The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-09 00:00:00

THE TRAGEDY AT SHEFFIELD.

An inquest was held on Saturday on the body of
Thos. Townshend, who committed suicide on Ft iday
afternoon, after deliberately shooting his step-
daughter, Eliza Fisher. The inquest was held at the
Engineer Inn, a few yards from the scene of the
tragedy. The deputy coroner said all that could be
inferred from the evidence taken was, that the de-
ceased went quietly to Mr. Travis's house on Fri-
day, and having seen. Eliza Fisher, he shot her.
There could be no doubt about that. There was no
positive evidence that he shot himself, but the jury
would infer that he did so from the fact of his being
found lying with a shot wound in his body imme-
diately after the report of the pistol was heard, and
the pistol lying by his side. Whether he was in a
sound or unsound state of mind at the time, did not
appear, but it was evident that he had done the deed
in a very quiet, cool, and calm manner, and not at
all with the manner of a man who was out of his
senses. He had bought the pistols, charged them,
and gone to the house very quietly and coolly. It
would be for the jury to say whether the man shot
himself when he was in a state of temporary in-
sanity, or whether he had done it wilfully and of
malice aforethought, as the law had it. He had evi-
dently contemplated the crime for some time, be-
cause it had been proved by Mrs. Clare that he had
more than once threatened to take his own life,
apparently because Eliza Fisher would not leave
the place she had obtained and go and reside with
him. There was no evidence before the jury as to
how he had treated the young woman, but there was
evidence to show that she had had a child by him,
and the jury might infer from that fact that he had
not treated her very well—at all events, he had not
treated her as a moral and upright man would have
treated a woman, particularly in the relation in
which she stood towards him, she being his step-
daughter. After a short deliberation, the jury re-
turned a verdict to the Effect that the deceased was
not in an unsound state of mind, and that therefore
he was guilty of self-murder. It was stated that
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STAT.g OP CANADA,

Canada, once the favourite battle-ground of
Indian tribes, then the scene of a fierce struggle for
empire between the two chief Powers of Europe,
has long been exempt from the evils, the horrors of
war. There are some still living who recount with
pride and pleasure their campaigns against Ameri-
can invaders, but they are grey-haired men, and
they tell these tales to their grandchildren, for the
events of which they speak took place half a cen-
tury ago. There are more who talk of the rebel-
lion of 1837 ; but that was a mere riot, an altogether
insignificant affair compared with the wars of his-
tory, compared even with the American civil war
of to-day. It follows that net one in a thousand of
our people rightly estimates the blessings of peace
or the calamities of war. Indeed, we never shall
be adequately thankful for peace until we
have had to measure swords with an
enemy, until each one of us has had
relathes or friends exposed to danger and
death, or property devoted to destruction. But by
looking at the condition of the States we may form
some idea of the miseries, private and national,
which a state of war involves, and which inspire
the prayer of the Anglican litany—" Give us peace
in our time, 0 Lord." The British contribution to
the population of the United States has fallen off
90 per cent. from what it was ten years ago ! That,
however, is not all, The stagnation of business of
all kinds, the consequent lack of employment, the
apprehension that the war will be a long one, the
dread of an enormous national debt and heavy taxa-
tion, have driven many new corners to the States
away. They have gone back to the shores of Great
Britain by hundreds, and our own emigration agent
to Ireland, Mr. Donaldson, says he has seen ship-
loads of emigrants returning from America to that
country. We have not suffered much from war yet.
Even our Customs revenue has not fallen off to any
great extent ; and if some branches of industry have
been injuriously affected, that has been more than
compensated for by the stimulus given to others.
Our population has been largely increased. The
number of emigrants arrived at Quebec up to the
18th ult. was 19,461 this year, as against 9,654 last
—an increase of more than 100 per cent. This is by
ship. The number of those who have come into the
Province from the States by rail is probably even
larger, judging from the reports of the emigrant
agents in the various cities ; and many must have
arrived of whom the agents have seen nothing, for
all the newspapers teem with accounts of the esta-
blishment here of small manufactories started by
enterprising Americans. Probably at least 50,000
souls have been added to our population this year
by immigration. If the war in the States continues,
and we are mercifully preserved from being involved
in it, there is no telling the effect it may have on
the relative positions of the States and Provinces ;
and, even though it should cease, its effects
will last for years. To paraphrase a famous
sentence—" The United States' calamity is our
opportunity." The tide of emigration is not one
which can be bid to flow at will. The Times
said, in a recent article, that "it would be years
before emigrants would believe in the pacification
of the Union even if peace were proclaimed to-
morrow." And probably, before the States begin
to recover favour among the emigrating classes, the
provinces may be so populous and rich as to be able
to unite themselves into a powerful confederacy, a
worthy rival of its Southern neighbour, with every
prospect of a speedy emancipation from a state of
colonial dependence, and the formation of a Colonial
Empire which shall be far more stable than the re-
public which is now bursting into fragments.—
Quebec Chronicle.