The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-02 00:00:00

MYSTERIOUS DBATII IN HORNSEI

FIELDS.

On Saturday afternoon Mr. Brent, deputy-coro-
ner for West Middlesex, opened a lengthened in-
quiry at the Railway Tavern, Hornsey, for the in-
vestigation of the circumstances connected with the
death of John Morley, aged 56, until recently a
warder in the House of Detention, whose lifeless
body was found in a ditch, with a wound in the
throat.

It appeared that on Saturday last the deceased
left his home, No. 21, Poulton-terrace, Barnsbury-
road, and was not again heard of until the Monday,
when it was discovered that he had been wandering
about the paths in the neighbourhood of Hornsey
each successive day until the Tuesday, being seen
by a woman sitting at the top of " Cut-throat-
lane." On the Wednesday he did not appear ; but
on the Thursday he was found by a labourer, ap-
parently sitting asleep, in a ditch running through
a meadow, with his head resting on the bank. He
shouted to him, but could not arouse him, and at
length told a person whom he observed in an ad-
joining meadow, and both the men went to wake
him up. No, notice, however, being taken, the hat
of deceased was removed, and a frightful spectacle
presented itself, the head being covered with
a moving mass of fly-blows. Mr. Crouch,
the coroner's officer was then waited on,
and on his examining the body after its
removal :from the ditch, he found a wound in the
throat, w hich was not expected, owing to there
being but a very slight appearance of blood. A
search wits then made for the weapon, but nothing
that would inflict a wound could be found. On
searching the body an empty tobacco box, a pen
knife, ani.l two pencils were found, and in a thick
black silk neckerchief, which was round the de-
ceased's z Leek, there was a small fancy pin.
Some ,difficulty arose as to the cause of death,
whether it was the result of the wound in the neck
or not. The jury had no evidence as to whether
it was a thrust or incised wound, or whether it was
probable that it had been self-inflicted or otherwise.
Mr. Crouch, in reply, said he did not call in a
medical gentleman, believing it was a death from a
cut throat`..
With rt Iference to the state of mind of the deceased
the wife and son deposed that the unfortunate man
had been 1.5 years warder at the House of Deten-
tion, where he had satisfactorily performed his duty
until they change of governorship, when the present
govern() r continually complained of his being unfit
for duty-, and that he was taking the county money
for doing; nothing; also that the cook could perform
his duty This preyed upon the deceased's mind,
and he frequently said he thought he should be
compelled to resign. He did so about five or six
weeks since, and was then attended by Mr. Scott,
surgeon, d Wakefield-terrace, Caledonian-road.
The dece-ased since his departure from home had had
a pensioi i for servitude fixed upon him, which he
was mac le acquainted with by means of the woman
at the F ;ate before mentioned, who requested that
he shoe ild return home. The family had found out
where he was wandering, and had searched for him
night and day, actually passing the spot within a
few b .undred yards where he was lying dead.
Th e Deputy-Coroner here remarked that they
were now without the cause of death, but if the
jury thought it would be advisable to return an
open verdict or adjourn the inquiry lie was prepared
to folL Dw either course they thought fit to adopt.
The jury, after a short consultation, preferred an
adjoin.' iment in order to have a medical examina-
tion,, at d also for the evidence of Mr. Scott, the last
med'icall gentleman who attended the deceased.

The convocation of the prelates and clergy of
the provinLV of Canterbury was yesterday prorogued in the
Jerusalem Chamber, Westminster, by the Vicar-General,
Dr, Trawers Twiss, under a commission from his Grace the
Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of All England
and Mt tropoßtan, pursuant to the Royal writ, to Wednes-
day; tl4 234 October Aoxt.

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BRIGHTON, SUNDAY EVENING.
The general aspect of Brighton to-day presented
a marked contrast to its usual bustling appearance
on such a fine Sunday. The dreadful' accident,
which. during the past week, had been diseussediu
all circles of society, evidently exercised a decided
erect in deterring a great nambi-r of nt rsone either
ffoin travelling altogether, oi. f...aa ~,;,:etic-g thiz,
town for their day's pleasure. Certain it is that
many of the places usually thronged by excursion-
ists were comparatively deserted, while the sea
beach, always the resort of a great proportion of
Sunday travellers, was in most parts bare of visl
tors'. The number of excursion trains generally
arriving here on Sundays is seven, four or five from
London-bridge, and the remainder from Victoria.
To-day, however, there were only four—.three from
London-bridge and one from Victoria. some of
the carriages, too, were not filled, and it was be-
lieved here that to-day's excursion traffic showed a
falling off equal to 50 per cent. upon that of ordi-
nary Sundays. If human energy and foresight,
however, can prevent a recurrence of such a fright-
ful calamity, there is nothing whatever to fear, for
the directors and officials of the compay are exert-
ing themselves to the utmost to secure the efficient
and safe conduct of the traffic for the future.
On inquiry at the Sussex County Hospital this
evening our reporter was informed that the sufferers
by the late accident are progressing towards reco-
very. Seven persons at present remain under treat-
ment. William Arnold, gardener to Mr. Pegg,
York Hotel, had both legs fractured, the right one
amputated. He is doing well. George Noble and
Thomas Noble, hawkers, whe received scalp wounds
and were much shaken, will, it is hoped, be able to
leave the hospital in a few days. The same may be
said of Thomas Parker, bricklayer, of Brighton.
He received a wound on the forehead and tieveral
bruistie. His wife was killed by his side. Timothy
-Tester received severe bodily injuries; but is rapidly
improking, Elizabeth Weatcott plist'aingd ti frac-,
tmea.-Teg, andherdanglrteravis brzu...cffaisSiielaedz-,;,- - -•,--. ,- P-- - .
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The latter has left the hospital convalescent, and
the mother is doing well. The only other patient .
is Elizabeth Edwing, a child of two years and a-
half
old, the daughter of Mr. Edwing, of White
Lion-street, Nortonfolgate. She was with her
mother, who was returning to London from a short
visit to Brighton. The mother was killed, and the
child could of course give no account of herself.
Both her legs were fractured, and she had also sus-
tained a fracture of the thigh, besides being scalded.
Next day Mr. Edwing came down from London
and identified his little girl. She is doing well.
All these patients are under the care of Mr. Furner,
senior surgeon to the County Hospital.
The Extra-mural Cemetery, where sixteen of the
dead have been interred, was this afternoon visited
•
by a great concourse of persons. Some of the rela-
tives and survivors, attired in the deepest mourning,
visited the graves of the deceased. The solemn
event has been impressively alluded to to-day in
most of the churches and chapels of the town.
Among the tragic incidents in humble life to
which the calamitous event gave birth the following
may be mentioned. A young woman in service in
London obtained her mistress's permission to invite
her father and mother to spend the day with her at
her mistress's house. Dinner was provided, but the
visitors failed to arrive. 11 he family probably heard
of the accident, for on Monday the daughter, full of
anxiety, came to Brighton to inquire whether her
father and mother were in the train. She could
hear nothing about them until she arrived at her •
father's house, where she found the blinds closely
drawn, and learnt, to her horror, that both her
parents were in the train with her little brother, a
child of 18 months, and that all three were killed
by the accident. The unfortunate man and wife
have left nine children. He had worked as a wino
cooper for 24 years with Mr. Ellis, wine merchant,
Ship-street, Brighton.
The Coroner and Jury did not resume the inquiry
yesterday, but will renew the 'examination of wit-
nesses to-morrow morning.. Mr. Hawkins, the
Traffic Manager of the London and Brighton Rail-
way, will be the first as itness examined.
The evidence is of course narrowly scrutinised
from day to day by those who are acquainted with
the witnesses or cognisant of the facts. It would
seem that the accident might have been prevented
if the guards in charge of the excursion (the second)
train had ran back instantly to the mouth of the
tunnel to ask why Killick, the signalman, had
brought them up with a red flag. The evidence
upon this point is conflicting. Scott, the engine-
driver of the excursion, says he stopped when
about 250 yards in the tunnel. The carriages
backed about 20 to 30 yards. The train then
stopped about two minutes. Being asked whether
he sent the guard back he replied, " No, there
was not time." He took hold of the hand-rail and
waited for a signal from the guard to start again.
It was, however, too dark to see the guard. Mr.
Jackson, an ex.enginedriver, who was a passenger in
the train, calculated that the train returned 400 or
500 yards, so that the passengers believed they were
going back out of the tunnel. It was not the duty
of the driver to back the train, and if the guard had
jumped promptly down when the train stopped and
run towards the south end of the tunnel the signal-
man would not have supposed the train had cleared
the tunnels and might have shown his red flag in
time to stop the third train. Butcher, the head
guard of the Brighton excursion (second train),
stated that his train had been standing still a
minute and a half or two minutes before the third
train ran into it. Subsequently he denied this, and
averred that if he had said the train had stood still
a minute and a half or two minutes he made a mis-
take. Other witnesses state that the train had been
four or five minutes in the tunnel before the col-
lision.

It does not appear that the defectiveness of the
distance signal (if it was really out of order) is
altogether chargeable with the catastrophe. If it
had been turned on to " danger " there would still
have been the white flag shown by Billie] to mis-
lead the third train, and lead the driver to believe
the second train had cleared the tunnel. The con-
fusion relative to the signals between the signal-
men at each end of the tunnel seems to have been
caused by the want of clearness in describing the
trains. If the trains had been decribed in their
messages to each other as "first," "second," and
" third" train, no mistake could have occurred.
The use of the definite article in the message, " Is
the train out," was only calculated to mislead when
three trains were passing within an interval of a
few minutes.
The Railway Company have already granted such
compensation as the circumstances appeared to re-
quire in the case of passengers suffering from minor
casualties and injuries.

THE WEATHER.—SI OFFICE, SEPTEMBER I, 1861.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
70—highest since noon yesterday.
51—lowest this morning and during the night.
71—this day at noon.

BenomzTEn-30.13; falling.
Wram—South-Westerly—light; with very fine harves
weather.

SEPT. 2.
THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
73—highest since noon yesterday.
56—lowest this morning and during the flight.
68—this day at noon.

BAROMETER-30.0.
WlND—Westerly—light and fine.

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THE SUN.

LONDON, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1861

Rumours, and little else than rumours, have
been brought to Europe by the Europa from the
seat of war in America. Still even something can
be learnt by watching the drift of those straws
thrown up to indicate the quarter from which the
wind blows. All serves still, there, to evidence how
entirely the tables have been turned at this early
period of the contest between North and South,
between the Federates and Confederates. Instead of
being violently aggressive—as they were, almost
as we may say, blatantly, at the very commence-
ment—the Northerns are acting now almost exclu-
sively upon the defensive. Whereas the Southerns,
gaining heart from the struggle even so far as it
has yet gone, are ambitious at length to carry the
strife into the camp of their assailants—nay beyond
the camp, to the capture if possible of the Legisla-
tive Capital of the old Union, that Westminster of
the New World—W ashin g ton .

First of all, however, as to the preparations still
making steadily and energetically by the Northern
Government. A proclamation—very much indeed
to the purpose as an evidence of the necessity
there is for instant action—has been pub-
lished, it appears, since our last advices
arrived from the Northern States of Ame-
rica : a proclamation ordering up all the new
Volunteer regiments and even parts of regiments
that have been already collected together, without
their having to wait either for uniforms or for
arms. And in answer to this summons the Volun-
teers are hastening in and leaving, to go to the
front, as rapidly as may be. Not only had this
proclamation been issued in fact prior to the
departure of the Europa on the 22d ult., but
.president LINCOLN had put forth yet
another indication, this time, of further and fur-
ther estrangement between the Federalists and the
Confederalists. A proclamation restricting, more
stringently than ever, the fast diminishing op-
portunities for intercommunication between the
!States. It notified, in fact, that all peroons either
quitting or approaching a suspected State must be
provided with passports from one of the American
Ministers abroad, or from the Secretary of State at
home. Even this does not appear to be the last that
these advices have to tell us about Mr. LINCOLN and
his proclamation. Whether or not the caecoeties
scribendi has seized him, certain it is that his pen
has of late been unusually industrious, and pro-
mises to be still more so as time advances,
ind the war goes on. "It is reported,"
says the last telegram, " that Presi-
dent LINCOLN is about to issue a proclama-
tion [another and another still succeeds] declar-
it all the Southern ports to be no longer ports
o; f entry." Words, words—still no more than
ords, all these fire-and-fury proclamations. Still
tl tere is the practical advantage gained through
ne of them, at least, in the fact of this extra-
ordinary acceleration of the Volunteer muster.
And with reason ! For the most prevalent rumours
afloat, when our accounts left, were that the
Southern armies were meditating a reso-
lute attack upon Washington itself. An at-
too, like our own attack upon Sebastopol
-- by a flank movement. The design—judging
from the glimpses that are caught of it—i 3 cer-
tainly audacious enough even for the Southerns.
building up of heavy batteries both at Mathias
I ?flint and Acquia Creek, so as to effectually corn-
'nand the circumbendil'-us of the Potomac—these,
iit will be observed, are m ere items in it, the merest
precautionary preliminar.:43 to its developement
afterwards in right do \vn earnest. The
object afterwards was expected to be to cross
over in larger numbers than have ever moved there
Pet—over the Potomac—in to Maryland! Thence
tr.dvancing—cutting off all railway communication
between Baltimore and Thiladeiyhia, capturing
Annopolis, and so preparing for au ultimate de-
:aeent en masse from the north and the north-east
upon Washington. This attack to be mule simul-
taneously with the advantle from the Virginian
side, from the south and from the southwest. A