The Sun.
London, England, 1860-04-14 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, APRIL 14, 160.:

burgh and Glasgow, the success of the measure has
been promoted by an arrangement for partially
sorting the letters en the railway. As already ex-
plained this acceleration has been chiefly effected
by an arrangement for limiting by the mail train
(at a great expense, however, to the Post-office) the
passenger and, parcel traffic ; so that the train may
not be impeded by the great weight which at certain
seasons of the year it used to carry. The experiment
has proved successful. The improvement has been
twofold—increased speed and greater regularity.
Since the beginning of the present year an earlier
despatch and an acceleration have been made of the
day mails from London to the north by both the
western and eastern routes; by which means an im-
portant improvement has been afforded to Liver-
pool, Manchester, Leeds, Hull, and the north of
England generally.
Considerable progress has been made in the ar-
rangements relative to the improved postal com-
munication with Ireland, the contract for which
will probably come into operation in the course of
the ensuing summer. Improvements have been
made in the harbour at Holyhead for facilitating
the landing and embarking of mails and passengers
when the larger vessels now in course of construc-
tion shall have come into use ; and the building of
the larger vessels is also making satisfactory pro-
gress. There still remain, however, many prepara-
tions before the Post-office can be ready for so ex-
tensive a change.
The number of travelling post-offices, used to save
time, by doing much of the business of sorting while
the mails are in progress, has been considerably in-
creased. Under this arrangement the public are
enabled to post letters up to a later time than they
would otherwise be practicable, and to, obtain an
earlier delivery. To promote the health and com-
fort of the clerks and guards employed in the tra-
velling post-offices a careful examination has been
made by the medical officer and the Inspector-
General of Mails, which has led to the suggestion
of many improvements in the construction of these
offices; and, among other benefits, has secured a
much better ventilation. The use of machinery for
the exchange of mail bags without stopping the
train has been further extended, with great ad-
vantage to the general mail service of the country.
The " double arm," by which the delivery of a se-
cond set of bags at the same station is managed,has
also been brought into further use; and in one or
two instances even a third set of bags is delivered.
An improved van has been devised for conveying
the mails between the General Post-office and the
metropolitan railway stations, and a model van on
this better construction is nearly completed. For
a much more important improvement in this part
of the service, however, die Postmaster-General
looks forward to the metropolitan railway, now in
course of construction, which is to link together the
greatest railways which start from London. Ulti-
mately he hopes that all the metropolitan railways
will be thus united. The department has entered
into general agreements, for the right to use all
their trains, with the companies owning the Corn-
wall railway, the Londonderry and Enniskillen,
and the Dublin and Kingstown railway; making
the whole number of such agreements.l7.
The distance over which mails are now conveyed
within the United Kingdom by railways, mail
coaches, &c., steam packets, boats, and foot passen-
gers, is about 140,000 miles per day ' • being about
7,500 miles more than at the end of 1858. This in-
crease is principally in railway conveyance, and in
conveyance on foot; though the amount of the rail-
way service, even now, does not much exceed that
performed by coaches and mail carts.
NUMBER OF LETTERS, NEWSPAPERS, AND BOOKS.
The following table shows the number of letters
delivered in the United Kingdom during the last
year, with the rate of increase, and the proportion
of letters to population :

Number Increase Proportion of
of Letters' per cent. Letters
in 1859. on Number to Population.
In 1858.

England
Ireland 47,000,G00 „ 7 7to each person
Scotland -

United Kingdomi

675,000,0001

18 to each peraoi

As compared with 1858, the total shows an in-
crease of 22 millions; and as contrasted with the
year previous to the introduction of penny postage
(1839), an increase (omitting franks) of 469 millions ;
making the present number of letters rather more
than seven-fold- what it was in 1839. During the
last five years the rate of increase, as contrasted in
each instance with the number in the preceding
year, has been on an average rather more than 4
per cent. In the London office al6ne, counting the
letters both inwards and outwards and counting
forward letters, there has been an increase of more
than 12 millions. Nevertheless, by improved ar-
rangements in sorting, this great increase has been
disposed of without any additional labour being
thrown on the officers ; and except as regards deli-
very, without any addition to the force. The num-
ber of London district letters, that is, of letters
posted in the London district for delivery within the
same—the old twopenny post—is now equal to the
total number of letters, whether general or local,
posted 20 years ago in the whole of England and
Wales, London inclusive. The number of letters
given in the foregoing statements includes those
from beyond sea. The great bulk, however, are in-
land; the colonial and foreign forming less than 1-
50th of the whole. The number of registered letters
last year was nearly 1,400,000, or 1 registered letter
to about 400 ordinary letters. Th:s number shows an
increase of about 6 per cent. on the previous year.
"In 785 cases, or 1 in about 1,750, complaint was
made that the registered letter had not reached its
destination. All these letters, however, except 15
were afterwards recovered ; and although there is
no legal claim on the department for the contents
of a letter, whether registered or not, the Post-office
in six cases voluntarily made good the loss ; fault
in these instances having been traced by the depart-
ment to its own officers. In the other cases it was
found that eight of the letters bad been lost after
they left the custody of the British Post-office ; and
in the remaining instance too much time had been
allowed to pass before the loss was reported, to ad-
mit of the letter being traced.
The number of newspapers delivered in the United
Kingdom last year was about 70,500,000.
The number of letters returned to the writers
wing to the failure in the attempts to deliver them,
was about 1,900,000, being about 200,000 more than
in the previous year. This is equal to about lin
280 of the whole number of letters. Nearly half the
non-deliveries was owing to the letters being ad-
dressed either insufficiently or incorrectly; more
than 11,000 having been posted without any address
at all. The amount of property found in letters
which could not be delivered nor, for want of an ad-
dress in the inside, be returned to the writers, was
about £260. Owing to the cause mentioned in the
case of letters, about 470,000 newspapers were also
undelivered, being 1 in 150 of the whole number.
In the case of newspapers the cause of non-delivery
is sometimes carelessness in the folding, and the
damp state of the covers occasionally, when the
papers are received from newspaper agents. But it
is found that, however caused, in the London office
only one newspaper in five thousand escapes from
its cover. The returned letters, as compared with
those of the previous year, have increased in a greater
ratio than the whole amount of correspondence;
which is attributable in part to the circumstance
that insufficiently directed letters are no longer
sent from place to place 'for trial, but, as speedily
as possible, are returned to the writers. About
60,000 letters were refused last year because they
had not been prepaid. About 200 letters per day
are posted at the chief office in London unsealed.

fora change which had long been in contemplation,
ands which' will now soon be made, this change
being an increase from £5 to £lO in the sum for
which a money order may be drawn. Advantage
wild also be taken of the opportunity to reconstruct
the scale of commission, so that while the charge in
some instances will be reduced, there will no longer
be a large class of orders which do not pay their
cost. It will, moreover, be in the power of any
perion by using, as the case may be, a penny or
twopenny stamp (besides paying the commission),
to direct that his money order shall not be payable
till ten days after date, so as to give time to obtain
an acknowledgment before the order be cashed. To
discourage the sending of coins by post, by facilita-.
ting the transmission of very small sums of money
(for which the money order system with its neces-
sary checks and attendant cost is scarcely appli-
cable), provision has been made in the London
offices for exchanging postage stamps for money.
The charge is 21 per cent., with a minimum of one
halfpenny. Thus for ss. worth of stamps 4s. 100.
is paid, and for stamps worth ls. Bd., ls. 71d. It
is intended soon to extend the arrangement to all
the post-offices in the country. A remarkable in-
crease is observable in the orders issued at Ports-
mouth and Devonport ; indicating, it is hoped, a
tendency in our soldiers and seamen to send more
and more of their earnings to their families. The
unclaimed money orders last year amounted to
£2,013, which, according to the established rule,
was carried to the fund for assisting the officers of
the department in insuring their lives. In June
last the money order system was extended to
Canada, between which time and the end of the
year nearly four thousand orders were issued in
Canada on the United Kingdom, and about 1,150 in
the United Kingdom on Canada; the average
amount of each order being rather more than £3.
It was thought prudent, in the first instance, to
make the commission rather high—viz., fourfold
that for an inland money order, but it is thought
that the charge may now be somewhat lessened.

TEB BRLIGIOUS DISSENSIONS AT
T. GEORGE-IN-THE-EAST.

"Miierday Mr. William John Thompson, the
senior churchwarden of the parish of St. George-
in-the-East, appeared before Mr. Yardley to answer
a summons which charged him with assaulting
Mr. Charles Warren Adams, a young gentleman
who is a personal friend of the rector, and has
taken a prominent part in the unhappy disputes
arising out of the innovations introduced into the
services of the church.
Mr. Prideaux (in the absence of Mr. Sergeant
Ballantine, the senior counsel for the prosecution,
who did not arrive until four o'clock) opened the
case for the prosecution, and said the complainant
was a young gentleman of good family, the son of
the late Mr. Sergeant Adams, and his (Mr. Pri-
deaux's) personal friend. The learned counsel went
over some of the events connected with the un-

happy disputes in the parish of St. George and the
fearful distarbance, of Sunday evening last, with
which the public are so familiar, and said there
was a pre-determination to prevent the proper and
decent performance of Divine service in the Church.

He accused Mr. Thompson of exceeding his autho-
rity as churchwarden, and urged that the sole de-
sire of the Rev. Bryan King, the rector, was that
the services of the Church should be conducted in a
solemn and religious manner, and without interrup-
tion. Mr. Prideaux then stated the circumstances
of the assault as given in evidence, and accused Mr.
Thompson of being actuated by private malice and
spite against Mr. Adams, who had written two let•
ters to the churchwarden, demanding his authority
for informing the Chancellor of the Bishop that he
(Mr. Adams) had broken down the reading desk
rail. To those letters no answer had been returned,
although the first was forwarded to Mr. Thompson
on the Ist, and the second on the Eit'i of March. The
defendant had only acted colourably as church-
warden to gratify private malice ; and, if he even
had a right to remove Mr. Adams from the altar
where he was standing, he had no business to do it
so roughly as he had done, and was guilty of an
excess.

The evidence of the complainant, who was corro-
borated by Mr. Baker, an army surgeon attached to
t:ie 3d or Fusilier Guards, Mr. Morrison, a solici-
tor's clerk, and Mr. Lamert, went to show that in
the course of the disturbances in the parish church
on Sunday evening last Mr. Adams heard that the
people Were at the altar which since the removal of
the choristers' seats had been set apart for the choris-
ters, and that some persons had got within the rails.
Mr. Adams made his way tp the gates of the altar
to prevent any more persons entering, with his arms
crossed ; while in this position several.persons at-
tempted to enter the altar, and among them was a
labouring mar., a dirty man. He kept them back.
Nlr.Thompqon came up iu a violent passion and said,
" What business have you here? Where do you
come from ? I will have you out of this," seized
him by the collar, and with the assistance of half-
a-dozen other persons pushed him forward. Mr.
Thompson also kicked him with his knee, and he
was sent "flying," and "flew" into the arms of the
beadle, who led him towards the western end of the
church, treated him very courteously, and released
him.
The witnesses all agreed that Mr. Thompson was
very much excited. -
It was asserted by Mr. Lamert, one of Mr. Bryan
King's choristers, that his surplice was torn in the
struggle and confusion, and he fainted. A chorister
boy received a blow on the head and was nearly
killed, and was now labouring under concussion of
the brain.
In cross-examination by Mr. Howell, the wit-
nesses admitted they had been in the practice of
passing through the parsonage, and being admitted
into the church by a private entrance every Sunday,
to take possession of preferential seats. -They also
admitted that the altar was decorated in an unusual
manner for Easter day on Sunday last.
Mr. Prideaux called upon the defendant to put
in two letters addressed to him by Mr. Adams in
March last.
Mr. Howell did not see what they could have to
do with the case.
Mr. Yardley--I don't know. The object is to
show some ill-feeling on the part of the defendant,
I suppose.
The two letters were handed to the magistrate by
Mr. Thompson.
[The letters were of the nature described by
counsel. No answer had been returned to them.]
The Rev. Bryan King, rector of St. George's, was
gisetautrbl
e
an
nces and the indecent conduct
gth,—He said in consequence
ofx a
the examined at
disturbances
the people I gave directions for the gates of the
e
church not to be opened until the police came. The
police were late, and I directed the sexton to open
the gates at 22 minutes before 7 o'clock on Sun-
day evening; the usual hour of opening the
gates ibrmerly was half-past 6 o'clock. I sent
for the defendant soon afterwards to the little
vestry, and said to him, " Mr. Thompson, there
are people in front of the altar while the seats
are empty. It is your duty to seat people." Mr.
Thompson said, " I don't want to be told my duty
by you. I have been kept waiting at the gate 10
minutes." Some Sundays since I said- to Mr.
Thompson, " You may pass through the parsonage
and into the little vestry to gain admission to the
church."

in cross-examination by Mr. Howell, the witness
said that it was the duty of the sexton to assist the
people to take their pews. I do not mean to say
it is the duty of the churchwarden to be pew-
opener. Since the police have attended the church
I have ordered the gates to be opened on their
arrival. My own personal friends come from a
distance to preserve order and to restrain violence
in the church.
In cross-ex4mination the rev. gentleman said the
altar was decorated in precisely the satne manner
last Sunday as it was on every Easter day, except
that there were five bouquets last Sunday, instead
of four.
The cross-examination was continued for a long
time, and embraced all the leading topics connected,
with the disturbances in St. George's Church
daring the past year.
The rector concluded by stating that if the
churchwardens had acted with firmness and deter-
mination the first day and suppressed the disturb-
ances, they would not have been repeated. He
was not in the church on the first .day the dis-
turbances took place,
Mr. George Allison, inspector of the K division,
said he was in St. George's Church on Sunday
last. Mr. Thompson spoke to him, and was not in
the least excited at that time. A place was kept
free between the pulpit and the altar for the
choristers. He saw the complainant trying to keep
the people out of the communion.
In cross-examination by Mr. Howell, the witness
said the people crowded towards the altar to see
the floral decorations and crosses, at which they
appeared much displeased and irritated. He believed
Mr. Thompson did all in his power to preserve
order end preveat disturbances.
By Mr. Yardley—Several persons had got into
the altar before Mr._ Thompson approached it, and
he immediately removed Mr. Adams and cleared
them all out of the apse or quasi altar. Mr.
Thompson made a general clearance of the altar.
It was all done by the churchwarden instantly. I
saw no violence of manner and no excitement on
the part of Mr. Thompson.
Mr. Yardley gave a strong opinion that on the
evidence of the last witness called by the learned
counsel the case against Mr. Thompson entirely
failed, The defendant appeared to have done what
the rector wished him to do—requested the people
to take their seats and cleared the altar. Mr.
Thompson did not remove Mr. Adams solely, but

. •
he removed everybody in the altar and cleared a
space for the choristers.
Mr. Sergeant Ballantino and Mr. Prideaux seve-
rally arglied. against the view taken by the magis-

trate, and contended that an assault had been &Om-

mitted and the churchwarden ought to be convicted.
After a lengthened discussion,
Mr. Howell addressed the Bench on the part of
the churchwarden, who, he said, was elected for the
third time by the vestry on Easter Monday, and for
two years had performed the duties of his office to
the satisfaction of his fellow parishioners and the
public at large. Mr. Thompson had been compli-
mented by the magistrates of that court and by the
public press for the able manner in which he had
performed his duties under the most trying circum-
stances. Mr. Thompson did not collar or kick the
complainant or use any violence. The witnesses
severally declared that the conduct of Mr. Adanis

was calculated to lead to a breach of the peace.
Mr. Henry Ashcroft, an elderly gentleman, said
that he really thought Mr. Adams was out of his

mind on Sunday evening, and that he shoved Mr
Thompson and several other persons.
John Button, beadle of the parish of St. George,
and a constable sworn in by the Commissioners of
Police, said he heard the churchwarden call for the
police in attendance to remove Mr. Adams from the
altar gates. He asked Adams to leave the place, and
on his refusal took him by the arm and led him
away towards the rector's vestry, and said to him,
" I am very sorry, sir, I have the task of doing
this, and laying hold of you." The defendant
said, " Never mind, I don't blame you or the
churchwarden." When he returned to the com-
munion Mr. Thompson was removing the people.
By Mr. Sergeant Ballantine—Mr. Thompson did
not kick the complainant or collar him. I removed
him from the altar rails.
Mr. Yardley summed up the case at considerable
length. If Mr. Thompson had acted upon the feel-
ings suggested and made use of his office of church-
warden as a cloak to gratify private malice, and
assaulted Mr. Adams in the church, the case -would
have been one of very considerable aggravation,
however slight the assault. If it had been shown
by strong evidence that had been so he should have
sent the case to the Quarter Sessions ; but, if the
case were presented before a jury as it was presented
to him, only one result would follow. There was
no safe evidence that the defendant had been guilty
of the mean and improper act imputed to him ; and
he should also fail in his duty if he compelled Mr.
Thompson to be at the trouble, expense, and incon-
venience of answering this charge at the sessions,
and also prolong and embitter the strife which
existed. It was a new phase in the history of these
unhappy, these long-continued, irritating, torment-
ing, despicable riots in St. George's parish that the
person who, above all others, ought to preserve
order was charged with violating the sanctity of
the church. He had more than once condemned
the conduct of the people who indulged is miserable
brawls and unjustifiable riots in the church, but
he always took credit for believing. the cburchwar•
dens did all in their power to suppress them, and
he always believed Mr. Thompson was acting with
perfect good faith, and acting with sound judgment
and discrimination. It appeared to hin. (Mr. Yard-
ley) that it was dorie on the complainant's own
motion. He did not mean to say Mr. Adams was
actuated by improper motives, but he appeared to
have overstepped the bounds of propriety, and to
have taken upon himself duties which more pro •
perly belonged to the churchwarden. If he had
been in the churchwarden's place he certainly
would not have entered into a controversy with
such an impetuous young gentleman as Mr. Adams.
He did not believe any assault had been committed
by the churchwarden on the complainant, and
should therefore dismiss the summons.
Murmurs of applause followed the decision, which
were speedily repressed by the officers.

THE DOUBLE IiIURDEI? 4 T IBL 4 AP,

g-TII',ITEIGHT.

The inquest was held on Thursday afternoon at
the Packhorse Inn, nearly opposite the scene of the
tragedy, by Mr. W. S. Rutter, coroner.
The coroner told the jury that he thought it
would be necessary to adjourn the inquest, and he
would now only take evidence as to the finding of
the body, and the medical testimony. He under-
stood that suspicion attached to a daughter and
son of the deceased. The daughter had been taken
into custody and was quite insane, even to madness.
However, the jury would have to investigate the
matter, and if they found that the daughter had
been the means of the deaths, it would be neces-
sary, notwithstanding her state of mind, to find a
verdict of wilful murder against her, and it would
then be for another court to determine what her
state of mind was.

Joseph Scholes, having been cautioned by the
coroner, said—l am the son of the deceased William
Scholes. I was coming up Salford last night from
a quarter to half-past six o'clock, and I fell down in
the Crescent in a fit. lam subject to fits, and have
been so something like ten or twelve years, I can-
not say exactly. I don't remember falling, but I
remember being in the Crescent, and when I re-
covered found myself in the police-station at the
Salford Town-hall. I had had one gill of beer dur-
ing the day. I have a bruise at the back of my
head, which I believe was done in the fall. It
is a very slight bruise, but it bled. I walked
home, and passed- Pendleton Church about a
quarter to nine o'clock. When I got home
I went in by the back door, which was
left loose, and the gas had been left burning in
the kitchen. I called for my father and broter,
but could not get an answer. There was no one
down stairs, and they must all three have been
locked in the room where we found them, as the
door of that room was locked, and I could not get
in. After having a bit of-supper I went to bed.
My father, brother, sister, and myself were the only
persons who lived in the house. Not getting any
answer from my father and brother, I thought they
were out, and my sister in bed; so I waited for
them till nearly 11 o'clock, and then I thought it
was time to go to bed, thinking they would come in
afterwards. My father slept in the room over the
kitchen, and I slept in the room over the yard doors,
with my brother; and my sister slept in the front
room. When I went to bed my sister was quiet ;
but about two 'o'clock she began to scream and
knock at her door with a stick or something, and I
went and asked what she wanted, but she could not
tell- me. I got up and went to her door, perhaps
eight times between that time and half past five
o'clock, when I got up to go to my work. My
sister kept calling my name, and crying out that
she was chocking ; but the door was locked, and I
could not get in ; nor could I get any proper answer
from her. I.went and got company when I found
what it was. I went down the yard, and two
neighbours, Mrs. Phoebe Hall and Mrs. Sarah Anne
Smethurst, wanted to know what all the. knocking
had been during the night, and I said it was Sarah,
and that I could,not find my father nor brother.
Mrs. Hall said if Sarah was locked up she was
likely to make a noise, and I was to go and break
the door open. I took her with me, and she saw
me prise the door open, and I found my father and
brother corpses, and my sister in bed in a- very
rough state. I broke the door open with a kind of
axe. I then came down and alarmed the neigh-
bourhood. I could not quiet my sister by any
means whatever. She was dressed and in bed
with her boots on. She began to kick me, and
I pulled her boots off. The doctors came, and
she was sent to the workhouse. She grasped
at me with her hands several times. She was
subject to fits, but I had never seen her so
bad. Frequently, after a fit, if she did not sleep,
she would become very passionate. There was blood
running out of my father's ear, and my brother had
blood on the side of his face. My sister's cap had
,some blood upon it. After I got into the room, my
sister kept calling my name, and said, "I'm chok-
ing," but if I offered to assist her she would only
grasp at me. My father was 75 years of age, my
brother 39 or 40, and my sister about 29.
Mrs, Phoebe Hall said—l live next door to the
deceased's house. I heard Sarah Scholes calling
out for help, about three o'clock this morning, as I
lay in bed. My husband wanted to get up, but I said
it was no use, as we had heard her many times in
the same way before. There was a deal of knocking.
At six o'clock this morning Joseph was in the yard,
and I asked him what had been the matter ; he said
he could not tell, but that his sister was locked up
in the room, and .his father and brother had locked
her up. I suggested that the door should be broken
open. I stayed at the bottom of the stairs whilst
Joseph broke the door open, and then I went to the
door of the roam. I saw his sister take hold of him
by the hands and point to the other side of the room
where the bodies were. The sister did not, look
peaceable at all, but was excited and agitated.
Joseph seemed very much surprised when he saw
his father and brother dead, and asked me to come
into the room. He said, " Why, they are here, and
both dead !" The neighbourhood was alarmed im-
mediately, and the police and medical men sent for.
Sarah Seholes was very violent sometimes when she
had fits. I don't think the father and brother (W.
Edward) have treated her well. She has told me
so ; but I suppose she was at fault, and didnotdo
what they wanted her to do. She has told me that
they have struck her, but she Complained more par-
ticularly of her brother William Edward.
lgaria Turner said—l am 10 years old. I live
near Seholes's. I saw Sarah and William Edward
Seholes both down stairs, in their own house, last
night, about a quarter-past nine o'clock. They were
talking, "but not quarrelling. I did not see the
father at all.
Sergeant Lee stated that he found a stick under
the pillow of
_Sarah Scholes's bed, and a knife en