The Express.
London, England, 1858-02-26 00:00:00

TEE SUPPOSED ..1( CEDER YEAR CARLISLE

At Carlisle assizes, before Mr. Baron Martin, on
Wednesda Jacob Skelton wasindicted for the murder of
his father-la-law, Robert Irwin, on Christmas-day last. The
demised was an ged man of 85 years, who lived with the
prisoner and his wife in a cottage at Fenton, a village six
miles from Carlisle. He paid his eon-in-law be. a week for
his board and lodgMg. The old man had saved 2001. or 3001.,
and was believed to poises, more. The prisoner had used
very. offensive language to him and of him—had a great
enmity to his opinions and manner of life—called him a
Methody, and wished him "cold in the gob." Besides
this he told a man named Armstrong he would give him
101. to shoot him. He bad evidently dwelt upon the old
tom's property and contemplated his death—tailing Arm-
strong the old man had 1,0001., which would all come to
him, and telling others that he should take a farm with it.
Moreover, at the time of the old man's death, the prisoner
was prosecuting two respectable men on a charge of robbing
biro on the highway; and said to a witness he would soon
have plenty of money and would go on with the prosecution.
On the night before the murder • neighbour named Parkin
came to the prisoner's house and invited Irwin to go to a
prayer meeting in the morning at the home of Mr. Taylor, a
neighbour, who, with the old man and Perkin, were Wee-
leyaas. As Parkin was going away the prisoner came and
told him it was a foolish thing to go to Mr. Taylor's, and
begged him not to go. In the result he did not go. The
prayer meeSng was expected to last two hours. Deoraed
got cep a little Übee sfi o'clock nest morning. The distance
to Taylor's was only shout 600 yards. He took his stick
and his lantern, as it was quite dark. He wee nod seen by
a man named BeU, a servant of Mr. Taylor's, who, as he
was taking hay to feed some sheep, found Irwin lying on his
back on the grans—not on the metalled path. He was in-
smisible, but not do ad. lie had a wound on the left side of
hie head, and his clothes were all dirtied on the right
side. The inference was that he had received a blow
on the left side, which had thrown him on the right aide.
On a closer examination the medical men called in gonad
another wound over the left ear. The principal wound had
been produced by a violent blow—the small bed been driven
in and fractured—and the wound was prelim form. The
doctors were of opinion that the wound bad been inflicted by
• hammer—the one by its head, and the other by its smaller
end—the one while the man was standing, the other when
he was on the ground. In his pockets were found hie hymn-
book, his watch, and 6!. lbw The murder had there-
fore been committed by some one who had no derire
to kill him for the sake of plunder. The old man, more-
over. was very much respected • he was without an enemy
in the world. The prisoner Ind his wife were the only
living in the house, except some small children.
7.h:the police-ofticer inquird for a hammer, he at onoe
produced one somewhat peculiar, and it the the principal
Irwin,' exactly ; the length and the breadth were the same—
the size and the shape of the head the same. No trams of
blood, however, could be found on the hammer, or anything
belonging to the prisoner.
Fur the defence, Mr. C. Forster, his counsel, suggested
that the old man might have been knocked down by • horse
gallopping along the road that dark morning, and that a
sharp stone, which had been picked up covered with blood,
might have cowed the wounds in his head.
The prisoner was found Not o&6ilty.
As soon as the verdict was announced some persons in the
aaUsrr tbeganto biro, when the Judge said—" ' I wish you
would bring some person before me who hes been making
nee of those expressions. Let one be brought before me,
and I will commit him for two years. It was amcet lade-
cent exhibition." Turning to the jury, his lordship said
that, in his judgment, the case was one of mere suspicion,
and was not established by that proof which ought to lead
to • conviction of the peisonsr.

ESCAPE OF • CONVICT IN THE THAMES.—lll-
formation was yesterday communicated to the metrosontam
lion of the swaps of • convict, sword George Haynes, from the
ship True Briton, lying in the Thames, off Deptford. It ar
get a number of convicts had been rustily pieced st=
the above ship for conveyance to Bermrm. Batty in the
evening a boat with five or sic pawns, apparently seafaring
men, Ina observed approaching the weed by the "entry on
duty, who warted them not to come near. The answer
to this wu that they had bats sent from the
Bremen's Home to work the ship, and that they
wished to see the captain or the chief officer. Neither
of thee officials being on board at the time—a fact
well known to the party—they inquired for the person in
chirp of the ship, sad wen armed on deck. One of the
man was observed with a bundle under his emu, but nothing
particular was thought of this circumstance at the moment.
Oa being informed that some mistake moat have been made
Is sending them to join the "hip, as all the crew had been
engaged, they complained loudly of the hardship which had
been practised upon them, and repeated, in ths event of
their hammock' being brought down to the ship, that they
should be instantlent back. They then left. and a dew
lours afterwards Keynes was missed from his quarters,
herbs& ft is mused, during the above parleyiag, become
=sof thilierms sewn to ramekin of we orthe men,
Irmo's' clothing, which be bed placed over his
mark* dross, sod left Ws ship rssobserved. The boat was
seas be precool in the direction of =wall Matra, when the
petty hada; sod from bigotries slam mode it sums a cob
era Reidy wefts le Nam than away.