The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-05-16 00:00:00

MISS KENT THE VICTIM OF NERVOUS
DISORDER.

DR HARVEY, F.A.S., has written a letter on the
Road murder. He wishes to know whether inquiry has
been made into the state of Constance Kent's health,
not only at the time of the murder, but previously to
it or since its commission. "By such an inquiry," he
says, "it is possible that much light might be thrown
upon the matter, both an regards the girl's culpability
and her motive for the crime, if she did commit it.
mite is no period of life at which both the moral and
physioal nature are no liable to deteriorate as between
the ages of 15 arid 20. In woman this is the most
critical passage of life ;—her mode of thought and
feeling are altered ; —and it is at thin period that the
gentleness, purity, and refinement of the mother exerts
such influence for good or evil upon the child—influence
essential to the due and proper balance of the human
mind. It is at this age that we so frequently notice
diseases of the nervous system through direct alteration
of the blood elements circulating through the nervous
masses and gauglionio centres ; and, as the result, we
have vitiated sensations, perverted emotions, or even
perverted intelligence; and it is a mere step from the
morbid nature frequently engendered at this period of
life to that state which culminates in undue balance of
the mental faculties ; and thus we frequently observe
an instant's impulse prompting to homicide or other
serious crime. Now, in the present instance, it is just
possible that Constance Kent may have been the victim
of nervous disorder; the very feet of her present con-
fession or statement infers the existence of nervous
disease, as it is the excitable or easily depressed nervous
temperament which is likely to suffer from such di-el-
' pline aad influences as may possibly have been brought
to bear upon her at Brighton. Again, the very fact of
her apparent present good health, though comistent
with the existence of undue mental balance, is quite
inconsistent with the mind ill at ease of one who has
committed a crime for which they suffer remorse.

Tins prospects of the hop planters ere good.
ON Sunday night and Monday morning several severe
shooks of earthquake were felt in the Scotch village of
(Jeanie and the mighbourbood.
MR. JAMES GLASHISR is a candidate for the office in
the Meteorological Department held by Admiral
Fitzroy.
WHEN Constance Kent was at • juvenile school she
was always called by her little schoolfellows, "Mad
Constance."
Tat Owl believes that Government will shortly
propose the vote of an adequate pension to the widow
of Richard Cobden.
JOHN SsituaLllotr, convicted of stealing £7OO, the
property of the Bank of England, has been sentenced to
five years' penal servitude.
EARL GRANVILLE announced on Wednesday, at the
London University, that it was iutended to establish a
pew degree, that of " Doctor of Literature."
THE Ow/ states that the Lord Chancellor placed him
resignation in Lord Palmerston's hands, but the
Premier "felt there was no reason" for accepting it.
Tins suppression of lotteries in Holland has been re.
solved "in principle," but, to spare the interests of
those concerned, will not be carried into effect till
July 1, 1868.
IT is understood to be a Fettled thing that the Crown
will grant licence to the Convocations of Canterbury
and York to alter the canon relating to the subsonptions
of the clergy.
UNQUALIFIED "SURGEONS."—At Aberdeen, Frederic)
Adair, who aldressed himself to a certain class of oases,
accused of advertising himself as F.ItC.S., wi hoot
a title to do so, has been fined £5, with costs, E 2 2e.
ATTWOODS, SPOONER, AND MARSHALLS' BANKRUPTCY.
—The shareholders of the Birmingham Joint-stock
Bank have finally confirmed the resolution expressing
approval of the offer of the directors to pay the creditors
of ACC woody, Spooner, and Marshall', • dividend of
us. 3d. in the E.
ON Sunday seven lads strapped a plank to a log that
NM floating in the Foith and Clyde canal, and placing
themselves astride it, paddled up and down for • length
of time. Then the plank lurched, and they were pre-
cipitated into 10 feet of water. A man rescued five,
and one of the boys who could swim a little got out the
seventh. _ .

ELOPMENT.—A few days ago the daughter of a
curate of a pariah near Pickering left home for the
ostensible purpoce of having her carte de suite taken,
but met her lover, a farmer, at Pickering, whence the
pair departed by train to the south, and have not yet
been discovered. The event was suggestive of fun far
the agricultural friends of the happy swain, who ex-
temporised races, bonfires, Sic., in honour of the happy
event.