The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-24 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE,

OXFORD CIRCUIT.—HEREFORD, March 23.
CROWN COURT.
(Before Mr. Baron Pigott.)
THE nENNor MURDER.

Thomas Watkins was indicted 'for wilfully, and
of malice aforethought, killing and murdering Mary
Ann W ttkins, his wife, at liennor, near L2omin-
star, in this county, on the 18th of January last.
Mr. Cooke and Mr. Matthews conducted the pro-
secution, and Mr. Wighiman defended the prisoner.
When the prisoner was arraigned yesterday he
pleaded guilty-, but by his lordship's advice he after-
wards withdrew the plea, and the trial was fixed
for this morning. The trial occupied most of the
day, but the facts, as elicited in evidence, lie in
narrow compass. It appeared that the prisoner
had led a dissolute life, and had separated from his
wife, who earned a living by going out washing
and ironing. The deceased lived with a cottager
named Smith, and some time before the murder rue
prisoner had sand to Smith that he "should like to
be the death of his wife and of one or two others."
The deceased, too, was afraid of being out at night
in consequence of the threats that her husband
had used towards her. On Monday, the 18th of
January, the deceased went to do a day's wash-
ing at the house of James Lane at Ilennor, end
left Lane's house to go home at about six o'clock
in the evening. When she left Lane's she said
she did not much like going home by herself for fear
of meeting her husband. The poor creature never
reached her home that night, but between 10 and 11
o'clock, as a witness, named David Lipscombe, was
passing through an orchard on his way home, a
short distance from Lane's house, he heard groans
proceeding from the other side of hedge. He got
through a fence, and following the direction of the
sound soon came up with the poor woman, whom he
found lying on the ground in a pool of blood which
had flowed from several frightful cuts in her head.
Lipsconabe placed the woman in a position in which
she could breathe more freely, and having obtained
assistance, she was carried to the union workhouse,
where she died. Next morning at daylight an
examination was made of the locality of the murder,
and traces were found of a person wearing clogs of a
peculiar make. The prisoner was suspected of being
concerned in the murder, and it was ascertained that
he had been in the neighbourhood on the evening
of the murder. Between five and six o'clock he
called at a house about a mile and a half from Lane's,
and about nine he was at another house about a
quarter of a mile from where the murder was com-
mitted. He then wore clogs, and said he was going
to Smith's to askshis wife to go and live with him.
As he left he said, " Good night; perhaps I shall
never see you again." A day or two afterwards the
prisoner was apprehended, and, being charged with
the murder, answered, " Well, I did not do it."
A number of witnesses were examined to prove
the above facts. it was shown that on the night of
the murder the prisoner caned at several colages
distant from halt a mile to two miles from Hennor,
with no apparent object. He talked of his wife's
conduct, and said she had been unfaithful ta uim
during his absence, he having been for fotir years

away, having enli3ted es a marine. About Christ-
mas he deserted, and came down to the neighbour-
hood of Leominster.
For the &fence it was contended thrt the act was
only one of manslaughter.
His lordship summed up with great care and
minuteness, and
The jury, after a short consultation, returned a
verdict of guilty amidst a deep silence.
His lordship then passed the awful sentence of
death in the usual manner.

The court was crowded all day, and the prisoner
bore the trial with great fortitude.

WESTERN CIRCUIT.—TAUNTON, March 23.

(Before Mr. Baron Martin.)
James Howell, 32, labourer, was indicted for the
wilful murder of Susan Cleverly, at Bath.
Mc. J. W. Saunders and Mr. Bailey prosecuted.
Tne prisoner was undefended.
It appeared from the evidence of several wit-
nesses that the prisoner cohabited with deceased at
a lodging-house in Little Corn-street, B.th, and
early on the morning of Tuesday, the 16th of
February, cries of " Murder" were heard coming
from the room in which they lived. Marsh, the
man who kept the house, and Police-constable
James went to the room, and they found the poor
woman seriously injured, and complaining of the
prisoner's violence. The deceased at first threatened
to give him into custody, but subsequently declined,
saying that she should be murdered if she did. A
woman who lived underneath, and other wit-
nesses deposed to having heard noises in the pri-
soner's roam, as of some one jumping upon another.
The deceased, who was pregnant, was removed to
another house, and she died on the Sunday follow.
ing. The post-mortem examination proved the
death of the woman to have resulted from internal
disease, caused by the external injuries which were
apparent.
The jury found the prisoner guilty of man-
slaughter.

It appeared that he had been previously tried for
the murder of a woman with whom he cohabited,
found guilty of manslaughter, and sentenced to six
years' penal servitude.

His lordship now sentenced him to penal servi-
tude for life.

SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—It is very remarkable that at this moment
the most conspicuous result of the American war is
a gradual elevation of the black race in social and
political position. The Northern people, as a body,
though they have obviously learnt a species of tole-
ration for the coloured race, are probably not more
solicitous than formerly for the welfare or emanci-
pation of the negro; but, as happens in all revolu-
tions, the most thoroughgoing party has preyed the
most enduring, and that party is the Abolitionist
party. It was pointed out at a very early period of
the war that slavery could hardly escape from the
double danger with which it was threatened. If the
Federals wore victorious, they could deal with the
institutions as they pleased ; it the Confederates
established their independence, a free soil would
bound their territory, and any slave by crossing the
frontier could assert his freedom. Something akin
to this process has now been long going on. Many
negroes have actually taken refuge on Northern soil ;
many more, though still on Southern soil, have been
enabled by the presence of Federal armies to escape
from slavery. In the border counties, indeed, slavery
may be said to have been abolished though slaves in
great numbers still remain, but it has not been found
necessary in any of those territories to resort to such
edicts as that of General Banks in Louisiana, Is
justice also to the Abolitionists, it must be confessed
that the extreme representatives of their party are
consistent in their views. They do not, while as-
serting the rights of the negro, condemn him to
social proscription. They accept the logical
consequences at his emancipation, and have even
astonished the world by the completeness of the
recognition which they have recently announced,
and which our correspondence en vividly portrays.
It still remains to be seen, however, what part
the Southern people will take in the question thus
developed. If the war, as some Northern writers
tell us, and as appears by no means improbable,
is henceforth to be prosecuted with armies of
blacks, it is obvious that the superiority of re-
sources will now, for the first time, be on the side of
the South. If by men is meant black men, the Con-
federates are stronger than the Federals, for there
is no reason to presume that the Southern negroes
will refuse to fight on the side of their masters. In
any case, however, their position must be materially
affected, and it is certainly remarkable that the only
result of this extraordivary war as y et visible should
he the gradual subversion of that institution which,
if it was the remote cause of strife, was forgotten in
the first hours of conflict. Three years ago the
Federal Government made no secret of its willing-
ness to give every satisfaction to the slaveholders of
the South on condition of resuming their allegiance.
In all probability the great majority of the Federal
people would still be ready to make peace on the
same terms, but such a policy is necessarilyllacking
in vigour, and while the Democrats hesitate to avow
their pacific sentiments the more zealous Abolition-
ists have carried their standards to the front. In
the meantime, by the mere course of events, the
black man is pushing his way to a new position.
In the North, though still rejected by the bulk of
the population, he is encouraged and favoured by a
deermined faction, and has become necessary to all.
In the South he is invited by the invaders to quit
the state of slavery, and has actually the option over
a considerable portion of Confederate territory of
becoming what he was not before. It is not much,
perhaps, to be promoted from slavery to serfdom,
but it is a move, nevertheless, and when once accom-
plished will be hard to reverse. We do not see, in
fact, how slavery, thus dealt with on all sides, can
either remain what it is or become again what it
was, and that is one of the least unsatisfactory pros-
peels of this terrible war.'
HERALD.—The anxiety of Lord Palmerston to
satisfy the Government of Louis Philippe in 1840,
not only that he had not connived at the Boulogne
expedition, but that neither he nor Lord Melbourne
had for years set eyes upon " that madman" Louis
Napoleon, is hardly reconcileabte with the readi-
ness with which the noble lord has vindic Ated and
assumed the whole responsibility for Mr. Stansfeid's
intimate connection with the plotters against the
life of Louis Napoleon, the Emperor of the French.
There was then nothing but an insinuation, which
the noble load could have afforded to despise. Had
he seen Louis Napoleon, who enjoyed a good social
position in this country .a short time before the ex-
pedition, there would have been nothing in it to
justify complaint from the French Government.
But the canards of French newspapers were suffi-
cient cause to induce the noble lord to deny in the
official newspaper that he had called upon the
Prince, and send for the French Minister to give
him the most emphatic and detailed denial that he
had the slightest knowledge of the conspirators
against France. We applaud the anxiety, worthy
of an English Minister, to repudiate all part, even
the remotest and most indirect, in conspiracies
against a friendly Government. How is it that we
find a Minister, then so eitremely susceptible, now
not only refusing to give the French Government
an explanation in a much more serious matter, but
wantonly and offensively assuming the responsibi-
lity of aiding and abetting conspiracies against the
lire of a friendly bovereign ? Upon prisoners arrested
in Paris, in whose luggage were found weapons in-
tended, as they confessed, for the murder of the Em-
peror Napoleon, were found papers implicating Maz-
zini as the organiser of the insu, rection, and instruct-
ing his instruments to communicate with him at the
house of Mr. Stansfeld. These facts are men-
tioned at the trial. The Procureur General ex-
presses his surprise and regret that a member of
the English Parliament should assist such secure-
dreis, but he observes that this member of Perlis-

meet had been mixed up in a previous conspiracy
against the life of the Emperor. Nuw, here was a
case against Mr. Stansfeld, infinitely plainer and of
far greater gravity than that which Lord Palmer-
ston was so eager to explain away, and Mr. Stans-
feld, to do him justice, seems to have felt that he
had committed an indiscretion which made it im-
possible for him to remain a Minister of the Crown.
He offared his resignation. Lord Palmerston,
however, refused to accept it, and the result was
that Mr. Stansfeld, emboldened by the support of
his chief, refused to give any explanation, and pro-
nounced a glowing eulogium upon the arch-revolu-
tionist and apostle of the dagger. The House of
Commons was not to be put off thus easily, and Mr.
S:ansfeld was compelled to explain ' • and the Go-
vernment was only saved from defeat by the pathetic
appeals not to spoil the young man's prospects with
which the supporters of the Government accom-
panied their acknowledgments of his indiscretion.
Lord Palmerston alone refused to express regret,
and boldly, tauntingly,assumed the responsibility of
Mr. Stansfeld's friendship with Alazzini, end his
unintentional plots of the Italian revolutionist
against the Emperor's life. It has been said that a

man's body changes altogether in seven years, and
that at the end of that period it contains not the
strallest fraction of the substances with which it
commenced the septenniad. Thrice seven years have
passed since Lord Palmerston showed himself so
anxious for his honour to these days iu whio4 he
eagerly accepts the responsibility of harbouring and
assisting aasaasinc. Are we to suppose that b'
mind has been ohanged with his body,
9"'3.A as each
set of framework has given Phat' a weaker and a
worse, so the mind of
change lost son- noble lord has in each
- -
now thing of its sense of honour, until
can accept without difficulty the scandalous
part which the Premier has undertaken; orshall we
assume that Lord Palmerston was as iodifferent

then as now to his own and his country's honour,
hut, that hie chief. Lord Melbourne, compelled him
to offer Baron de Bourqueney these explana.ione
O. is the Premier effeaded with that distrust, the
creation of his own policy, which has shown itself
in the refusal of the Emperor to draw the che.sriuts
out of the Dano-German fire for England ? And
would he take the small satisfaction of a feeble
mind by telling the Emperor that, as he does not
choose to help the English Ministry out of the
scrape into which their folly, impertinence, and
cowardice have got them, his would-be assassins and
the patrons of those assassins shall be taken under
the protection of the English Ministry ? Whatever
the motives which have actuated the Premier in re-
fusing Mr. ..itansfeld's resignation, and accepting,
for the whole Government, the responsibility of h:3
relations with Mazzini and Mazzini's band of assas-
sins, the cons, quecces cannot tail to be most injuri-
ous to that alliance for which Mr. Gladstone and
Mr. Bright profess to be so anxious. The Emperor
is the sincerest and best friend of the English
alliance in Fiance; ho knows its immense value;
he appreciates its undoubted power to preserve the
peace of Europe and to secure the development of
material progress. To maintain it he has made
many sacrifices. Often since he his been upon the
throne he restrained the national hatred of Eng-
land, and it is of the greatest importance that he
should continue to do so until a party is formed in
France which, forgetting old rancours, will recog-
nise as well as the Emperor the value of the
alliance. If, however, the English Governm nt
will take every opportunity of wantonly insulting
the Emperor; if the Premier, instead of allowing
a member of his Ministry, whose indiscretion
had mixed him up in a plot against the life of
the Emperor, to resign, keeps him in office,
assumes the whole responsibility of his acts,
jauntily declaring, in fact, to France and Europe
that it is compatible with the honour of an Eng-
lish Minister to be the friend and protector of
men whose lives are spent in organising attempts
for the murder of the Emperor, it will be ial°
possible for the Emperor to retain his friend•
ship for England—impossible to restrain the natu-
ral indignation of his people. Already seriously
shaken, the Anglo-French alliance will soon, if
Lords Palmerston and Russell remain in power, be
at an end—at an end not because the interests of the
two countries ran counter, not because France in-
sisted upon pursuing a policy which threatened
English interests or offended English feeling, but at
an end because the English Ministers were discour-
teous, insulting, and insidiously hostile. Of what
value the cordial co-operation of France and Eng-
land is we see now, when the want of it has per-
mitted the Schleswig •Holstein controversy to break
out into a war, which threatens to become general.
The Ministry profess to feel the value of what they
have done so much to destroy ; but despairing of
succeeding in repairing their fault, they, with the
assistance and approbation of Mr. Bright, display
their spite and annoyance by a policy which cannot
fail, if pursued a little longer, to substitute open
hostilities for the alliance.