The Sun.
London, England, 1869-08-05 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.

THE WICKLOW PEEEAGE.—The arguments and evidence
in the case of the two claimants to the Wicklow peerage,
which has been so long before the House of Lords' Com-
mittee of Privileges, have closed. The committee has
adjourned sine die to prepare a judgment.
INSANITY.—The plea of insanity is now becoming a very
common one indeed. One in which it was used was heard
on Wednesday at the Middlesex Sessions. A pauper was
charged with having stolen two rugs from the lunatic ward
of the Hackney Union. One doctor was called who had
certified to the prisoner's lunacy, a second did not consider
him responsible for his actions, a third thought him a,
man of weak intellect, but not a lunatic, while the father
of the accused testified that he had suffered from delusions.
He was ordered to be detained during her Majesty's
pleasure.

VIOLENT CRIMES.—On the same day, a woman was
charged at the Southwark Pulice-court with having
murdered a man with whom she quarrelled, on the 9th of
August last year. The police had held a warrant for her
►pprehension for nearly twelve months, but she had
eluded their vigilance until a few days ago. She was
remanded.—At Woolwich there was a preliminary
investigation into a serious charge of shooting against a
lad of 14. He had been engaged by a farmer to protect
his wheat fields from the visits of birds, and for this
purpose was armed with a gun and supplied with some
powder. By surreptitious means he obtained a quantity
of shot, and on quarrelling with another boy fired at him,
and wounded him severely in the face. In this case also
the prisoner was remanded.
CHARGE or EMBEZZLEMENT.—At the Manchester City
Polic;e-court, on Wednesday, William George Redford was
brought up on remand, charged with having embezzled
nearly £14,000, the property of the South Lancashire
Benefit Building Societies. The priscner had been secre-
tary to a number of these societies. His defalcations were
discovered in January last, and when taxed with having
misapplied a large sum of money be admitted that it was
true, and wrote down various sums he had taken, amount.
ing to £11,769. Since then a further loss of upwards of
£2,000 had also been discovered. After some evidence had
been adduced with regard to one of the numerous cases
against the prisoner, he was again remanded.

ACTION AGAINST A RAILWAY COMPANY.-At the
Assizes at Manchester, on Wednesday, before M. Justice
Hannen, the case of Chatwood against the Lancashire and
Yorkshire Railway Company was tried. The plaintiff
was the well-known sate manufacturer at Bolton. On
the 31st of October he was returning home from Man-
chester, when, at Windsor Bridge, Pendleton, the de-
fendants' train met with a collision. The plaintiff's fore-
head was cut by the rim of the opposite traveller's hat.
The wound healed, and no bad effects immediately
supervened. But subsequently the effects developed
themselves, and it became evident that the brain had
been injured, and partial paralysis also set in. His average
income which he had lost was £420 per annum. The jury
returned a verdict for the plaintiff.—Damages £2,000.

ILLEGAL DETENTION OF A LUNATIC.—The Bradford
magistrates have had before them a case of illegal deten-
tion of a lunatic. A builder and quarry owner,
named Smith, had taken away Miss Wood, a
lunatic, from the custody of her brother, and
had detained her for four years. He had also used
her money, for on the 2nd of March, 1866, the prisoner
received at the Bradford Banking Company's bank cash
for a cheque for £454 2s. 6d. payable to Miss Wood, and
endorsed first by the prisoner and next by Miss Wood,
and a tenant of Miss Wood had also paid her rent to the
prisoner fur the house which he let to her. On the 7th of
July Superintendent Shuttleworth, of the Bradford
police, entered the prisoner's house with a warrant
and found Miss Wood in bed in the garret—a room said to
measure two yards by four and a half yards—crowded with
furniture. She seemed much reduced and emaciated, and
was removed to the union workhouse, and was afterwards
sent as a lunatic to an asylum. The prisoner was com-
mitted for trial at the Leeds assizes. Bail was accepted—
himself in £2OO and two sureties in £lOO each.

A Cabinet Council will be held to-morrow at the
official residence of the First Lord of the Treasury, in
Downing-street

THE USE OF ALASKA.—It used to be the boast of
England that on its Empire the sun never sets. Well, we
have an empire on which the sun only sets occasionally.
The sun does not set at all in summer. It remains about
25 deg. above the horizon at the hour we call midnight.
The only mode of knowing there that it is midnight is to
watch the sun when it begins to ascend. Fowls go to roost
at 7 p.m. and repose until the sun is well up. In winter it
is, of course, the reverse, as in the higher latitudes the sun
is not seen for six weeks.—New York Times.

INTIMIDATION AND ASSAULT BY TRADES UNION-
ISTS.--At Manchester, John Elliott has been charged
with having intimidated, by means of an assault, one
William Freeman. The complainant is a stonemason,
employed at the new Town Hall, and whilst in company
with another workman, named Melia, in London-road,
thy were attacked by the defendant and a man named
OsLorne, who were " turn-outs," and beaten. Osborne
had recently left the country. The bench committed
the defendant to prison for two months, with hard
labour.

A 1-IM-;E STEAM HAMMER.—One of the largest,
if not the largest steam hammer, ever made, is now being
constructed by. Messrs. Thwaites and Garbutt, of Brad-
ford, for the -Russian Government, and is intended to be
used in the forging of steel guns. The total weight of the
ponderous machine when erected will be close upon 1,000
tons, the anvil block will weigh 530 tons, the other cast-
ings belonging to the hammer about :300 tons, and the
" tup" or hammer head 42 tons. The latter mass of metal,
which has been cast by Messrs. J. Oldie and Sons, Union
Foundry, Bradford, is 10 feet long, 6 feet wide, and 4
feet deep, and is pronounced to be a fine piece of work-
manship. The metal was melted in five hours, and the
operation was perfectly successful. In the same yard the
ponderous iron beams for the new bridge at Halifax are
fast progressing ; the total weight of iron in Messrs. Male's
contract for the bridge, which is being erected byikEri
igailLof Bradfordja.2o6ons.j

J.II6(..,'ELL.I.‘EHUS NEWS.