The Sun. — 1860-05-24 (London, England)

DESPERATE ATTEMPT AT SUICIDE BY AN ACTOR. —For many years an actor, now considerably past middle age, named William Mackay, has been engaged as one of the theatrical company of Mr. Mosley, at Bradford and H alifax, and for a season or two at a new theatre in Douglas, Isle of Man ; but during the last winter and sp ring he has been unable, from severe illness, to follow his profession on the stage. His wife, however, to whom he has only been a few years married, was a shopkeeper in Duke-street, and his circumstances were thus respectable. He slowly recovered; but the season for the time was over, and the company are preparing to return to the Isle of Man, where, it appears, he would not be able to go with them as formerly, and from this and other causes his spirits were greatly depressed. On Sunday forenoon, when alone in his bed-room, and while his wife and servant girl were in the room below, he became desperate, sat deliberately down before the mirror with a razor in his hand, and at four different plunges inflicted numerous wounds in his neck, extending from ear to ear, but still without dividing the jugular vein, and so causing inst*nt death. Polieeman Bowyer, who was on the beat, was called in, and surgical assistance obtained, but any hopes of saving his life are very slight. The roots and connecting ligatures of his tongue are completely severed ; and if he should even survive, he will be unable 'to articulate. The windpipe is also partially cut through. He still, however, while we write, is alive, but little more caa be said. He, we understand, was originally from Glasgow, and has always been held in high respect by the public and the cops dramatique with whom ho associated on the boards.  The Derby Day—the Derby Day—the great holiday of hard-working England I We have not as many Saints' Days as they have in continental countries ; but we do our best to cram all the fun of the year into eighteen hours, and we generally succeed. From the Premier down to the poor Calky, we all own the influence of the time. Cares, anxieties, and worries for the space of one day are consigned to the vasty deep. Upon that day all Blue Devils commit suicide. Creditors are not. Dills of Exchange and Promissory Notes cease to run. Wei* is forgotten. Honourable Members run away from their Parliamentary duties, and gentlemen who have no Parliamentary duties leave their private affairs to take care of themselves. The two tall sentries at the Horse Guards feel a mad desire to give their two huge black horses a breather up Whitehall in honourable rival. y. The nurses with the perambulators would like to • run their vehicles against each other for the Two Year Old Stakes I The baker's boy, who delivers the rolls at the door, has a small bet with Jenny upon the favourite, intimating with a wink that he is not without pretensions to that character. If the great heart of England, during those twenty four hours, were opened, upon it would be found engravers in sanguine characters a list of the running horses with the names, weights, and colours of the riders I—Froi;z " The Derby .Day," in Once  :' t '  E W S.  The following telegrams have been received at Mr. Reuter's office :