The Sun.
London, England, 1870-05-25 00:00:00

WELSH ELQPEMENTS.

The principality of late seems to have been labouring
under an epidemic of an amorous nature. Two
magisterial investigations were held, one at
Liverpool, the other at Neath, into circumstances arising
out of two elopements, which are detailed at considerable
length in the local papers. At Liverpool, William
Jones was charged with committing perjury
under the following circumstances. The prisoner
who is described as a young man of respectable and en-
gaging appearance, is the son of a Welsh farmer, and
followed the calling of a currier. He appears to
have made the acquaintance .of Miss Annie
Jane Williams, a young lady of his own age,
and daughter of the Rev. Robert Williams, rector of the
parish of Llanvaelog, Anglesea. The young lady is said to
be highly accomplished, and a general favourite in the
parish in which she resided. There being little hope
of obtaining Mr. Williams' consent to his daughter's mar-
riage with one so much beneath her, the couple eloped
and went to Liverpool with the intention of getting the
knot tied. Jones went to the office of the registrar and
made a declaration that he had resided five months
in Union-street, Liverpool, and that Miss Williams had
been there for ten weeks. The declaration was conse-
quently granted. Unfortunately for the progress of the
match, a telegram was sent off by the lady's
friends to stay the marriage, and the result
was the apprehension of the young man on a charge of
having committed perjury by making a false declaration.
On this charge he was remanded, bail being
tendered and accepted for his appearance. The
young lady was stated to be not far away and
the £lB found on Jones when apprehended was ordered to
be given up to him. The second elopement is possessed
of features of a repulsive character. Mr. Poole, a draper,
of Neath, had two daughters, Julia, aged 17, and Emily,
12 months younger. They were married to former assist-
ants in the father's shop, Julia being Mrs. Bennett,
and Emily Mrs. Davis. On Saturday it was found
that Mrs. Bennett and Mr. Davis had left home together,
and inquiries being set on foot, they were traced to Liver-
pool. As the absconding_ parties had taken with them
things belonging to Mr. Poole, Davis was apprehended,
their intention to have proceeded to America being, frus-
trated. They were taken to Neath, charged before the
magistrates with the larceny, and remanded.

Prince Charles of Roumania, on the occasion of
the anniversary of his succession to the throne, has issued
a proclamation to the people, in which he announces that
there is a chance of an heir being shortly born. The news
has been received with great enthusiasm.
Mr. M‘Cullagh Torrens has given notice of his in-
tention to move a resolution with reference to the dis-
tressed condition of the artisan population in the great
towns. This will raise in a new form the question which
was not allowed to be debated last Tuesday night. A.
Liberal paper says it has reason to know that the Govern-
ment disclaims all responsibility in connection with the
Speaker's ruling on that occasion, _

The French Emperor's speech on the Plebiscite,
delivered on Saturday at the Louvre, at twenty minutes
past one, was in London and in Brussels at two o'clock.
At four it was at Vienna and Berlin, and during
the night it reached St. Petersburg. The Central
Telegraph Office at St. Germain was at work all
night, forwarding to foreign powers the words of the Em-
peror and the diplomatic comments on them. The
Minister of the Interior dispatched the speech to all the
prefects throughout France in less than an hour and a
quarter.
Two children were suffocated on Monday in a fire
at the wool works of Messrs. T. and J. Shaw, of Aston, in
Birmingham. They were sleeping with two others in
the attic of a house adjoining the works, and as soon as
their danger became apparent every effort was made to
rescue them. Two of the four children were brought out
alive, but a subsequent attempt by a policeman to extri-
cate the remaining children was less fortunate, and
when access was at length obtained to this room
they were found quite dead, evidently of suffocation.
They are both girls, aged five and seven years re-
spectively.

THE VOLUNTEERS,—The Secretary of State for
War has intimated to thQ Council of the National Artil-
lery Association that he has decided to grant assistance
in aid of the expenses incurred by artillery volunteer corps
in attending the annual prize-meeting at Shoeburyness. The
grant will be at the rate of 10s. per man up to 1,000, and a
like sum per officer up to 100, provided that every such
officer and man for whom the grant is claimed shallbefore
joining the Shoeburyness camp have been instructed in
the duties of sentries, guards, a-ld pickets. This is just
the kind of help which will be appreciated by the volun-
teers, and the addition of £650 per annum to the avail-
able funds of the association will enable the Council to
make Shoeburyness Camp much more attractive and
much more useful than it has hitherto been. The compe-
tition for adinission into the "English eight " is fixed to
take place at York on the 23rd and 24th of June, during
the prize meeting of the Yorkshire Rifle Association.

FAILURES IN PEACH CULTURE.—A frequent
cause of failure in the culture of peaches is the practice of
starting the new growth with a too high temperature,
and maintaining it at too rapid a pace when the trees are
in flower, and, further on, when the fruit is undergoing
the stoning process. The fact that the fruit does set freely
on the open wallwith a temperature a few degrees above tbe
freezing-point is utterly ignored, and the indoor trees are
subjected to a temperature which with the greatest degree
of certainty results in the loss of the crop.
Provided the flowers are not frozen, no injury will result
from a low temperature, but much loss may be appre-
hended from ahigh one. All good cultivators are agreed that
40 deg. Fah. is a safe medium for commencing with by
the aid of fire-heat alone, and also that in comparatively
mild weather no harm will result if the thermometer is
allowed to rise to 45 deg. Higher than this it should not
be allowed to go, unless the sun happens to shine
brightly, and then 55 deg, or even 60 deg. will do no
harm—indeed, be beneftial, provided a free circula-
tion of air is allowed. This temperatnre will be
ample until the fruit attains the size of a marrow-fat pea,
and then it should'rise to 50 deg. by night and from 60 deg.
to 70 deg. during the day. At this same range it should
continue until after tiTe stoning is completed, after which
the cultivator may push them on as fast as the girt m-
sta::cce of the case may require, provided flavour i 4 of
secondary importance.—The Gardener's Magazine.

LAW AND ,POLICE,

A JUDGE AND A SOLICITOR.—The House of Lords has
heard an appeal from a decision of the Court of Session
in Scotland, the Judge of the Sheriff's Court of Aberdeen-
shire being the respondent, and the appellant an attorney
named Watt, practising in that court. He had taken
away a certain document in an action before the Court,
in defiance of the order of the judge, who, therefore,
ordered the arrest of the solicitor. Watt subsequently
brought an action to set aside the imprisonment, and
asked for £5,000 damages. The defence was that the
respondent had acted in his judicial capacity, and was not
liable to the action. The Court of Session held this de-
fence to be sound, and against their decision the solicitor
appealed. The House of Lords deferred judgment.

RACEHORSES.—In Judges' Chambers a case referring to
the disposal of racehorses, one of which is to
run in the Derby, has been heard. The plaintiff, Reeves,
a trainer at Brighton, claimed a debt from the defendant,
Captain Richardson, for taking charge of the animals.
Three executions had been levied on these racers :
Captain De Yere Hunt claimed a part ownership,
and the sheriff of Middlesex applied to interplead as the
horses were eating their heads off. The first question
was whether Mr. Reeves had a right to levy the execu-
tion after an agreement which it appeared he had made
Master Unthank held that the execution must be set
aside. As to a lien on the horses by the trainer there
was a case decided in which a trainer lost his lien when
he issued an execution. After some further discussion an
order was made that the horses should be sold by the
sheriff; unless the two executions were immediately satis-
fied, the money being brought into court.
A HEARTLESS CASE.—At the Middlesex Sessions,
Livian Benson Pearse, described as a builder, was sen-
tenced to five years' penal servitude, having been pre-
viously convicted of obtaining several sums from dif-
ferent tradesmen by false pretences. The prisoner was
the son of an elderly gentleman of large means, who had
been nearly ruined by his extravagance. He
had deserted his wife and children, but had
succeeded in obtaining possession of goods directed
to her, which lie then sold or pledged. Sir W. Bodkin,
in passing sentence, observed that he never heard a worse
case of the kind.
A HOPELESS CHARACTER.—A woman named Sarah
Hart, has been charged at the Guildhall with
being drunk and disorderly. An Inspector said
she had been in the custody of the police ninety-
eight times, had been sent before a magistrate thirty-nine
times, and the other fifty-nine times had been released on
promises of good behaviour. She was sentenced to
twenty-one days' imprisonment.
FINING A BICYCLE RIDER.—Mr. Sparrow, of Piccadilly,
has been fined, at Hammersmith, 2s. 6d. and costs for
driving a bicycle on the footway at Kensington. The
defendant said that perambulators were allowed to go on
footpaths, and they took up four times the space of a
bicycle.
THE CHARGE OF SWINDLING AGAINST A LADY.—Mrs.
M`Gregor, who is said to be the wife of a retired Major in
the Indian army, has been examined at the Marlborough
street Police-court on a charge of defrauding Messrs.
Lewis and Allenby, silk merchants, of Regent-street,
with obtaining £2O on false pretences from Miss O'Neill,
one of their assistants. It will be remembered that Mrs.
Macgregor has been apprehended on a similar charge
at Cheltenham, where it is alleged she presented a
cheque for £3O on the Agra Bank*, but was detected by
one of the clerks who had seen the handbill of Lewis and
Allenby, with the fac simile of .the cheque presented to
them. Having been examined at Cheltenham, and
identified, she was brought in custody to London. She
bought a silk dress dress at Lewis and Allenby's, and
changed a cheque for £2O. Similar evidence was given
from Howell and James's, where she gave
a cheque for £25, giving the names of Porter,
Grey, and others. •It was said that she had
obtained sixty pounds from an hotel keeper at Brighton.
She was remanded, bail being refused. Her counsel said
that her husband and another responsible surety were
quite ready.
THE MILITIA AND THE POLICE.—TWO militiamen have
been charged at Uxbridge with disorderly conduct,
and a civilian was charged with rescuing one of
them from the hands of the police. A con-
stable, named Horlock, found the prisoners preparing
to fight in Windsor-street, Uxbridge, surrounded by a
mob. He endeavoured, with the aid of two other men,
to take them into custody, and a general affray ensued,
in which the constable was very seriously injured.
The prisoners were captured with difficulty. They were
fined £5, £2105., and £2 respectively.

CHARGE OF CRIIRLTY.---Alrs. Bodd, the wife of a
farmer at Norringham, was charged at Melton with
having ill-used a girl, 12 years of age, who was in her
employ. The girl was in the workhouse, and had been co
ill that her deposition was taken. The evidence of cruelty
on the part of her mistress was supported by lads on the
farm. The doctors, who were examined, said the girl was
not fit for service. The prisoner was committed for
trial.

LADY MORDAUNT.—LadyMordatint, it is stated, is
rapidly recovering both mental and bodily health. The
facts of her ailments at the time of her trial are said to
have been widely exaggerated.

THE WORK OF CLERGYMEN.—The Bishop of
Manchester, in consecrating Emanuel Church, at
Preston, made some observations on the work of
the clergyman. Uniformity, he said, was a good
thing when it could be had, but unity was a
thousand times more precious. He urged them to try to
bridge over the chasm of religious difference by the offices
of charity, and by the best construction they could put
upon the motives and conduct of those who differed
from them. The mere controversialist or political parson,
a busy man in secular matters, an active magi-
strate, a busy guarcWin of the poor, his lord-
ship observed, was out of place as a clergy-
man cf the Church, of England now. They wanted
men—faithful and wise men—with large hearts and broad
sympathies, who, with a clear, kindly eye distinguish be-
tween the essential and the accidental—between what we
might even gain by losing and what we must struggle to
the very death to retain.

A WONDERFUL PARROT.—The French papers
announce the death of Jacko, the famous parrot of the
War Office in Paris. Jacko was first brought into the
office in 1830 by Marshal Soult, and he remained for
forty years at his post unaffected by revolutions or party
conflicts. After a time he came to be looked upon as
an indispensable appanage of the War Department,
and when there was a Cabinet crisis, people used to
ask who was to get, not the War-office portfolio,
but the War-cffice parrot. Though he served
under eighteen different Ministers, he always remained
consistent to the principles which were instilled into
him when he first entered office. Both under the
Republic and the Second Empire he remained a
staunch Royalist, and there were few members of
his party who, spoke their minds with so much frank-
ness. One day his repeated cries of `• Vive le !" so
annoyed Marshal St. Arnaud when he was War Minister
that he ordered the indiscreet bird to bd turned out.
Jacko had a friend, however, in the porter, who took him
into his lodge and taught him to add "de St. Arnaud"
to his usual cry. The bird was then put back into his
room, and, as the Marshal was passing screamed out,
" Vive le roi de St. Arnaud !" "A la bonne heure," said
the Minister, and Jacko was at once retaken into favour.
Of late years the clerks tried to teach him " Vive l'Empe-
reur !" but he never could bring out the attire sentence
without tremendous efforts. He got on very well as far
as " Vive l'Empe---," but at this point he seemed to
choke, his feathers stood on end, and his eyes rolled with
an anxious expression, as if he felt his conscience
reproaching him. At last, after several minutes' intense
struggling, he would jerk out the last syllable—" reur "
in a hoarse sepulchral tone. He died immediately after
the Duchess of Berry, and on the anniversary of the death
of Napoleon 1., three days before the plebiscitum.—Pall
Mall Gazette.
SAN 'RANCISCO HARBOUR.—BIosom Rock, a
sunken rock of soft sandstone 180 feet long by 90 feet
wide, has been known and dreaded as the most dangerous
obstruction in the line of entrance to the harbour of San
Francisco. The water at the rock at low tide was about
5 feet, and the current was generally very strong. The
buoys marking the position have several times been swept
obeyeurreeledctriinc
away. The rock itself was removed on the 23rd of April.
less Shafts
than
hhavingbeen
tonssunkof anda
gunpowder great
w excavationereintroduced
m ade, n
o
li
ivnrelsa,rgaendtanakts
2or
p.cmy.lindtheres
ecxopnnloseicotned
the presence of a multitude of people, all keep-
at a respectful distance. A monstor cone of water shot
into the air to the height of above 200 feet, in the shape
of a round or obtuse-pointed, truncated cone, somewhat
resembling an inverted thimble. This column was nearly
300 feet in diameter at a point some 80 feet above the
surface of the bay. Its base was shrouded by
another outburst of water, which rose to the
height of fully 80 feet all around the central shaft,
and rolled its flood outward. The base was over
500 feet in diameter at the surface of the bay. High
above the upheaved mass rocks of large size, ruins of the
interior works, and a great quantity of earthy matter
were thrown and scattered far and wide. The rock was
utterly demolished, and thrown in all directions, and the
soundings gave thirty-eight feet of water over its site at
low tide. In excavating -the rock 2,500 cubic yards of
rock Were hosited through the shaft and dumped into the
bay and the pile of loose rock thus created reached nearly
to the surface of the water. Over this the soundings two
days after gave eighteen feet of water, shewing that the
tide made great havoc with this rubbish in two days. In
a week, it was expected, the depth of water called for by
the contract would be found all about the site of the rock.

DEATH OF A RECLUSE.—For some years past
there has been living at Uxbridge, in comparative seclu-
sion, an old lady of peculiarly eccentric habits, always
quaint in her dress, and impregnable to the curiosity of
the town folk. Her residence was at No. 2, Foundry-ter-
race. A melancholy incident has, however, revealed the
identity of the occupant of 2, Foundry-terrace. In the early
part of last week the neighbours lost sight of the old lady
altogether, and more than the usual solitude seemed to
veil her abode. Information of this having reached Mr.
Batt, a local solicitor, he proceeded to the house on Thurs-
day last, and as he received no response to his knock he
effected a forcible entrance. On his going upstairs he
found the old lady lying dead in her bed. An inquest on
the body was held by Dr. Diplock West Middlesex coro-
ner, on Saturday last, at which it transpired that deceased
was the daughter of a Spanish nobleman of high distinction.
In early life she contracted a clandestine marriage with
the Count de Chantal, of France, who was a general in the
French Army, under the first Napoleon, and who fell
at Waterloo. Exiled from her native country, as well
as from France, she took refuge in England soon after
the restoration of peace, and was living on her scanty
income at Uxbridge in the manner described. She had
reached her 93d year. The' medidal eviddnop having
proved that death was aqributabbil solely to natural
causes, the jury returned their Verdict accordingly. It is
presumed the deceased had lain dead several days before
discovery.

CAPTAIN DE GROOT'S STATUE OF
FRANKLIN.

Captain Albert de Groot, designer of the Vanderbilt
bronze, has conceived the idea of erecting a - statue of
Benjamin Franklin in Printing House-square. He pro-
poses to construct the statue at his own cost, and present
it to the Press and printers of New York, who will then,
it is to be hoped, procure a suitable pedesdal and railing
for it and place it in the square. A model of the proposed
statue, which is to be of bronze, eleven feet in height,
has ; been on exhibition at the counting-rooms of
Baker and Godwin. So far as can be judged from the
model, the attitude and expression of the figure are
natural and good. Franklin is represented as wearing a
plain citizen's dress. With left foot advanced, head
raised, and holding a roll of papers in his left hand, he
appears to be about to address some public assemblage.
The model is rather too small to enable one to form a fair
idea of anything more than the attitude and expression.
How the details may be carried out will be matter for
after consideration. The pose of the right hand,
it strikes us, is nct very graceful. It is too claw-like.