The Sun.
London, England, 1856-12-24 00:00:00

PERSONATING GHOST.

A long investigation took p':ace at Greenhill-lane,
near Alfreton, on Monday afternoon, before Mr.
Busby, one of the coroners for Derbyshire, touch-
ing the death of Robert Mitchell, agricultural
labourer, aged 15 years, the son of Joseph Mit-
chell, who died on Friday evening last from the
effects of fright. The deceased was a healthy, ii.-
telligent lad, and used to work with his father in
the fields. He had been in the habit each night
for about a fortnight past, after leaving his work
at 5 o'clock in the evening, to go from Mrs. Flint's,
where he and his parents lodged, to the farmhouse
of Mr. Day, at Roby-fiel is, near Alfreton, for milk.
The deceased and his father worked fur Mr. Day in
draining the land. Mr. Day had two servant lads,
one named John Percival, about 20 years of age,
and the other Isaac Hudson, 15 years old. On Mon-
day evening, the 15th inst., about a quarter to 6
o'clock, Robert Mitchell, the deceased, came as
usual for the milk, and remaiked till between 7
and 8 o'clock. Mr. and Mrs. Day, Percival, Hud-
son, and the deceased were the only persons in the
house, and telling tales about some knocks that
they had been frightened with. Percival and
Hudson arranged together, unknown to the de-
ceased, that they should play the ghost. It was
agreed that Percival should take a white tablecloth
and put it over him, and stand in a close not far
from the house, and Hudson was to conduct the
deceased to the place, and pretend to be frightened
when he (Hudson) saw Percival with the sheet on.
About half-past 7 o'clock Percival called Hudson
out and said he was ready. He had a white table-
cloth under his arm, and he told Hudson to follow
him with the deceased shortly after. In about 10
minutes or a quarter of an hour after this Hudseu
took the deceased out of Mr. Day's house, and
Hudson told the deceased that he would go with
him to Mrs. Flint's, where he lodged. They went
together along the footpath across the field
in that direction. After they had got about 120
yards from Day's house Hudson saw Percival
with the tablecloth over him. Hudson said "Look,
Robert, what's that ?" Deceased said " Nothing,
come along." Percival, " the ghost," was then
about 40 yards from them. Hudson and deceased
then went on further, until they came within seven
or eight yards of the ghost. Hudson feigned a
scream, and the ghost was standing by the stile
which they had to pass through. The "ghost" then
moved about a yard and a half behind the stile.
Deceased stood still and said " Jack." There was
no answer, and Hudson ran and hid himself behind
a tree in the hedge. Deceased went up to the stile
and called "Jack" a second time. There was no
answer, and deceased went through the stile, when
Percival made a noise like a moan. Hudson was
only 10 or 12 yards off. Hudson then heard deceased
say, "Is it Jack ?" and there was another moan,
but afterwards Percival threw off his disguise, but
the deceased was much teriitiei, and went houn•
and arrived there about 8 o'clock with the milk.
He was " all of a tremble," looked white, and stared
wildly, and on being interrogated by his father re-
lated what had occurred, though he did not believe
it was the servant-man Percival, and he could not
account how he got home. Deceased ate nothing
that night and went to bed, and to his work the next
day, but he was seized with vomiting, and was
obliged to be conveyed home, and complained of a
pain in his throat. The deceased grew worse, and
raved in kis bed about what had happened, and he
died on Friday evening. Mr. Belcher, surgeon,
attended the deceased, who, he said, was suffering
from extreme nervous excitement. He believed
death to have resulted from exhaustion occasioned
by a shock on the nervous system which he had
received on the previous Monday evening. The
coroner told the jury that they must be satisfied
that the death arose from fright, and, if so, whe-
ther it was a frolic in which all the boys were par-
ties.
If it. arose from fright, the frightening was
unlawful, and Percival would be responsible. After
some deliberation, the jury returned a verdict of
" Manslaughter" against Percival, who was com-
mitted to the a, s izes.

THE FRAUDS BY THE OFFICERS OF THE
GUARDIANS OF THE CITY UNION.

The investigation as to the frauds an:l robberies corn
mitted by Manini and Paul, who have disappeared, leay.
ing an immense amount of money unaccounted tor, is
proceeding vigorously. It is bel►eved that the defalca-
tions exceed 50,0001. Mr. Rowsell, clerk to the guar
dians of the several parishes, has been—greatly to the
regret of many of the most respectable inhabitants, who
have known him many years—suspended from his office,
although it is not imputed to him that he was at all cog-
nisant of the fraudulent transactions which have taken
place.
The following is a copy of the warrant of suspension,
which was signed and sealed on Monday at the Mansion
House :

"CITY OF LONDON UNION.

"To the Guardians of the Poor of the City of London, in
the City of London, and the liberties thereof ;
" To Mr. John Rowsell, clerk to the Guardians of the
Poor of the said Union ;

" To the Churchwardens and Overseers of the Poor of
the several parishes and places comprised in the said
___

Union ;
"To the Clerk, or Clerks, of the Justices of the Petty
Sessions, held for the division, or divisions, in which
the said Union is situate ;
"And to all others whom it may concern :
" We, the Poor Law Board, hereby declare that we
deem it expedient that John Thomas Rowsell should be
suspended from the office of clerk to the guardians of the
poor of the City of London Union, in the City of Lon-
don and the liberties thereof ; and in pursuance of the
powers given in and by the statutes in that behalf made
and provided, we do hereby suspend him from the said
office, and order and direct the said Thomas Rowsell to
cease to exercise and discharge the powers and duties of
the said office, until we shall, by any order under our
hand and seal of office, otherwise direct.
"And we do declare that the urgency of the case re-
quires that this order should take effect within the period
of 14 days, and do accordingly direct that the same shall
come into force forthwith.

" Given (under our hand and seal of office this 22d
day of December, iu the year 1856.
" E. P. BOUVERIE, President.
"COURTNEY, Secretary."

UNIVERSITY INTELLIGENCE.

OXFORD, DEC. 22:

Congregations will be holden for the purpose of granting
graces and conferring degrees on the following days in the
ensuing term —viz., Wednesday, January 14 ; Thursday,
February 5 ; Thursday, February, 19 Thursday, March
12 ; Thursday, March 19 ; Saturday, April 4.
No person will on any account be admitted as a candi-
date for any degree whose name is not entered in the book,
kept for that purpose, at the Vice-Chancellor's-house, on
or before the day preceding the day of Congregation.
, In a Convocation to be holden on Wednesday,January
the 14th, 1857, at 10 o'clock, it will be proposed that the
Rev Henry Holden, M.A. of Balliol College, be permitted
to proceed to the degrees of B. and D.D. by accumulation.
The Regius Professor of Civil Law (Dr. Twies) has given
notice than; an examination of candidates for the degree of
Bachelor in Civil Law will be holden in Trinity Term,
1857, upon the four books of Imperatorie Justiniani Insti-
tutiones and the first two books of Heineccii Syntagma
Antiquitatum Romanarum Jurisprudentiam illustrantiutn
secundum ordinem Institutionurn Justiniani Digestum,
Ed. Haubold.

CAMBRIDGE, DEC. 23.
TRINITY COLLEGE.
We are requested to state that in the list of the first
class at the recent examination at Trinity College, Cam-
bridge, published in cur impression of Dec. 20, the name
of F. M'Clean was omitted.

A reported loss of the Prince of Wales, the Oscar,
and the Scandinavian, North of Europe Company's
steamers, is totally unfounded.
ANOTHER BURGLAR REPULSED BY A LADY.—One of
the burglarious gang who infest the West Biding of
Yorkshire suffered on Sunday morning a repulse at the
hands of a lady while attempting to break into a d welling
house. Mr. S. Blamires and his daughter, a maiden lady,
reside in one of the least populous parts of the village of
Great Horton, near Bradford. A bout half-past 1 a.m. on
Sunday the lady, who was sleeping in a room on the
ground floor, was alarmed at bearing a noise. She started
up, turned on the gas, and saw a man's head projecting
through the window into the interior of the room. The
house had been but recently broken into, and therefore,
for protection, Miss Blamires kept in her sleeping apart
" Strik her ment an Woe crow-bar. With this she struck several
heavy blows at the intruding bead, severely mauling it mau..ng it •
and while this was being done an accomplice which the
owner of the head had outside cried out
stlike her with the bludgeon, Jack." The advice,e -er ;
ever, could not be followed, but the heal
as possible withdrawn, and then the party daeeca-nsilli,
e undermentioned of
leaving behind them two iron crow-bars.
their track was for some distance marked
they have not yet been captured. The
awliathttice. blood,
a tt, m
EXTRAORDINARYpt ing t oen e r theSPOT.—The
po houseET. T
h
by me
was killed by the following noblemen ernientioned game
the Earl of Stamford and Wa • and gentlemen,
..-.,"
ville, Staffordshire, last week, rrington's estate, at Dn-
ford, Earl of Strathmore, Ceiviz :—The Earl of Stain-
Col. the Hon. H. Charters~, C the Hon. C. Forrester,
Wombwell, lion. S. L ttl ' aPt.Hoe. G. Mills, Sir G.
Dec. 15 (10 guns)-232
W. Grazebrook, Mr. ;,. eten, Mr. H. Milbanke, Mr.
tlwiinv Althougha. show.we
bits, 14 partridges, Howarth, and Mr. A. Payne.
total,
a6nBdl.l gas, 12
weasel pheasants 232 bares, 187 rab-
bet'. 16 woodcock, 3 snipes, and 1 jay ;
hares, 192 rabbits, 13 (10 guns)-311 pheasants, 473
woodcock, pheasants, 92 partridges, 5 woodcocks, 6 water-
• total 1,001, Dec. 17 (11 guns)-
645l;ares 296 rabbits, 10 partridges, 1
8 partrid
Dec._ lB (10 ~,,," ~,
2 partrid
4 water-hens,' and 2 hybrids ; total, 1,050.
)gear 7 wo dc,tcks, and
' ' 3 pigeons ; t tat, 308.
- -/ i 1 phemants, 126 iiares, 93 rabbits,
Dec. 19 (8
gmot)-129 phemants. 241 hares, 242tabbtts,
, lordship's
g'B, 10 woodcocks, and 2 water-hens ; total,
626—making
a grand total of 3,666. The two beautiful
hybrids that were killed on the 17th were bred in his
preserves, from a golden pheasant hen and a
l common pheasant cock ; four more splendid birds of the
same cross, and bred this season, are now in his lord-
-1.. I
buIP 8 aviary.

MR. JUSTICE WILLES UPON TRANS-

PORTATION.

At Warwick assizes, on Monday, two men named
. Tombs and Parsons were convicted of burglary at
[ Birmingham, and it appeared they had been old
offenders, and sentenced to four years' penal servi-
, tude in 1855 at the Birmingham sessions, but the
. i officers of the prison were ignorant of the reason
, for their being set at liberty before the expiration
of their period of punishment. In passing Ben-
: tence Mr. Justice Willes said--" This case has to
, I me a very extraordinary complexion, because in
the year when an act of Parliament was passed, by,
which oertain periods of penal servitude were sub-
stituted for certain periods of transportation, the
of ject was said to be to substitute imprisonment in
this country for transportation to a penal colony.
The act was passed in 1853, and a great deal
of uncertainty has since prevailed concerning
its operation. Myself and many persons in-
terested in the administration of justice
have anxiously inquired what is the difference
between penal servitude and transportation ? No
one reading the acts of Parliament can understand
other than that persons sentenced to penal servi-
tude and transportation will be treated precisely in
the same way. There is no difference specified in
the act, except the shortening of time with refer-
ence to the term of imprisonment in this country,
it being doubtless considered that this imprison-
ment would be more likely to reform criminals
than the more serious punishment of being trans-
ported to a colony where they could make them-
selves new men. It was understood that when a
sentence of penal servitude was pasted it would be
a certain thing. Up to this moment I will frankly
confess that, notwithstanding all my efforts
to get information on the subject, I was under
that impression, having always thought that
penal servitude was to be a fixed and settled
thing, of course subject to the high prerogative
of mercy which may be exercised by her Majesty
the Queen. That prerogative is, however, a
differeut sort of thing from the official sort of
mercy extended to prisoners in the shape of tickets
of leave. I make these remarks because I find
that in 1855 you were severally sentenced to four
years of penal servitude. If Government intended
to be merciful to you, I should have thought they
would have transferred you to prisons in which
you might have been instructed in a trade, and
been enabled to get your livelihood afterwards.
You have been convicted so many times, I see no
reason why you should have been set at large, nor
any hope that, when set at large, you could gain
employment and abstain from doing wrong. I
think it is a great hardship upon men who have
lost their character by being sentenced to penal ser-
vitude to let them loose in a country where persons
will not employ them. I cannot understand why,
either for the sake of the public, or of your-
selves, you have been sentenced to four years'
penal servitude in Januarry 1835, should be let
out to commit fresh depredations in the same town
as before, iu August, 1856. Those who did that
act may justify to themselves the proceeding, but
for my part I cannot justify it, nor can I follow
the example set by those persons, for facts have
proved the proceeding to be fallacious and injurious
to criminals and to the public. You two young
fellows are well able to earn an honest livelihood,
and I heartily wish that you could. I hope, for
the sake of the convicts themselves, that we may
return to a system which sends them out to a
colony where labour is in great demand, and where
they may (as many transports have done) regain
good characters and become useful members of
society. In order to give you a chance to be sent
to such a place, in the event of the former system
Leing renewed—as many persons together with
myself, fervently hope it will be—l will sentence
you to be transported for 20 years."