The Sun.
London, England, 1870-06-07 00:00:00

CASE OF CHILD STEALING.

The Salford police have discovred a remarkable case of
child-stealing and imposture. A few weeks ago a woman
named Payne, who had an infant about one month old in
her arms, went into a beerhouse in Liverpool, and there
nia a woman named Mary Jane Wilson, with whom
she had been previously acquainted, They had some
drink together, and Mrs. Payne, having some marketing to
do, went out, leaving the child in the care of the woman
Wilson, who promised to await her return. Mrs. Payne
was absent for about fifteen minutes. and on her return to
the beerhouse she found that Wilson had gone away. She
spent the whole of the night in search of her, and continued
her search for several days without obtaining any informa-
tion respecting her. She at length gave information to the
police at Liverpool, who forwarded a description of the
woman and the child to the various police-stations through-
' out the country. The Salford police recognised in the
' description the woman Wilson, who had for a considerable
length of time cohabited with a man residing in Cook-
street, Salford. She is a woman of loose character, and
is at present undergoing nine months' imprisonment in
the county gaol for felony. The police went to the gaol,
and on examining the child found certain marks
which had been described by its mother upon it. The
woman Wilson, however, insists that the child is her own,
and the governor of the gaol 'cannot under these circum-;
stances allow the child to be taken from her. The
facts of the case have been reported to the Home Secre-
tary, and some action will be taken in the matter at
once. It has been ascertained that Wilson, who had
left the man with whom she cohabited for some time,
induced him to belieVe that the child was his, and
by that means persuaded him to take her iuto his house
again.

THREATENED FENIAN ATTACK ON
TYNKAIOUTH CASTLE.

Great excitement prevailed in Tynemouth on Sunday
in consequence of a threatened Fenian attack upon the
Castle. The ammunition for the military district
between the Humber and the Tweed, and as far west as
Carlisle and Maryport, is stored in a large magazine in the
Castle grounds ; and the authorities appear to have had
positive information of a threatened attack on the stores ;
some say by a vessel from the coast, others by
a land force. There are 300 tons of powder stored in
the magazine at the castle, and it appears that the
authorities were afraid that the attacking party would
attempt to get possession of that. On Thursday
evening Major Cleveland, the commander of the 98th
regiment stationed in the district, arrived in great haste
at the Castle, and gave orders for the sentries to be dou-
bled, and for a strong guard to be placed over the
powder magazine. The soldiers in the garrison were also
strengthened by a party of the 98th, sent down irom New-
castle ; and on Saturday two more companies of the 98th,
with camp equipments, were dispached, at half an hour's
notice, from Newcastle, to reinforce the soldiers in Tyne-
mouth garrison. Fatigue parties were also engaged on
Friday and Saturday in barring and otherwise fortifying
the store-rooms, ana in putting everything into a strong
state of defence. A large and strongly-armed party of sol-
diers are camped out in the Castle-yard, close to the powder
magazine, nine tents being pitched for their use. A street
guard will be kept near the Castle during the Whitsuntide
holidays. It is stated that the Fenian movement is con-
nected with the seizure of arms which were intended to
be sent to Newcastle, and it" seems that there is a good
deal of seditious proceedings going on amongst the Irish
employed about the iron works and iron shipbuilding
yards in the Tyne district.—Leeds Mercury.

THE DARIEN SHIP CANAL.

A new England paper publishes the following letter :

" Feelings of regret have shewn in England that, with all
the engineering skill she commands, and with her boasted
national success in great and foreign movements, she has
allowed France the honour of constructing the great Suez
Canal. The traffic. through this cut off betweeu Europe
and the East is immense, and so rapidly increasing as to
have already effected a reduction in the shipping fleet of
England, and increased the necessity for steam vessels.
That England does not fear a falling off of her trade with
the East, though she does not hold the gates to the Red
Sea, is evident from the fact that she contemplates a rail-
road from the Mediterranean by the Euphrates Valley and
the arid plains of Persia to the Indus. This will be
a very much shorter route to India than the one by the
Red Sea and Indian Ocean. Even with this road
completed England would envy the French their posses-
sion of the Suez Canal. For large quantities of freight
are sure to be transported by water in preference to rail
between the distant nations of Europe and Asia ; and the
government that controlled both lines of traffic would
enjoy a monopoly. From France to the Suez Canal it is
about 1,600 miles. At such a distance must France defend
her right to this enviable canal, with so many powerful
nations nearer or he near to it as she is. From New
Orleans to Aspinwall it is about 1,500 miles. If the
United States come into the possession of Cuba, and it
seems that they soon will, the distance from Havana to
Aspinwall will be about 1,000 miles. That the United
States shouid shrink from constructing the Darien Canal
because there might be some difficulty in holding
it in time of war, is a notion too weak and absurd
for this great nation to be concerned about. With
such resources as the United States commands, she
can maintain her rights in more critical positions than
this is ever-likely to place her. And would not the other
great nations be put to a greater expense and risk than the
United States if they should attempt any infringement of
our rights in a position so much nearer our Government
than it is to theirs. An increase in the English trade
through this canal would not hurt us. What are Jamaica
and some other little islands in the West Indies ? If we
own Cuba our management of that island will soon raise
it to a position of greater importance and influence than
all the rest of the West Indies together. That there is a
necessity for a canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific can

no longer be doubted. There is• a pressing need for it.
Now, suppose we neglect the present opportunity, and
England or France make and control this canal, our
regrets will then be as useless as England's are to-day
over the Suez Canal. It is preposterous to suppose that
if the United States built the Darien Canal she would
reap the sole benefit from it. Arid it is very unbusiness,
like to maintain that if we do not get all the benefit-
that is good ground for our not constructing the canal at
all. Just what proportion of the advantage would fall to
each nation is hard to tell now. But when we see that
the ports on the western coast of South America will all
be nearer the United States than any other great mari-
time nation, and that our great traffic by the isthmus to
the West will undoubtedly be increased when this canal is
made, we may feel very confident that our share of the
benefits attending the completion of this enterprise willbe
large enough to warrant every reasonable effort to secure
its accomplishment. The cost of this enterprise will not
be great, compared at least with that of the Suez Canal.
And I presume the priVilege that foreign nations must
annually pay to pass through the Darien Canal would
largely contribute towards defraying the expense of its
construction. When the time; the great danger, and the
expense of rounding Cape Horn are done away with by
the Darien Canal, the nation that has made it may con-
gratulate the world. " DARIEN."

The Rappel states that the journeymen iron-
founders of Paris now on strike, have sent two delegates
to London to negotiate a loan with the English societies,
and that they have received a favourable answer.
A CURIOUS ECCLESIASTICAL DIFFICULTY.— A
memorial has been sent to the Prime Minister. praying
for inquiry into a singular ecclesiastical difficulty. It
appears that in 1854 Lord John Russell, who was then
Prime Minister, appointed the Rev. G. H. Johnson, of
Queen's College, Oxford, who had been secretary of some
ecclesiastical commissions, to the deanery of Wells. In
1856 the vicarage of St.Cuthbert's, Wells, in the gift of
the dean and chapter, became vacant, and the dean took
it, although it was stated at the time that it was worth
more than the £5OO a'year provided by the statute. In
consequence of some recent parochial disputes the ques-
tion has been revived, and the opinion of counsel has been
taken as to the:validity of the dean's appointment to the
vicarage. The. opinion given by the legal gentlemen is
that the moment the dean accepted the appointment of
vicar of St. Cuthbert's the office of dean became ipso
facto vacant. The memorialists pray that the ,Prime
Minister will take whatever steps may be necessary in 1
the matter.