The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-01 00:00:00

FATAL ACCIDENT ON THE WINDER

MERE RAILWAY.

A melancholy accident, resulting in the death of
one of the men employed on this line, occurred at the
Staveley station on Wednesday last. It appears that
a luggage train, to which a passenger carriage was at-
tached, left Birthwaite shortly before two o'clock in
the afternoon of that day on its way to Kendal. It
bad been expected that Mr. Crewdson, one of the di-
rectors, would return by that train to Kendal, and the
station-master at Staveley had accordingly put up
the red signal, as un intimation to the engine-driver
that he was to stop. The engine-driver, whose
name is John Unsworth, and who is a very steady
and trustworthy servant, and according to his state-
ment has been fifteen years in his present occupation,
accordingly, as he approached, slackened his speed,
and thy deceased, whose name was Anthony
Stringer, and who was a porter on the line, and was
with some waggons behind, put on the break to
assistit his comrade in pulling up. There appeared to
be a misunderstanding respecting the return of Mr.
Crewdson, and the station-master ordered the driver,
who was slackening his speed, to go on, making at
the same time a movement to that effect with his
hand. The deceased does not, however, appear to
have noticed any signal, and in consequence of
the sudden jerk caused by the partial putting on of
the steam was thrown off the break, across the rails
on the down side, close by the platform, having been
precipitated against a post at the end of it. He was
not missed by the engine-driver until the train
reached Kendal, but was found immediately after by
the Staveley staticnmaster, his kgs having been run
over by the train and severed from bis body, except
by a piece of skin. Mr. Longmire, surgeon, was
immediately summoned from Kendal, and arrived
with a special engine, promptly supplied by the com-
pany, but attempts to rally the system proved un-
availing, and he expired about ten o'clock the same
evening. He was 25 years of age, and was a very
good and steady servant. It appears that the only
parties with the train were the engine-driver and the
deceased, who had it in management, and Mr. Har-
rison, the secretary, and the Rev. Mr. Addison, of
Birthwaite. An inquest was held, and the jury re-
turned a verdict of "Killed by being accidentally
thrown from the break on the rails, and run over by
the last carriage."

SHIP NEWS.

GAAVESEND, Nov. 30.—Wind N.W.

Arrived—Fleeh, from Ghent; Concordia and Adonis,
from Rotterdam ; Lion, from Harlingen ; Stadt
Dordt, from Dordt; Tourist, from Calais; Green Isle,
from Nieudiep; Queen, from Hamburgh, Jane, from
Stettin; George, from Rostock; Cassandra and Matilda,
from Patras; Dublin Lass, Reliance, Neptune, Benja-
min Scott, and Speedy, from Guernsey; Ocean, from
Duterwalla; Delicia, from Denis; Mather, from St.
Petersburgy; William, from Taganrog; Williams and
Tombolt, from Hamburgh; Shand and Protomelia, from
Calcutta; Catherine, from Sydney; Viper, from Dan-
kirk; Doman, from China; Rhine, from Ostend; Seine,
from Boulogne; Anglia. from Madras; Pearl; Arethusa
and Frithioff, from Caleo (I') Callao; Flecha, from
Jamaica; Sultana, from Monte Video; Johanna Frederika,
from Oldenburg; Friedenrik, from Denmark; Maria
from Oldenburg.
Sailed—Diadem, for New Orleans; Thames, and
Countess of Lonsdale, for Hamburgh; Menai, for Calais;
William Jolliffe, for Havre; Emanuel, and Baron Osy,
for Antwerp; Albemarle, for Port Adelaide; Thomas
Arbuthnot, for Sydney; Perseverance, for St. Michael's;
Mary Ann, for Trinidad; Testadelen, and the Twende
Brodres, for Norway; Triton, for Ostend; Rainbow, and
Attwood, for Rotterdam; Calcutta, for Wales; Albion,
for Boulogne; City of London, for Dunkirk; Batavier,
Earl of Auckland, and Burgermeister Hyndekoper, for
Rotterdam; Lord John Russell, for Harlingen.
_ _ VESSELS SPOKEN WITH.

John Hamilton, from Bombay, Nov. 18, in lat. 8 N.,
long. 27 W.
Richmond, from Liverpool for Buenos Ayres, Sept. 28,
in lat. 26 S., long. 34 W.
Cornelia, from Batavia for Amstordare, Oot. 17, in lat. 9
N., long. 23 W.
Albany, from the Clyde for Calcutta, Oct. 18, in lat. 10
N., long. 23 W.
Nicholas, from Rio Grande for Hamburgh, Oct. 22, in
lat. 14 N., long. 27 W.
Caroline, from Newfoundland for Pernambuco, Oct. 25,
in hit. 17 N., long. 30 W.
Glenorchy, from Calcutta for London, Nov. 3, in lat. 2
N., long. 32 W.
P...ngola, outward bound, Nov. 15, in lat. 44 N., long.

. .
3 i W.
Tropic barque, of London, for Buffslo River, Oct. 8, off
the Cape of Good Hope.
Duchess of Zetland, Nov. 24, in lat. 49 N., long. 7. W.
Maori, from London for New Zealand, Oct. 15, in lap.

2 N., long. 22 W.
Jessie Stephens, from Peru for Cork, with loss of boa
and spars, in lat. 40 N., long. 24 W.

PRESBYTERY OF PERU:h.—I:WS body met on Wed-
nesday last, when the Rev. Mr. Caird, of Errol, WAS chosen
moderator for the CUAling half-Years

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.
OLD COURT.
(Before Mr. Justice MAuLE )
The following case was specially fixed for this
morning, (Noy. 29), and the court was accordingly
opened at ten o'clock. Owicg to some misunder-
standing, however, the jury, counsel, &c., were kept
waiting until twenty 'minutes past one o'clock, at
which hour the Learned Judge took his seat on the
bench.

William Smith, alias Glenister, aged twenty, was
indicted for the wilful murder of Mary Elizabeth
Rtinolds.
Ar. Bodkin and Mr. Clerk conducted the prosecu-
tion. The prisoner would have been without the as-
sistance of counsel, but the Sheriffs, upon becoming
acquainted with the fact that he was not in a condition
to obtain such assistance, very kindly requested Mr.
Cooper to watch the case on his behalf.
Mr. BODKIN having opened the facts in a clear and
temperate address to the jury, the following evidence
was adduced :

Elizabeth Reynolds deposed that she had cohabited
with the prisoner for about three months before the
death of the child in question. They lived at No. 6,
Douglas-street, Westminster. About eight o'clock
on the evening of the 23d of October witness went
out, leaving the infant in the prisoner's room asleep.
It was witness's child by another man. She met with
a friend of the prisoner,',and they drank together, and
she became intoxicated and was locked up in the sta-
tion-house, and was taken the next morning before a
magistrate, who discharged her. When she went
home she found her child covered with bruises, and
quite dead ; and, from what the persons in the house
told her, she went to the Equitable Gas-works, where
the prisoner was ,employed, and upon seeing him she
exclaimed to him that he had murdered her child.
The prisoner replied, " You should have been at home.
I have murdered it. What to do I don't know. I
had better b— well go and drown myself." A
policeman was sent for, and the prisoner was given
into custody. (A child's and a man's shirt, both
saturated with blood, were here produced and iden-
tified by the witness as being those of her child and
the prisoner.)
In answer to a question put by Mr. COOPER, the
witness said that the prisoner sometimes appeared to
be fond of the child.

Caroline Lund, a lodger in the same house, and
occupying a room adjoining that of the prisoner,
proved that on the night of the 23d of October the
prisoner came home between 7 and 8 o'clock, and
by his manner she had no doubt that be was very
drunk. As he was going upstairs he called out " All
right" three times, and he then went into his room,
and very soon afterwards she heard the child cry as
though it was being slapped or beaten. The prisoner
then exclaimed, " You little wretch, if you are not
quiet I will kill you," and she then heard the child
cry again. Immediately after this witness heard the
sound of a thump or fall upon the floor, and then the
child cried still more violently. The prisoner made
use of very bad language to the child, and said that if
any one interfered he would serve them the same, and
she also heard him say, "My life is a misery; I am
miserable ; I know I shall be hung, and I may as
well be hung out of the way." After this there was
another sound, as though the child was thrown down
again, and it screamed violently. Nobody but the
prisoner was in the room at the time.
James Henry Walker, a shoemaker, living in the
house, gave similar evidence as to what took place in
the early part of the evening. He also said, that be-
tween 19 and 1 on the following morning he again
heard the child thrown down and beaten, and it
screamed violently. Between 5 and 6 the same thing
occurred again, and about 6 the prisoner went out,
and he did not hear the voice of the child any more.
About 11 o'clock he went into the prisoner's room
and saw the child lying dead, and dreadfully disfi-
gured, and covered with a piece of ticking. The
witness also stated that the prisoner was in the habit
of illusing the child, be had repeatedly complained of
it, and said that he would not stop in the house if he
continued such conduct.

By Mr. COOPER—He did not interfere because he
was afraid of the prisoner's violence.
William Miller, a police-constable of the B divi-
sion, proved that he went to the prisoner's room and
found the child quite dead and cold. There was
blood all over the bed, and the child appeared covered
with wounds. Upon searching the room he found a
man's shirt and a child's shirt, which he produced.
They were both very bloody. There was some blood
upon the hearth, and in another place it appeared as
though blood had been wiped up. Witness then went
with the mother of the prisoner to the gas- works, and
took him into custody upon the charge of murdering
the child, and he replied that he was drunk when he
went home, and that he fell over the child, and did
not know what took place afterwards. There was
some blood upon the prisoner's smockfrock when he
took bins into custody.
Mr. Pearse, a surgeon, described the condition of
the child. There were sixtee❑ bruises, some of them
old and some of them recent ones, upon different
parts of its person. The right arm and left leg were
fractured, and there was a very severe contused wound
under the left eye, and the head and face were covered
with bruises. All these injuries were of a nature
likely to be occasioned by the child being held by the
legs and dashed against the ground. There was a
quantity of extravasated blood upon the brain, and
this was the immediate cause of death.
This was the case for the prosecution.
Mr. COOPER then addressed the jury for the pri-
soner, and he endeavoured, with his usual ability, to
induce them to collie to a conclusion that they might
charitably say by their verdict that the prisoner was
in such a condition of mind at the time that he com-
mitted the act that he hardly knew the consequences
of what he was doing, and that upon that ground
they might acquit him of the dreadful crime of mur-
der and convict him of manslaughter only.
Mr. Justice MAULE having summed up,
The jury, after deliberating for about a quarter of
an hour, found the prisoner Guilty of murder, but
they at the same time strongly recommended him to
mercy on the ground that he was at the time in a
state of intoxication, and that if the woman Reynolds
had been at home on the night in question the occur-
rence would not have taken place.
Ilia LORDSHIP put on the black cap, and, addressing
the prisoner, said that he had been convicted upon the
clearest possible evidence of a murder of the most
aggravated and brutal character, committed upon the
person of a poor child, who could not possibly have
given him any provocation. It appeared that he was
intoxicated at the time, and this was another instance
of the melancholy consequences that resulted from
the fatal vice of drunkenness. The jury had recom-
mended him to mercy, and that recommendation
would be forwarded to the proper quarter, but he
exhorted him not to place any reliance upon the effect
of that recommendation being favourable to him, but
to prepare, by a sincere repentance, for the fate which
in all probability shortly awaited him. The Learned
Judge then passed sentence of death in the usual form.
The prisoner neither during the trial nor when
sentence of death was passed betrayed the least emo-
tion, and when the Learned Judge had concluded he
walked out of the dock with an air of the greatest in-
difference.
This case concluded the business of the session, and
the Court was adjourned to Monday, December 14.
The cases of the persons committed for perjury by
the judges of the superior courts are postponed to
next session.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
MANSION-HOUSE.

Daniel Wilson, who was stated to be the keeper of
a tavern in the neighbourhood of the East India
House, was brought before the Lord Mayor under the
following remarkable circumstances. Mr. Hobler
appeared for the defendant.
Mr. James M'Millan—l am a solicitor, and have
an office at No. 31, Great St. Helen's, Bishopsgate.
Last evening, between five and six o'clock, I made
up my office books and put them in a drawer in the
table where I usually kept them, and I locked the
drawer and the office door and went home. On ar-
riving at the office this morning, at half past ten
o'clock, I found two of the doors open, and saw a
prize-fighting man sitting in the office. I asked him
what he was doing there? My suspicions were excited
from seeing him, and I opened the drawer in which I
bad deposited my books, and I found that any day-
book, in which I make entries of all my transactions,
was gone. In consequence of what the fighting-man
told me I went to the house of the defendant, and
asked him to give me back my book. He said, " I'll
do nothing of the kind, unless you abandon the pro-
ceedings you have taken against Mr. G. H. Child," a
personal friend of his. In the course of a conversation
I bad with him he said he had been at the office that
morning, and had left the man there. Some high
words took place between us, and I told him that I
would take proper means to recover my book, without
which I could not go on with my business. I then
went for a policeman and gave him into custody.
The LORD MAYOR—Is the book produced here ?
Mr. Hobler said it was not.

Complainant—The defendant's name is under mine
at the office entrance,. as be contemplated opening a
MOM as a wine merchant's office there.
The LORD MAYOR—Had he ever used the day-
book ? Complainant—No, it was my own private
bjok. He holds a power of attorney from Mr. Read,
who formerly rented the office, and had taken the
chambers for three years, which are not yet expired.
He used to be frequently at my office, but has been
there but seldom of late, and he had been a client of
mine. I was told this morning what I did not know
before, that he had keys of my office. lie paid the
rent of the office up to the 24th of June. I paid the
last quarter's rent.
Cross-examined by Mr. Hobler—Mr. Read occu-
pied the premises till the beginning of January, and
I was not aware that he went away in debt to the