The Express.
London, England, 1853-12-01 00:00:00

A STARTLING CHARGE.

A short time ago the Cambridge 'adept's&at
inserted a paragraph headed " Diabolical Outrage," stating
that " a poor half-witted fellow at Sketchworth of the name
of Sparks had been the victim of a most disgraceful and in•
human conspiracy ; that be warstripped naked by a set of
monsters, who, after greasing his body with tallow, set him
on fire ; and that the perpetrators were well known, but no
one had thought proper to bring them to justice."
The Rev. W. R. Bewsher, late curate of Sketchworth,
haying made a representation of the case to the Home Se-
eeetary, an inquiry, directed by Lord Palmerston, took
place on Tuesday before the Rev. J. T. Bennet.
Sparks, being called upon to state the facts, said he
went out with a party in a break to fish at West Row,
Mildenhall. " The young governor," Plummer, the car-
penter, Marsh, the keeper, and Simpkin were of the
party. He went to attend to the fire for cooking the
dinner. After dinner he was very tipsy, and tumbled into
the river. They were all intoxicated then. He was net
burnt anywhere—there was a little grease dropped on him,
which rather burnt him in two or three places as it fell : it
was not set fire to, it merely scalded him where it dropped,
on the bottom part of his body. He ha two or three little
scars like blisters. No cinders fell on him. He was not
stripped naked. He was quite able to go to work next
morning, sad went with the gentlemen's lunch into the
field where they were shooting. He fell off the break a
time or two in going home, which made him stiff and sore.
Ho made no complaint to anybody, and he was sure he was
not mi ued, and all that was done was only jok.ng. He
had nothing to complain of. His hair was n^t burnt
off, and he never said anything a',out its being burnt.
He went into the Newmarket Union a week after, for
inflammation of the eyes, which always came on when he
had been drinking, and not for any injury he had received.
Sparks was then seat for medical inspection to Mr. Fair-
cloth, who returned a certificate that he could find no
marks of injury on any part of the man, except a very
slight redness on the lower part of the abdomen, which
Sparks said was produced by dropping some tallow upon it.
His hair and whiskers were as full as usually worn by la-
bouring men, and his limbs and skin in perfect condition :
a slight puffiness on the left eyelid was all he complained
ef, to which he had been subject many years on the occa-
sion of a slight cold.
These statements were sent up to Lord Palmerston, to-
gether with the reports of the superintendent of police,
upon • like representation made by Mr. Bewsher to the
Chief Constable.—Bury Post.

Silt E. B. LITTON, BART.—Sir Edward Bulwer
Lytton, who was during 'lle session unanimously elected
to the office of Honorary President of the Associe
aced Societies of our University, wi I deliver his Inaugural
Address about the middle of January.—Erfitiburgli Witness.
DEPARTURE OF THE ANIERIcAN MAILS--Yester-
day forenoon, about eleven o'clock, the United States
mail steam ship Arctic, Captain James C. Luce, sailed
from the Mersey for New York with the usual biweekly
mails for the United States and British North American
provinces; 95 passengers and a large and valuable cargo
of merchandise on freight.