The Sun.
London, England, 1850-09-18 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
MR. HUDSON'S EVIDENCE AT YORK.
POST.—When any man demands from our coun-
trymen the justice that is emphatically expressed in
those words that are household words of old England,
" fair play," he makes an aeal that is certain of
meeting with a response frompp Englishmen. Such an
vaipepisesailtuisdens ofow publicmad etfeeouisiog,,in common with the pub-
lic, on behalf of a gentleman who has proved all the
un-
reasoning worship to a blind farnor m a
still less
reasoning andhatred. There is scarcely any man in this country
whose name has been coupled with so much adulation
at one period and so much vituperation at another, as
has fallen to the lot of Mr. George Hudson, the
Member for Sunderland, whose power and popularity
in the railway world were scarcely exaggerated in the
tide universally conceded to him of the "Railway
King." On his behalf it is that an appeal is now
made by some of his friends to the public for fair
play. At a trial which took place in the city of
York at the last assizes, this gentleman was produced
as a witness, under circumstances that entitled the
party producing him to endeavour to establish out of
his own lips the delinquencies which the statement of
counsel had freely imputed to him. In order
to convict him of fraud and mismanagement in any
matter connected with those railways in which he had
taken an active share, it was the privilege and duty
of the cross-examining counsel to sift every trans-
action in which he had been engaged—to assume his
guilt in his questions—to extort from him his most
confidential secrets—to lay bare the most minute de-
tails of his railway life—to probe everything that was
suspicious—to drag to light everything that was con-
cealed. All this, we say, it was the privilege and the
duty of counsel to do, and to do it in the presence of
persons able and ready to convict him of inaccuracy
or mis-statement if he sheltered himself behind any
prevarication. It was equally the privilege, we will
not say the duty, of counsel to do all this, if necessary,
with all the assistance of browbeating and bullying;
or the milder aids of insinuation, sneering, and per-
plexing, which make a hostile cross-examination by
an expert advocate the most terrible instrument of
moral torture by which truth was ever extorted
from a reluctant deponent. In addition to all this,
Mr. Hudson was, at this trial, without notice of
the points; that would be inquired into, with-
out documents to refresh his memory, or re-
flexion to suggest forgotten facts, called on to
explain every transaction which his cross-ex-
aminer chose to select as suspicious. He was
called upon to do this at the moment ; while his
questioner, on the other hand, had all the advantage of
preparation—of deliberating on the line of his exami-
nation, on the very frame of each question, and of
full and minute consideration of all the facts of each
case. It is impossible to conceive any man taken at
greater disadvantage than the man whose conduct was
subject to such an ordeal as this, yet this is just the
position of the deposed railway potentate when he was
placed in the witness-chair at York in the libel case
of " Richardson v. Wodson." It was, no doubt, an
interesting and exciting scene to both the enemies
and friends of the man who was submitted to the
process, from which, if he deserved one-tenth of the
obloquy flung upon him, it was impossible for him to
escape without utter and damning ruin. What more
could his enemies desire ? The delinquent in the
witness-box, compelled to disclose every secret, to
parade all his private dealings, to confess to an inqui-
sitor who would show him no mercy and tolerate no re-
serve, to ans wer without hesitation inquiries as to trans-
actions comparatively remote—without hesitation, for
hesitation would have been conclusive evidence of
guilt—the witness who, under such circumstances,
deliberated was lost. The assistance of a scrap of
paper and a pencil to calculate the exact amount of his
gains upon some questioned transaction was the ut-
most extent of deliberation that could be conceded.
What expected disclosures of criminality must those
who have heard of him as the great railway delin-
quent have gloated over in anticipation as he ascended
the witness table! With what confidence must
his enemies have calculated on complete ex-
posure of something gigantic in illicit spe-
culation ! Subject to this ordeal, Mr. Hudson
was closely questioned upon very many transac-
tions of his railway life. 1.1i3 evidence, we have heard,
from more than one faithworthy quarter, produced a
manifest revulsion of feeling in his favour. We can
easily understand from the printed report that it did
so. Same friends, believing entirely in his integrity,
and anxious to do him justice with the public, have
published an authentiereport of that evidence, vouched
for by a member of the bar. It is accompanied by a
modest and unassuming preface, which makes that
appeal for fair play which never, as we have said, is
made to Englishmen in vain.
Finally," says the editor, " these pages are offered
to the public in the conviction that those who desire to
do justice to a deeply-injured individual will form their
opinion of the transactions which they detail, not from
the uncertain representations of rumour, but from the
unquestionable facts established in a court of justice,
under the solemn sanction of an oath, with all those aids
to the investigation of truth which the most certain and
minute cross-examination could supply.
" Inner Temple, August 21, 1850."
We were not among the number of Mr. Hudson's
adulators in the days of his power, neither did this
journal lend itself to run him down when the reverses
in railway affairs evoked the curses of every disap-
pointed speculator upon his head. To this appeal we
ought not, however, to decline to respond. Neither
do we, on public grounds, profess ourselves indifferent
to the reputation which Mr. Hudson's share in the
railway transactions of 1845 may ultimately bear.
The rail way speculators of that period area chapter
for good or evil in the history of the national mind.
In that chapter the position of Mr. Hudson forms no
obscure, unimportant section. As national property,
then, a just estimate of his character is a matter of
national interest. If he be as described in the sen-
tence we have quoted, a deeply-injured individual, it
is but an act of public justice to set him right. And
when men are only asked to listen to the facts of his
conduct, as unquestionably established in a court of
justice, and judge of him by those facts, common
honesty demands that this appeal should not be in vain.
Mr. Hudson, we presume, was questioned as to
those parts of his conduct which, in the eyes of his
evidently most hostile and well-informed accusers
presented the most plausible grounds of impeach-
ment. They had the advantage of selecting their
own ground of attack. His evidence offers to us his
own explanation, attested by his oath, and sifted by
the power of a most searching cross-examination. In
endeavouring to do the justice for which we are asked,
we purpose to take :each of the charges that is con-
veyed in the questions of his cross-examiner, and sub-
mit it, with the reply
conveyed in the answers of Mr.
Hudson, to the judgment of our readers. That judg-
ment will thus be formed, not, incised, upon the entire
of his railway life, but upon those passages of it which
were deliberately and carefully selected as supplying
the strongest materials fur his accusation. It is for
public opinion—often an intemperate, frequently a
prejudiced, but generally, in the long run, a just tri-
bunal to decide whether there be anything in these
passages to justify the attempts that have been almost
incessantly repeated to associate the name of George
Hudson with those mal-practices by which, in the
days of the railway madness, too many railway
speculators took advantage of that madness to enrich
themselves by dishonourable means. The transac-
tions which were made the subject of inquiry were
so many that within the limits of a single article
it were impossible to glance at, them all. To-day
we select one which has, perhaps, been more
pressed to Mr. Hudson's disadvantage than any
other. We will state the charge, and then give from
the evidence his reply. It has been said, and the ac-
cusation has been repeated in every variety of form,
that, in the month of March, 1845, Mr. Hudson,
being chairman of the York, Newcastle, and Berwick
Railway Company, purchased a quantity of iron for
that company at the price of Gl. 104. a ton, but
charged it to the railway company at the price of 121.
This is the substance of the accusation, conveying a
charge of fraud and breach of trust of the most dis-
reputable kind. The facts of the case were these :
In October, 1844, when the York, Newcastle, and
Berwick Railway Company were not in existence,
Mr. Hudson, on his own private account, entered into
a speculation in iron. He contracted with eminent
ironmasters to sell to him 10,000 tons of iron, at the
price of 61. 103. In the following spring, the price
of iron had nearly doubled, from the demand created
for it by the many projected railways. Mr. Hudson
was, therefore, in the position, in the month of March,
to call upon those ironmatasthteersprwicitehowf
6hlo.miohs.e
whiatdh ci or
onn-
in the market Without difficulty for
twr
ha ci
ot eh dh te o
could)p
sye him,l
at least 121. To the full benefit of his fortunate specu-
lation Mr. Hudson was beyond all question, solely and
individually entitled. The Berwick Railway had
just as much right to the benefit of it as bad the pro-
prietors of the Morning Post. Mr. Crawshay, who
wanted iron in the mouth of March, 1845, offered
atshsoigugnhlt)isfibtartgoainto him
andMr if Hudson
AI I Isuod, accept that ;
would have received the
offer, Mr. Crawshay
sooonol.h to assign
ten thousand tons of iron, paying the sellers
at the price of 61. 10s., and handing over
to Mr. Hudson 50,000/, which that gentleman
would have pocketed without the possibiiity of
question or imputation. But it so happened that the
Berwick Railway Company, in that very mouth of
March, thought it their interest to secure, at the then
market price, a large quantity of iron. The same
iron masters who were under this engagement to Mr.
Hudson were among those who made a tender fur
supplying that iron to the railway. This tender was
at 121. 10s.; it was beaten down to 121., a price the
very lowest at which a large quantity of iron could be
obtained, a price below that paid for it by other rail-
way companies at the same time. Mr. lludson had it thus
in his power to call on these iron masters to fulfil
their contract with him. He had it in his power to
accept the offer made by Mr. Crawshay, and compel
them to stipply be ixvu to _mr. Crawshay, and pocket

---
BLACK'S PICTURESQUE TOURIST OF
ENGLAND AND WALES. Second Edition.
The peculiar excellence of Messrs. Black's Guide
Books is so well known as to render commendation
almost superfluous. o.le of the most excellent and
most useful of a very excellent and useful series has,
we are is nowise surprised to find, already reached a
second edition. No traveller—and in these days oF
rapid locomotion the term is almost one of universal
application—should be unprovided with this most
agreeable companion and most serviceable guide.
Whatsoever his route, within the limits of England
and ‘Vales, he will here find a map of the country to
be pasted through with beautiful engravings of the
surrounding scenery and memorable places, together
with a very comprehensive and most convenient chart
of the road or railroad by which he is to travel. This
chart is drawn out on the plan of Paterson's cele-
brated Road Book. The pages of this chart are di-
vided into three column.. The central column con-
tains an enumeration of the places passed through by
the railroad ; and more than this, every bridge, tun-
nel, viaduct, &c., is not merely named, but its mea-
surement and peculiarities are particularised. The
outer columns describe the country on either hand ;
thus in fancy the reader of " The Guide" passes
along the middle line, and notices in rotation every
town, village, and country-seat on either hand. In
addition to this very comprehensive chart, the volume
is abundantly provided with travelling maps. To
many persons the most interesting, as well as most
useful portion of "The Guide," consists of its histo-
rical, geographical, and political descriptions of the
principal towns of England, as a specimen of which
we may quote the following :
BRIGHTON.
"Brighton is situared nearly in the centre of the bay
stretching from Selsey Bill, in the west, to Beachy
Head, the eastern extremity of the South Downs. It is
protected on the north and north-east by this verdant
chain of chalk hills, and on the west lies a level district
of arable land. The sea has made considerable en-
croachments cn this part of the coast. In the reign of
Elizabeth the town of Brighton was situated on that
tract where the chain-pier now extends into the sea, but
the whole of the tenements under the cliff were de-
stroyed by tremendous storms in 1703 and 1705, and no
traces of this ancient town are now perceptible. The
foundation of the prosperity of Brighton was laid by
Dr. Richard Russell, an eminent physician, whose work
on the efficacy of sea water, combined with his success-
ful practice, brought numerous visit,:n to the coast. But
it is to his late Majesty George IV., when Prince of
Wales, that Brighton is indebted for its celebrity as a
watering-place. His Royal Highness first visited
Brighton in 1782, after which time he passed the sum-
mer and autumn months here for many years in succes-
sion. In 1784 he commenced the erection of the Pa-
vilion, which was completed in its original design in
1787, and under the stimulus of royal patronage, what
was formerly a fishing village, has now become the most
splendid marine abode in Europe.
" Brighton is not an incorporated town. Its govern-
ment is vested in a chief constable and twelve head-
boroughs, who are annually chosen at the court-leet of
the Earl of Abergavenny. The affAirs of the town are
managed by 115 commissioners, who regulate the cleans-
ing, lighting, &c.
" The fishery of Brighton was once very considerable,
but has now declined to an almost incredible extent.
" Of the public buildings of Brighton, the most dis-
tinguished is the Royal Pavilion, the architecture of
which has been severely and justly censured. The
Chain Pier is a light and elegant structure, erected in
1822, under the superintendence of Captain Brown, at
an expense of 30,000/. It has twice suffered from vio-
lent storms. The marine wall, which was completed in
1838, and was eleven years in building, is a splendid
structure. It is nearly two miles in length, and cost
about 100,0001. The celebrated spot called the Steyne,
which was formerly a piece of waste land, is now a
fashionable promenade, and is surrounded by fashion-
able buildings. In the northern enclosure stands the
famous bronze statue of George IV. executed by Chan-
trey. The Town Hall is an immense pile of building,
the cost of which is said to have been near 30,000/.
Brighton contains nine places of worship in connexion
with the Establishment, twelve belonging to the various
denominations of Dissenters, a Roman Catholic chapel,
and a Jew's synagogua. In the churchyard of the old
church is a monument erected to the memory of Captain
Tattersal, who assisted Charles 11. in his escape to the
continent after the battle of Worcester. There are a
considerable number of schools in the town for the in-
struction of the children of the poor. Brighton contains
barracks both for cavalry and infantry; the former af-
fords accommodation for 625, and the latter for about
400 men. In the rear of the east part of the town is a
pleasing rural retreat, called the Park, in which is the
German spa establishment, where chemical imitations of
the most celebrated mineral waters of Germany are pre-
pared. At Wick, half a mile west of the town, there is
a chalybeate spring, which has of late years been much
frequented. Brighton is well supplied with baths, and
every convenience fur the accommodation of those who
wish to avail themselves of the advantages of sea-bath-
isg. The exterior of many of the hotels are magnifi-
cent, and the interior fitted up with much taste and con.
venience.

his own 50,000/. ; but if he had done this, Tnompson
and Forman could not have supplied the railway, and
they would have been driven to obtain it at a higher
price, Mr. Hudson, therefore, said to Thompson and
Furman, " Keep your engagement with the rail way
company, but you must at least partially fulfil your
contract with rne, and on 7,000 tons you must pay
me the difference between 61. 103. and the present
market price. To this, by all mercantile usage, he
was clearly entitled. It is difficult to see what pos-
sible imputation can rest upon Mr. Hudson in this
transaction. We assume that the facts are truly
stated in the evidence, as we apprehend there can
be no doubt. Mast of our readers will probably
agree with the Learned Judge who tried this
case, that of this the most perfect explanation has
been afforded. No one in his senses will say that
Mr. Hudson was under the slightest obligation to
give the Berwick Railway the benefit of his own pri-
vate speculation—a speculation which, if it had turned
out a losing one, he, and he alone, must have borne
the loss. The railway company purchased their iron
at the fair market price of the day on which they
bought it. Mr. Hapdson made nothing more in con-
sequence of the sale to them than be would if it had
been effected by Thompson and Forman to any other
purchaser. It appears, indeed, that he made less.
It is impossible for us to forget that this very iron
transaction has been made the means of exciting more
prejudice against Mr. Hudson than perhaps any other
act of his life—that it is that upon which those who
accuse him of malversation have most frequently and
most constantly relied. That the facts are truly,stated:in
the evidence we have quoted, no controversy whatever
has been raised. If he can as satisfactorily answer
every other charge against him, there are few who
will give him a fair hearing who will not admit that
he has been, in the words we have quoted from the
preface to the pamphlet, " a deeply injured man."
STANDARD.—A pamphlet has been published
within the last few days which will, we doubt not,
have the effect of recalling public attention to a sub-
ject to which, in this publication, it is distinctly
challenged by the friends of the party most inter-
ested in the result. It appears that at the last York-
shire assizes Mr. George Hudson—better known by
his former title of the Railway King—was produced
as a witness in a libel case, to sustain a plea of jus-
tification, grounded on his own alleged misconduct
in the management of those railway companies
which for so many years he governed with absolute
sway. A witness thus produced to give evidence in
fact in his own condemnation is, we need scarcely
tell our readers, treated with all the searching severity
of a cross-examination by the party producing him ;
and when we say that Mr. Sergeant Wilkins was the
counsel, to whose lot it fell to put Mr. Hudson " to
the question," we give the best assurance that every-
thing was done that skill and power could effect to
.extort from the questioned the anticipated confession
of guilt. The evidence of Mr. Hudson has been
deemed so satisfactory by his friends that they have
published it for circulation in a separate shape.
It is but justice to Mr. Hudson to say that even
the skill of Mr. Sergeant Wilkins failed to establish
out of his own lips any case of malversation against
him. On the contrary, the examination elicited in
many instances complete and satisfactory explanations
of some of the transactions in relation to which much
obloquy has been cast upon him. The effect of the
evidence upon the bystanders may, perhaps, be best
expressed in the phrase used by a member of the
northern circuit, a Member of Parliament, not one of
the counsel engaged in the case. This gentleman,
not much predisposed in Mr. Hudson's favour, either
by political or Parliamentary recollections, when
asked what he thought of the evidence of Mr.
Hudson, replied, that " he never saw so much dirt
wiped off any one in the same space of time." To
fling that dirt upon Mr. Hudson appears to have
been almost the amusement of some parties for the
last two years. No epithet was too strong to apply
to him ; no condemnation too severe to pro-
nounce upon his conduct generally. The essence of
all railway frauds appeared to be supposed to be con-
centrated in his conduct. That ha was guilty of
peculation, misrepresentation, almost embezzlement,
appeared to be assumed as axioms of railway science.
Those, indeed, who like ourselves are unwilling to
condemn any one upon mere general abuse, looked
sometimes for tangible and specific charges to justify
this wholesale condemnation. One or ,two instances
however of assumed misconduct, vaguely but posi-
tively stated, were always at hand to answer this
demand. Mr. Hudson, too, and his friends appeared
to let judgment go by default. If the charges were
general, they seemed to be acquiesced in ; and public
opinion accepted as proved the very vaguest accusa-
tions, which there seemed no vigorous effort to
refute and scarcely to deny. There was, indeed,
one point which, throughout the entire of
the fierce storm of popular odium that raged
against him, ought to have to any mind sug-
gested reflections strongly in his favour. He con-
tinued under all these accusations a Member of the
House of Commons. If one-half, or anything like
one-half, of the vituperations heaped upon him was
deserved, he richly merited expulsion from that
House. Those Members of the Lower House of Par-
liainent who were implicated in the South Sea scheme
were expelled the House of Commons in the days
even of Sir Robert Walpole. If Mr. Hudson had
been implicated in railway frauds, it was due, even to
the House of Commons itself, not to permit him to
hold his seat. His accusers, too, were men of influence—
a petition to the House of Commons would have insured
an inquiry into his alleged misconduct. But at the barof
that House he must have been heard in his own defence.
Facts alone would there have sustained accusa-
tions; and when we found this plain and obvious
course not resorted to—the course which, if his ac-
cusers really believed their charges to the extent to
which they made them, they were bound to pursue—
we confess wo thought the system of general vitupe-
ration and newspaper abuse by which it was sought
to run down Mr. Hudson, by which unquestionably
a formidable amount of popular odium was excited
against him, unfair, unmanly, and unjust. Those
who will take the trouble of remembering the extra-
vagant hopes of the age of railway speculation, and
the reverse in which those hopes were doomed to
disappointment, will not wonder if the unlucky
speculators found themselves in a mood of
mind in which it was a relief to them to discover
any object, animate or inanimate, upon which
to vent their rage. Men rushed upon the purchase
of scrip, in the belief that they were grasping
princely fortunes, and awoke from their dream of un-
told wealth, to find themselves ruined. The instinct
of human nature was to seek any object upon which
to shift the blame from their own folly. Hudson be-
came the scapegoat upon whom every man laid the
sins of his own imprudent avarice. There is no
animal so unreasoning as the disappointed gambler,
and gamblers the greater number of dealers in rail-
way shares unquestionably were. Mr. Hudson was
the most prominent object connected with the system
against which they had wrecked themselves_cursing
the whole railway kingdom, they almost of necessity
directed their imprecations against the Railway King.
It was this temper of the public 'mind that made it
so easy to excite against Mr. Hudson a storm of
popular odium. To men smarting from their losses,
to prefer an accusation was equivalent to proving it.
To ask of such men to pause to investigate was an
insult ; they knew that they had lost, where they
thought to make, fortunes. This must have occurred
by fraud, this was enough to sustain any charge,
especially against any man who had speculated more
luckily than themselves. There was added to this,
too, much of that vulgar passion that cannot brook
the prosperity of others—the desire to pull down
whatever is above themselves that marks the Liberal
school of the present age. Men were envious of the
supposed greatness of the aristocratic associates of the
self-elevated Yorkshireman. Multitudes were, from
this motive only, ready to exult over his fall: It is
debasing to human nature to acknowledge the general
existence of such a motive; but that it does exist we
have bad too many painful proofs. It was, after alt,
however different the manifestation, the same vulgar
and malignant intolerance of the prosperity of others
that could gloat over the dismantling of Stowe, and
hunt down the deposed monarch of the railway throne.
Besides, it was but too manifest that political motives
contributed largely to swell the tide of obloquy that
set in so rapidly and so strong. Mr. Hudson had
been for years an active and consistent Conservative.
He had been faithful in the great defection. He had
given to the enemies of the Protectionist cause addi-
tional reason for hating him in the fact that he was
the personal friend of one whom meanness and trick-
ery instinctively, and by the necessities of nature,
hated and feared. We confess that the knowledge
that, up to the last moment of the life of Lord George
Bentinck, Mr. lludson had enjoyed the confidence and
friendship of that great and good man, had we no other
reason, would have compelled us to refuse credence to
t and specific
nh
ge
yu naps rs
ao ee
di a c uvs
ea t i
co
on
ns f
ch
sys w
thhi
ec
nh a
we
ew sehpsrllooeevutuepwnrl
eesmhappi
suaocerris:
noi with
hpaoepfrspuote sthaneerest
charges definite
this p
o
when at last in this trial at York we had the oppor-
a
ers
(pit
isuei
ssrnucai
eott
oe
nr
00l
.nof
agf gr
Ntrrhine pd h
character
ig dwswo
rea smt . up
r.
of the evidence, will probably share our surprise at
when. reduced to matter of precise fact, all the vitu-
t
content ourselves for the present by referring our
readers to the report of the evidence itself. We
can only give our opinion upon those charges
that were made the subject of Mr. Sergeant Wil-
kins's cross-examination. We have no sympathy
with Mr. Hudson beyond that produced by the
belief that in the mode by which he has been
assailed he has been unfairly and intemperately run
down. There may be, for aught we know, transac-
tions not al:uded to at this trial, which may furnish
matter of grave impeachment ; we have no reason on
the other hand to believe that there are. All the pro-
babilities are that his accusers selected those matters
upon which they could best rest their charges against
him. Upon these he has given his sworn answer, in

" Brighton is not a manufacturing or commercial
town, but it has an extensive retail trade. Steam-boats
ply regularly between this place and Dieppe.
"To the north and north-east of the town, on the
summit of the Thwns, is the race-course, commanding
as extensive view. A number of pleasant excursions
may be made in the vicinity. The population of
Brighton, which at the commencement of the present
centu-y was only 7,339, is now, by the census of 1841,
46,661; but during the fas.hionable season it is estimated
at 60,000. Brighton returns two Members to Parlia-
ment under the Reform Bill."

SONNET—SEPTEMBER.
(From the Ladies' Companion.)
With stained mouth and loose luxuriant dress
Sf-ptem bee comes—a reveller sure is he—
And Dryads sport—for see in mirthfulness
They tempt him still with gourd and mulberry.
Yonder the wain rich freighted ploughs the sward,
And yonder still the sun-burnt reapers toil;
There champs the mill, and there the garner's stored,
And there, profuse, the fowler's feathery spoil.
At eve now pours the yellow harvest moon
Her beams, which lend enchantment to the hours;
So dews are plentiful, and at her noon
Crown, as with corona's, the wakeful flJw'rs.
From hedgeway bowers the trailing hops are torn,
Orchards are thinned, and purple paints the morn.
E. E. M. K.
•

ACCIDENT TO THE HON. AMIAS POULETT, NEAR
ILMINSTI?R•--On Saturday last this young gentleman, Ac-
companied by his brother, Viscount Hinton, went for a
short shooting excursion, when, having enjoyed the sport
for some time, he felt fatigued, and Vissount Hinton re-
quested him to return homewards, which he accordingly
did. As he did not make his appearance at dinner, his
Either, Earl Poulett, dispatched the servants on horseback
in all directions, in order to ascertain the cause of this un-

usual delay, as it was feared an accident had occurred to the

Hon. Gentleman. The Earl himself, accompanied by others,
also set out in search of him, when, after a long period, the
unfortunate young gentleman was discovered lying by the
side of a dry ditch, quite insensible, and blood issuing from
his ears and mouth. He was immediately removed, and
messengers were dispatched fur Mr. C. 11. Mules, surgeon,
who attended most promptly. It was then discovered that
both the bones of the right leg were broken, besides many
other bruises and injuries; there was also concussion of the
brain. A special messenger started at once for London for
a physician, who arrived at Taunton by special train on Sun-
day morning, and immediately set out for Hinton Park, the
seat of Earl Poulett. The sufferer still remained insensible

from the injuries received, which, with deep sorrow, we an-
nounce, are indeed of a most serious character. The accident
is supposed to have been occasioned by the horse falling,
throwing his rider, and rolling over him.— irestern Flying
Post.

THE EXPLOSION IN SPITALFIELDS.—The property
destroyed by the disastrous accident which took place on
Monday in the firework factory belonging to Mr. Clitherow,
Weaver-street, Spitalfields, was, we regret to state, greater

than was at first anticipated; windows and furniture—as far
off as a quarter of a mile have suffered, and more persons
than originally supposed have been severely injured. Mrs.
Slater and her daughter, who resided at No. 15, Weaver-
. _

street, immediately at the rear of the factory, were thrown
down by the shock, and one of them was much injured. At
the same instant nearly every window was shivered, and
immense pieces of solid timber were hurled into the air. An
iron hoop, of great weight, and a piece of bond timber,
upwards of 10 feet in length, were driven by the force of the
explosion upon the roof of All Saints' National School, and
destroyed a portion of it. Besides the houses mentioned
yesterday as having been damaged, seven in Clitherow-place
have been nearly rased to the ground. A woman named
Potter, living at .No. 14 in that place, alarmed by the first
explosion, threw one of her children out of the window, and
endeavoured to jump out with an infant in her arms, but
her clothes being caught by a nail, she was suspended some
feet from the ground while the two other explosions followed.
Mr. Clitherow received his principal injuries through his
staying to pull his servant out of the house; both were
terribly burned, but they are progressing favourably. During
yesterday a great many glaziers and bricklayers were em-
ployed in the neighbourhood, repairing the broken windows
and roofs of the houses damaged. Such a demolition of
window-glass, it is believed, has not taken place in Loudon
since the great storm of the Ist of August a few years since.
THE LATE DRIVERS AND FIREMEN ON THE

EASTERN COUNTIES LINE.—The board of directors of the
above line issued a notice for such of the men who had been
dismissed from their employ to leave the occupation of the
houses belonging to the company, on or before the 7th
instant, intimating that if they quitted possession at the time
named, the arrears of rent which has accrued from the period
of their leaving the company's service, would be remitted,
we understand nearly or quite the whole of the men hay,'
complied with the notice. The men have issued a long cir-
cular setting fo:-th what they term their grievances, and
calling upon the drivers and firemen, &c., on other lines, as
well as the public, for pecuniary aid oa this emergency,
which will be distributed pro rata among such hands as
have not obtained employment. The MeLi belonging to the
A division of police, who were stationed at the railway
works, have left, and the excitement consecrient upon the
strike has nearly subsided. We believe there are great
numbers of the men who sent in their resignations still with •
out employment, while numbers of them have sought and
obtained employment on other lines.—Essex Herald.
HORSES FOR THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA.—The fol-
lowing valuable horses were on Saturday last shipped at
Hull on board the Helen Macgregor, St. Petersburgh
steamer, for the stud of the Emperor of Russia:—Two
thoroughbred stallions, Freeman and Emilian ; two coach-
ing stallions, Vandyke and Regulus; one Suffolk punch
stallion and mare; one stallion and mare of the pure Clydes-
dale breed, four coaching mares, and four chargers. The
purchase was effected through the agency of General Betan-
court, and the shipment was made by Mr. J. Jackson.
Ma. LANDSEER.—It will be observed from last
night's Gazette, that her Majesty has been pleased to confer
the honour9llwlgilth99cl Litiaaner.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING
LITERATURE , SEPTEMBER 18, 1850.

COURT CIRCULAR.

LATEST OF THE SEA SERPENT.
A writer in the Cork E..'aminer furnishes a long
account of a roving excursion in Ballycotton- bay, un-
dertaken with the pleasurable view of falling in with
the sea serpent. The daring of the adventurer was
not, it seems, without its reward, for on a certain fine
day last week, while sailing about in a " fine broad-
bottomed yawl," with a couple of hands on board, he
came across the object of his search. A shot was of
course levelled at the monster, and, says the narrator;
" no sooner was the peculiar whiz of the bullet heard,
as it skipped over the wave, than the black object
stirred, gave a convulsive shudder, and raised some-
what that portion which was turned to the eastern
shore ; it lying at the time almost across the harbour
from east to west." Resolved not to lose sight of
the stranger, the boat " lulled up in the wind," and
"at the moment up darted in the air the head and
neck of what seemed an eel of monstrous magni-
tude, while at regular distances along the water
there appeared some half-dozen polished black sub-
stances, very much like harbour buoys, though some-
what smaller towards the end. The monster was not
now more than a quarter of a mile from our boat, a
little on the larboard, and was as plainly visible
as if it were within an oar's length, owing to the ex-
treme clearness of the day. It kept its head erect for
at least two minutes out of the water, waving it to
and fro with an oscillating movement; it then gave a
violent snort, at the same time sending out two tre-
mendous jets of water from each side of its head;
opened an enormous mouth, as if to yawn, and rushed
along the surface of the ocean with a beautiful undu-
lating motion, leaving a track after the last black
hump as clearly defined as that after a screw steamer.
Before I proceed to tell the rest allow me to describe
the appearance of the head and neck of this gigantic
visitant. Imagine a creature at once like an eel and
a serpent—the head like a serpent in its formation--
the neck more like that of a conger eel, thick and
covered with a mane. The eye was immense, and
partook more of the reptile than the fishy brightness.
It consisted of a jet black pupil, encircled by a dull
white rim, and an outer circle of flaming red, as red
as the gills of an ordinary fish. Its mouth was not
only furnished with a formidable row of teeth, white
as the whitest ivory, but two tusks protruded, one on
each side, that glittered like silver in the sun, and
measured somewhat from two to three feet in length.
In the latter particular it reminded me of the wal.
rus, which is similarly furnished. Its mane resem-
bled that of the leonine seal, or common sea lion,- each
hair of which, as some credible authorities assure us,
is so stong and thick as to answer as toothpicks. In
spite of the flaming outer circle of the eye, and its
formidable tusks, the appearance of this marine mons-
ter was not by any means ferocious ; on the contrary,
its aspect was rather benevolent and indolent than
otherwise. But scarcely had we put the boat round
on the other tack, in order to follow the movement of
the serpent, which shot across our bows at a pro-
digious rate, than it turned :round, and directed its
course right towards our boat, which I confess I
thought was doomed from that moment. Darby was
now on his knees, thumping his breast with terrific
energy ; but Sullivan, though he looked a shad paler,
sat like a rock, the helm firm in his grasp. The
gun, sir,' he whispered—' a good shot in the nose will
make him sheer off.' I coked both hammers, and
brought the barrels to bear as steadily as I could full
upon the soft blunt nose of the monster, when with
the rapidity of light he darted past our little bow-
sprit, but not before he flung out of his enormous
mouth a literal shower of small fish, more than a
dozen of which fell into the bow of the boat.
Before I could pull a trigger he was gone. I was
slowly putting the hammers of the gun down,
when I heard a sudden cry from the fore part, Mur-
ther, I'm kilt.' The voice was that of Pat Fennessy.
I at once scrambled over the tauts, and came to where
poor Pat sat, the image of perplexity and fear.
What is the matter, man ?' said I. Oh, masther the
fish, the fish What fish, you fool ?" Thim little
fellows, yer honour,' said Pat, pointing with one hand
to the fish that lay in the bottom of the boat, while his
other hand seemed as rigid as one of the masts. I
stooped towards one that lay near me, and I took it
in my hand ; but no sooner did I lay my finger on it
than I received a tremendous shock along the arm,
just as if I had touched the wire of a galvanic bat-
tery of immense power. The fact was, they were
possessed of the power of imparting electric shocks.
I induced each of the men to touch others of the fish,
and the same phenomenon always followed. What
was I to think of all this ? Why, that the sea
serpent was nothing more nor less than a gi-
gantic creature of the species known to science
as the Gymnotus clectricus of Linnaeus. It is true,
the scies is only common to warmer countries
and fresh rivers; but there is no reason that I
know of why an animal possessing the same wonderful
property may not be found in our colder clime and
in salt waters. I was further strengthened in my
opinion that the animal not only possessed the electric
power itself, but was capable of imparting it to others,
for, floating on the sea, we saw several fish, large and
small, that it had either stunned or killed by the
electric shock, and that when touched produced a
violent result to the p-rson touching. It is well known
that the common electric eel first stuns or kills its
prey, and then leisurely devours it. Ally not this
enormous monster, which I have had the good fortune
to see, be a salt-water species of this most extraordi-
nary eel ? I shall now conclude by stating my belief
that the whole length of the animal did not excsed
150 feet, of which some fifteen or twenty feet were
raised high out of the water. People may affect to dis-
believe this, but it is well known that the sperm
whale commonly measures ninety feet ; and it is a
well ascertained fact in history that the march of
Regulus's army was disputed in Africa by a serpent
120 feet long, the skin of which was afterwards dis-
played for some days in the Capitol of Rome."

his reply to the questions of Sergeant Wilkins, and we
believe that there no fair and candid reader of that
evidence who will r.ot close its perusal with the same
conviceion that we do, that these transactions must
have been monstrously and cruelly misrepresented
before they could, to any mind, supply the slightest
reason for the obloquy with which Mr. Hudson has
been assailed.
CHRONICLE.—The Europa steamer, which
brought the last American mails, left the people of
the United States, particularly the inhabitants of
New York, in a perfect phrenzy of excitement—dis-
tracted by conflicting emotions, like Garrick between
Tragedy and Comedy, or (if they will pardon the
simile) like the donkey of the metaphysicians, who
was unable to make up his mind which of the two
bundles of hay to begin upon. Jenny Lind had ar-
rived, and Professor Webster had been hanged. If
Lord Brougham (as was once anticipated) bad cotem-
poraneously landed with his new pamphlet in his
hand, they would have gone mad outright, and Mr.
Disraeli would no longer have been able to boast that
he is the only living politician in either hemisphere
whose warmest (if not most discriminating) admirer
is shut up in a lunatic asylum. But the indefatigable
ex-Chancellor ricbly merits a triumphant entry
to himself amongst a people who have so largely,
benefited by his enlightened labours in his own pecu-
liar field of Law Reform ; and, for the moment, they
have enough, and more than enough, to occupy them.
Mr. Cooper's last novel, " The Way of the Hour,"
was composed for the avowed purpose of reforming
the administration of the criminal law in the
United States ; and he draws a startling pic-
ture of the mode in which juries are alternately tam-
pered with through the instrumentality of professional
agents, and misled or prejudiced by the lowest class
of newspapers. Webster's case, however, had at-
tracted too much attention in the old world to admit
of the employment of these indirect influences, even
assuming them to be in constant operation as de-
scribed ; and the greatest pains appear to have been
taken by the tribunals and authorities to impress the
European public with a favourable opinion of Ame-
rican justice. The verdict, in our opinion, was fully
supported by the evidence ; but the Governor and
Council are said to have hesitated as to the execution
of the ;sentence until the second confession, in which
the accused admitted the act of killing, but declared
it to have been entirely unpremeditated and the result
of sudden passion. In the first confession he had
maintained his entire innocence, and a strong feeling
had been got up in his favour upon the strength of it.
Yet all who are conversant with the workings of the
human mind under analogous circumstances, will
agree with us, that very little reliance is to be placed
upon self-exculpatory revelations at any time, and
that the hope of inspiring belief in a pretended con-
fession will often cling to the hardened offender to
the last. If a manslayer, to whom the fact of
killing is brought home, could shake off the guilt of
murder by a frank acknowledgment of all except the
premeditation or the motive—to convict by presump-
tive or circumstantial evidence would be an impossi-
bility, for it would be always open to the alleged mur-
derer to say that the pre-existing intention to kill had
been given up. The execution was what is called
private. It took place in the yard of the gaol, in the
presence of two or three hundred spectators, police
officers and others, required or invited to attend. But
the Boston correspondent of the New York Herald
(whose letter we printed at length yesterday) states,
that several of the neighbouring houses commanded a
view of the yard, and that the windows and roofs of
some of them were packed with persons of both sexes
and of all ages. "It grieved me," he adds, "to see
ladies and young girls manifest their morbid curiosity
in this way." On the other hand, it gladdened him
to be able to say that three of the houses so situated
were shut up, and that on the door of one of them was
posted a bill to this effect : "Not at home. Opposed to
capital punishment." When some tender-hearted
moralist once requested the interference of the late
Lord Ellenborough to stop an assize ball, and alleged
the impropriety of dancing whilst trials of life and
death were actually pending, he growled out, " Why
should not any fools who like it dance and fiddle now
as well as at other times ? There are always people
going to be hanged somewhere." The inhabitants of
New York are entirely of the Learned Chief Justice's
opinion, and they differ, moreover, very materially
from Lord Ashley as to the degree of strictness with
which the Christian day of rest should be observed.
So soon as the Atlantic steamer, known to carry the
Swedish Nightingale and her fortunes, was descried
in the offing (on Sunday, September Ist), they forgot
the Professor, and deserted both church and chapel
to hurry by thousands towards the port. She landed
amidst the acclamations of the crowd, who attended
her, shouting all the way, to the hotel, in which
apartments fit for the Queen of Song, or the Queen
of Beauty, or a real Queen Regnant (as a New York
contemporary expresses it), were prepared for her; the
hotel itself being surmounted with the Swedish
colours. In less than half an hour every street and
alley in the city resounded with cries of "Extra
Heralds! Arrival of the Atlantic!. Jenny Lind !
The great J-nnv Lind"—to which many added "The
good Jenny Lind"—for her reputation for munificent
charity, gentleness, and kind-heartedness had pre-
ceded her, and added not a little to the enthusiasm
she called forth. As her admirers could not sleep
they were resolved not to let her sleep. It was past
midnight when the New York Musical Society, con-
taining two hundred members, arrived in front of
her hotel, escorted by twenty fire companies, where
they played "a magnificent serenade"—at least so
says our correspondent, who computes the number
of persons present at thirty thousand, " including
" a great number of carriages filled with ladies,"
When the serenade was over, a select band of the
performers were introduced, and delivered an address
—" The tender of fraternal love, sincere admiration,
and profound respect." Her brief reply was marked
by her characteristic diffidence, simplicity, and good
taste. " The sight there," she concluded, pointing to
the window—" was the most beautiful I ever saw."
In an audible aside, she murmured to a friend, " They
are all firemen," which was explained to allude to the
warmth of their enthusiasm, rather than to the nu-
merous fire companies assembled in the street. We
have been wont to believe that the boundless enthu-
siasm excited by Madame Rossi (then Mademoiselle
Sontag) some twenty years since in I 3 Arlin, would
not be outdone in our time. One of her shoes, pro-
cured by bribery from a treacherous waiting maid,
served as a drinking cup, on festive occasions, to a
club of officers, so long as it lasted ; and a half-
fini?bed glass of wine, captured by a body of students
who forced their way into a room she had just left,
was actually put up to auction and bought by one of
them fur seventeen dollars. The Yankee amateurs,
however, are running the Germans hard. The hall
of Jenny Lind's hotel is filled from morning to night
with crowds pressing to see her autograph signature
in the arrival-book; and it is said that the tickets of
admission to her first concerts are to be disposed of
by auction. All this time there are questions of no
mean importance under discussion in Congress ; but
what avails it to refer to "alarming differences be-
tween North and South," to new laws for aggravating
the horrors of slavery, or to the budding seeds of
communism. Murder and music, horror and har-
mony, are the all-absorbing topics of interest in New
York.

BALMORAL, SEPT. 15.
Her Majesty and his Royal Highness Prince
Albert attended Divine service this morning in the
pariah church at Cratbie. The service was performed
by the Rev. A. Anderson.
The ladies and gentlemen of the household were in
attendance upon her Majesty and his Royal Highness.
Tne dinner party this evening will include her
Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, his Serene
Highness the Prince of Leiningen, Lady Augusta
Bruce, Baroness Spetb, and Lord James Murray.

A meeting of directors and managers of railways,
with the members of the Royal Commission for the
promotion of the Exhibition of all Nations, to be
held in the year 1851, took place yesterday, in the
new Palace of Westminster, Colonel Reid, R.E ,
chairman of the Executive Committee of the Com-
mission, being in the chair. Captain Boscowen Ib-
betson, F.R.S., Colonel Lloyd (on a special commis-
sion), Mr
ent. Redgrave, A.R A., and Mr. Dilke, were
alpres.
The subject of the conference was to decide on the
trains to convey artisans to the Exhibition.
The following gentlemen attended on the part of
railway companies :—Captain Huish, London and
North-Western ; Mr. Saunders, GreatlWestern ; Mr.
Frederick Slight and Mr. George Hawkins, Brigh-
ton ; Mr. Wyndham Harding, South-Western ; Mr.
George Richardson, Eastern Counties ; and Mr.
Cornelius Stovin, London and South-Western.
Dispatches were received yesterday at the Colonial-
office from the Governor of St. Helena.

LICENSED VICTUALLERS' SCHOOL.
The annual election of children into this admirable
institution took place yesterday. At half-past three
o'clock exactly Mr. Findley, attended by his col-
leagues on the committee, entered the boys' school-
room, where the parents and friends of the youthful
candidates were assembled to hear the result of
the poll.
_ _

RETURN OF THE COURT FROM SCOTLAND.—Her
Majesty and the Court will return to °borne, Isle of Wight,
ou the 7th proximo.

HUNTING PROSPECTS IN SOMERSETSIIIRE.—Mr.
Theobald and the gentlemen of Bath, it would appear, have
completed their arrangements for stag hunting in the neigh-
bourhood of that ancient city—the latter having undertaken
to contribute 750/. towards the expenses of Mr. Theobald's
establishment during the hunting season. We congratulate
the inhabitants of Bath, as they could not possibly have se-
lected a better master of hounds than Mr. Theobald, whose
absence from Cheltenham during the ensuing winter will be
since7ely regretted by many of our sporting characters.—
Chtltenham Looker. on.

T.a
E.X• HUNGARIAN GENERAL GUYON.—We are
requested to correct an erroneous statement going the round
of the press, to the effect that the gallant General Guyon, late
of the Hungarian army, "has forgotten his faith, and has
become a Moslem to gain a pachalick." This is not true.
The General, in accepting an appointment in the Ottoman
service at Damascus, was not compelled to change his faith,
and he is living at that place, with his wife and family, after
the manner of an English Christian. Moreover, we may
state, that he is a native of Bath, and has never been in Ire-
land at any period of hid liter—Jlerald.