The Sun.
London, England, 1869-03-10 00:00:00

SUPERVISION OF CRIMINALS.

Yesterday an important memorandum was issued for
the information of Parliament, describing the present
iyatem of supervision pursued by the police with respect to
license holders in the metropolis. From this memorandum
it appears that a male license holder is required to personally
report himself at the principal police station of the district
in which he resides within three days of his liberation.
A printed description of the license holder is sent from
the prison to the police, with the address where the man,
?revious to his liberation, stated he intended to reside. No
further steps are then taken by the police for a month from
hat date, when, if the license holder again reports him-
self, he is considered as complying with the law. After
inquiry to ascertain if the address given is a correct one,
. no further supervision is kept over him by the police, and his
lodgings are not again visited. If a license holder neglects
to report himself as above, or is seen and suspected of
leading an irregular life, then the police make quiet in-
quiry, and, as is frquently the case, if it is found that he
has left the address he was living at, his description is
inserted in the Police Gazette with directions for appre-
hension. The employers are never informed by the police
that they are employing a license-holder. No case, says
Colonel Henderson, has ever been known of police levying
black mail on license-holders. Of :368 male license-holders
discharged in the metropolitan police district in 1868,
290 placed themselves undrr the care of the Discharged
Prisoners' Aid Society, either on discharge or subsequently.
Colonel Henderson remarks that there have been difficulties
in consequence of a divided jurisdiction ; but, in the event
of the passing of the measure introduced by Lord Kim-
Lerley, the supervision of convicts who place themselves in
charge of the Prisoners' Aid Society will be carried on by
the police in conjunction with the officers of the society, '
and can be so arranged as to avoid any undue interference
with the men. As regards the arrest of license-holders or
of persons nho have been twice convicted of felony, it is
clear, Colonel Henderson remarks, that all must depend
on the personal knowledge of the police-constable of the
person and antecedents of the suspected person. Under
ordinary circumstances no constable interferes with any
license-holder, nor would he arrest any man on suspicion
without previously reporting the circumstance to the Corn-
missioner, who would order quiet inquiry to be made, and
give instructions, if necessary, for the man's arrest. Iden-
tification would be rendered more easy than at present by
the proposed central registration.

Mr. Henry A. Bowen, a well-known New York
financier, has arrived in London as the agent of an
portant railway corporation in America.
THE CLOSING OF WOOLWICH DOCK YARD.—It is
stated that negotiations are pending between the Govern.
ment and one of the largest shipbuilding firms on the
Thames with a view to letting to the latter a considerable
portion of Woolwich dockyard for the purpose of building
iron ships of a large class. Should the negotiations prove
successful much of the apprehended distress consequent
upon the closing of the Government dockyard will be
averted, and the migration of a large number of skilled
artisans from the town prevented.
NARROW GAUGE TRAFFIC ON THE GREAT
WESTERN RAILWAY.—On and after Monday next the
northern section of the Great Western Railway will be
worked entirely upon the narrow gauge. Trains leaving
Paddington for Birmingham, Shrewsbury, Manchester,
and Birkenhead will now run from London to their desti-
nation on the narrow gauge, instead of partly upon the
broad and narrow. The metropolitan traffic of the Great
Western will be also partly narrow gauge, and also some
of
.the trains into Windsor. The broad-gauge trains will be
confined to the western district of the railway.

THE PUBLIC HEALTH. —The rate of mortality
in London last week was 24 per 1,000, while in thirteen
other large towns of the United Kingdom it was 26. In
Birmingham the rate was as low as 18, while in Glasgow
it was 38, or more than double. The deaths in the metro•
polis were 1,487, or 51 less than the estimated number.
Measles, scarlet fever, and whooping-cough are on the
increase. Five persons were killed by horses and vehicles
an the streets. The mean temperature during the week
was 39'1, or rather more than one degree below the
average.

A decision cf importance to friendly societies was
ratified at the Eckington (Yorkshire) Petty Sessions en Mon-
day. The treasurer of a friendly society had refused to dis-
bufSe funds for a " club feast," on the ground that such a pay-
sent would be illegal; whereupon ho was requested to resign,
and deliver up the money and books in his hands. He refused
and was summoned before the magistrates. An objection
was then set up that as the proceedings had not been
taken within six months, the jurisdiction of tho Bench was
ousted. The Bench took this view of the case, but the
Court of Common Pleas (on appeal) decided that the benoh
lad jurisdiction. The case was therefore remitted to Ecking-
ton, and on Monday the defendant was ordered to give up the
cash, £l4, and the books of the society, and pay £2 fine, with
£1 expenses.

MURDER RYA LUNATIC. —Au inquest has been held
at Birmingham into the circumstances attending the death
I Mary Ann Ackland, a pauper inmate of the Borough
Asylum. Deceased had been placed in the airing yard
attached to the ward. There was no other patient in the
yard at the time. Ten minutes later she was dead, with
a wound upon her head. A lunatic, named Bridget Hart,
said she had struck Ackland with a piece of iron, which
was found close by under some shrubs. Hart was a vio-
lent lunatic, and, in consequence of a disturbance which
she caused in the ward, she was removed into the court.
The deceased was 31 years of age, and had been over six
rears in the asylum. Hart was a tall, muscular, powerful
woman. The jury found that the woman Hart had com-
,fiitted homicide whilst in a state of unsound mind.
A MODEL PARAGRAPH. —ln order to accommo-
date newspaper language to the new theory that electri-
city is merely a " mode of motion" and not a fluid, the
Chicago Times publishes the following model of a para-
graph :—" During the thunderstorm of yesterday the
stable of Mr. John Jones became subject to electrical
conditions. There resulted a violent molecular electric
agitation, whereby a hole was undulated, or rotated,
through the roof of the barn. The peculiar motion of the
molecules was finally carried to and communicated
through a haymow, setting it on fire, and hence through
the body of a hors; whereby death resulted."--New York
Tribune, Feb. 25.

ENDURANCE OF COLD BY HORSES. —The Abel&
211edicale contains the following curious information about
the power of endurance of cold by horses. On the 2nd of
January, 1846, an expeditionary column operating in the
mountains of Bou-Taleb, Algeria, started for Setif with
mild and beautiful weather ; but on the following night a
severe frost set in and snow fell in abundance, continuing
on the 3rd and 4th, so that it rose to a height of nearly
three feet. The head of the column arrived at Setif on
the evening of the 4th. During these two days and
nights about one-fourth of the men were buried in the snow,
another fourth experienced no bad effects from the cold,
and the rest had to be sent to the hospital on account
of bad ehilbla!ns. And yet none of the horses of
the four squadron.-z, which belonged to the 3rd African
Chasseurs, suffered the slghtest inconvenience ; neither
feet, nor tails, nor ears were frozen; the pulmonary affec-
tions were not more numerous than usual. The secon:i
case occurred in the Crimean war, during the winter of
1555-6. The thermometer fell to four degrees below Fab
renlicit's zero ; one of the horses had a hoof frozen on to
the ground, which had to be broken up with a pickaxe 1,
release it. For thirty-six hours tire animals were leer,:
without drink, because as soon as the water had be
drawn up it would freeze in the pail ; and yet this intel:; •

cola alf,et thy Itad to bivo

in the open air, the stables not being. ready. These cases
go far to sliew that there is no danger in good ventilation
etables. even in the depth of winter. '--