The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-06 00:00:00

:Archteological Institute.

The next paper was read by Professor Westmacott, on
the statuary recently added to the British Museum, in
which ho directed attention almo,t exclusively to the nude
statute of a boy, who is represented to be standing, resting
his weight on one leg, and to be tying a fillet round his
head. This statue, Professor Westmacott said, there is
sufficient inherent evidence to show, was sculptured about
500 years bEforc the Christian era, and that it is either an
excellent copy of the celebrated Diodumenus, by Polyclitus,
if not the original. Professor Westmacott described the
statue very minutely, and compared it with the description
given of the original by Pliny, who said it was valued at
100 gold talents, which would be equivalent to £25,000.
The statue, which was brought from Itome, had been
previously considerably irjured, and bad been repaired
very Thu Zell tlllll wus nroten, a moaern one
having keen substituted, and the nose also was mutilated.
The statue was of Grecian marble, and from the style of
execution it had evidently belonged to the age of Greek
sculpture preceding that of Phidias. Professor Westmacott

adduced various particu'ars in confirmation of his opinion
that if it was not the original Diodumenus described by
Pliny, it was a copy of that statue, and he was strongly in-
ennui to think that it was the statue itself.

Dr BIRCH put a somewhat different interpretation on
the words of Pliny to that given by Professor Westmacolt,

which made it doubtful whether the original was executed
in bronzy or in marble• The rough manner in which the
statue had been repaired induced him also to doubt whether
it would have been considered in ancient times of the great

value of the original statue. The question whether it
an original or a copy was, however, mainly an artistic ques-
tion, and no one, ho said, was bettor capable of determining
it than the author of the paper.
Professor WESTDIACOTT said there were lines about the
the nose and mouth so expressive of genius and originality

hat he thought it highly probable the statue was an origi

nal. It was the figure of an athlete, and from the large

development of the muscles of the legs compared with those

of tho arms, ho conjectured it must be the representation o

a victor in races.

After some remarks from the Rev. Dr Rock and others,

ho meeting adjourned.

MURDER AND ATTEMPTED SUICIDE.—SOUTH-
AMPTON, Sunday.—A most atrocious and cold.
blooded murder was committed last night at the village of
Shirley, about two miles from this town, followed immedi-
ately by the attempted suicide of the assassin. The mur-
derer's name is Broomfield, a butler in a gentleman's family
in London, and his victim was Mr Frederick Coburn, now
resident at Shirley. It appears that the parties formerly
lived together in a family at Alresford in this county, as
butler mad lady's-maid. Contrary to his wishes and desires,
the latter married from that situation, and Broomfield sub-
sequently left and went to London, where ho has also since
married. Yesterday (Saturday) afternoon he came down
from London by the three o'clock train, and went over at
once to the deceased's house at Shirley, where ho was in-
vited to take tea. After tea Mr Coburn said to his wife
that they bad better go out and do their marketing, as it
was Saturday evening, on which Broomfield said, "Well,
don't go out and leave me hero alone, but if you go your
wile had better stop here with me." This was objected to,
and they went out together. leaving Broomfield alone.
After they had been back a little while Mrs Coburn was
about to get supper, and her husband left the room for a
few moments, 1% hen. Bloomfield immediately pulled out a
revolver and fired at the poor woman, who ran to the back
door and there fell deal, lie then fired two of the barrels
at himself, and ran after her, tailing on her at the back
door, Ile was subEeTtently brought into the Royal South
Hants Infirmary, in this town, where ho has received
medical assistance, and it has been found that one of the
shots passed under his lungs, and the first apparently
passed eff from the chest without doing any serious
injury. He is not expected to recover. Broomfield himself
says that he came down from London to get her to go away
to America with hire, which she refused to do. The murder
must have been deliberately planned in case of Mrs Co-
burn's refusal to accede to his request, as he brought the
revolver down with him from London, having, it is said,
purchased it at a shop in Oxford-street. Two shots were
found in two of the barrels of the revolver after the affair.
TUE PUBLIC PRESS AND THE QUACKS.—Among

the most salutary of the consequences which may be antici-
pated from the righteous punishment of Hencry and hia
accomplice is the influence which it may exert on public
opinion, and the additional demonstration which it affords
of the necessity of that purging of the advertisement sheets
of the public journals which we have long urged, hitherto
with little effect. The opportunities afforded to these
scoundrels for gathering in their crop of victims by the
daily and weekly press of the metropolis and the provinces
are the most fruitful of the sources of their infamous pros-
perity, The exposure and the denunciation of these fellows
by the medical press have been unsparing. We have re-
peatedly singled them out by name, and have stigmatised
their filthy works, their vile practices, and their shameful
extortions. It is not just, therefore, to say, as has recently
been stated, that the medical profession or its representa-
tives shrink from the dangerous duty of openly denouncing
and exposing these men. But a great responsibility lies
with the conductors of those daily journals who consent to
receive and parade on their broadsheets the filthy adver-
tisements of these unblushing miscreants. Take up many
of the most respectable and influential of the London daily
papers, and the eye will be arrested almost immediately
by obscene announcements of "Guides to Manhood,"
" Silent Friends," "Treatises on Manhood," and other vile
publications of an equally disgusting and dangerous charac-
ter. With country papers it is stilt worse. Column after
column is frequently filled up with baits of the kind, cun-
ningly spread for the unwary; professing to reveal secrete
which excite the curiosity of some, and appeal to the fears
of others; which tempt the imagination of the young, and
hold out promise to the prurient ; and which are so written
as to excite groundless fears in the mind of almost every
reader to distort ordinary symptoms, to draw gloomy pic-
tures of future misery, and by every artifice and lie to draw
victims within the trap of the quacks who devise such books
as instruments of their infamous trade. Thousands have suf-
fered from yielding to the temptation : and, being drawn

within the net, have been terrified, swindled, and many of
them driven nearly to frenzy by the false fears thus created
and cunningly towered. The conductors of the public press

are mainly responsible for the gigantic proportions which
this evil has assumed. That wo do not exaggerate the facts in
describing them as gigantic may be proved by references to
our own columns for some years past ; by an appeal to the
experienc e of the whole medical profession, of whom there
are really few who could not repeat tales of suffering and
extortion within their own experience; by the evidence of
many crirniaal solicitors, of IN hom there are scores who have
been employed in resisting or compromising claims set up
by these rogues. It is of little use for the writers in the
public journals to indite indignant leaders on the subject of
the vile traffic of these quacks, or to frame denunciations of
their abominable practices, while the advertisement sheets
aro still left open to their announcements, and the whole
circulation of the papers is utilised for bringing fresh vic-
tims to the sacrifice. We earnestly appeal to them to re-
fuse any more to permit their columns to be thus sullied
—The Lanccf,

A JUDGE IN THE STOCKS.—A ludicrous story is

told of Lord Camden being on a visit to Lord
Dacre in Essex, and accompanying a gentleman, notorious
for his ablate() of mind, in a walk, during which they came
to the parish stocks. Having a wish to know the nature of
the punishment the chief justice begged his companion to
open them so that he might try. This being done his friend
sauutezed on and totally forgot him. The imprisoned chief
tried in vain to release himself, and on asking a peasant who
was passing by to let him out, was laughed at and tuld he
"wasn't set there for nothing." lie was soon set at libel ly

by the set vents of his host; and afterwards on the laid of
au action for false iiapiisouwent against a magistrate by
sown fellow whom he had sot ou the stocks. ou the couubel
for the defendant ridiculing the charge and declaring it was
no punishment at all, his lordship leaned over and whis-
pered, " Brother, were you ever in the stocks ?" The
counsel indignantly replied, "Never, my lord." "They

I have been," enid the chief justice, " and I can assure
you it is not the tritho you repretont Jragss
q' England.

OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS.—Mc W. Rathbonn
Gregg, Commissioner of Customs., has been appointed Con-
troller of the Stationary-office, in the room of the late Mr
J. It. M'Culloch. Colonel Frederick Rtuni.lly has Leen ap-
pointed to a seat at the Bjard of Customs, in the room of
Mr Gregg.— Observe•.

SALE OF BLAIR ATHOL.—Mr. J. Jackson, of
Fairfield, has purchased the above celebrated "racing
mu," for the sum of 7,500 guineas, by far the largest
sum given in modern times fora race-horse,—.Beir" .

An ordinary meeting of the members of the Archaeologi-
cal Institute was held on Friday afternoon in their rooms
in Burlington-gardens—Sir John Boileau in the chair.
Mr Purnell read a paper, by Mr C. W. King, author of
" The Gnostics and their Remains," on ancient gem en-
graving, in which he undertook to show that the art of
engraving on gems was not practised in Europe during the
Gothic period, from the time of Charlemagne until 500 years
afterwards. In the Middle Ages, he said, the engravers
worked on softer materials, and on the revival of the art in
the 14th century the first engraving on gems were evidently
executed by artists who had ben accustomed to work in
metals.
Mr 0. Morgan, M.P., exhibited a very curious example
of engraving on hard stone, the property of Mr Busanquet,
from Babylon. It was a small cylinder, on which, among
other devices, was engraved a bull with a human head. The
dare of it was conjectured to be 100 years before Cyrus. Mr
Morgan also exhihitei a beautifully executed cameo, on
which was a figure of St. Gorge, of C4Fadocia. A brief
discussion arose, in which Professor Westtnaeott and the
Ituv. hr Rock took part on the question whether our St.

Gorge and St. George of Capp,docia were identical, or
were difLrent personages; for in the cameo a female
figure is introduced, which does not appear in the English
decoration. In the course of the discussion, Professor
\Vestmacott mentioned an anachronism of Sir Walter
Scott's, in his minute description of the costume of the
Earl of Leicester, in "Kenilworth," in which Leicester is
described as wearing the star, though that decoration was
not worn until the reign of Charles I.