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

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 for 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 promtring, asked the prisoner if he should assign
him counsel, to which be 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
ou 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 wont 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
Hamnish, 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
wile's support, ordered her to attend before them. On Jan.
5 sho 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 after the murder took place,
and her pay was ordered to be continued up to that time,
On Thursday, Jan. 11, 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, anr.4 that she
had to appear again on the Tuesday, and he knew that she
meant to say ell she could against him, and declared with an
oath that she should never have the chance to say anything
against h'm 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 go from 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 want 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 Lipscomb° was going
aleng the path in the direction of Lane's he heard a law
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. Ho 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 bruiser., 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 ceused 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 sat 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 orc'eard, over the hedge of the
ploughed field, were the marks of the clogs, as if the wearer
bad 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,
and found clogs on his feet which made precisely the taint
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 hire, 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 ble- sing if the woman should nye to tell
who it vas, 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 catoe 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 offence from murder to man-
slaughter.
His Lordship, in summing up, said there was nothing in
the evidence to ground any mid i. supposition upon, and that
as no means of effince 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
there was whether the prisoner was the man who committed
the c:hne,
he 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 I)taiaees of the assizes was conchided to-day,

HERALD.---Tee adversaries of Punch are com-
monly dispatched by a single blow. Fo 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
attacks, but to his more ancient and less serious pro-.
tot3pe 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 be
has terminated his existence, adopts his usual course
of following up murder with a song. Scarcely,
however, has he begun to chant his 'amen, when
the foeman starts up from another side of the chow
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 aarytenacity of life
is a serious insult to the grotesque. mall-slayer, and
it is rot till he has received a goad half-a.zen bangs
that he gives up the ghost—that is to say, suffers.
the invisible showman to withdraw his vivelYmg
hand. To this vigorous puppet a strong liked e"
may be found in a barrister-at-law namel Pater,
who has lately been making himself very conspi-
cuous at the Middlesex Sessions. That large edifice
which so nobly ornaments Clerkenwell-green, and
commands so fine a view of the broad land cone
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 intellectual 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 genius dis-
tinguishes Mr. Pater. On Tuesday last an unfor-
tunate cabinet-maker was tried before Mr. Payne
for stealing the articles above enumerated, and Mr.
Pater undertook his defence. While engaged in
the cross-examination or one of the witnesses fur
the prosecution the learned gentlemen seems to have
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 right
to insinuate that the witness was not speaking the
truth. Here was Occasion's single hair—" I thank
God that there is more than one juryman to deter-
mine whether the prisoner stole the property with
which he 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 spike Mr. Pater; nor did Mr. Payne's remark
that the speech was improper check the torrent of
eloquence. On it flowed with greater force then
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 burry into the adjoining court to ask
the Assistant Judge, Mr. Bodkin, what was to be
done with Buela 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 shins
forth in all its glory end 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
name, bad confounded it with an undying body and
imperishable lungs;
rendered the Pry and which menace must have
excessively uneasy as to the pro-
bable hour of dint:er. It is, however, pleasing to
his Maker is always an up-
permostrecord that gratitude te
ters mind. sentiment in Mr. ' "I thank
God," said he, " that i have dieelharged my duty to
my client to the best of my ability, and this I shall
continue to do as long as I have the nceaour to wear
aee of Mr.
a wig and gown," At last the sublime fig
Bodkin, radiant with judicial majesty, appeers, in
the court, but Mr. Pater is not dazzled. The s-
sistant Judge declares that the language addressed
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. Ho 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 (Kr. 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
tlr. Payne, " and vary probably your removal from
the bench will be the result." if Hotspur
thought it was an easy leap to pluck bright
honour from the ' pile-faced moon," why should
Mr. Pater find any difficulty in jumping into the
Home Secretary's office to pull down a magistrate ?
The sun of Tutees' iy set, but we doubt whether
sleep visited the couch of Mr. Pater. Doubtless he
meditated, not unpieaeed, on defects that bad 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. Payne,
eat Mr. Bodkin, and then recommenced his attaclt,
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 being informed that he bad been mid so
Arcady, 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 husi•
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
shot. On Tuesday Mr. Pater was a hero, though
on the wrong side : oa 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 with 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 work ;
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. Our 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 i 8 acres, we shall be giving the best 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. nom
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 well as
the engineers of the Waterworks Company, de-
scribed the embankment itself as sufficientin dimen-
sions and solidity, though certain imperfections
wereindicated in its construction. Indian engineers,
as our readers have seen, leok with surprise at the
puny scale of our earthworks compared with those
of the great tanks in Hindustan and the Deccan ;
hut according to European notions of hydraulics, it
seems that the Bradfield embankment was fairly
designed. Nobody imagined, in fact, that it had
given way from mere inherent weakneks; its failure,
beyond a doubt, was due to the operation of some
undermining influence to which it was exposed.
One suggestion was that the disaster was owing to
landslip underneath the einb .nkment, which hat
destroyed its foundations; and as this would ,tad
to exempt everybody from blame, it naturally found

favour with the representatives of the company'
3ut the more probable theory was that water had
,m s, ho , or other fouud its way into the work of
S.
It
h anti miz!l
.1) ai
enfk. m eTnbte, andnex t become
nt
wash e i ntsbiedrieo
foreus agent
of a water got there. It seems that in making the
this
lnizment the engineers had taken the earth
emb: the sides of the hills which formed the natural
from
of,, the reservoir, and had in fact bared these
ea in some ph ices down to the rock. This 05
,5
tics,
bbailnlkasiicina,
though. 3
thus
D Y one witness to be an objectio
as th e water in the basin, being neble prac
much -
in,
might nto imtnedi ate contact with tat living rock,
1 its way through fissures to the slop Of
he emb d
an Vow. The presence o f water there-
tbrought
fore at tha t danger" Jus point might t e accounted for
on this hyt tothesis. Again, if the ertaterials used is
the consul talon o f the embanktn ent were Wu'
diciously s elected or improperly laid, the water
might gre.e 'wally find an opening fc a. mischief. On
the whole, bowel ter, it seems to halie been thought
more probe b.le th at the catastrooh e was occasioned
by acme failu re a f the pipes; inde, cd, the only Wit'
ness who was; b,)14. I enough to
gave it to tb at oft give a i decided opinion
.ct. These outict pipes for the
("onveyance and t ra nsmission of the water were car'
r. led at Brae field us. der the embankment, and there
w as certainly, a co nc,lrrence of opinion fili to the ull'
sot Indness anal de; igei. of filet
practice,
non-professional Persons can easily
und
e whichrst atcf ell
pipes were always.and could hii always e°
sour,d,
,'!'id as to be liable at .1 injury and create no danger,
it ,:yout d be safe enei Igh to carry them through the
embaa2kxnent, but tt ey appear to be liable to ae
many acctl/4ients as the i flues of a stove, and the tow
herefore, i, eno place for then[. To be gin
with—they
L. annot in k such a position be inspected
or t.
,nr repaired, be. t bes id es that disadvanta,ge they era
ac ually more liable to injury from the uncertain. Bud
often unequal press ai re of an artificial earthwork'
Here, at Bradfield, vi ere about 500 feet of pipings
made up of some 5( i \engths of 9 feet each, and con'
s with along • series of joints. Now, if the
part were fractured, or a joint for
pipes
uenitn 1 yap) ,
the Water might be let loose ft ir the
gwrhaedrueal drawldest: s a
ct i 0 n of the bank, and it is obviosa
nal Si ;ttlement of the earth might
rtheaadtilaynp
r this { mischief, Even if the pine°
were unevenly Tressed down or distorted the Banco
result might c cell rs and this theory of the ,calamity
therefore assue les g reat likelihood. Mr. Jackson,
Ol ,hieuq c t '
an engineer of ,treat Australian experience, spoke
out quite plainly on;, .he point. " I have not the least
doubt," said he, " the t the structure of the Bradfield
dam
oducausedrsteneudna 1 al :age." When it was suggestedE que al pressure, fractured the pipes,
and so p
that the outlet pipits a light now be uncovered and
examined, the witness a dded "If this is, done you
will find it as I say. " To this suge,estion there
was the obvious objec no n that now, after the eats'
strophe, it wow d be imp, assible 'to distinguish be'
tween injuries which had c. Bused and injuries which
had followed it, and ' therefe re I be point could not
thus be summarily cl4,cided. Sr ill the Gavernment
engineer himself, though he d tstinctly declined to
give a positive opinic'r t, seems to have inclined to
these views. "My of union," se ,id he, "is that it
was the most fatal mi Lemke to I, Ay the pipes in the
centre of the embankment up 'on an artificially
formed, compressible ,material." This reasoning
will be clear even to ncei-professi onal readers, but,
in justice to the constructors of t. he reservoir, we
should add Mr. Jackson's remarks upon the custom
referred to. " I," said he, " have cart ied pipes under
embankments. That has been the uof versal practice
until now. There has be,sn no greitt disaster from
it until now. It has been an error of)udgment cow'
milted by the most eminent engineers. I shou'al not,
after what hoe occurred here, ega.;ii lay pipet,
under or through an embankment. I should take
the water through the solid, round the, end of the
embanktnent, by culverts or otherwise." Pro bablf
this explanation will commend itself to the -public
as the best obtainable, bat Mr. Rawlins on enume•
rated the causes which might have bee, a at work,
without attempting to identify any one with cot'
fidence as the real agent of mischief, and the jury
accepted the uncertainty. They simply ,acid is
general terms that " tt,ere had not been that engi'
Herring skill and that attention to the copal.' notion
of the works which thei.- importance dema, aded,"
and with those words they passed to topics on whisk
it was safer to speak with decision. -They r ecora-
mended, as we have stated, a system of Govern'
ment inspeceion, and expressed their deep regret at
the terrible hitality of the catastrophe whicsh had
occurred. In this feeling of sympathy and surrey(
the public will entirely concur, and our columns,
indeed, have shown that the compassion of the
country has already found a practical expression
~ in timely and munifi cent succ our.

COUNTRY MAitimT B.


WAKEFIELM-Tmt RSDAY.

•• ------ ----
The market is rather of a hoiiday character. Wheat w 0
quiet, at laat Friday's quotations. Barley met a limited
sale, and maintained former prices . Beans were rather
cheaper.

STAMFORD—TtruRa,nAY.
Our market was held to-day (to••n sorrow being Good
Friday). The supply of wheat was meagre, and, with A
dull inquiry, last week's prices were unen'tered.
White wheat, 40s to 42s ; red, 37s to, 40s per 36 stone.
Barley, malting, 33s to 355; grinding, '29s to 32a per qr.
Oats, 18s to 22s per 24 stone. 13eans,, 01,a, 4(a to
qr. ; new, 3ls to 365.