The Sun.
London, England, 1857-04-22 00:00:00

AN INTERESTING TICLET-OF-LEATE lAN.

The following tale of crime ranks in romance with the
wildest passages from the records of ticket-of-leavism. A.
man, named Carter, who was sentenced to transporta-
tion a few years ago, made his appearance near Carlow
a short time back on a ticket of leave. He was' not
long at large until his incurable propensity to crime
became manifest. On Saturday last he attacked
an elderly gentleman, named Fennell, at Ross.
more, iu the Queen's county, under the following
circumstances :—" On the previous night the heart-
less wretch solicited a night's lodging from Mr.
Fennell, which was kindly granted. He was given his
breakfast in the morning, after which (having seen Mr.
Fennell go about his farm), he seized a spade; an
having closed over the kitchen door, threatened to knock
the brains out of the servant boy and girl if they did net
tell him where Mr. Fennell's money was. The girl
screamed violently, but this only made the rascal re-
double h►s threat. The servant boy took down a gun
and presented it at him ; this soon made the scoundr,
o:ecainp, but uufortuately he met Mr. Fennell and re•-
newed his demand for money ; it not being granted, he
gave the unfortunate man a blow on the side of the head
with the spade, and then made off. Bambrick, the ser-
vant boy, pursued him, and after a chase of two miles,
succeeded in securing him, and gave him in charge to some
of the Graigue police. Mr. Fennell's life is despaired of.
The fellow maintains the completebt imperturbability.
He considered transportation heretofore a very agree-
able punishment, for it was, he alleged, the custom of
the ` benevolent' authorities, when a convict grew thin,
to weigh him, and if found lighter in weight than when
he entered on his confinement, his dietary was increase.l
until he was brought up (or fed) to the required standard ;
but so much attention was not now paid to this most
' ' Christian rule,' under the regulations connected with
penal servitude. Carter's career is briefly told. Some
years since he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to
transportation for a robbery committed on Fennell, the
identical .victim of this last outrage. On obtaining his
ticket of leave, he returned to Carlow, and enlisted in
the Carlow militia ; but on the disembodiment of that
corps he had recourse to his old habits of gaining a die.
honest livelihood, and is again within the meshes of the
law."

We understand that the project recently organised for
the establishment of a National Bank of Turkey, and
represented in Constantinople by the Messrs. Welkin,
having virtually fallen to the ground, fresh combina-
tions are in course of arrangement amongst English
capitalists interested in the progress of financial affairs
in Turkey. The object is the elaboration of a plan which,
whilst remedying the glaring defects and abuses of the
Turkish monetary system, shall at the same time insure
a remunerative result to the shareholders.
FIRST TRIAL OF WIL DRAY AND CO.'S PATENT PRIM*
CHAMPION REAPING MACHINE IN NEW ZEALAND.—The
farming settlers of this province will be glad to hear tba
a very successful trial of the Messrs. Dray's improved
reaping machine has been made by Major Nixon, on hts
farm at Mangarei. It was tried on various kinds of
ground, broken as well as level ; and in all cases the trial
was relatively satisfactory. These machines are espe-
cially of importance to a young country, where labour is
not only scarce, but often not to be obtained at any
price ; and we think Major Nixon is entitled to the
thanks of his brother settlers for trying an experiment
which proves the practical utility of this reaping machine,
by the aid of which five men are enabled to get through
as much work as it would otherwise take twenty to 4e-
oompbsh.—Extract from the " New Zealander," of Jan.
17, 1857.
STRIPPING CHILDREN OF THEIR CEOTLlES.—Consithm-
able excitement has been caused in the neighbourhood of
Deptford, and Gravel-lane, Southwark, by a rumour
that two children of tender age, the one five and a half
years, and the other younger, had been discovered
immersed in a filthy ditch, where it was apprehended
they had been cruelly exposed to perish ; and the report
got credence from the statement that their bodies were
houndtogether with the apparent intention of rendering
them helpless. Upon inquirer we discovered that the
report was correct in some respects, but somewhat exag-
gerated. It appears that a young man, son of a carpen-
ter, who works for Mr. Gabb, the newly-appointed go-
vernor of the Licensed Victuallers' Incorporated Society,
in passing by a lonely place in the neighbourhood of the
Deptford station of the London and Brighton Railway,
on Sunday last, was attracted by the cries of children ;
and led by the circumstance to the place whence the casts
issued, he discovered the two children in a piteous state.
They wept bitterly, and with the assistance of the pol'oe
they were conveyed to the Millpond-bridge police station,
Rotherhitbe. The account of Sergeant Baker, of the
M division of police, is that the little ones, in answer to
his questions, stated that they had been coaxed by a
woman from their parents' doors, in Great Guildford.
street, Southwark, to accompany her to a place whore
she would give them "peppermint " and "sweet, ;e.
that she led them to the place where they w„re
discovered, and there stripped ono of them of leer
frock and boots, and the other of h
th her bonnet and shoes.
She then deserted them, and ey were found di-
vested of those articles ; but not tied together as ru-
moured. Sergeant Baker furthered ascertained fr,
one of them that she eras the daughter of a martin
polisher, living at 17, Great Gudfiford-street, Southwark,
and upon inquiry found thelittle one's statement to be cor-
rect. The children, who are surprisingly sharp and intel-
ligent for their tender years, describe their kidnapper as
" Big Elizabeth ;" but the police have not yet been able
to trace her by that description. The offence—a most
serious one—is now becoming very common, and such
occurrences ought to act as a warning to parents to look
sharply after their children, and thus save them flout
the danger to which they are exposed in being decoyed
away and stripped of their little articles of dress, by
loose and unprincipled women.