The Sun.
London, England, 1862-04-05 00:00:00

OYAL PRINCESS'S THEATRE.
Lessee, Mr A. Harris.
'l' HIS EVENING, THE LITTLE TREASURE. Mr. J.
G. Shore, Mr. B. Potter, Mr. Cathcart, &c. ; Miss Elsworthy,
Mrs. Weston, and Miss Maria Harris.
Alter which, RUY BIAS. Mr. Fechter.

NF EW TH ATRE-R0 YAL. AIWA-AMU.-
Sole Pronriotor and Manacrer, Mr. B. Webster.
THIS EVENING, A PRIVATE ENQUIRY. Mr. J. L.
Toole, Mr. Billington, Mr. Sefton, Miss Kate Kelly, and
Miss K. Bland.
Followed by THE LIFE OF AN ACTRESS. Mr. and
Mrs. Dion Bouecault, Messrs. Emery, J. L. Toole, Ilillington,
Stuart, Eburne, Sefton, Powell, C. J. Smith ; Mrs. Billington,
Mrs. Ilarland, Mrs. H. Lewis, Miss Laidlaw.
To conclune with DOMESTIC ECONOMY.

Commence at 7.

A STLEY'S ROYAL AMPHITHEATRE.-
-L-s- Sole Proprietor and Manager, Mr. W. Batty.
Wonderful Performance of Mr. Bell's trained Elephants.
THIS EVENING, the Grand Eastern Spectacle of THE
RAJAH OF NAGPORE, introducing two colossal Asiatic
Elephants, pronounced by all to be the cleverest animals
ever exhibited.
To be followed by brilliant and daring feats by the un-
rivalled Troupe of Equestrians.
Concluding with a comic Ballet of Action, introducing Mr.
Harry Croueste and the Misses Gunnis.
Stage Manager, Mr. W. Searle.

C BINTERBURY HALL
ARTS GALLERY.

AND FINE

The renowned ROCKY MOUNTAIN WONDERS, at ten
o'clock, for a few evenings only.
Grand Selections from " La Sonnambula" and " Dinorah,"
by Mdme. Negri, Signor Tivoli, and 11r. Raynor, with Band
and, toll Chorus, conducted by Mr. Jong•hmans.
Fordo, rhe Clmr."VVlFitairdnialeill. tilyssMrsr..llZetrinTt'rtahn'd3Orr.rajo. Ormond,
and 'Miss Caroline Parkes.
The miraculous STI4ICREL, from the Cirque Napoleon,
Paris, will make his first appearance on Monday, the 14th
April.

A dmi ssion —II all, M. ; Stalls and Balcony, is.

rrHE OXFORD. 6, OXFORD-STREET.-
1 and PFAU on the Flying Trapeze
EVERY EVENING.
The musical entertainment as usual, including Robert
Burns' celebrated " Jo LLY BEGGARS," with music composed
expiessly for this establishment by Mr. George Linley.
Operatic Selections by Miss Russell, Mdme. Negri, Mdme.
Maria, and Mdme. Enderssohn. Full Band and Chorus.—
Mus.cal Director, Mr. F. Jonehmqns.
Comic—Messrs. Sam Collins, Ilarvey and French (the
Nerves), 11 Marshall, and W Randall.
ball, 6d.; Stalls and Balcony, is. ; Private Boxes, 109. 6d.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
This DAY.—Morning, sh. 18m.—Afternoon, sh. 32m,
To-MORROW.-Morning, sh. 54m.—Afternoon, Gh. 14m

it 15e made there ; and,
at that time for eve
"after Easter," the House can decide what shall be
rything,
doze, the Government being quite willing to abide
by its decision.
We need ask no more. Tho Governtent is
abready alive to the necessity of discontinuing the
building of wooden ships. All we wanted PM,
that money should not be squandered on forts
which iroo-plated ships have rendered almost use-
less, money which ought to behe
p uke of SOMERSET
devoted to uid i ng
the iron ships themselves. T
and Lord PALMEBSTON still plead for ti little wood-
work, in the shape of " that very useful class of small
ships, despatch vessels." To that no one will
object ; only they will no longer bo regarded
as part of our defensive or of our aggressive
force. Their business may well be what their

vessels for carrying despatches;
namefo
for, aswtooultdheiimyrpeln;aging in any conflict with the
smallest iron-aide, that would be out of the ques-
tion. These small ships, therefore, we leave in the
hands of the Government; they will make little
difference either way, and we have now the assur-
ance that the work of iron-plating is to be com-
menced in earnest. One three-decker is to be
operated on at once ; several ships, which are as yet
but frames, are to be adapted to iron ; and Captain
COLES'S cupolas are to have full and fair play.
But we must cast a momentary glance back-
wards, if only to strengthen and make sure of the
movement forwards. Sir MORTON and Mr. LIND-
SAY, both of them eminently practical men, strongly
insisted long ago on the necessity of ceasing to
build wooden ships. What took place before Kil-
burn, satisfied these business men of the change
which must be made. It satisfied the French
Government also, and the French Government
acted on the facts before them. Not so our Admi-
ralty. We set to work to reconstruct our navy ;
we spent some ten millions in new ships, and about
three millions in repairs and alterations, and now
all the work has to be recast. It is true the huge
three-deckers can be cut down ; their sides can be
plated, and cupolas can be made to turn round on
their decks. But is also true that the cost of doing
all this will of course be vastly greater than that of
building a ship, adapted from the commencement
to its final purpose. And, what is more to be re-
gretted, though the cut down ships will be valuable
and efficient, they will not be equal to those which,
from the first, were constructed for iron plating.
It is the too old lesson of the unteachable-
ness, and the consequently enormous cost of
routine administrators. Had we had at our
Admiralty men only as capable of learning by
events as the French Naval Administration, we
should not have had at this moment only four ships
which can be called ships of war, and an immense
fleet, which these four could sink in a very short
time. We have need to remember our costly blun-
ders, to prevent their costly repetition.

The discussion which took place last night in the
House of Commons in regard to the affairs of Poland
cannot, we feel persuaded, but exercise a beneficial
influence both upon the Poles themselves and upon
the Russian Government. In that way the two
members for the borough of Tiverton, the hon. and
learned gentlemen who brought the condition of the
unhappy race and country referred to, under the at-
tention at once of the Ministers of the Crown and of
the popular branch of the Legislature, and the noble
Viscount who responded to the appeal of his col-
league, doing so in his two-fold capacity as Leader
of the House and as Chief of the Administration—
Mr. DENMAN and Lord PALMERSTON have alike
done noble service to the cause of that heroic and
suffering nationality. Very earnestly do we hope
that as full and accurate a report as possible of
what took place last evening in the British House
of Commons may be translated both into Russian
and into Polish—these translations to be after-
wards transmitted, the one to the Imperial
Councils at St. Petersburg, the other as
secretly, rapidly, and effectually as may be (in a
less northerly, in a more easterly direction) for
circulation among the inhabitants of Russian Po-
land. Reports thus supplied to the Czar ALEX-
ANDER 11., and to his unfortunate Polish subjects,
could not but touch them equally to the heart,
though in ways, of course, wondrously different !
Reports thus conveying to the knowledge of the
Russian Autocrat and of his Polish victims, the
victims of his insensate Government, the sentiments
with which the Past and the Present, and, for that
matter, also the Future, of the Polish people and the
Polish nationality are regarded in this free land of
ours. From the earnest words articulated in evidence
of these sentiments upon the evening of the 4th of
April, 1862, in the English House of Commons,
first of all by the- Hon. GEORGE DENMAN,
' M.P. for the borough of Tiverton, and after-
wards by Viscount PALMERSTON, not only
himself also M.P. for the borough of Tiver-
ton, but the veteran chief of her Britannic
Majesty's Government—the Czar of all the RUSSIAS
will learn at length (supposing him to be in any
way ignorant of the facts already) how frightful
and inhuman have been the cruelties perpetrated,
in his name, of late, not only in Warsaw but more
or less throughout the whole of the Polish frontier
of his dominions? And let us hope, too, that
somehow or another, simultaneously, the Poles
themselves at Warsaw and throughout Russian
Poland may become cognisant, no less than his Im-
perial Majesty ALEXANDER 11., of language uttered
in the English Parliament by the First Minister
of the Crown of these realms, so calculated to
hearten them to the cherishing still, with each of
them until death, of their life-long hopes, of their
eventual emancipation.

What is there, however, that is in any way new
that can be uttered in regard to the heinous wrongs
on the one hand, and to the inalienable rights on the
other—the wrongs so long endured, the rights
so resolutely cherished by the heroic
and patriotic vindicators of the holy cause
of the Polish nationality ? Nothing ! The story
is indeed familiar to us all—that sublime and
pathetic story of the triple downfall and partition :
triple both in its geographical subdivision and in
the periods of its recurrence : the infamous triple
partition of what was until not one hundred years
ago the ancient kingdom of Poland, A poet like
CAMPBELL has lamented it in words of music that
will never be silenced—

" And freedom shrieked when Kosciusko fell!"
A hero like PONIATOWSKI has within this nine-
teenth century died for it, to vindicate the inde-
structible chivalry of his race, cherishing in his
heart until death the dream of its revival among the
independent nations of Christendom. A patriot
like Prince .ADA3I CZARTORYSKI has lived for it—
more than died for it, lived for it—until a patriar-
chal age, cherishing in exile that same vision of his
country's ultimate restoration. A foreign histo-
rian like the late Lord MACAULAY has written of
its partition in words of fire the mere reflection of
whichburns like a brand of infamy into the royal and
imperial esentehions of the three partitioners —that
it was " that kind of partition which consists in tear-
ing a living man limb from limb." Nothing new, in
truth, can well be said in regard to events that have
dering so many years past been known in all their
`details,
and recognised in all their matchless atro-
city, as constituting the greatest and the blackest

crime of modern Europe. But of the reiterated
and persevering cruelties that have at intervals
during the last seventy or eighty years followed
that Great Crime's consummation—alas ! every
generation in torn has something new to
relate of those I In illustration of which
lamentable truth there are the records of
these recent occurences at Warsaw, and in
other parts of Russian Poland where funeral pro- ,
cessions, patriotic hymns, and mourning garments
have been eagerly seized upon by the hireling agents
of the Russian autocracy as pretexts for the perpe-
tration of cruelties so devilfish in their barbarity
that, as the latest incident among them, we had to
relate yesterday in the columns of this journal, the
dreadful death, on the 23d ultimo, of ALEXANDER ,
ZAMoYBKI, Editor of a Polish newspaper, this un-
happy man (if wd are to believe the detailed narra-
tive given in the Breslau Gazette, in preference to
the vague denial of the Journal des Debats) having
been literally flayed alive by the thongs
of the scourges of his Russian tormentors,
each blow of the knotted whip stripping
off his flesh in ribbons, and so seriously injuring
his spine that the sufferer eventually expired
under the lash. This, remember, is but a solitary
instance of barbarities that have of late, in War-
saw and Russian Poland, been frightfully multi-
plied. It is the last of them that has come to
our knowledge here in England. But hardly
have the miserable tidings of the judicial murder
of ALEXANDER ZAMOYSKI come to these shores,
when a cry of indignation and horror has been
rsised in the British House of Commons—a cry
that will now be echoed across Europe (GoD grant
not without effect!) oven to the palace of the
Russian Autocrat at St. Petersburg, even to the
Imperial Cabinet of the Czar ALEXANDER.

It is due to England versua America, and to
Captain COWPER COLES versus official neglect of
original ability, to call attention to the fact that
Captain COLES, not Captain ERICSSON, is the inven-
tor of the far-famed ship the Monitor, and that
Captain COLES' invention preceded that of Captain
ERICSSON by at least six or seven years. Now that
the repulse of the Merrimac by the Monitor makes
the latter the most famous ship of the day, and, that
Captain ERICSSON names her the Monitor because,
as he says, she is to be a monitor to Downing-
street—it is interesting to know that England had
so many years ago a monitor in an able captain
of her own, but that unfortunately the monitor was
without honour in his own country.

-We point our readers, therefore, with pleasure
and pride—in the captain, not in the Admiralty
—to hie letter in another column ; it esta-,
blishes beyond all question his claim to be consi-
dered not merely the projector, but the inventor of
vessels of the new class. Experience in the Black
Sea and the Baltic taught him, in 1855, the neces-
sity of ships which could attack forts with impunity
in shallow Waters. He then planned a vessel for
the purpose almost identical in construction with
the Monitor, except in not mounting the guns on
a turn-table, which was superseded by the rapidity
with which the ship could come round. He was
sent for home to discuss his plans—but it was only
to find, as hundreds had done before him, the use-
lessness " of arguing against prejudice and theory,"
and the hopelessness of introducing into the navy " a
novel invention, the offspring of practical observa-
tions in actual warfare."

Discouraged by officials, Captain COLES turned
to men of kindred spirit. He applied to Mr.
BRUNEL, whom he found already engaged in a
somewhat similar scheme. But, with the nobility
of genius, the great engineer at once acknowledged
the superiority of Captain COLES' plans, gave him
the full aid of his own great engineering abilities
and knowledge, placed his own draughtsmen at his
service, declined to accept any remuneration from a
naval officer, who was trying to benefit his country,
and, with the inspiration and confidence of genius,
said to him at parting, "Go on, persevere,
and you will succeed." We can all sympathise
with the encouragement which these words, from
such a man, afforded the Captain "under the greatest
discouragements ;" and well can we comprehend
the mortification with which he records that he did
persevere; but, for the result so little honourable to
his country, that America, not England, should hays
the honour of floating the first Monitor.
In the beginning of 1859, however, hope began
to dawn on the inventor. Admiral Sir GEORG'
GREY had the sense to perceive the feasibility of
his proposals. Through him he was introduced to
the PRINCE CONSORT, whom he found both disposed
and competent to enter fully into them down to the
mechanical details ; indeed, the Prince had already
turned his attention to the same subject. He had now
gained a friend, whose recommendations he could
feel assured must meet with respectful attention, still
so slow has been his progress even with such aid to
back him, that it was only when the Naval Esti-
mates were announced, this year, we learned for the
first time that the Government had determined to
give Captain COLES a fair trial by building a ship
expressly constructed for his cupolas, with the turn-
tables and apparatus complete according to his own
drawings. Too late this, unhappily, for the honour
of the English Administration, but happily not too
late, for the honpur of English inventors, and for
) the safety of England's harbours. The captain's
final statement is well worthy attention after all

that has passed—We need, he says, two classes
of iron plated vessels ; one to keep the
sea, like the Warrior, and the Black
Prince, another to defend our harbours and coasts.
Of the latter class he can build two for £60,000
each, shot proof, carrying 300-pounders, and which
would inevitably dispute the entrance to Spithead
with the Warrior, and vessels of her class, and
" either destroy her or drive her away." After all
that has now transpired, the country will doubt-
less be disposed to place entire reliance on the
proposals of Captain COLES, and his name must
henceforth rank amongst the great inventors in
naval warfare.

The Earl and Countess Stanhope will leave town
in a few days for Cheveniag Park, Kent, for the holidays.
The Earl and Countess of Tankerville arrived at
the Pavilion Hotel, Folkestone, on Thursday, from the
continent, and left the following day for London.
Lord and Lady Li Ifex d have left Farrance's Hotel
forLilford Hall, near Ouadle.

RAILWAY AND PUBLIC COMPANIES IN PARMA-
141:Yr.—Yesterday, after a fortnight's inquiry, the bill of
the Barnsley Coal Extension Railway Company, which was
opposed by the London and North -Western and Lanca-
shire and Yorkshire Railway Companies, was thrown out,
and the bill is consequently lost. The bill of the Mid
Sussex and Midhurst Railway Company was passed in Mr.
Scholefield's committee, and the clauses of it settled. In
the case of the Crystal Palace and Brighton Railway Com-
pany's new lines the clauses on behalf of the Grand Surrey
Canal Company were settled, and the committee adjourned
until Tuesday, to consider the negotiations now pending for
an arrangement of matters between the London, Chatham,
and Dover, and Brighton Railway Companies. Evidence
in favour of the Bristol and South-Western Railway is
still proceeding in Mr. Adair's committee. The
case of the Merionethshire a7.id Welsh Coast Railways
was closed in Lord Stanley's committee, who will
decide on the competing schemes on Monday.—
The further consideration of the Tewkesbury and
Malvern Railway was adjourned until after Easter to enable
the parties to come to a settlement. Tho clauses of the Mid-
land Company's Rowaley and Buxton Extension were con-
sidered, the London tad North Western and Great Northern
declining to accept them, and reserving their hostility to
them until the bill goes up to the Lords. In the Lords'
committee the bill of the Dundalk and Enniskillen was
passed and the claims settled.

COE/RT CIRCULAR.

WINDSOR CASTLE, FRIDAY.

Her Majesty, accompanied by
.their Royal Highnesses
Princess Louisa and Princess Beatrice, drove out in an
open carriage and four yesterday afternoon, attended by the
the Countess of Caledon and the Equerry in waiting.
Her Majesty and their Royal II ighnesses Princess Alice.
Princo Alfred, Princess Helena, Princes Louisa, and
Princess Beatrice, left Windsor Castle to-day at three
o'clock for Osborne.

The suite in attendanea included the Countess of Caledon,
Lady Augusta Bruce, the Hen. Lucy Kerr, Lord Alfred
Paget, Colonel Sir Charles Phipps, Lieut.-General the
Hon. C. Grey, Lieut. •Colonel Du Plat, Major Cowell, and
the Master of the Household.

The Bishop of St. Helena had an interview with the
Duke of Newcastle, on Thursday, at the Colonial Office,
Mr. Drummond Wolff had an interview with his Grace
yesterday,

PORTSMOUTH, FRIDAY.

Her Majesty the Queen, accompanied by their Rcyal
Highnesses the Princess Alice, Prince Arthur, and other
juvenile members of the Royal family, and attended by the
ladies and gentlemen in waiting, arrived by ape cial train at
the Royal Clarence Yard this afternoon at six o'clock,
whence the Royal party embarked on board;. the Elfin
Royal yacht, Master Commander Balliston, and imme-
diately proceeded to Osborne.
At half-past five o'clock their Royal Highnesses Prince
Alfred and Prince Leopold arrived in the dockyard at
Portsmouth and proceeded to Osborne in the steamer Fire
Queen, Master Commander Paul.

The Duke of St. Albans received a select party
at dinner last evening, at his residence in Hill-street.

DEATH OF SIR JAMES CLARK ROSS.—We regret
to announce the death of Admiral Sir James Clark Ross,
the celebrated Arctic voyager, who died on Thursday at
Aylesbury, aged 62. 'inc deceased was the third scn of
Mr. George Ross, of Balsorrock, in the county of Gallo-
way, and nephew of Sir John Ross, K.C.8., and was born
in 1800. He entered the navy in 1812, became rear-
admiral of the white in 1858 ; served in all the naval expe-
ditions for the disoovery of the N'ovth r.c.a.fttgo rrom
1818 to 1838 ; discovered and planted the British flag on
the North magnetic pole in 1831; crossed the Atlantic, to
relieve the frozen whalers in Baffin's Bay, in 1836 ; com-
manded the expedition to the Antarctic regions from 1839
to 1843: attained the highest latitude ever yet reached (78
deg. 10 min.), and approached within 160 miles of the South
magnetic pole. He received the honorary degree of D.C.L.
from Oxford in 1844, was elected a fellow of the Royal
Society in 1827, and of the Linnaan Society in 1823,
and was also honorary member of the Society of Northern
Antiquaries of Copenhagen, corresponding member of the
Geographical Society of Paris, &c. Ho received the
"Founder's Gold Meda 1" from the Geographical Society
of London in 1841, the gold medal of the Geographical
Society of Paris in 1842, and a piece of plate to the sub.‘
scribers to the Land Arctic Expedition in 1833.

SUICIDE OF A SURGEON BY PRUSSIC ACID.—
Yesterday morning Mr. B. Walthow, deputy coroner, held
aninquest at the Morpeth Castle, Wick-lane, Old Ford, Bow,
on the body of John Ford, aged 74, a surgeon, who expired
under the following circumstances ;—Clarence John Ford,
of 23, Francis-terrace, Wick-lane, Old Ford, said deceased
was his father ; he was a surgeon. On Saturday afternoon
deceased was upstairs, when he was seized with choking.
A lodger in the house first heard deceased making a
noise, and told witness . and his mother. When they
went upstairs he was insensible. He was lying on the
bed. His mother sent for Mr. Cooper, who pro-
nounced hits dead. On Saturday morning deceased and
his mother had some words about paying a gas bill. His
mother said it was too late. He dashed his hat on the
ground, using bad language at the same time. He was in
debt, and worried for money, as he could not get his debts
in. He had threatened to take his own life.—Mr. Cooper,
surgeon, 8, Harley-place, Bow-road, said he had made the
post-mortem examination. The stomach was inflamed.
There was an odour of prussic acid. The stomach and its
coats were much congested, and he thought he died from
prusaio acid.—Mr. John Cooper, after he had analysed the
contents of the stomach, said he found sufficient prussic acid
to cause death.—The Deputy Coroner then said it was quite
clear the deceased died from prussic acid, and as he had
threatened to destroy himself, there oould be no doubt as
to the cause of death. The jury returned a verdict of
temporary insanity.

LAMBETH POLICE L DIVISION.—Last evening, at
the Angel, Lambeth-war:, a number of the inhabitants of
the parish assembled to dine, preparatory to making a pre-
sentation to Mr. Superintendent White, of the L Division,
Mr. R. B. Williams in the chair. The toast of the evening
was the " Health and Prosperity of Mr. E. White, late
Inspector of the L Division of Polies, but now Superin-
tendent in the H Division." The toast being given, the
chairman followed it up by presenting to Mr. White a gold
watch and chain, as a mark of estimation in which he was
held locally for his services for 26 years. In the inside
cover of the watch was the following inscription :—" Pre-
sented to Mr. Superintendent Edmund White, by a few
friends of Lambeth, as a token of their respect and appre-
ciation of his conduct while Inspector of the L Division of
Police, April 4, 1862." Mr. White responded, and con-
cluded by proposing the "Health of Mr. Powell," who had
been foremost in promoting the testimonial. Mr. Powell
responded. The chairman then gave the "English Press,'
which, being duly honoured, was met by a response highly
pleasing to the company. Other toasts followed, including
the chairman (Mr. R. B. Williams), and the vice-chairman
(Mr. T. White), who respectively returned thanks. The
evening was spent in harmony and conviviality.
QUEER QUESTIONS.—The annual report of the
Civil Service Commissioners has not come directly under
our notice, and we are indebted to a contemporary for a few
somewhat strange samples of the questions asked. Here
is 'one :—" Does ethical opinion control public action, or
does the course of events modify ethical opinion in
modern times ?" We should like to have seen the un-
happy young gentleman who had to answer this question
trying to understand it. We suppose it means something,
though we really don't understand what; but, presuming
it to be a very profound inquiry, in what respect does it
teat the fitness of a young man for a clerkship or a tide-
waitership Again—" The English language is a dead
one.' Explain the remark of Mr. Kemble's." This opens
a wide field. Some people may agree with the great Anglo-
Saxon authority—many will differ from him. The ques-
tion is highly interesting to students of language; it is per-
fectly absurd as a test of the fitness of candidates for the
civil service. W e print ono more which rather perplexes
us :—" When a man dies leaving four sons, a daughter, and
two widows, who form a joint family, can any of these per-
sons insist on a partition being made P" We do not pre-
tend to reply to this question, but we should very much
like to know how a man can leave two widows, and we
should like to know who are the foolish persons who ask
such questions.—Literary Budget.

Toni SAYERS.—The following has been sent to
the Editor of the Sporting Life .7—" Sir,—Having seen in
your paper of this day that it is the intention of Heenan to
contest with Mace for the Championship of England, I beg
to inform you that I will fight the winaer of that important
battle for the sum of £2OO or £5OO a-side, as soon after that
event as the winner thinks fit.—l am, sir, yours respect-
fully, ToM SAYERS, ex-Champion of England, and pro-
prietor of the Champion Circus of the Wcrld. Ely, April 2."
[As Sayers is bound down never to enter the ring again,
the above is only put forward to create an excitement, and
the public must only look upon the challenge as a little bit
of bounce.—[A FRESH MAN.]

A PHILOSOPHIC NEGRO.—A correspondent of the

Cincinnati Gazette, writing from the Cumberland River,
gives a humorous account of a colloquy with a philosophic
African. lie says :—" I noticed upon the hurricane deck
to-day an elderly darkey, with a philosophical and retro-
spective cast of countenance, squatted upon his bundle,
toasting himself against the chimney, and apparently
plunged into a state of profound meditation. Finding upon
inquiry that he belonged to the 9th Illinois, one of the
most gallantly behaved and heavy losing regiments at the
Fort Donnelson battle, and part of which was aboard, I be-
gan to interrogate him on the subject. His philosophy was
so much in the Falstaffian vein that I will give his views
in his own words, as near as my memory serves me. 'Were
you
in the fight ?' Had a little taste of it, Sa.' Stood
your ground, did you?' No, Sa, I runs.' Run at the
first fire, did you ?"Yes, Sa, and would have run soona,
had I known it war comin." Why, that was not very
creditable to your courage.' Dat isn't in my line, Sa—
cookin's my perfeshun." Well, but havd you no regard
for your reputation ?" Reputation's nuffin to me by de
side ob life.' Do you consider your life worth more than
other people's ?" It's worth more to me, Sa.' Then
you must value it very highly.' Yes, Sa, I does—more
dan all dis mould—more dan a million of dollars, Sa; for
what would flat be worth to man wid de bref out of
him ? Self-preserbashum am de fust law wid me." Then
patriotism and honour are nothing to you ?" Nothing
whatever, Sa---I regard dem as among de vanities.' It's
safe to say that the dusky corpse cf that African will never
darken the field of carnage."
EXTENSIVE FORGERY BY A RATE COLLECTOR.—
The rate collector for the local Government Board of Trans
mere, in the neighbourhood of I3irkenhea.d, has absconded.
It was intimated at the monthly meeting of the above-
named board that Mr. W. J. Towndsow, the rate collector
for the township, had absconded. He was last at his office
on Monday morning, and, on examining the bankbook, it
was discovered that Towndsow had forged the names of the
chairman, the law clerk, and one of the members to a cheque
for £9OO, which he presented at the North and South Wales
Bank (where the board kept its account), and got the money
in gold and banknotes. It is said that he is not much in-
which, however, held a surety from
debted to the board,
the delinquent's father-in-law for £3OO. On Wednesday
this gentleman received £3OO from Towndsow to reimburse
him for the amount he might have to pay as surety. The
money which was remitted from London was handed over
Thursday to the police. Up to Y night no tidings of the cul-
prit had been obtained, although he is believed to be still
skulking about the metropolis,