The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-30 00:00:00

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.

The Minerva, from Rotterdam, was at Boston. Sho
shipped a heavy sea on the quarter, which stove right stan-
chions, on the 25th of November ; on the sth ult. shipped a
sea, which stovo bulwarks and seven stanchions ; and on
the 28th, in another gale, stove more bulwarks, the long-
boat, and main hatch.
The Wieland, from Bremen, arrived at Now York on the
6th ult. In lat. 49, long. 7, fell in with a British barque,
hailing from London, which appeared to be in distress ;
wore ship and lay too. Saw a boat lowered from the barque,
and all on board appeared to get into it. The wind was
blowing a gale from N.W., with a very heavy sea, and it
coming on dark lost sight of the boat; lay to for three
hours, but could see no signs of her; captain thinks all
lands perished.

LITERATURE.

Lethelier. By Edward Heneage Dering. 2 vole.

Hurst and Blaciett.

This is a peculiar style of book, which evinces
considerable knowledge of foreign literature, and
displays great insight into character. The story
is melancholy in the extreme, but it successfully
carries out its object of proving the serious conse-
quences and fatal results that often ensue from
the conduct here described, The reader does not
feel so great an interest in Ernest Lethelier as the
story proceeds, for he was too much of a fatalist,
and did not sufficiently exert himself to shape his
own course. As for his brother, Walter, he was a
man who does not attract the slightest sympathy,
and notwithstanding the fact that he was unjustly
represented at times, he prevented, by his own im-
perious demeanour, the calling forth of that sym-
pathy which unfair treatment always elicits. The
heroines of the story are really unfortunate, for
they were of course precluded from expressing
their convictions, and all seemed to conspire against
them. Their different characters manifested them-
selves in different ways, but the language of despair
was alike uttered by both. Constance was deli-
cate, and the repeated shocks she had sustained
were too much for her, so that when at last all
doubts seemed removed, and all difficulties done
away with, her spirit passed away from the sad
world in which, lovely and gentle as she was, she
had endured, in her brilliant life, much suffering
and sorrow. Valentia acted rather inconsistently
in engaging herself to Ernest, but a long series of
persecutions and base deceptions had wrought her
excitable nature to such a state that she was hardly
to be blamed for her conduct. She pined to escape
from the constant interference of her aunt. Miss
Devonport allowed no opportunity to pass of en-
forcing her arguments, and she was the secret
agent who had worked such direful mischief in
intercepting all letters that had passed between
Valentia and Walter. The cunning and malignity
of this lady are very accurately described, and she
is undoubtedly the prototype of the torment of
many an afflicted household. With equal skill is
the portrait of Lady Fakenham portrayed. She is
the fac-simile of the gossips of high life, who create
as much mischief as the busy-bodies of a lower
sphere—they wander through gilded saloons re-
tailing, with the embellishments of a refined man
ner, their embroidered facts. Little do those among
them, who, like Lady Fakenham, are well-disposed
in themselves, reflect how much misery they cause,
and how many wicked actions they are responsible
for. If told of them, they would doubtless exclaim
with consternation—

" The human sorrow and smart,
And yet it never was in my soul
To act so base a part.
But evil is wrought by want of thought,
As well as by want of heart."
It is no justification for their conduct that they do not
take the consequences into consideration, because
there are sins of omission as well as of commission,
and the persistence in the former will be as
fatal as the latter in many cases. In connection
with other causes, Lady Fakenham was the means
of blighting the existence of all the chief persons
here mentioned, and of consigning the fair young
Constance to a premature grave. Acton, with all
his Cynicism, is a fine manly character, and the
little we see of him is a relief after the morbid
style of Ernest Lethelier, and the worldliness which
disfigures the tribe of fashionabks. Of them Mor-
ton is an agreeable exception, and Lady Faken-
ham might have taken a useful lesson from him,
for partial as he was to detailing scraps of intelli-
gence, he never went beyond the boundaries of
good taste and fine feeling. Thus he never offended
tiny one, and, what was of far more consequence,
he never had to reproach himself with being the
eause of evil to any one, either directly or indirectly.
Lady Erpingham is a charming character, well
depleted; her brilliant and sparkling conversations
are a great enlivenment to the gory, which mitu.