The Sun.
London, England, 1867-07-18 00:00:00

ANOTHER MURDER AT BIRMINGHAM.

Birmingham is becoming famous for deeds of
violence. At a late hour on Tuesday night an
affray took place in a publichouse in Dale-end in
that town, the result of which is that a man named
II M'Nallay, a striker, was shot dead. The occurrence
is thus described in the Daily Post :—" About ten
o'clock at night, the deceased, in company with two
other men, entered the gin shop of one Morris
Roberts, in which there was a number of persons
drinking. These persons asked to be supplied with
two pennyworth of whi-ky, but Roberts being under
the impression, as he said, that they had had enough
to drink, refused to supply them with any more
liquor. They pressed him, however, to give them
more drink, but Roberts firmly refused, and as he
was turning away from the counter to go to another
part of the shop the deceased picked up a plate which
lay upon the counter and threw it at him. Roberts,
observing the man's movements, stooped and avoided
the missile. The deceased and his companions fol-
lowed up this act by throwing the glasses on the
counter at Roberts, but he escaped without being
struck. Going to a drawer, then, Roberts took
out a loaded six-barrelled revolver, and presented it
at the men, saying he would shoot them. The de-
ceased,
retreating a few yards, said, Shoot, you
shoot ! The other men—deceased's compa-
nions—cried out, " We'll settle the --,' and more
glasses were then thrown at Roberts, who fired upon
the party, the deceased immediately dropping to the
ground, but his fall was not noticed by the other
men, who continued their demonstrations of violence
towards the proprietor, whereupon one of the waiters
rushed to the door to prevent the escape of his mas-
ter's assailants. Oneof the men, however, prevented
him shutting the door, and, after a struggle, got
into the street. At the request of Roberts the waiter
went up stairs to the front window aad sprung a
rattle for the purpose of obtaining the assistance of
the police. A crowd speedily collected, and a number
of persons rushed into the house to see what was the
matter ; but before this the two men who had ac-
companied the deceased, and who, like himself, ap-
peared to be Irishmen, had escaped. The people in
the house at the time took no part in the affray, but
when the police came in a gentleman who witnessed
what took place informed the officers of the facts,
and gave Roberts into custody. The prisoner, ex-
pressing his willingness to gowith the police, put on
his jacket, and was then taken to the lock-up. The
deceased at this time was lying upon the floor of his
shop in a pool of blood, which had issued from his
mouth. Upon examination it was found he was in a
dying state, and that being so he was without loss
of time removed to the General Hospital, but the
unfortunate man died on the way to that institu-
tion. The bullet, it was found, had entered at a
point about two inches from theleft br'east. Roberts
on being charged at the police-station made a state-
ment to the effect that the deceased and two other
men came into his vaults and requested him to
serve them with some liquor ; that he refused ;
that they then made use of bad expressions, and
threw plates and glasses at him ; and that it
was then he took a pistol and fired at him. Ro-
berts, who was very nervous and dejected, and ap-
peared to be in a state of great excitement, ex-
pressed himself as very sorry for what had hap-
pened. The prisoner, when taken into custody, had
the revolver in his hand. Roberts was for some
time an active supporter of Mr. Murphy ; but it
would seem that for some cause or other he had
withdrawn himself from any participation in .the
lectures at the Tabernacle. At the time of the
riots his windows were broken, among those of
other friends of the so-called Protestant move-
ment ; and, being threatened with personal
violence, he is said to have kept the revolver at
hand, in readiness to defend himself. It is said
that the deceased and his companions were Roman
Catholics, and that their visit was made with no
friendly intentions. *A man who was present at the
time of the outrage informs us that while the men
were throwing glasses at Roberts one of them ex-
claimed Let's settle the Murphyite.' "
Yesterday morning Roberts was brought up before
the magistrates, and remanded till Friday. He is
a noted pugilist.

SALES BY AUCTION.—The new act by which the
law relating to sales by auction is amended has just been
issued, and will take effect at the beginning of the next
month. It relates to sales of land, and in the interpreta-
tion clause a "puffer" is stated to moan a person appointed
to bid on the part of an owner. Where sales aro invalid
in law they are also to be invalid in equity, whoro a puffer
had bid. In future all conditions of sales aro to state whe-
ther the land is to bo sold without reserve, or whether
there is a reserved price, or whether the right to bid is re-
SQLYOd. Tile act is not to extond to Scotland.