The Sun.
London, England, 1841-01-01 00:00:00

~~.

a Di
A II itr

MORNING ED►I

THE MYSTERIOUS AND
ING OUTRAGE ON M. V. MlL__.,.
W-4,F\-,rac:kil/4
(FURTHER PARTICULARS.) •
The Lyons journals and private accounts of the 22d
afford us the following details of the treatment of M.
Million after he was carried off :

" The boat in which he was placed, on reaching
Ternay, was run on shore. He was made to land, and
taken into a vineyard, where he was compelled to write
to his wife, desiring her not to send the police in search
of him, as his life depended on her remaining quiet.
Footmarks in the snow and a candle-end were left, and
indicated that a halt had been made at this spot, but
no further traces could be discovered. Between
eleven and twelve o'clock the same night the four
confederates arrived at a public-house in a lonely situ-
ation near Ternay, much frequented by smugglers and
other persons of bad repute. Here M. Million was
taken down into the cellar, and kept bound to a
stake, while the chief of the band, a dealer in wood at
Vaise, named Poncet, stood over him with a hatchet,
another being near hies, while the remaining two kept
watch upon the master of the house, who was not in the
secret. It was in this cellar, and under threats of in-
stant death, that M. Million wrote a letter to his wife,
desiring her to send 10,000 f. for his ransom. This
was to be transinitt,d by a man belonging to Vaise,
who was described, and who was to wait near the Pont
de Givors, when the obscurity of the night would ad-
mit of the exchange of the prisoner for the money
without discovery. In the meantime the master of
the public-house, having heard of the disappearance
of M. Million, and suspecting his guests, became alarmed,
and contrived to give information to the garde cham-
petre, who immediately conveyed it to the gendarmerie
at Givors. The quartermaster immediately hastened
with his men to the house, and having completely
surrounded it, broke open the door of the cellar, and
found Poncet still standing over his prisoner with the
hatchet. He was quickly disarmed and secured. M.
Million, who was lying bound hand and foot on a miser-
able bed, was of course released. Unfortunately the
three accomplices of Poncet contrived to effect their es-
cape. Madame Million was in the utmost anxiety as to
the means of transmitting the reasons, the man who
brought tins letter having refused to undertake the charge
when a gendarme arrived full speed from Givors with
the news of the delivery of her husband. At nine in
the evening M. Million was in the arms of his family."
The Reparateur of Lyons states that Poncet arrived
there in the morning of the 20th, and was immediately
forwarded to prison at Roanne. Poncet is the man
against whom M. Million, as Judge of the Tribunal de
Commerce, delivered a decree, and for which he bore
hiin a grudge."

The-cou;rier de Lyon supplies us with the following
further details of the affair of M. Million :
" Vengeance and cupidity were the causes of the
attempt. Poncet the chief actor, who is a reputed
smuggler, some time ago formed a partnership with an -
other man named Robert, as timber dealers, at La
Guillotiere, but this connection was soon dissolved, and
was followed by an arrangement which reduced Pon-
cet to the situation of clerk to Robert, with a per
tentage on the profits. This was also soon at an cud,
and Poneet left to his own resources. He then com-
menced a suit against Robert before the Tribunal of
Commerce of Lyons, claiming o balance amounting to
no less than 100,0001. M. Million, who was one of the e,
Judges of the Tribunal, was appointed reporter, and
after due investigation came to a conclusion totally
adverse to the claim of Poncet, and which conclusion
the Tribunal adopted, dismissing the claim. The Cour
Royale, to which Poncet appealed, confirmed the
judgment. In consequence of this failure, a brother
of Poucet, who had advanced him a considerable sum
of money, was thrown into despair, and hung himself.
Poncet attributed the rejection of his suit to an inti-
macy bi!tweeu his adversary Robert, who had obtained
a contract for part of the works of the fortifications at
Lyons. with the Commandant of the Engineers, who is
a brother of M. Million, and through his influence Pon-
cet conceived that the Judge had decided in favour of
Robert. Ponca frequently indulged in violent invec-
tives against the three above-named persons, and had
laid several previous plans to seize on M. Million, but
was unable to put them into execution. The master
of the public-house to which M. Million was carried,
accustomed to receive suspicious characters, seemed
to take no notice of the victim, but assisted
in conveying him down into the cellar, and
fastening him to a girdler in the wall. • Pon-
cet here made himself for the first time known to M.
Million, stood over with him with his hatchet, and, in
the most opprobrious and gross terms, threatened to
murder him, and throw him into the Rhone, or bury
him in the cellar, if he did not secure to h m 30,000
francs—one half the sum which, as Poncct pretended,
he had been robbed of by unjust judgment. M. Mil-
lion, however, firmly resisted, and fifteen hours after
his capture, that is, in the middle of the next day, he
was removed into an upper chamber, asd offered some
nourishment, but he declined taking anything but a glass
of wine. Poncet then allowed him to lie down on a
bed, still remaining by his side, armed with tha hatchet.
Notwithitandiug all the terrors of his situation M.
Million, exhausted by bodily and mental fatigue, slept
for a short time. Poncet afterwards reduced his de-
mand to the 10,000 francs, for which M. Million con-
sented to send the order to his wife."

The Duke of Norfork goes to Arundel Castle,
Sussex, this week. The Earl and Countess of Surrey, and
the Ladies Howard, Viscount and Viscountess Fitzalan,
intend also visiting the family scat for several weeks.
TIIE TERRITORY OF MIND.—I am not a land-
lord, but I have a territory, one not entirely in the realms
of fancy. I have a territory which I have consecrated in
my heart, and peopled beyond the reach of fortune and
fate ; there I meet with all that is manly and intrepid ;
there are the loves of liberty, whose necks never bowed
down beneath the yoke of oppression; there I meet scenes,
the very conception of which exalts the lowliest to the
highest grade ; there I have found sometimes a claim, if
not to the applause, at least to the affection and respect of
my fellow-countrymen.—Professor Wilson.
BOULOGNE.—The weather for the last few days
has been most delightful. On Christmas day nothing
could be more agreeable, more cheering to the spirits,
With just sufficient of cold to prevent the rays of the sun
producing a moisture under foot, there was a dryness in
the atmosphere, a tranquillity, a slumbering of every breath
of air, that gave a stillness and repose to the whole animal
economy, which was visible in the countenances of all
greeting their friends with &merry and a happy Christmas.
We have caught the infection of the day, and wish our
readers and patrons many happy returns of the season.
This number closes our account for the year 1840. In
looking back upon the past six months, in considering the
humble part that we have played, we trust our readers
have not found cause to upbraid us for departing from the
promises contained in our first number. Our objects have
been twofold, to defend the public, and in the disordered
state into which society has been flung, to glean for our
friends the most early intelligence. The support we have
received is the sure index of the satisftetion wo have
given. For that support wo return our thanks, and trust
that our efforts and conduct during the coming year will
enable us to repeat with the same pride that we do at pre-
sent, that vice has never sullied our pages, attacks upon
private character disgraced our columns, or our Gazette
been made, at any time, subservient to any other purpose
than the general defence of English interests in Boulogne.
Our attention has been called by an English gentlemen
to the fact of five soldiers having been billetted upon him
in less than a month ! In the Colonne of yesterday we see
it stated that they " hear between fifty and sixty beds,
that have been sent to the caserne have been very quietly
placed up in the granary of that establishment, instead of
being applied to their proper use in the barracks " We
call upon the Mayor to examine into this fact, and, if it
he true, to have those punished who have so shamefully
neglected their duty. No doubt the soldier prefers being
billetted upon the town to being confined in his barracks;
but for ladies and gentlemen who never heard of such a
thing as soldiers being billetted on private families, the
act becomes a nuisance, laying aside the burdensome tax
it becomes. The five soldiers in ou© month coat our
friend 57f. The town has been thinned of English, but
such burdens, we are afraid, will drive more away. —Bou-
logne Gazette.
BETTING ON THE PRESIDENT'S ELECTrON.
—A decision has recently been given in Philadelphia, on a
case involving a bet upon the result of an election, which
is worthy of being recorded. While the Presidential
election was pending, Dr. C. P. Keichlino and Mr. A. B.
Fithian made each other a promise of. a gift upon these
terms the case of the re-election of Martin Van
Buren, Mr. Fithian was to present a suit of clothes
to Dr. Keichlinc, and in the event of the election of
General Harrison, Dr. Keichlino was to make a like
each other to ful-
fil the
promise
that ipmrevsinegnt
btecienAslar.tisfiFeidtheiafilt.he Naobillnityonoefy was put up, both
present , had satisfied himself of the
ability of Mr. Fithian, by a personal inquiry of the wit-
ness. Matters remained in this way until the day of
the election. When Dr. Keichline went to the poll to
due. It appeared by a witness
deposit his vote, he was challenged as a better. He as-
serted, however, that lie had made no bet, but a simple pro-
mise, and related the circumstances. The judge swore
him upon the truth of this relation, and then accepted his
vote. As soon as the result of the Presidential contest had
been fairly ascertained, Mr. Fithian demanded of Dr. Keich.
line the fulfilment of the promise ; but the latter declined,
on the ground that Mr. Fithian bad been the cause, or at
least instrumental in his being challenged. This asser-
tion could not be proved at the hearing, whica was a
fullinvestigation of the whole matter, and was
closed by the Alderman giving judgment for the
defendant. He expressed himself at length upon
the subject, considering the promise, to ail interne
and purposes, a bet in fact, and, as a matter of
course, a violation of an express act of Assembly.
The following singular proposition we find in a late S't.
Louis Gaulle :--A warm Ilarrisonian made the following
proposition to day, which, however, was not taken tip—.
that lie would pay 200 dollars to any man who would agree
to give him one kernel of coffee for the first single vote
Harrison gut over Van Buren's whole vote, two for the
bseeeinognds,oamne d so °
little
CUr
what the result might
be, sundry grains of coffee were weighed, and it was ascer-
tained that 2,560 grains of
curiosity si ty to geometrical
k nprogression. There
Java coffee weighed a pound.
Supposing, then, that Harrison runs a-head of Van Buren
ov
thirty votes, the amount of coffee to 'be paid over would
exceed 332,000,0001),, worth, at sixteen cents, per pound,
the pleasant Logi/id& of 53,000,000 dollars. The gentle-
man who declined the bet was probably very prudent....
Philadelphia Ledger.