The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1866-12-15 00:00:00

THE STOTJRBRIDGE OBSERVER.

wi.talest leg. and tile allegro motive for the diabolimil it bolted—an unusual thing in the afternoon. They
attempt is said to be the following i— got out by the ruins of the pantry, the house being
R.t'.'n I. and "Tee year ago he was an Ming, of the nearly blown down, and Mn. Reed found when she
General finao tat. mitering tens, a hot leg. ile era. dill got out into the road that ahe had her child. little girl
years ,
attended by D- G,dfray in the c nrse of Ms dot ea at the of only two old, in her arms which it was
imditutt n lie left t,•e tan ita, a, d went to Mal.' ,1 Raid she most have piked up outside, but the child
iir• ere, hi • leg getting wors, he •at obliged t , a
whir at -tmiljection to he wao atreaming with blixrd from the face, and, as
pr . es. of ammintti n • o h h. bad • gre o•
He retur- etl •o J rosy alto • • sit mo tha Mb' • lid nre ni,de well as hereelf, all on fire. They were met by Eb man
no sore of his intim., snip thy to ard have ' o• 'he who bad been attracted by the explosion, and who
. o to'. •o wh .m be attrl mina the losi of hi. Ig, tore the burning clothes from them. The same man
allegng •hat It ..id nc, ',live Iro e- tree meet fron him, found the prisoner in the house bleeding from Ili,
Ito was •nrmtrly a sailor, bnt fcr some Its, past had been throsit, which he had cut, and he said, "There are two
employet at bin airing work
7-- going to die here; let v • die • - - -

---" - me 11. too." Other men
C.und'hino in the same condition, and he spoke to them.
asking frequently after his "two enemies," and saying,
'This should have taken place yesterday, and all
would Dave been right There ie another I ehould have
liked to have taken at the same time, but I had not
the opportunity." The women, after euffering ex•
tremely, have partially recovered, but the child died
from the injuries it received in about a week. The
explosion was produced by the powder in the quarter
cask, which had been removed by the prisoner from
his bedroom to the kitchen during the absence of his
daughter from the home, and the cage was put by the
Prosecution that the death of the child was caused
through the execution of a design to kill somebody
else, of which the removal of the powder, the bolting
of the door, and the other acts of the prisoner, coupled
with his remarks, were sufficient evidence, and this
was murder.
Tat defence was that there were elements in the
evidence to show that the prieoneee state of mind wec
such as to render him irresponsible, or, if not irrespon-
eible. at least incapable of entertaining a deliberate in-
tention against another of murder or felony. Tile pri-
soner had been away from his work for a fortnight,
from no other reason that had been shown except that
he was ill, and in a low state of mind, and for two
days he had been in bed and had riven nothing. In
that state he had partaken largely of drink, and there
was evidence that on other OCCasiollB before, when he
had taken drink in that state of mind, it had an
traordinary effect upon him, the whole indicating
weakness of mind. Could the jury conceive that
in • responsible state of mind the prisoner could
have meditated a number of deaths, including his
own, for no sufficient reason shown, and if he had
accomplished his own death only. and the jury were
Bitting upon an inquiry into it before the coroner,
was there any doubt, the learned counsel asked, that
they would at once have come to a decision of
"temporary insanity?" Further, it was suggested
that the charge might be reduced to one of man.
slaughter, and that the prisoner, feeling the sudden ex-
hilaration from the drink, and preparing his cartridges
from the powder in anticipation of his retnrn to work,
set fire to it either by carelewinese or with a view to
let off a portion of it only in order to frighten the
women ; and lastly it was submitted that the death of
the child was not connected sufficiently nearly with the
act of the prisoner to make it obvious that It was the
direct consequence of it, and the prisoner was not
therefore responsible for it. If the child was outside.
and unhurt by the explosion, but the mother, rushing
out, by a maternal instinct, snatched it up, and ro
communicated the fire to it and caused it death, the
prisoner would not be responsible for it, and therefore
would be entitled to an acquittal.
His Lordship, in summing up. said that this last was
a very important point, and he considered it first If
he said the child was burnt by the direct result of the
explosion itself or by the mother acting in a state of
unconsciougnees from the effects of the explosion, the
prisoner would be responsible for its death; but
if the fire was communicated to the child by the
mother by a voluntary act, and when a voluntary
agent, the prisoner would not be responsible. His
Lordship then stated his opinion that the case was not
one which could be reduced to manslaughter, and ex-
plained very clearly to the jury the law relating to
insanity which entitles the prisoner to acquittal.
The jury, after • very short absence, returned into
court with a verdict of Guilty; and
Hie Lordship proceeded to pass sentence of death
noon the primmer saying that notwithstanding the very
able.assistance he had received from his counsel, the
jury had in his opinion cue e to the right conclusion.
His was only another instance of the frigetful results of
drink, for without drink he probably would never have
meditated the extreme crime he committed. He re-
commended the prisoner to consider his days as num•
bered. and to seek for pardon elsewhere, and he prayed
that the prisoner might learn that there is pardon
elsewhere. His Lordship thin pronounced the ordi-
nary sentence of death.

toys. On bunday night, ficdrever, • signalman-in the-
service of the company caught a youth named Haw-
croft in the rrd, fend bin untruthful account led to his
speedy consignment to the police celL He informed the
police of the name of a boy who was with him in the
station-yard, and this hoy in histurn divulged the names
of others. mit il something likes dozen were apprehended
or oustecto d. It then transoired that the Rang had
been long in the habit .1 stealing any kind of liquor,
and only a week ago they carried off a cane of wine
that was being vent to Lord Houghton from London,
whia they concealed, and, with other bottles, drank
the wine at leisure. In the course of their depredations
they came upon some claret, the taste of which they
were unacquainted with, and they decided that it Wan
bad porter, and left it. How the Inds had been so
clever as to evade the servants of the company for so
many months is a mystery, but during the whole of
that ?line they have managed to drink an immense
quantity of wine, to smoke at leant a dozen boxes of
cigars, and to purchase both spirits and cigars from
the sale of goods they had purloined. The charge
against them was adjourned to Monday next.
AN AMERICAN SENATOR.

wag in it" On the night of the battle he siept shrouded
in his cloak, on the wet pavement of an adjoining
village. A further trial awaited him at Niko Lie
burg, where M. Benedetti, the French Ambas-
sador, brought proposals suggestive of French in.
tervention. Count Bismarck abruptly rejected them,
threatening to make peace directly with Austria, and
hinted at the combined force, of Germany being used
against France. When at length all was settled, and
the objections of France and A 111147116 To the Prusidan
annexations were overruled by the maintenance if the
int...rite of Saxony, the strain nn the mind of the
overworked Minister was relaxed, and he became
irritable, sleepless, arid totally unfit for work. Ile is
now considerably better, but some time must yet
elapse before he can recover. Rio anxieties, however,
are by no means yet over. Abroad, many difficulties
yet loom on the horizon, and even at home he is by no
means sure of the support of the Chamber.

llorelssey. the nuellistic Cengressman I. thns described
by a gentleman who met him at Astor lionse:—

I had seen him some years ago, when he was tra-
velling on his muscle—when he wore short croppy
hair. and had two fiats like two battering rams. In
the Democratic Congreasman of today I tried to
,• recognise the pugilist of ten years since, but I
I couldn't. John looks quite respectable for a New
't
irk politician. Of course Joan doesn't look like a
gentleman, except upon the modern theory that every
male person of twenty-one years and upwards, who
doesn't perform some outrageously indecent act, is a
gentleman. There are two features about him by
which he can be recognised by those who have heard
of him tat have never seen him. One is artificial,
and the other natural. He is never known to be
without an immense diamond pin, maid to be worth
20,000 dollars, in his shirt, and he wears about the
longest and straightest black hair I have ever seen on
any man. The pin shines out from his bosom in the
dark like • calcium light, and is really about the only
light ever seen by many of his constituents. And, by
the way, it wouldn't be safe for anybody but John
Morrissey to wear so valuable an ornament after
nightfall among his constituents. Morrissey has, of
late days, Forsworn gambling and betaken himself to •
virtuous life in • palatial residence in Lexington
avenue, with • fortune estimated at 2 000,000 dollars.
He recently gave 7,000 dollars as a donation to the
church of Saint Somebody or other in this city, being
moved to the generomt deed, I believe, by the
aaa.,uncement that Senator Wilson had not religion.
Desirous of going to heaven, he yet scorned Wilson's
Yankee free-grace road, and, with the liberality of a
Prince, he came forward and paid his way to the
golden gates of Paradise.