The Sun.
London, England, 1861-07-06 00:00:00

BANK RETURNS.

The Bankers' Magazine furnishes the returns of the cir-
culation of the Private and Joint-Stock Banks in England
and Wales for the four weeks ending June 1. These
returns, combined with the circulation of the Scotch and
Irish Banks for the, same period, and the average circula-
tion of the Bank of England for the four weeks ending the
29th of May (the nearest date furnishei by their returns),
will give the following results of the circulation of notes in
the United Kingdom, when compared with the previous
month :

May 4, June 1, ,
1861. 1861. Increase. Decrease.
Banle of England 20,199,96 19,850,4'26 349,535
Private Banks 3,358,126 3,,09.275) 148,851
Joint-stock Banks 3,067,043 2,942,162
545,861 124,881
Total in England. 236:9C2875:914350 246:500331:880693: 623,267
Scotland...
Ireland 6,524085/ 6,329,831,1 —---
191,354
United Kingdom. 37,137,260 36,865,503 ..---
271,757

LITERATURE.

BULWER'S LIBRARY EDITION.

It is the " prose epic" of Harold that within the
last two months has been placed in the hands of
the subscribers to this noble edition of the Novels
and Romances of our English Boccaccio. Fre-
quently as the work has come before us ere this, in
reprint after reprint, it has never appeared under
a more attractive guise than in these two volumes,
the twentieth and twenty-first (not as the publishers,
by some unaccountable miscalculation, reckon them
to be in their advertisement, the twenty-first and
twenty-second) of the present re-issue in a collected
form of Sir Edward Lytton's extended and world-
famous series of imaginative compositions. A
reviewer in the Edinburgh, incidentally referring
to this historic romance of Harold, shortly after its
original appearance (it was in a criticism upon
" Mabillon"), first directed attention to the exquisite
'adroitness, the cunning of hand, the skilful balance
of judgment, by the aid of which the writer of this
remarkable fiction, delineative of the Rise and Fall
of the last of the Saxon Kings, combined in his
enthralling story of " Harold" the most loyal
adherence to the truth of history with the most
poetic regard to the presence everywhere through-
out his narrative of the beavtiful and the pic-
turesque. No praise was ever more richly merited.
It is an eulogium that the author of " Harold" had
earned by his extended and laborious investigations
as an antiquarian and as an archaeologist. The
assiduous toil with which he has authenticated the
accuracy of his every statement, historically con-
sidered, may be recognised throughout the work, in
the terse but ample because direct and explicit
references (in the shape of foot-notes, Sec.) to
the very page and volume of the remote anna-
lists, and the antique chroniclers. Upon a
minuter, upon, so to speak, a more microscopic exa-
mination of " Harold," however, the amplitude in
scope and the precision in detail of these prelimi-
nary historical and archaeological investigations on
the part of the Romancist become more and more
appreciable to the reader, more and more fully
elicit from him mingled words of gratitude and ad-
miration. Now it is by reason of those resolute
labours on the part of Sir Bulwer Lytton—before
ever he took peu in hand to write these radiant
pages of Harold, that the readers of Harold are
enabled to look upon the scenes and events, the
persons and the localities therein depicted—with a
perfect reliance the while upon the trustworthiness
of the wonder-working Magician within whose
magic circle (the outline of this literary microcosm)
they stand entranced ! The spell that is upon them
throughout coming only to a close indeed with the
last tremulous movement of that true Wizard's
wand when wielded by a writer of real genius the
steel pen or the " gray goose quill." Researches
like those with which Sir Bulwer Lytton qualified.
himself to depict thus accurately the historic and
romantic career of King Harold but too frequently,
as the rea'ers of this class of fiction are well aware,
result in pedantry, or in what may be caled a dull
over-weight of authentications. From this the
irrepressible vitality and elasticity of our author's
abounding imagination would infallibly have
guarded him at ail times, ueder even the most un-
favourable circumstances. But, as if to guard him-
self effectually from the risk of any such detrimental
influence being apparent in his historic romance of
" Harold," Sir Edward appears to have made his
researches as a whole—a preliminary. We have
evidence of this, in fact, in the extraordinary
rapidity with which this "prose epic," in a dozen
books, was written. Shutting himself up a volun-
tary prisoner in the library of the country house of
his friend the Right Hoe. Charles Tennyson D'Eyn-
i court, the novelist, within the astonishingly brief
interval of two or three weeks at the outside, penned
—certainly it must have been con amore, manifestly
it was from first to last currente calamo—the whole
of this tragic and pathetic story of " Harold." For
the wonderful speed with which it was accomplished,
particularly remembering at the same time the sur-
prising elaboration of its accomplishment, the writ-
ing of Harold by Bulwer as a literary achievement
may rank with the writing of the Corsair by Byron
—the " Corsair" having (as Moore relates) been
written entirely within the compass of a fort-
night. Aristotle's advice about the nine years is
all very well no doubt in the long run—but rare
and shining instances like these—instances visible
here and there in the empyrean of Literature—
afford resplendent illustration of the absolute in-
dependence of genius of all the times and seasons
set down with rigid formality in the Critic's
Almanack. Byron 's " Corsair" penned within a
fortnight, Bulwer's " Harold," produced within an
interval of equal brevity—of still more surprising
brevity, remembering, as we ought, the far larger
dimensions of the latter production and the ever-
present need there was for historial accuracy
throughout every part of its composition—Byron's
" Corsair," we say, written within a fortnight,
Bulwer's "Harold," written with yet greater
swiftness, Dryden's " Ode to St. Cecilie," written
within twenty-four hours, Burns' " Tam o'Shanter,"
written (with bursts of weeping and laughter)
within a very few days—each of these famous
masterpieces (with others here unenumerated)—not
having been laid by "nine years," nor yet for that
matter nine months, but published immediately
upon its completion, is known to have won its way
to popularity, to an enduring popularity upon the
instant of its appearance.

EXPLOSION OF A MAIL-TRAIN

ENGINE.

RUGBY, JULY 5.
Last night, shortly after half-past ten o'clock, a
fearful explosion of a powerful locomotive engine,
which had brought down the Irish mail train from
London, took place on the Trent Valley line, about
four miles from this place, resulting in frightful
injuries to the engine-driver and fireman, a post-
office clerk, and serious injury to several passengers,
caused by the !hidden break down and stoppage of
the train, as well a 3 involving a vast destruction of
property.
The Irish mail left Euston Station at its proper
time on Thursday evening (8.30), and proceeded at
the rate of a little over 40 miles per hour, arriving
at Rugby. at 10 25. The engine then appeared to
be in perfect order, and the driver, as is usual, pro-
ceeded to one of the stand pipes on the down line
to take in water. Having filled his boiler, he came
back and couplied on to the mail train, and pro-
ceeded on his journey. The engine and train had
proceeded about four miles down the Trent Valley
line, in the direction of Nuneaton, and had just at-
tained its usual running speed, when an explosion
took place, and the whole of the upper part of the
engine and boiler, fire and firebox, indeed, every
part of the machinery, excepting some few of the
tubes, were dashed into thousands of pieces;
the framework of the engine, as well as the
tender, was thrown over, and partially down,
an embankment, whilst the guard's break van,
and the post-office, which was next to it, were
in an instant heaped one upon the other, some
being splintered and smashed. The explosion was of
such a character that it was distinctly heard both
at Rugby and Nuneaton ; and with as little delay
as possibly engines with assistance were despatched
to the spot. The driver and stoker were found at
the bottom of the embankment dreadfully scalded
and otherwise injured, the latter so much so that
he had to be conveyed to an adjacent village, where
he shortly after, it is stated, expired. A clerk in
the post-office was, by the violence of the shock,
dashed from one end of the post-office carriage to
the other with such violence as to cause bim the
most serious injuries, which, having been attended
to, he was removed, together with the engine driver,
lieto thein a Royal
hopeless
i t
tl i an tn
e Several s
medical where they
men speedily arrived from Rugby at the spot where
the explosion took place, and it was then found that
some five or six passengers were more or less in-
jured; some were conveyed on to Birmingham,
whilst others, at their own request, Were taken
back by the up-mail train to London. Telegraphs
of the occurrence were at once conveyed to Wolver-
ton, and Mr. M'Connell, the locomotive superin-
tendent, with a large body of workmen, speedily
arrived, but notwithstanding their exertions the
down-line remained blocked up till an advanced
hour this morning, and the down-train had to pro-
ceed for some distance on the up-line.
The explosion took place under almost similar
circumstances to the locomotive explosion which
occurred some few months back whilst .em-
ployed in the works of the dun erground
railway at the Great Northern Station at King's
Cross. It is believed that in running the long
distance between London and Rugby •
at high speed
the plates of the fire box had become over heated,
in fact red hot, and that when the engine, after
taking in fresh water,
got into full motion, the
Pumping of the cold water into the boiler from the
tender caused the steam to generate to so great an
extent that the plates ciuld not bear the pressure,
and hence the explosion. It will be remembered
that in the King's cross case, the engine did not
explode till it was put in motion some time after
the water had been pumped into the boiler. During
yesterday Mr. Cawkwell, the general manager, and.
other authorities of the line, visited the spot for the
purpose of instituting an inquiry into
. the cause of
the catastrophe. It has
.been impossible, at the
present moment, to ascertain the names of the pas-
seng-rs injured, or the exact nature of their injuries,
but they are reported to be progressing favourably.

Colonel Durand, C. 8., left England yesterday
for Calcutta, having previ3usly resigned his seat as a mem-
ber of the India Council. The Election to fill the vacancy
thus created will take place in about a fel Wight.