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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume III, Issue 48, 27 February 1868, Page 3

A sum of £600 aud a silver salver were presented lately to Mr. John Jackson, chief constable of Sheffield, as a recognition of his services in connection with the Trade Outrages Commission, and of the zeal and ability with which he habitually discharged the duties of the office. The two men and the woman taken by the police as agents in the Fenian outrage on Clerkenwell Gaol, were examiued at Bow-stceet on the following day, and remanded. One of the prisoners, a man named Desmond, was identified as having drawn the truck containing the powder, to the House of Detention, and the other prisoner, a man named Allen, and the woman were seen in conversation with him immediately before the explosion. A fourth prisoner has been arrested, but the police refused to give any information about him. Burke and Casey, the men who it is supposed this outrage was projected to liberate, were examined and again remanded. Burke's counsel, Dr Kenealey, withdrew from the defence. He apologised for this step, but justified it on the ground that the persons who engaged him sympathised with au outrage which had shocked every sense of humanity. The subscriptions for the relief of the sufferers by the explosion at Clerkenwell have reached to about £4000. The promoters of the fund say that that sum ought to be doubled, to enable them effectually to relieve the distress which has been occasioned. The Fenian outrage in London greatly intensified the feelings of the non-Irish public in Liverpool, in reference to the proposed funeral processions. Great numbers of the volunteers were also sworn in as special constables. The Roman Catho lie clergy, headed by the Rev. Canon Fisher, visited the county magistrates, and assured them of their desire to assist the authorities to preserve the peace. A proclamation, issued by the Right Rev. Dr. Goss, the Roman Catholic bishop, was handed to the magistrates, which authoritatively commanded his flock to abstain from taking any part in the procession, which did not, however, take place. The chief cause was perhaps the extensive and complete preparations of the police authorities ; but doubtless the authoritative command of the bishop had much to do with the preservation of peace. Extraordinary precautions were taken by the police and magisterial authorities at Leeds to prevent the Fenian demonstration, and a pastoral letter from the Roman Catholic Bishop of Beverley was read in all the Catholic churches condemning tbe processiop.

The Pall Mall Gazette says that the death registers show few, if any items more remarkable for the constant ratio of their occurence than the regularity with which suicide counts its victims. In this country, year after year, more than 1300 men and women, driven to desperation by their own folly, or by some overwhelming misfortune, seek refuge from trouble in death : some of these — it is not recorded how mauy — belong, of course, to the class of irresponsible beiugs whose deficient mental organization incapacitates them from being safe custodians of their own lives. The statistics of suicide in England, according to the Registrar-General's returns, show that the annual proportion to every million of the population has ranged in the eight years from 1858 to 1865 successively thus :— 66, 64, 70, 68, 65, 66, 64, 67. With two exceptions, therefore, the last 6tate of things is worse than the first. No account is kept of the attempts which are frustrated, so that there is nothing beyond surmise to give any clue to the probable movement of the tendency to suicide among us. It is, however, certain that the figures we have quoted above do not fully represent the extent of the crime, inasmuch as some — no one can possibly know how many — of the deaths by drowning aud other means must be set down by self-destruction. The extraordinary regularity with which the same means are employed for the same end is not the least curious feature in these statisitcs. Hanging has also been the mode most commonly adopted, and 28 out of the ratio of 67 per million suicides of 1865 fall under this head, the proportion having remained almost constant in successive years. Cuttting or stabbing and drowning, accounting for au almost equal proportion (12 and 11 out of the 67 per million), come next in tbe order of frefrequency; then follow poisoning (7) and gunshot wounds (3), the residue (6) not being specially described. The ratio of suicide by means of firearms was 3 per million iu each one o the eight years, and the other ratios show little or no variation. Dr Young, in his Night Thoughts, speaks of ' Britain, infamous for suicide ;' and judgiug from a recent comparison in a French statistical journal, we still maintain a very unsatisfactory position as regards some other European States. The ratio of suicides per million of the respective populations in 1867 was 110 in France, 64 in England, 45 in Belgium, 30 in Italy, and 15 in Spaiu. This must of course be taken cum grano, as, notwithstanding the efforts of statistical congresses, international comparisons are still surrounded with great uncertainty, An American paper complains that a man in the city has got so deep into debt that not one of his creditors have been able to see him for months. A lady being asked to join a union of the Daughters of Temperauce, replied, 'It is unnecessary, as I intend to joiu one of the sons soon.' Sensible lady, that. 'Ah! dear doctor, how is my wife today? The doctor shook his head, and said, 'You must prepare for the worst.' 'What!' said the husband, 'do you think that she is likely to get over it?'