The Sun.
London, England, 1866-01-11 00:00:00

MADRAS.

The traffic receipts on this company's lines, 611
miles in aggregate length, amounted for the week
ending the 11th of November to £10,613, against
£7,452 on 571 miles, showing an increase of 40
miles, or 7 per cent. in the mileage, and £3,161, or
42 per cent., in the receipts.

Murder in Staffordshire.

ECCLESIIALL, Wednesday.
Yet another murder has taken place in the county

of Stafford, and the offence was being committed
within ten miles of the gaol of that county, and
within a few hours of the time at which Robinson
was hanged on Tuesday.
In this case the victim is not a young girl, but a
powerful excavator, aged between 40 and 50, and
named John Poole. During the afternoon of Mon-
day he was in a publichouse in this town, which is
about seven miles from Stafford, when a slender
young man, named George Bentley, aged 27, came
in and asked the landlady to give him some beer
She said she had no common beer ; but Poole, who
was present and drinking ale, asked Bentley to sit
and drink with him. Bentley did so. Almost

immediately after he left Bentley came to the smithy,
ascertained which way he had gone, and followed
him. On the same night Bentley was found with
plenty of money in his possession, treating people in
publichouses, and buying a new white slop. It
then occurred to an ex-police-sergeant named Robin-
son that he was a deserter, and on that charge he
arrested him. At 8 the next morning Poole was

found with his skull smashed in, but still alive, on a
lonely part of the road leading from Eccleshall to
Offley-brook, and about three miles from Eccles-
hall. His waistcoat had been cut from his body
and his boots taken off. In this condition he bad
been lying all night, the snow falling and freezing
upon him. Enough life was left to make him kick
with one leg until he had with his heel worn a hole
in the road. Suspicion fell upon Bentley, who was
found to be wearing the boots and the waistcoat.
The latter was cut down the sides, showing that it
was taken from the body without removing the
jacket which was worn over it. Afterwards the
slop which Bentley was wearing when he called at
the blacksmith's shop was found in a brook about
one field off from Poole's body, and it had blood
upon it. By the side of the murdered man, who
died this afternoon, the handkerchief of which also
Bentley was wearing round hi 3 neck in the after-
noon was found, having a great stone in it, tied
tightly, so as to form a formidable weapon. There
was blood upon the handkerchief, and there is no
doubt that with the stone so tied up the deceased
was murdered.

This afternoon at about 4 o'clock the prisoner was
brought up on the charge of having murdered Poole,
and was examined by Mr. Lyons, magistrate.
Richard Dodd, blacksmith, Offig-brook, deposed

-Yesterday morning, in consequence of informs•

tion I received, I went to the coppice, which is
between Offley-brook and the Walk-mill. There
I saw John Poole, the murdered man. He was
lying about half-way along the coppice, on the cop-
pice side. There is a space of turf and a bank be-
tween the roadside and the coppice, with a bank
nearest to the coppice. Deceased's head rested to-
wards the bank, and his feet were towards the road.
His face was all over blood and his jacket. Ho
was alive, for I could see that he moved one of
his feet. I did not lay hold of him. I saw a
handkerchief close against his side, and a hat
about a yard and a half from him. The hat was
not damaged. The handkerchief was a red one,
with light coloured spots upon it. (Police-constable
Clutton here produced a cotton handkerchief, and
in it a stone weighing 21b. boz.) I went and fetched
Samuel Turner, Henry Birch, and Richard Hill.
When we came back I picked up the handkerchief
produced with the stone in it. The handkerchief and
the stone produced are the same I saw by the de-
ceased's side. The stone was tied in the handkerchief.
We lifted him up and carried him about ten yards.
He could only move one leg a little, and was insen-
sible. He had no waistcoat on, nor had he any boots
on; but he was wearing his jacket, which was agood
one, made of moleskin. I saw him on the previous
night, and excepting having his waistcoat and boots
off be was dressed as then. We put him into a wheel-
barrow, and took him to an empty house belonging
to Samuel Turner. He had four wounds on his head,
and both eyes were closed up. One of them was as
black as a coal. I had seen the prisoner the day be-
fore, but never previously. Soon after 4 o'clock in
the afternoon he came into my shop and said, " Which
w
who
dhoJahcakd gone?"beforeme enabneing, I suppose, the
deceased,ay i
in my shop. I
pointed down the road and he went another way,
s
saying he would be back in a minute. Directlyafter-
wards he came running back, and went down the

road that John Poole went. The prisoner then had
a red handkerchief round his neck, spotted with
white, just such a handkerchief as the one produced.
He had a slop on also, but not the one he now wears.
(A slop was produced by the police, wet, and having
a great deal of blood, upon the sleeve principally.)
The slop he wore was like that. After deceased left
my shop in the afternoon I did not see him again till
I found him the next morning.
By the Prisoner—That handkerchief is the same
sort as the one you wore round your neck. It was not
a blue one, it was a red one you had round your
neck.

Prisoner—The handkerchief I had on was a blue
one.

Witness—l cannot swear that is the same slop you
had on, but it is the same make. I looked at you
some time before I told you which way Poole went.

Johannah Richards, an unmarried woman of Offiey
Hay, deposed—l knew the deceased man, John Poole,
well. I had a child, of which he was the father. I
saw him this day week. (The police produced a red
plush waistcoat.) I know that waistcoat well. De-
ceased used to 'tear it. He had it on when I last
saw him. I know it by the make, by the buttons,
and by the pattern. (The police next produced a
pair of boots.) I know those boots. He showed
them to me on Christmas-day ;he had just bought
them. I know them from the make in front.

The prisoner did not wish to put any questions
to this witness.

Samuel Turner deposed—On the Bth of January
I was in the Four Crosses, at Oftley-brook, at 3
o'clock. The prisoner was there. John Poole and
Thomas Sutton were with him. He wore a white
slop, and a cap that had brass buttons. He had a
pair of leggings under his trousers.

Police-constable George Clutton deposed—l am
stationed at Eccleshall. On the 9th of January I
received information of the murder, and I went to
Why-brook. There I saw the deceased. I saw
that he was badly beaten and bleeding ; he was in-
sensible. On the previous evening I received the
prisoner into custody by ex-police Sergeant Robin-
son. At the time I heard of the murder I received
a description of a man who had been in deceased's
company the night before. On coming back from
seeing deceased I examined and searched the prisoner.
He was then wearing the boots and waistcoat pro-
duced, and which Johannah Richards has identified.
The slop and the handkerchief, which are new, I
found afterwards he had bought the same night
between 8 and 9. The waistcoat was cut up under
the arms. In explanation of that the prisoner said
he had been in a row in Yorkshire. I was with the
deceased last night; he was unconscious. I saw him
this morning, and he appeared to be a deal worse.
Robert Baker deposed,--I am an inspector of
police, and stationed at Stoke. Last night I saw
the deceased in a house that had been fitted for his
accommodation: He was perfectly unconscious.
To-day I saw him again in company with Sergeant
Kelly, at about 12 o'clock. He died while I was in
the room.

Mr. Nance, surgeon, deposed,—l am in practice in
Eccleshall, and was called in to-day by Dr. Smith
to see the deceased, John Poole. He was suffering
from a severe fracture on the right side of the head,
with depression. There was another fracture on the
other side, though slight, and a wound on the fore-
head. He was perfectly unconscious. The wound
on the forehead over the eye was a lacerated wound.
He died from the fracture on the right side of the
head. The injuries must have been caused by some
blunt instrument. It would require very great force
to produce the injuries. The whole side of the head
was completely smashed in. I regarded it as a hope-
less case from the first. As the last resource, Dr.
Smith performed the operation of trepanning to re-
lieve the pressure upon the brain. I was present
when it was performed. When we returned in an
hour he was dead. Such a weapon as the stone in
the handkerchief would produce the injuries of
which the deceased died.

Ex-police-sergeant Robinson deposed—l accom-
panied Clutton to the deceased's bed. The hand-
kerchief and stone were lying there by deceased's
side. At deceased's feet was the wet sock, which I
was told had been found by a boy in a drain. I
apprehended the prisoner on the previous night on
the charge of being a deserter. I delivered him to
Police-constable Clutton.

Thomas Worrell, a boy, next deposed to the find-
ing of the slop in the brook.
The inquiry was then adjourned, and the prisoner
remanded.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

-0-

TI3IES.—It was the noble boast of Schiller, when
speaking of German poetry, that no Augustan age
bloomed for it, that no Medici had smiled upon it,
and that it unfolded its flowers under other influ-
ences than those of court favour. Therefore, says
the high-minded poet, its song climbs higher and
flows more fully. With a little alteration, the same
boast may be re-echoed on behalf of a new profes-
sion which has sprung out of and increased in im-
portance with the growing prosperity and increasing
civilisation of the country. The Church and the Law
have their primaciesandtheir judgeships, and innu-
merable appointments, supported at the public ex-
pense, and institutions of venerable antiquity and
enormous wealth, devoted to their instruction and
encouragement. The medical profession is overlaid
with organisation, and confers degrees of all sorts
through a number of competing bodies. But if a
young man is to devote himself to the study of civil
engineering the very course he is to pursue has not
yet been marked out. Hedoes not know the status
he will occupy in society, for no trouble has been
taken to ascertain it. He has no social honours or
distinctions to look for, and, if he fail in his profes-
sion, has no comfortable retirement provided at the
public expense, ready to corer the defeat of respect-
able mediocrity. Therefore, we may say with the
German poet, and for this reason, we believe it
is, that the study of civil engineering has obtained
a success in this country and has risen in the esti-
mation of England and the world with a rapidity
quite unexampled in any other branch of human
knowledge. The endowments which well-meaning
and liberal persons have created for the encourage-
ment of learning in its different departments must
always be regulated by the state of knowledge on
the subject in question at the time of their creation.
If they encourage and direct, they have also a ten-
dency to narrow and confine. It is wonderful how
soon in all subjects an orthodox school springs up
when there is a foundation round which it may
cluster, and how speedily the tendency developes
itself to put down and stifle inquiry by affixing
to its results some name implying disapprobation
and contempt. Civil engineering has been hither-
to free from this danger. If unendowed, it is at
any rate free. Offering very lucrative pecuniary
prizes to the ambition of its students, it leaves
them quite at liberty to seek for the instruction ne-
cessary to obtain those prizes when and where they
please. The result has been what might naturally
be expected—the human mind, being steadily bent
on attaining one particular kind of knowledge, has
found. the means of knowledge for itself, and the
engineers of England occupy a position all the
prouder because it is due to no extraneous assistance.
Such were the feelings with which we read the ex-
cellent address to the Institute of Civil Engineers
from their President, Mr. Fowler, a man who,
though not, so far as we are aware, possessed of any
University degree, or any other distinction than the
modest letters " C.E." which follow his name, has
probably done as much to promote the prosperity
and spread the reputation of England as any person
of his class in the country. Mr. Fowler points out
the necessity of paying the utmost attention to the
education of the school of Civil Engineers now
growing up, and that for two reasons—the one, the
growing competition of Continental and American
engineers in a field in which for a time the English
engineer had established for himself a sort of mono-
poly., and the greater care that is given to their edu-
cation. A second reason why even more attention
should be given to education than before is, that
while in the studies of Law, of Medicine, and of
Divinity, the problems which are to be solved and
the difficulties which are to be met this year are of
the same nature and the same amount of difficulty
as those which were encountered last year, they rise
in Civil Engineering with the wants, the wealth,
and the wishes of mankind. We want larger ship
canals. The tunnels which astonished us twenty
years ago, the bridges which seemed to have accom-
plished impossibilities, are dwarfed before the tun-
nels and the bridges that are now required. Our
ports will not hold our ships, our warehouses
with all their mechanical appliances must yield to
larger buildings and machinery more efficient. As
works grow in size, the capacities of those who are
to construct them must grow also. We must not
trust to lucky thoughts or strokes of - genius, but
to the patient combination of true principles and
sound judgment. Mr. Fowler then goes on to state
that training should include general instruction or a
liberal education, special education as a basis for