The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-30 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JUNE 30, 1870.

LAW AND POLICE.

THE BABY-FARMING -CASE.

ENGLISH AND IRISH COURTS.—A suit was instituted in
Vice Chancellor Malins' Court for the purpose of setting
aside two deeds compromising the plaintiffs right under a
settlement respecting certain large estates in the
county of Mayo. The principal defendant filed a
plea stating that the plaintiff was resident in
France and the defendants in Ireland, that the estate to
which the settlement related was in Ireland, and that this
court had therefore no jurisdiction. The Vice Chancellor
said there were properly established courts in Ireland for
the determination of questions relating to land in that
country, and there was no reason why such a suit should
be brought in these courts. He therefoae allowed the
plea of the defendants denying the jurisdiction of his
court in the matter.
DISTURBANCES IN COURT.—Several persons, both men
and women, have been summoned at Bow-street
for interfering with the officers of the Court
in the discharge of their duty. They were fined or com-
mitted, the magistrate observing that this kind of offence
was very much on the increase, and he intended to deal
with it severely. The court and its approaches are
very insufficient for the amount of business which
is daily carried on there. A new court is much wanted,
which, in addition to other advantages, should have a
good yard for the prisoners' van, where the prisoners could
be taken into the court without risk of obstruction by
their associates.
RAILWAY FARES.—Thomas Vernon and Augustus
Potter, both described as gentlemen, of Lewisham, have
been summoned at Southwark, by the North Kent
Railway. Mr. Vernon was charged with attempting to
pass the barrier at London Bridge, without having
first paid his fare, and Mr. Potter with obstructing and
assaulting the officers in the execution of their duty.
The particulars of the affray having been given by the
ticket-keeper, Mr. Potter said he had taken a return
ticket at Lewisham, and he supposed the return half got
clipped by mistake. Mr. Vernon said he saw his friend in
trouble, and went to help him. The officer said it
was well known that no clipped or cancelled ticket was
ever allowed. Vernon was fined £5, and Potter £3, with
the alternative of imprisonment.
- -

On Wednesday information was forwarded to Mr. Carter,
he Surrey coroner, of the discovery of the body of a dead
child under the arches of the London, Chatham, and
Dover Railway, at Camberwell. It appears that on Tues-
day afternoon, while some men were removing a heap of
rubbitth from under one 'of the railway arches near the
ballast-holepond, a large piece of .water situated close to
the Brunswick-road, Camberwell, they found, wrapped up
in a bundle of rags, the dead body of a child, in a dread-
fully decomposedcondition. The police were instantly
sent for, and they removed the body to No. 4. Frederick's
terrace, Brixton, the residence of the baby-farmers, Waters
and Ellis. Several Of the witnesses in the baby-farming case
were then sent for, to see if they could identify the child by
means of its clothing as having been one of the infants
that had formerly inhabited the house, which is situated
within a quarter of a mile of the scene of the discovery of
the nfant's body. It may be stated that the ballast-
hole pond is a piece of water of about two acres in extent,
and twelve feet,in depth, and it is believed in the neigh-
bourhood that a number of children's bodies have been
thrown into it.

THE MONARCH INSURANCE COMPANY.
OnWednesday, at the Mansion House, the preliminary in-
vestigation in the case of the directors of the Monarch Insu-
ance Company was brought to a close. It will be remem-
bered that the directors, and Mr. W. Hodges, the younger,
are charged with conspiring to cheat and defraud the public,
and also with publishing a false balance sheet, with in-
tent to defraud. The defendants who surrendered were
the Hon. A. G. Jocelyn, Mr. G. E. Bulwer,
and Major W. Carnegie. Mr. Joseph Taylor,
who appeared at the former. examinations, and who
was admitted to bail, himself in £2,000, and
one surety in £2,ooo—did not now surrender, and Mr.
Lewis, the solicitor for the prosecution, asked that his re-
co,gnizances be estreated, remarking that he was credibly
informed that he did not intend to appear, and that he
was probably on the Continent with Messrs. -Wright,
Harward and Hodges, the three defendants who had not
surrendered at all.
The application was granted, and the necessary steps
ordered to be taken.
The evidence of the various witnesses was then read by
Mr. Oke, the chief clerk. On one of them Mr. Hales
Swetnan, a brother-in-law of Mr. Taylor's, being called,
he did not appear. The charges against the defendants
were then read, and in reply,
Major Carnegie explained with reference to the balance
sheet that he was asked to sign it by Mr. Taylor, the
managing director, on the day previous to that fixed for
holding the general meeting, and he did so, but having
thought over the matter during the night he
went to the ' office and desired that a note of
explanation should be added with regard to the 30,000
but he was informed that the balance-sheet was not to be
printed, and he was perfectly horror-stricken when he
found that some copies had been circulated. He added
that he had never been a director of any other company.
Major Jocelyn said he looked forward to the result of
the trial with the utmost confidence, because he felt
that he was perfectly innocent of the crimes laid to his
charge.
The prosecutor, Mr. Dumas, then entered into his re-
cognisances in the amount of £5OO to proceed with the
.case at the Central Criminal Court, ''and the proceedings
then terminated, the defendants being, as before, liberated
on bail.

STEALING PHEASANTS.—TWO men, described as labour-
ers, have been charged at Huntingdon with steal-
ing fifty -four live pheasants from the aviary of
Colonel Duncombe, M.P., Waresley Park. Colonel
Duncombe is the chairman of sessions, but did not preside.
The pheasants had been stolen and taken off in a cart,
being afterwards sent lo London. Several of them died
on the road through close packing. Evidence having
been given which identified the prisoners with the crime,
they were sentenced to twelve months' hard labour.

SEIZURE OF AN ILLICIT DISTILLERY AT HUDDERSFIELD.
—At the Court-house, Huddersfield, William Kitson,
about 60 years of age, cloth finisher, Berry Brow, was
charged with having in his possession an illicit still. Mr.
Bright, supervisor, stated that they had received infor-
mation of Kitson carrying on an apparatus for the
Manufacture of illicit whisky, and his house was
watched, but appearances did not warrant its being
searched. On Saturday, ho*ever, a police-constable
(Charles Wilson) saw the prisoner leave his house, and
accosted him. The prisoner, who exclaimed, "It is all
up with me," had in a basket two bladders containing
whisky. On his house being searched by Inspector
White, there were found a still, still head and worm; two
casks of wort in a state of fermentation, &c., all of which
were seized. The wort was of a very fine description ;
and the still was capable of distilling about five gallons,
representing about £3 every time it was charged. The
prisoner had been twice previously convicted of the same
offence, and was fined in the full penalty of £3O.
THE SALE OF BANKRUPT'S STOCKS BY TENDER.—A
case of great importance to the drapery trade, containing
a point affecting tenders generally, was argued in the
Court of Common Pleas. A London firm issued circulars
to the wholesale trade, stating that they were instructed
to offer for sale a stock-in-trade, valued at £2,503 13s. ld,
to be sold at a discount in one lot and paid for is cash.
Tenders sealed and en lorsed were to be sent to defen-
dants. Plaintiff's tender was the highest ; but defendants
refused to accept it, and the present proceedings were
thereupon commenced. Plaintiff contended that the issuing
of that circular was an implied contract to accept the
highest tender ; but the Court held that no such construc-
tion could be placed upon the circular, in the absence of an
express stipulation. The highest tender might only
amount to half the ascertained value of the goods, and to
accept such a tender would be selling at a sacrifice
instead-of a discount. The circular was merely an invita-
tion to tender without any undertaking, and the judgment
of the court must be for the defendants.

THE WEATHER AND THE CROPS.
The drought in France has become very serious—in fact
almost unparalleled. Three months of uninterrupted fine
weather have hardened the soil and scorched up the roots
of the forage crops. The harvest of these crops has been
of the scantiest, sort in the most fortunate places, and has
amounted to nothing in those districts which suffered
the most severely. Already it is predicted that
the' oats will fail as well as the hay and
thus the horses will lose another source of supply. The
grain will be more scarce and dear than 'ever, and the
chances are no better with respect to the root crops.
Such a want of provisions has led to a reduction in the
number of cattle, while a general cry of distress is
heard through the districts, which are the most affected.
Beasts have been sold for next to nothing. Proprietors
and farmers not knowing how to feed them have got rid
of them as best they might; in some cases abandoning
them to their fate. Such a reduction in the price of cattle
would lead, one would suppose, to a diminution in the
price of meat, but on the contrary, the butchers are
resolved to turn the general loss to account and derive
from thence an individual profit. During the last month;
while the prices of cattle have been rapidly decreasing in
value, the cost of meat has increased, although it was
previously raised to an exorbitant sum. , The public natu-,
rally feel indignant and make protests against the extor-
tion but to little purpose, since all end in paying the ex-
travagant sum which is claimed. •
A correspondent of the Eastern Budget has the follow-
ing : `` The prospects c f the corn harvest in all parts of
Austria and Hungary are still excellent, but the news
from the vineyards are not so good. It is expected that
the vintage will be only a middling one as regards quan.
titY ; what will be its quality cannot be determined until
the autumn. Whether the favourable harvest will cause
a large exportation of corn must depend solely on
the state of the French market, now that the
English crops have been so much improved by the recent
Change in the weather. Hungary will have a large quan-
tity of wheat and maize to dispose of, but she will not be
in a position to sell at low, or even moderate prices, for
wages in Hungary, especially in favourable years, are
much too high, and the charge for the conveyance of corn
by rail is very heavy. Oats, which would probably fetch
high prices in England with the present scarcity of green
food, are comparatively little cultivated in Hungary, but
large quantities will doubtless be exported from Bohemia
and Moravia."
The Belfast News Letter gives a very cheering account
of the state of the crops in the North of Ireland, and
states that, simultaneously with the promise of an
abundant harvest, there has been a decided improvement
in trade during the last three weeks.
The Cornish potato crop is turning out remarkably well
this
.year.

ESTABLISHING A PRECEDENT.—The case of Ingram v.
Lowrie, which came before the Court of Common Pleas,
raised the important question of the status of Colonial
Courts. The Supreme Court of Jamaica, had given
judgment in two actions between the parties, and the
defendant applied to have these judgments set aside on
the ground that they were obtained by fraud. To this the
plaintiff demurred that such a plea was not a competent
one ; and Mr. M`Nair submitted that there was no case
in which such a plea had been allowed. The Colonial
Court was one of her Majesty's Courts, having concur.
rent powers with this Court, and, therefore, he contended,
this court had no right to interfere with its judgments,
which could only be set aside by appeal to the Privy
Council. The Court, however, decided that the matter
should be tried before a jury, as prayed for by the defen-
dant, in older that they might have the facts of fraud
properly before them before delivering judgment. If an
injustice were done by fraud, it was clearly the duty as
well as the right of an English superior court t o interfere
upon the facts being legally proven. The defendant
would have leave to amend his plea by declaring that the
alleged fraud was practised upon the court as well as upon
Limseif. The principal item of fraud WAS said to be the
falsification of memoranda.
THE CARDIFF ABDUCTION CASE.—In the Court of
Queen's Bench, the case of " Lyons v. Thomas " was
again heard. The plaintiff, Mr. Lyons brought an
action at Cardiff Assizes against the Rev. &.[r. Thomas, a
Baptist minister, and others, for having taken away his
daughter, he thus losing her services, and converting her
from the Jewish to the Christian faith. The jury found
a verdict for the plaintiff, with fifty pounds damages
against some of the defendants, but not against others,
the rule having been obtained to enter a nonsuit or a
new trial on the ground of insufficiency of evidence
of enticement or loss of service. Mr. Giffard now shewed
cause. He should assume that there was a relation of
master and servant between Esther Lyons and her father
prior to the taking away of the former ; and he should con-
tend that there was an actionable wrong in enticing the
girl away. The learned counsel argued from the circum-
stances that the Thomases induced the girl to go
away, and kept her from her ' father `s home.
Mr. Grove, Q.C., and. Mr. Turner, in supporting the
rule, submitted that there was not any evidence of Mr.
and Mrs. Thomas having induced the girl to leave her
home. She left her home of her own free will, and that
being so, no action would lie against the defendants.
Though denying that there was a slight inducement used,
still he contended, if it was used, it was not an actionable
offence.—The court made the rule absolute for a nonsuit
on the ground that there was no evidence to submit to
the jury ; but at the same time they commented strongly
upon the conduct of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas, from which
the jury might reasonably, though not legally, have in-
ferred the guilt of defendants.
STREET PREACHING.—A case which excited great inte-
rest has been tried at the Farringdon Petty Sessions,
Oxford. Samuel Insull, agent to the United. Kingdom
Alliance, a yeoman named Belcher, and two Nonconfor-
mist Ministers, were summoned for causing an
Obstruction in the Market-place,' Farringdon. Mr. Insull
was lecturing in behalf of the United Kingdom Alliance
to some 500 persons. A police constable said that it was
almost impossible to pass, and the crowd seemed irritated,
buckets of beer being handed amongst them. He
afterwards saw the 'defendant Belcher followed by a
crowd of 100 persons, and he asked witness to protect
him. The witness was cross-examined with the view
to prove that the noise and obstruction complained of were
caused chiefly by the beer being given away. A brewer
who was driving past was called to prove the obstruction,
and a shopkeeper and surgeon gave similar evidence. The
counsel for the defendants contended that they
were on private property and therefore should not
have been summoned. He called the lessee
of the tolls of the manor who proved letting
the ground for the meeting. It was often let to
cheap Jacks, showmen, and others. Witnesses were
called to prove that before the beer was distributed
there was no obstruction, but vehicles were trotting
past. When the beer was brought out the crowd
rushed tcwards it, and this caused the confusion. The
bench was of opinion that the case should have been made
one of indictment, and dismissed the complaint making no
order for costs.

COMIC PAPERS.
(Front Punch.)
MORE FEVER THAN FODDER.—A physician, advertises
a book on " Hay Fever." This work has run to a sixth
edition. Hence it would seem that Hay Fever is a pre-
valent complaint. But has not that disease been named
in a niistaken idea of its cause ? The fever may be raging
now; but where is the hay ?
WORKING MEN AND TALKING MEN.—The collective
wisdom in the House of Commons is kntwn by its much
speaking, which commonly keeps our loquacious legis-
lators up till past three o'clock in the morning. What, it
is asked, is the work of the hardest worked working man
when compared to that of a member of Parliament ?
Little enough in point of duration ; but work is one
thing and talk is another.
MANNING THE SHIP. —ln the debate on the Gun
Licence Bill, when " Mr. Henley inquired who was to
pay for arjns, such as muskets, &c., carried in a vessel—
the Chancellor of the Exchequer said that he had, often
heard of a man being termed a chosen vessel, but never of
a vessel being termed a man. However, the Government
would look seriously into the question. " Suppose, on
looking seriously into the question the Government
should discover a man-of-war?" What would Brightßob
say then ?

(Front Fun.)
ROUGE ET NOlR.—Captain Waddylove has fired off a
round or two of blank to propitiate "'Little Pitcher."
—Little P. Oh, let it off again—do !" Captain :7--" I
have no more powder." Little P. :—" But Cousin Emma,
won't that red pOwder in the box on your dressing-table
do ?"
SUCH A GETTING-UP STAIRS.—WeII may you open your
eye ! But don't stair—it's rude :—The Earl of Stair will
succeed to the lord-lieutenancy of Aryshire, vacant by
the death of the Marquis of Ailsa. The Earl of Stair has
clearly got a step. But we don't see what it leads to. A
stair thas's raised in Ayr must come to nothing—unless it
has a landing-place in Skye.
THE LAW OF HARMONY.—We are informed by a con-
temporary Lord Chief Justice Cockburn has accepted
-the dedication of the " Wandering Jew," the poem by
Mr. Charles L. Kennedy, of the Inner Temple, the music
composed by Mr. James L. Molloy, also of the Middle
Teniple." .And yet people say that the law does not con-.
duce tb harthOny ! ,M r. Kennedy is clearly skilled to
address the " Wandering Jew "-ry, while Mr. Molloy as
a bar-rest•er, supplies the do, capias—or whatever it is—
and runs up the scale from John Do to fi-fa. The Chief
Justice takes notes.

FRAUDULENT CONVERSION OF RUSSIAN BONDS.-At
the Marlborough-street Police-court, Mrs. Ellen Jemima
Downs was chargedwith having fraudulently converted to
her use eighteen Russian bonds, of the value of £9OO, and
of which she was bailee. Mrs. Mary M.'Keon, wife
of a bcotmaker, deposed that in 1867 she was in posses-
sion of eighteen Russian bonds of £5O each, left
under her mother's will, and which she kept in
an iron box. During an illness last year she went to
stay with the prisoner, whom she had known for thirty-
six years. Witness then went into the country, and on
returning the prisoner told her she had taken the coupons
off the bonds. She had no authority to do so. Witne.ss
went with her to Rothschild's, and she said she had got
the interest of the bonds, but witness could not tell whe-
ther that was the case. On going to the defendant's
house witness saw the box containing the bonds, but she
fell asleep, and on awaking inquired about the box, and
the defendant told her she had put it on the rafters f the
house. Afterwards, when she demanded the bonds, she
was told that they were in the custody of a clergyman.
That was in August last ; and since then she had been
unable to get at them. In cross-examination the prosecu-
trix, who frequently lost her temper, said she had never
heard of another will of her mother leaving property to
the prisoner. She never signed any agreement f6r the
prisoner to sell the bonds. Her husband knew nothing of
them. Mrs. Margaret Morris deposed that the prisoner had
said to her (witness) that she was in trouble for having
interfered with the papers of the prosecutrix ; that she
pledged the bonds at Mellish's, in Duke- street, for £6 or
£7 ; and that one of them, worth £5O, was lost. The
prisoner also said, " You come up to dinner, , and we will
enjoy ourselves. I will then kick up a row with her (the
prosecutrix), and I will throw the papers at her and say,
`Now go out of my place, you and your papers,' and you
take her to where she came from. I will afterwards
come to you with Mr. Lee, a lawyer's clerk, and I will
say, `Here's your bonds. Just shew me the bonds and
papers, and then I will miss one, and, as they will have
been once out of my possession, all will be right ;" and on
her suggeSting to the prisoner that she might get into
trouble, the prisoner said she would get her out of any she
might get in. The prisoner was eventually remanded,
bail being accepted.

Letters from Munich announce that Baron von
Liebig, the celebrated chemist, is now completelyrestored
to health.
- -

The funeral of the late Earl of Clarendon will take
place on Saturdaynext, at Watford, in the neighbourhood
of which town isthe family seat, the Grove.
Daniel O'Connor, formerly an elastic web manu-
facturer at Derby, was tried at the Derby borough ses-
sions on Tuesday, on a charge of fraudulently and unlaw-
fully-leaving England and taking with him £2,800 which
ought to have been divided among his creditors. He was
found guilty, and sentenced to 12 months' imprisonment
with hard labour.

Amongst the last batch of Parliamentary papers
are the bill as amended in committee for regulating
postage ; trade and navigation returns ; copies of Orders
in Council relating to the. War Department; a return
respecting in-ovisional orderS and certificates ; a return
respecting the fellowship otTrinity College,'Dnblin; and
a report touching the abandonment of the South Wales
and Great Western District-Railway.
According to the New York Herald of the 18th
the latest news from Fort Garry is that Riel can muster
300 fighting men, which could be swelled to three times
that number provided there is no fighting,. but, plenty of
plunder. The prevalent opinion in the settlement is that
Riel will not make any determined opposition to the
British and Canadian forces.
THENEVir ARCHBISHOP OF AGRAM.—In the
recent consistory which was held by the Pope, Mgr.
Michalowitz was to have been made Archbishop of
Agram. The Vienna journals had said that Mgr: Stross-
mayer would be the new Archbishop, as a reward for the
energy he displayed in the midst of the Council. There.
were, however, objections to this scheme., on the part of
the Hungarian Cabinet, because of the opposition
.dis-
played by Strossrnayer to the annexation of Croatia to
Hungary. Mgr. Michalowitz, on the contrary, has
always shewn' great sympathy for Hungary although he
belongs to the Croatian race.

.CRITICISMS. ON DICKENS.

Would that there were a Dickens left to treat as they
deserve the foolish and arrogant teachers who stand in
high places to slander Dickens dead, and exalt their own
vanity by assaults on his fame ! Only such delicate scorn
such biting humour, mingled with ever-present cisarity,
as was his, could fitly chastise such outrages upon human
nature as have been thought appropriate to the death of
the great writer for whose loss millions of. hearts are
aching,' Such violations of the essential spirit of
Christianity might indeed be more seriously to be re-
gretted were they conceived in apparent candour and ad-
dressed in reasonable arguments. But when their
authors barb their shaft against a great man struck
with unconsciousness leading directly to death, with the
absurd taunt that "no word of hope or trust was uttered in
his " last moments ;" when they assign to " the world of
fashion" a man as far from that sphere as the most
earnest missionary on the globe ; when they convert, the
quiet family meal in a country house into a " fashionable
dinner-table " in a " gilded chamber ;" when they attri-
bute the height of worldly and frivolous happiness to, a
life chastened by almost every affliction that Providence
can send ; they create a disgust which only reacts against
themselves and the cause which they seek to advance. It
is for this reason only that we refer to a matter in which
the press usually leaves the pulpit to speak its sentiments
without contradiction. We wish to defend the pulpit
against itself, and to point out that such words of folly
as, have been spoken in a church here and
there- are by no means to be taken as repre-
sentative of the feelings of the Christian com-
munity or its leaders. No portrait of Stiggins
or Chadband or .Murdstone, were they drawn in
infinitely darker colours than they are, would do half as
ranch harm to the ' interests of Christianity as ode such
sermon, were the impresAion to become gene:. el that it.
faixly represents the body of believers for whom it assumes
to speak.. There will always be such exceptional instances
to be deplored, as when Abraham Lincoln fell there were
some who find in that life and that death no better lesson
than a sermon on a judgment against theatre-goin... But
in our age of the world we believe they may fan be
treated as exceptional, and as growing rarer am rarer
every day. And with this protest in behalf of t sat •;entle
religion whose first principle is charity, we car_ .sfiord to
let alone the silly slanders against the teacher of .A.arity,
the - enemy of hypocrisy, the friend of the fallen, who
has just gone to his reward. They may safely be
left to find their antidote in the simple words of
faith and trust and consciousnese of duty done
which we have printed from the pen of Charles
Dickens, and in the tributes to his great service from the
leading clergymen of the land, who, however great their
congregations, however • lofty their pulpits, swayed all
together a power for good less mighty than his. In an-
swer to those who accuse him of associating religion with
the lack of all the genial affections, with repulsive and
forbidding sternness, with avarice and meanness, we
call to mind the words of the dead and defenceless author
describing the good old clergyman in " The Shipwreck."
" So cheerful of spirit and guiltless of affectation as true
practical Christianity ever is ! I read more of the New
Testament in the fresh frank face going up the village
beside me, in 'five minutes, than I have read in anathe-
matising discourses in all my life. I heard more of the
Sacred Book in the cordial voice that had nothing to say
about its owner than in all the would-be celestial pairs of
bellows that have ever blown conceit at me." flow unfair
' and ungenerous to charge the author with attacking reli-
gion, when the blow is aimed at the wolf within its fold !
--13gston, Advertiier.

THE SENATE 4' RELIEVES " A RAILROAD

COMPANY.

The passage by the Senate of the bill for the relief of
the central branch of the Union Pacific Railroad Com-
pany again takes out of that body one of the questions
about.which there has been a long and bitter controversy.
One relief bill was passed two years ago, but failed in
the-House. The present bill will go into that branch
with the support of its own railroad committee, and
seems likely enough to succeed. This road got certain
rights under the sots of July, 1862, and July, 1864, of
which it claims that it has been deprived by the rulings
of the Interior Department under the act of June, 1866,
against the passage Of which it formally protested. It has
built its line from Atchison to a point 100 miles north-
west out in Kansas, and now asks such legislation as will
enable it to form a connection with the line of the Union
PaCific just west of Fort Kearney. It asserts that it is
entitled to a subsidy of Government bona, but now pro-
poses to compromise on a gift of 20 sections of land per
mile fOr its completion. The peculiar feature in connection
with the grant is that it will largely give the road the
even-numbered instead of the odd sections. This result
is due to the fact that the odd-numbered ones have,been
given to the so-called. St. Joe and Denver-road which lies
to the northward at a varying distance of from 12 to'3o
miles from the proposed line of the Central Branch.
The bill was opposed on four grounds, =viz: By
those who object to any further railroad grants
at 'present;; by 'Mr. -Ross, who wants the Central
Branch to make other connections than those it proposes
to make ; by Mr. Thayer, who wanted the lands it would
get in Nebraska for companies in which he and his people
are directly interested ; and by Mr. Sherman and others,
who objected that all the land in a strip 50 miles
200 miles long, except such as is now in the hands of
settlerS' would pass into the control of railroad corpora-
tions. Mr. Howard produced a paper .shewing that . the
Central Branch and St. Joe roads had come to such an
agreement as would prevent any clashing there, and Mr."
Tipton secured a little amendment, which, he said,-would
prevent any trouble With the Nebraska roads. The bill
was carried through, on the ground that the Central,
Branch is entitled to some relief. If it passes the House,
the road, when finished, will furnish a feeder to the Union
Pacific from St. Louis and Southern Illinois, liadiana and
Ohio.

POSTAL REFORM IN THE UNITED
STATES.

While the bill to abolish the franking privilege was
pending, Mr. Sumner took an advantage of the opportu-
nity to give the reasons for a reduction of letter postage
to one cent for all distances, in connection with which all
franking should be dispensedwith, and all business through
the post office be done by stamps. The argument is un-
answerable ; and when the public mind does come to the
serious consideration of cheap postage, as England came
to it twenty-five-years ago; Mr. Sumner's speech, though
made to an indifferent Senate and to a country not yet
specialty interested in the subject, will he referred to as
one of the most striking and effective in the course of
this debate. Fortunately the efficacy of cheap
postage has been vindicated by the most striking of
examples. The experiment has been tried, and, in the
face of predictions of failure the most sweeping and the
most despondent, it has proved successful, both as a
measure of economy and of general public beneficence.
Nobody would now return to the old rates if it were pos-
sible, and no rising man with prospects of advancement
would dare to suggest it. If any descendant of the scep-
tics who at the outset submitted unwillingly to the change
were now to propose a return to the old rates with any
hope of carrying it, it would create a revolution in Great
Britain strong enough to sweep every advocate of the
change from power forever. But cheap postage was a
plant of slow growth in Great Britain, and it
will be of slower growth among us. It took three
years after Rowland Hill got his commission of inquiry to
make the change there. It would take a longer time here.
The field is larger ; and the interests to be consulted
much more diverse and complicated. The present rates
are not felt to be peculiarly oppressive, and the need of a
sweeping reduction has not taken a very strong hold upon
public opinion. Are we to wait for public opinion to be
aroused and public men to be convinced upon the wisdom
of this whole scheme of reform before correct-

ino• the confessed abuses which have fastened
themselves upon our postal system ? The frank-
ing privilege as it is now used is a burden for
which the country gets no adequate return. It is a costly
luxury which through one channel or another helps to
swell the tax levy where all currents of expenditure and
waste meet at last. The old theory that it was compen-
sated for by the advantage of having free intercourse be-
tween constituents and their representatives is a fanciful
one in these later times, when the means of communica-
tion have been multiplied a thousandfold, and when it is
impossible for a representative to take an important step
affecting the special interests of his constituents, or the
general welfare of the country, and conceal it from them
for a single hour. The new avenues for the diffusion of
intelligence and sound information have conveyed the
substance of all important intelligence to and, from the
capital, while the public printing-office is pouring out its
waste of printed paper, to be scattered abroad at the
public charge. The people are no longer infants to be
nursed and coddled in this way. Leave them to their own
devices and they will get what they want, and in the long-
run all that will be of use to them. Mr. Sumner argues
that the post-office should not be made a source of revenue.
It should not be ; and there is very little danger of its' be-
coming so, while our mail routes have such vast distances
to traverse, and while tracts of newly-settled country,
large enough for empires, are awaiting to be developed..
But the service should be made self-supporting. The first
step is to take off the leeches. Reform the abuses first,
and correct the system as rapidly as possible:—Boston Ad-
vertiser.

Alarming symptoms of suffrage fever :—Little girl
in Wyoming : There, dolly, you must be still and sleep
all day, 'cause I've dot to do and vote."
Despite the opinion delivered by King Richard in
an exigency as to the value of a horse, the noble animal
may be an unwelcome visitor. A Mr. Clarke, of Chico,
('al., while recently taking a drive with his wife in a
1 on a road near Little Butte Creek, found that a
drove of wild horses had completely surrounded them.
One of these horses actually attacked the buggy, kicking
it with his heels, while the otlierssought to make acquaint-
mice with the horses of the buggy. Mr. Clarke struck
the attacking horse with the whip, whereat the animal
became terribly enraged, ran in front of the carriage
horses, kicked them with vigour and viciousness, and was
driven off with great difficulty. Mrs. Clarke thifiloi she
has since seen him as a nightmare.
A bill recently introduced into the Senate may
facilitate the chances of promotion in the army by en-
couraging its of eers to depart this life. It enables any
commissioned officer to assign part of his monthly pay to
any life insurance company in the United States in pay-
ment of dues upon an insurance on his own life, so that
the company shall be paid direct. It further enacts that
a policy,. the dues of which are so provided for, " cannot
in any event whatever be suspended, rendered ineffective,
or in any in anner, made forfeitable." If this bill becomes
a law, and the class of whom, at present, " few die and
none resig2/ " insure under it, they may take great com-
fort in the knowledge that any moment the amount of
their policies can be obtained for their families, since
suielde cannot work a forfeiture.