The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-03-14 00:00:00

ACCIDENT ON THE GREAT WESTERN
RAILWAY
. . .

A serious accident on-i-1;;;;In line of the Great Western
Railway, occurred early on Saturday morning. When the
down goods train arrived at Bathampton, about five o'clock
in the morning, the contents of one of the covered iron
trucks were found to be on lire. Leaving the truck at Bath
the engine returned up the down line to Bathatupton for
the rest of the train. In the mean time Henry Brewer, of
Upper Bath-Street, and Richard Lawrence, of the Dole-
mead% Bath, packers on the railway, were proceeding to
their work, and followed their usual custom (having
heard nothing of the accident) of walking up on the down
line, and although it appears that just before reaching
Bathamptou station they distinctly heard the engine, they
thought it was coming up to them on the up line, and
they did not imagine that it could be running up on the
down line. When they discovered their mistake they
had not time to get out of its way, and although they
nuide an effort, the engine hurled them some distance,
both falling into a ditch at the side of the railway. The
engine-driver returned, and the two unfortunate men
were picked upend conveyed to the Royal United Hospital
at Bath, where their injuries were attended to. We hear
that whilst Brewer is but slightly injured, Lawrence has
sustained injuries that may Prove serious if not fatal.

MR. PETER TAYLOR'S " GRIEVANCES. "
Ma. Prrsis TAYLOR deserves the title of The Ferret.
There is not a grievance, real or imaginary, or wherever
located, that he is not prepared to probe to its depths, and,
having satisfied himself of its reality, to bring before the
House of Commons. Unfortunately for Mr. Taylor, ho
I* too prone to believe all he hears, and it therefore not
unfrequently happens that his tolerances are imaginary
and that, although satisfied himself, he Is unable to get
other people to believe that all he tells them is true. He
waa "terrribly sold " over the Wilberforoe beating case, as
it is briefly called. He told the Home Secretary in the
form of a question that Mr. Wilberforce, of Graham.
Sussex, barrister and J.P., had manned tomboys the soas
of an agricultural labourer, by removing their clothes and
violently flogging them on their bare bodies until they
were covered with blood, for the offence of digging • rabbitt
out of • hedge on his estate, behaving them given the alter-
native of submitting to be whipped or of beiniuirosecuted
before the bench of which he is a member. The indict-
ment looked formidable, but the affair dwindled to
much smaller dimensions under the pressure of an investi-
gation. The boys were found rabbiting, and not for the first
time on Mr. Wilber( orce's property. He declined to prosecute
mere children, and asked their father to flog them. The
father said he could not because his hand was disabled,
and eaked Mr. Wilberforce to do it for him. Mr. Wilber-
force did not remove their clothes—each boy let down his
own: he did not flog them until they wire covered with
blood—they got just such a whipping as is inflicted at
Eton, and the younger boy boasted that he did not mind
It a bit: Mr. Wilberforce did not give them the alternative
of a whipping or of being prosecuted before the bench of
which he is a member—for he is not • member of the
bench by whom the charge would have been tried. Other-
wise, the case is as reported by Mr. Taylor. Nothing
would have been heard of the affair if, several months after
the beating, an agiioultural union had not got hold of the
story, prosecuted Mr. Wilberforce, and injured • jury
to give the father (who had authmieed the boating) £lO
damages

DROWNED IN AN lILSTRR.
Dr. IlardwickerCoroner, held an inquest on Situ
afternoon, at the Duke of Hamilton, New-end, Hemp.*
on the body of William Tilley, aged 2.2, of 69. Belmont-
street, Haverstock-hill, who on Thursday niornin.;
found dead in a pool known as the Rat Pond, on Han p.
stead Heath, near the battery. He was a clerk in t'he
Inland Revenue Department, and was generally emid..re,i,
with his supervisor, at Messrs. Gilbey's warehouse. at
Chalk Farm Station. A young man Beechen.) who waa
found drowned in the % ale of Health Pond on the
Sunday 'previous, and was buried on Wednesday lad,
lived right opposite the room occupied by Tilley, ah,
bought papers in order to read all about the suiride. The
moment the funeral had gone deceased said it waa a
capital idea of Beecheno's to drown himself in his Vista,
coat; and the following morning he went and did the
same thing.

THROWING A RED-HOT POKER AT A BOY.
At Bedford, on Monday, before Mr. Justice Lindley
William Clarke was charged with the manslaughter 01
Walter Ryan, at Luton, on the 25th November. The
prisoner was an inmate a the Luton Workhouse, and nee
in the habit of taking charge of some 20 boy; who were
also inmates of the workhouse, during their play hours in
the day-room. It appeared from the evidence that the
boys were in the habit of teasing the Prisoner, and on the
morning in question, while le was sitting at the fire, one
of them named Bigg pulled the prisoner's hat off and ran
away with it. The prisoner thereupon pulled a red-hot
poker from the fire and threw it at the boy Biez The
poker missed the offender, but struck the boy Rjan
the bead, and inflicted a wound, from the effects of which
he died. It was proved that the prisoner was a humane
man and treated theboyskindly.The learned Judge left it
to the jury to say whether throw.ng a rod-hot poke,
among a set of boys was a dangerous, negligent, and reck-
leu i act. The jury seemed to think t was not, for they
acquitted the prisoner.