The Sun.
London, England, 1858-11-04 00:00:00

TILE' NAVY.

Admiralty orders have been received at Chatham
for 11 artisans belonging to the dockyard to be
discharged from that establishment on various pen-

LITERATURE,.

Fellow Travellers ; or, the Experience of Life. By
the Author of " Margaret, or Prejudice at Home."

3 vols. Hurst and blackett.

There is much to engage attention in this work;
it is altogether different to the ordinary class of
fictions met with. There is a boldness in the
sketches, a freedom in the style, and a depth in the
thought that forcibly impress the mind of the
reader. The details of the story are in themseelves
singular enough to form an attraction, although
they are secondary to the skill which has chro-
nicled the remarkable characters which appear in
these pages. Avice Desborough, the heroine, is a
delightful creation of fancy ; but she is real in the
delineation of her brave spirit, warm heart, and
pure nature. A life-like semblance seems imparted
to her shadowy existence, as we follow her steps
through the thorny paths in which she seemed
forced to tread. It was not likely that a young
girl, abandoned by all who should have protected
her, as Avice was, could be enabled, by her own
limited experience, to judge correctly as to her
course in life; hence the great error she committed,
in being married to Mr. Thorpe, was excusable to a
certain degree. She had been in the habit of in-
dulging in romantic schemes, and her scrupulosity
was carried to an inordinate excess when she ab-
stained from addressing William Osborne, her
brother's devoted friend, to whom that dying rela-
tive had given the solemn charge to protect
his orphan sister from the dangers that he
saw encompassed her. It would have been more
true courage to have appealed to him than
to have rushed into a union with a comparative
stranger, who, however high-principled and kind-
hearted she might reasonably regard him, was not
possessed of those finer feelings, those nobler sen-
timents, which are the true poetry of life, which,
once inherent in the character, cast all other attri-
butes into the shade. A sadder fate could hardly
have been devised for Avice than to be immured in
such a living tomb as her desolate home amid the
crags of Burnham.- An actual acquaintance with
the world would have been infinitely preferable to
such extreme isolation from all that was genial to
the tastes, sympathising with the affections, or
kindred to the spirit of the enthusiastic Avice.
William Osborne's is a noble character. There are
flaws and deficiencies in it, it is true, but there
are sterling worth to be recognised, and genuine
qualities to be respected. In his scorn of mean-
ness and duplicity, his indignation against tyranny
and oppression, his sympathy with the disressed,
his sorrow for the sorrowful, in the exertion of his
utmost strength for the protection of the weak, the
liberal distribution of his wealth for the relief of
the poor—in these and many other instances he
stands revealed as a member of a glorious commu-
nity, as one of Nature's gentlemen. He might
have been of more service if he had boldly faced
his troubles, instead of shrinking from them, at his
father's death ; but it was as much his unsuspicious
mind as his horror of the scenes that took place at
Staunton Court that induced him to turn and flee
from its precincts, and there was something essen-
tially characteristic of his strong nature in
the resolution planned and carried out of relin-
quishing a princely fortune, and working as if de-
pendent actually on his own exertions for support,
by necessity instead of choice. Catherine Moore
is a very powerful example of the good that may
be effected by decision and promptitude. She was
placed in a most trying situation, but she possessed,
fortunately for her own satisfaction and the welfare
of those she benefited, a clear insight into the
claims of duty, and, once having seen the beacon to
guide her way, she followed on unflinchingly, with
a zeal that deserved to win its goal, and a spirit
whose bravery well merited its victory. The un-
happy life of Miss Osborne is the darkest passage
in the story, and is indeed a melancholy picture to
contemplate. It is not the less likely, however,
when it is remembered how cruel, selfish, and un-
scrupulous were the dispositions of those who were
her tyrants. Mr. Rycroft is ably sketched, as a
man possessed of the most grovelling tendencies,
whose self was his idol, and whose personal pro-
sperity was the only thing he cared for. It would
be difficult to suppose a better representative of
what is termed " of the earth, earthy," than is evi-
denced in the entire career of this successful
schemer. But the hour of retribution came at last,
though its advent was as sudden in its startling
terror as the coming of a thief in the night. It is
remarked in " Coningsby" that " the altars of
Nemesis are beneath every outraged roof," and such
appears peculiarly illustrated in the case before us,
when Mr. Rycroft, fancying himself secure from inva-
sion and safe from discovery, beheld the brother of one
of his victims appear, and, in the name of his de
parted relative, demand justice and insist on resti-
tution. It is a powerful scene in which Catherine
Moore leads in the victim of a life of cruelty, she
who might have been deprived of reason through
her tortures, had not her indomitable courage sus-
tained her strength, and nerved her to endure till
the day when she might hail the overthrow of her
enemies. The false and crafty agent was ejected
from his guilty stronghold by the master, who
should long before have taken up his rule, and
William Osborne, after a long course of years
passed in the turmoil of the world, seemed to
retrace the past and begin life over again. If there
was a subdued light now shining over his path,
and if the spirit of Alice Thorpe could not rejoice
as in the smiling days of her youth, it was the
touch of time that had left an impress, and not the
stings of a troubled conscience, nor the remorse for
wasted opportunities that haunted their past as a
moth fretting a garment, or hovered over their
future to blight the flower of its promise. The
success that crowned their sufferings is described
as " one of the noble triumphs that ,May be
achieved in time by faithfulness and high belief,
by singleness and purity of purpose and aim, that
stand out grandly amid all grand endeavours in
vindication and assertion of the everlasting
life of man." Throughout the narrative
there are many personages met with, who are
delineated with much skill and adroitness.
Mies de Burgh, the old gentlewoman, who lived in
her retirement, apart from the gay world in which
her former companions mingled, is a finished pic-
ture of her peculiar class, simple and true-hearted
—a warning to the heedless crowd who passed her
idly by—a living example to those dead to the duties
of their responsible positions. The sister of Avice,
the giddy countess, is very naturally described as
a selfish woman of fashion, who forgot the ties of
kindred, and ignored everything great or small,
but what immediately interfered with her comfort,
or could possibly conduce to her benefit. It is not
often that so able a work oomes under the notice of
the critic, or attracts the admiration of the reader
of romances, as the one before us. It records not
only the visible world of action, but reveals
glimpses of the hidden world of thought. In its
powerful expressions and vivid sketches, it dis-
plays that knowledge of human nature which all
must possess who would truly typify the might
and mystery of its ruling passions. It is, in
every sense, a superior production ; and, as such,
it will doubtless obtain esteem and consideration
from those who can distinguish the genuine front
the counterfeit, and be charmed with the creation
of a master-mind..

THE LATE COLLISION ON THE OX-
FORD RAILWAY..

DUDLEY, WEDNESDAY.
It will be remembered that while Mr. T. M.
was holding
Phillips, the coroner for Staffordshire,
his inquest on the bodies of 14 of the unfortunate
excursionists who came by their death by the colli-
sion of two holiday trains on the above line of rail-
way, near the Round Oak station, another was
added to the list of victims—Mrs Hodges, who died
at Prince's End. This being in the ,distriet of
another, Mr. Hincheliffe, that gentleman formally
opened an inquest on the body, but adjourned It
until after Mr. Phillips should have finally con-
eluded his inqu'ry.
Accordingly yesterday Mr. Hingcliffe was occu-
pied at Prince's End, near the place, with the in-
quest on Mrs. Hodges. It is unnecessary to go
again into the evidence as it was a mere repetition
of what was given on the inquest before Mr.
Phillips on the fourteen other sufferers at Brierly-
hill, full reports of which have already been pub-
lished in The Sun.
The jury, after devoting twelve hours to the in-
quiry, returned (as in the inquest at Brierly-hill)
a verdict of " Manslaughter" against Cook, the
guard in charge of the break of the retreating train;
but they did not accompany their verdict, as in the
former inquiry, by any charge of blame against the
Oxford, 'Worcester, and Wolverhampton. Railway
Company. They, however, expressed an opinion
that Harris,,
the officer who accompanied the train
from Wolverhampton to Worcester in the morning,
ought, on his arrival at the latter town, to have
informed Mr. Adcock, the secretary, that Cook had
had
passengers in the break van with him.

CURIOUS DOWN-lIILI, JOURNEY .—As some young
girls Were a few days ago playing on the side of a hill near
Asti, in Piedmont, one of them to amuse herself crept into
a large barrel which was lying there, propped up by a few
s'ones. Her companions, by way of a joke, and without
thinking of the serious consequences that might have oc:
curred, removed the stones and set the cask in motion, and
it kept rolling until it reached the bottom of the hill, a dis-
t nice of about 250 yards. Several persons who witnessed
the progress of the cask were amused by the numerolo
bounds it made in consequence of the obstacles it met with,
but they were alarmed at finding on its reaching the bottomthat there was some one inside.
Stran to say, on the girl
being released from her awkward position, it was found that
all the injury she had sustained was some slight scratcaes
and a few trifling bruises.