The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1884-01-19 00:00:00

SATURDA V, JAN 19 1884'

CHILD MURDER AT NOTTING HILL. ROYAL VISIT TO PORTNUOUTiu

In London, on Monday, at the Central Criminal
Court, Annie Player, 25, married, waa indicted for the
wilful murder of her child, William Player, and also
for attempting to commit suicide.
Mr. Poland conducted the prosecution; Mr. E.eith
Frith and Mr. H. J. Broun were counsel for the
defence.

Mr. Poland, in opening the case, said the prisom
was living with her husband in Bolton-row, Notting.
hill. On the afternoon of the 27th of November she was
with her husband in her room upstairs. She bad some
words with him and he left the house. Shortly after
he had left ;he heard a thud, and he saw the child,
which was seven months old, in the roadway, the
prisoner having thrown it out of the window, a
distance of 12ft„ and it was lying in the road about
21t. from the kerb. The child was picked up and
attended to and the prisoner was then seen hanging
outside the window, holding on by the ledge. Assist.
ance was obtained and she was drawn back into the
room. She was found in a very weak condition and
partially insensible. When she came to herself
she said she was sorry for what had occurred. She
could not help it at the moment. The child was
taken to the hospital and died a day or two after-
ward from, the injuries received in the fall. When
before the magistrate the prisoner said she was
hanging out of the window and the child had
dropped from her, but the learned counsel explained
that that could not be true. While in Olerkenwell
prison awaiting trial Dr. Gilbert, the surgeon, noticed
certain indications which rendered it necessary that she
should be examined by several medical men to ascertain
whether she was sane. Dr. Orange, the principal
medical man at Breadmoor Lunatic Asylum, would
be called as a witness, and, having examined the pri-
soner, would say that although at times she was
rational there was no doubt that she was a person of
unsound mind and not responsible for her actions. On
three occasions she had attempted to commit suicide
in prison, and her unfortunate condition resulted
from her having suffered from typhoid fever. The
prisoner bore the reputation of being a kind and
affectionate mother to the child. In Dr. Orange's
opinion as to the unsoundness of the prisoner's mind
both Dr. Gover, whe had also examined her, and Dr.
Gilbert agreed.
Evidence was given in support of this statement.
Dr. Orange and Dr. Gilbert expressed the opinion
that the prisoner, although rational at times, was a
person of unsound mind, and that she did not know
the nature and quality of the act she was committing.
Dr. Gilbert said the prisoner attempted to commit
suicide while in prison three times, the latest
being on Sunday night, when she attempted to
strangle herself, She had also tried to jump over the
balustrade of the prison, and had tried to burn her-
self by setting fire to her clothes and holding her head
over the flames.

Mr. Justice Hawkins having summed up,
The jury found, in accordance with the terms of
the new Act upon the subject, that the prisoner did the
act, bat was insane at the time she committed it.
Mr. Justice Hawkins thereupon ordered the pri•
soner to be kept as a criminal lunatic in Clerkenwell
until her Majesty's pleasure be known.

In accordance with previous notificatiom, Princess
Beatrice, accompanied by the Princess Fraiderica of
Hanover, and attended by Colonel Ewart, left 1/4()sborne
shortly after ten o'clock on Saturday morninee and
proceeded to Portsmouth in the Royal yacht Alb,•-rta,
for the purpose of visiting the dockyard, On arrival
at the railway jetty at half-past eleven, her Royal
Highness was received by Rear-Admiral Herbert,
superintendent of the yard, Prince Edward of Saxe-
Weimar, and Captain Darby, ILA., A.D.C. In the
course of their visit, their Royal Highnesses were
shown a variety of ingenious mechanical and scientific
processes, Her Royal Highness was conducted
2hrongh a modern armour-clad fully armed and
equipped for action, and was afterwatds shown a
srmilar engine in course of construction, or in skeleton,
with its several parts exposed to view. The Princess was
first of all conveyed in the steam tram carriage to the
electric workshop at the extreme eastern end of the dock-
yard, where she witnessed the method of electro-plating
by means of gold, silver, and nickel baths. There
also happened at the time to be in the workshop a Vic-
toria dynatno for the purpose of testing the valise of
Messrs. Heenan and Froude's spherical engines, which
have been specially designed for driving electric light
machines. This afforded an excellent opportunity for
practically demonstrating the utility of the new dye
rumor and the beauty of the electric system. A
powerful arc, or search light, was first produced, the
same as is used in our armour-clads for defence by
night against attack by torpedo boats, or for revealing
the work an enemy might purpose undertaking under
the shelter of darkness. From the same machine was
afterwards generated a current for feeding some 200
incandescent lamps, each having an illuminating
power of about ten candles. The Princess
was much interested in what she saw, and
on leaving the shop expressed her pleasure
and thanks. On leaving, the carriage was slowly
driven past the turret ships Colossus and Edinburgh,
the formidable character of which was explained by
Admiral Herbert. The Princess was next taken on
board the Dreadnought, where the party was joined
by Mr. Owen the Chief Constructor of the yard This
ship is a double-turret armour-clad, with an armament
of four 38-ton guns, and was selected as an example of
a modern fighting engine complete and ready for setae
By a method of connecting the machinery with the
pneumatic mains of the yard, it is always possible to
go through all the operations on board without the
necessity of getting up steam. Here the turrets were
rotated, and the heavy guns elevated and depressed,
figuratively charged and shotted, run out and fired—the
same as in action, except that no powder was need.
After going over the ship her Royal Highness was next
conducted to the Camperdown, a formidable barbette
ship in course of construction. On the way the
visitors witnessed the ponderous caisson at the entrance
of the deep dock opened and closed by means of com-
pressed air, and were shown the Bacchante, the nn-
armoured corvette in which the Princess's nephews
circumnavigated the world, and which is at present
receiving a new armament and the protection of Nor-
denfelt guns, A subsequent peep into the boiler shop
and a glance at the set of steel boilers which have been
made for the Royal yacht Victoria and Albert, and the
visitors found themselves tinder the prow of the
Camperdown. Here the fret thing which engaged their
attention was a massive compound armour-plate which
bad juet been received from Brown and Company, of
Sheffield, and which is Intended for the foremost
plate of the citadel. It was well deserving of notice.
It tapered from a thieknees of 18in. to 7in. below the
water-line, weighed close upon 19 toms, and Was of
peculiar shape to enable it to join the side armour
with the bulkhead. Ascending the flight of stairs to
the high flat, the Princess was shown the wooden
backing and brackets againet which the armour will
be deposited; and on passing on to the top of the
citadel she had an opportunity of beholding some of
the embryonic mysteries of naval construction, in-
cluding the holds for the engines and boilers, the
underwater steel decks, wing peasagee, &c. Descend-
ing the fiat on the other side her Royal Hiehnese was
next conducted under the ship, through a double row
of candles, the dim light of which magnified the
dimensions into Titanic proportions. This completed
the survey of the shipping, the party being next con-
ducted into the smithery, where a chorming and very
striking operation invited their attention. This was
the forging of the palm of one of the brackets which
are to support the after end of the propellor shafting
of the Camperd own. This was accomplished by means
of a Nasmyth hammer, which is not nnly the largest
in Portsmouth, but the most powerful possessed by
any of the Royal yards in England. The hammer
itself weighs seven tons, moving through a vertical
height of 4ft., which enables it to strike a blow o!30
tons by the mere force of gravitation, but capable with
the application of steam power of delivering a blow
equal to 100 tons. Three pieces of metal, weighing
each a ton, which had been converted into slabs front
shingles or blooms of scrap iron, were heated
in the furnace to a white heat, and afterwards
brought under the hammer by a crane and welded
together amid a shower of sparks. At the conclusion
of the operation the Princess next visited the block
mills. This was the last item in the programme, and
proved decidedly the most intereeting of the day. The
machinery was originally invented by Mr. Brnnel,
and has been in constant use for many years. It is
invariably a source of delight and wonderment to
visitors. The Princess witnessed the transformation
of a cube of elm into a perfect block, with its boring
spindle, morticing, and strapping, together with its
sheaves of kinunt vitte and its brass clamps, in the
space of about eight minutes, and almost by magic.
After spending 20 minutes at the block mills her Royal
Highness left the Dockyard in the carriage of Prince
Edward of Saxe-Weimer for Government-honee,
where she partook of luncheon, and afterwards sailed
En the Alberta for Oaborne.