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

MARLBRO'-STREET-(THIS DAY

•
THE BETTING-OFFICE NUISANCE.— William Stevenson
and Charles Stevenson, two we!l-dressed young men,
were brought before Mr. Hardwick, charged with as-
saulting Robert Campbell, under the fulloring circum-
stances:—
The complainant stated that he was managing clerk
to Mr. Berrien, who keeps a betting-office at No. 28,
Cranbouria-street. About five o'clock yesterday after-
noon he was much annoyei by two men, with plaoards
before them, who paraded before the door. The pla-
cards were to the effect that Mr. Berrien had failed to
pay his bets. As the men persiste 1 in their annoyance
he sent for a constable aed had them removed. About
ten minuses afterwards the defendants came into his
office, and William, who was formerly employed by wit-
ness as clerk, at a salary of three pounds per week,
demanded to know what ho (witness) had done with
the two men with the pLcards, and how he dared to call
him a thiec. Witness, not wishing to have any disturb-
ance in the office, told them to leave peaceably, and on
their refusing to do so he went to the door for the pur-
pose of calling a constable, when he was struck on the
breast with great force by Charles Stevenson. Ho
then rent for a constable and gave them in charge.
The defendant Charles Stevenson did not deny strik-
ing complainant, and William Stevenson, in defence, de-
nied ever having been a clerk to complainant, nor had
he ever received any money from him, with the excep-
tion of 305., being part of a bet. He (defendant) now
held tickets for 80C/. on the St. Leger, which would be
run to-day, and it was enough to wake any one
excited when he knew that complainant had not a far-
thing to pay with. He denied assaulting the complain-
ant; he (defendant) merely want to his office for the
purpose of asking him to rake his money.
Mr. flaanwicx said these betting places must bo ex-
ceedingly profitable to pay such salaries. The existence
of these offices was bad and prejudicial in every sense
of the word, acid something ought to be done to put
them down. In those places there were always something
like the present case occurring, and to prevent a repetie
tion of such scenes he would put a stop to it, as it not only
encouraged a paltry system of gambling, which ought to
be repressed, but it was au inducement for many young
men to resort to dishonest means to raise money to bet
with. With regard to:the keepers of such places, they
must bear their own responsibility, and not come to the
magistrates fur protection. As to the defendants, he
should order them to find one surety each in 101, and to
enter into their own recognisances in the like amount, to
keep the peace for three months.

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 appeal that is certain of
meeting with a response from Englishmen. Such an
appeal is now made to us, in common with the pub-
lic, on behalf of a gentleman who has proved all the
vicissitudes of public feeling, from a blind and un-
reasoning worship to a blind and still less reasoning
hatred. 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 Hudsen, the
Member for Sunderland, whose power and popularity
in the railway world were scarcely exaggerated in the
title 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 hail 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-
fl,exion 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 answer 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. His 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 authentic'report 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 Templer 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 railway speculators of that period are a chapter
for good or evil is 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, indeed, upon the entire
of hie railway life, but upon those passages of it which
were deliberately and carefully selected as supplying
the strongest materiels for 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 61. 103. 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,
ttoraccatleldutpoosnutphpoisy him,
tmasters with whom he bad con-
at the price of 6/. 10s. with iron
which he could sell in the market without difficulty for
at least 12/. 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 month of March, 1845, offered
Mr. Hudson 50,000/. to assign his bargain to him ;
and if Mr. Hudson had thought fit to accept that
offer, Mr. Crawshay would have received the
ten thousand tons of iron, paying the sellers
at the price of 6/. 103., and handing over
to Mr. Hudson 50,0001., which that gentleman
would have pocketed without the possibility of
question or imputation. But it so happened that the
13erwick Railway Company, in that very month 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 for
supplying that iron to the railway. This tender was
at 121. 10e ; it was beaten down to 12/., a price the
very lowest at which a large quantity of iron could be
obtained, a price below that paid for it 14 other rail-
way companies at the same time. Mr. Hudson had it thus
in ins power to c ill 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 supply the iron to Mr. Crawshay, And pocket

LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 18, 1850.

his own 50,000.1.4 but if he had done this, Thompson
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
Forman, " Keep your engagement with the railway
company, but you must at least partially fulfil your
contract with me, and on 7,000 tons you must pay
me the difference between 61. 10s. 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. Most 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, it 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. Hudson made nothing more in con•
sequence of the sale to them than he 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 trulystated: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 j us-
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 bps 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 he was gnilty 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 Metnber 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-
liament 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
as inquiry into his alleged misconduct. But at the bar of
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 we 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 had too-many painful proofs. It was, after all,
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
the unproved accusations by which he was so unspar-
ingly assailed. We confess, then, we were pleased
when at last in this trial at York we had the oppor-
tunity of grappling with some definite and specific
issue. Oar readers who peruse this pamphlet report
of the evidence, will probably share our surprise at
discovering the character of the charges upon which,
when reduced to matter of precise fact, all the vitu-
to thegive reportour opinion of the
upon
vitu-
peration of Mr. Hudson appears to rest. We must
content ourselves for the present by referring our
readers
evidencethoiateselefilarlgVee
can only s
that were made the subject of Mr. Sergeant \Yil-
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 alluded 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
I
hioa. Upon these he has given his sworn gnawer, in

his reply to the questions of Sergeant Wilkins, and we
believe that there is no fair and candid reader of that
evidence who will not close its perusal with the same
conviction 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) had cotem-
poraneously lauded 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 ind-fatigable
ex-Chancellor richly 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 -thedor of one of them was
posted a bill to this effect : "Not at home. Opposed to
capital punishment." Whets 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 otber 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

LATEST OF THE SEA SERPENT.
A writer in the Cork Examiner furnishes a long
account of a roving excursion in Blllycoton-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 cast to west." Resolved not to lose sight of
the stranger, the boat " luffed up in the wind," and
`• at the moment up darted in the air the head and
neck of what seemed an eel of monstrous insgni-
tude, while at regular distances along the water
there appeared some half-dozen polished black sub-
stances, very much like harl2our 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•
rug, 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 bis 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.
Bsfore I could pull a trigger ho was gone. I was
slowly putting the hammers of the gun down,
when I heard a sudden cry from the fore pert, Ma-
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 electricus of Linnmue. It is true,
the species 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 electiie
power itself, but was capable of imparting it to others,
for, floating on the sea, w e 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 person touching. It is well known
that the common electric eel first stuns or kills its
prey, and then leisurely devours it. May 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 exceed
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."

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 I Jenny Lind !
The great Jcnny 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
thoy 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 ouicorrespondelt, 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 btief 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 Berlin, 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-
finished glass of wine, captured by a body of students
who forced their way into a room she had just lefr,
was actually put up to auction and bought by one of
them for 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.

COURT CIRCULAR.
' BALMORAL, SEPT. 15.
Her Majesty and his Royal Highness Prince
Albert attended Divine service this morning in the
parish church at Crathie. 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. Redgrave, A.R.A., and Mr. Dilke, were
also present.
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, Greats Western ; Mr.
Frederick Slight and Mr. George Hawkins, Brigh-
ton ; Mr. Wyndham Harding, South-I'Vestern ; Air.
George Richardsun, Eastern Counties ; and Mr.
Cornelius Stovin, London and South-Western.
Dispatches were received yesterday at the Colonial-
office from the Governor of St. Helena.

RETURN OF THE COURT FROM SCOTLAND.—Her
Majesty and the Court will return to Osborne, Isle of Wight,
on the 7th proximo.
HUNTING PROSPECTS IN SOMERSETSUIEB.—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 7501. 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
sincerely regretted by many of our sporting characters.—
Chtlelnham Looker-on.

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.
Mr. SMALLEY then, by the direction of Mr. Find-
ley, read the following list :

BOYS.
Votes Votes
at former at present Total.
Elections. Election..

George Osmond 17,711
Thomas John Mobbs
Richard Robert Davies
William Cantrill Gollings 3,934
Robert Draper
Frederick Martin
James William Codriogton
Charles Richard Hutchings
Thomas George Thorpe
Geo. Thos. Byron Cousins
Thomas Walker Penny
John Edward Burrows 6,549

Adam Southcombe
Frederick Fancy
Benjamin Richard Peacock
Edwin Mark Carrier
Edward Fancy
GIRLS.

Elizabeth Emma Brasier
Catherine Sophia Kirk 14,511
Mary Jane Midiam
Louisa Mason 12,373
Sarah Ann Blaekwa!l
Elizabeth Penney
Julia Ann Ninham
Elisabeth Wells
Eliza Helen Weeks
Emily Cousins Rowley 7,334
Julia Upperton 7,242
Elizabeth Maria Stiff 6 985
Louisa Elizabeth Barlow

Elizabeth Chance Coombes
Emily Day
2,375
Clara Ann Hutchins 977
Sarah Walker Penny
Mr. FINDLEY then declared the first twelve boys, and
the first thirteen girls on the list duly elected, who, he
stated, would be receivel into the Institution on the first
of October next.

The business of the day having been then con•
eluded, the meeting separated.
[We shall give a faller report to-morrow.]

THE ONE THOUS.A.ND MILES MATCH.—Searles,
of Leeds, still continues his walking match of one thcuisand
miles in the same number of hours, at Tranmere. He has
begun each mile at the commencement of each hour, and
yesterday appeared as free from fatigue as when he started
on Monday week. Owing to difficulty of watching him
during the night on the round course enclosed near Tranmere
Hotel, he walks along the turnpike-road in company of two
men, one of whom is engaged to watch his progress, and see
that each mile is performed. He lives well, is in robust
health, and sleeps well, especially in the night, when not en-
gaged in walking. He performs each mile in nearly- the
same space of time, generally twelve minutes, though some
have been accomplished in ten minutes. The odds are, how-
ever, against him by two and three to one, and several
wagers have been at two to one, taken by himself within the
last few clays.—Chester Chronicle.

THE FRENCH ADMIRAL, BARON MACKAIL—Spe-
cial orders from the Admiralty have been received at Wool-
wich,lChatham, Sheerness, and other ports, directing the
authorities to allow the gallant ex-Minister of the French
Marine to view the dockyards, and to pay every attention
to this distinguished officer. Admiral Mackau, we believe.
is the only French officer living who, in a fair fight and on
equal terms, captured an English brig-of- war.—Herald.

E WE AT HER.—At the Royal Observatory,
Greenwich, the mean reading of the barometer was above
30 in. on every day of the past week; it was highest on
Sunday and Monday ; the mean of the wer,k was atm 71 in.
The mean temperature of the week was 35.3 deg., and less
than the average of the same week in seven years by 4..1 deg.
The mean temperature was less than the average during
the whole week. The wind blew generaliY•from the north-
east.

TrIE Ex-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 nevez been in ire-
1411d at any period Of 145 life.—Herald.

Lord John Russell was one day last week observed
in front of Mr. Maule's house at Birnam,- enjoying himself
with his children in sending up paper balloons into the air,
and chasing them over the lawn.—North British Arcal,