The Express.
London, England, 1864-08-13 00:00:00

NIGH WATIOt AT LONDON 111111/111.

TRIM DAT —110ri1ica,Pb721Tr.7.7.7119.1. nue.
Tommusow Mania& lek. ... doom" 11l 2sa.

LONDON, SATURDAY, AUOUST Is.

THERE never was a sentence of punishment
better deserved than that of eighteen months'
imprisonment with hard labour, which the LORD
CHIEF JUSTIcE passed on JAMES POTTS BRICE and
JAMES Scorr, last Wednesday, at Liverpool.
Bent had married a young lady, who as late as
last autumn was engaged to Dr. Rowe, a physi-
cian at Liverpool. That engagement had termi-
nated in an abrupt and unsatisfactory manner
only a fortnight before the lady's marriage, and
owing to disputes and litigation which arose be-
tween the friends of the parties Dr. ROWE deter-
mined, for his own protection, to keep the letters
which during the courtship he had received
from the lady until all discussion and danger of
imputations on his character had subsided. This was
certainly not a very chivalrous course ; but, as the
LORD CHIEF JUSTICE observed, it might have ap-
peared to Dr. Rows one that he was entitled to
take. It is justice, not chivalrous conduct, that
we are strictly entitled to demand of one another.
It does not appear, moreover, that Dr. Rowe made
any unfair or ungenerous use of the letters, or was
about to do so. His counsel declared that he re-
tained them with care and secrecy, as became a
man of honour, and had never shown them to a
human being. On the evening of the 2nd of
April last, five months after the young lady
had become Mrs. B&W; while Dr. Rows
was sitting at borne talking to his Oster, two persons
knocked at the door of his house, and inquired for
him. Dr. Rows came down stairs and found the
visitors in his consulting room. He did not know
them ; they proved to be BRICE, and Searr his
friend, a gentleman from Ireland. flame announced
himself, and said, " I have come for the letters of
"my wife." Dr. Rowe explained that he could
not part with them at that time, that Baices
friends had misrepresented his character, and
that he required the letters for his protec-
tion, observing that Mrs. BRICE was en-
titled to no peculiar consideration at his
hands, having received his visits until within a
fortnight of her marriage. He added that no
person had ever seen the letter., or ever should.
But the visitors had not come to argue.
Baice's short answer to all that he heard was,
" Never mind that, I'll have the letters." There-
upon Scorn bolted the door of the room,
and from his coat-sleeve produced a large
riding-whip with a heavy butt, which he flou-
rished over his head. The doctor was seized, and
thrust into a chair and held there, while he was
beaten and kicked, and his pockets were
searched. The noise of the struggle and outcry
brought the inmates of the house and the police to
the door, which at length was unbolted, when Dr.
ROWE was found gasping and insensib,e; blood was
flowing from his mouth and nose, his breathing
was difficult, and his face discoloured from partial
strangulation. He lay for eighteen days before
he was pronounced out of danger, arising from
congestion of the pulmonary organs and heart, and
rupture of some of the blood-vessels of the
lungs. BRICE and SCOTT admitted to those who
entered the morn that they had beaten Dr. Rows,
and justified the act.

It shocks us in our fancied social security to
learn that an outrage so deliberate and murderous
as this may be perpetrated in the heart o: a popu-
lous community in a man's own house, and perpe-
trated, it would seem, with additional security
from interruption on that very account. Heaven
knows what the two men intended to do when
they fastened Dr. Rowe in his consulting room,
but they took care to get him completely in
their. power. Their counsel had the effrontery;
to pretend at the trial that their visit
was planned as an ordinary visit at an
ordinary time, for the purpose of possessing them-
selves of the letters, and that the extreme vio-
lence which had occurred was accidental. The
riding-whip concealed in the waistcoat sufficiently
shows what was the minimum of violence they
contemplated. Mr. Dicer Sevmorit urged the
jury not to blast the "fair fame and prosperity "
of his clients by a conviction for felony ; but the
jury were not to be hoodwinked. They found
both of these cowardly ruffians guilty of the
felony, and the public heartily endorses their ver-
dict. If there is any difference of opinion about)
the sentence, it is only that while some persons !
think it well adjusted to the offence, others think
it too lenient.

Count Maffei has returned from Cowes to take
the direction of the Indian Legation during the absence of
the Marquis d'Azeglio.
_ _

Sir George and Lady Otway have left town on
• visit to Lord and Lady Clarence Paget at their seat is
Anglesey.

WHITEHALL, ACOUST 11.—The Queen bag been
pleased to direct bitten patent to be pissed under the
Great Seal, granting the dignity of a Baronet of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain sod Ireland veto Thome. Burch
Western, of ItivenhalL in the ooentr of Eisen. and
the heirs male of Ida body lawfully begotten.—Gazette.
Foeetos•ornig, Arouse 9.—Tbe Queen bee
been pleard to approve of Mr. George Thomas Gettery as
Consul at Cane Town for the Free flamestic city of Ham-
burg. The Queen bee also hem pleased to approve of Doe
Manuel de la Quintana se Consul at Liverpool for the Re-
public of Peru.—Gazette.