The Sun.
London, England, 1870-01-28 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FIIiDAY EVENING, JANUARY 28, 1870.

effort, ag rn the case of the present leader
of the Opposition, while men like " single speech
lIAmiL?oN" have made one or two successful ad-
dresses to sink: afterwards into insignificance, the
speeches on tb e moving and seconding of the Address
for the most part show us what position our new
members at.'likely to assume in the ranks of Parlia-
mentary spec kers.
The selectic ,n for the present year is full of promise.
The Marquis 4)f HUNTLY and the Earl of FINGALL, in
the Lords, arc ready, we may hope, to maintain the
traditionary pablic spirit of the old English nobility.
In the Commons, Sir CHARLES DILKE and Mr.
EGERTON are likely to be valuable auxiliaries to the
Government ranks. The former more especially
commands our- interest. At an age when most men
have hardly etdressed themselves to the real business
of life, he has completed, not the " grand tour " of the
past generati,3n, but PUCK'S traverse of the
globe. He b its in his " Greater Britain " given
us the results of his experience and observation,
achieving so signal a success in the literary world
that we may hope at least the member for the new
borough of Chelsea will rise something above medio-
crity in St. Stephen's. His recent journey through
Russia has furnished him, we understand, with
material for a fresh work, while the newspaper
world is familiar -with the name of DILKE
in connection with the editorship of a well-
known London journal. Sir CHARLES DILKE has,
it would seem, energies enough and to spare, and
finding literary and journalistic labours not suffi-
cientlyiengrossing, has come forward to solicit the
suffrages of the new metropolitan borough. As we
all know, he was deservedly successful in that
effort, and we hope he will before long be able to
redeem our good city of London from the charge of
preferring mediocrities in its representation.

zELDOIr - has it been our duty to record a Mere
painful accident than that which occurred on Loch-
leven two or three days ago, and rarely
has such a disaster been marked by
more heroic conduct. Three young ladies,
sisters, went out to skate on the historic lake.
They were accompanied by a dog; whose vagaries on
the frozen sheet of water soon got him into
trouble. Chasing some wild fowl, the animal
ran upon a weak part of the ice, which
gave way; and the dog fell into the water.
One of the Misses STEEDIIAN, undeterred by the
warning shouts of some workmen, ran to help her
favourite out of danger. Whilst attempting to lift
out the dog, the ice broke still further, and the young
lady was precipitated into the water. Her cries at
once brought another of the three sisters to her aid,
but the ice was by this time thoroughly broken
up, and the only result of the second girl's
efforts was that she also was engulphed. Still,
undeterred by these catastrophes, the third sister
rushed to give assistance, and she, too, became a
victim. The ice was so destroyed that a boat was
the only available- means of rescue, and long before
it could be brought into requisition all the three girls,
with their four-footed companion, were dead. All
three had behaved with deplorable rashness in ven-
turing upon au errand which could not but be fruit-
less. It would have been obvious to the reasoning
mind that no assistance could be rendered either to
the dog or the girl who tried to save it,
without proper instruments of rescue. The ice which
would break with the weight of a dog must be less
able to sustain an adult person. But women reason
neither in their terrors, nor in the heroism which
they so often display in cases of danger.
Sometimes with that rashness which is occasionally
the only real prudence, they accomplish deeds
which amaze the other half of mankind;
sometimes they heedlessly aggravate the original
calamity. This ice accident was one of the latter
class. The attempts to rescue could end only in dis-
aster, but it is impossible to withhold warm
admiration from the spirit in which they were
made. The display of heroism was singular. The
first young lady might have conceived hopes of
saving the dog; but the full extent of the danger was
open to the second; whilst the third knowingly
rushed upon certain death. In contemplating such
conduct it is difficult to decide wllether sorrow or
admiration prevails.

The American papers say that the British brigan-
tine Baltimore, Captain Durfee, foundered at sea, Dec. 31.
The captain and crew, twelve in number, reached Bermuda
after fifty hours' exposure in open boats.

At the St. Pancras inquiry into the charges against
the medical officer to-day, Dr. Edmunds, who represented
the Guardians, wished to have the Court adjourned, on
account of a slanderous article which had appeared in the
Times; but the case was ordered to proceed.

John Patterson, the policeman charged with having
on Christmas Eve placed two gates upon the North-Western
Railway, with intent to upset a train, has been discharged
by the magistrates at Melton, there not being sufficient evi-
dence to send the accused for trial. .

The Fifeshire miners have unanimously agreed to
demand from their employers an advance of wages, and also
that they should consider the propriety of adopting the
eight hours a day. The latter movement has already been
inaugurated in other Scotch counties.
The I.iberte publishes the latest notion on the deca-
pitation theory. If there be any doubt whatever, it says,
respecting animation in the head after separation, why not
let it fall from the guillotine into a tub of water, instead of
a basket, as now ? No person, and much less a severed
head, can live more than two minutes under water. This
expedient would therefore set all doubt at rest.

Messrs. Dalglish, Graham, and Anderson, the
members for the city of Glasgow, have addressed a nume-
rously attended meeting of their constituency. The bon
members gave an account of the part they took in the legis-
lation of last year. Mr. Anderson made a spirited defence
of his vote against Mr.lllLaren's Annuity Tax Bill. A vote
of confidence in the three members and an amendment were
proposed. The vote was carried.
The conference of -the Yorkshire Church Associa-
tion at Wakefield was brought to a close yesterday. A re-
port of the proceedings of the association having been
adopted, it was agreed to hold the next meeting at Bradford
Afterwards the Rev. J. Richardson read a paper on the com-
prehensiveness of the Reformed Church and its just limits,
and the subject was discussed by the Dean of Ripon, the
Rev. Canon Crosthwaite, the Rev. J. Bardsley, the Rev J.
Blomefield, and others.

The Right. Honourable George Young, the Lord
Advocate of Scotland, having been appointed one of her
Majesty's counsel, this morning took his seat within the
bar re; the Court of Chancery, on the invitation of the
Lord Chancellor. The same ceremony was performed in
the other Chancey courts. The right hon. and learned
gentleman was recently called to the English Bar (it is
thought at the suggestion of Lord Cairns) mainly with the
view of enabling him to appear as counsel at the bar of the
House of Lords in appeals from Scotland.

The bill for throwing open parish churchyards,will
this year be entrusted to Mr. Osborn Morgan, the mem-
ber for Denbighshire, a thoroughly Liberal Churchman
and able lawyer. Mr. Hadfield, who originated it, desire;
according to the English Inclependent,that its advocacy may
be committed to younger hands. It will not, however,
reappear in just the shape it took last session. It was then
almost literally a copy of the Irish Act, but an endea-
vour will now be made to give it a broader character
Moderate Churchmen admit that all parishioners ought to
be able to claim not only a place for their dead in the
churchyard, but in the ordering of the service at the graves
of their friends, and every objection raised to the Bill of
last Session that has any show of reason in it will, it is
hoped, be met in this year's Bill, which is not drawn in
the interests of Nonconformists merely.
The death is announced of Sir George Sbee. The
deceased, who was second baronet, was born in 1781, and
was educated at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he
took Lis M.A. degree in 1811. In 130 Le was appointed
Under Secretaay of Foreign Affairs (Lord Palmerston being
Foreign Secretary) in Lord Grey's Government, and ho
held that appointment until Lord Grey was succeeded by
Lord Melbourne in 1834. Afterwards he was appointed Envoy
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at Stuttgardt.
He was married in 1825 to a daughter of Mr. William
Young, of Heston House, Hertfordshire; and secondly, in
1841, to a daughter of Mr. Henry Borrett, of Denton, Nor-
folk. There is no zuccessor to the title. The first baronet,
Sir George Ghee; was secretary to the Treasnry, Sur-
TeT9r-901114 (21 the Ordmicei.s.Ad &Coif/ex-141W IA
tiokaier"

LITERATURE.

A Tale of Eternity and other Poems. By Gerald
Massey. Strahan and Co.
It is greatly to be regretted that the publishers of
so remarkable a volume should have issued Mr. Gerald
Massey's new poem in this particular form, and at
this particular time—as a quarto volume, that is to
say, and as a work, making its appearance simulta-
neously with the "Holy Grail," by the Poet Lau-
reate. And it is regrettable, for this reason, that
we very much fear lest many may be repelled by
the unusual size of the book, while many others
may overlook the fact of its publication at all,
because of having their attention, in regard to new
poetry, pre-occupied by the all-absorbing popularity
of Mr. Tennyson. Everything considered, we may
state at once, and without any hesitation, that we
regard this " Tale of Eternity," by Gerald Massey,
as the most remarkable of all his productions. It is for
him what "Aurora Leigh" was for Mrs. Browning
—the poet's undoubted masterpiece. For wierd
power, at once in thought and in language, it is
beyond what we had regarded as within the range
of Mr. Massey's capacity. Not that we thought
lightly of his capabilities, but that their scope
is here shown to be at once higher, deeper,
and broader than we had conjectured. It
should be premised that, here and there,
throughout the poem, there is a touch of the
grotesque, and that at intervals the tone of the
work verges even towards the blasphemous. But,
as might be said of the blasphemies placed in the
mouth of Milton's Satan in Paradise Lost, or in
those of Byron's Cain, or in those of Goethe's
Mephistopheles—it is completely and absolutely
in character. For the chief among the interlocutors
in the Poem under notice is the lost and demoniac
soul of one who has been a murderer. In the de-
lineation of this " Most Miserable"—in the mere
preparation for that delineation—in the whole of
these terrible and soul-enthralling utterances, Gerald
Massey has here evidenced a wealth of vocabulary
and a force of imagination far beyond the reach of
any mere versifier—in fact, only by possibility at the
command of a true poet. Better than any words
of praise that we might accord to him will be the
visible justification of what we have here said by
means of illustrative quotation. At the very outset
of the " Tale of Eternity," the dreamer, who is re-
lating it, to us, at the dead of the night, starts out
of his sleep affrighted—
"At times a noise, as tho' a dungeon door
Had grated, with set teeth, against the floor:
A ring of iron on the stones ; a sound
As if cf granite into powder ground;
A pickaxe and a spade at work! sad sighs
As of a wave that sobs and faints and dies.
And then a shudder of the house; a scrawl
As tho' a knife scored letters in the wall.
About the room a gush and gurgle went,
As if the water-pipe got sudden vent:
Drop after drop, 1 heard it plop, and ping,
Into some vessel, with metallic ring.
Yet, on these very nights there was no rain !
And then, betwixt the ear's suspense and strain,
A faint voice crying in the air or brain."
Afterwards, he continues—
" What does the darkness mutter ? Is it Death
That makes the light burn bluer with his breath ?
Was that a creaking of the stair ? a Rat
Nibbling the wainscot? did a flittering Bat
Flap at the window? Floors will crack for sure,
But may not unseen feet be on the floor?
Spirits stand rapping at Life's outer gate,
And, if we dare not open, will they wait ?
Was that the Death-Watch ticking in the wall ?
One's hair—alive—begins to coldly crawl.
Is there some 'Whispering Gallery of the ear,
In which the other world we overhear?
Tho very Mirror is a doorway, thro'
Whose dark another face may look at you!
It haunts you, gliding as the Moonbeams glide,
Like waters wan that counsel suicide."
Then it is, there comes the dreadful apparition—
" There lived another Form within the room,
Suddenly, strange and horrible, as rise
The Torturers that stare in dying eyes :
Or, as the Serpent—ere a leaf be stirred—.
Looks thro' the dark on some bewildered bird:
A face in which the life had burned away
To cinders of the soul and ashes grey :
The forehead furrowed with a sombre frown
That seemed the image, in shadow, of Death's
crown ;
His look a map of misery that told
How all the under-world in blackness rolled:
A human face in hideous eclipse ;
No lustre in the hair, no life on lips;
The faintest gleam of corpse-light, lurid, wan,
Showed sue the lying likeness of a Man !
The old soiled 'filing of some mortal dress :
A Spirit sorely stained with earthiness."
On the revelation by the lost spirit of the deed for
which it is suffering—the dreamer, who is relating it
all to us, cries out through the horror of the mid-
night darkness—
" Then came the liquid gurgle and the ring
Metallic, with the heavy plop and ping,
Heavier than largest water-drops that fall
From melting icicles on house-saves tall.
I knew them now; this resurrection night
Sounds were translated into things of sight.
These were the innocent drops a father shed.
They had the weight of blood, fell heavy as lead.
And now again I felt the grinding sound
0' the grating door; the digging underground ;
The shudders of the house ; the sighs and moans ;
The ring of iron dropped upon the stones ;
The cloudy presence groping near ; the quake
Of walls that vibrate with the parting shake ;
Then the relief. As they who stoop with dread,
While the Simoom goes withering overhead
Like iron red-hot, look up and breathe at last,
So felt I when that thing of Night bad passed."
The same wierd, grisly, eerie, eltrich horror runs
through the whole current of the narrative. One
is conscious throughout that it is a lost spirit who
is addressing us, the grim and abhorred ghost of a
cruel and most despicable murderer. Towards the
close of the poem the argument rises into a some-
what clearer, certainly into a less lurid atmo-
sphere—but one to the last clouded, and
misted over with the hazy influence of
what is called spiritualism. To orthodoxy in
his belief, the poet can certainly enter no claim
whatever. Revelation, he interprets, according to
his own, no doubt, conscientious judgment. With
his theology, however, we have nothing whatever
to do here in the columns of a newspaper. Our com-
mendations are solely directed to the results of his
labours, not as a theologian, but purely and simply
as a man of letters—as a contributor to our modern
poetical literature. Regarded exclusively in that
light, this latest fruit of those labours cannot but
be pronounced in many ways very remarkable. A
poem has often, before now, been spoken of as a
gem. Were we so to designate this new
poem of Gerald Massey's we could not add
in regard to it, however, that it is " one entire
and perfect Chrysolite." For, to our mind, it has
many a noticeable flaw. Blemishes of thought
and of expression there are that we would gladly
see eliminated in some revised edition of the work
in a more popular form. " I must believe in
ghosts," says the poet, one.while,
"lying awake
With them o' nights, when flesh will pimple and quake."
Surely a phrase intensely and essentially unpoetical.
Again, at another moment, the Murderous Appari-
tion exclaims
" Lo ! I am he, the gloomy sneak, who did
The deed of darkness, fanoying all was hid."
The author in his own person ejaculates elsewhere.—
" I think Heaven will not shut for evermore
Without a knocker left upon the door."
Yearning at least for melody of rhyme, what pos-
sibly can be said in defence of one who couples—
" On the great ocean of Almighty Power
No scope to tako the life-stream from our shore?"
When, at the very close of the second instalment
of the poem, the despairing spectre of the mur-
derer cries out in an agony—
" Would that the Mighty One would spit on me,
And wipe the blot from His eternity!"—
the utterance comes less as an outrage to good taste
than as an outrage against Omnipotence. The work
is full of power, however, and is in many parts the
effusion of a true poet. Among the miscellaneous
contan, which are wonderfully various, there are
hymns and lyrics, there are songs " and other
brevities"—there are the outpourings of patriotism
as in " England," or of loyalty, as in " A Royal
Wedding Chime"—there is homage for "Albert
the Good"—there is appreciative admiration for
William Makepeace Thackeray. In the last men-
tioned we cannot but think thacthe evidences of

affection are rather overdone—as where the eulogist
of W. M. Thackeray exclaims—

" We listened to his voice, as some true Wife,
Upon her Husband's breast may lean her head,
While many things in her dispraise are said
By Him ; but, she leans closer, life to life,
For, while the covert words sound on above,
Their other, deeper meaning she divines ;
She heat s the heart; knows its masonic signs;
And nestles in a bosom large with love."
Or, again, where at the close he is apostrophised—

" Soft, 0 beloved! be your early Rest," &c.
Thackeray would have been the first to resent this
over-tenderness. So indubitably would he, that
we could not for the life of us help recalling to
mind as we read this panegyric, so effusive in its
terms of endearment, the incident of the Jack Tar,
who, either upon his arrival or his departure, while
going the round of a family circle with a kiss to
each of the children—on being threatened with a
similar salutation from an adult brother-in-law,
bawled out, " Vast heaving, you lubber !'—
following up the exclamation with the grip of
a manly hand. Here and there, we are at
fault as to the actual meaning of Gerald
Massey in the strange words drawn into the vortex
of his vocabulary, as where—in the sorrowful little
poem called " The White Child"—he exclaims,

" 0 mothers of children three !

Two of them blight of blee."
What blee may be (beyond a rhyme), being an in-
soluble mystery to ourselves—possibly, it occurs to
us, a provincialism. Tenderly beautiful, however,
are all his verses about children. Fondling a child
in the loving arms of his nurse, he is at these mo-
ments always seen at his very best—his whole
nature being opened to the recognition of the truth
in regard to children, that—

"Trailing clouds of glory do they come
From God, who is their home !"
Seldom has a young poet of the large promise of
Gerald Massey more fully justihed,jthan he himself
has done in the present instance, the reputation
won by him at a bound when he first adopted lite-
rature as his profession. In this " Tale of Eer-
nity" it is no extravagance to say that—

" The Poet's eye, in a line phrenzy rolling,
Glances from Heaven to Earth, from Earth to Heaven."
In his religious creed he may find but few sympa-
thisers, but in the recognition of hie unquesionable
genius as a poet, none but the purblind cynics of
criticism will do otherwise than yield him the full
and cordial admiration to which he is, according to
our view, most certainly entitled.