The Sun.
London, England, 1869-01-12 00:00:00

THE MAYOR OF CORK.

LAW AND POLIO

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PROFESSIONAL THIEVES. —At the Central Criminal
Court, on Monday, three men and a woman were charged
with possessing unlawful instruments. Two police.
constables saw them one night in Holborn, and watched
them for more than an hour. At last, finding two of the
male prisoners examining the door of a jeweller's shop.
they apprehended them, and in the ensuing struggle a
" jemmy," or crowbar, fell from one of the men, and two
skeleton keys were found upon another. The men were
all found guilty, and received heavy sentences. The
woman was acquitted.

THE SWANSEA MURDER. Thio case occupied the
attention of the county justices at Swansea on Wednesday,
Thursday, and Friday last, there being upwards of twenty
witnesses examined. It will be remembered that deceased
was deliberately shot through the head while sitting before
the fire in his cottage. On Friday the magistrates finished
their inquiry, and committed the prisoner for trial on the
charge of wilful murder.

ALLEGED WIFE MURDER IN EDINDMIGH.—On the
night of the sth, or morning of the 6th inst., a cabman,
named Clapperton, assaulted his wife and pushed her down
a stair in the neighbourhood of St. James-street, causing
injuries which soon afterwards issued fatally. He was
apprehended on Saturday, and a post mortem examination
of the body of deceased took place on Sunday.
STONE-THROWING EXTRAORDINARY.—At the Westmin-
ster Police-court a singular case was brought forward. A
man and woman were throwing stones at each other in the
street at Chelsea, when one of the stones struck a lady
who was passing. Her husband remonstrated, when the
man attacked him. A bystander remarked that it was a
shame, whereupon the woman stabbed him in the face.
She was sentenced to a month's hard labour.
CRIME AND FOLLY.—A man named Crabtree was finally
committed for trial by the Birkenhead magistrates on
Monday. Ile had been making a practice of duping and
robbing girls, under the promise that he intended to marry
them. A case in which he had thus deceived a young girl
from Scotland, and robbed her of 210 and some other pro-
perty, was proved, and it was also proved that, though he
has a wife and family at Birkenhead, he induced a young
woman residing in Southport to marry him in November
last, and that after living with her a few weeks he
deserted her.

A beautiful crypt of the twelfth century has
just been discovered at Gran, in Hungary, near the
cathedral ; eight granite columns support the roof, and
each has a different capital. The monument is to be
thoroughly restored.

In a recent discussion at Melbourne, before
he Royal Society, relating to the South American earth-
quake, it was stated that the great wave which rolled on
the coasts of New Zealand and all the eastern and southern
shores of Australia on the 15th of August, must have
rolled over the Pacific Ocean in eighteen hours, or at the
rate of 383 miles an hour.
M. E. J. Marey has endeavoured to solve three
questions respecting the flying of insects. By careful and
ingenious experiments he has ascertained that the wings
of the common fly move at the rate of 330 strokes per
second ; of the hornet, 240 ; the bee, 190 ; the wasp, 110,
&c. As for the second question, M. Marey finds that the
figure described is that of an 8. The third question is still
subject for investigation.

Dr. Maziere Brady, writing to the Liverpool Mer-
cury, observes that so much has been said on the non-
existence in Ireland of whole parishes without Anglicans
that he deems it advisable to give a list of them in detail.
In 1861 they were 199 in number, but since then some of
them have been suspended. Their total Catholic population
is 98,229, and their area extends over more than 557,000
acres. Their ecclesiastical revenues exceed £13,000 per annum.
About 18 of them being inappropriate, appear to possess no
church revenue.

WHAT WILL BE.—A clergyman, whose name is
stated to be Mr. Wild, has been lecturing in Canada,
taking for his subject "What the world is coming to."
He announces these, among other things, looming in the.
distance :—Coral insects will fill up the Pacific with solid
habitable land ; eventually the globe will be all land, or
at least there will be no more sea ; there is also to be
perpetually equal day and night of twelve hours each all
over the globe ; there is only to be one language spoken
throughout the world, and " that, of course, will be
English."

THE POOR RATEPAYERS.—The City Peess states
that the guardians of the City of London Union lizwe
resolved to appoint a committee of their own number to
take into consideration the whole question of the adminis-
tration of the laws for the relief of the poor in the metro-
politan district, and particularly the administration of the
Metropolitan Poor Act of 1867. The guardians of the
East London Union have agreed to take counsel, with the
guardians of St. Luke's, and other boards and vestries are
fully alive to the subject, the common object being to
check the constantly increasing expenditure for poor relief,
without injury to the legitimate object of that expen-
diture.

CONFESSION OF GUILT BY THE LEWES MI7II-
- Every arrangement has been made for carrying
out the sentence of the law on Monday next, at eight
o'clock, on the young man, Martin Brown, aged 22, for
the murder of David Baldey, at Kingston, near Lewes, on
the 9th of October last. Calcraft will be the executioner.
The convict eats, drinks, and sleeps as well as an ordinary
person, and his unhappy position does not at present
affect in the slightest degree his health, which is natu-
rally very good. He listens with attention to the
spiritual advice of the chaplain of the gaol, the Rev.
Mr. Duke, and has of late employed much time in r)ad-
ing the Bible and other religious works, but lie appears
hitherto to have received but slight religious education.
Though quiet and respectful, he does not seem to
entertain such a deep sense as might be wished of
the awful position in which he is placed. 'Never
since his confinement in the prison has he volunteered a
disavowal of his crime, and at length he has made a full
confession of his guilt and the circumstances connected
with it. He repudiates the supposition that he murdered
Baldey for the sake of securing the paltry sum of money
That he took from him, and asserts that he bad a stronger
motive. What that motive was, together with the other
circumstances now stated by the only human being to
whom they were known, will, for obvious reasons and at
the prisoner's own request, be kept from the public until
Niter the execution has taken place. On •Monday affect-
fug interviews took place at the Lewes prison between the
convict, his mother, and his sweetheart, Lie does not
ma to auticiPate a rePrieve.

What is described as a "very discreditable scene arising
out of the uncontrollable desire of the Mayor (Arr. D.
O'Sullivan) to ventilate his political opinions from the
bench of justice," was witnessed in the Cork Police-court
on Saturday. It is thus described. " When the ordi-
nary business of the court had been disposed of the Mayor
rose and said: As the representatives of the press are
here, I wish to make a few observations. I made some
statements in this court this day week, which have been
taken up by the magistrates, or some of them. An attempt
was made to answer them, but the public opinion, not
only of this city, but of the whole country, has quite
approved of what I said. I made the statement here, that
young men have been brought up and remanded here for
several days by the police without any charge against
them, unless the mere suspicion of the constabulary.
Several times, I repeat, that took place and was allowed.
That was the statement I made, and I do not see any-
thing, nor do I know anything, to change my opinion.
The press wrote about the matter, and some of the English
papers said that any magistrate expressing the opinions
which I gave utterance to should not be allowed to hold
the commission of the peace in the county. I believe
that, notwithstanding this opinion, I will still
continue to hold the commission of the peace. I do not
withdraw any of the expressions I used. I have only to
explain that I would be sorry to say that the police of the
county were not worthy of any credit, for generally
speaking the constabulary is composed of very proper
men. But sometimes, especially in times of political
excitement, they are induced to go beyond the limits of
constitutional law.—Captain Tooker : I must protest most
strongly against the introduction of political matters here.
—The Mayor : I am free to express an opinion.—Captain
Tooker : I deprecate the introduction of politics
here. When you come in here you should leave
your politics at the door, sir.—The Mayor : I do
leave politics at the door. This is not the place
to discuss them. But I assert emphatically that I have a
right to state that men have been brought up here and
remanded because of police suspicions—Mr. Hamilton :
I for one must contradict that assertion. As I said this
day week, Mr. Mayor, no prisoner, to my knowledge, was
ever remanded in this court without satisfactory
evidence of some kind against him. That has been
my experience of this police-court, and I think that it
has been very considerable. I must say I believe
that that is a libel on the bench of magistrates of the
city.—The Mayor : Then the representatives of the press
must have stated what was wrong.—Captain Tooker : I
believe I am one of the oldest magistrates on this bench,
and I must say I have never heard such a scene as has
taken place here to-day. I here declare that I think it is
a disgrace to the bench that such should be allowed to
continue. If we have business to he done, let
it be done. We are not to be occupied.—The Mayor: I
am as well entitled to speak and have my opinions as you
are.—Captaiu Tooker: Yes, when you know your duty.
—The Mayor : I do know my duty. • I know my duty as
well as any man, and I know my duty to my country.

MISCELLANEOUS ETVS.