The Sun.
London, England, 1865-03-07 00:00:00

The Davenport Brothers and Messrs. Hulley

and Cummins,

Mr. Hulley, of Liverpool, has issued a statement
in which he says :

The Davenport Brothers challenge Mr. Cummins and
myself to tie them with the so-called tom-fool's knot, "in
the presence of a jury of twelve gentlemen of position and
character in London, instead of an excited and prejudiced
mob—the knot to be applied so as not to subject the brothers
to needles pain, of which two respectable surgeons shall be
judges, and the jury of twelve to report to the public the re-
sult." I don't know that a man who, casually attending an
exhibition of spiritualistic impostures, makes it his business
to expose it, pledges himself thereby to devote the remainder
of his days to the exhilarating occupation of following a
couple of conjurors, who ridiculously pretend to be the
passive instruments of an incomprehensible power. But
as my name has become identified with this business, I at
once frankly declare that I have no objection to again at-
tempting to baulk the Davenports of theft prey—the
money of a swindled public—if they will permit the trial
to take place on terms that may benefit society ; but before

specifying those terms I must, make a few comments on
the particularly modest and accurate account which they
have published of the treatment to which they have been
subjected. Once for all, neither I nor Mr. Cummins have
had anything to do with smashing cabinets. lam under
the impression that in Liverpool the onslaught on that
precious piece of furniture was instigated by the con-
federates of the brother, and it is a remarkable circum-
stance that about one half of those present paid no
admission money, but entered with orders. Certain it is
that we did our best to keep the invaders off the plat-

form, and had left the hall before the cabinet was touched,
At Huddersfield, where we are represented to have deli-

vered stimulating addresses, we did our best to prevent any
display of violence. _ . .

My connection with this affair arose by the merest acci.
dent. I met Mr. Cummins about half7past six on the even•

ing of the Tuesday, and he showed me a knot which he
had been taught, and which he firmly believed the Daven-
ports could not get out of, proposing that I should accom-
pany him and tie up one of the brothers. I agreed, and,
from my position, being well known in the town, it hap-
pened that I was called on by the audience to act as one of

the committee whom Dr. Ferguson invited them to nominate.
I consented on condition that Mr. Cummins should be the
other.ln this capacity we proceeded to tie the brothers, and the
one who was consigned to me soon complained that I was not
only hurting him, but stopping the circulation. The brothers
say we refused to retire. The fact is the audience loudly
called upon us to remain. They say the audience wore
made to believe that they objected to the particular form
of the knot, and not to the severity of the tying. Not a
word was said to the audience on the subject ; but a well-

known Liverpool surgeon testified that there was no cruelty
in the manner;of tying, and upon this the audience naturally
redoubled their manifestation in our favour. The fact is
that the form of knot, which is the simplest thing in the
world, enables it to be applied effectually without pain, if
the person tied will only remain passive. But William
Davenport persisted in wrenching his hands out of the
position in which I placed them—a remarkable thing
for a man to do who says his power depends on his
passivity—and the consequence was that it needed deter-
mination, though not the least roughness, to give the knot
a fair trial. ;The performance of the Tuesday evening was
virtually upset by the refusal of the brothers to be tied by
us ; and when at length we left the platform, a late portion
of the audience left with us and their money returned.
Next day there appeared in the papers an advertisement
attributing brutality to us, and undertaking that regula-
tions should be adopted which would prevent all dis-

turbances in future. - When we attended in the evening,
as we felt bound to do after this aspersion upon us, we

found that the only one of the new regulations likely
to serve the Davenports was that which gave them the
right to refuse any committee named by the audience,
" When they discovered a disposition to deal unfairly."
This of course meant that they intended to refuse Messrs.
Hulley and Cummins, an intention which they immediately
avowedwhen the audience selected us. The right to act thus
may belong, as the brothers say, even to criminals on trial ;
but the assembly were of opinion that it did not become per-
formers who professed to court the severest investigation.
Accordingly they stood by us. It is not true, however, that
we went to the platform backed by a crowd of our friends,
except in the sense that a considerable proportion
of those present loudly applauded our determination to
fulfil the duty they had assigned us. That we
in " various ways excited violent manifestations in
the audience, " is simply and gratuitously untrue.
It is equally calumnious to call us "the heroes of an assault
of some hundreds of brave Englishmen." We had nothing
to do with the riot. Our only function was to tie the Da-
venports as the representatives of the audience, and no se-
verity whatever had been committed by us when Ira
Davenport stopped the proceedings by having his rope
cut, and pretending that the blood caused by Dr. Fergu-
son's knife had been occasioned by the tying. If the
brothers will only accept as committeemen or jurors those
who don't believe them to be humbugs, they will have
great difficulty in selecting a committee or jury whose im-
partiality will satisfy the public. They have no business
to talk of any person being a foe, who is
selected by an audience at their own request to tie them,
and whose manner of tying is surgically certified not to be
painful or injurious. They must submit to be tied; to re-
main passive during the operation ; to insist on no objec-
tion which competent surgeons do not corroborate ; to get
out if they can; and to accept the consequences in public
estimation if they cannot. It is not necessary for me to criti-
cise the preposterous pretensions of the more general pas-
sages of the Davenport manifesto. It is a deliberate and
flagrant affront to the intelligence of the community which
had better be treated with contempt. I will conclude,
therefore, by stating on what terms I will meet the Daven-
ports and respond to their challenge.
1. At an early date (say the week after next) the
Hanover-square Rooms shall be taken for six nights on the
responsibility of the Davenports.
2. That they will appear and be tied by me and a friend
whom I will nominate every night of the six whether
they succeed or fail in extricating themselves.
3. That no free admissions shall be given, and that
the ordinary prices shall be charged.
4. That Mr. Fay, Mr. Palmer, Dr. Ferguson, and the
Brothers accept as their remuneration one guinea each
for tho week's performances.
5. That there shall be no committee or jury, but that
two known surgeons shall be appointed on each side and
properly feed, whose sole duty shall be to pronounce
whether our tying is calculated to give pain when the
hands are held passive.
6. That after the rooms have been paid for and the be-
fore-named expenses discharged, the whole of the pro-
ceeds, which shall be deposited from night to-night with
a person upon whom the Davenports and myself shall
mutually agree, shall be handed over immediately after
to performance to the Liverpool Children's Infirmary.

The following is the challenge of Mr. R. Bruce
Cummins, of Liverpool :—" I will engage to tie
Mr. William Davenport, in Liverpool, before a com-
mittee of twelve gentlemen, six of whom may be brought
from London by Mr. Davenport, it being understood
that Mr. Dion Boucicault be excluded. The other
six shall be gentlemen of unquestioned character and posi-
tion in Liverpool, selected by myself. Mr. Davenport
andl shallpach invite a well-known medical man—l would
suggest to Mr. Davenport the celebrated Mr. Fergusson,
of London—to onsure fair treatment. The trial shall
take place in a room selected by the committee, the fur-
niture to consist of a single chair. I will tie Mr. Daven-
port in the presence of the committee and surgeons, after
which he shalt be left alone. If, at the expiration of ten
minutes, Mr. Davenport readmit the committee and satisfies
them that he is free, without having had recourse to any
cutting instruments, and in another ten minutes appear re-
tied in the manner I left him, I will hand to Mr. Davenport
X5O; but should he fail, I shall then claim the like amount
from him.

MURDER OF AN ENGLISH MERCHANT IN PERSIA.
—Sir F. Crossley, M.P., has received the following
letter relative to the murder in Persia of a Huddersfield
merchant, from W. Hammond, and dated :—" Foreign-
office, Feb. 10, 1865.—Sir,—I am directed by Earl Russell
to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the Bth inst.,
enclosing a letter from Mr. Edward Langfield upon the
subject of the circumstances under which Mr. Benjamin
Langfield had been murdered by some Persian soldiers,
near Shahrood, in July last, and I am to inform you
in reply that her Majesty's Government has already
received from her Majesty's Minister at Teheran the
particulars of this melancholy occurrence, from which it
appears that Mr. Benjamin Langfield, accompanied by his
brother Abraham, passed through Teheran in February
last on their way to Shahrood, with a view of speculating
in cotton, and that they were duly warned by her Majesty's
Secretary of Legation of the extreme risk they incurred by
travelling in Persia without proper escort with large sums of
money in their possession. It appears that on the 22d of
July, as Mr. Langfield and his servant were proceeding from
the port of Gey to Shahrood, on entering the district of
Bostam, they were attacked by some cavalry.belonging to
the Persian army, who, after having shot both master and
man, robbed the dead body of Mr. Langfield of all the
money he had in his possession, and decamped. Their
bodies were subsequently recovered by a Christian resi-
dent of Shahrood, who had them removed to that place
and buried there ; their clothes and other articles found on
them were placed in a room, where they are now locked
up. Mr. Alison at once took measures to endeavour to
trace the murderers and recover the stolen property, and
with this view obtained the necessary order from the Shah
to the Governor of Shahrood and to the Persian com-
mander-in-chief for the discovery and arrest of the crimi-
nals. It does not appear, however, that those measures
have as yet been attended with success, but instructions
will be sent to Mr. Alison to make further inquiry into
the matter, and strong representations to the Persian
Government. Mr. Alison speaks in high terms of the
assistance rendered by the Russian Minister at Teheran
and by the Russian consul at Asterabad in the stops taken
for the apprehension of the murderers.