The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-03 00:00:00

" CLAIRVOYA.NCE" EXPLAINED.

The whole system of presumed " double-sight "
rests with two persous—one who advances to the
audience to receive the article desired to be experi-
mented upon, and who asks a question of the other;
and the blindfolded person who replies. The effect
of these questions and answers being arranged into
a system and order constitutes the whole art of
clairvoyance. Every question has a corresponding
answer, and to be perfect requires a good memory
—not more, however, perhaps than that required
of an actor who learns "a part" in a new tragedy.
The simplicity of the questions principally mis-
leads the audience, being no other than an ordinary
interrogation which any one would make: modi-
fied only by an understanding between the confe-
derate parties, that the same sentence, differently
arranged or put, calls for a different reply, thus :
Q. Is it plain or ornamented P—A. Ornamented.
Q. Is it ornamented or plain ?—A. Plain.
We will now give a few illustrations of the sys-
tem of questions and answers, premising that the
same order can be and is frequently carried out to
a very elaborate extent. First, then, we have
questions relating to colours, precious stones, metals,
wearing apparel, jewellery, numbers and dates,
money, miscellaneous articles :
Fon COLOURS.
Q. What colour is it ?—A. Black.

What is the Colour P—A. Blue.

Q. Tell me the colour ?—A. Green.
Q. Has it a colour P—A. White.

Q. Any colour ?—Orange or yellow.
Q. Name the colour P—A. Brown.

FOR METALS.
Q. What metal P—A. Gold.
Q. What is the metal ?—A. Silver.
Q. Tell me the metal ?—A. Copper.
Q. Name the metal P—A. Iron or steel.
Q. What metal is it?—A. Brass.
FOR STONES.

Q. 'What stone is it P—A. Jet.
Q. What is Mb stone ?—A. Topaz.
Q. Tell me the stone P—A. Emerald.
Q. Name the stone P—A. Diamond.
Q. Do you know the stone ?—A. Cornelian.

Q. Any stone P—A. Amethyst.
There arc many other examples given, but these
will b 3 sufficient to explain the principle on which
the mystery of clairvoyance may be, and perhaps
is, practised.—" Natural Magic," by G. Sep-
timus Pierce.

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a present kelp.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.—Ian. 1.

WOE.SIIIP-STREET.--A MATRIMONIAL PRA-
CAs.—Harriet Ellen Allen, of ladylike exterior and
address, appeared before Mr. Hamthill, under the
folloWing peculiar and delicate circumstances :
On Thursday last, three men, named Slade, Cole,
and Cumin;; were charged at this court with being
found in inclosed gardens for an unlawful purpose.
The fact was proved, and in answer, the prisoners:
one and all, gave the -following account of the
matter.

They said that while playing at skittles on the
preceding day in Whitechapel, a person who stated
his name to be Mortimer, and represented himself
as a solicitor, offered them a " job." They were,
with others, to proceed to his residence, in Dalston,
and assist in taking a child from a house close at
hand. The proposition was accepted ; all went to the
gentleman's habitation, 7, Hepzediah-terrace, Dal-
ston, and were introduced to a lady, who asserted
that she was the mother of the child in question.
It was then proposed and arranged that she should
obtain admission at the street door of the house No.
1, llepzediah-terrace, and having secured her ob-
ject, retreat by the back garden, where they
were to be in readiness, and assist, if required.
At the time appointed the movement was made, and
resulted in their discomfiture and present position.
This singular attempt at explanation excited
much astonishment in court, which was increased
when Inspector Lan; don, N division, mentioned,
that a man, giving the name of Mortimer, had,
after the three men were at the station-house on
charge, boisterously and in a half drunken state,
demanded their release, alleging that he had
prompted them to the act, and swearing to accom-
plish his object despite all authority.
At this juncture, Mr. Lovell, an attorney, of
Gray's Inn, addressing the Bench, observed that he
could throw some light upon the whole matter. He
did not believe that the men at the bar had any in-
tention to commit a felony, but' were actually on
the spot for the purpose mentioned by them ; and
the father of the child, whose possession was
sought, now attended, to make application for a
warrant against his wife, believing his life in danger
at her hands.
A gentleman who stated his names to be Thomas
Allen, a military equipment manufacturer in the
Strand, here stepped forward, and gave informa-
tion, upon oath, that he resided at No. 1. Hepzediali-
terrace, Dalston ; that he was living apart from his
wife, and had instituted a suit for divorce, on the
ground of her adultery ; that, since the commence-
ment of the- said suit, she had on several occa-

sions threatened and annoyed him ; a month since
she got into his cab, - and while drawing a knife
across her throat, vowed she would not allow him
to live and possess another woman ; that, in pre-
venting injury to her at the time in question, he
had severely cut his own hand ; and that on the
identical Thursday morning she had, opposite his
residence,- threatened him with her clenched fist,
and dared him to go outside to her, at the same
time calling him " a coward."
The required warrant was hereupon granted, and
in due time the lady, in virtue of it, appeared in
court to answer the complaint.
She said that her husband was a trunkmaker,
and not what he represented, that he had an in-
come of £l,BOO a year, and positively deniedhaving
directly or otherwise authorised the three men to
act as they had asserted.
The prisoners, on hearing this, protested that
the lady was present at the time the arrangement
had been made ; and, the magistrate cautioning
them never to engage in such a delicate affair
again, permitted their discharge,
Mr. Mortimer did not make his appearance in
court. Mrs. Allen asked time to disprove the
charge and secure the attendance of her solicitor ;
and Mr. Lovell objected to this unless she could
find bail, alleging that her word could not be
taken. It had been decided in the Court of Di-
vorce that Mr. Allen should retain possession of
the two children ; yet, in defiance of this, she had
already possessed herself of the younger, and un-
doubtedly was a moving agent in the attempted
abduction of the other. A razor had been found
beneath her pillow in June last, and although al-
lowed ss. a week by her husband, regularly paid to
her, was continually annoying and threatening him.
The magistrate said that he could not refuse the
lady's application for a remand under the circum-
stances, and would take her own promise to ap.
pear and meet the allegations against her.
Mr. Thos. Beard, of Basinghall-street, now at •
tended as her adviser, and observed that the pro-
ceedings against the lady were in all probability
for the purpose of prejudicing proceedings in a
superior court. With respect to the alleged abduc-
tion of the younger child it should be known the
Court of Divorce had simply refused to interfere as
to possession of the children while the matter was
in abeyance ; and any reference to misconduct prior
to October last, when the suit was first commenced,
should not be permitted, as the husband had co-
habited with the wife up to the Gth of September
previous. Mr. Beard added that if it was permitted
him to interrogate the complainant as to matters
connected with, the whole disagreement, the posi-
tion of the gentleman might possibly prove a very
unenviable one. The other court would of course
admit the lady's testimony, and until then it was
sufficient to answer the charge attaching to the
last alleged offence.
Mr. Allen was then cross-examined, and admitted
an intimacy with his wife up to the 6th of Sep-
tember.—(The alleged adultery was understood to
have occurred on the 31st of August.) Two
witnesses, a cab-driver and the defendant's ser-
vant, swore that on the morning in question, no
threatening language was used by Mrs. Allen,
who, it was sworn, merely held up her finger, and
addressing her husband at his parlour window,
called him a coward for not allowing her to see
their child.
Mr. Hammill remarked that this was satisfactory,
and he should dismiss the warrant. Any reference
to preceding matters would be noticed in that court,
at which, in due time, both parties would appear.
In the meantime, the lady had better not repeat her
visit for any purpose.
ALLEGED CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD.--Joseph
Stanton, landlord of the Crystal Palace beer shop,
New-cut, Lambeth, was charged on a summons with
unlawfully conspiring with others to get into their
possession divers goods, the property of J. I. Ferdi-
nando, an in diarubber manufacturer, Spitalfields.
The evidence, which was very voluminous, went
to show that the prosecutor had sold goods to a per-
son named Roberts, •of Prior7place, Walworth, to
the amount of £8 12s. 6d., at a month's credit. This
was only a portion of the order, and it was executed
on 20th March last; on the same date of the follow-
ing month the house was 'closed, and Roberts was
non est. The_prosecutor swore that, in the interim,
Stanton, who had from the first been on those pre-
mises apparently as foreman to Roberts, assumed
the name of Smith, wrote a letter in the name of
Stanton, and directed it to 10, Hampton-Street,
Walworth-road. To this person Roberts had refer-
red, but on apply lag there Stanton could not be
seen, so that for a long period the prosecutor was
unaware of Smith and Stanton being ono person.
Subsequently, the defendant was found at his shop
in Lambeth, but was not given into custody, the
prosecutor alleging that he was waiting to have
him and Roberts in his power at the same time.
Mr. Sleigh cross-examined prosecutor and his
witnesses, endeavouring to show that the motive for

the prosecution was that of inducing Stanton to
forego appearing against a man nanwSllele, an ac-
quaintance of the prosecutor, at a forthcoming trial
for robbery-; but this was denied.
The defendant was ordered to find bail on his
own recognisance.

CLERKENWELL—ATTEMPTED MURDER IN
ST. PANCRAS.—A masculine-looking_ female, who
peared in the dock with a frightful black eye and
bruised face, who gave the name of Amelia Frank-
lin, 21, described on the police, sheet as a prosti-
tute, residing at 11, Wood-street, Cromer•street, St.
Pancras, was brought up in the custody of Inspector
Witham, of the E division, charged with feloniously
cutting and wounding Adam Turner with a knife
at the above house, with intent to do him some
grievous bodily harm.
It appeared from the evidence that on Friday
night, about eight o'clock, the injured man and the
prisoner quarrelled, when the former took up a
poker and was about to strike her with it, when she
rushed upon him with a knife and inflicted a wound
upon his throat, from which the blood flowed pro-
fusely. The man was taken to the hospital, uhen
the house surgeon found a wound along the base of
the right ear about three inches in length. One of
the arteries had been divided, and one of the right
ribs had been fractured, and he was in such a de-
plorable state that he was detained at the hospital,
and was unable to attend before the magistrate to
give his evidence. When Police-constable Eldridge,
85 E, took the prisoner into custody she did not
deny the charge. He found the place covered with
blood, and the things were strewn about as if there
had been a great disturbance. Both the parties are
very bad characters, and have several times been in
the custody of the police. The wife of the injured
man was the keeper of a most notorious brothel,
and was convicted at the last Old Bailey sessions
for robbing a sailor, and was sentenced to 18
months' hard labour. The house in which the in-
jured man wiis stabbed is also a very low brothel.
The prisoner, in defence, said she had several
times wished to leave the complainant in conse-
quence of his continual brutality towards her, and
the marks on her face arose from his hitting and
kicking her. The wound with the knife was quite

an accident, as he came against her when she was
paring her nails.
Prisoner was remanded for a week, bail being
refused.

SOUTHWARK.—THE LATE FATAL CALAMITY
AT THE VICTORIA THEATRE.—Thos. Clark, a young
fellow, who called himself a lighterman, residing in
Bermondsey, was brought before Mr. Combe, by
Harrington, 32 L, charged with creating a disturb-

ante in the Victoria Theatre gallery stairs.
Mr. H. Young, treasurer, said that about a gut- r-
ter to six on the previous evening, prior to ad-
mitting the audience, he went round to see that the
gaslights were all right, and everything safe. As
soon as he reached the upper door in the gallery.
he heard some persons calling out on the other siee,
and on opening the door he saw the prisoner climb-
ing along a beam to enable him to get before the
others who were on the stairs. By doing so he
knocked against several of the people who were
calling out. As soon as the prisoner saw witness
he jumped down among the people, at the risk of
his own life and others, and attempted to make his
escape, but was secured and taken into custody by
Harrington, the officer appointed to the theatre.
Mr. Young added that his chief reason for giving
him in custody was to prevent persons for the
future from climbing on the beams or supports of
the stairs, as it injured the gas pipes and other
property. Such conduct was the cause of the
escape of gas on the afternoon when the
recent fatal calamity occurred, and threw the people
on the stairs into such a dreadful state of alarm and
confusion. _ _

Mr. Burcham asked the prisoner what he had to
say in answer to the charge. He should have
thought that a person of his age would have known
better than to conduct himself in such a manner
after so recent a catastrophe-at the same place.
The prisoner, in the most impudent manner, re-
plied that he did not know he was doing wrong, as
he had frequently seen others do it previously.
Mr. Young here said that it was not their wish
to punish the prisoner, but to prevent such an oc-
currence by other parties.
The prisoner promised not to do so again, when
Mr. Burcham told him his conduct might have
led to very serious consequences, but as there was no
wish to punish him, he should merely order him to
enter into recognisances to keep the peace for six
months. If he or any other persons were brought
•before him again on a similar charge, he should
punish them severely.
In the course of Friday Mr. Smith, the treasurer
of the Surrey Theatre, waited on Mr. Combe for his
advice under the following circumstanced :
Mr. Smith said that on Thursday evening last, at
the opening of the theatre, a man was observed en-
tering the pit with a lighted cigar in his mouth.
The officer went up to him and told him to put the
light out. The man refused, but when the officer
told him he could not enter with the lighted cigar,
he threw it at him, telling him to put it out him-
self. Applicant wished to know whether, after such
a dreadful calamity at the Victoria Theatre, he would
not have been justified in giving him into custody.
Mr. Combe told him that he would not have been
justified in doing so • but the man at whose person
the cigar had been thrown could have a summons
for the assault. In fact, had a policeman seen him
he could have taken him then and there into
custody.
Mr. Smith answered that, after such a fearful
disaster taking place at a neighbouring theatre, the
managers of the Surrey Theatre had desired him
to make the application,' as they wished to know
whether they would not be justified in giving such
persons into custody.
Mr. Combo told him certainly not, but they
could prevent any person from entering the theatre
with a lighted cigar, and if that person committed
an assault in the presence of a constable, he could
be given into custody.
Mr. Smith thanked his worship and withdrew.

THE BALLOT.

(From the Daily News.)

The opponents of the Ballot have been across the
Atlantic to find—a mare's nest. They have made
the notable discovery, long familiar to all those at
all conversant with the subject, and repeatedly
admitted in these columns, that in certain States
a system of voting by loosely folded open voting
papers is found to afford no effectual protection
against bribery and intimidation. What does
this discovery amount to ? Is it any argument
against the Ballot, in the only sense in which that
word is ever used by those who advocate its
adoption in this country—the sense in which it is
identical with secret voting ? Is secret voting
practicable ? That is one question. If it be prac-
ticable, is it beneficial ? That is another ques-
tion. Upon neither question, it is perfectly plain,
can any light be thrown by referring to the prac-
tice of those States of the Union where voting,
though currently and inaccurately called voting by
Ballot, is not, and is not even pretended to be,
secret. As to the practicability of secret voting.
that is a point which has been proved over and
over again by as great a cumulation of evidence as
any political fact is susceptible of. In the State of
Maine, in the State of Ohio, in other States of the
Union, the simple expedient of putting the voting
paper in a closed envelope is found to secure the
most perfect degree of secrecy. Where this simple
precaution is observed, and where the voting is in
consequence really secret, the ballot is found to be
a thoroughly effectual preservative against intimi-
dation, a most successful discouragement to
bribery. Directly secret voting is thus shown by
actual and most satisfactory experiment to be pos-
sible, all arguments directed against a system,
which, whatever it may be called, is in fact not
secret voting—are utterly wide of the mark. They
merely go to show that where the ballot system is
imperfect—where it is not maintained in its integ-
rity—where it is not absolutely secret voting, but
to a great extent open voting—there the invete-
rate evils which always attend open voting are to
be found in its company. If no precautions are
taken for making the voting urn inaccessible and
the voting paper a closed secret, the principle of
secrecy is virtually surrendered ; and to argue
against the principle of secret voting from the
bribery and intimidation that follow upon the sur-
render of that principle, is manifestly in the very
highest degree illogical and absurd. It is the old
fallacy of arguing against a system from its perver-
sion. Let us' have no press, because it is occa-
sionally licentious; no police, because it is some-
times oppressive ; no religion, because, under one
set of influences, it degenerates into superstition;
under another into fanaticism.

The simple fact is, that all evils which avowedly
attend the exercise of the electoral franchise in
some States of the Union are from openness of
voting, not from secrecy. We are told—and for the
purpose of the argument we are willing to accept the
statement as substantially true, that at some of the
worst conducted elections in the State of New York
bribery funds are subscribed, and marked ballots
handed to the electors, of course with a view to
subsequent inspection and the exercise of intimida-
tion. Be it so ; but what follows from this ? Call
it by whatever name you please, this is simply and
purely open voting. It is its openness that makes
corruption possible ; its openness that makes in-
timidation possible. It is ballot without secrecy—
the name without the thing. A man who votes by
a loosely folded voting paper previously marked is
as much an open voter as the man who declares
viva voce at the poll the name of the candidate for
whom he records his suffrage. As Mr. Berkeley
puts it, in an admirable letter which we published
yesterday, "What constitutes open voting if this
does not ? What signifies it whether an elector
carry a bit of paper open in his hand with a name
written on-it, or whether he pronounces the name
he would vote for ? Either way lie votes openly."
To argue against any evils which may result from
such a, system as this is to argue against the evils
resulting not from secret, but from open, voting ?
not from ballot maintained in its integrity, but from
ballot abused till nothing remains of it but the
name.

But is this sham ballot—this ballot without
secrecy—the only form of the institution known in
the States ? In other words, is secret voting, by
the general experience of the American Union,
found to be a practical impossibility ? Nothing of
the kind. In many States—in all the States which
have adopted the simple mechanical contrivance of
the closed envelope—ballot and secret voting are
strictly convertible terms. The results are pre-
cisely what on theory might have been expected.
Intimidation is suppressed, bribery discouraged.
The institution of secret voting is regarded in these
States as inseparably bound up with freedom and
purity of election. According to the explicit testi-
mony of a well-informed citizen of the State of
Maine, which we published on the 7th ult., the
ballot is there prized not only because it ensures that
the vote is the true expression of the voter's real poli-
tical opinion, but because it discourages all attempts
to control the exercise of the franchise, by giving
the most practical demonstration that all such
attempts are in the result purely nugatory, The
abolition of the elective protection afforded by the
ballot is regarded by the citizens of those States
where it is worked as a reality, with undisguised.
repugnance. -Electoral contests without this protec-
tion would, as our correspondent assured us in lan-
guage of fervid sincerity, terminate in scenes "from
the contemplation of which I turn as from a vision
of incipient anarchy, to thank God that from such
horrors my country is preserved by the use of the
ballot."

Such is the testimony recorded in favour of secret
voting by those States where oeoret voting really!

exists ; but even in New York, where, as Mr. -
Berkeley admits, " secrecy is optional, the ballot
system defective, corrupt influence powerful"—
even there, will you find any American try the
remedy of re-establishing avowed open voting ? Not
one. They are too painfully sensible of the evils
which attend on that departure from the principle
of secrecy which has already been introduced among
them. Their loosely conducted system of ballot has
let in to a considerable extent the evils of intimida-
tion 'and bribery. It has done this because it is to
a great extent a system of open voting. To re-
introduce a system of open voting without limits
would simply be to remove the only barriers which
now partially avert the evils whose existence they
deplore, and at the prospect of whose increase they
tremble. " Weak floodgates,"—we quote Mr. Ber-
keley,—" may impede, but not prevent, the rush of
a tide ; would you cure the evil by pulling them
down, or making them stronger P" The Times is
for pulling them down. The Times has the strange
hardihood to assert that the President of the Re-
public has come to the same conclusion. We are
told that the "People's choice himself has assured us
that all the perils of American liberty begin in
the ballot-box." Only one word in the language—
very short, very Saxon, but unluckily not very po-
lite—is adequate to describe as it deserves this auda-
cious statement. President Buchanan has never
whispered one word about the perils of the ballot-
box. He has indeed spoken strongly, fiercely—with
the bitterness, as itseems to us, of a disappointed poll
titian rather than with the sorrow of an afflicted
patriot—of the increase of electoral corruption.
He has laid bare the sores of his country in the
sight of the world—he has• betrayed her shame to
make sport for the stranger. But in all the
unmeasured bitterness of his diatribe he has
breathed no syllable against the ballot box. It.
would be strange, indeed, if he had. The electoral
corruption which he deplores is the foul parasite
that is invariably found clinging round every
system of open voting. Where the ballot system
is loosely conducted it still thrives, though less
rankly ; where the ballot is maintained in its
integrity—where voting is, in fact as well as in
name, secret—it ultimately perishes for lack of
soil in which to root itself. Strange, therefore,
would it have been if President Buchanan, in his
anti-national Jeremiad over the electoral corruption
of a portion of his countrymen, had traced to the
only political institution by which that corruption
is at all likely to be diminished the germ of the
perils which beset American liberty. No : President
Buchanan has a great deal to answer for ; but it is

not he, but the Piffles, which is guilty of ascribing
the electoral corruptions of America to that system
of secret voting which the Americans themselves
cling to as the sole means for preventing thoso
corruptions from becoming intolerable.

COUNTRY MARKETS.