The Express.
London, England, 1867-12-26 00:00:00

HOLDOILY VAION.

Inmates of workhouse, 610 ; n I return of out-door poor-
Fare, roast pork and plum pudding ad libitum, and a pint
of porter each adult, with tobacco, snuff, fruit, &c., for
children. Ingredients of padding : flour, 1401ba. ; fruit,
1961b5. ; suet, 1201ba.; pee 4 61ba. ; sugar, 1121te. ; milk,
13 quarts ; eggs, 180 ; spice, Wm
From some extraordinary and unexplained cause, not-
withstanding that two applications were made for informa-
tion, the muter* of the following parishes and unions
have not had the courtesy to supply it :—East London
Union, St. John's, Hampstead ; Hackney Union, Ilethnal.
green • St. Luke, Cit-read ,• Greenwich Union, Poplar,
St. 011ie's, Southwark; and Clerkenwell. EfEcient,
however, remain to *bow that there is a tremendous in-
cremio in metropolitan pauperism, and it is also a remark-
able fact, as will be observed, that the largest increase has
taken place in the out‘kirt unions and parishes. Wands-
worth and Clapham Union appear to bear the unenviable
palm in this respect, having the enormous number of
10,,02 out-door poor to relieve, as compared with 7,990
last year, being an increase el very nearly 3,000 poor in one
district alone.

THE lIORRIBLB OUTRAGE AND MURDER IN
SHROPSHIRE.

SHREWSBURY, CHRISTMAS DAY.

Yesterday, on the very day the Alton murderer
was adjudged to be banged, a crime singularly resembling
his in its character was brought to light in Shropshire.
The victim in the present instance is a little girl named
Catherine Lewis, nine years and eight months oil, and the
man now in custody on the charge of wilful murder is an
agricultural labourer named John Mapp. The scene
of the outrage is a field situated between Longden
village and Longtlen common, a quiet, agricultural
district about seven or eight miles from this town.
From the particulars already in the possession of the
police, it appears that on Sunday morning last the de-
ceased left her home, which is situated on the common,
for the house of a person named Davies, who lives in the
village, and whose baby she occasionally nursed. She re-
mained there till six o'clock in the evening, when she
started to go to chapel. On leaving chapel, she was ac-
companied by Mapp and a woman, a mutual acquaintance,
who lived at Loagdcn-wood Farm. When the three
reached the lane which led to the farm, the woman turned
aside and went home, Mapp and the deceased keeping
on the high road which led to Longden-
common. This was a little after eight o'clock.
sod the deceased was never seen alive again-
On Monday morning the prisoner went to his work in the
fields as usual, and towards noon a ploughboy who was
working near him called out that he hail found a girl's
bat all covered with blood, at the san.e time observing
that there had been a row somewhere. Mapp told the
lad to put the hat in the furrow and cover it up with the
plough, but instead of doing so he threw it over the hedge
Into the high road. A woman named Hartshorne, who
had been at chapel on the previous evening, and bad seen
the deceased there, happened to pass along the road
shortly after, and pinking up the hat recognised it as the
one then worn by the deceased, and at once carried it to
the father of the child. Up to this time no anxiety as
to the absence of the deceased bad arisen, either
oe the part of her parents or the l)svieses, the one
ooncludh g that she had stayed to sleep at the village, and
the other believing that she had gone home. Let when
the Lit saturated with blood was brought to him, Mr.
Lewis at once started for the village, and learning that his
daughter had not been seen since S o'clock on the previous
night a diligent search was made in the neighbourhood
that lay between the two houses. Following certain traces
found in the field where the bat Lad been discovered, Mr.
Lewis went to an old and distilled hovel which stood in en
adjoining field, and on opening the door a shocking sight
was presented to him. Lying on her back upon the ground,
with some of the litter lightly covering her, was the body of
his child, wish her throat cut from ear to ear, and so
deeply as almost to sever the head from the shoulders. A
shawl which sue hail worn on Sunday was tied round
her neck, and one end thrust tightly into ber mouth.
There were several scratches upon her person, tut though
there is no doubt as to the object of her murderer, it is not
known, pending the medical inquiry, whether or net he
effected it. On the discovery of the crime suspicion was
at once directed towards the prisoner, who strongly pro-
tested his innocence, but at the same time made several
inconsistent and damaging statements, which will he duly
deposed to at the adjourned examination. On visiting the
scene of the murder yesterday Superintendent Caerswell
made an important discovery, which throws consider-
able light on the affair, and forms a strong link
in the chain of evidence which connee• s the prisoner with
is. It appears that on Saturday Mapp was engaged in
spreading manure over the stui.blo field where the hat
was found, and returned on Monday nioruing to complete
the job. Instead, however, of following on with the
manure at the place where he had left off on Saturday,
he commenced at &place fifty yards further on and here he
up two large heaps. On noticing this yesterday
gtti erintendent Caerswell raked away the manure, and
underneath each heap he found a large pool of blood, and
close by he picked up a veil belonging to the deceased.
Following up this clue, Caerswell traced the path of the
murderer as he had dragged after him the -body of the
child along the hedgerow skirting the highway, through a
gap in the hedge, and across a grass field up to the hovel,
a distance of about five hundred yards. The trail of
the body, which bad become covered with soil from
the ploughed field, was plainly discernible on the grass.
The ploughed field is skirted by the highway, along which '
the prisoner and the deceased (who were nest door neigh-
bours) would pass on their way home, after leaving their
companion at the farm, and the precise spot where the
murder appears to have been committed is close by a gate
which leads off the road into the field. The inference,
from the evidence already obtained, clearly is that the
murderer suddenly 'wailed the child in the road, and
gagging her by means of her shawl, carried her into the
field, and fearing the coui.equenoe of the sure detection
which must follow on her return home, bud been
led into the committal of murder. Supposing the
prisoner to have been the perpetrator of the pre-
liminary outrage, he had • special reason for keeping
out of the hands of the police, for he had only
lately returned hoe is with a ticket-of-leave, after serving
seven of a term of ten years' transportation, to which he
had been sentenced for a repo upon on old woman, coin.
milted under peculiarly atrocious circumstances. Mapp
was brought here yesterday in custody, and charged
before the county magistrates with the wilful murder of
Catherine Lewis, but uo evidence was taken beyond such
as was eeceasary for • remand. On the usual question
bein,; put to him the prisoner made a statement to the
effect that the deceased had been murdered, but that he
was not the man. lle was remanded for a week.
(se etscrue TZLIDDRAPH.)
SHREWSIILTRY, TneRSDAT MORNING.

The inquest on Catherine Lewis is proceeding this morn-
ing. Medical evidence shows tlist she wet not v inlated
previous to the murder. The setae of the murder was
visited by thousands yesterday.

FIRE SNP LOSS OF THREE LIVE- AT BELFAST.—
A very aid calamity occurred in Belfast on Monday night,
in the burning of a hone in Church•street. Two children
were burned to death before they could be incued.awl their
mother died shortly after removal to the General Hoe-
vital, while two other girls of the same family lie there so
6dly injured that they are not expected to live. The
house where the fire occurred was a small three-story one,
and the lower portion was occupied by a maker of fancy
boxes. He and his family occupied the upper part es
a dwelling-house. From the nature of the goods in
the ground floor the fire there must have spread very ,
rapidly, but surely not so very fast that the inmates
of the upper storey could not bare been rescued in time.
There swears to have been considerable bungling some-
where. Why wee neither of the two fire-escapes taken to
the scene of the fire? So far as we can hear, there seems
to ho a dispute as to who should drive these napes from
Police-spare to wherever they may be wanted ; and if
there be any truth in the rumours afloat, some inquiry
into the matter is urgently needed. With the firemen,
however, no blame can rest. They did all they possibly
could to save life, and two of them, Moorhead and Nelson,
took a noble part in rescuing the unfortunate inmates of
the house.—l'Verthern Whig.