The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-11 00:00:00

MADRAS.

The traffic receipts on this company's lines, 611
miles in aggregate length, amounted for the week
ending the 11th of November to £10,613, against
£7,452 on 571 miles, showing an increase of 40
miles, or 7 per cent. in the mileage, and £3,161, or
42 per cent., in the receipts.

Murder in Staffordshire.

ECCLESIIALL, Wednesday.

Yet another murder has taken place in the county
of Stafford, and the offence was being committed
within ten miles of the gaol of that county, and
within a few hours of the time at which Robinson
was hanged on Tuesday.
In this case the victim is not a young girl, but a
powerful excavator, aged between 40 and 50, and
named John Poole. During the afternoon of Mon-
day he was in a publichouse in this town, which is
about seven miles from Stafford, when a slender
young man, named George Bentley, aged 27, came
in and asked the landlady to give him some beer
She said she had no common beer ; but Poole, who
was present and drinking ale, asked Bentley to sit
and drink with him. Bentley did so. Almost
immediately after he left Bentley came to the smithy,
ascertained which way he had gone, and followed
him. On the same night Bentley was found with
plenty of money in his possession, treating people in
publichouses, and buying a new white slop. It
then occurred to an ex-police-sergeant named Robin-
son that he was a deserter, and on that charge he
arrested him. At 8 the next morning Poole was
found with his skull smashed in, but still alive, on a
lonely part of the road leading from Eccleshall to
Offiey-brook, and about three miles from Eccles-
hall. His waistcoat had been cut from his body
and his boots taken off. In this condition he had
been lying all night, the snow falling and freezing
upon him. Enough life was left to make him kick
with one leg until he had with his heel worn a hole
in the road. Suspicion fell upon Bentley, who was
found to be wearing the boots and the waistcoat.
The latter was cut down the sides, showing that it
was taken from the body without removing the
jacket which was worn over it. Afterwards the
slop which Bentley was wearing when he called at
the blacksmith's shop was found in a brook about
one field off from Poole's body, and it had blood
upon it. By the side of the murdered man, who
died this afternoon, the handkerchief of which also
Bentley was wearing round his neck in the after-
noon was found, having a great stone in it, tied
tightly, so as to form a formidable weapon. There
was blood upon the handkerchief, and there is no
doubt .that with the stone so tied up the deceased
was murdered.

This afternoon at about 4 o'clock the prisoner was
brought up on the charge of having murdered Poole,
and was examined by Mr. Lyons, magistrate.

Richard Dodd, blacksmith, Offiey-brook, deposed
—Yesterday morning, in consequence of informa-
tion I received, I went to the coppice, which is
between Miley-brook and the Walk-mill. There
I saw John Poole, the murdered man. He was
lying about half-way along the coppice, on the cop-
pice side. There is a space of turf and a bank be-
tween the roadside and the coppice, with a bank
nearest to the coppice. Deceased's head rested to-
wards the bank, and his feet were towards the road.
His face was all over blood and his jacket. He
was alive, for I could see that he moved one of
his feet. I did not lay hold of him. I saw a
handkerchief close against his side, and a hat
about a yard and a half from him. The hat was
not damaged. The handkerchief was a red one,
with light coloured spots upon it. (Police-constable
Clutton here produced a cotton handkerchief, and
in it a stone weighing 21b. 50z.) I went and fetched
Samuel Turner, Henry Birch, and Richard Hill.
When we came back I picked up the handkerchief
produced with the stone in it. The handkerchief and
the stone produced are the same I saw by the de-
ceased's side. The stone was tied in the handkerchief.
We lifted him up and carried him about ten yards.
He could only move one leg a little, and was insen-
sible. He had no waistcoat on, nor had he any boots
on; but he was wearing his jacket, which was agood
one, made of moleskin. I saw him on the previous
night, and excepting having his waistcoat and boots
off he was dressed as then. We puthim into a wheel-
barrow, and took him to an empty house belonging
to Samuel Turner. He had four wounds on his head,
and both eyes were closed up. One of them was as
black as a coal. I had seen the prisoner the day be-
fore, but never previously. Soon after 4 o'clock in
the afternoon he came into my shop and said, " Which
way is Old Jack gone?" meaning, I suppose, the
deceased, who had just before been in my shop. I
pointed down the road and he went another way,
saying he would be back in a minute. Directly after-
wards he came running back, and went down the

road that John Poole went. The prisoner then had
a red handkerchief round his neck, spotted with
white, just such a handkerchief as the one produced.
He had a slop on also, but not the one he now wears.
(A slop was produced by the police, wet, and having
a great deal of blood, upon the sleeve principally.)
The slop he wore was like that. After deceased left
my shop in the afternoon I did not see him again till
I found him the next morning.
By the Prisoner—That handkerchief is the same
sort asthe one you wore round your neck. It was not
a blue one, it was a red one you had round your
neck.

Prisoner—The handkerchief I had on was a blue
one.

Witness-1 cannot swear that is the same slop you
had on, but it is the same make. I looked at you
some time before I told you which way Poole went.
Johannah Richards, an unmarried woman of Offley
Hay, deposed—l knew the deceased man , John Poole,
well. I had a child, of which he was the father. I
saw him this day week. (The police produced a red
plush waistcoat.) I know that waistcoat well. De-
ceased used to wear it. He had it on when I last
saw him. I know it by the make, by the buttons,
and by the pattern. (The police next produced a
pair of boots.) I know those boots. He showed
them to me on Christmas-day ; he had just bought
them. I know them from the make in front.

The prisoner did not wish to put any questions
to this witness.

Samuel Turner deposed—On the Bth of January
I was in the Four Crosses, at Offley-brook, at 3
o'clock. The prisoner was there. John Poole and
Thomas Sutton were with him. He wore a white
slop, and a cap that had brass buttons. He had a
pair of leggings under his trousers.
Police-constable George Clutton deposed—l am
stationed at Eccleshall. On the 9th of January I
received information of the murder, and I went to
Offley-brook. There I saw the deceased. I saw
that he was badly beaten and bleeding ; he was in-
sensible. On the previous evening I received the
prisoner into custody by ex-police Sergeant Robin-
son. At the time I heard of the murder I received
a description of a man who had been in deceased's
company the night before. On coming back from
seeing deceased I examined and searched the prisoner.
He was then wearing the boots and waistcoat pro-
duced, and which Johannah Richards has identified.
The slop and the handkerchief, which are new, I
found afterwards he had bought the same night
between 8 and 9. The waistcoat was cut up under
the arms. In explanation of that the prisoner said
he had been in a row in Yorkshire. I was with the
deceased last night; he was unconscious. I saw him
this morning, and he appeared to be a deal worse..
Robert Baker deposed,--I am an inspector of
police, and stationed at Stoke. Last night I saw
the deceased in a house that had been fitted for his
accommodation. He was perfectly unconscious.
To-day I saw him again in company with Sergeant
Kelly, at about 12 o'clock. He died while I was in
the room.

Mr. Nance, surgeon, deposed,—l am in practice in
Eccleshall, and was called in to-day by Dr. Smith
to see the deceased, John Poole. He was suffering
from a severe fracture on the right side of the head,
with depression. There was another fracture on the
other side, though slight, and a wound on the fore-
head. He was perfectly unconscious. The Wound
on the forehead over the eye was a lacerated wound.
He died from the fracture on the right side of the
head. The injuries must have been caused by some
blunt instrument. It would require very great force
to produce the injuries. The whole side of the head
was completely smashed in. I regarded it as a hope-
less case from the first. As the last resource, Dr.
Smith performed the operation of trepanning to re-
lieve the pressure upon the brain. I was present
when it was performed. When we returned in an
hour he was dead. Such a weapon as the stone in
the handkerchief would produce the injuries of
which the deceased died.

Ex-police-sergeant Robinson deposed—l accom-
panied Clutton to the deceased's bed. The hand-
kerchief and stone were lying there by deceased's
side. At deceased's feet was the wet sock, which I
was told had been found by a boy in a drain. I
apprehended the prisoner on the previous night on
the charge of being a deserter. I delivered him to
Police-constable Clutton.

Thomas Worrell, a boy, next deposed to the find-
ing of the slop in the brook.
The inquiry was then adjourned, and the prisoner
remanded.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

-0-

TIMES.—It was the noble boast of Schiller, when
speaking of German poetry, that no Augustan age
bloomed for it, that no Medici had smiled upon it,
and that it unfolded its flowers under other influ-
ences than those of court favour. Therefore, says
the high-minded poet, its song climbs higher and
flows more fully. With a little alteration, the same
boast may be re-echoed on behalf of a new profes-
sion which has sprung out of and increased in im-
portance with the growing prosperity and increasing
civilisation of the country. The Church and the Law
have their primacies andtheir judgeships, and innu-
merable appointments, supported at the public ex-
pense, and institutions of venerable antiquity and
enormous wealth, devoted to their instruction and
encouragement. The medical profession is overlaid
with organisation, and confers degrees of all sorts
through a number of competing bodies. But if a
young man is to devote himself to the study of civil
engineering the very course he is to pursue has not
yet been marked out. He does not know the status
he will occupy in society, for no trouble has been
taken to ascertain it. He has no so
social honours or
distinctions to look for, and, if he fail in his profes-
sion, has no comfortable retirement provided at the
public expense, ready to cover the defeat of respect-
able mediocrity. Therefore, we may say with the
German poet, and for this reason, we believe it
is, that the study of civil engineering has obtained
a success in this country and has risen in the esti-
mation of England and the world with a rapidity
quite unexampled in any other branch of human
knowledge. The endowments which well-meaning
and liberal persons have created for the encourage-
ment
of learning in its different departments Must
always be regulated by the state of knowledge on
the subject in question at the time of their creation.
If they encourage and direct, they have also a ten-
dency to narrow and confine. It is wonderful how
soon in all subjects an orthodox school springs up
when there is a foundation round which it may
cluster, and how speedily the tendency developes
itself to put down and stifle inquiry by affixing
to its results some name implying disapprobation
. .
and contempt. engineering has been hither-
to free from this danger. If unendowed, it is at
any rate free. Offering very lucrative pecuniary
prizes to the ambition of its students, it leaves
them quite at liberty to seek for the instruction ne-
cessary to obtain those prizes when and where they
please. The result has been what might naturally
be expected—the human mind, being steadily bent
on attaining one particular kind of knowledge, has
found the means of knowledge for itself, and the
engineers of England occupy a position all the
prouder because it is due to no extraneous assistance.
Such were the feelings with which we read the ex-
cellent address to the Institute of Civil Engineers
from their President, Mr. Fowler, a man who,
though not, so far as we are aware, possessed of any
University degree, or any other distinction than the
modest letters " C.E." which follow his name, has
probably done as much to promote the prosperity
and spread the reputation of England as any person
of his class in the country. Mr. Fowler points out
the necessity of paying the utmost attention to the
education of the school of Civil Engineers now
growing up, and that for two reasons—the one, the
growing competition of Continental and American
engineers in a field in which for a time the English
engineer had established far himself a sort of mono-
poly, and the greater care that is given to their edu-
cation. A second reason why even more attention
should be given to education than before is, that
while in the studies of Law, of Medicine, and of
Divinity, the problems which are to be solved and
the difficulties which are to be met this year are of
the same nature and the same amount of difficulty
as those which were encountered last year, they rise
in Civil Engineering with the wants, the wealth,
and the wishes of mankind. We want larger ship
canals. The tunnels which astonished us twenty
years ago, the bridges which seemed to have accom-
plished impossibilities, are dwarfed before the tun-
nels and the bridges that are now required. Our
ports will not hold our ships, our warehouses
with all their mechanical appliances must yield to
larger buildings and machinery more efficient. As
works grow in size, the capacities of those who are
to construct them must grow also. We must not
trust to lucky thoughts or strokes of genius, but
to the patient combination of true principles and
sound judgment. Mr. Fowler then goes on to state
that training should include general instruction or a
liberal education, special education as a basis for

technical knowledge, technical knowledge itself, and
preparation for conducting practical works. We call
the attention of parents and guardians in search of
a profession for young men to Mr. Fowler's view
of the sort of person that is required, and the train-
ing he must go through in order to qualify himself
for a civil engineer. We must assume the existence
of a boy of 14 years of age, with a decided mechani-
cal bias, a strong constitution, and considerable
energy and perseverance of character ; having made
satisfactory progress in his general education, espe-
cially in arithmetic, he should be taught natural
philosophy, land surveying, drawing, chemistry,
mineralogy, geology, strengt of materials, mechani-
cal motion, hydraulics, with some knowledge of
French an German. This soands formidable ' • but
it must be remembered that the practical work of
engineering does not deal with the higher and more
abstruse parts of these sciences, but rather requires
a thorough knowledge of their leading rudimentary
principles. The next step is to article the student to
a civil engineer, to place him in a mechanical esta-
blishment, or to send him to a university. Mr.
Fowler seems to think that a university training
would be the best possible, but he adds that it is a
somewhat hazardous combination, and can only be
successful if the pupil determines to keep his future
career always steadily in view. We may add—what
is perhaps not known to Mr. Fowler—that the pre-
paration necessary to enable a young man to pass
with credit through a university would make a very
serious inroad on the time to be given to- the preli-
minary studies of which he speaks, and would
therefore greatly interfere with the elementary stu-
dies on which he lays so much weight, to say no-
thing of the danger that the studies and associa-
tions of the place might disgust the student with a
profession which wears at its first entrance a rough
and mechanical 'aspect. • Mr. Fowler recommends
the choice of a young civil engineer under whom to
study, whose business is not too large, and who is
accustomed to take pupils in proportion, and not
more than in proportion, to his business. In this
part of his career he must especially attend to three
things—the knowledge of materials, the power of
designing, and the power of calculating the price of
any work. We have gone through these recom-
mendations in considerable detail, because they come
from high authority, and because they are strongly
stamped with the impress of earnestness,good sense,
and moderation. Nor do we less approve what Mr.
Fowler has not said than what he has. There is
not a word in this address pointing to the expediency
of founding an institution which should interfere in
the slightest degree with the liberty of any one to
practise the business of civil engineering, with the
information required for that practice, or with the
place where:the education is to be gained. The me-
ld and admirable class of men to whom this country
owes so much has sprung into existence by its own
energy, and, being perpetually subjected to the un-
failing test of success or failure, needs no artificial
distinction to authenticate its pretensions. Of
course, where there is a demand for a particular
kind of knowledge, there is sure to arise a number
of persons anxious to supply it, and the wider the
profession and the greater the prizes that it offers
the better that education is sure to be. As a humble
contribution from ourselves in this direction, we
beg to call attention to an institution winch is among
the most valuable that exist in this country, but
having been founded by Government, and being
therefore one which it is nobody's interest to puff,
has by no means attracted the attention it deserves.
We allude to the Government School of Mines in
Jermyn-street, which appears to be a place exactly
calculated to give that amount of information in
the different sciences which Mr. Fowler considers
necessary. It includes among its professors some
of the most distinguished men of science in the
country—Huxley, Hoffman, Tyndall, Willis, Percy,
Warrington Smyth ; and, though called a School
of Mines, is really a place of preparatory education
for any occupation which is principally concerned
with physical science. We can only understand
its not having been more resorted to from the be-
lief that to the great number of parents it is utterly
unknown. There is no greater want of the present
day than a place of good rudimentary scientific
education. That want is admirably supplied, and
yet comparatively few persons avail themselves of
the advantages which are offered.
POST.—Although when the House of Commons
was elected the voting power of parties might be
estimated with approximate exactitude, the calcula-
tions that were made on the basis of Lord Palmer-
ston's Administration are necessarily deceptive and
comparatively worthless. Even as regards the Op-
position they must be to some extent fallacious.
The event which paralysed the Liberal party tended
to consolidate the Conservative. But if it is diffi-
cult to reckon upon the votes of members on gene-
ral questions, it is utterly impossible to conjecture
how they will be divided on the question of extend-
ing the franchise. It has been roughly assumed
that from forty to fifty Liberals would join with the
Opposition in resisting any change in the represen-
tation which threatened to destroy the constitu-
tional equilibrium ; and further, that if the House
were balloted, a Reform Bill could hardly be ex-
pected to pass the second reading. Be this, how-
ever, as it may, a mere tyro in Parliamentary tactics
must be aware that on such a measure amendments
may be so formulated as to catch votes from almost
every quarter, and this is a circumstance that seems
to invite some serious consideration. All speculation
on the balance of parties is idle, and though it is
equally idle to say so—for people will go on sum-
ming up apocryphal figures to no more purpose than
those who waste time and cardpaper in marking the
oscillation of a game of trente et quarante—the condi-
tions onwhich the question of Parliamentary Reform
may have to be solved are of infinitely higher im-
portance. As regards the principle involved, it may
be presumed that there will not be much difficulty.
The House of Commons is properly averse from
what is called hair - splitting, and it can matter
very little whether the expediency of extending,
amending, modifying, or reducing the franchise be
affirmed on the second reading. It is in committee
that the shape and extent of the suggested altera-
tion must be settled, and there, in point of fact, the
fate of the bill will bedetermined. Lord Russell did,
it is true, interpose and prevent the extension of the
franchise being considered in committee in 1859,
but Mr. Disraeli will scarcely think that it is wise,
or worth while, to uphold the Reform Act against
its venerable author, who desires to correct it for
the benefit of future generations, and particularly as
nothing which is, however remotely, relevant to the
subject may not be exhaustively discussed between
the second and third reading of the measure. Mr.
Bright has been considerate enough to advise Mi-
nisters to get their bill drawn by an able lawyer ;
but if he had also provided them with the lantern of
Diogenes they could not possibly exercise any con-
trol over the absolute discretion of Parliament. If
those who have charge of the scheme, whatever it
may be, entertain an invincible objection to the
change of its complexion and features, they had bet-
ter not submit it to the rough ventilatio# of public
opinion. In the calm, tepid atmosphere of a Wing
Cabinet it might preserve all its ideal beauty, and
be a joy for ever to its happy parents ; but the
House of Commons is fastidious and somewhat cyni-
cal. Mr. Gladstone knows perfectly well that the
rhetorical preliminary debate is as a garden of Eden
as compared with the excruciating torments of the
Parliamentary operating room. The power of the
House is only governed by its sense of right, and it
might, if it thought fit, use the ministerial preamble
for a bill of its own. It might pass a bill repealing
the clauses of the Reform Act which deprived the
working classes of a direct and distinct representa-
tion, and reducing the suffrage, which, upon the
whole, its enfranchising clauses raised. It might
even take the Reform Bills of 1854 and of 1859,
and extract from them matter enough to make one
tolerably good measure. In short, if Lord Russell
is not prepared to see the old tree as well as the
tender sapling pruned and bent, he may
come to think, when it is too late, that
this question could have been more dispassion-
ately answered by a royal commission, which, be-
sides affording to the country the information it
required, would have allowed time for the recon-
struction of the Ministry. But, as it is, Parliament
and the country may not unreasonably be of opinion
that it will be judicious to enter into the matter
comprehensively, and to dispose of it definitively,
at all events so far as the present generation is con-
cerned. If the thing is to be done, it ought to be
done as well as may be, and, even on Mr. Bright's
showing, there need be no hurry about it. Sup-
posing that the existence of the recently-elected
House of Commons would not be shortened by any
enlargement of the system of representation, legis-
lation on the subject may be deliberative, at least
as regards time. With six sessions before it, the
House will have leaisure to think before it votes,
and, under such circumstances, it cannot be neces-
sary to take any measure at sight for better or for
worse. Moreover, it will be indispensable to ascer-
tain if her Majesty's Ministers have or have not
drawn their Reform Bill on the understanding that
it is to open up a way for the introduction of secret
voting, and a redistribution of Parliamentary,
power; for, so far from having facilitated its dis-
cussion, Mr. Bright's exceeding candour has raised
a new difficulty. If the extension of the franchise
is to lead to voting by ballot, and to a rearrange-
ment of seats, and if those organic modifications
are to give household suffrage as their first result,
the whole theory of the contemplated revolution
must be taken into consideration. Or, on the other
hand, it will be for Mr. Gladstone to persuade the
House that Mr. Bright speaks for himself, that the
Government does not share his views, and that the
tendency of their proposition is opposed to the rea-
lisation of his democratic aspirations. In effect,
IliinLitera mud be sensible that any measure they

bring forward which receives the support of Mr.
Bright will be looked upon with suspicion. This may
be their misfortune, but it cannot now be avoided.
It is understood that Mr. Bright will decline to
accept an extension of the franchise which would
not operate as a means to the end he has defined,
and, consequently, that end cannot be eliminated
in considering a step taken in its direction with his
approbation and countenance. Nor will Mr. Glad-
stone, with all his power of speech, be able to re-
move this ground of apprehension if the measure he
proposes be not in itself a security for the mainte-
nance of the established institutions of the country;
and, of course, in that case its passage through 3
committee of the house might not be attended with
the inconvenience that could hardly fail to arise if
the guarantee had to be, as it were, wrestled for in
passionate debates and strategical divisions. No
doubt a Ministry is, generally speaking, entitled to
choose its own course, and to put the question on
which it intends to stand or fall in the form that
may seem most fitting to its purpose; but there ar°
exceptions to the rule, or rather conditions that
should restrict the assumption of undue responsi-
bility ; and even as a mere matter of policy, Lord
Russell's Government, being a Government on trial,
might have limited its action to what was essential
to the public service while waiting for the verdict.
It may be said, and probably will be said, that it is
the duty of the House of Commons to lose no time
in informing the Ministers of the Crown whether
they possess its confidence or not, and that silence
will bear the proverbial interpretation. In the pre-
sent instance, however, this is not precisely so. Par-
liament may be desirous of extending the franchise,
or, at any rate, can hardly help perceiving that the
Reform Act admits of amendment. And thinking
thus, it would be competent for Parliament to re-
solve, without regard to one Administration or
another, that the claim should be settled and set at
rest. The country, too, might be reconciled to 3
change which, if not required, combined safetylvith
improvement; and if the question comes to be re-
garded from this point of view, it may be solved
irrespective of all dictation, and on the broad na-
tional foundation from which, for unconstitutional,
objects—now to promotethe interests of a party, and
now to sustain the weakness of a Cabinet—has been
widely and perilously estranged.

COUNTRY MARKETS,

LYNN-TUESDAY.

We have a very small show of wheat here to-day • gooddry samples were taken at Is. per qr. reduction ;' damp
qualities were difficult of sale at ls., and in some instancel
2s. per qr. less money. Malting barley was in limited!
supply, and fully as dear ; grinding sorts in request at last
Tuesday's prices.
New wheat, 46s to 48s ; new red, 42s to 445; old white,
51s to 52s ; old red, 46s to 48s per 36 stone. Barley fc't
malting, 34s to 365; secondary, 26s to 325. Oats, nevi'
18s to 24s per 24 stone. Beans, 4small, 42s to 44s ; I are,
40s to 42s per 28 stone.

HULL.—TUESDAY.
Since our last there has been a somewhat slow trade in
both English and foreign wheat, and where 'sales of Bug:
lish wheat have been at a reduction of Is. to 2s. per q''
At our market to-day there was a very limited demand Of
wheat, the sales being entirely confined to English of goco
quality, at a reduction of ls. per qr. For good malting
barley there was a good inquiry, and the late high priel
were fully maintained. The tightness of the money marked
and late large arrivals tended to reduce the price of linsee
about ls. per qr.
English old white wheat, 49s to 54s ; old red, 47s to 495.
Barley, English, 34s to 38s. Oats, Russian, 24s to 265:
Beans, new English, 43s to 445. Peas, English blue, 405
to 41s Od ; grinding, 40s to 41s Od per 36 stone.

SALISBURY.—TUESDAY.
At this market to-day the attendance was less numerous
than a week ago. A moderate supply of wheat was shown,
for which previous quotations were required. Business;
however, ruled excessively dull, and last week's price:
were not in all cases maintained. In the barley depart
mint an improved feeling prevailed. There was about as
average offer, and good sorts moved off steadily, W.,"
highest price we heard given being 40s. per qr. Genera:
speaking the market was firm, at fully last week's figure,
with an occasional advance. For beans and peas there W.,
a very limited inquiry, at rather less money. Oats nu° t
firm. For flour the requirements of the trade were 11°
large, the quotations remaining at 345., 365., and 390. per
sack.
The following are the quotations :—Wheat realised froth37s to 52s ; barley, 35s to 40s ; oats, 22s to 32s ; beans, ,
78
to 51s ; and peas, 42s to 50s per qr. Tares, from Gs to „a
3d per bushel ; Best bread, 13d ; household ditto, 1.4
per 81b loaf. Flour, 34s to 40s per sack.