The Sun.
London, England, 1846-10-02 00:00:00

WORSHIP-STREET.

A well-dressed middle-aged man, named James
Emery North, was placed at the bar before Mr. Brough.
ton, charged with having unlawfully trespassed upon the
line of the Eastern Counties Railway at Shoreditch, and
placed his life in imminent danger.
Mr. Henry Grimshaw, the station-master, stated that
while on duty upon the platform at the terminus, between
8 and 9 o'clock on the preceding evening, just after the
arrival of the Ipswich train, he observed the prisoner
running along upon all-fours' underneath the bodies of
the carriages, and immediately ordered one of the com-
pany's servants to remove him. On being cautioned as
to the perilous position in which he had placed himself,
and demanding the cause of his so acting, the prisoner
replied that he had invented a plan for working the
trains upon a far superior system to that at present
adopted, and was waiting for the arrival of two friends,
whom he expected by the next train, to submit it to the
directors. As this was regarded as only an excuse for
his reckless conduct, he was allowed at that time to de •
part; but in the course of a quarter of an hour after-
wards, just as the train was moving off the rails he
was again discovered opening the doors of several
first-class carriages, and but for the instant inter-
position of one of the officers, he must have been swept
beneath the train, and his life sacrificed. On this occa-
sion the prisoner said that he was in momentary ex-
pectation of receiving a communication by the electric
telegraph of a robbery lately committed at Colchester,
in which he was suspected to be implicate-l; and, as he
was evidently labouring under the greatest apprehension
and terror, he was given into custody.
Sergeant Coleman informed the magistrate, that after
the prisoner had been conveyed to the police-station his
manner and language were so wild and violent as to leave
little doubt of his insanity, and as it was impossible to
ascertain anything from him that could be relied upon,
his person was searched to endeavour to discover some
clue to his relatives, and a packet of letters found in his
pocket, from one of which it appeared that he had
formerly been in the service of an ironmonger named
Shave, in the High-street, Braintree, and from several
others, which were couched in terms of the warmest
affection, that he had been for some time past paying
his addresses to a young woman in the establishment of
a gentleman residing at Whip's Cross, Walthamstow.
On being called upon for his defence, the prisoner,
who was perfectly tranquil, but still exhibited symptoms
of an absence of self-control, said he was aware he had
been frequently suffering from attacks of mental de-
rangement, and he could only account for the extraor.
ordinary and dangerous conduct imputed to him by sup-
posing that he must have been labouring under the
influence of one of these a4l ictions upon this occasion,
as the reasons he had given to the first witness for his
being in the position in which he was detected were
nearly without foundation.
Mr. BROUGHTON said he considered it would be wholly
unsafe to entrust the prisoner with his liberty in the
present state of his mind, and he should therefore order
him to be committed to prison for a week, to afford the
officers an opportunity of procuring the attendance in
town of some of his relations, who would be answerable
fur his future security._