The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-27 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, SEPT. 27, 1869.

The newspaper, after all, turns out to be the most
effectual assistant to the detective. Hitherto the
cant has been that the premature reports published
in the journals of the day interfere with the judicious
action of the police authorities. A wonderful in-
cident which has just now taken place has proved,
on the contrary, that the very reports erroneously
described as premature are the surest and the swiftest
aids to the officers of justice by putting the more in-
telligent amongst their number on the alert throughout
the length and breadth of a great country like France.
But for the particulars published in the news-
papers no information as to what has recently oc-
curred at the very gates of that gay capital, the
metropolis of European civilization, would have
reached the very man whose ingenuity, promptitude,
and resolution have led in the very hick of time to
the capture of the portentous villain who appears to
have had the chief part to do in the perpetra-

tion of the Pantin murders.
gendarme of the name of FERRAND, was
going his rounds at Havre at about ten
o'clock on Thursday evening, bent simply upon
his nightly task of driving dilatory seamen on
board a ship, when, to this end, he turns into a sailor's
drinking shop kept by a man named MANGENEAU,
at No. 57 in the Rue Royale. Glancing about him
among the drinkers and smokers there presented to
his view, on his crossing the threshold, the gendarme
FERRAND notes, with an instant suspicion, the features

A maritime

and figure of the young ruffian who has just now been
captured by him at Havre, and who turns out to be the
person recently going by the name of JEAN KINGS at
the Hotel du Chemin de For du Nord, and whose real
name appears to be JEAN BAPTISTE IRAUPHANN.
The gendarme asks that person what his business
may be at Havre, to which the latter replies, that he
is there on the look out for work. Asking the man
for his paper; the gendarme finds that he has none,
not even a passport, whereupon he tells him that he
must require him to accompany him to the police-
office for the purpose of establishing his identity. As
they arc passing together through the streets on their

,vi-ty to the police-oaice, FE I;l:Asp's suspicions arc fur•

thcr cuoused by Ins con-T.llmi' s pale
On the gendarme threatening to conduct him before
the Procureur Imperial. The suspected man having

!et out, inadvertently, in answer to FERRAND'S in-
fiuh ies, that he is a mechanic, that he is of Roubaix,
that he is from Paris—" Then, it's my belief," ex-
claims the gendarme, "that you left Paris by way
of Pantiu !" Whereat—appalled—the supected
man rushes across the road, springs over the
parapet of the Pont do Lombardie, and plunges
into the dock basin. Another intelligent, prompt,
and daring man of Havre, this time not a gendarme,
but a dock porter, instantaneously comes to the fore
at FERRAND'S cry for assistance—HANGEL, the dock
porter in Tics' iou, plunging in, on the spur of the
moment, after the pursued murderer. A desperate
encounter in the water, in which the captor is himself
almost fatally captured, TRAIJPMANN endeavouring
to add HANGEL to the list of his victims, rather than
himself be taken out of the dock alive, ends in their
being both dragged into a boat in a state of pro-
found exhaustion. Subsequently the appalling, but,
in another sense, one is almost tempted to say, con-
solatory statement comes out, that the two missing
KiNcics, Pere et fits, JEAN:and GUSTAVE, instead of
being the murderers,are themselves among the number
of the murdered. The impression now afloat is that
they, no less than the poor mother and the
five younger children, were assassinated by this
" friend of the family," this mysterious mechanic of
Roubaix, recently captured at Havre, this seeming
monster of cruelty, JEAN TRAUP3IAYS. As yet the
ease is full of mystery. It continues up to this mo-
ment to be altogether inexplicable. The story, as it
is at present told, wants coherence. The unravelling
of the tangled thread of it, cannot but be watched
with painful solicitude.

TUE almost simultaneous announcement of the
suicide of one judge and the appointment of another
suggests reflections of a varied character. There is

not only the trite reflection which always occurs
when the grave and gay events of life are brought
into juxtaposition ; there is a special reflection in the
present instance prompted by the characters of the
two men. There could not be a greater contrast than
that between the late Lord Justice Clerk and the future
Lord Justice of Appeal. Mr. PATTON was eminently
a universal favourite. He was perhaps the most
popular Lord Advocate ever known in Scotland, and
when he was raised to the Bench he met with the
heartiest congratulations from all sides. He was,
moreover, a thoroughly high-minded man, and no
one would have ever connected his name with anything
that was dishonourable. On the other hand, Lord
WESTBURY is one of the best-hated of all our public
men. His manner is insufferable. " GOD Almighty
speak to a black-beetle " is nothing to Lord WEST-
BURY'S demeanour to suitors and the Bar. It
would be well if this were all that has to be said
against him. But " WESTBURY" and "scandals" are
two words that have been too recently united for
us to forget that this contemner of his fellow-men has
fallen very low in their estimation. Were his offences
merely private and of the flesh, were he merely a
sensualist, the world would perhaps refrain from
censuring the appointment of so able a lawyer to the
Bench. But his sins have been public and official,
and they ought for ever to disqualify him
for any public post, especially one involving the
administration of justice and equity. Nevertheless,
it is the high-minded judge who has died by the
most shameful of all deaths except execution ; it is
the judge whom Parliament drove from his seat that
is now offered new dignity and emoluments. The
very mode of Mr. PATTON'S death sheaved how
sensitive he was. He had the misfortune
to be connected for a few months with

the most corrupt constituency in the king-
dom. His party bribed for him, possibly without his
knowledge, almost certainly without his co-operation.
But the thought that he, a judge, wearing the
ermine, which ought to be ever kept spotless, had
allowed it to become sullied, was madness to him.
We do not know if Lord WEsimunY ever bribed at
Aylesbury or Wolverhampton. We are quite cer-
tain that if he did the remembrance of his transac-
tions has not cost him a moment's uneasiness.
Even men much more scrupulous than he
would treat this offence lightly, and no more
think it intolerably shameful than they would a
white lie. To Mr. PATTON the shame of exposure
was too great to be encountered. He would quit life
rather than endure it. Perhaps some of us will be
inclined to think that after all the green bay-tree
flourishing in its strength is not always the type of
health. Perhaps some of us will affirm that the
despairing suicide is more enviable than the bold
ex-Chancellor and Lord Justice elect.

There are two other considerations arising out of
this joint event. The first is that we trust Mr.
PATTON'S tragical end may at last force the Govern-
ment to ' take more active steps than it has taken
hitherto to put down bribery. The second is, that
the Government which has offered promotion to Lord
WESTBURY ought to be severely censured. It has
been said lately by one of our Liberal contemporaries
that the election disclosures have shown that
Mr. DISRAELI'S Bribery Act is a failure, as all other
Acts of the kind have been. But it need not -
be a failure. If only it be enforced, it will not be a
failure. Other Acts have proved a failure because
they were not enforced. It is for the Government to
give effect to the present measure by prosecuting the
worst offenders, whether they be bricklayers or
baronets. The real cause of the bribery at the last
election was not the inefficiency of Mr. DISRAELI'S
Act, but the neglect of Mr. DISRAELI'S Government
to bring the perjurers of Totnes and the guilty
brewers of Yarmouth to justice. Because
these went free, the sinners of Bridgwater
and Beverley, thought that they might disregard the
law also, and did disregard it. So it will be again if
Mr. GLADSTONE'S Government does not prosecute the
bribers and the bribees whose sins are now being made
known to all the world. We wish we could see greater
activity in this matter than there now seems likely to
be. In a very few weeks the time will be gone by
during which a prosecution c 3.11 be commenced. Never-
theless the ATTORNEY-GENERAL has made no sign.

Coming to the last point, we cannot but express
extreme regret as well as surprise that a Government
like the present should have offered a post to Lord
WESTBURY. We are astonished that a journal of
the high standing of the Daily News should approve
of the appointment. We are quite sure that if Lord
WESTBURY had been a Conservative, and Mr.
DISRAELI were the Premier who had promoted him,
our contemporary would have given utterance to
virtuous and perfectly justifiable indignation. We
cannot withhold condemnation because it is a
Liberal lawyer who is promoted, and a
Liberal Minister who has promoted him. We
cannot thus wrest the moral standard to suit political
exigencies. The temptation may have been great.
Lord WESTBURY'S opposition to the Irish Church
Bill last session may have been so formidable that
the Government, knowing how hard a task it
has before it, may have been tempted to buy
off his opposition to the Land Bill next
session. But temptations were made to be
resisted, and of all men Mr. GLADSTONE
was the Minister whom we should have expected to
resist them. Remembering, too, what injury a some-
what similar appointment of Lord PALMERSTON'S
did to his Government, we should have thought that
even prudence would have prevented this present
appointment. It seems to us both a moral and a
political blunder, and we anticipate that it will bring
its punishment with it.

LATEST INTELL CGENCE

(REUTER'S TELEGRAMS.)

AMERICA.
(Per French Amin Lie c.a.,L,.)

NEW YORK, Sept. 25.
The Gold Board adjourned this morning until
Monday to give time for settlements.
General Sickles has telegraphed to the State de-
partment that Spain respectfully declines the me-
diation proffered by the United States with refer-
ence to Cuba.

M. Catacasy, the new Russian Minister, was
officially received by the President yesterday.
The Department of Agriculture estimates the
present cotton crop at 2,750,000 bales.

The National Steamship Company's steamer
Pennsylvania arrived out yesterday.
The North German Lloyd's steamship Union ar-
out to-day at 3 p.m.
COMMERCIAL INTELLIGENCE.
CLOSING PRICES.

The Government sold to-day $2,500,000 in gold
at about 133. There were no public sales. The
Government bought Bonds to the value of
$3,000,000 at yesterday's prices.
Illinois l37i.

Erie 34g.

Cotton—Mid. upland 29c.

THE RUMOURED ABDICATION OP TIM

EMPEROR NAPOLEON.

The London correspondent of the Elgin Courant, fatr
referring to our statement that the Emperor Napoleon
intended to abdicate in favour of his son, says :—"I
learn there is no question but that prior to the return
of the Empress he was quite fixed in his intention to
abdicate forthwith in favour of his son, retaining him-
self the substantial direction of affairs. Since her
arrival the programme, if it may be called so, has
undergone a modification. If anything is done at all,
it will take the form of associating the Prince Imperial
with his father in a conjunct Emperorship. There is
much to bo said in preference of this project
over the other. It, would accomplish quietly the
gradual transition of the son into the position
he is meant to occupy, the father gradually retiring
more and more from active participation in the affairs
of state till at length, when the end came, the passage
from one reign to another would be almost if not altogether
imperceptible. By the Emperor retaining his conjunct
place upon the throne, would be avoided all the unplea-
sant complications which inevitably would occur behind
the throne if he were to doff the purple and sink into
a President of the Council. In such a position,
to say nothing of anything else, ho could not secure
permanence, and it would be a strange sight to see
an ex-Emperor struggling for office under his own son.
The Empress, it is said, has been wise enough to resist the
project of abdication outright, although were it carried,
she, as Regent, would receive a largo increase of substantial
power and consideration in the state. But the Empress as
Regent would be at once the worst thing that could befall
France and the dynasty of the Napoleons'