The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-24 00:00:00

INSECURITY OF LIFE AND PROPERTY

IN THE METROPOLIS.

On Saturday, at the sitting of the Marylebone
Representative Council, held at the Court-house,
Mr. P. Matthews, churchwarden, in the chair, Mr.
W. E. Greenwell, the vestry clerk, read a commu-
nication from the vestry of Paddington, together
with the copy of a memorial that body had adopted
to the Home Secretary upon the subject of the &arm
in the public mind, arising from the numerous
street robberies, with violence, which have recently
taken place in the metropolis, and soliciting the co-
, operation of the anthorities of Marylebone on the
subject.—Mr. Hodges said he felt it his duty to
move that the consideration of this memorial be
postponed, because, he said, if they agreed to it at
once, without mature deliberation, they might find
it made an excuse for saddling them with a very
large increase of the police. The police rate in
Marylebone already amounted to the enormous sum
of £26,000 per annum ; from £lB,OOO to £20,000 in
St. Pancras ; and from £14,000 to £16,000 in Pad-
dington ; and the sum total for the whole metropo-
lis was somewhere about £200,000. While, how-
ever, opposed to any further increase in the police-
rate, he quite agreed that it was highly necessary
the efficiency of the police should be increased. Mr.
Grange supported the immediate adoption of such
a memorial. To the disgrace of the metropolis and
the whole country, they had arrived at such a state
of things that there was danger in going into the
public streets after dark, of losing not only their
property but their lives by the garotters. Mr.
Abrahams said he was prepared to contend that, if
the large bodies of police occupied at the public
places of amusement were withdrawn and occupied
in their legitimate duty, for which the public paid,
and that if the commissionaires were sworn in as
constables and appointed in their places, the public
would be able to receive ample protection. Mr.
Freeth considered the parish of Paddington had
done themselves great honour in originating this
movement, and he thought it was inculabent on
that board, as a body elected by the ratepayers, to
support it as being a step for the protection of their
own lives and property, as well as of those they
represented. Some steps ought to be taken by the
Government to stop the fearful outrages that were
, going on night after night in the metropolis. The
other day a lady in St. John's-wood had occasion to
send her servant for the police, and it took two
hours and a half to find one, and then she had to go
to a police-station some distance off. It then tran-
spired there were no policemen on day duty in St.
John's-wood district. The consequence was, so bad

was the state of things, that people there were
much exposed to danger of being garotted in broad
daylight as well as at night. A very daring at-
tempt was made upon himse' f (Mr. Freeth), as he
was actually leaving a cab to enter his own house
as early as six o'clock a few evenings ago. The fact
was that the metropolis was infested with returned
ticket-of-leave men, robbers, and garotters, and
none more so Than St. John's-wood, and similarly
situated outskirt districts. He had recently tra-
velled through some of the principal capitals of
Europe., and could safely say that in no capital was
there less protection, or so little care for life and pro-
perty, as in London. Sir Richard Mayne had sig-
nally failed to do his duty in this respect, and he
therefore considered, as representing one of the
largest and heaviest taxed districts for police, they
were in duty bound to go to the Home Secretary
and demand proper protection from the returned
convict, the garotter, and the assassin. Mr. Overton
said several applications had been made to Govern-
ment for police returns as to the' number of men
employed, but they refused to furnish them. Ulti-
mately the memorial was adopted unanimously,
and signed by the chairman on behalf of the board.

Another assassination has just taken place at
Warsaw on the person of a Jew attached to the secret
police. He was found hanged at his own residence, and
shamefully mutilated.
EXTRAORDINARY SUICIDE ON THE RAILWAY,—
Shortly after noon on Thursday, when the third-class
Liverpool train arriving at Birmingbam at 1.30 p.m. was
about three-quarters of a mile from the Edgbaston station,
and was proceeding at the rate of about 20 miles an hour,
the engine-driver saw a man get on the line about 50 yards
in front of the train, and deliberately lay his head on one of
the rails. The driver at once put on his break and shouted
to the guard to do the same, but the train could not bo
stopped until both the engine and all the carriages had
passed over the unfortunate man. As soon as the
train could be stopped the guard jumped down
from the van and found the man lying with
his body between the rails, and with the head,
which had been laid on the left-hand rail, literally
crushed to atoms. The brains and portions of the skull
were scattered about the line and on the engine. Al-
though all the train had passed over it, the body, which lay
between the rails, showed no marks of injury, The
guard
called somo platelayers to his assistance, and placing the
body and such fragments of the head as they could pick up'
bore it to a public house at Springhill, where it now lies
waiting an inquest. Under a bridge crossing a line near the
spot where this painful occurrence took place, were found
overcoat, gloves,
an a walking-stick, a pair of and a hat.
iNsVtrhi toteonnliynosilduee tfhoeunhdat
twoatshe theidneanmtifiecoaf
identification
Pofat;hsoendse.'c'eaTsdheis,
who was respectably dressed, at the time of writing. About
half an hour before the train came up the foreman of some
platelayers at work on the line, some distance below, saw
the deceased walking on the line, and warned him off. He
then walked to the canal side, where he stood for a short
time, and just before the train came up he was Been walk-
ing towards the line.