The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-16 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY, MAY 16, 1870.

the outer world that GARIBALDI had long since
virtually beaten his sword, if not into a reaping-
hook, into a spade or into an axe-head. But the
blade of his flurandel would seem rather to have
been minced up piecemeal Into steel pens anything!:
but pointed, and remarkable for any amount of
spluttering. The favorite style of GARIBALDI in
literary composition would seem to have been
founded from the first upon that noticeable in the
political writings of the author of Napoleon le
Petit—a mixture of the wildest rant and the most in-
flated bombast. Gall is, in the ink of both, the prin-
cipal ingredient. Malignity is the sting in the tail of
their every sentence. Their rhetoric is bullyragging.
Their vocabulary Billingsgate. As a Poet, as a
Dramatist, as a Novelist, VICTOR HUGO is one of the
most resplendent geniuses living. As a politician,
but espepially as a writer upon politics, he is simply
beneath contempt. In the slang of the smoking-
room he is then just simply off his head. He vitupe-
rates—.he does not arraign. Reading these frothy
and foaming ebulitions of his as a publicist,
one might almost think that " the force
of folly could no further go." But time
has proved the contrary. The pupil has sur-
passed the master. GARIBALDI has out-Hugoed
HUGO. Whatever he may come to be as a magazine
writer we know not, but already the Hero of Aspro-
monte in his capacity as a novelist, has surpassed in
scurrile abuse even the abounding diction of the foul-
mouthed THERSITES, less of HOMER than of SHAK-
SPERE. The priesthood in his infuriated eyes is what
the scarlet rag is to the maddened bull in the Spanish
arena. Looking towards Rome as it has been for the
best part of these 1500 years, as it became very soon
after the Catacombs were deserted, as it is now—
why, to GARIBALDI with his pen in his hand—" that
way madness lies." Take Glelia—it is filled, this
astoundingly rhapsodical pamphlet, called a novel, with
maledictions upon priests and curses both loud and
deep upon despots and upon their myrmidons and
fanatics. Take his other soi-disant work of art
(GOD save the mark !) " Cantoni it Voluntario''
—and see, there, how freely, and with open hands, he
scatters to the right and to the left, broadcast,
his envenomed vindictiveness. Turning upon the
Jews, he denounces them in terms of unmeasured
opprobrium as " usurers and vagabonds." Apostro-
phising the Italian Government—not the Papacy re-
member, but the royal authority now enthroned at
Florence—he reprobates it as invariably "perverse
and hypocritical." Reviling him who is always his
arch-foe, the Priest, how is it he designates him
while pouring forth bis villainous epithets with the
fury, and passion, and incoherence of a male t erma-
magant? Why, by calling him in rapid sequence—
as if he were in his one abhorred person, the Protean
contents of a Noah's Ark—a " hyena, a fox, a rep-
tile, a goat, an insect, a serpent !" Speaking of him,
the Priest, not merely thus—in this so-called novel of
Centteni, in wkieh GARIBALan, who was yesterday an
ACHILLES in heroism, has to-day become a THEP:-
SITES /a scurrility--but raving and howling against
this the paramount object of hi. abhorrence, words
of such deadly detestation as these : speaking of one
whose very footsteps were of old said to be beautiful,
as—" an assassin, a cryptogamous animal, the slave
of the demon, a pest, an enemy of Italy, an enemy of
the human race, a master of all deceit, a buffoon, a
real secret police, the solid pedestal of despotism, the
quintessence of the horrid ministry of hell !"
Spoken or written brutalities like these are nothing
less than an outrage to the common sense of Christen-
dom. If only there were some one who could effec-
tually gag the reviler—out of consideration far less
.for the vituperated than for the vituperator. Call
this literature, forsooth Imagine this novel writing !
Centuries ago an obolus was droppbd into the hand of
BELISARIUS. Is there no one who will go and upset
GARIBALDI'S inkstand ?

THE epidemic of great crimes has travelled to
England. It broke out in the neighbourhood of
Paris, and assumed its most malignant form in the
atrocious Pantin murder. It then spread to Greece,
atd appeared under the massacre of the English and
Italian travellers near Athens. Now, after a very
short interval, we find a terrible outbreak
close at our own doors, already known
to all the world as the Chelsea murders.
The facts of this double murder, so far as ascertained,
display an unusual degree of bloodthirstiness and
cunning, and the discovery of it was due to an
incident so extraordinary that the most inventive of
sensational novelists would never have thought of it.
Briefly told, .the circumstances are as follows :—M.
HUELIN, a French Protestant pastor, eighty years old
for some time past retired from the duties of his
sacred calling, lived at 15, Paulton-square, Chelsea.
He bad with him a housekeeper, Ann
Goss or Boss by name, a little over forty years
of age. He possessed houses in Chelsea, and
among others, 24, Wellington-square, about a mile
from his own residence. The house was empty, and
he had employed a man named WALTER MILLER to do
some repairs in it, and to keep it in a habitable con-
dition. M. HUELIN also had a farm in Lin-
colnshire, and had recently told several
of his friends that he should go down there
for the sake of his health. On Saturday
evening, May 7, he was alive and well, and was seen
by HARRIET MIDDLETON, a charwoman who had been
employed to clean the house in Wellington-square.
This woman is a most important witness. Her
evidence at the police court is to the effect that on
Monday night she was awakened by a knock at the
door of her own house, and on looking
out saw a man who, on being asked
what he wanted, replied in broken French that he
wanted her to take charge of the house in Paulton-
square because M. HUELIN had gone into the country.
The,man (whom Mrs. MIDDLETON understood to be
M. HUELIN'S nephew) said he was going away early
the following morning. That morning (Tuesday)
the woman and her daughter went to M. HUELIN'S
residence and found Mmu3n there. That same
evening a lady called to ask if M. HUELIN
was in, and said she had come to pay her
rent, but had not got the money with her.
She asked MILLER, who according to one account was
disguised, if he was M. HUELIN'S nephew, and he re-
plied that he was, and would take the money. The
lady left her address. MILLER intended to call there
for the rent. He forgot the number of the house,
however. He seems to have spent the greater part of
Tuesday in driving about in cabs, drinking freely,
and keeping dissolute company. He returned
to Mr. HuELlN'sresidence drunk on Wednesday
morning at half past three. The greater part of
Wednesday he spent in drinking with a female
companion, On Wednesday, evening he called
upon a carrier to ask him to remove a box
from Paulton-square, and then returned to
the, house there, taking with him a woman whom
he introduced as a person come to look after the
things which were to be removed into the country.
The first thing was a box badly corded. The carrier
'said he would cord it better, and MILLER then pushed
forward and said that he would do it. The car rier

said that he was better accustomed to such jobs, and
proceeded to lift the box. He then found his hand wet,
and looking down, saw it covered with blood, and a
pool of blood on the floor, He instantly made known
his discovery, and thereupon MILLER looked very con-
fused. The woman with him left the house imme-
diately. MILLER endeavoured to get the carrier to
remove the box out of the house, evidently hoping
to slip out at the same time, and make his escape.
The carrier refused, whereupon MILLER ran
upstairs, and probably then took some laudanum,
from the effects of which he has been suffering. He
was followed by the carrier, who refused to lose sight
of him, and was led through the street. MILLER
then made a sudden dash, running towards the river,
where he would probably have drowned himself.
But the old proverb proved true, as in TROPMANN'S
case, " The man born to be hanged will
never be drowned.' MILLER fell as he ran,
was overtaken by the carrier, and a little
later handed over to a policeman. He was then
conveyed to St. Gedge's Hospital, and treated for
poisoning by laudanum. He had not swallowed enough
to injure him seriously, and it being supposed that he
was pretending to be more ill than he really was,
he was carefully watched by the police. On
Friday he was well enough to be brought up at the
police court, where he displayed the utmost ner-
vousness.

We now return to Paulton-square. As soon as
the blood was discovered a policeman was sent for,
and he forced open the box and found the
body of the housekeeper, Mrs. Goss. She
had been strangled with a tightly fitting rope. There
were no wounds, and MILLAR's horrified surprise at
seeing the blood may therefore well be imagined.
He thought he had made everything safe. Probably
he had stupified the woman by chloroform before
killing her, and he felt sure that in strangling her no
trace of blood would be found, and that he would be
able to get the body into the country and dispose of
it. He had done his fiendish work too well. He
had tied the rope around his poor victim's throat so
fast that blood was forced from the nostrils and
the mouth, and soaked through the box to the floor
beneath. Evidently this murder " will out." The
murder of the housekeeper naturally led to the
suspicion that her master had shared the same fate
Inquiries were made in Lincolnshire, and he had not
been there. A search was instituted in Wellington-
square; but nothing was found; not a paving-stone
seemed to have been disturbed. No sooner had the
account of the murder appeared in the newspapers
than a working man came forward and said that he
had been employed to dig a hole near the drain
in Wellington-square, and had been told not
to disturb the paving ; another instance of judicious
cunning on the part of the murderer. Examina-
tion noon chewed that as a box had proved the coffin
of the housekeeper, so the drain was the grave of
M. iIIIELIN. His body was found there. He had
been killed seemingly by a blow with an axe, which
had fractured his skull. It was then remembered
that he had imprudently displayed a heap of
sovereigns at this house, that his dog, which had
gone out with him on Monday, had returned alone
howling. The horrible story was complete so far .as
the victims were concerned.

Who were the murderers? MILLED, has, yet to be
tried ; and we cannot therefore declare him guilty.
But there never was more damning evidence against
any man. He had been heard to use avaricious lan-
guage with regard to his employer's money.
He was the prime agent in the removal
of the box ; his confusion, his flight
when the blood was discovered told terribly
against him. Not much money was found upon
him ; but it may well be imagined that he had spent
a large sum in drinking and debauchery, and there
were found upon him some of M. HuELIN's title-deeds.
It would be mere affectation to doubt that he has
been rightly apprehended. He could scarcely have
been alone in this double murder. The
flight of the woman from Paulton-square when
the bloody token revealed itself offered strong
presumptive evidence against her, and now that she
has been apprehended, she is found to be a woman
of the worst possible antecedents. Are these the
only murderers ? That question is not easily an-
swered. There have been disputes about M.
HUELIN'S property, and recently he had made a new
will. These circumstances are thought by some of
our contemporaries to point to accomplices. But
there is no need of any such supposition
to account for the deed. M. HUELIN'S
imprudent display of money in the presence of MILLER
no doubt excited his cupidity, and he in all proba-
bility planned the murder for his own benefit and not
for that of other persons. Any way, there has been
brought to light one of the most atrocious crimes ever
committed within the great city that has witnessed
only too many dark deeds in the memory even of
those of us who are still young.

THE constituencies were probably prepared for
better progress with the Land Bill; but after the
long labour with the first three clauses, they
will be a little surprised to learn that the
first and by far the most important part
of the measure, including thirty-eight clauses, has
been disposed of. This is earnest business. Ther e
can be no doubt that the protests from the press and
the electoral body have contributed much to the fine
rush of the last few sittings ; but it is also right to
remember that the provisions latterly under conside-
ration are of minor importance. The third clause
was the great difficulty. Once concede the formid-
able principle embodied in that famous article of the
Irish Land Treaty, and there remains little worth ne-
gotiating about. Once admit that the rights of pro-
perty, in the common acceptation of the term, may be
so far infringed that a landlord cannot turn out his
tenant when he pleases without paying a sum
of money as compensation, and it is of
secondary moment to settle indemnity for improve-
ments, or to determine how the novel principle of
tenure is to be enforced. Hence there is little worth
noticing in the last two or three discussions
on the bill. The most important points raised
were very dry, and the summary style in which the
minor amendments were thrust aside wholesale is
exceedingly fine -to contemplate en bloc, but not at all
pleasant to follow in detail.

-
The rest of the bill should in the nature
of things pass off as rapidly and unob-
trusively as the thirty-eight clauses minus
three. The remaining stipulations embody Mr.
BRIGHT'S scheme of lending money to enable
tenants to become proprietors in cases where
the owner is willing to sell, and provide a system of
courts and legal procedure for the management of
the whole. Mr. BRIGHT'S plan, so furiously assailed
at first, now excites little interest in Ireland, and
scarcely any opposition in England. And
yet it is an important insertion of the thin
end of the wedge, which deserves at least to be care-
fully watched. There is nothing indeed of the revo-
lutionary character which keen critics in 1866
discovered in the scheme. Nobody is robbed if the
State lend an Irish peasant a proportion of
the whole sum necessary to buy his
farm, repayment being secured on mortgage.
But the principle is a grave one, for if the State give
such help to Irish farmers, why not to other classes
of the community? It is true that the same thing
may be said of other novel stipulations in the bill, it
is also true that the pase of Ireland 114 an excep-

LATEST INTELLIGENCE.

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)
PARIS, May 14, Morning.

It is authoritatively stated that the Govern-
ment has not only not demanded, but has also no in-
tention of demanding, the extradition of M. Flourons.
May 14, Evening.

One hundred persons who were arrested during
the late disturbances in Paris were sentenced to-day
to various terms of imprisonment, ranging from six
months to one year.

The funeral of Count de Stackelberg took place
to-day, and was attended by M. Emile 011ivier, all
the Foreign Ministers, and many friends of the
deceased.

M. Laboulaye is designated as the future Minister
of Public Instruction, and M. Plichon or the Marquis
de Maupas as the successor of the Marquis de Tal-
houet at the Ministry of Public Works. Prince de
la Tour d'Auvergne will probably go to Vienna in the
place of the Duke de Grammont. •
M. Schneider, the President of the Legislative
Body, in reply to the request of M. Jules Simon
and M. Haentjens that the Chamber should re-
assembly on Monday, has informed those deputies
that all the dccuments relating to the plebiscitum
will be in the hands of the committee on Monday
morning, and that the Chamber will therefore be
able to complete the verification of the voting with-
out delay. There exists, consequently, no reason for
modifying the first decision—namely, that there
should be no public sitting before the votes have
been verified.

May 15, Evening.

It is understood that the Legislative Body will be
convoked on Tuesday in committee, to verify the re-
turns of the plebiscite, nearly all of which will be to
hand on Monday. The official result will probably
be communicated on Tuesday.

BELGIUM.

BRUSSELS, May 14, Evening.

The King and the Royal Princesses are expected
to-morrow at Ostend, whence his Majesty will im-
mediately proceed to England on a visit to Queen
Victoria.

The Senate has adopted all the bills relating to
taxation.

The Chamber of Representatives has passed a
bill authorising the Government to resume the
management of a certain number of railways which
had been leased out by the State.
The Chamber has adjourned sine (lie.
May 15, Evening.
The Chinese embassy left here to-day, on its way
to Italy, Spain, and Portugal.