The Sun.
London, England, 1856-10-27 00:00:00

PR(ISTON S. BROOKS AT HOME.

Under this heading, with the subsidiary one of "Blood
and Murder—Thunder and Lightning—Fire and Fury
—Slavery or Death—Di.oolution, Secession, or Eternal
Smash," the New York Times reports a banquet and pre4
sentation to Preston S. Brooks, the assailant of Mr
Sumner, got up by his constituents of the Fourth Con!.
gressional District of South Carolina, and given on the
3,1 inst., at Ninety six Depot, on the road between Col
lumbia and Greenville, and about 205 miles from the
city of Charleston. The report says there must have
been 10,000 people there. The chair was taken by Dr.

Caine.
A. Major-General M'Gowan concluded his speech by
presenting to BroAs a cane and goblet, on the former
of which was this inscription—
" Use knock-down arguments."
"To the Hon. Preston S. Brooks."

Dr. Priestly then presented an orange-wood cane.
In his reply Brooks said, " For inflicting the punish-
ment upon Mr. Sumner, of Massachusetts, I have had
showered upon me applause and commendation from
every part of the entire south." lie added, " I am by
no means confident of the election •of Mr. Buchanan. I
think it probable that John C. Fremont may be the
next President. I tell you, fellow-citizens, from the
very bottom of my heart, that the only mode which I
think available for meeting that issue is just to tear the
Constitution of the United States, trample it under foot,
and form a Southern Confederacy, every state of which
will be a slave-holding state. (Loud and prolonged cheer-
ing.) I believe it as I stand in the face of my Maker--
I believe it on my responsibility to you as your hon-
oured representative, that the only hope of the South is
in the South, and that the only available means of
making that hope effective is to cut asunder the bonds
that tie us together, and take our separate position in
the family of nations. These are my opinions. They
have always been my opinions. I have been a dis-
unionist from the time I could think. I speak on my
individual responsibili.ty ; if Fremont be elected Presi-
dent of the United States, I am for the people in their
majesty rising above the law and leaders, taking the
power into their own bands, going by concert or not by
concert, and laying the strong arm of southern freemen
upon the treasury and archives of the government."
(Applause.)

1 Yesterday, Mr. Burcham, the magistrate of South-
-wark police court, was summoned from Cheam to
Guy's Hospital, to take the deposition of a man who
'was supposed to be dying in consequence of wounds he
had received in a murderous attack which was made
upon him on the previous evening.
It appears that on Saturday night, about half-past
nine o'clock, Sergeant James Coldman, No. 23 M, hav•
ing heard that a man had been stabbed, proceeded to
the shop of Mr. Moore, a surgeon, residing in Grange-
road, Bermondsey, where he fiund a man, named Patrick
Griffin, a labourer, aged 35 years, who resided at No. 6,
Black Back-alley, near the London Docks, in a state
-which seemed to leave no hope of recovery. He bad
been conveyed there by. Mr. Barratt, the master of Marl.
borough-house School, Grange-road. ,The police-officer
having niacin" himself acquainted with the circum-
stances of the case, proceeded to a house in St.
ThoruaA-Place, and apprehended Richard Burchell, the
landlord, with two of his lodgers, named Patrick Ryan
and Abraham Burchell, and conveyed them to the
Station. Afterwards he searched the house, and found
a large black-handled knife, covered with blood,
of which he took possession. The three prisoners, with
Patrick and John Griffin, had been drinking at a public-
house jin the neighbourhood, when some differences arose
between them ; but before they parted the quarrel be-
tween them seemed to have been made up, and Griffin
bad rof) idea that he was the object of malice on the part
of any of them. John Griffin went home with the three
Prisoners to Burchell's house, add shortly afterwards
Patricik Griffin went there, with a view if passible of in-
ducing his brother to return home. While he was there
the quarrel was reneweLds• when one of the prisoners
struck him a violent bl iw with a brickbat or stone which
felled' him to the ground, and while in that position
Richard *Burcbell plunged the knife into his side. Bs
Mr. Moore's dinction the wounded man was conveyed
to Guy's Hospital.
When Mr. Burcham, the magistrate, attended yester-
day morning, he was met by Mr. Edwin, the chief clerk
of Southwark police-court, Superintendent Blandford,
Inspector Reid, Mr. Valentine, the house surgeon, Mr.
Calladay, Mr. Hill, and Mr, Archer. The prisoners
were Ipiaced by the wounded man's bedside, and he im
merl4tely pointed to' Richard Burchell as the assassin.
Mr. Burchani then took the man's depositions, which
were as follow :—" My name is Patrick Griffin. lam
35 y4ars of age, and reside at 6, Black Jack-alley, Lon-
don Docks. Yesterday evening I called on my brother,
John Griffin, who resides at 2, Willow-grove, Willow-
walk; Bermondsey. We went to a beer-shop, and had
a pot or two of porter. Some other persons were pre-
sent. My brother John afterwards went to Richard
Bur4hell's house, and I went to fetch him away, as he
meant to have a quarrel, and to persdade him to come
away. He would not leave. I went a second time to
fetch him away, when I.was struck over the. head with
a piece of poker. a brickbat, or a stone; and was
knocked down. While I was on the ground there were
three persons over me beating me. My brother was
present. I put up my arms to defend my head, and
when I was lying on the ground I felt a knife enter my
left fide. It was a long black-handled knife, with a sharp
point. • I seized b,old.cf the leg of the man that stabbed
me., At this stage of the proceedings the man fainted,
andirestoratives were applied. When he had sufficiently
recovered, Richard Burchell was placed separately at
his (bedside, and identified as the assassin.
The magistrate asked.Burchell whether he wished to
say' anything to the charge.
lichari Burchell (to Griffin)—Did yon not say, " I
wibe the death of your'
riffin—l might have said, "I will take your life."

Burchell—You had a handkerchief tied round your
waist when you were in the public-house—what was
that for
Griffin—l took it off my neck and tied it round my
waist to prevent my losing-it.
Mr. Edwin then read over the depositions to Griffin,
who tested them by his mark.
The prisoners, who were thordughly callous, were then
harcuffed and sent back to prison in charge of the police.
pto a late hour last night Griffin was net dead, bat
he is in the last stage, and the hospital surgeons state
that it is utterly impossible he can live beyond a few
hdurs.

The three prisoners will be placed at the bar of South-
wark Polioe Court this morning, to ans wer the charge
prfferred against them.

H,IGHTFAY ROBBERY AND ATTEMPT

AT MO.RDER NEAR YORK.

IA robbery, attended with circumstances of more than
uinal aggravation and cruelty, was perpetrated on Sa-
tirday evening last, on the high road leading to Hes-
liigtoo, near the premises which were a short time ago
u ed as a coach-yard, to.
About half-past nine o'clock in the evening, Samuel
flison, a labourer residing at the village of liesling-
t , and who had been at York purchasing some gro-
c ries, was pr,meding quietly on his way home. When
in
h eare the
road
shorta d i
syery
from a
mantheQpaaaskseerds ' h
iin, Retreat,
and
.

;er he had walked a few-yards further, this fellow

e evr°, thattwo hoer
was
hear eheesharp
er
twyhwishtleesm, noth they
ydownibrte as an itno-
t ation to his companions to prepare for active ope-
n tious. After walking a few yards further Ellison met
her two men, whom he observed closely, his suspicions
ving been excited by the whistling. He thought, how-
a, tempt to rob, and he therefore went on his way, with-
-1
out feeling apprehensive as to his safety, but he had not
done far before he heard footsteps approaching him, and
When these appeared nearer he drew himself to one side
a the road to a!low the parties to pass. He was in the
act of turning round to lo•Jk at the persons, when one
Of them gave him a blow on the head with a life-preserver
—or, more correctly speaking, a life-destroyer—and
knocked him down. The two fellows then fell upon the
Poor man, Rind while one of them attempted to rifle his
pockets, the other continued to beat hint in the most
brutal manner over the head and face, notwithstanding
that Ellison offered to give them all the money be had.
The poor fellow's cries attracted the notice of other pu-
outs who were returning to Hesliugton, and, hastening
to the spot, they observed the two villains in the act of
binning away as fast as possible, one of them having
jumped over a gate into a field by the road side. An
instant chase after the fellows was commenced, and they
were both run down and captured—one of them in the

field into which he bad jumped by Mr. Charles Stabler,
and the other/on the high road by Mr. Wm. Cottam and
Mr. Thomas Dixon. A life-preserver, no doubt the one
used and thrown away by the rubbers in their anxiety to
escape, wit.; also found near the spot.
The prisoners were conveyed to Heslington, and were
placed under surveillance at the Charles XII. Inn, at
the village. Ellison, who is a man of great physical
strength, appears to have borne his ill-usage without-,
losing his sensibility for a moment, his own natural
vigour and power, and the excitement attendant upon
the attack, having sustained him throughout. He
walked home with a little assi,tance ; medical aid was
procured, and it was then discovered that the injuries he
had received were of the most dangerous kind, and may
terminate fatally.
On Sunday afternoon the prisoners were removed to
York Castle, where they gave their names as Wm. Patrick
and Thos. Jackson. These men, we believe, have recently
been lodging in Swinegate, York, and the latter' is well
known to the police under the cognomen of Sailor
j Tommy. He professes to be a glazier by trade, and we
have heard that he is a ticket-of-leave man. Patrick
has also been previously convicted and imprisoned in
York Castle. Both of thein appear to be about 24 or
25 years of age.
On Tuesday evening a third man, named Francis
Walker, was apprehended on suspicion.—Yorkskireman.