The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-28 00:00:00

HER MAJESTY.

OSBORNE, Dec. 27.
The Queen, Princess Helena, and Princess Louise
walked in the grounds yesterday.

- - -

THE KING OF THE BELGIANS.—His Majesty
King of the Belgians and the Count cf Flanders have re-
tutned to Brussels from the Royal chateau in the Forest
of Ardennes. During the time the King passed there he
was most arduous in put suit of sport, and besides four wild
boars, brought down a greet number of roebucks, foxes,
hares, and other denizens of the forest.

The Duchess of Norfolk, who has been suffering
from indisposition for some weeks past, is now, we are glad
to learn, much better.

The Earl and Countess of Clarendon are enter.
taining a select party at The Grove, near Waterford.
The Earl and Countess of Spencer are entertain-
ing a family circle at Althorp Park, Northamptonshire.

Viscount St. Vincent has been entertaining a
select shooting party, at his seat, near Maidstone, during
the past week.

Baroness Biome was safely delivered of a son
on Christmas morning. Baroness Biome and infant are
doing well.

Lord and Lldy Rokeby are entertaining a select
circle at their seat, Hazlewood, Herts.

Lord and Lady William Osborne are expected in
town in a few days from Flazlewood, where they have been
staying on a visit to Lord and Lady Rokeby.

Lord and Lady Charles Bruce have left town on
a visit to the Earl and Countess Spenser at Althorp Park,
Northamptonshire.
Lord Claude Hamilton has arrived in town from
Beaudesert, Staffordshire, where his lordship has been
staying on a visit to the Marquis and Marchioness of
Abercorn.

Lady Louisa Thuglas Pennant and the Misses
Pennant have arrived at Penryn Castle from visiting the
Right Hon., \V. E. and MrsPladstone at Hawarden Castle,
Chester.

Sir Coutts and Lady Lindsay have left town for
Paris.

DEATH OF THE ARCHDUKE LOUIS JOSEPH.—
The Archduke Louis Joseph, younger brother of the late
Emperor Francis 1. of Austria, and who was attacked not
long since with an indisposition apparently of little gravity,
has just died, aged 80. He was torn at Florence in 1784,
and during the reigns of his brothers Ferdinand I. and
Francis 1., exercised a considerable influence on the Go-
vernment.

LATER POSTING IN LONDON OF LETTERS FOR
THE NIGHT MAlLS.—Elitherto the latest tim3 for
posting letters at the district and branch offices for the night
mails has been 6.45 p.m. on payment of a late fee of one
penny. The Postmaster-General, however, with a view of
affording the public the means of posting letters for the
country by the night mails up to the latest possible time,
has issued a notification, stating that arrangements have
been made, which will commence on the 2nd of January
next, for receiving letters for all the night mails at the
General Post Office, and at the district and branch
offices in London, up to 7.15 p.m., on payment of a late
fee of twopence—and for receiving at
.the counter of the
several district offices, and of the Charing-cross branch
office, up to 7.45 p.m., with a like fee of 2d., letters to be
despatched to the country from the railway stations adja-
cent to such district and branch offices respectively. On and
from the same date the fee for receiving late letters at the
General Post-office between 7.15 and 7.30 p.m., and at the
London railway stations up to the time of the departure of
the trains, will be reduced from 6d to 4d, and the time for
closing the boxes at the General Post-office, and at the Lom-
bard-street branch office for letters paying a late fee of Id,
will ba altered from 7 p.m. to 6.45 p.m. In all cases the
postage, as well as the late fees, must be prepaid by stamps
affixed to the letters.

THE LATE GLASGOW FERRY-BOAT ACCIDENT.--
The searchiforthe missing bodies of Messrs. Glen and
Henderson was discontinued during last week, all hope of
finding them by the usual process of dragging having been
given up. Considering how promptly all the other bodies
were recovered, the complete disappearance of the remains
of these unfortunate gentlemen has naturally given rise to
much speculation and conjecture. Some have supposed that
they may have been caught by the copper sheathing on the
bottom of some of the vessels and carried far down the river
or perhaps out to sea. The more probable theory, however,
is that they have got under some of the larger class of ships
and been pressed down as the tide fell into the soft bed of
the river. It happens not unfrequantly that bodies which
have been thus interred after drowning are brought up by the
dredging machines ; but this is just one of those sad cases
in which the imaginations of sorrowing friends may weary
themselves with vain guesses, yet find no other consolation
than that which an enlightened Christian trust may afford.
In connection with this painful subject we may state that
we have heard the question started as to how far the insur-
ance offices may consider themselves liable to discharge
their obligations to policyholders where there is no certain
evidence of death having occurred. For example, we under-
stand that Mr Glen had his life insured with the Scottish
Widows' Fund for £3,000, with additions, and the doubt
which has arisen is whether payment of this to the family
might not be delayed on the technical ground alleged.—
Glasgow Citizen.

SUPPOSED CHILD MURDER.—The magistrates at
Thirak were engaged on Monday in hearing a charge Of
child murder which had been preferred against Elisabeth
Gibson, 19 years of age, and Mr George Fox, an old man,
who carried on business at Sowerby, and in whose service
the other prisoner formerly lived• About a fortnight ago
Mr R. J. Fox, nephew of the male prisoner, while shooting
over land adjoining the village of Sowerby, saw the body of
an infant floating in a pond. Mr Inspector Smith had the
body removed to:the union workhouse, where an inquest
which was held resulted in a verdict of wilful murder
against some person or person unknown. Mr Smith since
ascertained that the female prisoner had been delivered of
a child shortly before leaving the male prisoner's service at
Martinmas. She was arrested on the charge, and it is
said implicated the elder prisoner. After a short consulta-
tion the bench said there was no legal evidence against Fox,
who was discharged—and as for the gin, they should com-
mit her for trial on a charge of concealment of birth only.

A NOVEL MODE OF ROBBERY.—A young gentle-
man going to the Continent took a through ticket
from Glasgow to London one day last week.. He had with
him a considerable deal of luggage, among which was a
trunk labelled with his name and destination. He saw it
put into the van, but was not a little astonished on arriv-
ng in London to find that it had disappeared, He made in-
quiry
at the guard, and was informed that a telegram had
been sent to an intermediate station, he understood by the
railway company, to send the trunk back to Glasgow, and
it was accordingly taken out and left at the station without
the consent or knowledge of the passenger. At a loss to
understand this proceeding, he telegraphed to his friends in
Glasgow, who, on inquiry, found that the telegram had been
sent by a tall Irish woman, rather good-looking, and about
thirty years:of age. She had probably noted the address
on the trunk before it had been put into the van, and had
taken this bold proceeding to obtain it. She waited for the
return of the trunk, and then employed a porter, but find-
ing it too heavy for h m to carry, she hired a cab, and,
along with a man who had joined her, proceeded to lodge
ings at the south side, where they had to get money from
the landlady to pay for the cab. Next morning, the man
appeared redressed from head to foot, from what he had
appropriated from the trunk, and the woman and he went
out and no doubt proceeded to a pawn-office, as they re-
turned shortly afterwards and paid off the landlady for the
time they had been with her—about a fortnight—and then
procured a cab and made off.—.A'orth British Mail.
OUR HEIGHT.—Among all the adults of all
classes measured by M. Quetelet, he found that fully
developed and well-farmed men varied from four feet ten
to six feet two, with an average of five feet six; and that
fully developed and well-formed women varied from four
feet seven to five feet eight, with an average of about five
feet two. Professor J. D. Forbes, of Edinburgh, about
thirty years ago, measured about eight hundred young
fellows at Edinburgh University; those at twenty-five were
a little, and only a little, taller than those at twenty, and
presented an average of five feet nine and a half—lrishmen
bang a little taller at that age than Scotchmen, and
Scotchmen a little taller than Englishmen. But these
had their shoes and boots on, and were nearly
all from the well-to-do classes. And, moreover,
as the professor remarks, little men don't like to come
forward to be measured. All things considered—shoes
taken off, various classes selected, and all ages from twenty
to sixty—the average of well-formed Englishmen cannot
be far removed from five feet seven, about an inch taller than
average Belgians, and rather more in excess of average
Frenchmen.-. Dickens's "All the Tear Round."
UNCOMMONLY CooL.—On Thursday, on the
Midland Railroad Company's new line between
Whalley Bridge and Buxton, at a place called Bugsworth,
one of the sides of a deep sand cutting at the mouth of a
tunnel suddenly gave way, killing one -man and imprison-
ing eleven others and four horses in the tunnel. A num-
ber of men were set to work to remove the fall of sand, and
the night had far advanced before they had effected their
object. To their surprise they found the eleven navvies
had been steadily pursuing their work in the tunnel all the
time. The:men had held a consultation, at which they had
come to the conclusion that proper steps would be taken to
liberate them, and as they could do nothing towards it
themselves they might as well pursue their ordinary tasks.
From 200,000 to 300,0'30 tons of earth had fallen at the
mou h of the tunnel.

MUNIFICENT DONATION.—The friends and sup-
porters of the British Home for Incurables will be gratified
to learn that the most honourable the Marquis of West-
minster has presented to that institution the nob:e sum of
41,000.

Execution at Chelmsford—This Day.

4-- r--

This morning, at 10 o'clock, the unhappy criminal,
Francis Wane, under sentence of death in Springfield gaol
fer the murder of Amelia Blunt, at Chadwell-heath, expi-
ated his offence on the gallows, at the hands of Caloraft, the
common hangman.

The prisoner, up to the last moment, continued to eat
and drink well, and readily conversed with the warders. He
says that Mr Bowers, the surgeon, was wrong when he said
there were three wounds on deceased's neck, as he only made
two; and to the chief warder he thus described the circum-
stances of the crime—" When I saw she was in the kitchen
washing at the boiler I slipped in behind her as quietly as
I could. I had the knife in my right hand, and I threw
my left arm round her head. She turned her bead half
round and said, '` Good God, Toddy, what are you doing
here ?' I did not answer, but cut her throat, making two
wounds. She struggled and got hold of the copper to get
from me before I cut her the second time, but I did it, and
then left her. She pulled the plaster off the copper side in
trying to pull herself back from my grasp." Wane paid the
most respectful attention to the ministrations of the chap-
lain, and seemed fully alive to the h9inousness of his
crime.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.--This Day.

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.

A COAL MERCHANT CHARGED 'WITH FRAUD.—Sohn
Weedman, described as a coal merchant, of 136, Prince of
Wales-road, Kentish-town, was brought before Mr Tyr-
whitt by Rosekelly, one of the warrant officers, on a war-
rant, charged with obtaining a quantity of shirts and hosiery
of the value of £5 6s from Mr J. F, Hammond, shirt
maker, Alfred House, 374, Oxford-street, with intent to de-
fraud.

Mr Hammond said that on Dec. 19 the prisoner came to
my shop and selected shirts and other artic;es amounting to
£5 6s, and requested that they might be sent to his private
address, 136, Prince of Wales-road, Kentish-town, at the
time representing himself as a coal merchant at the Chalk
Farm Station, and handing me a bill-head with the name
of Weedman, coal merchant, Chalk Farm Station, upon it,
and afterwards writing his private address upon it. I in-
quired of a person whether the name of Weedman was
known at Camden-town, and finding it was, I sent the
goods by a boy. I afterwards found that the place at Chalk-
farm station had been given up, awl the landlord said the
prisoner had not been there for two months, but that he had
lived there. I sent the goods on the faith of the represen-
tation that the prisoner had a business at Chalk-farm sta-
tion and on the bill-head.

Pcisoner—Are you positive I said I was in business at
the place?

Prosecutor—Yes.
Prisoner--I am at liberty to open the place whenever I
like.

Alexander Bridger, a youth in Mr Hammond's employ,
said he left the parcel at 136, Prince of Wales-road, with a
female, who said the prisoner would pay for the goods.
Thomas Rosekelly, 68 C, said--I have been to his (the
prisoner's) residence on several occasions, but have never
been enabled to see the prisoner. Last night he was
brought to me by Culling, 153 S, to whom I had previ-
ously shown the warrant. I also went to Chalk Farm
Station, and saw the landlord, Mr Vinall, who said he
(the prisoner) had obtained goods in a similar manner
from other tradesmen, and I believe, if your worship
will remand the prisoner, several other charges will be
preferred.
Remanded.