The Sun.
London, England, 1869-12-29 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

FATAL ACCIDIeNT OAT A SCOTCH
RAILWAY.

A dreadful accident occurred on Tuesday morning on
the Great North of Scotland Railway, near Huntley, some
forty miles from Aberdeen. The storm of the past week
rendered it necessary to keep portions of the line clear by
the use of a light snow plough. On Tuesday morning, Mr.
Bate me of the inspectors cf way, a driver,
and three firemen were employed on two engines
with the plough attached at this work. Suddenly,
when proceeding along an embankment, the engines
sprang, as it were, from the rails over to the
opposite sides of the line, dragging tender and plough with
them. One of the engines was greatly damaged, being
crushed into the tender, while ,the second engine, after
rolling over twice, alighted on its wheels, having only sus-
tained a breakage of the funnel. On assistance coming
quickly to hand, Mr. Bate, the driver, and two of the fire-
men were found to have Leen killed by the accident. The
fifth mem escaped with some slight bruises. The cause of
the calamity is, as yet, unknown. The rails have been
uscertained to be perfectly sound, and the traffic has been
continued without interruption.

THE VULPIAN OUTRAGES IN KILKENNY.

A dispute, local in its character, but acquiring great
interest from the extraordinary weapons resorted to by
one of the parties, has been the subject of discussion at a
numerously attended meeting of the Kilkenny Hunt
Club. The dispute appears to have originated in some
private quarrel between Mr. Blereclyth, the master of the
hounds, and Mr. Bryan, M .P. for the county, and to have
e dminated in a demand by some of the members for the
resignation of Mr. Meredyth. The great majority
of the club have steadily and warmly supported Mr.
Meredyth, and have refused to entertain the suggestion
that he should resign. Mr. Bryan openly expressed his
dissatisfaction, and declined to allow his coverts to be
drawn. This was followed by threats on the part of
sympathisers that "there should be no more
hunting until 'Squire Bryan was satisfied," and
these threats have been fully carried out. Two
hounds were poisoned towards the close of last season,
and sixteen more have shared a similar fate since the
present season commenced. The coverts were poisoned in
the first instance, and when measures were taken to pre-
vent that, the public roads were strewed with poisoned
meat. In addition, two coverts have been burnt, and
others, set on fire with the same object, were only saved
by the exertions of the neighbouring farmers, who, it is
said, are as a body favourable to the continuance of the
hunting, and are in no way responsible for the
outrages. These, it is said, are the work of persons
hired for the purpose, The result of all these outrages
was that Mr. Meredyth thought it advisable to suspend
hunting, and to convene the meeting which was held
on Tuesday. The attendance was very largo, and included
the Marquis of Ormond°, the Marquis of Waterford,
the Earl of Bessborough, and Mr. Kavanagh, M.P.
Mr. Meredyth, the Master of the Hunt, related
the circumstances which had led to the calling
of the meeting, and added that he had held a
conversation with a Mr. George Reade on the sub-
ject of the recent outrages, and that Mr. Reade had told
him that if he would give up the mastership the annoy-
ance would cease. On asking Mr. Reade if he was autho-
rised to make that proposal, the reply was that he was
" partly authorised." Resolutions were adopted rejecting
all proposals for negotiation on any such basis as
that proposed by Mr. Reade, and expressing the
utmost confidence in Mr. Meredyth. The committee of
the club were also empowered to sell the hounds if no
satisfactory arrangement could be come to. Many of the
members expressed their regret that a necessity should
arise for discontinuing the hunt, as such a result would
tend to increase absenteeism, already so much complained
of by the people.

A. correspondent of the Oldham Chronicle writes :
-` On Sunday last the congregation of one of the Esta-
blished Churches in Oldham was edified by the preaching
of a curate who held forth that the working classes had
no business to be educated. If they could read the Bible
sufficiently to follow their clergyman, it was enough; to
dive into the higher branches of knowledge was positively
hurtful to them."

The Very Rev. Canon Browne, St. Patrick's
Roman Catholic Church, Cork, has been donouncing
Fenianism from the altar. While preaching on Sunday
from the text—" Glory to God in the highest, and peace
on earth to men of good-will," he called upon the congre-
gation to pray for drunkards, and for "those unfortunate
young men" who, in spite of the warnings of their bishops,
had stupidly clung to that confederacy which was bring-
ing terror, misery, and discredit on the country.
ADULTERATED MILK.—The statistic 4 of agricul-
ture shew that the number of cows in the United States
is not sufficient to furnish a sufficient supply of milk, and
hence it is argued that adulteration by water n very
common. At a recent meeting of the Milk Producers'
Association of Massachusetts, it was asserted that there
were in the State about 150,000 cows, yielding on an
average four quarts of milk a day, or in the aggregate
600,000 quarts. Of this quantity two-thirds are used in
making butter and cheese, so that only 200,000 quarts a
day are available for domestic consumption.
A VALUABLE HINT TO DUELLISTS.—A story is
told which may he commended to Parisian gentlemen as
containing a valuable hint. Two Americans were dining
with two ladies at an hotel in Baden Baden. A Russian
prince, who wished to pick a quarrel with them, purchased
two bouquets, and sent them to the American ladies with
his compliments. The Americans glanced pleasantly at
the Russian, and sent him by the waiter who brought the
flowers, two napoleons. The offender was, it is added, so
chagrined that he left the room. It is thus shewn that
people who have abandoned duelling may be by no means
so defenceless against personal affronts as might be sup-
posed.
GOING TO WORK OIL TO STARVE ! IMPOSSII3LE.
A day or two ago a tramp went into a pastrycook's shop at
Bridport, and in the presence of the mistress of the esta-
blishment, walked off with a plum cake. Before th•
magistrates this was his defence :—" Pm not going to starve
in a Christian land, it isn't likely I am. If a man goes to
the union he has given him about five ounces of bread and
a little water gruel. I ask you, gentlemen if that is enough
to support a hearty man? It is not enough for a
child. And besides a man is stowed away in filth and dirt
like a beast. I would prefer to spend the remainder of
my days in transportation; or I would rather suffer death
than submit to it." The magistrates : " Why don't you
try to get work; you are healthy and strong?" Prisoner
(indignantly): "Work ! If a poor man manages to earn
Os. or 10s. a week in the summer time, he is expected to
keep himself all the year through, when we well know
that some individuals spend more than that in a day."
SENSATIONS FOR THE. DEAD SEAsow.--An even-
ing contemporary remarks that the efforts of the American
journals to get up sensations during the "dead season"
which has lately closed have hardly been so successful as
usual. A mastodon twenty feet high and sixteen feet
long in Illinois, a wild man and a petrified giant in
Onondaga, New York, which turns out to have been made
of gypsum rather bunglingly by an ambitious sculptor,
have failed to enliven their columns. At the last
moment, however, the Californian papers have
come to the rescue with an account of the
discovery of the skeleton of . a horned monster,
twenty feet long, its skull weighing five hundred pounds,
which has transmitted intelligence of its dietary habits
by preserving around it forty or fifty human skulls. It

has not been yet reported whether this interesting creature
and its skulls have turned to gypsum or not. Perhaps it
will imitate the wild man who was found in Stenhen

county, and who, according to a paper published in that
quarter, " climbed into a tall sycamore, pulled the tree
up after him, and that was the last that anybody saw of
him."

THE SUSPECTED MURDER IN SUSSEX.-It 19

now thought that the man who was found in a ditch at
Cnckfield, and is supposed to have been murdered, had
before his death been concerned in an extensive robbery
of jewellery at Croydon. Superintendent Pocock (of Cuck-
field) has been to Twickenham, and was told by the land-
lord of the Coach and Horses that the deceased left his
house on the 26th of last month, saying he was going to
Croydon, and thence to Brighton, as he had property in
that town. Ho gave the name of E. J. Williams. A super-
intendent of police at Hammersmith is of opinion that
the man's name was James Greenhead, and not Williams,
and that he was connected with suspicious persons. The
Croydon police on Tuesday identified the photograph of
the deceased as that of Greenhead, who was well known
to them, and is suspected of having committed a burglary
on the 30th September at the shop of Mr. Harland,
jeweller, of Northend, Croydon, on which occasion tho
thieves carried off about ;WOO worth of jewellery. A
reward was offered for the arrest of the offenders, and
the only clue that was obtained of the robbery was that a
tradesman had purchased some rings from a man named
Greenhead,
and these proved to be part of the stolen pro-
perty. Greenhead disappeared. On Tuesday, however,
a bricklayer, named Rowland, was arrested on a charge of
being concerned in the robbery, a quantity of jewellerybeing
found in his possession, and one of the officers said to him,
" Where are the letters you received from Williams ? "
The prisoner denied having received any, but, on being
asked how long it was since he saw Williams, he said, " It
is not Williams—it is Greenhead you mean. He did the
burglary ; I did not." Tho prisoner has been brought
before the bench of magistrates at Croydon, and, after
some formal evidence be was remanded,

The Tinzes observes that the Verification of Powers in
the French Legislative Body is now at an.end. With the
vote on the last contested election, on Monday afternoon,
the Extraordinary Session was formally closed, and the
Official Journal of Tuesday announced the resign-It-ion of
the Dc Forcade Ministry, with the addition that the
Emperor Lad charged M. Emile 011ivier with the
formation of a new Cabinet. The future Premier is to
designate the 'persons who may constitute a homo-
geneous Administration, " faithfully representing the
majority of the Legislative Body," and to carry cut the
Scnatus Consultum of the Bth of Eeptcmber "as well in
the letter as in the spirit." No names cf the probable
colleagues of M. 011ivier are positively mentioned, but it
ii generally undoistocd that they belong to the "night-
Centre "—that strong party whose members do not pre
some to be citl er more or less liberal than the Emperor
himself. By sanctioning such elections as those of MM.
Cement Duvernois and Campaigns, the new Premier

and tl.e mon who are to form his Cabinet
evinced a readiness to compromise with principle
which augurs ill for the centitutienal system
they were expected to usher in. Before he gratui-
tously made himself a partaker of M. do Forcade's
worst deeds, M. Emile 01liver should have considered that
he was not, like his predecessor, screened by his master's
authority, and that the responsibility not only of his own
vote, but of that of the majority he had undertaken to
guide, rested upon him alone. By separating his vote
f:om that of the Opposition in such a case, M. 011ivier
has actually gone over to Imperialism, and, as the phrase is,
" burnt his ships bebindhim." It is difficult toconceivehow
a man who votes for practices of that nature can be
trusted to propose a reform in the Electoral Law which
might render such practices impossible. Yet without
electoral reforms and a new election based upon sounder
principles, what becomes of the new era heralded in by the
July Manifesto ? What becomes of the participation in
the Government to which the people have been invited?
It was as the initiator of a fair and upright rule that
M. 011ivier was hailed on his accession to office. If all that
was wanted had been merely a policy of expediency, and
a readiness to lend to absolutism the mask of a popular
representation, the purpose might have been answered by
the happy audacity of M. Rouher or the defiant unscrupu-
lousness of M. de Forcade la Roquette.
Our columns on the last two days, says the Daily Noes,
have presented to our readers a vivid practical illustration
of the tragic contrasts of whichhuman life is full. On Mon-
day we had to record side by side with notices of the festive
'gatherings of Christmas Day a frightful calamity which
had befallen one happy family group, by which the
mother, four of her children, and a little visitor who was
keeping Christmas with them were burned to death.
On Tuesday the usual accounts of the great
gatherings for entertainment which take place on
" Boxing Night," were immediately followed by an account
of the terrible calamity to which the crowding at the
doors of a theatre had led in the city of Bristol. Such a
catastrophe, even more than the one which happened on
Christmas Day, brings out with terrible force the near-
ness to each other of the two sides of the world's anti-
thesis—feasting and mourning, laughter and tears.
Boxing Day is perhaps the greatest working-class holiday
of the year. This calamity is only another illustration of
the danger which lurks under great popular gatherings
and festivities. Wherever great crowds of people assemble
there is always the possibility of panic. But this par-
ticular accident differs from most others of the kind in its
apparently more accidental character. This appears to be
exactly how the accident really happened. A woman's
dress was trodden on behind ; she fell ; her fall
deprived all those round her of the support she had
given them, and they necessarily yielded to the pressure
and fell over. The rest followed as a matter of
course. The eager crowd pressed blindly on from behind ;
resistance was useleSs, and the mass surged over and
around the fallen mass, crushing to death the unfortunate
persons who composed it. Ncr does it seem possible to
guard against such calamities so long as our English indi-
viduality makes a crowd an unorganised mass in which
every man obeys only his own impulse to get forward,
and so long as we fail to learn the civilised art of standing

en queue.
Tho Standard declares that a shipwreck, a railway acci-
dent, a mine explosion, violent and sudden destruction of
life in any form, is terrible, but death never wears so
fearful an aspect as when it breaks upon the anticipation
or enjoyment of pleasure. The Holbein Dance, always
ghastly, is ghastliest at a masquerade, at a ball, at a revel
or jubilee, where if at any time, the grim presence, for ever
near humanity, no matter in what mood, might naturally
be forgotten. It is this which renders so peculiarly ap-
palling the tragedy reported, on Boxing-day, from Bristol.
Yet it will scarcely be denied, numerous as have been the
recent examples of similar misfortune that, if not invari-
ably, nearly so, the discovery has been made upon inves-
tigation that our older theatres,especially in the provinces,
were not constructed to bear an extra strain. It is a point
of rivalry among the architects of the present day to
provide for the quickest and safest possible filling
and emptying of any building intended to hold
large numbers, whether to meet an extracrdinary
demand or an alarm. No theatre constructed on the
Continent within the last thirty years offers, so to
sseak, such opportunities of danger; and at no continental
theatre is the mob waiting for admission so unmanageable.
In fact, the Bristol calamity would have been next to im-
possible in Paris, no matter how eager the desire of the
populace for admission might be. Conceding, therefore,
that we must expect a fatality now and then, and that it
may overtake the best intended arrangements, we cannot
but believe that a good deal of that which we have too
often to deplore is owing to some perversity of practice
capable of being put aside.
The Telegraph does not assume that serious resistance to
the new Bishop of Exeter has entirely died out. In ono
sense the controversy respecting Dr. Temple's appoint-
ment is closed by the final act of installation; but, on the
other hand, the circumstances of his appointment will
subject him to inevitable criticism and observation, which
he ought not, and probably does not, wish to decline. In
plain words, he will be more watched than other bishops.
His episcopal conduct will be tried more strictly. But a
severe trial is often a glorious opportunity, and the Bishop
of Exeter's past career justifies a trust that he will vindicate
his fitness for the charge committed to him. He has great
mental vigour, varied intellectual accomplishments, and,
above all, a practical acquaintance with human wants and
interests. To be "a man of the world," means generally
to be a man who cares only for worldly prosperity ; but
there is a sense in which the phrase may be used to indi-
cate one prime requisite for the episcopal office; and it is
in that sense that St, Paul was a man of the world. He
had the " care of all the Churches ;" he could be all "things
to all men;" he had the aptitude for business, the
rapid insight into human character, the promptness of
action, the power to sustain fatigue, which were essential
to his mission. A large measure of such gifts is required,
not only for the supervision of such an immense diocese
as that which comprehends the two most westerly counties
of England, but for the renewed movement of life within
the National Church. During his residence at Rugby, Dr.
Temple has shewn, as ho has also shown since, that he
enjoys in a full measure those intellectual qualities which
beget confidence in a public man. Ho is endowed
with a keen and profound insight into the
motives and desires of his fellows; he possesses a genuine
sympathy with all the great movements of social and reli-
gious thought, which are every day moro irresistibly ins-
pressing on the future its form and destiny; while he has
eminently displayed the talent of gentle, conciliatory, and
yet resolute command over those whose duties it is his
business to regulate. These qualities are as valuable in 3
gliccese as in a school ; and nowhere are they more
conspicuously required than in the long-neglected diocese
of Exeter.
The Herald, in discussing the value of anmsthetics, re-
marks that the prevention of pain is an objeot worthy of
the highest genius and mostpractical philosophy. Physical
pain has its use, but there are cases in which it may pro-
perly be dispensed with, if the means of doing so can
he commanded. Ordinarily, pain acts as a kind of
danger signal, which, though it may startle, is intended
to preserve. But under the surgeon's knife Pain
may be said to place life in peril rather than to pro'
tect it. The question remains whether we are real
in the. position to command a release from Pain'
Thousands of cases seem to prove that we are. A f°vr
instances to the contrary serve to raise a doubt in some
minds. But professional testimony shows that snore lives
have been saved by chloroform than have been sacrificed
by it. Many a patient would have' sunk and died,
either under the knife of the operator or fr°ra
exhaustion following on extreme pain, but for the nor'
cifel introduction of chloroform. Accordingly, the
occurrence of a few deaths may still leave a balance
.if life in favour of the amesthetic, to say nothing
of the great subtraction from the sum total
human agony. It has been proposed to substitute ether
for chloroform, as a safer agent. But ether appears tl
have no real advantage over chloroform on the score oFt
safety, and it has the drawback of requiring a *en
apparatus. Ether is the oldest annsthctic of the two, IT
was abandoned in Great Britain some years ago as inferrer
to chloroform. A small quantity of chloroform 13-'B4
prove fatal, if care be not taken that a certain Pro-
portion of air is inhaled along with it. An
undue amount of. chloroform will also produce death, La
lowering the action of the heart until it at length ceases I_!'
beat. But these are casualties which ought not to occu,r•
Where proper skill is exercised there seems no reason 71,
fear the effects of chloroform, and it would certainly hei'd
matter for deep regret if a few unfortunate cases sllo:L.iti,
cause such a panic in the public mind as to interfere ,“:.b
the application of one of the most valuable and benefiotd.
discoveries of modern times, calculated as that disco
is is to relieve surgery of its 12:0r0r4 a 3 well ax Vf rte °I)1
ditlicnltY dad, clrolwk.