The Sun.
London, England, 1864-12-22 00:00:00

SPORTING INTE LLIGENCE.

BETTING AT MANCHESTER—WEDNESDA.Y.
The business still continuer exceedingly flat, and the
transactions quoted are all that have taken place since our
last return. Closing prices :
WATERLOO COURMNG CUP.
20 to 1 agst Lord Uffington'a nomination (taken)
20 to 1 agst Mr H. Haywood's nomination (taken)
25 to I agst Mr Gibson's nomination (taken)
25 to 1 agst Mr J. Jardine's nomination (taken)
30 to 1 agst Mr Spinks nonination (taken)
33 to 1 agst Mr Blanshard's nomination (taken)
33 to 1 agst Stockot's nomination (taken)

THE DERBY.
25 to 1 agst Brother to Minnie (taken)
30 to 1 agst Bedminster (taken)
40 to 1 agst Zimblsi (taken)
40 to 1 agst The Buck (taken)

RACING FIXTURES FOR 1865.
JANUARY.
Manchester
FEBRUARY.
Lincoln spring . 21 I Nottingham Spring t2s
MARCH.

Derby Spring 2
Liverpool Spring
Shrewsbury Spring

Doncaster Spring 14
Warwick Spring .... 21
. Chelmsford Spring ... 28

Northampton 4
Croxton Park 7
Durham l7
Newmarket Craven

Catterick Bridge
Thirsk 2l
Epsom Spring

Newmarket Ist Spring... 1
Chester
York Spring ....

Salisbury
Bath .. 2:3
Epsom Summer ' ::.0,
INE.
I Hampton .• "1
Newton
Newcastle
Worcester Summer ... 29
SLY.

Epsom Summer (con.).. 1
Manchester . . 7
Ascot ..
Alexandra Park 2O

Ju:
Newmarket July
Carlisle
Pontefract

Nottingham Summer .. 18
Chesterfield
Goodwood

Ara
Huntingdon
Reading
Egham
Oxford
York August 22

I Plymouth .. 24
Lichfiel .
Devon and Exeter ... 29
Derby Summer
Weymouth
atBER.

SEPTE:
Weymouth (continued),. 1
Leicester ..
Doncaster
Brecon

Richmond
Monmouth
Manchester Autumn
Newmarket Ist October 26
IBER

OCT,
Northallerton 5
Newmarket Second Oct 9
Novi

I Newmarket Houghton.. 23
Worcester Autumn .... 31
:FIBER.

'Worcester Autumn

(continued) 1

Now ready, G. SHELTON'S Derby Guide, is Glenie,
Connaught-terrace, Hyde-park ; Sunday Times Office,
Fleet-street; and all agents.

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE—This day,

LONDON, Dec. 22.—Wind this day at noon—North-
Westerly; moderate breeze, aid fine weather, but rather
cloudy.
FALMOUTH, Dec, 20.—Wind S.W.—Arrived—Johanna,
from Akyab.
PORTSMOUTH, Dec. 21.—Wind S.W.—Arrived—Mary
and Margaret, from Boston for Antwerp.
PLYMOUTH, Dec. 21.—Wind S.W.—Arrived—Jeune
Adolphe, from Porto Rico.
POOLE, Dec. 20.—Wind W.S.W.—Arrived—Janus,
from Newfoundland.

(Er MAGNETIC TELEGRAPH.)
GRAVESEND, Thursday Morning.
Arrived, Dec. 21—Conquerer, from Havre.
Arrived, Dee. 22—Thalie, from Calmar—Baron Osy,
steamer, from Antwerp—Rhine, steamer, from Ostend.

DEAL, Thursday Morning.
Anchored—Forest Queen, from Richibucto, for Grimsby.
Passed—Mary, for Corfu—Theresa, for Buenos Ayres—
both from London.

The Court of ASBiZOS has just been engaged two
days in trying Mme. Michel, the wife of the re-
ceiver of registration dues at Ceulommiers, on 22 charges of
forgery, alleged to have been committed in singing receipts
to the bills of tradesmen who had supplied her with goods.
The indictment stated that several tradesmen of Clamecy,
where Mme. Michel formerly lived, and of Coulommiers,
her present residence, lodged a joint complaint that false
receipts had been apposed to 22 of their bills for goods
supplied to Mme. Michel. Some of these bills are of old
date, for owing to the honourable position of M. Michel, the
parties had individually shrunk from lodging a complaint
against his wife, until they found that many of their fellow
tradesmen wore in the same position, and their numbers
gave them confidence. It also appears that a number of
mischievous anonymous letters had been addressed to diffe-
rent persons at Clamecy and Coulommiers, which were sup-
posed to have been written by the prisoner. The letters
and receipts were submitted to the judgment of experts ;
who pi esented a report declaring that the letters were all
written by the accused, and that the receipts were forgeries,
all in the same hand, but that they could not positively as-
sert the prisoner to be the writer, though from her great
dexterity with the pen they thought it possible. The pri-
soner denied that she had signed the receipts or written the
letters. The Public Prosecutor pressed for a conviction, as
the prisoner was the only person who had any interest in
signing the receipts, and that it was highly improbable
that so many respectable tradesmen would all agree to per-
jure themselves. M. Lauhaud, who defended the prisoner,
argued that it was most unlikely that his client, who had
ample means of payment, would have forged receipts for
such trifling sums; indeed she must have been mad if she
had done so. The jury, after an hour's deliberation, ac-
quitted the prisoner on all the counts of the indictment, and
the Court ordered her immediate discharge.

A GOOD STORY of the discomfiture of a ruffianly
fire-eater :—" A singular incident occurred at tlle
Café Frangais in 1816, at the corner of the Rue Laffitte. A
celebrated duellist entered and began insulting all the per.-
sons who were seated at dinner; he boasted of his courage,
and declared his determination to kill a certain M. de
F--. A gentleman present, disgusted at such braggart
insolence, quietly walked up to this fire-eater, and ad-
dressed him thus :—' As you are such a dangerous custo-
mer, perhaps you will accommodate me, by being punctual
at the entrance of the Bois de Boulogne, near the Porte
Maillot, at mid-day tomorrow; earlier I cannot get there,
but depend upon my arriving in due time with swords and
pistols. The duelist began to demur, saying he did not
know what right a stranger had to take up the cudgels of
M. de F— ; to which the gentleman replied, I hava
done so because I am anxious to rid society of a dangerous
fellow like yourself, and would recmmend you before you go
to bed to make your will. I will undertake to order your
coffin and pay your funeral expenses.' He then gave the
waiter a note of I,ooofrancs, with injunctions that his orders
should be executed before eleven the following day. This
had the desired effect of intimidating the bully, who left
Paris the following day, and never more was heard or
seen in public."—Captain Gronow's Third 'Series of
"Anecdotal Recollections,"

THE MEMBER FOR LAMBETH.—" Mr Lounger,
you did not mention in your paper the report of
the death of Wiscount Williams. How was that ?" This
from Mr Blogg to me. " Because,' I replied, " I did not
think it was true. But why do you call him Wiscount,%
Blogg?" " Well, he said he might have been made a
\Viscount, did he not ?" "No, never," "Punch always
calls him Wiscount.' " "Punch is a snob, Now, listen.
Mr Williams has been in the House nearly 30 years. Long
before this foolish story got about I often heard him in his
speeches call Lord Palmerston 'the noble Viscount,' pro-
nouncing the word properly. And further, if Mr Williams
does not always speak wisely, he certainly speaks correctly.
And he is a very respectable, honest, charitable, and
worthy man. This is his character both in the House
and in the world outside, and has always been his character
from the day he first came from Wales to London—a
young man without money, and with but few friends. He
was at first only an assistant in a London Manchester ware-
house ; here his industry, intelligence, and merits attracted
the notice of a firm in the north, and he was by this firm
started in business. And I have heard a friend of his—on
whom I can rely, and who has known Mr Williams and
done business with him for many years—say that in all
his varied and long experience of the world and its ways
he never knew a more upright man. Now, to me integrity
has a great charm ; and I think that it is disgraceful to
run down by caricature and ridicule such a man as Mr
Williams. There are rogues and fools enough. both in
the house and out of it, to castigate. Honesty of purpose,
though it be not coupled with any great mental power,
should be respected. True, Mr Williams devoted his time
and attention to a business in the house which he was
hardly competent to master, and in which he achieved little
success. But he was, to say the leant of it, sincere, honest,
and incorruptible—and such a man is entitled to respect. I
can see good reason why Government underlings should
flout and ridicule Mr ; but that writers in what is
called the liberal press should join in the cry against a man
who has devoted all his time and energies to promote
economy in our public expenditure is not creditable to
them." " Well, let bygones be bygones. I won't call
him Wis.count again. Egad, wo have not so many honest
men in the world that we should ridicule them. You are
right there."—lllustrated times.
AN UNFORTUNATE EXPERIMENT,—A few days
ago an incident occurred at Buxhall, near Bldeeton, which
reminds ono forcibly of Riccabocca's experimental inves-
tigation of the machinery of the parish stocks, as related in
"My Novel." Mr John Gage, butcher, of Buxhall, who
is also constable of the parish, has a man in his employ who
set about cleaning a pair of handcuffs, and having a mind
to see how they would fit him he snapped them on his wrists.
He then sought lib.tration, but discovered that his master
was gone to London, and had taken the key of the hand-
cuffs with him, so that he was obliged to remain a prisoner
until Mr Gage returned,—Bury and ,Norteich Lost,