The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-13 00:00:00

TIIE BALLOT SOCIETY AND THE ELECTIONS

The weekly m3eting of the executive committee was
held on Tuesday, at the offices, 5, Guildhall-chambers;
Mr. Man in the chair. Mr. Bontems, Mr. Whitehurst, Mr.
Francis Clowes, Mr. B. T. Williams, Mr. Le Maitre, &c.,
were present. An address to the electors of Carlisle, for
circulation in that city, was agreed to, which contained the
following passage in reference to the Liberal candidate for
Carlisle :—" The committee of the Ballot Society rejoices to
bear testimony to the able, energetic, and long continued
support which their friend Mr. Edmund Potter, by his pen,
by his purse, and on the platform, has given to the cause of
the ballot, and the committee trusts that the triumphant
return of Mr. Potter will show that although the electors of
Carlisle tolerated Sir James Graham's opposition to the
ballot, on account of his eminent public services, no other
liberal candidate opposed to the ballot has any chance of
obtaining their suffrages." In reference to the Plymouth
election the committee agreed to the following resolution :
" This committee, on behalf of the society and the friends.of
the ballot generally, tenders its thanks to the electors of
Plymouth for returning, in the person of Mr. Walter Mor•
rison, a member thoroughly in favour of the ballot, and as
his speeches show, able to advocate that measure in the
House of Commons. And this committee trusts that the
recent victory at Plymouth is the forerunner of similar suc-
cesses at forthcoming elections, and the committee com-
mends the zealous and united labours of their friends at Ply-
mouth to the imitation of the supporters of the ballot at the
constituencies of Lincoln and Carlisle." The proceedings
to be taken in reference to the appointed conference with
Reform Associations, to be held this day, also engaged the
attention of the committee.
INCENDIARISM BY A SOLDIER.—The magistrates
in petty sessions at Colchester were on Monday engaged in
investigating a charge of arson against John W. M‘Grath,
drummer of the 88th (Connaught Rangers) Regiment,
stationed in Colchester Camp. On the night of the 30th of
October, about 9 o'clock, the alarm of fire was raised in the
camp, when it was discovered that some farm premises not
100 yards from the camp wall were in flames. There were
at the time in the barn and other outbuildings 12 fine cows,
4 very valuable cart-hordes, and 14') fat hogs, the whole of
the value of more than £l,OOO. By the timely arrival of the
fire-picket, mith three engines from the garrison, the flames
were subdued, end the whole of the stock was saved. Next
moaning the prisoner surrendered on his own confession of
haN:ng caused the fire; but when taken before the com-
manding officer he denied it, and, there being no evidence
to support the charge, he was returned to the ranks. On
Friday last, however, after a quarrel with some of the non-
commissioned officers, the prisoner rushed out of the camp,
surrendered to the police on the same charge, and described
the manner in which he caused the fire. The reason he
assigned for the wanton act was a desire to get out of his
regiment. This he repeated in a preliminary examination
before the mayor, but before the magistrates on Monday he
again denied the charge, and said he made the confession to
escape the consequences of a court-martial for a military
offence of which ho had been guilty. There was, however,
such a contradiction in his assertions that the Court deter-
mined to send the cass to another tribunal, and the prisoner,
whose character as a soldier is very bad, was accordingly
committed for trial at the next assizes.
A CHILD SHOT BY HIS BROTHER.—An inquest
has been held at Haney, Lincolnshire, before tho coroner
for the district, Mr. C. H. Holgate, upon view of the body
of Horatio Wright, aged four years, the son of Mr. John
Wm. Wright, farmer, who met with his death under very
melancholy circumstances. It appeared that on the 2d inst.
the father of deceased sent one of his sons for his gun
whilst working in one of his fields, and told his son Charles
to get a halfpenny worth of caps, which ho did, and took
them and the gun to his father. His father having a cap in
his pocket, allow d his son to keep those he had in his pos-
session, which was the cause of the fatal and distressing
occurrence. The father loaded the gun, but did not fire it
off, and he ultimately sent it home in a cart with his two
sons Charles and Thomas. The gun was placed in its usual
place in the sitting room, just over a table, and within reach
of any child four years of age. The old cap was also left on
the nipple. On the afternoon of the 3d inst. all the family,
except Thomas and the deceased, went to church, and whilst
the two boys were amusing themselves with rolling a cricket-
ball about the floor, Thomas found a cap. Then he thought
of the gun. He took it down, and fancying it had been fired
off, took the old cap off the nipple, and put on the one he
had picked up. He then pointed the gun at his brother's
face, pulled the trigger, and shot him dead. The jury re-
turned a verdict of " Accidental death."

ANOTHER CASE OF "KLEPTOMANIA."—On Satur-
day, an expensively-dressed young man, named George
Franklin, was charged, at Ashford, before W. P. Burra,
Esq., with stealing two halfcrowns from a box, by means of
skeleton keys. The prisoner and his wife occupied apart-
ments at Mr. Sewell's, New-street, Ashford, and in conse-
quence of money having been repeatedly missed, a police-
man was set to watch in a cupboard in the bedroom on
Saturday morning. He saw the prisoner came and take
the money out of a sum of £4, which was wrapped in paper
and kept in the box. All the money was marked. The
policeman jumped out of the cupboard and arrested him as

soon as the theft was committed, and his surprise and con-
fusion may be imagined. He was remanded. His friends,
it is said, occupy a very high position in society.—Sussex
Express.

DAYBREAK IN SIAM.—A day at Bangkok in fine
weather is a well-illustrated page of the country and the
people of Siam. It has been a sultry night, so sultry and
still that every ripple on the water has been clearly dis-
tinct ever since the moon went down, about a couple of
hours before daybreak. You are lying in that state of
torpor which is neither sleep nor wakefulness, and yet is a
compound of both, afraid to think, lest the very effort
should awake you. The disgusting cry of the tokay some-
where close over your head gradually subsides as the night
verges into morning, and you are just flattering yourself
upon the enjoyment of a couple of hours' wholesome sleep
in tl.e del,cious freshness of the early dawn, when a scuf-
fling and rustling about the rooms warn you that one or

more snakes have pursued some hapless frog int• a eta de

sac, and are meditating an early breakfaet. If you had any

doubts about this subject, they are soon dispelled by the
cries of the hapless frog and the angry squeaking of the
tame house rat (every house in Siam has a tame rat, which,
being taken young and carefully reared, grows to a groat

size and of prodigious strength, and °spells all other ver-
min of a like genus that offer to intrude upon the premises),
who likes not the proximity of such ugly customers, and

scampers up the bedpost for bettor protection. The possi-
bility of its being followed by some hungry snake induces

us to strike a match and light the candle, and in two seconds

afterwards the room is cleared of intruders. It is no use

hinking of any more sleep, for there comes those certain

harbingers of day, countless legions of noisy erows flying

overhead like black and impenetrable clouds, and bound from
the cocoa-nut tops where they roosted to the rice fields in
the interior, in search of early grubs. In half an hour's
time hence they will be back again with redoubled cawing,
and take up their regular positions for the day, spread all
over the city, and each individual crow bent upon commit-
ting a felony at the earliest available opportunity.-0/
burn's .A'eio Monthly Magazine.

As the greater part of the turpentine available
for commerce comes from the pine timber in the swamps of
North Carolina, a mercantile correspondent suggests that,
looking at the probability of the supply being interrupted
by the civil war, it would be a great advantage if any other
source could be pointed out whence it may be obtained. A
small quantity is imported from France which is procured
ibnethhaednienig,chobmopuerhraotoidveoafbunßodrandecaeux. , and the probability is
that there are may other parts of the world whence it might