The Sun.
London, England, 1870-08-12 00:00:00

THE MURDER OF MR. NATHAN.

We have published all the details which can
at present be ascertained concerning one of the
most horrible crimes ever perpetrated in a city whose
annals are deeply stained with crime. The story is now
becoming painfully familiar by repetition. The other
day it was a respected citizen of Milford, Connecticut,
who was massacred at dead of night in the attempt to
defend his home from robbers. Now it is a well-known
resident of our own city whose life has been taken in the
same foul and horrible manner. The criminals whom
we have among us possess the ferocity of
tigers. - They walk hand in hand, every day, with
murder. They think no more of shedding human blood
than other people do of going to church. They fear no
punishment in this world or the next, and so far as this
world is concerned, their audacity is too often quite justi-
fied by the security they enjoy. It is only honest citizens.
who are unsafe in New York. We have no doubt that
the police will do everything in their power to discover
the assassin who has suddenly plunged another family into
mourning. We trust that Superintendent Jourdan will
receive proper consideration from the public in a task
which is manifestly one of extreme difficulty.
In a city containing over a million of people,
he is instantly called upon to find one par-
ticular man to whom there is no direct clue. The only
person who looked the murderer in the face, and could
identify him, is dead. The fugitive will probably read the
account of his deed in this morning's papers in common
with the rest of the public. The universal craving to
bring him to justice ought not to lead to any im-
patient outcry against the police. They cannot perform
miracles. But, while admitting the difficulty of the in-
vestigation in which they are engaged, we must be allowed
to caution them against their besetting weakness. It is
the tendency to construct a theory upon the spot, and
to follow it up as if it were entitled to the
authority of inspiration. No doubtwhatever is entertained
that it was a " professional burglar" who committed this
frightful deed. Our reporter speaks as if no possible reve-
lations could change this impression. Nevertheless, there
are some circumstances in the case which suggest a dif-
ferent opinion. Let it be noted that Mr. Nathan had not
slept in the house for some little time previous to the
night of the murder. Workmen had been employed about
the premises, and one or more of them assert that so little
was the house watched, that they went in and out
without attracting anybody's attention. It was
quite possible for anyone who was in the build-
ing to notice the safe, in which valuables were sup-
posed to be deposited, and to conclude that, as the family
were absent from town, it would be an easy matter
to rifle that safe of its contents. The person who deter-
mined to commit the robbery probably had no idea that
Mr. Nathan would sleep in the house that night, and
consequently he brought an instrument with him to force
open the safe. This instrument was a ship-carpenter's
tool—not the sort of weapon a professional burglar carries
about with him. It ought not to be utterly beyond the
reach of a policeman's ingenuity to trace this tool to its
owner. If we may suppose that Mr. Nathan went to his
safe before retiring to rest, the conjecture is plausible
that the concealed robber saw or heard him do so, and
knew where he placed the keys. He then had a
shorter way of getting at the safe than by the use of his
" iron dog." Seeing the diamond studs and watch lying
ready to hand, he took them as the first installment of his
booty. That he knew his way about the house, that he
had already,informed himself of the position of the safe,
and that he understood how to open the front door, is
quite manifest from the manner in which he accom-
plished his work. The man, we repeat, was
familiar with the house ; lie also understood
all about the fastenings of the door, which
ordinarily are intricate enough to puzzle strangers.
Even amid the excitement of his crime, the
ruffian seems to have made straight for the front door.
The perfect method of his proceedings proves, then, that
he had been in the house before, and had been enabled to
lay his plans with an accuracy upon which he could rely.
That no one heard a cry from the fatal room is not sur-
prising in so large a house. The housekeeper was some
distance off, the young men were on another floor, and
the young. sleep fast. The assassin carried his iron weapon
down stairs with him, prepared, doubtless, to use it again
if he found it necessary to do so. He probably knew
how improdable it was that when he quitted the
house he would encounter a policeman. After what we
have said, we shall not be accused of judgir.g the police
harshly. But we only assert what everybody who is in
the habit of being out late at night can affirm, when we
say that a policeman is a very rare object to be met with
after twelve o'ciock. Where they all are at night
it is not our business to explain. Superinten-
dent Jourdan has lately discovered that many of
them are anywhere but where they should be
If Mr. Nathan had been a young man just
returning home, we should probably have been told that
some one had taken this method to be revenged upon him
for a real or fancied wrong. Let a man be attacked in
the streets now, and besides his personal injuries he has
to sustain the most cruel slanders upon his character. In
this case there can be no such injustice done to the dead.
Every motive of the crime is clear. The friends of
the murderer cannot throw dust in the eyes of
the police by alleging that Mr. Nathan provoked
his death by his own imprudence or folly. Superintendent
Jourdon will doubtless endeavour to find out who were
the persons that were enabled to study the house prior to
the night of the murder. We cast suspicion upon no
man. But if the "professional burglar ' theory is pur-
sued to the exclusion. of every other, an additional chance
of escape will be Offered to the inhuman butcher whom
God will surely find . out, even though man's imperfect
justice should never reach him.—New York Times, July 30.

THE METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENA OF
THE ATLANTIC RACE.

The meteorological phenomena recorded in the logs of
both yachts in the late ocean race are very curious and
suggestive. The Cambria, for instance, had fifteen
days of the twenty-three of the race in which there were
more or less rains—heavy rains and gales being the rule.
The Dauntless had only seven days marked by rain, but
more days of thick, foggy weather than the Cambria.
The general course of the Dauntless was about
four hundred miles south of the course of
the Cambria. The question suggested by these
facts are, why these prevailing rains on the Atlantic,
while the continents on each side have been subject to a
dry, heated term, without a prece lent for half a century
in Europe and North America? And why this excess of
rain along the northern course of the Cambria ?
Our theory is, first, that from an increase of combus-
tibles drawn into the sun the earth, and especially in
its northern hemisphere, is mainly indebted for its ex-
traordinary droughts and heats of this summer. In
the second place, the heat of this season having ex-
tended further towards the North Pole than usual, an
increased quantity of icebergs have been loosened from
the shores of Baffin's Bay, and by the Arctic current,
which comes down that bay into the main ocean, have
been brought out into the Atlantic, where they have
acted as condensers (like the Alps and other snow-
covered mountains) of the vapour from the ocean,
which otherwise would be discharged upon the thirsty
land on both sides. The Dauntless. having sailed
a course south of these icebergs, experienced fewer
along for
twoth the coursedays,
rrelinoyrtsdicaeybsergths ainn
of the Dauntless was not the condensing atmosphere of
sight.OTT
eibartiman,oswphheirceh
the route of the Cambria. Hence, while the one ship ex-
perienced more fog, the other had more rain. Such,
briefly, is the best explanation we can give of the
metreorological phenomena of this •ocean race in
contrast with the drought and terrible heats pre-
vailing at the same time on both sides of the sea.
The curious facts thus developed by this ocean race
open a new field of inquiry to science touching the annual
rainfall of the dry land in connection with the causes
operating to increase what we may call the wastage on
the sea in one year as compared with another. Let any
man of science compare, for example, the logs of the
Cambria and Dauntless with the weather record of those
twenty-three days in the same latitudes on the American
and European Atlantic coasts, and he will find a most
interesting subject for investigation. —New York, Herald.

MERCANTILE FAILURE IN BIRMINGHAM.—The
Birntincham, Gazette announces the suspension of payment
of the well-known firm of Kynoch and Co., of Birming-
ham, ammunition manufacturers, with liabilities amount-
ing to £60,000. We understand that assets are consider-
able, and that a very favourable realisation is anticipated.
A meeting of creditors has been called for the 24th inst.

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