The Sun.
London, England, 1867-01-01 00:00:00

THAMES.

A REFRACTORY PAUPER.—SEDUCTION AND ITS CONSE-
QUENCES.—Margaret ll'Taggert, a young Scotch, with an
infant in her arms, was brought before Mr. Partridge
charged with violently assaulting Mary Groary.
Both woman have been for some time inmates of the
Stepney Union-house at Bromley, Middlesex. The com-
plainant was described by Mr. Parker, the master of the
house, as a well conducted person, the prisoner was the
reverse, and had violated all the rules and regulations of
the establishment, was continually quarrelling with the
inmates, and doing acts subversive of good order and dis-
cipline. Mr. Parker's statement was certified by one of
the nurses, who said the prisoner was a bad tempered
young woman and continually quarrelling with
the other females. She would not do her work
properly. It appeitred from the evidenceof Geary that the
prisoner bad quarrelled with her about. her eleansing, and
threatened her. Yesterday the prisoner struck her with a
pannikin, and threatened to split her with a pannikin. Mr
Partridge asked the master if the other inmates provoked.
the prisoner. Mr. Parker believed not. The prisoner was
a very ill-tempered morose woman, and quarrelled with any
one on the most frivolous pretences. The other women
did taunt her occasionally, when she insulted them, with
being the mother of two bastards. The prisoner's history
was a singular one. She was the daughter of a respectable
and enterprising Scotch farmer, settled in the Cape Colony,
and he sent her to Glasgow to assist her aunt,
and to finish her education in Scotland. On the voyage
she was seduced by the captain of the ship, a Scotchman,
and became pregnant. She was delivered of a chiid in
Glasgow, and her aunt sent her back to the *pa in the
same ship that brought her here. The intimacy with the
captain was renewed, and she became enciente a second
time, and gave birth to the child she was now carrying.
She found her way to this country again, settled for three
weeks in the dwelling of her seducer, who was a married
man. Quarrels took place between the captain's wife and
her rival, and the prisoner was turned out of the house and
found her way to the Union, whore she had since re-
mained.
The prisoner, in defence, said the complainant calledher
names.

Mr. Partridge said the prisoner had behaved in a very
refractory and violent manner, and sentenced her to one
month's imprisonment and hard labour for the assault on
Greatly.

:AIME TS. --This day.

SafrrwprEtro.—HAY.
ow hay, £3 Os to £4 4s ; clover,
£4 Os to £5 158 Odad ; and strawlas to 12 4s per load.
Trade quiet. , £1
CumnEßLAirr).llleadow hay. £3 Os to £4 4s Od; clover,
£4 Os to 15 15s ; and straw, £1 18s to 12 5s per load.
Demand inactive.
WHITECHAPEL—Meadow hay, £3 Os to £4 48 ; clover,
£4 Os to £5 15s Od ; and straw, £1 lOs to £2 4s per load.
Trade heavy.

COLONIAL.
The foreign and colonial produce markets are closed for
the Christmas holidays, but business will be resumed to-
morrow the 2d inst.
TALLOW.—There has not been much business doing in
the tallow
mark
the et during the past week, but prices have
instances been
been rath on advance, 45s baying in one or two
paid to clear outstanding contracts for the
month. The demand from the trade has b.en small, as
is usual at this period of the year. At St. Petersburg a
few hundred casks have changed hands for A livery at 50f silver roubles ; the Exchange ugust de-
was 311
15-16ths. To-day the market is steady, with,
rather more tallow offering ; 44s 9d is the price atwhich
contracts have been closed for the month ; 44s 9d is de-
manded for January to March; 45s 3d April to June ; and
45s 9d October to December. On the spot new Y.O. is
sold at 455. ; old at 445. 6d. South American town tal-
low fetches 43s 9d nett cash (for March only 455. 3d
for Y.C.

A CAB SET ON FlRE.—Yesterday morning a cab-
man, after setting down his fare at Kennington- road, dis-
covered the cushions and linings of the cab to be on fire,
and before it could be extinguished the sides and roof of
the cab were burnt off.
THE BOROUGII OF ARMAGII.—The representation
of Armagh will be vacant in a few days on the appoint-
ment of Mr. Miller to be judge of the Court of Bankruptcy.
Mr. Vance will, we believe, be ieturned without opposi-
tion.—Dublin Evening Mail.
THE SENSITIVE PLANT.—In a letter of Dr. Siger-
son's to the Athenzum, he states that the folioles of
the Sensitive Plant were touched by him with a non-con-
ductor, and exhibited no movement. The sensitive plant
is a common weed here, and is at present, as in his expe-
riments, in flower. I touched it with glass, sealing wax,
iron, and the hand, and in all cases found the usual move-
ment, which also took place when the plant was gently
blown on with the breath. No such difference as, on Any
electrical hypothesis, we should expect, existed between
the sensitiveness of the ends and middles of the
folioles. Another fact about the sensitive plant,
which the electrical theory does not explain, is
the closing of the leaves at night. Perhaps the
more hopeful question would be not " why do they shut ?'
but " why do they open ?" And I may be permitted to
guess that the solar rays in the morning, or the solar dif-
fused light, throws th©
moleles of the folioles into some
new condition, the curesult of which is theiring.,
that such a molecular condition is destroyed bye the v and
ibra-
tion caused by touch. What this molecular condition is
Perhaps we shall never know, or, if ever, through micro-
scopic analysis. Dr. Sigerson's observation, that children
affect the sensitive plant more than adults, I confirmed by
comparing the effects of my own touch with that of a child
of seven years' old, who affected the plant more Powerfully
than I could do.—W. E. HAMILTON.— Greytown, Nicaragua,
Nov. 15, 180.
Mr. CHARLES DICKENS will give a public reading
of " Barbox Brothers, and " The Boy at Mugby," at Leeds,
in the course of a week or two.

The Exaniiner, we are interested to remark, on
announcing that its index for 1866 will be given with the
number for the 12th of January, 1867, takes occasion to
add that after this week more room will be made for cur-
rent criticism on books, plays, music, and pictures, by a
change or two in the plan of its news columns.