The Aberdare Times

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE. ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF THE « EMPEROR OF RUSSIA. ST. PETRSBUEG, April 16. A telegram from St. Petersburg announces that an attempt to assassinate the Emperor of Russia was made at 4 p m. yesterday. The Emperor Alexander was entering his carriage to take his usual drive, when an unknown individual fired a pistol at him. The ball providentially missed its aim. The police are investigating the matter.

AUSTRIA AND PRUSSIA. VIENNA, April 16. Contradictory reports are still current here respecting the difficulty between the two great German Powers. It is rumoured that Count Esterhazy has tendered his resignation. It is stated that Bavaria has sent to Berlin a second despatch, containing offers of mediation between Austria and' Prussia. BERLIN, April 16. A crowded meeting was held here yesterday, at which the following resolutions were unanimously voted:— "1. A war between Prussia and Austria would be a national misfortune. 2. A Liberal Prussian Ministry would alone command the general confidence required for Federal reform. "3. The inhabitants of Schleswig-Holstein have an absolute right to dispose of their own future, such a popular right feiminp the only moral and legal basis of any constitutional government." The news published by some German papers that the Emperor of Austria has recently addressed an autograph letter to the King of Prussia is untrue. The rumours that Count Bismark had resigned are also devoid of foundation. The semi-official Nord-Deutsche Allgem-eine Zeitung of to-day declares that the election of Prince Charles of Hohen- zollern to the throne of the Principalities is a matter which concerns solely the family of the Princess of Hohenzollern, and is in no way connected with Prussian State politics. There is no truth in the statement that Austria has addressed a despatch to Prussia dated the 9th of April. All combinations and assertions based upon the existence of a despatch of that date, conceived in specific terms, are there- fore entirely unfounded. A reply to the Austrian Note of the 7th inst. was forwarded to Vienna yesterday.

THE DANUBIAN PRINCIPALITIES. BUCHAREST, April 15, Evening. The Plebiscite has terminated in nearly all the towns, and Prince Charles of Hohenzollern has been unanimously elected Bospodar. JASSY, April 15, Evening. A band of 200 men, led by Mourouzi and Rosnovano, at- tempted yesterday a separatist movement. They were dis- persed by the police, who compelled Mourouzi to fly. After this attempt the rioters, all said to be Russians, bar- ricaded themselves in the house of Rosnovano, whence they fired upon the troops, who replied. It is said that there were 14 killed and 16 wounded. The riot is now at an end. The people have not taken any part in the movement. The Metropolitan, who was at the head of the insurgents, received a slight wound. April 16 The origin of the disturbances which took place in this town the day before yesterday was a declaration of the newly elected Separatist Committee that the choice of the Prince of Hohenzollern as Hospodar of Roumania had been brought about by stratagem. The committee had also demanded the deposition of the provisional Government and the assembling of a special Legislature for Moldavia. Tranquility has now been completely restored. The regiment which suppressed the movement was composed of Moldavian troops. Many persons were wounded by the Soldiery. Mouro uzi and his accomplices have taken refuge on Russian territory. The Metropolitan, who was at the head of the movement, has been arrested, together with the Boyards Rosnovano and Lascesco. The whole of Moldavia has now voted unanimously for Prince Charles of Hohenzollern.

SKETCH OF THE FRENCH SOLDIER. The London Standard gives the following smart sketch of the treatment of the French soldier—as regards the period of engagement, pay, and pension—under the military system of France, in an article entitled" The British Soldier." The Standard, although it believes it would be manifestly im- possible to adopt the system of our neighbours as a whole, thinks it necessary to place before its readers such regula- tions as might safely and profitably be adopted by ourselves. The French certainly have a great advantage over us in this respect, as the following extract from the article in question will show:— One of the great advantages of a conscription is that it draws into the army formed by it men from every class of society. The cost of exemption in the French army is often too heavy to be met by the well-educatea or professional conscript who has no predilection for a military life, and he is com- pelled by the narrowness of his circumstances to pay his debt of service personally. All cadets, after passing tneir examinations for the military colleges of the Polytechnique and St. Cyr are obliged before admission to take a seven years' en- gagement they are expected to qualify them- selves for commissions in two years, but are per- mitted to remain a third, during which they are designated" fruit sec" by their comrades and, failing then, they enter the ranks as private soldiers, to work their way up as best they may. Independent of those taken under the conscription the French army is largely augmented by volun- teers during peace the number of well-educated youths who engage themselves varies from 10,000 to 12,000, and during war from 25,000 to 30,000 annually, and, as they are permitted to enter at eighteen years of age, it frequently happens (oppor- tunities presenting themselves) that they win their epaulets as quickly as those who pass throngh the colleges obtain theirs, and amongst those volunteers are to be found scions of the oldest, best, and even richest families, who prefer cutting, rather than reading, their way to promotion and so it happens that between the poor but respectable and well- instructed conscripts, the volunteers, and the rejected of the military schools (the two last classes bent on attaining advancement through their personal merit), a body of men is to be met with in each regi- ment supporting discipline by their good example, and promoting, by their refined manners, the high tone of military feeling so universally prevalent in the French army; politeness to their comrades being secured amongst the more rude and ignorant by the established custom of compelling those who offer insult to give personal satisfaction; for though duelling is forbidden amongst the officers, but over- looked unless in cases of foul play, amongst the private soldiers it is enforced. Men having seriously quarrelled appear before their colonel to state their respective causes of complaint. Should a blow be given a hostile meeting is inevitable; otherwise, he endeavours to reconcile them, and failing in that, I directs them to choose their temoins (our seconds), and see it out. The combatants fight with the arms of their regiments: small swords, if infantry; sabres if cavalry, the maitre des armes being always present to see that matters are carried on according to rule, and interposing to stop the duel when he con- siders that the honour of both parties should be satisfied. With such a respect for personal honour as is strictly inculcated, and such a class of men as is to be found in every French regiment to choose from, it is not surprising that amongst the officers raised from the ranks are to be found many who attain the highest grades of a profession which they adorn by their gallantry and talents. However much the conscript dis- inclined to a military life may in the first instance re- gret separation from his family, and the in- terruption of his studies for a profession, or of his practice in acquiring a trade which he would prefer, he quickly gets reconciled to his posi- tion. He finds on joining his allotted corps that every- thing calculated to degrade a soldier in his own eyes, or in those of the public, and so mar his future pros- pects, is studiously avoided. He is taught by the an- nals of the army to regard himself as one who may hereafter be destined to fill its highest position. And the flattering opinion entertained by his fellow-citizens of the defenders of their country increases their self- respect, so that drunkenness, rioting, and other dis- graceful offences are of more rare occurrence in the French than perhaps in any other army. Corporal punishment is never had recourse to. The first offences of the soldier are punished by confinement in the "Salle de Police." Should this mild description of correction prove inefficacious, and if he still perseveres in his mis- conduct, he is brought before a court consisting of a chef de bataillon," two captains, and four subalterns, who hear the accusation and defence. Should a con- viction follow he is by their decision sent to the "com- pagnies de discipline," stationed in the colonies, and who never enter France. The duration of his punish- ment, as he is not sentenced for any particular time, depends entirely on himself. After one year's con- tinuous good conduct he is allowed to rejoin his regi- ment should he continue insubordinate he is transferred from the compagnie de discipline" to the Pioneers" where he is much more severely treated, and must re- main until the completion of his term of service. He then receives his discharge on yellow paper, which disqualifies him from ever filling any description of public employment. The men of those companies are never armed unless in cases of the most urgent ne- cessity. They perform no military duties, but labour as our convicts do in the construction of roads and in the arsenals. In no service is discipline more strictly enforced than in the French, and yet it is solely maintained by those means, without having re- course to the barbarous and brutalising punishment of flogging. It is almost certain that an ill-conditioned fellow, ready to risk the consequences of misconduct, when he knows that 50 lashes is the maximum likely to be inflicted on him, accompanied with perhaps a few months' confinement in a model prison, where he will be as well fed and lead a much easier life than if doing duty with his regiment, would hesitate to trans- gress if he found that transportation, for even twelve months, with really hard labour and coarse rations in an unhealthy climate, would surely be the conse- quence. Although the French soldier must not frequent the same cajes or restaurants as his commissioned or non- commissioned officers, whom he is obliged to salute, yet in private life he conducts himself as the equal of the former. If of good education, gentlemanly manners, and meritinglhe honour by his conduct, he dines at the table of his colonel, and meets his officers at those of civilian friends, without the slightest feeling of social inferiority. No matter what their means all must be present at meals in the haracks. They may, and do, such of them as can afford it, give their rations to their neighbours, and dine at the table d'hotw of a first rate hotel. And we remember being much amused on one occasion at the astonishment of an English noblemen on being informed by a fashion- able Parisian coachmaker that a four-horse drag, which he very much admired, was built fora-serjeant in a crack regiment of the Imperial Guard. Although the pay of the French soldier is very small during his first and forced period of service for seven years, yet he has many advantages to counterbalance its insufficiency. He travels by rail, and is pri- vileged to enter all places of public amusement at one-fourth the price paid by civilians, besides get- ting his tobacco, which is unadulterated, at a very small cost. Should he remain for a second congcoi seven years he is treated with more liberality than any other European soldier. The chevron denoting his length of service carries with it additional pay, and he receives as bounty from 100l. to 1201.- the exact amount of the smart money fixed by the Minister of War to be paid by the conscript who purchases bis discharge—one half down. the other half being lodged with the regimental to hi. credit, and bearing four per cent. interest until his discharge at the end of hi* fourteenth year, should he desire to leave, when it is handed to him. Under this arrangement every con- script may retire at thirty-four, and every volunteer at thirty-two years of age, with sufficient capital in hand to enable him to engage in some small line of business, and an additional income for life of 10l. a year should he be decorated with the cross, and of 4l. a year if with the military medal This bounty, to spare the feelings of the humbler recipients, must be accepted by all, even the non-commissioned officers, on their re-en- gagement, but as no man "who sells himself ever gains his epaulets unless under most extraordinary circum- stances, those who except promotion return it as a gift to the regimental fund or bestow it on any charitable institution they may choose to select; and this act of liberality on their part is duly announced in the order of the day. Should the soldier remain to complete twenty-five years of service he is for the last eleven years in receipt of 4d. a day increased pay; and then, even though undecorated, retires at forty-five years old with a minimum pension of 20l. a year, augmented by allowances for campaigns and wounds, if he have made the one or received the other.

A SAD HISTORY. The following, which we extract from the Cork Examiner, presents a very sad phase in the history of two Irish gentle- men who were convicted of an assault last year, and im- prisoned :— At the quarter sessions held in Fermoy, July, 1865, Messrs. Jonathan and Richard Morgan, two members of a family occupying a leading position in the county, and one of whom had served in the Crimea as captain in one of her Majesty's regiments, were tried, found guilty, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment, for an assault of a very violent character, committed on a Mr. Hunt, and prompted by some real or supposed insult offered by the latter to their female relative, Lady Louisa Morgan. The case excited a good deal of interest at the time, owing to its somewhat peculiar nature and the social position of the parties; and not a little curiosity will doubtless be felt to know what has since befallen the convicted persons. One of them, the younger of the two, is now, we regret to say, a raving lunatic, and the other, we are informed, but little removed from that unhappy state. It needs no analysis of the pnson discipline to show that its essential seventy must have fallen -with crushing ef- fect on two men who, from their rank, must have been accustomed to live luxuriously; and that it has had that effect will probably not excite surprise when we state that the discipline of the prison has, in their case been carried out most unflinchingly. From the labour which would otherwise form portion of their punish- ment, they have, no doubt, been exempt, on the pay- ment by their friends of the cost of subsistence,—an arrangement sanctioned by the statute; but there has been no mitigation of the rigour of the prison regimen, and these men, who had all their lives been accustomed to fare sumptuously, have, since their incarceration, been reduced to the following regimen: Breakfast, nine a. m., six ounces, Indian meal and two ounces rice, made into stirabout; and one pint of sweet milk. Dinner, four p.m., 14 ounces bread and two pints sweet milk. One pint of gruel is substituted for milk for dinner twice a week. The sufferings of the two prisoners under this regi- men are described as most heart-rending. We are in- formed that, for more than an hoar prior to each meal, they have been beard yelling for food, and although this has been going on for some time, no improvement, however slight, has been attempted in their dietary, till one of them has beeu reduced, as before stated, to the condition of a raving maniac. Of the following cir- cumstance, as showing with what exactness the regula- tions have been enforced in their regard—if, indeed, such a course can be considered at all necessary for the preservation of discipline—we have reliable infor- mation. The two Morgans, lounging idly in one of the prison yards when moderate employment would per- haps have been more wholesome for them, were accus- tomed to receive from one of the debtors confined in the cells, whose windows look into the airing yard, broken food, the remnants of the donor's better fare. This little generosity to the two suffering men was pro- hibited the room from which the food was thrown was vacated, and closed for some time, and when again allowed to be occupied, as one of the least disagreeable situations in the prison, it was on the distinct under- standing that the occupant should extend no such con- sideration to the pitiable objects beneath. The un- happy lunatic was recently visited by his father, but he could not recognise him. He is now constantly in the care of keepers, and is, we believe, about to be removed to the Lunatic Asylum. Since his condition became so extremely serious the prison discipline has been relaxed, and he is now permitted to use such food as the medical officer of the establishment considers suitable to his state.

THE NEGRO ARMY OF THE UNITED STATES. It appears by the recently published official state- ment of Secretary Stanton that there are at this time more blaok than white troops in the volunteer service of the United States (says the New York Times). Of negro soldiers (privates) we have no less 63,373, while the white volunteers now left number but 55,326 men. If, however, we add to the white soldiers of what is called our volunteer army the troops of the regular service (who are no less volunteers than the others) we find that the total white force outnumbers the black by about 18,000 men. We venture to say that few people had any idea that such a large negro army was now in the service of the United States. Mr. S ^anton says that orders have been issued for discharging 23,000 of the coloured troops—which will leave us, after the reduction is effected, over 40,000 still in the service. Orders have been issued for discharging nearly 19,000 white soldiers of the volunteer force, leaving still 36,000 in service but if to the latter we add the white troops of the regular army, we have a total white army re- maining of 62,000 men, or 22,000 more whites than blacks. The great majority of our negro troops are in the states bordering on the Mississippi river, and some are in Texas. The government never saw fit to concede the requests of these states for their removal, and there is less fault found with them than formerly. It was greatly feared by the Southern people that they. would prove turbulent, and would conduct themselves in an unbearable manner towards the race that formerly held them in bondage, while at the same time they would demoralise the negro labourers, and disturb the operations of reviving industry. But most of these fears have proved quite ground- less. Instead of being turbulent, the negro troops have proved very orderly; and we do not remember any instances of insubordination on their part, except upon one occasion last summer on the James river, when a force of them was ordered to Texas and the attempted mutiny then was very easily and quickly quelled. The general conduct of the various bodies of them stationed throughout the Southern States has been, in the main, exceedingly good. Toward the population among whom they have been stationed they have borne themselves in an inoffensive manner, neither insolent nor turbulent. This is partly owing to the intrinsic character of the negro race, and partly to the efforts of military discipline and the excellent officers of all grades who have had command of them. It will be remembered that while our negro army was being formed, a special board, of which General Casey was head, sat in Washington for the examina- tion, selection, and appointment of officers to command it. The very choicest stock of our army, subordinate officers and privates, came forward and offered to serve in this organisation. The examinations were exceed- ingly rigid, and the selections made with the most scrupulous care; and it is doubtless, in great measure, the result of this that our negro army has maintained its good character throughout. It is evident from our experience that we can raise a large black army in this country; thtttbenegroea are capable of being trans- formed into soldiers that they can fight, and can do efficient work in all arms of the service; that they have the sentiment of loyalty, and are capable of de- votion to the flag. We have tried the experiment of African soldiers in a civilised army, upon a scale of magnitude never before attemp'ed or approached in the history of the world. The experience we have ac- quired may possibly be of service to our country in the future.

DREADFUL TRAGEDY AT TUNBRIDGE WELLS. The quiet town of Tunbridge Wells, was on Saturday morning lasfthrown into a state of great excitement from the fact of a married woman named Ann Lawrence (but now cohabiting with a man named Higham) having murdered her child aged four years, and made a savage and brutal attack on her paramour with a bill-hook, so that he is now lying in a very precarious state. It appears that the parties had been living together for some considerable time, but of late a good deal of unpleasantness had occurred, the man, as stated by the woman cohabiting with another woman. On Saturday morning loud cries of Murder were heard by the neigh- bours, in consequence of which some of them went into the house and found the woman covered with blood, and the man fearfully wounded. The upstairs room presented a most heart-rending scene. On the teed, which was on the floor, was the uody of a little child—a boy—aged four years, welter- ing in his blond, and his throat severed by a ftarful gash by a razor, which was left in the wound The man Higham she attacked with a deadly-looking weapon called a bill. hook, used for the purpose of chopping wood, with which shehacked his head and arms in a fearful manner. He went to a neigh- bouring house bleeding profusely from the wounds he had received, and remained there until medical assistance was procured, after which he was removed to the infirmary, being in a most critical condition. On Sunday the scene of the dreadful tragedy was visited by an immense number of persons, who desired to be admitted to the houses, but the police, who were in charge of the pre- mises, refused to admit anyone.

AMERICAN OPINION OF THE REFORM BILL. It may be interesting for us to know that the New York Times says of our Reform Bill. This paper has an article from which we extract the following:— Mr. Gladstone has at length come forward with his great measure, which is to determine the fate of the Ministry, and whose success will form au era in English political history. County veters. who formerly were admitted to suffrage only when paying 250 dols. occupancy, are now enlarged to those paying 70 dols while in boroughs, those paying an annual rent of 37 dols. for a house, and in towns those paying 50 dols. per annum for apartments or portions of a house, are qualified. Such a qualification in New York would include almost every male member of the community, except vaga- bonds, servants, and strangers. If the features of the re- form are correctly reported, it will strike the American mind as a most generous and comprehensive measure, certainly widening the suffrage quite as tar as wisdom would justify. If it pass, it will gradually change the whole character of Parliament and of English life. Henceforth, unless tho dis- tribution of boroughs be very unjost, the liberal, democratic, progressive party, headed by Mr. Bright and his friends will have prodigious increase of power. Many a squire, and Tory, and landholder will have to give place in Parliament to a manufacturer or merchant, or S9me new and self-made man, a Liberal and Democrat. Four hundred thousand fresh voters, well-distributed, would hold almost the balance of power in future elections. This the beginning of an Americanizing process in England. Her Parliament is to have more members representing substantially the same class and many similar ideas with those of our members of Con- gress. The new democratic ideas are gradually to find em- bodiment, the separation of Church and State, the complete secularization of politics, the removal of the Irish Church, the destruction of entail, and the greater freedom given to the transfer of land, the limitation of class privileges, the doing away with useless expenditures, the more complete freedom of trade, and the duty of a popular system of educa- tion, apart from all associations with creed or Church. These and similar ideas will, in the course of the next generation, become laws and institutions in England. With some peculiar advantages in her civil system and her more democratic responsibility of the minority, she may even surpass America in true liberal, humane, and democratic progress. England under the new regime and the United States will be nearer and more united than under the old. Many jealousies and antipathies will pass away. The mere form of government will be no barrier between them while the principles are so nearly alike.

CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES in FRANCE. Mr. Grey's report on the commerce and industry of France contains some observations on French co-operative societies. Speaking particularly with reference to the mention of the subject made in the Emperor's speech last year, Mr. Grey says:— It will be the first time the French legislature will have taken into consideration the question of co- operative societies or associations of the labouring classes. The object is, says the Imperial speech, to remove the impediments which exist to the formation of such societies, and "to give facilities to *an experi- ment which seems to be destined, to contribute to the amelioration of the condition of the labouring classes." the fact is, that of late years this subject has acquired such importance that it is no longer possible for the government to ignore it. There seems indeed to be, though in a moderate degree, a revival of the ideas by which the labouring classes were so much agitated in 1848, even when under the auspices of the ultra-demo- cratic party, a number of co-operative societies sprang up and were subsidised by the government, a measure which greatly contributed to their ruin. Most of these societies died a natural death, and the government of December, 1851, discouraged their formation to the utmost of its power. Very few of the societies of 1848 have survived; but at the present time the move- ment has greatly gained ground in France under the influence of the example set in England and Germany, and the success of co-operative societies abroad has been made use of by men ef ability here to induce the French operatives to follow suit. The most important and the most successful step in this line was the es- tablishment of the "Societedu Credit au Travail," which was instituted at Paris on the 28th of Septem- ber, 1863, with a capital of 20,120 francs, of which only 4,182 francs were realised. At the beginning of 1865 this society had 720 shareholders, with a capital 112,000 francs, and had during the year 1864 a discount business to the amount of more than 542,000 francs. The society of "Le Credit au Travail" has, by its ad. vances and its counsels, greatly contributed to the creation of other associations of production and con- sumption," of which there are about thirty at Paris alone, nearly all in a flourishing condition. Besides these, within the last few years, about forty societies of "mutual credit" have been established. A work published (" Le Credit Populaire,par A.Balbie ") shows that 31 of these societies, which at the outset bad but 484 members, now reckon 1,430, of whom 835 are workmen in the receipt of wages. The movement has not been confined to Paris; a society of "Credit au Travail" has been created at Lyons a people's bank at Colmar; a society of consumption works successfully at Havre, and many other instances might be quoted. In short, the movement is at the present time daily gaining ground and taking root, thanks to the good principles on which it works, and which form a marked contrast to what took place in 1848. The present state of the law in regard to co-operative societies is, however, very unfavourable to their success and deve- lopment and the determination of the government to introduce certain reforms in the legislation respecting commercial societies in general, is received with satis- faction. Indeed, it seems to be a wise determination, and one which may produce good results in the condi- tion of the working classes, as they will be encouraged to contract habits of order, prudence, and regularity, which have hitherto been much wanting among the masses in France, and whose absence has led to the frequent disturbances of the public peace which the country has so greatly suffered from during the last 60 years.

THE MYSTERIOUS MURDER IN LONDON. On Wednesday evening, the 11th instant, Sarah Millson, widow, aged about forty, housekeeper to Messrs. Bevington. the well-known leather cutters, Cannon-street West, London, left the dining-room, where she was sitting with Elizabeth Lowe, the cook, to attend to a bell which she said "was for her." About a quarter-past ten o'clock the cook went to look for her, and found Mrs. Millson lying dead in the passage with a number of wounds on the back of her head, apparently inflicted with a blunt instrument, supposed to have been a crowbar belonging to the pre- mises. The following are the detailed particulars: — After office hours, and when the principals and clerks had left, the custom was to leave the house in the charge of two women, a housekeeper and a cook. Since the death of the housekeeper's husband some six years ago-no man seems to have slept upon the premises. About half-past ten on Wednesday night a policeman, passing on the beat, was called into the warehouse by the cook, a woman named Lowe and he found the body of Mrs. Millson, the house- keeper, lying on the floor of the passage which led from the street door. The woman was then already dead; her head had literally been beaten in by a number of blows dealt with some heavy instrument; and though the floor was covered with blood, there was no indication that any struggle had taken place between the murderer and his victim. Such, we should state, is all the positive, unquestionable evidence we possess with regard to the murder. What further information we have as to the probable facts of the case is scanty, and is derived from the evidence of the victim's fellow- servant. It seems that on the night in question, Messrs. Bevington's warehouseman left the building about eight o'clock, having called down the housekeeper, as usual, to let him out of the door. After his departure, the two women, as far as we at present know, were left alone in the house. Lowes's account, given before the Coroner's inquest on Friday contributes but little to our information. According to her statement, she and her companion sat talking together till some time between eight and nine, when the street-bell was rung. The housekeeper said the ring was for her, and went downstairs to open the door, while the witness went up to her bed-room. Not hearing anything of her fellow-servant forupwards of an hour or so, she went to look for her, and found her lying on the ground near the street-door. Thinking that Mrs. Millson was in a fit, the witness immediately called for assistance. A woman, who was standing under the doorway for shelter from the rain—the night being dark and stormy—refused to come in when she was told there was a persen inside in a fit. Nobody else passed by till a police- man came up and then it was discovered that a murder had been committed. The matter is surrounded with more than ordinary did- culty from the reserve which the deceased herself appears to have maintained with respect to some of the persons with whom she was intimate: Persons called occasionally to see her in the evening after business hours whom she was ac- customed to see alone in the warehouse, and some of whom were unknown even by sight to the cook, Elizabeth Lowes, who was the only other domestic servant there. It was rare that she allowed the cook to open the front door bell when it was rung after the partners and their workmen and their clerks had left for the day. An incident occurred after the murder had become publicly known which, in the absence of all other clue, may be mentioned for what it is worth, though the detective police are understood to attach little impor- tance to it. A man, it is said, called at a police-station in the neighbourhood of Cannon-street, and made a statement to the effect that the deceased once gave evidence against a man who was sentenced to penal servitude, and that his sentence had recently expired. It is said the man who made it had evidently been drinking, and the police-sergeant on duty gave little credence to the story. The man was asked to call again the next morning when sober, and went away promising to do so, but has not since returned. Since the murder the police are said to have seen almost every known acquaintance the deceased had during the last twenty years, but with little or no result so far as unravelling the mystery at present attending the murder is concerned. The most remarkable part of the whole affair is the absence of those motives that can ordinarily be assigned for the com- mission of murder. Mrs. Milhon had long passed the age when women inspire such passions as lead to crime. An elderly, respectable housekeeper to a London merchant is certainly not a person likely to be the heroine of a dark story of guilt or revenge. She seems to have had no money or pr perty which could tempt any one to the perpetration of a murder. Nor, strange to say, was an attempt made to plunder the offices. Yet it is obvious that the murder was wilful and premeditated. To judge from the position of the body, it would seem that the murderer struck the victim as she was going upstairs with her back towards him, stunned her by the first blow, beat her about the head till she was dead, and then walked quietly out of the house, having first turned off the gas as he left. The police, therefore, have to pursue their investigations entirely in the dark, and at obvious disadvantage, from the absence of all apparent motive, and from the murderer having left not the slightest trace behind that might possibly identify him. In the case of the murder of Mr Briggs there was always the hat which the assassin inadvertently left behind him, and which ultimately played so important a part in his conviction; but here there is an absence of any- thing tending to identification, and there was no robbery. By some it has beep thought strange that the cook, who lived no higher up than the second floor, should not have heard any struggle or scream while the murder was being perpe- trated on the basement; but the impracticability of hearing has been tested and proved to the satisfaction of the police, unless, they say, a person in that part of the house was listening attentively for a sound. Little or nothing is thought of the young woman, who was standing for shelter on the steps of the entrance, running away when the cook opened the door and asked her to come in, stating that some one had taken a nt inside. It is supposed that she went away without rendering assistance simply because she was frightened; but she might have been standing there for shelter sufficiently long to have seen any one leave by the front door before the cook opened it, and in that case might speak to his appearance, if she could now be found So the matter remains at present, some of the most experienced of the City detective police being constantly engaged in solving the mystery. Further particulars sayUp to 10 o'clock on Monday night the murderer of the woman Millson had not been ap- prehended, and the matter remains as much a mystery as at first, baffling all attempts to solve it by the city police for the present. From the beginning they have had nothing tangible on which to act, and have been driven to vague conjecture. On one thing they appear to be agreed—namely, that robbery was not the motive but beyond that all is uncertain. It ap- pears to admit of question that the first husband of the de- ceased is really dead, whatever bearing that may have upon the matter. Her maiden name was Perry, and in 1853 when she was married to her second husband, Millson (now'dead), it was in the name of Swan, and she was described as a widow. Since the murder, a brother of the deceased, residing out of London, has stated that he did not even know, until now, that she was married, she all along having invariably used her maiden name whenever she had occasion to write to him. The man supposed to be her first husband is believed to have gone to America some years ago, and before her marriage with Millson; but whether he is living or dead is not now exactly known. It is beyond a doubt that she was married to Millson, for a properly authenticated certificate of the marriage register was produced at the inquest on Friday last, and she may, before contracting the second marriage have known or had reason to believe that her first husband was dead. The-police have more than one theory as to the murder, and these they are now engaged in testing by inquiries and by degrees but it is a tedious procsss, there being literally nothing beyond conjecture to work upon. Some of the most acute and experienced of the city detective force are engaged in the investigation, and they are pursuing it with the greotest zeal and caution, determined, if possible, to find out by whose hand this foul crime has been perpetrated, and to maintain their own reputation, which on these occasions Is always more or less put upon its trial. That robbery was not the motive for the deed is shown by the fact that the key of an iron safe, with which the deceased was intrusted by her masters at nights, was found upon her after the murder, with 17s. in silver, ahd nothing appears to have been disturbed in the counting-house or warehouses. She was known personally as the housekeeper of the Messrs. Bevington to the inspectors of the divisional police, and on one occasion she was called out of bed in a dead hour of the night in consequence of the back entrance to the premises of her masters being found unfastened by a policeman on duty. On that occasion a minute search of the premises was made, but only to convince the officers that nothing had been disturbed, and that the door had been left unlocked by in- ad vertence. There is one way of accounting for the privacy which she appears to have observed in seeing some of her visitors after the partners and men had left for the day—namely, that some employers have, for obvious reasons; a strong objection to strangers being admitted within their places of business after they are closed for the night. She may have felt that such visits were irregular and open to objection, and if she did, that would give an interpretation to her acts in that respect less affecting her moral character than that which has been assumed since the murder. With respect to her fellow-servant having heard no scream or struggle while the murder was being perpetrated, besides the difficulty of that from the distance she was apart from the deceased at the time, it is supposed that the very first blow the deceased received was the one which com- pletely fractured the skull, and which would silence her at once, if, indeed, she had time to scream at all. This pro- bably laid her prostrate, and it was while in that condition that all the rest of the wounds and bruises were inflicted.

A DANGEROUS LUNATIC. On Saturday the 7th inst., about 7 p.m., General and Mrs. Cleaveland were in their dining-room at Stourwood-house, near Ringwood, Hants, when sud- denly a loud singing, as if from drunken men, was heard in front of the house. A minute after a man un- known to them, but whose name it since appears is Charles Hyde, came up, and attempted to pull down the shutters. G eneral Cleaveland hurried his wife from the room, locked the door after her, and, arming him self with a revolver, immediately proceeded to the front of the house, where he found Hyde trying to force his entrance through the shutters. On going up to him General Cleaveland told him to desist, and to come with him. The man replied, No, 1 shall not come with you to be put in Winchester gaol," adding, I have not done yet; when I get into your house I will have your life and the lives of all belonging to you." Hyde at that time, though smelling strongly of rum, was not drunk. He had a large stone in his hands. which were bleeding. The General left for a moment to see Mrs. Cleaveland into the house, she having come out with the servant. The man took advantage of the opportunity and broke nine large panes of the drawing-room windows doubtless with the intention of entering that way. He would have done so had not Mrs. Cleaveland rushed up and shut the shutters in his face, at the same time exclaiming "the police are coming and will shoot you!" To which he replied in a quiet voice, I want no sauce, and I don't care for the police." After this, people approached from both sides of the house. The man moved a few steps, and was seized by a gardener named Guy, who in try- ing to secure him was stabbed with a clasp knife. A struggle then commenced, during which he flung the the knife under a shrub a few feet off. The General's groom afterwards picked it up open. He was so violent that it became necessary to convey him in a a cart to Christchurch police station, where, it appears he he came raving mad. He has since been placed in a lunatic asylum. When the singing was first heard one of the servants went out to see what the noise was, and the man said, "This is General Cleaveland's?" She said, "Yes, but what are you here for?" He re- plied, Make but a sign to warn them and I will dash] you brains out." The maid then ran to tell what she had seen, but unfortunately too late. Evidence was given by two medical men before the magistrates at the court held at Christchurch, on Monday the 9th inst., J that the prisoner Hyde was then deranged, and he had 1 been previously treatedby them for insanity. Hyde was < sent some months ago to the infirmary at Southampton, ) and on account of his violence was removed thence to the union. The union, it is said, on account of his 1 state of mind, sent him back to the parish—at least, < this has been stated by his relatives, since which time he has been allowed to roam about at large, with no one to care for him. i -Fe;-

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHILDREN IN WORKHOUSES.. The following form of petition to Parliament from the wives and mothers professing the Roman Catholic religion has been read from the altars of the churches and chapels in the Roman Catholic Archiepiscopal diocess of West- minster by direction of the Archbishop, the Most Rev. Dr. Manning:— Showeth,—That your petitioners have been accus- tomed to hear and thankful to believe that they live in a land of religious liberty and of fair and equal laws, and that especially their own religion is no longer proscribed or subjected to penalties; that, nevertheless, they are still subjected to a cruel penalty more severe to them than bodily pain in what may tiuly be des- cribed as the compulsory education in principles opposed to their own, and privation of all instruction in their own religion, and of all opportunities of practising it to which a large number of the orphans and young children of Roman Catholic parents are ex- posed in poorhouses, Poor Law schools, reformatories, and industrial schools. That a large proportion of the Roman Catholic population is very poor and engaged in work very necessary for the general good, but injurious to the health of those who carry it on; and hence the number of Roman Catholic orphans and children who come under the provisions of Poor Law and Reformatory Acts of Parliament is exceptionally large. That system of which your petitioners com- plain, of forcing young children to attend religious services and instructions different from those to which their parents have accustomed them, and cutting them off entirely from the instruction and consolation which the clergy of their own faith are ready even gratui- a tously to impart of them, usually results in destroying one set of religious convictions without implanting others, and in hardening and embittering the minds of ( those who are made to undergo it. That to conscien- j tious Roman Catholic parents in the hour of death whose children are not provided for, or are in any such poorhouses or schools, the knowledge of the system pursued in them is the greatest grief which can embitter their last moments. That this system, though not directly prescribed by any law, and, as i your petitioners believe, contrary to the spirit and ] general character of the legislation of the country,- is j carried on under the sanction of Acts of Parliament, ( and by powers granted by such Acts. That your j petitioners, or most of them, are obliged to contribute ] to poor rates and county rates, by which the expenses of the poorhouses, reformatories, and schools in which < the children of their friends and fellow-religionists are so cruelly treated are defrayed. That your petitioners understand that Parliament has interfered to protect other classes of persons in danger of oppression, as children working in mines and factories, although the evils to be prevented were less serious, and those whose powers were restrained were not receiving grants of public money, and the alleged oppression was not. exercised in virtue of powers given by Parlia- ment. that your petitioners, therefore, earnestly pray that your Hon. House will no longer be contented to pass Permissive Bills which Poor Law Guardians and others disregard but will forbid, under effective pro- visions the refusal of free access to a properly authorized Roman Catholic clergyman to the Roman Catholic children and the education of any such children in any other than their own faith in any poor house, Poor Law School, reformatory or industrial school, supported wholly or in part by taxes, poor rates, or county rates, and your petitioners will ever pray.

ELECTORAL STATISTICS. Three returns relating to the borough franchise have been published, and wi;l, no doubt, be frequently re- ferred to in the course of the pending debate (says the Times). The first return is one made at the instance of Mr. Hunt of the several cities and boroughs in England and Wales, arranged in order according to the proportion of electors belonging to the working classes on the register showing the total number of electors the total number of persons of the working classes on the register the proportion by way of per- centage of the latter to the whole number of electors, and the number of male occupiers at 71. and under 10l: gross estimated rental. From this return it appears that there are 89 cities and boroughs in which the pro. portion of electors of the working classes on the re- gister to the total number of electors exceeds 25 per cent. The gross number of registered electors in these cities and boroughs is now 228,453, of whom 85,156, or an average of 37*2, belong to the working classes' as defined in the volume of electoral statistics laid before Parliament at the opening of the Session. The num- ber of male occupiers in those cities and boroughs at 71. and under 10l. gross estimated rental is 100,452, and as it is reasonable to assume that nearly the whole of those persons fall within the category of the working classes it is evident that the Government Reform Bill would, if passed into law, give a preponderating in- fluence in those constituencies to the working class over all other classes. Thus, at Coventry, where at present, out of a total constituency of registered elec- tors of 4,967, no less than 3,468, or 69-8 per cent., be- long to the working class, the male occupiers between 71. and 10l. number 2,653. In' the case of the agricul- tural borough of Maldon, at present 479 out of 859, or 55'8 per cent., belong to the working class, and a re- duction of the franchise to n. rental would admit 222 other persons. In Greenwich the working class con- stitute now 52'7 per cent. of the constituency, or 5,169 out of a total of 9,805 but their preponderance would be largely increased by a 71. franchise, which would admit 2,954 occupiers. In the cathedral city of Can- terbury the present number of registered electors is 1,603, of whom 515, or 32*1 per cent., belong to the working class, and the number of occupiers betweeu 71. and 10l. is 1,032. The effect of the proposed change is "less marked in the case of the last borough on the first list, Bedford, which at present, out of a total of 1,106 electors, has 282, or 25'5 per cent. of the work- ing class, which would be augmented by 327 occupiers between n. and lOl. The return next gives 27 cities and boroughs in which the proportion of electors of the working classes to the total number of electors ex- ceeds 20 per cent. and is less than 25 per cent. Of these boroughs Stamford, with a present register of 512 electors, of whom 125, or 24'4, are working men, would receive an addition of 103 only by a n. fran- chise but Wigan, which has a constituency of 863, would have its quota of working class electors (205) largely increased by an admission of 808 occupiers be- tween 71. and 10l. In Marylebone, where out of a total of 23,588 electors 5,103, or 21*6, belong to the working class, a n. franchise would, as might be ex- pected, have but little effect, only 471 persons falling within its range. Very different would be the case at Preston, where the electors now number 2,562, of whom 540, or 21'1, are working men, but there are no less than 2,612 occupiers between 71 and 10?. There are 34 cities and borpughs in which the proportion of working men electors to the whole number of electors exceeds 15 per cent., and is less than 20 per cent., the average being 17'3. In this class stands, Birmingham, with its 14,997 electors, of whom 2,883, or 19 2 per cent., are of the working class, whose number would be enormously increased by a 71. franchise, which would admit 14,959 occupiers. There are 50 cities and boroughs in which the proportion of working class electors is less than 15 per cent., the average being 10*5, the last on the list being Buckingham, where only 10 out of 391 electors are working men, and a 71. franchise would only increase the number by 80. The general result of this return is that a 7l. franchise would add 206,400 electors to the present constituency of 489,077 in the boroughs and cities of England and Wales. A return has been made, at the instance of Mr. Banks Stanhope, in respect of each Parliamentary city or borough of the gross estimated rental of the pro- perty for which the male occupiers enumerated in Re- turn E of Electoral Returns, 1866, are assessed ac- cording to the several classes of assessment mentioned in the gross estimated rental of male occupiers between 4l. and 71. is 2,058,846?.; of occupiers between 71. and 101., 1,692,516?.; and of occupiers from 71. and up- wards, 27,580,864?. A third return has been obtained by Mr. D. Griffith, showing the number of voters in every borough and city in England and Wales in which there was a con- test at the last election, with the number of working class voters in such boroughs, &c. The number of contested borough elections was 129, at which, out of a total constituency of 366,728 electors, 267,140 re- corded their votes. This return is remarkable as ex- hibiting how much more general is the exercise of the franchise in small than in large constituencies. For example, in the city of London 10,997 only voted out of 15,534; in Liverpool 14,672 out of 20,618 in Man- chester 14,916 out of 21,542; and Finsbury 13,127 out of 25,461. At Tiverton the electors numbered 465, of whom 441 voted. At Tewkesbury there were 321 voters out of a total constituency of 325. Totnes, with 382 electors, had 364 voters Bury St. Edmund's 620 out of 676 and Bodmin 347 out of 397.

A NEW PHASE OF FENIANISM. The following extract from the American correspondence of a contemporary implies doubt as to whet her Fenianism has been rightly designated a "Brotherhood," and whether peace will prevail long in that "happy family :"— We have a new phase of Fenianism. In my last letter I announced that the members of the "Iiish Republican Brotherhood," recently and at present loafing about the streets of this city, would wait upon O'Mahony on the (then) following Monday, and de- mand of that distinguished person an account of his stewardship. This performance was carried out. The members of the" I. R. E." met in the Bowery, on Monday, and, after a stormy discussion, which nearly culminated in a free fight, and actually did eventuate in policemen, a "delegation" was appointed to "call" upon O'Mahony. The "delegation" proceeded to the Union-square head-quarters, whence they were speedily ejected. O'Mahoney refused the application for a glimpse at his "books." The delegation then marched down Broadway to the Roberts head-quarters. The "President received the unwashed with great polite- ness, and to. their demand for information made the fallowing reply:— TO THE COMMITTEE OF THE I. R. B. Head-quarters Fenian Brotherhood, 700, Broadway, New York, April 2. Friends and Brothers,-In answer to your communication requesting that, as president of the Fenian Brotherhood, 1. should lay before you for examination all books and accounts pertaining to this department, I beg to say that you are at perfect liberty to do so at any time your committee think proper. It always affords me pleasure to exhibit my stewardship as president of the F. B. to trustworthy men, who are inte- rested in the cause, and whose loyalty to Ireland entitles them to my confidence and esteem, and certainly the sacri- fices and devotion of the rank and file of the I. R, P. are un- fortunately too well proved to doubt their love of Ireland, or that their very reasonable and just desire to investigate matters on this side of the At'antic originates in other than pure and patriotic motives. In conclusion, I beg to say that I will soon have some- thing else than book accounts to exhibit to you as the results of our labours in behalf of unhappy Ireland, and in opposition to the tyrannic and accursed power of England. I remain, in friendship and fraternity, W. R. ROBERTS, President of F. B. To Messrs. Patrick M'Carthy, John M'Carthy Scully, Patrick Corbet, Michael Cunningham, John Bulman, Captain James F Montague, I. R. B. army committee of the!. R B. now in New York. The World contains an appeal" from the indignant I.R.B." to the Irishmen of the United States, who are warned against O'Mahoney and his associates. These "patriots" are, like all other liberators, cursed and reviled they are pronounced swindlers" and "traitors." I need hardly say that this "I.R.B." movement was instigated by Sweeney, who thus damages the Union-square" party, and brings re- inforcements to his own.

REVOLTING MURDER. On Saturday great excitement prevailed in Gateshead con- sequent upon the discovery of a most atrocious murder of a little girl, five years of age, on the previous night. It may be mentioned that Caw's-hill, a suburb of Gateshead, has, during the last few months, had an unenviable notoriety. Some in cendiary fires occurred at this place in the autumn, and about two months ago a little girl, who had gone for some milk for her parents, was grossly ravished at this place, and left by the villains, who escaped, in a shocking condition. About a quarter to ten o'clock on Friday night a man named James Bums, was proceeding from Carr's-hill to the High Felling in company with his wife, when, having passed the farmstead of Mr. Rowell, which had been the scene of the incendiary fires, they di covered the body of a little girl, apparently about five years of age, lying by the-roadside, They lifted it up, and observed that its hands were tied together and a rope was fastened tightly about its neck. The body was cold and upon examining it closer the couple observed that the person of the child had been violated in a most shocking manner. The police were immediately communicated with, and were speedily on the spot. The body was removed, and a very full investigation was immediately made. The body was disco- vered to be that of Sarah Melvin, daughter of Michael Mel- vin, who lives at the Blue Quarries. The child had been seen alive about 5 o'clock on Friday night at the High Felline crying, and in search of its mother. The spot where the bodv of the poor child was found is in a by-lane not unfrequentlv used by people going to the High Fell for a short cut Not more than half an hour previous to the discovery of the bodv some persons are reported to have passed up the lane and there was nothing: there then. There is therefore an opinion £ » f °n t, 5 if10' been murdered in the lane, ried ttfere 1)6611 destroyed the body was car-

J lTHE CATTLE DISEASES ACT. On Monday the Right Hon. Earl Granville, KG., and President of the Council, appeared before the Edgware magistrates on a summons charging him with contravening the Cattle Diseases Act of 1866. The charge was That you, the Right Hon. George Leveson Gower, Earl Granville, K.G., did on the 8th of March last bring into the jurisdiction of the justices of the peace for the county of Middlesex, to wit, in the parish of Hendon, from some other part of Great Britain beyond the said jurisdiction, certain cattle, to wit, eight cows, in contravention of a certain Qrder made by the local authority for the said jurisdiction, in pursuance of the Cattle Diseases Act, 1866." The prosecutor was the local inspector, Mr. Dale, who was represented by Mr. Peckham, and Mr. Lewis, junr., represented the noble defendant. Mr. Sleigh appeared for two other defendants, the one a butcher, the other a cowkeeper, charged with the same offence. Mr. Peckham, in opening the case, stated that this was an offence not personally committed by Lord Granville, but by his servants or agents, for whose acts there could be no doubt he was responsible. The facts of the case were that beasts brought from Hol- land had been driven from Blackwall, which was in the police district, to the defendant's farm at Hendon, which was out of the district, and under the jurisdic- tion of the magistrates, whose regulation that no cattle should be moved from place to place had thus been contravened, and a very heavy penalty incurred. This contravention had taken place m two instances, and the cattle had either died or had been slaughtered through having the plague, and though Lord Granville might not have been personally cognizant of the cir- cumstances, yet it must be held that he was answer- able for his agents. He then called Mr. Panter, the steward of Lord Granville at the farm, near Child's-hill, Hendon. From the opening question it appeared that there were two summonses, the defendant being charged on one summons with bringing five cattle on the 1st of March, and on another with bringing eight cattle on the 8th of March. Mr. Lewis said there was a mistake, and to shorten the case, he would inform the Court that the real facts of the case were with respect to five cows brought on to the farm on the 8th of March. The first summons was then abandoned, and Mr. Panter was examined on the second. He said that on the 8th of March, on returning to the farm, he found that five cows had been driven on to the premises by Mr. Roche, a cattle dealer, who had bought cattle for Lord Granville for many years, and who occupied the next farm. The cattle were driven on the premises without Lord Granville's knowledge, and in obedience to an order which witness had given to Mr. Roche to buy some cattle if he could legally do so. Lord Gran- ville's instructions always were that the law was not under any circumstances to be infringed, and witness had given these instructions to Mr. Roche, who told witness he had complied with the law, inasmuch as he had a permit to drive cattle on the farm from Sir Richard Mayne. The cattle when seen by witness were quite healthy, and continued so for three days, when they were taken ill with some disease, which witness did not believe to be the plague. Mr. Peckham asked whether any other cattle on • the farm had died of the plague which had been ordered to be slaughtered —a bull which caused roars of laughter. Mr. Roche was called, and he stated that his in- structions from Mr. Panter were to comply with the law, and he thought he did so when he obtained the police permit. This permit enabled him to drive them on to his own farm, and he then drove across the fields to Lord Granville's farm—the two farms adjoining. The Chairman asked whether the cattle had been driven through a hedge or gate. The witness replied, The hedges are very green in our part of the country, and there is no trouble in getting through them." (A laugh.) It was further elicited that witness's farm was in the metropolitan police district, while the defendant's farm was over the boundary, and that the witness thought if he did not take the cattle over a road he should not be breaking the law. Mr. Lewis said his instructions were not to plead any technical objections, for his lordship was quite ready to take the responsibility of any act of his servants. But it must be apparent to the magistrates that his lordship was neither morally nor legally answerable in this case, for his servants had received instructions not to act illegally; they had not acted illegally, and the only person who had acted illegally was Mr. Roche, who ought to have been summoned instead of his lordship. The summons charged Lord Granville with "bringing" the cattle within the juris- diction but he had not brought them, his servants had not brought, and there was no pretence for sum- moning him. The Chairman, after consulting the Bench, said the magistrates had come to the unanimous conclusion that this was not a "bringing" of cattle within the meaning of the order by the defendant, and neither morally nor legally was Lord Granville in this case responsible, for it had been proved that he had given orders which had been carried out by his agents, who had not directed the removal of the cattle in an illegal manner. Lord Granville said he desired to state publicly that he should not make any claims for compensation for the cattle which had been slaughtered under these circumstances.

THE CASE OF CHARLOTTE WINSOR. It will be remembered that after the convict Char lotte Winsor had been left for execution through the adverse judgment which the Court of Queen's Bench delivered in Hilary Term, Mr. Folkard obtained from the Attorney-General a fiat for a writ of error to the Court of Exchequer Chamber, for the purpose of hav- mg the matter further argued during Easter Term. i jf1*8'31'6 granted to the convict expires on the 14th na/V' consequently the lapse of eight days from the »th (when sittings after term commence, and when the convict will assign error" in person) would involve another respite, should the judges not appoint a spe- cial sitting during term simply for the purpose of as- signing error. This course will very likely be taken and, as far as probabilities go, the case will be argued in the second week of May. During the Devon assizes Charlotte Winsor expressed a wish to see Mr. Folkard, the learned counsel who has conducted her case from first to last, and who was then in Exeter as a member of the bar travelling on the Western Circuit. Mr. Folkard replied to the effect that he would wil- lingly comply with her request for an interview, pro- vided it was in accordance with prison discipline. The rules, are, however, to the effect that, in the case of a prisoner under sentence of death, the governor of the gaol must be present, and on the convict hearing of this she intimated that unless she could have a private interview with her counsel she would have none at alL The matter there ended. ;r — -SO'

A PORTENTOUS VEGETABLE. — The last new thing in vegetables is really quite a startling wonder (says the Pall MaU (Gazette). Think of a radish with seed pods about three feet long, and sometimes grow- ing five or six inches in 24 hours. We can think of no- thing like it except Jack's immortal beanstalk, which authentically described plant is nevertheless not spoken ot as good to eat, whereas the radish is said to be as palatable as it is monstrous. The pods are its edible portion, and when half grown you may pickle them or eat them as a component part in a salad, When they are full grown you may boil them, and they taste like a combination of asparagus and green peas. The'plant comes from Java, but we are told that it has been fairly tried in the open ground in England and succeeds perfectly well To add to its merits, its pods are ready for use in less than three months after the seed is sown. At present, unfortu- nately. these seeds are lamentably scarce;. but if all that is said about the virtues of the plant is true, it ought to be quickly prolific, and people who cannot afford to give a guinea for about half a dozen seeds will soon be able to try what it is like for themselves.

THE MARKETS. MARK LANTS, MONDAY. Fresh up to our market to-day the arrivals of home-grown wheat were only moderate, and in middling condition. For the best samples the trade was firm, and prices advanced Is. per quarter. Inferior qualities of wheat moved off slowly nevertheless, last Monday's currency was supported. The supply of foreign wheat on the stands was moderate. For most descriptions there was a fair demand, and, in seme instances, prices were for the time in favour of sellers. Floating cargoes of grain were in fair demand, and the quo- tations ruled arm. The supply of English barley on sale was very moderate but the market was well supplied with foreign qualities. Sales generally progressed slowly, at about late rates. Malt was in fair demand, and prices ruled firm. The supply of oats on sale was moderately large. Most qualities were in fair request at iully late rates. Beans were in short supply, and the trade ruled firm on rather higher terms. There was a fair demand for peas at late rates. In flour about an average business was transacted on former terms. METROPOLITAN CATTLE MARKET-MONDAY. There was an increased supply of beasts on offer in our market to day. It was composed of 800 Scots anu crosses from Norfolk, 283 from Aberdeen, 70 from Dundee, and 300 from Ireland. The remainder was composed of foreigners, which were in fair condition. All breeds met a heavy dema nd, at a decline in the quotations of 4d. per 81b. In the early part of the morning a few superior Scots sold at 5s. 4d. but subsequently the quotations declined to 5s. and 6s. 2d. per Sib. The whole of the supply from Norfolk was received per rail- way. ThenewOrder in Councilforbidding the removal of sheep without the Board of Works' district, caused great heaviness in the mutton trade, inasmuch as buyers from Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham, whose attendance was good were unable to make purchases, A fall, therefore, of4d. per 81b. took place in prices. Prime Downs and half-breds iu the wool, sold at 6s Sd. to 7s. out of the wool, 5s. 4d. to 5g. 0d. and clipped Lincolns, 4s. 8d. to 5s. per 81b. Lambs were in fair average supply, and sluggish request at 7s. to 8s per 81b. The few calves on show were disposed of at from 5s. 4d. to 6s. 4d. per 81b. Bigs moved off heavily, at depressed quo- tations. The top figure was 4s. 10d. per 8ib. HOPS. PricheeSahow«vp0rf »rlfSiJieSS^aSSin^ in h°P3 k but moderate. wa^09 Cel from A?y 8uPPort^- Last week's import Harnhnrffh^v* n! w i 68 Bremen, 63 Rotterdam, 46 l o^?rk' and 90 bales from Boulogne. Mid and East l\ents, 80 to 1208 Wold of Kents, 70s. te 126s. Sussex, 65s. to 112s. per cwt. POTATOES. The supply of potatoes on sale is moderate. The trade for nearly all qualities is dull, at barely late rates. Kent for nearly all qualities is dull, at barely late rates. Kent and Essex Regents, 60s. 95s. Yorkshire ditto, 60s. to 100s: Flukes. 70s. to 110s.; Rocks, 45s. to 60s.; Rocks, 40s. to 60s. per ton. WOOL. Owing, chiefly, to the heavy fall in the value of cotton, th trade for English wool has ruled quieter, and there has been a tendency to lower prices. In colonial wool, by private contract, sales have progressed slowly, on former terms. Last week's import was about 10,000 bales. Fleeces South Down hoggetts, Is. 9Jd. to Is. lo¡d. half-bred ditto, to 2s to 2s 111. Kent fleeces, 2s. to 2s. id.; South Down ewes and wethers is. 7 £ d. to is. 8d. Leicester ditto, is. loid. to 2s. Sorts! ClothIng la. 6d. tø ls.;tOd.: combing, la. 6d. to It lj/d. per Ib.

A BRILLIANT CRUISE. We take the following from the Hong-Kong Daily Press of Feb. 19.,detailing the brilliant cruise of H.M.S. Opossum:— The recent cruise of the Opossum has been attended with very brilliant results. Lieutenant St. John, her commander, has in one week captured 16 junks, 40 prisoners, 53 guns; has burnt a pirate village, and liberated 27 captives—a week's work to be proud of indeed. Our readers will remember that a few weeks ago, we reported the arrival of the Opossum at Macao, with the information that she had destroyed 15 junks. Since then we have learned some particulars of her adventures. On Saturday, the 10th, Lieutenant St. John applied for leave, and received permission from the admiral to go out for a cruise. He did not at that time know of any projected operations on the part of the pirates, and intended simply tolook round and see what was going on. His fires were no sooner up, however, than some of the native merchants sent off to inform him that a number of pirate junks were lying at a place called Pak-shui, on the west coast, a little beyond Macao. In that direction, therefore, he steered, and yesterday week flushed the birds he was in search of. At the head of a small creek stood the village guarded by a battery of three guns—one of them a 55 cwt. gun throwing a 241b. shot—and anchored off it lay the piratical junks, fifteen in number. They were all armed, some of them heavily. In all they carried forty-three guns, most of them 18-pounders. They were manned by 200 men, and it must be acknowledged were not a bad match for one boat with only three guns on board, manned by about 17 or 18 Europeans, even though these were British seamen. Lieutenant St. John came in so that as he ran down on the junks they were end on to him, and their guns all being on the broadside, consequently useless. As soon as he came within range, he opened a flank fire on the battery, and in a very short time its defenders cleared out. This was the signal for the men in the junks to do the same. The whole two hundred scrambled on shore, and made off into the interior, leaving the junks a prey to the gun boat. Lieutenant St. John landed with a small party of men from the gun boat, and while he was on shore, as we understand, the explosion took place on board one of the junks by which the warrant officer of the Opossum, was wounded. He was engaged setting fire to the vessel, when a jar of powder standing on the deck took fire. There was no explosion in the ordinary sense of the word—that is, no materials were thrown about, and the gunner was burnt by flame of the powder, and by a succession of smaller explosions which followed. A boy who was with him jumned overboard, and escaped with but few injuries, but the gunner could not swim and had to run on to the junk. A marine was wounded in another explosion while setting fire to a junk which had been hauled up on shore. After the work had been performed, when the pirates were all out of the way, and the Opossum was busily engaged destroying their craft, a fleet of forty Mandarin junks came round the point. It seemed that the Imperial men of war had been twice beaten off by the pirates of Pak-shui, and were coming down this time in force. The one English gun boat, however, had accomplished the task out of hand, and there was nothing left for the Chinese but to profit by the victory. They landed 1600 men and burnt the village, and Lieutenant St. John handed over to them the greater number of the captured junks and guns, after having destroyed the rest. He then went to Macao, and sent back his wounded men to Hong-Kong. During the whole of Monday he remained at Macao, but Tuesday morning saw him down the west coast again. On Wednesday, off a place called I-mumhefell with a large heavily-armed junk, about 30 feet longer than the Opossum, carrying eight guns (one 50 cwt., one 30 cwt., and the others 12-pounders), big enough to have hoisted her Majesty's small ship Opossum on board al- together if she had had the proper machinery. This junk was at once recognised as the vessel of which the gun boat, on information received, was in search. When she was stopped her owner was prepared with all the documents nccessary to prove him a most respectable trader, only carrying guns for his own protection, but it happened that Lieutenant St. John had on board the Chinaman who really owned the vesseL She had, it seems, been entrusted to the man now found in possession of her, who had never after- wards accounted for her to his owner, but had turned pirate instead. When confronted with the Chinese merchant on board the Opossum, he saw that his game had been played out," and resigned himself to his fate with Asiatic fortitude. He made no further at- tempts to defend himself either by arguments or physical force, and together with forty companions was conducted by the Opossumto Quang hai and given over to the Mandarians. By them he was recognised as a man of great influence on the west coast. He and his crew will be sent on to Canton, and there is no reason to doubt the fate that awaits them. The cap- tives we spoke of above were released at Pak-shui before the village was burnt."

BURNT TO DEATH. On Monday two inquiries were held at St. Bartholo- mew's Hospital, in London, regarding two deaths by fire, when the following painful incidents were nar- rated :— In the ftrstcase the sufferer was John Tinkler, aged 86, a dyer who lived alone in a room at 6, Helmet-court, Black- friars. On the 5th inst. his landlord, John Reed, heard lond screams of Fire help coming from his room, and upon going thither found him standing in the middle of the floor with his clothes all on fire. He was crying piteously. and was terribly burnt. With much difficulty Reed extinguished the fire. The deceased was removed to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, where he was attended by the house surgeon. His case, hewever, was hopeless, and he died on Friday last. A verdiet of "Accidental death by fire" was returned. The second case related to the death of James Gardiner, aged 15. All that was known of the deceased is that he went recently te a street stallkeeper named Charles Acroft, of Hartshorn-court, St. Luke's, and asked for employment. Acroft said to him, Before I give you work tell me your history." The boy replied that he had no father or mother. He had walked up from Bradford to London. Pe had given no farther account of himself. Acroft gave him occasional employment. On the morning of the 5th inst. he was sent to buy some naphtha. A young woman named Elizabeth Meadams said that he came into her house, and said that some of the naphtha had spilt in his pocket and wet his coat, and he went to dry it at the fire. -His coat suddenly blazed up, and he rushed out into the street. A police- constable said that his attention was drawn to the deceased by people in the street shouting out, A boy is on fire The deceased was standing on the pavement in flames. A woman threw a pail of water over him, but it only appeared to make the fire blaze the more. The witness got a shawl, and, by wrapping it around the deceased, contrived to smother the flames. Part of the ironwork of a naphtha lamp was hanging out of his coat-pocket. The witness had him con- veyed to the hospital. The surgeon, said the deceased was burnt all over the body. There was no chance of saving his life, but everything possible was done for him. The jury re- turned a verdict of Accidental death through the ignition of naphtha." A destructive nre, accompanied with loss of life, occurred on Friday morning in last week, on the premises of Mr. J en- kins, tailor and outfitter, of West-street, Bristol. From the statement of Mr. Jenkins it appears that he got up as usual about 6 o'clock, and, having lighted a fire in the kitchen, he laid the coals in the fire-grate of the front shop. Finding that some coals left in this grate on the previous night were still burning, he threw some water over the whole, and then went out for a walk. The other occupants of the house were Mr. Jenkins's wife, son, and daughter, and an aunt of Mrs. Jenkins, named Mary Coombe, 63 years of age. The three women were in bed in their respective rooms when Mr. Jen- kins left the house at half-past 6, but his son had got up and was at work. About 7 o'clock some of the neighbours saw smoke issuing from the shop, and an alarm was at once given. Mr. Jenkins, jun., ran downstairs, and was able to escape but he immediately attempted to return to rescue bis mother, sister, and aunt. The smoke, however, was so intense that it was impossible for him to get back. Mrs. Jenkins's bedroom, fortunately opened to a yard, and a lad- der having been procured she was got out in safety. Miss Jenkins, who is about 22 years of age, threw herself from the window of her room on the second floor, and fell heavily on the pavement beneath, sustaining very severe injuries. The old woman, Miss Coombe, slept in a back attic, and all the efforts made to save her life proved in vain. After raging for two hours the fire was subdued, and then the charred re- mains of the deceased were discovered. The body was in a crouching position in the corner of the room, with the hands extended.

A SENSATION DRAMA! The frightful tragedy which startled the whole' universe on the 14th of last April at the Washington Theatre has been dramatised, and for the first time performed at Mulhausen in the South of France. The piece is entitled La Vie et la Mort d' Abraham Lincoln," and is divided into. seven tableaux :— The author has sketched the early days of the President's humble life in the first act, and as a barrister in the second. In the third he has attained the rank of President, and Booth appears as a suitor for the hand of his niece, which- -proposal being rejected rankles in the breast of the lover, who becomes his mortal enemy. In the fourth act, Sur- rattville is depicted, and Mr. and Mrs. Surratt appear on the scene, as well as Jefferson Davis, who gives it as his opinion that as long as Lincoln is permitted to live the cause of the South is lost, and exclaims, "Who will get rid of this man for us?" "I!" replies his future murderer. The fatal 14th of April furnishes the material of the fifth and sixth acts. Abraham Lincoln, aged and worn by the tremendous responsibilities of the war, grants an audienca to a mother, who frantically calls on him in the name of her dead Bons, killed in the war, to make peace on any terms. Lincoln, exhausted by this scene, has. however, sufficient command of his feelings to promise his wife that he will accompany her to see" King Lear." The whole of the death scene is then represented. The President, his wife, and Miss Harris take their places in a front box in the midst of of the theatre. On the stage the actors perform a portion of "King Lear." A pistol shot, the screams of wemen, and the death groan. of the dying President are admirably given and while the audience are absorbed in the horror of the moment, Wilkes Booth jumps from a box on to the stage, brandishing a poniard, and uttering the well-known words, "Sic semper tyrannis." The question arises (says the correspondent of the Morning Star) whether the author of this startling drama is justified in thus bringing Jefferson Davis on the stage. Davis is and has been for months a soli. tary captive incarcerated in a State prison awaiting his trial. It strikes one as monstrous thus to drag a living man before the public, and put into his mouth a suggestion worthy of a demon. The correspondent does not say how the piece was received.

SETTLING REFORM. The time is past for a direct negative to reform (says the Examiner), and so under the pretence of acquiescence de- mands are made for more reform, to the end tbat there may be none whatever. It is, to borrow the words of Mr. Disraeli, the case of "an organised hypocrisy." But to test the sincerity of the professed acquiescence in reform, it is only necessary to call to mind the language held when first the intentions of government were known. It was then, "Who wants reform?" "Who asks for reform?" "Who cares for reform ?" The proposal was treated and rebuked as a sheer ministerial wantonness. All this was intelligible enough it meant anti-reform without disguise but the demonstrations in the country soon showed that that plan of action would not succeed, and it was changed for an evasive manoeuvre. So that what nobody wanted, nobody asked for, nobody cared about, is to be granted, provided it shall be all in the fullest completeness of what was not wanted, not asked, not cared about, and above all to be a settlement for heaven knows how long of the not wanted, not asked, not cared about: In one sense we think the word to settle an apt one. Thurtell said he had "settled" Mr. Weare when he had knocked him on the head, and it is in this sense corresponding with despatching for killing, that Lord Grosvenor's amendment expresses the true purpose of the Opposition as to Reform.

ANOTHER CASE OF HYDROPHOBIA. Another distressing case of hydrophobia is reported in Manchester. The deceased was a girl, 12 years of age, and was a servant with Mrs. Pool, in Stretford- road. There was in the house a "Scotch terrier" of which she was very fond, and one day it disap- peared, but returned again in a day or two afterwards. Deceased began fondling the dog, when it snapped at her and bit her thumb. She was taken to the doctors immediately, and the wound was cauterised. Mrs. Pool stated at the inquest, that the dog looking "strange" on the 24th of March; the animal had taken a piece out of the carpet, with his teeth, and she suspected the dog was mad, having heard of so many cases of hydrophobia. She went to two drug- gists to have it poisoned, but they refused to do it. The deceased never complained till Tuesday, when she felt a pain in the shoulder, and she went home, afterwards going to the doctor. The following morn- ing she drank a cup of tea with great difficulty, the pain in her throat being so intense, und afterwards she refused water. The deceased, when interrogated by her mother, said she did not think the Wound was so bad, and never thought anything about it; she had not much pain, but bled a good deal. About a week before the bite was given the dog had been run over. The deceased died in fearful agony, on Thursday after- noon, and early in the morning she was like some one wild. The doctor who attended her gave her chloro- dyne to give her ease. She seemed said one of the witnesses, to get weaker after each dose of medicine, and she rambled very much. The jury returned a verdict of "death from hydrophobia, by the bite of a dog."

DEATH OF A GALLANT OFFICER. The last news from the front tells us of another vie- tory gained by the imperial and colonial forces over the rebels, purchased, alas too dearly by the loss of a gallant and distinguished officer, who was mortally wounded on the occasion—Lieutenant-Colonel Jason xiassard, of the 57th Regiment (says the Wellington Independent.) On the 3rd of October, 1844, the lamented gentleman obtained a commission, and shortly afterwards he was gazetted to an ensigncy in the 57th, the West Middlesex" Regiment of Foot. In this fine regiment, known as the Albuera DIe hards," the late Colonel Hassard gradually rose. On the 18th of May, 1848, he obtained his lieutenancy, and on the 6th of June, 1854, he was gazetted as a captain. The regiment was then quartered at Corfu, and in 1854 received orders to embark for the Crimea, j During the Russian war they were hotly engaged, and Captain Hassard was present at most of the glonous events in that gigantic struggle between the most powerful nations in Europe. With the storming columns at the assaults of the Redan on the 18th of June and the 8th of September he greatly distmgwshed himself; and again, during the expedition to E-mbum, he was favourably mentioned in despatches, and as a reward of his gallantry received the Sardinian, Turkish, and Crimean medals and clasps, the fifth clas of the Medjidie, and Major's brevet. At the termina- tion of hostilities the regiment proceeded to Malta, and thence in 1858 to Bombay. During the first year of the service of his regiment in India, Major Hassard was with the depot in Cork; but in the early part of 1860 he 801 rived in Poonah in charge of recruits forwarded from Cork to the head quarters of the regiment. At the end of the year the 57th embarked for New Zealand, where they have remained ever since. Major Hassard did not accompany the regiment, but followed it shortly after, and since his arrival in this country he has been actively engaged in quelling the rebellion. The lnttor years of his service have been no life of ease. He served with his regiment during the war of 1861; again in 1863 his name was favourably mentioned, and more lately SeSember CamPai^n he was heard of. In' !a,8t was gazetted as Brevet Lieutenant- Oo.onel, but he has not lived iong to enjoy his pro- tion, for on Saturday last he fell mortally wounded while gallantly leading his men to the assault of Utapawa, Within the palisades of this formidable pah he was hit in the lungs and chest, and thus ended his life, for 21 years of which he had served his country with distinction. He lived and died a soldier, and his name as a kindly gentleman and a gallant officer will long be remembered by the gallant Die hards' with whom he had served so long. Colonel Has- sard leaves a widow and a number of friends to mourn their irreparable loss, but it must be a satisfaction in their bereavement to know that he died in harness, leading on his men, his deathbed their arms, and his requiem their shouts of victory.