The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-07 00:00:00

SINGULAR CASE OF SUSPECTED
FENTAIVISH.

At the Nottingham Borough Police-court, on Monday
morning, a decently dressed man, named Peter Ward_
roper, who said he was a ship-carpenter, coming from
Newcastle, was charged with loitering about for some
supposed unlawful purpose. It appeared that -Police-
constables Flavel and Luscombe were on special duty
at the gasworks in, Island-street, early on Sunday
morning. About two o'clock some one knocked at the
door, and on the watchman opening it, he found the
prisoner, who asked him some questions. Flavel then went
to the door, and prisoner wanted to know something of the
2.30 train that went to Sheffield. He stood looking at the
front gates of the works for some time, and he then walked
towards the Great Northern Station. The officers fol-
lowed him, and on seeing them he returned. He again
inquired about the train, and Flavel told him that was
ot the station for Sheffield. The man informed him
that he was staying with his aunt in Greyfriars-gate.
With that he went down Station-street, and the con-
stables again followed prisoner, who on reaching the
station door " took to his heels." They then lost sight
of him, and did not see him again until about four
o'clock, when they were near the railway bridge, and
Flavel asked him what he was doing. He made
no answer, and the officer told him he should charge
him with being there for an unlawful purpose. The
man appeared to be sober. Mr. Clayton (deputy-
clerk) asked if he was searched.--Flavel: Yes.—Mr.
Clayton.: Was any railway ticket found upon him? No.
—Mr. Cranch (who was for the defence) : What did you
find upon him ?—Witness : £lB 3s. Gd., :knife, &c.—Mr.
Cranch : Well,what is the unlawful purpose? WitneSs : Being
out at an untimely hour. I knew he was not a Nottingham
man.—Mr. Cranch : I suppoee you meant he was going to
blow up the gas works ? Witness :I do not know anything
about that.—Mr. Cranch : I suppose there was no one to rob ?
Witness : I could not tell whether there would be anybody
pass or not. —Mr. Cranch remarked that the prisoner was on a
visit to an aunt in the town, as he told the policeman.
He then called Mrs. Mary Ann Reed, who keeps a grocer's
shop in Greyfriars-gate. She said that Wardroper was
her nephew. She could account for the money he had,
by the fact that some property was left amongst three
of the family, and that was part of the division.—Mr.
Ball asked her if she had seen him before the police
brought him to her house. —Witness : No. He
came in by the half-past one mail train, and being a
stranger, he could not find his way..—Mr. Freeman (the
chief constable) said that they did not wish to make any
further complaint against the prisoner, but it was neces-
sary to watch strange persons walking about in the
night.—Mr. Ball, in discharging the man, observed that
the constables had done their duty in locking him up.
There was now a satisfactory account given, and he would
be liberated.

The Paris correspondent of the Times agrees with the
Constitutionnel in doubting whether the disquiet of the
public will be dissipated by the article, evidently inspired
by some official personage, which that journal published
repudiating the interpretation given in various quarters to
the words uttered by the Emperor at the receptions of the
new year. The Government tells the people that they
have nothing to fear, and that the best terms exist between
France and all foreign Powers, and yet it is thought neces-
sary to furnish an army consisting of 1,300,000 to 1,400,000
soldiers. The greater the certainty of peace the larger
the armaments, and it is exactly as the assurances of the
former are vehement that the latter are increased.
To relieve the distress of the starving inhabitants of
Eastern Prussia, a committee for the collection of volun-
tary contributions has been formed through the efforts of
the Crown Prince and Princess. The famine, which is
very severe, is the result of three bad harvests supera,thled
to the systematically impoverished condition produced by
the forty years' closing of the Russian frontier.
A correspondent of the Morning Herald draws a very
gloomy picture of the condition of Bavaria. Whereas
formerly there was no State in the whole German Con-
federation which was so happy and contented, now a
general and deep feeling of despondency prevails. One
reason is that her absorption by Prussia is admitted
to be only a matter of time ; another, that there exists
nothing like confidence in the King. It is an item of
common belief that with matters affecting his country and
his subjects his Majesty Louis 11. has little or no
sympathy. At the very moment when one of his Ministers
arrived at Berg with the intelligence that the Bavarians
had been engaged in a desperate fight with the Prussian
battalions, the King was engaged with his adjutant
rehearsing in costume the parts of two heroes of an old
German poem, and for a long time refused to see him.
Facts such as this the Bavarians are unable to forget, and
they now blurt out their opinions of the King's
heartlessness and neglect of duty with startling
distinctness. The desire that he should abdicate is not
attempted to be concealed, and is supplemented by the
significant expression " If he does not go we shall find a
means of setting him aside."
A ukase has been published by the Warsaw Official
Dziennik, in which the " kingdom of Poland " is desig-
nated the " Vistula Province."

It is stated that the gold mines of Nova Scotia are
among the most productive in the world. 'This year it is
anticipated that they will yield thirty thousand ounces.
The earnings of individual miners average as much as
£3OO per annum.
From January 1 to December 11 last year 235,411 emi-
grants reached New York, being 10,90 J more than during
the same period of the previous year.

The colonists at the Cape of Good Hope have petitioned
the Government not to withdraw the troops. The memo-
rial they have presented states that the expenditure neces-
sitated by the maintenance of English troops in the colony
is justified by expediency, and that the wars which have
arisen with the Kaffirs from time to time have not been
due to any greed for the acquisition of territory occupied
by the aborigines, but to the constant aggressions made by
the bofder tribes. At present the colonists enjoy peace,
but it is feared that the withdrawal of British troops
would be the signal for a new outbreak, with which the
inhabitants, unassisted by the ' Tome Government, would
be unable to cope.

The serious illness of Lord Justice Sir John halt is a
matter of very general regret. His unassuming manner,
his aptitude for business, his courtesy towards the mem-
bers of the bar, and his unquestionably able intellect,
combined to render him an excellent colleague of Lord
Cairns and a worthy successor of so profound a
lawyer and so eminent a judge as the late Lord
Justice Turner. Day after day, for weeks suc-
ceeding his appointment, his court was crowded by
those who admired the energy and the perseverance
which had enabled the errand-boy in a lawyer's office to
work his way to one of the most splendid positions on the
English bench. The nature of his lordship's illness is a
paralytic seizure, which affects his left side, but not his
mind or memory. There is, therefore, some reason to
hope that he may be restored to health, although he will
be compelled to abstain from duty for some time to come.
Hilary Term opens on Saturday, and according to the
terms of an Act passed last session, Lord Cairns can sit
alone and proceed to business as though both Lords Jus-
tices were present.

In noticing the report of the Caledonian Railway Corn.
mittee, the Edinburgh Courant states that the number of
Scotch railway bills before Parliament in the coming
session will be seven only. In 1866 there were fifty.
The Mark Lane Express looks hopefully at the prospects
of our growing crop of wheat, although it is, of course, too
soon to attempt any prognostications as to its ultimate
result. There never was a finer time for getting it into the
ground and for its subsequent, vegetation. If by any chance
the wheats shew any symptom of disease it may
probably arise from the attacks of, one of the
insect tribes, of which there are so many capable of
destroying the plant. The growth of the wheat should be
narrowly watched, and the stem and root of that which
appears to be diseased, examined. Some prophets of evil
have lately been predicting an insect-eaten harvest for
1868, but, as the Mark Lane rightly says, in the present
condition of the country it is very desirable no unnecessary
alarm should be raised at a time when, in fact, it is
impossible for the most competent judges to predicate with
any decree of certainty of the ultimate result.
THE FOltU OF A I{ AIL WAY COLLISION. —The
direct force of impact of such an engine as the Stephen.
son's express shewn at Paris travelling respectively at the
rates of 7i, 15, 30, and 60 miles an hour (88 feet a second)
would be the proportions of 3,630, 14,520, 58,080, and
232,320 foot tons, less a definite allowance in each case for
gravitation, or, as it would become in this case, friction,
according to the actual weight of the travelling engine.
In railway accidents we never see these terrific forces
exerted ; steam is shut off, and suction in the cylinders
induced, and brakes are put on ; or the blow is indirect ;
or the buffer-springs yield ; or in some way or other the
3noMent* IS seriously diminished before actual collision
!tikes place. '
COLLISION AT SEA.—On Friday the Dutch brig
Machtilda and Simmonette, Remners master, from the
South-West Coast of Africa for Rotterdam, with palm oil,
palm nuts, and ivory, arrived at Penzance much damaged,
having been:in collision off Mount's Bay with a schooner,
name unknown. The wind was blowing a strong gale at
the time. The Dutch brig had not been lohg out of dock
at Queenstown, where damages done to her in a collision
were repaired at a cost of £1,700.
SAVINGS BANKS FUNDS.—The accounts of the
National Debt Commissioners to the close of the year 1867
show that on the 28th of December the funds in their hands
belonging to the (trustee) savings banks of the United King-
dom amounted to £36,221,554, and the funds belonging to
the post-office savings banks amounted to £10,024,772.
The total, therefore, has now grown to the large amount
of £16,216,326.