The Sun.
London, England, 1867-09-24 00:00:00

THE ALTON MURDERER.

A paragraph copied from the Law Times has
been going the round of the press, suggesting that
the young man named James Longhurst recently
executed for the murder of a little girl at Shere, in
Surrey, last year, was innocent, and that in all
likelihood Frederick Baker, now lying in Win-
chester Gacl, charged with the late murder at
Alton, is the real culprit. On examination this
appears to be a mere random supposition based
upon a very imperfect knowledge of the facts con-
nected with the murder at Shere. It is stated by
the writer that the whole of the evidence upon
which Longhurst was executed was slight, and
that his identity was by no means satisfactorily
established. No such belief exists in the locality
which was the scene of the murder. When
the little girl Jane Sex was raised from the
ground by a man named Edsar, the first attracted
to the spot by her cries, she pointed to Longhurst,
who was running away, as the " boy" who had
attacked her. A short time afterwards she again
identified him in the surgery of Mr. Capron, at
Shere, and she identified him for the third time
when her dying deposition was taken at the Royal
Surrey County Hospital. But the facts which
tended to criminate Longhurst did not rest wholly
upon identification. When apprehended there
was blood upon his hands, and also upon a clasp
knife found in his possession. He lay in gaol
some months previous to taking his trial, yet in all
that time he never once attempted to deny the
crime with which he was charged, but made several
remarks which might be interpreted as almost tacit
confessions. When told that his victim was dead
he asked what would be done to him, and upon
being asked, in turn, if he knew what was the usual
punishment for murder, he said he did, and that it
was hanging. Subsequently he told a constable who
had charge of him that he did not think that punish-
ment would be his, because the little girl had lived
so long after the injuries. There can be no doubt as
to his guilt, and none as to his having been a per-
fectly accountable being, although of a low order of
intelligence. On the other hand, nothing but the
accidental similarity of the Alton and the Shere
murders can be found to suggest that Baker was
the murderer in both cases, and this unjustifiable
supposition may be at once dismissed by the uno-
quivocal testimony of numerous persons that on
the day of the Shere murder the present wretched
inmate of Winchester gaol was miles away from
the spot.

LIVERPOOL COTTON 11.1.4RICE7—This Day.

Market opens quietly, prices rather irregular.
Sales probably 10,000 bales.

COURSE OF EXCHANGE,This Evening.

Amsterdam
Short. 11 181 22 1
9k
Ditto 3 Months.l2 Of 12
Rotterdam
Antwerp — 25 40 25 45
Brussels
Hamburg — 13 101 13 10k
Paris Short 25 20 25 25
Ditto 3 Months.2s 35 25 40
Marseilles
Frankfort on the Maine 120(
a Tienn 120 f
12 55 12 60
A Hest° — 12 55 12 60
Potersburgn
Berlin
6 27 6 27k
Madrid — 'B.i 491

Cadiz
Leghorn
Milan -27 45 '27 50
Genoa -27 45 27 50
Naples - 27 45 '27 50
Palermo - 27 45 27 50
Messina

Lisbon 5ll
Oporto blf

PENALTY FOR SELLING DISEASED FRUIT.—On
Saturday Richard Rilott, fruiterer, of Sheffield, WAS
charged with selling throe baskets of plums unfit for food.
The case was proved, and the Mayor inflicted a fine of £lO
and costs.
CONSERVATISM AT COVENTRY.—The Conserva-
tives of Coventry and the neighbourhood intend to dine to-
gether at the Corn Exchange, in that city, on Thursday,
Oct. 24, to celebrate the passing of the Reform Bill, and to
express their approval of the domestic and foreign policy of
Lord Derby's Government. The chair will be taken by the
Right Hon. C. B. Adderley, M.P.—Coventry Standard.
COCKROACHES Y. HEDGEHOGS.—I have tried
hedgehogs to kill beetles; they don't act. A hedgehog
cannot possibly hold above a pint of beetles at a time, and
in my kitchen there aro gallons of them. I once tried the
hedgehog plan at the Deanery, Westminster. The first
night after his arrival the Abbey watchman was frightened
out of his wits—it was the hedgehog. The next nigh;
fast asleep, I felt a cold nose on my face, and then a prickly
thing trying to get into the bed—it was the hedgehog.
The next night the servants came trembling to say there
was a burglar in the dining room, rattling tho plate
—it was the hedgehog. The next night the cook
put some soup away, and in the morning the soup
was gone—the hedgehog was found coiled up
asleep in the tureen. The next night nothing was heard of
the hedgehog, and for weeks we could not tell whore he
was gone; the cook was thankful, and th. crickets sang,
0, be joyful, while the blackbeetles had free run of the
kitchen. " Years rolled on," as the novelists have it, and
a skeleton was discovered in the flue, which had smoked
the whole of the house out for weeks. The hedgehog
again. Thank goodness, I have seen the last of that
wretch, and never wish to have another of his kind on the
premises. Unless, therefore, my friends wish to run the
chance of a hedgehog becoming the same pest to them as
he was to me, they will never introduce them into their
houses. Hedgehogs will only eat a certain number of
beetles, and the betties having good spawning ground be.
hind the kitchen range, breed much faster than the hedge-
hog can eat.—FRANK BUCKLAND, in Land and Water.
SUSPICIOUS CRAFT IN TRALEE 13a7. —Her
Majesty's gunboat Sepoy has arrived in Tralee Bay, and
remains moored off the Samphire Island. Report states
that the Sepoy has been sent down to watch the movements
of a suspicious craft alleged to have been soon hovering
about Kerry Head, and which, it is conjectured, has on
board a large quantity of arms for Fenian purposes.—Cork
Examiner.
CRYSTAL PALACE.--One Shilling Day.—Mon-
day.—Admissions on payment., 3,211; ditto by season
tickets, 795—total visitors, 4,006.
THE EASTERN FISHERIES.—The deliveries of
herrings made at Great Yarmouth during the last few days
have fluctuated greatly; upon the whole, however, they
vhaarvieed sidbeeoennueproanbln a considerable scale.
ccorPricesing to quality have also
having ranged,d,
from £7 to £3O per last (13,200 fish).

ratTERENCE til:LettErs.
London, Chatham, and Dover 5 per cent., 56
North Eastern, York, 11. and Selby purchase, 10

PREFERENCE SNARES AND STOCKS.
London, Brighton. Ac., 4i per cent., 103. h 7
London, Chatham, ac., Metrop. Ext. B, 6 per cent.. 45

LINES LEASED AT FIXED RENTAL-.

Brkenhead,
Ditto, 41 per cent. pf., 100
London and _Madman, 862

FOREIGN RAIL WAYB.
Antwerp-and Rotterdam, 0
-.real. Luxembourg. 10i f
Northern of France, 46Z
Recite and San Francisce, lim., gua. 7 per cent., 10
San Paulo, Inn., gua. 6 per cent., 161 I

FOREIGN MINES.
Auglo-BrazlianGold, 9-16
Chontales Gold and Silver Mining, lien., 5 a
von Pedro. Nur 11 Del Mey, I 15-16 a 2
Port Phillip, 1 3-16
St. John del Hey, llm., 59

DOOKS.
ondon and St. Katharine, 561 7

BANJO:

Agra, Urn., A, 64 4 ; •
Anglo Egyptian, lim., 15
Australasia. 651 6
City, 13
Consolidated, lim., 44
imperial Ottoman, lim., 0 4:RI
London Chartered Ban K of Australia, 24
London and County, 1:41 4 5
Ditto, new, 29
London Joint Stock, 36;1 74
London and Westininster,.6Bj
Ditto, Scrip. 374
National Provincial of England,
Ditto, cd and 3d issue. 391
Oriental Bank Corporation. 434
Union of London, 3711
111.1SCELLANZODIN
Anglo-American Telegraph, lim., 114
Atlantic Telegraph,
DIV°, 8 par :.ent., 721 74
City of Moscow Gas, lim., 14i
City Offices, Ilm., 61
Credit Yonder of England, lim., 3 5-16
Ebbw Vale, 124
Gen. Credit and Discount, lim., 54
II udson's Bay, 15
international Financial Society, Um., 3
Italian Irrigation (Canal Cavouri. 3
Ditto, 6 per cent. Bonds, redem. 1,.,70, issued 90, 4$
London (ieneralOmnibus Company, lim, 24 7-16
Madras Irrigation and Canal (guaranteed4s per cent. by
Indian Government), 1014
Mauritius Land, Credit, and Agency, lim., 14 1
National Discount company, 104 -
Peninsula and Oriental Steam, 49
Royal Mail Steam, 97
Tem,.;raph Construe. and Maintenance, 11m., 17
rust and Loan Company of Upper Canada, i
United Kingdom Telegraph Co., lim., it
Viceroy of Egypt (Mortgage) Loan, 721 3 21

ACCIDENT ON THE MIDLAND RAILWAY.—On
Saturday night Ann Randall, the wife of a collier, was
crossing tho line on the Midland Railway, at Nottingham,
when a train came up, knocked her down, and cut her to
pieces. The deceased's husband, who was with her at the
time, also narrowly escaped injury.