The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-12 00:00:00

WESTMINSTER.

CONVICTION OF AN OFFICER IN THE AR➢iY.—Mr.
John Charles Sweeney, of 18, St. George's-street, captain
in the 91st Highlanders, .was charged with unlawfully
breaking a square of glass, value £lO, and assaulting the
policeman.
The charge of wilful damage was not proceeded with,
Miss Hughes, the complainant, being absent.
Police-sergeant 26 B, said that at 11 o'clock lastnight
he was called to 16, Cumberland-street, Pimlico, where the
defendant was given into custody for wilfully breaking a
square of plate-glass. When witness entered defendant
was coming down stairs with a stick in his hand, and in
allusion to the glass said, " Bobby, come and see me
finish it, and in returning upstairs he broke some more of
the glass from the wardrobe. The lady, having given him
in charge, witness laid hold of him by the arm, upon which
he said he should like to have e. slap at the " bobby," and
struck him on the hat, on the breast, and on the mouth,
In cross-examination by Mr Edward Lewis, solicitor for
defendant, witness said that defendant said he should like
to " bonnet" witness. He was not drunk. The blows he
struck were not violent.
Police-constable 45 B said that as he entered the house
with the servant, they met the defendant coming doßn
stairs. He had part of his clothes off, and alter putting
them on, he said, "I should like to have a go at
you." " Bobbies," he added, " I'll pay for a new
hat, and give you Is. if you let me bonnet you." He then
struck the sergeant on the top of the hat. In the scuffle to
secure him he struck witness under the car with his fist.
Mr Lewis said that his client had, while in a state o'
intoxication, been inveigled into this house, where a dif-
ference arose. The fact of defendant being partially un-
dressed would show the character of the house.

Mr Arnold inquired what it was.
The sergeant sai he believed it was very respectable.
Mr Lewis said it could be shown it was not—it wi
a lodging-house for ladies.
Defendant said Col. Cumberland hired it for its present
occupant.
Mr Lewis said that defendant very deeply regt etted what
had occurred. He had been wounded while in service in
India, and having had sun stroke there, became much ex-
cited under the influence of liquor, as in the present case.
The assaults seemed to have been jocular, by the language
used, and not of a vicious character.
Mr Arnold thought there was not evidence of a savage
character in the assaults, but pointed out that the police
were not to be assaulted as a source of amusement to gen-
tlemen who got drunk. Although the lower order of per-
sons might be guilty of misconduct while in a state of in
toxication, better conduct was expected of those in the posi-
tion of gentlemen, and he (Mr Arnold) doubted whether
he ought not to commit without a fine.
He fined defendant £lO (45 for each assault) or two
months, which was immediately paid.

BURKE T S.—This Day.

MARK-LANE.

But moderate supplies of home-grown wheat were re-
ceived fresh up to our market to-day coastwise and by rail.
The trade, however, was in a sluggish state for all qualities ;
nevertheless, the bulk of the supply of good and fine pro-
duce on offer was disposed of at Mmday's currency. The
transactions in inferior English wheats were at about pre •
vions rates.
There was a good supply of foreign wheat on the stands.
In all descriptions sales progressed slowly, yet no change
took place in prices compared with Monday. Indeed both
continental and American parcels were held at fully that
day's currency.
There was a moderate supply of barley on offer. Good
and fine malting qualities revved off steadily, at full prices
otherwise the barley trade was dull, at quite the recent fall
in the quotations.
Malt was in slow request, at about previous rates.
The supply of oats on the stands was tolerably large.
Most descriptions were in good demand, at fall currencies,
Beans met a slow sale, at the late decline in prices. Peas
however, ruled firm.
The flour trade was quiet, at late prices.
ARRIVALS THIS WIIEK.
Wheat. Barley, Malt. Oats. Flour.
English...... 210 750 200 380
Irish ........
Foreign ...... 4 1,100
,19 )

-- 1,860 __
-- 25,120 30 sks

iVHITECHAPEL.

Moderate supplies of meat are on sale here, and trade, on
the whole, is steady, at the annexed quotations:--
Beef, from 2s 10d to 4s 4dk;, 3s 6d to mutton,
4s 10d per 81bs by
3s 8d to 45 8d •
vtheaelc,
atalOsed.to 8d; and por

BOROUGH HOP.
The hop trade is dull. Fine samples are tolerably firm in
price; but inferior prodwe is obtainable at reduced
quotations.

FRENCLI ACADEIIY OF SCIENCES,—,At the last
sitting a letter was read frotu AI. Enault, calling
the attention of naturalists to the strength of the thread of
a garden spider, probably well-known to them ; the advan-
tages, however, which might be derived from its threads,
which offer great resistance, seem, to have escaped their
nJtice. Dr Arentz3n wrote from Copenhagen that in the
course of his researches touching the treatment of diseases
of the eye, he had discovered that electricity applied in a
cinerctiapiinenwtY cataract. ii
ar to him, may atop the progress of an
Now, since the beginning of thi,
disease generally commences at a point whore it is easy
to perceive it, whenever the diminution of vision
ai‘3u
is attributable to that cause, the means he pro-
poses will not indeed restore the eyc-sight as it was before,
but will prevent the evil from becoming worse. If the
Academy, he adds, should think such a result, however im-
perfect, sufficiently important to deserve further attention,
he will be happy to communicate all the necessary details to
enable practitioners in France to try the method which he
has now been employing with success for more than a year.—
M. Lespiault, who, at the last sitting, had announced that a
violent explosion had been heard in the air on the 24th Sept.,
and which di I not seem to admit of any other explanation
save that of the bursting, of a fire-ball, wrote again to say
that his supposition was correct; for that, in a private
letter from Mont-de-Marsan, and published in the Gironde,
it was stated that on that day at 20 minutes 12 p.m., a fiery
globe of the size of a bomb-shell had burst in the vicinity
of that town with a violent noise resembling the simulta•
neous report of 20 pieces of ordnance. This noise lased 10
seconds ; the direction of the bolis was from north to south ;
but the phenomenon could not be observed in all its splen-
dour beca4se the sun was very brilliant, and unveiled by
the slightest cloud.