The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1880-09-21 00:00:00

LASHING A WOULD-BE MURDERER.

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Severe as the sentence is which Mr. Justice
Stephen passed on Thursday on the man Perry, who
has been for some time in custody with
attempted murder in • Metropolitan Railway carriage,
It can hardly be pronounoed excessive. Thirty lashes
with the cat and twenty years' penal servitude form, if
there were any accurate balance in which different
amounts of suffering cou:d be compared, almost •
heavier penalty than death. But an assault of the
most deliberate and determined nature was made, and
no pains were spared on the prisoner's part to complete
his crime in • singularly brutal manner.
It is very seldom that a case of murder or attempted
murder is so absolutely clear In all its particulars as
this. The victim wail, and the prisoner had been, in
the ser doe of • firm of tea dealers who have shops both
In the east and west of London. It Is the weekly
practice of the firm to send • considerable sum of
money the week's takings, apparently from
Kensington to Abigate. Of this fact the prisoner,
having been in their service, was aware, and
In the preliminary inquiries, as well as at the
trial, evidence was produced going to show that he
had attempted to tremin the clerk who carried the
money before he actually assaulted Lewis, the victim
In the present case. On Saturday 214 of August,
Perri, • young man of 24, met Lewis, • boy of 18, at
the Kensington Station, and, on what may be called
the plea of ' common employment," induced him to
travel in the came carriage with him. Then Perry
seems, in a decidedly inartistic fashion, to have tried to
hocus the boy with chloroform and with port wine and
laudanum, which he carried about with him. It
would appear that some of the chloroform was taken,
though the port wine was refused. The proceedings
were interrupted by the temporary presence of another
passenger, who however soon got out again. Then
Perry, feeling that he was losing time, set to work at
once. He hit the boy, who was apparently half stupid
with what be had taken, violently on the head, took
the money out of his pocket, opened the carriage door,
and tried to push him out on the line. Luckily for
Lewis he had strength and sense enough to resist, and
Aidersgate station was soon reached. There the thief
and would-be murderer got out But Lewis followed
him and succeeded in getting him stopped by another
passenger, after which the railway officials and police-
men took him in charge. He dropped the parcel with
the money in it, the bottles of drugs were found upon
him, and his clothes, his stick, and the carriage in
which he had been travelling showed sufficient
eviden-e of his guilt in the shape of blood stains.
Perry's counsel made the only iiht that could be made
for his client by attempting to disprove premeditation.
The defence in fact amounted to a
sparody of • well-
known phrase of Dickens. "Here a clerk, here's
some laudanum, let 11/1 have a murder, is the
description given of Mr. Perry'e thoughts. If true it
would not perhaps have much mended the matter, and
the evidence already alluded to of the other clerk
Emmet, who hal also been asked to " have something
out of a bottle," was fatal to it. Perry's happy
thoughts are too obviously periodic in their recurrence.
—Daily New.

GENERAL ITEMS.

A bookseller at Shepherd's Bush starved himself to
death last week. Fie was a Spiritualist, and declared
the spirits would keep him alive.
In an " Exchange " journal, a gentleman saw a
bicycle offered for a gold watch. Re never had the
bicycle, and has to walk without his watch.
Sir Charles Dilke has been through a second
operation, and is recovering.
Six-and-a-quarter million acres of bind are unculti-
vated in Italy. besides& large breadth of marsh.
One more unfortunate drowned her 4-year-old girl
near Gosport last week. She held the child under
water till it was dead, and then tried to drown her.
self. She is in custody on the capital charge.
The Greek army, which numbers 30,000 men, is
increasing in discipline and efficiency, and the cavalry
especially is improved. Greece is evidently preparing
to meet the chance of war with Turkey.
Lethonicii, a Basuto chief, attacked the Cape Rifles
on the 13th, but without success.
Sir Bartle and Lady Frere have left Capetown. The
colonists expred great regret.
Thomas Wheeler has been committed for trial on •
charge of murdering Mr. Anstee, near St. Alban's.
ELCVEN Gorrcnnins of Scotland beat the Australians
at Edinburgh, on Thursday and Friday. The
Australians scored 142 in one innings, and the Scotch-
men 143 in the first innings, and 106 with only five
wickets down.