The Sun.
London, England, 1869-04-17 00:00:00

MURDER OF A FAMILY.

The New York Tribune publishes the details of a tragedy
which has just occurred at Philadelphia. For about a
year past Mr. James L. Blackstone, gilder, has resided at
No. 815, Judson-street. His family consisted of his wife,
Isabella E. Blackstone, and two children, one a boy,
named Lee, aged 8 years, and the other a girl, named
Catherine, aged between 3 and 4 years. On the 30th
ult., a gentleman, named Funston, received a telegraph,
despatch reading as follows :—" Madison, Conn., March
30, 1869. —Have received a letter from James that wife
and children are killed. Telegraph answer immediately.
—SELAH LEE." Mr. Funston, with a friend, started for
the house of Mr. Blackstone. He found the doors
securely fastened and the windows closed. He then
went to a police-station and returned with a police-
man, who entered the house with him, when they dis-
covered the bodies of Mrs. Blackstone and her two little
girls. The mother had apparently been felled to the
floor by a blow from an axe while kindling a fire in the
kitchen, before breakfast, last Monday morning. The
murderer struck her twice with the sharp edge of the axe.
The children, it is supposed, were upstairs while their
mother was butchered, and were carried down one at a
tine. The murderer tried to evade a too hasty dis-
cJvery. The current of blood was running towards
the kitchen door. Fearful that it might course through
under the door, he rolled up a white tablecloth and
laid it across the floor, so that the blood tide would be
stopped. Then, going to the sink, he took a small rag,
and, with the aid of water, cleansed his hands of their
stains. He left the scene of his fiendish butchery,
and passed out of the front door, which he closed, and
walked down the street. Stepping on the edge of the
wharf, before a hand could be given to his rescue, he
plunged into the water and was drowned. It isbelieved that
the sole cause of the murder was insanity. He was tem-
perate, moral, and a strict Church member.

A REPRIEVE.—it is said that James Macdonald,
who is lying under sentence of death at Chester, for th-
murder of James Nalley, has been reprieved.
Her Majesty has promised to depute one of the
Royal Family to lay the corner-stone of a new parish
church at Ryde, if arrangements can be made for the cere-
mony to take place during the residence of her Majesty
in the Isle of Wight.

An American editor closes his leader in this
unhappy strain :—" The sheriff's officer is waiting for us
in the other room, so we have no opportunity to be
pathetic ; we are wanted, and must go. Delinquent sub-
scribers—you have much to answer for. Heaven may
forgive you, but we never can."
At the Birmingham borough sessions on Thursday
Charles and Alfred Warren, jewellers, were found guilty of
forging the die of the Guardians of Wrought Plate in Bir-
mingham. The prisoners had been in business for a num-
ber of years, latterly in Caroline-street. They were sen-
tenced to 18 months' imprisonment, with hard labour.
The Tablet regrets to say that Mgr. Talbot'.
malady has taken so violent and aggravated a form that it
has been found necessary to place him under treatment at
Pesaro. He was visited a few days ago by one of the Pre-
lates near the Pope's person, and he found him somewhat
improved.
The Judge of the Sheffield County Court gave
judgment on Thursday in the case of Mr. Plimsoll, M.P.,
and his coachman. The latter claimed £4 11s. for
wrongful dismissal, and Mr. Plimsoll pleaded that
the coachman had treated him with rudeness in the
public streets when he told him not to drive so fast. As
the plaintiff had put himself in the way by refusing to obey
the order of his master, judgment would be for the defendant,
but each party must pay his own costs.

QUARRELS OP PARIS JOURNALISTS.—Some time
ago M. Emile de Girardin, of the Paris Liberte, killed M.
Armand Carrel, another journalist, in a duel, and
has never fought since, though repeatedly challenged. A
violent quarrel is now raging between the Liberte and the
Siecle. M. Anatole de la Forge, of the latter paper, asks
M. de Girardin whether he intends always to shelter him-
self behind the pretext of Armand Carrel's death, in order
never to give satisfaction sword in hand to honest men
insulted in his journal. M. de la Forge thinks he has a right
to claim satisfaction. M. de Girardin replies in a manner
which will place the laughers on his side. He says he cannot
see that bullet and sword prove anything, but he proposes
to meet his adversary with pen, ink, and paper, and
seconds who will decide who gets the worst of the
battle. Such is the proverbial facility with which M.
Emile de Girardin pours forth ream after ream that it is
very unlikely the challenge will be accepted. In the
Liberty of Thursday evening no less than fiye articled g
ldneejaile_49SairAdilh.".ads