The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-05 00:00:00

`THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 5, 1869.

MISCELLANEOUS NEWS.

the act of endeaCrouring to effect an entrance into hi
house through the kitchen window, he duly attende
at the police-coul t, with his mother, who was th
principal witness to prefer the charge, and th
prisoner was remanded, being liberated on bail. Th
next day the writer and his mother were again a
the police-court but after waiting in a sid
room until five o'clock, they were informed tha
the man had brought satisfactory evidence of hi
character and had been discharged. If this instancy
fairly indicates the practice at police-courts, n 1
wonder thieves are many and prosecutors few.

Sea ; but as usual with these great discoverers he
is short of the " ready," was unable to provide for
his former wife and daughter, and was committed
to &ism, in default of $lO,OOO bail. Cunningham,
another man, accomplished in four weeks what had
taken Jannett years to do. Representing him-
self as a wealthy Californian, he went about the coun-
try, putting up at likely farm houses; where the
daughters were well off he would make up a match,
take his wife to one of the great cities, and after a
few days run away with her valuables. He was arrested
in Westchester county when about to lead a widow to
the altar, and I only hope that, if proved, it may be
the last opportunity he will ever have of practising
that little game, the most vile and cowardly of which
a man can be guilty. The " Bourbon" case has been
again before the court ; District Attorney Courtney
is working to try all the accused together on a
charge of conspiracy to defraud the Government,
but I suppose it will end in Mr. Courtney being
himself gobbled up, the almost invariable fate of
those who attempt to break into the "ring." The
case was postponed, as usual, in the absence of some
of the defendants. The Erie Railway war has taken
a new phase, and as if the present tangle is not
enough to unravel they have dragged up the Drew-
Vanderbilt fight of last spring. The company desire
to enforce on the Commodore a vast number of
shares which he sold to the directors last summer, but
as his price was 70, and the present market rate
little over half that, he stoutly resists the pressure.
One of the suits is for tha recovery from him of four
and a half millions of dollars, paid it is said by Drew,
out of Erie funds to compromise the old quarrel, yet
it is but one of several cases, and the public are
growing weary of these Erie affairs. The police
are instructed to arrest street beggars and juvenile
pedlars. We make less bother about invading the
right of such citizens than in London, where the
lives of weak-knee'd brethren, as far as 1 recollect,
are often endangered by little wretches with brooms
dancing straight in their front, while a Hansom
shoots down one way and a lumbering " bus"
comes up the other, the difficulty of keeping one's
feet on the greasy mud of the pavement being
enough without any other obstruction. Friends of
aline recently returned from London tell me that
street begging is worse than ever, and has really
become a nuisance, particularly to my kind-hearted
countrymen who cannot look calmly upon such dis-
tress, and I fear I may add, without being often im-
posed on. Superintendent Kennedy has ordered
our young beggars to be • given over to the Com-
missioners of Charity and Correction, who will
look after them during the winter. The case of
Commodore Meade, who, by the way, is brother of
General George Meade, has excited a good dell of
interest. Mr. C. K. Landis of Vineland gives his
version of the affair. It washe through whom, it was
said, the Commodore bad been arrested on a certifi-
cate of insanity granted by two Tombs physicians,
when a suitor for the hand of the Commodore's
daughter. He says that in ;January he first met the
young lady at the Commodore's house in Wash-
ington, and then learnt that it required a doughty
knight to carry her off, as the father kept watch
and ward over her, and had driven at the point of
the sword every suitor out of the house. The
difficulty and danger may have been an addi-
tional attraction to Mr. Landis, for he quickly
demanded from the Commodore the surrender of
the prize. The short, sharp, and decisive answer
conveyed a peremptory order to desist, followed by
another, threatening serious consequence if the first
was not obeyed. He deigned, however, then to enu-
merate his objections, which Mr. Landis thus
giveS :—" First, my age ; second, my religion ;
third, being an entire stranger. Being at the time
34 years old, I was at a loss to know whether he
meant that I was too young or too old. I did not
care about adopting any new religion, and being
fully his equal in birth and education, and having
lived for 11 years upon my own estate in New
Jersey, with my banner on the outer wall,' I
could not possibly sympathize with the last objec-
tion." He consulted the Commodore's son, Capt.
Meade, and other members of the family, who ad-
vised him to pay no attention to the Commodore,
who, for some time, had suffered from aberration
of mind, caused or aggravated by unjust treatment
from the Government in respect to a claim of mil-
lions of dollars, and in the loss of the San Jacinto.
The attentions were continued, the more so as the
wooer would have blushed at anything like per-
sonal danger influencing his conduct, and he was
aware that the Commodore was watching for an
opportunity to shoot him. The marriage was ap-
pointed to take place on the 14th October, at the
residence of the young lady's uncle, Mr. C. A.
Meigs, of Staten Island. Although warned that he
would be shot if the Commodore got a sight of
him, he crossed the ferry on the 11th in an open
carriage in broad daylight, feeling he was risking
his life in a good cause, and with his father, sister,
and chief secretary arrived at the house. It was,
perhaps, well for Mr. Landis that the Commodore's
son, Captain Meade, had on the previous day shut
up his father in Bloomingdale Asylum. On his
person were several revolvers, and in his valise four
more, while a gang of riughs had been engaged to
stop Mr. Landis's progress to his marriage. The
family expected that the match would be broken
off, but Mr. Landis insisted on the ceremony
being performed, and it is evident that he had
nothing to do with the Commodore's incarceration,
and that he acted throughout not only as a brave
but as an honourable man, and in accord with all
the other members of the Meade family. The
Commodore has published a letter thanking the
press, the judiciary, and the public, and threa-
tening fuller particulars. On the subject of insanity,
we may mention that Ebenezer Haskell, a well-
known Philadelphian, has, after three years' impri-
sonment in a private mad house, been pronounced by
a jury to be sane. He made prodigious efforts to
escape from a dark cell in which he was long con-
fined. Ile sawed through iron bars, and fractured
his leg by a fall in scaling the wall. It must not
be supposed, however, that all the lunatics in Ame-
rica are thus treated. On Thanksgiving-day, at
the asylum on Blackwell's Island, there was a grand
dance, followed by a magic-lantern exhibition. Capt.
Weise, who served in the 7th New York Regt. during
the war, was one of the rational insane dancers, with
a nice, quiet-looking woman, who only went mad
on meeting her husband, on whom she would rush
with a carving knife, if she could get one, to kill
him. The party was conducted with great pro-
priety, and the inmates appeared contented and in
health. Since I last wrote the Alaska purchase-
money has caused much commotion. The warrant
for $7,200,000 in gold was drawn in favour of Baron
Stoekl, and given by him to the Washington banker,
J. W. Riggs, the money being payable in Washing-
ton. Riggs asked for a loan in currency of $200,000,
which he had at once to disburse out of it, which Mr.
M'Culloch refused, but Gen. Spinner, on being urged,
consented. The first Treasury cheque, dated Aug. 1,
was for $7,000,000 in coin to the order of J. IV. Riggs.
It was made payable byMr. Riggs to S. S. and C. Ward
of New York, and by them indorsed and the money
paid to H. F. Vaile, of the Bank of Commerce of
New York, by the Sub-Treasury, on August 4th,
three days after it was given. The next cheque
was given for $lOO,OOO in coin, and made payable
to Riggs and Co., and was paid to W. A. Jenkins,
in New York, on August 4th. The next was upon
August 3, for $25,000 in coin, and was paid into
the same source. Upon that date also another was
given, but late in the afternoon, f0r525,000 in coin,
and passed to Van Dyck's Sub-Treasury through
the same channels as the two previous ones. No
call was then made upon Gen. Spinner for any fur-
ther sum until September 9, when a coin cheque for
$20,000 was issued, indorsed to Riggs and Co., and
receipted for by " J. Purnett ;" the last being fur
the balance of $20,000 in coin, upon September 16.
whioh also passed through the same source as the
previous one. None were indorsed, and all can
now be seen in the Treasury. A young man
from Georgia has stated to some members of Con-
gress that among the papers of Robert J. Walker
he saw a list of those to whom this money was paid.
As I before informed you, Mr. Walker admits hav-
ing received a large professional fee. An investi-
gation ha,. been ordered by Congress, and it is not
improbable that a system of gross and shameful
plunder will be discovered, by which lobbyists
obtain money under the pretence of buying over