The Sun.
London, England, 1826-10-23 00:00:00

MONDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 23, 1826.

THE ROYAL SOCIETY.

(From the John Bull.)
At a time when the rage for new institutions, new col-
leges, and new societies for enlightening the rising genera-
tion is so hot and violent, our attention has been repeat-
edly called to the quackery and mismanagement of the
Royal Society; which should be truly, as it is nominally,
the first scientific body in the country—it is, in fact, the
only accredited representative of the national talent—the
only body to which eminent strangers are recommended
and introduced.' Any body who will take the trouble to
attend its meetings and witness its proceedings will very
soon be convinced that under its present management it is
as likely to exalt the national character in the eye of scien-
tific strangers for its wisdom and talent, as to excite their
admiration of its grace and dignity.
In the midst of all the difficulties with which the Royal
Society is threatened, and even encumbered, charges of
ignorance and inability are made against its Presi-
dent by Mr. Herapatli, who seems determined, us the
boys say, to " have it out" with Sir Humphry. The fol-
lowing letter appeared, on 'Friday in 'the Times, and all )r
contains matter which if answerable, must be answered,
(at least in all other societies it Would be inevitable), we
subjoin it, desirous of putting the learned combatants in the
field of discussion fairly and openly before the public.
That Sir Humphrey Davy is a man of resplendent genius
—a giant of ability in his line, no one can doubt; but we
always took leave to doubt, as indeed have many other
much wiser persons, his competence to fill the chair of the
Royal Society. To describe the necessary qualifications
for that office would be invidious, since it would imply that
the present President did not possess them; what sur-
prises us is, that the following letter shows, not a want of
consequence or dignity in the President, but a shyness of
discussion in the Philosopher:—

" TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES.

. .
4 SlR—Having discoiered the way in which Sir H.
Davy mid his friends endeavour to conceal their inability to
meet the challenges they have drawn on themselves, I trust
you will allow me to say a few words on the subject. It
seems these individuals, agreeably to their favourite system
of whispering, where it would be dangerous to speak out,
are propagating reports that the course I am taking is
new and unusual; altogether without precedent, and there-
fore beneath their notice. Now I shall not spend time
in showing, in general terms, that where justice cannot
be obtained, the ability of scientific men is, like the
sword of soldiers, the weapon to which they appeal ;
but I shall cite a few facts. They will at once prove,
that the most eminent men have given public challenges
by problems, whenever the object was to try the
strength of the scientific world, to secure the honours of a
discovery, or to foil an enemy; and that they have
always been accepted. But what is still better, I shall
have to cite a case exactly in point with mine, in which
the President and Royal Society have been publicly chal-
lenged by a gentleman, who considered himself injured by
them. I shall have, however to add, that the illustrious
man who then occupied the chair of the Society, did not
plead dignity for avoiding the challenge, or what then
'really was the case, the want of precedent; but he did
what every man of sterling talent would do—he accepted
and answered the problem. Afterwards I shall take a
course which will soon decidedly convince the world,
whether it is this affected dignity, or absolute and positive
inability, which puts the lock of silence on Sir Iluinplirey
and his friends.

" In 1658, Pascal published defiances to the mathema-
tical world, for the purpose of trying its strength, or of
securing to himself some discoveries relative to the cy-
cloid.* They were partially answered by Dr. Wallis La-
laure, &c. About the same period Fermat defied all the
mathematicians of Europe with some problems in the
theory of numbers,t which were answered in part by Wal-
lis. The latter end of the 17th century witnessed the
extraordinary controversy of the two Bernouillis,' John
and James, two brothers, who, in consequence of some
difference, publicly challenged each other. John Ber-
nouilli having comprehended the mathematicians of Europe
in one of his problems, the two great rivals, Newton and
Leibnits, answered it.t

" On Pascal's challenges 40 and 20 pistoles were staked;
and on one of the Bernouillis a sum of money was placed,
but I forget the amount.
" When Newton and Leibnitz had by their partizans
long disputed for the honour of the discovery of fluxions,
the latter complained to the Royal Society, of injustice
done him by Dr. Keil, one of Newton's advocates. On
this the Society appointed a committee to examine into
the pretensions of the illustrious claimants. The. decision
being injutions to the honour of Leibnitz, he determined
to foil the skill of Newton, the president 11, and the obnoxi-
ous Royal Society, and thereupon publicly propoSed to
them, by way of challenge to the English, his problem of
the trajectories. Newton, then 73 years old, and in the
height of his celebrity, received, accepted, and answered
this challenge the same night. Such was the president,
and such his conduct, in 1715.

" From these facts I leave every candid mind to draw
its conclusions respecting the propriety of my conduct, and
the cause of that pursued by Sir H. Davy and his friends.
That, however, I may put it to the test, and prove to the
world that the plea of dignity is a mere subterfuge in these
individuals to escape what they have not ability to encoun-
ter, I now invite all the mathematicians in Europe to try
their skill on the solution of either one of the problems I
have proposed to Sir H. Davy and the Royal Society, in
your paper of January 10, and July 1, 1826; and if any
gentleman feels disposed to try either of them, I will,
within one month from this time, enter into a contract to
pay him, if he succeed before the Ist of February, 1827,
SOU, provided he engage to pay me the same sum if be
fail. Sir Humphrey will see the advantage I have now
given to private dealing. If the dignity of the Royal So-
ciety would really be lowered in a collision with me, it now
need not; but if this dignity be, as I hesitate.not to say it
is, a subterfuge to hide incompetence, Sir Humphrey must
exercise his ingenuity to prevent the truth from appearing.
" I ought to add, there is one thing more which operates
to keep my opponents in silence. The President knows
he has treated me ill—exceedingly ill—and that in this
treatment, he has also acted in opposition to the duties of
his office, and injured the interests 'of the public. He is,
therefore, most anxiously solicitous to prevent inquiry.
He
thus,
ey_.
treated,eseta
voted
calculates, that if he can suppress public feeling for a
short time, I shall exhaust myself, and things will die away.
inijvihiroe thhasem in
pritelloitnignstlhmispurbesliecarrailelaatllory
de-
Progress f d• againstone
maanonthteor
the Royal Society,
0 discover ; how long
regardie„
hii life to the advancement of their interests in the
- of their character, of justice, and of feeling, wilt
suffer thenlisel e
their P'resident's . v'
s
mathem • ent s private animosity; how long the
or .
mathematical to be made the tools. of avenging
andphilosophical world will quietly sub-
mit to see a
Hutton's .Itirantei member r:if their body
thus oppressed
by a mere chemical experimentalist, I can-
'"—
t,
articles ' Cycloid and ritigid Dictionary, and Rees a
t a Ludlam's Ruch meal.'
Fryer, p. SM. by
meats of Mathematics, sth Edition,
t a Hutton's Mathernati
Woodhouse's hop.. Problems.
'Cycloid,'
Dictionary, ar tido
II ,", Hutton's Alathernatiea
l
I Newton.'"Dictionary, articles ' Keil and

not, of course, be expected to determine; but I beg to ob-
serve that Sir Humphrey was never more in error in his
life—not even in his ' ships' copper-protectors'—than in
supposing that I shall exhaust myself. The sequel will
demonstrate this to him, and with not more truth, but
with greater propriety than I can tell him.
I am, Sir, your obedient humble servant,
"Cranford, Oct. 17. ,4 JOHN HERAPATH."

THE MURDERS NEAR LEATHERHEAD.

On Wednesday last, it will be recollected that Hall, the
chief constable, and Pople, set out for Maidstone, in con-
sequence of information having been received,, that Mary
Ayres, the grand-daughter of the old man Akehurst, and
her paramour, had been seen in that part of the country
immediately subsequent to the murders. On the officers'
arrival at Eltham, they met with an encampment of Gip-
sies, from whom they learned some particulars respecting
the parties of whom they were in pursuit. The Gipsies
deseritred the person of Mary Ayres and her paramour
very accurately; the latter,' they said, was a middle-sized
man, very stout, and his face deeply scarred with the small-
pox; the last time they had seen him he was dressed in a
smockfrock and velveteen trousers.
,He went by the nick-
name of " Cobbler Bill;" was a shoemaker by trade; but
his real name was Wm. Page. At the above encampment
they also ascertained, that "Cobbler Bill" was wanted at
Manchester, for horse-stealing. The officers -then cut
across the country to Bromley, and from thence to.Becken-
ham, into Surrey ; visiting Croydon, ileddintorigershat, I
ton, Salton, Cheam, and the whole extent of that county,
without, however,. meeting with the parties whom they
were in pursuit of. At Esher they came up with several
trampers, all of whom said that they knew Mary Ayres
and " Cobbler Bill," but that they had not seen them for
'some time before Leatherhead fair. In the course of their
journey, on arriving at Ewell, a woman named Lucas, who
resides in that town, communicated to them that she had
seen Mary Ayres a few days prior to Leatherhead fair,
but whither she was gone, or what direction she had taken,
could not be ascertained, and on Saturday morning the
officers returned to town, after an unsuccessful pursuit of
I four days after the fugitives.
Subsequent to the examination of the premises, after the
perpetration of the murders, the police-officers, it will be
remembered, did not discover any money secreted in the
cottage. Since that search took place, however, 21 guineas
have been found in a place of concealment that was little
expected. Mr. Hankey, the magistrate, all along conceiv-
ing that the poor old man had hidden a little treasure in
the house, did not feel satisfied with the search that had
previously taken place, and accordingly commenced one
himself on Thursday last, and succeeded in hunting out
the above sum in gold. After having diligently rummaged
all the crevices and places in the rooms above and below
stairs, Mr. Hankey went into a small pantry, where the
old people used to keep their stock of victuals. In thi3
place he observed an old churn, that had not, apparently
been in use for years, and on taking off the top, and look-
ing into it, lie perceived a part of an old silk stocking.
On taking it up, the stocking was covered with cobwebs,
and feeling heavy, on turning it inside out, the guineas,
that in all probability had been there for years, rolled out.
It is a curious circumstance, that when Pople, the officer,
searched the pockets of Elizabeth Haines,the housekeeper,
on the morning after the murders were perpetrated, he din-
' covered in one of them the remaining half of the silk
stocking, which, it appeared, she actually kept her money
in, but was, empty on that occasion.

The Rev. Mr. Bolland was at Union-hall yesterday,
where he attended for the purpose of being present at an
examination of a man named Jones, who was apprehended
on Saturday last, on suspicion of having been implicated
in the murders at Fetcham. It, however, turned out that
lie was perfectly innocent of that charge ; but, in the course
abis examination it was discovered that. he had robbed a
man named Ball, at Leatherhead fair, part of the property
having been found on his person. Yesterday, the charge.
being fully proved, he was committed for trial.

Pl?RT11BR TARTICULARN.

Red Lion Tavern, Leatherhead, Saturday evening.
The Magistrates have been actively employed in the
examination of persons, against some of whom much sus-
picion had been expressed by many of the inhabitants of
Fetcham, and more particularly against a man named Ben-
nett. Mr. Williams, the Rev. Mr. Bolland, and the Baron
de Tessier, arrived before noon, this day, at the Lion
Tavern, Leatherhead. Bennett, his wife, and & daughter
of theirs, about 11 years of age, with two young men,
John and Thomas Brown, the sons of Mrs. Bennett by a
former husband, were in attendance. It appears that John
Brown is in the service of two maiden ladies, named Pick-
ering, who reside about &mile distant from the cottage of
Akehurst. The old man was very much attached to him,
and he was in the habit of visiting the cottage almost
daily. Mrs. Haines was his godmother, and she always
evinced a strong partiality for John Brown. About three
weeks ago, when he called at the cottage, he was told by
Haines, that old Master Akehurst was very ill, and she did
not think he would survive long. He (John Brown).
said to Mrs. Haines, " Well, I hope you have taken care
of yourself," meaning that she had been able to save a
little money to support herself after the old man's death.
Mrs. Haines nodded a kind of assent, but made no
other answer. On Thursday last, John Brown went
to the cottage, and said that he was sure the old woman
had concealed some money in some part of the house and
at the request of Mrs. Ayres, Akehurst's daughter, he
commenced a strict search. On removing some lumber
and rubbish, which were in the wash-house, adjoining one
of the kitchens, an old churn was discovered. On is being
removed from the place where it had in all probability
been standing for a very long period, a jingling noise was
heard. John Brown exclaimed, " Here is money." On
taking off the lid and examining the inside, ten guineas
were found in a piece of an old silk glove or stocking.—
Old Mrs. Ayres was quite overjoyed at the discovery, and
she and John Brown proceeded further in their search.—
On a shelf, covered with dirt and cobwebs, they disco-
vered a sort of tun-dish, in the funnel of which they
found eleven guineas. It is believed that. this money was
secreted by Mrs., Haines. The circumstance of John
Browncaused many of the neighbours
toblvefirlyld- ii7ib the moneytheireralin— remarks--some of them ob-
serving, " those who hide can find." The Magistrates
were ansious to give the young men (John and Thomas
Brown)
%Hand went to the house
a full opportunity of exculpating themselves.
Yesterday the Rev. Mr.
where John Brown lived, and searched his boxes, but
found nothing whatever to implicate him in the murder.—
The Magistrates afterwards interrogated both John and
Thomas :Brown, anti expressed to them their entire con-
viction of their innocence.
Elizabeth Bennett, the girl, •was then exarnined—She
had stated, on a previous day, that her 'father and mother,
who lived in the cottage near to Akehurst, were up nearly,
all the night of the murder, and other circumstances tend-
ing to criminate them. • Since her last examination, she
had been evidently intimidated, and we doubt whether it
of
thoef public
-rhl,ou Bennett,se and her
wasboth father, slaot.tidonanad form
fre-
quent
n
was politic in the magistrate` to allow her to go home with
her parents, who charged her with being a wicked liar,
and that her statement is a mere invention. During tht
in his protestations of innocence, using the words,
He " So help me God, I had no hand in thatjob." Hslept
n examinationt
with his wife in a back room on the night of the
murder,
and, to go down stairs, must have passed I h
the
room in which his son, Thomas Brown h (the youth
went to Akehurst's cottage door, and first discovered the
murder), was sleeping.
in the middle of the night,
step-father told him, that he hd`tutun
passed throeg his
Thomas Brown admitted that his
•ailsep, and that he while. he (Thor s' iirow,rl), w"
went down stairs;-- but he den' the

truth of the girl's steternerfli" thikt his father fold him to
stick to the same story he :-/uld told before." Bennett
was asked why he left his cottage. He said that he„
went only a few steps from the door, to a heap of bricks,
for a certain purpose. Ha must, therefore, have been
dressed at the time; and oil being told that be had no oc-
casion to have left his bed-room for that purpose, he made
no reply, except by reiterating his former asseverations of
his innocence of the charge. Bennett, we understand, will •
be examined again on Monday next.
The cottage of old Akehurst, since Thursday last, has
been locked Up, his daughter and her son having deserted
the place, and returned to their former residence. Before
her departure, she told a person who called upon her at
the cottage, " that she believed her daughter, Mary Ayres,
had done it;" and a brother of Mary Ayres said, " it
would not give him half so much sorrow to see her hang-
ed, as it did to see the poor old creatures as they lay mur-
dered." It ought to be mentioned, that a very superficial
examination of the bodies took place by the young man,
an assistant to a surgeon, who gave evidence before the
Coroner's jury, and that he was incorrect in stating that
the wounds were given by a blunt instrument. The Rev.
John Boland, Mr, 'Williams, and other Megietrates, dis-
covered injuries in the heads of the old people which the
young surgeon had not observed. The old man wore a
piece of flannel next his head; over which he also wore
two cotton night,-caps. The caps and flannel being ex-
amined were found to have been cut through. There were
two puncturis parallel with each other, at the distance of
half an inch. On examining the cap and head of the-old
woman, at the back, two similar injuries were found, which
satisfied the MagistraOs that the same instrument, in form
somewhat resembling a coach winch, had been used by the
murderer to destroy both victims.
4vt _ek4iteextuogytt.i^,termiktited t1),0-1,biy,. one of the
masts gave nif OindessinWittiltbitiVehat.
he was Somewhat sanguine that the 'plan which the Ma-
gistrates had determined to adopt would he the means of ,
unravelling the mystery which at present envelopes this
horrible transaction, and that a few days would bring to
light the real offender.
A man namtd.Saunders was conveyed before the Ma-
gistrates on Saturday evenink He had been apprehended
near London as a suspicious character, and taken to Len-
therhead ;. but, after an examination of some length, the
Magistrates were convinced of his hmocence_of this crime,
and he was set at liberty.

(LATign PARTICULARS.)
Since the bodies have been interred, the cottage where
the inhuman murders were committed has been completely
deserted, and is now locked up. So great has been the
terror excited in the minds of the country people, since the
murders, that no human being is to he seen now within a
considerable distance of Akehurst's cottage after nightfall,
every one carefully avoiding the approach to it, and going
considerably out of their way for that purpose.
Shortly after the murders had been perpetrated, it was
reported very generally in the neighbourhood of Feteham
that a young man named Ratcliffe, who, it appeared, had
robbed Elizabeth Haines about three years age, had been
seen at Leatherhead prior and subsequent to the murder*.
It has been correctly ascertained since, that this person
was tried, convicted, and transported for the offence. The
parents of Ratcliffe, who are aged and respectable people
reside in the vicinity of Esher, and since the perpetration
of the murders, they have been continually annoyed by
numbers of people charging their son with being the mur-
derer, and accusing them (the parents) with actually con-
cealing him and keeping him out of the way of justice. The
annoyance to those poor people has been sogreat that on Fri-
day last the poor old father proceeded over to Fetcharn,and
had an interview with the Rev. Mr. Bolland, to whom he
mentioned the above facts, and produced a letter from his
son, against whom such a horrible imputation had gone
abroad. It was dated in April last, from Sydney, New
South Wales, and addressed to his father, the contents of
which, Mr. Rolland observed, were highly creditable to
the writer. It appeared that since the young man's con-
viction, he had evinced the sincerest contrition for the
felony he had committed; his conduct soon after his ar-
rival in the Colonies was such as to entitle hip, to the con-
fidence of those placed over him, he was soon liberated,
anti on the date of his last letter, was cultivating a little
farm of his own, in the vicinity of the town, had tot mar-
ried, kept his horse and cow, and was as comfortable as
his heart could wish. The poor old father supplicated
Mr. Rolland to have the above particulars made as public
as possible, in order that the impression of his POWs haw-
ing committed murder might be removed from the minds
of the public, and to show his neighbours that they were
wrong in their conjectures, and were doing him an injus-
tice by ringing in his .ears the horrible imputation of being
the father of the murderer of the unfortunate Akehurst
'and his housekeeper. Mr. Rolland promised the old man,
to do all in his power for the purpose of counteracting such
an erroneous impression ; and that tentleman requested
the writer, if possible, to give publicity to the above facts,
through the medium of the newspapers, which, he observ-
ed, would operate as a precaution and save innocent per-
sons from further annoyance, which must be exceedingly
painful to their feelings.

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.

LLOYD'S, OCT. 21.

PORTSMOUTH, OCT. 20.—Wind E. S. E .—Arrived the Crofton,
Booth, from St. Peteradmrgh. Pasted, the John, Brown, from
Havanna. Sailed, the Commerce, Lindsay, from Charlezton.
Dula, OCT. 20.—Wind E.—His Majesty's ship Hursu►
pawed through from the westward, about 8 o'clock.
FALMOUTH, OCT. 19.—E.S.E. to S.E.—Arrived the Zephyr
packet, from the Mediterranean. Sailed the Fanny, Taylor,
Aldbro, Wenham, and William Helyer, --, for St. Michael's;
Jane Vesey, for Forena ; Hieing Sun, Budd, for Seville ;
Ruby, Cotneley, for Lisbon ; Elizabeth, Henderson, and De
Albeon, Russell, for Port-au-Prince; sod Skylark, Itath, for
Malta.

Ltvaaroot., OcT. 19.—E.S.E.—The :William Byrne, from
New York, passed Holyhead yesterday, at 11 a.m. Arrived the
Dolphin, Prelin, from Stralsund ; Flora, Roderkirk, from Rotter-
dam ; Miry Ann, Hilleray, from St. John's; It. .1., Thyme, from
Quebec; and King George, from Jamaica. Sailed the Henry,
Thomas, from Alexandria ; and Diana. Croker, from Messina.
Gitavesxmo, Orr. tO.—Arrieeti the Wita, Malin, from
Oohs. Sailed the Wellesley, Ferriman ; and General Harcourt,
Mason, for Jamaica; Prince Leopold, Bell, for St. Vincent's; and
the George Hibberts, Drysdale, for Antigua.

We
silaliewavi:eifimoxfttleedeinirtolieleaatrdes it asserted,
rtl but we never wit-
nessed the fact until yesterday, that it was possible to
make a chain and collar to confine a flea,' in a manner
t similar
iof Itlioerctifloarildlisilligireupi
nclieca'ralys
an exhibition of thei of
th isioti,wesi,i,awiiitai-i
flea and chain ; the latter, we
a kennel, formed of a :ch !irry-stone.
The chain
consists
of 22 circular links, visible to the
naked eye, andthe ••
collar may be easily discerned
'through a magnifier of no greater power than a com-
mon readiniglass ; the whirls is an light, that the flea
runs arid gambols us though
it waa of little incum-
bailee. The same person exhibits four grog's of tea-
spoons, so small lis to be packed in a cherry -stone:;
he some tine since made a common fine working
saaPdtootgh'isist;A:mlanemiainngeniou s inecha.
needle to unac"'.and in which was secreted a pair of
seisms.
With
Itilthisittligeanuityc' the exhibitor does
nrs, but quite the con-
Thursday afternoon, about half-past four, a man
,„48, from a distance, obierved to walk deliberately
into the Suir, at Grannagli Castle, in the county Kil-
kenny, about two miles and a half from 'Waterford,
towards Carrick. lie sunk, and rose no more. His
body was not picked up until next morning. lie ap-
pears to have been a man of middle a.* mid size, quite
unknown in the neighbourhood, except as a beggar.—
Freeman's Journal:. . .

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