The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-26 00:00:00

WESTMINSTER.

VIOLENT ASSAULT IN A PRlSON.—Margaret Grace
was charged with moulting Mrs, Charlotte Howe,

TERRIFIC GAS EXPLOSION.—Last night, about
10 o'clock, there was a tremendous e,xplosiou of ga
in the dwelling-house of Mr. Samuel French, No
46, Exmouth-street, late Ho'ince-street, Stepney.
['here was au escape of gas in the back parlour,
and Mr. French, instead of carefully opl-
ing all the doors and windows, went int(
the apartment with a lighted candle. A loud
report followed, the front door was blown
off the hinges into the street, nearly every pane of
glass in the window smashed, a panel of the shutter
covering the front window shatterei, and the
back of the house blown out. Mr. French,
who is upwards of 60 years of age, was
seriously injured by the explosion, and
his face and head were scorched. Great fears are
entertained that the calamity will prove fatal. He
is a most respectable and worthy man, and has been
in the service of Gusler and Co., the wine mer-
chants in Fenchurch-street, for 35 years.

BILLIARDS AND CHESS.—It is somewhat humili-
ating to reflect that eminence cannot ba attained, even in
the art of knocking about three ivory balls with a stick,
without the devotion of a lifetime. It is the more humi-
liating when we consider that in the prosecution of this
art not the slightest mental effort is required. Neither
chess nor whist can be played, even moderately well, by
an arrant fool ; but a billiard-table will be found in every
well-conducted lunatic asylum in the kingdom. Billiards
require a well-strung and well-disciplined condition of
body, so that between hand and eye the most perfect
sympathy may exist. Chess is a contest of brains ; HI-
Herds, of steady nerves and correct eyesight. Chess is a
great mental, billiards a great manual, effort.—Saturday
Review.

RARE CAITHNESS BIRDS.—The John O'Groat
Journal describes a unipte collection of Caithness birds to
be seen at present in the office of that paper. The speci-
mens are ten in number, forming eight species (there
being a male and female of two of the species), and belong
altogether to the insectivorous order of birds. First in
interest are a pair of pied flycatchers, migrants from
African to British shores, and so rare even in
the more congenial climate of England, that the Rev.
F. O. Morris says concerning them—" Like the majority
c,f ornithologists, I have never seen this species alive."
Thera is also a specimen of the spotted flycatcher, a
female, which was shot in a garden in Wick, on the 15th
of May last. Only a few specimens of the cola tit (Parser
ater) have as yet occurred in the county, and the indi-
vidual here shown is the first recorded example. A pair of
common redstarts, male and female, aro here shown; but
the former has not acquired the full adult plumage, the
colours being less brilliant than those exhibited by the
adult male in his nuptial dress. There is a fine example
of that curious little bird, the tree creeper, and another of
the whinchat, a bird closely.allied to the wheatear, a nu-
merous and well-known Caithness species. An extremely
rare bird in these northern parts is the tree pipitt shown
here, whose song is described as possessing considerable
"compass, variety, and sweetness." Last, but not the least
lively and graceful, is a specimen of the willow warbler,
one of a family of birds but little known in this, for the
most part, treeless county.
THE POACHER.—We may picture him to our-
selves, if we like, lurking in sequestered den—half cave,
half cottage—built into the hillside, and protected by a
spreading oak, and there will be no one to disturb our
vision. We may imagine him a good sportman, a self-taught
naturalist, sober, and, in his own eyes at leas', honest and
industrious. Last, but not least, let him stand 6 feet high,
be a model of strength and activity, with a frank, bold
countenance, a merry blue eye, extremely white teeth, and a
smile that would subdue a duchess. Our fancy may paint
him as we like, and nobody, we repeat, can contradict us.
Thetis a poacher of the golden age, before modern preserves,
modern battues, or percussion caps weere invented. But
as we do not believe in the "starving peasant" theory of
poaching, still less do we believe in that romantic and pic-
turesque ideal which modern novelists do still occasionally
present to us. The poacher of the old school, if he ever
existed, with his Allan-a-Dale swagger and Robin Hood-
like generosity, is as extinct as Dick Turpiu. To him has
succeeded_the poacher of the iron age; member of a ruf-
fianly gang, whose business is to fill the dealers' shops in
town and country, and to get drunk on the proceede. These
gangs vary in number and daring, from the to -sawyers of
London down to the provincial artists,who are shoemakers
or ratcatchers by day, and poachers only by tight. The
cream of the profession, we fancy, sully not their hands
by any meaner occupation, not at least during the days of
their glory—" in the season of the year." These men,
making some large town or village in a good game coun-
try, or perhaps London itself, their headquarters, carry
on operations in a systematic and wholesale fashion.
They have their spies and undeilings in the neighbour-
hood of all the large preserves, from whom they receive
accurate information as to the quantity of game, the
likeliest covers, the movements of the keepers and the
character of the local police. In fact, their precautions
and their organisation are exactly the same as those
of any regular gang of housebreakers,—•Cornhiel Ma-
gazine.

" Now,, it is singular that the Viceroy should all
of a sudden be seized with a desire to afford protec-
tian to Abyssinian refugees, and to facilitate the
pilgrimage of Abyssinian Christians to Jerusalem.
One cannot be sure, but I cannot help thinking that
Ismail Pasha is playing his cards for cutting into
the north provinces of Abyssinia the first day he
finds the road open. Observe, between Matamma
and Massowah the territory is undqr Tirsoa Gobasie;
then Hallman is just above Massowah, and a
good place to reside in ; and the two guests lately
arrive•l at Cairo are intimately connected with
those districts, the one having relations with Go-
bazie, and the other with Mato, with whom, as
is reported, he has been Theodore's agent for
several years. The Viceroy is said to be nervous
about our proceedings in Abyssinia, and will be
delighted to hear that Lord S:atiley has empha-
tically announced that we shall not retain any por-
don.of the country, or stay a moment longer than
is necessary to obtain a release of the prisoners.
Our presence there would prevent that of the Vice-
roy's troops, and put a stop for ever to slavery. A
very shrewd native here, who knows the Soudan
well, remarked to me that if the English remained
iu Abyssinia the Pasha would be driven away by the
inhabitants. About a week ago the Viceroy wrote,
under his own seal, a very pressing letter to Theo-
dore, urging him to give up the prisoners, otherwise
he would have his country taken away from him
by the English, and as the English were a very
powerful nation, he (the Viceroy) might be com-
pelled to join them. The Coptic Patriarch has also
been ordered to write to Theodore, and the Arme-
nian Archbishop of Jerusalem—the prelate men-
tioned in the Blue Book—has likewise had to try
his hand. The former is stated to have represented
to Theodore the degradation to which the Abyssi-
nian Church would be subjected under the English
who would leave it no freer than the Coptic Church
is in Cairo. All this to try and get us out of the
way of his Highness, who dreads our presence near
the Soudan. The letters will be withou t effect.
There is no one Theodore distrusts more than the
Egyptian Viceroy."