The Sun.
London, England, 1831-08-02 00:00:00

CFrom the Kent and Essex illeren,v.)
MAIDSTONE, Aun. I.—The execution nf.this wretched
youth, who was convicted at our Ass.zes, tiis)Yriday
of the murder of the boy Taylor, in a wood near Rochester,
took place over the turnkey's lodge, in the front of the
county gaol. The tender age of the culinit, for he is not
yet 14, and the circumstances under which the atrocious
crime was perpetrated, drew together an immense COll
course of people to whales; the sad spectacle. As eat lv as
five o'clock three or four thousand men and tvomen arrived
from different places, in the neighbourhood of the town ;
and by half-past seven at least ten thousand persons had
congregated near the gaol.
Meanwhile the unhappy object of all this great curiosity
was awaiting, with trembling anxiety, the approach of his
(loom, Ever since sentence was. passed upon bhn, and when
he was assured that no hopes of mercy remained to him,
he has conducted himself with great decorum. 'I" he Chap-
lain paid riseated visits to his erll, but the profliga'e les-
sons he was taught by his depraved parents were too
,I-eply rooted in his mind to make Bell acutely sensible of
the dreadful situation in which his crime had placed him.
The hardihood which the culprit had displayed at his trill,
and even when sentence was passed, deserted him as he
entered his cell. He wept bitterly ; and when his mother
visited hint, on Sunday afternoon, lie accused her of being
the cause of bringing him to his " present scrape." On
Sunday evening, after the condemned sermon had been
preached by the Rev. Chaplain, Bell made a full confes-
sion of his guilt. His statement did not materially dithn•
from that which was given on the trial ; but he added
some particulars of the conduct of his victim befme he
murdered him, which makes the blood run cold. He said
that when he sprung upon Taylor with the knife in his
hand, the poor boy, aware of his murderous intention, fell
upon his knees before him—offered him all the money
he had, his knife, his cap, and whatever else he liked.
Said he would love him during the whore of his life,
and never tell what had happened to any human being.
This pathetic appeal was lost on the murderer, and with-
out making any answer to it, he stuck the knife into his
throat!

At half-past aleven o'clock, the solemn peals of the prison
hell announced the preparations for the execution. After
the operation of pinioning, &e. had been completed, the
culprit, attended by the Chaplain, &c., walked steadily to
the platform. When he appeared there, he gazed steadily
around him ; but his eye did not quail, nor was his cheek
blanched. After the rope was adjusted round his neck, he
exclaimed in a firm and loud tone of voice, " Lord have
mercy upon us. Pray good Lord have mercy upon us.
Lord have mercy upon us. All the people before me take
warning by me!" Having been asked if he had any thing
farther to say, he repeated the same words, and added,
" Lord have mercy upon my poor soul." At the ap-
pointed signal, the bolt was withdran.n, and in a minute
or two the wretched malefactor ceased to exist.

The body is to be given over ^to the surgeons at R.l-
chester for dissection.

The number of persons present could not be less tilan
8000 or 9000.

MYSTERIOUS CIRCUMSTANCE AND

SUSPECTED MURDER.

Two years since, last Whitsuntide, the body of
a man was found by some boys in the tunnel which
passes under the high-road at Rose-hill, near Bolton.
It was tied up in a sack, and on examination was
found to be in a state of decomposition ; a Coronet's
inquest was held, and, from the appearance of the
body, and no marks of violence being found upon
it, the Jury were of opinion that the man had been
dead eight or ten days, and they returned a verdict
" that the deceased was found dead in a tunnel, but
how he came there there was no evidence to show.,"
No person owned the body, and the prevailing opi-
nien was, that it had been disinterred for surgical
purposes. The matter rested here, and nothing
further transpired until last week, when a female of
respectable appearance, who fills a housekeeper's
situation in Manchester, waited upon the Rev. Mr.
Jenkins, minister of Trinity Church, and said, that
in consequence of information she had received, she
had every reason to believe that the body found, as
before mentioned, was that of her husband, and that
he had been murdered. It appeared from the
story of the woman that her name is Eliza-
beth Hooper, and her husband's name John
Hooper. He was a journeyman saddle-maker,
and worked chiefly in the fancy line, and
therefore did not remain long in one place; that
some time previous to the 'Whitsuntide, when the
body was found, he had been employed by Mr. W
Paulton, saddler, of Bolton. On the 15th or 16:11
of M.y, 1829, he left his wife and two children to
tro to Knutsford, and she has not seen him or heard
from him since. Subsequently Mrs. Hooper has
resided in Manchester, where she met with many
kind friends, and amongst others, the assistant or
travelling overseer of Manchester. This person,
feeling for her situation, made it his business, in the
course of his parochial journies, to institut inquiries
at the different saddlers' shops in the towns he visited
and amongst journeymen saddlers, whether John
Hooper• was working at his trade, or if any one
could give information respecting him. He was un-
successful until very recently, when, f&ng at North-
ampton, he made inquiry respecting Hooper in the
presence of a man named Brewer, a journeyman
saddler. Brewer said "he knew Hooper well, and
that he (Hooper) was murdered near Bolton !" Ott
being further interrogated, he referred the overseer
to some person at Hanley, in the Potteries ; but upon
application being made, according to Brewer's re-
ference, nothing further could be elicited, and it was
evident that Brewer had given the reference merely
to get rid of any further inquiries. Subsequently
Brewer has worked at a saddler's shop at Burnley,
where he stated that Hooper was drowned at Bol-
ton, which, it will be seen, is at variance with the
story he told at Northampton. Mrs. Hooper recol-
lecting that about three weeks after her husband
left her, she being then living in Bolton, there was
the body of a man found under peculiar circumstances
in a tunnel, it struck her that this might probably
have been the corpse of her husband, and she came
to Bolton in the hope of being able to satisfy her-
self of the fact. She accordingly waited upon Mr.
Jenkins, and stated her decided opinion that she
should be able to identify the body even at this dis-
tance of time, if it was her husband's from the fol-
lowing circumstances was a broad-set man,
with a remarkably prominent forehead, black hair,
and had lost one of his upper front teeth ; upon one
of his great toes there was a thick clumsy nail,
that had grown in the place of the original,
which had been crushed off. The Coroner's authority
having been obtained, the corpse was disinterred on
Thursday afternoon last. Upon removing the earth,
the coffin appeared to be much decayed, and 1% US
filled with water, which was let out by breaking the
wood. The coffin was carried to the steeple-house,
and opened in the presence of the Minister, Mrs.
Hooper, and several other persons; the body was in
a decomposed state, and through the coffin having
been carried from the grave in an upright position,
the head had dropped upon the breast, completely
hiding the neck. On examination, the promine►►t
forehead spoken of by Mrs. Hooper was:remarkably
conspicuous, the hair on the head was black, the jaws
being separated, two of the upper teeth were missing
but one was found lying on his breast, thus con-
firming her story in this particular ; the clumsy nail
upon the great toe completely corresponded with the
description she had given of it ; the remains also
appeared to be those of a stout muscular man. Mrs.
Hooper likewise stated, that previous to her husband
leaving home, she had cut his hair short ; and the
hair of the corpse seemed to have been cut, short
immediately previous to death. This mysterious of
fair will be made the subject of further inquiry..—
Manchester Advertiser.

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proud than the grand and successful efforts which she has
made to enlarge the boundaries of geographical knowledge.
No country has at all equalled this in vastness and conti-
nuity of enterprise, or in brilliancy of success, and the
enlightened ►ntentions of our Government have teen ably
seconded by the spirit of its officers and men. Ihe name
edition of this work in octavo.
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