The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-30 00:00:00

LANCASTER AND CARLISLE.

The half-yearly meeting of the proprietors was
held at Lancaster on Wednesday ; Mr. E. W.

assell in the chair.

The CHAIRMAN, in moving that a dividend at the
rate of 9/ per cent. upon the consolidated stock of
the company be declared, said that, although it was
somewhat less than in former corresponding periods,
he thought the shareholders had no reason to be
dissatisfied. _ _ _

Mr. W. JACKSON seconded the motion, which
was carried.

A dividend at the rate of 41 per cent. upon the
preference stock was declared.
Mr. GREG strongly urged the desirability of the
London and North-Western Company coming, if
possible, to some terms with the Midland Company
in regard to the proposed Settle and Carlisle line.
The CHAIRMAN said he was satisfied that the
London and North-Western directors had done
everything they possibly could to effect terms with
the Midland Company. Several proposals had been
made, and rejected. He thought that the proposals
of the London and North-Western were perfectly
reasonable, and those of the Midland unreasonable.
Mr. BANCROFT thought it would be a serious
matter to have another line made parallel with the
Lancaster and Carlisle, and that if fair terms were
offered by the Midland no obstacle should be offered
to an arrangement. At present the Midland propo-
sal was unreasonable, and altogether inadmiisible.
Mr. W. N. Ilodgson, M.P., Mr. W. Mrley, and
Mr. T. E. Bolden were re-elected directors, and
Mr. 11. Crossfield was re-elected auditor. A vote
of thanks to the chairman closed the proceedings.

EXECU

UNTON.

Yesterday morning George Britten, who so
foully murdered his wife at Woolverton, nearFrome,
on the 18th of July, and afterwards attempted to
conceal his crime by burning the body, suffered the
extreme penalty of the law in front of Taunton gaol.
The utmost secrecy had been observed as to the day
fixed for the execution, and the consequence was
that the crowd in front of the scaffold was much
smaller than usual, and did not number more than
3,000 persons. It bad been very generally rumoured
that Britten would be hanged on Tuesday, and on
the morning of that day quite as many persons re-
paired to the vicinity of the gaol as were present at
the execution. Britten, who was a man well to do
in the world, had been a farmer, and was at one
time guardian of the poor for the parish in which
he lived, and for his services in that office was pre-
sented with a testimonial. Some time ago, without
having previously expressed his intention of doing so,
he went to New Zealand, and for a period of two or
three years his wife and friends did not know where
to find him. On his return to this country his wife,
contrary to the expressed wishes of her relatives,
went to live with him again, and they were re-
siding together with their only child, a boy about
7 years of age, in a house belonging to the prisoner
at the time the horrible crime was perpetrated. At-
tached to this house was a malthouse, which the
prisoner let to a Mr. Moser, and on July 20, at an
early hour in the morning, this malthouse was dis-
covered to be on fire. An alarm was raised, and
Mr. Superintendent Deggan and others went to aid
in suppressing the flames. The fire was soon extin-
guished, and the prisoner, who assisted, was con-
gratulated upon his house having escaped, and on
being asked where his wife was, said she had gone
to visit her friends a few days previously. On some
of those present going into the malthouse they dis-
covered the half-consumed corps of a woman lying
upon a pile of burning wood and coke. An exami-
nation of the body showed some very severe wounds
upon the head, which, singularly enough, seemed to
have escaped the effects of the fire, and suspicions
of foul play were aroused in the mind of Mr. Deg-
gan, who questioned the prifioner more closely as to
his wife. lie prevaricated, and on being shown the
body declared it was not that of his wife, but he was
ultimately obliged to confess it was. He was then
taken into custody and locked up at Frome police
station, where on the next day (Sunday) he confessed
to having murdered his wife on the Thursday even-
ing, and to having put the body into a sack, tied a
rope around the neck, and then dragged it a consi-
derable distance over the roof of an outhouse into
the malthouse, which he set on fire, in the vain hope
of concealing his crime. The prisoner was tried
before Mr. Justice Willes on August 10th at Wells,
and when called on to plead, he said, "Guilty, but not
of malice aforethought." He was ably defended by
Mr. Prideaux, Q.C., but the jury almost immediately
found him guilty, and the judge, in sentencing
him to-be hanged, expressed a pretty strong opinion
that he must not look for any remission of the full
penalty, and commented on the diabolical attempts
he had made to consume the body. There were
those, however, who sympathised with the perpetra-
tor of this horrible outrage, and two or three me-
morials to the Secretary of State were got up pray-
ing for a remission of the sentence; but it is probable
that the majority of the signatures were prompted
by an aversion to capital punishment, a feeling pretty
generally expressed by those who signed it in Taun-
ton. These efforts, however, were fruitless, and on
Tuesday a letter was received from Mr. Hardy stat-
ing that he could see no sufficient grounds for ad-
vising her Majesty to extend her royal clemency to
the prisoner. The attempts which were being made
to save the wretched man's life were unknown to

him, and he from the first fully expected that the
sentence would be carried into effect ; he became
exceedingly penitent, and attended to the religious
ministrations of the chaplain of the gaol, the Rev.
F. Howse, with great apparent devoutness. He was
also visited by the Rev. Mr. Clark, vicar of St.
Mary's, and both these gentlemen express their be-
lief that his penitence was sincere. He made no
further confession, though he occupied a great deal
of his time in writing. At about 8 o'clock yesterday
morning he attended Divine service at the chapel
within the gaol, and partook of the Holy Sacrament,
after which he addressed the other prisoners who
were assembled, and warned them as to their evil
courses. He then walked from the chapel to the
pinioning room beneath the drop, where his arms
were bound in the usual manner by Calcraft, the
executioner. He exhibited the greatest fortitude on
the scaffold, thanked the chaplain and the turnkeys
for their kindness, and shook hands with the rev.
gentleman and with Calcraft. When the drop fell
his hands were uplifted in the attitude of prayer,
but they immediately afterwards became clinched,
and he gave several convulsive struggles before life
was extinct.
The last execution which took place at Taunton
was that of two brothers, named Wedmore, who
murdered their aunt, Sarah Waterman, at Dundry.
They were executed on the sth of April, 1861.