The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-09 00:00:00

BELGIAN EASTERN JUNCTION.

The adjourned special meeting of this company
was held yesterday at the London Tavern ; Mr. C.
Waring, M.P., in the chair.
The Cumr.mAN.stated that the object of the meet-
ing was to consider an agreement concluded between
this company and the Societ?, Generale d'Exploita-
tion, by which the entire property of the company
would be handed over to the Societe on the let of
January, 1868. The railway was to retain its sur-
plus lands. The result of the agreement would be
that in 1868-69 the rent would be sufficient to pay
the interest on the various loans, and 2s. per share;
in 1871 to pay 2s. 4 id. per share, and in 1872-73
to pay 2s. B,d. per share ; from and after 1874 up
to the end of the concession to pay the shareholders
3s. 3d. per share.
The agreement, after a short discussion, was
adopted, and a resolution was passed recommending
the meeting to be held at Brussels on the 12th inst.

to approve and sanction the agreement with the
Societe Generale d'Exploitation, and a vote of thanks
to the chairman concluded the proceedings.

The British Archaeological Association a

Uriconium.

SHREWSBURY, Wednesday.
When the programme of the annual Congress of
,he British Arcl,m logical Association was drawn up

a special day was reserved for an examination of
the ruins of the old Roman city of Uriconium at
Wroxeter, near this town, and the visit was made

yesterday under the most favourable circumstances
as regards the weather. The members of the Asso-
ciation and their friends arrived at Shrewsbury

shortly after 10 o'clock and drove direct to Wroxe-
ter, where Mr. Wright, M.A., F.S.A., assumed the

guidance of the party, and a most interesting exa

ruination of this unique relic of the Roman occupa
tiou of Britain was commenced. _ _

From Mr. -Wright's explanations i t appeared the
first organised and successful excavation of the
ruius in the interests of arcbge9logy was made in the
year 1859, the Duke of Cleveland, upon whose
estate Uriconium stands, having given the necessary
permission, and added a donation of 50 guineas to
the excavation fund. At the time of commencing
operations all that was visible of the city which tra-
dition said was hidden beneath the earth was a
massive stone wall running east and west, on either
side of which was a cornfield. Beginning to exca-
vate on the northern side of this wall three other
walls running almost parallel with what for conve-
nience sake is called the old wall were brought to
light, the whole evidently enclosing and forming
part of a large building. This portion of the ruins
has now been filled up again, but the excavation
was continued for some distance to the south of
the old wall, and the results formed the subject of
inspection yesterday. Without describing in
detail the several apartments which have been
brought to light since the work of excavation
was commenced, it may not be uninteresting
to particularise one which attracted considerable
attention yesterday. The room in question served
in the building of which it formed a part the pur-
pose of a hypocaust, a contrivance whereby the
Romans, who do not appear to have used fires, com-
municated artificial heat to their houses and public
buildings. These hypocausts were a description of
flue built under the floors of the house, fires being
lit at the entrances, and the hot air thus generated
being driven under the door and up through the
walls of the building. The hypocausts were, of
course, hollow, the floor of the house being supported
on pillars, ranged at regular distances, and usually
standing from 2ft to 3ft high. In the hypocaust
referred to the excavators came upon the skeletons
of three human beings, one being that of an old
man, who appears to have died in a crouching posi-
tion up in one of the corners of the hypocaust, the
other two lying full length by the side of the wall.
Near the skeleton of the old man was found a small
heap of coins, 132 in number, mixed up with which
were a few small nails and traces of decomposed
wood, clearly indicating that the coins had origi-
nally been carried into the hypocaust in a box or
coffer. Bearing in mind the history of the city of
Uriconium, which, as far as it can be compiled,
shows it to have been assailed and plundered with
other Roman strongholds when the power of the
early conquerors waned, Mr. Wright advances the
very plausible theory that these remains ate those of
persons who sought to escape from the barbarians by
hiding in the hypocaust, and that here they met their
death either by suffocation or by the rubbish of the
ruined building falling at the entrance to the hypocaust
and obstructing their only means of exit. Be that as
it may, the finding of the skeletons has endowed this
hypocaust with a special human interest, and the old
man's coins have proved a welcome addition to
the treasures of the museum at Shrewsbury, where
they are now stored. Iluman remains have been
found in other portions of the ruins, some accord-
ing to Dr. Henry Johnson, having been decently
buried, others having, to all appearance, been
slaughtered at the time of the sacking of the city,
and left to moulder where they lay. It was curious,
in exhuming the remains of the old Roman settle-
ment, to come upon such evidence of human occu-
pation as the ashes of charred wood in the hypo-
causts, just as they had been left when the last fire
was kindled there many centuries ago ; and in
another apartment to find particles of burnt wheat,
garnered when this island was still a tributary of
Rome. Other relics of a more enduring character
were found in abundance ; a square space at the
bottom of one of the rooms, which seemed to have
been used as a dust-bin, proving a very Golconda to
the arcbssologist, who found there, buried in dust to
the depth of 16 or 17 inches, scores of coins, nails,
bone needles, hair pins, broken pottery, and various
articles in iron, bronze, lead, and glass. Hair-pins

THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, AUGUST 9 1867.

commencement of our inquiry, and frequently
during the course of it, we explained the provisions
of the Trades' Union Commission Act, 1867, with
regard to the powers conferred on us of granting
certificates of indemnity to witnesses who should by
their evidence inculpate themselves. We are con-
vinced that the most material disclosures made to
us were so made in reliance on our promise of in-
demnity made in conformity with the Act of Par-
liament. had no such indemnity been offered, we
are satisfied that we should never have obtained any
clear and conclusive evidence touching the most im-
portant subjects of our inquiry, and that the system
of crime which has now been disclosed, as well as
the perpetrators, would have remained undiscovered
—we have therefore granted certificates to all wit-
nesses whom we believe to have made a full and
true disclosure of all offences in which they have
been implicated."

ASSIZE IN7ELLIGENCE.

NORFOLK CIRCUIT.7-Normicu, August 8.

CROWN COURT.
(Before Mr. Justice Byles.)
Hubbard Lingley was indicted for the wilful
murder of Benjamin Black, at Barton Bendish, on
on the 17th of May, 1867. He was charged upon
the Coroner's inquisition with the same offence.
Mr. Metcalfe and Mr. Drake conducted the case
for the prosecution, the prisoner being defended by
Mr. Sims Reeve. _ _ _

The facts of the case, which rested on circum
stantial evidence for its proof, were as follows :

The prisoner, who is the nephew of the murdered
man, Benjamin Black, was employed as under-
woodman by Sir llanson Berney, at Barton Ben-
dhiisshu.ncliel,iswhwades (12s. a week) were paid him by
addition to the place of woodman,

filled that of gamekeeper there. • On the 17th of
May, very early in the morning, in consequence of
being roused by the report of a gun from a wood
near the cottage where he resided, the uncle got up

at 4 a.m., and went in the direction of the shot. li©
was never seen again alive, for at 6 o'clock some

,abourers who were-going to their work in a neigh

bouring field discovered his dead body lying near a
gate forming the entrance into the wood,
with the left side riddled by shot, and in such

a situation as made it clear that the shot which had
caused immediate death had been fired into that

side from the wood, and as the victim was walking
up to open the gate for the purpose of going into
the wood. Now, in the wood at a spot about 15 or
16 feet from the place where the body lay were the
evident marks of some person having knelt down
some four or five feet from the hedge as if on the
watch, together with other marks, showing that this
person had retired to this place from the gate, and
the leaves of the hedgein this direction were scorched
as if by gunpowder. Now, who was this person by

whom this shot had been fired ? As to this the

following details were given in evidence :—lu the
first place, several pieces of what was called by the
learned counsel in his opening coarse white sugar
paper, stained with gunpowder, lay between the
spot from which the shot was fired and that where

the body was found. In the next place, at a short
distance in the wood, were seen fragments of a
broken bottle, so broken as to have been apparently
thrown down with great violence and ground to
powder, and near these fragments also were found
a piece of the same sugar paper and some gun-
powder. In a shed, which was used for keeping
tools, the key of which was held by the deceased,
some broken bottles and some straw were found,
and it was also discovered that the lock had been

broken. It was the prisoner who drew attention to
these things, and he suggested that there had been
a drinking party in the shed, that the lock had been
forced, and the bottles broken by them, and that by
them also was his uncle's life taken. It was the
prisoner's duty to work in that wood, and on the
discovery of the dead body by the labourers one of
them called out to him, and in about four or five
minutes he came from the direction where he should
have been at work, and from a spot about 320 yards
from where the body lay. This was about a quarter
past 6, and, though the tips of the fingers were cold,
the hand was warm ; the body was then lying on
the kit side, with shot marks on that side and on
the left eye, and, in answer to the remark of one of
the labourers, saying, "Hubbard, doyou know what
has happened? Your uncle is shot and is dead," he
replied, " No, I don't ; who could have done this ?"
appearing at the same time affected at the sight. On
searching the body Black's watch was found pro-
truding
o
f from the pocket, and showing an appear-
ance a wrench having been given to draw it out,
but owing to the pocket being small the watch re-
mained, but a chain attached to it was broken ; a
purse with money in it which his widow proved the
deceased had taken with him, something more than
Bs. 6d., when he left his house, was carried away,
and on looking at the gate entering into the wood
it was found that it had been lifted from its hinges
and left hanging, as if, so it was suggested, to fur-
ther the object of the person by whom the shot was
fired and the purse taken. The prisoner was the
first to notice the loss of the money, and as sus-
picion was directed against him very early in the
investigation of the cause of death he was kept in
close view all day, a detective officer having, as
soon as intelligence was forwarded to Norwich,
gone over to Barton Bendish. The rest of the
proof against the prisoner will appear from the fol-
lowing evidence. The motive for the crime, as Mr.
Metcalfe opened to the jury, was that the prisoner,
being dissatisfied with his own work, wished to
get his uncle's place, and had been to Sir 11. Berney's
agent
tryntntd get it, while, as would be shown,
therecontinual quarrels between his uncle and
t o
were
co
himself, and so late as the Saturday before the
uncle's death he had uttered strong threats against
him.

The first important witness who was called was
the policeman, William Balls, stationed in the dis-
trict, who, after stating that he went to examine
the wood and the place where the body had been
found, said that he picked up fragments of a broken
kneltplac e ,
behind where
a here g
bottle and pieces of coarse white paper near the
ah face towards the dead
rksis
of a person having
body and his toe-marks in a line behind it, and
tked were
hedge
w t marks
also in the shed above mentioned; that the leaves
of a maple bush five yards from the body, and in a
line with the knee marks, were scorched ; and that
the prisonerbrought him the dead man's broken watch
chain, which he said he had found on the body. He
went on to say that, having asked the prisoner
where his gun was, and being told that it was at
his uncle Henry Barton's house (the dead man's
brother), he went with him to that place, and on
their arrival, Henry- having joined them, the pri-
soner looked round a room, and saying, " It should
be somewhere here," his uncle said, "My gun is in
a shed ; it is not here" (for it had been taken away
and was being used for frightening birds) ; and,
having sent for it, the prisoner said, " That is the
gun," to which the uncle replied, " W hy, you know
you never were allowed to take that gun away.
What is the good of bringing these people here upon
this fool's errand?" They then went away, and
the prisoner having been apprehended on the charge
of murdering his uncle, he said to this witness, " I
should think there are fifty persons who know I
have a gun. I hid it while they were gone to follow
the trail." (This was a trail of 1,000 yards which
this witness and two other men had traced from the
gate near the body to another gate in the wood, but
as it led nowhere they did not pursue it. The im-
portance of this statement, however, will be seen in
the next witness's evidence)• The prisoner then
went on to say to Balls that he hid the gun because
he thought he should be suspected, and having
shown the witness where it was (in a thicket of
blackthorn in the wood, about 150 yards from the
body), be went to the place and found it covered
over with dead leaves, and showing marks of hav-
ing been recently discharged, there being a piece of
the ell) still on it. Balls on further search also
fuund an empty powder flask in a hollow tree in
the wood about iOO or 400 yards from the body, and
about 70 from the place where the prisoner had been
working.
George Reed, a farmer in the neighbourhood,
. proved that he went into the wood and came back
• to the body just a 3 Balls and th 3 others came up;
the prisoner was close to the body 41 the time that