The Press.
London, England, 1856-01-05 00:00:00

cabal anb lilitar )ntriligtatt.

Admiral Sir Edmund Lyons arrived in town frotn
the Black Sea late on Thursday night. On Friday
morning the gallant Admiral held interviews with
Sir C. Wood, Lords PanrnurP, Palmerston, and Her-
ding', and attended the Council of Ministers at the
War Department in the afternoon.

. ,
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10

Vice-Admiral Sir George Seymour, G.C.H.,
hoisted his flag on board the Victory on Tuesday
morning as Commander-in-Chief of Portsmouth, and
assumed the duties of his office.

Rear-Admiral Dundas struck his flag on board the
Dukc of Wellington on Saturday last. The com-
mander-in-chief took the opportunity of desiring a
memorandum to be addressed to the officers and
crews of the respective ships belonging to the
Baltic fleet, conveying the thanks of the Admiralty
for their zeal and attention and the high state of dis-
cipline they had attained, besides having crippled the
enemy's resources in every direction where it was
possible to get at them.
Sir Edmund Lyons, it is rumoured, will have the
command-in chief of the Baltic fleet next year.

The new navy list for the quarter shows a total
of 456 ships, comprising the English fleet Of these
001 are in commission, while nearly a hundred more
of all classes are being rapidly constructed.
Admiral Richard Curry, C.B. of the "Reserved "
list of flag officers, died on Thursday last, at the
advanced age of eighty-four years. The gallant
admiral's commissions bore date as follows :—Lieu-
tenant, 14th March, 1704; commander, 30th July,
1798 ; captain, 7th January, 1802 ; rear-admiral,
10th January, 1837 ; vice-admiral, oth November,
18-16 ; and admiral, Bth July, 1851.
Captain Charles Anstruther Barlow, C.B. (1841),
died on the 31st ult., at Hammersmith, in the 56th
year of his age. Captain Barlow had served with great
distinction off the north coast of Spain, and in the
China war.

Captain Charles Eden has been appointed Comp•
troller of the Coast Guard.

THE PRESS.

Mr. Penrose Julyan, an officer in the Commissariat
service, has recently introduced a new method of
preparing field forage, which presents great advan-
tages in many respects. He mixes up the hay,
bruised oats, and bran, or whatever other descrip-
tions of food are considered desirable, in certain pro-
portions, and then subjects the whole mass to so
enormous a pressure as to get the ton weight into
fifty cubic feet of space. It then becomes so solid
that it can be cut like wood by a circular saw into
square blocks of a given size without any trouble.
Each block contains half a day's ration for a horse,
and not only is there an immense economy in freight
aid land transport, hut, being at once fit for use, all
tile waste and inconvenience is done away with.

with the turf and acquainted with Mr. Palmer. In
the course of 1850 Bladen lost very heavy sums in
betting, became involved, and, at a time when lie was
known to have received some two or three thousand
pounds on account of his employers, suddenly dis-
appeared. To his " friends," Bladen was known to
have taken refuge at itugeley. A few weeks after his
disappearance, Mrs. Bladen received intelligence
from Mr. Palmer that her husband was ill and dying.
She immediately started for itugeley, and on her
arrival found her husband at the point of death. He
died a few moments after her arrival, when Mr,
Palmer removed Mrs. Bladen from the room, and
objected to her seeing the body, or having it removed
to London for burial. After the burial, which took
place at Rugeley, Mr. Palmer handed Mrs. Bladen 151.
as the amount found in the deceased's possession.
In connection with the transactions of the pri•
soner Palmer with the various life assurance offices,
with respect to the policies effected on his brother Wal-
ter's life, a few additional circumstances have lately
transpired. In the early part of 1855 the prisoner's
brother effected a life insurance for 13,0001., at an
increased premium, with the Prince of Wales
Insurance Office. This office, not wishing to take
entirely so great a risk, divided the responsibility
between twenty-one other offices. On the 10th of
August last, Walter Palmer died suddenly, when a
notice and an assignment of 400/. were imme-
diately sent to the office. Before the period
for payment bad arrived, the actuary of the Prince
of Wales Office received information from Stafford-
shire that Walter Palmer had come by his death
unfairly. Relying on the information, Mr. Hornby,
the actuary, communicated with the other offices
sharing the risk, and steps were immediately taken
to ascertain whether the suspicious circumstances
were of sufficient gravity to justify the offices in
resisting any demand that might be made upon
them iu respect to the payment of the claims. Mr.
Hornby, accompanied by his solicitor and the
detectives, started at once for Staffordshire, and, on
arriving at Rugeley, soon ascertained that William
Palmer was the person really interested in the policy
of assurance in question, that he had been in the
habit of making propositions for insurances to
several London offices, and had received 13,0001.
from the Norwich Union, Equitable, and Sun offices
on the life of his wife, once a ward in Chancery, who
had died a short time previously under mysterious
circumstances. Further discoveries led to the con •
elusion that Mr. Palmer had, by false representations
as to the state of his brother's health, induced the
medical men to make inaccura•e statements in the
documents forwarded to the Prince of Wales Office,
and the result was that the insurance officers deter-
mined, on the ground of fraud, to resist any claim
made against them to recover the amount of the
policies on the life of the late Walter Palmer, which
determination, up to the death of Mr. Cook, had not
been tested in any way by Mr. Palmer. Previous to
their returning to town, Field, the detective, dis
covered that one " Mr. Bates," for whom Palmer
was also attempting to effect a life assurance
with various offices, was Palmer's groom, who, on being
questioned, admitted that for insuring his life he was
to receive a certain sum of money from Mr. Palmer,
who took the policy. Field subsequently had an inter-
view with Mr. Palmer, and informed him that the
object of the visit was to obtain information re
specting the death of his brother Walter. Palmer
expressed himself perfectly satisfied, and added that
the insurance offices had a right, and were, in fact,
bound, to make every possible inquiry, in order to
satisfy themselves as to the justice of all claims
made upon them. In the course of conversation
Field alluded to the mysterious death of Mrs. Palmer,
and said that perhaps Mr. Palmer would have no
objection to inquiries being made by the Norwich
Union, Equitable, and Sun offices into the circum-
stances attending her death. Mr. Palmer replied
with great coolness that he could have no possible
objection to such a proceeding, if the offices desired
it. With reference to Mr. Cook's death, nothing
further has yet transpired. One great object of the
police is to discover not only the missing betting-
book, but to trace some portion of the large sums of
money Mr. Cook was known to be possessed of at the
time of his death. Mr. Cook is supposed to have
won some 3,000/. at Shrewsbury, and is known, at. the
time of his death, to have had about him at least
1,0001., of which only 51. were found in his pockets,
and 101. more can be accounted for. A few days
after his death, Mr. Palmer paid two 501. notes to
tradesmen at itugeley, and his groom changed two
more of the same value at the bank.

gab 3 and Vona.

SATURDAY)

winnings, are believed to have amounted.to upwards
of 3,000/. in bets, besides forfeits and training ex.
penses. Mr. Sergeant Wilkins, with Mr. Huddle-
stone, have been retained as counsel for the prisoner.

TIIE COMMISSIONERS OF LUNACY AT TILE LEEDS
COURT-HOUSE, on Saturday last, charged Mr.
William Robert Wilkinson, an assistant-surgeon of
Leeds, with having forged a lunacy certificate.
From the evidence adduced it appears that the
prisoner had signed the name of his employer, Dr.
Horton, certifying that lie (Dr. Horton) had
examined Miss Sarah Ash, and testified to her un-
soundness of mind, in consequence of which Miss
Ash was admitted into the lunatic asylum. Dr.
Horton, in evidence, stated that the certificate was
not in his handwriting, but lie believed in that of
Mr. Wilkinson. Mr. Wilkinson, in defence, pleaded
ignorance, and stated that he had frequently signed
burial certificates for Dr. Horton. The bench, after
a short consultation, committed Mr. Wilkinson to
take his trial for forgery at the next York Assizes,
but consented to take his personal bail, and that of
Dr. Horton, in 10(11. each. . _

THE ADJOURNED INQUEST upon the body of Mrs.
Beardsmore, who met her death by being thrown out
of a window, on Saturday week last, as she alleged,
by Mr. Beardsmore, landlord of the Railway Hotel,
Newcastle-on-Tyne, was resumed on Saturday last.
The witnesses examined at this stage of the proceed-
ings consisted of the police-constable who first saw
Mrs. Beardsmore after her fall, the surgeon who
attended her, and a niece of Mr. Beardsmore. In
his evidence the police-constable swore to having
heard a woman crying in distress, and a voice like
that of Beardsmore's shouting, "Let the lie."
He then went to the house, and on being let in by
Mr. Beardsmore found Mrs. Beardsmore lying in the
passage, with her head cut in several places, and
upon speaking to her she resolutely accused Mr.
Beardsmore of having thrown her out of window.
Upon lifting her up she refused to allow her husband
to touch her, begged that her doctor might be
sent for, and then stated that in a quarrel with Mr.
Beardsmore on some trifling matter be had struck
her violently several times, and that when she opened
the window of the long room to call for assistance lie
had pushed her out. She appeared perfectly soltr
and rational, according to the witness, said she knew
she was dying, and requested her friends to be tele-
graphed for. The witness then stated that he imme
diately afterwards examined the "long room," and
found the wiodow open, while, fifteen feet from the
ground, the glass-covered arcade through which the
deceased would have fallen was broken. Mr. George
Clark, the surgeon, deposed to having attended the
deceased between four and five a.in. on Saturday
week last, and finding her suffering from severe
jagged wounds about the head and face. She was
very excited, apparently from drink and passion. Site
stated that she had been thrown out of the window,
but that she held ou as long as she could before she
fell, but did not accuse Mr. Beardsmore. On the
Sunday she died ; and from the post-mortem ex
amination he was of opinion that acute bronchitis—
a disease she had suffered from for years—and con-
gestion were the immediate causes of death, accel,
lerated by the shock of her fall and the cold she
experienced as she lay in the yard. The niece, Mary
Williams, stated that her uncle and aunt were both
much excited with drink, that a quarrel arose, and
that after he had struck Mrs. Beardsmore she ran
out of the room as a second niece entered. Mr.
Beardsmore in a few moments broke from his
nieces, who held him back, and followed her down
stairs. He came up again in a few minutes very
much excited, and asking where she was. lie then
searched all the bed rooms, kicked open the door of
one (No. 7), and as she came out the witness stated
that she heard a loud crash downstairs. The window
of No. 7 was nearly directly over the window of the
long room. Other evidence in support of this was
given, when the inquest was adjourned for the pur-
pose of obtaining the evidence of some sailors who
were in the house at the time.

With respect to his private character on the turf,
Palmer was considered to be rather a fortunate man,
and, on the whole, a quiet, careful better. He won
some large stakes of late years. In 185;t his horse
Goldfinder carried off the Chester Cup, and during
the past racing season he was tolerably successful,
by his horse Chicken, with which he won many good
stakes, besides bets. Until the Shrewsbury Meeting,
Mr. Cook had a long career of ill luck. His losses
during the past season, exclusive of his Shrewsbury

AN INQUEST on the body of Lieutenant Macdonald,
one of the three officers drowned on the 15th ult. in
the Medway, was held at Chatham, on Monday.
The evidence of Wild, the boatman, was to the effect
that the boat had never capsized, from the position
of the sail and ballast when she was found. The
discovery of the body of the deceased at Wallopstone,
near Yauntlett Creek, having been proved by Wigley,
a fisherman of Strood, and no further evidence of
any importance baing forthcoming, the coroner ad
journed the inquiry for a week. Colonel Sandham
and several officers were present during the pro-
ceedings.

Two CASES OF BRUTALITY TO WIVES have come
before the magistrates this week. At Clerkenwell,
on Monday, John Sargent was charged before Mr.
Corrie with having committed the most brutal as-
sault upon his wife. The complainant, who presented
a truly pitiable appearance,'gave the following brief
account of her two years' married happiness:—