The Sun.
London, England, 1865-08-03 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVEAING, AUGUST 3, 1865,

G. Frith, P. Graham, and A. Smee be the directors
of the company.
The motion was unanimously carried.
Messrs. Brownrigg and Stansfield were appointed
auditors.

The secretary's salary was fixed at £5OO a year,
and the proceedings terminated with avote of thanks

the chairman.

MANCHESTER, BUXTON, AND MIDLAND
JUNCTION.

The half-yearlymeeting of this company was held
yesterday at Derby—Mr. H. Tootal in the chair.
The report stated that the directors proposed to
declare the usual dividend of ls. 4d. per share for
the half-year ending the 30th of June.
On the motion of the CHAIRMAN the report was
adopted and the dividend declared. It was stated
that the lease of the line to the Midland and London
and North-western Railway Companies had six
years to run, and that the prospects of the railway
were good and improving every half-year.

PETERBOROUGH, WISBECH, AND SUTTON.
The half-yearly meeting of this company was held
yesterday at the office, Parliament-street ; Mr. Cary
in the chair.
The CHAIRMAN said that the bill for the branch
to Crowland had received the Royal assent, and the
line would be speedily completed. With respect to
the main line from 'Peterborough to Sutton, the
works had made good progress, and there was
no difficulty anticipated in opening the line for
traffic during the ensuing autumn.
The report having been adopted, the proceedings
terminated.

LANCASHIRE AND YORKSHIRE.
The report of the directors states that the amount
of capital on the 20th of June last, on which divi-
dend or interest was paid out of revenue, exclusive
of leased lines, was £20,677,839. The expenditure
charged on capital for the past half-year had been
£275,327, including £149,866 on new lines. The
revenue account for the half-year showed that
£1,012,344 had been received, against £986,057
for the corresponding half-year, showing an
increase of £26,287. The disbursements amounted
to £432,731, against £404,372, showing an in-
crease of, £28,359. The balance of revenue
applicable to the payment of dividend on the
ordinary stock of the company was £337,072, out
of which the directors recommended a dividend at
the rate of 5i per cent. per annum, less income-
tax, carrying forward £4,498. The uncertainty
as to the supply of cotton from America had
hitherto prevented the complete revival of the great
staple trade of Lancashire. The working expenses
showed an increase over the corresponding half-
year, arising principally in the cost of fuel, repairs,
and compensation, and this, coupled with an in-
crease of £13,905 in the fixed charges on capital, at
present unproductive, accounted for the diminution
in the dividend of a quarter per cent. for the past
half-year. It had been a source of regret to the
Board that Parliament rejected on the second read-
ing the bill for authorising the company in conjunc-
tion with the Great Eastern Railway Company to
make a railway from Askern to the Great Eastern
near Cambridge.

Capt. Tatham and the other officials, and to-day,
should the other arrangements be completed, the
large gun will be shipped on board in readiness for
the experimental trials to be made previously to the
remainder of the machinery for the other guns being

completed.
The Arethusa, 35, 500-horse power, Capt. R. J.
J. Cr. Macdonald, one of the screw frigates which
will compose the experimental squadron, is still de-
tained in the Medway in consequence of the defects
discovered in some portion of her machinery, as
already described in The Sun, and it is probablethat
some'days will elapse before she will be able to pro-
ceed to join the Octavia and the Constance, the
other vessels of the•squadron. A careful inspection
of her machinery has led to the discovery that her
condenser tubes are defective, and these have been
taken out, and are now undergoing the necessary
alteration and cleaning. A full report has been
made to the Admiralty of the defects discovered in
the machinery of the Arethusa, since her last break
down, together with the names of the officials who
certified her as being fit for sea.

The 68-pounder Palliser guns are lying at the
Ordnance Wharf in Woolwich Arsenal, awaiting
transport to Portsmouth for the purpose of under-
going a test of continuous firing on board the gun-
nery ship Excellent, Captain Astley C. Key, C.B.
This is the first issue of these guns for service,
and their trial is in consequence looked for with
considerable interest. It appears that the old 68-
pounders only last on the average about 300 rounds,
and that it is necessary that these guns should be
condemned and replaced by new ones when this
number of rounds has been fired. The ex-
pense of replacing such guns, more especially those
on foreign stations, has been found, it appears, by
the returns, to be a heavy item in the estimates.
The guns which are now about to be reissued had
been rendered unserviceable in this manner, one gun
having fired 351 and the other only 219 rounds.
They have since been converted on Major Palliser's
method, and it is expected that their new lease of
endurance will extend over 1,500 or even 2,000
rounds, according to the proof already attained.
The first week in September has been
_named as
the period when the French was expected at Ply-
mouth, but the Mayor of that borough, Mr. Nor-
rington, has received a communication from Paris
which states that the period is uncertain. The fleet
will first visit Portsmouth, and that visit will be
made some time in August, probably towards the
close of the month.
The following appointments have been made at
the Admiralty :—Lieut. Armand G. Powlett, to the
Arethusa ; Dr. Alexander Armstrong, to be Deputy-
Inspector-General of the Royal Marine Infirmary at
Chatham, vice Kinnear, superseded ; Mr. John
King, to be Staff-Surgeon of Chatham. Dockyard,
vice Gunn, retired ; Huston Maxwell, surgeon, con-
firmed in rank ; Joshua P. Courtenay, Leonard
Lucas, and Robert Purves, assist.• Burgs. additional,
to the Princess Royal ; John S. Barry, assist.-surg.,
to the CuMberland, as additional ; William Roche
(a), assist.-surg., to the Indus ; Frederick F. Flyn,
assist.-surg., to the Victory, for Haslar Hospital ;
John B. Inglis, assist.-paymaster, and Herbert H.
Jollye, clerk, to the Princess Royal, for disposal ;
and John Maclaurin, assist.-clerk, to the Fox.

velope, exploded without difficulty. An opinion
which had been let fall by the Commander-in-
Chief, at the experiments conducted in his presence,
to the effect that the invention would not only
be useful in protecting gunpowder from danger of
explosion, but also from the effects of damp, was
likewise practically tested. Some of the mixture
was placed in a glass vessel, which was filled with
water, and allowed to stand till the close of the ex-
periments. The water was then thrown out, and upon
examination the damp was found to have affected
the mixture to the extent of little more than a quar-
ter of an inch in depth. The gunpowder, when
sifted out in the usual manner, yielded at once to
the action of fire. From the character of the attend-
ance it was to be expected that the merits of the in-
vention would be canvassed ably and critically.
Opportunities for discussion were, moreover, created
by the showers, frequent and severe, which inter-
rupted the experiments more than once, compelling
the spectators to withdraw to the shelter of some
sheds that fortunately were near at hand. Mr. Gale
met all the objections put to him in the frankest
spirit, expressing anxiety that the matter should be
fully discussed, and that the nation should not be
led too hastily to the adoption of a system which he
nevertheless believed to be of incalculable value.
The objection which appeared to be most strongly
urged was that the great increase in bulk which
must take place to enable gunpowder to be
carried or stored with safety upon Mr. Gale's prin-
ciple would form a very serious practical drawback.
This, however, he contended, was a difficulty more
apparent than real, since the cost of carriage would
be vastly diminished by his proposal. At present
gunpowder can only be transported from place
to place at exceptional rates and under the most
stringent regulations. Render it inexplosive, and
therefore innocuous, and it will take its place
at once with ordinary merchandise. The case
of munitions of war stands, perhaps, on a
different footing. Instances may arise where
time or facilities for sifting the gunpowder would be
inadequate in actual conflict ; and, probably, Mr.
Gale would not deny this. But, according to his
contention, we are not always at war. It is on one
day, perhaps, out of a thousand in her existence that
a frigate now-a-days requires to have her magazines
open, and her guns shotted in anger ; and if, mean-
while, secure storage and facile transit can be
exchanged for the dangers that now exist and
surround us, ashore and afloat, two very appreciable
advantages will be gained. It is certainly remark-
able that so valuable a secret—if its inventor should
succeed in establishing in. its favour all the recom-
mendations that at first sight it appears to possess
—should have fallen to the lot of one to discover in
our own day who is suffering under the sad priva-
tion of loss of sight. Years, centuries before Marcus
Graccus, our own Roger Bacon, or the great Domi-
nican, Albertus Magnus, speculated, or copied one
another's speculations, as to the uses to which salt-
petre might be applied, the Chinese possessed at
least a rudimentary acquaintance with gunpowder ;
and its use was forbidden in the most sacred insti-
tutes of the Hindoos. But the efforts of the Chinese,
of the Arabs, who carried their knowledge to Europe,
and of the Greeks, who probably received it, were
all directed towards rendering the agency as destruc-
tive as possible, not to the more humane object of
surrounding its existence with safeguards. Of late
years, indeed, it has been vaguely imagined that
some substances might be mixed with gunpowder,
but they have always been till now substances such
as sand, which by its ready absorption of damp is
entirely unsuited for the end in view.

SUMMER ASSIZES.

HOME CIRCUIT.—CnOYDON, Aug. 2.
(Before Mr. Baron Pigott.)
Thomas Jervis, 43, the prisoner who was convicted on
Tuesday of unlawfully wounding Mr. Moss, a Scripture
reader, at the Woking prison, where prisoner was confined
under a sentence of six years' penal servitude, and who
made such an extraordinary statement with regard to the
treatment of the convicts in that establishment, was
brought up for judgment...-
The prisoner, who, as was stated in our report yesterday,
is evidently a man possessed of considerable ability, ad-
dressed the Court, and said that on the previous day the
learned counsel for the prosecution had made a very
serious charge against him, and accused him of having on
two occasions stabbed warders in the prisons where he
was confined. He did not know whether his lordship in-
tended to give any effect to that statement in the sentence
he was about to pass, but if he did, he hoped he might be
allowed to make a few observations in explanation, and
inform his lordship what were the real circumstances.
Baron Pigott told the prisoner that he had been con-
victed of the offence of unlawfully wounding, and he in-
tended to pass a sentence upon him for that offence alone,
and without reference to any other matters.
The prisoner said as this was the case he would not oc-
cupy his lordship's time any further, but would leave it
entirely in his hands.
Baron Pigott then said that the jury had found the
prisoner guilty of the offence of unlawfully wounding,
and upon the evidence it was quite clear that they could
not have come to any other conclusion. It appeared that
he had been a convict since the beginning of the year
1849.
The Prisoner—l beg your pardon; my lord. Not since
1859.
The learned Judge, resuming his address, said it appeared
that, with very short intervals of three and six months, he
had passed the life of a convict since the year 1849, and he
had been originally sentenced to twenty years' transporta-
tion ; and in 1862 he was again convicted and sentenced to
six years' penal servitude, and was undergoing that punish-
ment when be committed the offence of which ho had been
now convicted. He had, therefore, served a long appren-
ticeship as a convict, and had been in several convict
establishments. He had on the previous day made a state-
ment which was calculated to create a feeling in the public
mind that convicts were subjected to ill-treatment, and he
appeared to entertain the opinion that convict prisons
ought to be merely places of retirement for persons who
were tired of their vicious course of life. He and others in
his position must understand that this was not so. Con-
vict prisons were intended to be places of punishment, but
the prisoner did not seem to think that this was their object.
He appeared to have imagined that he had some ground of
complaint, either well or ill-founded, against the medical
officer of the establishment, and that ho had armed himself
with a knife, and with this instrument he stabbed a man
who, he admitted, had never given him any offence, and
who he himself described as a good man and a good Chris-
tian, and said had always treated him kindly. Such an
offence as this could not be passed over without severe
punishment, and he thought the jury; had taken a very
merciful view of his conduct, when they found him guilty
only of unlawfully wounding. He was bound to pass a
sentence of five year's penal servitude, but he should direct
that the sentence should date from the present time, and
that the effect would be that he would have to undergo an
additional period of punishment of three years at the expi-
ration of his former sentence.
The prisoner said ho was extremely grateful to his lord-
ship for the kind attention he had given to his case, and
for the leniency with which he had dealt with him.
Baron Pigott advised the prisoner to conduct himself
properly in future, and he would then regain his liberty
and have an opportunity, if he thought fit to do so, of be-
coming a respectable member of society.
The prisoner assured his lordship that he would do his
best to act upon his good advice, and he was then removed.

• MIDLAND CIRCUIT—You .S, Aug. 2.
CROWN COURT.
(Before Mr. Justice Blackburn.)
Henry Hughes was indicted for the wilful murder of
Francis Coates, at Middlesborough, on the 28th of July.
Mr. Mania and Mr. Hannay conducted the prosecution ;
Mr. Campbell Foster defended the prisoner.
The deceased man Coates was a moulder, 23 years of age,
and about midnight on the 27th of July went in company
with a man named Lindsay to the King's Head publichouse
in Middlesborough. The house, however, was shut up, and
Coates and his companions were refused admittance. At
that moment it happened that the prisoner was passing
along the opposite side of the street, in company with a
woman, with whom he was going in the direction of the
Albert-bridge. Both the prisoner and the woman were
rather tipsy, and Coates and his companion followed
shouting after them. When they arrived at the arch of the
Albert-bridge Coates was still following the prisoner and
the woman, and was continuing to annoy them. The pri-
soner thereupon turned round, and going up to Coates
stabbed him twice in the abdomen with a large claspknife
about six inches long in the blade and with a dagger-guard.
Coates fell and died in about three hours.
Upon cross-examination it was elicited that the prisoner
was in the company of the woman for an apparently im-
moral purpose, and that the deceased had formed one of a
party of six or eight young men who had followed the pri-
soner, jeering at him. It was attempted to be shown that
stones had been thrown at the prisoner, and that he was
surrounded and thrown on to his knees before the fatal
blows wore struck, but this the witnesses entirely denied.
There was also the dying declaration of the deceased, in
which he denied that he had thrown any stone at or struck
the prisoner.
The defence was that. the crime amounted to man-
slaughter, and not to murder.
ilia Lordship, in
Ouusruing up, pointed out to the jury

that if a man knowing what he was about caused the death
of another from the use of a deadly weapon that was murder,
unless there was anything in the attendant circumstances to
reduce the offence to manslaughter. Where the intention to
kill was shown by the use of a deadly weapon there must,
in order to reduce the crime to manslaughter, be evidence
of personal violence to the prisoner, or, at any rate, of a
reasonable apprehension on his part that it was about to
be offered. If stones had been thrown at the prisoner, or
if he had been surrounded by these young men in a threat-
ening manner, the offence might have been reduced to
manslaughter; but there was no evidence of either these
things having taken place, and mere jeering was not suffi-
cient provocation, when the intention to kill was so clearly
shown by the weapon used and the nature of the wounds as
it was in the present case.
The jury retired and, after a short deliberation, returned
into court with a verdict of guilty of wilful murder.
His Lordship, having assumed the black cap, observed
that the irritation produced in the prisoner's mind by the
thoughtless conduct of the deceased and his companions
could not justify the use of a deadly weapon, and it was
impossible for the jury reasonably to have found any other
verdict. He hoped that this case would be taken as a
lesson in this part of the country, where the use of the
knife was but too common. His Lordship then proceeded
to pass sentence of death in the usual form. The prisoner
listened with an unmoved• countenance, and at the conclu-
sion said, " Thank you, sir, I hope there'll he a judge and
jury over such a jury as them."

NORFOLK CIRCUIT.—CAMBRIDGE, Aug. 1.
' NISI PRIUS COURT.
(Before the Lord Chief Justice Erie and a Special Jury.)
JENNINGS V. THE GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY.
In this case Mr. O'Malley, Q.C., and Mr. Metcalf ap-
peared for the plaintiff ; Mr. Keane, Q.C., and Mr. Markby
for the defendants.
The plaintiff, who is the well-known trainer at Newmar-
ket,and an owner of racehorses, attended the Lincoln Spring
Meeting with threehorses,and three ladsinattendar.ze upon
them. On the last day of the races, Saturday, Feb. 25, he
went to the station at 9 in the morning to make arrange-
ments for the conveyance of his horses by the regular 6 p.m.
train back to Newmarket, via Peterborough, and retained a
horse-box for that purpose. The horses were sent down to
the station soon after 4 in the afternoon, the plaintiff follow-
ing and taking a ticket for them. He then took a first-class
ticket for himself and third-class tickets for the three lads,
and to obtain these third-class tickets was obliged to produce
the ticket for the horses, it being the rule of the railway
to grant third-class tickets for boys to travel in the horse-
boxes on those terms only. In due course the horses were
put in their boxes, together with the attendant boys ; but,
as the traffic that evening was very heavy, the railway
officialsresolvedto send the first and second class passengers
on in one train, and to forward a special train after it to
carry the horses and their attendants. The plaintiff's evi-
dence showed that he only heard of the train being divided
a few minutes before the portion in which he travelled
started, and that he thereupon produced the tickets for the
horses and the lads and then put them in his own pocket.
As soon as the first part of the train was gone, the other
part, consisting of the horse-boxes, was brought up to the
platform, and the boys in it were required to show their
tickets, which they were unable to do. It appeared that
there were about 25 of them in the horse-boxes, and of these
one-half were interlopers who had not had tickets taken for
them. The railway officials turned the boys out with some
roughness, and afterwards locked them up in a room for
being saucy. The horses were sent on without the boys,
and in due course arrived at Peterborough, when the plain-
tiff, who had been informed by telegram of the detention of
his boys, was obliged to hire men to attend his horses to
Newmarket, as it was dangerous for them to travel alone.
One horse (not belonging to the plaintiff) being described
as having arrived in his solitary box at Peterborough roar-
ing like a lion. The boys could not get in from Lincoln in
time to arrive at Newmarket before Monday, and as two of
the plaintiff's horses which had come from Lincoln—Grace
Darling and Gloriette—which were to have run the fol-
lowing Tuesday at Nottingham required gallcping at New-
market for a trial, owing to the detention of the boys who
should have ridden them, not only in the trials but at Not-
tingham also (for Mr. Jennings had no other boys of the
right weight), he had to pay forfeit, and therefore now
claimed £7 7s. for forfeits and entrance fees. He was also
obliged to engage men to accompany the horses from Peter-
borough to Newmarket, which extra cost, as well as the ex-
penses of the boys during their detention and the £7 7s.
above mentioned, he now sought to recover. This was in the
main the plainiiff's case, and was proved by himself, his
boys, and other witnesses. On the other hand the conten-
tion of the defendants was in substance that on a crowded I
railway, at a particularly busy time, the company found,
which does often happen on these occasions, that, there
were interlopers in the horse-boxes with the lack; them-
selves, some of whom had no tickets, and all of whom on
being asked by the porters to show their tickets refused to
do so, and said they were travelling with their master's
horses. Mr. Jennings himself, it was urged, in addition to
taking tickets was bound to produce them when called upon
by the company, and his not having done so was a breach of
his part of the contract with the company.
In support of the defendants' case the superintendent of
the Great Northern Railway at Lincoln was called, who de-
posed that the custom of the railway was to make the boys
in the horse-boxes produce their tickets, andthat directions
were given to theproper officials to see to that on this occa-
sion ; and in addition to him two or three of the porters and
officers on duty were also called to prove the facts urged on
behalf of the defendants.
After Mr. Keane had summed up his evidence, and Mr.
O'Malley had very briefly replied,
His lordship summed up the case, and it was arranged
that a verdict should be taken for the plaintiff on the fifth
plea and on all the material issues for £5 125., leaving being
reserved to the defendants to move that the verdict on the
fifth plea be reversed if the court should say there was no
evidence authorising the jury to find for the plaintiff on
that plea, and there was evidence authorising them to find
for the defendants upon it. The fifth plea set out thatpar-
ticular bylaw which requires every passenger to obtain a
icket, to show it when required,and to deliver it up before
Leaving the company's premises.

Enormous Robbery from an United States
Bank.

CAPTURE OF THE ROBBER IN LIVERPOOL.
LIVERPOOL, Wednesday.

It is some what singular that whenever anything like a
" big robbery" takes place in the United States, if the
robber evades the law in his own country, he generally
makes for the Mersey. A case of this kind has just
occurred. On the 22d May last the Townsend Savings
Bank in Newhaven, Connecticut, was robbed of $lOO,OOO
by one of the confidential clerks, named Jeremiah Town-
send. On the evening of the robbery Townsend requested
to be allowed to stay in the office, as he was desirous of
posting up his books. The money was lodged in an iron
safe, which was opened and shut by one of the celebrated
combination locks. Townsend by some at , present unknown
means managed to secure the "cipher" and keys from one
of the head clerks of the bank, and in the course of the
evening he must have opened the safe, abstracted his booty,
and "made tracks." On the discovery of the robbery the
excitement was intense, and information was at once sent
to all the principal cities of the States and Europe. Several
weeks elapsed, but no traces of the robber could be obtained
until June 16, when it was discovered that a draft of in-
debtedness for $5,000 had been negotiated at Drexel's bank,
Philadelphia, it being presented by a man named Ryan.
Ryan was communicated with, and it was found that he
came into possession of the draft honestly enough. He
stated that when on his way from Pittsburg to Cincinnati
he became acquainted with a man named Strawbridge (an
alias of Townsend's), and went with him to Savannah. On
leaving Townsend there the latter gave him the $5,000
note to go to Philadelphia with and get cashed for gold.
Ryan was then to go to Newhaven and give the money to
a young lady at that place, telling her at the same time to
take the steamer and meet Townsend at St. Thomas's, while
he (Ryan) was to proceed at once to Liverpool to take
apartments in the Queen's Hotel, at the place where they
were all to meet. Townsend having left Havannah for St.
Thomas's, information was given to Carlin and CaLlanau,
the Philadelphia detectives, who at once, in company with
Dr. Townsend, one of the directors of the bank, proceeded
to Boston, where they caught the Cunard steamer China
on the 19th ult., and arrived in Liverpool on Saturday
morning last. Here they ascertained that the Shannon,one
of the West India mail steamers, had reached Southampton
that morning. There was no time tolose ; sounder assumed
names the Yankee detectives went and took apartments at
Queen's Hotel, but Dr. Townsend, frOm a matter of pru-
dence, was placed in private apartments. On Saturday
night, about half-past 10 o'cicck, on the arrival of the down
train from London at the Lime-street station, Townsend
jumped lightly on the platform, and after making some in-
quiries from the porters, proceeded to the Pelican Hotel,
on the Islington flags, close to the station. The lynx-eyed
detectives, however, were on his trail, and watched him to
the Pelican. He made arrangements for lodgings for the
night, and after some refreshment, sauntered down to the
Queen's Hotel, and inquired if a Mr. Ryan was there. Re-
ceiving an answer in the negative, he proceeded unmo-
lested back to the Pelican, where he passed the night in
peace, and quiet, we presume, little dreaming what was in
readiness for him in the morning. In the meantime the
assistance of two Liverpool detectives, Horne and Car-
lisle, was procured, and early on Sunday morning the four
detectives were on the qui rive. As soon as the doors of
the Pelican were thrown open Carlin walked in, whilst
the others were conveniently placed. A few minutes be-
fore breakfast Mr. Townsend made his appearance, when
he was confronted by Carlin. Townsend placed his right
hand behind his back, but before he could do mischief he
was secured by the other detectives. On being searched a
loaded revolver was found in his coat-pocket, and on other
parts of his clothes $42,000 in notes. His luggage was next
examined, when a second loaded revolver was discovered,
besides $56,000 in gold and a quantity of jewellery. There
being no mistake about the young gentleman's identity,
he was safely and well cared for until this afternoon at four
o'clock, when he and his custodians, on board the steamer
Etna, sailed away for the "Land of Liberty." What has
become of the "young lady of Newhaven" and the $5,000
. in gold we know not.