The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-10 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDor, WEDNESDAY EVE.NING, SEPTEMBER 10, 1862.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE.

A DRUNKEN ROW AT LEGHOBN.

A letter from Leghorn, dated Sept. 4, says—l have to
report a most atrocious and unprovoked onslaught on a
party of English and American sailors which was perpe-
trated the night before last by a party of the roughs of this
town, who go about constantly armed with bludgeons and
poignards. The facts are as follows :—Amongst the crew
of the English ship Launces:on, of Newcastle, Capt. Jas.
Spence, now in this port, there is a well-conducted seaman
rather superior to his class, named Thomas Ray, of Larne,
near Belfast; a fine young fellow of 25. On Tuesday at
about 6 p.m. he came to hid in a shore-boat to get his
watch mended. In passing the American ship Alexandrine,
tour seamen belonging to that vessel got into the boat also
to come ashore. On arriving at the stairs two of the Ameri-
cans went to the post-office, end the other two with the
Englishman went to a grog-shop known as belonging to
" English Mary," from the fact o the mistress being an
old acquaintance with every British sailor, merchant or
man-of-war's-man, who has ever visited Leghorn. They
were here joined by one of the Americans from the post-
office, The men affirm that they only drank at this place
a small liqueur glass of rum and a glass of wine each, after
which they left for a ramble, during which they joined
company with the boatswain and book of the Alex-
andrine, who had also come ashore. The six men then
turned into a grog-shop in the Via San Giovanni, not
exactly one of the most respectable quarters in Leghorn.
They found a number of people drinking at tables, so with-
out sitting down they walked up to the counter and asked
for a glass of anisette each, but before they had time to
drink the liquor a party of Livornese blackguards came up
to the counter, and pushed them aside so rudely as to pro-
duce a row immediately. The first blow was bestowed on
the black American cook's curly head with a bludgeon,and
a regular rush was made at the others to overpower them
by iaumbers,whilst from the door stones and brickbats were
copiously discharged at them. The attack was so sudden
and so unlooked-for that the sailors were stupified and
daunted, and fearing for their lives, with good reason, as
matters turned out, escaped into the back shop and cellar
to hide amongst the casks. These were Thomas Duval, of
Canada, Charles Adcono, Charles Stepney, Charles Selding,
and Henry Whaley, American seamen. The American
boatswain, a young fellow of Herculean proportions, seeing
that the mob had closed the door of the shop, and seemed
determined to surround and finish their intended victims,
shouted to his men not to " stow themselves away" in
the back shop, as they would
_certainly be found and
murdered, and setting them a vigorous example
himself, ,he made a rush for the door, dragging
his assailants with him. His impetus was so great that
he went smash through the panels, and plunged head for-
wards into the street, where he met with no better treat-
ment than inside, the mob attacking him with bludgeons
and daggers till they got him to the ground, where they
kicked him most brutally until he could resist no more.
The Englishman Ray did his best to follow the boatswain,
but suffered more in the rush, from having more dastardly
assailants round him. He succeeded in breaking through,
but not without severe injuries, inside and outside the shop,
and was finally left insensible on the ground, whence he was
carried by police and bersaglieri to the hospital in a deadly
swoon. The poor fellow was stabbed in 17 places—head,
throat, body, and limbs—besides bruises and kicks innu-
merable. The arrival of the police probably saved the lives
of the whole party, as the refugees in the cellar were found
by them and carried off to gaol; as was also the other sea-
men, who had gone to the post, and had only returned in
time to see the end of the fray, as a surprised spectator
In fact, the assaulted party were captured, and the assail-
ants were left scot free, as is customary in this town, as if
the police were really afraid of the roughs, and averse to
chastising them. I saw poor Ray this afternoon at the
hospital, where he was well attended to certainly ; but his
poor body presented a most lamentable spectacle—bruised,
pierced, and patched in every direction. Many of the
wounds are in ugly situations, especially all down the right
side, a circumstance which shows that the eistards who
stabbed him were behind him at the time, as they would
of course use their rights hands in piercing him. Ray was
of an ashy leaden hue, but whether his wounds will prove
fatal or not can only be decided in a few days, when it will
appear how far the more important viscera have been
punctured. I also visited the boatswain, who was better
off, having been only battered and kicked all over the head
and body, besides a stab in his thigh and two in his arm.
He was sitting on his bed, in the mad ward, where, by-
the-bye, they had put him, and the vice-consul and myself
had to pass a lot of roaring and strait-waistcoated fellows
before reaching his cell. He narrated the affair in terms
quite agreeing with the depositions of the other men, from
whom, however, he was kept separated entirely. He was
disgusted at being fed with water gruel, and much put out
at the whole occurrence, as his ship was ready for sea, and
the captain "calculated" to have sailed yesterday morning.
His narration of the fray was graphic, and enriched with
some very choice flowers of Yankee rhetoric. His personal
appearance, cast in " nature's largest raeulcl," was certainly
imposing, and I can fully imagine that his rash at the
door, which eventually saved the lives of the whole party,
must have been terrific.
Now, what did these murderous wretches want with the
seamen ? Were they the scum of Leghorn armed with a
Mazzinian revolt which they were angry at not being able
to get up, and glad to wreck their rage on some victims or
other ? Did they remember the anniversary of Sept. 2, 1848,
when they used their daggers with such effect as to bring
an Austrian occupation for 10 years on the city ? or did
they merely intend to kill and pillage the poor fellows who
had tumbled into their haunt ? We must look for tho ex-
planation of these mysteries to the police, which has hither-
to shown its chief activity by imprisoning the victims. The
people of the shop claim indemnity for the damage commit-
ted, and declare the seamen were drunk; but the boatswain
assured me that they were not so in the least, and that the
glasses of ;pirit they had ordered were only just set upon
the counter when the affray began. Mr. Macbeen, the con-
sul, and his brother, the vice-consul, are occupied in exa-
mining the affair thoroughly, in order to obtain justice, if
possible, from the authorities. Unfortunately, this is not a
very easy matter, it appears, for the ruffian railway staff
holder, who, as I told you in a preceding letter, so brutally
assaulted Mr. Jopling's cashier, Mr. Wilkinson, about a
fortnight ago, is walking about quite at his ease, and
feels so little that he has done wrong, that he is going
on in the same line, having now selected a new victim
in the person of Mr. Pettigrew, the head carpenter of the
first section of the Maremma Railway, whom he so perse-
veringly threatens to murder Mr. Pettigrew is obilged to
go about with a pistol always in his pocket.
Why the authorities take no notice of such things is
utterly inexplicable. Patrols are on the look out night and
day to prevent Garibaldian proclamations from being stuck
up, and to overawe Republican bullies; but the peaceable
citizens and the foreigner who comes to introduce civiliza-
tion and the advantages of British invention and manufac-
ture are in a great measure unprotected.

HEALTH OF LONDON DURING TEE

WEEK.

(From the Registrar-General's Weekly .Return.)
The weekly issued reportby
authority'''. of the
Re-
gistrar-General states that the deaths in London in the
week that ended last Saturday •nnrabezed 1,179. If the
deaths from epidemic cholera in the thirty-sixth week of
1854 are excluded from the returns on which the calculation
is based, it will be found that the average rate of mortality
in the first week of September in ten years (1852-61) gives
1,160 deaths; and that the deaths now returned are not
much in excess of the estimated number. The deaths from
measles rose from 40, the average of the two previous weeks,
to 58 in the last week. This disease appears to be much
more prevalent in the eastern districts, and especially the
neighbourhood of Bethnal-green, than in any other por-
tion of the metropolis. In the Hackney-road sub-district,
it was returned in seven cases ; in Limehouse four were re-
turned. Scarlatina was fatal in 77 cases, four of which oc-
curred in the Kensington-town sub-district ; 11 in Pancras,
and Bin Rotherhithe. There were 54 deatlis from typhus,
a number which exhibits a decline on those of some previ-
ous weeks. Diarrhoea continues to decrease ; it rose to its
maximum, 123, in the third week of August, and fell to 83
last week. Two-thirds of this latter number occurred in
the east and south districts. Besides those from diarrhoea,
11 deaths, of which nine were those of infants, were refer-
red to cholera and choleraic diarrhoea. A man, aged 49
years, died in Silchester-mews, Kensington, from
" diarrhoea and vomiting (nine days), cholera (four days),
collapse (two days)." A police-constable, aged 25 years,
died on 16th August from " suffocation by three false teeth
being drawn into the glottis when he was running." A
widow died at the ago of 95 years. Last week the births of
922 boys and 905 girls, in all 1,827 child( en, were registered
in London. In the 10 corresponding weeks of the years
1852-61 the average number (corrected) was 1,788.
At the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, the mean height
of the barometer in the week was 29/02 in. The reading
rose to 2991 in. on Sunday, and fell to 2948 in. on Wed-
nesdy. The mean temperature of the air in the week was
57 deg., which is 1.5 deg. below the average of the same
week in 43 years (as determined by Mr. Glaisher). The
highest day temperature was 71.9 deg, on Tuesday; the
lowest night temperature . was 45.6 deg. on Friday. The
range of temperature in the week was therefore 26.3
deg. The mean daily range was 18.8 deg. The difference
between the mean dew point temperature and air tem-
perature was 6.1 deg. The mean degree of humidity of the
air was 82, complete saturation being represented by 100.
The wind blew from the north-east till Tuesday afternoon,
from which time it was in the south-west. Tho amount of
rain in the week was 0.39 in., a great part of which fell on
Wednesday; smaller quantities fell on almost every other
day. The mean of the highest temperatures of the water
of the Thames was 631 deg.; the mean of the lowest was
61.5 deg.

THE COME 7.

M. Chacornac has published the following fur-
ther remarks en this new visitor, sti!l visible in the
heavens, but hastening on to the southern hemi-
sphere :—" The comet continues to present interest-
ing phases in the development of its aigrets. Ob-
serving attentively the form of the jets which
proceed from it at intervals, I have just remarked
a stranger fact than those already described in the
preceding notes. In the last, I mentioned that one
of time jets or rays pointed first in the direction of
the sun, spread out then in t:,e direction contrary
to the movement of the con Jet ; then on the follow-
ing day it was observed making an angle with the
direction of the night before. The recent fine
weather having given me the opportunity for whole
nights to notice the changes of the various vaporous
jets which have proceeded from the nucleus, I will
relate the phenomena in their proper order. In the
first place, it is necessary to say that the ray which
was the night before pointed towards the sun was
not the same which was seen the next day bending
in an opposite direction to the movement of the
comet. This last was a new ray emitted by the
nucleus in the same ;direction. Between the 17th
and 20th August, from alternately exact rectilinear,
or curved and diffuse lines which the rays pre-
sented, I suspected the identity of these two jets;
but, according to the opinion of Bessel, who had
remarked a change in the axis of the aigret of
Halley's comet, I thought there might be some
movement analogous to that of the comet itself, and
all the appearances seemed to confirm this analogy.
Three nights, which were completely clouded, left
me of this opinion. The 22d August being again
fine, I persevered in observing from nine o'clock at
night to four o'clock in the morning, the slightest
variation which a jet directed towards the sun ex-
hibited, and I think I have discovered its true na-
ture. During the night of the 25th to the 26th,
having been able to repeat the same observations
on another jet, which I again saw the evening of
the same day, I will relate briefly the true expla-
nation of the phenomena. The nucleus of the comet
emits, in the direction of the sun, a vaporous jet,
from which there appears to proceed particles of
cometary matter, in the same way as a jet of steam
escapes from a machine. This preserves during a
certain time a rectilinear form, which seem to in-
dicate a considerable force of projection emanating
from the nucleus. Soon after it curves slightly and
presents the appearance of an arched cone, exhibit-
ing a good deal of analogy to a cornucopia, such as
they are usually represented. At this moment the
gaseous particles accumulate at the extremity of the
jet nearest the sun in the form of rounded clouds,
and this appearance seems to indicate that at this
distance from the nucleus the force of projection is
subdued by some resistance opposed to it. Some
hours later this luminous jet assumes a diffuse
aspect, and shows that the emission from the nucleus
has ceased to continue in this direction. At the
moment that it begins to change, and in an angle
inclined 30 deg. towards the east, one perceives the
first traces of a new ray, whose development pre-
sents the same phases as the preceding one. Six-
teen hours later one observes a new ray in the di-
rection of the first tract seen the night before, and
this last continuing to change in this interval of
time, appears dispersed in the hemispherical enve-
lope, like a fog, hardly preserving traces of its ori-
ginal form and direction. In these successive trans.
formations the new ray presents afterwards the
same appearance as the one parallel to the radius
vector. From the time of the perihelium passage
of the comet jet which nearly corresponded with
the radius vector inclined by degrees to tb.e west-
ward to that point in which the ether ray was
found on the 30th August, precisely in the direc-
tion opposed to the tail of the comet."

AN ACCOUNT OF 11W LATE BALLOON
ASCENT AT WOLVERHAMPTON.

MR. GLAISHER'S OBSERVATIONS.

On the earth at lh. 3m. the temperature of the
air was 59 deg., at the height of one mile it was 39
deg., and shortly afterwards we entered a cloud of
about 1,100 feet in thickness, in which the tempe-
rature of the air fell to 364 deg., and the wet bulb
thermometer read the same, showing that the air
here was saturated with moisture. On emerging
from the cloud at lh. 17m. we came into a flood of
light, with a beautiful blue sky, without a cloud
above us, and a magnificent sea of cloud below, its
surface being varied with endless hills, hillocks,
mountain chains, and many snow white masses ris-
ing from it. I here tried to take a view with the
camera, but we were rising with too great rapidity,
and going round and round too quickly to enable
me to do so; the flood of light, however, was so
great, that all I should have needed would have
been a momentary exposure, as Dr_ Hill Norris had
kindly furnished me with extremely sensitive dry
plates for the purpose.
When we reached two miles in height, at lh.
21m., the temperature had fallen to the freezing
point. We were three miles high at lh. 28m., with
a temperature of 18 deg. ; at lh. 39m. we had reached
four miles, and the temperature was 8 deg.; in ten
minutes more we had reached the fifth mile, and
the temperature had passed below zero, and then
read minus 2 deg., and at this point no dew was ob-
served on Regnault's Hygrometer when cooled
down to minus 30 deg. Up to this time I had taken
the observations with comfort. I had experienced
no difficulty in breathing, whilst Mr. Coxwell, in
consequence of the necessary exertions he had to
make, had breathed with difficulty for some time.
At lh. Mm. the barometer reading was 1105
inches, but which requires a subtractive correction
of 0.25 inch, as found by comparison with Lord
Wrottesley's standard barometer just before start-
ing, both by his lordship and myself, which would
reduce it to 10.8 inches, or at a height of about 5,1
miles. 1 read the dry bulb thermometer as minus
5 deg. ; in endeavouring to read the wet bulb I
could not see the column of mercury. I rubbed my
eyes, then took a lens and also failed. I then tried
to read the other instruments, and found I could
not do so, nor see the hands of the watch. I asked
Mr. Coxwell to help me, and he said he must go
into the ring, and he would when he came down.
I endeavoured to reach some brandy which was
lying on the table, at the distance of about a
foot from my hand, and found myself unable to
do so. My sight became more dim. I looked
at the barometer, and saw it between 10 and 11
inches, and tried to record it, but was unable to
write. I then saw it at 10 inches, still decreasing
fast, and just noted it in my book ; its tree reading
therefore at this time was about nin., implying a
height of 51-, miles, as a change of lin. in the read-
ing of the barometer at this elevation takes place on
a change of a height of 2,500 ft. I felt I was losing
all power, and endeavoured to rouse myself by
struggling and shaking. I attempted to speak, and
found I had lost the power. I attempted to look at
the barometer again; my head fell on one side. I
struggled and got it right, and it fell on the other,
and finally backwards. My arm, which had been
resting on the table, fell down by my side. I saw
Mr. Coxwell dimly in the ring ; it became more
misty, and finally dark, and I sank unlchonsciously
4- 54m. I
as in sleep. This must have been about
t 1 the tempe-
rature? heard Mr. Coxwell say, " what ,
But I could
Take an observation;
intheew:ll
eryea. rd him speak
neither see, move, nor speak.
observation. Now, do
more emphatically, " Take an
afterwardsavery dimly, and soon
opened my eyes, saw the
try," I shortly
instruments and Mr. Coxwe
Coxwell, " I have been
saw clearly, and said to Mr.
lied, " Yon hive,
insensible ;" and be repand I
nearly." I recovered quickly, and. Mr. Coxwoll said
ive
"I have lost the use °f my hands, g. me some
brandy to bathe them. Hi s hands were nearly
iblack. I saw the temperature was still below zero,
and the barometer reading eleven inches, but in-
creasing quickly. I resumed my observations at

PRrcz ..... d.
STAAWED d.

21. 7m., recording the barometer reading-11.53 in.
and. the temperature minus 2. I then found. that
the water .in the vessel supplying the wet-bulb
thermometer, -which I had by frequent disturbances
kept from freezing, was one mass of ice. Mr. Co-
well then told me that whilst in the ring he felt it
piercingly cold, that hoar frost was all round the
neck of the balloon, and on attempting to leave the
ring he found his hands frozen, and he got down
how he could; that he found me motionless, with a
quiet a.d placid expression on the countenance; he
spoke to me without eliciting a reply, and found I
was insensible. He. said he felt insensibility was
coming over hiniseLf, that he became .0,11N10U3 to
open. the valve, that his hands failed him, and that
.he seized the line between his teeth and pulled the
valve open until the balloon took a turn downwards,
This act is quite characteristic of Mr. Coxwell. I
have never yet seen him without a ready means of
meeting every difficulty as it has arisen, with a cool
self-possession that has always left my mind per-
fectly easy, and given to me every confidence in his
judgment in the management of so large a balloon.
On asking Mr. Coxwell whether he had noticed
the temperatnre,' he said he could not, as the faces
of the instrument were all towards me ; but that he
had noticed that the centre of the aneroid barometer,
its blue hand, and a rope attached to the car, were
in the same straight line; if so, the reading must
have been between seven and eight inches. A height
of six miles and a half corresponds to eight inches.

A delicate self-registering minim thermometer
read minus 12 degrees, but unfortunately I did not
read it till I was•out of the car, and I cannot say
that its index was not disturbed on descending.
When the temperature rose to I 7 deg. it was re-
marked as warm, and 24 deg. as very warm.
The temperature gradually and constantly in-
creased to 57 deg. on reaching the ground. It was
remarked that the sand was warm to the hand, and
steamed on being discharged.
Six pigeons were taken up—one was thrown out
at the height of three miles, it extended its wings
and dropped as a piece of paper; a second at four
miles flew vigorously round and round, apparently
taking a great dip each time.
A third was thrown out between f3ur and five
miles, and it fell downwards,
A fourth was thrown out at four miles when de-
scending; it flew in a circle, and shortly alighted
on the balloon.

The two remaining pigeons were brought down
to the ground. One was found dead, and the other,
a "carrier," had attached to its neck a note. It
would not, however, leave, and. when cast off the
finger returned to the hand. After a quarter of an
hour it began to peck a piece of ribbon by which its
neck was encircled, and it was then jerked off the
finger, and it flew with some vigour finally towards
Wolverhampton. Not one, however, had returned
when I left on the afternoon of the 6th.

Too much praise cannot be given to Mr. Proud,
the engineer of the gas works, for the production
of gas of such a small specific gravity.

It would seem from these facts that five miles is
very nearly the limit of human existence. It is
possible, as the effect of each high ascent upon my-
self has been different, that in another I might be
able to go higher; and it is possible that some per-
sons may be able to exist with less air and bear a
greater degree cf cold, but still I think prudence
would say to all, whenever the barometer reading
falls as low as eleven inches, open the valve at onee,
the increased information to be attained is not com-
mensurate with the increased risk.
September 9. JAMES GLAISHER,