The Press. — London, England, 1857-01-24 00:00:00

thITIJARY 24, 1857. gais 40 Volta. His ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE appeared in the Court of Chancery on Tuesday. Shortly after the Lord Chancellor entered the court it was intimated that the Duke was about to present himself to take the customary oaths as Commander in-Chief and a member of her Majesty's Privy Council. The Lord Chancellor immediately left his chair, met his Royal Highness at the entrance, and came with him on the platform, when the oaths were administered by the Deputy Clerk of the Crown, the Lord Chancellor and the bar standing during the ceremony. The Duke then bowed and retired. THE CASE OF ALICIA RACE was on Wednesday de tided by Lord Campbell, at the Court of Queen's Bench. The circumstances of the case are these : Alicia Race's father, who was a sergeant of Marines, was killed at the battle of Petropaulovski in Septem ber, 181$4, leaving Alicia and a son surviving. A few days before his death, Sergeant Race left the guardianship of' his children to his wife, who is a Roman Catholic. Alicia was baptized and brought up as a Protestant, which faith her father professed, wont to a Protestant school, and the mother, after her husband's death, and in compliance with his request, continued to train up the children as Protestants. The son was placed at a Protestant school in Hamp shire by the commissioners of the Patriotic Fund, and Alicia, a girl under ten years of age, at the Sailors' Orphan School in July, 1855. Subsequently the mother removed the son, a boy under twelve years of age, from the school in Hampshire with his own consent, and applied to remove Alicia also in October last, intending, as was alleged, to educate them as Roman Catholics. Alicia Raoo refused to return to her mother to be educated in the tenets of the Roman Church. This was the point brought before the Queen's Bench. Counsel on both sides were agreed about the facts, acd a habeas corpus had issued to the matron of' the Sailors' Orphan Girls' School at Hampstead, to bring up Alicia Raoe with a view to her being delivered up to her mother, in order that she might be placed in a Roman Catholic school. The motion was resisted by the Patriotic Fund commissioners on the ground that the wishes of the child, who was unwilling to be re moved, ought to be consulted ; and secondly, because, under the circumstances, the mother's was not the proper custody, inasmuch as the father of the child died a Protestant and had always brought up his children as Protestants, and when the mother placed the child at the school in question she professed to be carrying out her deceased husband's wishes in having the child educated in the Protestant religion. Lord Campbell decided against any election of the child and in favour of the right of parental control, upon the rule of law which gives to the parent the custody of the child, moral and physical, until the age of fourteen. Alicia Race was then ordered to be delivered over to her mother. THE CHIET Berm, in delivering judgment this week in the case of " Kemp v. Covington "—in which the question as to whether a person who had been a member of a firm was responsible for the liabilities of that firm after that person had ceased to be a partner of it, was decided in the negative and a rule obtained—on the application of plaintiff's counsel for their lordships' sanction to appeal to the Court of Error against their decision, said that the court would for the future adopt extreme caution in sanc tioning appeals to the Court of Error, as in the case of " Kingsford v. Merry " some unfortunate mistake had arisen, by which the facts presented to this court, and on which it formed its decision, were not pre sented to the Court of Error. It therefore behoved the court to be cautious in giving their countenance to allow causes to be taken to the Court of Error. Mr. Baron Martin, having concurred in what had fallen from the Chief Baron, said that the case had been taken to the Court of Error on a statement of facts which were in no way akin to those which came before the court below, which were based on the Chief Baron's notes, and on which that court formed its judgment. The appeal to the Court of Error should be based on what the court below had adjudi cated, and not on a statement of facts totally at variance with those which transpired in the court below The Chief Baron said all eases of appeal to the Court of Error ought to be submitted to the court below, and he should in future exercise great caution in reserving points for the opinion of the court above. In the case of "Kingsford v. Merry," which had caused some stir in the commercial world, the Court of Error would have decided as this court had, had the facts before that court been similar. Such was not the case, however; they were far different. THE HUSBAND OF Mns. BACON has, on the confes sion of his wife, been arrested for the murder of his two children. The man for some time past has pre varicated so much in his statements to the police, and exhibited such confusion of manner on being cross-questioned, that, in the minds of the police, there has been from the first very little doubtiof the man's complicity, if not positive guilt. At the re- THE PRESS. examination of Mrs. Bacon on Wednesday a paper from her was handed to Mr. Elliott : Cook ( the gaoler): The prisoner tells me, sir, that she does not feel equal to the task of addressing you ; but she has handed me this piece of paper, which she wishes your worship to read. Mr. ELLIOTT (looking at the paper handed to him) said, " She wishes me to read this paper, does she ?" Cook : She does, sir. The most intense anxiety was here manifested on the countenance of every person in the crowded court, and all eyes were directed towards the bench, when Mr. &wow rose from his seat, and, with some emotion. read aloud from the paper in his hand the following startling statement:— Sir.—l must confess lam an innocent person, and he who committed the dreadful deed Is my husband; and there was no money on the drawers. lie took the little boy downetairs, put him in a chair, stud there eta his throat. He then went upstairs and cut the little baby's throat. MARTHA B►CON. Bacon was at once arrested, and, after a brief examination, remanded. After his removal Mr. Elliott gave directions to Mr. Young to write by that night's post to the authorities at Stamford, and state that it was his (Mr. Elliott's) wish and desire that the body of the prisoner's mother, buried there last May twelve months, should be at once exhumed and subjected to a regular medical inquiry, as there were very strong reasons to suspect that she came unfairly by her death. It appeared that the deceased dined with her son (the prisoner) on the Sundqy, and was at once seized by illness, such as that produced by the administration of arsenic, and died on the follow ing Tuesday. Mrs. Bacon has since confessed the details of this horrible murder; from which it ap pears that Bacon attempted to murder her also. IN THE BANKRUPTCY EXAMINATION, on Monday, of the Rev. J. C. Edwards, Mr. Mason, an attorney and creditor, was a violent opponent. In reply to ques tions from this creditor, the insolvent said that in London he bad written articles for newspapers and magazines. He had written pamphletq, one of which was entitled " Can a Jew sit in Parliament; and if not, why not ?" On account of that pamphlet he had received 150 guineas from Mr. D. Salomons. Mr. Mason : And how mulch from Baron Rothschild ? Insolvent: Nothing. TLat is for the future. At a subsequent stage the insolvent desired to ask some questions of Mr. Mason which he thought would have some bearing upon the question of character. Insolvent: Did you ever officiate in the pulpit of a church of England because a client of yours had been arrested and taken to York Castle ? Mr. Mason : I decline to answer. Did you not put on the hands and gown of a minister, and in them ascend the pulpit, and then read to the congre- gation a written sermon ? Mr. Mason : I decline to answer. Did you not go to the Archbishop of York and confess what you had done? Mr. Mason : I have already said I decline to answer. Insolvent : Then, your Honour, I think, if a man could be guilty of such conduct in the house of God, I may look with complacency upon any opposition he may attempt to make. The CHIEF CommisstoxEn: He is not the first of the profession who has done such a thing. The case was ultimately adjourned till the ninth of February. COLONEL GORDON, late of the Royal Artillery, was attacked and robbed by garotters on Friday week last, on the Shooter's-hill Road, near the " Blue.gate," on Woolwich.common, when he was attacked by three artillerymen, who seized him by the throat, and succeeded in carrying off all the property about his person, including a silver snuffbox and a purse containing a quantity of silver. Since the above oc currence orders have been issued by the commandant, General Sir F. Williams, by which 170 men are stationed every evening as pickets along the different line of roads leading to and from the barracks. S WARD AND ANDERSON were re examined at the Mansion-house on Wednesday. Witnesses who had been employed to cash certain forged cheques pro duced were brought forward, but failed to identify the prisoners as the persons who had employed them. One witness, a Mrs. Boxall, recognised them both as having on two occasions been at the Crown and Anchor, Southwark. The first time they came they wanted refreshment, and some "boiled beef" was sent out for them. A POOR WEAVER, one Swift, of Henley, near Manchester, last week destroyed himself in de spair. A slate and paper were lying near him, containing an explanation of the motives which had led him to commit the fatal act, and a few words of advice and farewell to his children, written in a good bold hand. Ile had written that be saw no prospect of a poor man getting more than a mere pittance for his labour in this country, that he was tired and weary of struggling for the bare neces saries of existence, and hopes that God will forgive him for the step he was about to take. He also leaves directions for his funeral, and place of interment ; and says that about as much money will be found in his belt as will inter him respectably ; and concludes by expressing a hope that his children (from whom 83 he has been separated for some time) will conduct themselves properly in all respects. A verdict of " Temporary insanity " has been returned. THE INCONVENIENCE OF BECOMING A BANK DIEECTOB. on private solicitation was shown at the Court of Com mon Pleas on Tuesday, when the name of one of the directors of the Western Bank of London was dragged before the public in a very unceremonious manner. The case was that of " Rankin v. Payne," and the action was undefended. It was stated that the plaintiff was chief clerk to a stock broker in the City, and that the defendant was engaged in promoting public companies. Some time ago the defendant was engaged in promoting the formation of the Western Bank of London, which had since been firmly established, and he undertook to pay the plaintiff 501. for every director whom he could obtain for the hank. At the instance of the plaintiff Major General Bagnall agreed to become a director, and the plaintiff now sought to recover from the defendant 501. for obtaining the general's name. Mr. Jus ice Willes said that the contract above stated was illegal, and as it was an illegality which he thought affected the public, he directed that the case should be postponed for the purpose, as was under stood, of enabling an application to be made to amend the pleadings, so as to raise the qne,tion. AN ACT OF SUICIDE, coupled with an attempt at murder, has been committed at Birmingham. A grainer, one Keatley, who lived very unhappily with his wife, on Tuesday morning, about eight o'clock, attacked her and struck her a tremendous blow on the head with the poker, fracturing her skull. The poor woman managed to escape into the back court crying for assistance. Her neighbours rushed in, but not in time to prevent Keatley from cutting his own throat. Surgical aid was speedily at hand, but the man died in a few seconds. His wife lies in a precarious state. THE E BURY- STREET COWSHED NUISANCE WaS adjudicated on by Mr. Paynter at the Westminster Police court on Tuesday. Mr. Paynter entered into a lengthened review of' the evidence on both sides, and made an order against defendant, as follows : That his number of cows should be reduced to ninety; that the district yurveyor of St. George's, and one appointed by defendant, should consider what alterations could be made in the sheds, subject to his (Mr. Paynter's) approval ; regular whitewashing, and the pavement constructed with such an inclina tion as to allow the slop to run off more readily, and the grain reservoir to be emptied and cleansed. THE POST-MORTEM ExastusaTros at Chesham, on the body of the wife of Philip White, a shoemaker of that town, has resulted in the discovery of the pre sence of arsenic in deceased's stomach. A coroner's inquest was held on Monday. Professor Taylor gave his evidence, and deposed to the presence in the stomach of deceased of sufficient arsenic to destroy life : The body of the deceased was not penetrated with arsenic to the extent he had known in other cases, but that might have arisen from the poison being taken only a short period before death, so that it had no time for lifftision, or it might have been taken some period before death, and retinved by what was technically called elimination, or the throwing of the poison out of the body. Few persons lived more than three days after taking arsenic, and the appear• antes presented in this case were such as were commonly seen when the poison has proved fatal in two or three days. There was no arsenic dissolved in the stomach. The ap pearances were consistent either with a recent administra tion of arsenic in a large dose, or an old administration in several small doses. Evidence was adduced to prove that the prisoner, shortly before his wife's death on Christmas-day, had purchased half an ounce of arsenic of the town chemist. The jury, after some consultation, returned a verdict of " Wilful murder," and the prisoner was committed for trial. A LAWYER, Mr. Mark Barnard, of' 18, Sherrard street, Golden-square, destroyed himself by cutting his throat on Wednesday morning. THE MASTER of the brigantine Hannah Jane, of Belfast, has been committed for trial at Plymouth on the charge of murdering the cook of the vessel, while at sea, on the 3rd of July last. Two MEN, Archer, a discharged footman from the service of Lord Suffield, and one Kelly, have been arrested on suspicion of having effected the late robbery at Gunton-hall, Lord Suffield's seat n Norfolk. CERTAIN CHANGES in the War Department are announced. The office of Deputy SecrAtary will, like that of Secretary at War, be abolished ; and Sip Benjamin Hawes now becomes permanent Under- Secretary of State, Mr. Peel retaining the Parlia mentary Under Secretaryship, and Colonel Mundy obtaining a military command. The office of Secretary to the Ordnance will also be abolished. Mr. Godley, now Director-Oener it of Stores, will be Assistant Under.Seoretary to the department under the new organisation.