The Sun.
London, England, 1863-08-13 00:00:00

MARLBOROUGH-STREET.

SAD DEATM OF A MEMBER OF THE UNITED UNIVER-
SITY CLUB.—William Coombe, of :34, Caroline-street,
Camden-town, a carman in the employ of Messrs. Chaplin
and Home, railway carriers, Camden-town, was charged
before Mr. Knox with causing the death of Mr. W. Milton
Bridger, aged 65 (a mecober of the United University Club,
Pall-mall), by driving a van with two horses over him in
Argyll-place.
sergeant W. Stephens, 11 C, said—At 8 o'clock last
night I was informed that a person had been run over and
killed in Argyll-place, I went there and found that a
gentleman had been rode over and was taken to Messrs.
Savory and Moore's, chemists, Regent street. The persons
there deeming it advisable that the gentleman should be
taken to an hospital, he was at once removed to the Middle-
sex Hospital, where the house-surgeon, Mr. Lee, at once
pronounced him to be dead.
Mr. Knox--I suppose he appeared to be dead when you
first saw him ?

Sergeant Stephens—Yes, sir. The prisoner was then
taken to the station, when he said he could not help it, and
several persons said no blame attached to the prisoner.
Mr. W. George Collins, a schoolmaster, residing at 14,
Great Ormonde-street, said—Last night about 8 o'clock I
was crossing Argyle-place and heard some one call out and
saw a van coming from Regent-street into Argyle place.
I heard a second call, and then turned round and saw a
gentleman running across the road when he was knocked
down and the horses and the first small wheel went over
him. At the time the horses were going at a moderate
trot. I believe it was the gentleman's own fault, and Ido
not think the prisoner could have pulled up. The van was
heavily laden, and the prisoner pulled up as soon as he
could.

Stephen Martin, one of the firemen at the King-street
station, said—l pulled the gentleman from behind the front
wheel which had passed over him.
Mr. Knox—it is quite clear that if the prisoner stopped
the horses in such a short space that the hind wheel did
not go over the deceased, the prisoner could not have been
going fast at the time.

Mr. Charles Hawkins, F.R.C.S., of 22, Saville-row,
deposed--I saw the body of the deceased, Mr. William
Milton Bridger, of the Chantrey, Bradford-on-Avon, Of
which place he was a magistrate. Deceased had been in
town 14 days and I attended him. Be was so well yester-
day at 5 o'clock that he was then going to dine at his club.
Hearing of the occurrence I went to the Middlesex
Hospital and found that deceased's arm was much broken
and his head smashed. I wish to state that deceased being
deaf a person might have called to him without his heating.
Inspector Bowles—l took bail for the prisoner at the
time.

Mr. Knox—Quite right. I shall take prisoner's bail to
appear next week after the inquest.
Inspector Bowles—There are several other witnesses who
speak to the same facts as the other witnesses.

Mr. Knox—The present evidence is sufficient for the
remand.

THAAIES.

Tarn SUICIDE MANIA.—Four women were brought up
this day, charged with attempting to commit suicide. Three
of them, who had undergone a week's imprisonment, were
brought up on remand. Esther Duncan, a respectable
married woman, 25 years of age, quarrelled with her hus-
band, and attempted to drown herself in the Wapping lock,
or entrance, of the London-dock. Mary Flinn, 28, made a
similar attempt at the Old Gravel-lane swivel-bridge; and
Mary Ann Harris, 34, sought a watery grave at the
Glarais.road bridge of the London-docks.
Mr. Woolrych said the Rev. Mr. Jephson, a kind-
hearted and zealous clergyman, who was the chaplain of
the Clerkenwell House of Detention, had forwarded him
a letter stating that he talked with the three women, and
they were very penitent and expressed their sorrow for what
they had done. They had also promised not to repeat the
attempts on their lives. The prisoners had each been guilty
of a very wicked act. It was a sin against Heaven to com-
mit suicide, and the law treated it as an offence of a very
aggravated nature to attempt self-destruction. The chap-
lain had given the prisoners good advice, and he hoped they
had profited by it. These continual attempts to commit
suicide were very dreadful and shocking and to humanity.
One woman quarrelled with her husband and straightway
proceeded to the dock entrance ; another, Harris, was in-
toxicated; and the third, Flinn, was disappointed in
obtaining work. He hoped the prisoners would
never make such rash attempts on their lives again. lie
then ordered them to be discharged.
Alice Laybury, aged 30, a married woman, of No. 7,
Albion-terrace, White-horse.lane, StepneY, was charged
with attempting to drown herself in the Regent's Canal.
A young man named Joseph Staley, carpenter, of No. 1,
Rhodeswell-terrace, Rhodeswell-road, Stepney, saw the
prisoner walk into the canal. The water only reached over
her ankles. She hesitated a moment and then plunged
into deep water. Staley jumped into the canal after her,
and brought her out. She was insensible, and it was some
time before she exhibited any signs of life.
Mr. Woolrych complimented Staley on his courage, and
remanded the prisoner for a week.

PATRONISING THE 13--- --often han3 I
00n.......H0w
heard the unfortunate Win •
ki
he were a little charity-child, Working man lectured, as if
, humid as to his nasal deve-
lopment, strictly literal as to
Providence to walk all his dayshis Catechism, ;and called by
repre-
sented on festive occasions by in a station in life
water and a bun I What p -
tingled to hear let off at hit:-pgulls of j a mug
of warmokes have these ears
milk-and-
water
asinine sentiments, what
impotent conclusions, what
spelling book moralities, what
adaptations of the orator's insufferablePa tediousness to the
assumed level of his understanding I
mers, his spades and pickaxes, his If his sledge-ham-
saws and chisels, his
paint-pots and brushes, his forges,
or
furnaces, and engines
W
the horses that he drove at his k, and the machines
that drove him at his work, were all toys in one little paper
box, and he the baby who played h • them, he could not
have been discoursed to, more impertinentlylva and absurdly
to
than I have heard him discoursed to, innummerable.
Consequently, not being a fool or a he has come to
acknowledge his patronage by virtually saying—" Let me
than alone. If you understand me no better
madam, let me alone. You mean very well, I dare say, but
I don't like it, and I won't come
,hereartin to have any
more of it."—Charles Dickens in
, ill he Year Bound."
CITY IMPROVEMENTS.—We are
glad to see the
march of improvement in the City,and ilv
made e are proud, too,
r ilvitlreague s
of the rapid strides that have beenn this generation.
We grumble sometimes, for that is our but still
we are not insensible to the beautiful
which the City has undergone duringa the l ;formation
street,
quar-
ter of a century. King William.
Cannon-
street, and hloorgate-street are noble et,
thoroughfares,x
whilst the grouping of buildings around the E
pre-
sents from various points of view
pictures of change
architectural
grandeur of which old Rome might be proud.
companies The taste
and opulence of our merchants and privatete
exhibited in the multitude of splendid edifices that
tlinare
line
our
streets, and strike the eye with their bold frontages at
almost every corner, and up every narrow court' What
a pity such a wealth of beauty should be hidden almost
in dark avenues and blind alleys I The ctintrast is striking
but this is London—an old City rebuilding,
a bad ground
plan plan being gradually accommodated to the needs of
cern-
a
gigantic and still-increasing trade. London is not Washing
ton, with its long vistas of geometrical streets, ending; no-
where and in nothing, nor Sr. Petersburg, built to order,
no: Paris, sought to be made a monument of autocratic
taste, but a city with a principle of growth within itself,
developing, enlarging, transforming, from
an
pulse. It grows because it must ; if it cannot grow internal
ial-
ut-
;yards, it will grow upwards, just like plants which, stud
c
u one direction, expand in another. London, in
short,nt
'lalt
P/y the stone and brick embodiment of a weighty is
'rCe, and as this increases, so the City.
imcrab-like, must
enlarge its shell, to give it room to breath and LOW) and
Por.icam /..- it, Vital ittucLitNls,—city eyes,