The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-16 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, MARCH 16, 1866,

national pride and prosperity. A much less clear-
sighted and equitable man thapnAirihßt;lovfJkOeHeNrSiOnNg
might have recognised the impossibility
r r ito r y
sdee dto boast
r military
n
unless theo
sAsotmaleadrsiitcna yse, who
army,
were prepared to make their
military organisation the first question of
their finance and their population. Conscription
and taxation in the North would have, in some
measure, avenged the degradation and wretchedness
which such a system must infallibly have brought
upon the South, but the picture in every aspect
was appalling. The celebration of WASHINGTON'S
birthday on February 22d, with the general holi-
day accompanying it, arrived opportunely for
affording the people a chance of showing their sen-
timents. The public feeling was unmistakeable,
and in almost all the State Legislatures resolutions
were passed endorsing the veto. All day long tele-
grams were received at Washington telling the same
story, and in the evening came the PRESIDENT'S
speech in Washington itself to crown the enthusiasm
of the nation. The Radicals were completely
paralysed. Mr. JOHNSON had followed up one blow
by another, and had rendered the effect of his veto
the more overwhelming by his open denunciation of
the plots and policy of the Radical faction. No
further pretences could avail them in the face of
such direct changes, and as the current of public
feeling was dead against them, and the enthusiasm
on behalf of the PRESIDENT was raised to the highest
pitch, Messrs. STEVENS, SUMNER, PIIILLIPS, and
their followers were thoroughly and unexpectedly
discomfited.
We learn by the Allemania that the same
feeling continued to manifest itself a week later.
Numerous delegations had waited on the PRESIDENT
tendering him their support, and Mr. JOIINSON, in
reply to them, reiterated his determination to pursue
his course unshaken by threats or taunts. He spoke
hopefully of the future, and pointed out to his
hearers that by the early restoration of, the South
her products would be again brought into commerce
whereby financial disaster might be averted. We
may hope that the commercial classes, who must
long ago have appreciated the importance of this
consideration, will exert all their influence
on the side of peace and civil govern-
ment, for they need not be told that
commercial enterprise can never flourish under
military rule. President JOHNSON is not allowed to
suppose he has altogether silenced his adversaries,
for a Radical has just made a furious speech de-
nouncing him, and declaring that he meditated a
coup d'etat, for which he ought to be tried by both
houses and dismissed from office ! So much for
difference of opinion.
The Fenians have made a modest application.
They think that the suspension of the habeas Corpus
Act givos Ireland the right to be treated as a belli-
gerent by the American Government. This idea
shows ingenuity worthy of a better cause.

Street accidents are constantly occurring nowa-
days, and it has become an important matter of
consideration how best to guard against their fre-
quent recurrence, and thus prevent the loss of life
and serious injuries to which all classes are exposed.
During this busy period of the year these casual-
ties increase to a considerable extent, and scarcely
a day passes but we hear of some fresh disaster.
Mr. G. CLIVE, M.P., while returning from the
House, a few nights since, was run over by a cab
and seriously injured. Of course the inadvertence
of foot passengers, and the recklessness of drivers,
occasion many accidents which might otherwise be
avoided, but still it cannot be denied that while the
present state of things continues, it is almost
impossible for those whose business or occupation
takes them constantly along our crowded thorough-
fares to avoid meeting with some accident of more
or less consequence. Any change must be for the
better that affords security to pedestrians, and it
really seems very strange that more of these
attempts should not have been made before this, in
order to secure a greater amount of safety. A
praiseworthy effort is being made in this direction
at a very dangerous spot : two stone halting-places
are being erected in Wellington-street, at the east
and west ends, which will be of great advantage,
and they have long been in requisition in these
places. In consequence of the great traffic to and
(from the South 'Western Railway, and the numerous
vehicles which went down the steep incline from the
North, besides the constant stream passing east and
west along the Strand itself, we may fairly conclude
that some protection is rendered absolutely neces-
sary. The accidents have been very numerous
through the difficulty incurred in passing to and fro
in this direction, and one a short time ago terminated
fatally. It is to be hoped that this plan of erecting
halting-places will be carried out through the me-
tropolis at all the most dangerous places, as the
results cannot be otherwise than satisfactory, for
much time will be saved by those who now wait a
considerable tune in the hopeless effort to cross
with safety, besides the more important desideratum
of security from accident being gained. The ex-
pense of erecting such places is very trifling, con-
sidering the usefulness they answer, and no excuse
can be made by those whose duty it is to look after
such matters of want of knowledge, for it is the
constant topic of conversation, and the ever-recur-
ring theme of complaint that the serious and fatal
accidents to pedestrians should be so much on the
increase. It is a scandal to society at large that so
much time and money should be spent on railways
and other modes of facilitating traffic, and that the
far more important question of providing for public
safety should be neglected, and indeed almost
.nored.

We have certainly never very long to wait for
fresh instances of the intolerance and arbitrary de-
meanour of Prussia, which enviable qualities seem
to be on the increase. General Von MANTEUFFEL,
Governor of Schleswig-Holstein, has published a
decree of the King of PRUSSIA, which is most sig-
nificant. Any attempt to establish, by forcible
means, another authority than that of his MAJESTY
and the Emperor of AUSTRIA in the Duchies is made
punishable by imprisonment with hard labour for a
period of from five to ten years. A sentence of
imprisonment with hard labour, from two to five
years, is to be passed on those who commit acts which
can be regarded as directed to such objects, such
as establishing relations with foreign Powers to
cause their intervention, abusing official authority
for the purpose of causing a change of Government,
and enlisting and drilling men. It is also declared
in the decree that any " instigation to rebellion," in
rd or writing, or designating any other person as
the rightful Sovereign of the country- except theliing of
PRUSsiA, or the Emperor of AUSTRIA, will be treated
with severity, and the offender sentenced to
im-
prisoninent for a period of from three months to
five years. Surely this is going rather far, even for
Berlin autocrats, and it speaks very badly for the
future welfare of the Duchies if they are tobe consigned
to the tender mercies of the Cabinet that can send
forth such decrees as the one we have just alluded
to. It shows at any rate that those assertions are
false which have been so often been made by llerr
BISMARCK and his friends and followers, to the
effect that the inhabitants of the Duchies were almost
unanimous in desiring to be annexed to Prussia.
If such were the case where would b., the necessity

for the to Joption of these stringent measures, and
why shot Id all these threats be uttered ? The fact is
that the se wise men have reckoned without
their hest, and they find that they are
anything but popular in those Duchies where
thcq are thought to rule "do easily. The inhabi-
trialts are now beginningto find out their mistake,
but they have let the lion in, and they will discover
it a more difficult task to turn him out again. We
have not yet come to the end of this strange and
scandalous affair of the German usurpation of the
Duchies ; road before Prussia can be the sole ruler
there, more events may come to pass there un-
dreamt of in the philosophy of Herr BISMARCK
and his Sovereign. Curiosity is naturally
excited as to the course which Austria
will adopt in this matter ; but, of course, she is too
deeply pledged to the scheme of annexation, either
partial or general, to draw back now. The diplo-
matic correspondence that has been going on so
briskly of late between the two countries has slack-
ened a little, and the only demand on the part of
Prussia has been to request the extradition of Dr.
MAY. It is to be hoped that nothing will induce
the Vienna Government to give him up, and if they
do they will show themselves quite unworthy of
their position and character, and totally unmindful
of the claims which honour and justice have upon
those who are in high authority, and presume to
dictate laws affecting the rights and liberties of
States.

LITERATURE.

The New Historical Romancist.

Dion and the Sibyls. A Romance of the First
Century. By Miles Gerald neon, Colonial
Secretary, Bermuda. Two Vols. Bentley.
A very noble and affecting book—let us say it at
once--is this Classical Christian Romance of

" Dion and the Sibyls." We have read it through.

out with the truest and in many respects with the
very highest admiration. It is a literary work of
art, coming within the category of which we take
Sir Bulwer Lytton's exquisite " Last Days of
Pompeii" to be the most conspicuous, and, on the
whole, the matchless specimen. Major White
Melville, it may be remembered among English
readers, only a very few years since, brought out a
kindred fiction, kindred that is to say in some of

its particulars, a tale about the antique gladiators,
a narrative that, as it chanced, hit, and deservedly,

the public fancy of nowadays, immediately upon its
publication by the Messrs. Longman. Several years
prior to this, moreover, Miss Eliza Lynn had produced
her charming story of the Days of Pericles, entitled
" Amymone," a narrative suffused with the tender
graces and the delicate colouring born instinctively
from her womanly sensibility and feminine imagi-
nation. " Dion," however, is of a far higher type,
assumes to itself a place by right upon a far higher
plane of thought, than either of the tales last men-
tioned. Refreshingly enough, in these days of
doubt, not of absolute unbelief, in this age of
Comte and of Mill, of Renan and of Colenso—it is
the work of a profound and earnest believer, not
alone in the grandest and simplest elementary
truths of theology, but in the eternal vitality,
solidity, beauty, and beneficence of the Divine
Scheme of the Redemption, of the whole superstruc-
ture, so to speak, of Christianity built up two
thousand years ago on the primeval and primordial
foundation prepared for it in those same everlasting
truths. It is the work, besides this, we would here
add, as for that matter the composition of it
evidences clearly enough throughout, of a skilled
and practiced man of letters—of a ripe scholar—of
a thinker who can martial his ideas at pleasure, even
the subtlest among them, with the ease of an accom-
plished dialectician. As a historical romance, the
work is in many ways very remarkable. It is
realistic of the whole epoch of which it treats—
that epoch being, moreover, the most momentous
of all in the annals of the human race. Opening
in the eleventh year of Our Lord, it closes in
the thirty-second, it might even be said, in the
thirty-third, the latest incident recounted occur-
ring at a date subsequent to that of the Resur-
rection. Again, opening upon the road to Rome,
it closes in the immediate vicinity of Jerusalem.
It introduces us, among other historical personages,
to Cesar Augustus, to Tiberius, to Caligula when
a malignant little imp of seven, to Claudius and Ger-
i manicus, to Sejanus, and Velleius Paterculus, and
Charicles the physician, and Livy the his-
torian, and Strabo the geographer. It makes
us acquainted with a variety of imaginary
beings of the writer's own creation—beings that
before the tale is half told are little less to us than
historical personages themselves. Foremost among
these the young hero of the narrative, Paulus
Lepidus 2Emilius, first known to us as a slender
stripling—but before the close of the book, though
even then but in the glory of his manhood, a

veteran Legatus or full General in the Roman
army—Paulus, tamer, at the outset of his career,
(after the fashion of Alexander and Bucephalus)
of the mighty Sejan horse—Paulus, rescuer of his
fair sister, Agatha, from the toils of Sejanus and
the lust of Tiberius—Paulus, outwitting all the

villains of the Suburra in the safe conveyance by a

mere handful of men of a ponderous treasure of
gold from the heart of Rome to the distant camp of
Gcrnaanicus—Paulus, who wins so much love and
admiration from us at every turn, now by his dazzling

parry of the murderous blow aimed at him by the
assassin Lygdus, now by his faithful love for the
Jewish maiden, Esther Alaccabeus, now by his in-
genuous ardour, his dauntless valour, his inflexible
determination, and the very nobility of his whole
character, temperament, idiosyncracy. Associated
with him and inextricably bound up with his for-
tunes are—his mother Aglais, his sister Agatha (al-
ready mentioned), his old freedman Philip, his uncle
the ex-Triumvir Lepidus, his brawny, noble-hearted
follower, Thellus, sometime of the arena—together
with Crispus and Crispina, the worthy tavern-
keepers at the Inn of the Hundredth Milestone.
But, beyond all else in their enthralling interest,
immeasurably, ineffably beyond all the other person-
ages, ' whether historical or purely fictitious, here
introduced to us, are the various characters who are
mentioned, either with horror or with veneration, in
the Sacred Narrative. For, strange to tell, there are
to be recognised, here, among the throng of those
already hinted at or above enumerated, as
peopling the pages of this daring Historical
Romance of the First Century, of the very
dawn of the First Century—there are to be recog-
nised here among them Herod Agrippa, the Tetrarch
of Judea ; Caiphas, the High Priest of Jerusalem ;
Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor ; Herodias
and her unblushing daughter ; St. John the Baptist,
and Saint John the Evangelist. The writer of this
extraordinary narrative—extraordinary in the all
but unexampled audacity of its delineations, deli-
neations that would be profane in the mere idea of
them, but for the profound reverence prompting
every touch of their treatment—the writer of " Dion
and the Sibyls " shrinks not even from recounting—
towards the close of his narrative—How, while
Paulus, is meditating one day upon the Mount of
Olives, there passes by him, silently, in the solitude
of the landscape, a Holier One than the Beloved
Disciple, a Holier One than John the Baptist, than
that "prophet, yea, more than a prophet," than John
the Angel of God ! Here is the passage (vol. ii. pp.
316-319) now more immediately referred to, and
one that we give at once precisely as it stands in
the book (merely italicizing one brief sentence of
the extract by reason of our sense of its exquisite
beauty) so as to corroborate upon the instant our
assertion that in the consummate daring of these
imaginings on the part of the writer there is not only
not one iota, or tittle, or scintilla, or molecular atom
of profanity, but directly and absolutely the diame-
trical reverse of profanity, the sense of a profound
and adoring reverence :
As Paulus
onustheus mused, half pronouncing now and then
in words the thoughts we have sketched, and hundreds
upon hundreds of similar thoughts, which we spare to re-
cord,passed him, going down the Mount of
Olives ; and in passing, looked at him, and until Paulus
died, he never ceased to sea that glance, and in dying he