The Sun.
London, England, 1871-01-30 00:00:00

ALLEGED CHILD MURDER.

Mr. Brabant, deputy-coroner for the St. Albans' dis-
trict, held an inquest at the Queen's Arms, Underhill, near
Barnet, on Saturday afternoon last, on the body of an
illegitimate child, aged nine months, the offspring of a
young woman named Bumbel, belonging to Finchley.
The body was found in a pond by the Rev. Mr. Twenty-
man on Thursday last. On the 19th ultimo Bumbel called
at a friend's house at Whetstone with her child, but in
half an hour afterwards was seen walking along the road
without it. She was asked what she had done with the
infant. She replied that she had left it at the foot of
Barnet Hill. Nothing more was seen of the child till it
was pulled out of the pond. The inquest was adjourned
to afford time for the apprehension of Bulbel.

THE HEALTH OF MR. CHILDERS.
(CENTRAL PRESS TELEGRAM.)
Mr. Childers is about to proceed on a trip to the Medi-
terranean for the benefit of his health. The right hon.
gentleman will embark on board the Admiralty yacht
Enchantress, at Newhaven, for this purpose.

SMOKING ON THE METROPOLITAN
RAILWAY.

The Metropolitan Railway Company having been
specially excluded from the operation of the Act which
compels all railway companies to provide smoking
carriages, has been taking active steps to put down
smoking on the line. In common with all exceptional
legislation, this particular provision of the Act is
found to work very considerable inconvenience. The
Great Western Railway, for instance, is compelled to
find smoking carriages for its pagsengers up to the Bishop's-
road station, where the carriages appropriated to smokers
cease to be smoking carriages ; the smokers must put out
their pipes or cigars, and passengers from the other sta-
tions are obliged to travel in a carriage which for the
previous part of the journey has been reserved exclusively
for smokers, and it is of course redolent of the smoke of
the weed, while the smoker is debarred from the privilege
which he had enjoyed. The district line is not exempted
by the Act, but the Board of Trade has since the
passing of the Act given the necessary exemption to the
company from providing smoking carriages. It is an
anomaly that smoking should be an offence on the Metro-
politan Railway, while if it takes place in the carriages
of the Great Northern or Midland Companies, which run
upon a part of the same line, it is not only not an offence,
but those companies are actually bound by law to pro-
vide carriages in which the offence is com-
mitted. The Metropolitan directors would, we
think, do well to follow the example of other
railways, and endeavour to control a custom which it
is hopeless for them to seek to put down. The directors
should seek to conciliate support rather than estrange it.
By their earnest endeavours to put an end to smoking on
the railway they may be making for themselves many
enemies, and not a ftw friends for those tramway car-
riages from which smoking will not be excluded, and
which threaten to prove very formidable competitors to
the Underground Railway. Mr. Sheridan, we perceive,
has announced that it is his intention to take the first
opportunity of removing the exemption which the com-
pany enjoys, and expresses his surprise that railway
directors "should be so blind to their own interests as to
fail to see the daily increasing demand for the separation
of smokers from non-smokers on this line, and so far from
endeavouring to meet this demand, are announ-
cing, and indeed commencing, a new crusade,
against the public upon this subject ;" and "he
strongly recommends the Metropolitan directors, instead
of summoning their customers before police magistrates,
to adapt their laws to the unquestionable necessity of the
case, for they may be sure that an exception which has
now become not only intolerable, but positively ridiculous.
must be speedily abolished."—Railway News.

John Bull hears that in several Loudon churches,
should the marriage of the Princess Louise take place in
Lent, there will be a special penitential office at the same
hour!

CABINET COUNCIL.—A. Cabinet Council was held
on Saturday, at the private residence of Earl Granville, in
Bruton-street. The Ministers present were—The Right
Hon. W. E. Gladstone, the Lord Chancellor,
Earl de Grey and Ripon, Viscount Halifax,
the Right Hon. H. A. Bruce, Earl Granville, the
Earl of Kimberley, the Right Hon. E. Cardwell, the
Duke of Argyll, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the
Right Hon. G. J. Goschen, the Right Hon. C. Fortescue,
and the Right Hon. W. E. Forster.

THE COI:MT.—Her Majesty the Queen, accom-
panied by their Royal Highnesses Princesses Louise and
Beatrice and Prince Leopold; attendeil by the ladies and
gentlemen of the suite, will, it is understood, leave
Osborne on Tuesday, the 7th of February, and return to
Windsor Castle. At Windsor the private suites of apart-
ments have been prepared in readiness for the arrival of
her Majesty and the Royal Family. Her Majesty will,
it is expected, proceed from Windsor to open the House
upon the re-assembling of Parliament. According to
the most recent arrangements, it is probable that the
Queen after the ceremony will pay a visit to Claremont
House, and reside there a few days previoas to returning
to Windsor.

BERMUDA.—PeopIe who o',ject to the acquisi-
tion of San Domingo, at a cost of only 1,500,000 dols.,
with 20,000 square miles of land, producing every variety
of nature's most profitable articles of commerce, and
a half dozen fine harbours, will be interested in learning
from the following extract what the English people are
doing at the little island of Bermuda, whose whole
commerce is in early potatoes and onions. Rear-
Admiral Lee, of the flagship Severn, under date of
Bermuda, December 6, writes to the Navy Depart-
ment as follows :—" Vessels disabled on our coast
come here to repair and refit. England has spent
and is spending much money here in fortifications
and military roads, and on its dockyard and reef passes.
The floating iron dock, built in England and towed here
last summer, at a total expense of $1,250,000, is a great
success. It can dock the largest and heaviest ship in the
world, can be readily used, its bottom can be conveniently
cleared, and it is calculated to last half a century. Now
iron ships can be well kept on this station, and the dock-
yard, which is provided with admirable buildings for the
repairs and victualling of a fleet, is to be promptly pro-
vided with additional factory power, to the extent of its
capacity and the requirements of a fleet for repairs after*
battle.—New York Tines.