The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-03 00:00:00

TIIA.MES.

A Row WITH THE DOCTOR.—William Payne, a tall
and powerful man, was brought before Mr Paget, oharged
with assaulting Mr Grant, a respectable medical gentle•
man, of Millwall, Poplar, and William West, 153 K, a
police-constable.

On Saturday; night the complainant, after a fatiguing
day and visits to a great many patients, had lain down on
a sofa to seek a little repose, when he heard a loud knock
at his door. Ou opening it he saw the prisoner, who re-
quested him to visit a patient who had fallen down air
area, broken his neck, and was on the point of death. Mr
Grant observing that the prisoner was in liquor, said he
could not leave home until a fee of ss. was paid.
The prisoner said that the money would be paid directly
the surgeon reached the house where the patient was. Mr
Grant refused to leave home without his fee at such a late
hour, and the prisoner became very noisy and violent, and
attacked Mr Grant. Hs struck him and seized him by the
throat, and, according to Mrs Grant's account, her husband
was nearly strangled. The whole household, including
Mr Grant's sister, brother, and wife, who were all injured,
were barely sufficient to secure the prisoner, who was ulti-
mately given into the custody of West; 153 K, who
observed blood on the neok of the surgeon. The constable
walked the prisoner about thirty yards towards the
station-house, when he became very violent.
struck the constable on the face, arid laid
on the ground. In this position the prisoner remained fur
half-an-hour until other police constables arrived, and car-
ried him to the stationhouse.
In answer to Mr Paget, the constable said no serious
accident took place. He saw the man said to be injured.
He was not injured.
Mr Paget said no one had any right to knock at a gen-
tleman's door, because he happened to be a surgeon, and
demand him to visit a patient elsewhere. Medical men
generally did leave home and visit patients when called
upon to do so, but there was no legal compulsion. He could
not blame Mr Grant for refusing to leave home without his
fee on the invitation of a drunken man. lie fined the
prisoner 20s, which he paid.

THE OFFICE OF SHERlFF.—Whatever might be
the condition of things i f
it were impossible to find
men willing to accept the office of Sheriff, it is very certain
that soc'ety is under deep obligations to those who accept
the office, for it is an integral part of the free constitution,
under the shadow of which we enjoy our liberties and con-
solidate our wealth and power. The Sheriffs begin their
official career by assisting at the election of a Lord Mayor
for the year ensuing, so that the representatives of loyal
as it were, the Queen's 1
acrnodwaroyanala auththeorsittay bring,
tutes
of the realm to bear witness
to the invalidity of the aspirations of independent
citizenship. But it is not merely as the shire
reeve, the representatives of royal power and prerogative,
the intermediaries between the king and the people, that we
know the sheriffs best in these days, any more than we first
think of them as public executioners, because charged
occasionally with the responsible duty of disposing of a
human life. It is as almoners, and as themselves fountains
of almonry, that in these piping times of peace and
prosperity and content we best know of the existence and
movements of the sheriffs. Our love of organization is such,
that, when we have exhausted our powers of invention in the
organization of charities,we at last make a desperate clutch at
some venerable legal office, and load it with responsibilities
touching bread,coals, and blankets, the care of orphans, idiots,
juvenile offenders, and other active and passive claimants
for charity, for whom there are splendid organisations
nevertheless. The charitable part of the Sheriff's duties is
of comparatively recent origin ; it was not always the rule
to stick a live
compel
Shea lerwiffhiona high-backed pew and preach at
him,congregation to stare him out of
and
countenance, in order that the Samaritan Society should be
lancet for theispruocyesns
numerous
trans-
fusionerousenabled to continue its useful career. The best part of the
feature is that, like the more ancient and more formal por-
tion of a Sheriff's duties, it fits the office very well—the
association of law and benevolence works very well in this
case, and the Sheriff blee_dsatsy patientlypress as a connubial
supposed that Napoleon owed
partner submitting to the
TH THE GREAT
tGheßE"AoTtheNr sAirdeo.'ll
EON.—It h 1,
detractors
is
miraculous
unexampled galaxy
of skilful lieutenants. Join
shows that such was not the
case—that, almost always victorious where he himself com-
manded, Napoleon, if ho profited much by the gallantry of
generals fighting under his immediate superintendence,
with a few exceptions suffered almost equally from the un-
nculousuccess to an
fitness of these same officers for independent common I.
Jomini, speaking by the mouth of Napoleon, thus sums up
his opinion of some of the principal French commanders,—
" With the exception of gassona, Soult, and perhaps Da-
voust, there was none to whom I could entrust the com-
mand of a separate army. (The Viceroy, St. Cyr, Suchet,
and Oudinot were promoted only at a later period.)"—
Captain W. Knollys in The Bodo..
CONFEDERATE RIFLES.—
ri es—g r
A correspondent with
General Sherman' w
s army
Whitworth
rifle in use by the rebel skirmishers and sharpshooters is a
t
weapon great ly to be feared, as persons nearly a mile and a '
halt from the rebel skirmish line have been wounded when
they thought themselves safe from anything except solid
shot and shell. One soldier was standing upon a log crossing
a creek, about one mile and a quarter from the neartst rebel
line of rifle-pits, and a comrade was talking with him, when
one of these fatal messengers came crashing through b .th
thighs, and with this mortal wound he sank into the water.
An officer speaking of it says, ' They break the bone of a
man's limb like a solid shot from a cannon.' Rebel deserters
say that each division of the rebel front is furnished with
about 50 of these rifles, which aro used in their skirmish
line," •