The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-19 00:00:00

DIE SUN, LONDON, THURSDA.Y EvONING, SEPTEMBER 19, 1861.

dened and heartless villains, the most bloodthirsty
ruffians have often been found to show Some
lingering care or tenderness for their own off-
spring, and frequently, indeed, their very crimes
have been committed on the plea of enriching or
benefitting them. What shall we say of
a man of birth and fortune, brought up
with the refinements of society and education,
deliberately accosting a strange beggar-woman in
the Haymarket and desiring her to take charge of
his infant son and reat it like her own—seeing
with his own eyes the little famished, ragged
urchins shivering in the wet and begging in Lon-
don streets? Truly, the love of gold has something
to answer for. The tale goes on. Two women,
whose dirty and dissipated appearance struck even
the country child, receive the hapless little heir
and disappear with him into the vortex of London
pauperism. Who would have thought it likely
that the child should be reclaimed, the vil-
lany frustrated, and the culprit held up to
public reprobation. Yet so it is. After fruitless
entreaties to see her child, which were only met with
ill•usage, the wife left her unworthy husband, and
in return to his wishes for a reconciliation,
prompted doubtless by his desire for her income,
she insisted on being told what had become
of the missing infant. She met his assertion of
its death with a request for the registry, and
finally entrusted her case to those gentlemen
to whose shrewdness and energy its success is due.
The little heir to £14,000 a-year was found in a
low court, in the worst stage of poverty, dirt, and
ill-usage. We must refer our readers to the report
of the case for a narrative of the means by which
it was traced, and the links in the chain of evi-
dence supplied by the most trivial circumstances.
And retributive Providence has made the refusal of
the intoxicated woman to surrender the
shawl in which the child was wrapped an
instrument of discovery ; while the un-
usual prudence which made Mrs. ANDREWS
and her associate, afraid to keep the money in their
own hands, has brought forward the registry of the
Savings Bank in confirmation of their story. The
prisoner himself has corroborated the name of
FAREBROTHER, and many other points confirm the
tale. The unfortunate child was taken by its
mother to Brussels, whence she was induced to pro-
ceed to London in order to secure the prisoner, who
could not be taken in Belgium, and who, it was
guessed, would follow her. The project was
happily successful, and unless Mr. RICHARD
GUINNESS HILL can totally disprove the
whole of the charges so circumstantially brought
against him, we trust he will meet with the punish-
ment he so richly merits. It has been stated in
some quarters that he is only amenable to law on
the charge of entering a false registry; this can
hardly be the case ; but if so, the reform of our
criminal code is indeed urgent. However, his
punishment is certain. He will not only, if the charge
is proved, hs.ve forfeited all chance of the coveted
estate, but he will have lost for ever the esteem of
his fellowmen, and will be held up to the public
odium which such a crime deserves. In any case
the trial may certainly be ranked among the causes
celebres of modern times.

Sir H. VERNEY proposes to introduce a new
college, one we are sure very much needed—a
college for landlords. He confessed for himself and
his brother landlords that " they were wonderfully
deficient in knowing their business." He professed
his astonishment that while for all other professions
a severe course of study was thought necessary—
while a: doctor, lawyer, or sailor must work hard
to fit himself for his business, it was supposed that
a landlord was born fit to discharge his duties.
He lamented that he had been brought up to other
pursuits and had no landlord training; and he
strongly urged on the rising generation of
landlords to qualify themselves for their task.
Like a true respecter of vested rights, he considered
honourably the case of the stewards. He seemed
to think, however, that they could put in no claim
for compensation. Their services would still be
required, and they would serve with far greater
pleasure to themselves under the eye of a land-
lord who knew his business. We should like to
see the landlord college. It would doubtless be far
better for farmers to deal with proprietors who
understood agriculture thoroughly. They would
certainly sympathise better with the requirements
of their tenants.

Sir H. VERNEY did not say so, but surely a land-
lord who knew his business could not be a game.
preserving landlord. What man who knew what
it is to till and cultivate land carefully through
months and years, could endure the sight of sport-
vermin destroying wantonly all its produce. It must
deprive the sport of its amusement if it was known
to be purchased by such mortifications to the culti-
vator. We should not despair even of soundly
educated landlords themselves repealing the game
laws.

But one thing on which Sir H. VERNEY did in-
sist, we are sure all landlords who could pass a land-
lord examination before they came to their estates,
would assent to—the necessity of long leases to
good agriculturists. He acknowledged the kindly
feeling existing between many landlords and their
tenants-at-will ; but still showed how impossible
it was to expect the investment of capital in land
except under at least twenty-one year leases.
With a lease of that length, a man of character,
skill, and industry could borrow, if requisite, the
capital needful to improve the farm. It is needless
to say that no man would place his own
_capital at
the discretion of his landlord, by sinking it in his
farm, much less that of another man ; if, indeed,
any man could be so foolish as to fence,
drain, marl, and clay, the land of a yearly
tenant for him. We have often thought the posi-
tion of yearly tenants very much like that of ladies
living under the protection of gentlemen—if the
feeling be really honourable between the parties,
why not place themselves under the bond which
neither could legally break ? Failure to do so
must be held to imply something not confessed. In
the case of the yearly tenant, living under the pro-
tection of his landlord, we presume the understand-
ing is that in that relation two things which should
belong to the former are securely held by the land-
lord—the game and the vote.

The PRUSSIAN NAVY.—Gaignani says An
official document just published in Prussia shows that the
navy of that country consists at present of 40 vessels, in-
cluding those in course of construction—viz., 2 frigates, 4
corvettes, 1 brig, 2 transports, 3 advice boats, 1 vessel for
lodging troops, and 27 gun-boats. There are, in addition,
about 40 boats and other light vessels.

THE BOILER EXPLOSION •AT ROTHERHITHE.—
The jury last night returned a verdict that thq_Peceased
died from scalds by the acciaental explosion Os: a steam
boiler, their opinion being at the' same time expressed that
the weights to the safety valve were not pr4erly con-
structed.

The forthcoming dividend of the Scottish Central
rtailway will be at the rate of 6 per cent. per annum.
GUN ACCIDENTS.—A few days ago Mr. Charles
Armstrong, of Bristol, met wit h a serious accident from the
gun of his brother Isaac, whilst engaged in partridge shoot-
ing. At Ringslaall, a poor girl, while gle,,ning, was acci-
dentally shot by Mr. H. F. Squirrell, of King's Lynn.
Her injuries, however, were not of a dangerous nature. The
gentleman made all the recompence in his power. The
burial of Dean, the rifleman who was accidentally shot, took
place at Brereton Churchyard, Rugeley. The deceased's
regiment followed, the band playing the Dead March in
Saul.