The Sun.
London, England, 1869-09-30 00:00:00

STRANGE MURDER AT WIGAN.

Early on Tuesday morning a frightful murder, the
result of excessive indulgence in intoxicating drinks,
occurred at a farmhouse in the little hamlet of Dig Moor,
situated at the extreme west of the township of Uphol-
land, a short distance from the main road to Wigan. A
farmer, named John Brown, a stout, thickset man, aged
about 40, described as remarkably quiet when sober, but just
the opposite when drunk, and his farm-servants, ono of
whom was named George Ashton, about the same age as
his master, and with a similar fondness for drink, were the
persons chiefly concerned in the crime ; and on Monday
last the foundation stone of a Primitive Methodist chapel
had been laid at Dig Moor. Brown, his wife and
daughter, a girl of 16, all attended the ceremony and
the tea party afterwards, and then they adjourned to
the Bowling Green publichouse, where they remained
drinking till midnight, when Brown left to go home.
There were then at the house four Irish labourers, who
were sleeping in an outbuilding, and Ashton and two
other men. It is stated that on Brown's arrival
at home more drink was obtained by the party, who were
already completely intoxicated, till Brown became
wild and threatened to kill the whole of them. He
thereupon seized the poker and laid about him vigorously.
Qne man succeeded in making an escape from the house
without injury, and the others with only one blow on the
head, but Ashton, now left alone with Brown, was beaten
by him most unmercifully about the head with the poker
until he was lifeless. The sight of the dead body does not
Appear to have made any impression upon Brown, or even
to I,ave sobered him, for he obtained a white sheet, which
he threw round him to represent a surplice, and taking a
book he pretended to read the Burial Service over the re-
mains. Meanwhile, information was conveyed to the
police-stations at Upholland Moor and Skelmersdale, and
l3rown was taken into custody.

A foreigner speaking of the House of Commons,
says :—"So difficult is it for anything to be heard inside its
gorgeous walls; that the impatient members are obliged to
be continually calling out, ' Hear, hear, hear.'"
THE NEW COMPOUNDING ACT.—On Wednesday
the Act of last Session as to tenant 3 for short periods
paying the poor-rate and deducting the same from the rent
took effect. Landlords may now compound for the rates,
and vestries, previously to the 29th instant, could enter
into arrangements with the owners of small tenements.

ELOPEMENT FROM THE NORTIL—The ono topic
among the lovers of scandal in a certain city in the north
of England is the elopement, for the second time, of a
well-known dancing,-master with the widow of an Indian
officer. The gentleman, who was on a previous occasion
pursued and brought back, deserts a young wife and
family, and the case, which is said to be full of piquant
details, will be shortly brought before the Divorce Court.

Mr. Jacob Bright, in opening a bazaar in aid of
a Methodist Free Church Fund, at Manchester, on Tues-
-449r, paid a tribute to the efforts which Dissenters had
mutd in furthering political progress. In all the great
political Changes which formed the landmarks in the
history of the 1,9,at half century, Dissenters had, he said,
invariably made tiiir influence felt on the right side.
They had watched that no Act of Parliament should be
passed that was not in accordlZnce with the principles
of Christianity. For this they had con;:qUded in the past,
Ind for this, he believed, they were prepared io nuntencl is
The future.

P a few clays ago upon Reciprocity
and the Revivers, the Times spoke in the following scorn-
ful style :—"A sample of the books on Reciprocity may be
obtained. Ono copy at least has been duly enshrined at
the British Museum, and the rest gone to the grocers and
cheesemongers, or converted into pulp for the penny papers'
A more degraded office, it .would seem, no pulp
could serve. It is a contemptible fate enough for
these Reciprocity treatises to be used ass wrappers for
slivers of chees or ounces of tea ; but to be made into pulp
for penny papers ! Tho illustration shows at once how
vulgar the raw material must have been, how debased and
how ignorant. The pulp now of the Times is quite another
thing. It is comrosed of numerous stacks of Chesterfield's
Letters and Macaulay's History, published on cream-laid
superfine sheets. The famous works wo refer to are
honoured in the pulp by the use to which they are con-
verted in Printing-house-square. Working men should
respect arguments coming from a quarter to which the
choosemonger or the grogcr on nom hvo (v,i019A11.-1
Now.