The Express.
London, England, 1852-01-06 00:00:00

SHOCKING MURDER LEI GLASGOW.

We regret to say that ono of the most brutal eases
of murder that has fur many years past occurred in the city,
was perpetrated on the evening of New Year's-day. The
victim in the case is a young woman named Margaret Lyle,
who, for the last ten or twelve mouths, hod been, more or
less, cohabiting with a carter named Neil Strachun, the
supposed murderer. The circumstances, so far u known,
appear to be, that Strachan and deceased were drinking
together most part of the day, and were both somewhat
intoxicated about six o'clock in the afternoon, which was
the last time that the woman was seen alive. Straehan's
daughter, a grown-up girl, displeased with the conduct
of her parent, left the house, taking with her two
younger members of the family to an aunt's, who re-
sided at no great distance. No other communication was
had with their father till about twelve o'clock at night,
when he himself came over to the aunt's, and told them
that Lyle was dying. lle also, u it seems, went to Mr.
Smith, druggist, at Kinning-place, and representing the
woman as very ill, induced the latter to accompany him to
his house. Mr. Smith saw at a glance that the woman was
quite dead, and, observing enough to arouse his suspicions
that she had met her death unfairly, he communicated
them to the police, by whom &Nathan's premises were
immediately visited. The body of the young woman pre-
sented a most appalling sight. The whole surface of
her person—back, legs, and every part of the body—
was one mass of livid-colonred bruises, the head and face
swelled to almost twice the natural sine, from the blows
that had been inflicted ; and;medical skill was not neetled,to
how that murder had been committed. The body, when
first seen, was lying on areossa bed; but from the marks of
blood that stained the floor of the only apartment in the
house, as well as the indentation' in another pallet that
occupied the opposite aide of the recess, the struggle must
have commenced in this apartment, the act finally completed
in the pallet referred to, and the body afterwards dragged
to the place where it was latterly found. Strachan, when
taken onto custody by the police, manifested a considerable
amount of coolness; but professed to be unable to
give any other account of the dreadful event, further
than he fell asleep early in the evening, and that when he
awoke deceased was lying beside him, covered with blood,
but not dead. He endeavoured to raise her up and pour
some whisky down her throat, but, finding her insensible,
ran out and gave the alarm in the manner described. The
authorities of Renfrewshire, in which county the murder
was committed, made the necessary examination of the
premises in the course of yesterday, and labelled everything
that was likely to have been the instrument by which the
unfortunate woman met her death. From the appearances
left on the wall it is likely that the ppooker was the weapon
that had been used with such nurdaroaa effect —North
British Mail.

SUPPOSED SUICIDE BY A YOUNG LADY.—R. Up-
hill, Esq., coroner for the eastern division of the county of
Somerset, held an inquest on Saturday afternoon at the
Dolphin inn, Weston, near Bath, on the body of a young
lady, named Johanna Timme, under the following distress.
iag circumstances. The deceased, who was about 30 years
at age, and very respectably connected, has for some time
past resided in the family of Mr. A. Duncan, of Hatfield
House, Widcombe, Bath, as governess, and, on the morn-
ing of Christmas day, she accompanied Mies Duncan to
church. During the service, however, she complained of
illness, and quitted her seat. The pew opener, noticing
her strange and excited manner, invited her into the
vestry to take • glass of water, but this she de-
clined, and quitted the church. Alter this time no trace
I of her could be found by her friends, excepting that it was
ascertained that on Christmas-day, between 12 and 1
o'clock, the landlord of the Dolphin lan mw • young lady,
answering the description of Mr. Duncan's governess, walk-
ing hurriedly along the towing-path on the bank of the
river Avon, about two miles from the city; and that won
after he had lost sight of her another person saw a female
struggling in the water. He hastened to procure the
assistance of • person living near; but on his return, no
trace of the drowning person could be found. The river
was dragged unsuccessfully for several days ; and as there
was no absolute certainty that the person seen in
tho water was Mims Timme, her friends were kept
in a state of great uncertainty as well u painful
anxiety as to her fate. On Friday afternoon, however, Mr.
Weston, of the !Loyal-crescent, whilst out in a boat disco-
vered the body of the unfortunate lady, which was at once
conveyed to the inn, where the inquest wu held. The un-
fortunate deceased, whose death has caused much painful
excitement to her relations and the family with whom she
resided, was, we understand, for some time previous to her
disappearance, suffering from depression of spirits to which
she was constitutionally disposed, but beyond this there
was no known cause which could lead to the comminion of
so deplorable an act as that to which there is too much rea-
son to fear her death is to bo attributed. The jury returned
an open verdict of " Found drowned."
GALE AT LIVERPOoI..—LITERPOOL, JAN. 5.--On
Saturday night, and during the greater part of yesterday,
we were visited with a violent gale, which commenced at
the Y.W. point, but afterwards veered to N.N.W., at which
it blew very hard till late in the afternoon. The accounts
from the adjacent coasts report many casualties, hut happily
we have not heard of eny serious wrecks. The following
vessels put back, with more or leas of damage: St. (ieorge,
fur New Orleans ; Diarnant, fur Alexandria; John Hamil-
lton, for Lumbep ; Countess of Fglinton, fur llahia ; and
Bertha, for Smyrna. The schooner :Sinus, of and for Cork,
was riding at anchor off the Horse Bank, with loss of fore-
mast, end has been towed back to this port by the Victoria
tug.