The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-31 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON. TUESDAV EVENING, DECEMBER 31, 1887.

POLICE I NTELLIGENCE.—This Day.

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.

MURDEROUS ATTACK ON A CONSTABLE.—Thomas
Hamilton, a chairmaker, residing at No. IA, Upper
Rathbone-place, was charged before Mr. Tyrwhitt
with being disorderly and violently assaulting Police-
constable Walter Grigsby, 66 E, by striking him
on the head with a katchet.

Grigsby said—About 3 o'clock this Morning I
was on duty in Upper Rathbone-place and saw the
prisoner standing at his door abusing his wife, who
was in the street. The wife said she had been in
the street all night, and was afraid to go in doors.
She asked me if I would protect her, and I said I
would. I spoke to the prisoner, and tried to get
them to go in together. The prisoner went in
doors, and again came out into the street, and
began again making use of very bad language. I
told him that I should lock him up, and went up to
him to take him into custody, when I received a
blow from a hatchet which came on the brim of my
helmet and cut it through, and cut my forehead
just over the left temple. He then dropped the hatchet
and ran away through the passage into the yard. I
then broke the door open and pulled him out and
took him to the station and had my head dressed.
Mr. Tyrwhitt—Did he say anything to you ?
Grigsby—He was offended with me for interfer-
fering with him, and said he would kill his wife if
he was hanged for it. Had it not been for the
hatchet taking a slanting direction I should have
been seriously injured.
Alexander Sim, of Frances-street, Tottenham-
court-road, said—l was returning home this morn-
ing from a ball, when I heard a disturbance
in Upper Rathbone-place. The prisoner was
using bad language towards his wife from the first-
floor window. The prisoner then came down to
the door and went in again, and came to the door
a second time, and struck at the constable with
something, but I cannot say what with, saying
something at the same time, but I was not near
enough to hear what. The prisoner's wife was in
the street at the time. The constable told me that
the prisoner bad struck him with a hatchet, and
the constable had blood running down his face. I
afterwards saw the hatchet in the constable's hand.

Thomas Austin, residing in the same house, said,
I live in the same house as the prisoner. Some
persons in the house told me that they had heard
the prisoner say that he would have his wife's life
if he was hanged for it. The prisoner made a great
disturbance, and my wife was confined while it was
going on. My wife's nurse heard the prisoner
threaten to kill his wife. I saw nothing of the
assault, but thought it to be my duty to come for-
ward and state what I have done.

Mr. Tyrwbitt—You have done quite right.

Mr. Charles P. Skrimshere, assistant to Dr. Ross,
1, Hart-street, Bloomsbury, the medical officer of
the E division of Police, said—l was called this
morning to the police station to see the constable,
and found he had a wound two inches iu length on
the left temple, and it was such a wound as might
have been inflicted with the hatchet produced. I
attended to the wound, which was not a very deep

one.
Mr. Tyrwhitt—Do you, prisoner, wish to say
anything ? You can do so or not, just as you
please, but what you say will be taken down and
may be used in evidence against you.
Prisoner—Thepoliceman hit me first, and knocked
me down twice before I struck him.
Mr. Tyrwhitt —Did you do so?
Grigsby—No, sir. I knocked him down after he
struck me.
Committed for trial.

RAIL TVA Y INTELLIGENCE.

MEXICAN (LIMITED).

The fifth ordinary general meeting of this com-
pany was held yesterday at the offices, New Broad-
street ; Mr. R. W. Crawford, M.P., in the chair.
Mr. \V. Roscoe, the secretary, having read the
notice convening the meeting, the report, an ab-
stract of which appeared in The Sun, was taken as
read.

The CllairtmaN, in moving the adoption of the
report, said that the proceedings taken by the board
in respect of the concession were related in the re-
port, and the result could not be considered unsatis-
factory. Ile had just received a copy of the con-
cession granted to the company by the Government
of Mexico. It was inLSpanish, and he had not had
time to go through it carefully, but on glancing over
it he thought it more favourable to the company
than the original concession. During the greater
part of the time, from March to June inclusive, the
cities of Mexico and Vera Cruz were in a state of siege,
and the line itself was in the hands of national forces.
The company had not been subjected to any unfair
obstruction from those forces. The special powers
forwarded to Mr. E. Barron, the company's resident
director in Mexico, authorising him to make arrange-
ments with the Government, did not arrive in Mexico
until after the decease of that lamented gentleman.
But the principal points had been fully discussed by
Mr. Barron with the members of the Mexican Go-
vernment prior to his illness ; and it only remained
for Mr. Kirkpatrick, the agent of the company, to
give formal effect to the conclusions arrived at on
the part of the company and the Government. Mr.
Crawley, the contractor, had also rendered great
assistance. It was gratifying for the proprietors to
know that the concession recently granted was in
every respect superior to that granted by Maximi-
lian. The Government considered all the arrange-
ments under the Empire as of no effect, and started
from the concession granted in 1861, having amended
it in several particulars to the advantage of the
railway company, and they amended it in very few
instances against their advantage. (Hear, hear.)
They would see that the traffic on the line be-
tween Mexico and Apixaco from January to June
had produced them, or they had been allowed,
£7,068 for the use of the line. The traffic for the
month of July, when peace was restored, amounted
to £7,734, for August to £9,933, and for the month
of September to £7,625. At the other end of the
line, from Vera Cruz to Paso del Macho, from March
to the end of June they had no control over this
portion of the line, as it was occupied by the
military forces. Neither had they over the line
from Apixaco to Mexico, and he thought they were
fortunate to get £7,000 for working the latter up
to July last. The receipts he had just mentioned
were entirely for local traffic and averaged from
£2O to £26 per mile per week. The population of
Apixaco was 100,000, and of Mexico about
500,000. The population was considered wealthy,
and the people were in the habit of expending
money. Large supplies of food were brought by
the railway to Mexico and Apixaco, so that they
had a good local traffic. The section of the line at
Vera Cruz depended on foreign traffic, and there-
fore he did not suppose it produced much while
occupied by the military, although in the month of
January it had a traffic of £6O per mile per week,
in February of £55 per mile per week, and in the
first week in March £59 per mile for the week.
They were not in a position to recommend any
particular policy at present. The traffic did not
indicate what the receipts would have been under
more favourable circumstances. He thought
their policy should be to extend the line from
Vera Cruz into the interior, and also from
Apixaco towards Del Macho. The present difficulty
was as to obtaining the means to carry out the un-
dertaking, and from their improved position under
the new concession, he thought they could give very
adequate security for what they required, but he
did not wish to discuss that mater at present. The
directors would as soon as possible consider the
whole question, and, when matured, would take the
opinion of the shareholders at a special meeting to
be convened for the purpose, and which would be
held at no distant period. They had pressed share-
holders for calls in arrear, and found that some could
pay and others could not, but they had received
between £6,000 and £7,000 on that account during
the year. He thought the great advantages of the
new concession and the fair prospects before them
would induce those in arrear to pay up, and enable
them to raise the requisite capital.
In reply to Mr. Moxon, it was stated that the calls
in arrear amounted to £68,073, exclusive of 4,000
shares that had been cancelled. The Government
of Mexico were to pay them $420,000, being the
interest of $6,000,000 of bonds granted to the com-
pany. The Imperial Government had paid them up
to June on that account $900,000. The present
Government had extended the concession for 25
years further. The original concession was for 25
years, and the Government renewed it. The com-
pany were in receipt of 15 per cent. of certain duties
which they were allowed in a very direct way,
which would be found to work well. There would
be no objection to print the concession and circulate
it among the shareholders. Part of the calls in ar..
rear were due in Mexico.

A SHAREHOLDER thought the time bad come when
those in arrear should be pressed to pay up the calls
due.

The report was unanimously adopted, and the
proceedings terminated.

NAVAL AND MILITARY INTELLIGENCE.

VALETTA, Dec. 24.—The departure of the French
steamer Gyptis enables me to announce the arrival
yesterday at 2 p.m. of her Majesty's ironclad frigate
Lord Clyde, 23 guns, Capt. Roderick Dew, C. 8.,
from Lisbon 16 days, and Gibraltar six. She
brought as passenger Capt. Graham Ogle, R.N.
The Lord 'Warden arrived at Gibraltar from Lisbon
on the 16th inst., on her way to Malta. Her Ma-
jesty's Indian troopship Serapis, Captain J. C.
Soady, arrived this morning with troops from Ports-
mouth, which place she left on the 14th inst., on
her way to Alexandria. She is not to leave till Fri-
day, to let the men pass Christmas in port. Her
Majesty's screw gunboat Trinculo, 1, Lieut.-Com.
V. do Sanders, arrived to-day from Patras, for the
purpose of refitting. The English screw steamer
Hawk, Capt. Halpin, returned to-day from Sicily,
where she has been engaged repairing the electric
telegraph cable connecting that island with the
Italian peninsula. The weather up to yesterday
has been very severe in the Malta Channel and this
part of the Mediterranean. The French brig Trois,
Jean Baptiste, which left Oran for Girgeute in bal-
last, foundered at 3 p.m. ou the Bth inst., about 110
miles distant from Zante. Her master, Captain
Jacomin, and the crew, seven in number, arrived
here on the 22d inst. iu the Italian bark Italia.

Her Majesty's Indian troopship Serapis arrived
at Alexandria on the 28th inst. with the Bth Bri-
gade Royal Artillery, and other troops destined to
proceed from Suez to Bombay in the Euphrates.
It was yesterday announced at Chatham that Mr.
E. J. Reed, Chief Constructor of the Navy, who
recently met with the severe railway accident in
France, has so far recovered as to be able to resume
his duties at the Admiralty, the official documents
received at the dockyard yesterday from his depart-
ment being signed by him.

At half-past 4 yesterday afternoon the Lords of
the Admiralty telegraphed to the Port-Admiral at
Plymouth orders for the embarkation to-day, at 9
a.m., of a detachment of Royal Marines on board
the troopship Himalaya, 2, Capt. Shute B. Piers,
which has been several days lying in the Sound
ready for sea. The detachment consists of Capts.
Spratt, Leslie, Farmar, and -West ; Lieuts. Stevens,
L. P. Smith, A. B. Liardet, Luxmoore, E. A. M.
Liardet, and Seager ; 12 sergeants, 12 corporals,
and 392 privates.

The Dauae, 6, screw corvette, 300 horse power,
Captain Sir Malcolm M'Gregor, left Spithead yes-
terday morning at daybreak for the Channel. On
her return to Spithead she is ordered to make two
more trials of her speed over the measured mile in
Stoke's Bay, each trial being made under fixed con-
ditions of trim.

Iler Majesty's paddle yacht Osborne, Commander
John D'Arcy, dismantling and clearing out at Ports-
mouth preparatory to undergoing a course of
thorough repairs, will be paid out of commission on
Thursday next. Mr. _Henry D. Sarratt, her master,
is appointed master of the Megwra, screw troopship,
commissioned at Woolwich by Staff-Commander
Jabez Loane.

The appointment of assistant-master shipwright
at Portsmouth dockyard, vacant by the retirement,
on superannuation, of Mr. W. H. Brain, has been
conferred by the Admiralty on Mr. Morgan, one of
the foremen of Chatham dockyard, who is employed
on special duty at the Admiralty, during which the
duties of assistant-master shipwright at Portsmouth
will be discharged by Mr. Owen, foreman at Chat-
ham dockyard.
By direction of the Duke of Cambridge, the
following officers of Royal Engineers have been
struck off the strength of the Royal Engineer esta-
blishment, Chatham, for special service—viz.,
Lieut. S. L. Jacob, Lieut. C. F. C. Beresford, and
Lieut. Napoleon Arnott. Capt. A. Parnell has been
appointed to the command of the 40th depot com-
pany of Royal Engineers, at head-quarters,
Brompton barracks, Chatham.

By airection of Major-General F. Murray, the
military guard on duty within Chatham dockyard
has been augmented, and the troops retained within
the establishment the whole of the night, instead of
leaving the dockyard at sunset, as has hitherto been
the practice. At the Chatham convict prison, St.
Mary's, the military convict guard remains on duty
the whole night, and additional sentries have been
posted around the prison walls. Colonel E. Y. W.
Henderson, the Inspector-General of Prisons, has
been engaged on a special visit of inspection at the
Chatham convict establishment for several days,
for the purpose of ascertaining that every precau-
tionary measure is adopted for the safe custody of
the large number of convicts confined within the
Chatham. Prison. Within the last few days a
strong military guard has been posted within Fort
Amherst, at Chatham, and the guardhouse re-
moved within the fort, for the protection of the
stores of Snider cartridges and other small arm
ammunition stared in the magazines at the fort, a
line of sentries communicating from the heights on
which the magazine is built with the garrison both
by day and night.
The military guard at Hampton Court, as was
expected, has been increased at the Royal Palace.
.A. full company of the 56th Foot has arrived from
Portland, and has taken up its quarters there. The
detachment of the Hussars, supplied from the head-
quarters at Hounslow, was not sufficiently strong
in numbers to provide the number of sentries re-
quired, so the infantry have come to help. The
cavalry keep to their old posts, the 56th doing
extra duty. The " specials," whose employment we
noticed last week, are still kept on the men are
all armed with a stout cudgel at night, and are
changed every two hours. The day watching is
principally left to the civilians, but at night sen-
tries are placed all round the Royal Palace, and in
all the approaches. After dark no one is allowed
to pass without giving the sign, and if not known,
is not allowed to proceed without a guard with him.
Even in Frog-walk, facing the green, passengers
are challenged, and have to come forward to the
light so that they may be seen. That part of the
Palace which faces the river is most carefully
guarded, and heavy iron gratings have been placed
over the mouths of the sewer. The watchmen and
sentries are so arranged that there is a complete
cordon round the whole place, and no one is left
unsupported.

Precautions are still taken by the military autho-
rities at Woolwich to provide against the threatened
attack of the Fenians on the Government estab-
lishments. The garrison orders issued last night
directed the reinforcement in the Royal Arsenal of
the guard stationed during the day, in command of
Lieut. Le Breton, Royal Marine Light Infantry, to
post sentries along the gun-wharfs and the outlying
positions adjoining the open marsh, in conjunction
with the police, who do duty in couples. Precau-
tions, as on former nights in the latter portion of
the week, are also to be observed in the barracks,
where detachments of the mounted batteries of
Royal Artillery are equipped for immediate service.
A demand was made at the dockyard police station
during the night of Sunday for hasty assistance to
the police at Erith, as rumours of an intended
attack on the powder magazine there bad been
conveyed to the officials of that establishment. The
constables of Woolwich dockyard relieved from
their day's duty were aroused from their beds, and
were despatched to meet the emergency ; but no-
thing occurred to demand their aid. On Satufday
Col. Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson, General Arbuckle,
Captain Robertson, county magistrates, and Com-
modore Edmonstone, in his capacity of Superin-
tendent of the Dockyard, assembled in the official
department of the yard, and administered oaths
to upwards of 3,000 of the artificers and la.
bourers of the establishment, who were sworn
in as special constables for the preservation
of the peace. The men, whose names had previously
been registered for that purpose, mustered on the
parade in groups of 50 each, in charge of officers
appointed, and took the necessary oaths. The num-
bers sworn in were as follows-1,600 from the
shipwrights' department, and about the same num-
ber from the smitheries and factory. The proceed-
ings commenced shortly after ten, and terminated
at half-past two, when the men were released from
further work for the day, with Admiralty sanction,
and on leaving the dockyard they gave three rounds
of lusty cheers.

A detachment of the Scots Fusilier Guards ar-

rived at Portsmouth yesterday by the first morning
train from London, and proceeded to Cowes, to join
the detachment now on duty at Osborne. The total
strength of the detachment at Osborne is now up-
wards of 180 of all ranks.

It was announced at the headquarters of the
Royal Engineer estAblishment, Chatham, on Satur-
day, that all leave to officers and passes and fur-
loughs to the non-commissioned officers and men are
stopped, the whole of the officers and men being re-
quired to be on duty in case of their services being
suddenly wanted.
The following appointments have been made at
the Admiralty :—Lieuts. G. W. Hand, Archibald
L. Douglas, and Lynedock L. Moncrieff, to the
Excellent, for study ; Lieut. A. P. Black, to the
Simoom ; Sub-Lieuts. Hugh G. Gough and C. S.
Donner, to the Achilles; D. L. Dickson and C.
Sherard, midshipmen, to the Achilles ; Edwin 11.
Richard, midshipman, to the Dee ; David Duncan,
surg., additional, to the Achilles ; David B. Thomas,
assist.-surg., to the naval hospital at Bermuda ;
Navigating-Lieut.W. J. Cunningham to the Indus,
additional, for the Liverpool ; Wm. Crawford, sur-
geon, to the Revenge ; 'William Miller, engineer, to
the Indus, for the Flirt; John G. Cox, engineer,
to the Indus, for the Fly ; and Thomas Ponton,
first-class assistant-engineer, to the Dauntless, for
tenders.