The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-24 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY MORNING, J kJNE 24, 187 u.

THE RAILWAY ACCIDENT AT HEATON.
Full particulars of the serious railway accident in the
north are given by the Northern Daily Express. That
journal says :—lt being " Plate Day ' at Newcastle
Races, a number of excursion trains were running along
the main line and branches for the Central Station,
Newcastle. A train consisting of fourteen carriages,
having in them a very large number of excursionists
left North Shields at ten o'clock for Newcastle, and
reached Walker Station in safety. At that point
of the North-Eastern line it is usual for trains bound
south, at particular times of the day, to delay going
forward and passing the junction below Heaton until the
train cominc, from the North has first passed onwards in
safety. On this occasion a special excursion train from
Berwick to Newcastle, consisting of twenty carriages,
was timed to reach the junction about twenty minutes or
half-past ten o'clock. The train from Shields, leaving
Walker Station, was signalled to " stop" before it got
to the junction in consequence of the " excursion " from
Berwick being at the moment close up, and making for the
" point " precedence being given it "up " to Newcastle
by the signalman. Unfortunately the driver of the Shields
train either did not observe the signal or expected to pass
the junction before the North train came up, the conse-
quence being that a collision took place. When the
Shields train had fairly got abreast the critical point, the
engine of the North train ran right into the third carriage
of. the branch line train. Neither of the trains was going
at great speed otherwise more injuries would have been in-
flicted. As it was four or five carriages of the Shields train
were thrown off the line by the for( eof the collisioi, on
to the embankment, and shattered to pieces. Then ensued
a scene of much confusion. The engineman of the Shields
train either jumped or was knocked off his engine. and sus-
tained so much injury that he was subsequently picked up
insensible, and at the present time lies in an unconscious
state in an upper room at Heaton Station. Some
seven or eight other persons, were also injured,
none of them, however, very seriously. In the
Berwick train, only one passenger was so hurt
ai to require immediate medical assistance, and he
was accordingly taken to the Newcastle Infirmary. As
speedily as possible medical assistance was obtained for
the sufferers. Dr. William Murray, Dr. Jeffreason, and
Dr. Hume, of Newcastle, beirg quickly in attendance,
as well as Dr. Kerr, of the Felling. Mr.
Fletcher, Mr. Mitford, Mr. Usher, Mr. Fraser,
and other officials connected with the rLlway company
were also speedily on the spot, directing the efforts of a
large staff of workmen to clear the line, which was
effected in about an hour and a half. The traffic on
the line was resumed about noon, the line being then
clear. One passenger in the Shields train (Henry Wilson
of Fisher Hill) although he was one of the occunts of the
first compartment of a first carriage, escaped without a
scratch, notwithstanding the carriage was almost smashed
into pieces the size of matchwood.

LAW AND POLICE.

PENAL SERVITUDE.—SamueI Lyons, who was convicted
at the last Middlesex sessions of stealing a gentleman's
watch, at the Great Western Station, Paddington, has
been sentenced at the Middlesex sessions to seven years'
penal servitude, previous offences of a similar kind being
on record against him.

OMNIBUS DRIVERS.—Seven omnibus drivers in the ser-
viee of the London General Omnibus Company have been
charged, at Worship-street, with conspiring to injure a
small proprietor, by preventing him from running his vehi-
cles on the road. He began running two omnibuses between
Old Ford and the Bank, and for a week met with no
opposition, but in the second week the General Company
put on six omnibuses to oppose him. These followed him
up and down, preventing him from taking up passengers,
and carrying on a system of " nursing." The case
was adjourned till August, when it will be sent before a
jury.

SERIOUS CHARGE OF STABBING A HUSBAND AND SON.
—Sarah Clarke, aged 59 years, of No. 47, Morris-street,
St. George-in-the-East, was brought up on remand before
Mr. Lushington, at the Thames Police-court, charged
with feloniously cutting and wounding her husband and
son. The prisoner was is a state of intoxication on the
night of the 9th instant, and without the semblanci, of
provocation made an attack upon her husband and stabbed
him in the left breast, inflicting a dangerous wound, two
inches in depth, perforating the lung tissues. The
prisoner's son, hearing the noise, went into the room
and said, "Oh mother, you have stabbed father," when
she immediately attacked her son and stabbed him with a
penknife in the thigh. The prisoner was described as a
very turbulent woman, and had often threatened to
murder her husband and son, especially when drunk.
William Leapingwell, house surgeon of the London
Hospital, said that the father and son were brought to
the hospital, the one suffering from a wound two or three
inches in depth on the left breast just by the joint, and the
other had a wound on the left thigh about an inch in
length, taking a slanting direction. ThCwounds, he should
say, were inflicted with the knife produced. The prisoner
was fully committed for trial.

A LITIGIOUS SPIRIT.—The House of Lords has been
engaged in hearing an appeal from the First Division of
the Court of Session in Scotland. The simple question
raised by this appeal is whether a triangular piece of
ground, about eight square yards in extent, is the
property of the appellant or of the respondent, both
being proprietors of coterminous field, on the
northern side of Kinnoull-hill, in the neighbourhood
of Perth. The boundary is a straight line ; the ground
falls within the property of the respondent. If it diverges
to the west at a certain point and runs along a certain
line it falls within the appellant's . property. It is stated
that the land in question is not of the value of ss. per
annum, but the object of the appellant, however, is to
have a line of road leading to his property of the uniform.
width of ten feet, otherwise the entrance to the appel-
lant's land will not allow of the free ingress and egress of
waggons, &c., belonging to him.

THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE AND HIS LONDON MANSION.
—The case of "Davis v. Sir E. Antrobus, Bart., Lord de
Talby, the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, -and others "
has been before Vice-Chancellor Sir W. James. The
defendants are trustees of the late Duke of Newcastle,
who by his will left the London family mansion, situated
in Carlton-house-terrace, to his trustees, with directions
that the use and occupation of it should be offered to his
son, the present duke, during his life, on condition that
he paid the rent and observed all the covenants apper-
taining thereto. The mansion had been offered
to, and accepted by, the •present duke; but
his lordship having omitted to pay the rent, it
was contended by the trustees that a forfeiture of
the tenancy had taken place, and the mansion passed to
remainder. After argumthits had been heard pro and con,
it was stated that another case bearing on the same
property was now pending in the Rolls Court ; and under
those circumstances the Vice-Chancellor declined to give
any decision on the question which had been raised,
intimating also the desirability of both causes being
brought on for investigation before himself simul-
taneously.
A CURIOUS INSURANCE QUESTION.—The Court of Com-
mon Pleas has given judgment in a singular case arising
out of the construction of a policy of insurance. One
Thomas Humphrey was assured for £3OO in the Accident
Insurance Company, payable, in the event of death, within
three calendar months, from accident, such death to be
the result of accident or injury by some external and
material cause. Mr. Humphrey went into the sea to
bathe at Hastings, and fell in a fit in
about a foot of water, where being unable to
help himself, he was drowned. His executor,
therefore, sought to recover the amount of
the policy from the company, who disputed
their liability on the ground that the cause of death was
the fit and not the accident. An arbitrator, to whom the
matter had been referred, found that the cause of death
was "suffocation by drowning," but stated a special case
for the opinion of the. court on the question of liability,
After hearing the arguments, their lordships gave
judgment in favour of the plaintiff, who will thus recover
£3OO for an accidental death.

AN EXTRAORDINARY LIBEL CASE IN

HIGH LIFE.

The case of Morgell v. Gambier and wife, came before
Chief Justice Bovill and a special jury, in the Court of Com-
mons Pleas, yesterday. The plaintiff is an elderly maiden
lady, named Ann Royce Morgell, an d the defendants are Sir
Edward and Emily Gambier, uncle and aunt of the plain-
tiff. Lady Gambier was said to have written certain
letters to a married sister, imputing that the
plaintiff was a cheat, and had destroyed her brother's
will, and therefore came into possession of his property;
and to this the defendants pleaded not guilty, and that
they did not mean to impute the destruction of the will
to her, but that she had fraudulently abstracted certain
securities from amonc, the effects of her deceased brother
at Versailles, and was to that extent a cheat.—Sir John
Karslake, Q. C. , said that plaintiff brought the action in
consequence of the unjustifiable imputations cast upon her.
He then detailed the circumstances of the plaintiff's case,
which may be thus summarised. In 1861 she was
living at Versailles with her brother, Major Morgell. In
early life she had spent all her means in advancing a
younger brother, who entered the service of the King of
Portugal and died there. She had been compelled to earn
her living as a governess ; but afterwards obtained a sum
of money from the Portuguese Government as prize money
due to her brother. Major Morgell invested this money for
her, keeping the securities and paying her the dividends. On
his death, his effects were to be sealed up by the juge
de la paix ; but that officer told her that she might
first take away any of her own property. She accord-
ingly removed her own securities, but nothing else.
Under her brother's will she took considerable interest in
his property. It was upon this that Sir Edward Gambier
by his plea thought he had a right to describe his wife's
relative as a " cheat." Among other documents in the
case was a will made by Major Morgell, leaving
a part of his property to certain charities; but
on his death it was found to be cancelled by
the Major having cut off his signature. The will
which was propounded made no reference to the charities.
Lady Gambier's sister, a Mrs. Earle, quarrelled with her
ladyship, and became dependent on the plaintiff, who
allowed her £lOO a year. In 1867, in consequence of cer-
tain rumours, an action for slander was commenced by the
plaintiffs against the defendcnts, but abandoned on defen-
dants making a statutory declaration that they had not
uttered the slanders complained of. Some months afterwards
however, Mrs. Searle forwarded to plaintiff two letters re-
ceived from Lady Gambier in 1866 in which the slanders were
contained and these formed the ground of the • present
action. In one, the writer hoped that her dear " Bidsey "
might succeed in " every effort to make that Ann Morgell
provide for you and yours. You and ourselves have her
in our power. We know all about that will." The other
letter stated that the world in general, and their own
family in particular, knew that Mrs. Searle had a great
command of money ; she had a nugget entirely at her
disposal, and worked it advantageously for her-
self and children ; but she did not work it
righteously if she left unpaid a debt to another relative,
and allowed Sir Edward to pay a certain insurance. The
learned counsel commented severely upon this advice to
Mrs. Searle, to " put the screw " upon the plaintiff, with
the view of extorting money on a supposed knowledge of
some fraud committed by her.-1-.1 reply to his Lordship,
the Solicitor-General said he represented the defendants,
and he must say a more unjustifiable action never was
brought. He must fight it to the end, and he had a com-
plete ans'iver to it. The examination of witnesses was then
proceeded with.

According to a statement of the Courrier of Con-
stantinople as many as 2,030 persons were lost in the
fire. _ _

---
The reports from the Braemar Moors give favour-
able accounts of the grouse prospects for the coming
season. Everywhere it would appear that the birds are
plentiful and healthy, and no appearance of any disease,
while the weather is admirably adapted for the preserva-
tion and maturity of the young progeny.
THE HEAT.—The excessive heat of the weather
combined with the exposure to the glowing heat of the
furnaces, caused a number of men in the iron works in the
South Staffordshire district to leave their work on Wed-
nesday morning. It is stated that, a number of the
puddling furnaces will be let down till the weather be-
comes cooler again.

Sir Joseph Neale M'Kenna, in reference to the
statement that bills had' been filed in Chancery against
him and other former directors of the National Bank,
writes to say that he is prepared to prove the proceedings
understood to be complained of to have been strictly cor-
rect, and that he undertakes to chew that every 'act of his
in connection with the bank has been done for its benefit
and protection, and will bear the test of investigation
before any court in any proceedings to which he is made
a party.
THE POPE ON LIBERAL CATHOLICS.—The Univers
publishes the reply of the Pope to the allocution which
Cardinal Patrizzi addressed to him on the twenty-fifth
anniversary of his election to the Papacy. In this the
Pope expresses himself strongly against the Liberal Catho-
lics and against certain bishops' sentinels established by God
to watch over the safety of the people who forget their
duty to the Church, in order to follow the theories of the
age. He adds that the evils and errors have not yet
reached their limit. There are some who burn incense to
the goddess of real on, and will not submit their judgment
to faith, nor allow that science should be governed by revela-
tion, others who do not go so far as that live under the tyranny
of certain men who revere what they call public.opinion,
even when it is opposed to what is right, just, or holy, a
great part of the errors of our time proceed from igno-
rance, but who can dissipate that ignorance or lighten
that darkness, except the Holy See and its devoted fol,
lowers? They alone can eradicate the errors which dwell
in the minds of those who do not. recognise the tendency'
of certain principles and the peril of certain doctrines.

THE NEW YORK PRESS ON CHARLES
DICKENS.

It will be the glory of Charles Dickens, when his fame
comes to be fairly weighed, not that he has created some
of the most beautiful and by far the most humorous cha-
racters in English fiction ; not that he has drawn scenes

of real life with a vividness no artist ever attained before,
but that he has acquired such an absolute mastery • over
the human heart that we take his ideal men and women
at once to our bosoms, and make every one of his books a
gallery of our personal friends. Little Nell is not the
most beautiful creation in our literature by any means ;
but is any other loved so well ? " Oliver
Twist " is not remarkably good as a novel ;
but ever since we read it, thirty years ago, we
have been crying for more. Bob Cratchit and his lame
child, Bob Sawyer and Mr. Benjamin Allen, Betsy Trot-
wood and Mr. Dick, Pegotty, Micawber, Pickwick—dear
old monarch of them all—these are not for us the airy
fictions of the brain, but flesh and blood friends whom we
love with all our hearts and hope to meet some day in
this very world. It is the greatness of Dickens that he
can inspire us with feelings like these, and no other man
has ever done it in an equal degree. Ten or twenty
millions of people keep a corner in their hearts for
Dickens, because he has seen so perfectly the poetry, the
beauty, the hundred lessons which the life of the masses
contains, and in all that he has done he has striven for
their good. "I have always had and always shall have,"
said he on his first visit to this country, "an earnest
and true desire to contribute as far as in me
lies to the common stock of healthful cheerfulness and
enjoyment. I believe that Virtue shews quite as well in
rags and patches as she does in purple and fine linen. I
believe that she and every beautiful object in external
nature claims some sympathy in the breast of the poorest
man who breaks his scanty loaf of daily bread." So in
the faith that literature was not for the rich alone,
and the noblest work was the work done for the poor, he
bent himself bravely to ,his splendid task. Whether
battling with the weapons of his wit for the release
of poor prisoners or poor school-boys, or humanity for
almshouse paupers, or relief • for befogged and plun-
dered clients, and a public ridden to death
by aristocratic office-holders ; or founding a great
liberal newspaper in the interest of popular Government
and free education ; or refusing with dignity an invitation
to attend as an actor the court where he could not be
received as a private man, Charles Dickens, without a
suspicion of demagoguism, without the affectation of con-
descending, without uttering One insincere or flattering
word, made himself as truly the poet and prophet of the
people in prose as Burns was their chosen singer in verse
It is for this reason that wherever the English language is
spoken Charles Dickens was cherished as a friend. It is
for this reason that his death awakens to-day such
universal sorrow, and that his name will be. held in
sincerely affectionate remembrance to the latest genera-
tions.—New York Tribune.

"In the midst of life we are in death." How impres-
sively this solemn fact returns upon us as we read the
brief details of the grim messenger's call upon Charles
Dickens in the midst of the pleasures of a cheerful dinner
party ! The news of the sad event in both hemispheres
has fallen upon the public mind with the shock of an un-
expected misfortune ; and yet, considering the brain over-
worked and the body worn out from the long and exhaust-
ing strain upon it, this sudden dissolution is not surprig:
ing. It is rather to be wondered at that, with so many
examples and warnings of this kind constantly occurring
around us, we should still cherish the delusion that
there are, or ought to be, certain exemptions
.from the inexorable laws governing this frail and
uncertain earthly existence. Charles Dickens has gone
the way of all the earth. His work is done ; he rests
from his labours, but he leaves behind him the record of
talents industriously employed in his wisely chosen voca-
tion for the general good of his fellow men, and
especially for the amelioration of the sufferings and the
righting of the wrongs of those too much neglected
classes of modern civilisation, the story of whose lives,
honest or criminal, is a desperate struggle for existence.
Dickens was a man of genius, but his was not the
comprehensive genius of Shakspeare ; nor did he possess
the exquisitely beautiful perceptions of character which we
find in Walter Scott ; nor the polished sentimentalisms of
Bulwer ; nor the analytical descriptive powers of Victor
Hugo ; nor the criticai faculties of Thackery ; nor
the orientally poetical and philosophical mind of Disraeli.
Compare the last work of Dickens, " Edwin Drood," as
far as printed, with the latest novel of Disraeli,
" Lothair," and the difference will be seen between the
limited range of Dickens and the boundless field of
thought, instruction, and philosophy opened by Disraeli.
In another aspect the contrast between these two writers
of fiction is very remarkable. It is the contrast between
St. James and St. Giles ; for while the heavy atmosphere
of St. Giles prevails in the novels of Dickens, the social
air of St. James prevails in the works of Disraeli.
Dickens was in his element in his delineations of life
among the English low classes, and of the lowest
his pictures are the best ; Disraeli is at home among
the ruling minds and beauties of the aristocracy, and his
range of vision embraces the ruling elements in the social,
political, and religious world. The characters of Dickens
are individuals, each confined to a narrow and insignifi-
cant walk ; the heroes and heroines of Disraeli represent
the great ideas and questions—political, religious, and
social— which are agitating the realms of civilisation.
We may, in short, describe Dickens as the graphic,
shorthand, verbatim reporter of scenes in low life,
and Disraeli as the matured statesman and
philosopher, giving us his broad, political, and social
views in the disguise of a charming romance. In what,
lies the world-wide fame of. Dickens as a literary genius?
It lies in his graphic descriptions of low life, in his every-
day living characters among the struggling masses, good
and bad, and in his never-failing purpose to encourage the
good, to discourage the bad, to correct abuses against the
weak and defenceless, and to create sympathy and kind-
ness, not only for suffering virtue, but towards the
ignorantly or helplessly vicious and unfortunate. He
laboured faithfully, though comparatively within a limited
sphere. His mind was microscopic, magnifying small
thh.gs into things wonderfully interesting ; and it is not
in nature that an eye which is microscopic shall
possess 'also the powers of the telescope. Charles Dickens,
it may be truly said, employed the talents given him
wisely and well. So far as we in America are concerned
we can truly say that the mistakes Of his first visit were
fully, and to the general satisfaction, repaired in his
second; that in this country his death will be universally
lamented, as his worlvs are universally admired for the
good fruits they have borne and still promise to bear; and
that many Americans can testify to the attractive social
qualities of the man, and to the generous hospitalities
they have shared in his hous'e. He lived an industrious
and useful life, and he leaves behind him 'a fame and a
name which will live respected, fresh and green, for gene-
rations to come.—New York Herald.

The eminent Englishmen of letters whose fame has
been acquired, as it were, under our own eyes, and whose
works are more or less associated with the events of our
lives, are one by one passing away. New authors are
constantly appearing in the field, but the few great figures
which have been before us almost daily for years past,
cannot be -withdrawn without occasioning regrets like
those which we experience when old friends are taken from
our side. The death of a man like Charles Dickens seem
to create a blank in our own existence. It comes upon us
with the surprise which death in the household occasions
when the one inevitable incident in our un-
certain lot seems ever new, unnatural, and
startling. People of middle age cannot but feel that they
have " grown up," as it were, with Charles Dickens. The
appearance of each successive story from his pen is linked
with a thousand domestic recollections, for he was emin-
ently the novelist of the household The very manner of
his death deepens the sense of personel loss. Sudden
death seems. indeed, the docm of the literary. craft. It is
but a few years ago that Macaulay was found dead in his
room. To Thackeray, also, the last messenger came with-
out warning. Charles Dickens has been summoned in a
moment, while still in the full exercise of his genius and
while the early numbers of his last work are engaging the
attention of the world. The genius of Dickens was an endow-
ment which sometimes seemed to surprise himself. He was
like a man who finds himself in possession of an unex-
pected treasure. When still very young he went through
much drudgery in a newspaper office, without suspecting
that he was destined to achieve for himself a distinct
place in English literature, and produce a series •of books
which would win for him an illustrious and an unfading
name. It was clear that he had an amazing faculty
for describing types of men. How many people we have
all known exactly like the people who live and move in
Dickens's novels ! We are almost convinced that it is
our very acquaintance whom the novelist must have
had before his eye Micawber, Pecksniff, and the rest
of the portraits in that marvellous gallery—Shakspeare
himself did not draw truer types of character. The
fidelity of the model in each case is attested by the fact
that it is found in all countries and among all people, and
that there are hundreds of men whom we cannot better
describe than by nicknaming them after one of the lay
figures in Mr. Dickens' works. One secret of his success
in this respect was the laborious manner in which he made
his. studies. At a certain period of his life there was no
man in London better known to the police than Mr.
Dickens. Except Sir Walter Scott, no writer of
fiction has ever done so much to while away the weary
hours of young and old as Charles Dickens. In lonely
places of the earth his books have been an unfailing solace
to many an exile, and they have shed hope and light in
many a sick room, and comforted many an afflicted heart.
Over the whole range of the domestic instincts Mr.
Dickens possessed a thorough mastery. There, indeed,
was his stronghold. His pictures of "interiors" will be
famous while the world lasts. When he described a room,
the mere mention of any character who had been intro-
duced to us in it would afterwards suffice to recall before
us the whole picture, even though years might
have •passed since we read the novel. Who cannot
remember his sketches of the cosy parlours in country
inns? He could 'tell us about a poor man's dinner in a
way which was capable of imparting fresh zest to the most
jaded appetite. When he touched the deep emotions of
our nature, his power drew tears from the least susceptible
of mankind. What mother will ever be able, while the
world lasts, to lead the story of Little Nell or Paul
Dombey with dry eyes ? Who that has lost a child can
ever hear those names unmoved? Let us say what we
will, the world is not quite the same after a man is
taken from it who was gifted with a genius capable of
setting before us almost all phases of, human nature.
There is a gap which time will cause us to forget, but if the
loss to mankind does not create an abiding impression it is
only because we know that we ourselves are not abiding—
that let the pictures be what they may, and let he who
discloses them to us be ever so gifted, the show .is one
which must come to an end. But were this sense more
deeply seated even than it is, we could not but realize how
much the world loses by the death of a man who possessed
the power of layingbare so many secrets of thehuman heart,
who could read every aspect of our nature—at once the