The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-26 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

On his arraignment the prisoner at first pleaded guilty
His lordship thereupon asked him whether he would
rather have the case legally proved against him, or would
persevere in his plea of guilty. The prisoner then said at
first that he did not care, for he was guilty, but afterwards
that he would leave it to his lordship to do what was best
for him. His lordship directed a plea of not guilty to be
recorded, and then inquired of the prisoner if he had attor-
ney or counsel, to which the prisoner replied in the nega-
tive. The learned counsel who 'appeared fur him then ex-
plained that the prisoner's mother had spoken to him about
the defence, and that a gentleman, an attorney, was arrang-
ing with the mother about his instructions. His lordship
asked the prisoner if he wished his mother to procure him
legal assistance. He said he did not; and his lordship, after
explaining that unless the mother was the prisoner's agent
so to do, she could not insist upon his accepting legal assist-
ance of her procuring, asked the prisoner if he should assign
him counsel, to which he replied that it should be as his
lordship pleased, for he was guilty. Ultimately the matter
was arranged to stand over, and when the prisoner was put
on his trial it was found that he had availed himself of the
services of the learned counsel provided for him by his
mother. From the evidence it appeared that the prisoner
had been serving in the Marines for about a year and a half,
and had deserted his regiment about four months since.
When he went into the service he left his wife and three
children behind him, who received relief from the Leomin-
ster Union. She lodged at the house of George Smith of
Hamnieh, and assisted to support herself and children by
acting as a charwoman. When the prisoner returned after
deserting his regiment he did nothing to support her, but
used to come to her at her lodgings and stay three or four
days at a time, and then go away for a fortnight or so On
hearing of prisoner's return the board of guardians of the
union, with a view to determine on the purchase of his dis-
charge from the Marines and to make him contribute to his
wife's support, ordered her to attend before them. On Jan.
5 she did so, and was examined about it. The meeting was
adjourned, and she was ordered to attend again that day fort-
night, which would be the day atter the murder took place,
and her pay was ordered to be continued up to that time.
On Thursday, Jan. 14, prisoner called at the house of Mrs.
Rebecca Martin, who lives in Leominster, and told her that
his wife had been before the gentlemen of the board, and
had said everything against him in her power, and that she
had to appear again on the Tuesday, and he knew that she
meantto say all she could against him, and declared with an
oath that she should never have the chance to say anything
against hm any more. On Sunday, the day before the murder
the prisoner was seen with a big stick, which he termed a
" keep-safe." On Monday, the 10th, the deceased woman
had been washing for Lane, a gardener, at his cottage, which
was about a mile from Smith's house, where she lodged.
In order to gofrom Lane's cottage home her way lay along a
path which passed through a field at the distance of about
500 yards from Lane's, and then over a stile and along the
top of a ploughed field under a hedge which separated the
ploughed field from an orchard, and then over another stile
in the corner of the ploughed field into a turnip-field. Lane
returned home along this path at about a quarter before six
o'clock in the evening, with his dog, and when about 100
yards from the turnip-field corner of the ploughed field his
dog growled. Lane saw nothing and went home. The de-
ceased left his cottage for home soon afterwards. She was
carrying in her hand a packet of dripping, and she was seen
going alone along the path two fields from the cottage. At
about half-past six a little boy at a house about three fields
from where the body of the deceased was afterwards found
heard two screams, and told a milkwoman of it, but as no
more were heard she thought nothing of it. At about ten
o'clock that night as a man named Lipscombe was going
along the path in the direction of Lane's he heard a kw
moaning noise, and led by it found in the corner of the
ploughed field near the stile leading into the turnip-field
about three yards off the path, the body of the deceased
lying on her face in a pool of blood. He called in Lane,
and with him and a lantern went back to the spot where
the deceased was, and then carried her to Leominster
workhouse, where she died, without rallying the following
afternoon. She had received bruises, as if made with a
stick, on the forehead and shoulder; and at the back
of the head she had received a very violent blow which
had broken the skull, and caused the very brain to pro-
trude. The surgeon stated that no blow could have been
given upwards with sufficient force to cause this, and he
therefore interred that it was given when she had been
knocked down, or was in a kneeling posture. The police
made a close examination of the ground where the body
was found, and they discovered the marks of a wooden boot
or clog, with a peculiar rim of iron round it on the sole,
making a fresh sharp mark, and of a pointed shape. In the
field through which the path went, on Lane's side of the
ploughed field, and before entering it, was a bank with
marks as of a person having sas down, and the clog marks
were clear there. At this spot the marks of a woman's boot
were seen to join those of the man's clogs, and these con-
tinued backwards and forwards, and up to the place where
the body was found. In the orchard, over the hedge of the
ploughed field, were the marks of the clogs, as if the wearer
had been walking up and down. The police instituted a
careful search for the foot-prints on the morning following
the murder, and traced them from a place called Slaughter
Castle, a mile or a mile and a half distant, up to the spot
where the body was found. Thence they traced them in
a circuitous course past Slaughter's Castle to Gorstey-hill,
and then again in a retrograde direction, until on the
Thursday they came up to the prisoner talking at the door
of a cottage near Eardisland, and took him into custody,
1 and found clogs on his feet which made precisely the print
they had been tracking. In the course of the investigation
the tracks had been followed to several cottages, and the
persons living at them were called, who deposed to the
prisoner having been there and had conversation with
them. He had been at the house of a person named
Strangwood, at Slaughter Castle, between five and six
o'clock on the evening of the murder; and at about eight
o'clock on the same evening he was talking with a person
named Griffiths about the meeting of the board on the fol-
lowing day. At half-past 8 o'clock he had a conversation
with a Mrs. Harris about the same circumstance, and told
her that his wife had done everything to get him taken, and
that she had brought down his regimental number and
shown it to a policeman—and as he was leaving her kitchen
he told one of her children not to move, as he would never
touch any of them, and said that he would never murder
any of them. At a quarter to 9 o'clock he was at Mrs.
Pott's cottage, and said that he must go to Leominster to
see about his being got off the soldiering. From half-past
9 to 10 o'clock he was with a person named Jones, who
lived at Rowley's cottage, and he told him that he was
going to Smith's to get his wife to live with him. He was
then crying. On the Wednesday he told a Mrs. Haines
that he was afraid of being detected for having deserted.
On Wednesday night he got a man named Thomas Smith
to allow him to sleep with him. Smith asked him if he had
heard of the murder, and said he had heard it was an old
soldier they -blamed for it. The prisoner then said that he
knew that old soldier, and he was very fond of his wife.
Smith said he had heard that the old soldier had almost
killed her. Prisoner asked if he had not quite killed her.
Smith told him he had heard not—but he pitied the woman.
The prisoner said it did not matter, she was not of much
account. On the next day (Thursday) a Mr. Nash, at
whose house the prisoner had asked to light his pipe, said
to him, in the course of a conversation which he commenced
about the murder, that the man was a villain to take the
axe to the woman—to which remark the prisoner replied
that it was not an axe, it was a stake. Smith then said,
that it would be a blcz sing if the woman should live to tell
who it was, and he replied that she couldn't do so, for she
was past that. He left her, and while he was talking at
the door of a cottage close by the police came up, who had
tracked him from house to house, and from the morning of
Tuesday up to that time.
The defence was an endeavour to excite a suspicion that
the woman might have given sufficient provocation to the
prisoner to reduce the silence from murder to man-
slaughter.
His Lordship, in summing up, said there was nothing in-
the evidence .o ground any au h supposition upon, and that
as no means of off nce were ever seen upon her, it was the
rather negatived ; that if the jury believed the evidence, it
could be nothing short of murder, and the only question for
them was whether the prisoner was the man who committed
the crime.
the Jury found a verdict of guilty.
The learned Judge, having assumed the black cap, and
silence being proclaimed, briefly and solemnly passed sen-
tence of death.
The business of the assizes was concluded to-day.

HERALD.—The adverseriea of Punch are com-
monly dispatched by a single blow. To prevent
misunderstanding we should observe that by this
mention of Punch we are not referring to the
Whiggish jester of Fleet-street, the objects of whose
satire rather gain than lose vitality through his
attaeks, but to ais more ancient and less serious pro-
totype of streets in general. The adversaries of
Punch, then, are commonly dispatched by a single
blow. Sometimes, however, there arises a hostile
puppet, whose head seems fashioned of such ex-
ceptionally thick wood that he resists for a time the
might of the universal destroyer. Punch deals him
a smart rap with his cudgel, and fancying that he
has terminated his existence, adopts his usual course
of following up murder with a song. Scarcely,
however, has he begun to chant his pecan, when
the foeman starts up from another side of the show
and boxes his ears. Another blow that might have
cleft a wig-block is the result, but leads to no more
satisfactory consequences. Again, again, pops
up the intrusive figure, whose very tenacity of life
is a serious insult to the grotesque doll-slayer, and
it is not till he has received a good half-dozen bangs
that he gives up the ghost—that is to say, suffers
the invisible showman to withdraw his vivifying
hand. To this vigorous puppet a strong likeness ,
may be found in a barrister-at-law named Pater,
who has lately been making himself very conspie
cuous at the Middlesex Sessions. That large edifice
which so nobly ornaments Clerkenwell-green, and
commands so fine a view of the broad land con-
verted into a desert by the destruction of ancient
rookeries, is not exactly the place where gentlemen
of the whig and gown expect to gain forensic
celebrity, nor does the theft of six knives, six
forks, a stock, a die, a plough plane, and six
irons seem to afford one of those themes for
eloquence which can cause the gates of immor-
tality to fly open at the voice of the orator. How-
ever if a man is to be considered great who
acquires fame by making use of favourable oppor-
tunities, what must be the intelleetnel magnitude of
the aspirant who leaps into a notoriety with scarcely
any opportunity at all ? It is a clever feat to catch
Occasion by the forelock, but when Occasion has
but a single hair on his brow, to hold him fast by
that is a proof of genius indeed. Such g enius dis-
tinguishes Mr. Pater. On Tuesday last ►la unfor-
tunate cabinet-maker was tried before Mee Payne
for stealing the articles above enumerated, a nd Mr,
Pater undertook his defence. While engaoed in
the cross-examination of one of the witnessa e for
the prosecution the learned gentleman seems to rave
been carried a little beyond ordinary bounds by his
zeal for his client's interests, and the foreman' of
the jury hazarded the remark that he had no rig.ht
to insinuate that the witness was not speaking t he
truth. Here was Occasion's single hair—" I than k
God that there is more than one juryman to deter-
mine whether the prisoner stole the property with
which be is charged, for if there was only one, and
that one the foreman, from what has transpired to-
day there is no doubt what the result would be."
Thus spake Mr. Pater; nor did Mr. Payne's remark
that the sprecb was improper check the torrent of
eloquence. Oa it flowed with greater force than
ever, As the little boy, who has been ill-used by
some tyrant of the streets, runs down a neigh-
bouring alley to fetch his " big brother," so did
Mr. Payne hurry into the adjoining court to ask
the Assistant Judge, Mr. Bodkin, what was to be
done with such a very spirited counsellor. Mr.
Bodkin declines to interfere till the case is over,
but Mr. Pater is warned that wnen his client's
business is settled the dignity of the bench will shine
Forth in all its glory and awe the contumacious.
Mr. Pater is not the man to meet terror half-
way. With infinite courage he proceeds to remark
that a fresh juryman ought to be appointed in the
place of the foreman ; and when he is told by Mr.
Payne that he is only repeating his former. insults,
he grandiloquently asserts, "I shall continue to do
so till the end of time"--a bold figure of speech,
which shows that Mr. Pater, secure of an undying
oame, had confounded it with an undying bony and
imperishable lungs; and which menace must have
rendered the jury excessively uneasy as to the pro-
bable hour of dinner. It is, however, pleasing to
record that gratitude to his liker is always an up-
permost sentiment in Mr. Pater's mind. " I thank
God," said he, " that I have dischaested my duty to
my client to the best of my ability, and this I shall
continue to do as long as I have the honour to weer
a wig and gown." At last the sublime floe° of Mr.
Bodkin, radiant with judicial majesty, appeers in
the court, but Mr. Pater is not dazzled. The As-
sistant Judge declares that the language addressezi
to the foreman is perfectly unjustifiable, and recom-
mends Mr. Payne to treat it as a contempt of court,
and impose a fine of £2O, But Mr. Pater is not
silenced. He refuses to withdraw his observations,
and the fine being actually imposed by Mr. Payne,
he rises with new determination, and as if he would
head a mutiny of counsellors, declares that the
opinion he has formed of him (11'ir. Payne) is shared
by every member of the bar. This move proves a
lamentable failure ; a rebellion, "auspice Patre' " is
not at all to the taste of the barristers, and Mr.
Wood and Mr. Abram hasten to declare that the
paternal sentiments are not their own; but Mr.
Pater is not crushed—" I shall bring the affair
under the notice of Sir George Grey," says he to
Mr. Payne, " and very probably your removal from
the bench will be the result." if Hotspur
thought it way' an easy leap to pluck bright
honour from the pale-ficed moon," why should
Mr. Pater find any ch.:cannily in jumping into the
Home Secretary's office to null down a magistrate ?
The sun of Tuesday set, late! we doubt whether
sleep visited the couch of Mr. Peter. Doubtless he
meditated, not unpleased, on defect:, that had made
him more conspicuous than a merely ordinary vic-
tory, and having tasted the sweets of notoriety he
rushed into court on Wednesday morning to renew
the delight. There he found, not only Mr. ljayne,
nut Mr. Bodkin, and then recommenced his att.'ck.
Now the very best story loses its point when it is
told for the second time to precisely the same audi-
ence ; and we must say that the effect produced by
Mr. Pater on the Wednesday fell far short of the
great sensation of the preceding day. He asked
whether his words to the foreman had been taken
down, and whether they constituted a contempt of
Court ; and beieg informed that he bad been told so
lready, repeated his declaration that he did not
intend to withdraw his remarks. "You are repeat-
ing what you did yesterday, icily observed the
Assistant Judge. "We will go on with the busi-
ness, if you please." . Decidedly this second day's
work was a mistake. All that could be gained—
namely, notoriety—had been already secured, and
further fighting was a mere waste of powder and
ehot, On l'uesday Mr. Pater was a hero, though
on the wrong side : oz Wednesday he is a bore.
TIMES.—The verdict of the coroner's jury in the
terrible case of the Sheffield catastrophe will not sur-
prise those who are acquainted wish the subject, or
who have attentively perused the evidence taken at
the inquest. It expresses rather a general convic-
tion than a definite certainty ; it imputes no crimi-
nal neglect, but it records imperfections of weal ;
and then it passes into a free and unrestrained
delivery of opinion on points more clearly within
view. The jury did not pretend to decide how or
why the Bradfield Reservoir had actually burst, but
they did deplore the calamity which had ensued,
and they conceived that a regular system of inspec-
tion, under the authority of Government, should be
so devised as to prevent such disasters in future.
The question possesses an extraordinary interest,
but it is necessarily obscured to some extent by the
technicality of the details involved. The witnesses
at the inquest were engineers, and they gave their
evidence on a point of engineering in engineering
language. It was desired to ascertain, if possible,
from what cause or causes the embankment which
confined the water in the Bradfield Reservoir had
given way. That it did give way, and thus let
loose the flood which created such appalling havoc,
was beyond a doubt ; the only question was, hcw
the failure occurred. Oar readers have learnt by
this time the nature of the original work. The
reservoir was formed by closing up the open
end of a valley already closed by natural banks
on every side bat that one. An artificial embank-
ment, therefore, completed the basin, and in this
basin the waters were stored. They were gathered
by natural drainage from the surrounding dis-
trict, and could be contained in. the reservoir to
the extent of 114,000,000 cubic feet. Perhaps, if
we say that the surface of the water represented an
area of 78 acres, we shall be giving the beet idea of
the size and contents of the basin. All this water
had to be kept in its artificial bed by the embank-
ment across the open end of the valley, and on
the strength, construction, and sufficiency of this
barrier everything depended. The other day it
burst, and the public knows what followed. From
the evidence given at the inquest we learn not so
much what dtd cause the catastrophe as what might
nave caused it. Independent witnesses, as welt as
the engineers of the Waterworks Company, de-:
scribed the embankment itself as sufficientin dimen-
sions and solidity, though certain imperfections
were indicated he its construction. Indian engineers,
as our readers have seen, look with surprise at the
puny scale of our earthworks compared wi, h those
of the great tanks in Hindustan and the Deccan;
out according to European notions of hydraulics, it
seems that the Bradfield embankment was fairly
designed. Nobody imagined, in tact, that it had
given way from mere inherent weakness; its failure,
beyond a doubt, was due to the op rat' ion of some
undermining influence to which iu was exposed.
One suggestion was that the disaster as owing to
a landslip underneath the embenkmeet, which NO
destroyed its foundations; and as this esoald tend
to ezempt everybody from blame, it naturally found