The Sun.
London, England, 1858-04-07 00:00:00

THE TRAGEDY AT LERWICK.

This shocking tragedy is as yet unexplained. No
mot.ve can be discovered. Mr. Williamson, the mur-
derer and suicide, was a respectable merchant; he ap-
peared to have a warm affection for his family, and his
affairs do not show any embarrassment. Some of the
local papers peblish farther details :—His first victim
was his wife. He had apparentiy struck her a fsariul
blow with the cleaver on the bead ; with the razor he
inflicted a frightful cut upon her throat. He went
through the same horrifying process in the case of the
daughter, as she still lay asleep. He next rushed up-
stairs to the apartment occupied by the three childrer.
The elder boy was seized, numerous and serious cuts
were inflicted upon his bead either with the hatchet edge
of the cleaver, or with the razor blade, and with the
latter instrument a fearful wound was made upon his
throat ; but before the consummation of his intended
fate he managed to release himself from his father's
hands and made his escape downstairs. Upon the
youngest of the three—the sleeping infant—the same
elaborate attack was made asin the case of the fret two
and stronger victims. With its bead smashed, and
almost severed as it was from the body, its death must
have been instantaneous. The terminating scene of the
sickening tragedy was carried out in the other room on
the Flrlie floor on which these transactions took place.
To this room the second sou, Jol:D, had made his escape
in his regbt-dress. He could scarcely, however, have
done more than reach the apartment when hie father,
following in hot pursuit, overtook him, and seizing him
as he vainly attempted to elude his hold by leaping into
an unoccupied bed, dragged him out by his superior
strength, one or more stunning blows on the skull soon
served to make him resistless, and by a deep raz tr cut in
the throat he was the next instant deprived of life as
speedily as the innocents who preceded him. Dropping
the mutilated corpse at his feet, the infatuated man next
addressed himself to the deliberate destruction of his
own life. Throwing himself on his back on the middle
of the floor of the same room in which he stood, be
placed his neck against the leg of the table, thus pre-
venting any (mance of the wound losing partial, enertd.
drawing towards him a chair which stood in '4'
rtq
went, he passed his arm round one
of its lowe_r11:171°
thereby insuring equal steadiness of the bw d °
Ins enabled to
neck. By this finesse of arrangement
carry out his horrible design with la:alohicleoe:tvaign'd With
u
such strength did he, thus assilt_ed.peen
‘; from ear to ear,
his throat that the neck was laid
etrated to the very bone.
and the blade of the razir pen,..nt_a ghastly spectacle,
He must have died in an a.
:imbrued in his own and his
with his hands and garreeensaf, big murdered wife's hair
victims' blood, and and and the instruments of death
still clinging tePLe five victims of his demoniacal fury
by his Bide. Pr Ileie eldest boy—has been carefully
the
.on.ly.gurrli„ survivor
tended and, by the aid of the surgeon,
InctB hds are sl I ne. He is not yet.
0 wean • ow y ea,l
his danger"
ger, and it is doubtful if
however, altogether out of dal,
hyrill ever mutfieiently recover his natural btreilgth.
The be lies of the others, with that of the deceased him-
self, were not interred until Tuesday, and a more mourns
ful cortege was never seen in the streets cf Lerwick.

S PAPER

THE LOSS OF_ THE AV.
- •
.4XC
The fallowing letter is fromi Lieut. 4
R.N., Admiralty Agent '
f.„
•
- • •
""Sir,--I am sorry to acquaint you 0 -
of the.Periiniular and Oriental steam-n. -
on the evening of the 16th inst,; CeylortNitinal. S '
miles to the north of Trizieolliatee, near Pigeon - -
Island.
_ "The Aira left Calcutta on the 10th for Madras, on
our route to Suez;'having order-5.143 'fikein "at
ras some treasure on Governinentiiiebunt, to be
landed at Trincomalee. We arrivajtalefedras on •
the 14th at 3M-P.nr.-;‘ and left 0n14441.5th at 4
p.m., for Trincomalee ;
.16th, at 4 men the
land (Ceylon) on the starboard hew. At f:3onaw
a steady light, supposed to be ' TrincomaleW' At
bistrythea
safoero3bsrseohet
starboard,
helm
nhdef:oe:four points
tsdhpt
ewe.ohiparnedsotresrsr
ordered
arbo 'a rded, with orders '
tif kit p
wobtiff.aeytwtho:e land. When' the land
was
stop
et w
after
as
turning
t hteh e
engines';
pa
astern
hr
nr dab
hn
eat
struck and bilged upon a rock on. the starbOard
side.
water, The
and
the enginefi r
fires
taswTaihsme:Aledidemieaditretalortrefoll of
put out.
agenty
turn
went into the mail room,
finding it rapidly tilling, and in less thin ten
minutes the deck ab..va the mail room was covered
with water,
_leaving no chalice of iccJvc:ing the
mails except with the aid of divers. Suxooth water,
and the ship breaking up forward. The weather
at this time, halt bret-z's and cloudy, with much
swell, the ship striking heavily abaft the fun_
nel. The crew were ordered t..) clear away
boats to land the passengers, which was quickly
done without any accident. An officer was put in
charge of each boat, and all the ladies and children,
and then the gentlemen, were embarked, with
orders to lie by the ship until daylight. As soon at.
the brats had shoied off we commenced getting the
treasure on deck (having on board 500 boxes each
emt doing 5,000 rupees). At 11.30 the mainmast
went just below the top, taking with it the wizen
topmast.
"_l7th.—Weatber the same. At daylight found

there was too much surf on the beach to attempt
landing the passengers, therefore despatched the
ladies and children to Trincomalee; where they all
arrived safe. As soon as the surf moderated the
remainder of the gentlemen were put on a rock near
the ship, so that the use of the boats would be
available for saving the mails and trEasure. At
10.30 observed the ship had cracked on the star-
b )ard side from the gunwale to the water's edge.
The people were immediately ordered up from the
after hold and commenced landing the treasure, the
ship working and complaining very much, there
being considerable swell on, but the weather 'fine.
At 1.30 p.m. the ship broke in two with a loud.
noise, just before the starboard gangway and abaft
the funnel on the port side. Some time before she
parted the boxes, 200 in number, bad been removed
somefor :a safety i furtherinto
theopening,
for wari t
leavingbreaki 5n breaking h
g ownailch
ly
were safely landed.

" MlL—Weather the same. At daylight visited
the wreck. Fuund the afterpart about 20 feet
astern of from where she parted and the remain-
der of the mainmast quite gore, a quantity of
cargo and baggage working out through the open-
ing and floating towa►ds the shore. A party of
the Ceylon Rifirs and. a body of police sent from
Trincomalee to protrct the property ; the wreck
was visited fevrral times during the day, but
nothing further is likely to be saved until the
torepart breaks up. We have tents pitched on
a sandy beach abreast of the wreck. During the
day it is very hot, but rather cold at night. We
are all well, although almost every article of bed-
din and wearing apparel has been lost. A great
part of the crew have been bent to Triucomalee,
but the captain and most of the officers, with
myself, remain here, and purpose doing ss3 while
any hopes remain of saving the mails or other
property.

.1

When the ship struck, and during the time
wh.n there was any personal danger, the captain's
orders were given with that coolness, and so well
carried out by the officers, as to give confidence
and insure safety ' • also the chief a,,d second engi-
ne?rs, with the whole of their departtnent, be-
hlve,l most admirably. Any personal exertion on
my part was quite unnecessary, but any suggestion
of mine wai immediat• ly attended to.
"19th and 20tb.—Weather the same.
"21st (Sunday).—Went off with the captain
and some divers, but fluky would not undertake
any work while the water inside the wreck was
urging so much."

~...•1

LOSS OF THE ROSEDALE, I ONDON AND
NEWCASTLE STEAMER.

Ye,terday the following report was received at
Lloyd's rela ive to the teal loss of the Rosedale,
screw-steamer, from London to Newcastle, on the
niwning of.the Ist; inst., on the Long Scaur Rocke,
near Hartlepool. The report is written by Captain
G. Wood, the mastt r of the Resedale, who attested
to the truth of it before the Admiralty Receiver of
Di oits at that port :
• 6Wo le.fc ,London on the 30th ult., wind S.W.,
weather moderate, and at 7 p.m. of the 31st was
off Whitey. In the meanwhile the wind had
eh urged to the N.E,, blowing hard, with a heavy
sea running. We steamed as far as Sunderland,
when finding from the strong wind and heavy sea
that the ship could not weather Sinter Point we
bore away fr m Hartlepool, c eisiderine it prefer.
able, as a place of shelter, then Sunderland. At
8.15 a.m. of the Ist inst. we rounded Hartlepool
hough, and steamed fur the Hartlepool (old) liar-
beur. Between the outer buoys and the channel
two plots boarded the steamer, and took charge.
They directed her to be backed out, saying she was
nut exactly straight for the channel, which orders
were carried out. She was, in consequence, backed
into the heavy sea. The wind was blow:sig a gale
on the startoard bow, which prevented her coming
to, aed she drove away into the middle of the bay,
where the port anchor was let go. While the slip
was driving out, the pilots waved to two steam
tugs, which were coming out of the East Hartle-
pool channel. On their coming close within hail,
I asked the captain of one of them what he would
charge for assisting the steamer into the harbour.
The atiswer was, he would make no bargain. In
consequence we hove up the anchor, and attt mpted
to steam into a more sheltered place, but she only
drove further up. We again let. go the anchor,
end ende,voured, with the aid of steaming, to
prevent it from dragging. Ti e steamer was then
about two cables' length of the Long Scaur Rock
astern of us. In about an hour and a half atter-
, wards felt the vessel strike the ground. We then
I let go the second Anchor; in doing so, the first
mate met with a serious accident. The cable get-
ting entangled, he, in attempting to clear it, got
his arms jammed in the hewsehole, and before he
could be eat, icated we had to heave the chain back.
The arm was broken, and he was otherwise much
hurt. Iu 'about a quarter of an hour afterwards
the ship struck again and again, when some part
of the machinery gave way, and at the same time
the vessel broke away from her cables and droVe
on the rocks above alluded to. It was now about
a quarter past 11. o'clock a.m., the gale was blow-
ing furious, and the only chance left was to drive
the ship far on the rocks, for a heavy sea was snak-
ing a complete breach over her, and the crew were
in great danger. To effect this, had the jib hoisted.
While in this condition, the lifeboat belonging to
West Hartlepool, which had put.Off' to our rescue,
succeeded in taking all hands off the ship and
lauded them safe ashore, but the men lost every-
thing they possessed, for the vessel shortly after-
wards went to pieces and became a' total wieok.
The ship was insured."

have a military force in India in which wetuest, or teach
THE NATIVE INDIAN ABILY.—We never
fide, which we cannot bring ourselves to
Out regular
our enemies to fear. The extent to ,e
troops were in former days
.as eo discrelinit. e
duties was in the last degree injaiii.o e
and rigour of the
the very rigidness of the discip
nn fitted itecomponeute
forms require d for a regular army
i duties where self-reliance,
aranotagaeoi!
employed in p?lice.
line,
escort
for those light end irte:;u ,,,, so much more ilia-
prompt and action,independentees .
°core line, which not unfre-
The luties of defending our
' t than the formal! 1
enemies, and of maintaining
porean
or detecting crime among the
order and 8 a ppinreosre
connexion with each other than this,
people have n-0.80
P force must be resorted to •; in
that in both c
qtrnoennttielyrs,stoafndcti,nottth....iej:igr;7l;
ni . must have arms co.nmitted to their hands
both cases ----n to use them. Yet for alt the great pure
• h sethenty
with f external defence half the army untl row enter-
tP,47o7:ey us would have sufficed, had the deficiency been
wade up by police. For this last branch of service the
Dative must always be fallen back upon. He may be made
much more ustful even than the European, and quite as
safe. The sepoy mutiny could never havo ripened into
insurrection but for the acquaintance cf the various
corps with each other, the community cf their discipline
a .d t`ie frequency with which they hai served together.
A police corps is necessarily a local and an isolated
thing. Were the Giiaut Rangers to fly to arms, there
is no reason whatever why any of the adjoining local
corps should sympathise, co-operate with, or join them
—very many reasons why it should be the opposite.
The knowledge of the fact is quite sufficient to prevent a
rising.
Were it otherwise, we should just have lost the
services ef a single insubordinate body; which would be
at once exterminated, and there an end. ..With sufficient
abundance of police corps there seems no difficulty
of our keeping India in perpetuity with an army exclu-
sively Hoglish, or of risaihaining English troops in, rea-.
sonable good health, fit at all times for service, and
witeoni any nordinate amount of casualties, everywhere
throutk ,ut the country.—Buiees Overland Bombay
4tcmclard.

ISTEWS

TEiEA.TRIt ROYAL, HAYMARKET.
Lessee—Mr. J. B. Buckstone.
THIS EVENING, April 6, will bo performed AN
UNEQUAL MATCH. Characters by Messrs. Buckstone,
Chipendale, Compton, W. Farren, Rogers Clark, and Miss
A. Sedgwick, Mrs. B. White, Miss Lavine, and Mrs. J. Fitz-
william.

After which a Classical Extravaganza, eqitled PLUTO
AND PROSERPINE.
Concluding with MY HUSBAND'S GHOST,
Orchestra Stalls (which may be retained the whole of the
evening). 6s. each. (No charge for booking)
First Price. s. d. Second price. d.
Dss Boxes 5 0 Dress Boxes 3 Co
re
Upper Boxes ...... ......... 3 0 Upper Boxes 2 0
Pit ...
2 o,Pit. . 1 0
.••••
I W.llury 0 b
Commence at Seven,

THE WEATHER—SUN OFFICE, APRIL 7.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
45—highest since noon yesterday.
41--lowest this morning and during the night.
45 —this day at noon.
BAROMETER, 29.84.
WIND, E.S.E. ; moderate, with dull cloudy weather,
and some rain.

HIGH WATER AT LONDCN BRIDGE.
TIM DAY—Morn., 17 min. aft. 7—Even., 54 min aft 7
fo-Monitow —Morn., 44 min. aft. B—Even., 30 min. aft. 9

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