The Cambrian News and Merionethshire Standard

ECCLESIASTICAL There were successful Church Defence meetings last week at Windsor and Spalding. w There were missions last week at nesbury, and Walsall, the latter conducted by the Bishop of Lichfield himself. finardians have elected the The Pout^unpton^ Boaj.c^ ationaI clergyman, as g Rev. G. W. Gre^=, workhoURe, during the absence (voluntary) chaplaini of the a<jcount of iU.health.. I he ^G^rnm.tt Board lias expressed a strong opmion tb°atathe aPPointfo"ot^1b^hops has been investigating a The college ^0%f St. Andrew's for state- presentment agai t h.g de The college found ments contained m a enarfc .^d. that the statements the Market Chapel in A window in the 'i fi]led with 8tained „ia93) in Eipon Cathedral has of the Prince of Wales, paemory of the happy Canon Birch. The subject at the expense of his oia i » <)f th<J nobicman's son, is appropriately the rest*) dit on Messrs Ward and and the window reflects 0ie<* Hughes. arViile walkinZ with his wife in The Kev. Jame3 Cowe, whueM h 28th, feeling tired, Berwick Plantation, ou di J He was about forty «at down to rest, fell back, robust constitution. years of age, and »PP«e £ l £ b°een the cause of death Heart disease is bebeved to ha^^ Ar!gus, member of Speaking at Sheffield, Committee, stated that the the New Tt-tameot ta.nent would be completed work of revising the1'- Testament in twelve years if in seven years, and the U present, to devote foity the committees continued, < \merjcaiiS h;lJ also ap- days a year to the work. m English work was pointed two committees to who vvork would referred for suggestion. 1 he• Hp of the English therefore represent the united scboi.rsmi speaking people. Free Presbytery wns A private meeting of the D when jjr Knight s again held on Monday, Mar > g considered. Some statement, read at a former mee _esujt 0f which was discussion followed the read^ing, iV(Jg digiatisfied with that the members, expressing p to frame a libel Mr Kn'ght's explanations, re>o Bruce, and Mr against him, and appointed Dr. \\ilson, Dunlop to draw up the document. i^y Church, who The Rev. Mr Godwin, curate of Bermo. wecl at the disappeared mysteriously some tune sinc^' V„,prica. Rectory on Sundajr night. He has bsen —

SAD CASE OF DROWNING IN A TUB. An inquest was held on Thursday, March 27th, on t ie body of Clara Pri chard, a little girl nearly two yeas 01 J»PV* who v,'as drowned on the day previously at Newtown — Mary Pritcha-d said I am the wife of John Pritchard, and mother of the deceased, who would be two veais old 0:1 the 29tti of Mav. She was well uo to t one o clock on Wednesday afternoon. At that time I and my hus- band had not" had our dinner, b it the, deceased had luid hers, axd went out with a tin can in her hand. In about five minutes after she went out I went to look for her up Wheat Sheaf-street, and not seeing her in the st.rett, I turned back, and went in the direction of the house occu- rred bv my husband's mother, and there by the side of the ^'oor I found the deceased on her head in a tub "which con- tained about six inches of dirty water or suds. [A juror o lained that the tub m question was about the half of a ca. k. twelve inches deep and sixteen inches across, V'.iia -'v-vter which was in it was put therein foe cleaning aiV continued: Ihe little can which the de- it.V- ^1" 1 found in the tub. T il^lv t" "• ( s]ie did not my knowledge breathe lit reel her ou >, u i-fled out. I here was i.o one there or stir after slu Jf but my husband he.,ring my at the time hut n s' the child out of my arms. Dr A pcrea-.ns ran over anc j^nicdiately. and for nearly l'ratt was sent tor a"a j)C, his efforts were of no Iialf-an-liour tried to rest or > o{ atrQSS tf> avail. The child l»a^.bf"r, a of "Ac- ber grandmother's.lie cidcntr.31 y dioxvned."

T)"f)WvT'[) TV bR 1-N j- i!- +^cWoodcoc)c On 'March 29;b, an inquest was y.ep„ farmer Inn, Manafoi). on the body of the 27th, tbe living at Doigar. On Ttinrsday n'°li s"veral glasses deceased was at the Now Mids, aud there s- part o' of soirits. Deceased th::u went home, aco ail seen the' wiv by a man named Gittm,. «ab lying iii the river llhiew at a ford near Do.ru>,d. r lying on Ms fac in eight-en inches of wav-r, an. I dead, and on Ins foreb a i was an mei-e l wnuud. b V to have b-t-n produc d b the h a.l coniu.g <■ •• a stc-ne iu t r-'viver. „ Verdiui i'1 .■ a l 1 'ea 1 i .he r -!l:

BYE-GONES 'J/ ,r, ¡' to Wale* awl trie reorder*, ynnst !> be Cast mi Work*, Omestm Rs%.™^arhc**lble. Old nem- Mnt,inco>ifvh»ice,and the^ :W,U' and promptly papers, book*\ and Mz.o* o-uoj^j returned. ———————■

April 2, 1873. < NOTES. r, T rr TTI? __The first division oL t.ie POV. o-LAND CbU ■ hi Collections is just sixtl! volum80ftoe^^n(){ Mr Edward issued, and c'q^unt, of Llanidloes;" and of the ILmiers Paiochi^ si, rjffs of Montgomeryshire also Rev.• W. • Parish of (kirthbeibio," by the Kev. G. F wards°rvicar of iiangadv,n. ^There are other papers, which will come under notice >n uue co\ii\se, CELWYDDWYii.-li osv was a liar punished in olden times in Wales ? 1. was to appear in church on Sunday during divine service in a white sheet and confess his sifi. 2.—He was to distribute on Sunday in the church- yard a certain amount of white bread to the poor of the parish..— LLANUWCIILLYN.—There is 110 doubt but that Llanuwciillyu, at the heal of Bala Lake was once a place of some note, and probably inhabited by mon as it. e is now a pi ice in the mountain pass on the roai o J.W y-groes=kp of the cross, called Gardd y Mynachiad^ Monk's Garden, near which some years ago> thtr. j found a freestone font, prooably used for he y w«.u a,s» .he names, sucn as x las oc"" Arthui=the Court of Artnur.—Xv. QUERIES. TT A TVT Y NODAU.- What disease did the W elsh 11 < Haint y Nodau?' and when in the sixteenth century did it visit the neighbourhood of Hope and Hawarden I. P. WELL AT WOOLSTON, Parish of West-Felton, Shropshire.-Over■ a^pniig^hichj^ of^tlie ASTWW JN-SSSB5 £ ffiDoTthSweiraud^ any legends attached to it?- K WHAT WAS A WHOP In tlic Accounts of thf Jvdlotv Churchwardens for the year 154^ (edited by Thomas Wright) is the following "item to Coke f..r wliitlyniynge the church?. )j dayes worke, and for a bushelle and a whop of lyme, xvd. ob." Price, in his History of Oswestry, quotes an old accompt'' of the third vear of the reign "of Elizabeth, which contains a charge for saullt," #aincly—" Allso payde for a hoope of salit for the byff X d." and another for a hoope of whette for brede." Was the Ludlow "whop" a mea>uie of the same kind as the Oswestry hoope," and i= tnere the sort used in Shropshire now?- lt.L.I)-, bhrewsou y. REPLIES. LLANGYNOG LEAD MINES (Jan. 15, 1873).— í' -J. 1: In answer to I LUJIB, who asks when lead WAS nisi U »- covered at Llangynog, 1 will reply by quoting lennant I Tour in Wales, vol. 2, p. 340, quarto edit.) Writing oi 17S1 h" savs, "This place was the source of short dived wealth to the present Er.rl of Powys. A lead mine was .liseovered here inT692, which was in most, jiarts a vein of three yards and a half thick, and was worked to the depth of a hundred yards, when the water became too powerful. It. continued in a flourishing state during a period of nearlv forty vears; yielded about four thousand tons an- nuallv; was sold at £ 7 a ton, and smelted on the spo. and brought in a clear revenue to the family of twenty thousand pounds a year." Pennant goes on to say that; "a slate quarry has been discoveied of late years in parish. About 904,000 were sold from November 1, IHO, to November 1, 177G which sell at the rate of from 6s. to 20s a thousand; but the want of water carriage is a great loss to the work." Of this slate quarry Nicholson (Cambrian Traveller's Guide, p. /S4, edit. 181d) sajs, Opposite the lead mines, on the other side of the village, rises almost perpendicular, the lofty rock of Llangynog, from which is obtained a considerable quantity of coarse slates they are brought down in a very singular manner. The vehicle of conveyance is a small sledge, containing three or four cwt. of slate; on the fore mrt of it is fastened a short rope by each end. When loaded and drawn to the edge of the declivity, a man places himself before it, with the rope round his shoulders, then sitting upon the sledge, and se:zmg hold of the fror}t, be raises his feet from the ground, when the load and its conductor begin to descend, along a narrow winding path. The motion accelerates, and the manager of this strange conveyance has to govern its increasing velocity, and to keep it in its proper path by opposing his feet to the "round and projecting parts of the rocks. The least inat- tention or want of dexterity would be certain destruction. Yet this man makes these journeys four or five times a day for the scanty sum of twopence a time." The interest in Llangynog is materially increased now that we have really a prospect of railway communication to the place, by way of Llanvyllin, and if coals are to remain at 50s a ton in the village-the recent quotation according- to the newspapers—the sooner this railway is made the better for all parties. H. B. VAVASOUR POWELL (Feb. 5, 1873).-ln the Life of Matthew Henry, by Sir John Bickerton Williams, occurs this passage, p. 259 In July 1700 Mr Henry was invited to attend an aged minister to his grave, the Rev. Mr Evans, of Wrexham, a very serious preacher, of good Wrnin- and great zeal for God. He was strictly con- oregaUonal, and wished all his brethren round about him had been in that respect as he was. His second wife was fhe widow of the famous Mr Vavasor Povvel and though descended of an ancient family of the Gerrards, related to the Pari of Macclesfield, and of the side of the roj allot wh.„ R.BI "E™? H i (,1 and suitable companion to them, in all tneir sendees 'and sufferings, and lived to seeiher only son m a station of great usefulness m the church of God. Xlns will answer half the original query (Aug. 21, 1872), as to Vavasor Powel's wife, although it will do nothing towards removing the 'Penelope' difficulty, raised by PfiAEMAlN, Nov. 13, 1872.-PURITAN. THE PAYNE FAMILY AND TRADESMEN'S TOKENS (Miirch 5, 1873).—I observe in the notice of this old Oswestry family that Thomas Payne who died in 1747, was a glover. I have heard the late Mr John Roberts, hatter, say, that when lie was a boy the aisle in the parish church leading to the Yale monument, was known as 4 tbe Glover's aisle,'—and it was in the north aisle, I believe that the gravestones over the Payne fariuly were found. In connection with the subject of Tokens, renewed in Bve-gones March 5, I would remark that Richard Payne's Token, 1667, is of copper. I have seen a brass Token about the same size (that of a sixpence), witn the initials R. B. surrounded by the words 'In Bow- mans' on one side, and on the other, in the centre HlS Peny' surrounded by some letters, so much battered as to be unreadable. They form two words, the first of which is probably RICE.' The date of this token is 1669.-H.G. Thirty or forty years ago we had a variety of copper I morpv current in the district, but gradually our tradesmen 5 t0 tike it, the last in Oswestry who coun- I nld the 'Flintshire Penny' being the late Mr ten.nced the^^i^ When the copper coinage «?.'lled in to make way for bronze, many old Tokens were W' u nn with those bearing efligies of the Georges._ I picked ip (1.1,eor four, whose image and superscription Sup'old memories. The 'Flintshire Penny,' as it was called had on the obverse a view of some extensive works ]. the words, "Flint Lead Works, and the surrounde preserved being 1S13. On the reverse, datejtheonellavep ese v 8lirround,d with m the centre, is Then there was the < John Wilkinson, Ironmaster,' Token, the older ones of which when we were boys, we thought had on the reverse a likeness of the Devil with his tail tunitd an anvil a piece of iron with the wrong end o^a hammer ship for his conveyance to other reg.ons being m reai •>u s And to this day I cannot tell exactly whau was intende«l > the artist who designed this c un for Ins bearch v .1 l_nl.1" Ldrthlv in a toga does not represent either a nea\e>oy -QA Vidian. The coins with this figure on them bear date li JO H 1791 On Wilkinson's Tokens for l'i93, there is simp y ^!ln working at a forge on the reverse and on the obverse c li we have the figure of the ironniascer, I presume, a °f f onU .,nau in a wig. On the rim, in each case, is portly genu 1 ham_Bradley—Willey—Sne Ishill.' There engraveu, ace0unt of Wilkinson in Alderman is a very 111 Wrexham, in which it is stated that, Jones's little bool fdiCtlllv(i most of the cannon used in at Bershau', » Then we had another token the Peninsular »' • ..up!Jo?ed to be a very Ancient with the head of v,]Lut 1 surrounded by a wreath. Druid indeed on tue Ulonograni, in writing-capitals, Druid indeed on tue Ulonograni, in writing-capitals, On the reverse, was the £ • d the wori_,s .,Wt. •P.M. Co.' I have one ratal „ sun,i;anl the ,nono. promise to pay the ^e words, u Liverpool or grain. On the rim of.this ai halfpenny of the Anglesey on demand in pe l e(],re. Another token same firm, elated 1793 lias^ a n. o side, we boys used to collect had a ship m But surrounded by tne words -Li « Iiave hears date this was comparatively modern „ i)r.rnia with the 1S20, and on tne reverse has a n.ju-r hearing of harp*. I remember more tnaii >. '/TP'IM Sennits' into Richard'MinshuM putting twelve (lo^rF! the box at an Old Chapel coiUc-on, ,vdu^ Jtlil'; j iin s writ'en on the p.->pe< m w.ucu fn-y weu. i n. wou<ler -.vheth. r ^nv Old .haptlite rcmembeis th staucfortheIineH?—J.U.CO. EDMUND PIIYS (Mar. 12, ])IV E. P. Was that held at one time by another distn^u*^ countryman—the ienrn jd Dr David Powell, ica.li Uhuabon—namely, that oS chai>'ain to the Lord Preside*.«- of the Marches, who h, Id ids Court ia th it castle alio th11 tbe rill ermairi" referred to the disputes a. o coHtro'.vrsi.'s tnere tried and adjudged. I1" 'he people o. li.hos" had any special cause ou hand, i; w.<«Li of coin^e ;ix ai')proxim:it(dy the date of E. P.'sode; but I rather fancy that "gwr y li.ho.-i" had reference to Sion Tuaur liim- ce|f' vvho lived at Wigfair in that Commote, rath'-r tha a t-1 >»• -1' generally. Uis duscripti -n of hini-eiU ra'' ..„ r vis ofer," as well as his reoucst to.' til-- "i; -;v; w;3 o,t,e as an e v, Pi:- h-'oiv't ;• i. i.the? than as occupied wit!. w'l'h,'1.'T',>l'.i:'i^v- L-. VI.ar Cur*te.—D. R. T.

TIPYN 0 80B PETH .J-r, As usuah the majority of the persons brought up at Chester for .Irunkenness last week were women. At the Ruthin Assizes last w.ek one of the jurymen who o, ,l'T..tl^r longer at lunch than he ought to have aone was fmed a soverr ign by Mr Ju-tice Mellor. TiiJ rhancel of Fiint Church has been ornamented with JfctSSU twrfrnte It. sitt of Mr 1'. WB. B,to„ t0A*1 Constitutional Association is to be formed m the dis- trict of Bhyl with a view of promoting the return ot Con- servative C'tndidates at the next eitctio^i. ? i i r The wife of Thomas Bill, cooper, Mold, uied ^iuaovny the other dav. At the inquest th" jury returned a verdict to the effect'that deceased's death was caused by excessive "TuSid fliat ah the next Lymington election Mr Corn- w all is" West will be opposed by Mr Is. Ay iuackmnon, of Acrise Park, near Canterbury. -Jr nxac.uniio.i is !^The death is announced of Colonel Sandys, of Garreg-yi- Halen Menai Bridge, at the age of eighty-two.years. Ihe deceased gentleman formerly resided in the neighbouilioo '^The^e 'was a demonstration of Good lempkrs at Criccieth the other night, and the effect on the spectators ? described as very great. In the evening two Gen ode. who had obtained the signs and pass-words procured ad- mission to lodge. ™TSI:R,S. WS Mou af,-r the fa;r. 1;1st wrek, hoasting that he had plenty of gold and snver m his Docket ° Later on in the evening he was lookm^ for a policeman to help him to find a woman who, ne said, had r°The\nmkenness of Carmarthen has become so notorious that the magistrates have called attention to it from the B, nch, and the police have been severely lectured for not hoinc 'more active in its suppression. On Saturday March 29th, the inhabitants of Carnarvon iiresjnted ^'r Robt. Jones, of Hafodycoed, with a gold watch and chain and a silver tea service, a, an aeknow edg- raent of his services for many years as a guardian of the P7)n Thursday, March 27th, Mr Henry Depper, provision merchant! Chester, was alighting from a cab at Aintree, where be had gone to witness the Grand Ration,d Steeple- chase when he was knocked down by a horse which was be n- ridden at a furious pace. Mr Depper has been veryseriously injured, and the ridtr of the horse is in cus- t0 At tbe Chester Police Court last week a waitress sum- moned Thomas Giles, the manager of the second-class Queen's Hotel refreshment room for threatening her with bodily harm. The case excited great interest, and it was alleged by the complainant that defendant had attempted to assault her indecently. The case, after a long bearing, WlTheTnspector of Anglesea has examined 5 965 houses and premises. He reports 412 as fihhy as vt^ fllthv and nineteen as poor, destitute, and tilth>. A & number of the disease and vice-spreading dens are the direct re-ult of the pernieious system of out-Qoor relief which is doing incalculable injury m a es. Fourteen miles of the Whitland and laf Vale Railway were opened last week for goods and manual traffic The line will be sixteen miles long. It runs from a junction at Whitland to a point about eight miles from.Cardigan. The present ttrminus is the Glogue Slate Quarries. In Llanstunidwy churchyard some beautiful memonal «K»i;aks tin ve been recentlv erected. On one of the memo- rials is the following iu-cription Interred beneatn i the r mains of Owen John Ellis Nanney, of J^vyn in this (Llanstumdwy) parish and of Cefnddeudjr, Merionethshire, late of the 10tn Madras Infanti j H horn September 27, 1790, and died October 2i, lb/0, a0eti eisrhtv vears and one month. On Saturday morning, March 29oh, a piatelaver, nam Patrick Casey, was at work near the tunnel by Chester railway station. There were two trains approaching, one goinf towards Holyhead and the other coming from that direction. In endeavouring to get clear of one train, his shoulder was caught by the otlv r, and he was thrown with his head against the one he had endeavoured to avoid. The poor fellow's brains were literally dashed out. ;9:-r-

THE ALL-ABSORBING TOPIC. Some few years ago there was great excitement in tbis country respecting education. America, with it schools and liberal education for the poor, was spoken of with enthusiasm Germany was pointed at as our superior, as was Scotland and other places, and the artizans of Eng- with enthusiasm Germany was pointed at as our superior, as was Scotland and other places, and the artizans of Eng- land demanded education for their children.. Working men at last saw that they were no longer fighting a fair battle with foreigners as long as they were left in almost total ig- norance. There was a great outcry for technical education. Wherever one turned the cry was for education—national education; cheap, sound education. Pamphlets were written, speeches were made, discussions were held, statistics were compiled, all tending to show that pauper- ism and poor rates would be decreased by education that crime and police rates would be decreased by education; that poverty and immorality would be decreased by education, and the nation with one voice demanded a national syst.em of education, affirming that it would be wise and economica to pay a twopenny or threepenny education rate so as to save shillings in the pound in poor rates and police rates. If you leave the children of this generation to grow up in ignorance," cried the true leaders of the people the next generation of men will have to enlarge prisons and workhouses," and the dark phases of our Rational life will „row darker and darker. "True," answered the people, though instruction alone will not make men moral or nrovident or gentle, yet a true education is the great gate- way to all that is high, and noble and pure, and our chil- dren and every child in the nation shall be t ducated, and we will wipe out at once and for ever the terrible reproach that as a nation we first of all train children into pauper, and criminals, and then punish them for being what we have made them." Foreign countries saw the education move- ment in England and were alarmed the traffickers in im- morality were panic stricken the great Beer Interest trem- bled and secretly resolved to protect itself from threatened dissolution panderers to superstition and all quacks and charlatans gnashed their teeth with rage and literally howled up and down the country; while philosophers, philanthropists, reformers, and all true lovers of their fellow-men congratu- lated each other that the long night of national ignorance was at last drawing to a close, and that the light of a new era of intellect, guided by lowly religion, was breaking over the weary world, and would soon quicken to new life the great moral forces which the ignorance of ages had deadened and rendered inoperative. Mighty possibilities for the masses of men were fervently discussed, and the future was big with promise when little by little the sky darkened, bigotry reared its unsightly heads, and groaned dismally at the new movement; those who were afraid that working men would not be so obedient when educated, alarmed the latepayers, who began to cry dismally about the great expense the great Beer Interest also joined in and helped to swell the gathering storm, which was too lond and strong for the patient friends of the people, ho, a little while ago, were hoping such great th.ngs for the masses 'Jhi Bigot, the Publican, the Believer in Ig- norance, the Trafficker in Immorality, the Oppressors of the Masses, said to each other, If we can only get the ratepyer on onr side we can grind down the poor to t he very earth and they at once began to talk about excessive ex- penditure, and heavy rafes, a*id unnecessary schools, and sinful throwing away of money so loudly, that the honest ratepayer, whose influence had always been on the side .of the wronfed and the weak, became alarmed, and was in- duced to go over to the side of his natural enemies. His new allies at once increased the cry against education rates, and bewildered the ratepayer so much by tlieir earnestness that he forgot the sort of company he was keeping, and imagined for a time that in fighting against education he was doing himself good service. Now the question is, will the thousands of working men and women in the districts of Kuabon allow the efforts of their representatives to be foiled To the poor, education is as necessary as tood and clothes, and now is the time for the masses of the peop.e by thousandiT to affirmance for all, that they will have the .Kfi S the members should be forced into granting conces- t J wh™h it is to the interest of the majority of toe sions whic !e. A, far as facts and arguments Pent bro^ht lV them be listened to, but let the pooi of Strict °see that neither beer, bigotry, nor blindness robs them of the priceless boon which a Liberal Govern- 8.,=- 4-1. ,"a/Õh The Ruahoo, Rhosllanerchrugog, Penycae and Cefn Working Men's Conservative Association Heading Rooms Wt.,e commenced when the Ituabnn, Khcdlanerchrugog, Penycae, and Cefn Working Men's Conservative Association was in the z -nith of its fleeting, fame. )Weru things ri. to be done by this association whi..h w as sorted A-'th R great flourish of trumpets and much, speech making manv high sounding promises I er.ycae Jv.'ading Room died almost prematurely and was buried but the KbosTconimitten appointed a secretary a>ul made several spasmodic efforts to obtain a standing. A concert was got which barely paid its wav, and the en 1 wa« e\en a^ at Ponvcae. There is a sum of a few shillings in the bank to f'l Pi-■)hnn (all the names as before), and the course yc^r, l!ns v.ll g,,w » if tint time there should beany Conservative working men ir! existence thev will be able to commence operations "vn oi.liu^ anv of their own money. I trhaps Witoout e. 1 = able to give some interesting pait.cn- next we.-k I b Liberal Association, which it is said is lars respeciii'in t rea!> when we have got to rrI S'hW we stand perhaps we shall take a step or two ahca.i--that Is ii w,u» U'ie try to be clieeriv.l und' r C O I-U A. DOUT LL'X,

fy f..q ;n(-0 a beer vat the other day A Genoa.i in Bnxf.' 'h.^d as he could to ml am, was diowi. oirceded hud r.os a fl..at>ng cork hims'df, aiet would have siic.c.e,itu chokul ldni. » ta5n cure for headaches, 1 lor.T.OWA} b V it. ,nd lownos of spirits. Persons loboesm-ss, h>s.o^ PI (>r commerce are informed m jutiar\ t (Jansjer from wet or th.it these pills can oe taken w.thout 0f p,easure> cold, and require no niter u.-tio thcn tho sto. Tb.ev act verv nnully on the b O, fhe liv.,r? wWby m-.eh, i'-n-l the skin, bmce -tbe nerves, ib -V ■, unty ^e bio >d, cu« ■ ^hey effect a wonderful r«i.. the ivh'de svstem. i"cJ ^debnili'l constitution, as .they » I

ROM THE PAPERS ipii^Qaeen has sent an autograph letter to tbe Countess Bernstortf, expressing sympathy with her in her recent bereavement. At Bagdad a terrible storm of rain has occurred, which lasted for fifty-live hours. It destroyed the telegraph sta. tion and the Governor's palace. At a meeting of the Carlbt committee, in London, it has been resolved to raise £ 50,000, which, it was alleged, would be sufficient to place Don Carlos on the tliri-ne. The capital sentence passed on Mary Davidson, aiias Jefferson, for the-murder of her illegitimate child, at Aldcliffe, near Lancaster, has been commuted to penal servitude for life. The sinking operations at Sandwell Park are in fud force, the pumps provided by the engineer (Mr Henry Johnson) having been successful in draining the shaft of the water which interfered with the sinking. The Toulon journals announce that Count Olbver de Kermel who, sometime back in a fit of jealousy, killed his brother, and was sentenced by the Court oj Assizes of FinisttSre to hard labour for life, has just tued at the hulks at that port r.t the age of fortv-tive. He succumbed to grief and despair. Fatal clistuibanees have occurred in France at the town f Rivesaltes, in the department of the Pyrenees Orien- tales. During the drawing for the Conscription the gen- darmes, irritated by an attack made upon them by the crowd with stones, retaliated by tiring, and one person was killed and sev. ral wounded. Troops have arrived from the neighbouring town of Pergignan, and some arrests have 'Iron savs that a new company has been foFtned for the purpose of boring for ore in the neighbourhood of Bolton-le- Sands. near Lancaster. It is thought probable that beds of ore exist on the south side of Morec:unbe Bay, as well as on the north, in the Furness and Lonsdale di-tiiets. George Bingham, the. self-accused Ehham muioerer, has been confronted with three of the witnesses in the original prosecution, none of whom covud recognise him. He was dismissed with asevere reprimand} and immediately on leaving the court he acknowledged to his solicitor that his confession had been pure fiction. A more credible charge has been laid against him of stealing a cash-box. Iron states that Mr Cursh.nn, of Ripley and Notting- ham, has just opened a new colliery at Heague-a phce equidistant between Belper and Ambergate. The price (if slack at the new pit is 7s. 6d. per ton, and of house coal 15s. for the same quantity. Some of the Derbyshire owners have reduced prices by about 3s. per ton. A grocer and tea dealer, of Central-street, St. Luke's, London, has been prosecuted by the Vestry for selling adulterated tea. Iron filings and clippings, gritty matter, foreign stalks, and small fragments ot wood, were amongst the incongruous substances found in the preparation in foreign stalks, and small fragments ot wood, were amongst the incongruous substances found in the preparation in question, when it was submitted to an analysis. The magistrate inflicted a fine of £ 10 and the rosts. The Missouri papers record an act of munificence on the part of Mr Shaw, an English settler at St. Louis, which, though happily not rare in tin's country, is almost unex- ampled in the United States. It is the free gift of a noble park to the inhabitants of St. Louis The tract set apart for this purpose is situated close to the town, is richly wooded, and abounds in picturt. flne scenery. It covers an area of over MoO acres, and its vulue is estimated at about £ 100,000. Mr Shaw has received the warm acknowledg- ments of the municipal authorities of St. Louis for his generous gift. On Thursday a.fternoon, March 27th, a fidi salesman, of Brighton, named Nathaniel Gunu, attempted to murder his two children, and then to commit micide. lie was being served with a warrant for threatening his wite, wnen he ran down stairs, attempted to cut the throats of his daughter and baby, and afferwards cut his own throat. He lies in a precarious state. It is supposed that he was suffer- ing from delirium tremens, having recently drunk hard after a season of teetotali.-m. Adoring attack on the residence of Sir Thomas Tobin of Ballincollig, near Cork, is reported. The butler, who lived in a lodge at the gate, was collared in the grounds by three men, who demanded the keys of the mansion, and on his refusing to give thern up, and running away, they fired three shots at him. He was wounded in the shoulder and heel. This check, and the cries of police raised by the butler, seem to have discouraged the ruffians, who fled. Whether they were in quest of arms or money is not known. Some time ago, it will be remembered, a Monmouthshire farmer caught some b .ys in his orchard, and tired at them, wounding three, For this he was to have been tried on Thursday, March 27th, at Monmouth assizes; but when the Grand Jury proceeded to consider the. iDclictiDent the boys were not forthcoming. Mr Justice Quain thereupon said he was determined to have the case investigated, as he had received a letter stating that the boys had been paid to keep out of the way. He would send the deposi- tions taken before the magistrates up to the Grand Jury, so that they could return a true bill. This was done, and in a few moments a true bill was returned. His Lordship then remarked that the persons who had bribed the boys had committed a gross contempt of court, and, should suffi- cient evidence be forthcoming to show who they were, he would punish them as heavily as possible. On Saturday, March 29:h, Judge Lawson, on taking his seat in the Crown Court at county Antrim assizes at Belfast, called on Mr M'Aleese, the registered proprietor of the Ulster Examiner and Northern Star. His lordship then proceeded to pass judgment with regard to the con- tempt of conrt committed by the publication in that journal of two articles in reference to the sentence passed on a couple of Roman Catholic rioters. He ordered Mr M'Aleese to pay a fine of £ 250, and be imprisoned for four months. The coart was crowded during the delivery of the I' judgment. The death is announced of M. Amedde Thierry, the cele- brated French historian. M. Thierry was born on tha 2nd August, 1797, and was thus in his seventy-sixth year. His chief work, L'Histoire des Gaulois, appeared as far back as 1828, and gained for him the chair of History at the Col- lege of Besanc on. He was soon compelled to give up this post en acconnt ofhis liberal views, but, after the Revolution of July, was appointed Prefect of the Haute Saone, and in 1838 became a member of the Council of State. This posi- tion he retained after the Coup d' Etat, and in 1860 he was made a senator. M. Amedee Thierry was elected a mem- ber of the Institute in 1811. He was the author of several other works besides that already named—A History of Gaul under the Romans, a History of Attila, a Life of Saint Jerome, &c. The Prince of Wales presided, on Thursday, March 27th, at the anniversary dinner of the Railway Benevolent Insti- tution, which has for its object the relief of distressed rail- way officers and servants; provision is also made by the society for temporary loans and life assurance. In the course of the remarks made by his Royal .Highness it was stated that the number of those directly interested in the institution was not less than 300,000. The sum of JE5 000 was subscribed by those present before the close of the evening. The Prince took the opportunity of thanking Dianagers, otficers, and servants of the various lines of rail- way along which he frequently travelled, for the unvarying courtesy and attention which he experienced in his jour- neys; and further commended the employes for the admir- able manner in which they performed their duties gene- rally. Princes are not, perhaps, in a position to form a very correct opinion as to the annoyances which beset the pro- gress of the ordinary traveller on railways, and it is not very surpri-ing that his Royal Highness is treated with unvarying courtesy and attention." Bethnal Green Workhouse possesses an unenviable noto- rietv which will be increased by the following story —A horrifying discovery has been made in the coffin of a pau- per in Bethnal Green Workhouse. A woman had died in the London Hospital, and her body was brought back by the contractor to the workhouse for interment. One of the officers, a Mr Burrowes, thinking it of unusual size, opened it, anti found five bodies instead of one. A dead child lay on each of the woman's arms, aid two more were squeezed in at her feet. The contractor, Burridge, of Bethnal Green- road, stated at the coroner's inquest that one body came from Guy's Hospital, and the others from Millbank Prison. He acknowledged having kept them in his private mortuary for periods ranging from a fortnight t.o nearly six weeks. The inquest has been adjourned to obtain an analysis of the stemach of one of the children, in which suspicious indica- tions were observed."

,1 THE FATAL ACCIDENT IN A WELL. An inquest on the body of John Evans, who was buried in a well at Castle-Caereinion, on Tuesday. March 24th, was held at Tynllan, before Mr R. D. Harrison and a jury of whom the Rev. David Williams, vicar, was foreman.- The first witness called was Thomas Booth, who said I am a labourer, and liue at Welshpool. I have for the last five weeks worked with deceased, who was a pumpnisker. I believe he was forty-five years of age. We were working at Mr Bebb's, in Castle Caereinion. We had the new pump trees to put down there. We opened the well after o-ir dinner on that day. We had taken up the two upper trees when the deceased vent down again to get up the third' and last tree. 1 c tnnot speak as to the depth of th» well, but think it was upwards of ten yards. The deceased went down with a rope. There was a ladder at the bottom of the well. He was perfectly sober, lie had one foot upon the ladder, and was, I believe, attaching the rope to the top of the tree in order to pull it up, when in a moment, and without any warning, the sides of the well fell in with a great noise. The well was walled, I b-lieve, with bricks. I saw it fali in as far as the lower tree. I cannot say whether it was walled lower or not. It was between six and seven o'clock in the evening. Several tons wtight of soil and stones must have fallen upon the deceased. The body we were not able to get out until the next evening,, a we had to got the soil out with buckets. The soil abound the well is gravelly. The soil kept falling in throughout the night. There were no stays attached to the trees taken out. They were rotted away. 1 was quite it. was nnrdv an accident. John Roberta, (If :-O1.L;.ùl.J. L Lbinf»>r, assisted the next day to clear out the ei,. I did 1 not hear the deceased cry out when the soil fell in. There was no oee else about. I was waiting for orders to wind up.Tohn Bok-rt", pumpmaker, of Llanf.iir, said I was sent for 011 Tuesday, the 2-lth March, to Castle Caereinion, to help in extricating the deceased from j ht well. I worked there from early m the morning until about half-past four o'clock in the evni'.i;. When I had tv- .rc.l a way.from (,i!"Ilt to ten tons' weight i f brick, slo;:c, nd soil, I ?o"SM the d- ceased in about two feet six inches or water. lie was quite dead. He was wedged up tight, with his feet againsu the wall. His light hand was upon the ladder. There was quite eight weight upon him. I got the body "po The b ft arm was broken, and there were several cuts about, the head and face. The wall had all fallen in from t'i c toi. of the upper tree. The soil appeared to be gravel and sand. I think there must, have been about twelve feet of water iu ♦lie weli when 'he deceased v uit U-YII. There upon'1 t«n f/<-t of *i' and staie< in '.he water. The !ir.»t fall Imvc slipped Th fa" £ t'.e s-i! death." .C,

I WORK AND WORKERS. r NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE.—So far as new business goes, the iron trade of this district may be said to he nearly at a standstill, and this is mainly attributable to the big}, pi ices prevailing, which have unuiistakeaoly checked tile d-onand. Crown bars have this week been quoted at from £ 14 10s. to £ 15 per ton, but these prices nave been oh- tained in few instances, except for lllal1 (1:1 ii-ed for renairs or other urgent necessities, ae.d „ ese lKne >een chiefly on account of home traue. Ihe ^on in new orders is most noticeable in the trade wit.i the L o.t "0 States, from which, until lately, oiders were pouimg in freely, but are now almost suspended. A good nureb 'r of contracts are in course of execution for that market, but these were taken before the present extreme prices were reached, many of them beb.g booked when the ruling rate j was Xll 5s. per ton, and it is considered doubtful whether any further orders u ill be seijt over while the existing rates prevail. The export trade with other countries is also quiet. Pigivon and ironstone are in little request just now, both buyers and sellers appearing to prefer post- poning transactions until quarter-day shows the probable course or prices. The improvement in the supply of fuel continues, and liope3 are entertained that as stoeics increase the extravagant prices now ruling will, be reduced to within reasonable limits. Notwithstanding the recent in- cresse of wages obtained by the Colliers, they are grumb- ling again a- condition. At a meeting of delegates this week. complaints were made that the colliers of North Staffordshire were forty per cent. poorer tha.i the.r 1 e brethren in South Staffordshire, and it was suggest-d that there should be an agitation to remove the inequality. It was ultimately agreed that. the question should be submit- ted to the conference of miners to be held in siouth.Wal. s next week. 'Jhe period for which the contract with the ironworkers as to wages was made is up, but nothing pro- bablv will be done until the new scale is settled in the south of the county, as the rule of the south has hitherto been adopted in this distiict.—Iron. The Woh-erhanvpton Chronicle says The demand is quieter: than last described for most leading descriptions of Wolverhampton an! South Staffordshire hard ware. This is due in part. n) doubt to the circumstance that the quarter has jlFt closed, but there is too much reason to fear that another and more significant explanation is afforded by the high standard of quotations now ruling. That this" latter explanation holds good in regard to the state of business with America there can be little doubt, the orders now coming to hend being merely nominal, although this is usually the busiest season of the year. The Colonial demand is steady but less buoyant than re- cently reported. A few orders are in course of distiibu- tions on acount of South America and the East Indies The home trade is very quiet, the conn try ironmongers ordering no more than will supply the immediate require- ments of their customers. Referring to wire tramways the Mvuno Wire tram wav is in operation at the mine of the Lroiitlo}d Company at Aberystwyth. It is used for carrying dressed lead from the mine to the store-house placed alougside the hicrh road, and is capable of transporting fifty tons per day. It°is driven by a water-wheel situated at the mine, which is also used for driving other machinery. The tramway follows the course of a river for a distance of about 1,300 vards, making, in this distance, one angle. Its terminus is placed in a suitable house, which forms a store where the lead is kept until carried by carts to the railway station. This line is worked every week, and has been in operation for more than twelve months. e:& --#

A CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY. Communicated to a Contemporary. Not many weeks ago you kin ily gave publicity to some remarks of mine respecting a money club which was started at a publi,h,mse with the object, I suppose of benefiting working men by enabling them to borrow money or save it as luck might chance. These money clubs are, in my opinion a ruinous affair for the poor man who pu} s dearly feir any accommodation he receives. Of course when ne gets an early draw he may s: 11 his chance to some otnei poor fellow who is desperately hard up, but that see:LS to me to he even a worse feature of the money club than the stupid one of men's paying landlords of public-houses for saving their money for them. There are times, of course, when a working man imperatively needs live pounds, which lie must have at any cost, but these times of extreme pressure are so rare, as a rule, that by saving sixpence or a shilling a week these emergencies could be more than met. The question then arises how can this shilling, or sixpence a week be saved, and there is a document lying before me which shows bow a married man with a large family can save this sum by spending his wages in fact the more a man spends the more he saves uude-r this system. All he has to do is to take a share 111 the Oswestry Co- operative Society, and purchase everything he can at the stores, and the result will be thqthe will get five pei cent for his money, and a bonus as high as Is. Gu. in the pound which, supposing he spends 10s. a week is equal to a weekly saving of 9d. by bonuses alone, besides the advantages which accrue by dealing where there is no credit allowed. The balance sheet shows that the society has dealt in coals, drapery, oil, brushes, grocery, provisions, potatoes and other things, as auctioneers say, too numerous to mention," and the ainouru of business done during the past q uartr amounted to nearly £ 800 at a profit of something like £ o0 af.er in all expenses. The share capital is now £ 20b wh en is held by working men who had nothing but opposition to start with. The growth has been very gradual and expsnence has proved that this effort on the part of workup men to help themselves has done nobody any harm, but has doubt- less tended very much to an increase of thrift which can- not fail to benefit the town. Shopkeepers have evidently nothing to fear from this movement which is as legitimate a way as can be thought of for increasing wages and lifting men out of the credit system. Here is a genuine money club for my friends who want to get out of their difficulties —a club which not only pays its way but gives those who invest in it a very handsome dividend. There is not even an obligation to take a glass of beer for the good of the house, and what is better still, women may join and gradually lay up a little money without asking their hus- bands for a single penny. This plan of helping oneself is so simple that it is astonishing after four years existence the Oswestry Co-operative Society is not a much larger concern that it is, but gradual progress and the patient mastering of difficulties is beginning to bear its fruit and now that opposition has been disarmed there is every reason to suppose that the artizaus of the town will begin to appreciate the advantages which are placed within their reach and that eveiyone who desires the welfare of the people will assist, as far as possible in the development of a movement that tends so much towards the progress of a section of the community which has lung been blamed, perhaps unjustly, for its improvidence. It is not hkely that co-operation will work all, or even a considerable part of the wonders which its best friends anticipated, and its greatest opponents feared, but that it is a partial solution to some of the social questions of the day there can be no doubt, and that it is capable of a far wider application than at present is generally acknowledged. One of the greatest advantages of co-operation perhaps is the cultivation among working men of a greater degree of trust and mutual forbearance towards each other, and the growth of good business habits, to say nothing of the social benefits which naturally arise from having to meet together for the discussion of those difficulties which are constantly cropping up in trade. The balance sheet before me shows that the sales to non- members average about C17 per week, and these customers obtain no advantages beyond those of dealing at a shop where, as publicans say, Trust is dead," and the rule is, pay as you g-) on." On the other hand there aie several members who have shares in the society who have done no business at the store. In the former case it is difficult to say why the customers who are not members do not become shareholders and so secure the bonuses, but in the case of the shareholders who are not purchasers the solution may perhaps be found by asking women whose husbands have taken shares why they never go to the store. Women are Conservatives, at least so Mr Disraeli thinks, and they perhaps, do not care tIN go even a little out of their way to buy at their own shop, or perhaps they have taken a prejudice against the store, a prejudice founded on experi- ence gained in the early and struggling days of the society, when the shop was only open at certain hours, and when it was difficult to get served. Whatever the reasons may be for these strange facts it shows two things pretty plainly, that are well treated, and that proprietors please themselves where they deal. When my friends get their money out of their money club they cannot do better than invest £ 1 in a Co- operative" share, and then if their wives will only deal at the store the necessity, as far as they are concerned, for money clubs at public-houses will be done away with. My onlv obiections to a money club is that it encourages bor- rowing instead of saving, and does not give those who put their money in it a chance of ever being able to emancipate themselves from its bondage. I know many pepple will not believe that there are men so simple ast"payson)e- body for sa vinCi their money, but it is true, and that is one of the reasons why working men are so poor-—■ hey look upon the publican as their great benefactor, and he ready does show more sympathy for tli. m than many who have a good deal more to say for themselves than for working men. My own experience g-es to prove that as lon as the masses of the people are willing to remain at the very of the social scale they will never be sl"r of friends who will groan over them at a distance1; but if they resolve to help themselves and actively set to won; in any direction, their groaning friends are alarmed and be'in to preach contentment in the position in which God has placed them It is not very creditable that thousands of men consid.r publicans their best friends and look upon them as their sorest resource in any timetof tremble. .==.=-=-=c-,====-=

WlN"ES AND SPIRITS (F-ceign) on which duty j 1, 1,,Il !) was paid in thep.-rtof Lond 111 !>v the principal Firms during j tbe year 1872:— WIXES (Foreign\ F.L»LRIT^ (Forci.a-0. Gallons ■ W. and A. unbev 17 W5 W. an 1 A.G.l ey Dingwall. Por; d. & Co. Daniel Taylor and Sons i7:> R \V. C > UE L:-il. e.M T VIS^ anil J5re ■ nivig 17.5,31 :> P>. HOOPER NN S ,i!.S. m.d-i.i Tro .vor an 1 bawv.M 151001 Sii-.T N A-I'L I. ghtly • Dingwall. Po t:?11, & Co. ]17,FIOS) Mathieson, L'.v.)n & I K. Hooper mul Sons 93,643 CO OU-iliff- and Co 02 0 7 < ilb upli, Grant, & Co. G9,935 D. lit, Ui wieli. a el Co. hi -• Pick an<L Co. 60,44« P. Domecq nn i C T-ois i;. P.-are.ti and Co -T. Albiiitt, ami i e. iV.) Osnum-1 ami Co ^7,SOI Max Gregor and Co. 71.2 0. (5. Phillips =UI1 C ». F' Daoiel TU.L-ir and S m 7:5.2 O Fu'eher and ROIMISON *4-JI ii. A ITaig an I Co 7-VUV; DAUN M Yaller.tin 11. T. Miylieli AND Co. 0:>.S04 J. Alluu:t. i-:n.. & to. 4- PreoUs a.ie. Oldh uu (N }; side-- fin preceding there were upwards ot -.o'JU nnr.s v.ie. 1 e. d doty on Wines and Spirits iu lev? quatitiUes C:an ti-o. above mentioned..— me Tru^e haitio.

POLiTIGo. The notorious Felix Pvat h :a 11 nte .Ced to death in contumaciam by a court-niar'r-.L Three of the Social:r. Vrs charged with being officials of the Internationale have been convicted at Copenhagen, and sentenced respectively to six, five, and four years' penal servitude. Mr Odger has consenV-d to stand again for Southwark at the next election, and has pledged him-e f to go to the po]) under any circumstanccs. The budget of the Pinr.nce Minister of the™ India Government, Sir Jlichard Temple, is pulvisheri The estimated revenue for the ensuing year is £ 48,280,000, and the surplus i220,000, notwithstanding that the income-tax has been abolished. Thd surplus f(.r the closing financial vear is the revenue being Sir Richard Temple states that this has been the most pros- perous financial year since the establishment of the present system. The Conservatives of the borough of Tynemouth are actively organising themselves, so that in the event of an early electron they may be able to act unitedly to secure the "return of a Conservative iienib,.r f,,r the borough. It has been resolved to solicit Mr H..T. Trot ter, .f Bishop Auck- land, to become a candidate f"r lyneujontb at the next election. There is a stroug feeling among the members of the Conservative Association that with such a candidate as r Trotter they will succeed. The Right Hon. T. Milner Gibson will pre-ide at the annual dinner of the Cobden Club this year, at which the Hon. D. A. Wells and other distinguished will be present. It was hoped that Mr Bright might have been induced to take the chair, but the right hon. gentle- man prefers not to pledge himself to any public engage- ment which he might be unable to fulfil, and is moreover desirous that his iirst speech outside the House of Com- mons should be made to hi. constituents.

THE SHROPSHIRE WILL CASE. (From the Daily News.) The Court of Probate La; been occupied for a foitnight past wth one of those curious and perplexing inquiries which sometimes arise when a will is disputed on the ground of the insanity of ihe testator. The will in ques- tion was that of Mr John Knight, of Henley Hall, Staf- fordshire, who died in September 1 st, at the age of 69. Mr Knight left behind him personal property to the amount of £ (52,000, an estate producing a net rental of £1,500 a year, and the house in which he lived, with the park around it. The property Lad come to him only twenty years before, and all the earlier part of h s life had been passed in straightened circumstances. He had lived abroad, and ha.l brought up and educated his three sons and an only daughter on an income of £ 200 a year. His wife died ten years before he came into possession of the property his daughter, to whom he was greatly attached, was married in 185o and died in lStil, leaving three children. Mr Knight seetns to have been f. nd of these grand-children, but, he had quarrelled in succession with each of his sons, and was iu t on speaking terms with any of Lhem, though lie wrote violent letters about them. He was not a social man, lie neither made nor received visits, but lived in a very eoc n'ric fasi.ion, and wrote a great maty letters. In 1808 he wrote to a neighbour, Sir Charles Bonghton, to whom he was distantly related., and with whom he was on friendly but not intimate terms, asking for the name of some local solicitor whom he might em I-y to make his will. Sir Charles Bonghron recom- mended Mr Marston, of Ludlow, and Mr Knight at once instructed Mr Maiston to draw up th.' document which has been the subject (if the inquiry. Thi dispoi ion of the property was eccentric. Ir Knight It ft tIO,OOO to a brother at Melbourne and £1,500 t. a favourite sister, but nothing to or for a r who was insane and dependent on him. He gave his eldest son the interest of £ 10.000 for life to his second son he bequeathed £8,000, and to his youngest son £ 7,000 but omitted the three children of his deceased daughter altogether. Three smaller legacies, amounting to £ 1,300 and £ 1,000 to each of his executors, completed his list. Then follow, d ihe strongest part of the will. The executors were Mr Marston and Sir Charles Broughtoi-i; and to the latter Mr Knight devised the whole of his real estate, with the Hall and Park, and re-idue of bis personal property, amounting to more than £ 20,000. This bequest was all the more strange from the fact that Sir Charles Boughton is the descendant of a person to whom in 1840 a Chai.cery decision had given an estate which bad previously b(en regarded by the Knight family as their property. The only reason Mr Knight assigned for thus alienating the remaining estate from his family was the fear that his fans might sell tt. to Lord Boyne, who had already purchased all outNiiig oi part of it. There was nothing to "bow that Lord Boyne wanted to buy the land, or to prevent its entail in the line of the testator's family. Mr Knight explained in one of his letters that he "'had at heart the future desti- nies and fortunes of the estate. He therefore gave it to one neighbour to prevent its being bought by another, and left his own family out in the cold. This eccentric disposition of the property was not the point on which the fuinily trusted to upset the will. Their arguments was that the making of such a will was only one of many eccentric acts of an insane person. It was ad- mitted that Mr Knight was peculiar and eccentric. He was fond of German bands, and entertained th )se wander- ing minstrels at the Hall, a,d let the sevants dance to their music. He shunned the company of his equals, anI culti- vated that of the lower animals, feeding his dogs with mutton. His house swarmed with rat.s, and he Si ^etimei fed and petted them, and sometimes shot theiii. He built splendid greenhouses and fruitenes, but either allowed the fruit to rot upon the trees or fed the animals with it. He made his grooms ride races in a ring, while he stood by to enjoy the fun and he took a maid-servant with him when he went out shooting rooks. He would dress himself in skins, paint stripes on his face, and rush in among his servants, gun in hand, to enjoy their frights These were the good- humoured sides of his character. On his ill-humoured side he was suspicious, merose, and cruel. He had been unkind to his wife, and had treated his sons with the greatest severity, even in their boyhood, sometimes stripping and beating them from meie sudden caprice feeding them on bread and water, and tying them to the door handle be- cause they failed to learn lessens which wereabo\e their capacity- His dislike of visitors .showed itself sometimes in a most curious form. Sir Charles Boughton called on him but a short time before the will was made in his favour, and Mr Kuight n -t only refused to see him, but li,d himself locked up in the cellar. He thought there was a conspiracy to poison him, and it was admitted that he was subject to hallucinations. As far back as 1843 he had believed that he was suspected of theft and on a later. occasion, when the same delusion recurred he consulted a solicitor as to his defence He believed he was watched and at a railway station one day fixed on some stranger as one of his watchers, and challenged him to fight He was in constant fear of robbers, and kept firearms ready loaded with ball for self-defence. To be much about him and to have t. do with him was, as a general rule, to incur his suspicion and enmity. It seems to have been his habit to dislike his own kindred, and to tieat most of his relations with suspicion and jealousy. In this re-pect, at any rate, the will was in general accordance w,th his character and conduct; though it rather exaggerated his eccentricity, as it omitted all mention of the relatives for wdiom he appears to have retained the most regard. The case for the will was that, notwithstanding all these eccentricities, the testator knew perfectly well what he was doing, and showed no incapacity whatever in the manage- ment of h's business affairs. There was no suspicion of any undue influence the will took the chief legatee by surprise, quite as much as it did the disinherited family. The sole question really before the jury, as put in the able sum- ming up of the Judge, was whtther these eccentricities and occasional delusions, taken inconnection with what Sir James Hannen called an "unnatural will," proved that the tes- tator was insane. The juiy had no hesitation in saying Yes. They deliberated only live minutes, and then gave a verdict against the will. The case is probably one which will be hereafter quoted as a precedent; and the careful summing up of Sir James Ham,en is therefore of unusual in- terest We are glad to note in that able statement an emphatic declaration that eccentricity must not be regarded as evidence of insanity, The tendency of social life is to repress all singularities, and destroo individuality and it is better that the law should regard all such exhibition with too tender rather than with too strict a criticism. There was as Sir James Haunen said, really nothing in Mr Knight's freaks to prove that he was unable to make a will; and probably, apart from the fact thit he had capri- ciously left his estate away from his family, there would have been no disposition tJ regard him as insane. His delusions were the exaggerated fancies of a suspicious mintl but even unfounded suspicions are no proof uf insanity, though there is, of course, a point at which the exaggera- tion of them passes the line. The English law leaves reat freedom to a testator; it may be a question how far ihat freedom is wise; but too much c Ire cannot be txeicised in fin ling a testator legally insane when he acts in what we may C(,Ii, call 3:1. insa.ie manner, or mekes what may in the same colloquial language be described as au in- line will. A mere unbalanced judgment, as Sir James Hannen says,is not evidence of insanity. "To define true "madness," rays Pol onious, "what, is ie bit to be nothing else but matI but whether Hamlet was mad or not is still nsmnch in dispute as it. veas in the Court of Denmark. It is not at all unlikely th*t in Mr Knight's case eccen- „ tricity had run intoe insanity, and the finding of the jury, which declares that it bad done so, will nel be dissented frf m. rrirTT-.TTTiri-- Th—rvitJ"-

THE IVH'OP.TER AMI THE ACTRESS.—All previous cbievements of Amer cau reporters are thrown into the shade by that, of one belonging to the St Louis. iJemoo at, who, according to his own account, ha? lately interviewed a celebrated English bu.lefque actress in tue f..Lowing spirited and effectual manner .la ving, as ,;e says, close- ly ins'iec^ed the lady, liisattent.oa became, not unnaturally absorbrd bv her hair. L), i >?uwear a w¡[?" lie enquir- i; nrt> '-Is your hair tot-ached "(Iertain- IvVo'. that is its natural colour." "I've heard that you wear You can try it if you like." She took her Wr down, and the reporter grnsoed it in both hands. He "utbis foot on her sho;der and puih-d. She cried for mercv, but he had ni olc no l;,s lnind not to ie.t personal consideiations stand in tide way of his investigation in the cause of science. Are uu sati-ti?<i? she gasped. "Not. yet, he answered. He to )k a bight round the leg of the table and liauUd. 1 r. think its a wig,' he shouted, :i, lie took anolhtr turn. The table leg hroke (,ff short, but he caught ti.e door k;)1, and pulled her over a chair. Tiie caught his eve, and he threw the hair over it. I-Iand over hand he lu.uled, and up sue wenttiH hir heal touched tbe burn-r. T king a hirch round tliesota, 1- f .1.1 -» I bis arms :>.r.d st-v.d contempt i"S her.. Ut •» 3 <v-n vii u to a wiu;' I in-(i ,\vn. >-u do, I i