The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-29 00:00:00

NO EPSOM DERBY FOR 1869.

" Vigilant " of the Sportsman states "on excellent
authority" that there is just a chance that there will be
no Epsom Derby for the next two years. He says :—"lt
appears that all that part of the Derby course which
extends from Tattenham Corner to the furzes, near the
starting-post for the City and Suburban, is included in the
Six Mile Hill purchased from Mr. Carew by Mr. Studd.
This portion was let by Mr. Carew to the proprietors of
the Grand Stand on a yearly tenancy at £3OO a year. Mr.
Studd, who came into possession of the property last
November, would not renew these terms, but offered to
give a twenty years' lease of the property at £l,OOO per
annum. This proposal the Grand Stand Committee stig-
matised as extortion, and they at once proceeded to lay out
a new course. It has now been found that this new course
cannot be made available unless the Grand Stand is
removed, angl even then there would necessarily be such
a dangerous curve beyond Tattenham Corner as no pru-
dent jockey would risk his neck over. The committee of
management are thus left in a rare quandary, for although
they have not come to any terms with Mr. Studd, they
have advertised that the races will be run over his pro-
perty as heretofore ; and this has so incensed him that he
now declares that they shall not hold any races on his
grounds, no matter what terms they may offer; and
therefore for the present proceedings are at a dead-lock.
Should Mr. Studd remain obdurate, all the entries will
have to be cancelled, and the nominations would be void if
the race were to be run on any other than the advertised
course, the conditions expressly saying, ' the last mile and
a half to be run on the new course."'

NARROW ESCAPE OF BISHOP SELWYN.

The Bishop of Lichfield has narrowly escaped ship-
wreck. He arrived at New Zealand on the 18th of
August, and left for the Auckland diocese in the
steamer Taranaki. Soon after entering Queen
Charlotte's Sound she struck on a rock, lost her
propeller in forging off, and began to make water rapidly.
The boats were got out, the passengers (of whom there were
nearly 150) were landed on the nearest shore, and the mails
also, while nearly all the baggage was obliged to be aban-
doned. With his characteristic energy, the Bishop, accom-
panied by his son and Lord Burghley, took one of the
boats to sound for a shoal known to be close by, but the
crew, being unable through the strength of the tide to
tow the vessel to it, the Taranaki drifted further up and
sank in ten fathoms, with little hope of raising her. A
large number of the passengers first landed, including
most of the ladies and children, were obliged to remain on
the side of the steep mountainous banks of the Sound all
night, under the commissariat charge of the Bishop ;
others were fortunate in being able to get to one of the
two or three scattered houses belonging to settlers
there, it being twenty miles to Picton by water, and next
to impossible to reach that town by land. A steamer was
sent to their help next morning from Wellington on the
disaster being telegraphed, and without further accident
the whole of the passengers were taken on to their original
destination, special thanksgiving services being held at
Nelson, where the .Airedale called on her way, and also at
Auckland.

THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF

PRINCE ALFRED.

Some details are supplied by Mr. George Ferrers
Pickering, member of the New South Wales Parliament
for the Northern Gold-fields, as to the discovery in Sydney of
a conspiracy to assassinate Prince Alfred. Mr. Pickering, in
the course of a letter to the Liverpool 2lercury, says : " I
am in a position to say that the Government was
in possession of information implicating some
fifteen or twenty persons as having conspired agains
the life of the Duke of Edinburgh, a very few weeks
after the atrocious attempt was made. The Government
had proclaimed a reward of £l,OOO for information leading
to the conviction of any person or persons accessory to the
deed, and it was communicated to me that such an
organisation existed. I made inquiry, and ascer-
tained such to be the fact, and that overtures had
been made to the Government by an ex-officer of the Vic-
torian police to surprise these persons at th.eiL house of meet-
ing—a public-house in Sydney. The rumour spreading, I
conceived it to be my duty in my place in Parliament to
put the question to the Colonial Secretary (Mr. Parkes),
who on the part of himself and his colleagues disavowed
any knowledge of the subject to which I referred. I
immediately moved the adjournment
,of the House
for the purpose of expressing my dissatisfaction at
the answer given, and plainly stated that the Colonial
Secretary was in possession of certain information
relative-to a Fenian conspiracy, and•that he had already
accorded several interviews to the persons I have above
alluded to, who had volunteered to denounce the con-
spirators for the sum of £5OO, only to be paid on_conviction
of one or more. The Colonial Secretary still disclaiming
all knowledge of the matter, it was allowed to drop; but
lam perfectly satisfied that he was in possession of the
same, or a portion of the same evidence, as he now
admittedly is, at the latter end of March. I shall look
forward with much interest to the explanations promised
to Parliament, which was to have met on the 15th Sep-
tember. I can only attribute the denial of the Colonial
Secretary to a disinclination, in the then excited state of
the public mind, to reveal all that had been communicated
to him."

A statement has been going the round of the
newspapers to the effect that the Rev. W. M. Punshon, the
well-known Wesleyan preacher, has been refused per-
mission to become president of the Canadian
Church, and that his name has been dropped from the "legal
hundred" in consequence of his having married his deceased
wife's sister. The Rev. James Clapham writes to the
Liverpool Courier to say that the paragraph is amisstatement
from first to last.

The quarrel between Mr. Bazley and Mr. Mitchell
Henry, the Liberal candidates for Manchester, has become
very warm indeed. Mr. Bazley has given Mr Mitchell
Henry the lie direct as to the interview, in which it is
alleged Mr. Bazley proposed that he should put
up for a county. On the other hand, the chairman
of Mr. Henry's committee (in that gentleman's absence),
says the story told by him in the letter is the same that he
gave to his committee immediately after the interview in
question.

The following anecdote is told of Lord Brougham.
While pleading one day before the Court of Queen's Bench
the judges appeared but ill pleased at the arguments
brought forward. At lunch time Lord B. left the court
for a few moments, and remarked to a friend that he had
just swallowed two pints of porter. "Porter," remarked
the other, "my dear Brougham, that will make you
stupid." " Stupid," replied his lordship, on seeing the
judges returning to their seats, " well, so much the better,
for now I can argue with those gentlemen."

MOON-BLINDNESS.—It has been observed that on
moonlit nights the eyes are apt to suffer in a peculiar way,
which has occasionally brought on temporary blindness.
This was ascribed to the moon's influence, and the term
moon-blindness has therefore been given to the affection.
In reality, the moon has no more to do with this form
of blindness than the stars have to do with the formation
of dew. The absence of clouds from the air is the true
cause of the mischief. There 'is no sufficient check to the
radiation of heat from the eyeballs, and the consequent
chill results in temporary loss of sight, and sometimes even
in permanent injury.—Chambers's Journal.

EXTRAORDINARY OCEAN WAVE AND EARTH-
QUAKES.—From north to south of New Zealand a curious
tidal phenomena was observed on Saturday, the 15th
August. The sea rushed out and in with extraordinary
violence, and in some places in the South Island great
damage was done from the sea going far over the usual
high-water mark. The schooner Rifleman, which arrived
at Dunedin on August 28, from the Chatham Islands,
brings sad news. These islands have been visited
by three tidal waves, causing great loss of life
and property. The settlement of Tupunga, on the
north side of the island, felt the greatest force. It was
entirely destroyed—no mark being left to tell where it
stood. The ground was completely covered with sand
and seaweed. The inhabitants barely escaped with their
lives. The sea went inland about four miles. Along the
coast a house and its contents, belonging to Mr. Hay,
sheep farmer, were carried bodily out to sea. Some
Ivlaories, in trying to save the boat which was being
carried out to sea, were drowned. The settlement of
Waitangi sustained great loss. Houses were shifted And
carried out to sea.