The Sun.
London, England, 1857-07-20 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINA' Y PHENOMENON.

The following letter trona the Hon. Charles
Murray, her Majesty's Envoy to Persia, has been
handed to us for publication by Sir Charles Lyell :
—" Bagdad, May 23, 1857. My dear Sir Charles,
—We have lately witnessed her. a phenomenon so
strange that a brief description of it may not be
uninteresting to you. On the 30th inst., a few
minuses before 6 p.m. (which is here about an hour
before sunset), 1 wassitting with my Mirza reading
some Persian letters, when on a sudden I became
sensible of an unusual obscuration of the light on
the paper ; I jumped up, and, going to the window,
saw a huge black cloud approaching from the w•rth-
west, exactly as if a pall were being drawn over the
face of the heavens. It must have travelled with
considerable rapidity, for in less than three minutes
we were enveloped in total darkness—a, darkness
more, intense than an ordinary midnight when
neither stars nor moon are visible. Groping my
way amid chairs and tables, I succeeded in striking
a light, and then, f-eling assured that a sitnoom of
some kind was coming on, I called to my servants
to come up and shut the windows, which were all
open, the weather having been previously very sul-
try. While they were doing so the wind increased,
and bore with it such a &lige volume of dust or
sand that before they could succeed in closing the
windows the room was entirely filled, so that the
tables and furniture were speedily covered. Mean-
while a panic seized the whole city ; the Armenians
and other Christian sects rushed through the gloom
to confess and pray in the churches; women shrieked
and beat their breasts in the streets, and the men
of all classes prostrated themselves in prayer, be-
lieving that the end of the world had arrived. After
a short time the black darkness was succeeded by a
red lurid gloom, such as I never saw in any part of
the world, and which I can only liken in imagina-
tion to the effect that might be produced if all
London wera in a conflagration in a heavy Novem-
ber fog ; to me it was more striking (I may almost
say fearful) than the previous utter darkness, and
reminded me of that darkness visible' in which
the poetic genius of Milton placed the demons and
horrid shapes of the infernal regions, This Jurii
fog was d,,ubtless occasioned by the rays of the
western sun shining obliquely on the dense mass
of red sand or dust which hai been raised from
some distant desert, and was borne along upon the
blast. I enclose you a specimen of the dust. The
Arabs here think that it came from the Nejd. The
storm seems to have travelled in a circular direc-
tion, having appeared first from the south, then
south-west, then west, then north-west. After
about two hours it had so far passed away that we
were able to open the windows again and breathe
the outer air. It cannot have been a sinfoom, for
during those which I have experienced in Atahia
and Egypt the wind is hot and stifling. On the
20th the wind was high, but only oppressive from
the dense mass of dust that it carried with it."—

Professor J. Quekett, of the Royal College of Sur-
geona, having kindly examined the specimen of Red
dustf, om Belaclad which accompanied Mr. Murray's
letter, has informed Sir Charles Lyell that he could
detect, under the mitroscope, only inorganic pa.-
t'cles, such as quartz sand, in the dust. l here are
no relics of Diatomacem apparent ; and, though a
small portion of calcareous matter was present in
the sand, yet be could observe no microscopic shells
or other organic matter.—Literary Gazette.

THE CASE OF THOMAS FULLER BACON.

This prisoner, who was tried a few sessions back
at the Central Criminal Court, with his wife, for
the murder of their two children, under circum-
stances which at the time attracted a good deal of
public attention, will take his trial at the ensuing
assizes at Lincoln for the murder of his mother, by
poisoning with arsenic, and from facts that have
transpired since the removal of the pi-oiler from
the gaol of Newgate, the trial will doubtless create
very great interest, as involving the question whe-
ther the prisoner be really guilty of the heinous
offences of which he has been accused, or whether
he has been the victim of unfoitunatecircumsta-nces.
The circumstances under which the murder of hie
mother was supposed to have been committed were
involved in a great deal of mystery, and there is
very little doubt that the decision of the coroner's
jury was a good deal influenced by the disclo-area
that took place upon the subsequent inquiry
relative to the death of the prisoner's child-
ren, and the astounding fact has come to light
within the last few days that Mrs. Bacon has
admitted that she herself administered the poison
to her mother-in law. The details of the statement
made by the unfortunate woman, have, of course,
not been permitted to appear; indeed, there is a
good deal of reserve upon the subject, as it is hardly
known at.present what course the authorities in-
tend to take in the matter. It will be recollected
that the principal evidence against the husband
upon the charge of murdering his mother consisted
of proof of the pnichase of arsenic, and that lus ex-
planation of the circumstance was that the poison
was purchased with a view to destroy the rats with
which his house was infested. The female prisoner
now states that this was the fact, and she says that
she her: elf administered the arsenic to the old
woman, and that her husband knew nothing about
it. It is understood that she has stated other cir-
cumstances which teed very strongly to show that
she is speaking the truth, and there appears to be
very little doubt that the state of her
mind, at times, is such that she may have
acted under a bort of uncontrollable impulse,
and have been hardly aware of the consequences
inquisition,
a her acts. Besides the coroner's
a bill for murder would, in the ordinary course, be
presented against the prisoner Thomas Bacop ; but
the whole matter will be disposed of by one trial,
•
and if the inquiries still pending should tnd to
substantiate thestatement of the wife of theprisoner,
it• is probable that no evidence will be offered
against the prisoner, and that he wilt be discharged -
without having to undergo the ordeal of another
trial.—Dispatch.