The Sun.
London, England, 1859-08-11 00:00:00

hardly less attractive in their general interest—a
trial, for example, of Monsieur, one of the young
heroes, at the Old Bailey, ending in his acquittal—
a supercilious piece'of brutality, on the part of Mon-
seigneur, ending in his assassination—and several
proposal for Mademoiselle, the heroine, ending, at
anyu
storrastbeing
e, in two casual refusals: one of the rejected
" A Fellow of Delicacy," the other
A Fellow of no Delicacy." The two gentlemen
last mentioned are among the most striking deline-
ations in the numbers of the work yet published_
,
Stiney Carton, a young barrister of brilliant parts,
but no address, and of a baulked ambition, who acts
at,B jackal to that self-asserting lion at the bar, Mr.
i'l'S'Ver--lolling on the sofa, with his hands in
.11 Waistbands, being crammed by Memory (mean.
'llg Carton) or " shouldering his way" on towards
Lord Chief-Justiceship, if not to the woolsack of my
High Chancellor. Our preference unques-
tionably trends in the direction of poor Sydney-
-04 we long for the reclamation of that waste land
promise ! Mr. Lorry, by the way, has raised
.tialself wonderfully in our estimation by his gallant
ontest with the Lion, when visited by the latter in
Vs own little den at Tellson's. Yet in the end Mr.
''ay
too, like Sydney Carton, seems to have given
ft
at last to the "shouldering." Charles Darnay
•`.,.` yet, we confess-1T e don't much care for—Charles
-uarnay being, nevertheless, the hero of the story,
and the all but accepted lover of that charming,
golden- haired heroine, Lucie Manette. Out of an
affection for whom, by the by, have we not a weak-
tress even for that preposterous red woman, Miss
roes--a lady every now and then subject to what
she herself happily describes as" a fit of the jerks."
Thei. dominant dread of Miss Pross—the dread of
"Hundreds of People" dangling after her darling—
rruyes the title to one of the most suggestive and
pressive among all the chapters of the tale yet
Published ! A chapter that leads us away into that
cool little echoin corner of Soho, not very much
less than a whole g
century gone by, when, " upon
many a good south wall, not far off, peaches ripened
41 their season"—a very Ear of a place, where,
with the plane tree hard by in the courtyard,
rustling. its green leaves in the sunshine, " the corner
echoed and re-echoed with the tread of feet ; some
rn it seemed under the windows; some as it seemed
i the room ; some coming, some going, some break-
-412g off some stopping altogether ; all in the distant
,t,reets,, not one within sight." What is that
thought uttered by Lucie Manette while several
persons
of this chronicle are seated there one quiet
Sunday evening listening to the echoes—listening
and speaking low, as people in a dark room do,
lightning
the writer, when watching and waiting for
" I have sometimes," she says, ".sat
alonehere of an evening, listening, until I have
the echoes out to be the echoes of all the
footsteps that are coming by and bye into our
'lves.' Whereupon Sydney Carton (like the
zrest still listening—still, like the rest, wait-
`llZ and watching for the Lightning) in his
4100dy way observes, " If that be so, there is a
great crowd coming one day into our lives." "Are
all of these footsteps," asks Darnay, " destined to
come to all of us, Miss Manette, or are we to divide
,them among us ?" " I don't know," she says . . .
I have imagined them the footsteps of the people
'Who are to come into my life and my father's."
" I take them into mine," cries Carton, " / ask no
questions and make no stipulations. There is a
great crowd bearing down upon us, Miss Manette,
andl see them !—by the Lightning"—he adds at
the first flash of the great storm breaking suddenly
uPeo them. " And I hear them," he adds again
after the first peat of thunder, " Here they come,
fitat, fierce, and furious !" "It was the rush and
roar of the rain that he typified, and it stopped
able, for no voice could be heard in it. A memor-
tstorm of thunder and lightning broke with
at sweep of water, and the..e was not a moment's
Interval in crash, and fire, and rain, until after the
14eon rose at Midnight." As One is striking from
the great bell of St. Paul's Cathedral, the guests
are parting for the night upon the road be-
r,"ween Soho and Clerkenwell. " Good night, Mr.
tou says Mr. Lorry, the man of business.
Good night, Mr. Darnay. Shall we ever see such
night again together !" After a pause—the
'writer adds, " Perbaps. Perhaps, see the great
„I'crivd of people with its rush and roar bear-
.-",g down upon them, too." It is the key note of
re story. It is new evidence that the Novelist is_
Zi.le Poet also in the depth of his human sympa-
les and in the picturesque vividness of his imagi-
nation. It renders obvious at a glance the signifi-
ielt,„nee of this Talc of Two Cities—the loves and the
t-ves r the Manettes seen by the glare of that
rerueondous Revolution !

21-1-(B ?TRIKE IN THE BUILDING

TRADE.

Pie position of affairs between the employers
and the workmen remains without alteration.
Although pressed to do so, the Masters' Conference
1510 not think it advisable to concede the withdrawal
°f the " document" which is so abnoxious to the
41en. The largest firms appear to be the most un-
eurnpromisin g on this point, and insist most strongly
°,ll maintaining the document. They state that
they
have a precedent for adopting this course, in-
asmuch as after the great engineers' strike the en-
Rineors of London, Manchester, Birmingham, &c.,
were required to sign a document of similar im-
Port. They are apprehensive that if they yielded
(41 this point further concessions would be de-
l/landed, and that they would have no security for
the future. They are, therefore, disposed to keep
their yards closed till the men yield on this ques-
tion.
In addition to the works which are known to have
n suspended we may mention those of the Duke
Buccleuch's house, Whitehall, and the Training
lollege for Mistresses at Stockwell, the foundation-
atone of which was only laid a short time ago by
Earl Granville. The laying of the foundltion-
stone
of Mr. Spurgeon's chapel, near the Elephant
a Castle, which was to have taken place on Wed-
isesdhY next, is to be postponed till this question
bee
n settle, and a similar resolution has, we believe,
adopted with regard to the commencement of
age Metropolitan Railway between King's-cross
Parringdon-street.
Yesterday a meeting of the Masons' Society.
1378 held at Wilcocke's Assembly Rooms, West-
-o,sl Pater-road for the purpose of taking the
Itt'elnion of the society with regard to the " docu-
be lir or " pledge" which the masters require to
work
or taken before they admit any man to
rnetr'(.. in their employment. There was a very nu-
uilS attendance.
The followin resolution was agreed to unani-
epresent
111°Osly g
either
it •
is the opinion of this meeting that the document
ed to the masons of London for their acquiescence
and verbally or by writino-, is degrading and insulting,
nulat the master builders'by this act have shown great
the wsistencY by denouncing combination ort the part of
„ern orkree, whilst promoting the same line of conduct
isellveasti;onand demanding that all the workmen in their
thell'irorent shall virtually constitute themselves slaves to
not r ; and this meeting pledges itself that it will
ever e,nlllo work except on the unconditional withdrawal of
InenYt:'ung in. the shape of a document, promise, or agree-