The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-04 00:00:00

MARLBOROUGII-STREET.

MAKING TOO FREE WITH TIER KNlFE.—Benjamin Button,
a leather cutter, residing in Bermondsey, was charged be-
fore Mr. Tyrwhitt as follows: —Pawson, 121 0, said that
shortly after seven the previous evening he saw the pri-
soner drunk and behaving in a very disorderly manner in
Great Chapel-street, Oxford-street. The prisoner, who
caused a great disturbance, then ran away. A person then
said that the prisoner had attempted to stab him, and he
went after him and took him into custody, and found in his
pocket a knife.

Mr. James Humphreys, of No. 14, Great Chapel-street,
said that while passing up the street a person asked him
the cause of the disturbance. Ho said he did not know,
but that he had seen two men fighting ; then the prisoner
stepped up and said, "If you make a laugh of it I will give
you this," at the same time taking a knife f.tom out of his
sleeve and holding it close to his face, " and the first man
who comes out of Pickford's office I'll be hanged for."
In answer to Mr. Tyr Whitt, the witness said the pri-
soner was an entire stranger to him, and he had not given
him any provocation. Ho believed the prisoner was
drunk and mistook him for some person at Pickford's (the
carrier's) office.

The prisoner said he had a drop of ale with some of his
shopmates, and while at the public-house a stranger came
in and drank out of his glass. This led to a fight between
them, but he remembered nothing about taking out a
knife to the witness.

Mr. Tyrwhitt said persons who were in the habit of
drawing knives on the slightest occasion must be shown
that such a thing could not be permitted, and the prisoner
must therefore find bail to keep the peace for six months.

The Danubian Principalities.

A circular note, addressßeducounAttST2,o
last, by Prince John Ghika, the Minister for Foreign
.tlha Februaryreh
29.
Affairs in the Roumanian Provisional Government,
to the representatives of the guaranteeing Powers
in this capital, has just appeared.
' After briefly alluding to the deposition of Prince
Couza and the election of the Count of Flanders as
the new llospodar, the note proceeds :
" When the signatory Powers of the Treaty of
Paris consulted the Roumanians as to their wishes
for the future organisation of the country the latter
did not fail to reply in all sincerity to that appea
of Europe, which took the Principalities under her
protection. The divans ad hoc, the exact and sin-
cere representatives of all classes, unanimously
stated, after mature deliberation, their principal
desires ; foremost among which were the union and
hereditary rule of a foreign prince chosen from one
of the reigning families of Europe. But although
the assemblies had striven to explain the absolute
necessity of fulfilling this twofold wish, in order to
secure and consolidate the existence of the people,
the Powers did not think fit to accede to it at once,
and the Roumanian nation was forced to proceed to
the election of a native prince. This happened after
20 years of a state of things whose condition had
not furnished men of the future with the opportunity
of developing their abilities, of proving their strength,
and of creating for themselves a name which gave
them authority—a circumstance which combined
with the reciprocal distrust and jealousy arising
from the strife of parties, and whose inevitable effect
was the exclusion by each other of all men of any
value. What but absolute negation could result
from these data ?
" The Roumanians had foreseen, as shown by the
detailed votes of the assemblies, the lamentable con-
sequences of the election of a native prince. These
consequences are enumerated in the statement of
the ad hoc divan which met at Jassy. Neverthe-
less, all parties did not fail to rally around the
newly-elected ruler, in order to support him with
all their strength.. But they were unfortunately
obliged to perceive and to admit from day to day.
that Prince Couza, entertained a positive repug-
nance to men of principle and conviction. It was
not long before he was surrounded by a clique
against whom the most conciliatory were obliged
to display their just dislike. Nevertheless, setting
aside differenees, men of all parties, after mutual
concessions, had; I repeat, united their efforts to
provide a peaceful remedy for a condition of affairs
daily becoming more difficult.

"It was in vain for the friends of the prince,
thwarted in their cupidity by a chamber which in-
sisted upon controlling the employment of the tax-
payers' money, profited by their ascendancy to use
it in representing those who endeavoured to turn
the sovereign from his evil courses as obstacles to
the welfare of the country, and, by dint of falsify-
ing the truth as to men and things, they succeeded
in justifying the coup d'etat of May 2, 1864, in the
sight of Europe. Subsequent facts were of a cha-
racter to undeceive tho public mind. Far from
procuring for the country a government strong by
the organisation of an intelligent administration,
and by impartial justice, the coup d'etat only acce-
lerated the disorganisation by giving free vent to
the rapacious instincts of the men who lived on
terms of intimacy with the prince, or with his
friends, and who were in possession of his favours.

They were able, lastly, to reign without control,
and we had thus the spectacle of a Government
devoid of shame and of every moral sense. Under

the Government which then weighed upon it the
nation felt itself humiliated and dishonoured in the
sight of Europe. The general discontent among all
classes was the precursor of an overthrow as inevit-
able as it was desired. Partialities and injustice of
all kinds had finished by affecting the army,frequently
employed to serve against unarmed men, seduced in
front of the cannon by the intrigues of the police
and by fictitious plots. holidays were converted
into seasons of ang'iish and mourning, while the
troops were under arms, and citizens dragged to
prison. The affair of Aug. 3, brought about by police
provocations, unsealed the eyes of the army, and
made it aware of the odious artdrsinister part it had
unconsciously played in that horrible party tragedy.
Thence arose a reaction due to its neglect. In ordi-
nary times the best officers were suspected and dis-
graced. Promotion was the recompense of intrigue,
or the result of favouritism. Speculations were en-
tered into in the supplies, all the susceptibilities of
officers were wounded, their military honour was
affronted. Service became impossible under a Go-
vernment that had lost all moral influence over the
minds of the army and the people.
" To sum up, anarchy and improbity, denial of
every principle of justice, rash reform of laws affect-
ing the most vital interests, toleration of the most
scandalous abuses ; the summons to or maintenance
in the public service of persons of bad reputation,
always ready to sacrifice the general welfare to their
selfish ends ; corruption or threats employed in
parliamentary and municipal elections, open inter-
ference in private litigation, and consequently pres-
sure brought to bear upon the magistrates and high
functionaries to force them to deliver judgments
foreign to equity and repugnant to their consciences;
utter heedlessness and waste of the public funds to
the most alarming extent, entailing a poverty of
which the treasury will long feel the deplorable
effects; absolute want of credit,with:the;impossibility
up to the present time of its being raised either at
homo or abroad ; lastly, to complete the work, de-
moralisation in all branches of the public service,
contempt for family, property, and religion. Such
is the sum total of the responsibility resting upon
the late Government, which the Roumanian nation,
after seven long years of exemplary resignation,
found itself compelled to displace to avoid being
dragged into the abyss whither the sovereign was
rapidly hurrying."

All these evils, the circular deduces, were the
result of the Roumanians having been compelled to
elect a native prince. If these calamities are not to
recur, the only combination, says Prince Ghika,
" capable of offering guarantees of stability and
prosperity," is the appointment of a foreign sove-
reign as the future liospodar. The note concludes
with an earnest appeal to the sagacity and good-will
of the guaranteeing Powers, in concert with the
Sublime Porte, to furnish a remedy so ardently de-
sired by the entire population of the two Princi-
palities.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE.

---♦ -

SOUTH-WESTERN AND LUDGATE-HILL.

Yesterday the connecting line between the Metro-
politan Extension (Ludgate-hill) of the London,
Chatham, and Dover Railway and the Clap-
ham junction of the South-Western Company,
was opened for public traffic with much success.
The first train was started from the new station at
Kingston, under the supervision of Mr. W. God-
son and Mr. W. M. Williams, the passenger super-
intendent of the South Western Railway, at eight
o'clock, and reached Ludgate-hill at 95, passing on
its route the Richmond, Clapham Junction, Brix-
ton, Camberwell New-road, Elephant and Castle,
and Blackfriars-bridge stations. The earliest down
trains left Ludgate-hill at 910 a.m., under the
management of the officials of the London, Chat-
ham, and Dover Railway, and by the same route
arrived at Kingston at 10 29. There are 15 trains
each way daily, all of which are first, second, and
third class. Only ten up and ten down trains,
however, run from Ludgate-hill to Kingston and
vice versa, the rest simply performing a service be-
tweeh the City and Clapham Junction. There
will be no Sunday trains over the new line during
this month.

MANCHESTER, SHEFFIELD, AND LINCOLN-
SHIRE.

The total expenses of this company's railways
and canals, including rents, tolls, duty, &c., from
January 1 to March 25,1866, amounted to £117,296
as against £103,388 for the corresponding period
of 1865. The proportion of the South Junction
receipts accruing to this company from January 1
to March 25 amounted to £8,855, as against £7,805
for the corresponding period of 1865 i and the ex-
penses to £5,315, as against £4,407.

ON BATTING.

Quot komines, tot sententice. As many cricketers
so many different styles of batting. And till a man
has found out his own style, and has ascertained its
limits and its capabilities, its weakness and its
strength, and has so habituated himself to it that he
may be relied on never to wander into tricks and
freaks—into regions of unfamiliar effort—he will
never be able to bat efficiently. Batting is in this
respect the act antithesis to bowling. In bowling
you never can imitate too much ; in batting you
never can imitate too little. Bowling is a mechani-
cal exercise, and the more mechanical you make it
the better you will bowl. If you can drop all your
individuality, so to speak, and make your arm work
with the monotony and regularity of a machine, and
keep the motion of the rest of your body in exact
time and harmony with the motion of your arm, your
success as a bowler will be assured. Batting con-
sists in freely and easily using such power as you
have at the exact moment when it is wanted. For
this your own eye and your own judgment is the
only guide ; your strength of arm and play of wrist
the only limit; and no amount of study of the play
of others will give you either the one or the other.
A batsman, nascitur non fit ; abowler,fit non nascitur.
It follows from this that you should never estimate
a batsman according to the greater or less perfec-
tion of his style, as compared with some ideal stan-
dard that you may have set up in your own mind,
but according to the efficiency of his style, as de-
liberately adopted by him, be it of what sort it may,
for practical purposes. What does it matter if a
man's style is ugly ? Pretty things are seldom the
most substantial. And so in batting. Look at a
man's performances, not at the attractions of his
style. Take, for example, Mr. It. D. Walker.
.No one can say that he is beautiful as a bats-
man ; but the best bowlers in England
breathe more freely when he walks away from
the wickets. Mr. E. M. Grace, also ; he offends
against every rule, against every tradition, against
every theory, except his own, which is, that every
ball off the wickets ought to be hit, no matter what
its pitch or what its pace. And he not only has
this theory, but he puts it in practice also ; and he
gets more runs, my dear young friend, in one year
than you will get in your whole lifetime. And re-
member that these two gentlemen, so opposite in
everything else, have one thing in common, which
they both know how to do, and which they both do
in the same way, that is, they can stop a straight
hall. Now, many brilliant hitters cannot stop a
straight ball, and hence their average never comes
up to the expectation of their friends or of them-
selves. But after a man has mastered this diffi-
culty, and has acquired patience enough to enable
him to stop dozens of straight balls in succession
(and if you can stop one, why not twenty ?), then
let him find out his own way of playing the loose
bowling. And when he has found it out, be it awk-
ward or be it easy, be it slow or be it fast, it will
pay in the end, and that is enough. But how ab-
surd, because Mr. Hodson stands with his hat over
his shoulder, like Hercules with his club, for you
or for me to do the same ; or because Mr. Drake
drives a straight-shooter for six, for you or for me
to attempt to do likewise ; or because Wells takes
guard within an inch of her stumps, for you or for
me to imitate him. These, like hundreds of other
boatmen, have their peculiar ways and habits, and
you must have your ways and habits also. First of
all then, get a good practice bowler ; and secondly,
choose your own bat, your own attitude, your own
distance from the wicket for guard, and take no ad-
vice from anybody. If you have any zeal for thegame,
the annoyance of finding your middle stump con-
tinually knocked down will soon make you pretty
ready to stop a straight ball. And when you have

learned bow to secure from the snare of the bowler,
the still greater annoyance of being caught out, and
having your newly-acquired science prematurely
knocked on the head, will make you wary of falling
into the gin of an alert field. It is a simple ques-
tion of whether you are annoyed or not. If a man
finds his ammonia and gentian in the morning
nasty, he will take care not to drink too much
champagne and claret at night ; and if you find it
nasty to be bowled out and caught out, you will
take care not to repeat that dainty flourish which
cost you your middle stump, or that rollicking
swipe by which a watchful cover-point duly pro-
fited. Try to make something of every loose ball.
Never mind if you cannot make as much as you
want. Everyone cannot hit sixes. But two's are
very useful. If there is a nice open place in the
field, of course you will try and hit there, and then
never mind whether you hit up in the air or across
wicket. The hits may be bad, but they will be
safe ; and a bad hit, like a petty larceny, is only a
bad thing when you are caught at it.

Defend me from a man with one hit ! He is like
a man with one joke--always thinking of it, always
hungering to bring it in, discontented in having to
wait unrelieved of it, only moderately successful if
it does come off, and a dismal failure if he attempts
it at the wrong moment. Besides, after two or
three times, everyone knows his hit by heart, and
the field accordingly, so that he very soon ceases to
profit by his special gift. Just so a man who has
one particular finesse at whist. It goes down for a
night or two, and then everybody knows it so well
that the adversaries reap more advantage from the
knowledge than the partner. Little solitary cases
of excellence are of not much use in the midst of a
desert of incompetence. A man who hits somehow
all round is sure to be of profit to his side ; a man
who hits brilliantly, but only in one direction, is
nothing worth.

Hurry is the bane of young batsmen. They ap-
pear to think that life is so short that they
must cram enough hitting for a week into an
innings of 10 minutes. Hence those wild move-
ments of the arms ; hence that uncouth plunging of
the body; hence the furious blows at unoffending
air, while the ball, uncut, undriven, undrawn,
glides silently by. But, patience ! only keep a little
of that energy for a few minutes ; be content to
play a few balls quietly, without attempting to
make runs of them, and the opportunity will come.
You do not always have Grundy and Lillywhite
bowling at you ; you will often play in matches
where you will sigh for a straight ball, but no
ball will come. A glance at the field (particularly
noting where any weak men stand), a little calcula-
tion of pace and time, and a moderate use of wrist
and muscle, and, behold! the numbers ore the tele-
graph will increase in decades with a cheerful and
most exciting rapidity. And when your end comes,
it will be the end of most tolerable players in an
amateur country match—you will be caught by the

..
worst field off the worst hit from the worst ball
bowled by the worst bowler in the Two Elevens.

Do not undervalue a stick. He may not be orna-
mental, but he is always useful ; for he is disagree-
able—very ; and a disagreeable person on a side is
invaluable, for he spoils the temper of the adver-
saries, and if they lose their temper they lose their
game. He also acts as a check on the impetuosity
of his own side. They curse him, but they know
his worth really. He is medicihe to them. He is

a pill—without gilding. His attractions are not
enticing, but he works. And remember this : he

stops an immense number of good balls, which the

dashing, slashing players of his side would let slip

past them into their wickets. Ile makes the rough
places plain, and paves the way for success.
I have prosed, perhaps too much, but some kind
reader might ask, Are there no living types of what

a good batsman should be ? Are there none of

whom you can say, These are men worth looking
at—men worth coining miles to see? and I would

not have him go unanswered. Certainly, I reply ;
there are very many whom I would go miles to see,
for I am catholic in my tastes. I like to see Mr.

Fawcett hit the best balls of the best bowler, over
the best bowler's astonished head, ball after ball,

without an effort, without any visible exercise of

strength, and appear as unconcerned and as fresh

after he bas scored 100 as I do before I have scored

10. I like to see Mr. Lyttelton raise his arms, for

one knows what is going to follow before it comes.
I like to see Mr. Mitchell play every ball as it should
be played, but make twice as much of every ball as
anybody else could. I like to see Mr. Drake, and

Mr. Drake's wonderful bat, and the wonderful way
_ _

in which the ball flies off it. I like to see Mr.

Grace play with a crocked bat, and Mr. Norman