The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-18 00:00:00

THE BERLIN SHOOTING CASE.

Our readers may remember the recent attempt to shoot
a clergyman in a Berlin church during the services. The
trial of this " representative of German infidelity" has just
taken place in Berlin, and has ended by the condemnation
of the culprit, who was declared to be of sound mind, to
twelve years' bard labour. Some of the points which came
out at the trial are now published. Carl Billand
is the son of a tailor in a small country town, and
is 18 years old. He is charged with having discharged a
tin ball at Dr. Heinrici during service, with the
attempt to murder him. He pleads not guilty ;
inasmuch as "man has no free will, he there-
/ fore cannot be guilty. He has done the deed,
but thinks, for this reason, to have committed no
wrong." The young man is described as of only common
appearance, and indifferent to his fate. His parents were
highly religious people, and he too was of a religious turn
of mind. While at school he used to copy out sermons, and
read them to his fellow-pupils. When he left school he
wanted to become an actor; but his father forced him
to read for a schoolmaster's examination, which he
did, but without being able to pass. Again he re-
newed his solicitations for money to enable him to pro-
pare for the stage, and this time the father yielded,
frightened by his son's threat to commit suicide. He
then led so dissipated and disreputable a life that the father
withdrew his support, thus forcing him to return home.
It was in order to avoid this that he determined to shoot
"some clergyman." Many of his previous utterances—
among them, that "he must become either famous or
notorious," or his threat to kill one of the masters at
school because he had done him some supposed injustice—
shew a weak mind and an eccentric and violent dis-
position.

THE TRIAL EIGHTS AT THE UNIVER-

8117E8.

The Pall Mill Gillette thinks that rowing prospects are
in favour of Cambridge at the present_ moment. Affairs
on the Cam look brighter than they have been for many
seasons past; not, indeed, that the, Cambridge repre-
sentatives in the trial eights were much to
boaNt of, but that their opponents were so
inferior. To begin with, there was more good
rough material in the Cambridge trial eights than in
those of Oxford. At an early date like this, strength
and general vigour are of more 'value than mere
form, and if a fair nucleus of old hands remain on the
Cam, men like Messrs. Strachan, Lowe, Phelps, and
Close will offer good material from which Mr. Morrison
can supply vacancies. At Oxford there was a fair
amount of evenness in the rowing, and that was all;
little strength, and still less of the old traditional dash
and "devil" in the style set by the two strokes. Those
men who rowed in best form did little or no work; those
who did try to work were most uncouth to look at. Mr.
Payne, of St. John's, will be a good man. Mr. Moss, of
Balliol, ought to be made useful, but, though he works
hard, he seems to have lost all idea of form since he passed
out of the hands of Mr. Warre. Mr. Burgess, of Brasenose
College, reputed a good man, and proved so before this, did
not show well ; but we fancy this excuse may be pleaded,
that he tried hard to catch the beginning of the stroke,
but the stroke in front of him gave him no encourage-
ment in that way; so the two rowed like
a pair of scissors. One anomaly presented itself
iu the selection of the crews, namely, that Mr.
Houblon, of Christ Church, was not one of the strokes
He, at Henley, with three men behind him who had never
rowed in a university eight, and only one of whom now
finds a place in the trials, was able to defeat four
university oars—two of them, moreover, subsequent mem-
bers of the Oxford v. Harvard crew, the third the "odd
man" of the same, and the fourth the present presi-
dent. Since one four did not practise snore than
another, one thing is plain—either Mr. Houblon's men
were collectively better than the four university oars,
which few would argue, or else his stroke compensated for
deficiency of strength, and brought victory with it. The
Pall Mall Gazette holds that if Mr. Darbishiro rows again
for Oxford all will be well, but if either Mr. Woodhouse
or L'hourdin attempt to take his place, tho odds ought to
be on Cambridge.

The Bishop of Orleans;. is said to be preparing an
indignant disavowal of the sentiments attributed to him by
the Protestant and Revolutionary Press.
The Tablet contradicts the statement that Dr Pol-
linger is ono of the authors of "Janus"—the Catholic work
protesting against Ultramontanism.

The Church. News will, it is said, cease to be pub-
lished as a separate paper at the end of the present year,
but will be incorporated with the. Church Review.

Iler Majesty the Queen has intimated her inten-
tion of giving £5O towards the erection of the new church
of Holy Trinity at Richmond, which is now in course of
erection.

In his charge at the Liverpool Assizes, on Thursday,
Mr. Baron Martin montionod that there wore six cases of
perjury arising out of a jug of beer. His Lordship declared
that if the cases went for trial it would be ono of the most
expensive jugs of boor which the county palatine had bad
for some time.

Mr. Leppoc made a painful statement at the meet-
ing of the Manchester Board of Guardians ou Thursday. The
amount of out-door relief is rapidly advancing; but beyond
this the rolieving officers have ascertained that great dis-
tress prevails among many families, the heads of which
"would rather Etarvu" than come upon the rates.

Dr. Twells, Bishop of the Orange Free State, who
is said to be at present in London, has sent in his resigna-
tion as a missionary of the Propagation Society. The Bishop
of Cape Town, ill) metropolitan of South Attica, has cited
Bishop Twells to a} pcur Left re Lim on the 31st of January,
and if ho does not obey the injunction, ho will be formally
deprived of his see.

In a letter to bit clergy on confirmation and the
age at which candidates should be presented to him, the
Bishop of Peterborough says :—" 1 kayo it to your own
judgment and discretion to decide at what ago you will
present each candidate, only entreating you to pre-
sent none whom you do not know, from careful ex.
animation, to be well acquainted with the letter and mean-
ing of the Church Catechism ; and also none whom you have
not, to the best of your ability, further instructed in the
meaning of the rite of Confirmation, and the blessings of
that higher spiritual life to which it is tiro iatroductiort."-.