The Sun.
London, England, 1846-12-09 00:00:00

hH

E

I, , _..................
aillr'eLaele• The wife of Sawney Bean was not a.
•'
-°4e diabolical being. And yet, after the eatastropaes
4 °ltf the tale when she is confined in a mad-house '
liti. tinearable maniac, Sir Edward Bulwer asserts steh,,aat
v;.4,4 seen Lucretia in that horrible captivity, .
4more Squalid ferocious mockery of a human being ,
re aPpalling' d more fallen, than Dandt%evheisr
i Yale. 4 la his Spectres, than Swift ever scho.ffe
1 to .11°°81" lie declares, moreover, that is nolvel
ofis
I %piled from the biographies of two criminalsv.rney
(a hilt times- One of these criminals, Gabrielni c,,aracter having rather an affinity for the
dacnharodf
biatirleY ,of Scott, than for the tyabriel Var
°
I tyla), is as astute and almost as
Tit 'gala as the notorious
i - Well,plausibleQuaker-murderer
i hitlee,ll. The other criminal, the cisief one
' th,_ 41 ' Lucretia Clavering,
i ;,ei a ?Le nothing
The.
de s t
rluees
_s
. Ilea c 'adame Lafarge on wholesale.is
' lot th life to her is a pastime ; cruelty her only
; ,Alt ~,,t_i af pleasure ; she wanders about thels
il a m staircases
bers
• the!'leight clothed in black, creeping into chambers,
.i -usi
flee Ilg Poison into the medicinal draughts of the
eitiPet„rs, and rendering the young, the innocent, the
‘V
tt4 el equally her victims. She marries.
malibard,
She
at el
is assassinated at her instigation. h
4444. Braddell, and Braddell is poisoned her
upony the
!tllettli. She calculates with a hideous glee
nd her
eke. 4 her uncle. She murders her son.
104,.. lier crimes are the most systematic, the most
; IA1") the most unsparing. Beyond all this,losohde,
et 1;1 and beggars, s 8 and satisfies her thirst for blood,
i it
1?Ilkit-Ythi and for revenge with the secresy of coward-
-1 Nes. en, as the writer observes; treachery and
1 elite' hatch their brood amidst the olds of a hypp-
• kittLe°lcardice." Here is the picture of Lucretia,
, 47. with infinite art.
- fit ilia
'aoi ~,"1„.t,0 be tall in woman;m tall—tallohdue
but
tioo ah beyonder.
~.
-Z....41ng either awkward or masculine—i
it, was
now h
sculptor. what
Thei
s
t Zot e,'",thet day, unbecoming as we a deem
s7leet eneivaevrersienrgvedwafosr
, tli •' eer i hole—dis
1 height tfitghnerree
dvantageous.
, , o di --at least, on the
sweep 11% ort „ •
to her majestic
L gril or ~ mat gave greatlr
),1 1,71.4h4.1mb, while the classic thinness of the drapery
• es.% arm tlie exact proportion and the exquisite contour.
1• 411..5.,-'3 then were worn bare almost to the shoulder,
''' 1.4% eLe:_tia's arms were not more faultless in shape
[4 •,.).-4 f j"..."g ill their snowy colour—the stately neck,
-' j ,
,letill,„4 shoulders the firm, slight, yet rounded bust
: ‘tlikvald have charmed' equally the artist and thessneno-t
' , Zp% Fortunately the sole defect of her form wa
, h_ 44.,4t a distance': that defect was in the hand; it
'. • k,Pltfitiit'ue usual faults of female youthfulness—the
Lt lit
0.,,Y of flesh, the too rosy healthfulness of colour;
'1 ''' Nal; -11trarY it was small and thin, but it was, never-
lbeh,°re the hand of a man than a woman; the
• '; '1147 a man's nervous distinctness, the veins swelled
1 klitiellB' the joints of the fingers were marked and
1 fore;t*
of that hand, it almost seemed as if the
' iff O' the character betrayed itself. But as wlde
' • hheti, 111-, this slight defect which few, if seen, would
i ' illSretoie:LelcilY notice, could not of course be perceptible
, . irghs, slowly up the room; and Vernon's eye,
' ' elit% °ler the noble figure rested upon the face.
• ieitakilds,ercte?—was it repelling? Strange that in
I Vat, elkl Pretensions to the highest order ofin beauty,_eae
1
4 w.:"Ilt. that experiencedhat
sentenceeonnos to f
it7464:h.::13 almost puzzledpronounce.
fashion of the day, clusteredlina
litclkt4l'ells over the forehead, but could notdctohnica a
t 4 qw car wrinkle between the brows; eline, '
OPia,ela at any age, rare evedn nmnaant her's, gave
47' 7: at once of sternnessthoughtanwe
i Rtkilltryebrows themselves
'gill morei,a shade. or two
4h1P,1411' . to the whole
perhapsre straight, and not
too light, a
apparent in the lashes, the eyes were
hil lit I it", though bright, astonishingly. calm and
t): 4.4 east • -
p, in ordinar • moments; yet withal, they
'I; '!tteth,,,_e .arm of that ordinary
and. open look, which.
tell --.e to the heart, and invites its trust; their ex-
k
10, 4,,,,. rather vague and abstracted. She usually
iain_4llt while she spoke, and this, which with
had
i ; liNitttarro_ra but shyness, in one so self-collected,t
' • ta tittClehood. But when, at times, if earneds ,thaannd
; • 111,411„•er_ °in examining those she addressed
111)04-.6 .herself from penetration, she fixed those
Ittilli lioatiWith sudden and direct scrutiny, the. gaze
t 'ape Powerfully, add haunted you with a
/ 1., eel,: The eye itself was of a peculiar and dis-
-1 _ „ ar--not blue, nor grey, nor
.black, nor hazel,
t, tiki 'lf that cat-like green, which is drowsy in the
.i kblekikiPtid in the shade. 'The profile was purely
4 tip,; but .80 seen, Lucretia's beauty seemed. incontes-
' -,j lkiip'4 the :a front face, and still more when inclined be-
' 4 ks:ttip Iva. all the features took. a sharpness, that,
! 1.11,43-egular, had something chilling and severe; the
loth% ex :131191, but the lips were thin and pale, and
ltiLedi,,? ession of effort and contraction, which addedd
ttkr„Pita,tll,st which her sidelong glance was calculated
; tell a, andA he teeth were dazzlingly white, but
thans sharp
,
!toy, Tha the eye-teeth were much longer
%et the IZtaPlexion was pale, but without
. much deli-
%k
,Lett
whicheess seemed not natural to it, butera.thseer
ISA %,„ study and late vigils give to " 14,111,0ide-oted the freshness and the bloomof men;
,ppoie of
It. than she was—an effect confirmedY by an
10 tre, but °llodness in the cheek, not noticeable in the
1114 444 l'elld-rering the front face somewhat harsh as ,
40110141)' An s. word, the face and figure were not
• %44tobea3'; the
-figure prevented you from pronouncing
:- 41%141 efttenline—the face took from the figure the
'44 4414 11 alinaCY• It wag the head of the young
'l4, Ive closePon the form of Agrippina. One touch more,
:" .14 ma a description, which already perhaps the
altte(11),(•Y consider frivolously minute. If you had
itillocl °re the mouth and lower part of the face a mask
te 4e, th
Si,. elimi.e., e whole character of the
. trf face would
the il 4 at once; the ey glittering false-
-1 4;:11141,:11/Vf its sinister eoentzlnoaesetttilotsn
only you w"ht at
beautiful, bait
a qtkL,Pronouneed the face bandage suddenly away,
ti k the wanlahlY• 'rake that startled you, and startled
••,,, %, the :ante wculd have
00r amore, because you could detect no sufficient de-
044 ,Pro ortion in the lower part of the counte-
zeli; '42. explPain it. It was as f the mouth was the key
Nop whole: the key nothing without the text, the text
VPrehended without the key."
7' Ittiteis absolutely impossible to conceive the abhor-
excited by the villanies of this monster without
~.:- Z.ting the novel from the title-page to the printer's
-• r"..0 afford some feeble conception of
ki....aitonishing vigour with which her demo-
! !1117.
.nature is delineated by Sir Edward Bulwer,
, tit, ,7trascribe a single sentence, which condenses, as
: lt,', .7, a world of infamy, of despair, and of woe.
combs he, "amidst the punishments with which
sek.hiLlhoye imagination of poets has diversified the
tab
,:r the tortured Shadows it had depicted some
Ose,ittnned to look evermore down into an
stii, Change to its gaze forbidden—chasm upon
• . ti:ker,J4Wning deeper and deeper, darker and
ti‘,,40111 %Tess and infinite—so that, eternally gazing,
NI Can,
tit t as . -Le, as it were, a part of the abyss,te
litiOcret- ,Il'age would symbol forth the state
1/4eves 44 Mind." One gleam of redemption,
• • kNe', W, aa left her, one means of re-
"g la humanity the love of William
hittY.4rin
41„,a, this This solitary gleam is extin-
. -;
!t-wnthe eggi,,l4.4ingle means is debarred her, a_ndthen—
i v tilt - lh the universe rose the eternal I." Not .
1 liNfret4P°te influence of ancestry could redeem
bk. 4411 themsins of degradation ; and the authorh
gikilNkßiais that our fathers a made by death
' tilltn " gods," and that " pride of famil is the
si kilett3lagel yinnate
of its heirs." Besides her own
infidel
4P, .4 murder--"II, Lucretia is fostered into an i
~' ti oer by Olivier Dalibard, to
.whomat
of• , coot evil were but subordinate genii,
1• 11404.14% trilatld,, of mind; they were the slaves
' 'kir at 1,--13* This Dalibard—quite
I
He
a Caesar
lle''llds ht This
most powerfully conceived.
111" 14 Of
• i Of abut i Arbaces in the " Last Days of Porn-
' IV' voluNt 11. Possible, more of the fiend and less.
i 1414 Ntn4,l3 1417. Gabriel Varney again, has a cer„
hke 4 AiLle,ll°6 to Lumley Ferrer; in " Maltravers
, ' td, The' a seeker of bodily enjoyment at all
WoZiled , difference existing between these threeew
Nit s Ivil'ue:i depraved mortals is given in
.a fur.
' let, of where the ronaancist is speaking of their p. ,
%
$ll,ll vision „ thro
, ugh bloodshed.
' for
to rueOf
* . " elll' ' ue
aaYs, " the image p"rTesoentGedabftiseellsf
unlimited pleasure and Rrodigal_
. ' %%444tioli.lothpairi4etairaci it
Wore the solemn majesty ol_f
1 it was but the Eureka of a ca
, NaStern e pal it
reward of wile, and scheme,
, - laalvtle:at t.ll4lla3Cteer°
mops Among the other and
- • ~ 4,2 the tn,_, the book the most original, and,
Vet. a AL'‘ admirable, is Beck, the crossinga-s
.* kit, chvp i'''"er telling us that " all education w
)1 t 11, 0 lieck,
in "%Pees h 3° was_ a ' Charles
11 love " and that the
•rit Welfth, ~ c aracter was " as austere as
v.
tillibt.tied:i! the writer exclaims—" Through the
' littL
.tglitlecrleh man's care had not moulded, nor books
ttsli'64.l r4v) Tior the priest's solemn lore informed, still
ketltied,l,,f,,rTil the great parent source of Deity
, kh. b„..
be
and dim."
In Beck as here delineated
qt,5,c4,,,,.?een extracted from the ragged outcast
qd Nes slth his broom " an isthmus of the kennel.
1 En • t. j .
NI Iglish ohn is the very prototype of what an
4. eiai gentleman should be—generous, benevo-
:l Orit lta 13') hearty, refined, and thoroughly domestic.
tst:eille char (with his " adorable impertinence' )
: ' Nt t 40k:fatter, and this would scarcely be antici-
A tit 6 '144 ""e first description of him, to the effect
1 ti 6'
lly 1::11°1e dr and air was not what could
1 ' ',' lilse- tv --` called foppish—itess was rather what at that
ooly ealled rakish." Walter Ardworth cam-
, et diill
mkti a per get his disposition where he chuckles
' -114,1' teat' landsc la • " in this green banquet of
tqA h alms " no ma
let ' A 1--e birds ' ' , th., out
fli N`
, are an older family than the St.
nitrst rPaberedylin,gwirse teghii;esnaolutt Or
'5
tl; JohnueY don't throw tchsoei
• i , lo4110:11 I. a
Ardworth,-e ' on then
• bill[ taai'v,..."lie reflections ; he is a splendid model of
i' got „Ilarr,7, gained by toil and patience. Although
kw ttirt--‘ar remarks that Ardworth " did
41)1.i',te rith the muses, and that on the
Ihil"8," .(11„t, his mind few flowers could
ettilPst4-,,ulihe
was endowed with reverie. and
' - tti4Reni4', ` the two wings of that spirit which we
llot&IV, hieh* h 11. is whole life is modelled upon a doc-
„Poa,„-getit, i.e,himself utters :—" What men want is,
'ti') to ael. is purpose ; in other word.s, not the
"oett "leve, but the will to labour.' And by
Hark'
ioe _ ,
rttrit. or in is sustained in publishing his first
• 4114 '4bl:cent °ming a daily uewspaper, or in entering
lite q,tieti xl,',.a_ a representative. Percival St. John
. lar4erainwering are, perhaps, the most exqui-
; .. t th:r,,,_a Sir Edward Bulwer has ever imagined.
- `44bolietil crimes by which they are en.

compassed their hearts are animated with a solemn
and affecting holiness. " Lucretia," is adorned, in-
deed, with several ch arming contrasts of this descrip-
tion. For example, the first indication of depravity
in the heroine is preceded by this beautiful and fan-
tastic fancy :—" The lights were out, all save the
lights of heaven, and they came bright and still
through the casements. Moonbeam and Starbeam,
they seemed now to have the old house to themselves.
In came the rays, brighter, and longer, and bolder
—like fairies that march, rank upon rank, into their
kingdom of solitude. Down the oak stairs, from the
casements, blazoned with heraldry, moved the rays,
creepingly, fearfully. On the armour in the
hall clustered the rays boldly and brightly,
till the steel shone out like a mirror. In the
library, long and low, they just entered, stopped short
—it was no place for their play. In the drawing-
room, now deserted, they were more curious and ad-
venturous. Through the large window, still open,
they came in freely and archly, as if to spy what had
caused such disorder, the stiff chairs out of place,
the smooth floor despoiled of its carpet—that flower
dropped on the ground—that scarf forgotten on the
table—the rays lingered, upon them all. Up and
down, through the house, from the base to the roof,
roved the children of the air." They are followed by
the imagination of the writer to the chamber of Lu-
cretia—" Moon and starbeam, ye love what lovers
read by the lamp in the loneliness ;" to the chamber
of Varney—" Moon and starbeam, ye love the slum-
bers of the child ;" to the chamber of Dalibard—
" Moon and starbeam, ye love the midnight solitude of
the scholar." In a very different scene, namely, in
that incident where Tom Varney, the penniless artist,
is elated on being invested with "the novel grandeur
of the man sponged upon," Sir Edward has, unwit-
tingly, been guilty of a plagiarism. The exhibition
of cruelty, in trying to put out the eyes of a
canary with a red-hot tobacco-pipe, is plagiarised
from one of Hogarth's powerful, but terrible paintings
of the " Four Stages of Cruelty." As an expression
of the author's yearning for the advancement and
improvement of his fellow-men " Lucretia" must be
regarded as successful. It is a lesson to society, but
a very fearful one. It is fraught with evidences of
how the man can be degraded to the fiend, but it also
shows how he may he elevated to the angel. It is
commemorative of the gloom of sin, but it is likewise
inculcative of the effulgence of virtue. For that great
people, which he has expressively termed " the
shadow of an everlastinraudience," Sir Edward Bul-
wer Lytton has written " Lucretia"—if read rightly,
it will not have been written in vain.

NARROW E&CAPE OF THE KING

OF SWEDEN.

STOCKHOLM, Nov. 27.—Yesterday at noon an ill-
dressed young man appeared at the Palace, and with
violent gesticulation, required Colonel Peyron, his
Majesty's Chamberlain on duty, to procure him audience
of the King. The Chamberlain declining to do so, he
threatened the Colonel with a pistol, which he drew
from his pocket, and soon afterwards aimed a secomd
pistol at Count Horn, Governor of the Palace, who had
hastened with some men from the guard-house to arrest
him. The pistol was discharged, happily without in
juring any one. From the examination of the prisoner,
which immediately took place in the police-office, it
appears that his name is Platen, and that he was quarter-
master in the regiment of Dalecarlia ; that he has been
fora year in the lunatic asylum of Danviken, from
which he was discharged as cured on the 20th of May,
1845, when he was sent back to his relations, and had
only been two days in Stockholm.
The two pistols were fully loaded with iron shot of
different sizes. The reports of the physicians who have
examined him state that he is completely insane ; and he
will, therefore, be sent again to the hospital at Danviken.
There is reason to believe that the intentions of this unfor-
tunate man were not so criminal as they at first appear.
In consequence of the danger which threatened the King
yesterday, the audience at the theatre called for the
national hymn, which was sung amidst the loudest ap-
plause. The Post och Inrikes Tidninger gave what has
been found the most authentic of the reports in circula-
tion. The so-called Colonel Van Platen, when he
required the captain of the guard to introduce him to
Colonel Peyron, was extremely dirty and ill-dressed,
that when be announced his desire to have an audience
of the King, the latter gave him an evasive answer, and
desired him to leave the palace, and to come another
day. He then repeated his refusal; upon which the man
declined to state any particulars of what he desired of
the King, and immediately drew out a pistol, and held
it to the breast cf the Chamberlain, exclaiming, " An-
nounce me, or I will fire!" The Chamberlain turned aside
the muzzle, and got possession of the pistol, sent to the
guard• house and to the police -office, all which the assassin
observed, but remained still, with his hand in his pocket.
About an hour afterwards Count Von Horn, the Gover-
nor of the Palace, came from the guard-house, and
ordered his men to arrest Platen, who stood behind a
screen, and drew out a second pistol, and fired at the
Count, whose cheek and temples were grazed by the
shot, so that his hair was singed, and the bullet entered
the wall.
Platen was seized without much resistance, and taken
to the police•ofce, where during his examination he
spoke very boldly, threatened the officers, the French
Ministers, &c. On examination he was found to have a
large knife, a watch with a metal case, some printed
placards in bad Swedish, which were to prove that his
proper name was the Duke of Bourbon ; a bundle of
papers, but not a penny in money. On being questioned,
he stated that it was his intention to demand the punish-
ment of those who in the year 1844 bad placed him in
the lunatic asylum at Danviken. Being asked why he
went armed, he said that a Duke of Bourbon never went
unarmed. In less than an hour he seemed to have for-
gotten everything that had passed in the forenoon. The
physicians declared him to be insane in the highest de-
gree. Yesterday afternoon he was again conveyed to
the lunatic asylum. He is a young man, between twenty-
three and twenty-six years of age, and has suffered
mental aberration for many years, but without showing
any violence.
According to the Afton Blad, his name is A. G. G.
Von Platen, born 1822, son of Captain C. A. Von Platen,
and has served as quartermaster in the regiment of
Delecarlia.

GRATUITOUS MARRIAGES •T ST. JOHN'S
CLERKENwELL.—On Monday morning, pursuant to a
notice, some reek since issued by the Rev. Hugh
Hughes, the rector of St. John's, Clerkenwell, that mar-
riages would be celebrated by him gratuitously between
parties who were too poor to pay the marriage fees, the
Rev. Gentleman attended to perform the ceremony. In
the district of St. John's, Clerkenwell, comprising a
population of above 9,000 inhabitants, the majority are
of the lowest class, numbers of whom cohabit together
without the performance of the marriage ceremony, in
extenuation of which they almost invariably plead that
they are too poor to pay the marriage fees. With a
view of remedying this moral evil, the rector published
notice that lie would twice a year, via., on the first Mon-
day in December, and on the first Monday in' May,
marry such parties free of charge, and that the clerk
should give notice of such banns without fee. Yesterday
morning only two couples availed themselves of the
benefit thus offered. The rector has further given notice
that the children of the parish will be christened ah
registered without fee on Advent Sunday and Whit
Sunday in each year.
SUICIDE OF A FEMALE IN THE PRESENCE OF HER
CHILDREN.—On Monday, Mr. William Carter held an
inquest at the Cannon, West Moulsey, on the body of
Mary Anne Wattord, aged twenty-four the wife of a
ballast gatherer. On the evening of 'Friday last, a
person in whose house the deceased lodged was asto-
nished at hearing screams of children proceeding from
the deceased's apartment. The children of the de-
ceased were found on the bed, and screaming most
violently, and their mother was discovered hanging to
the bedpost. The deceased was cut down, and a mcs•
senger was sent to Hampton Court for medical assist
ante, but by the time the surgeon arrived life was found
to be extinct. It was proved that the deceased had been
for some time in a low and desponding state of mind,
arising from ill health. The returned a verdict,
life " That the deceased destroyed heru whilst of unsound
mind."
SUICIDE IN THE STRAND UNION W°
On Monday information was forwarded to
38, a
co!oner's
office, of the death of Charles Fisher, aged
street,
nmtmate
of the Strand Union Workhouse, Cleveland. re
Pancras, who committed suicide under the followinge,S .
circumstances:—The deceased (a baker) had beenre-
St.
re-
siding with his brother, of the same business, in Moor-
street, Seven Dials. In consequence of his exhibition
of mental derangement, it was resolved by his friends
that he should be placed under some restraint, lest he
should lay violent hands on himself. On Thursday week
he was removed to the above institution in a state of in-
sanity, where he was attended by Mr. Jones, the house-
surgeon. That gentleman not considering his case
sufficiently bad for immediate confinement, the deceased
was placed in the accident ward of the infirmary, on the
fourth floor. The unfortunate man continued until nine
the same evening giving vent to all kinds of incoherent
expressions, when he suddenly arose, and proceeded to
an adjoining closet, opened the window, and precipitated
himself therefrom. An alarm was immediately given,
and on being picked up he seemed comparatively unhurt;
but on a medical examination it was proved that he had
received severe internal injuries. He continued to linger
until Saturday evening last, when death put a period to
his sufferings.
THE STOCK OF THE LONDON AND NORTH-WESTERN
COMPANY.—We understand that the directors of the
above company, in consequence of the recent amalgama-
tion of the various companies in their interest, have re-
solved upon valuing the whole of their stock of locomo-
tive power, &e., and for this purpose have appointed Mr.
M'Connell, locomotive engineer of the Bristol and Bir-
mingham Company, in conjunction with two other
gentlemen, to examine and value the engines, tools, &c.
The inspection and valuation of the stock will COMES !nee
to-day, at Crewe, where a town has sprung up, since the
Grand Junction Company commenced the making of the
engines, carriages, &c., used upon their line. A few
months ago we gave a description of this important ma-
nufactory, its various departments,works, extensive &c.,
and if access can be had to the details of this vast
stock, we shall again revert to the subject. Anyt ping
like a rough estimate of the stock would be little short of
conjecture.
BODY or A CHILD FOUND.—The dead body of a
new-born child, wrapped up in a handkerchief, was dis-
covered on Monday morning, shortly before 8 o'cl ek
by a boy within the enclosure surrounding the parish
church of St. Marylebone. It was conveyed by a
policeman to the workhouse, where it awaits she CON-
Ines inquest.