The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-24 00:00:00

THAMES.

DASTARDLY OUTRAGE.—Thomas Davies, a watch-
maker, was brought before Mr. Partridge charged with
violently assaulting James Hilton, a police-constable, 457
K, who was completely disabled from the injuries he re-
ceived, and whose right hand was bandaged.
The prisoner and others were drunk and disorderly in
Narrow-street, Ratcliff, at two o'clock this morning, and
upon the policeman requesting them to depart and go home,
one of the party pulled his coat off, gave it to the prisoner,
and knocked down the constable. When Hilton rose he was
knocked down again. The prisoner then gave his friend's
coat to another person, and struck the police-constable, and
felled him a third time, and when he was down trampled on
his hand. The constable again rose, and the prisoner,
who was like a madman, rushed upon him, threw him and
fell upon him. Another constable, named Thomas Bonce,
No. 246 K, came to the assistance of Hilton, took the pri-
soner off him and secured him. The other ruffians, who
were as cowardly as they were brutal, ran away when the
second police constable approached, and crept into their
dwellings.

After some further evidence, in the course of which it
was proved that the disturbance originated in apublichouse
from which the rioters were turned out, and that a woman
was brandishing a knife and threatening to have blood for
her supper, Mr. Partridge called upon the prisoner for his
defence. He gave a general denial to the charge, and called
a man named Joseph Powell, who stated that the prisoner
was a very respectable man and a teetotaller.
Mr. Partridge—He was drunk last night.

Witness—Rl only drank gingerbeer and brandy.
Mr. Partridge said that was very likely to make a man
inebriated, This was a very serious charge, and if police
constables were not protected in the discharge of their duty
no decent man would enter the force. The prisoner was a
dastardly ruffian. He fined him £5, and in default of pay-
ment, two months' imprisonment.

THE CAT A FOREIGNER.—A positive argument
for the foreign introduction of cats may be founded
on the terms in which they are mentioned amongst the old
Welsh laws of Howell the Good (943 A.D.) They were
evidently scarce at that time, for it is there laid down—
"The worth of a kitten until it shall open its eyes is one
legal penny ; from that time till it rhall kill mice. two legal
pennies; after it shall kill mice, four legal pence, and so it
shall always remain." A law of oree of our own Edwards
made the killing a cat punishable with death—a remnant of
barbarism only expunged from the statue-book, we believe,
by the late Sir H. Peel. Both the ancient Welsh and our
own law concurred in a curious penalty for killing the
king's oat, "the guardian of the royal barn." The offender
was mulcted in a heap of corn sufficient to cover the defunct
animal when held up bp the tip of its tail with its whiskers
touching the floor.—Once a Week.

AN OLD BusuMAN's description of his being teat
for nine hours at night in a snowstorm.--The snow
was blinding me, the air was so thick that I could not see a
hundred yards before me, and all the fences were now buried
in the snow-drift. I fired off my gun, I shouted, but no
' answer. I floundered on, not knowing where I was steer-
ing, for I was quite lost. And if I had tried to make back
tracks' the darkness and the heavy falling snow prevented
me seeing my spor. I tried to keep to a straight line,
hoping at last to find some familiar object. On I toiled,
sometimes the enow.drifts in the hollows four feet deep,
always above my knees ; and so great was my exertion, that
in about an hour more I felt myself beaten. And although
I. should reckon there was then at least 13 deg. cold Cel-
suvs, the perspiration poured off me in streams. Again I
fired off my gun and shouted, but no answer. No one was
likely to be out round here on such a night, and even if a
cottage window had been blazing within 200 yards of me I
could not have seen it. I could keep no note of time, but
I fancy it must have been near midnight when I reached
another clump of trees, and being now faint and overmas.
tried, I sat down at the foot of one with my back to the
wind; but as soon as I had sat down a complete revul-
sion came over me. My blood seemed all at once
to stagnate, my head reeled, my eyes appeared
to be starting from their sockets, and a drowsi-
ness which 1 had never felt before crept upon
me., I felt my life depended on moving on. If I could
struggle on till the morning I might be saved. But I
reckoned it still wanted eight hours to sunrise. To push on
was my only alternative, and I again struck out into the
waste of snow. The cold had caught one of my hands, and
I had lost the use of it, and my ears and nose felt just as if
I could have snapped them off like icicles. I became weaker
and weaker. Suddenly my foot struck against an obstacle.
It was a sunken fence. The snowdrift hero just reached
to my waistcoat pocket, and it took me a quarter of an hour
to clear the fence. The cold seemed eating into my marrow.
Rfy feet appeared to haul;' of my legs like lumps of lead.
My senses seemed going. I was becoming lightheaded,
Stud when I rose again I reeled like a drunken man. A
kind of languid indifference stole over me. I almost longed
to sleep the sleep of death. In the early evening I had felt
frightened. Now hope had N anished and 1 dashed on with
reckless exultation. Such curious thoughts came into ray
bead ; triflicg incidents of the past, long since forgotten,
crowned on my mind, and the whole history of a life seemed
to be condensed in the few hours of that dreadful night. I
thought of suicide and loaded my gun. And then I dashed
my gun in the snow. I was no longer moter of myself, my
whole disposition teemed ch.lnged, I moved mechanically
as in a trance,— Vide d Spring and Suinnlcr in Lapland,