The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-09-01 00:00:00

HORRID MURDER.

(From the American Norg Jicrald, July 27.)
A friend near Ketnpsville has communicated to us the
following particulars of one of the most daring and atro-
cious acts of homicide within our remembrance :

On Monday last an Inquest was Lad on the body of
John Rudder, who was murdered in his bed by some un-
known ruffian between seven and eight o'clock on the pre-
ceding evening. The evidence given to the Jury by the
family of the deceased was, that Mr. Rudder immediately
after eating his supper, retired to bed and soon fell asleep.
The rest of his family, consisting of his wife, two daughters,
(grown) and two sons, (one about ten and the other eight
years old) were sitting in the room in which they supped,
and which is separated from the bed-chamber by a passage,
the doors of the two rooms facing each other, and both
left open, when they beard the footsteps of same person,
who entered the room where the deceased slept, and were
immediately after startled by the sound of blows and a
violent struggling. Mrs. Rudder, in great alarm, ran into
the room, and there beheld a stout coloured man in the act
of murdering her husband ! She seized the assassin's arm,
and implored him to spare the life of his victim ; but the
sanguinary monster dashing her from him, bade her be-
gone, or he would kill her too. Terrified almost out of her
senses, she caught her youngest son by the hand and fled to
a neighbour's for assistance—her other children, equally
panic-struck, rushed from the scene of butchery and fled
in different directions, scarcely knowing whither they went,
and rending the air with screams of " murder !"—the
murder of their father! A number of persons were soon
collected at the house, but too late to stay the murderer's
arm ; he had completed his bloody work and tied. On ex-
amining the body of the deceased, it appearasi that a blow
Dad been given upon the left temple, with a lathing
hatchet, and another on the crown of the head, which
fractured the skull in a shocking manner; there were two
other wounds about the face, which appeared to have been
Inflicted with the edge of the instrument. Mrs. Rudder
sow unable to identify the person of the murderer, it being
yearly dark, and all that she could discover of him was
that he was a coloured man. The Jury, therefore, could
only return a verdict of " Murder, committed by some
parson unknown."
We learn further, that a free coloured man (whose namc
It would be improper to mention at present) is strongly
i suspected, and that a warrant has been issued to apprehend

Y ~~~.ary.

RUSSIAN TR.IVRI.I.ING SKETCHES.
[From the Neu 4fluetthly Magazine.l
Piarorr.—Piaton I well known to the world as a man
who raj:o4 himself, by his talents, to the first dignity in the
RuMian. hierarshy, who was preceptor to the late Eat-
reaCta Nut., who writ(' on a correspondence with Mon-
sieur Dorsals, in which he endeavoured to show that the
Pepe was Antichrist, and who cotnposed an excellent sum-
mary Of the Russo-Greek Faith, which has been trans.
hated into English by Dr. Pis* snrotc. In the last ivolk
it is impossible not to be struck with the industry, the
erudition, sod the liberality or the author, though almost
every page be tinctured with the sttperstitions of his
creed, and though many overstrainings be remarked in the
illustration of its tenets. He assuredly wits the most li-
bem:-mincled divine in the Russo-Greek chili-ch. and
might be regarded as a phenomenon in the eMpiie 'of the
North. Though his knowledge was pretty general, it was,
I however, only in theology lie was eminent. Neither he,
nor indeed.any miniver of the Russian church, was elver
celebrated for his knowledge in the sciences, or generally
known to the world by any philosophical work. It is
thought requisite in Russia that a parish priest should de-
vote himself, almost exclusively, to his holy avocations;
and the education of monks, who afterward% fill the
highest dignities of the church, is not well calcnlated to
inspire the love of general knowledge, or to call forth the
desire of excelling.
The account of the conversation of PLATO" and Dr.
Ci.snat is extremely amusing (vide Clarke's Travels),
and speaks volumes of thought in a few words—for many
words are dangerous in the north---and even the few re-
quire to be very guarded. Platon had remarked the free.'
dom which some English divines show in their writings,
when Dr. Clarke told him that " we had once a prelate,
who, preaching before his Sovereign, felt 'aimseif at liberty
to dimmable conduct to his face." "/ wrsh (said PLATON)
we had arch a fellow here 7 but aware of the interpreta-
tion which might be put upon his words, and perhaps not
daring to end with them, he added, after a pause, " we
would rend him to enjoy the /'ell tiLerty of preaching in the
free air of Siberia."
Piston was a remarkably agreeable person in society ; he
was equally ready to receive and to communicate intorma-
don, and he was a friend of toleration. As a proof of the
last statement it is sufficient to state, that he communi-
cated much intelligence to the late Rev. Dr. KING, which
was afterwards embodied in that author's work, on the
" Rits and Ceremonies of the Greek Church ; and that he
was equally obliging to the Rev. Mr. Toozz.
A late author says, that PLATON was rather a bon-
vivant, and in confirmation* of this relates the following
anecdote. The divine frequently dined with the military
governor of Moscow, who, aware- that his guest did not
much relish the diet prescribed for the ckrgy during the
fasts, by a very simple process, converted Ash into fuh,
and relieved, or rather prevented, all the metropolitan's
scruples. " The servant having placed a dish of good
animal sour before the old man, the governor said, this is
fah soup. The divine crossed himself, said Amen, anti
immediately partook of it. In the same manner, when
delicate veal was served up, the governor said, this is stur-
geon, or stales ; the Amen was repeated, and the contents
of the plate disappeared.".
The monastery of Bethany was founded in the year 1797,
at the expense, and under the care of Platon. It was at
first not reckoned among the monasteries of the crown, but
merely a pnstiny4, or hermitage. In 1797, when the
Emperor Paul, after his coronation at Moscow, made a
visit with his family to the Troitskoi Monastery, or Convent
of the Trinity, to do reverence to the relics of St. Serge, he
also went to Bethany, which was then constituted a
monastery of the second class, with a seminary, and granted
the sum of 4,000 roubles annually for its support. The
archimandrite of the Troitskoi monastery was also made
the archimandrite of Bethany. The monastery and seminary
were finished in ISM

The Church of the Transfiguration stands in the-centre,
of an oval form, with Cothic windows and turrets, and is
built of brick unplastered. It surprises all by its unusual
internal arangement.
Below this church, i. r.. in the hill, is a very small
chapel, dedicated to the Resurrection of 'Lazarus ; with a
small nave before the ikonareas, a still smaller altar behind
it, and a !little sombre compartment on each side of the
nave. In the left compartment is preserved the wooden
coffin in which had been placed the relics of the famous
St. Serge, so: often mentioned in the Russian rubrick.
Here is also raised the tomb of Natoli, about two and a
half feet high, built of brick mid stuccoed, and. -!ntirely
covered by a brass plate, on- which is a representation of a
large cross, and an inscription recording the divine's his-
.tory. This tomb seems stunt, but Piston was of a low
stature. The hill, our guides told us, was called Mount
Tabor. So preposterous an arrangement of a church I have
never witnessed; and the absurdity of the whole is crowned
by the shocking taste which has added a stn fed hare, issuing
from a small cavity in the bottom of the hill, right forward
into the church, as a part of the natural, or rather unna-
tural, scenery.
This church can only demand attention from it! contain-
ing the relics of PLATON ; a name justly revered in
Russia, and which will ever make Bethany distinguished
in the annals of that empire; but the plan and execution
of the church, in my opinion, do him no credit.
A monument near the house in whica Piston lived
attracts the notice of the traveller. It is a very small py-
ramid, placed under a wooden canopy, surrounded by a
low railing, and with an inscription on the pedestal, indi-
cating that it was elevated in memory of the visit of the
Emperor Paul, in 1787. The monument and the painting
behind it, with Latin inscriptions, are alike paltry.
Bethany contains only eight monks, who reside in small
wooden houses raised on stone foundations, on the right
and left of the central entrance to the court. Platon's
house is now occupied by the rector of the seminary.

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