The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-14 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

The World's Verdict. By the Author of "The
I‘Jorals of May Fair," &C. Three Vols. Hurst
and Blackett.
This is a very peculiar novel, but while the story
contains many painful passages, it is related with
so much force and earnestness that it irresistibly
fixes the attention. The description of George
Rutherford is a very good one ; it exhibits in a
striking manner, how a man of good intentions
can be led on to commit actual crime through
vacillation and indecision. He was remarkably
foolish in marrying Laura Bellayne, and he did not
retrieve his act of folly by his subsequent conduct in
refusing to follow the advice of his friends, and
neglecting to watch his flighty companion.
He accelerated the catastrophe which subsequently
befel him. Then by his ill-judged haste and frantic
violence ho made himself the ridicule of an unfeel-
ing set. The character of Laura is drawn with
great skill, from her first appearance in the painting
room of her unhappy victim to her final exhibition
in the salons at Spa. The scene between her and
Lily is admirably described, and a more affectin g
picture of misery on one side and cruelty on the
other is rarely met with in the pages of romance.
Lily was much to blame for leaving her home in
so clandestine a manner. Miss Finch, though
cold and stern, she knew to be a safe guardian ; and
young as she was she had had sufficient ex-
perience in suffering to teach her wiser and better
lessons than to follow the suggestions of an entire
stranger. However, what there was of folly in.her
conduct she amply expiated in the sad year which
followed her departure from Brighton. She died at
the early age of eighteen a victim to the cruelty
and selfishness of one who professed entire devotion
to her. Lord Dicewood is an apt representative of
a man of the world, in whom all feeling had been
long extinguished. Had he been left to follow
his own inclinations in youth, he might have led a
very different career. It is not to be wondered at
that, after such barbarous conduct on the part of
his parents, his feelings were embittered against
human nature. Janet Rutherford, with her
plain style and straightforward manner, is
a positive relief after the worldly cant
and morbid sentimentality of some of the
other personages met with. To her right was
right, and wrong was wrong. However awkward
or unpleasant the task she had to perform, it was
always done if her conscience dictated it. Had
her brother sought her advice in the two momen-
tous events of his life, his fate would have been
very different ; but, unhappily for him, his wild
ungovernable spirit would not brook the slightest
contradiction. If Janet's discretion had guided
him at first, and her high principle actuated him
at the last, his home need never have been dis-
graced by the presence of Laura Bellayne, and
above all, he would not have had the torturing
conviction that he had blighted the life of the
young girl who so implicitly trusted him, and sent
her in sorrow to an early grave. Flamstead is a
very ludicrous specimen of humanity ; he is intro-
duced to us in the first scene, when he and Ruther-
ford are sitting on the cliff at Brighton. He be-
haved in the most absurd manner, pretending that
he had acquaintance with the aristocracy of the
place. At last he exclaimed, " Do let us walk some-
where else, I am really quite tired of bowing to all
these carriages." " Bowing to the carriages
you may well say," replied his friend, " for
I noticed that none of the occupants returned
your salutations." "The Boardinghouse at
Kemp Town" is an amusing caricature of would-
be grandees assuming absurd airs of gentility. The
account of the evening's entertainment there is
most ludicrously narrated. This novel is sure to at-
tract attention from the striking events it describes,
and the eloquence with which some of the most
exciting scenes that can occur in human life are
brought before us. Strange as this story is, it is
told in so natural a manner, and the characters are
drawn with such vividness, that it sometimes seems
the reproduction of actual events, and the reappear-
ance of real personages. " The World's Verdict"
will, therefore, doubtless obtain a great success
from its constructive skill and artistic delineations.

MR. BILIGBT AND IHE EDINBURGH
ANNUIIY TAX.

Mr. Bright, whose opinion had been asked rela-
tive to the present agitation in Edinburgh on this
subject, has returned the following answer

"Rochdale, Jan. 9, 1861

"I am glad to see that you are not willing to accept the
Lord Advocate's bill or act as a settlement of the annuity-
tax question. A more impudent and offensive answer to a
just demand was never made by representative or Parlia-
ment than his legislation of last session; and your citizens
would prove themselves worthy of the treatment they have
received if they consented for a single clay to cease to pro-
test against it. In this country, however, a bad measure
finds its way through Parliament more easily than a good
one, and the repeal of a bad law is a difficult thing to
accomplish. _ . _

" I trust your great and growing combination *ill bring
you a speedy success , but I am not sure that this can be
secured unless your inhabitants are resolved to resist the
payment of the tax, whether levied by itself or as part of
some other tax. There is no power greater than that of
passive resistance ; and although the exercise of this power
requires a strong resolution and a high degree of public
virtue, yet, judging from the past history of our country,
such resolution and such virtue may be looked for among the
inhabitants of your city. If I were one of them, I would
refuse to pay any tax or rate for the purposes of the annuity-
tax, and would cheerfully suffer the consequences of refu-
sal. If a thousand men in Edinburgh, or if a hundred
men would take this course, the grievance would come to
an end, and the insult offered to you would receive its fitting
rebuke.

" It is a deplorable circumstance that your representa-
tives betrayed your cause. Their course made it impos-
sible for other Scotch members successfully to resist the
bill; and I need not tell you that the measure was one
likely to be accepted by the Tory party in the house, with
whom injustice in ecclesiastical matters seems to be an
unchangeable policy.
" I can take no part in the movement you have under-
taken, but I can and do wish you a hearty resolution, a
general support from your citizens, and a complete and
early success.—l are, very truly yours,
" JOHN BRIGHT."