The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-12-13 00:00:00

THE STOURBRIDGE OBSERVER_

he left the castle for the Motherwell station of the
Caledonian Railway, where hej blued the express for
the south. He travelled in a saloon carriage belonging
to the North-Westeni Railway Company, which had
been placed at his service during his journeys
through Scotland. At Motherwell he was loudly
cheered by a large assemblage 'congregated in
the neighbourhood of the station. At Carstairs like-
wise he had a very cordial greeting, while a local
manufacturer asked the right hon. gentleman to accept
for his daughter a p_lece of silk and woollen cloth "in
honour of her visit to Scotland." At Carlisle station,
which was reached at 1235 p.m., a crowd of several
hundred people were assembled, and as soon as the
train stopped they besieged ,the carriage and greeted
him with lusty cheers. He bowed repeatedly and said
—" I thank you very much ; " but the crowd at inter-
vals continued to cheer him and in turn his wife and
his daughter. After a few minutes one of the crowd
advanced to the carriage and said, "Give us a little
encouragement for the Liberal cause."
Mr. Gladstone presented himself at the window and
said,—
Gentlemen, I am very glad to say oie word, because,
when we passed through Carlisle before, we marched
between great masses of people collected in the station
whom there was no opportunity' of addressing, and there-
fore I feel much gratified at being able now to render my
thanks both for your gathering here to-day and for the
manifestation that was then made. (Cheers.) There could
be no mistake as to the character of that manifestation; it
was an omen of what was going to happen in Scotland.
(Cheers.) I could not describe to you what I have seen and
the experience that I have had in Scotland. It has
really been beyond description. (Cheers.) I believe
that if Parliament were dissolved to-morrow, or at this
time, according to usage it ought to be, our opponents
would scarcely show their faces at an election in Scotland.
(Cheers) Do not suppose I mean they would be in bodily
tear, for there is no question of bodily fear at all. (Hear.
hear.) In Scotland, while I have seen many hundreds and
thousands of people, I have heard as many as a dozen who
have hooted me, They were allowed, as they ought to be,
to hoot freely ; but I must say that they took the pre-
caution that they always hooted in the dark. (Laughter
and cheers.) You know that is the nature of the owl.
(Laughter.) They do not hoot, at any rat% in broad
daylight, bit they hoot at night and before the
dawn. (Cheers.) The Scotch people perfectly well under-
stand that their opponents have the same liberty as them-
selves. When I say they would not show their faces, I
mean they would hardly venture to contest a great many
of the seats; and it was very well said, gentlemen, by Lord
Rosebery, who is a patriotic nobleman of very high ability
and promise, that that feeling was not a Scotch feeling
only, but it went from the North to the Tweed, from the
Tweed to the Tyne, from the Tyne to the Eden, from the
Eden to the Mersey, from the Mersey to the Trent, and
from the Trent to the Thames. (Loud cheers.] And it
will be our business to verify that proof when the time
comes. (Loud cheers.)
An enthusiastic crowd welcomed Mr. Gladstone at
Oxenholme Station. Mr. Thompson, J.Y., president
of the Kendal Liberal Association, presented him
with a Kendal travelling rug. Messrs. Wilson, of
Kendal, presented Mrs. Gladstone with another, and
a bouquet of flowers was given to Miss Gladstone.
The various donors were thanked by Mr. Gladstone,
who said :
I am greatly moved by the kindness which has everywhere
been shown me. I am glad to find that the men of West-
moreland—the men of the Lakes, the men of the mountain-
ous country, the hills, and the valleys—are taking steps to
show their opinions at the next election. It is certain we
are all in the same boat. Referring to the nomination of zir
Henry Tnfton, Mr. Gladstone said,—Yes, it does you honour.
I understand you will win, and I hope so. I will tell you
something about a Westmoreland election. I remember
being at an inn in Kendal nearer sixty than fifty years
ago. It was just after one of the defeats of Brougnam.
We were at dinner, and I heard one of the waiters, as he
went round the table, say, "We are defeated, but not dis-
graced."

The next stoppage was at Preston, It had been
previously arranged that an address which the right
hon. gentleman had agreed to receive should be pre-
sented to him by the Liberal Association of that town,
and several of the members of that body went to the
station, in processional order, for the purpose of giving
the requisite greeting and supporting the chairman of
the body named—Mr. Jonathan Sellers—who had to
present the address. There was a large crowd, in-
cluding Conservatives as well as Liberals, though the
latter predominated. Mr. Gladstone left the carriage
and mounted a sort of temporary platform contiguous
and Mr. Sellers then presented to him an address
congratulatory of his policy and his enunciation of it
in Scotland. Addresses from Blackburn and Black-
pool were also presented to the right hon. gentleman,
amid much cheering.
Mr. Gladstone acknowledged these addresses in a
speech of some length, at the conclusion of which a
bundle of Messrs. John Hawkins and Sons' famous
cotton longcloth, which had been subscribed for by a
number of working men, was presented to Mrs. Glad-
stone. The train left the station shortly before four
o'clock, amid cheers.
Mr. Gladstone arrived at Warrington shortly after
half•past four, the crowd which had assembled in the
station setting up hearty cheers as the train came in.
Tickets had been issued by the Liberal party for ad-
misoion to the station and several hundred were pre-
sent, in addition to numbers outside the station, who
cheered lustily, but could not see, owing to the very
dense fog. On the platform were heads of the local
Liberal party.
Mr. John Crosfield, J.P., head of one of the largest
soap manufactories in the kingdom, addressed Mr.
Gladstone, who appeared at the carriage window. He
said that, on behalf of the Liberals of Warrington, he
desired to thank him for the splendid speeches he had
delivered in the North and to compliment him upon
his magnificent success.

Mr. Gladstone briefly replied, and the train then
moved off.

Mr. Gladstone's train was timed to arrive at
Chester at half-past five o'clock in the evening.
Long before that hour an immense concourse of spec-
tators had assembled in the square in front of the
general station. It was intended to give the right
hon. gentleman an enthusiastic welcome on hie arrival,
and it was further intended that a torchlight pro-
cession should accompany him some distance on his
way to Hawarden. For this purpose several hundred
torches had been ordered from London, but they had
not arrived, and at four o'clock no lights had been
obtained. Some one happily suggested tarred rope,
and lengths of rope were obtained from a shipwright's
yard, and cut into 2ft. lengths. These, dipped in
petroleum, made capital torches. When the station
was reached, the crowd had the utmost difficulty in
getting inside, There was a delay of half-an-hour on
the arrival of the train, and the time was spent in per-
fecting the arrangements.
A passage was
,formed from the station doors to the
arrival platform, at the end of which stood Mr. W. H.
Gladstone, M.P. Sir Thomas Frost, president of the
Chester Liberal Association, Lady Frost, and a large
number of the leading citizens of Chester. As soon as
Mr. Gladstone was espied ringing cheers were given,
and when he and Mrs. Gladstone had been presented
with two pretty bouquets of flowers by Lady Frost
and Mrs. F. A, Dickson, they were closed in upon
sad half carried to their carriage which was in
waiting. When Mr. Gladstone appeared outside
the station, there was a scene of indescribable enthu-
siasm. As far as the eye could reach the streets
were studded with human heads, and countless up-
turned faces shone in the glare of hundreds of torches.
The cheers were again and again renewed, and it was
some time before the carriage could be started, Mr.
Gladstone repeatedly bowing to the plaudits of his
admirers. Thousands of spectators lined the streets
and the rows, and the cheers were loud and continuous
as the procession marched through City-road, Forgate-
street, Eastgate-street, and the Grosvenor-road. In
fact, the entire city had turned out to do honour to
Mr. Gladstone, and the scene as the procession passed
through the quaint and narrow streets of Chester lit
up by hundreds of flambeaux, the people cheering from
every coign of vantage, and handkerchiefs waving
from every window, was one to be remembered. In
Eastgate-street a countryman elbowed his way through
the crowd, and grasping Mr. Gladstone's hands, said,
"God bless thee, owd mon ; " another shouted " You'll
be Premier again after this." A stoppage took place
at the City Wall, isilien
Mr. Gladstone addressed the enormous crowd which
had gathered round his carriage, and concluded his
speech by saying
But what I intended to say and what I wished to say
Is this, that I really do think that the reception that
I have had elsewhere, and in Scotland particularly, was
a reception which could not be equalled, but It has been
reserved for you in these circumstances to show me that
you have an enthusiasm not inferior even to that of the
Scottish people. (Cheers.) I never can forget, and I must
say the same for my wife, for my daughter, and my son
(cheers), this extraordinary reception. (Cheers, and a cry,
"It is not too good for you.") It will be deeply graven in
our hearts ; it.will be handed down in our family; it will help
to the performance of duties; it will be a great encourage-
ment to know how that performance of duty, even
though it be humble and imperfect ("No, no,"), is appre-
ciated by you. (Cheers,) Allow me, in conclusion, deeply
to reiterate once more the strongest expression of
gratitude that it is in my power to use; and let
me speak a word—a wish—for the prosperity of the
old city of Chester, and may she do her duty, and when the
time comes upon the dissolution of Parliament for her to
say (a voice—" Mr. Lawley ")—Yes, I hope for my friend Mr.
Lawley (cheers), for Chester to say whether the manner in
which the country is now governed is the mode in which
,Chester wishes It to be governed. (" No, no.") Good night,
my friends, good night.

The procesgion again moved forward, and esaorted
Mr. Gladstone to the extreme end of Saltney, three
miles from the Chester general station, where Mr.
Gladstone again bade the crowd good night and
heartily thanked them, and, amid more cheers, drove
off to Hawarden Castle.

f drk
TRIAL FOR MURDER IN PARIS.
The policeman, Victor joseph Prevost, was put on his
trial on Monday for the murder of the jewellery hawker,
Lenoble, last September.—The Paris Correspondent of the
Stanciarcl gives the following details of this extraordinary
case:--

It may be remembered that on the 10th of Sep-
tember last, about eight o'clock in the evening, some
women were struck with the suspicious bearing of an
individual who was hastening along the Rue de in
Chappelle. The man was dressed in a long blue
smock and black cap, and bore under his arm a
basket heavily laden. From time to time he stopped
as he approached. a sewer, opening and looking
furtively round and seeing (as he thought) nobody,
he took something out of the basket and thrust it
down the drain. Being interrupted at one spot
before he could complete this strange operation he
ran off. The two women approached and found a
bone with flesh on it in the gutter. They took it
to the nearest chemist, who pronounced it to be
part of a human arm, which had been recently cut
from the body. The police being informed, a
search was made in the sewers of the quarter, which
resulted in the discovery of eighty fragments, form-
ing nearly the whole of the body of a man. The
principal thing missing was the head. The women
were examined, and declared that the man resembled
a policeman named Prevost, who had heed in the
service at Belleville for several years. The inquiry
being opened it was ascertained that Prevost had
asked one of his colleagues to do duty for him on that
very day, and that he had been seen in the dress de-
scribed above by another colleague on the same night.
The examining magistrate sent for him, and getting
no satisfactory account from him as to how he had
employed his time on the 10th of September, suddenly
produced the human remains, and asked, "Where is
the head ? " The ghastly sight was too much for the
guilty man, who staggered back, and hiding his face
in his hands' replied, "I am guilty, I am guilty;
I have got the head at home." The police
forthwith went to his lodging, and found the
head in a cupboard, together with a quantity of
Jewellery and the weapons with which the deed
had been committed. The victim turned out to be a
poring man named Lenoble, a dealer in jewellery.
Lenoble's employer, it appeared, had gone into the
country, but before leaving bad confided to him
jewellery of the value of seven thousand francs for
sale. Prevost, who had formed the acquaintance of
Lenoble at a restaurant, engaged to buy a watch
and chain from him, to be paid for by monthly bills.
A rendezvous to conclude the bargain was fixed in
the lodging of Prevost, close by. Lenoble arrived
there at the appointed hour, and after showing him his
box of jewellery sat down at the table to draw up the
bills for the watch and chain chosen by the police-
man. Suddenly Prevost came behind him and felled
him to the ground with a crowbar, The policeman,
who had at one time been a butcher's assistant, imme-
diately set to work to cut up the body with a knife
and chopper, This operation took him all the after-
noon, and in the evening he began to get rid of the
remains by throwing them down the sewers. It was
some days, however, before he disposed of all the
remains. In the meanwhile he performed his police
duties until the night when he was detected in his
ghastly work in the Rue de la Chapelle.
The sensation caused by this awful crime aroused
the dormant memory of the police authorities, who
now remembered that a middle-aged woman of Belgian
origin, named Addle Blondin, had mysteriously dis-
appeared in 1876. This woman had a small income
of fifteen hundred francs a year in Rentes, which her
master had left her. While in service in the Montmartre
Quarter she hecame acquainted with Prevost, who was
then attached to the police service of that district, and
visited him at his lodging. On the 27th February, 1876,
which was Shrove Sunday, Addle Blondin told the porter
of the house where she lived that she was going to
breakfast with Prevolt. Since then nothing had been
seen or heard of her. Prevost was questioned. He
replied that it was true she breairjasted with him on
the Sunday in question, but that she afterwards left
him to go and see one of her relatives. This answer,
however, did not satisfy the examining Judge' who
ordered an inquiry. It was then discovered that
after the disappearance of his mistress, Pre-
vost, who had only his small wages as a police-
man, was suddenly able to buy new furniture,
and go into more expensive lodgings. k This
suspicious fact (which it is strange the police
did not remark at the time) was soon followed up by
other discoveries, among them a shawl and a pair of
sugar tongs, belonging to the missing woman. These
Prevost had sold. Ue declared that she had given
him those articles, but that did not convince the
authorities of his innocence, and it was not till Pre-
vost was taken to the room which he occupied at
Montmartre and was shown the stains of blood found
on the floor, that he made a full confession. He said
he knew that Addle Blondin always carried about
with her a good sum of money in securities, and he
resolved to kill her to obtain possession of them. She
came to see him by appointment, and as she stood
looking in the glass he seized her by the neck and
strangled her. He then cut the body into pieces and
threw them down the sewers, in the same way as he
did with Lenoble. Her head, however, he buried in
the ditch of the ramparts, and on being taken to the
spot he dug it up before the police. He acknowledged
haviug robbed the woman of fifteen hundred francs,
some jewels, and other articles which he found on the
body.
The Court, in spite of the weather, was crowded
and among the audience were several ladies known
for their love of causes caebre,s. On a table in front
of the bench lay the paces a conviction, consisting of
a part of the skulls of the two victims in bottles, the
knife and chopper stained with blood, and various
articles of clothing worn by the deceased persons at
the moment they were murdered.

The prisoner Was brought into Court by eight Gerdes
de Paris. He is a strongly bailt man, of middle
stature, with dark brown hair and a short beard. He
looks the reverse of what he is, his face bearing an
expression of tenderness rather than brutality. Before
he entered the police service he belonged to the Cent
Gerdes, the bodyguard of Napoleon 111. Altogether,
his appearance is most correct and engaging. He did
not look very repentant, and answered the questions
put to him with great coolness.

The trial, which was expected to last several days,
was completed in one sitting, owing to the full confes-
sion of the prisoner, which rendered the examination of
many witnesses unnecessary. He was found guilty,
without extenuating circumstances, and sentence of
death was pronounced on him in the usual form.