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

rHE SUN, LONDON', WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 2B, 1864.

rt junifgt

HER MAJESTY.

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

---o

THE KING OF THE BELGIANS.—His Majesty
King of the Belgians and the Count of Flanders have re-
turned 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 great 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 Ciarendon are enter.
.aining 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 Sr. 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 Blame and infant are
doing well,

Lord and Lady 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 Haziewood, where they have been
staying on a visit to Lord and Lady Rokeby.
Lord and Lady Char:es Bruce have left town on
a visit to the Earl and Countess Spencer 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 DJuglas Pennant and the Misses
Pennant have arrived at Penryn Castle from visiting the
Right Hon.,W. E. and Mrs,Gladstone at Hawarden Castle,
Chester.

Sir Coutta and Lady Lindsay have left town for

Paris.

DEATH OF THE ARCHDUKE LOUIS JOSEPH.—
The Archduke Louis Joseph, younger brother bf 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.—Hitherto the latest time for
posting letters at ehe district and branch offi2es 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 ld,
will ba altered from 7 p,m. to 6.45 p.m. In all oases the
postage, as well as the late fees, must be prepaid by stamps
affixed to the letters.

THE LATE GLASGOW FERRY-BOAT ACCIDENT.--
The searehjforthe 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 unfrequently that bodies which
have been thus interred after drowning are brought up by the
dredging machines; but this is just one of those dad 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
Think were engaged on Monday in hearing a charge of
child murder which had been preferred against Elizabeth
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 girl, 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 fied-
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 ho 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.—. North British Mail.
OUR HEIGHT.—Among all the adults of all
classes measured by M. Quetelet, ho found that fully
developed and well-formed 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
bt ing 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 Year 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 ono 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
corbe 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 300,000 tons of earth had fallen at the
mou h of the tunnel.
porAtleUrsNolfFtlhCeEßNrTitillshOLAmTieOfNor.
to learn that the most honourable the Marquis of West-
"--InrcruilreablfersieNnvidllsbao ngdrastiufiped-
minster has presented to that institution the noble sum of
41,000,

Execution at Chelmsford—This Day.

This morning, at 10 o'clock, the unhappy criminal,
Francis Wane, under sentence of death in Springfield gaol
far the murder of Amelia Blunt, at Chadwell-heath, expi•
ated his offence on the gallows, at the hands of Calera% 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 orime—" 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 halt
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 heinousness of his
crime.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.—This Day.

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.

A COAL MERCHANT CHARGED WITH FRAUD.—John
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 articles amounting to
£5 Es, and requested that they might be sent to his private
address, 136, Prinoe 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, and 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.

Prisoner—Are you positive I said I was in business at
la place ?

Prosecutor—Yes.

Prisoner--I am at liberty to open the place whenever I

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—l have been to his (the
prisoner'9) 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.

Trial Trip of the Federal Torpedo Boat
Stromboli,

The first built of the new class of ironclad ves-
sels, called torpedo boats, on which the attention
of the naval authorities of all countries is at pre..
sent directed as threatening to produce another
complete revolution in maritime warfare, has been
recently despatched on an experimental trip, of
which the following account is given by the New
York News
On the 25th inst. the Stromboli made an experimental
trip to thoroughly test all her machinery, and on Saturday
she took her departure from these waters for the purpose of
making her debut upon the stage of active operations, and,
we may be permitted to say, to fully demonstrate the
power, efficiency. and destructiveness of this new system of
naval warfare. Before we proceed to describe the trial trip,
let us first give a brief outline of the history of the vessel,
and even to go back to the inception of the idea. Several
years ago William W. W. Wood, the present senior chief
engineer of the United States navy, conceived the idea of
using the submarine torpedo in a manner not previously
experimented upon or known. As the time passed the sim-
plicity and perfect working of his plans became so patent
that he felt satisfied in his mind that it would perform
the work required beyond a doubt. Less than two years
ago the subject was casually brought to the no-
tice of Admiral Gregory, who immediately urged
upon the Navy Department the appointment of a board of
examiners to inquire into the merits of the invention and
report upon the same. The board, composed of some of the
most practical officers in the service, unanimously reported
in its favour, recommending the construction of a vessel to
fully demonstrate the idea. The Naval Department, alive
to the great importance of the system, immediately ordered
the construction of what is now the Stromboli. First
Assistant Engineer John L. Lay, a young officer who had
also been investigating the subject of torpedo warfare, was
selected to superintend the construction of the vessel and
her machinery. As it was necessary to keep the matter
quiet, and beyond the inquisitive eye of traitors and foreign
mercenaries, the hull was built at Fair Haven, Connecti-
cut; the engines at Mystic, Connecticut; and the torpedo
machinery at Schenectady, New York. Mr Samuel H
Cook, a young and skilful naval architect, was selected to
build the hull; the Reliance Machine Company, the pro-
pelling engines; the Clute Brothers, the torpedo machi-
nery; and Benjamin and Root the torpedo engines; and in
' this way the work was distributed, so that it was not easy
for the inquisitive to put all the parts together end be much
the wiser. After she was launched she was towed to Mys-
tic, and there received her boilers and engines. From
thence she came over to Messrs Secorts' yard at Jersey
City, where she received her deck plating, pilot house,
and her final comi leting;. Such is the brief history of the
inception and production of the first torpedo boat of the
United States navy, designed, built, and sailed by native
born citizens. On Friday, the 25th inst., the little Strom-
boli made her experimental trip to test her propulsive and
torpedo engines. She left the wharf at Secorts' yard about
11 o'clock a.m., and under the pilotage of Captain John
1114Ginn, proceeded up the Hudson River some distance,
making an average speed of nine knots per hour, and steer-
ing beautifully from on top of the pilot house as well as
from below decks. After some tests of the propulsive ma-
chinery it was decided to fire a wood torpedo of the same
pattern as was furnished to and used with such success by
by Lieut. Cushing in the destruct of the rebel ram Albe-
marle. The torpedo was charged with only 481bs of powder,
and was placed in the basket, run out, detached, and when
at a given point, about one foot below the surface of the
water, it was exploded, less than 2t minutes being consumed
in the whole operation. The explosion, and the peculiar ap-
pearance of the column of water thrown up by the torpedo,
can be but poorly described with a pen ; instantaneeus pace-
tography might have done it, but no painter could have
depicted the scene with justice. The water was thrown up
about 180 ft in a perpendicular column, which measured about
10ft in diameter. Branching off from the main column were
thick jets of heavy spray, or rather broad sheet of snowy
white water, which the breeze bore back on the deck of the
vessel. Around th is huge column of water and mingling
with the jets, the whitish fantastic clouds of powder smoke
circled, making a beautiful picture, ever changing and pass•
ing away in a brief space of time. The torpedo, when ex-
ploded, was only 15 feet distant from the bow of the vessel,
yet the shock, as felt on board, was very slight indeed.
Everyone was charmed with the experiment. It was now
decided to try a torpedo placed 20 feet below the surface of
the water, about the same distance from the bow of the vessel.
The torpedo contained 601bs of powder, and was placed in
position as in the former experiment, but was exploded
by Beardsley's magnetic electric machine, a beautiful spe-
cimen of art. The explosion at the time produced different
results, and still more interesting. The water was 30 feet
deep, and the torpedo at the instant of explosion was ten
feet from the bed of the river; consequently it was a trifle
longer before the tremendous result made itself manifest.
When it did come it was awfully grand. A black cone,
surmounting a blacker column, arose from the
surface and quickly mounted aloft, at least three
score feet, being 20 feet in diameter and thick with
mud. The muddy jets did not leave the column quite
as soon as in, the former experiment, but the white smoke
curling round the dark centre column made a picture
novel, and at the same time one which a reflecting
mind could not fail to be awed with. It presented an
unmistakable evidence of the power which the machine
possessed for harm, and which, at times lying
dormant, could be roused in an incalculable short space
of time, and let loose for the destruction of life
and property. The shock of this torpedo was felt over a
space of about 150 yards in diameter ; it lifted, or felt as if
it did, the bow of the vessel about nine inches, but pro-
ducing no unpleasant sensation. Space prevents us from
going into the details of the sensations experienced while
witnessing these experiments, We are satisfied that this
vessel, for destructive purposes, has no equal in the world.
No ironclad can withstand its power. It is perfectly safe
to operate in, and the nearer she approaches an enemy the
safer she becomes; while every foot nearer she approaches
her victim only hastens her certain destruction. The ex-
periments being over the Stromboli and her consort, Picket
boat No. 6, steamed back to their stations."

CURIOUS NEW YEAR'S-DAY CUSTOMS.—January
1, 1865. So we must date our letters to-day, and
just as merchants of years gone by would head their new
ledgers with " Laus Deo," we would do the same, or rather
write that word of Bible note, " Ebenezer," and say,
"Hitherto has the Lord helped us." " January" we
call this month, as the Romans did from their god Janus,
who, at the threshold of the New Year, stood with two
faces, one looking back on the past and the other forward
to the future. He was the god of gates and avenues, and
held a key in his right hand and a rod in his left, to sym-
bolise his opening and ruling the year ; and sometimes he
held the number 300 in one hand and 65 in the other, to
signify the number of days in the year. The Saxons call the
month Wolfmonth, because wolves, driven by hunger,
were wont to prowl about and attack even men in their de•
sire for food. It was also called by the Saxons, " .et fter.
Yule," or after Christmas. The month was often repre-
sented by a man with faggots and a woodman's axe, shaking
and blowing his fingers, Tbo Ist January, according to
some, Was ushered in with rejoicings, presents. and good
wishes as early as the days of Romulus and Tacitus, and
the usual presents then were figs and dates covered with leaf
gold; and pieces of pottery have been discovered bearing
inscriptions, and evidently intended for presents, commemo-
rative of the season. In our own country, so far back as the
timetrof the ancient Britons, we read of Druids, on a certain
day, cutting down branches of mistletoe with a golden
knife, and distributing them as gifts for the New Year.
Coming farther down, we find our kings receiving and, as
some say, extorting presents from their subjects. Bath
Henry 111, and Edward VI. are mentioned by an antique.
rian writer, the former requiring New Year's gifts, the lat-
ter rewarding from the public revenue those officers and
servants who had sent presents to the "King's Majestie."
In Henry VIII.'s reign honest old Latimer is said to have
given to the King, instead of a purse of gold, as was the
custom, a New Testament, with the leaf turned down at Heb.
xiii. 4. Good Queen Bess, too, received her share of princely
gifts from her nobles and courtiers—very princely, if wo
ruayjudge from lists given by Dr Drake in his " Shakspere
and his Times." Oranges stuck with cloves were popular
gifts, and pine were considered acceptable by ladies of the
15th century, when wooden skewers were the only things
they had to fasten their dresses. Sometimes they receive
money instead ; hence allowances for their separate use
oame to bo called "pin money." Gloves were often given
as New Year's gifts. Sir Thomas More, when Lord Chan-
cellor, having given judgment in favour of a certain lady,
received on the next New Year's day a pair of gloves, with
40 angels inside. In thanking her, Sir Thomas said, "It
would be against good manners to forsake a gentlewoman's
New Year's gift, and I accept the gloves. their lining you
will be pleased to bestow otherwise," We could lengthen
this paper beyond proper limits by telling of customs in dif-
ferent parts of England and Scotland, Of 0 Candlemas
bull and Riding Stang," the former a custom in the High-
lands, where " mu nese choil owe." "My Candlemas bond
upon you," is the customary salutation, and he who, on
coming down in the morning, is the first to say this, be-
comes entitled to a gift from the person saluted. The latter
custom prevails in the north of England, where the "stang"
or "cowl-staff," a large basket with two handles, is (milled
about, and whoever does not join the procession of merry
youngsters is mounted across the stang, and not let off till
they come to the door of the next public -house, where the
payment of 6d releases the prisoner.—Churclunan' s
Fariily
Maga4ine,
PROPOSED CENTRAL SCOTTISH HALL IN LONDON
—At a meeting composed of the representatives of
the Highland Society of London, the Caledonian Society
of London, the London Scottish Volunteers, the Scottish
Hospital, and the Caledonian Asylum, and held at the hall
of the Scottish Hospital on Wednesday last, Sir J. Heron
Maxwell in the chair, on the motion of Dr George Webster,
seconded by Captain Mackenzie, it was unanimously re-
solved, "That it is very desirable to have a central build-
ing for the business purposes of the various Scottish So-
cieties in London, and for other national objects." The
raeeting then resolved itself into a committee, and adjourned
till the 31st of January next, when the propriety of calling
a public meeting of the Seotchmen in London will be
cussed,