The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-26 00:00:00

lIOW BURGLARY IS MANAGED.

We will suppose a burglary completely arranged
and a dark gusty night arrived to favour its exe-
cution—bright nights are never chosen for such
enterprises. After drinking a courage cup together,
the thieves start away, but not in company. There
are usually three in a gang, two to enter the house,
and one to keep watch outside. Each man takes
his own road to the house; and should any of them
be watched or followed by the police, he avoids the
place of rendezvous, and the " job" is off for the
night. The tools are either carried by one of the
party in a travelling bag, or, more frequently, they
are bestowed in multitudinous pockets about the
person. There is no difficulty in carrying the
most complex and formidable apparatus in this
way, for such tools are made to separate into
many pieces. And the thieves have agreed upon
a plan of action for every emergency. Some-
times the motto of the expedition is "every
man for himself," in which case each man makes his
escape as best he can, should the attempt fail ; but
oftener it is understood that they shall stand by
each other from first to last. The police-constable
has once more passed the house in his weary round,
his footfall sounds far away down the street, and
now the burglars commence operations. If you
have a watch-dog, it is drugged ; if you have a cor-
ruptible servant, he has been bribed, perhaps. A
mould has been taken of your house-key by some
innocent-looking woman, who has got into the hall
for a moment on pretended business, and the door
yields instantly to the counterfeit. Or perhaps
your house is regularly broken into ; and there are
various ways of accomplishing that feat. " Jump-
ing a crib," is entrance by a window; "breaking a
crib," forcing a back door; "grating a crib,"
through cellar gratings ; "garroting a crib," through
the roof or by an attic window. Entrance through
the roof is sometimes cleverly effected (from the
leads of an empty house adjacent) by means of an
umbrella. First a few slates are removed, then a
small hole is made, and through this aperture a
strong springless umbrella is thrust, and shaken
open. Again, the thieves go to work upon the hole
in the roof, which they widen rapidly, and with
perfect confidence, since the debris falls noiselessly
into the umbrella pendant beneath. By one of these
means, then, the burglars have entered the house ;
and when they are determined to come in, it is al-
most impossible to keep them out ; and once within
they fall to work rapidly and noiselessly. At one
time housebreakers held to the superstition that
no sleeper could awake, and no waking man
could see them, if they carried their candle in
a dead man's hand. There are no such super-
stitions now, but there are silent matches and
india-rubber goloshes—things far more to the
robber's purpose. Or he pulls a pair of thick
stockings over his boots, and so moves about un-
heard within, while his confederate, the " crow,"
keeps watch without. The policeman again passes
the house where this treasure is being sought, but
nothing is discovered to him. Even if a panel has
been cut from the door, and the constable, in pass-
ing, turns his head lantern on the very spot, dis-
covery is by no means certain ; for the panel has
been replaced by a sheet of grained or painted paper
inform
orrsi
neboyut
htMesemwsignals
are
cap
arwto,vhpi
ides ert
ldhe fpoa: t
sthha eme
ppi
suorafpbtohlseee .
0 foot,'irnh
anxiously observed by his comrades. By a cough,
while they are at work in one room that a ligsgthaltinkhtelaya;
been struck in another; that the inmates are aroused,
in fact, and immediate retreat necessary. Nor do
the burglars venture to leave the house, even when
the booty is secured, until they are signalled that
the way is clear for an escape.— Cornhill *Magazine
1 for January.

AUDACIOUS ROBBERY.—A LADY IMPRISONED
BY A THIEF.—On Wednesday night, a little before eight
o'clock, a servant girl left her mistress's house in St. Vin-
cent-street with a basket of clothes for the mangle, carefully
shutting the door behind her. The servant had only been
gone a few minutes, when her mistress, who was left in the
house alone, heard a noise in the passage, and on proceed-
ing to ascertain the cause, she found a man standing in the
lobby. In reply to a question as to what he wanted, he
said, "I want money." The lady replied, "You shall get
all I have," and handed him her purse. On opening the
,
purse and seeing that it contained only 2s, he threw it
'
down, with the exclamation, "That will not do for me 1"
An o ptehne closetthere,
an
db being
won't
hand,huhurt
you, at the same time he said to the lady, " Just
go in
push-
ing her in and locking the door, taking care to carry off the
key with him. He then walked into the dining-room, took
possession of a valuable gold watch and chain, which hap.
pened to be lying on the table, and got clear off with his
booty. When the servant returned, she was attracted to,
the closet by the cries of the lady, and by the assistance of
some of the neighbours, broke open the door, and set her
at liberty. The thief has not yet been apprehended nor the
watch recovered.—Edinburgh Courant.
MILK.—Milk has been so often analysed, that it
would seem no further facts could be elicited regarding
this important liquid. Professor Boedecker, however, has
just completed a series of experiments conducted on quite
a new principle. The question he proposed to himself was
whether milk obtained at any hour of the day always pro..
sented the same chemical composition or not;and
he s
arrived at the result that the milk of the evening is richer
by 3 per cent. then that of the morning ; the latter con-
taining only 10 per cent. of solid matter, and the former 13
per cent. On the other hand, the water contained in milk
diminishes by 3 per cent. in the course of the day ; in the
morning it contains 89 per cent. of water, and only 86 per
cent. in the evening. The fatty particles increase gradually
as the day wears on. In the morning they amount to 2'17
per cent ; at noon, to 2'63, and in the evening to 3.42 per
cent. This circumstance, if true, would be very important
in a practical point of view. Let ns suppose a kilo-
gramme of milk to yield only the sixth part of its weight
of butter; then the milk of the evening may yield
double that quantity. The caseous particles are also more
abundant in the evening than in the morning : from 2'24
they increase to 2'70 per cent.; but the quantity of albu-
men diminishes from 0.44 to 0.31. The serum is less
abundant at midnight than at noon, being 4'19 per cent. in
the former case, and 4.72 in the latter,

. 1.)
LIBERTY OF THE SUBJECT, TO ALL.
ACKERLEY V. DALTON, TURNER, St OTHERS.
Marlborough-street, late Coal-hole, Dug-setting grievance,
with ' Gladiatorial Toga'rry defence.
The Telegraph of Thursday states that Capt. Ackerley
claimed the £5 fine and costa, by defendants (Dalton, Tur-
ner, and wife, servants of George Harrow), on their being
bound over to keep the peace six months, under £lO
penalty, for misdemeanour, with wilful dog‘ offence against
the person, with intent to do injury by 4canin„oncy,,,
on Sundays below stairs and week-nights above. The dis-
crepancy in Police reports, induces us to refer to this ap-
parent case of persecution against the plaintiff—(the sup-
porter of the Anglo-American Income tax' Chief, Peter
Basquet, 111 years)-.-for holding under his Coal Hole
County court Final judgment on 1842's agreement by
icasehola 20-yrs title, the which interferes with the Woods
and ?most! agents lessees" wish by Ouster le main to re-
gain a Primer Seism' by getting the Captain to recognize
an inverted tenantry by theirleaseholder Batchelor building-
in-to his Coal •hole basis, without a party-wall, with intent
at steam• engine boiler HEAT—to effect out-ejection.
The Metropolis Police Act, 3 Wm. 4, cap. 19, section 16,
39, 44—gives La fine, and is word for word repeated in 1861
Act, "Offences against the person, &c., 24-25 Vict., cap.
100, sections 4, 42, 67, 77—Garrotters and Chloroformists,
on misdemeanour and conviction, with £5 fine and costs,
recoverable against the Stipendiary-justice--therefore in
homage to our readers we refer to this case, wherein the
Captain (dr brother Chamberlayne) as Montague executor,
being sworn trustee of Brandon and Southwark's Bethlem
Hospital Estate of city Sidney-like title, late on St. James's
Hall and Swallow-street, now in Church assumption.

The same malicious isolating influence appears to have
closed against him the doors of Junior United Service Club,
on his £4,000 Co-burn discovery, and United Service Mu-
seum membership, for holding to his official duties.
December 26, 1862.

LIVES of EMINENT STATESMEN)
in PUN. every week. One Venny

Now Ready, handsomely bound in Magenta cloth, gilt, price
4s. sd. ; post free, 55., the
'/ECOND half-yearly VOLUME of FUN, with
k i numerous Engravings by talented artists, and humor-
ous Articles by the following distinguished writers :
W. Bailey, Esq. W. S. Gilbert, Esq.
W. Barber, Esq. T. Hood, Esq.
E. L. Blanch-trd, Esq. T. S. Jerrold, Esq.
G. W. Bridgman, Esq. W. J. PrOWSe, Esq.
F. C. Burnand, Esq. Godfrey Turner, Esq.
H. J. Byron, Esq. Sm., &e., &C.
OfAce, 80, Fleet-street, London.

• * For full particulars of amusements see first page.
ROYAL ENGLISH OPERA, COVENT-GARDEN,
This Evening, the Second ant Third Acts of THE BOHE-
MIAN GIRL. And HARLEQUIN BEAUTY AND THE
BEAST.

Commence at 7.

THEATRE-ROYAL, DRURY-LANE.
!This Evening, THE NEXT OF KIN. And LITTLE
GOODY TWO SHOES.
Commence at 7.

THEATRE-ROYAL, HAYMARKET.
This Evening., OUR AMERICAN COUSIN. After
which, RASSELAS, PRINCE OF ABYSSINIA. And A
DAY AFTER THE WEDDING.
Commence at 7.

NEW THEATRE-ROYAL, ADELPHI.
This Evening, A TICKET OF LEAVE. Followed
by MARGERY DAW. And GEO
a 7.G E DE BARNWELL
Commence

ROYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE. "
This Evening, TRIES
TIME TR ALL. After which,
ItIQUET WITH THE TUFT
Commence at 7.

ARGYLL ROOMS, Great Windmill-street, Hay-
market. Open every evening for Promenade and Dancing.

CANTERBURY HALL.—EVERY EVENING.—
The Third Edition of the Enchanted Hash, by E. Marshall—
Grand Selections from the Popular Operas.—The Comic per-
formances of Unsworth, Eugene, Arthur Lloyd, Frank Hall,
and Miss G. Smithson.
Commence at 7.

THE OXFORD, 6, OXFORD-STREET, EVERY
EVENING.-14A ZARETIL a new Christmas Song,with full
band and chorus.—" La Cireassienne " and "Nahum)," -
Drew Dean, the great Flautist—the Neapolitan Minstrels—
Miss Caroline Parkes' Christmas Entertainment -Mr. Geo.
Hodson—Mr. Maclagan's Entertainment. unsworth, the
original of " Or any other man" -Eugene, W. Randall, &Q.
Commence at 6.

TURNHAM'S GRAND CONCERT HALL, Edge-
ware-road, W.—Open Every Evening.--Operatic Selections.
—Vocal and Instrumental Solos.—Mackney, West, Mr. and
Mrs. Brennan, Sam Collins, &a.
Commence at 7.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
Tins DAY.—Morning, sh. 33m.—Afternoon, sh. Um.
To-moßaow.-Morning, 6h. 20m.—Afternoon, 6h. 41m.

THE SUN.

LONDON, FRIDAY, DEC. 26, 1862.

The first act of the great battle which was ex-
pected on the Rappahannock at Fredericksburg has
been fought. It can hardly be called a drawn
battle, since the Federals have succeeded in cross-
ing the river, and forcing back the Confederates to
their works on the hills on the opposite side of the
town. On the other hand the Federals have been
able, after a severe battle, to do no more, or had not
at the date, the loth, of the last telegrams from
New York, Hence the sum of the whole struggle
seems to be that the Federals gained their first
point, a footing across the river, but were unable
with the forty thousand whom they took across,
to carry the Confederate entrenchments outside the
town ; that they received indeed a severe check
there.

The struggle may be said to have begun on Wed-
nesday, the 10th, and to have lasted through the
three following days. On the evening mentioned
all was got in readiness, and early on the Thursday
the construction of the pontoon bridges was at-
tempted. The fire of the Confederate sharpshooters
compelled the engineers to retreat. The Federals
now opened a fearfully destructive artillery fire on
the town, and when it was supposed to have done
its work the attempt was again made to throw over
the pontoon bridges in three places. The Confe-
derate riflemen, however, were concealed in cellars
and places which the artillery had not injured, and
again drove the engineers back. A third at-
tempt, it appears, was succe3sful. Volunteers,
to cross the river in small boats, were called for.
Thousands offered. A hundred were selected. They
got across, drove back the riflemen, captured a large

number of them, brought them across the river, the
bridges were completed, and soon the town was
occupied by the Federals, who were, nevertheless,
greeted with many uselessly vindictive shots from
the houses, which seem to have led to the usual
wanton retaliation. General FRANKLIN also crossed
about three miles below the town, apparently with
little opposition ; while the gunboats were success-
fully engaged fifteen miles below the town with
another body of Confederates, whe could hardly
form a part of the main body.
The 12th, Friday, seems to have been occupied
o getting. the army across and clearing the city
.3f
straggling rebels, the Confederates themselves
not hesitating to throw shells into a Virginian
city to alloey the Federals ; they did, however,
little data
IP beyond destroying a few more build-
ings. Thee
'cit •
7, as it is termed, is in reality
only a small to„ket town of three or four thou-
sand people. The ar
e of both sides seems to have
been very destructive to „„,,_ "splendid" public
balislings, and to a great many 'saY private houses.
The inhabitants had all
the woods; shelter they found
shelter in
no doubt from
balls, shells, and rifle shots, but •
It must have
been miserable shelter for all spa and
sexes, at a
time when sentries were frozen at their poste, and
some parts of the river frozen. It
would appear to
have been great cruelty on the part of the Confede-
ratemade the unfortunate town the
army to have
first line of defence.
We cannot judge with cer-
tainty, here, of the
necaggitieg of war; but an un-
fortified down does not appear to have been a neces-
sary part of a system of defence, especially when
the town lay quite at the mercy of the guns on the
other side of the river. LEE knew he could not
prevent the crossing, and he ought not to have dis-
tressed his own people by a useless defence.
On the 13th, Saturday, the Federals made their
first attack on the Confederate works. The account
we have of it is very brief; and, considering that
it is from Northern sources, it looks like a defeat
in the sense of a repulse from the Confederate posi-
tion. There were two attacks, one by General

REYNOLDS, another by FRANKLIN, who it will be
remembered was three miles below the town,and both
are said to have been " on the left." REYNOLDS was
unsuccessful. A fog at first interfered with opera-
tions ; a first attack on the Confederate infantry was
repulsed, and the Confederate artillery fired furiously
through the fog--REYNOLDS was reinforced, and
again made an attack on the Confederate's position
in the rear of the city, but was again repulsed; and
if we rightly connect the telegrams, so decidedly
repulsed, that he left the Federal dead on the place
where they fell, in front of the Confederate works.
FRANKLIN appears to have succeeded better,
though, even here, there is a little that is dubious
in the brief reports. He is stated first to have
driven back the Confederates for a mile. But the
latter then "attacked him"—perhaps he had ap-
proached some of their works. Still he " repulsed"
this attack, and, it is said, took 400 prisoners. It
must be to his division that the report refers, of the
Federals at night resting on the field of battle, since
it is evident that of REYNOLDS could not have
done so.

On the following day, we are told, that BURN-
SIDE did not renew the battle. It is natural to in-
terpret this as indicating a very serious check on
the part of BURNSIDE. The Confederates on their
part appeared to maintain a defensive position, and
were strengthening their works. They were also
said to be extending them, which would indicate
that they were not in want of troops or men. In-
deed, the rumour is, that the whole strength of the
Confederate army is concentrated in six lines of
works behind Fredericksburg. Such representa-
tions, however, may be far wide of the truth. • They
rest on the reports of deserters, negroes, and per-
sons who can be in no position to understand what
is doing in the places they came from.
We may expect, however, soon to hear of another
severe battle. On the 15th, at New York it was
expected that BURNSIDE would recommence fight-
ing that day, but whether the expectation was any-
thing more than natural conjecture, we are not
told. If only 40,000 of his vast army went across,
he must have a large reserve to bring into action yet.
But, on the other hand, works strong enough to
repel the first forty thousand might repel the second
also. Unless he have force enough to outflank the
enemy, merely repeating the direct assault would not
be likely to succeed better than before. He has
certainly lost heavily; two Generals are reported
among the killed, showing, probably, that they had
to do their utmost to encourage their men, We
may, however, hear of diversions in favour of the
Federals on the James River, such was the combi-
nation talked of at first, though we have
heard little of it since. The Southern papers have
on their side predicted utter discomfiture of the
Federals, if they ventured, as they have now done,
to cross the Rappahannock. It is, however, use-
less to conjecture, relying on our present infor-
mation. We only know that BURNSIDE, as the
attacking party, has the hardest work, and that
his opponents are very ably commanded.

Yesterday we kept the old holiday feast, for
which England is famous, whose celebration unites
peer and peasant, men of business and pleasure-
seekers, children and greybeards, in one common
festivity. The beneficent influence extends from
the palace, how unhappily darkened by the shadows
of last year's sorrow, to the hospital, prison, and
workhouse—bidding sufferer, felon, and pauper
rejoice in the common blessings Christianity
offers even to them. At such a sea-
son no Englishman could begrudge an extra
indulgence even to the comfortably placed inmates
of our convict prisons—now deservedly out of
favour—and even hoards of guardians loose their
reluuotant purse-strings and supply beef, porter,
and pudding with liberal hand. After all the re-
cent discussions, however, the reader cannot help
thinking, as he glances down the statistics of
Christmas-day in the Workhouses, that certainly
among our humanitarians crime end pauperism
weigh very differently, in the balance. We
have no intention of reflecting on the holiday ar-
rangement of our Unions, but when we see 6-oz. of
meat and tea mentioned as special festive indul-
gences we cannot wonder that JOHN SMITH or
Tom JONES thinks housebreaking,with its attendant
libel ality of diet, a better speculation. The answer
will probably be that labouring men require more
generous living, but it would seem that such an
argument is easily met by putting the able-bodied
paupers to work at some useful and laborious task.
For those who are not able-bodied—the aged,
the infirm, the suffering, indulgence is surely a
right. It is on the plea that the great majority of
workhouse inmates are worthless idlers, that the
present harsh and stringent system is tolerated.
The great necessity is, a classification of the inmates
—a separation of those driven to its unfriendly
shelter by incurable disease, by helpless poverty, or
inexorable age, from the hardened offender, to
whom pauperism is no disgrace, and the Union a
useful temporary guarantee of board and
lodging_ A classification of the inmates,
too, would go far to remedy a great
and crying evil, which at present we are foster-
ing by national aid—the deterioration of the
morals of boys and girls, when transferred from
the children's to the adult ward. The argument

continually brought forward against the little
band of reformers who are attacking these long-
standing abuses is that, by rendering the work-
houses less intolerable to the honest poor, you
encourage pauperism. Surely, even if it were so,
it is worse to encourage crime—to excite invidi-
dious comparisons of the good soup, meat, and
treacle pudding, which are the common diet of the
lawbreaker, with the scanty fare and general dis-
comfort of the denizens of the Union. Such things
are no trifles to the uneducated classes,
while the evi2a of general association are,
of course, more keenly felt by the hapless
broken-down governesses, servants, and small shop-
keepers, whom the turn of Fortune's wheel often
drives to finish their days on the workhouse pallet.
It were better for their physical comfort that they
went to the prison infirmary, where the best medi-
cal advice would secure them every indulgence, and,
above all, proper attendance, than that they should
linger out their last hours on the pillowless work-
house bed,sharing the rough fare of the able-bodied;
or if any extras are allowed them, seeing them
appropriated by the hardened and indifferent woman
who, for the sake of better food, steps out of the
mixed assembly of female paupers and declares
herself ve'lling to undei take the office of
nurde. Such things need looking into a
little more closely, and we should be heartily glad
to see the commission that is to inquire into the
treatment of our convicts followed by one to examine
into the condition of our paupers. Otherwise, we
who -
pride ourselves with reason on the money,
reforion
thought, andlabour, expended by the charitable on
the
our criminals, may chance to get
remindenaatd that
of
poverty is one, . n
ot hose out things that .the witty
r money-getting England,
Frenchman stigraatised
as " worse than a crime—
a blunder."

vaeb_rig an da ge f rom
of
troops
to
In order to put an ena
11),,,awand
to th
which Sclavonia has for some time
military authorities of the nroyince arbeereeen suffering, the
patrol the country with strong detact"'elltt;
to proceed if necessary to the publication of mari;;.l

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