The Sun.
London, England, 1870-04-23 00:00:00

SYMPATHY FOR SMALL CREATURES.

It is curious to observe how insensible we are to suffer-
ing which does not immediately come under our eyes.
Indeed, it may safely be laid down as a rule that the
amount of our sympathy depends entirely on the magnitude
of the object on which it is conferred. The beetle feels
as great a pang as the giant when it dies, but we feel very
little pity for the sufferings of the beetle compared with
what we feel for those of the giant—and for anything
smaller than a beetle we have little or no pity at all. Al-
though it is pretty clearly demonstrated that we swallow
myriads of insects in the water we drink and the air we
breathe, we are utterly indifferent to the pain and incon-
venience we cause them. Our great-great-grandfathers
were as hard-hearted as ourselves, and in the supplies
granted by Parliament in the year 1781 a reward of
£3,600 was actually voted to Mr. H. Philips (probably
the Harper Twelvetrees of that day) " for his discovery
of a certain powder for the destruction of insects."
We carry this indifference to the fate of the diminu-
tive almost too far in some respects. We speak of
" infant mortality " as a thing entirely apart from the
mortality of adults. We know that the large majority
of children born in this country die before they
reach the age of two years ; that many of those who re-
main are then run over and killed, and that a large pro-
portioh die of scarlet fever. If all these misfortunes hap-
pened to portly human creatures weighing thirteen or
fourteen stone, the whole nation would be in tears. On
Wednesday evening Mr. Langham, the coroner, held an
inquest at St. James's workhouse on a little child aged
10 months, accidentally suffocated in its bed. How
many hundreds of such cases there are every
year ! But if a dozen fat aldermen were suffocated
in a twelvemonth, we should soon find out the
reason, and take measures to prevent its recurrence.
Dr. Stevenson, medical officer of St. Pancras, reports
thirty-one deaths from scarlet f ever during the past month,
and a great increase of smallpox. It is chiefly children
who suffer, so why should we grown-up people mind?
But still for elders to muddle away the lives of their
juniors, is, like many other fashionable practices, rather
questionable morality, and that these little lives are
muddled away there can be no doubt, when we look at
our bundles of sanitary Acts, all neatly tied up with red
tape, and we stand blandly smiling while troops of help-
less infants are toddling into the grave.—Pall Mall
Gazette.

LADY MORDAIINT.—Lady Mordaunt continues in
much the same health she has had for many months, her
mental condition being neither perceptibly aggravated nor
perceptibly relieved. For tLe last few weeks her ladyship
has been residing with Dr. Wynter and his family at Chis-
wick. We may add that dementia resulting from ordinary
insanity, is almost invariably hopeless, but as the sequela
of puerperal mania its prognosis is more favourable.—
Lancet.
FATAL COLLIEBY ACCIDENTS. —An accident
occurred on Thursday morning at Messrs. Sparrow's,
Millfield Colliery, Bilston. Two colliers got into the skip
to begin work in the pit, and intimation was given to the
engine-tenter that they wished to be lowered down. The
engine was set in motion and the covering over the mouth
of the pit was taken off. Instead, however, of the colliers
being let down, they were drawn up to the "pulley." One
of them saved himself by clinging to the supports of the
pulley-wheel ; the other, who is named John Ashley, and
is fifty-seven years of age, was carried over the wheel, and
fell upon the pit bank. He died within half an hour. The
engine-tenter has absconded, and is now being pursued by
the police.—A fatal accident also occurred at Smithfield
Colliery, near Bolton, on Wednesday morning. Two pit-
men, named John Leddon and James Walker, were about
100 yards down the shaft bricking up the side, when a
quantity of earth suddenly fell upon the scaffolding,
breaking one of the ropes by which it was suspended and
precipitating the men a distance of 150 yards. Both
the nien were killed instantaneously. They leave large
families.

APPREHENSION OF A SUPPOSED MURDEILER.—
There is now in custody in the Rotherham police station a
man who is supposed to have committed a brutal murder
at Blackhill, in Perthshire, on the 21st of December last.
The prisoner is a tramp, and on Wednesday he solicited
alms from Inspector Sowrey, in College-street, Rother-
ham. The officer, who was in plain clothes, at first affected
to take into consideration the man's request, with the ob-
ject in the meantime of thoroughly examining his appear-
ance, having at the first glance been struck with his
resemblance to a Scotchman who was " wanted" for the
murder referred to, and for whose apprehension a reward
of £5O has been offered. He was invited to the police-
station, where he was examined by Superintendent (xillatt,
who, being also impressed with the man's similarity to the
supposed murderer, ordered him to be detained on the
charge of vagrancy until inquiries had been made. Not
only the man's appearance, but his own account of his
movements at the time of the murder bear out the grave
suspicion against him.-' The murder was committed on
December 21, the victim being John Miller, a toll-keeper,
who was found in his toll-house with his brains
knocked ont, the person who perpetrated the deed
having also robbed, the unfortunate man of a silver lever
watch and a quantity of wearing apparel. The prisoner
states that he left Leith in Scotland a few days before
Christmas, and that on December 25 he reached Stockton
where he worked for three months. His general appear-
ance corresponds in many particulars with that of the
missing man, the only material difference being that
he has rather a bushy beard, and his height varies a
little from that of the police description of the mur-
derer. Communications have been made with the police
in Perthshire.