Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1859-12-07 00:00:00

SuccessorsM'GHlE, to Charles Wilhner,) GnioutaL PRINTERS, 15,
iSOIYTH JOHN-STREET.
N.B.—BOOKBINDING and STATIONERY.

, •
RATS, Mica, AND CocxaoAciits.—Their extinction in on
night, or a few hours, by Greer's Patent Anti-Vermin Mixture,
2d. 3d., Gd., and ls., at the Anti-Vermin Office; 49, Brownlow-
hill.

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23, South John-street. JohnsGillott's, Thomas Lowe's, G. W.
Hughes, and other maker's, on sale at ls. per er‘rs. Good
Pen Holders, 2d. per dozen.
The latest edition. Just published. Sent free per post for
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Mawdsley and Son can now supply the new and
popular Game of Cards, St. George and the Dragon,
having just received their new patterns. 4, Castle-
street. d 22
THE SENTENCE UPON. DR. SMETHURST.—The public,
says the _Daily New' is probably not aware that the
conviction and sentence of this prisoner will entail many,
forfeitures and disabilities upon him, in addition to the
actual punishment that he will have to undergo. The -
offence of bigamy, as the law at present stands, amounts
to felony, and any person convicted of it immediately,
, loses all claim to any property, whether goods, chattels,,
or land, of which he may be possessed, or be entitled to
in reversion, at the time of his ,conviction. It, will be re-
collected that the unfortunate deceased, lady, Miss
Bankes, -only two days before her death, made a will at
'the request of the prisoner, under which Dr. Smethurst
was made sole executor, and would have become
Possessed of the whole of her property. If, therefore,
the pardon had closed the proceeding, and no further
steps had been taken in reference to the charge of bigamy,
he would, in all probability, have put the will in force,
. and as it is doubtful whether 'the relations of the
deceased could,, under the circumstances, under which
the will was executed, apparently with the full know-
ledge and consent of the deceased lady, have resisted it,
Dr. Smethurst would have come into possession of the
whole of the property of Miss Bankes, which , is said
to amount, to several thousand pounds. The effect.
of his . conviction, however, precludes him from ob-
taining anything under the will, and as those upon
whom the right devolves to take possession of his
property are not likely to interfere, Miss Bankes will pro-
bably be considered as dying intestate, and the property
will revert to' her fathily. It has generally been the
practice where parties possessed of property have been
charged with felony, in order to obviate the risk
of it going to the crown, for the prisoner to execute
an assignment of all his estate to some relative before
trial, so that in the event of a conviction no seizure
' might be made. The law with regard'to this matter is
very peculiar. In ordinary cases the property 'of a
felon vests in the crown, but in some districts the lord
of the manor claims the right, and there are instances
on record where an extensive landed estate beleuging
to a person convicted 'of felony has been claimed
and seized by the lord of the_ manor. In the
city of London, the Corporatiim, by, virtue of
ancient charters, claim the right to the property of
r all felons convicted within their jurisdiction, and the
sheriffs take possession of all property, found upon the
,prisoners who are convicted at the Central Criminal
-Court ; and although articles of a trifling character are
,usually given up, still_the righcfs invariably observed.
It may be remembered that in the case of the extensive
gold dust robbery upon the South-Eastern Railway, a
few years ago, when it appeared that Turkish Bonds to'
a considerable amount had been purchased with the
proceeds' of the robbery, the sheriffs successfully asserted
.their right to the possession of the property on behalf
of the corporation. All the interest in any property
that was
possessed by -the prisoner- prior to his con-
viction, is now, therefore, vested in the corporation
of the- city of. London, and
they would be the parties, ,
if any, to derive any interest he might have under the
will of the deceased lady. It is very probable that it
was in order to prevent this, result that the endeavour
was made at thq.trial to procure an acquittal by showing
that the first marriage was not a valid one, and this
view is confirmed by the fact that it was only a very
short time before the case was to come on that the facts
relating to the supposed marriage of Mrs. Johnson (or
Mary Durham), were laid before counsel. The counsel
for the crown were of course well aware of the circum-
stances connected with the supposed marriage, but it
would not have been necessary at all on their part to
have made any allusion to them if they had not been
made the ground of defence for the prisoner.

GLOUCESTER ELUTION COMMISSION.
On Monday the commissio-Aers, James Vaughan, Esq.,
R. G. Welford, Esq., and L. H. Fitzgerald, Esq., ap-
pointed to make inquiry into the existence of. corrupt,
practices at elections for the city of Gloucester, resumed
their adjourned investigation, at the offices of the com-
mission, in Fludyer-street, Westminster..
Mr. Philip Rose cof the firm of. Baxter, Rose, and
Norton) was exammed,--He acted generally as tilt
Conservative agent at the last election for Gloucester.
On April 8, 1859, a card was brought him with
the name of Richard Thompson. He saw the person,
who said to him,' "That is my. card, but my name is
not Thompson: I have come to you from Mr. Crutwell,
of Frome. lam told there is great expectation of
a great deal of illegal practices on the part of the
Liberals, and I am asked to provide a staff to 'watch the
public-houses, but of course I require both the authority
and the means, and I have come to ask you to supply
them." Witness replied ."You are quite mistaken in
my vocation ; I never interfere in elections, nor can I
imagine the propriety of your coming to me in the
matter." *Witness, in fact, thought it was a trap,
and treated it so. The next day he called "again;
but witness refused to see him. He then asked witness's
clerk for his -expenses, and witness told him to. get
his expenses from the person who employed him. Had
'never seen the indivithial before and hal_never seen
him since. He was a red pimply-faced man. Inasmuch
as ,there never was a list at witness's office of places
where money would be required to promote the Conser---1
vative interest, it was impossible that Thompson could
have seen it there, and if he said he had it was a total
fabrication, and there was not a scintilla of truth about
it. - Witness had no knowledge of any man being sent
to Gloucester. Witness had nothing to do with
the Gloucester election, either directly or. indirectly, and
had no communication with Frail with reference to it,
either at Gloucester, Shrewsbury, or any other place.
Had nothing to do with the Gloucester election beyond'
replying to a letter of Mr. Lovegrove's with reference to
Mr: Wood, of Sandwich, and which he replied to by tele-
gram.
Thomas Evans, bootmaker, of ,Gloucester, deposed
that he received £l'3 from Thomas Brewer Monk in
1857,, and gave £6 to John Evans, of Littleworo, to
vote fat Price and Berkeley, and £5 to John Puttick to
vote foi the Same. • ,

George Allen, builder's foreman, of Gloucester, proved
that he received £8 in 1857, from Monk, with, which he
paid the expenses of several voters to Henley-on-Thames,
together with his own expenses.
John Wilton, surgeon, of Gloucester, put in a list of
bribed voters, with their estimated and actual rentals,
for the -uso of -the.-commissioners. It comprise& 260
voters, 123 being freemen and the others householders.
John Ward, at the request of Mr. Lovegrove, having
conferred with Mr. Wilton, about the list, confirmed
that gentleman's evidence. -
Julian Bernard was then called by the clerk of the
commission, but made no appearance.
Mr. C. E. Coleridge, the secretary to the commis-
sioners, deposed that he had duly summoned Mr. Julian
Bernard to appear on a former occasion before the com-
missioners, and had sent the summons to his chambers
in the Albany. It was acknowledged by Mr. Mount,
his solicitor; of Sise-lane. He did not attend, but signed
a declaration- before a police magistrate, stating that
Mr. Bernard was too ill to attend. Subsequently on
witness seeing him, Mr. Mount intimated that he would
see him and communicate with witness, and that he
would undertake he should be before the commissioners
as soon as he could. Witness had written twice to Mr.
Mount, stating that Mr. Bernard was required to appear
before the commissioners that day, and that he would be
required to produce his pass and cash book on his' ex-
amination, but in neither case had he received any answer.
Understood, in communicating with Mr. Mount, that any
communication addressed to him, reqUiring Mr. Bernard's
attendance, would be received just as a communication
addressed to Mr. Bernard himself.
The Chief Commissioner.—As Mr. Bernard has not
thought proper to attend here to-day to give evidence
before us, we must conclude that he does not mean to
present himself for examination, and we shall therefore
have to consider what course we shall adopt with refer-
ence to the contempt so displayed towards us. I now
adjourn the further proceedings of this commission to
Friday next, at three o'clock, for the purpose of giving
him a last opportunity of attending here, if lie wishes to
avoid the consequences to which he is expcsed.
Adjourned accordingly.

ENGLAND AND SPAIN: A BRUSSELS RUMOUR.—
The Nord of Brussels says :—" We have a serious
announcement to make on the subjeCt of Spain. A letter
from Paris informs us that England, persisting to the
end in her opposition to the Spanish expedition to
Morocco, has found a pretext for annoying the Cabinet
of Madrid. She now claims from Spain, with a bitter-
ness unworthy of a great nation, the payment of the
warlike stores furnished at the period of the civil war in
the Peninsula. The Spanish Government, calling to
mind the affair of Greece, appears to have the intention
of yielding, in order to take from England all pretence
for acts of violence, or for an intervention which the
latter appears to seek for. Bad reasons have never been
wanting to England for getting up a quarrel, and not-
withstanding the condescendance of Spain, there is
reasons to fear serious complications."
„
A WIFE KILLED BY HER 'HUSBAND.—A lamentable
affair occurred during the night of Saturday last, at
Bletchingly, a village near Reigate.. It appears that.
Mr. Brown, landlord of the Red Lion Inn, and his wife had
frequentquirrels, the latter being much addicted to drink.
On Saturday evening deceased was in liquor, and much
annoyed some company in one of the parlours by several
times going into the room. The company left.the house
between eleven and twelve, o'clock, and the lodgers went to
bed between twelve and one, leaving the husband and wife
'alone in the parlour. It is probable that a quarrel again
sprung up. The husband kicked his wife so violently
in the abdomen that she shortly afterwards expired. Mr.
Sargent, surgeon, Bletchinglv, was sent for, but his aid
was of course of no avail. It appeared she died from
hemorrhage. Mr. Bungard, superintendent of Police,
Godstone, proceeded to Bletchingly, between two, and
three o'clock in the morning, and apprehended the pri-
soner, whom he conveyed to the police-station at God-
stone. Deceased was, about 34 years of age, and priso-
ner about 40. They have a family of five children.
THE OPEN COALPITS OF STIFFORDSIIIRE.-011
Thursday the adjourned inquest was held en the body
-of Thomas Sabin, who was found dead in an open
eoalpit at Ettingshall, near Wolverhampton, about nine
days ago. Evidence was given to show that the de-
ceased was found in the pit, which was nearly full of
water, with his head downwards; that there were marks
of his having slipped into the pit, and that the'pit was
not sufficiently protected. It was inferred at the first
-inquest that the pit had been sunk to get at the
"stinking coal," but that, as the water .accumulated so
fast, the enterprise was abandoned before the coal was
reached. The coroner (Mr. W. H. Phillips) .upon this
expressed his doubts that the proprietors could be pro-
ceeded with under the Mines' Inspection Act ; and
wrote to the government inspector of mines for the
district, for his opinion and his presence at the adjourned
inquest, if he thought otherwise. Mr. Longridge, the
inspector in question, wrote, in reply, that he was of
the same opinion with •the- coroner, and he had laid
Mr. Phillips's letter before the Secretary of State for
the Home Department. Under these circumstances,
the coroner said that the jury could do no more than
return a verdict of "found dead," without encouraging
any hope of ulterior • proceedings by the government
inspector, It did not appear that the proprietors of
the field had had notice given them of the insecurity of
the covering, else the jury might be in a position to de-
liberate whether Messrs. Dodd and Williams, the Pro-
prietors, were not chargeable with manslaughter. If it
proceedings, inis, 4
bye summoning the -inspector might
could have been shown that coal had been, got, the jury
could not, with the present evidence, have returned other
up these ;pee
butoe
t
proprietors, Dodd and Williams, before the magistrates,
than
have
foalnlow opeednu
and have recovered, under the Coal Mines Act, a penalty
of S 5. As it was,. he (the coroner) would recommend
the jury to consider: and draw up a list of all the
open pits and insufficiently fenced fields in that neigh-
bourhood, and give notice to the Government inspec-
tor, or to the police authorities, who would do so. The
jury then returned ati open virdict, accompanving it
with a recommendation that Messrs. Dodd and Williams
should fence other pits that were open in their field;
and that the field itself, which was skirted by the turn-
pike-road to Birmingham, but was without the least
fencing, and was used by passengers to get into a cross
road which ran at right angles with the turnpike-road,
should also be securely fenced. The jury made severe
remarks upon the great extent to which the coal pits of
the district that had been worked out, now remained'
utterly unguarded, and at once proceeded] to draw up a
list of such cases.