The Press. — London, England, 1855-09-22 00:00:00

ww- SErr. 22, 1855. glaibatts anb Offnuts. A BRUTAL MURDER Was perpetrated on Monday in Artillery-lane, Bishopsgate•street, by a man named Lordon, the victim of his brutality being his own wife. The deceased and her husband are persons whose drunken and dissipated habits have become painfully notorious to the inhabitants of the district in which they resided. They were constantly quarrelling, which often led to the most brutal violence towards each other. The woman formerly kept a fruit-stall at the corner of the Mansion-house, but in consequence of her improper conduct the police authorities were compelled to order her re moval. A few moments after the horrible deed was committed Lordon gave himself up to a policeman, by whom he was conveyed to the station-house, where he made a full confession of his guilt. The prisoner was detained while an officer went to the house in which the murder was committed, which is situate in Parliament-court, Artillery-lane. There he found the murdered woman, her death having been occasioned by several severe wounds in the neck. It appears that the murderer is the second husband of the deceased. He is a Spitalfields weaver by trade, but has latterly worked in the docks. There are six or seven children, but none very young. A LETTER from Florence gives very terrible accounts otthe ravages of the cholera. No less than 11,000 persons have, it is stated, been carrit d isifin the month of August. The population of the city, which is on an average 100,000, is now reduced to 00,000 by death and flight. The Grand Duke, it must be said to his credit, has set a noble example. Although his family has left, he remains himself, and, clad in the black veil of the Fraternity of Mercy, be sometimes assists in the burial of the dead. It is positively affirmed in this letter that ten persons were lately buried alive. The horrible fact was brought to light in this way :—An Italian warehouse-keeper in Palaz zuolo (a fauborg of Florence) was buried for dead in the Trespiano cemetry, with many other supposed corpses, in a common grave. He awoke to a sense of consciousness, and so thin was the covering of sandy earth above him that he made his way out to the surface. Still weak, be lived for three days on roots in the forest which surrounds the graveyard. At last he recovered strength sufficient to reach his house, where he startled his family, who were in mounting for him. He assured them that he dis tinctly felt the bodies of numerous people interred with him moving about. The grave was conse quently opened, and it was found that many (ten in number, as before said) had stirred, and several of them had bitten their fingers in agony, and other wise injured themselves. They were all dead when the investigaton was made. The utmost excitement prevailed on the subject among the population. THE ADJOURNED CORONER'S INQUEST on the body of the girl Melinda Payne, whose murdered and mutilated remains were discovered on the 19th of August, buried beneath a heap of stones in a path way of the Blackrock-glen, was resumed and con eluded on Tuesday last. The coroner (Mr. Grindon) said that since the jury had last met very great exer tions had been made by the police-officers, and by many citizens who had taken an interest in the dis covery of the murder, but up to the present time nothing of a tangible character had been discovered, and the jury therefore returned the following ver dict :—" That the deceased was wilfully murdered at the parish of Clifton, on Saturday, the 18th of August, by some person or persons to the jurors unknown." LAST WEEK, at the Halifax Borough Court, John Thomas, a sawyer, was charged by Mr. Jennings, relieving officer, with having left his wife and family chargeable to the Union. The relief given had been after the rate of 7s. Bd. per week. The officer pressed for a conviction on the ground that there were no fewer than five hundred deserted wives within the Bradford Union, with 1,017 children, involving an annual expenditure in relief of nearly 20,0001. MR. JOHN Moarr, the Government; receiver of Inland Revenue at Chester, has been discovered to be a defaulter in his accounts to the extent of 4,0001. The offender has been apprehended by a detective officer from London. At the local police court, Mr. Hostage, who appeared for the accused, applied for a private heanng of the case. The mayor was averse to this step, but as Mr. Earwaker, for the prosecution, did not oppose the application, the Bench consented. It was understood that the result of these preliminary proceedings would be a remand to this day (Saturday), when the examination will he in public. The nature of the case is simply this: — Mr. Moah's books are perfectly correct, and show a balance of nearly 5,0001., which ought to be in his hands. When applied to at the proper time for pay ment of this large sum, be intimated that he had no money in hand, and that he had spent it. The pro secution was then commenced. A RAILWAY ACCIDENT of a novel bnt very shocking character took place on Tuesday night on the Dint ing Viaduct of the Manchester and Sheffield Railway, across the river Etherow s near Oloasor. A train from THE PRESS. Manchester approached the Hadfield station, which is at the end of the viaduct, but in consequence of a Liverpool excursion-train being in advance, and having to discharge passengers at the station, the Manchester train was brought to a stand on the viaduct. This was at 9.35 p.m. The night was very dark, and it appears that some of the passengers in the Manchester train, who had to get out at Hadfield, imagined that the train was already at the station. Three of these persons, two young men and a young woman, succeeded in opening the door of the car riage and got out. The parapet of the viaduct on that side was within a very short space, of the car riages, and it is supposed that owing to the darkness or the night, instead of getting down in the narrow space between the train and the parapet of the via duct, they stepped upon the top of the parapet. Im mediately afterwards an alarm was given that they had fallen over, and the shocking fact was soon after wards confirmed by the discovery of their bodies in the valley below. They had fallen from a height of seventy-five feet. Two of them, John Healy, aged twenty-three years, and sane Hadfield, who were lovers, and had been to Bellevue-gardens, Manches ter, were quite dead when found. The other man, Thomas Priestnall, a weaver, aged twenty-nine years, residing at Freetown, was taken up in a state of in sensibility, and died in about an hour afterwards. A YOUNG Pout, named Julius Ciclecki, who was attached to the office of the Intendant in-Chief of the army of the South, was sent from the Crimea, intrusted with 150,000 silver roubles (about 24,0001.), to pay for a large purchase of horses which had been made in the Government of Kieft. Instead, however, of proceeding to Kieff, he took the road to Warsaw, where he was well known, and, by the aid of a person named Jatterand, he obtained bills of exchange on London and Paris. The police having no suspicion of him, he was not arrested. lie obtained a false passport, under the name of De Wysocki or De Podwysocki, and up to the present time no trace of him has been discovered. It is sup posed that he left for France or England. AN INQUEST has been held into the cause of the late deplorable accident on the South-Eastern Rail way, resulting in a verdict of manslaughter against Joseph Crossley, the driver of the pilot engine which occasioned the catastrophe. As this man also perished in the collision, the jury find that he " killed and slayed himself." They add a recommen dation to have a man kept constantly to attend solely to the signals and points at the Reading station. Another sufferer, Mrs. Norton, died on Saturday evening. In the course of that day the Government inspector of railways, accompanied by several of the officers of the company, visited Reading, and insti. tuted an inquiry into the unfortunate event, prepara tory to making his report of the occurrence to the Board of Trade. It is computed that, at the time of the collision, the engines were approaching each other at a speed of from twenty to thirty miles an hour, and it is a matter of astonishment to those acquainted with railway misfortunes, that the re mainder of the passenger-train was not, by the force of the concussion, hurled over the embankment and destroyed. The two engines were completely demo lished, entailing a loss to the company's stock of between 3,0001. and 4,0001., independent of the de struction of the two passenger-carriages. A GREAT SENSATION was produced on Wednesday throughout Bristol by a report that a man named John Hale, a seaman engaged on board a coasting vessel called the Cardiff Trader, had been murdered by a seaman named George Newman, also engaged on board the same vessel. At the inquest Jane Hale, the widow of the deceased, deposed that she and her husband, and Newman and his wife, were with some other persons at the Prince's Hea d Tavern, Welsh Back, when witness bad a noggin of gin and pepper mint given to her at the bar. A quarrel arose, when Newman raised his hand and struck Hale with it on the forehead, and made his nose bleed a good deal. Deceased hung forward his head, and did not speak ; indeed, she never heard him speak afterwards. De ceased left the house and the others went after him, but witness was afraid to go until a woman called her and said her husband was being killed, when she went and found him on a doorstep bleeding from his head, tnd a policeman in the act of cutting his hair off. She went to Dr. Davis, in Queen.square, and asked him to como to him, but, as she had not live shillings to give him, he refused to do so. Her husband was then carried home by four men, and she washed his head with brandy, and stayed up with him till three o'clock, when she lay down by his side and fell asleep. At half-past six o'clock she awoke, and found him dead and cold by her side. This evidence was contradicted by William Jones and James Lenkin, and two women named Griffiths and Bryant, who stated that after the dispute about the gin and peppermint Newman was sitting on a table talking to Mrs. Hale, when Hale, took the kitchen poker, which he concealed behind him, and then going up behind Newman struck him with it a heavy blow across the head which cut it open, and staggered hiUt Off the table, Halo then ;au aw l knocking down and kicking a young woman in his progress, and was running, pursued by the other, into King street, when he struck his head against some rail►ngs and fell backwards into the middle of the street, his head striking against the pitching. The coroner adjourned the inquest. ON Sunday evening, during a calm, the schooner Alert, of Belfast,from Liverpool to Memel, with salt, was overtaken by the tide, and, becoming un manageable, was driven ashore on the Pentland Skerries, near the lighthouse. The crew managed to walk ashore at low water. The mate and one of the lightkeepera returned at daylight, and succeeded in saving all the clothes of the crew, going back to breakfast at the lighthouse, where they were most kindly treated. When at breakfast one of the men stated that there were boats boarding the vessel, on which the mato proceeded to her, and inquired what the crews were wanting. To this they gave very curt replies, proceeding, meanwhile, with removing the hawsers and running rigging, which they took away with them in spite of the representations of the crew. FOR some days past the acceptances of the large ship-building firm of Messrs. C. J. Mare and Co., of Blackwell, have been lying over unpaid, but it was hoped from hour to hour that an arrangement might be made to honour them. This anticipation, how ever, has been disappointed, and a balance-sheet will, it is said, he submitted to the creditors, together with such proposals as may seem best to secure their im portant works from being interrupted. Notwith standing the great extent of the business of Messrs. Mare and Co., an impression is entertained that their liabilities, apart from their debts to private connec tions for advances, which are understood to be very heavy, are not much beyond 70,0001. The establish ment is still going on, the workmen having up to the present time been regularly paid. Amos° numerous visitors who have inspected lately the factory departments of the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich, the Times states, as a remarkable fact, that no one has appeared to take an interest in viewing and thoroughly understanding the mecha nical routine of the department to the degree evinced on Wednesday by Lord Palmerston. The officers who accompanied him were fearful at the com mencement that the circuit of the whole establish ment must be too fatiguing ; but his lordship expressed his desire to go through the whole, in all of which he evinced an interest seldom or never witnessed there, and displayed an ex traordinary amount of judgment in many matters connected with the foundries, which astonished his attendants. In witnessing the casting of some seg ments for traversing platforms, he remained with his watch in hand to denote the time required in their oonstruction. On being shown the split mortars from the Baltic, his lordship was sensibly struck with what be was convinced was a very inferior metal. From the Arsenal they repaired to the Marshes, to witness the firing off of six of Captain Boxer's para• chute shells. Evening had already set in, and the little fairy-like lights hovering iu the air were beauti. fully displayed and seen to great advantage, in which there was not a single failure. SOME LENGTHENED ExrEEDIENTS took rlaCe at Wool wich on Monday, in the presence of the Select Com mittee, with three different kinds of lights for war and other purposes. The first was the electric light, which was exhibited by Mr. Inglis; the second, the "Drummond Light," exhibited by Sergeant R. P. Jones, of the Royal Sappers and Miners ; and the third the " Buds Light," invented by a Mr. Gurney, residing in the county of Cornwall, who also intrusted it to the care of Sergeant Jones. The night was not a favorable one for the trial. The electric light appeared to have the power of penetrating the farthest into the darkness, and was the must bril liant; but the Drummond also possessed some ad vantages. It was more portable, and could be carried by two or three men, each taking a portion of the apparatus, whereas the electric light was so cumbersome as to require a waggon drawn by two horses to convey it from place to place. ON Saturday last Mr. Caulfield, governor of the Four Courts, Marshalsea, regaled all the poor debtors confined in the prison with a substantial dinner of roast beef, &c., in honour of the fall of Sebastopol, and the safe arrival in England of his son, Captain Caulfield, of the Coldstream Guards, from active ser vice in the Crimea. In the evening the windows of the prison were brilliantly illuminated by the debtors. IMMEDIATE orders have been received by every cavalry regiment at home to detail a captain and a subaltern to proceed, by the first week in October, to Scutari, where a large cavalry reserve is to be formed. Another reserve will be formed in the Mediterranean, most probably at Genoa ; and a cap. tain and a subaltern from the cavalry at home will proceed there at Christmas. THURSDAY was the anniversary of the victory of the Alma, and was celebrated by bell-ringing and other tokens of rejoicing in a great number of place) throughout the uottutry,