The Sun.
London, England, 1869-05-28 00:00:00

LIFE IN ITALY.

A trial that has just been held before the Correctional
Tribunal of Milan has excited strong interest by the
dramatic circumstances disclosed. A married woman,
25 years of age, bearing the rather remarkable name of
Caroline of Aragon, and whose husband had abandoned
her, became enamoured of an Englishman, named Edmund
Howard, who lived in Milan, and gave lessons in English.
His position in the Lombard capital seems to have been
good, but he abandoned it for her sake, and they travelled
together, and early in the present year were at Venice.
While there her family, which for five years had taken no
notice of her, suddenly applied to the Milan police to haveher
brought back to her father's house. She was arrested,
taken to Milan, and placed as a prisoner in her father's
hands. Howard applied for her freedom to the King's
Procurator, who summoned the D'Aragonas, father and
daughter, to appear before him at noon on the 11th of
February. It was the wedding-day of one of her
brothers. By signs from her window she contrived to
inform Howard that she was going out at noon, and
when at that hour she and her father got into a carriage,
he appeared at the door, touched her on the arm, and
asked her where she was going. A horrible scene
ensued, which Caroline herself vividly describes:—" The
words were hardly spoken when my brother Luigi and his
father-in-law fell upon him, seized him furiously bythe beard,
and dragged him back under the gateway of the house.
Then he was assailed by a crowd of bystanders, and a tre-
mendous struggle began. Howard, seeing himself over-
whelmed with insults and by the number of his adversaries,
drew a six-barrelled revolver from his pocket and warned
his assailants to stand back or he would fire upon them.
Seeing that the warning was fruitless, he fired three or
four shots in the air, as I myself saw, with no other
object, I am profoundly convinced, than to clear a space
around him and so rejoin me. All this was the work
of a moment. As if with a presentiment of what was
about to happen, I jumped out of the carriage and
hastened to join him, but, alas, too late, for he already
lay upon the ground, bathed in his own blood. Stooping
over him, and just as he had spoken the words, "Jenzeurs
pour toi et je recline," a kick given, I cannot say by whom,
forced his eye out of the socket, and it fell down over his
cheek. Covered with his blood, and almost frantic, I
was forced again into the carriage and carried before
the Royal Procurator, to whom those fresh blood-stains
attested the deplorable fact that had just occurred."
It appears that when Howard fired his revolver in
the air, one of the D'Aaragonas, either from fright or in
trying to get away, slipped and fell. Howard thought he
had killed him, and, seized with despair, put his pistol to
his head and shot himself. He appeared in court with a
black bandage round his head, having lost his right eye.
The papers describe him as a man of six-and-thirty, of
gentlemanly appearance. When Caroline d'Aragona came
into court to give evidence, he advanced to meet her, and
they clasped hands with great emotion. The tribunal ac-
Quitted him on the charee of firing with malicious intent ;
he was fined 50 francs for carrying the revolver, and
immediately released.

A CHARGE OF Dun- —ln the Bail Court, on
Thursday, a curious case was beard. A City clerk named
Houston, who had entered Madame Rachel's shop in
June last, was suddenly arrested at her instance, and
charged with having assaulted her. The magistrate
dismissed the case, when Madame Rachel caused a placard
to be issued, charging the plaintiff with conspiracy. He
has now brought an action against the printer of the hand-
bill for libel, and obtained 210 damages.

LARGE ARISTOCRATIC FAMILIES.—The Marquis
of Anglesey is one of a family of 18 brothers and sisters ;
the Marquis of Huntley, of 14 ; Earl Fitzwilliam is one of
13, and has 13 of his own ; Earl Grey is one of 15 ; the
late Lord Denman left 15; the Duke of Argyll has 12,
and the Duke of Leinster is one of 13, and the father of
the Duke of Buccleuch left 11, the Earl of Minto left 14 ;
the Earl of Bessborough has 14. There are other English
noblemen with 14 and 15 children, and the list of families
numbering 11 and 12 is very large.
NEW RAILWAYS IN THE SOUTHERN STATES OF
AMEltlCA.—Messrs. Overmann, Freund, and Co., of New
York, have just closed a negotiation in London for building
the Fulton and Cairo railroad, running from Chalk Bluff
lo Little Rock, and thence to Texiana through
the State of Arkansas. The line will be 300
miles in length, and form a link connecting
St. Louis with Texas, and thence probably forming a
South Pacific line through Texas to Mexico. The scheme
for the Southern connection has been introduced into the
Paris markets. The same firm has also made a contract
with a London house to build the New York and
Northern Hausatonic Railroad from White Plains to
Danbury.
SHOCKING DEATH OF A BURGLAR.—A coroner's
inquest was held recently at Chester, on the body of a
young man named John Shires. On the morning of the
17th of July last, at about five o'clock, the deceased was
found fearfully injured at the foot of the precipice at
Heron Bridge, about one mile from Chester. His face
was covered with blood, one jaw was broken and his
spine fractured. He was immediately taken to the
infirmary, but the doctors stated that it was impossible
for him to recover. All the lower part of his body was
Paralysed. The city magistrateying depositions, but he saidbeawttoeunlddedrattioiertankoet
say
howas
a b theu accidentrglaan r anda e t happened.ting nlt was aster.
o 1d
atamed ntgh aatst
hen w
Ford, London. A jemmy, oaken wedge, a large chisel,
a palette-knife, a box of matches, two lengths of cord, a
betting-book, and a clasp-knife were found upon him.
auo.iay ueiore ne was touna at tne toot, or tne rock ne
bad effected an entrance to the house of Mr. 'Watson,
Queen's Park, but an alarm was raised, and he de-
camped. It is supposed that, through the darkness of
the night, and his being a stranger to the neighbourhood,
he had fallen over the precipice, and thus sustained the
injuries which proved fatal on Tuesday last. The jury
returned a verdict in accordance with the facts.
DEATH OF THE LAST NATIVE OF TASMANIA:
A REVOLTING AFFAIR.—The death of Lanney, the last
male aboriginal of Tasmania, has already been announced.
The most extraordinary part of his history has been the
fight over his remains. Dr. Crowther applied to the Colo-
' nial Secretary for the body, in order that he might send the
skeleton to the London College of Surgeons. The Colonial
Secretary bad previously promised it to the Tasmanian
Royal Society, but Dr. Crowther was determined not to
be baffled by a mere official refusal. He invited the
hospital surgeon, Dr. Stokell, to take tea at his house.
Dr. Stokell went, was kept in conversation by Mrs.
Crowther for a considerable time, but did not see Dr.
Crowther. Suspecting that he had been deceived, he
went to the hospital where he had left the body of Lanney,
and found that some one had been there, that Lanney's
head had been cut off, that another body had beenB
similarly treated, and that head number two had been
i aat
attached to Lanney's body, and covered with Lanney'sn
scalp. Dr. Stokell thereupon cut off the hands
footlessand
th
feet,
the
burialand
retained
service
read
dr
overthe
Lanney's
y a l
trunk, Society, so that
handless, and furnished with another man's head. The
mutilated remains wero subsequently removed from the
grave, it is said, by Dr. Stokell's orders. Just at this
Ministrys a coafn didg etatti en
gf theup
the U
tpapl
ee r
against o u s e H.
hi
rine
t accusedtime Crowther
til
e
fur political purposes. He won his election, and at the
d
ofinaendt
him speech t o
appearttga i n s t
bthe r
eGao veeornni
.•
eecnl atr, awt iboine
hniliaacdl e
suammde
mission appointed to inquire into the facts, and acknow.
ledged the capture of the skull. His partisans took the
horses out of the cab in which he sat, and drew him in
triumph through the streets. On the box sat a black
man, while another went through the pantomime of
cutting off his head. It is unnecessary to characterise
the whole of the proceedings as disgusting and
graceful.