The Press.
London, England, 1856-11-22 00:00:00

3rtlattb.

MR. HORSMAN, M.P., Chief Secretary, WEIS thrown
from his horse while following the Ward hounds on
Saturday, and much bruised and shaken.

His EXCELLENCY THE LORD LIEUTENANT has
been pleased to appoint Edmund Burke Roche,
Lord Baron Fermoy, to be lieutenant general and
oleos rotutorum for the county and the city of
Cork.

THE EARL OF GRANARD has been appointed lien-
tenant-general and custos rotulorum of the county of
Leitrim, in the place of E. King Tenison, Esq., who
resigned, and who has been appointed to a like office
in the county of Roscommon.

THE VACANT RIB AND OF THE ORDER OF ST. PA-
TRICK has been bestowed on the gallant Viscount
Gough.

THE REPORT OF THE SUICIDE OF MR. LITTLE,
the cashier of the Midland Great Western Railway,
on account of defalcations discovered in his accounts,
has proved to be grossly untrue. The unfortunate
gentleman has been most barbarously murdered, and
his accounts on examination found to be accurate
and correct. The details of the case, so far as the
mystery which surrounds the whole affair permits us
to judge, are as follows :—Last Thursday week Mr.
Little was left in the office at 5.10 p.m. It
was his custom to remain over time in order to
arrange his papers, and, as cashier, make up his
parcels of money. On the day previous, owing to
the Mullingar fair causing a heavy increase of pas-
senger traffic, the amount of money (over 1,5001.)
sent i.ito the office was unusually large. About a
fortnight since Mr. Little told his clerk that he had
been greatly frightened the previous evening by a
labouring-looking man coming suddenly into his
office upon him while he was counting the cash, and
asking for the engineer, whose office is in the same
corridor. The lock of the door, which Mr. Little
then tried, would not lock inside, and lie said he
should have it made to do so in order that he might
lock himself in after dark and the clerks had left,
when his business would detain him. The lock was
so arranged the week before his death, and it appears
from the evidence at the coroner's inquest of the
servant girl, whose duty it is to go round the offices
after rive o'clock, to clean them, that Mr. Little did
lock himself in each night of last week, which she
ascertained by turning the handle and pushing the
door. He answered her on Monday night that he
was not yet gone. Tuesday night he did not answer,
but she heard his papers rustling ; and a little girl
about fourteen years old, the daughter of the house•
keeper, states that she knocked at his door on Wed
nesday evening, that it was locked, and he would
not admit her with her message till she answered
who she was. His clerk left him alive at ten
minutes past five on Thursday evening going through
his accounts. At half-past five the servant girl
turned the handle of the door, and found it locked,
and got no answer, but she swore that at a quarter-
past seven she heard his step in his room. At ten
o'clock the next morning Mr. Little did not arrive as
usual at his office. Time passed, twelve o'clock
came, and still Mr. Little did not arrive. At half.
past twelve Miss Little called to inquire for her bro-
ther, saying that he had not been home the night
before. Suspicion was at once excited, and his door
was tried. It was found locked. Men were sent
round to the window, the blinds were down, and the
window bolted ; but a carpenter was sent for, the
window raised, and an entrance gained to the room.
The cries of the attendants at once induced Mr.
Beausire, the secretary, to break open the door:—

I went inside (he relates) and found Mr. Little lying on
his right cheek and his stomach and chest, his head in
a pool of blood, his right hand under him, and his left
lying upon the floor with the palm upon the ground. The
blinds upon the windows were down, and the gas lighted,
but not full All his pipers were in perfect order, and
his money lying on the desk as if lie had just arranged it.
On a table to the right .of the desk was a quantity of silver
counted in pounds. There was an empty basin on the
desk, on the floor a jug, and beyond the jug a towel man.
rated with blood. There was a knife lying upon the table
—a small office knife—without the slightest mark of
blood: and a very small penknife in the drawer, which
was half open. Above where the body lay thero was a pair
of scissors on the table. I searched for the key of the door
in vain.

How and when the murderer got into the room, or
how he made his escape from the office unnoticed,
is a mystery. Whether the murderer was concealed
in the corridor, and on trying found the door un-
locked, or whether, coming to Mr. Liitle's door upon
some pretence of lt,iness, Mr. Little admitted him,
it is impossible to say ; but it is clear, from the
frightful fractures of the skull, from the position of
the body, the absence of all marks of a struggle in

SATURDAY,

the room or on the clothes of the murdered man,
and the fact that neither the housekeeper nor her
maid heard anything like a struggle going on over-
head, that the murderer, once in the room, must
have struck Mr. Little senseless while he was sitting
at the desk, and then deliberately murdered him by
repeated blows on the head with a blunt instrument,
and at length to have cut his throat, to render death
certain :

There is no appearance (says the Dublin Freeman) of a
struggle or resistance at the door, between which and the
desk is a partition topped by a lattice-work, such as is
usual in banks and other offices. In this partition is a
narrow wicket. The blood is all in one spot, just beside
the chair, from which he would appear to have fallen uu
the right side. His dress was altogether undisturbed, so
that lie must not have attempted the slightest resistance
which would render dragging or pulling necessar.. His
papa's were all found arranged in systematic order, and
the gold and silver made up in cartridges. The notes,
made up in several parcels, did not appear to have been
mcved. The detectives say they are quite at a loss to
imagine how the murderer got into him, and assailed hint
at his desk ; but they are convinced he must have been
concealed somewhere about the corridor. He has carried
off the two instruments he usedlhaving carefully wiped
the edged one; he locked the door, and has taken away
the key. When he got out of the house is another puzzle.
At nine o'clock a number of cross doors are locked ( and
they were found locked as usual next morning ), which
would compel him to take to a back staircase, by which,
before he can get out, he must first go down to the base-
ment story, traverse some intricate passages, and reascend
more stairs to reach the door leading to the platform.
This was bolted inside at halt-past eleven, and the station-
master, who lives in the house, swears he found it open
the next morning when going out to his duties atter six
o'clock. He never knew this to be the case before. This
would tend to show the murderer got out after half-past
eleven, in which event he should have been observed by
the night watchman on the platform. The detectives and
others, however, thought the escape was made so early as
fifteen or twenty minutes after seven, when there was
bustle consequent on the starting of the mail train, ur at
half-past ten, on the arrival of the night train.

A coroner's inquest was held on Saturday, but no
evidence of imp' rtance was adduced, beyond Oat
relating to the discovery of the body, the correctness
of the deceased's accounts, and the impossibility that
the wounds upon the deceased could have been self-
inflicted. The jury returned a verdict of " Wilful
murder."

Since then the police have been engaged day and
night in attempting to trace the murderer. Various
rumours and reports are of course in circulation, but
nothing of real importance has transpired beyond
the notable fact that on draining the canal, which
flows close to the station, on Wednesday last an
engineer's hammer was discovered in the mud, split
in the handle, and with human hair caught in the
notch. A reward of 5001. for the discove►y of the
,murderer has been offered. Mr. Kemmis, the Crown
solicitor, aided by the police, is sparing no exertion
that may lead to the apprehension of the assassin, and
a private investigation, which commenced on Tuesday,
continues with scarcely any interruption. It is
stated that, though none of the large sums of money
on the cashier's table were touched, yet the deceased's
purse and pocket-book, and some 3501. fro►u the cash
safe, are missing.

A FRIGHTFUL RAILWAY ACCIDENT occurred on the
Waterford and Kilkenny line on Wednesday. The
Dublin mail train, about two p.m., a few miles below
Waterford, ran into an empty ballast-train, which
had been permitted to pass on and stand to be filled
on the main line, instead of being shunted at the
Dunkitt station. The result was a tremendous
collision, and a lamentable loss of life. The follow-
ing are the latest details :
At the time the collision took place the working men in
the stationary train jumped from it, and a high embank-
ment being at the side, they rushed to it. All tumbled
hack again and were caught by the train and cut to atoms.
Four had their heads cut completely off, and one, who was
the only victim that showed any signs of life after the
collision, had his aims cut off.
Human efforts must fail to accurately describe this
appalling picture. Brains, blood, and entrails of men,
pieces of carriages and engines, goods and luggage, were
everywhere visible, and all presented a scene too horrible
for contemplation. The engine-drivers, who fortunately
leaped on to the side of the truck where the down train
should have passed, escaped almost uninjured. The
engine of the down train, with tender and goods
waggon, was smashed to atoms, the tender standing
on end. The following are the names of the five
men who were killed:—John Kennedy, Patrick Mur-
phy, John Hudson, James Myers, and Martin Doyle.
The man Kennedy lay in a ditch on one side of the line,
with his skull smashed in, out of which might be seen
protruding the unfortunate man's brains. Another lay un-
consciously in the truck, with the wheel of the engine
through his back, literally out in two, and having his head
completely severed from his body; while a third man
might be seen with both arms off. The remaining two
men had also their heads severed from their bodies, and
under the waggons could be seen strewed about fragments
of the remains of the men. All those killed were labourers
who had come from Thomastown and were employed in
ballasting the line. The unfortunate man Hudson lived
for some minutes after the accident occurred, but expired

NOVEMBER 22, 1856.

before the arrival of the clergyman who had been sent for.
The passenger carriages of the down train, which con-
tained about twenty persons, fortunately were not mingled
with the ruins, but the su lden collision caused great con-
sternation among them. They were dashed about in the
greatest confusion, injuring all more or less, but the
following were seriously wounded: —M. ill'lntyre,
labourer; J. Hunter, driver ; John Snow, fireman ; and
Dr. White, inspector of lunatic asylums ; all of whom, as
soon as assistance was procured, were removed to an adja-
cent public-house and their wounds properly attended to-
Dr. White was removed insensible, in which state he re
mained up of the time we left the scene of the catastrophe•
It is deserving to remark that only for the indisposition of
Sims Reeves that gentleman, with a troop of other artists,
announced to appear in the Town-hall, would probably
have been in the train.