The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-01 00:00:00

WOOL.

The public sales of colonial wool have gone off heavily
since our last, and prices have given way, Inferior qua-
lities now exhibit no improvement, compared with the ave-
rage of last sales, and superior qualities an advance of from
id to Id per lb since
tlhdetoot
mpeernlcbe,mbeing
fa
tfhalel
porfeeferhotrasoriof
business

1858. 1859. I 1880. 1861. 1882.
Stock this day.... 22,961 51,188 1 73,638 45,581 r 58.789
Price of Y Cos,d to'sBs rd to 6063 d to' 6068 d to 45s Od to
• • 60139 d —s Od —5 Od —e Od 45s 3d
Delivery a l. s.t week 2,291 1,725 1,857 2,197 2,11 )
Ditto from June 1 57,697 41,771 0,464 76,070 41,540
Arrivals last wee 8,445 2,494 5,036 2,035 1.771
Ditto from June 1 75,89 t 80,878 96,003 84,890 60,017
Price of Town .... 53s 6d 59s Od Vs 3d 52s 9d 476 9d

STATEMENT OF TALLOW SHIPPING AT IT. PETERSBURG

FOR THE SEASON.
1862.
London
Liverpool —
Bristol
Other English ports
Ireland 2OO
Scotland 5OO
Germany 14,340
France

1861.
58,57 d

1,179
7,310
660
2,540
11,940
1,740

1860.
87,912
3,R96
3,061
14,700
1,042
8,387
8,950
3,601

Total 83,79 83,835 127,5 7

LA W---THIS DAY.

SHERIFFS' COURT.
(Before Mr. Kerr.)
A MODEL LOAN SOCIETY IN THE " TIMES" OFFICE.—
CURIOUS CASE,—BANPIELD V. WALTERS.
This was a judgment summons, plaintiff and defendant
being both employed in the Times office.
Plaintiff's agent (also employed in the office) said this
was the balance of a loan. They had a kind of loan society
amongst the men. (Laughter.)
His Honour—And does Mr. Macdonald know of the
existence of this kind of thing
Witness—lt is quite a friendly affair.
His Honour—lt would not be a very friendly thing to
lock this man up in Whitecross-street. Is your society
enrolled ?

Witness—No. We subscribe our money and lend it out
to each other. Here is the promissory note.
His Honour found that the note was informal under the
statute of Geo. 111., and asked what interest was charged.
Witness—This society was got up amongst the men in
order to check the enormous rate of interest charged by
outside societies. We charge Is. per week in the pound.
Mr. Buchanan (amicus causce)—Only 60 per cent.
Defendant—And they charge ls. for LI for only one
week. (Laughter.)
Mr. Buchanan-240 per cent. (Laughter.)
His Honour—How many borrowers have you P
Witness—About 60, and 30 lenders or capitalists. (Great
laughter.) We lend to each other. Banfield was treasurer.
Defendant—He is not now. He backed out of it because
he didn't like it. (Laughter.)
His Honour—And besides Banfield cannot sue as trea-
surer of an unenrolled society. As a Friendly Loan So-
ciety you should be enrolled under the 3d and 4th Vic., and
as you are not Banfleld cannot sue as your officer. You
ought to suo in the name of the 30 capitalists. (Laughter.)
There are two fatal objections in this case. One is the in-
formality of the note, and the other the absence of the other
29 capitalists. I do not see how you can be hurt by losing
this, as your society is like a man lending one pocket money
out of the other. If defendant goes back to the limes and
tells the borrowers the capital will be exhausted. I cannot
help you, and there will be no order.
The parties then withdrew.

SERIOU;3 FIRE IN MANCRES7ER-LOSS

OF 7IIREE LIVES.

Saturday morning, about a quarter to two o'clock, a fire
was discovered in the shop occupied by Mr. George Pates,
hosier, 131, Stretford New-road, Hulme. On discovering
the fire the police officers on duty gave the alarm, and im-
mediately despatched two engines and a body of firemen.
In the meantime the police officers aroused the inmAtes,
who were in bed at the time. These were Mr. and Mrs.
Pates and two children—Frederick Pates, aged nine years,
and Amelia Pates, aged seven years. Mrs. Pates hearing
the alarm of fire proceeded to the back bed-room window
on the second storey, and called for help. Police Sergeant
Pearson and two neighbours went to the back of the house,
and got on the yard wall, and thence to the roof of a shed
in the yard belonging to Mr. Pember. Here there were
a number of long planks, one of which they put up to the
window where Mrs. Pates was standing. Mrs. Pates, in
getting on the plank, fell into the yard, and was taken up
insensible. She was attended by Messrs. Fisher and Pet-
linger, surgeons, who found that she bad sustained a frac
ture of three or four ribs, and a concussion of the spine. She
died shortly after noon. The boy slept in a room at the
back of the house, which is approached by a staircase from
the yard. The room does not communicate by any doors
with any other part of the house. In coming down stairs
be fell and knocked nine of his front teeth out, but other-
wise escaped uninjured. When the fire brigade arrived the
whole building was in flames from the basement to the roof.
Two jets were attached to the mains, and there being a good
supply of water, the fire was soon subdued. The utmost
consternation prevailed throughout the whole of this time
consequent on the belief that Mr. Pates and the other child
were in the burning building. The last that was seen of
the unfortunate man was by his wife, who states that on
the alarm being given he ran up the stairs to the front room,
where the little girl was sleeping, but the smoke and flames
separated her (Mrs. Pates) from him, and she neither saw
him nor the child afterwards. The whole of the building
and its contents were totally destroyed. A careful search
was made in the cellar and in all the rooms to which access
could be obtained, but no traces were found of the missing
ones, until about noon, when a fire-escape was brought to
the spot, and near the doorway of the child's bed-room the
body of the man was found, wit's the body of the child
clasped in his arms. The unfortunate man had perished
in the attempt to save his daughter. The bodies presented
a frightful spectacle. The fire is supposed to have originated
in the shop.

BOW-STREET.
Francis Knight was charged with attempting to commit
a burglary on the premises of Messrs. Rowarth, printers,
38, Bell-yard.
The prosecutor said on Saturday evening he was at-
tracted by a noise in the lower part of the premises. He
went down stairs to the machine room, and just as he got
to the door he kicked against a bundle in the passage. A
light was procured, and then it was found to be the clothes
produced, which belonged to the prisoner.
Henry Bryan, a lad in the same employ, saw the prisoner
leave the premises about 6 o'clock on Saturday. He was
wearing the coat which the police now had.
Henry Marshall King, warehouseman, said he locked the
premises up safely on Saturday. The machine room door
was fastened, but the door being very thin, it could be
forced open at the bottom sufficiently to allow a lad of the
prisoner's size to squeeze himself through. The counting-
house could easily have been reached when the machine
room doer was passed. The prisoner must have returned
after he had left in the early part of the evening, and
secreted himself in the room previous to its being locked up.
Police-sergeant Hill, F 5, apprehended the prisoner. He
had since examined the premises, and found the glass in
the machine room broken, and retreating footsteps outside
the building. The prisoner had no coat on when taken
into custody. In entering the room be (witness) told the
prisoner what he wanted him for, when he replied, "Oh, I
thought you would come, but I thought it would be for the
other affair last night."
Mr. Corrie—Then there was something else ?
Prisoner—Yes. The police are always knocking me
about, and I said I would give one of them a brick if he
did not let me be. I cannot go out at any time without
being struck and kicked by the constables.
Police-constable F 3—He is known, your worship.
Prisoner—Well, what is known is only for assaulting
the police—nothing else, lam not guilty.
Mr. Corrie--I shall send you for trial, so I give you the
usual caution. You can now say anything you please in
your defence.
Prisoner—Can't you settle it here ?—l'll plead guilty.
Mr. Burnaby (the chief clerk)—That is after you have
received the caution.
Prisoner—Then I shall plead not guilty.
Committed for trial.
Robert Somerville was charged on a warrant for assault-
ing Mary Ann Gutteridge.
The complainant said she was formerly in the prisoner's
service, and the assault for which she had taken out the
summons was committed a few days ago. He struck me
violently in the face.
Prisoner—l only pushed her.
Another witness corroborated the testimony of the com
plainant.

Mr. Corrie—l shall fine you 20s. Will you pay it ?
Prisoner—Not if I know it.
Mr. Corrie—Then I shall send you to prison for 14 days.
Prisoner—Very well, you can do that if you like.
Mrs. Somerville—l wish your honour could tell me how
I could get rid of him. He is a lazy, idle fellow. He leaves
me to look after the work. He comes home, and, on my
refusing to give him money, he violently illtreats me, takes
the money away, and spends it in drink.
t Mr. Corrie—The only remedy 1 can point out to you is
ho Divorce Court.

The popularity of spirit-rapping shows something more
than the rarity of strict or accurate habits of thought. it
shows how wide is the prevalence of gross, downright cre-
dulity. The fact that a large number of people believe the

assertions of unknown writers that they have seen tables.

climb upon ottomans, and have heard ghosts playing on the
piano, is very memorable. It sets the value of popular be-
lief upon any subject which falls a little out of the common
routine in a striking light, and it proves how very little the
great majority of intelligent men and women are in the habit,
of watching the operations of their own minds, and of regu-
lating the formation of their opinions by anything deserv-
ing the name of a principle. Many of the causes of this
state of things are constant, and exist in all times and all
states of society, but others are peculiar to their own time
and country. One of the most curious of them is the spread
of mechanical invention. It might have been supposed
that a scientific age would be of all ages the least supersti-
tious ; and if a scientific age meant an age in which all or
many minds were scientifically trained, this might, though
it is far from certain that it would, be true..
In point of fact, the phrase is generally employed
to describe an age in which the results and applications
of science attain unusual importance, and such a state
of things is not only not a hindrance to superstition, but has
a direct tendency to promote it. People fall down and wor-
ship the work of their neighbours' hands—steam-engines,
electric telegraphs and printing presses. They are so im-
pressed by the wonders produced by these and other
machines, that they get to look upon science as a sort of
god—a blind, arbitrary, capricious deity, who may per-
form at any moment any strange unreasonable prodigy.
They are so overcome by electric telegraphs that they
have no objection to urge against rapping spirits.
If an American can speak to you from the other
side of the Atlantic, why may not a friend speak
to you from the other side of the grave? The following-
anecdote typifies the weaknesses of a higher class of society
than that to which its hero belonged :—A Lincolnshire boor
was visited, when in entreinis, by the vicar of the parish,
who administered to him appropriate spiritual advice with.
with more energy than success. After much ineffectual
admonition, the dying man replied to the following effect,
in a feeble voice, and a dialect which cannot be reproduced
on paper :—" What with faith, and what with the earth
a-turning round the sun, and what with the railroads
a-fuzzing and a-whuzzing, I'm clean stonied, muddled, and.
beat." These were his last words. They sum up with
great emphasis the intellectual results of scientio discovery
on a great part of mankind.