The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-19 00:00:00

WESTMINSTER.

DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO COMMIT SUICIDE.—John Con-
nor, a man about 22 years of age, who had somewhat the
appearance of being mad, was chargod with attempting to
commit suicide.

Herbert Skinner, 278 B, said last night at half-past 11
I was called to 16, Gray's Inn-place, Hendon-street, Pim-
lico, to take the prisoner into custody for attempting to
commit suicide. I found him naked, and being held by his
father and brother, and a scarf had just been taken from his
neck. He said he meant to do it ; he had tried to commit
suicide three times previously, and would do it if he waited
any length of time. I took him to the station, and ho at-
tempted to kill himself twice there.
Henry Salisbury, 330 B, said—l was at Pimlico station
at 12 o'clock last night, when'the prisoner was brought in.

I conveyed him to the cells and left him for a few minutes.
I went back in consequence of something I heard, and
found prisoner lying on his back in the middle of the cell,
with his brace tied tightly round his neck. I struggled
with the prisoner, who tried to choke himself, and at last
got the brace away from him, and left him to report what

I had seen to the inspector in charge, and I was ordered to
look after him all night. I returned to the cells soon
afterwards, and found prisoner with his stockings tied
round his neck. He said if he didn't do it then he would
do it at a future time, and that he had tried it three times
before.

Prisoner said nothing to the charge, and his father said
he had been indulging in drink, and supposed that was the
cause.

Mr. Arnold remanded him for a week in order that he
might be examined.

THAMES.

THE WIDOW AND HER SWAIN.--Frederick Archard, a
young man, dwelling at No. 25, Christian-street, George-
in-the-East, appeared before Mr. Paget, to answer a sum-
mons taken out by Mrs. Jones, of 7, Cornwall-street, in the
same parish. '

The account given of herself by the complainant was
that she was 23 years of age, that she had been married
six years, and a widow two years. She became acquainted
with the defendant about 15 months ago, and their inti-
macy resulted in the birth of a child, born on the 11th of
February last. She was asked her age when married, to
which she replied 15. The child in her arms was the first
to which she had given birth. She was asked if she had
any corroborative evidence, to which she replied
by handing to the magistrate several letters in
envelopes. They were all directed to Mrs. Jones,
No. 21 (now No. 7), Cornwall-street, St. George-in-.
the-East, and signed F. Archard, 25, Christian-street.
Some of them commenced, "My lovely Young Widow."
One was read by the magistrate as follows :

" January 11, 1865.—1 n answer to your note I write you
these few lines, to express myself relating to my manly
action, as you call it. You must recollect, my dear Mrs.
Jones, that there is as much blame attached to you as my-
self, therefore, as you have shared in the sweets, you must
expect to put up with a portion of the sours. I told you
when I saw you last that I would help to support you and
the child. I will be able to give you 3s. per week, but I
should not be able to pay any more. I don't see any need
for you to go to the parish whatever, but you must please
yourself. Please let me know by letter whether you will
accept this. Yours for ever and a day, FREDErtiox An-
CHARD, 25, Christian-street."

Mr. Paget asked the defendant if the letter was in his
handwriting, to which he replied in the negative, and
called a man who got into the witness-box and said that
the letter was not'written by the defendant.
Mr. Paget—Who wrote the letter ?
Witness—Not the defendant.
Mr. Paget—Who wrote that letter ?
Witness—l wrote the letter.
Mr. Paget—At whose request ?
Witness—The defendant asked me to write the letter.
_ _ _

Mr. Paget commented on the disgraceful conduct of the
defendant, who had made an attempt to deceive him. He
adjudged the defendant to be the father of the complain-
ant's child, and to pay 23. 6d. per week for its future main-
tenance.

Luminous and Obscure Radiation.

We are so accustomed to associate the idea of
heat with that of light, that the radiation of the for-
mer alone without the latter appears to us very like
an anomaly. We perfectly understand the catching
of the sun's rays in a lens and igniting thereby a
piece of paper held in the focus, because we see the
intense light in that point ; but if we did not, we
should be astonished to see the combustible mate-
rial catching fire in a place not distinguishable by
the eye from any other. Professor Tyndal, F.R.S.,
having made the radiation of heat the subject of
minute inquiry, has arrived at some curious results.
His apparatus consisted of an electric lamp, so mo-
dified as to admit of its receiving, instead of the
charcoal burners, an illuminating gas or a hydrogen
flame at pleasure, while a thermo-electric pile with
its galvanometer was used to find the point of maxi-
mum heat after the light had been decomposed into
a spectrum (consisting of the colours of the rainbow)
by passing through a rock-salt prism. Beginning
with a luminous gas flame, he found the maximum
heat was not contained within the spectrum, but a little
beyond the red or last colour, the first being violet. The
hydrogen flame gave no visible spectrum at all ; the
thermo-electric pile denoted a temperature 2i times
smaller than the preceding one, and still at a point
not reached by the visible spectrum. Such being
his modus operandi, we will state some of his results.
A solution of iodine in bi-sulphuret of carbon,
though perfectly opaque to light, will transmit heat
completely, without absorbing a particle of it. By
means of this substance our author has been enabled
to separate the luminous calorific rays from the ob-
scure ones, as the following experiment will show.
Having filled a hollow lens with the above solution,
and held it to the sun, no luminous focus was visible
to the eye ; nevertheless the sun's obscure rays were
collected in the focus, though the luminous ones
were not ; and a piece of black paper placed there
was instantly pierced and set on fire ; and by shift-
ing the paper, aperture after aperture was formed
in quick succession. He thus shows that only one-
24th of heat radiated by an incandescent platinum
wire is luminous, the rest being obscure ; that in the
same way only 1-25th of the heat radiated by the
most brilliant portion of a flame of coal gas is lumi-
nous, and only 1-10th of that emitted by the elec-
tric light excited by a Grove's battery of 40 cells is
luminous.— Galignani.

To SHOPKEEPERS, &c.—Wanted an Agent in every town
and village, for the sale of A. G.'s Patent Safety Envelopes
(at Is. per gross). Cheap stationery, ladies and gent's
patent collars and cuffs (at is. 6d., 2s. 6d., and 4s. 6d. per
gross). Sample parcels sent on receipt of order and refer-
ences. ARTHUR GRANGER, Toy Importer, 308, High
Holborn, W.C.—[ADVT.]
PASSAGE OF TROOPS THROUGH LlVERPOOL—Yes-
terday the C battery of the 13 brigade of the Royal
Horse Artillery, under the command of Major D. F. Green,
embarked at the Clarence Dock, Liverpool, en route from
Woolwich to Dublin. The battery consisted of six officers,
145 men, 140 officers, and six guns. They were embarked
on board the steamers Trafalgar and St. Columbia. On
Tuesday next, the 25th inst., the Ist battalion of the 3d
Foot, consisting of 37 officers and 820 men, and accom-
panied by over 200 women and children, will also embark
at Liverpool for Dublin.

THE SEAL FISHERY.—GLASGOW, April 17.
Telegrams received here from St. John's, dated April 4,
state that the screw steamer Bloodhound had returned
from the ice quite full; and the Osprey, with 6,000 seals,
and having her bows injured. The screw steamer Wolf is
reported with 7,000 seals.

The Prophecies for the Newmarket Handicap

The sporting prophets are again "floored" to
a man in their predictions for the Newmarket
Handicap, with the exception of " The Freshman"
in The Sun, who was the only prophet that gave
Accident. He concluded his remarks on Monday
last as follows :

" The running of John Davis at Northampton has en-
tirely spoilt the betting. In fact, bar accidents, he cannot
lose ; but now-a-days it does not depend on a horse's merits,
but on the amount of metallic that can be got on, or got out, as
the case goes, that makes a horse win. He has been rather
fishy for the last day or two. If he goes to the post with
winning orders, he must pull through ; but there is a whis-
pering that the Metropolitan will be his journey, and in
that case I shall look to

ACCIDENT
or GRACE DARLING to furnish the winner."

The following are the conclusions which the various
writers arrived at :
(From Bell's Life.)
_ _

Wandering Minstrel, 4 yrs, 7st 41b, is no better in than
Sheridan ; Oakapple, 5 yrs, 7st 31b, has been too long on
the shelf for us to judge him ; Raglan, 5 yrs, 7st 31b, is
likely to give place to John Davis ; Sprite, 4 yrs, 6st 81b,
we know no good of ; and the remainder engaged are three-
year-olds having all the worst of the weights with John
Davis. However, Grace Darling, sst 71b, is one not to be
despised from what we saw of her at Chelmsford; and the
race may prove her to be second best to John Davis, if she
does not beat him.

(From the Sporting Gazette.)
There is a pretty fair acceptance for the Newmarket
Handicap, as 30 of the 67 horses weighted have remained
in. Of these Fantail, Alabama, Battaglia, John Davis,
Spring Gun, and Swordsman ran at Northampton, where
John Davis proved himself to be the best of the party, and
as he has now a greater pull in the weights all the above
are as good as " settled." Nevertheless, when Scamander
beat him so easily, I account him to be so moderate I shall
expect to see him overthrown by Grace Darling, though
he has to give her only 141 b for the year, nor will it sur-
prise me to see Tomato and Beatrix finish before him.

(From the Sporting Life.)
John Davis was selected by me for this race on February
18, and those who got early on have such hedging that it
is already as good as a win. My opinion is that it is a
match between the four year olds, John Davis and Tomato,
and those who back the two coupled need not despair of
being on the winner.

(From the Era.)
JOHN DAVIS.

(From the Morning Advertiser)

FIRST PROPHECY.

With Tomato of the top weights, John Davis of the
middle division, and Grace Darling of the "feathers," I am
bound to believe the race is left, although, at the moment
of penning these notes, it is no certainty that the Danebury
horse will run. However, running all risk, as already
intimated, nothing looks better than Tomato for a "place,"
and John Davis or Grace Darling to win, and if only
allowed one representative, must be fox the three-year-old.

SECOND PROPHECY.

Since penning my notes John Davis has arrived. I ani,
therefore, compelled to stand him and Tomato to beat the
field, believing that Wandering Minstrel is the best place
investment.

(From the Morning War.)

Tomato must be classed amongst the dangerous division,
and whatever beats her may be almost regarded as the
winner. Of the others I take Wandering Minstrel, John
Davis, and Grace Darling; and as it will be asking too
much for Dollar, I must throw him overboard in the final
selection, which must be in favour of Tomato and Grace
Darling.