The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-12 00:00:00

ASSAULT ON A CLERGYMAN,

HORSHAM, THURSDAY.
This morning a powerfully built navigator,
named Thomas Walker, was brought up before
Messrs. Crase Dickins and T. Sanctuary, the sitting
magistrates, at Mr. Stedman's offices, charged with

the commission of a violent assault on the Rev.

Thomas Matthews, vicar of the village of itudg-

wick, about seven miles from this town.

It appears that a railway is at present in course
of construction between Horsham and Guildford,
and the works at this end of it have progressed as
far as Rudgwick. During the construction of the
railway several outrages have been committed in
the neighbourhood by the navvies employed, and
the Rev. Mr. Matthews, since they have been at
work in his more immediate vicinity, has gone much
amongst them, appee, ently with good effect, to coun-
sel and advise a different Course of conduct to that
which they nave hitherto pursued. He has every
Sunday evening held a special service in a barn
immediately contiguous to the works, to which he
invited the men, who attended in considerable num-
bers, and whom the rev, gentleman took especial
care should be entirely to themselves, and requested
them to attend without any regard to their apparel.
The discourses were suitable to the men's calling,
and freed from the too usual spirit of the like
gatherings. The rev. gentleman, since his more
intimate acquaintance 'with the navvies employed
on the works referred to, has invariably attributed
any bad conduct which has been commented upon,
rather to the few than to the many, and bas on
many occasions defended them when censure has
been passed upon them by others. It is, therefore,
with the greater regret that we have to report a
violent and dastardly assault upon the rev. gentle-
m en. On the prisoner being placed at the bar, the
following evidence was taken :
The rev. gentleman deposed that on Sunday
evening, the 7th of September, he performed ser-
vice in a barn near the railway bridge cutting at
Rudgwick. After the service, between six and
seven o'clock, he walked up towards Alford with
the Rev. Richard Sparkes, the rector of that parish.
Just after they had passed the railway bridge the
prisoner and another man who stood there with
him followed them, and. the prisoner asked fee
some tobacco. He (complainant) said that ho had
not got any, and on the prisoner asking again, the
Rev. Mr. Sparkes said, "We do not carry tobacco
about with us." The prisoner again asked him (the
complainant for tobacco, and said, " If you do not
gi've us some tobacco, I will knock you down." He
(witness) said, " You had better take care what you
are about," or words to that effect; and the prisoner
repeated his threat. Witness said, " I will give you
in charge of the police ;" and prisoner said, with a
foul expression, " I want some tobacco," and he
then knocked him (witness) down with his clenched
fist by a blow on the temple. His (witness's) eyes
immediately blinded with blood, but he got up,
and the prisoner again knocked him down by a
blow on the side of the head. He (witness) strug-
gled up, stupified from the effect of the two blows,
when the prisoner knocked him down again side-
ways by a blow behind the ear. He (witness) was
stunned, but managed to crawl to the bank to
escape further ill-treatment. He said to the com-
panion of the prisoner, " Keep
_your comrade back ;
you both get into trouble," and the other man
said something to keep the prisoner quiet, but did
not try to assist witness. The cut on the temple
was quite a quarter of an inch deep. The Rev.
Mr. Sparkes had, as witness supposed, be-
come frightened at the violence of the prisoner,
and ran away. The prisoner left witness, and
after he had done so witness heard him say, " I
will now go and kill the oth,r," making use of a
most foul expression. Witness thought he saw
Mr. Sparkes at that time on the opposite side of
the way. Witness got to Buck's cottage and washed
the blood from his face and eyes. He was a uffer-
ing considerably from the blows, nd had constant
pain in his head and down his neck.
In reply to a question from the prisoner,Witness
said—l distinctly heard you say, after you left me,
" I will go and kill that other old
The Rev. Richard John Sparkes, rector of Alfold,

fully confirmed the evidence of the prosecutor, but
would nut be quite sure whether the prisoner asked
the first time for tobacco or for money to buy it
with. He (witness) was so alarmed at the ferocious
conduct of the prisoner that he rushed into an ad-
jacent cottage for refuge.
F. Buck deposed that he lived just by where the
assault took place, and heard the prisoner use
threats towards the rev, prosecutor. He (witness)
was too frightened to render any assistance, as the
prisoner was such a big powerful man. He fetched
the police-constable, and identified the prisoner at
the Queen's Head, ,Buck's-green, as the man who
committed the vssault.
Police-constable Eames, of the Sussex county
constabulary, said that he took the prisoner into
custody at the public-house referred to. He charged
him with the offence, and prisoner said he knew no-
thing about it. On saying he should lock him up
he said no man should lock him up. On endeavour-
ing to put the handcuffs on prisoner struck him a
r,
violent blow on the mouth, and kicked him several
times. After prisoner was overpowered one of his •
companions said it served him jolly well right, for
he had no business to interfere with the parson,
and prisoner replied that he had done it now, and
it could not be helped, adding, " I'll see to the old
- when I come out, and pay him off then, if it's
three or four years to come ; ' and he repeated the
same threat several times. Oa his way to the sta-
tioh he violently resisted.
The prisoner, in reply to the usual caution, de-
clined to say anything, and
The Chairman of the Bench feelingly remarked
on the ferocious character of the offence, and fully
committed the prisoner for trial at the next assizes.

SUSPECTED CHILD MURDER IN
GORDON-SQUARE.

Last evening an inquest was opened by Dr. Lan-
kester, the coroner, at the Elephant and Castle,
King's-road, Camden Town, respecting the death of
a newly born female child, found with a fractured
skull in a servant's trunk, at 2, Gordon-street, Gor-
don-square, under circumstances leading to the sup-
position of its having been murdered.
The Coroner intimated to the jury that as Rosa
Clifford, the supposed mother ©f the deceased, would,
not be able to attend for the present, and as the in-
quiry could not be completed for the want of evi-
dence not then available, he proposed to take the
deposition of the medical man only on the present
occasion, and adjourn.
Dr. Browne, of Gordon-square, was called, and
deposed that he was requested on Monday evening
to go to 2, Gordon-street, Gordon-square. He at-
tended, and found Rosa Clifford, a housemaid in
the establishment, lying in bed, suffering from ute-
rine hemorrhage, and presenting the appearance of
having been recently delivered of a child. She,
however, positively denied having been delivered,
or pregnant at all. On Tuesday morning his atten-
tion was called to an after-birth found in the house.
He again visited her, and she still denied having
given birth to a child. His attention was then
directed to a box belonging to Rosa Clifford under-
neath her bed, which, having been pulled out, he
found contained the dead body of the deceased—a
fullgrown child.
The Coroner said that was as far as they could go
into the case that day, and therefore he proposed to
adjourn for a fortnight to complete it. Child mur-
der and cases of concealment of birth were now of
very frequent occurrence in the metropolis, and he
hoped the jury would see the necessity of giving
such cases their best consideration.
The jury acquiesced in the coroner's opinion, and
adjourned accordingly.

FATAL OCCURRENCE IN REGENTS

PARK.

Yesterday Dr, Lankester, the Central Middlesex
coroner, prosecuted an investigation at the Ord-
nance Arms public-house, Ordnance-road, St.
John's Wood, as to the death of an elderly gentle-
man, which took place in a much•frcquented por-
tion of Regent's Park on Monday last, under such
sudden circumstances as to occasion some excite-
ment in the park at the time.

Mr. Edmund Wellington, 82, High-street, Port-
land Town, identified the body as that of his uncle,
Mr. William Wellington, aged 75 years, a gentle-
man of independent means, residing in Ordnance-
road. He last saw him on Sunday night in his
usual health, and understood that he left his home
perfectly well on Monday morning for a walk
across the park. _ .

William
Tond, ono of the park keepers, deposed
that about one o'clock on Monday he found the
deceased lying on the grass in the park with his
eyes open, but evidently dead. His attention was
first dirictcd to the body by a gentleman, and a
large number of persons collected around it. The
deceased gentleman appeared to have just dropped
down dead. Witness immediately fetched a medical
man, who, having pronounced him dead, he ; ssisted
to remove the body, it being then unknown, to St.
Marylebene de,dhouse.
Mr. John Druitt, M.D., said he performed a post
mortem examination of the body
twenty-eight hours
after death. He found no marks of violence what-
ever. The cause of death was from effusion of
serum on the brain.
The Coroner remarked that it was one of those
cases of serous apoplexy not unt'requent with old
people after a little extra exertion frola, lv:4L-ing•
Verdict—Died frcm natural cause,:..