The Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1860-11-22 00:00:00

HORRIBLE ISIUTIDER
-IN
SO UTH STAFFORDSHIRE.

Yesterday, at Wallbrook, a small place near to Tipton,
a horrible affair happened, which has caused the greatest
consternation. On Monday last a man named Henry
Lewis, an engineer, came to reside in this place. With
him and his wife a man named John Stephenson came
to litre, and It was Understood he was simply a lodger.
At a,botit halflast one yestbidaY, Stephenson,
whO had aanie hothe to his dinner, 4tiietly took off his
Shoes and foliOlieciMrS. etuis upstairs, Who was then
91Caning the i3Oarcii;, purpose, it, al3pearsj was
iniptire; acid elk fiapeniri ld tidiiie into the house
at this critical time, heard a scuffling and then groans
upstairs. She fetched the neighbours, who on going
upstairs found Stephen
on ine s.lii; Qt: the 1)7,1
Lewis. His throat was cut, as also was Mrs.
Lewis's, who lay bleeding on the bed. He died at once.
The woman after a time became sensible, and explained
by signs that Stephenson cut her throat through her
resisting him While in the attempt to contaminate her.

§ohfit ItEdISTER OF

VOTERS.

COURT OF COMMON PLEAS, WESTMINSTER, NOV. 20.
(Sittings in Banco, Michaelmas Term, before Lord Chief
Justice Erle, and Justices Byles and Keating.)
BRUMFIT V. BREMNER.

This was a considated appeal from the decision of the
revising barrister appointed for South Lancashire, affect-
ing the Farr, number of 1;560 votes:
Mr. Welsby and Mr. Aspinall appeared for the appel-
lant; and Mr. Monk, Q.C., and Mr. Power, Q.C., for
the respondent.
The case stated that the appellant objected to the
name of the respondent, and also to the names of a
great number of other voters appearing on the register
of voters for South Lancashire, and sent a notice of his
objections to them as required by the statute, signing
himself as " William Brumflt, of No. 8, Netherfield-
road North, in the toViiship of Evertthi, oil the register
of t oters fdr he parish of Liverpool ;" and his name
•
appeared the bound
,copy of ,the,. current ,register
of 4cr:s.,,,prpNeed h.:0114,0p etistddit,
„tile sheriff, on a
sheet pasted into the book after it was bound. The
name had been ommitted from the register, and after-
wards interlineated in the book. On the 12th of
December last the deputy-clerk of the peace for the
cowity of Laucaster was applied to by Mr. Bourne, of
Manchester, for two copies of the register of voters for
South Lancashire, and two printed copies of the regis-
ter were furnished to him, and neither of those copies
contained the name of the appellant. A copy of the
register was also brought by the appellant, which did
not contain his name, and he called the attention of the
clerk of the peace to the omission: In consequence,
the reiise of the 6st year's reister was examined,
it was fodnd that the ipPellant's name was not
initialed by the revising biii:rister as intended to be
erased, but by mistake a pen had been partially run
through the name, and immediately afterwards the wet
ink rubbed off, which had given the appearance of an
erasure, and so misled the printers who had printed the
register. The register, although bound at this time,
and ready for signature by the deputy clerks of the
peace, had not in fact been signed by them, nor deli-
vered to the sheriff,,, as required by the statute ; and
they had therefore interlined William Brumfit's name
in the register, after which the bound register was
signed, and delivered to the under-sheriff. The
retising, barrister held that the issuing of the
two copies df fhb Printed register, and their sale by the
deputy clerks of the peace, must be taken as a publica-
tion of the register, and as an adoption by them of the
signature printed at the end, and that they had no
power afterwards to make any alteration in it ; and that
as the name of William Brumfit, the objector, was not
legally upon the register, the notices of objection given
by him could not be received, and that the names of
voters objected to by him must therefore be retained on
the register: If this decision was right, the names of
the Voters so retained were to remain on the register of
Voters ; if wrong, they were to be removed.
Vol. the appellant it *as contended that the decision
of the revising barrister was wrong. By the 47th section
of the 6th of Victoria, cap. 34, the clerk of the peace
was to sign and deliver the list of voters, as revised by
the revising barrister, to the sheriff of the county, to be
by him kept. The register of voters was the printed
book delivered to the sheriff. In the present case it
had not been delivered till the 13th of January to the
sheriff, and by the statute it ought to have been
delivered before the last day of November ; but this
provision was Wily directory. The only register of
which the revising barrister could take notice was the
one delivered to the sheriff, and in that the appellant's
name was inserted.

For the respondent it was contended that the parties
objected to had applied to the proper quarter—namely,
to the clerk of the peace, for copies of the register, and
on referring to it bad discovered that the objector's
name was not on the register, and that therefore the
notice of objection was not valid. The clerk of the
peace had no power to tamper with the register or to
alter it, and provisions were contained in the statute to
prevent such alteration by requiring the names to be
put down consecutively, and numbered. After the
register was printed and sold, it was published, even
before it was delivered to the sheriff. The register was
signed and published, and was complete, before such
delivery. If this were not so, there was no register till
till the 13th of January ; but the clerk of the peace was
bound to have it ready by the 30th of the preceding
November.

The Court were of opinion that the decision of the
revising barrister was wrong. The list signed by the
clerk of the peace, and delivered to the sheriff, was the
register. The remaining requirements. of the section of
the statute, as to the time when this was to be done,
were directory only. Until the list was so signed and
delivered, it was the duty of the clerk of the peace to
correct mistakes in the list. If the register was a com-
plete register before signing and delivering, when .did it
become complete ? The Court thought that the inten-
tion of the statute was, that it should be a complete
register only after it had been signed by the clerk of the
peace, and delivered into the custody of the sheriff.
There must, therefore, be judgment for the appellant.

STOPPAGE OF THE TyNESIDE PlTS.—Nearly all the
pits lying east of Tyne Bridge are closed, and the larger
proportion of what is termed Wall's End coal—i.e., the
best household sorts sold in the London and other
markets, are from the banks of the Wear ; the Wall's
End, Willington, Howden, Percy Main, Jarrovt, Hep-
burn, awl other groups of pits are closed, and have been
so several years ; but they are closed, not through the
exhaustion of their coal seams, for their largest seams
are unexplored, but they have been stopped by the
irruptions of water. Various schemes have been projected
from time to time to make the immense mass of coals in
these pits once more available to the public. None of
them have succeeded, mainly from the fact that the
outlay in machinery necessary to clear and keep any
of those pits clear of water was beyond the power of
any single coalowner. A project, however, has just been
set afoot, and the parties promoting it are going to Par:
liament for the necessary powers, to incorporate a body
of commissioners, to regulate their qualification, elec-
tion, powers, duties, &c., and to enable them to borrow
money upon mortgage of the rates and tolls to be
granted them, with a view to erect and maintain pump-
ing stations for clearing and keeping these pits clear of
water in groups. It is proposed to erect
pumping sta-
tions at Friars' Goose, Hepburn, Jarrow, Manor Wall's
End, Howden, and Wall's End, with watercourses and
outfalls into the Tyne. For purposes of revenue, it is
proposed to levy a rate upon mines within the district
intended to be cleared of watef, and also to levy a rate
upon all coals wrought. The bill is promoted by the
leading coalowners concerned.
ANOTHER SUSPECTED MURDER IN ROXBURGHSHIRE.
—The south of Scotland has enjoyed of late a com-
parative immunity from crimes of a grave character ;
but we are sorry to have to record, within the last
few days, a second case of suspected murder. Follow-
ing so close the Hawick murder, the case has naturally
attracted much attention. It appears that a man
named Crosier, a cadger by trade, some time ago fell
into difficulties, and lost his horse. Much sympathy
was excited on his behalf, and a subscription was
set on foot with the view of raising sufficient funds
to purchase another for him, in order to enable
him to carry. on his business. The money was pre-
sented to Crosier, and he left at the end of last week to
go to Kelso to purchase the horse. He never reached
his destination, however, for his body was found in the
river Kale, at Eckford Mill, with several marks of
violence about the head. Crosier lived in the parish of
Lanton, near Jedburgh ; and was a man of sober and
industrious habits. When the body was found the
pockets had been rifled, and there is too much reason to
fear that the poor man had been first robbed and then
barbarously murdered. An investigation into the cir-
cumstances has been made by the procurator fiscal ; but
as yet no facts have been elicited tending to throw
light on the melancholy occurrence.
HORRIBLE ACCIDENT TO A RAILWAY GUARD AT
PORTSLADE.—A shocking and fatal accident occurred
on Saturday night to the guard of the short train
leaving Worthing, at seven o'clock. From the evidence
taken at the inquest held on Monday afternoon, at
the Half Way House, Copperas-gap, by Mr. F. H.
Gell, the county coroner, it appears that the deceased,
gu,
named Upton, about 31 years of age, has been em-
ployed as an extra guard, and was engaged in that eapa-
oity to the train mentioned. On its arrival in Brighton
he was missed, and as he had performed his duties
at Portslade, a special engine was despatched to that
station, the last which the train had stopped at, but
nothing was seen of him. The station-master and
his assistants commenced a search, and on the north side
of the up-line, about 100 yards east of the station, the
deceased's body was discovered in a horribly mangled
state, the lower part being completely torn to
pieces, and a very large hole in the head. It is
surmised that the unfortunate man got upon the
train, near to the middle of it, on its starting
from Portslade ; that in walking along to the break
van, his foot slipped, and that in falling the injury to
his head was inflicted, an injury which Dr. Fuller, of
Shoreham, who examined the body, stated was sufficient
to produce insensibility. His body must have then fallen
on to the metals, for there is no doulit that the express
t
fatenr,
pa over him and toreh him to pieces in aminutes
shock-
whic passed twenty
arifrosm sed
ing manner, in which he was discovered, for one of his
shoes was found to have been thrown into a garden a
distance of forty yards from the body, The jury
returned a verdiet of accidental death,