The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-26 00:00:00

PUBLIC PETITIORS.

The fifteenth report on Public Petitions displays some
interesting features. The opponents of the Sunday open-
ing of the British Museum and similar institutions have
marshalled a formidable array of names, 53,320 persons
having signed their petitions. In favour of the change 3,861
have petitioned, but a few officers of the East London
Free Sunday Society have petitioned the House to disre-
gard the protests of "persons residing in country dis-
tricts " against the removal of the existing restric-
tions, as they cannot possibly represent the
feelings and opinions of residents of the metropolis.
The Irish Church, as in the former reports, fills a promi-
nent place. Against the bill there are 293,000 malcon,
tents, while it has 50,600 supporters. Coming to details-
however, it is more popular. For disendowment there are
144,000 names, against it only 18,000. The protests
against disestablishment are apparently recognised as
ineffectual, since there is but one petition with three signa-
tures with this object. The Temperance party continue to
send in petitions for prohibiting the sale of intoxicating
liquors on Sunday, in favour of the Beerhouses Bill,
(signed by 20,000 persons), and for alteration of the licensing
laws. The friends of Sunday and Ragged Schools have
bestirred themselves in their favour, the petitions for the
bill relating to them having more than 22,000 signatures.
The bill for abolishing imprisonment for debt is not popu-
lar; only one petition with an official signature is in its
favour, while 10,154 persons have signed the 119 petitions
for an alteration of the bill.

THE DUKE OF SUTHERLAND AT THE
GOLD DIGGINGS.

The John o' Groat Journal rays :—" His Grace the Duke
of Sutherland arrived at Dunrobin Castle on Monday night,
and passed Helmsdale on Tuesday on his visit to the diggings
at Hildonan. About a mile from Rildonan-house, he was
met by a large cssemblage of diggers, &c., who took the
horses out of the carriage and dragged it in triumphal pro-
cession for a considerable distance. His Grace finally
alighted, and walked at the head of the procession, which was
led off by a couple of pipers, to the tent village. Arrived at
the tents the diggers clustered round his Grace, who ex-
pressed the pleasure he felt in seeing around him so many
good-looking, stalwart fellows engaged in such a novel atd
interesting occupation. He hardly knew how t o thank t hem for
the splendid and enthusiastic reception they had given him
on that his first visit to the Kildonan diggings--a reception
which was on his part totally unexpected ; but in order
to reciprocate in souse measure such an expression of
their good-will, he would have great pleasure in
ordering an ox and a cask of beer to be sent down
to them from Dunrobin, and ho would take the liberty
of suggesting, at the same time, that Mr. Gilchrist,
the discoverer of the gold fields, should be elected to the
post of carver. The Duke also referred to the rapidity with
which the village bad sprung up, and the gratifying symp-
toms ho saw around him of its continued success. Loud
and prolonged cheers greeted his Grace's address. The
Duke then visited the scene of the diggers' labour;
taking an active personal part in the washing out of several
dishes, in one of which he was fortunate enough to find
a pretty respectable nugget, weighing a pennyweight,
which, he said, he would have made into a pin as a
memento of his first visit to tha g fields of
Rildonan Before leaving, the Duke was presented by
feir. Gilchrist with the gold collected by the diggers snits
time ago, as a mark of their sppreciation of his Grace's kind-
ness in allowing the gold-fields to be worked so long without
let or hindrance, or restriction cf any kind. Dr. Rutherford
also presented the nugget of 2 (5. 17 grains which
was felled in the Suisgill burn. It is said that a gentleman
connected with a London mining firm met the Duke on the
ground, and made an offer which sounds almost fabulous for
the whole right of working the gold fields."

It is E aid that a French company is upon the point
of undertaking the construction of a canal across the Isthmus
of Corinth. The mean height is about 80 feet abJvo the
sea level, and the width about four miles.

At a sprelal meeting of the Manchester City
CouLen on Friday, a resolution was adopted fixing the
salary of the stipendiary magistrate to bo appointed in suc-
cession to Mr. Robinson Fowler, who has resigned, at £l,OOO.

The police have captured Jenkins, one of the men
who recently escaped so cleverly from Dundee prison. He
Lad not been able to leave the town. His comrade is still at
largo.

The County Court Clerk of Bishop Auckland has
embezzled £lBO, chiefly belonging to the ilig-hway Board,
and has disappeared from the country. A reward of .£lO is
offered for his apprehension.

Tie alleged excessive ritual at Sefton Parish
Church, where the disgraceful disturbances have lately taken
plto.!e, scent likely to bo about to be investigated by sotno
legal triLunal. The churchwardens have forwarded com-
plaints of the practices to the bishop, praying for an inquiry.
The Joint o'Groat Journal understands that a
requisition to Mr. James Traill, requesting him to offer
himself as a candidate for the representation of Caithness
on his uncle's retirement, is in course of signature through.
out the county. Mr. Trail has been visiting Caithness,
it is alleged with.political views, although this is contra.
dieted. lye will probably 1, -e opposed by Sir John G. 'l'.
Sinclair, who is an advanced Liberal, an advocate of the
Ballot, and in favour of the assimilation of the county
and burgh franchises.

SPITE AND INFLUENCE.—The London corre-
spondent of the Elgin Courant writes : " There are
noblemen and noble men. There is a certain notorious
Scotch duke, whose name is well known in sporting and
otherperhaps less creditable circles, whose application to be
admitted a member of the Jockey Club has been refused by
a majority of that tolerably latitudinarian body. I believe,
however, that the refusal is based more upon the workings
of a private spite than upon public grounds, however
strong the latter might be. This is not the first occa-
sion that this young gentleman has been served in the
same manner, and the hostility on both occasions is
said to be traceable to the active efforts of a gentleman
whose turf career was on a very colossal scale, but who
has recently, on being elected ALP. for a division of an
English com.ty, sold off his stud and relinquished the
turf. The duke in question is rather given to the display
of the muscular powers with which Dame Nature has
gifted him, and on one occasion, I have heard, his fist
came in unpleasant contact with the gentleman in ques-
tion, an application which was followed up by another
from the toe of his boot, and the remembrance of this cas-
tigation has, it is said, operated unfavourably on the claims
of the youthful peer to an entrance into the exclusive circle
of the Jockey Club."

The Boston Pilot publishes a correspondence
that has passed between Mr. John Foley, an Irish artist in
America, and Mr. G. F. Train. The artist presents to
Mr. Train, whom he styles the future President of
America, a picture of himself in the presidential robes.
Mr. Train graciously accepts the gift, and is compli-
mentary in return. He recounts also his inviolable deter-
mination to achieve the freedom of Ireland. Both the
writers express themselves with the degree of inflation
which is customary when patriots of that stamp give vent
to their intentions.

Mr. Thomas Halliwell, postmaster of Leigh, was
on Friday charged at the Leigh petty sessions, at the in-
stance of the Postmaster-General, with embezzling the sum
of £2O. Mr. Jennings, solicitor, of Manchester, who con-
ducted the case, said the money was paid over to Mr.
Halliwell by a Mr. Wilkinson, on behalf of the Well-
intended Benefit Society, for (I-posit in the Post-office
Savings Bank. It was the duty of Mr. Halliwell, on
receipt of the money, to have given one of the Savings
Banks books to Mr. Wilkinson, with the sum de-
posited entered therein. Instead of that he gave
Mr. Wilkinson a common receipt for the money. Subse-
quently Mr. 117ilinson sent to Loudon, unknown to Mr.
Balliwell, to have the interest added, and the fraud was
then discovered. Mr. Barnwell was apprehended, Lut was
admitted to bail on Tuesdly last, and since then ho has
absconded. It was supposed that there would be several
other charges against him. On the application of Mr.
Jennings, a warrant was issued for the apprehension of
Mr. Barnwell.

HOMAGE TO ART.—On Monday last, the 19th
inst., about three o'clock in the afternoon, an amusing
incident occurred in the British Museum. It appears
that three young ladies, apparently sisters, and of the
respective ages of from 19 to 22 or 23 years, were passing
along, taking the greatest interest in everything they saw.
At length they chanced to come upon a sleeping Cupid.
There lie lay, with a most delicious dream-smile on his
face ; they gathered round him, and, with the true sym-
pathy of woman, soon began to smile also. " What a sweet
child !" exclaimed one. " What a dear, lovely boy !"
sighed another ; and they grzed and revelled in silent
ecstasy over this embodiment of the sculptor's genius.
But the eldest of the three certainly put the
climax on the whole, for, without any idea of the
possibility of the thing, or the logical sequence of
what she was about to say, she breathed forth, " What a
handsome man he would have made !! !" They all looked
silently at each other, and at the dreaming marble before
them, when, with that touch of nature which is said to
make the whole world kin, they each bent over the sleep-
ing god of Love, kissed him in turn, and went away with
lingering looks behind. Like most other mundane joys,
it had, however, its shadow. A young art student war;
quietly esconced behind a group of statuary sketching
something before him, and perfectly hidden from the sight
of the ladies. When he saw the unusual turn which
affairs had taken, he crouched down, and almost hid him-
self in his boots. Poor fellow, what a Barmeride feast
was his !—Buiklc►-.

STATEMENT OP THE CONVICT

IVII,TSIIIRE

The convict Wiltshire, now that the commutation of
his sentence is secure, has made a long written statement
to the Rev. 11. G. Layton, chaplain of the Gloucester
County Gaol. In it he tells how, after leaving the Public'
house on the Saturday night, he and Milsom found the
woman lying in the mud, and he pulled her hair, and said
he thought he knew her. He accuses Milsom of inciting
him to the first offence, and then brings against him a
much more serious accusation. The two, he says, left her
after the first abuse of her, but returned almost at once
and pulled her about to see if she had any money. During
the operation, he alleges, Ali:so:ifs dog caught hold of
either her clothes or her flesh, and Milsom kicked the dog
aside, and then hitched his fingers in the woman's gown,
and tore it down to her breast. The two lifted her en
the bank, and then, fearing some one was approaching,
went away to the convict's brother's. On the way there,
as Wiltshire alleges, Milsom wiped blood -off his band on
the grass. The most important part of the statement ie
the convict's admission that u hen he left his brother'S
he went back to the woman, as to which there w5O
no evidence at the trial. He says :." I went on down t°
my home, and when I come some way down the lane I
heard something, and thought upon the woman. I went
along about ten yards farther, and I heard it again shout
' Murder r I stopped, and looked about, and went in
through the gate after a bit of hay for my donkey, and
there I saw the woman with her head hanging down inside
the railings, and her bands down. She was lying acre°
the palings on her stomach, with one foot caught by the
shoe in the thorn, and the other foot on the rail, and her
clothes all down over her head. I asked her to get up'
She did not seem to move. I pulled her shoe out of the
thorn, and let her fall over. She cried 'Murder !' three
times, and I went away and left her, and went on to MY
home. He then makes further accusations against
Milsom. Most of the details of his confession are 0°
revolting that they cannot be published. We are told
that he has not denied throughout that the woman
died from suffocation, but that when asked whether be
placed his hand on her mouth he replied that he couldnt
say, and would rather talk about something else. On
Saturday his wife received a letter from him, in which be
says, " I am thankful to the Almighty ithat my life is
to be spared, but am very sorry to think I shall be
parted from you as long as I live. The chaplain tells ree
I am to be sent into penal servitude for life, but I ea/
very thankful I have got this instead of being hung.
Everything was got ready for me to be hung last 11IondnY,
and on Friday I gave up all the world to die, but
I couldn't get my wife off my mind. I cannot tell 3133,
how very thankful I am for my life being spared till Gen
shall see fit to call me." He then says he thinks the
trouble fallen upon him is a punishment for his desertion
of religion.