The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1858-05-25 00:00:00

Ceneral Xetus.

REPRESENTATION OF NOTTINOHAM.—It is rumoured
that, in the event of a dissolution of parliament, Mr.
Walter will not again offer himself asa candidate. A
number of the electors are anxious to secure the ser•
vices of Mr. E. James, P.C. ; and others, we believe are
taking stops to invite Mr. Cobden. We trust, however,
that before anything positive is attempted a general
meeting of the liberal electors will be convened.
A SCHOONER RUN DOWN IN THE CHANNEL—Dover
Thursday—Tile schooner Fleece, with a general cargo,
from London to Exeter, was run into by a foreign
brigantine at ten o'clock this day. She immediately sank
in deep water off Hythe. The captain and crew were
saved, but with the loss of all their property. They are
now at the Dover Sailors' Home, where every care is
being taken of them which their destitute condition
requires.
A RACE AT SEA.—The ideamers Arago and Saxonia,
which arrived at Cowes on Friday, the 14th, left New
York on tile let inst. When they had both been at sea
four days, the Arago got ahead of the Saxonia, and
fired two guns in triumph. In a few days afterwards,
the Resold& got ahead of the Arago, and fired three
gnus. They lost sight of each other from time to time
in the day as well as in the night ; and at length the
&sent' arrived at Cowes about four hours before the
Arago. The two ships together brought over nearly
eight hundred passengers.
SHOCKING CASE OF WIFE Munta.—A tailor,
named King, of Liverpool, had been married nineteen
years; he had seven children, and it was expected that
his wife would soon give birth to another. They were
a drunken couple, and often quarrelled, as drunken
couples will do. On Tuesday week they went out
together, and returned intoxicated. The mother and
one of her children, a boy of ton, went to bed. Kmg
presently came up, beat the boy, and afterwards kicked
the woman so severely that she died a few hours after.
A coroner's jury have returned a verdict of "Wilful
murder" against King.
FATAL COLLIERY EXPLOSION.—An explosion of fire-
damp occurred at the Winge:worth ironstone•pits, near
Chesterfield, on Monday, and resulted in the death of
four persons, including the limner of the works.
About 400 men are employed in the pit, but at the time
of the accident only four men were engaged in it, two
in mending the gearing connected with the pumping
apparatus, and two hi fetching up souse asses which
were in danger front the accumulation of water in the
pit. Without a moment's warning of any kind a vio•
lent explosion occurred, the foroe of which carried out
the stone and wood•work at the bottom of the digit, and
destroyed the gearing connected with the outer works.
The four men were killed inatantaneously, but the bodies
have not yet been recovered. They have all left wives
and families.
THO RED JACKET, AUSTRALIAN CLIPPER.—A fire
broke out four days since on board the Red Jacket,
among the wool and rags. The portion neon on fire was
at once got out and the fire subdued, and the hatches
were battened down; but the smell of fire caused
apprehension. She is at anchor in the Mersey, and her
gold is got out. No further signs of fire have been
discovered on board, and she will commence to discharge
immediately in the river. She lost the upper part of
her stem, &0., by collision with a ship (supposed Ame-
rican) in the Channel. The underwriters' surveyors
have been on board, and report that there in not any
smell of fire, but recommend the vessel to discharge

at once.
A MARTIAL DDITOR.—The Indian Empire started
into existence under the auspices of Mr. E. P. Moore,
who appears, from the following paregraph, to find a
greater charm in "wire alarms" than in fighting with
his pen:—" Mr. E. P. Moore—This gentlemen, so well
knoWn to the newepaper reading world of India for his
varied talents, and whose name has been associated
with this infant journal, is KS the song says, "Off to the
wars again," having taken up his old trade and renounced
the grey goose quill for the warrior's sword. Our
friend, we hear, is going to lead s gallant band of
marines against the savages of Chybassa. May success
attend him I We hope to see him back among us with
as many scalps as would satisfy the biggest Cheroukee
chief. As Prince Hal said of a dear friend of his—'oh,
I should have a heavy miss of thee.' "
FATAL ACCIDENT ON THE LONDON AND SOUTH-
WESTERN RAILWAY.—A. shocking accident took place
Thursday morning on the London and South-Western
Railway, between the Wimbledon and Clapham stations,
by which one of the guards, a man named Baker, was
killed. The unfortunate man must have been either
riding outside his break-van or attempting to pass over
the roofs of some of the carriages, for when the train
reached the Wimbledon station the deceased was noticed
to be in his proper place and in excellent spirits, but when
the train stopped at the Clapham station it became
apparent that something bad occurred, as the cap d
the poor fellow was found ou his break, but the deceased
could not be seen. A porter was at once despatched
down the line, and near the last-named station the body
of the guard was discovered lying at the side of the
metals, with the head almost severed from it, and life,
of course, extinct. The poor fellow has left a widow
and three children.
THE SUSPECTED MURDER IN BETHNAL GRZEN.—An
inquiry has been instituted respecting the death of Rich-
ard Turner, whose body was found dreadfully mutilated
in the Regent's Canal last week. Little progress has
yet been made, in consequence of the determination of
the jury to have Dr. Taylor's opinion of the case. They
memorialized the Home Secretary for the Doctor's assist-
ance ; and received for reply that the case might be
satisfactorily gone into on the evidence of any duly-
qualified medical practitioner at the east end of London.
This did not satisfy the jury. They repeated the re-
quest, which once more the Home Secretary declined to
accede to. The jury then consulted again, and chine to
the decision, that "they could not properly and con-
scientiously complete the inquiry without the testimony
of Dr. Taylor, or another gentlemen equally capable of
dealing with such an important case." Meanwhile, a
sister-in-law of the deceased had given some evidence.
She said Turner cense to her house on the sth indent
intoxicated. He slept for two hours and went away
sobered. He complained of the unhappiness of his home,
and said lie should Rot return to it. His wife was mad,
and an inmate of St. George's Workhouse.
THE LATE "ITALIAN CONFERENCES."—On Thursday
of last week a well-dressed and remarkably handsome
man, of about 30 years of age, representing himself to
be Count Alexander Borromeo, of Milan, speaking with
a strong Irish brogue, was brought up at Bow-street on
a warrant charging him with having obtained the sum
of one guinea, on false pretences, from Mr. Baxter
Langley, the manager of the Star newspaper. The pri-
soner was the person who, in March last, practised a
very clever hoax on most of the London newspapers,
the Times included, by sending them an account of a
pretended Italian Conference, which they inserted, and
for which he was paid as a reporter. It NMI not until
the affair had been going on for nearly a fortnight that
Mr. Langley was led to suspect, from certain ciroum-
stances, that th: whole matter was an invention of the
prisoner. On inquiry this turned out to be the Case. 1
In consequence of the publicity given to the case at the
time a summons was obtained, but as the prisoner did
not make his appearance on the appointed day, a warrant
was iasued for his apprehension. For two months the
warrant had remained in the hands of the officer, but •
clue to the prisoner's retreat having been at length ob-
tained, the prosecutor and the constable proceeded to
Reading on Wednesday evening, where he found the ,
prisoner lecturing at the theatre in the name of" Dr.
Tucker," on " eleetro-biology," having pledged himself
by the handbills to deprive his Audience of the faculties
of "speech, sight, and hearing," and their senses
generally, if they were inclired to submit to his opera-
tion. The constable stepped upon the stage, arrested
the prisoner and brought him to London by the next ,
train. Evidence was given by Count Arrivabene and
the Cavaliers Gallenge that the prisoner bore no re-
semblance to Count Borromeo of Milan, and the pri-
soner's assertion that he was an Italian was made with
such a decided Irish accent that it caused much amuse-
ment in the court. The prisoner said that Mr. Langley
knew him as a person of literery repute—AN the author
especially of an article in reference to the Italian revo-
lution of 1848, which had been highly spoken of. Mr.
Langley said he bad received a note from the editor of
the Dublin University Magazine in answer to an in-
quiry if the prisoner was the writer of the essay re-
ferred to, stating that the article was supplied by a
gentlemen calling himself an Italian Count. Mr. Henry
committed the prisoner for trial, and refused bail. At
the Middlesex Sessions on Thursday he was sentenced
to 12 month's hard labour.
TRAGICAL OCCURRENCE OFF THE DURHAM COAST.—
Mr. Alexander M'Donald, shopman with Messrs. Philip-
ton and Hare, booksellers in North Shields, and Mr.
John Cookson, chemist in the saine town, had proceeded
during Sunday afternoon to Marsden Rock, on the Dur-
ham East, in a large toy boat, rigged with two lugger
and navigated by a man named R. Coatsworth and
a lad called Wheatley. The weather had been tolerably
fine at the time the party left the Tyne, though change-
able, and there was a swell breaking on the coast. A
ses, about two feet high, overlapped the boat and half-
filled her with water, and a second sea struck her on the
quarter and capaized her, throwing the four young men
into the raging waves. They could all swim, and three
of them, M'Donald and the two boatmen, got on to the
boat's bottom, but Cookson kept swimming about. He
observed another wave coming, and dived. When lie
came up again he found that the boat had earned away
her masts, and that she was floating about, gunwale up.
His companions were scattered about, and he called upon
M'Donald to swim towards him. They met and
M'Donald got hold of his hand, and exclaimed that be
was dreadfully weak. He asked Cookson if he saw any
boats coining to their rescue, who replied that he did
not, but told him to rest his 'lends on his shoulder, and
they must dive at the next wave. They did so, but on
rising again were separated. Cookson then attempted
to push an oar to hits, but the back sweep prevented
hhn reaching it. At this time ?I'Donald's dog was seen
by Cookson swimming with a piece of plank towards his
muter, which he put into his hand, and M'Donald was
enabled to reach the boat again, to which Coatsworth
and another were clinging. They hung by the boat,
which was full of water, for • minute or two, when
Cookson °Marred another great wave surging towards
them. He dived to avoid being struck by it, and when
he came up again he discovered that his companions lied
been swept into eternity, and that he and M'Donald's
dog were tossing about on the sea alone. He made a
desperate effort to reach the shore, and, after a hard
struggle with the back sweep of the waves, lie at lest
succeeded in reaching the bottom with his feet, when •
young woman ran into the water and assisted him out.
The young woman was one of the daughters of Mrs.
Allan, who keeps the hotel at the rock, and it is stated
that she was engaged to M'Donald. As soon as he was
got on shore she asked how many there were in the boat,
and observed that if M'Donald had been there none of
them would have been lost. Cookson replied,
"M'Donald was one of us," and the poor girl ran
screaming to the house. A medical man was sent for as
goon as Cookson was taken to the hotel, and by prompt
attention he speedily recovered. He is • powerful
young fellow, and is one of the best swimmers on the
Tyne. He holds several medals for skill in swimming.
Mr. M'Donald, whose death is deeply deplored, also held
two medals presented to him by the Royal Humane
Society, one for rescuing a person at Blackwell while he
was an assistant with Messrs. Simpkin and Marshall, in
London, and the other for saving the life of a woman
from drowning at Chorley. in Lancashire. His bode'
was recovered on Monday afternoon. Another accident
occurred on the Tyne on Sunday afternoon by which the
lives of two lads, James Fox and William Skipper, were
sacrificed. One of them fell over the Jarrow Quay, the
other lad tried to save him, and they were both
drowned.

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