The Sun.
London, England, 1862-12-31 00:00:00

BOROUGH HOP.

The business doing in all kinds of hops is very mode-
rate, and for inferior produce prices have a downward
tendency.

WHITECHAPEL.

The supply of meat is moderate, and the trade rules
inactive, as follows :—Beef, from 2s 4d to 3s 10d ; mutton,
3s to 4s; veal, 3s 4d to 4s 4d; and pork, 3s 4d to 4s 4d per
81bs by the carcase.

A NOVEL HIGHWAY ROBBERY.—On Sur.day
evening a highway robbery was perpetrated in the
Norfolk-road, which, for originality of design and 'boldness
of execution, stands almost alone in the annals of the pro-
fession. On Sunday evening, at about a quarter to seven,

a young man, named Charles Taylor, who was walking
with a female along the Norfolk-road, Edgbaston, when

near to Grindlestone-lane he was tapped familiarly upon
the shoulder by a man, who introauced himself as a detec-
tive officer, and said that he "wanted" Mr. Taylor; he had
wanted him some time, and was exceedingly glad to have
made his acquaintance. Taylor, taken quite aback, and
thinking, we suppose, that discretion was the better part of
valour, submitted to be collared and taken away along the
road, as the " detective" said, to the station. After walk-
ing some distance the guardian " bobby" asked Mr. Taylor
what he had about him, and proceeded in a very official
manner to search him. Mr. Taylor believing in the bona

fides of his captor, submitted to this operation too ; nor did
he resist when the " detective" transferred from his pocket
to his own Mr. Taylor's watch. Still he walked on, and
it was not until his captor loosed, and without waiting
to return his property, ran along the Norfolk-road into the
Rotton Park-road, that Mr. Taylor perceived how coolly he
had been robbed. He at once, with Police-constable Bar-
nacle, who arrived upon the spot after the thief had de-
camped, gave chase, but without success, for the ci-devant
member of an exceedingly useful body was by this time far
away. He has at present eluded pursuit, but it is to be
hoped that he will be detected, and that in the care of a real
detective he will be called to book for his offence.--Bir-

tningham .Post.
FEDERAL PURCHASES IN ENGLAND.—A writer
in a contemporary says :—Now that Mr. Adams

has been remonstrating with the Government about the

purchases made by the Confederates of unarmed vessels
from British subjects, it may be well to publish the follow-

tng extract from the report of the Northern Secretary at
War, Simon Cameron, furnished to the Washington Con-
gress en the 9th of December, 1861 :—" After having made
_ .

Contracts for arms with the private establishments of this
country (United States), it was deemed necessary by the
President, to ensure a speedy and ample supply, to send a
special agent to Europe with funds to the amount of
2,000,000 dollars to purchase more. I am gratified
to state that he has made arrangements for a large
number of arms, part of which have already been
delivered. The remainder will be shipped by successive
steamers until all had been received." Mr. Stanton, Mr.
Cameron's successor, has avoided, as he states, " for obvi-
ous reasons," giving any such " details" in his recent
communication presented to the Federal legislature. There

is a rumour current that instructions have been sent to our
naval commanders to capture the Alabama and Florida.
Should this be true the military officers in Canada should
take possession of all the English-made arms they can find
in the Federal States. The few guns that may have been
bought hero by the Southerners will no doubt be readily
returned in such an event, as they, it is believed, have
captured enough from the Yankees to answer their purpose
for another campaign. Surely they are entitled to retain
these which have been secured to them by their valour.
FASHIONS IN THE REIGN OF TERROR.—NO lady
would have been looked upon as fashionably drost
if she had not worn a bonnet a l'humanite and a corset a la
justice. This derisory affectation, this impious frivolity,
showed itself even in the manner in which the reactionists
did not blush to parody the execution of their relations
whom the Revolution had stricken. Wanting in respect to
their own sorrows, to their own mourning, they made a very
carnival of the occasion. A son wept for his father's death on
the scaffold by making a movement, to his friends in the
street, which imitated the falling of a head into the execu-
tioner's basket; the despair of a widow manifested itself in
the head dress chosen for a love affair ; the days of solemn
and general affliction were days given to dancing and feast-
ing; there were balls a la victim°, to obtain admission to
which it was necessary to exhibit a formal certificate, show-
ing that the bearer had lost a father, a mother, a brother,
or a sister, by the knifo of the guillotine ; the death of
simple collateral relations did not give the right of entry.
The female costume indispensable at these balls was that
in which the dancer's mother or sister bad perished—a red
shawl and the hair clipped close to the neck.—Louis Blanc's
History of the French Revolution, Vol. XI.
THE HARTLEY COLLIERY CATASTROPHE.—On
Saturday, the sinkers who so heroically and at such
imminent personal risk exerted themselves on behalf of the
men entombed in the ill-fated mine were presented with
the medals which had been prepared for their reception by
an admiring and grateful British public. There was no
ceremony, the formal proceedings having taken place in the
Town-hall on the 20th of May last ; and the noble gifts—
lac similes of which had been previously distributed—were
now merely homded over to the owners by Mr. T. C.
Hurst, the secretary of the testimonial fund. The brave
workmen, of whom there were 38, seemed justly proud of
the rewards of merit.—Newcastle Chronicle.
An inquest was held at Bradford, on Monday, on
the body of a woman 72 years of age, who had died of
starvation. She used to receive parochial relief, but the
relieving officer stopped it two months since, because she
had a lodger in her house. The coroner administered a
heavy rebuke to the parish official.