The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1861-09-24 00:00:00

THE DORSET COUNTY EXPRESS AND AGETCULTURAL GAZETTE, TUESD7iO: SErTEMBER 24, '1861.'•

EXTRAWL44NARY ROMANCE IN REAL LIEN.
_

We shell not go further thew our every:
day life • to prove the trite remark that
truth is etrager than fiction. The " romance of real
life," gel ids, We are about to record, was brought to light
on Monday in a magistrate** office at Itughy. A rum
of aristocratic bearing was chervil with • sneak un-
natural crisie. We should almost like to have aeon his
countenance, even at the risk of feeling what is ex•
premed by one of old Webster'e charaetere, who desired
to knock his enemy's "counterfeit fail Into his other
one. He wore false whiskers end moteteche, end we
are 16.1,4611 to hear that be looked 'timeworn. Ile was
cheesed with forgery easpectilig the registtation of Ina
elsiblgehirtli. and a most amazing story the coonsel for
the peesecution had to tell of hies—is utory that would
hassatiitil the clisrity of Goethe te tl.e uttermost.
They‘wimuer was Rielianl ()Mance* Hill, nephew of
the stout brewer of Dublin. Sonic years ago lie wooed
and eon the hand of Sir Francis linnlett's grand-
daughter, • young lady said SO bare been adopted by.
Ilia. Burdett Coatis, who took great interest in her
welfare. This young lady, the dealing of fortune : nil
idol of fashion, was beautiful, and Itichanl Guinness
Hill was the favoured and ultimately ancepted lover. A
life interest in his wife's fertunit was settled on the
Isuebend. She afterwards made it will, devising the
whale of her property, iscluding • valuable' estate,
ebeolutely to him in the event of vu issue surviving her
flecesere. It is mid they lived happily together for
several years, or if unhippy, they kept it hidden up
Irons the public gaze. A child, it es Idabel, was linen to
Them. The mother being in Dublin in the beginning of
1859, and feeling that her time wag sear, swished her
amunchuient to take place iii London. On the journey
she WAS taken ill at Rushy, and s..felv delivered. Tide
sed del not milt the lather's celculatione, lie want,'
the property, which was worth £14,000 a year. He
was nee vulgar murderer, desirous of killing the child.
sad so lie adepted another method of putting it out of
the way. Ile proceeded lo destroying the id, nti.y of
the Went by • falsification of the name in width it
was registered, and giving it • wrong parentage. This
beiug clone, he tried to induce his wife to let it be pet
out to nurses, sod she consented, it being then smite
seven hue old. The fattier went to London to make
Ills arrangements for getting rid of it. It appears that
lie was passing through Windmill-etreet, Haymarket,
on • wet Saturday evening, when he saw • worn n
named Andrewe, apparently selling songs and stay.
la, but in reality begging, having two children with
her—one in her crisis and one in the gutter. He fur-
tively slipped a shilling into her liarA. The woman
looked at the shilling, and that matte her look after the
giver. Their eyes met. lie came back and passed her
spin and again. He then asked her it she would take
a child to nurse, and told her she might, if she
could, get rid of it in some workhouse or asylum. She
at length agreed, and lie was to give her £l6 per
annum for quietly keeping out of sight the heir to
£14,000 a year. He now informed hie wife that he
had made arrangements that would be satiafece
tory to her, ' and she was to forward the
child to London. The poor weak woman, be-
lieving his representations sent off the little
thing, then ten days all, in representations,
clierge of a girl of four-
teen. The child was accompanied by a bus of linen,
which the father had conveyed to some place where he
might take out the name with which it was marked. The
iufaut was wrapped in a shawl, the identification of
which is subeequently an important point in the eel.
denim. Ti,. fattier was at the station with two women,
who were dirty and drunk, waiting to receive the baby.
The girl had her suspicions aroused, and on being asked
by one of the women if the child was alive and clean,
replied that she hoped it would be taken, at usuch care
of and kept as clean as it had been at Rugby. The
woman, however, had fixed her eyes on the shawl. She
would mre the shawl, alio said, if she took the infant.
On returning to Husby the girl told her inistrem that
the child had been placed iii improper bawls. The
father succeeded in denying it, and for the time in
quieting his wife's fears. For two years this acion of
the house of Buniett seema to have filled the role of a
child lent out to excite commisseratiou in behalf of gin-
drinking beggar-women, and for two years Ise was able
to keep down the neither's timid heart with assurances
that the baby was well. At length she grew wore and
more deteriuined to see it. Ile then her most
grossly ; and after the lapse of • short time they sepa-
rated ; lie subsequently sued to return to her, and she
agreed. on condition that he would tell what had become
of the ielfant. At first be assured her that it was dead.
Then, when premed for the register of its demime he
avid the woman to whom he hair entrusted it had left the
country for Australia. The distracted wife, with
the advice of liar mother, now placed the Walter in the
heeds of Mr. Cooke, the solicitor. He at once applied
to Mr. Hamilton, of the city detective force, who selected
Mr. Brett. for the purpose of penetrating the cloud of
izystery that had descended upon the bead of the poor
lost child. A reward was offered • hills were pelted in
the lowest Deighbourhoode of London. At length a
WOlllllll named Mackay, living in St. Giles's, came for-
ward ; she remetubered hearing the my of a baby one
night, some seventeen months before. when the was
living in Seven lusts. She had heard the cry of a child
" where no child should be," as her neighbour had none
of tier own. She inquired of the women, and heard her
story This was the elite—• very •111,11 chink, thryugh
which stresined a ray of light, which Brett and his detec-
tives ...on followed up. He went fn.m workhouse to
workhouse. from court to court, front shim to ilium. At
'eat he see 'dished hie task, and it Is • wonderful in-
etance of Providence peeving through even a policeman's
bull's-eve. In a filthy alley called Linculu'e-court, in
Drury-lane—in a must dreadful den of horror, the
refuge of harlots, thieve', and beggars, in a room where
lay a dying ouuu uevrly staked, with a numb ..r of women
stretched ebout in all degrees of ragged wretchedness,
the imor infant himself fighting for his breath against
the metening stench, Brett came ur on the heir of fourteen
thousand a year, ant found Min covered wills dirt,
which wan quickning with vermin life. Ile best uo
shoes on his little feet, which were erased blistered, and
only one rag on Ids body. The child has been readored
to his mother. But how Indentify the child? For
where there is ElibOOD • year at stake the question is
interesting, eveu if we say nothing about maternal
affection. Here, then, we have broiight into play the
customary inechiuery of your good ol I three-volume
noes-I. The child was brought to London weepped in
• thaw' which the thee for specific reasons prized.
It was understood that this was to have been returned,
but the woman in receiving the infant insisted also on
retaining the shawl. It remitted in due course, there-
fore, the pawnbroker. The pretended nurse retained
the little mortgage deed which represents; them aorta of
transactions, mud with it the bor sent up by the mother,
and which had contained the baby•linen. The shawl is
redeemed. the box and it are examined by the mother
ansl indeutified, and unless theta has been sown
tramp... Won—which nothing in the story warrants us
in believing—there now cairns in Hsi breeehless, shoe-
lose, and thirties" little beggar brat of the Seven Dials,
and of the filthy alley in Drury-lane, one, who in the
abeence of nearer blood, may for aught we know,
inherit one of the proudest names and largest fortunes
that even the England of our days is acquainted with.
Although there are doubthrss important facts yet to be
made public, the narrative proves to us that troth is,
Indeed, stranger than fiction. Assuredly there us •
Providence that shapes our ends, as one old draiustiet
Lis said ; and, as another 111141, the "Devil is an au."
It seems that when the child was discovered by Brett
in thn filthy deli in Lincoln-court, Dory-lane, the
prisoner wu liviog in Brussels, and although his wife
resided in the sante city they were not upon friendly
tetras. The child was taken over to Brussels, aiid
by its other under proper medical treatment.
.11:sicied m
arrival of the infant became kuown to HPI, who
exerted himself to see it, and on one occasion, when
the nurse was walking with it in a garden, be WINO to
the railings, and induced the servant girl to allow him
to kiss It. He afterwards forwarded • frock. made of
costly material" and other presents, but they were
returned, and his endeavoens to reeuuto friendly re.
'Jethro* with his wife WM more and more discouraged.
The London-police were well aware of his movements
Bruseels, but they could not secure Isis apprelioneion.
The warrant WSJ ill Brett's possession, but Hill was
out of the English jurisdiction, and as long as be re-
mained in Belgium the Englieli law was powerlt as. It
was thought at first that—finding his wife was not 'li,,
posed to listen to his entreaties to live with loin again—
he would leave Brussels for the purpose of proceeding
to Dublin, where many of his frieuds resided, and he
was strictly watched for some time. He, however,
evinced no disposition to take his departure • and Mis.
Hill was ultimately advised to return to Egland, the
hope being entertained that she would be followed by
her husbeed, who would then in all probability fall
into the hands of the police. The rune succeeded, hut
It was necessary to proceed with caution. The lady
was located by her friend& in Trinity-equare, South-
wark; but her residence WY forwarded to Brume's,
and the husband was wade acquaiuted with it. Ile
imagined, it is believed, that she had selected the spot
for sures!, and thought to obtain an interview with
her without didiculty. He crossed from Defend un
Saturday uiorning, end, noon reaching London, Nought
ont and diecovered the house where his wife was nmicliug.
lie told his landlady part of his story and itoluced her
to obtain for him an interview with his wife, if only for
a few miontes. He was told to WIWI, but on going to his
wife's residence be was uset by Brett, who apprehended
hi,, and subsequently took him to Rugby.
From other circumstances which have transpired since
the appreheneion, it appears that Mrs. Hill uas
dvarried to the prisorer whole's° was only sixteen years
old; and that the B itiah vice-consul at Bet/sects (Mr.
T. J. Maltby) officiated As notary, and prepared the
marriage settlement. A life interest in the whole of
Mts. Hill's fortune, with the exception of I:100a year,
which was to pail tin her by was, as
already stated, settled upon the prisoner, but it is
...meted that there are eight annual payments still due
to Mrs. Hill, sad that civil proeeediugs had, prior to
his arrest. been commenced &gaited the prisoner to
recover the seine. It is 'auk too, that the child had
been made • ward iii Chancery, and, pending the pro-
em-hop connected with the *ult, that the dividends
heretofore received by the prisoner had been stopped.
This ie supposed to account for Hill's anxiety to procure
an interview with his wife, who he hoped would usterest
himself on Isis behelf.

Two or three singular matter, have transpired, which
will strengthen the evidence to be brought fors ard to
looms the identity of the child. Ti.. woman who
resolved it states that when they were paid the £l5 to
Hill they were afraid of losing the tuoney, and it was
decided hr them to pdace t 5 in CIIOII of their names in
the 81. Martin'. Savings Batik. Search has, it is under.
stood, been made in the books at the bauk, and the
truth of the woman's statement established, both as to
amount and date. the latter, of course, being in a legal
Mut of view, highly important. Both of these
will give evidence before the magistrate,; hut as one of
thew, Mrs. Bouts. alia, lila, is in Tuthill-fields Piloosi,
oinler sentence of twelve months' hard labour for
robbery. it will be ne, rosary to procure her alt. icfaiir,.
here by Anton. The prisoner, it seem*, has admitted
that the suntan to whom be gave the child told him
her name was Farvbruther (Mrs. Andrew's alias) which
lie soya be remembers distinctly because of °attain
tsculiar circumstances which lie narrated; but as they
fer to an ilinatrious personage timtaJly unmaneciej
with the case, we refrain from publishing them. Fare-
brother states that she had the child registered as
Albert, Farehruther, and ascribes as her /sawn that,
if it had died, she would have experienced considerable
difficulty in procuring its interment. The register bas
lwen examined, mid an entry found ahowing that an the
28th of F..ebroary, 1850, a child, described as being
three weeks old, was registered in that Dame. The
• tar is signed 1.7 "W. Faulkner," 40, &Well-street,
Long-ac's. All these eircauesteaceseoeroborate the oat-
Use &oak eves et the 'albs Noe.

conducted person, lived with her father and mother. anl
besides assisting in household duties, worked as • drew.
maker. her age is 22 year& On Wednesday ortolan.,
bete:ten 6 AS 6 o'uleok, sto was nt home with some
children, when a youth of weak intellect named John
Henry Fiehibouse, a pertinacious beeper from Bradford,
entered the kitchen and talked for a driiik, home coffee
was given to him by • little boy, the pridoner's brother,
after which the mendicant demaieled bread. Tho
prisoner ordered him to go sway, but he did not do so.
whereupon sht. took down a single-barrelled fowling.
piece belonging to an elder brother, which had been
placed across • Creel used in drying oaten cakes, and
pointed the gun towards the deceased, who bed been
in the house shout ten minutes. Al ,at
moment Mrs Wood, the prisoner's mother,
entered the house with two calm otuoilk. mid on seeing
her daughter holding the gun as described she
gave it • slight blow or push with one of her hands, and
it, went off instantly, the contents, which proved to be
No. 8 shot, entered the right side of the beggar boy's
chest, over the region of the heart. His death was in-
pieces. The gun was produced before the magistrates,
shitaonr"tlyne:futeLrwaMids,r. J.
N.
rthrrist.thseurn who
uswhothiro
and Thomas Wood, the brother of the prisoner, stated
that he meal it for shooting sparrows, and generally
kept it in the house unloaded, but on the test ocsasion
when he had it nut of doors he took it home loaded,
awl placed it on the bread hi-eel, where it remained until
his eiater got it on the evening in quotation. The pa
wl
wanad li cbo:lft o,d,ekr"w4ii.r:nausl'ilghwtryuladtrugo off
was shown in irt. The trigger, for want of • screw,
was tied on with a piece of band. Thomas Wood was
struck or bothshaken ad full
co as
unahle to nay whether he left the gun fully cocked or
half crocked, but lie knew be left a percusaion cap on it,
and be stated that no one saw -him load it, nor did he
tell ,wyborly that he lad left it loaded. The prisoner
was tAken Into custody by Willime Whitaker, • West,
Riding police-constable,shortly after the youth was shot,
and the body of the deceased was removed to the
Bolton Hotel, there to await • coroner's inquest. When
eppreheeded the prisoner made no statement, nor did
she say anything before the magistrates, but seemed
greatly distressed. fahe was coninsitted for trial at the
maize*, and bail (two sureties in t:6O cash) was taken
for her appearance there.
DIVING HIGHWAY EOBBCRY AND ATTIMPTILD
MULDER —On Friday evening the neiglibourinexi of
Walthatodtow WAX thrown into•state of unusual ezeite-
nient by one of the most daring acts of highway robbery
slot attempted murder that has been perpetrated for
some years. About nine o'clock in the even.ng a
geutletuan, whose news has not trenspired, was passing
through some field' belonging to Mr. %fret; a ...my
fattner,situated between Lea-loridge station and Width am-
stow station, when lie was stopped by • man who
presented • melded pistol at him, and demanded his
money. He slid not want his life, he said, but he must
have either that or his money. The gentleman sur-
rendered his money, dunotniting to only 39e, and was
allowed to depart, while the sueseeefiel highwayman
pursued his &vocalism in the same locality.
The next person he met was • Miss Atkinson, residing
with her parents at Walthautstow, sod from her he de-
manded money, at the name time saying that he did not
wish to hurt her if slie would comply with his demand.
Miss Atkinson said she had none, end if she had she
would not give it to him ; and, while they were
arguing the wetter, Miss Atkinson, jun.' came up with
her bethrothed. Mr. William Chevers. The highway-
men time left Miss Atkinson, and addressing himself to
Mr. Clievers. demanded his gold watch and chain, as
well as hie money. Mr Cheeses positively dee-lined to
comply with this demand, and the ruffian immediately
presented a pistol at his heed, and threatened to shoot
him anima he immediately surrendered his valuables.
Mr. Clievers, however, was nut disposed to be robbed
without • struggle, and made a dub at his opponent
to secure him. The villian perceived his object
and discharged his weapon at him, but fortunately
his deadly purpore was thwarted by the ball missing
the head of Mr. Chevers, who escaped with his right
cheek being seriously scorched with the powder. This
naturally checked him in his purpose; but as soon as
he recovered himself a little lie again endeavoured to
secure the would-he murderer, hut it slimmed that the
ruffian was well armed, for he discharged a second
pistol at Mr. Cimver's head, the ball from which touched
bins on the left cheek, and passing through his left ear
last hiiiii senseless on the grass. The attempted
assassin then made off, wben aaristanos having been
procured, it was discovered that the wounds were
not ble ly to prove fatal. The police were imuiediately
I communicated with, and Sergeant Carpenter commenced
an active WIA,CII fur the delinquent.

PLRA FOR VIZ FRIRNDLESS AND FALLZN. —We
have been requested to puldish the following appeal by
the Secretary of the Loudon Female Preventive and
Reformatory Institution :—Permit me to plead the
cause of friendless and fallen females through your
columns, especially those met in the streets of London
belonging by birth to country diatricts. lam sure that
if the sad condition of the thousands of friendless and
fallen females were but known to the coniumnity at
lerge, • much greater amount of sympathy would be
expressed. For the last ten years I have been trying to
save some from destruction, and, I thank God, not
altogether without imams' in hundreds of instances.
All observers of our social economy must be aware of
the fact, that from the want of adequate employment •
very large proportion of each rising generation of both
ivies must leave their homes while in the bloom of
youth, and when they are altogether inexperienced in
the intricacies of the trials and teniptations of human
life, except as they learn from parents abuse protection
aml support the force of circumstances compel them to
reliiqia aid Ismaili nut into the ocean of a trying
ta p iig gnaw, 'wind. is ever holding out induce-
ments to fors •he the narrow paths of virtue and
rectitude. This is bad enough for lade, but I
aim disposed to think that it iii infinitely worse for
girls. In the first place, they are •xposed to tempta-
tions which boys are to a great eatent shielded from ;
secondly, I do not think they are so capable of resisting
temptation ; and, thirdly, it a young hoed. falls isles
the stn of immorality she is luminuiiatily thrust out of
the pale .4 imelety, and, unless from a life of
degradation, there ie no alternative but to rush down to
temporal and eternal rain. Would to God that I had
such descriptive powers that I could present to your
readers scone of those painful scenes which I hays wit-
Deemed, in seeking by night and by day to save some
from the sad rein into which an hour of weakness had
led them. Oh I what ountrasts—one year blithe,
happy, and virtuous, living in the simplicity of rural
life; the next, • jointed harlot. decled ou in gay es-
ternals, parading the streets of London, or some pro- ,
vinoial town with a soul fired with remorse
as the recollection, of childhood's happy scenes and ,
associations arise in the mind. And, reader, this is
not an isolated case—you may multiply it by many
thowonds. The neat fact upon which I wish to speak
most impressively is that the career of these poor out-
casts is often very abort; excitement, exposure, and
(often) went, soon breaks down the constitution, and
premature death follows. And what is most painful to
contemplate, not a few end their days amidst strangers,
In their haunts of sin, workhouses, or hospitals, and
so joss on to that awful judgment where eternal
destinies are irrevocably fixed. Now my Committee
are moot ench.us that this Institution should be to the
poor, friendless, or penitent female what the harbour of
refuge is to the teinpeet-tomed mariner, open at all
times to the reception of all three for whose benell it Is
intended. Duriim the last four years about 660 have
been admitted ; but as many more might have been re-
ceived if funds had permitted ; and now it is resolved to
peels • large increase through the medium of the" press"
for whose kind aid my Committee will be moat grateful.
I lan persuaded that, as • rule, the masses sympathise
with the friendless and fallen. Wherever I go I hear
expressinns of pity; but cannot something more be
done? Oh yes! thousands can showthem their eyuipatby
by contributing according to their means: sums may be
sent in stamps from one shilling to a pound. But I
would ask all piercing who proposal to aid to send for •
copy of the Report, which contains • more esteusive
account of the progress of the Institution during the
pant year, mol also gives the names of the Committee.
—R. W. THOMAR.

Row To TRAP • RUNAWAY DEBTOR.-.841110p
stratagems are often resorted to by creditors in pursuit
of runaway debtors. At a meeting in Leeds of • society
for the protection of trade one of the speakers related
an instaace in point. A poor fellow arrived in Liver-
pool from the Wind Riding, in pursuit of a fugitive who
had carried away MOO of his money. He applied to an
attorney, the niagistrates, and to the chief of the police
in vain. 'burning sorrowfully away. a police-officer
offered him • hit of advice. "Go you to the ship's side
tomorrow at 10 o'clock—the vemel sails at 12—and ask
your dehtor ashore, civilly. Will he come, do you
think r "Oh. re*, hill come, for he says I cannot
touch him." "Well. that's all right. Ask him to come
to you on the quay. As soon as he names knock him
down. I'll be clue at band, and take you both into
custody for • breach of the peace. You will get to the
police office just as the magbtrates are gone. The next
day is Sunday, and he'll have to stop till Monday.
You'll have time, then, to force him to give up your
money." The msn took the policeman's advice,
knocked the ruynway rogue down, both were taken to
the ststion, and the fellow in the end was glad to dis-
gorge the OM. Newport Gazelte.
The Rev. H. Holloway, the clergyman who is charged
with having committal numerous robberies at railway
etatimm, sem again examined at the Westminster police.
court ou Friday. Two other cases, one of stealing an
umbrella, and the other a dressing-cue, were partially
gone into, and the prisoner wu remanded till Thursday
next.

The street trainerny scheme has been for soros time in
emeesaful working between tie Horns Tavern and
Wodminater-bridge. On Friday the subject was
hronglit before the Lambeth vestry, and • lengthened
•n 4 appar Tit's, exciting discussion took place on an ap-
plication for an extension of the line in that great dis-
trict The party favourable to the tramway largely
predominated.

,
At the Southwark Polio& Court, on Friday the
unusual spectacle was exhibited of a wholesale merchant
ir the Cdy being brought up, charged with being •
receiver of stolen goods. The prisoner was. tea dollar,
and two fureinen of • Ma bonded warehouse, were
charged as accomplices in his guilt. Ths evislease is
all on one side, for the prisoners reserved their &honk
and the magistrate committed them for trial, rebates
to take bail for their appeartnoe.
Tbe coroner's inquest on (ho man Howarth who, with
throe of his children. was burnt to death in his own
hone,. In Bethnal-green. was hold cn Friday. The
woman who lived with him. and who is Moo sommely
horned, gave evidence showing that the lina was owing
to the reekl-as conduct of Howarth himself. and the
jury returned a verdict of ' A ecidental Death."
Friday ni....ht's gazelle conlains a OOP, of a treete
thewi r"ofb"Lengeor,crehldseerelhhyr thif latterr. nsul
if: The' with7—wh l e
of his terrace et to Greet Hritan. We wed previmp,i,
sort of protector de there, and &summation
has followed. as a wetter of worse.