29 JUNE 1878, Page 2

It is impossible not to feel pity for Mr. James

Francis Wedderburn Bishop, of Bramdean House, Hampshire, who has just been sentenced to three years' imprisonment at Berlin. He was guilty, but he was probably in his own eyes a martyr, and he seems to have scorned all lying. He was converted some years ago to Catholicism, and devoted himself, to judge from his career, to forlorn-hopes in the interest of his Church. He endeavoured to obtain both at Metz and in Berlin copies of the orders to be obeyed in the event of mobilisation,—orders kept strictly secret in the Prussian Army. In one case he bribed a serjeant, who was condemned to ten years' penal servitude ; and in another, he tried to bribe a sub- officer, who, however, reported him. He admitted the facts, as also his implication in a plot in Italy for the restoration of the ex-King of Naples. There is nothing to be done for a man so wrongheaded, but it is sad to see such self-sacrifice thrown away.