The Press.
London, England, 1858-08-07 00:00:00

THE PRESS, AUGUST 7, 1858.

the courtship with Atkinson, was sent to Man-
chester, where she entered a gentleman's family as
nurse. She remained there twelve or eighteen
months, returning home in August, 1857. Both the
old suitors renewed their attentions, and ulti.

mately Atkinson was again accepted by her as her
acknowledged lover, and preparations were made for
their marriage, a union rendered the more neces-
sary from the position of the unfortunate girl a
few months ago. Gill, however, still continued to
see her occasionally, and at a gala at Beverley.
park so late as Tuesday week he went up to her
while she was in company with Atkinson, and en-
tered into conversation with her. Atkinson appeared
very much annoyed, but he still paid her every
attention, and continued to do so, seeing her daily
up to Sunday last. On that day he accompanied
her to church twice,—then going in the morning to
Darley church, and in the evening to Hartwith
chapel, the latter being about two miles from the
village, on the northern side of the dale. Miss
Scaife's brother and his sweetheart went with them
to Hartwith in the evening, and returned with them
to Darley, walking a few yards in advance. They
got back to the village about half-past nine o'clock,
and as they came out of Nidd-land a group of men
joked them, a man named William Pullan remarking
with reference to the deceased and Atkinson, "Yon
see these old acquaintances ; they stick very close
to each other." Atkinson replied, " Not so close as
some of you think on." The reply was a singular
one, and under the circumstances not unimportant,
though it might be an innocent retort upon what
might be considered as an impertinent observation.
They turned up Stump•lane, Scaife and his sweet-
heart preceding them. The latter lingered behind,
and it is probable that they got over the wall into a
field on the left hand side of the road, as on the
return of the first couple nothing was seen of them.
Whether this was so or not they afterwards returned
to the lane, and, after pressing her very strongly to
marry him, Atkinson threatened her. These threats
she treated lightly, and he then seized her by the
throat and attempted to strangle her. She shrieked
out, upon which he relaxed his grasp, and, with tho
view of coercing her to comply with his request,
pulled out his pocket knife and showed it her. She
still, however, hesitated, and he then seized her
again and cut her throat, she crying out " Lord have
mercy upon me !" after which she fainted from loss
of blood and fell backwarls. Her murderer then
left her. It is highly probable that she had before
fallen on her knees, as the lower portion of her legs
were found doubled underneath the body. The first
shriek appears to have been heard by the school-
master's wife and her daughter, who live at Fringill,
a distance of 400 or 500 yards, and they speak of it
as being a " dreadful noise " which they cannot
describe. The latter was going on the Darle).road
at the time, and was so alarmed that she turned
back. The deceased, who was a weakly person,
was evidently soon overcome, for although she
herself bore on her person indications of great
violence, Atkinson escaped without even a scratch,
his clothes being bespatted with blood much more
slightly than might have been anticipated. 'l' he
murder was evidently of the most determined
character, there being no less than eight distinct
gashes on the throat, a punctured wound on the face,
and another on the left clavicle. Some of the
former must have been made after the fatal cut, and
there is every appearance of the prisoner having
"bagged" at his victim even after she was dead.
After completing the deed Atkinson crossed the
fields to his father's house, secreting the knife he
bad used in a wall as he passed. When he got home
the family were up, so he lingered about until after
they had gone to bed. He could not rest, however,
during the night, and about five o'clock the following
morning he entered the bed room of another brother
(Thomas Atkinson), exclaiming—" What have I
clone? 0 Lori, have mercy upon me. What have
I done? I have murdered Mary Jane Scaife." The
brother said,—" You hav'nt? " and he replied, " I
have," and at the same time requested the brother
to go and see the body, stating that it was in Stumps.
lane. In the meantime the body had been found by
a pot hawker named Richard Howard. It was lying
on the back, with the lower portion of the legs
beneath the body, the right hand clasped to the
chest, and the left thrown out. The bonnet was
torn off, her parasol was broken, her hair dishevelled,
her features distorted and covered with blood, and
altogether her appearance was most ghastly.
Assistance having been obtained, the body was
removed, under the direction of Mr. R. G. Horton,
surgeon, to the New Inn, where it remained up to
yesterday evening. Atkinson was taken into custody
by policeman Clifton between five and six o'clock,
when he again confessed th 3 murder. He was con-
veyed to Ripon the same day and taken before a magis-
trate, by whom lie was remanded to Knaresborough.
The deceased was in rather delicate health, and on
leaving her home on Sunday evening to go to Hart-
with chapel, she was told by, er mother that if she
was late she had better gto her uncle's (Mr-
Downs's), and her absence during the night there.

765

fore excited no uneasiness. The tither, as soon as
he beard of the murder, left home, and had not
returned up to yesterday morning.
On Wednesday the murderer was taken before the
magistrates at KnaresborJugh, when be made the
following confession :—" The reason I murdered
her was because she wonlil not have me. Sbe told

me her parents would not let her have me. She
said she thought we could not be happy, as my
father was also against it. She said, It's all my
mother, Jim, that's caused this disturbance.' She
said three times, Lord help me,' and I hope the
Lord will help her. I told her I could not be happy
without her—l could not rest in this world. She
said it was all false—that I cared nothing about her,
[ had behaved so badly to her. It was all because
she was so queer with me that made me do it. I
told her I should murder her if she would not have
me, because I could not rest. I told her I had not
been happy for three weeks, or more than that.
She told me she had not been happy ; that she had
been far from happy since her parents were against
me, and were always calling' me. Her mother
was the worst, she said, and never let her alone, day
in and day out. Her father never said anything to
her about me—he never changed words with her on
the subject. I was in her house on Sunday, at tea
time. Her sister and her mother came in. Her
sister and her were in the house,' and I was
in the kitchen. She came tout from her mother,
and said, Come, come, go out before my mother
ec.mes in.' I did as she wanted me, and we both
thought her mother did not see me. I went to a
house on the contrary side of the road, belonging
to my father, but not where he lives. I perhaps
stopped an hour there, waiting for her sister and
her coming out to go to chapel. Her mother and
her sister came out before her, and they stood
talking about ten minutes or a quarter of an hour.
Then she came out, and I went up to her. They
went up the lane, and her mother went home. I
followed them up the lane and overtook them in a
lane that takes into Stumps-lane, whore I murdered
her. She didn't talk to me much, but her sister did.
I went down to the bottom of Stumps-lane with them.
My sweetheart told me to go home and change my
coat, to get my black coat on. I said that what I
had on would do for me, and we parted at the bottom
of the land. I thought to myself I would go to Fur-
ness, her sister's sweetheart, who was coming up.
There were some more people with Furness. I
stopped a little bit, and then walked forward. There
were some more people sitting and standing on some
would below. I went and sat down and talked a
little hit. Furness and some others came up. I
got up after a little bit, and went against Furness,
and asked him if he was going to Hariwith. He
said it was a long road to go, bat we set off down
the lane together. We kept moving on slowly,
until we got to the new line (railway), and
her brother then came up to us, and we sat upon the
wall and talked a little bit" The prisoner then
described the manner of committing the murder, as
detailed above.
It was attempted to set up a plea of insanity on
behalf of the prisoner, but this will be decided by
jury, as he was committed to York Castle for trial on
Thursday morning in close custody. The inquest
on the body of his victim is deferred.

EARLY MARRIAGE.
AT Worship-street, last Monday, a gawky, under-
&zed stripling, accompanied by a timid looking young
girl, whose united ages apparently numbered about
thirty years, were brought into court by the mother of
the girl and the father of the lad, the latter of whom
requested the advice and assistance of the magistrate
under the following peculiar circumstances :—The
applicant, who presented the appearance of a sub-
stantial tradesman, stated that he had occasionally
intrusted his boy, since his recent return from
school, with the partial management of a branch
establishment belonging to him which was situated
a short distance from his principal place of business.
He went there, as usual, on the morning of Tuesday
week, but having absented himself for several hours,
he was requested on his return to account for the
tine, when he coolly repliel that he had just been
married to a girl to whom he was attached. At this
astounding intimation he was closely questioned
with regard to the whereabouts and position of his
juvenile spouse, which he reluctantly disclosed ; and
the mother of his wife, who had been since commu-
nicated with, was now in attendance, and cordially
concurred in the present application for the purpose
of ascertaining whether the law afforded them any
means to set aside such an absurd and probably
disastrous union.

The MAGISTRATE (addressing the father,: This ie
a very extraordinary statement ; do you consider
your son to be quite right in bis head!

The Father : I never thought otherwise until now,
but I don't know what to think after his late conduct.
The mother of the young girl here stepped
forward, and intimated that the boy bridegroom had
made her daughter's acquaintance at a juvenile party

shortly before Christmas last, since which time be
bad " hunted her life out" by his incessant amatory
visitations, and on more than one occasion she had
bidden herself under the bed to escape the perse-
cution. On the day before the marriage he called
at the house, and pathetically implored a short
interview with her daughter, which she imprudently
granted ; and as soon as he had gone the girl told
her that he bad threatened to stab her to the heart
unless she consented to marry him. On the
following day her daughter stealthily left the house,
but returned, after a prolonged absence, in great
agitation, and told her that the youth had met her in
the City and taken her to church, where their
marriage was solemnized, and afterwards consum-
mated in a house in the neighbourhood, to which
they went, but that he had since deserted her. The
young bride, who was timidly shrinking back behind
her mother, was called forward, and in answer to the
magistrate's questions as to whether the facts stated
were correct, bashfully replied—Yes, he made me
marry him, and on going away he told me that he
bad done it all out of »Fort, because I was acquainted
with another young man, who would have nothing
more to say to me after what had happened.
The magistrate observed that it was the strangest
piece of business that had ever been brought under
his notice, but as both parties were under age, and
the young girl had manifestly acted under constraint,
he conceived there would be n J difficulty in obtaining
a dissolution of the marriage at the Ecclesiastical
L'ourt. In the meantime, however, the boy husband
was bound in law and honour to protect the girl
whom he had beguiled into such a silly engagement,
and to contribute towards her support as far as his
means allowed.

Nam Parket anb atitg gattiligente.

FRIDAY EVENING.
THE return of the Bank of England for the week
ending Wednesday last, the 4th inst., shows the
following changes compared with that for the week
preceding :

Increase in Circulation
Increase in Public Deposits
Decrease in Other Deposits
Increase in Government Securities 156,891
Decrease in Other Securities
Increase in Bullion
Increase in Rest 108,0.56
Decrease in Reserve ..

Bullion in both Departments
Circulation, including Bank Post
Bills

Some of the changes shown by this comparison pos-
sess considerable importance. Owing to the with-
drawal of Private Deposits, principally for dividend
purposes, the circulation has increased, while there
is a falling off in the Reserve, which, however,
appears to have been compensated by the addition
to the Public Deposits. The Private Securities
continue to decline, indicating that the discount
business of the Bank is inactive. The diminution
is only trifling, but it is indicative of the state of the
Money Market out of doors. The Bullion again
shows an increase; and there is reason to believe
that the succeeding return will make the total stock
fully seventeen millions and a half. There is a
falling off in the Coin, caused probably by harvest
payments in different parts of the country.
The Money Market continues to be superabun-
dantly supplied, and capitalists have been sorely
complaining of the difficulty of finding employment
for their reserves even at the moderate rate of from
two and a quarter to two and a half per cent. They
are, therefore, rather shy of addir.g to their unem•
played means ; consequently there is a mass of
money in the different banks returning no profit to
the owners. In the early part cf the week, and again
yesterday and to-day, there was a pretty good
demand in the open market, caused in the first
instance by the preparations to retire commercial
acceptances, and afterwards by an announcement
from the India house of the intention to complete
the 8,000,0001. loan, and the payment of the deposits
upon the Red Sea Telegraph shares. Yet these inci-
dents made no impression upon the supplies. The
only feature attending them was a slight hardening in
the terms ; and at this moment the market retains
all the ease which has so long characterized it. The
requirements of the Indian Loan, and the dispoaiiiou
there is to introduce various Joint Stock under-
takings, may, however, cause some change in this
respect before vary long.
The announcement from the India-house appeared
on Wednesday. It was to the effect that the Com-
pany are ready to contract for the issue of debentures
to the amount of 3,570,0001., the residue of the loan
of 8,000,0001. authorized by Parliament in the late
session. The debentures are to run for five yearP,
to bear four per cent. interest, and to be in sums of
0001. and 1,0001. each, with half-yearly coupons
payable in April and October. The tenders are to
be for not less than 1,0001. each. They will be re•

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