The Sun. — London, England, 1862-01-30 00:00:00

7HE WINDlitiM CdIEE. 4 :The adjourned inquiry into the state of mind of Mr. W. F. Windham, of Felbrigg-hall, Norfolk, was resumed yesterday in the Westminster Sessions Roane, before Mr. Warren, Q.C., one of the Masters in lunacy, and a special jury. Mr. Chambers resumed by calling the attention of the jury to the marriage of Mr. Windham—a mar riage, he said, in which a bridegroom was not taken to the altar, but a victim was led to the slaughter. He contended that if the marriage stood alone no man who gave his cool and impartial consideration to the case would hesitate to say that it was the marriage of an imbecile, and not that of a sane man. From first to last, Miss Willoughby seemed to have treated Mr. Windham like a child. At one time she told him that her father had left her £6OO per annum, but shortly afterwards the representation was changed, and then she said she had an allow ance of £2,000 a year from the gentleman under Whose protection she was living. The poor idiot appeared to have believed every word she uttered, and he really imagined that Agnes Willoughby, nee Rogers, was going to descend upon him, like an other Jupiter, in a shower of gold. When the time came for preparing the marriage settlement Mr. 'Windham had mind enough to make a feeble struggle against the extortionate demands of his in tended bride, but he was speedily overpowered, and Miss Willoughby easily persuaded him to settle upon her, not for her life, but in perpetuity, an amount of money so extravagantly large in propor tion to his means that no reasonable being could ever have dreamt of entering into such an engage ment. The learned counsel reflected with severity upon the conduct of Mr. Bowen May, the solicitor ' who drew up the marriage settlement, and ex pressed a strong doubt whether such a document was ever prepared in a respectable office before. He maintained that Miss Willoughby kuvw the state iu which Mr. Windham was at the time of the marriage, for she had been previously in formed of it by Mr. Johnson, the surgeon, in Saville-row, and ridiculed the idea that after the marriage an enormous quantity of jewellery was presented to her by her husband, as compensa tion for an injury which, in every sense of the term, was self-inflicted. He minutely described what he called the desecration of the marriage cere mony, which took place in the church of All Saints, St. John's-wood, on the morning of the 29th of Aug. last, and dwelt with some humour on the motley crowd assembled on the occasion. One of the prin cipal personages in the scene was a venerable lady, tlie widow of the late Rev. Mr. Rogers, but she wAs supported, rather unfortunately, by three clowns disguised as gentlemen. He did not allude, of course, to Mr. Bowen May, who was the very pink of fashion, and in all respects worthy of fol lowing the Royal staghounds. Nor did he refer to Dr. Whidborne, the paterfamilias, who took part in the ceremony with a couple of broken ribs; but the jury would recollect that, besides the eminent soli citor and the eminent physician, in addition to the venerable Mrs. Rogers and her fascinating and accomplished daughter, Mr. Windham was sur rounded on the most fatal day of his life by three individuals who seemed to have been picked off the streets, taken into a ready-made clothing establish ment, and there rigged oat for the occasion. The learned gentleman accompanied the happy couple to Paris, where they spent the honeymoon, re turned with them to London, went down with them to Felbrigg-hall, and related the events and inci dents which occurred at that place. He stated that during the residence at Felbrigg Mrs. Windham twice left her husband, for the purpose of following a person whom she had addressed in post-nuptial letters as " My dear, dear —," and with whom there could not be a shadow of doubt she had acted the part of an adultress. Meanwhile, how was Mr. Windham conducting himself! In the month of October, or about that period, there was a sum of £1,908 standing to his credit in a bank inNorwich. By the middle of December the whole of that money had vanished, with the exception of something like £l7, and no funds remained for the payment of the bills held by Emmanuel, the jeweller,to the amount of £13,000. On one day Mr. Windham gave his wife two cheques, one for £3OO and the other for £157, while Roberts obtained from him no less a sum than £137. For what was that money paid by Mr. Windham? Several witnesses had ex pressed the opinion, founded upon personal obser vation, that Mr. Windham was entirely ignorant of the value of money. Their statement was con firmed in the most conclusive manner by the way in which he squandered away the £1,900 placed to his credit in the Norwich Bank, and the jury could not fail to see that Mr. Windham, whatever might be said of him in other respects, was utterly incompetent to the management of his affairs. The learned gentlemen next dealt with the timber con tract, which he said was unfair in its terms, and enough in itself to prove the mental incapacity of Mr. Windham. Roberts, he declared was the real author of the contract, and the object of it was to cheat a poor imbecile. He directed attention to the extraordinary will which, according to Mr. Bowen May, Mr. Windham executed after his mar riage. By that will he left the whole of his pro perty to his wife for her life, with the remainder to her two sisters, the one wl.o married first to take the name and arms of Windham. A more alarm ing act could not be conceived with reference to the evil and pernicious influence exercised overMr.Wind ham, and certainly no argument could be required to prove that he ought to be protected from a repetition of the same piece of madness. It was true the will had been destroyed; but Mr. Windham was again re conciled to his wife, and he might at any moment be persuaded to make an equally disgraceful disposition of his property. The law of England, said the learned gentleman in conclusion, distinctly declared that there was a state of mind existing between ab solute idiotcy and positive lunacy, which disabled a man from managing himself or his affairs. Suoh was the doctrine laid down by Lord Eldon and Sir John Nicholls, and the medical joined with the legal authorities in establishing the existence of an im becile condition requiring the protection of the law. As crimes were punished and property was pro tected in England, so the weak and imbecile were under the guardianship of our happy constitution, and the Sovereign, as she reigned over all her sub jects with jestlce, reigned over the meanest, the youngest, and the most helpless with kindness and benevolence. It was in the spirit of benevolence and kindness—a spirit which pervaded our law in all its branchee—that protection was given to un happy youths who were made the subjects of depre dation and destruction in wealth, in health, in cha racter, and in life. There were certain ugly birds, which, the moment they saw a feast spread out upon the ground, left their darksomo recesses and descended, not merely to devour voraciously the viands arrayed before them, but to pollute and con taminate everything they touched. Sir Hugh Cairns had culled from classical literature a quotation which was strictly applicable to the present condition of of Mr. Windham, and to what his state would be if the jury Were to pronounce him sane and compe tent to manage his affairs. His learned friend had quoted from the description by Virgil of the horri ble condition of the man who, by the invention of an ancient tyrant, was chained to a dead body. Mr Windham, not by the invention of an ancient tyrant, but by the cunning and craft of modern sharpers, was chained to corruption of the vilest kind, and would continue in that co n di t i on unless they ' de clared him to be entitled to the protection of the law. They had been told that by returning a verdict of sanity they would do an act not only of o r! j u stice, lvind but of kindness an :,evolence to Wind ham. Vain and en' words ! Let Mr. Windham .„,- ;D fd what would f o l low ? Fell be pronounced s, f his early and c hi ldish en. brigg Hall, the se • joyments, and Fei.origg estate, the boast of his little mind, would speedily pass from his posses sion. 'The ugly birds would fly into the portals of the ancient mansion, and Mr. Windham would be turned adrift, a beggar and an outcast. Whither could he go ? Would he return to the metropolis and revisit his old haunts in the Haymarket ? The hospitable doors of Mr. Barnes would before long be closed against him, and if he attempted, in his rags and wretchedness, to renew his acquaintance with the " pretty horsebreakers" in Rotten-row, he would be made to feel all the humiliation and de- gradation of his fallen fortunes. Dr. Tuke had declared that, if Mr. Windham continued to con duct himself as he had hitherto done, h 3 would either be in a lunatic asylum or would ki i himself in four or five years. Mr. Windham therefore must be saved, and saved too from. ruin of health and character, from disease, from wretchedness of life, from disgrace, from scorn, from repulsion from the doors of his own wife living in luxury on her £BOO or £1,500 a year. From evils worse than death itself he could be saved only through the interven tion of those relatives who had come forward, in spite of evil report and gross abuse, for the purpose of discharging a disagreeable duty, by the interpo sition of the law of the land, and by the verdict of a jury of his countrymen. The Master briefly summed up. At length, he said, this important, difficult, and unprecedented case had come into their hands. It would be their ' duty to deal with it calmly and dispassionately, as became men acting under a solemn sense of re sponsibility, engaged in an inquiry involving issues of tremendous importance to the gentleman imme diately concerned, as well as to every reflecting and right-thinking man in England. He was not surprised at the sensitiveness which the public had displayed, but if those persons had become irritable and impatient who voluntarily day after day had read the newspaper reports of details which must have shocked the feelings of every one of the least preten sions to right principles and purity of character,what must have been the case with the jury and himself, who had been compelled by their sense of duty to sit there and listen often with loathing and disgust? No one was entitled or justified at present in pro nouncing an opinion upon these proceedings, or as to their final determination, who had not been there from first to last, seeing and hearing every witness, and weighing the evidence under the pressure of an oath. The inquiry heAa I —u s•-•satintail ~,;ti plary regularity and with a rigorous adherence to the law of the land. At%;mpts to raise irrelevant issues had been repressed, and the attention of the jury had been kept steadily fixed upon the fact that the only question before them was whether Mr. Windham was a lunatic, and as such not sufficient for the go vernment of himself or his property. By the second section of the Lunacy Regulation Act it was pro- , vided that the word " lunatic" should be construed to mean any person found upon inquisition to be an idiot, a lunatic, or of unsound mind, and incapable of managing himself and his affairs. When the case was opened on the 16th December last, Mr. Chambers laid before them a mass of facts of a very grave nature, and if, at the end of the evidence in support of the petition, an application had been made to him for an interview with Mr. Windham, he should have taken it into his most serious consi deration. But Sir Hugh Cairns, instead of alleging that no case had been made out for the petitioners, and intimating his intention not to call witnesses for the defence, delivered a speech of uncommon brilliancy, closing with a peroration severely classi cal and elegant, and then proceeded to adduce a great mass of evidence on the part of Mr. Windham. The inquiry had now extended over 33 days, and, while 50 witnesses had been called in support of the pe tition, no fewer than 90 had been examined against it. He was glad that the counsel on both sides, whose speeches had occupied more than a week, had so ex hausted the subject that it would be unnecessary for him to go through the evidence. It only remained for him to address a few general observations to the jury. They were not trying the validity of the acts of Mr. Windham in point of law. They were not trying the validity of the marriage settlement, of the disentailing deeds, of the timber contract, or of the bills for jewelry. In short, they were not try ing the validity of any one of the instruments which bad been produced in the course of the inquiry, and all they had to do with those documents and trans actions was, simply to deal with them as media of proof in deciding the issue before them. Nor were they trying the motives or conduct of the petitioners. The conduct of General Windham had been sub jected to severe censure ; it had received from Mr. Chambers a splendid vindication, as far as eloquence could go ; but, following in the footsteps of the late Lord Cottenham, he had excluded all evidence upon that subject, which was one entirely foreign to the present inquiry. What the jury had Ito decide was, whether Mr. Windham was of such sound mind as to be able to govern himself and his affairs. In the time of Lord Hardwicke it was necessary to find a msn absolutely insane, but in 1802 Lord Eldon declared that the Court of Chancery thought itself authorised to issue a commission provided it were made out that the party was unable to act with any proper and provident management, was liable to be robbed by any one, or was labour ing under that imbecility of mind which, though not strictly insanity, equally required the protection of the law. Lord Lyndhurst, in 1827, adopted the ruling of Lord Eldon, which might be taken, there fore, as an authoritative declaration of the law of England. Another doctrine laid down by Lord Eldon, and sanctioned by his successors, was that if a jury found merely the incapacity of an alleged lunatic to manage his affairs, and did not infer from it unsoundness of mind, upon that finding a com mission could not go on, though the party might be living where he was exposed to ruin every in stant. From all this it resulted that, in order to justify a verdict against Mr. Windham, the jury must be satisfied that he was incapable of govern- ' ing himself and his affairs by reason of un soundness of mind. Mere weakness of charac ter, mere liability to impulse or susceptibility of influence, good or bad, mere imprudence, extrava gance, recklessness, eccentricity, or immorality —no, not all these put together would suffice, unless they believed themselves justified, on a view of the whole evidence, in referring them to a morbid con dition of intellect. The question was essentially a practical one, and must be decided upon the evi dence. It was their duty to weigh carefully the character, the position in life, and the probable mo tives of the witnesses. He would not presume to indicate the effect which the evidence had produced upon his own mind. The responsibility of deciding i the case rested with the jury alone; but he might be permitted to say that, instead of fixing their at tention upon particular points, they ought to look at the evidence as a whole, and be guided by its general tenor. He remarked upon the great conflict of medical evidence, which, he said, was not unu sual in lunacy cases, and advised the jury to judge for themselves, and not to allow their minds to be confused by the contradictory statements of skilled witnesses. They were not trying, he repeated, the conduct of Gen. Windham, but the transaction which took place at Follbrigg-hall on the Bth of August was entitled to their consideration, so far as it might show that, in his opinion, his nephew was then of sound mind. Let them not apply too high a standard to Mr. Windham. It was not their business to consider whether he was a consummate man of business er the reverse ; the question which they had to decide was, whether he was of such sound mind as to be able to take care of himself and his property. The letters which had been produced were well worthy of their most serious attention. He regarded them, for his own part, as exceedingly creditable to Mr. Windham, and if the jury were satisfied that they were actually written by the alleged lunatic, without help from others, it would be their duty to give them all the weight they deserved. Large portions of the evi dence of the Lewellins had been corroborated by other witnesses, and it was for the jury to say on which side perjury had been committed, whe ther on the side of Mrs. Lewellin or on that of her sister and brother. Imprudent marriages were not unfrequent. It was a common saying," Marry in haste, and repent at leisure," and the mar riage contracted by Mr. Windham might be taken as a transaction of that type. But they were not trying the question of its validity, and therefore it was not necessary for him to go into the unutter ably.. disgusting evid ence w hi c h h a d b een l a id b e f ore t hem. They were not there to read moral lessons to Mr. Windham 'or anybody else, and, though there had unquestionably been frightful vice and wic§.edzasss; the cardinal questi on f or th e i r conside rationwhether the marria g e and all th e cir cumstances mental connectedcondition of it threw allegedt hw re any lunatic. light upon , so cumstances also, with respect to the timber contract. The con struction of that instrument was a matter to be ' decided in the ordinary courts of law. What the • jury had to consider was, whether the contract was of so absurd and destructive a character that no man in his senses could have entered into it; in other words, they could deal with it simply as a medium of proof. The learned Master referred to the con duct of Mr. Windham since the commencement of these proceedings, and told the jury that, while they should not attach too much importance to his visits to the Haymarket, and his behaviour at Fel brigg-hall on Christmas night, they ought not to lose sight of those matters, but should give them all the consideration they might be thought to de serve. He stated that he had decided upon public grounds alone, and not for merely personal reasons, in favour of a 'private examination of Mr. Wind ham, and cited the authority of the late Lord Camp bell for the course he had adopted. Finally, he di rected the jury to look at the case broadly and steadily, to discard such portions of the evidence as were either incredible or irrelevant, and to give their verdict upon what remained firmly and con scientiously. The examination of Mr. Windham will take place to-day at 11 o'clock, in a room adjoining the court. At its conclusion the jury will be left alone to con sider their verdict. We presume it will be deli vered in public, but even upon that point it is im possible to speak with certainty. The parties pre sent at the interview with the alleged lunatic will be the Master, the jury, counsel, and an official short-hand writer. LAW IN TELLIGENCE, Jim. 29. EQUITY COURTS. (Before the Lord Chancellor.) THE GOVERNORS OP ST. THOMAS'S HOSPITAL V. THE CHARING:CROSS RAILWAY COMPANY, In this case Vice-Chancellor Wood had granted an injunction, restraining the Charing-cross Rail way Company -n a part, of the land attached to St. Thomas's Hospital, which, with ttae hospital and land on which it stands, having been baught by the company, and the price fixed by arbitration, workmen had been sent en the bit of land in question, and had commenced certain work. The matter now came by appeal to this court, and the arguments for the appellant had just com menced, when The Lord Chancellor interposed, and urged that it was desirable that litigation should not go on between the parties, and as the interruption of necessary works of the company would involve a serious loss as well as some public inconvenience, he suggested that some compromise should be come to. It was accordingly arranged that the workmen of the company should be allowed to proceed with the work on the piece of land to which the dispute re lated, the company undertaking that due care should be taken that the comfort of the inmates of the hospital in the wing abutting on the piece of land should not be interfered with ; this arrangement to be without prejudice to the right of either party to apply to the Lord Chancellor to give further direc tions in reference to the arrangement, or to apply to have the hearing of the petition of appeal con tinued. COURT OF DIVORCE. (Before the Judge Ordinary.) FULLER V. FULLER. Mr. Sergeant Pigott and Dr. Wambey conducted the petitioner's case. Mrs. Mary Fuller, the petitioner, charged her husband, Charles Fuller, with adultery and deser tion, and prayed for a dissolution of her marriage. She was married to the respondent, who is a veteri nary surgeon, in February, 1857, and they lived together at Altonbury, in Huntingdonshire, until 1859. In the early part of that year Mrs. Fuller found in his coat pocket some letters written to him by a young lady living in the neighbourhood, and when she remonstrated with him for carrying en a clandestine correspondence, he told her that he hated her and loved the young lady, and he should leave. On the 2d March, 1859, he left her, and she saw no more of him, except once about two months afterwards, when he called at her mother's house and asked her for some money. She afterwards went to him at Whittlesea, but he refused to re ceive her, and sent her back to her mother. On the 2d of March last she received a letter from him, in which he said that he was about to leave England, and that he should do so with a great deal of pleasure in order to get rid of her, that he hated her family, and that he would rather suffer death than live with her again. In 1860 the respondent was living at a village in Essex, and eloped with a girl of 16 years of age, the daugh ter of a farmer, at whose house he had been staying for a few days. He lived with her at an inn at Watford, representing that .ho was I,zo Nylfo, uutta, be saw an advertisement in a newspaper offering a reward for her discovery, and he then sent her back to her parents. Decree nisi granted with costs. GAMBLE V. GAMBLE. Mr. Powell appeared for the petitioner. The marriage in this case took place in 1842, and shortly afterwards the parties were appointed mas ter and mistress of a national school at Slough. The respondent, Joshua Gamble, lost his situation, and they then lived in different parts of London. Mrs. Gamble charged her husband with having beaten and illused her in various ways from the time of the marriage until 1852, when they separated. In the same year he went through the ceremony of mar riage with a woman named Herrington, at Poplar, and afterwards lived with her as her husband. Decree nisi granted with costs. BAMFORD T. BAMFORD. Dr: Phillimore, Q.C., and Dr. Wambey appeared for the petitioner. The respondent had entered an appearance, but filed no answer. Dr. Phifiimore stated that the petitioner, Mts. Lavinia Jane Andrews Bamford, prayed for a judi cial separation on the ground of her husband's adul tery. She was the daughter of Admiral Sir Edward Chetham, who, since his daughter's marriage, had take the surname of Strode. The respondent, Cap tain Robert Carter Bamford, had been in the 73d, 59th, and 63d Regiments successively, but had now sold out of the service. The marriage took place at Alverstoke on the 11th February, 1843. The adul tery was charged with various women, but the respondent having eloped with a lady named Agnes Serrel, and lived with her at Pangbourne, it would be unnecessary to prove, more than his cohabita tion with her. Admiral Sir E. Chetham-Strode proved the mar riage of his daughter with Captain Bamford, and said they had visited at his house at South•hill, in Somerset, and that he had visited them at their residence at South Norwood. They were living together down to September, 1860. Joseph Heywo:ed, a clerk to the petitioner's attorney, proved that he had served Captain Barn fordwith the citation in February last, at the George Hotel, at Pangbourne. Captain Bamford said that if his wife chose to leave him for no reason, he had a right to go off with her cousin if he pleased. He also sent his compliments to the petitioner's attor ney with the message that he was " as happy as a sandboy," and had never known what happiness was before. Mr. Seymour, the landlord of the George Hotel, proved that in February last Captain Bamford was living at hit, Itoueo with a lady whom he had before known as Miss Rigby. Captain Bamford said he had married her, and they lived at his hotel as man and wife for about two months. His lordship decreed a judicial separation. CHILMAN V. CHILMAN AND HOW. _ _ Mr. Kerslake, Q.C., and Mr. A. Staveley Hill appeared for the petitioner. The petitioner was a clerk in an insurance office. He married the respondent in January, 1845, lived with her in different parts of London, and had seven children by her. Li December, 1857, he was obliged to separate from her in consequence of her having taken to drinking, and he made her an allowance of £1 a week. In September, 1860, she went to Dublin to stay, as she represented, with some friends who were living there. The petitioner soon afterwards discovered that she had formed an adulterous connexion with a man named How. He caused inquiries to be made, and obtained evidence that How and Mrs. Chilman had cohabited as man and wife at Dublin and at other places. Decree nisi granted, with costs against the co respondent. CENIR.IL CRIMINAL COURT.—Tam. 29. OLD COURT. (Before Mr. Baron Channell.) Walter Crane, 22, a determined-looking young man, described in the calendar as a traveller, was charged with feloniously wounding Christopher Crane, with intent to murder him. In other counts of the indictment the intent of the prisoner was laid to be to do the prosecutor grievous bodily harm. Mr. Daly prosecuted, the prisoner had no counsel. The circumstances under which this charge was preferred against the prisoner were of a very extra ordinary character. It appnred that he and the prosecutor were brothers, the latter being the elder of the two by a few years. Ile had been abroad, but had returned to England, and he met the pri soner accidentally on the 3LI of December in the neighbourhood of Islington, not having seen him previously for a period of two years. They went to a coffeeshop and had some refreshment, and the prisoner asked his brother to meet him on the fol lowing night, for the purpose, as he said, of intro- ; THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JANUARY 30, lEtl. ducing him to a friend, who lived in the Green lanes. They accordingly met, and after they had walked about for some time the prisoner told him that he could not see his friend that night, and he wished the prosecutor to meet him on the following evening. The prosecutor was prevented from keep ing this appointment, bat on the next morning it appeared that he met the prisoner again, and ex plained to him how it happened that tie was unable to meet him on the previous night, and he said it was of no consequence, and asked him to meet him that same evening at a quarter-past 7 o'clock. The prosecutor did so, and the prisoner took him down the Ball's-pond-road and in a roundabout direction, and upon the prosecutor observing that he was not going the nearest way h the Green-lanes, the pri soner made some excusr and then led the prosecu tor to a lonely spot near the New River. It ap peared that he then crossed one of the bridges to the side of the canal which was not used as a footpath, and upon the prosecutor saying that it was very muddy and asking him to go on the other side of the bridge he said that the nud did not signify, and that he could easily wash his boots clean. When they had gone a short distance by the side of the water the prisoner asked the prosecutor to walk ou first, say ing that he mild see better than he could, and when he had got a few paces on ahead, the prisoner rushed at him and struck him a tremendous blow on the head with a life-preserver, which knocked him down. He then, it appeared, seized him by the coat and waistcoat, andendeavourcd to drag him to the water, apparently for the purpose of throwing him in, but prosecutor struggled as well as he could, and by giving a sudden wrench w ith his body his garments gave way, and he was released from the prisoner's hold. While this was going on the pri soner, it appeared, had laid the life-preserver on the ground, and he picked it up and recommenced beat ing the prosecutor oa the head with it, and again laid hold of him and tried to force him into the canal. After struggling for somo time the prose cutor succeeded in slipping down the embankment and tried to get away, and in doing so he fell into a pit. The prisoner then came up to him and asked what ne wun acing (hero, and told him to come out, and the prosecutor In arswer to his inciniry said— " I want to get away from you, you villain ; I know you want to murder me." The prisoner, upon this, it appeared, went away, and the prosecutor suc ceeded in getting out of the pit and went to a cot tage a short distance off, where he obtained assist ance, and was removed to St. Bartholomew's Hos pital. It appeared upon his being examined that he had no less than 20 contused and lacerated wounds upon the head, and Mr. Ellis, the house surgeon, said that all these injuries were such as were likely to be inflicted by an instrument like a life-preserver, and this gentleman also stated that for some time he considered the life of the prosecutor in danger, and it likewise appeared that he was still, suffering severely from the injuries he received upon the oc casion. The prisoner was taken into custody on the same nihgt, and he then declared that he had not seen his brother that day,but upon his being subse quently informed that inquiries had been made at the hospital, and that his brother was very ill, he replied, very coolly, " Well, it is a very bad job. buil I shall get over it, I suppose, somehow. Mr. Baron Channell, at the close of the cm for the prosecution, asked the prisoner whether he wished to say anything to the jury in answer to the charge. The prisoner, who did not put any questions to his brother, and only questioned one or two of the other witnesses upon some unimportant matters, turned to the jury and said that his brother had been unfortunate, and he had given him money to enable him to go to New Zealand, but he did not do any good there, and when he returned, instead of paying him the money he had advanced him, and which he had promised to do, he was informed that he only ridiculed him and expressed his determina tion that he would never pay him. This, he said, provoked and aggravated him to do what he did ; he declared that be had no intention to murder him, although he was scarcely aware what he was doing at the time. Baron Channell, in summing up, said that, as the prisoner appeared to admit that he had assaulted his brother in the way that had been described, the only question for the jury was with what intent that assault had been committed, and whether he in tended to murder the prosecutor or only to do him some serious mischief. He then called their atten tion to all the material points in the evidence bear ing upon these two questions. The jury, after deliberating for a short time, found the prisoner guilty upon the first count of the indictment, of wounding with intent to mur der, but they at the same time recommended him to mercy. Ba - ron Channell inquired upon what ground they gave this recommendation, The jury said they did so on account of the pri soner, after his brother was in the pit, going away without attempting f„,,thpr in j ury. Baron Channell, in passing sentence, said that the prisoner had been convicted of the offence of wounding with intent to murder—an offence which, under any circumstances, was one of a most serious character, but which was aggravated in the present instance by the fact that the person whom he had been convicted of attempting to murder was his was his own brother, and the jury had only returned this verdict after very careful consideration. It was true that they had at the same time recommended him to mercy, and had also given the ground for their doing so. He was always most anxious to give full effect to a recommendation to mercy by a jury, but when the ground for such a recommenda tion was, in his opinion, not a satisfactory one, he felt it was his duty, although it was undoubtedly a painful one, not to give any effect to it. The pri soner, therefore, stood before him convicted of the offence of wounding his own brother with intent to murder him—an offence for which only a very short time ago his life might have been forfeited, and he was still liable to ba sentenced to penal servitude for life. He should not go to that extent ; but, taking into consideration the very aggravated cha racter of his crime, he felt that his duty to the public compelled him to sentence him to be kept in penal servitude for the space of 20 years. The prisoner, who did not exhil'lt the slightest indication of feeling, was then removed from the bar. POLICE INTELLIGENCE.—Jan. 29. MANSION-HOUSE. A young woman who gave the name of Ellen Jones, said to be fictitious, described as a tsiloress, and having no fixed resi dence, was brought up before the Lord Mayor, charged with being in the unlawful possession of a gold watch and chain worth together between £4O and £5O, and supposed to have been stolen. Yesterday morning the prisoner went into the shop of Mr. Fry, a watchmaker and jeweller in Bishopsgate-street Without, and, producing the watch and chain in question, offered to sell them to him for £l5. Perceiving on examination that the watch was of the value of £3O at least, and the chain,which was of the Albert pattern, and the gold of the quality of 18 carats, about £lO more, his suspicions were excited, and he asked her to call again in the afternoon, when ho would have a gen tleman present whom he thought the watch and chain would suit. She left the shop on that under standing, and immediately atter she had gone Mr. Fry spoke to Police-constable Stobbhard, who fol lowed her into the Woolpack publichouse, in Peter street, close by. There he asked her to let him see the watch. She denied at first that she had one, but on his demanding to see the watch she produced it. To questions he put she said it belonged to her husband, who was a tailor. He told her he did not believe her, upon which she said he could ask her husband, pointing to a man in the room. The man, on being spoken to, denied that he was her husband, adding he had never seen her before that morning, when on a casual meeting she had offered to treat h im with srmething to drink, and he had accom panied her there. They were both taken to a police static:a, but the man was afterwards liberated. The watch sore the maker's name of " Broad, near the Royal Exchange," and the number 1,198. A gold key and a small compass were attached to the chain. At Mr. Fry's the prisoner said she had been offered £l5 upon the watch at a pawnbro ker's, which she had declined. When she first showed it tc him the compass ornament was detached from the chain. She added that the watch was her husbanl's, who was a commercial traveller:. A mathematical instrument of considerable value was also found upon her when taken into custody. The appearance of the prisoner contrasted strongly with the possession of articles of such value. She said in reply to the charge she had had the watch in her possession for about six months, and that she mathematical instrument in Birming ham. ht the The Lord Mayor remanded her till Saturday, thinking that the publication of the circumstances in the int.rim might possibly clear up the mystery if she had not come honestly by the watch and chain. The condition of the bereaved wives and families of the pa?" men who perished in the Hartley Col liery continues to excite the deepest sympathy in the city of London, and indeed throughout the metropolis generally. During the whole of yester day again contributions towards their relief were poured into the Mansion-house from almost all classes of the inhabitants, especially those engaged in mercantile and industrial occupations, and includ ing, in many instances, the members and servants of private families. The aggregate of the contribu tions received by the Lord Mayor in the course of yesterday alone was nearly £1,114, which, with those previously sent, makes the total sum up to last evening about £3,070, or at the rate of more than £l,OOO a day. fndettii for the present the Long Parlour of the Mansion-house is contetted ' into a sort of bank, and some of the officers of the justice-room have been taken from their ordinary tlinctions to devote themselves exclusively to this work of humanity. The donations yesterday in number exceeded our power to give them in de tail, but the following are a few of the prin cipal :—The Right Hon. the Speaker of the House of Commons, £2O; Mr. Tite, M.P., £lO 10s. ' • Brandram, Brothers, and Co., £2O ; Lady' Amelia Charlotte Marsham, £2O; James Barber and Co., £lO 10s. ; Cattleys and Carr, £2O ; Royal Ex change Assurance Company, £25 ; Assistants of Copestake, Moore, Crampton, £26 4s. ; gentlemen in the London office of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, £22 45.; Caldecott, Sons, and Willcocks, £26 ss. •, Bishop and Sons, £2l; Clerks in the Bank of England (a shilling subscription) £l9 155.; the Clerks in the Ac countant's Bank-note office Bank of England, £3 10s. The name of " Mrs." instead of " Mr." Llewellyn Evans was given yesterday by mistake as that of a contributor. WESTMINSTER —Thomas Hewitt was charged with being drunk and disorderly. William Morris, an omnibus driver, said that on the previous night, as he was about to start on his journey from tho Cricketers, Cheyne-walk, Chelsea, to London, he was informe d that the defendant had declared that he wquld put the omnibus into the river. As Hewitt was intoxicated, the complainant paid no attention to the threat, and mounted his driving-box, but had no sooner done so than the defendant seized the horses' heads and backed them against a slight rail, which separates the embank ment from the Thames. The complainant drove the horses forward, but the defendant backed them with such force that, but for the carriage striking against a tree, the rail would have been broken down and the omnibus precipitated into the water. There were four ladies in the carriage, whose screams denoted the tereor they felt at the imminent dan ger in which they were placed. _ _ Thomas Pearl: an. 253 . V, said he found the defen dant by the side of the omnibus using Liit; gusting language. The defendant said he was sorry for what had happened, and would take care that it should not occur again. Mr. Arnold remarked that he could not conceive what the motives of the prisoner were in commit ting this offence. If it had not been for the omni bus being stopped by a tree most disastrous con sequences might have resulted from the act, and had the prisoner been otherwise charged he should have pronounced a severe sentence. He should im pose a fine of 55., and require hint to rind one surety in £25 to keep the peace for three months. The prisoner was locked up in default. Sarah Freeman, a genteel-looking young woman, 20 years of age, was finally examined, charged with robbing Mr. William Dunfee, outfitter, 19, Victoria row, Pimlico, of a q u antity of property. The prisoner, who is respectably connected, had been receiving a liberal salary from the prosecutor. She was detected a few days ago taking out a large parcel of goola. Other articles were found in her box, the property stolen amounting in all to £2O in value. _ _ It was urged by Mr. Bury Huethinson, on behalf of the prisoner, who pleaded guilty, that sbe had hitherto borne a high character, and had been in trusted by Mr. Dunfee with very large sums of money to pay at wholesale houses. Mr. Dunfee recommended her to the merciful consideration of the magistrate. Mr. Arnold said it was most distressing to find a person of her years and respectability charged with such an offence. There was no one circumstance in her case which could palliate her offence. She was therefore committed to hard labour in the House of Correction for the full period of six months. WORSHIP-STREET.--John Garrett, a stout active man of 30 or 35, well known to the police, was charged with robbery. At half-past 2in the morning of the 4th inst. the prisoner entered the shop of Mr. Sach, a jeweller in High-street, Shoreditch, and asked to be shown a good silver watch. Mr. Sach handed him one of foreign manufacture. He objected to that and said he should prefer an English-made lever. The pro secutor handed him one of those, worth £4 10s. which he took as if about to examine it, but the in stant he had got it into his hand he turned round, and, without uttering a word, ran out of the house with it. It is a common system of robbery to send one of a gang into a shop for the purpose of stealing something, so as to induce the person serving to run out in pursuit, and so leave the shop to the mercy of others of the gang, who rush in and plunder it, and this Mr. Sach was aware of, and insteau, thcz fore, of following the prisoner himself, he sent the shonbov after him, but uselessly. The prisoner was not seen again till the evening of the 15th, when Boobyer and Miller, two constables of the 0 divi sion, were on duty in the same neighbourhood, and met him and two other well-known thieves walking together, with the evident object of robbery. They had only watched them a minute or two when they I saw two of them place themselves so obstructively before a lady as to stop her, and the prisoner lifted up her dress and felt her pocket. He did not seem to get anything, and the officers let him go on fur ther, when he again stopped another lady, lifted her dress also, and inserted his hand into her pocket. The lady moved away, unconscious of what had taken place, and the prisoner and his confederates crossed over and entered a publichouse. Here Miller waited outside while Boobyer went in, and told the prisoner that he was wanted for attempt ing to pick ladies pockets. On hearing that this was the charge the prisoner replied, " Oh, very well," and seemed willing to go with the officer, but on getting to the door he ran down the Hack ney-road as fast as he could go, and had not Miller been there in advance of the first officer he must, even after a long and severe chase, have again escaped. He was then taken to the station, and told he was wanted for the watch robbery, which he de clared to be an entire mistake ; but on being brought to the court and placed by Bendall, the gaoler, in the waiting-room with five other men, a young lady named Scott Ivans, who was staying with Mrs. Sach at the time of the robbery and had a quiet view of the thief's face when the watch was stolen, was sent for, and on entering the room she selected the prisoner from the others without hesitation. Previous convictions were proved against the prisoner, and Mr. Leigh fully committed him for trial on both charges. CLERKENWELL.—Wm. Shepherd Foster, the keeper of the Independent beershop, Upper Bing field-street, Islington, was summoned by Inspector Judge, N division, for unlawfully opening his house for the sale of beer on Sunday last before the hour of 1 o'clock. From the evidence of Police-sergeant Gould, 40 N, it appeared that, complaints having been made that Sunday trading was being carried on at .the defendant's house, he watched, and saw several per sons enter in the course of the morning. He also stopped a little girl and found she had a bottle under her shawl, which contained about a pint of malt liquor. The defendant denied the charge. He said that the girl was his nursemaid, and that he had given her the ale to take home to her father. A girl between 9 and 10 years of age was called and examined as to the nature of au oath. Tier answers being considered satisfactory she was re quested to take the book and be sworn, but she de clined to do so. Mr. Mould (the chief clerk) told her the book was the Testament, and that she had only to kiss it and speak the truth. He asked if any one had told her not to do so. The girl replied that she would not kiss the book, and that no one had told her to refuse to do so. Although told that she might be sent to prison for her refusal, she persisted in not kissing the book, and her evidence consequently could not be taken. Mr. Barker fined the defendant 20s. and costs. SOUTHWARK.—James Kelly, a well-dressed young fellow, was brought up by Scannell, 177 M, charged with stealing a silk handkerchief and a portmonnaie from a French gentleman, named Pierre Lagron, on the platform of the South Eastern Rail way, London-bridge. The prosecutor, through an interpreter, said that on the previous evening he came by the tidal train from Paris, and just before he got out of the car riage he had safe in one coat-pocket, loose, 3,000 francs in gold, and in the other a pocket-handker chief and an empty portmonnaie. As he was goi n g through the crowd to look after his luggage, Scan nell, the constable, came up to him and asked him if he had lost anything. He found all his money safe, and missed the empty portmonnaie and silk handkerchief. He saw the prisoner in custody a minute or so afterwards, with the property in his possession. Scannell, a detective officer, specially employed by the South-Eastern Railway Company, said he saw the prisoner go up to the prosecutor just as the tidal train arrived. On seeing him le a V e i n a hurried manner he suspected him, and stopped him, at the same time asking the prosecutor whether he had lost anything. The prosecutor s eeme d rat h er excited, and, feeling his pockets, s a id hi s mone y was safe, but he missed his handk erc hi e f an d port monnaie. The witness at once searched the pri soner, and found the two articles on him, and the prosecutor identified them. The prosecutor told him that just before the train arrived, and after be had given up his ticket, he emptied his portmonnaie and put it in one pocket with his handkerchief, and the money loose in the other pocket. The prisoner pleaded guilty, and was smteneed to six months' imprison went with hard labour. LAMBETH.—Mr. James It. Wilson and Mr. Joseph Crown, respectable tradesmen, appeared be fore Mr. Elliott, in discharge of their recognizances, to meet a charge of knocking down and running over an old gentleman named Smith, by which he had received injuries of so serious a character that he has since died. From the evidence in the case, it appeared that on Christmas eve the defendants were driving along Southampton-street, Camber- Well, in a gig. The deceased happened to be cross ing the street at the time. The defendants called out to him, but whether from fright or infirmity the deceased was unable to get out of the way. The consequence was that he was knocked down, and gig' passed over He was the wheel of the taken up and carried to his house in Camberwell road. It was hoped th at he would recover, but on the night before he died. Inspector Dann informed the magistrate that the inquest on the deceased had not yet been held, and requested a further remand. The defendants having put in the required bail, were discharged. Henry Richardson, a man of respectable appear ance, was charged with attempting self destruction by swallowing a large dose of oxalic acid. Police-constable 237 P deposed that about 4 o'clock on the evening of Monday week he was called into the Hero of Switzerland publichouse in Loughborough- road, Brixton, and there found the prisoner in the hands of Mr. Gage, a surgeon. He learnt that lie had just before swallowed some oxa lic acid. After the stomach-pump had been used the prisoner was removed to Guy's Hospital. When asked what he had to say to the charge the prisoner replied that he had been drinking a good deal, and the dread of losing his situation had been the cause of the rash act. He had, however, suffered severely for his folly, and should never attempt a repetition of the act. The wife of the prisoner said, although he had latterly given way to drink, he was a good husband and a kind father. muott calqerved that it was shocking to see a man who might be happy witit hie family give way to drink so as not only to risk his situation, but his life. He, however, appeared to have suf fered by his folly, and it was to be hoped that, on being discharged, he would keep his word to leave off drink and never again attempt so wicked an act. HAMMERSMITH.—James Brown, a sharp looking boy; Jane Brown, a girl, and Louisa Clark, a young woman, were re-examined charged with attempting to steal from shops. Sergeant Boden was passing through Notting h ill, when he saw the prisoners. He followed them to the High-street of Kensington. They loitered about the shop of Mr. Wickham, draper, for some time, and the boy made three attempts to steal a large piece of print hanging at the door. The pri soners gave false addresses, but the officer identified Clark as the associate of burglars about Drury-lane. Clark said the officer was too clever, and would " get something some day." Mr, Ingham committed the prisoners for trial. IREATMENT OF TREES. The analogy between plants and animals, familiar as it is, has not yet been appreciated in all its con sequences. Every one knows that many of the vital functions are represented by corresponding processes in vegetable physiology ; that nutrition, absorption, secretion, respiration, and reproduction are essential parts, in no metaphorical sense, of the life of flowers and trees. In some of their habits and properties, especially those connected with the circulation of their sap and the adaptation of their external coating to the exigencies of climate, these simple organisms, which we sometimes rudely term inanimate, display, if we may so say, a discrimina tion and a self-protecting instinct wuich has excited the marvel of naturalists. The conditions of health are not indeed the same, but similar, in the case of a tree and in the case of an animal, and the violation of these conditions is equally fatal in its effects. Hardier in many respects, in some others trees are far more delicate than animals, and, if their diseases could be ascertained and catalogued, they would probably look almost as numerous and formidable as those which fill medical textbooks, Considering the immense value of timber, as well as the keenness of our national taste for ornamental woods, it is certainly strange that the pathology of trees should have been comparatively neglected in this country. Tie most recondite experiments have been carried on by scientific men to find out the exact proportions in which earth, air, and water contribute to their sustenance, and the ingenuity of landscape gardeners has men e2.l.munell iu cm. their safe transplantation, But all this time trees have been pining and dying in the prime of life, and strewing the forests with their almost worthless carcases, and yet no one seems to have bethought himself of ministering to their infirmities, and curing their maladies by timely remedies. Hitherto pruning and lopping have been almost the only operations known to foresters or gardeners, and if the site of a plantation has been selected with due regard to soil and shelter, and its surplus wood ' periodically thinned out, no other precautions against premature decay have been deemed neces sary or practicable. Our neighbours, the French, though they may be less alive to the beauties of scenery than ourselves, have always shown much skill in economising the bounty of nature. Roadside avenues are commoner in France than in England, and the utility of trees is thoroughly appreciated by the peasantry. We are not surprised, therefore, that the first step in the medical, or rather the surgical treatment of trees, should be taken by a Frenchman. M. Robert, the gentleman to whom we refer, began his labours some 20 years ago, and since that time has under taken the cure of vast numbers of trees, especially elms, in many parts of France and Belgium. He has taken out a patent for his system, and, if we may judge by the testimonials and honours which he has received from scientific societies and public bodies, his success must have been remarkable. His theory is, that the most inveterate enemies of trees and especially young trees, are not excessive mois Lure or unfavourable peculiarities of ground affect ing their roots, but certain tribes of xylophagous insects. Of these the chief and most truculent are the scolytes and the cossus, and the art of curing the ligneous consumption, which has hitherto been con sidered mortal, consists, accordieg to him, in de stroying these insatiable parasites, and fortifying the trunk against their future ravages. His first experiments were made on the large trees bordering the public walks of Paris, and with these he pro ceeded cautiously and gradually. He scored them in longitudinal sections, hoping in this way to quicken the circulation of sap in the bark between the incisions, at the same time that he laid bare and extirpated the tunnel-shaped nests of numberless tree-consuming insects. Encouraged by the results of this attempt, he ventured to try the effect of strip ping trees thus affected of their whole bark—an ope ration not much less bold in its own way than that of flaying a human being. However, we are told that it succeeded to admiration, that " the acolytes and the cossuses found themselves instantaneously annihi lated, and the grubs, still in a state of unconscious ness, were buried alive in the process of cicatrisation. The trees threw out new layers of "fiber," or inner bark, and even increased in bulk, as we learn from another source, more rapidly that their unmutilated contemporaries. Ever since this discovery was made the more slashing practice has been universally adopted, and we are told that thousands of elms, already with one foot in the grave, are now con valescent patients or restored to perfect health by the benevolent exertions of M. Robert. No English trees, so far as we are aware, have yet come under M. Robert's scalpel, and we should be the last to recommend a hasty application of so trenchant a system to the noble clumps and single trees of our public and private parks. But it is certainly worth a trial, for, if there is any truth in the theory, it goes to prove that the hostile acolytes and eossuses are not only responsible for the damage done by themselves, but serve as the sappers and miners of other invading insects, besides opening cracks and channels in which the wet lodges and eats into the wood, which they generally spare. It is not impossible that further researches will dis close some means of prevention which would be pre ferable to M. Robert's cure. Meanwhile, however, we have every motive for endeavouring to save the scanty remnant of those woods which once covered Great Britain. As far back as the beginning of this century the neglected state of the Royal forests, and the wastefulness of permitting great oaks to fall without taking ary account of their value or supplying their places with young saplings, was pointed out by Nelson. Since that time we fear that the groWth of new plantations has not kept pace with the cutting down of old ones, and that we are becoming more and more dependent on foreign countries for our timber. On free trade principles we have no right to object to this, but so long as it continues to be our inteiest to grow timber at all it is surely a dictate of prudence to make it as re munerative as possible by preserving it f rom EsP‘'icsiu.siolYinthe metropolis, scarce and so where needless v e g d e e t c a a b y l e . shade grate ful, the loss of a single piece of foliao'e is a serious misfortune. How injurious the Lcn on atmosphere is to trees has long been known, and it has been remarked as a significant fact that the one which flourishes best in this smoky medium is the plane, which changes its outer bark annually. The elms have no such resource, and, whether insects or impeded exhalation be the cause, these characteristic ornaments of our parks have a sickly look. It has been predicted by a prophet of den-. drology that elms will be extinct in England before another century has elapsed. The bare idea of such a calamity should rouse the Woods and Forests — for the functions of that department have not es:- pired with its name—from their lethargy on this• subject. A generation must pass away before the place of a full-grown tree can be supplied, and the stately verdure of our parks testifies to a forethought which is still rarer now than in the days of our grandfathers. Men too often plant for themselves, and for themselves only, filling up with horse chestnuts, and other trees of rapid growth, but short-lived beauty, the gaps in ancestral avenues of oak and elm. We lament this selfish shortsighted ness when we sec its effects in the country seats of individuals, but we have a right to exclaim against it when it affects the interests and pleasure of the nation. We cannot, indeed, blame Mr. Cowper and his predecessors for not having been the first to hail M. Robert's new invention. Now, how ever, that it has been sanctioned by experience, we are warranted in hoping that no time will be lost in employing some new Evelyn to report upon its application to the forest trees which Englishmen, from the earliest times, have learned to love and almost to reverence.—Times. ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY. A highly interesting meeting of this society was held on Monday evening, Captain R. Collinson, R.N., vice-presi dent, in the chair. Among those present were Generals Sir George Pollock and Sir H. Rawlinson, Colonel Sir George Everest, Admiral Sir E. Belcher, Sirs W. C. Trevciyan, J. Davis, T. Fre mantle, H. Holland, J. Rowe, C. Rawlinson,J.Elphinstone, and C, Bright; Captains Bedford, Gunnell, Craufurd, and Maguire, R.N. ; Colonels Strange and Shakner, Captains Blakeston, Pope, Heyworth, Sydney Webb, Johnston, and Pook; Commander Mayne, R.N. ; Lieutenants Windns, T.N„ and Brine, R.N. ; Drs. Bright, Camps,Worthingtan, and Bennett; Messrs. Arrowsmith, Spottiswoode, Cocks, Charles White, Biddulph, Brooking, &c, • Commander W. D. M. D-Iben, R.N., Captain H. Mon tagu, Lieutenant-Colonel A. Park, the Earl of Pomfret, Major C. S. Showers, Messrs. E, Adams, J. H. Crossman, A. Head, J. B. Key, C. D. Leggatt, G. Lumsden, C. J. MaexenAi.-, R. R. Notm9n, J. S. Phene, R. P. Roupelf, H. A. Sanford, F. Travers, J, Wardlaw, and tr. were elected Fellows. The CHAIRMAN, in the absence of the President, Lord Ashburton, called upon Dr. Shaw to read a letter which the President had received from Messrs. Chambers and Finke, of Adelaide, giving particulars of the fitting out of a new expedition under Mr. Stuart, and expressing their firm con viction of his succeeding in making his way through the 80 miles, at which distance from the northern coast of Austra lia he was obliged to return on his last expedition. The first paper was reed by Mr. F. GALTON—" Journey in Eastern Africa, from Mombas to Kilema, and ascent of Kilmanjaro," by Mr. Richard Thornton. This journey was made in company with a German, Baron von Deeken. Their route lay from Mombas to the south-west over the Shimba, thence north-west to the Radian), then south west to the Pare, and then north to the Lake Yissi,through Dafeta to Kilema, where they made an attempt to ascend Kilmanjaro, but had to turn back at a height of about 8,000 feet. They then went round by the foGt of the mountain to Madjami, and returned by Dafeta, Lake Yiesii Pare, and the north foot of Utambara to Wanga, on the coast, which they reached on the 101st day from Mombas• The paper gave an interesting description of the mountain as seen from several points of view, and the height they estimated at from 17,000 to 20,000 feet, covered with per petual snow. The second paper read was, "Ascent of the Ogun, or Abbeokuta River, by Captain R. F. Burton, F.R.G.S., Her Majesty's Consul at Fernando Po, with Captain Bedin field, R.N., F.R.G.S., and Dr. Eales, R.N." The party left Lagos on the 29th of October last. After three hours' paddling up the fetid Agboi Creek, they entered the main stream, which was here 100 yards broad, belted on both sides by an immense growth of forest, and little affected by the tide. The river is navigable as far as a place called Aro. At that point a ridge of rocks crosses the bed and forms an impassable rapid, the general style of ferry here being a large calabash, which the traveller, to use Captain Burton's words, " takes to his bosom." After a week's stay at Abbeokuta they left that place on Nov. $, and arrived at Lagos on the 9th. On the 21st Capt. Burton left Lagos in her Majesty's ship Bloodhound, Lieutenant- Commander Dolben, which Capt. Bedingfield kindly de tached for the purpose of visiting the oil rivers. They en tered the Nun River on Nov. 24, passed through the Akassa Creek, visited Brass and Fish towns, and at the time of the departure of the mail were proposing to sound the bar of St. Nicholas River. The third paper read was, " Journal of the Proceedings of the boats of her Majesty's ship Bloodhound up the River Volta, West Coast of Africa, under Lieutenant-Comrnan' der Dolben, R.N. F.R.G.S." The expedition left the mouth of the river to survoy the bar on the 28th of October --a a- al- —A. 24. _ IL, difficulty. They arrived off the town of Adda on the 29t11, when, perceiving the inhabitants in arms, they landed on an' island opposite, where they were visited by two coloured traders, one of whom acted as interpreter in a palaver which they afterwards had with the King. They then proceeded up the river, and, after much difficult navigation, reached Medica, a place distant five or six miles from Pong, when they were obliged to return in consequence of the rapids. The villages are almost all on the left side of the river. The huts are of a conical shape, made with coarse reeds, but many of them consist merely of a conical roof on poles, without any sides. Capt. STRICKLAND, R.N., gave some interesting details relative to the Abbeokutans, who exhibited much intelli gence, extraordinary aptitude for trade, and are much more intelligent than the ordinary Africans. They are genuine Negroes. Mr. Consul TAYLOR expressed his opinion that the Ab beokutans possessed ever y facility for producing cotton to a large extent, which was doubted by Mr. Crawfurd. At the close of the discussion, in which the Chairman! Sir Henry Rawlinson, Col. Sykes, Mr. John Crawfurd, and Mr. F. Galton took part, thanks were accorded to the gen tlemen who had communicated the papers to the society, and it WO9 announced that the next meeting would be held on the 10th February. COUN2.RI MARKETS, ~.,. ...... ,4.1....•' HULL-JAW. 28. The supply of English wheat to-day was small, which sold slowly at Is per qr below last 'Tuesday's currencies. Foreign neglected. Barley moved off at late prices. Oats as before. Beans and peas easier, but the trade dull. Wheat.... Old white.... per qr. Old red New white .. ~ New red .... ~ Dantzic, Konb , &c. old white 63s Od to 67s Od Dutch, Belgian, and French. 68s Od to 62s Od Baltic and Hamburg, red St. Petersburg and Riga, old sos Od to 52s Od Barley.... English malting 3ss Od to 38s Od Grinding • 32s Od to 34s Od Saal and Oderbruck Holstein and Danish 34s Od to 36s Od Grinding 3os Od to 31s Od Oats English, old Archangel and Riga, per at osl2ld to 13d Friesland and Dutch 081361 to 031311 Swedish and Danish 0512 4 (1 to osl Beans ....English, old, per qr. 4Bs Od to 508 Od New pigeon 42s Od to 44s Od New tick. 4os Od to 42s Od Egyptian Peas Foreign breakers Grinding 3os Od to 32s Od Tares .... Spring. —s Od to —s Od Indian Corn Linseed, feeding crushing Linseed cakes (Hull) Foreign Bl5 oto 910 0 Rape cakes 517 6to 6 0 0 Bones 5 5 oto 510 0 NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE —Luc 28. At to-day's corn market the quantity of wheat exhibited was an average one, with a dull business, and a slight de dine on last week's rates. Flour without demand. All spring corn slow of sale. LYNN-JAN. 28. Old white 63s to 65s I 8ar1ey...... 30s to 38s 61s to 638 I Oats.. Beans .42s to 46s I Peas 468 to 548 BIRTHS. GRANT,—On the 26th inst., at Sanquhar House, Forres, N. 8., the wife of Major-General Sir Patrick Grant, G.C.B ~of a son. GROVE.—On the 28th inst., at Sydenham, the wife of Geo. Grove, Esq., of a daughter. KING.—On the 26th inst., at Rockingham, the Hon. Mrs. King, of a daughter. WHEALLER.—On the 29th inst., at Croydon, Mrs. George Anson Whealler, of a son. MARRIAGES. MORRIS--OLDHAM.—On the 28th hist, at Anstey, near Leicester, the Rev. Joseph Lewis Morris, vicar of Fil longley, Warwickshire, to Lucretia Mary, only daughter " the late Searles Wood Oldham, Esq., R.N. PERRIN—LOVE.—On the 28th inst, at St. George's, Hanover-square, Henry Perrin, Esq., of Erith, Kent, to Margaret Ann, only surviving child of Dr. Love, Bur ton-street, Eaton-square. DEATIIS. ALLEYNE.—On the 28th inst., at Drury Lodge, Fulham, James Holder Alleyre, Esq., late Captain 52d Light Infantry, aged 43. BURNEY.—On the 27th inst., Henry Charles Burney, Esq. LL.D., of The Cottage, Richmond, aged 62. CiArLIN.—On the 26th inst., at Highfield, Southampton, Wm. Chapin, Esq., ag d 80. COOKSON.—On the 28th in -t., the Rev. Edward Cookson, M, A.., of Leeds, Yorkshire, aged 60. HAWTREY.—On the 27th inst., at The Lodge, Eton Col lege, the Rev. Edward Craven Hawtrey, Provost of Eton. MILNE.— On the 27th inst., at Inveresk, near Musselburgh, t h e Dowager Lady Milne, widow of the late Admiral Sir David Milne, G.C.8., aged 84. LONDON : Printed and Published by MURDO YOUNG. of No. 112, Strand, Printer, at TIIE SUN Office, No. 112,Strand, be the Precinct of the Savoy in the County of Mfddlegelfi Thursday, January 30, 162,