Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-25 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

OXFORD CIRC ITIT. -STAFFORD, JULY 23.

BBFORIE BARON BRAMWBLL.

TES MURDER AT ABBOTS BROMLEY.—SENTENCZ OF DEATH.
—George Jackson, 21, and Charles Brown, 20, were
arraigned on an indictment charging them with the wilful
murder of William Charlesworth, en the 23rd of May, at
Abbots Bromley. The prisoners, who are labouring men,
appeared to feel the awful position in which they were
placed. Brown, a tolerably good-looking young man, wins
but little altered in appearance since the time of his com-
mittal, but Jackson, who is of a sullen east of countenance,
and who has a forbidding nn,nner of knitting his brows,
was much changed. The prosecution was conducted by
Mr. Motteram, assisted by Mr. Clay ; and the prisoners
were defended by Mr- Kenealey. Before the trial com-
menced, in consequence of a previous application from the
learned counsel fo: the prisoners, his lordship directed that
each prisoner should be tried separately from the other,
and Jackson' was accordingly placed on his trial alone.
The case on behalf of the prosecution was opened by Mr.
Motteram, who detailed the leading facts connected with
the charge, and observed that if the prisoner was, at the
time he dealt the blow which deprived the deceased of life,
carrying out a previously-arranged plan of robbery, the
offence, in pursuance of that intention, amounted to the
crime of murder ; and that they intended to rob him there
was no doubt, for af'nr he was killed the prisoner and
Brown, from their own statements, rifled the pockets of the
deceased. The following witnesses were then examined
on behalf of the prosecution :—Thomas Talbot, a farm
labourer, stated that about a quarter before five o'clock on
Saturday morning, the 2:3rd of May, as he was going to
milk, he found the body of the deceased, lying on his back,
with his arms stretched out, on the Lichfield-road, about
• a mile from Abbots Bromley. The body was quite cold
and stiff. The forehead was sadly crushed, and there was
blood upon the ground in two places. A large hedge stake
was lying about a yard and a half from the body, and one end
of it was covered with blood. The stake a large murderous
weep n, was produced by officer E heredge, and identified.
Mr. John Proctor farmer, was next examined : He stated
that he was fetched by Talbot to see the body of the
deceased, a little before 5 o'clock on the morning of the
23rd of May, and although he had known the deceased
30 years, he could not ree )gaiee his features, neither did
he know who it was until he had read a note which he
took from his pocket. The right-hand breerhes pocket
was partly turned inside out. Mr. William Charlesworth,
son cf the deceased, and a farmer, residing at Rake-end,
deposed that his father left home on Friday the 22nd of
May, in good health, stating that he was going to look
after his building, and attend the fair at Bromley, where
he thought of buying some sheep, end receiving his rents.
John Cresswell, alias "Dulcimer Jack," a strolling musi-
cian, said he had known the deceased, William Charles-
worth, about four years. On the afternoon of the 22ad of
Nay, he (witness) went to Abbots Bromley with his
dulcimer. Ab tut 10 or 11 o'clock at night, he saw the
deceased in the Coach and Horses public-house. He
(witness) was drunk, but before the deceased left he
remembered the two prisoners speaking to him. Brown
said, " Let's try to frighten Charlesworth ;" to which he
replied, "Don't do him any harm, for God's sake ;" and
Brown answered, " We will have a bit of fun with him."
He then put on his jacket, and went out with the prisoners
before the decea-ed left the house They sat down on a
garden hedee, a few yards from the Coach ;tad Horses ;
and when the deceased came out between twelve and one
o'clock, Jackson said, "lie's coming—come on, chaps."
Brown said, " If he's any money, we'll take it ; it will do
for a spree," and both prisoners then got up and ran along
the turnp ke road. Be (witness) sat still until Charles-
worth had passed ; and he then got np and watched him
as far as he could see him. He did not sea anything
more of the prisoners that night, and then return-d to the
Coach and Horses. On the following morning he identi-
fied the prisoners. Edward Etheredge, police officer of
Abbots Bromley, deposed that the day after the murder
he went to the house of Sampson Jackson, father of the
prisoner ; and in a cow-shed on the premises he saw the
prisoner Jackson. He observed blood on the sleeve of his
jacket, which the prisoner said had been caused by his nose
bleeding. When told that he was suspected of knowing
something about the murder, he said, "I'm sure I'm
innocent. I could not do a j bof that sort." He after-
wards compared ackson's boots with the footprint near
the hedge, and found it to correspond Brown subse-
quently made a statement to Police-Inspector Crisp, in
consequence cf which he (witness) went to Jackson's house
again, and under a hayrick he fund a puree containing
J:1 17s. He also found another purse, containing £7 Os 6cl
The prisoners were then conveyed to Uttoxeter, to the
lock-up, and on the way he said to Jackson, " Have you
heard that some money wag found under your rick ?'' To
which he replied, e Yes, but it is not all Mr. Charles-
worth's ; £2 and a few shillings and the purses are mine."
Ellis Crisp, police inspector, deposed that he had Jack-
eon's boots taken off and compared with footprints near
the scene of the murder, and although not very perfect,
they corresponded with the impressions. John Robson
and Thomas Brown, of Abbots Bromley, also deposed
to Jackson stating that the money was hidden under the
hayrick, and it was further proved that the prisoner had
passed his father's house, upwards of half a mile in follow-
ing the deceased to the spot where the murder was com-
mitted. Mr. William Higgins, surgeon, of Abbots Brom-
ley, described the injuries which had caused death. In
answer to his lordship, the witness stated that his opinion
was that the first blow had been inflicted from behind, or
on the side of the heal, which had caused the deceased to
fall forward, and produce the scratches on the thee and
forehead. Either of the three blows the deceased had
received on the head would stun him and cause death.
The statement of Jackson, made after his commitment by
the magistrates, was then put in and read by the officer of
the court. It was as follows :—" I went to the Coach and
Horses on Friday night, and was looking at their be sling,
and they made me make one. This young man, Brown,
was then in the house. I sat in the house on the contrary
side to Mr. Bamford. Mr. Bamford and Mr. Charlesworth
were quarrelling, and I listened to them. John Cresewell
and Brown were making a bargain to go and frighten
Charlesworth. Cresswell said, I'll put another jacket
on, and so be won't know me ;' and then against Mr.
Fletcher's hedge he said, 'you must not say anything;
we shell have something to-night.' He said to me and
Charles Brown, go on after him, and follow him, and lay
hold of him, and rll fellow' I felt very tipsy, and I and
Brown went on ; and as I was going on, Brown said.
Oh, come along, we shall have some money to-night.' I
was very tipsy , and I did g 3 with persuading. I was
that tipsy I did not know what I was doing. 1 pulled a
stake out of the hedge, and as I was goingalong Mr. Charles-
worth asked me where I was going, and I told him I was
going along the road, when he catched me a stroke with
his stick. H said, I know you are after me ; you mean
to rob me.' Then he up with his stick to hit me again,
and I get this stake, and I hit him on the back of the head
and knocked him down, when I 'elt so sorry that I tumbled
down myself. I was tipsy, and did not know what I was
doing, or I should not have done it. That was all that I
did at him. Charles Brown picked his pockets, and gave
me the money, and I put it into my pocket, and he picked
up the stake, but whether he hit him or not I cannot tell,
for I was that put about. I sat on the hedge, and was
rather sick directly after. He said, ' Come along,' and we
went off across the fields, and on getting near home he
(Brown) asked for money, and I gave him three half-
crowns." The case for the prosecution being closed, Mr.
Kenealey addressed the jury in a short speech on behalf of
the prisoner. He contended that there never was a charge
of murder presented to a jury so deficient of all the neces-
sary ingredients of premeditation and malice aforethought
as the present one, and argued that nothing more than
manslaughter or homicide had taken place. The learned
counsel also submitted that the fact of the prisoner having
a stake in his possession was no proof of his guilt, as it was
probable that he only intended to protect himself from the
superior strength of the deceased. providing the joke which
they intended playing him should excite any revengeful
feelings on his part. Mr. Kenealey further observed that
the charge resolved itself into one of manslaughter only,
against which he should not contend. The learned Judge
summed up the evidence to the jury adverse to the prisoner,
pointing out to them also the law with reference to the
crime of murder. The jary, after consulting fer about ten
minutes, returned a verdict of guilty. Sentence deferred.
Charles Brown was then arraigned on a similar charge
of having been concerned in the wilful murder of William
Charlesworth, on the morning of the 23rd of May, at
Abbots Bromley. The same counsel were engaged for' the
prosecution as in the former case. Mr. Cook Evans
defended the prisoner. The witnesses examined in the
previous case were re-examined, the only fresh evidence
of importance being a sta•ement made by the prisoner to
Inspector Crisp. It was as follows ;see, I was at the Coach
and Horses. George J ckson,
Dulcimer Jack, Henry
Murray, and Charles Harvey, were there last night, the
22nd. We were drinking one amongst another. Mr.
Charlesworth, of Rake End, came in. Dulcimer Jack said
to me and Jackson, We'll go and frighten Mr. Chasles-
worth.' We all went out together, leaving Mr. Charles-
worth in the house. We all went together as far as Mr.
Es.mister's, fifty yards, where Dulcimer Jack sat down on
a bank. Whilst we were all together I heard Mr. Charles-
worth corns out of the Coach and Horses. Then I and
Jackson went on along the road as far as the Cross- of-the-
Hand. I went on a few yards, and then I turned back,
and found Jackson and Mr. Charlesworth talking together.
Jetesson held a large hedge stake—which the police have
got—behind him. This was a little before two o'clock
this morning. I don't know what Passed between Jackson
and Mr. Charlesworth, Mr. Charlesworth passed on

towards his home. Jackson and I followed. Jackson
said, ' Now is the time.' He then went up to him, and
struck him on the side of the neck with the hedge stake he
had with him. Mr. Ch4rlesworth fell down, and when he
was down Jackson struck him with the stake, and kicked
him on the side of the head. I did not hit or kick him at
all. I did not hear him make any noise at all, nor did he
struggle. Jackson and I then turned him on his back, he
having Wien on his face. I searched one of his pockets,
and Jackson the other. I took some silver out of the
pocket I searched, and Jackson took out some gold, silver,
and, I be'ieve, a £5 note. I gave what I found in the pocket
to Jackson—all of it. We then returned towards Bromley,
up Broad-lane. I went with Jackson as far as Mr. Mur-
ray's middle stile. I then asked him for some money, and
he gave me two half-crowns. I then wished him good night
and left him. Dulcimer Jack told us only to frighten him.
When we had left Dulcimer J ack, Jackson said, " Le-, us
stun him, and take his money." The above statement is
the truth, and I made it voluntarily. haying been cautioned
by Inspector Crisp that what I might say would ba taken
down in writing, and might be used against me. Mr.
Cook Evans addressed the jury on behalf of the prisoner
in a very lengthy spr,ech. The learned counsel argued that
there was no proof that the prisoner had a common inten-
tion with Jackson, to commit the murder, and argued that
as all the blreve were undoubtelly inflicted with the stake
produced, which was proved to have been taken out of the
hedge by Jackson. close to the place where the murder was
committed, the prisoner was entitled to his acquittal of
the crime with which he was charged. The learned judge
summed up the evidence, and the jury returned a verdict
of guilty ot wilful murder. Both the unhappy men
were then placed in the dock, and his lordship passed
sentence of death upon them in the usual way.

SUSPECTED MURDERS.—SiIIee the late trial, it would
seem that the minds of our cammunity are running very
mneh upon homicide. Last week a person in the town
died somewhat suddenly, anal although he had been long
delicate, suspicions of foul play were immediately excited,
to allay which it was found necessary to subject the body
to a medical examination. Accordingly on Saturday, the
body was opened by Drs. Crawfurd and Haldane, when
death was found to hare resulted front purely natural
causes, deceased having long lab sureil under organic
disease of the heart, is addition to a complication of other
maladies. A carpenter belonging to Nevi ton, who, along
witha companion, had fallen over the quay and been
drowned, some months ago, but whose cot pee was never
found, was the occasion of a perfect furor last Friday
night, a report, by whom originated no one knows, having
arisen, that his body had been found buried in the garden
attached to a house on the Newton side. It is needless to
say that the rumour had no foundation, although in the
present unsettled state of neople's ideas it found many
believers. One version of the story ran that a man and
woman were taeee into custody on the charge of murder,
and very minute particulars of the position of the body,
&c., when found, were set forth, there being a trifling
discrepancy in the accounts, one laying the scene of the
discovery under a kitchen floor, another at the foot of a
garden wall—seryr Observer.
MR. JONAS WEBB'S RAMS.—The annual letting of the
celebrated 13 ibraeam rams has just taken place, and
attracted a numerous attendance from all parts of the
country. At the public letting sixty-five rams were hired,
and the total amount realised was £1 812 123., or £27 17s.
7d. per head. This was a high average, although rather
below that realised last year. In 1852 sixty-nine rams
were let for £22 3s. Id. each ; in 1853 seventy-one for
£22 6e.3,1. each; and in 1856 seventy-seven fir £33 Is.
41d. etch, The highest price commanded on the present
occasion by any single ram was 197 guineas, and this is
the largest sum Mr. Webb has ever realised for the hire of
one of his splen lid breed. The hirer was Mr LlAsey, of
New York The Earl of Leicester, the Earl of Yar-
borongli, and other noblemen were hirers of other rams,
and seventy, fifty, seventy-one, hundred, and fifty‘two
guineas were realised in five instances. The business trans-
acted at the peblic letting does not convey, however, a
complete idea of the extent of Mr. Webie's transactiona,
as a great deal of business is concluded with him privately.
About 300 gentlemen were present at the usual dinner
given by Mr. Webb to his viltore. The chair was
occupied by the Hon. Riot Yorke, M.P., and the hen,
gentleman was supported by Mr. Adeane, M.P. fir Cam•
bridzeshire, and Mr. Wynne, M.P. for Merionethshire.
Among the foreign gentlemen present were Mr. Stich,
from Coblentz, and tie Marquis de Vogue, from France.
L'ANGELIER A SUICIDE —The presiding judge, caught,
probably, by the advoca•e's sophistry, fell into a similar
train of reasoning, in the course of which he showed a very
general ignorance of the conduct and motives of suicide.
The fact that Li -livelier sent for a doctor, or rather alloered
one to be sent for, and that he did not proclaim himself a
suicide, argued, as the judge thought, that the man was
not a suicide. Our pysehologiata will give us another read-
ing. They will tell us that such proceeding is a marked
sign of the mania of suicide ; and what most suicides
instinctively do when they have brought on symptoms with-
out death is to send for a doctor, and either to say nothing
about, or even to deny, their °ern deeds. Tins is a natural
sequence of suicide. The act, however long premeditated,
is sudden and determined at last. Let it succeed, and the
suicide can do no more; let it succeed in part only, and
when the agony of body approaches, the mania for death
disappears Tee desire still to live increases with each
pang that proclaims remaining life. Then the horror of
the act and the shame develops as the impulse for
destruction disappears. So, longing for life and shrinking
from exposure, what more instinctive than that the suicide
should send fir relief, and suppress or deny his crime ?
We are not writing theory here ; for if we were we should
be speaking as rashly as did those we would criticise. We
speak from observation and fact in cases of suicide.
Another strong point is, that the amount of arsenic taken
by the deceased is in favour of suicide. From the pro-
portion found in the stom ich after death, it is probable
that tee real qu entity swal o red woil I have required for its
solution nearly two quarts of any ordinary drink. How
ceuld L'Angelier have been induced to drink any such
quantity ? or, how could it be given in the solid form
wirhout his knowledge ? Any way to ceneee' the prisoner
and the crime, after the evidence that was adduced, was
impossible. It is true she bought poison—arsenic twice
and that she tried to buy prussic acid. A.h ! well. What
did she want with them, say you, except to poises
L'Angelier ? Let us see. She rays that she used the
arsenic as a cosmetic, but the. prussic acid
she does not account for. Lett these facts pass.
Let the scoundrel L'Angelier also move off
the scene for a moment. Now chat is the picture in the
weeks precedin-, L'Angelier's death? A ruined, hopeless
girl, wrong with sorrow, mad with rage at her own folly
and site, dying with far at her father's wrath, educated by
her seducer to the idea that suicide is morally right,
thinking death better than exposure. This is the picture.
And now let us ask whether, is such an hour of despair or
temporary rnadnros, the poisons might not have been in-
tended ler a much more deeply injured and broken-
hearted victim than Emile L'Angelier ?-211edical Times.
THE LONDON DIOCE,AN BOARD OF EDUCATION.—On
Thursday afternoon the annual meeting of this board
was held at the offices, 79, Pall-Mall, the Bishop of
London in the chair. The secretary read the abstract of
the report, which stated that the eemmittee regretted that
the receipts were so small, the boars having only received
£340 last year. The number of schools at present under
diocesan inspection was 192, and these . could not be
visited by government inspectors. The Bishop of London
then addressed the meeting. He said that some time back
nothing was thought of hut teaching the three R's—
reeding, writing, and arithmetic—bat now they had got
something more than that in the system. Still there was
one thing that should never be forgotten, and that wa..,
that those three things formed the basis of a good sound
system of education. It had been said that the great
difficulty that beset the question was that of religion, but
he wished to say that his opinion was quite the reverse.
What was done or what should be done with regard to
the tel glom part of the question, was to impart to it that
quiet moderate tine of religion which it was found our
Church so much liked. With respect to those excellent
schools at Messrs. Spottiawoode's, Price's Candle Works,
and others, where in the evening, after the work is over,.
the boys are instructed in different branches of education,
he would impress on the whole class of employers of labour
to form schools after the same system : and let them only
do that, and become members of this board, and then the
difficulty would he overcome. The Rev. Dr. Biber then
moved the adoption of the ri port. Mr. W. Cotton seconded
the motor;. which was carried. The Right Hon. W. Cow-
per (Vice President of the Committee of Privy Council)
moved the following resolution :—" That this meeting is
fully impressed with the opinion that the London Diocesan
Board of Education has a very important sphere of useful-
ness in which to exercise its functions, so as to render very
material aid to the great cause of education in this metro-
polis and its suburbs. That it is therefore desirable that
efforts be made to combat the ideas which seem to have
taken hold of the minds of many persons, that this board
has done its work in taking the lead in past times, and
stirring up the z al which was then dormant ; and that
now the committee of privy council has taken all the work
out of the diocesan board's hands ; for that, on the
contrary, the schools are, at the present time, very
numerous, which cannot, wiihout assistance, such as the
board renders, put themselves in a position to be aided by
the government." The Rev. Mr. Rogers seconded the
motion, which was carried. Archdeacon Sinclair then
moved the next resolution, appointing the Rev. H. Howarth
and Mr. J. Martin auditors, and thanking them for their
past exertions. The motion was agreed to, and thanks
to the right rev, prelate for presiding terminated the pro-
ceedings.