, but
declare a wisith profound sadness,
to die well.'
if the FrenchYinesOnwjelisd-ietl(lie, we should have de-
°worthy of its life, and that
sired that its death should
it should be extinguiisi 1 with its' last scion in the purity
d the glory of its flag, which is that
The institutions, the governments,
and the men so
ooffiatnscPirient6lFPrale_° and in
n, do not expire altogether, for they
revive for posterity.,

1
...., ROTTERDAM MAIL PACKETS, AND
Iv ITHDRA
REDUCTION
OFFIE, WALPOOSFTAGE TO HOLLAND.--GENERAL PosT
De:lBs.—After the despatch of the contract
mail packet, appointed to leave London for Rotterdam,
othe 14th inst., the correspondence for Holland, which
h hitherto been conveyed, as a rule, by the direct
packet, will be forwarded from London daily (Sunday
pd ), by the route of Belgium, unless specially ad-
dressed to be sent by any other route. On and from
Thursday the 15th inst., the postage upon letters trans-
mitted between the United Kingdom and Holland, either
by the route" of Belgium or by private ship direct, will
be reduced to Bd. for a letter not exceeding half an ounce
in weight, increasing for heavier letters, according to
the scale in operation for charging letters in the United
Kingdom. This postage will include both the British
and foreign rates, to destination, and it may be paid in
advance, or the letters may be forwarded unpaid, at The
option of the sender, except however, in the case of re-
gistered letters, the postage upon which, as well as the
registration fee must always be paid in advance. The
same rate of Bd. per half ounce, &c., will be chargeable
on letters between the United Kindom and any Dutch
colony or country beyond sea, addressed via Holland,
but on such letters the postage must be prepaid. The
British postage on a letter addressed to be conveyed,
via Holland, between the United Kingdom and any
country on the continent of Europe, when sent either by
the route of Belgium or by private ship direct, will be
reduced to 4d. the half ounce, and so on, which rate
must also be prepaid. Newspapers for Holland, whe-
ther sent by way of Belgium or by private ship direct,
will continue liable to a postage of, one penny' each,
which must be paid in advance. Periodical works, not
of daily publication, which have heretofore been con-
veyed by the direct packet to. Rotterdom at a reduced
rate of postage, cannot be sent via Belgium, excepting
at the usual rates chargeable for letters,