The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-14 00:00:00

DEATHS IN POLICE CELLS.

The frequency of these events and the painful cir-
cutnstances under which, of necessity, they occur,
and moreover the culpability of the authorities in
many instances in which life is evidently in danger,
and the means of averting death are neglected,
will, we trust, obtain serious consideration, apart
altogether from the larger question of necessary
reforms of police duty and discipline. Within
the past twelve months, several cases of deaths in
police cells have been reported ; in most of them,
persons suffering from apoplexy have been re-
garded as simply intoxicated, and have been
locked up without medical aid, or even the kind
hand of a friend to help them, and so left to die.
There may be much said in extenuation of the
police; they see so much of drunkenness that
they may well be callous and fall into a
habit of judging too hastily when they meet
with a person in a state of helplessness. The last
case on record is not only horrible, but it carries a
dreadful had of blame to every one concerned in
it A woman. reseu,,d from a watery grave, was
taken nearly naked on a stretcher to the cell, and
was there locked up and ,'ied. She had been
taken to 1 tavern fits, and it seems that neither
the publican nor tie }once had the decency or the
kindin.ss to find a woolen wrap! er To cover her
nor the prudence to obtain medical advice, nor
the common sens- to administet nourishment or
warmth, or seil after her friends. The duties of
the police in such cases can he pretty clearly de-
fined —that they fell short of their duty in this ease
cannot he doubted. But what was the duty of the
publican ? And is a r.primand trom a coroner's
jury, or tit,- disapprobation of a few of his neigh.
bouts, a sufficient rebuke to suTh inhumanity as
was manifested in this painful case.-7 he City
Press.

THE LAST DAY of TERM.---This year Hilary Term
ends on the Ist February, and not on the 31st January, in
consequence of that day falling on a Sunday.
The Baltimore Commercial says—Mr. D C. Lath-
bury, who writes in the last number of the Fortnightly
Review on " The Constitutional Question is the United
States," is, we have heard, the gentleman who has de-
fended in the Pall Mall Gazette the Democratic view of
American politics against the critics of the Republican
shade. He is an Oxford scholar of distinction, and was
associated with Sir John Acton in the editorship of the
Chronicle—Mr. Lathbury representing the High Church
element and Sir John the Liberal Catholic.

---- --
The American barque Speedwell, —25 days from
Now York, arrived at Gibraltar on the 26th December.
She was dismasted on the 12th, in lat. 43 20 N, long. 39
W., during a hurricane. She lost her main,
wizen, and
foretop masts, jibboom, etc.; and her Majesty's gunboat
Ringdove has since towed into the port of Gibraltar the
American brigantine L. M. Merritt, which was dismasted
off Cape St. Vincent during a gale.
Mr. Morris, the diplomatic agent of the United
States at Constantinople, has received orders from Wash-
ington not to take Hellenic subjects under his protection.
Thurlow Weed left New York on the 19th Dec.
for the benefit of his health. Senator Sumner is prepar-
ing a speech on the finances, and is said to favour a
speedy resumption of specie payments. General Butler is
also preparing a speech on the same subject, and holds
that a resumption of specie paymFmts is impossible.
Professor Goldwin Smith, LL.D., cf Cornell University,
late of Oxford, England, is the guest of Mr Cyrus W. Field,
in Grammercy Park. Ex-President Roberts, of Liberia,
Las finally settled down in Washington, and ha taken
a house on I street, not far from General Butler's resi-
dence.

The Portsmouth Chronicle says ex-President
Pierce was much overcome by the death of Mr. and Mrs.
Hutchins f ki.
n the Ohio River disaster), and ho is prostrated
by sickness. Mr. Hutchins had kindly invited hie to
accompany himself and wife to New Orleans, and for
several weeks Mr. Pierce thought of accepting the in-
vitation.
"I he Hon. E. J. Spalding was supposed to have
invented legal-tenders, but it was the late Thad. Stevens
who really prepared an I drafted the bill, Mr. Spalding
merely introducing it. Chief Justice Chase used to bo
called " Old Greenbacks," but the then Secretary of the
Treasury did everything he could to defeat the bill, de-
claring. it to he unconstitutional even iu time of war.
If Collector Smythe is rejected in the nomination
to Russia, it is said tha ex-Senator Foster, of Connecticut,
will make a vigorous effort to secure the place to which
he.has informed the President he believes the Senate
would confirm him.
- - -

---- -----
Senator Cole, of California, is said to have dis-
bursed $50,000 in the two trials of his brother, General
George W. Cole, for shooting Mr. Hiscock. Besides
lawyers' fees, amounting to about $20,000, large sums were
expende 1 for bringing witnesses from distant places. It is
rumoured that the Senator intends to take his brother
with him to California, and place him in busin3ss to start
anew. Senator Cole is reputed to have accumulated a
fortune of one million of dollars in California.
The Board of Trade have determined to present
a binocular glass to Captain Rumball, master of the Ame-
rican brig Dirigo, in acknowledgment of the humanity
shown by him in the rescue of the mate and five seamen
of the John Duncan, of St. John's, N. 8., wrecked in a
hurricane in November last. The only survivor on
board the John Duncan (the rest having been washed
overboard) were nine seamen who had been in a most
distressed condition for twelve days, when they were
taken off the wreck by the American ships Rabboni and
Dirty).
Thu Savannah Republican is informed that Mr.
Stevens has been offered $25,000 for his first volume of
" The War Among the States," and that the second volume
is nearly ready.

A BUDGET OF CRIMES AND

CASUAL 7 lES.

George M. Pinney killed ex-Governor Beall in
Helena, Montana, a short time ago, Pinney being
now shown to have acted in self-defence the chief
attorney for the prosecution requested the prisoner's
discharge after an examination before Commissioner
Hedges, as he was satisfied that it would be unjust
to hold Mr. Pinney over to appear at any other
tribunal.

An encounter took place at St. Joseph, Mis-
souri, on the 23d December, between the Hon. J.
E. Early, a prominent lawyer, and Colonel J. A.
Green, also a lawyer, and Mr. Early was killed.
The dispute grew out of an article published in the
Herald reflecting upon Colonel Green as a lawyer,
of which he believed Mr. Early to be the author.
David Caulkner, a highly respected citizen and
night policeman, was shot through the heart and
instantly killed near the railroad shtion at Mahlon,
Massachusetts, Dec. 22, at about three o'clock in
the morning. He had observed two unknown men
lurkiag, near the depot during the night, and when
he hailed them one of them fired upon him and both
fled.

At Nashville, Mr. Bean, a schoolmaster in Sail
Creek, Hamilton county, whipped a boy named
Hutchinson. The teacher had called the boy a
" numb-skull," and he, in retaliation, had at-
tempted to stab Mr. Bean. On this Hutchinson, a
relative of the boy, obtained a warrant for the
arrest of the teacher, and, in company with one
Smith, went to take him into custody. They found
him in the school-house, but he refused to surrender,
except to a constable or sheriff. A fight ensued, i n
which fire-arms were used. Hutchinson and one
Moore, a spectator, were killed, and Bean and
Smith were mortally wounded.
In Pulaski, Tennessee, on the 19th Dec., some
disguised Indians brace into the gaol, and taking
out a negro riddled his body with bullets. They
first tried to lynch him, but Ma-on being a power-
ful man, and having made resistance, they used
their pistols, and in a moment he was a corpse. At
Cageville. Haywood county, a negro was accused of
a gross outrage, was taken from the custody of an
officer by a party of masked men, and afterward
found hanging to a tree, pierced with bullets. Near
)resden. Weakly county, a negro woman duga hole
under her cabin, placed her two children in it, then
made a large tire and burned them to death. In Oak-
ville, Alabama, on the Dec. 18, Dr. James was shot
dead by three men in masks. A short time previ-
ous by the doctor had killed a man, and it issupposed
that the last tragedy was to avenge the act, and
perpetrated by the brother of the man whom the
doctor had killed. Martin Harris, represented as
a dangerous person, was shot and killed near Athens,
Alabama, ou the 17th Dec., by unknown persons.
In Brownville, Texas, George F. Hammond. and
William H. Phelps, Inspector of Customs, have
been murdered, and Robert H. Ryan, another in-
spector, severely wounded.
At New Albany, the scene of the recent lynching,
on the Bth December Mrs. Morton shot a young
man, named Scott Moore, a clerk in his father's
store, in Main-street, near Pearl. The following is
the version of the story as given by the lady :
" Since Thursday last I have received several drop
letters through the Post-office, signed Scott Moore,
of an insulting character. I got one yesterday
morning, and went to the store and asked Moore if
he had written the letters, and he said he did. I
demanded a written apology, and he said be had
one written and would give it to me, provided I
would return the letters I had in my possession and
promise never to tell my husband. This I refused
to do. Moore told me that he had often tried to
attract my attention, but I would not recognize it.
I had uo acquaintance with him before that. When
I left the store, after noon, Moore went with me,
and on the way proposed, if I would meet him at
Mrs. Huff's, that he would give me the written
apology. He went there ahead of me, and we were
left in the front room alone. 1 again demanded
the apology, and he asked me if I had burned his
letters. I made no reply. I took some letters from
my pocket and he made an effort to get them away
from me. He said he would see Ars. Huff, and as
he opened the door I shot." Mrs. Morton, formerly
a Miss Davis, is wife of John Morton, then absent
from New Albany. She is a good-looking woman, of
middle stature, arid the mother of three children.
Mr. Moore was a man of highly respectable family,
and has left a large circle of friends.

Three hor,einen called at the house of Captain
13. Fra; k-in, near to Jonesboro', Illinois, on Satur-
day, Dec. 19, and desired to trade for a valuable
horse. Cap ain Franklin refused to trade, and the
men rode off. In the afternoon one of them came
back, took ho captain's horse and left his own.
Captain Franklin followed and overtook the men,
and demindol his horse, when the one having the
horse fired three times, one ball hitting and killing
the captain almost instantly. The people having
been aroused, pursued and arrested the men, and
placed them under guard at the magistrate's. At
eight the house was surrounded by a company of
armed men, who took the murderer and hanged
him to a tree near by. The others proved to be
only road acquaintances, and were released.
At Bowling Green, Kentucky, two clerks in an
office, named Brams and Smith, quarrelled, and
peaceably separated, but unfortunately when they
again met Bemus put his hand into his pocket, which
Smith believing to mean mischief, drew his pistol
and commenced firing, wounding Bemus in the
elbow. Then Bemus got into action and shot
Smith dead. _

In Mobile Colonel Taylor got into a dispute with
Captain Cleveland, an intimate friend, with whom
he was conversing at the time at a club. The
origin of the quarrel was a small sum claimed by
Cleveland from Taylor, who angrily denied the
debt, and on Cleveland maintaining his position,
rose Lora his scat, and drawing a bowie-knife
plunged it into his creditor's body, inflicting a
wound from which he died. Taylor expressed great
sorrow, and was liberated on bail of $lO,OOO.

OLD AMERICA.—The bones of a gigantic race of
Indians have been discovered near Marlboro Point, on the
Potomac river. The discavery of a large number of beads,
moccasions, &c , leaves no doubt of the character of the
remains. Further investigations are to be made. The
condition of the remains indicate that they aro centuries
old. Scientific American.

What the people of the South think about lynch-
ing may be gathered from the action of some passengers
in a train at Carroll station on the Mobile and Ohio Rail-
road Dec. 21, for they took two pickpockets alleged to
have been caught in the act to the nearest tree and hanged
them. Alluding to lynchers, the Vigilance Committee of
Seymour have issued a circular to warn people about the
village who had uttered threats against them, and to us-
sure them that if they behaved civilly the "Regulators"
would not only allow them to live in their homes, but
protect them.

Benjamin Butler always contrives to attract at-
tention to anything he takes in hand. The last object is
the Rev. Mr. Strong, of Cleveland, Ohio. "Sir," he says,
"you have used the pulpit, considering Thanksgiving Day
a sort of secular Sabbath for personal vituperation in the
interest of capital and the mo❑ey-changers, whom our Di-
vine Master drove out of God's Holy Temple with a scourge
of small cords. Nay, He expelled therefrom those who
sold doves—an innocent occupation compared with that
of the gold gamblers and speculators to whom you seem
to have given the benefits of the sanctuary. It seems you
were not even aware of the fact upon which you
predicated ycur personal attack, from the pulpit,
upon myself by name, and the majority of the Re-
publican Representatives in Congress. Perhaps if
you had known the facts you would not have borne
false wit❑ess against your neighbours." The General
then alludes to the despatch of a copy of his speech
nad other papers sent for Mr. Strong's enlightenment, and
then says—" Pardon me, reverend sir. If your sermon
had not been sent me in The Cleveland Herald marked, I
should not have tro-bled you with a reply at all, and
even now, I should class the publication with the lucuhra-
tions of "Brick Pomeroy" and "Dinnis O'Flahorty," which
you will find printed on the back of your sermon, did I not
suppose you were honestly mistaken, and might be willing
to be set right." Finally, he concludes with the followi❑g :
"P.S.—I should be pleased toehear from you a sermon on
this text: —" Why dost thou judge thy brother ?" or,
" Why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall
all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ." Nothing
would grieve us more than anything which tended to im-
pair the ability and pugnacity of Ben Butler; and the
more pleased we are the more it is directed against our
friends. There is only one thing that we would not for-
give, and that is if he directed it against us ; but nothing
is more amusing than to see Butler with a sharp stick
after anybody else.