The Sun.
London, England, 1845-03-21 00:00:00

MURDER AND SUICIDE.

MANCHESTER, THURSDAY.—A most distressing ease
of murder and suicide by the murderess, took place on
Tuesday, in the neighbourhood of Oldham-road, in th's
town. It appears that about half-past four o'clock in
the afternoon a neighbour called at the honse of the de-
ceased, whose husband is a respectable working-man,
named John Fairhurst, and finding the door locked, she
peepei through the keyhole and saw Mrs. Fairhurst
standing in the middle of the floor with the child in her
arms, and a long piece of rope.
.She opened the door,
and then threw the rope into the cupboard. After some
conversation the neighb:mr left her, and in about half
an hour afterr:ards a person who had occasion to call at
the house, opened the door and saw Mrs. Fairhurst
hanging by a piece of rope attached to a nail which had
been driven over the staircase. An alarm was instantly
made ; she was cut down and carried up stairs, and
upon the parties getting into the bed-room the infant
daughter of the deceased was seen hanging from the
tester rail of the bed. The
_infant was quite dead, al-
though warm.
No cause can be assigned for this shocking act, but it
is thought that the circumstance of the husband having
threatened to put the child out to nurse had preyed ul:K,n
the mind of the mother, who, it appears, determined
upon putting it to death, and then terminating her own
existence. An inquest was held upon the bodies yes-
terday.
Hannah Law•renson, sister of the deceased, said—The
deceased, Sarah Fairhurst, was the wife of John Fair-
hurst, maker up, cf Hampson-street. She was forty
years of age. The child's name was Elizabeth, and
she was fourteen months old on Monday. My sister
appeared during the last month to have changed in her
mind, and had been making complaints about her family.
About three weeks before she had been seen walking
round a coal-pit, as was supposed with the intention of
throwing herself in. Iler husband was in cmployintnt,
and she was not in want of anything. Her husband was
a kind husband to her, and the infant was her only
child. She was a passionate woman, and latterly has
been very desponding and low spirited. She had fre-
quently said that she had been an undutiful mother to
the child, but I do not believe tha►..
John Fairhurst stated that lie was a maker up. Oa
Monday morning be left home at eight o'clock, leaving
his wife and child at home. lie had never heard her
threaten to destroy herself, but had heard that she had
dune such a thing. Ile had occasion to speak about
taking the child from her if she did nut get better. She
overheard the conversation, and she bsgged that the
child 'night not be taken from her. Witness promised
that the child should obt be taken away, and she ap-
peared to get better. She was of a covetous disposition.
The CORONER said he thought there could be no
doubt that the deceased Sarah Fairhurst bad committed
the act while in a state of temporary insanity.
The jury returned a verdict accardingly.

Mr. A. J. Baker (Tresswell, M.P. for Northumber-
land. has just added to his extensive estates in that county
by the purchase of the large and beautiful estate of Elling-
ton, near Morpetb!

EXTRAORDINARY SOLAR
PHENOMENON.

The following letter, describing some remarkable
appearances of the sun, which have been recently ob-
served, recently appeared in a Morning Contempo-
rary
" write to inform you of a most extraor-
dinary phenomenon which has to-day been observed
at Cambridge ; and I do so because, although the
event.is one which must interest the scientific world
to a very high degree, yet the results of tile minute
observations made by the Plumian Professor will not
be completed for some days; and I thought that, in
the mean while, the results of my own observations
might not be unacceptable.
" The morning was beautifully fine and the sky
cloudless, if we except a few cirro-cumuli in the
S.S.E„ which appeared like thin pieces of white gauze
floating in the sky, scarcely a breath of air stirring,
About twenty-five minutes past ten my attention
was drawn to the sun, which, though apparently un-
clouded, seemed to shine with less than usual lustre,
and his rays appeared slightly tinged with green.
" I immediately put on the dark glass of my achro•
matic telescope, and with a power of about forty,
directed the instrument to the sun's centre. I here
saw distinctly a small dark spot, surrounded succes-
sively by violet, blue, green, yellow, orange, and red
rings, separated by comparatively dark rings, and be-
yond the exterior red ring the same recurred in the
same order, but the colours then were much more
faint, and at last hardly visible. This appearance in-
creased in intensity until five minutes past eleven,
after which the colours began to fade, and exactly at
twelve all trace of colour disappeared. However, I
cr ntinued my observetions, and soon found that the
phenomena had not concluded, for the colours now
began to return in a reversed order—i.e., at the sun's
centre was now a spot of purely wld'e light, and
each colour was replaced by its complementary one;
and, most astonishing to relate, this appearance of
the sun's disc increased in intensity of co'our until
five minutes before one, and then begal to fele,
vanishing completely at 35 minutes past two, af‘er
which every thing resumed its ordinary appearance,
and nothing more could be discerned unusual through-
out the day.
. .

'‘ A few- words respecting the causes of this extra-
ordinary phenomenon. It 'is well known that if two
convex lenses of small curvature be placed in con-
tact, and a pencil of sunlight be allowed to fall upon
them, that the appearance presented by the reflected
rays is that of a dark spot surrounded by coloured
rings, from blue to red ; and that the transmitted
light exhibits a bright spot surrounded by rings of
the complementary colours, which are commonly
known as ' Newton rings.'

" Now, if two thin films of vapour, extremely near
together, passed between the sun's disc and the eye
of an observer, the scientific reader will immediately
see that the transmitted rays might produce the ap-
pearance I have described as taking place after twelve
o'clock ; but to produce that observed before twelve,
the rays reflected from the earth by these two films
of vapour must have been again reflected by a third
film, and thus brought to the eye in a manner some-
what analogous to that in which the mock sun is
formed. As this third film moved away the pheno-
menon must vary, and at last disappear, and the sun's
transmitted rays now reaching the eye without any
reflection, would change the appearance to that ob-
served from twelve o'clock to half-past two.
"I cannot, however, yet explain why the periods
of maximum brightness should be equidistant from
noon, as I am at a loss to know what functions the
sun's hour angle the motions of these laminae of
vapour could be.
" The correctness of the above hypothesis is re-
markably confirmed by micrometical admeasure-
ments which I took off the angular magnitudes of the
red and violet rings. I found these to be nearly in
the ratio of 43 to 30—i. e., nearly in the
ratio of the square roots of the lengths of the un-
dulations corresponding to red and violet rays, which
is exactly what ought to be the case if my hypothesis
is correct.*

• " The colours in the spectrum before noon were
fainter than those observed afterwards; and some
light must be lost by the second- reflection : if my
hypothesis be correct, this is another remarkable con-
firmation of its truth. I have written the above in
great haste, which I hope you will excuse. •
"I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
" THEODOBE ELLIS.
" Trinity College, Cambridge,
Sunday, March 9." -•
* See Airy's "Mathematical Tracts," p. 296, last
edition, where it is proved that if 6 be the diameter of
any one of Newton's rings, and 2, the corresponding undu-
lation, that 6 2 varies as 2,, and a varies as lA, for dif-
ferent coloured revs.

V 1 u ILAN T POLICE
(From Young Englund.)

"Indeed, the watch ought to offend no man; and it is an
offence to stay a inan against his will."-Much Ado about
Nothing.
One of the most singular circumstances connected
- ; „v. t
examination Le ore the magistrates at Maryielloue o-
lice-office, on Tuesday. A police-constable, who bad
been previously examined, came forward to add some-
thing to his testimony which be had before omitted,
and which it appears was brought to his recollection by
a voluntary statement made by the prisoner Rocker to
another policeman in his cell, to the effect that he had
given a shilling to the constable in charge of the corpse
of Delarue.

A policeman finds an individual at a short distance
from the body of the murdered man ; this unknown man
" having a cloak very much muffled about his head," with
a most unaccountable spirit of benevolence offers to
treat - the policeman, that he had never spoken
to before, with a little brandy—yet the suspicions of the
amiable officer were not aroused The mysterious man
then took a shilling out of his pocket, and asked the po-
liceman to get some brandy with it. What did the con-
stable do?—arrest the man offering him money under such
circumstances? No. Baldock merely replied," I must not
take it. lam not allowed to do so." The stranger
pressed him again; and the vigilant functionary took the
shilling, and " had no further conversation with the man,
and did not see where or when lie left." All this seems
most unaccountable. It was plainly the duty of the
policeman to have detained, as a witness, the man
v,ho was in the neighbourhood when the
murder was committed ; and if he bad reasoned
fur a moment on the motives which could have
induced a strange man in such a place to offer him a
bribe, lie would certainly not have allowed him to walk
off without seeing where he went to, or when he left.
Yet the papers are constantly taking of the vigilance of
our police !

THE TRACTARIANS.
TO THE EDl7'Ol? OF THE SUN.

But,—Here and there, in general society, you meet with
men who say they think people arc exceedingly billy to dis-
turb themselves about the attempts of the Tractarians; that
their revival of obsolete observances is a matter of in-
difference ; and, in short, that we should dcPjust as well
under the Itomish as under the Protestant system.. I
would ask such men, if they ever travelled beyond
their own provincial frontier,—whether it ever occurred to
them to contrast, for instance, Ireland, with England, Italy.
with Holland, Bohemia with Prussia* the Catholic cantons
of-Switzerland with the Reformed ones? If they have tra-
velled; or even read books of travels with common attention,
they must have found that, while Protestant countries generally
present an aspect of comparativ prosperity and enlighten-
ment, the great masses of the people of those lands in which
the Roman Catholic religion is predominant, are sunk in
sloth, ignorance, superstition, poverty, and sensuality. This
appears to me a fact worth remarking, and I sap-44eware,
then, of the Tractarians, who assuredly would, if they could,
drag us back to medawal darkness, and make us the blind
slaves of a wily and arrogant priesthood.
I should add, that 1 have nothing whatever to say
against individual Roman Catholics. 1 am acquainted with
but few, and these are, I believe, estimable men.
I am, Sir, yours with much respect, •
Exeter, March 15, 1845. NOTATOR.

TILE WEATILER.—We arc delighted to state that a
great and favourable change has at last taken place.
This has been one of the finest days of the season.
The wind has left the east, where it has been
fixed for weeks, and it now blows a gentle breeze
from the west. The sun has shone all day with
great brightness, the temperature is mild, and the
barometer is nearly as high as it has been for the last
twelve months.

ERRATUM.—In the account published yesterday of
the estimated cost returns and net profits of the' rail-
ways from Paris to Lyons, and from Lyons to Avignon,
the sums were given in francs in place of pounds sterling.
THE FLEET PRISON.--,TheFleet Prison, in Far-
ringdon-strcet, which was purchased a short time ago
by the Corporation of the City of London, giving
25,000/. to her:Majesty's Government for the property,
is about to be disposed of by auction. The Wilding
covcrs nearly an acre of ground, and at various times
has had above 1,000 inmates in it. The prison included
wichin its walls the governor's house, the public kitchen,
the fair, the coffee-gallery, &e., &e., and it has beta
computed, upon actual measurement, that there are
nearly three millions of bricks, 50 tons of lead, 40 000
feet of paving, &c., &c. Application; have been made
fur the ground by some public companies.
DEs•rßucrtvE FIRE IN ESSEX.—Last night, shortly
before eight o'clock, a very destructive fire broke out
upon the extensive premises belonging to Mr. Doperoft,
lamp-black and colour manufacturer, situate at Strat-
ford, Essex, near Darrow-bridge. The flames, when
first perceived, were raging furiously in the lamp-black
factory, a building 70 feet long by 25 feet wide. The
stuck being of an easily ignitable cluiraeter. not many
minutes clap: e.! before the flames bloke through the
roof. With all speed intelligence of the outbreak was
furnisht d to the engine stations in town by a mounted
police-officer. During the time thus occupied, the inha-
bitants brought a private engine to the scene, but owing
to the firm hold the fire had already obtained, it at once
became apparent that nothing could prevent the entire
contents of the building from falling a prey to the fury
of the flames. Engines from Jeffrey and Well'clocc-
square stations were quick in arriving, and owing to the
exertions of the firemen and inhabitants the flames were
eventually extinguished—nut, however, until the whol
of the stock in the manufactory was consumed, and the
roof burned off. The origin of the &re
.has been traced
to the accidental ignition of some sfpirit, Unfortunately
BLr. lioperat is unpuured.