The Press. — London, England, 1857-10-10 00:00:00

bedroom door, which is opposite the top of the stairs, lie saw on the landing half-way down the stairs, near a window there, a tall man , a t whom he instantly dis- charged one barrel of the gun. " Did you not call out before you fired, because it might have been your brother or some one of the family," asked the police officer. "\o, I did not," replied the prisoner. The man gave vent to an exclamation of pain or alarm, and immediately ran down the remaining six steps. Immediately after this his father's bedroom door was opened, and a light being extingushed at the same moment three men rushed out and went down the stairs. In corroboration of this, Jane Henderson his sister, says - - - - • - The first thing I heard was the noise of footsteps on the stairs. 1 heard several footsteps, and immediately after. wards I heard my brother James open his door and fire. I am quite sure that I heard him open his door. Jean Henderson, the widow, was awoke by the first shot, and distinctly heard James "opening his door and firing down stairs." "There was not more than half a minute," added this witness,"hetween the first and second shots. I next heard sminds as of persons running down the stairs, either in their stockings or with something over their shoes." Thomas Henderson, his brother, corroborates this evidence. He heard the second shot " about half a minute " after the first. After the second shot he also heard footsteps on the stairs. They "appeared to he those of three or four persons who had some thing on their shoes." John Blaize, a farm labourer, who slept in the attic, also heard the second discharge " immediately afterwards." He rose, dressed, and ran down stairs :--- When I got to the second landing, upon which the bed. rooms of the first floor open, I saw the prisoner James standing at his bedroom door, and he had a double barrelled gun in one hand and a candle in the other, and said there were robbers in the house. The candle flame was fell, as though it had been lighted some lime. No mention appears to have been made by the prisoner of any apprehension of the murder of his father. He called up every one in the house with the alarm that "robbers were about," and searching Vie downstairs premises, even to the cellar, without finding any one there, said at last, " Come upstairs, and we'll try the rooms." The conduct of the prisoner at this juncture is remarkable.. He had heard the report of firearms in his father's room, he had seen men rush from that room downstairs, but it does not seem to have occurred to him that any ill result had happened to his father. Even when he goes upstairs, it is not until he has searched his " own room" that he ven ture: into that of his father. And when before the bed bespattered with the blood and brains of the old man, his conduct is singularly unfilial. Michael Malockney states: — We followed him in, his brother Thomas following first, and then myself and Dillon. The prisoner said, " Come on out, my father is killed." He had not been up by the side of the bed, but he went a little past the foot of it. He did not touch his father, nor did Thomas. We then left the room. John Dillon, another witness, corroborates the fact, and states: — He went to the end of the bed, or a little beyond it. He went furthest into the room. He did not examine the body or touch it. lie said either, "My father is killed," or "My father is shut," but I am not sums whiub. Both these witnesses assert that "no search" was made for !missing property ; and the most mysterious circumstance connected with the murder is, that nothing bad been taken out of the father's room ; the room was in no way dis turbed, the table•drawer in which his money was kept was locked, and the key was in the pocket of the deceased's waistcoat, which hung on the foot of the bed. "The room struck me," says the superinten dent of police, " as in a remarkable state of neatness and order, considering what 1 bad heard had taken place." Neither were there any symptoms of burglars having forced an entrance into the house. Jane Hen derson swears that she " saw the kitchen door locked and barred," and Jean, the mother, " fastened " the kitchen door before she went to bed, and "knew that the front one was also fastened." Upon the family being roused "the kitchen door," sets Thomas Henderson, "was standing open": — It was fastened the night before with a lock and a wooden bar. The bar was resting against the wall, and not broken, so that it must have been placed there. The lock was not injured, and the key was in it on the inside. " I asked how the entrance had been effected," stated the superintendent of police, " and James Hender son said he supposed" some one must have got in during the early part of the night, concealed themselves in the cellar, and after the family had gone to bed had let the rest of the gang into the house. He said he had been up last, seeing all the dcrors fast ; that he went to bed about half-past twelve, and thought be heard a shuffling noise, which caused Lim to turn several steps back, but all was then quiet, and he went to bed. 1 emarnined the outside doors, bat there were no marks of violence upon them, THE PRESS, OCTOBER 10, 1857. And here, too, a singular ir.cident occurred. After the house had been searched, Thomas Henderson and one of the men went for the police, while James, the accused, and Michael Malockney, the other man who slept in the granary, remained in the kitchen. James sat on the sqaab or sofa, and remained for about tm minutes without uttering a word. He then suddenly jumped up and said, " Come, Michael, come out and let us look what they have done at your door." They went out, and then James held up the candle to the latch and said, " Here, Michael, see what they have done here ; there was a piece of wood put over the latch." Wh3 did James think that anything had been done to the granary door ? The search, too, of the police brought to light some curious results with respect to the scraps of wadding picked up on the landing, and found upon the father's bed. They formed part of a leaf itorn from " The Cottage Girl," the remainder of which leaf was discovered in the prisoner's bedroom. The in spector of police states : I then made a search of the bedclothes (says the superintendent of police), anti picked up about twelve pieces of paper on the body and bed and side of the bed, which appeared to have been used as the wadding of the firearms with which deceased was shot. They are blackened with powder and singed. I was assisted in this search by Sergeant Hammond, anti we picked up a number of pellets that had been flattened with the discharge against the well, and Sergeant Ham mond picked up what appears to have been the wadding of the gun and handed it to me. I afterwards found in the prisoner's bedroom, in the chamber-pot, two pellets. In the thessing-room table I found a number of publica tions called " The Cottage Girl, or the Marriage Day." A portion of ono of these I now produce. The pages are 1,146, 1,!U9, 1,200. On one of the pieces of wad taken from deceased's bedroom were the corners of pages 1,197 anti 1,19 4 , the fourth figure being torn off. There is letterpress also on the piece of paper. I produce a perfect number of the same publication commencing with page 1,1'45, and concluding with 1,200, which has been since purchased. It contains the whole of page 1,193, anti on comparing the pieces of paper I found in deceased's room with this perfect copy of the work I find many of the same words on each, and on comparing the wadding found on the attars, and the piece of the paper found in the chamber.pot in the prisoner's room, I find they contain the same matter as that on the lower parts of the same page. -•- The terms upon which the father and son lived was a point necessary to be made clear. A friend of the family, a Mr. Walker, a steam-packet agent, deposed that in March last the prisoner spoke as follows regarding his father : Do you know that old rascal and old villain? He is quite by himself—he is quite deranged. He is abusing us all, and we must get him into a madhouse, as he is not 6t to conduct his business or to have anything to do with the management of the farm, and I intend to take it out of his hands. He then produced a copy of the lease of his father's farm between him and Colonel Davenport (the land lord) for nineteen years, which he gave into the charge of Mr. Walker, desiring him to keep it secret. Since that interview, Mr. Walker had frequently met father and son, and they had each complained of one another : A few days after the lease was left with me, the prisoner called on me and said, " We can't put up with that old fellow. I have given him something that he'll mind. I have had to tie his hands and feet." Thinking that the old man had been hurt, I came over to I3ramhall the next morning to see him. I then saw marks of violence on the deceased's body. His two eyes were very severely swollen and blackened. His upper lip was also swollen, as was likewise his left jaw, which seemed to hare been caused by a kick. The skin was all off his left arm, which he bared to show me. The shin-bones of both legs were black with bruises. Those were all the marks that I saw. On the Wednesday morning after the murder, the prisoner called upon Mr. Walker in Manchester : He first called between nine and halfpast nine o'clock, bnt I had not then arrived, and he came again shortly before eleven o'clock. I had then beard of the murder. When he came into the office he walked round the counter to the window where I was standing. He was then accompanied by another young man, named Mattbieson, and I asked them to be seated. I said to the prisoner that I was sorry for the transaction which bad taken place, and he replied that it was a sau thing or circumstance. I in• quired if his father was shot, and if so, where ; and, putting his hand to his right :heek, he said, " through there." He was next asked whether his father was killed with a pistol or a gun, and he answered, "by a gun." I then said, addressing the prisoner, " Now, sir, lest assured that the murderer will be found out ; if man cannot, God will." I mentioned the instances of Mrs. Manning and Ilush, and said, " horrid murderers cannot escape," upon which be and the other young man got up and left. Further evidence was adduced to show that the prisoner eagerly anticipated getting possession of the farm. To Colonel Davenpt , res agent, about a year since, he spoke in the strongest terms of the in ability of his father to manage the farm properly. He also stated that his father was a very great drunkard while be lived in Scotland, and he added : I do not know whether you are aware that I found the greater portion of the money to come upon the farm ; and I wish very much to have the power for my brother and 991 self to manage and conduct the farm. I wish you to speak to Colonel Davenport to know whether it cannot be arranged that I and my brother should have the farm instead of my father, and I will see that the rent is punc tually paid. If so, my father shall have a comfortable home, and walk about as he pleases; but I should wish him not to interfere. The prisoner then referred to a covenant in the lease respecting the additional rem to be paid after the first four years, and said . My father will not pay the additional rent, because he does not consider that the farm will afford it ; but I am sure it will if it is properly managed, and if I can have the management of it I will see that it is paid. The medical evidence having been unanimous as to the cause of the death of the deceased " by a gun shot wound," and further police evidence having been given to the effect that two exploded caps and certain powder and shot had been found in the pri soner's bedroom, and thattwelve of these shot weighed exactly against twelve shot taken out of deceased's head, the coroner summed up with care, and the jury returned the verdict. THE WEEK has been rife with murder. On Sunday night at the Dock•cottages, Birkenhead, five navvies got into a dispute upon religious topics ; a quarrel ensued, and a fight followed, in the course of which one man, Drewerey, was stabbed to the heart, and killed upon the spot, and another, Dunn, severely stabbed in the back. The three others were arrested the same night by the police, examined on Tuesday, when the evidence against them was so slight they were remanded till this day. The coroner's jury have returned a verdict of " Manslaughter" against the three prisoners.—On Monday night, at Liverpool, a butcher, one Jones, in a personal altercation at supper with his brother Robert, struck and stabbed him to the heart. Robert' dropped dead. The prisoner has been committed to take his trial on a charge of manslaughter.—The same day the body of an infant was found with its throat cut, in a field near the railway station at Sydenham. The coroner's jury have returned a verdict of " Wilful Murder " against some person unknown, and recommend the offer of a reward for the discovery of the murderer.—On Saturday afternoon last, a coroner's jury at Man chester returued a verdict of " Wilful Murder " against one Aaron Mellor, for deliberately holding his wife down and cutting her throat with a clasp knife.—At Islington, Thomas Davis has also been committed for deliberately cutting the throat of his wife—lt is remarkable that in each case here chro nicled the use of the " knife" is recorded. THE ROYAL SURREY GARDENS COMPANY held a meeting on Monday. It was excessively noisy. A resolution removing the whole of the directors was negatived, a motion for further investigation being carried in preference. THE CHARGE OF EXTORTION brought by Sir R. W. Carden against Mr. Rose and his "'longshoremen," was beard by the Lord Mayor this week, and referred to the sessions. Mr. Rose was formally committed for trial, and bound over to appear. BEALE, the man charged with the murder of Char. lotte Pugsley, in Leigh Woods, has been committed for trial. The evidence at the ad,;,ourned inquest last week was strongly against the prisoner. Two boys swore to him as the man they had seen going into the woods with a woman on Thursday afternoon the 10th of September, and that soon afterwards they distinctly beard the report of a pistol. The boys were up a tree picking berries on Leigh Down, at the top of Nightingale Valley. The prisoner was then fully committed to take his trial for the wilful murder. THE Cnracs MISSIONARY SOCIETY have issued a circular upon the influence the rebellion of the Ben gal army will have upon missionary operations, sod " its results upon the future relations of India with the Christianity of this country ;" regarding the re bellion as a judgment of Providence upon this country for its discouragement of the Christian con version of the natives of India, the society recog nising " a double obligation" to " evangelise the land" if it is given to us, and recommend that the Government of India for the future should relin quish its neutrality, and openly " honour God by avowing itself a Christian Government, not neutral or indifferent to the religion of its subjects ;" this avowal to be accompanied with "the widest possible proclamation " that "no compulsion will be used or bribe given." The society further recommend that all forms of religion be tolerated and guaranteed so long as they are neither immoral in their practice ncr anti social in their customs; that Government education be religious, not secular; that a verna cular, moral, and Christian literature be provided for the natives ; and that a new and enlarged effort be made to send forth missionaries to India. The pith of this statement is at th 3 conclusion, wherein the society appeal to the British breeches-pocket. Their loss they estimate at 30,000 L It is satisfactory to find that they deprecate any special effort at this moment, from a desire not to interfere with the relief fund now being raised.