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

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY MORMNG, JUNE, 3Q 1670,

baroad were not extensive. The tone of the market con-
tinued quiet, and business in both red and white
produce progressed slowly at Monday's reduced quota-
tions. The supply Of barley was moderate. The trade
was quiet, on former terms. Malt was dull, at late rates. Oats
changed hands to a limited extent, at about late rates. Beans
and peas were steady. Flour was dull, at the late decline.
Arrivals: English and Scotch—,Wheat, 640 qrs.; malt, 1,350 qrs.;
oats, 250 qrs.; beans, 20 qrs. Foreign—Wheat, 6,010 qrs.; barley,
6,620 qrs.; oats, 28,110 qrs.; maize, 3,980 qrs.; peas, 2,220 qrs.;
flour, 750 sacks and 5,220 barrels.

METROPOLITAN MEAT MARKET, WEDNESDAY.—The supply
of meat was moderate. The trade was quiet, at late rates :
Beef, from 3s. 6d. to ss. ; mutton, 3s. td. to ss. ; lamb, ss. Bd.
to 6s. 4d. ; veal, 4s. Bd. to 55.; and pork, 4s. to ss. Bd. per 81b.
by the carcase.

LONDON. METAL MARKET, WEDNESDAY.—The price of
copper has been advanced £2 per ton. Tough cake, £73 ; best
selected, £75 ; sheet, £77. Tin has been quiet. Straits, £133105.
cash. Iron has been firm.

LONDON OIL MARKET, WEDNESDAY.—Linseed oil has been
dull, at 31s. Ld. to 31s. 6d. spot. Rape is quiet. English brown
spot, 425. 9d. to 435.

BOROUGH HOP MARKET, WEDNESDAY.—The hop market
has been in a quiet state. Thedemand for all qualities has been
restricted. Nevertheless prices have ruled steady. The planta-
tion accounts are still favourable, but complaints of want of rain
are heard in some quartets. Mid and East Kents, £7 to £l2
125.: Weald £6 to £8 ; Sussex, £5 12s. to £6 12s. ; Bavarians,
£6 6s. to £9 ; French, £5 to £6 10s. ; Americans, £4 ss. to
£6 ; and yearlings, £1 105. to £3 155. per cwt.
LIVERPOOL COTTON MARKET, WEDNESDAY.—This market
closed quiet to-day. Sales, 8,000 bales. Speculation and export
1,000 bales. 6,000 bales of American sold at 71d. to 11d. 300
bales of Pernambuco, 10td. to 11d. 100 bales Bahia, 101 d. to
101 d. 60 bales of Maranham, ll d. to 111 d. 300 bales of Egyp-
tian, 111 d. to 186. 10 bales of Smyrna, 91d. 10 bales of Peru,
12. id. 1,220 bales of Surat, 6-id to 94d. Imports, 4,755 bales.

MANCHESTER COTTON MARKET, WEDNESDAY. This
market opened to-day without animation, and the quieter tone
prevailing in the Liverpool Cotton Market has imparted addi-
tional dulness here; and prices, though not quotably lower, are
always the turn in favour of the buyers. When any change
occurs buyers cautiously wait in expectation of lower rates than
those now current, and they are under no pressure to buy,
having generally large quantities of yarns and goods still to
receive.

LEEDS CATTLE MARKET, WEDNESDAY.—At this market
to-day the number of beasts was 556 ; sheep and lambs, 4,470.
Cattle met a slow sale, at from 74d. to Bd. per lb. ; second
quality, 6d. to 7d. Sheep, 71d. to 7/d. per lb. A few small
weights Bd. per lb. Lambs from 21s. to 31s. each.

WAKEFIELD CATTLE MARKET, WEDNESDAY.—The num-
ber of fat beasts at the market to-day was 790; sheep and lambs,
5,030 ; lean stock, 42; pigs, 2,040. There was a good demand,
at the following rates :—Beef, Bs. to 9s. 3d. per fourteen pounds;
mutton, 7i-d. to Bd. per lb. Pigs met with a ready sale.

SOUTHALL CATTLE MARKET, WEDNESDAY. —Trade ruled
brisk this morning. Prices advanced all round 2d. per stone on
last week's rates. Towards the close of the day trade turned
slack, and a few things consequently remained unsold. The top
price for beasts and sheep was ss. 6d. per stone of 81bs. sinking
the offal.

NEWARK CORN MARKET, WEDNESDAY.—There was only
a small quantity of wheat offering at this market to-day, but it
was more than equal to the demand, everyone being anxious to
run stocks as low as possible. The little business done was 2s.
to 3s. per puarter lower. The trade in beans, peas, and oats
was small, and prices were slightly easier.
EDINBURGH CORN MARKET, WEDNESDAY.—The supplie,
at this market to-day were good. Wheat met with a slow sales
at Is. per quarter reduction. In barley the sales were dull, at
former rates. The trade in oats was heavy ; prices were in
favour of the buyers. Beans were without change.

EDINBURGH CATTLE MARKET, WEDNESDAY.—At this
market to-day the supply of sheep and lambs was about as good
as last week. The extreme top price of sheep 84d. per lb., top
81d. per lb. ; current, Bd. per lb. ; ewes, 7d. to 71d. per lb.
Lambs, top 335. each ; others sold at from 325., 305., and down-
wards. Cattle were a dear trade, although there were more in
than last week, and a clearance was effected at prices fully
better. Top, 9s. 6d. per stone ; current, 9s. 3d. per stone ;
secondary, 7s. to Bs. per stone. Store cattle were a readier mar-
ket, and among the Irish lots, two-year-olds sold at £l5 15s.
each ; Stirks, £7 10s. to £lO each ; Ayrshire cows. £l5 to £2O
each : Shorthorns, £lB to £23 each. Pigs were a duller trade,
at from ss. 6d. to 6s. 6d. per stone. Young pigs were about
ls. lower.

GLASGOW PIG IRON MARKET, WEDNESDAY.—This market
was very flat to-day. Business was done at from 60s. li-d. to
595. 100. cash ; 60s. 3d. one month. Closing sellers over at
lower prices.—Second Report: The market is still flat. Business
was done down to 595. Bd. cash in ten days, and 60s. in a month.
The close was steady at these prices, perhaps in favour of the
buyers.
CORK BUTTER MARKET, WEDNESDAY.—Ordinary firsts,
112 s. ; seconds, 1095.: thirds, 102. ; fourths, 995. ; fifths, 755. ;
sixths, 555. Mild cured, firsts, 116 s. ; seconds, 113 s. ; thirds,
105 s. 2,140 firkins in the market. Ordinary, 90s. Mild cured,
1275.

LAW AND POLICE.

ENGLISH AND IRISH COURTS.—A suit was instituted in
Vice Chancellor Mathis' 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) hate 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 advanta,es, 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 °Steers 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.
STEALINd 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 fo 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.
A CANNIBAL IN A WORKHOUSE.—Mary Higgins, a
pauper, was charged at the Westminster Police Court
with assaulting Miss Charlotte Thompson, assistant
matron at St. Luke's Workhouse, Chelsea, and also Fanny
Cannon, the task-mistress, by biting them. Miss Thomp-
son said, in going her rounds with the master, she found
prisoner was at work in the oakum room, whereas she
should have been in the yard. She ordered her out, but
prisoner !refused to go, and when removed bit witness
severely in the hand. Fanny Cannon, the task-mistress
and wife of the porter, corroborated the last witness, and
shewed a severe contusion on the hand from a bite from
the prisoner. A pauper inmate, who was called to assist
in ejecting the prisoner, also proved that she bit his little
finger to the bone. The prisoner said she was not going
to work out in the cold yard, as she was not well. Miss
Thompson said she was a most disorderly inmate. She
was sent to prison for two months with 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, however, a police-constable
(Charles Wilson) saw the prisoner leave his house, and
accosted him. The prisoner, who exclaimed, •`lt is all
up with me," had in a basket two bladders containing
whisky. On his house being searched by'lnspector
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 £2,503135. ld,
to be sold at a discount in one lot and paid for in 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 ascertalned 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.

FURIOUS RIDING IN HYDE PARK.-Mr. Simpson, a gen-
tleman, residing in Brompton-square, was charged before
Mr. Tyrwhitt, at the Marlborough-street Police-court,
with furious riding in Hyde Park, and also with assault•
ing Police-constable,Robert Anderson, 438 R. Police-con-
stable Warley, A division, said that while on duty
in Rotten-row the previous evening, he saw the
defendant. who was on a high-bred horse, ac-
companied by a lady on another, galloping his
horse at a furious rate toward Kensington-gardens. He
followed the defendant and attempted to stop him, but
did not succeed. He then asked the lady for her address
but she refused to give it, and the defendant then came
back and said he would give his address if he would let the
lady alone, but instead of doing so he rode off and went
down the Brompton-road, and on being stopped by a con-
stable assaulted him, and was then taken into custody.
Police-constable Anderson said that on stopping the de-
fendant, who was going at a furious rate along the
Brompton-road, he struck him with a hunting whip.
The defendant was fined 40s. for furious riding and 40s.
for the assault. The magistrate said he hoped the fine
for furious riding would soon be raised to £lO.

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. 111`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 order 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.

HORSE COPING.—John Forester, a horse toper, was
charged with stealing a mare, the property of James
Goldsmith, a carman, of St. James's, Aldgate. It
appeared that the prosecutor hsd a mare for sale, and
during last week the prisoner waited upon Goldsmith and
said. "I hear you have a horse for sale," and represented
that he knew a person that wanted to buy one. He
allowed the prisoner to take away the mare, and Gold-
smith's man accompanied him. The horse was taken to
Millwall and shown to a respectable man named Burt, who
wanted to purchase a horse. Mr. Burt, foreman, said
the horse was not fast enough, and would not suit his
master. He declined to purchase it. The prisoner sub-
sequently took the horse to another place, where he
effected a sale. He offered £lO for the horse, which was
declined, and promised £3 the following Monday, which
was refused. The prisoner sent a receipt up for £lO,
which he purported to have received from Mr. Burt for
the horse. Mr. Pelham, for the prisoner, said the hoise had
been fairly disposed of; and the receipt forwarded.
Mr. Goldsmith said he never authorised the prisoner to
sell the horse at all, and no price was mentioned. He
allowed the prisoner to take the horse away on the re-
presentation that he would find a purchaser for it. The
receipt was a mere trick, and had been made out to mis-
lead his man. The prisoner was remanded.
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. Mr. 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 chewed
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.

FRAUDULENT CONVERSION OF RUSSIAN BONDS.-At
the Marlborough-street Police-court, Mrs. Ellen Jemima
Downs was charged with having fraudulently converted to
her use eighteen Russian bonds, of the value of £9OO, and
of which she was bailee. Mrs. Mary Maeon, 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. WitneFs
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 of 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 for 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 havinc,
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 bond's. 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.

THE BABY-FARMING CASE.
DISCOVERY OF ANOTHER DEAD BODY.
Yesterday information waslorwarded 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
rubbish from under one of the railway arches near the
ballast-hole pond, 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.
Yesterday, at the Mansion House, the preliminary inves-
tigation 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. F. 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-
cognizances 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 2,500 to proceed with the
case at the Central Criminal Court, and the proceedings
then terminated, the defendants being, as before, liberated
on bail.

COMIC PAPERS.
(From 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 mistaken 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 known 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 arms, 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 ?

(From 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 :—" 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
Temple." And yet people say that the law does not con-
duce to harmony ! Mr. Kennedy is clearly skilled to
address the " Wandering Jew "-ry, while Mr. Molloy as
a bar-rest-er, supplies the da capias—or whatever it is—
and runs up the scale from John Do to fi-fa. The Chief
Justice takes notes.

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

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 provisional orders and certificates ; a return
respecting the fellowship of Trinity College, Dublin; 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 he 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.
THE NEW 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 Strossmayer 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 charity,
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 corn-.
munity 'or its leaders. No portrait of Stig,gins
or Chadband or Murdstone, were they drawn in
infinitely darker colours than they are, would do half as
much harm to the interests of Christianity as one such
sermon, were the impression to become general that it
fairly 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-going. But
in our age of the world we believe they may fairly be
treated as exceptional, and as growing rarer and rarer
every day. And with this protest in behalf of that gentle
religion whose first principle is charity, we can afford to
let alone the silly slanders against the teacher of charity,
the enemy of hypocrisy, the friend of the fallen, who
has just gone to his reward. They may safely be
left to find their antiuote 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
fo6idding 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." How unfair
and ungenerous to charge the author with attacking reli.-.
pion, when the blow is aimed at the wolf within its fold !
--Boston Advertiier.

THE SENATE " 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 acts 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 bonds, 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 30
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 wide by
200 miles long, except such as is now in the bands 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.
Tiptt.n 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, Indiana and
Ohio.