The Sun.
London, England, 1870-10-27 00:00:00

ALLEGED ATTEMPT TO MURDER.

At the Old Bailey, before Judge Lush, Edward George,
Jeremiah Shannon, Theodore Kingwell, and Joshua
Mac Carty were indicted on a charge of assaulting James
Fairweather, with intent to murder him. It seemed
that a short time previous to the occurrence
the prisoner George's father was summoned at
Marlborough-street Police Court, and the prosecutor
was a witness against him. Soon afterwards he
met two of the prisoners, a man named Winch and
another called Brown, in a public-house. The former
tried to get him to ,fight Brown, but he refused. The
other prisoneri` mile in, and it was agreed that they
should go in two cabs into the country
for what the witness called " a jolly." On arriving
at Highgate they all went into a field, where, according
to the prosecutor he was set ou by the prisoners and
assaulted most severely. The medical evidence sheaved
that the prosecutor had been " fearfully " maltreated ; for
a time he was insensiblo, his memory was impaired, and
he had several contused wounds on his head. The de-
fence in substance was that the prosecutor was engaged
in a fight. For M`Carty, it was urged that he committed
no assault, and for Kingwell it was asserted that he was
by the side of the cab when the assault was committed.
The jury found all the prisoners guilty of wounding with
intent to do bodily harm. George and M`Carty were
sentenced to five years' penal servitude, and the other pri-
soners to 18 months' imprisonment.

COMIC PAPERS.
(From Punch.)
A (REAL) GERMAN DEFEAT.—The marriage of the
Princess Louise.

JEJUVNE DARC.—" The Ark of France will yet float to
its Ararat," writes a French Gusher. We hope so.
But to judge by the rout at Orleans, the Ark has no
Joan.

THE POST CARD.—Landlady (reads) : Marlbro' House.
Dear Joe—Look in to tea and shrimps on your way home
to-night. We're all alone, and the Princess and the
young ones 'll be delighted. Yours ever, Albert Edward!'
—Well, if ever I did !—l'd no idea ! An' I was just
goin' to give the poor, dear, young fellow a bit of my
mind about his rent !" [N.B. The stratagem was suc-
cessful.]

(From Fun.)

IN NUBIBUS. —M. Gambetta may fairly be described as
tomb des nues. But then we fear some of the nues have
come down with him—for example, the nues of the defeat
of the Prussians before Paris, which must be held to be of
very cloudy origin.

( From Judy).
Mrs. Moddler never could, for the life of her, under
stand what a High Churchman was until she heard of a
French Minister being up in a balloon.
A VENERABLE JACK HoRNuR.—It is stated that
General Von Moltke sat in a corner, pretending to read a
novel of Dickens's, while Count Bismarck was lecturing
M. Jules Favre. We are not told what the novel was
the veteran was shamming over ; but the right sort of
thing would be a combination of " Hard Times," " Great
Expectations," and " Our Mutual. Friend."

ACCIDENT TO A MAGISTRATE.—Mr. Tyrwhitt, the
senior magistrate at Marlborough•street police-court, was
knocked down by a cab on Tuesday. night. One of the
wheels passed over his ancle, and injured it so severely
that the learned gentleman will probably be unable to
attend to his duties for some weeks. Mr. Tyrwhitt had
fined a cabman for furious driving only an hour or two
before the accident

THE ARREST OF M. SAPIA.—A French journal has
given some account of the arrest of M. Sapia. On the
Bth of October, Sapia, who commanded the 146th batta-
lion of the National Guard, assembled his troops and told
them he was about to take them to the Hotel de Ville to
demand he immediate inauguration of municipal elections,
and to shoot all those who opposed them. The citizens
arrested their commander and consigned him to the
charge of the Imperial Commandant. M. Sapia is French,
although of Genoese origin. He was in Mexico, and had
a post under Maximilian, afterwards occupying a place in
the bank of Algiers. M. Sapia is now detained at the
Conciergerie in one of the cells of that prison, which are
put at the disposition of the Staff.

The committee appointed at the sitting of the
Irish Church Convention on Monday to consider the
subject of reunion with the Society of Primitive
Methodists will include the Archbishops of Armagh and
Dublin, the Bishop of Derry, the Archdeacons of Ardagh
and Clogher, the Revs. Alexander Irwin, Henry Jellett,
R Hannay, and A. Daunt, Lords Carrick and Courton,
Judges Warren and Harrison, and Messrs. Robert
Hamilton and Benjamin T. Hewitt. Some hopes are
entertained that, it the union be effected, other Dissenters
will follow the example of the Primitive Methodists.
FRENCH WANT OF MILITARY PRAC TICE.—A
Franc-tireur writes to the Journal de .Rouen to complain
of the total lack of practice at the target among the
French recruits. This renders them, he says, compara-
tively useless, for want of proper confidence in themselves
and their arms, yet he often sees them sauntering in the
streets to dispel their ennui. The Wurtemberg garrison,
who hold Melun, are, according to this account, composed
of youths of 15 to 18, who weep, and ask to be allowed to
leave. Their arms are the old rusty guns, a tabatiere taken
from the French arsenals in the Last. They were mere
novices and might, one would supposed, have been easily
dislodged. Is it not melancholy, asks the writer, that
such insignificant troops should have sufficed to subdue
the chief town of the department of Seine-et-Marne ? 'rho
astonishing number of cartridges destroyed in the defence
of Orleans and Chateaudun, prove how bad is the French
fire. At Chateuadun gallantly defended, 2,000 Prussians
are said to have been laid low, but 60,000 cartridges were
burned ! A soldier doubles his value when his aim is
good; and targets should be erected everywhere without
delay, so that each soldier may be a good marksman,

THE NEWS FROM THE CAPE.—A great change
appears to be setting in respecting the opinions
of colonists in South Africa. Everywhere the desire
gains ground, even among the Dutch Boers, of having
some sort of federative combination for mutual pro-
tection and the maintenance of good order. The
diamond discoveries are likely to stimulate this
tendency in a remarkable degree; tending, as
they necessarily do, to attract an influx of popula-
tion from all parts of the world, who may be very
useful if they are made to behave themselves, and
very mischievous if they are not. The Government have
sent special .magistrates and police to certain districts
where it was deemed important to establish something
like an effective reign of law, and they have been wel-
earned generally, and others have been asked for. The
latest accounts of the find of gems, though varied and con-
flicting, all strongly corroborate the belief in the richness
of the hitherto neglected regions in minerals and jewels.—
Manchesier Guardian.

FOUNDERING OF A STEAMER AND Loss OF EIGHT
LlVES.—Advices from San Francisco give some details of
the foundering of the steamer Continental in the Gulf of
California, and the loss of eight lives. The steamer was
on a voyage from Mazatlan to San Francisco with a full
complement of passengers, $140,000 in specie, 700 tons of
salt, and a large mail. - On the 28th of September she
encountered a hurricane in the Gulf of California, and
sprung a leak. Both the steam and hand pumps were
constantly worked for twelve hours, but to no purpose.
At nine o'clock on the morning of the 29th the water got
into the stoke hole. The captain, seeing that there was
no chance of saving the vessel, ordered the six boats to
be lowered, and into these got the crew and passengers,
with the exception of seven passengers and the second
cook, who all refused to leave the steamer. The boats
had not got far from the Continental when she was seen
to give a lurch and go down. Two of the boats reached
Cape St. Lucas on the evening. of the 30th, and the re-
maining boats succeeded in arriving near the same place.
The Continental's mails and the $140,000 in specie were
lost. The vessel was 1,625 tons burden, and formed one
of the Ben Halliday line of steamers running between
San Francisco and the Mexican ports. The passengers
whoowere drowned were M. Manuel Rubio, Mazatlan;
M. Jose Monas, San Luis Potosi; Mr. J. B. Lylle, Mr.
Martine,z, and three Mexican gentlemen, whose names
were unknown.