The Sun.
London, England, 1870-09-29 00:00:00

FATAL GUN ACCIDENT.

On Tuesday evening an accident occurred to a shooting
party, whereby Charles Jones, a keeper to Mr. Kerr, of
Itton Court, Chepstow, was shot by a gentleman named
Richards. It appears that as Captain Cowburn and his
friend Mr. Richards, with other gentlemen, were sitting
down to luncheon, one of the party cried out, " There is
a rabbit running." On jumping up to fire, the gun went
off, and the charge lodged in the keeper's leg. He died
this morning.

Richard Weaver, the Revivalist preacher, has with-
drawn his appeal against the decision of the Macclesfield
magistrates, who ordered him to contribute towards the
support of the illegitimate child of Sarah Leah, his do-
mestic servant.

Mr. Tom Hohler has arrived in London.

" Elizabeth Garrett, M.D," writes to the Times
in wonder at the refusal of women's help at the seat
of war.

WORKMEN'S INTERNATIOAL EXIILIBITINON, AGRI
CULTURAL HALL, ISLINGTON.—The number of visitors,
exclusive of season ticket holders, exhibitors, and others_
on the 28th instant was 8,450. _

CRYSTAL PALACE.—One shilling day, Wednesday,
24th, 1870.—Admission by season tickets, 2,148; do. on
payment, 2,722. Total visitors, 4,870.
EXHIBITION OF FIINGL—The experiment of hold-
ing a Fungi exhibition proved so successful and interesting
last year, that the Council of the Royal Horticultural
Society have resolved on repeating the same, and announce
a show of edible and poisonous fungi, to take place on
Wednesday, October sth, when the following prizes will
be offered, viz.:—Collection of edible fungi, open, £2, and
£1; do. edible and poisonous fungi, arranged separately
(prize offered by W. Wilson Saunders, Esq.), £5.

ANOTHER SUICIDJ4I FROM CLIFTON SUSPENSION
BRIDGE.—Last night another suicide took place from
Clifton Suspension Bridge. The body of a man was seen
to fall into the water, but it was carried away by the tide
before a boat could be launched. As the tide was flow-
ing, however, it may yet be recovered for identification.
This makes the fourth suicide which has taken place from
this noble bridge in four years.

THE NEW SHERlFFS.—Yesterday, Mr. Alderman
Owden and Mr. Robert Jones, the new sheriffs for Lon-
don and Middlesex, assumed the duties of their office by
making the customary declarations at a special Court of
Aldermen held at Guildhall. When the new sheriffs were
called to the front of the hustings, the sheriffs who were
about to retire from office took off their chains and put
them on the necks of their successors. The new under-
sheriffs then subscribed the formal declarations, and so
the brief ceremony ended. The sheriffs subsequently met
the governors of the City gaols, and received the keys of
these institutions.

THE EXPORTATION OF ARMS.—Mr. J. D. Good-
man, of the Small Arms Factory, has addressed the
following letter to the Birmingham Gazette :-.`" I am
anxious Ato ask your permission to supplement the infor-
mation I gave on the subject of the exportation of arms
in the letter which appeared in your columns of the 22nd
instant. What I then wrote related solely to breech-
loading arms. The orders up to that day were imperative
that none but breech-loaders would be accepted, and I
could form no idea that any other instructions would be
given. The supply of breech-loaders was no doubt ex-
hausted sooner the purchases had been led to anticipate
by the deceptive statements which had been made
public. Last week new orders were in consequence
issued, and every muzzle-loading Enfield rifle which
could be found in the Birmingham workshops, ready
for despatch, was purchased. On Thursday last seven
thousand were for*arded from Birmingham. At
the same time twelve thousand were procured in London.
None were purchased but those ready for despatch the
same day. There may probably remain, in various stages
of completion, two to three thousand more. When these
are gone, the existing stock of rifles available for im-
mediate delivery, whether breech-loading or muzzle-load
ing, will be exhausted. I have thought it necessary to
give you this further information to prevent exaggerated
statements with reference to this new demand for arms,
which I had not anticipated when I last addressed you."

SEPTEMBF 29, 48711.,

THE FRENCH PRESS.

FROM PARIS TO TOURS IN A B ILLOON.
Jules .Durof gives the following narrative of his
j.ourney from Paris to Tours in a balloon. He ascended at
eight o'clock on the morning of the 23rd, in the Place Saint
Pierre, Montmartre. The wind was therfblowing with some
violence from the east, and carried the balloon in the direc-
tion of the Arc de Triomphe. When over this point,
being then 3,000 metres above the earth, he was seen by
the enemy. AL Duruof soon discovered that active pre-
parations were being made for his destruction. The
Prussians appeared to him like a swarm of ants busily
engaged about an ant-hill. Their motions he, of course,
interpreted as preparations to fire upon him. Nor was he
left long in doubt. He had scarcely got beyond the for-
tified enceinte when the enemy began to fire projectiles
at him from some of their cannon, which had been
placed in a perpendicular position. The balls came
towards the boat of the b.alloon, but at some distance,
and then fell to the earth. Some ascended so high as to
cause slight vibrations in the balloon. The cannons hav-
ing failed, the Prussians then tried their rifles ; but these
were just as unsuccessful. The enemy, however, had
considerable patience, and did not give up firing at the
aeronaut until he reached Mantes. During this part of
his journey he remarked clouds of smoke and heard the
noise of guns. This led , him to believe that
fighting was going on around Mont Valerien, and.in'that
part of the valley of the Seine. He could see distinctly
that the Prussian army on this spot was formed of seven
lines, flanked by large bodies of cavalry. As the wind
still blew from the east the balloon followed the course
of the river. At eleven o'clock M. Duruof considered
that he was far enough from Paris to venture on descend-
ing. The balloon fell in a park ; and the aeronaut, having
got out of his boat, was received at the Château Cra-
cowille, which is a short distance from Evreux, This
chateau belongs to Admiral La Ronciere le Noury, who
is at present in command of the forts of Paris.
Information of the arrival of the balloon was for-
warded to the Prefect of the Eure. He came and received
the aeronaut, who was supplied with a regular commission
from the Director-General of the Post-office. M.
Duruof had carried with him three sacks, weighing 125
kilogrammes, and containing a number of despatches.
Some of these were from the Minister of War, or other
members of the Government. M. Duruof had been
ordered not to give up the dispatches to any one but a
General or a Prefect. He was directed to destroy them
rather than allow them to go into the hands of any
other person. Having rested himself for a few
hours at Evreux, the aeronaut took the train to Tours,
where he arrived safely on Saturday morning. M.
Duruof states that the conditions offered by Count
Bismarck had been posted on the walls of Paris
for three days, and had given the strongest impetus
to the spirit of patriotism in the breasts of the
defenders of the capital. From him also information has
been received that the Prussians, after having taken pos-
sossion of the redoubt above Saint Cloud, had been dis-
lodged from this position by the cannon of Mont Vale-
rien. All the houses in the pretty park at Montretout,
as well as those in its vicinity, are now a heap of ruins.
The affair at Bourget had been of a character at once
very successful and very dramatic. Sheltered behind a
house which the French had neglected to demolish, the
Prussians had raised a redoubt of bricks. An attack was
made at night on this point. Aided by the electric light
given by Bazin's machine, some of the Breton Gardes
Mobiles had . thrown themselves upon the enemy.
The cannon of the neighbouring fort, meanwhile,
thundered against the redoubt, and the house
which protected it. Dazzled by the light, which at the
same time left their aggressors in darkness, and surprised
by this rude attack, the Prussians had been routed, and
left behind in the hands of the Gardes Mobiles
500 prisoners. M. Duruof also asserts that the
besiegers remain at a great distance from the ramparts.
The Gardes Sedentaires, who are doing duty on
the ramparts, and are very anxious to get the enemy
within gunshot, cannot catch sight of the Prussians, so far
are they away. During the last few days, the National
Guards have fired, but without ill results, on the French
lancers, mistaking them for Uhlans. Paris has assumed
a resolute attitude and a martial appearance. Everywhere
in it there reigns silence, broken only by the noise of the
cannon, which never cease to thunder, day or night. The
shops are closed at ten o'clock at night, after which hour
no citizen can, without a special order, leave his house. A
word about the hero of this extraordinary voyage.. He
is a young man, about nineteen years of age, and belongs
to the Garde Sedentaire. He intends to return to Paris
as he came out of it. Others have, it is said, offered to
follow the example set by M. Duruof.

THE LOSS OF THE CAPTAIN.
(CENTRAL PRESS TELEGRAM.)
PORTSMOUTH, WEDNESDAY,

The court resumed at nine o'clock.

Captain A plin, of the Inconstant, examined, said : On
the night of the 6th a general order was given to keep
steam up for use if required. This was an order made
by Colombo lights from the Lord Warden. Received a
report from the officer of the middle watch that the next
ahead was out of sight. I had heard there was a limit
from which the Captain could not recover herself. I had
read it in lectures given by the Society of Naval
Architects on stability, and believed it. The Incon-
stant could recover from a lurch of 45 degrees. I
believe that arose from her having a high freeboard.
Lieutenant Hondecourt, who was officer in the middle
watch on board the Inconstant, said at 12.30 only the
Lord Warden was in sight. The weather was squally,
with a rough short sea.

Lieutenant Scudamore saw the Captain about
&ye-points beyond the Inconstant's beam. The Incon-
stant was under treble reefed topsails the same as the
Captain. The Inconstant heeled 25 degrees. Is she had
heeled 15 more he believed she would have lost some spars
and sails. He believed that in a breeze the same as that
in question the Captain could carry more sail than the
Inconstant.

Charles Beales, signalman of the Inconstant, last saw
the Captain at 12.15. She was then a little off the port
bow. The Bristol was in sight at the same time. H.
saw the Lord Warden at 12.30. Knew her by the Admi-
ral's light.

Lieutenant Crawford, of the Bellerophon, was middle-
watch. If his vessel had been in a trough of sea she
would not have suffered. When witness took charge
of the middle-watch only the Monarch was in sight.
After the evidence about the weather Lieutenant Rice,
of the Director-General's Naval Ordnance Office, was
examined. He said he reported as to the Captain to
Admiral Robinson, Controller of the Navy. Wit-
ness went in the Monarch in company with the
Captain. The report he made was from practical experi-
ence. In making it he was guided by these considera-
tions—Of the low freeboard of the Captain, the size of
her masts and spars, and the distribution of weights. A
heel of about 9 degrees was the Captain's maximum stabi-
lity. He conversed with many officers on the subject,
but could not say who agreed- with him. Captains
Burgoyne and Sheepshanks did. Ile knew the Captain
was got with difficulty to heel of 7 degrees. On the 12th
of May, when under treble reefed topsails, she heeled
eight to 10 degrees, and he recorded a lurch
of twenty-one degrees. Witness did not think
of her being fitted witb tripod, instead of the usual
lower rigging; and the Captain's weights had been so
placed as to give a very high centre of gravity, and thus
place the metre centre too near that point. If the metre
centre was at the same point with the centre of gravity
the ship was liable to turn up or down ; but if the metre
point was above the centre of gravity the ship would turn
bottom up. On the 12th of May witness was on board
the Captain, when she appeared to stand up
well under heavy canvas, with the exception
of several lurches. The ship was not using
steam at the time, but had treble reefed topsails and
courses not set. He had apprehensions for her if pressed
with canvas, and he recorded that opinion. He could
not say at what point the Captain would go to instability.
Righting would not be much impeded by the hurricane
deck if heeling fifteen degrees when blowing hard. He
always thought that by shortening sail in blowing
weather there was difficulty in working ropes, but
not much in letting go to save the ship.
He told Captain Burgoyne that the ship was unsile at a
certain point. Captain Burgoyne treated the matter as
a joke. As an Admiralty official he could not say if the
Captain's stability had ever been questioned. He con-
sidered, in the event of stability being questioned, that
those who gave command of the ship should be the parties
responsible. Witness gave an answer to this question
with considerable reluctance.

Captain Booker had been to sea 24 years. He had had
command of the Scorpion for one year. Was little under
sail. She was safe under steam in any weather, From ex-
perience of low-freeboard turret ships he should say if square
sails had been taken off the Captain, and she had been
placed under steam with her bow in the sea, she would
have been safe. He thought a low free board ship not as
safe in a hurricane as other ships, even if skilfully handled.
The heaviest roll the Scorpion made was from 20 to 25
degrees. He was not satisfied with the Scorpion, as her
screw would not revolve unless going four 'mots. Her
sail power appeared to be small if she had all her weights
on board. He did not consider her fit to face an ordinary
Atlantic gale with a heavy sea, He attributed her un-
safeness to be, if the coals were all exlopded, in keeping
her head to the sea. It was probable that if a heavy
sea struck the funnel casing it would be carried
away, and the ship be in great danger.
He never feared the Scorpion capsizing whatever else
might occur. _ _

Lieutenant Bruce, of the Hercules, when relieved of the
watch, could see the Agincourt, Warrior, Minotaur,
Northumberland and Monarch.
Other evjdence, as to weather, was given and the cdutt
adjourned. It is expocted that highly. important evidence
will be given on Thursday and FridaY

OUR COTEMPORARIES—This Diorning

THE FALL OF STRASBURG

The Times says the defence of Strasburg and of
Toul has been heroic, but they have fallen, and
their fall portends the immediate 'slit-render of the
• other fortified places in the North-east of France
which have hitherto baffled the enemy. With such
facts before us, it is impossible not to deplore anew the
resolution of the Provisional Government to refuse the
terms of the armistice offered by Count Bismark to M.
Jules Favre. Had the Government of Defence consented
to surrender• Strasburg, Toul, and Verdun, they would
have secured an armistice sufficient to permit the election
of members to a Constituent Assembly throughout
France, and the meeting of the members at Tours with
authority to speak and act on behalf of the country. If
an attempt were again made to negotiate an armistice,
the cession of Mont Val6rien would probably be in-
sisted upon as the price of the interval of pea•ce,
whether the Constituent Assembly were appointed
to meet at Paris or at Tours. The Provisional
Government had their opportunity. They could
not rise to the stoicism necessary to grasp it, and it
is gone—gone past recall. Paris may resist, and pro-
bably will resist, until the lastmoment—until, as at Stras-
burg, resistance is no longer possible. ' It is, in
fact, the especial misery of the situation that
resistance must apparently thus be prolonged.
Is there, then, no hope for France? Must she fight on
until she falls through mere exhaustion, and then be fain
to accept whatever terms a victorious king shall
dictate from his Head-Quarters at the Tuileries ?
It would seem to be even so. There is but
one way of escaping fr nn this melancholy neces-
sity, and the possibility of securing it is so slender that
it can be named only with doubt and hesitation. The
sole hope of avoiding the worst lies in the
possibility that Germany may be induced to take
less now than would be insisted upon at the end.
Germany might consent to forego something to
gain an immediate settlement, might yield some respect
to the feelings and pride of France ; or friendly nations
interceding for the fallen might urge upon her the wisdom
of a mercy that would be twice blessed.
In commenting upon the fall of the Great French for-
tress, the Daily News observes that the place may have
been treated less harshly than the laws of war are held
to justify; but the public finds little consolation in that
thought, and this siege has led many to ask whether it
can be right deliberately to make a town inhabited by
thousands of families a focus of war. When the
iron hail fell upon Toul, admiration for the valour and
fortitude of its defenders was the only feeling excited ;
but Strasburg was a great city full of non-belligerents,
of women and children, to whom every ball
'or bomb might carry death. Day after day has
the shower of shot- and shell fallen upon the
doomed city, week after week have the garri-
son had to watch on the ramparts against surprise, to
labour at the bastions which the enemy was battering
down, to issue forth to find the besiegers in the trenches
and destroy their works. But notwithstanding all their
efforts, the enemy came nearer and nearer, bun owing like
a mole to subvert with sap and mine those walls which
for generations have been regarded as the bulwark of
North-Eastern France. At length, after many a brave
man had fallen in 9 the hand-to-hand conflict in the
trenches, the wall was gained, the opening was made,
and an army waited but a word to spring in
at the breach. The battalions which were to
mph through the gap had actually been se-
lected by ballot, when happily, General Uhrich,
the Governor of Strasbourg, had the courage to declare
that his soldiers, unable to do more for the city or for
France, had done enough for their own honour. He sur-
rendered, and thus proved himself a braver man than if
from a selfish regard .for his own reputation he had sacri-
ficed the lives of others in a contest which had no longer
an adequate object.
The Yorkshire Post says considering that the garrison
of Strasburg could not possibly have held out above a
day or two longer, the demand of Count Bismarck
for its surrender would seem to have been a
necessary preliminary to any cessation of hostilities.
But M. Favre tells the world that he could
only express his indignation at the proposal. M. Favre,
however, has not had long to wait for the opportunity of
indulging his indignation, •as he has scarcely had time to
pen the record of his own incompetence and egotism before
Strasbourg has surrendered. France now instead of
stretching her grasp further over the Rhine provinces, must
withdraw from all contact with the Germans' noble river.
Strasbourg, with the district that adjoins her, will revert
to her former owners.