The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-26 00:00:00

2HE SIDNEY 7RIAL.

This cause celgpre, after occupying the court for thirteen
days, at length seems to approach its plose. The evidence
for the defence closed with Mrs. C. Bagot, who corrobo-
rated the evidence given by the defendant's witnesses, so
tar as her knowledge extended. On cross-examination
she admitted that Bernard Bagot had informed her from
day to day during the trial of the statements deposed to,
and asked her what points she could contradict. She
also admitted that her husband said to Bergin that her
evidence would destroy the case of the defendant, and
that Bernard Bagot was to blame for allowing the transac-
tions to be exposed instead of letting the defendant
pay the bills. At the conclusion of the defendant's case,
Mr. Bergin, Mr. Bloomfield, and Mr. Sidney were called
for a rebutting case, and contradicted parts of the defend-
ant's evidence. The defendant was again examined, and
denied some of the testimony given upon the re-examina-
tion of Sidney, and Mrs. C. Bagot, having been recalled,
contradicted Sidney's contradiction of her own contra-
dictions of Sidney's statements. The parties having been
thus confronted, and a brisk fusillade of denials inter-
changed, the evidence closed.
Mr. Heron, Q.C., then proceeded to reply for the
defence. After telling the jury that he should wish to
appeal to their sympathies on behalf of Mr. Sidney, to
ask them to restore him—a victim of a foul conspiracy--
to his native land, the learned counsel deposed that his
task was a very difficult one. It was a very painful one.
He had to speak of great talents misused ; he had to speak
of a life thrown away; he had to speak of reckless
extravagance, insane and most selfish ; of a wickedness
that would sacrifice to that selfishness the happiness of
young relatives growing up to manhood, the fortune of
innocent girls, the last shilling of his dearest friends—a
selfishness finally culminating in crime—crime of the
darkest character, and on the part of one who during the
present trial had shewn a keen and clear experience, pur-
chased after twenty years' walk inthe ways of the world.
The learned counsel then proceeded in strong terms to de-
nounce Mr. Sidney, and taking up the story told by him
in the witness box, said : It was told with tears, told with
sardonic smiles. and with a reckless, flippant, and strange
manner—told by himself with all the lurid light which
was presented to the suicide at the moment of death, with
all the horrors of vengeance, hate, and shame, seemed to
have been obtained from the very flames of hell. Was
such misery ever before brought to light on a trial? Hus-
band and wife arrayed against mother, sister, and brother.
Mr. Heron then gave a resume of the evidence. The
prosecution had charged his client, Mr. Begot, a country
gentleman and a magistrate, first with being insane
enough to give Mr. Sidney unlimited authority to put his
(the defendant's) name to the bills, and then with being

base enough to deny that authority, and, singularly
enough, to get up a conspiracy by means of an extorted
letter to prove Mr. Sidney a forger. The ca7,e which Mr.
Sidney had endeavoured to make out was that three or
four men gave unlimited authority to sign their names
upon bills. Mr. Sidney's whole endeavour was to imitate
the signature of those whose names he used, and he was so
far successful that even experts had been deluded. He
asked his learned friend, Mr. Dowse (the counsel for the
prosecution), to give an explanation of the motive
of imitating the writing of Blake and Henry Hynes.
The motive for imitating the handwriting of J. L. Bagot
was apparent. John Lloyd Begot was known at the
banks. But Hynes was a boy just arrived at 21; and he
(Mr. Heron) did not think that the name of James Blake
would command much respect upon 'Change, according to
his own account. lie could not find any conceivable sup-
position of innocence. The first time John L. Bagot dined
at Sidney's house was on the 18th of February, 1861, and
the whole of the transactions which had occurred or were
alleged to have occurred, were comprised within that time
and the flight on the 19th or 20th of August, 18G6. The
whole of Hyne's liability on bills was incurred within a
period of three months; and he would venture to say that
the entire of Bagot's liability, £2,700 or £3,000, was in-
curred within the same period of time. The learned
counsel discarded the evidence of Mr. Sidney's wife, and
at the conclusion of his speech, Mr. Dowse, Q.C., replied
for the plaintiff.

MURDER IN SHROPSHIRE

SHREWSBURY, _Um 25.

Yesterday—on the very day that the Alton murderer
was adjudged to be hanged—a crime singularly resembling
his in its character was brought to light in Shropshire.
The victim in the present instance is a little girl named
Catherine Lewis, 9 years and 8 months old, and the man
now in custody on the charge of wilful murder is an agri-
cultural labourer named John Mapp. The scene of the
outrage is a field situated between Longden Village and
Longden-common, a quiet agricultural district about seven
or eight miles from this town.

From the particulars already in the possession of the
police, it sppears that on Sunday morninglast the deceased
left her home, which is situated on the common, for the
house of a person named Davis, who lives in the village,
and whose baby she occasionally nursed. She remained
here till six o'clock in the evening, when she started to go
to chapel. On leaving chapel she was accompanied by
Mapp and a woman, a mutual acquaintance, who lived
at Longden-wood Farm. When the three reached the
lane which led to the farm, this woman turned aside and
went home, Mapp and the deceased keeping on the high
road which led to Longden-common. This was a little
after eight o'clock, and the deceased was never seen alive
again.

On Monday morning Mapp went to his work in the
field, as usual, and towards noon a ploughboy, who was
working near him, called out that he had found a girl's hat
all covered with blood, at the same time observing
that there had been a row somewhere. Mapp told the
lad to put the hat in the furrow, and cover it up with the
plough, but instead of doing so, he threw it over the
hedge into the high road. A woman named Hartshorne,
who had been at chapel on the previous evening, and
had seen the deceased there, happened to pass along
the road shortly after, and, picking up the hat, recog-
nised it as the one then worn by the deceased and at
once carried it to the father of the child. Up to this time
no anxiety as to the absence of the deceased had arisen,
either on the part of her parents or the Davises, the one
concluding that she had stayed to sleep at the village. and
the other believing that she had gone home. But when
the hat, saturated with blood, was brought to him, Mr.
Lewis at once started for the village, and learning that
his daughter had not been seen since eight o'clock on the
previous night, a diligent search was made in the neigh-
bourhood that lay between the two houses. Following
certain traces found in the field where the hat had been
discovered, Mr. Lewis went to an old and disused hovel
which stood in an adjoining field, and on opening the door,
a shocking sight was presented to him. Lying on her
back upon the ground, with some of the latter covering
her, was the body of his child, with her throat cut from
ear to ear, and so deeply as almost to sever the head from
the shoulders. A shawl, which she had worn on Sunday,
was tied round her neck, and one end thrust tightly into
her mouth. There were several scratches upon her
?erson, but though there is no doubt as to the obj ect of
her murderer, it is not known pending the medical inquiry
whether or not he effected it.

On the discovery of the crime suspicion was at once
directed towards the prisoner, who strongly protested his
innocence ; but at the same time made several inconsistent
and damaging statements, which will be duly deposed to
at the adjourned examination. On visiting the scene of the
murder yesterday, Superintendent Caerswell made an im-
portant discovery, which throws considerable light on the
affair, and forms a strong link in the chain of evidence which
connected the prisoner with it. It appears that on Satur-
day Mapp was engaged in spreading manure over the
stubbe-field where the hat was found, and returned on Mon-
day morning to complete the job. Instead, however, of fol-
lowing on with the manure at the place where he had left off
on Saturday, he commenced at a place fifty yards further on,
and here he piled up two large heaps. On noticing this yes-
terday, Superintendent Caerswell raked away the manure,
and underneath each heap he found a large pool of blood,
and close by he picked up a veil belonging to the deceased.
Following up this clue, Caerswell traced the path of the
murderer, as he had dragged after him the body of the
child along the hedgerow skirting the highway, through a
gap in the hedge, and across a grass field up to the hovel,
a distance of about five hundred yards. The trail of the
body, which had become covered with soil from the
ploughed field, was plainly discernible on the grass. The
ploughed field is skirted by the highway, along which the
prisoner and the deceased (who were next door neigh-
bours) would pass on their way home after leaving their
ccempanion at the farm, and the precise spot where the
murder appears to have been committed is close by a gatt•
which leads off the road into the field. The inference
from the evidence already obtained clearly is that thy•
murderer suddenly assailed the child in the road, and,
gagging her by means of her shawl, carried her into the
field, and fearing the consequences of the sure detection
which must follow on her return home, had been led into
the committal of murder. Supposing the prisoner to have
been the perpetrator of the preliminary outrage, he had a
special reason for keeping out of the hands of the police,
for he had only lately returned home with a ticket of
leave after serving seven of a term of ten years' transporta-
tion, to which he had been sentenced for a rape on an old
woman, committed under peculiarly atrocious circum-
stances.

Mapp was brought here yesterday in custody, and
charged before the county magistrate with the wilful mur-
der of Catherine Lewis, but no evidence was taken beyond
such as was necessary for a remand. On the usual ques-
tion being put to him, the prisoner made a statement to
the effect that the deceased had been murdered but that
he was not the man.
Lit was remanded for a week.