The Express.
London, England, 1858-04-06 00:00:00

(Stamped ld. Additional.) [T W OPENCE.

awake, bat, powerless as she was in her sleep and sielows,
she became en easy victim. Leering this room, indifferent so
to the concealment or disport of the bodice of those with
whom be had determined to share a similar fate, his nest
proossdiag was to rush up-stairs to the apartment occupied
by the time other children. Awakened either by the ineom-
preheasible mile of the struggling in the room 'below, or by
the sudden entry of their maniao father into their apartment,
they endeavoured, as be approached the bedside, to elude his
grasp, and for a time they encored. I. It was only for a
time, however. The elder boy was seized, numerous and
serious cuts were inflicted upon his head, either with the
katobet-edge of the cleaver or with the razor-blade, and with
thelatter interment a fearful wound was made upon hiL
_throat •
bat, before the coneumroation of his intended fate, he managed
to Paean himself from his father's hands, and made
emepe down stairs. Upon the youngest of the three—the
sleeping infant—the lame elaborate attack was made as in
the we of the two fleet and steamer victims. With Its
heed smashed, end almost severed as it was from the body,
its death most have been instantaneous. The terminating
mew of the sickening tragedy was carried out in the other
room on the same door on which them transaction, took
place. To this room the second eon, JOllO, had made his
weeps in his night-drers. He could ecaroaly however, have
done more than reached the apartment when his father,
following in hot pursuit, overtook him and, seizing him as
he vain y attempted to elude his hold by leaping into an
unoccupied bed, dragged him out by his superior strewth.
A repetition of the same treatment—one or more stonniug
Wawa upon the skull—soon served to make him reenter,
and, by a deep neor-out in the throat, he was In the
next Ins ant deprived of life as speedily as the innocents
who had preceded him. Dropping the mutilated corpse at
his het, the infatuated man sett addmmed himself so
ssdbtbit+
delibmate deeknollem aF Wems IWs. Peekehty
is the aacembe ohmmeter of the monads Whined upon his
eldest boy, he did not imek to puree'e him, but at once pro-
ceeded to pat the deal sot upon which be had determined
into execadon. This he did with an amount of coolness and
ceanatem which is most remarkable. Throwing himself
upon his leek on the middle of the floor of the some room he
Which he stood, he placed his mock against the kg of the
table, them preventing any chance of the wound being partial,
and, drawing towards him a chair which stood in the apart-
=he prowl hie arm round ciao of its lower supports,
sowing equal steadiness of the hand as of the neck.
His neck was laid open from ear to w, and the blade of the
razor penetrated the very bone. He must have died in an
instant.

The servant in the house, it I. said, was Ignorant of what
was going on in the room above her own apartment until the
eldest boy of the family as be escaped from the murderous
attack of his father, and was repelled from his mother's bed-
room by the horrible spectacle which there met his affrighted
gam, melted hit° the kitchen, sad, wounded and bleeding,
Einto the bed beside her ; and it was only by the re-
etreams by which she naturally gave vent to her
at candranting such an object, that some workmen who
were abroad tn the neighbourhood at that hour L the morn-
ing had their fairs codrmed that all was not right in the
house. But no one was bold enough to venture in. In this
emergency the town policeman was sent for, and in the
meantime some of the more respectable neighbours, who had
been aroused, congregated, and with a medical gen-
tleman, made bold to enter the house, when they
were shocked by encountering the horrible sena
described above. The maid servant wits naturally
beside herself with fright, and the poor boy who had been
the innocent cause of her terror was found so desperately
wounded that his life was at first despaired of. Besides
being deeply cut In the heed in several place*, and ammo the
chin, he had received in the throat • most seriatim wound,
which had severed his windpipe, and only narrowly missed
the vital parts. When the first bedroom was entered Mrs.
Williamson was still alive, and she continued to breathe Ice
some little time after, but her injuries were of so fearful •
' character that she was beyond all human aid, and the only
sign of oonsciousness which she exhibited was one wist-
ful look of her half-closed eyes at the rpectatori, u they bent
over her bleeding and mutilated form. Around her were
evident indications of a severe struggle having taken place.
her body having fallen partially beneath the table, whiLi lbs
bed-clothes and furniture were displaced, and much of it
bathed in blood. The scenes in the other rooms were
equally horrifying. and, In each case, the spirits of the poor
victims had fled.
The motive which Williamson had for committing so
wholes& • massacre of those nearest and dearest to hun he
yet an utter mystsry. He had ever sujoyed the reputation
of an estimable kind-hearted man. With all those with whom
he bad business transactions he was honourable in his deal-
ings ; among those wound him he was t steereed as a worthy
neighbour; and by those who knew him beet he is said to
have been an affectionate husband and father. The per-
petration of such a crime was, therefore, at utter variants
with his general character. The surmise that he mbrkt
be urged to such extremities by undue fear as to his
worldly eiroarastances seems also to be unfounded. There
is reason, however, to suspect that for some little tiros
past the man's mind had been affected, and that the per-
petration of this tragedy was the crowning act of his In-
creasing insanity. Though to the majority of hie fellow-
townsmen he appeared unchanged, those with whom be had
most frequent intercourse now come to think that for some
weeks before this occurrence they could detect in his manner
a serious alteration. He is known also to have bass, con-
temporaneously with this change in his manner, much
affected by the sudden death of one who was his ntimate
friend, and with whom he had had frequent bunneme
transactions. Boma time ago he is alleged to have been
rather a hard drinker, bat latterly he is known either to
have ceased altogether the use of ardent spirits, or at any
rate to have become much more abstemious than before.

While, however, there is this ;;;;;;;; to the immedlaY
impulse to the crime, there does not appear to be any room
for doubt se to whether it was premeditated or not. It ie true
that on the day immediately preceding his decease he
transacted business as usual, gave some large orders to com-
mercial gentlemen at the time in Lerwick, and appeared to
make the usual provision for the summer trade. In the
oatmeal the evening, however, and not more than an hour
or two boon be retired to met, he bed a conversation with
some friends, which was, to as the least, peculiar. Two
geatlansin, reprseentatives of Glasgow and Aberdeen house,
with whom he was intimately acquainted, and to whom he
had given orders during the day, called at his shop about the
hour of closing. In the course of their conversation, and
=z refeeenom to the current topics of the day, the de-
inquired with some abruptness if the rentlemen had
seen fa the papers a report as to the hangman Cale:raft having
been mobbed in Liverpool after a recent execution. Thus
introduced, the convertatlon turned upon the pr iers! subject
of murders and executions, the gentlemen to whore he
spoke endeavouring more than once to change the topic to
one more congenial, but without Emotes; so soon aii the
conversation flagged, he reverted to it by putting some gime-
don or uttering en exchunation of surprise at some incidents
in the lives of great criminals. Asking if either of them had
whammed an execution, and receiving only some jocular
reply, be alluded to the eases of the famous Burke andln
spoke of the number of their victims, and especially r
to the means by which they were deprived of life. With most
oldish. crimes he appears( to be familiar, and he seemed to
take peculiar interest in the incidents of the murder of Daft
Jamie, making allusion to his superior strength, and the
difficulty which his murderers consequently had in disposing
of him. Apparently incidental to all this, he was inqubd-
tive as to the most effective method of taking away life,
and gave it as his opinion that death could be most easily
end quickly accomplished by a sound stroke from a hemmer
on the skull of the intended victim. The request that be
would join them in their room after he had cloaca the shop
was declined; and when they left him he was apparently in
his usual spirits, and, as he bade them good night, betrayed
neither in his tone nor manner the slightest emotion calcu-
lated to excite suspicion as to his sanity, or the determination
which he must by that time have made. Another incident,
from which it may be drawn that the murders were preme-
ditated, is that connected with his possession of the hammer
br which he inflicted the preliminary injuries upon his
meth's& This hammer or cleaver usually hung upon a nail
in the kitchen, where it was used fur ordinary domestic'
purposes. dome time before the tragedy it is said to have
been taken from its place—by whom it was not known—and
to have afterwards been returned; bat a day or two previous
to Thursday it was again removed, and was not seen until
it was discovered covered with the blood and heir of the
innocent inmates whose death had been accomplished by die
ald.
The tragedy has bees made the subject of investigation by
the local authorities, who have examined the interior of the
house, and precognosced several pore ins who bad evidence to
give.
Of the five victims of his demoniac flay, the only survivor
(his eldest son) has been carefully tended since his maps,
and, by the aid of the surgeon, his dangerous wounds are
dearly healing. He is not yet, however, altogether out of
danger, and it is doubtful if he will ever sufficiently recover
recover hie mato& strength. The bodies of the others, with
that of the deceased himself, were not interred until Tuesday,
sad a more mournful cordge was never seen in the sheets of
Lerwick.

RAILWAY TUNNEL AT TILE DOVER HEIGHTS.—
The tattled in course of construction by the Rut Bent Rail.
way Catapany under the heights is in rapid pmgraos, the
workmen being at Esuant employed in bricking the arch wad
sides, as fast as the miners remove the chalk and earth from
the tunnel. A clear pawn through has been for some time
abated ; sad about thre•-fourtha of the completed tunnel
have been coestracted, so as to require little more than ths
ballast and rifle to be in a working eanditlon. The entrance
from Canterbury Is on the Follosetnew-reed, which ere long
will be lowered 11 ft. The lama of the tumid I. about
660 yards; the clear breadth at £ I Is.. and the Welt from
the rail to the of the melt 21 ft. 6 in., ail of wall
talethel brit& 16ii tt. thick. Tie Stowe depthfrom
the mhos et the Watts to the Nib le Risk 270 to ft.
Ia trtheequesee of soma sem of smallpox halving
bambas oat seam the keep heleesies te the Mil &opt
W4h..l°""asimath:thbilimaYmaliNlehrethileestandiCabelibibmilluilawasehtl7dielisasurairsee•adajiPlaidimmigthealli.44="l" Ablimaballimima"