The Sun.
London, England, 1868-12-29 00:00:00

4 DETECTIVE OFFICER SHOT.

About half-past ten o'clock on Saturday evening last,
Police-detective James Kemp, of the Northampton
Constabulary Force, was shot in the public street at
Northampton by a man named Bridgewater. Kemp had
just left the police•station, and was proceeding home in
company with two young men, when on going past Vic-
toria-street his attention was attracted by a man whose
movements were somewhat suspicious. Kemp stopped
for a moment, and the man immediately called out,
"Keep back, or I'll shoot you." The detective thought
he was joking, and said he didn't want to be thought a
coward, so he advanced towards the man, who immediately
raised a double-barrel gun to his shoulder and deliberately
shot Kemp in the left breast, the distance between the two
at the time being only some ten yards. Kemp
staggered and fell to the ground, and ,the culprit
endeavoured to make his escape. He was, however,
pursued and taken into custody. The wounded man was
taken to the infirmary, where he now lies in a hopeless
state. The medical officers of the institution having ex-
pressed the opinion that he could not live, the Mayor
(Mr. M. Vernon) attended at the infirmary on Sunday
morning and took his depositions. The name of the
prisoner is William Bridgewater, a machinist, who
formerly resided at Northampton, but who for some
months past has been living at Wellingborough. The
man's family is a respectable one. His father
resides in Victoria-street, near the place where
the shot was fired, and the prisoner had come over to
spend the Christmas holidays. A quarrel had occurred
between his brother and himself, and shortly before
Kemp was shot the prisoner went to his father's house
and attempted to shoot his brother by firing at him
through the bedroom window, happily without effect.
Kemp, who is a young man about 34 years of age, was
formerly in the Birmingham constabulary, when he
exchanged into the Northampton force on account of his
wife's health. He was one of the most active and efficient
officers of the force. The prisoner was brought before
the borough magistrates on Monday morning, and the
dying man's deposition was read over. Mr. Keenan, the
chief constable of the borough, applied for a remand until
Wednesday, and stated that Kemp was sinking fast, and
there was no doubt that when the prisoner next came
before them it would be on a charge of wilful murder.
Prisoner was remanded accordingly. Kemp has a wife
and two children, and a mother over seventy years of age,
who is partially dependent on him. It is stated that the
prisoner knew Kemp, and therefore it has been inferred
that he may have thought the detective was coming to
apprehend him on the charge of shooting at his brother,
and that to avoid apprehension he committed the dread-
ful deed.

The vacancy on the Board of Inland Revenue
caused by the death of Mr. J. Disraeli will not be fille d
up, the appointment having been abolished.

The effects of the storm at Wick have been greatly
exaggerated. Messrs. Stevenson have now ascertained
that the damage to the masonry of the breakwater will not
exceed £4,000.

As erroneous statements have appeared in
print as to what the election judges have determined on
with reference to particulars in cases of petitions alleging
corrupt practices, we may state that what the three
election judges for England have agreed upon is, as to
such petitions as are fixed for trial, to require that the
particulars which used to be given in on the opening of the
case should be sent in three days before trial ; but this
is not to exclude cases coming to the petitioner's know-
ledge later and up to the conclusion of the trial. The
judges have not made a fixed rule on this matter, but
propose to try the effect of the three days' notice, and may
revert to the old practice if they find the effect of this
notice bear hardly on respondents.

THE SIAMESE TWINS.—A Scotch paper says :
"The object which Chang and Eng, otherwise known as
the Siamese twins, had in view in visiting Edinburgh was
to obtain the advice of Professor Syme as to the advisabilty
of severing the intercommunicating band by which they
have been so long held together. On Wednesday morning
Chang and Eng, waited on Professor Syme at the university
for this purpose. After a careful examination, Pi ofessor
Syme was strongly of opinion that such an operation
would prove highly dangerous to their lives, and ac-
cordingly advised that the operation should not be
performed. Fir James Y. Simpson, Burt., also entertains
the same view, and the opinions of the two learned pro-
fessors may, we think, be taken as conclusive evidence on
this hitherto debated point. It is intended, however, to
take the opinion of a Paris professor on the subject; but
doubtless the opinions of the two northern professors will
have considerable weight with the twin brothers in what-
ever course they may ultimately adopt."
Facts are multiplying in disproof of the late Pro-
fessor Edward Forbes's theory that the depths of the
ocean would be found devoid of life and colour. More than
fifty years ago General Sabine witnessed the bringing up
of a living star-fish of large size from a depth of 800
fathoms in Baffin's Bay, and since then other evidence,
similar in kind, has been brought forward by Dr. Wallich
and other investigators. The latest facts bearing on the
question, gathered by Dr. Carpenter and Dr. Wyville
Thomson, were laid before the Royal Society last week,
when Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys stated in confirmation that
shells brought up from the deepest dredgings, off the
Shetlands, were as brightly coloured as those found in
shallow waters. It appears, indeed, that, so far from
being lifeless, the deep-sea bottom teems with animal life
and with creatures of a very remarkable kind, some of
which connect long-past geological periods with the geo-
logical action going on in our own time. The high im-
portance of this fact will be manifest to all who have
studied the question frdm a scientific point of view. And
now fresh corroboration comes from abroad. The sound-
ings and dredgings under the United States Coast Survey
were resumed last year ; and though, through interrup.
tion by yellow fever, the season was but a short one, the
fact was clearly ascertained that, in the sea between Key
West and Havana, " animal life exists at great depths in
as great diversity and as great an abundance in shallow
water." And in the exploration in the present year the
dredge brought up, from a depth of M 7 fathoms, "a
very handsome Mopsea, a crab, an Ophiurian, and some
annelids."—Athentrum.

SUICIDE OF AN ACTRESS. —The Melbourne
journals record the suicide of a young lady named Mae;
who was born in Malines, Belgium, in 1848. Four years
ago her widowed mother, who was an Englishwoman, and
her daughter lived together in Melbourne, in poor circum-
stances. The daughter, impatient of poverty, and being
accomplished, commenced as a governess ; but the tedium
of such a life soon disgusted her, and she eventually entered
upon a theatrical career. After performing with great suc-
cess in secondary parts, she failed to get an engagement for
" leading " characters, and her wayward ambition pre-
vented her from taking anything less. Her private life
would not bear rigid examination ; in religious matters
she professed to be an atheist, and in social life her course
was made eccentric by her strange characteristics. Some
months since she attempted to kill herself with laudanum ;
but she recovered, and for some time all seemed
well again. But she was determined to do away
with her life, and on Friday, October 23, her affairs being
settled, she poisoned herself, having bought the poison two
days previously. She left several notes to her friends, in
one of which she expressed a desire that both her own and
her stage name (Mademoiselle St. Denis) should be placed
on her grave, with these lines :—" One who lov'd not
wisely, hut too well."—Othello (Shaksperc). Act V. ; Last
Scene." The jury returned a verdict of felo de se. She
entreated that she should not be thought " mad," and
declared that she could not live without " him," meaning
a certain married man whose name had been improperly
associated witkherswik