The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-07 00:00:00

MIDDLESEX SESSIONS—This Day.

(Before Mr. Sergeant Gazelee.)

Charles Gooch, carman, was indicted with stealing a
quantity of wool, the property of his employer.
George Freeman said he was delivering foreman at St.
Katherine's Dock, and on the 16th of August the prisoner
came with one of the vans of Messrs. Seward for a load of
wool. The wool was lowered from the warehouse into the
cart beneath, and after a number had been so removed he
(witness) had his attention called to something going on
wrong Mow. He looked into the cart from above and
there he saw the prisoner sitting on one of the bales pulling
wool out of another and throwing it over the side of the cart
into the yard; a man was picking it up as fast as he could,
but when the prisoner saw he was being watched he desisted.
The bag was weighed previous to its leaving Elle premises
of the Dock Company. It was 141 b. deficient when it was
delivered to its owner.

Archibald Wright formally proved the weight of the
bale when it left the St. Katherine's Deck.

A clerk from the owners of the property said he was sent
to look after the loading of the wool, hut he did not arrive
until nearly the whole had been deposited in the cart.
When the load was complete the prisoner drove the van off,
but he (witness) obsei ved another vehicle following Messrs.
Sewards'. He then watched the prisoner as far as the
Crooked Billet, Tower-hill, and saw him give another man
who was in the cart a bag. He folldwed the person
who had received the bag towards 'Rosemary-lane, but
he missed him in the intricate Thoroughfares of the neigh-
bourhood. He (witness) went back to the publichouse
where the man who had taken the property had left his
cart, and on his return he accused him of taking wool from
the prisoner. He boldly denied having done so, and the
prisoner said he never gave the man any bag T.t all. The
man who had taken the bag when he returned had it
hanging over his arm empty. Witness took the
bag from him, and on examining it found in one of the
corners a portion of some description of wool which had been
taken from the bale. The weight of the wool stolen from
the bale was about 141 b., and was worth ls. a pound.
A number of witnesses gave the prisoner a good charac-
ter.
The jury returned a verdict of Guilty. _ _

.. .
The learned Sergeant sentenced him to nine months' im-
prisonment with hard labour.

A Mirage on the North-East Coast of Ireland.

(From the Caledonian Memory.)
A friend at Bangor, an ancient town on the
County Down side of Belfast Lough, writes to us
that a most remarkable mirage occurred there a few
days ago. His description of it is brief ;it will,
however, interest a number of our scientific friends.
He says :
" You will be delighted to learn that I have just made a
most decided acquisition of kn ,wledge. I have seen for the
first time in my life a mirage. Don't be astonished ! In an
age like the present, when miracles and all other marvels
seem to be discarded, there is room for doubt, but you will not
distrust me. 1 was standing with some friends on the highest
of Bangor's raised beaches, when in the north-east I saw most
distinctly, and for a long time, on 3 of the Glasgow and Bel-
fast steam vessels steaming away—where ? no longer in the
water—actually in the air far above the water ! No mis-
take about it. I rubbed my eyes again and again, doubting
whether they were not deceiving me, but they were faith-
ful as ever, and I had them amply corroborated by my
friends. There, sure enough, was the steamer floating in
air, the smooth water in which she was sailing clearly seen,
and ourselves, far below, with our feet resting on the
beach. The interesting sight was witnessed by us for nearly
half an hour, when the insidious haze by which it was
occasioned, thickened and dispelled it. The haze was
so distinct as to expose to us the whole rig and outline
of the steamer, and as we stood on high ground, it was low
enough in the water to permit us also to see the steamer for
a while along its upper surface. It was a novel and de-
lightful sight, the view of which would have made your
heart thrill with joy."
This is probably the first occasion on which a
mirage has been noticed on the north-east coast of
Ireland; at all events, we have no recollection of
any such occurrence having been recorded. The
Fata Morgana, further north, all have heard or read
of and many have seen ; our ♦enerable friend will,
therefore, we presume, have the satisfaction of
making known his discovery to the Philosophical
Society of Belfast, of which he is a member, at an
early meeting.

MONTALEMBERT AT MALINES.—It is 30 years
since M. de Montalembert first began to preach the
doctrine of a free Church in a free State. He has never
swerved from it, and has always advocated it as the sole
remedy for the disorders of Europe and the turmoils of
Christendom. In practice, he has not, perhaps, always
acted up to his theory. But every statesman is at times in-
consistent ; and if ever a statesman had an idea to which
he clung firmly, and in spite of disappointment and failure,
M. de Montalembert has clung to the idea with which his
name is now indissolubly associated. It must be owned
that his experience cannot have been very sweet to bear.
He has not seen much in his days either of a free State or
a free Church. The Constitutional Monarchy, under
which he first began to speak and write, has been replaced
by a system which he employed every resource of a prac-
tised speaker to paint, at Malines, in the blackest colours.
He has been reduced to thank heaven that he, a French-
man, is occasionally permitted to breathe a little of the pure
air of liberty in Belgium. Nor can the retrospect of the
history of the Church in his days be much more satisfactory
to him. He has lived to see the Church prostrate itself at
the foot of the man who has, as he thinks, enslaved, de-
graded, and demoralized France. Personally, he has lived
to see the day when, in the hour of danger, and at the
crisis of the contest which threatens to affect so powerfully
the interests of Catholicism, he—the champion and orator
of the Church—has been kept from public life by the infiu•
ence of a Catholic Bishop. M. de Montalembert under-
takes to convince the Catholic world that its truo policy is
to strive for political liberty, and to give up all wish to trust
to the secular arm for the prevention of error. He will not
have civil liberty without religious, nor religious liberty
without civil, He hates the French police, and the servility of
modern Ceasarisre ; and he also hates the fires of the Inqui-
sition, and every attempt to put down honest error. Local
independence, no Cowers, no police, a honest sovereign
people—and, on the other hand, a Church submissively
accepting every doctrine and every tittle of every canon,
but willing to walk side by side peaceably and humbly with
all manner of heretics, insisting that they shall have fair
play, and that the State shall neither help the Church nor
its opponents—such is the stuff of which M. de Montalem-
bert's dreams are made.—Saturday Review.
DEATH UNDER SUSPICIOUS CIRCUMSTANCES, IN
MANCHESTER.—The body of a man named Thomas
Allcock was found about mid •day, yesterday, under very
singular and suspicious circumstances. The deceased was
67 years of age, of very quiet and regular habits. He had
lived alone for some time, in a cellar in Bank-street, Lees-
street, Great Ancortis-street, and at the time of his death
was receiving relief. He was seen for the last time about
half-past seven on Saturday evening, standing at his door.
About half-past two yesterday afternoon, his sister Ellen
Rumber, Dean-street, Ancoats, went to the cellar to see
him. The door was :partially open. On entering the
cellar she found the deceased lying in bed, dead, with five
or six circular marks on his forehead, as if the flesh had
been pinched out or cut out with a knife. Informa-
tion was given to the police, and the assistant to Mr.
Barlow, surgeon, was called in to examine the body. It
was much discoloured about the back and shoulders, but
the surgeon was unable to discover the cause of death.
There was a little blood in the bed from the wounds on
the forehead, but there was none about the room.
The furniture, what little there was, was undisturbed,
and the clothes did not appear to have been
touched. The only articles that could have been used
as weapons were a shovel and a mallet, but neither :appear
to have been used, and no sound of any struggle
or cry was heard in the house above. No motive can be
discovered for the murder, if it be one. The man was
known to be very poor, and he has never been seen
to. quarrel with anyone. A sixpence was found in a
cupboard in the wall, and a halfpenny in his dress.
Ile is believed to have been subject to fits, and it is sug-
gested that he might have died in a fit, and that the pecu-
liar wounds on the forehead may have been made by rats,
with which the place is infested. Up to 12 o'clock last
night no further discovery had been made, and it is pro-
bable that nothing more will be elicited till the inquest,
which is to be held this morning.—Manchester Guardian.
THE NEW BRONZE COINAGE.—The efforts made
during the last 18 months or two years to call in
the old copper coins and issue their bronze substitutes have,
it appears, been successful ,to a great extent, so far at
least as the large towns are concerned. We understand
that old pence, halfpence, and farthings to the nominal
value of acout £400,000 have been returned to the Diast er
of the Mint and replaced. The full amount of old copper
coins in circulation is supposed to have
dbeton h
get in
£750,000. Vigorous efforts are now
the residue from villages, thee old pennies of
districts of the country. The notion that t
pennies,
were
the reign of George 111., known as the rim hamlets, and the niamoere remote
more valuable than the ordinary
voanleuel wo areP informed,
is now little more
quite erroneous, as the intrinsic .
ce, and nothing like the
than the nominal or circula,,tidng
b yptrllll6e
to
Alo i
the
ein p
otuhne
anew I ins s
the
qrruhaent
rimity
poet
ncnoiienss
wereea n beus,
originally .
•
course of a short time the old coins will be declared illegal,
about lid, per lb. Tho perso
hoarding n and can only be taken at the price of olds cwophpoerh,
awvheiebheeins
now
up the rim pennies under the idea of obtaining a
y consequently find
better price for them, and who keep thorn until they are
declaredthemselves
n oi
nl otnhgee ru
nap l legaleas a n
t mt ten
predicament
de
ire, a maent of receiving only
11d. for 18. Under these circumstances they will of course,
if they are wise, lose no time in getting them exchanged at
their present full nominal value.—Liccipoo/ Mercury.

A Miss BATEMAN, who has obtained some cele•
brity as an actress, will shortly appear at the Adelphi,

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