The Press.
London, England, 1857-12-19 00:00:00

THE PRESS, DECEMBER 19, 1857.

It devolved upon him a short time since to appoint
four deputy-assistant barristers to act for gentlemen
incapacitated for their duties. What does Lord
Chancellor Brady do? He nominates three Roman
Catholics ont of the four, and the fourth an advanced
Liberal ! To four northern counties of Ireland, the
counties where Protestantism has its principal seat,
he despatches three gentlemen of Popish opinions.
Mark the significance of the act ! The assistant
barrister is ex officio a magistrate. He takes his
seat on the bench as chairman of quarter sessions
by virtue of his appointment. This will enable you
to appreciate the grace and kindliness of the Lord
Chancellor in placing a Roman Catholic in authority
over a body of Protestant gentlemen ! But who are
these barristers on whom these gifts are bestowed?
The first of them is a Mr. Hobart, whose practice at
the Bar must, I suppose, have been too extensive to
report, for there is no record of it. His position in
the profession, to say the least, in no way fitted him
for such a preferment. But if we are to say what
he was not as a barrister, we must not omit to say
what he was as a politician. This gentleman was
the petitioner against the election of Messrs. Grogan
and Vance for Dublin city, and, it' report speaks
truly, he was a witness before the revising barrister
in the interest of the Liberal party ; and, although
his testimony was very positive, and offered sponta-
neously, curiously enough the revising barrister did
not accept his evidence as at all conclusive, but gave
his decision as if Mr. Hobart bad never appeared
before him ! The second nominee of Lord Chan-
cellor Brady was a Mr. Coffey, whom no one ever
accused of eminence or suspected of wisdom. But
then he was counsel for the petition aforesaid, pre-
sented by Mr. Hobart, and in that capacity won the
laurels which are likely to attach to a ridiculous defeat !
The third gentleman chosen was a Mr. O'Farral, a
Roman Catholic of high character and good family,
who was found to be a little too independent for
Dublin Castle, and so was conciliated by this appoint-
ment. The fourth deputy was a Mr. Richards, son
of the judge of that name. This gentleman, it is
conjectured, as no other hypothesis is as reasonable,
was selected for the office as a compensation to the
baron for losing his post of judge of the Encum-
bered Estates Court, which was given to him as a
job, and has recently been taken from him.
These are the most modern examples of Lord
Chancellor Brady's political disinterestedness. I can
add to them ad infinitum. It would perhaps be in-
teresting to your English readers to have a list of
the number of men promoted by this Government,
who are, or were, members of the Catholic Defence
Association, the Tenant League Confederacy, and
the Repeal of the Union Society, with a catalogue of
the number of Roman Catholics rewarded on the
Bench and otherwise, in proportion to their strength
at the Bar ; the Protestants being about 475, and the
Roman Catholics under 100 ! But these are details
which must be reserved for a future occasion.

The (Mayo election is fixed for the 30th instant,
and to all appearance Lord John Browne will have a
walk over. Colonel Higgins's supporters have been
getting up a requisition asking him to withdraw his
resignation, and offering to return him free of
expense. It is understood, however, that Colonel
Higgins is on his wfty to Italy for the winter ; and
even were there time to communicate with him, his
friends do not think he would come forward on the
present occa,ion. A large body of troops have been
ordered to Mayo in the event of a contest ; a wise
precaution, as there is much excitement in the
county owing to the impending prosecution of the
priests.

ship books, and continued to pay the dividends to

piing Taylor in bank-post bills instead of warrants.
Things went on thus till the death of the elder

Taylor in 1856, when investigation took place:di;
covery of the fraud was made, and arrest, trial, and
conviction rapidly followed.
A SINGULAR CASE, in which circumstantial evi-
dence set aside positive testimony, occurred at Staf-
ford this week. Philip Clare, a miner, was indicted
for the murder, by drowning, on the night of the
29th April last, at Bilston, of one Elizabeth Hopley.
The principal witness against Clare was a watchman
named Wall. He swore that he knew Philip Clare;
that about midnight on the 29th of April, being
then on duty, he saw two people on the bridge at
Bilston, and heard a woman's voice say, " Philip,
don't kill me ? You said you would kill me before."
He saw the man on the bridge strike the woman
down. Hereupon he went up to the man, whom he
instantly recognised as Philip Clare, and saw him
put the woman on his shoulder. " Philip," said
Wall, " you'll have to suffer for this !" Clare turned
upon him and said, " If you speak, I'll serve you the
same." Wall at the moment let him proceed, but
followed him. Clare then citified the woman upon
his shoulder across the bridge, and turned to the
canal, Wall following close behind him. Clare now
paused, and, addressing his pursuer again, said,
" Now, if you speak, or tell any one, I will kill yoa.
I will serve you the same way as I served her, and
set some one else to watch instead." He then
turned from him, and, carrying the body a little
further, deliberately, and in Wall's presence, put
the woman in the water. This occurred about
twenty minutes past midnight on the night of the
29th-30th of April last. Wall went on his way, but
he had not gone above a quarter of a mile when the
prisoner overtook him and renewed his threats, and
Wall, being terrified at the threats which the other
had used, and apprehensive of the consequences to
himself, locked himself up in an engine-house until
daylight. Such was Wall's statement. It was
partially supported by another watchman, Hawes,
who said he had heard a man and a woman quar-
relling, but then it was about 11.30 p.m., while Wall
swore it was from 12 to 12.20. On the other hand
Philip Clare accounted for his time on the night in
question in the following manner .—From 6.30 until
about 11 p.m. be was proved to have been at a
public-house at Bilston. At eleven o'clock he left
the public-house in company with one William
Wolliscroft and three others. Wolliscroft proved
that he had accompanied Clare to about a quarter
of a mile from his own house, and John Plant, a
cottager, who lives near Clare, saw the prisoner pass
his door about twelve o'clock; stopped him, and
remained in conversation till nearly two o'clock.
The jury at once acquitted Clare, and the question
still remains, was the woman murdered, and if so, by
whom ?
JACKSON AND ATWELL, AND MRS. JACKSON, engaged
in the robbery of Lady Ellesmere's jewels, were tried
at the Old Bailey on Tuesday. Jackson was con-
victed, and sentenced to ten years' penal servitude.
Atwell, in consideration of the valuable information
he bad given relative to the robbery, was sentenced
only to receive an additional six months' imprison-
ment. Mrs. Jackson was acquitted on the ground
of having acted under the compulsion of her
husband.

UPON the application of Mr. Bodkin, the Recorder
on Tuesday issued a warrant for the apprehension
e Mr. E. A. Glover, the late member for Beverley,
on a charge of having make a false declaration to
the House of Commons as to his qualification to sit
in that house. The Morning Star thinks that "it
would be a curious subject of inquiry to ascertain
how many hon. gentlemen now sitting and voting
in the house might be placed in a similar position."
Two HORRIBLE CASES ,F MURDER AND SUICIDE
have been brought to light this week. The first, which
occurred on Thursday week at Croydon, acid was in-
quired into on Tuesday before Mr. Carter, the Surrey
coroner, arose from that "lust for gold" which
drives so many men to misery and death.
It appeared from the evidence that Mr. William
Smithers, a clerk in the Bank of England.
resided with his mother and a younger brother at
Tbornton•heath, near Croydon. William, contrary
to all the rules of the Bank of England, bad been
speculating freely on the Stock Exchange, and had
been unsuccessful. He had borrowed 701. of a
friend, which he was unable to pay ; he had appro-
priated to his own use 201. which his mother had
intrusted to him to pay some accounts, and from
letters which have been found it seems that he was
about assigning some life policies as security for his
engagements. The mental depression produced by
his unsuccessful speculations drove him to drink, and
that only maddened his overexcited brain. On the
morning of Thursday, Mrs. Smithers knocked at the
door of Elizabeth Morgan, a servant residing in the
house, and desired her to get up, as she heard Mr.
William moving, and supposed he might be wanting to
go out. It was *ben a little utter tivo o'clock. At that

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time lie was in Charles's bedroom, which was adjacent
to that of Mrs. Smithers. As soon as she had dressed
horself, William called to the servant, and requested her
to bring him a wineglass, as he had got some medicine
for hi, mother. Oa receiving the glass, he went
back again into Charles's room. When she had
prepared breakfast, she went upstairs to see whether
the gentlemen were coming down. She knocked at
the door, and receiving no answer, listened, when she
heard one of them snoring. She went downstairs
again, thinking she would let theta sleep on. About
nine o'clock a lad brought a letter, which he said was
to be given to Mr. William Smithers at once, and .
Elizabeth Morgan took it up. Not being able to
obtain any reply to repeated knocks, she opened the
door, when both the young men appeared as though .
they were lying dead in bed. Charles was foaming
at the mouth. She asked a young woman residing
in the next house to accompany her upstairs, and
upon entering the room they found that both the
young men • were dead. Morgan then exclaimed,
" Good God, Anne, here is a poison bottle, and the
wineglass I gave Mr. William this morning." They
wore lying on the bed, between the two brothers.,
Morgan then went into her mistress's bedroom, and
found her in a ball-sitting posture, her head resting
against the bedpost. She was quite dead. Mr. Bot-
tomley, who was called in, at once decided that the
two brothers had died from the effects of prussio
acid, and there could be no doubt that William ad-
ministered a dose to his brother, probably in his
sleep, and that he then took the poison himself. It
appeared also, from the results of a post-mortem
examination, that his mother, who was in the habit
of taking medicine of a morning, had also taken a
dose of prussic acid which had caused her death.
The jury deliberated for an hour, when the following
verdict was returned :—" That Mary Smithers and
Charles Smithers were wilfully murdered by the
administration of poison by William Holton Smithers,
and that William Holton Smithers afterwards com-
mitted self-destruction while suffering under tem-
porary mental derangement."
The second cas's to which we allude was that of a
man and womar temporarily residing at Harper's
Coffee-shop, in. Dram- .J-street, Euston square.
These peopl. ,•om Dover on 25th November,
and stopped at the Penton Hotel ; from thence, on
the 3rd inst., after paying their bill, they removed
to Harper's Coffee-house, in Drummond-street,
Euston-square. From that date to last Sunday they
had lived at this coffee-house without paying their
bill. On that day Mr. Harper asked for payment
just as his lodgers were going out. They returned
to their room, and nothing more was heard of them
till, on the door being broken open at night, both
man and woman were found lying one over the other
on the floor with their throats cut. From the blood-
stains on the towel, and the basin full of blood, it is
clear that the man cut the throat of the woman
first, held her over the basin, deliberately wiped the
razor, and then, kneeling down over her dead body,
nearly severed his own bead from his body. An
inquiry is pending, but from en examination of the
bodies of each, and of a discovery of a peculiar nature
on the man, it is believed that jealousy, and a fear of
parting with the woman under their necessities,
I induced him to murder her.