The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-14 00:00:00

THE WOODLANDS MURDER.

FROME, SUNDAY.
Yesterday at noon the self-accused murderer,
Joseph Seer, was again brought up at the police-
court. It being generally understood that no fresh
evidence would be adduced, very little excitement
prevailed, though a large crowd awaited the arrival
of the prisoner from Shepton Mallet Gaol. Mr.
Tonkins was at first the only magistrate on the
bench.

Superintendent Deggan said—Since Tuesday I
have prosecuted a further inquiry into this case,
and more especially with regard to the lace-girl,
Maria Staff, but I cannot find any trace of her. I
cannot discover any one who has ever seen or heard
of her.

Mr. Tonkins—The man Payne did not pretend
to say that Staff was her real name, but only a nick-
name he had given her.

The Superintendent—Just so, your worship. I
have visited the adjoining houses in the town, but
no one apppcars to know anything at all of the girl.
Since Tuesday I have received a letter from a per.
son, who states that he has been a sergeant in the
32d Regiment, and that in the year 1847 there was
a man named Sears a private in the regiment while
it was in India. This Sears was a most depraved
character, and was tried by a general court-
martial, and sentenced to some years' confinement
ir4 Calcutta Gaol, in which placa he must have been
when this murder was committed in 1851. In
consequ9nce of this information I have written
to the Under-Secretary for War, to the adju-
tant of the 32d, at the depot of the regiment
tEhe:rpeefocrtereapsklieysoiunr twheorcshouiprsteoorfeamafen
at Preston, and also to the writer of the letter.
wd
tdhaeysPriasnodner
till this day week.l

The letter contained a description of the Sears in
the 32 Regiment, and stated that he was about sft.
7in. height. Mr. Tonkins directed that the prisoner
be placed under the standard, and it was found that
he was only aft. sin.
He was then remanded.

THE NORTH LONDON RAILWAY ACCIDENTS.—
We understand that most of the cases of compensation for
personal injury sustained in the late accident on the
North London Railway, not resulting in death, have been
settled for various sums, ranging under £5O each. The
company has been very prompt in arranging most of them ;
indeed, the fact that many of the claimants were their own
soryailto has made the settlements cymparatiyoly easy,

0"'"'1117131LSTON MURDER.

BILSTON, SATURDAY.
When the men were told in their cells that they
must go back to Stafford Gaol, they all manifested
the utmost reluctance to leave, and the more
determined of them refused to,,come out until
the police authorities were about to take the ne-
cessary steps to compel them, and had given
Jones the third pair of trousers. From Bilston to
Wolverhampton, where they were put upon the
North-Western Railway, they were taken in an
omnibus, guarded by Colonel Hogg, and a number
of his men. At Wolverhampton, the station was
besieged by persons curious to see them go off. The
prisoners were given ale and bread and cheese at
the cost of the chief constable. Whilst they were
partaking of the refreshment, Jukes delivered a
"recitation," the subject of which, singularly
enough, was the approach of Death to Old Age.
Lilley conducted himself with the bravado that has
all along characterised him. He impudently and
loudly criticised the personal appearance and dress
of the different persons who were most prominent
in the crowd at the station ; and when the train
got into motion he shouted a good bye and waved
his cap. Jones continued utterly indifferent to any-
thing that was passing, but Brandrick was begin-
ning to break down. The train had hardly leftthe
station before he commenced to cry outright, and
to remark that he feared he should never again see
Bilston, It is not expected that once again in Staf-
ford Gaol their conduct will be so violent asit was
when they were there upon remand. The beha-
viour of one of them was such that the warder
having reported it to the governor, his supper was
stopped one night. For this the prisoner swore, as
he was leaving Bilston, that on his return he would
murder the warder ; and a second, producing an
old nail, said, that with that he had ripped up the
mattress on which the previous night he had lain
in the gaol. Their conduct in the cells has been OR
a par with this behaviour.
The seven had been kept in two cells ; Jones,
Brandrick, and Jukes in one ; and the other four
prisoners in the otter. At about one o'clock on
Friday morning the police heard a-noise in the cell
of the first three, which excited their suspicions.
They found that an effort was being made to loosen
a brick out of the wall, just beneath the framework
of the window, the panes in which they had
previously broken, and through which they had
thrust their legs. The only implement they could
at all have procured was the handle of a can, but
even this could not be found. During the remainder
of the night a guard was placed outside the cell.

THE ALLEGED NURDER AT S3IRLING

SINGULAR PROCEEDINGS.

The Scotsman says :—" It was stated last week
that a woman named Jane Peters had died suddenly
early on the morning of Wednesday, the 2d inst.,
under suspicious circumstances, in consequence of
which a woman named Christina Peters, a sister of
the deceased, and a man named Andrew Johnston,
who lived with the latter, had been apprehended
and lodged in Stirling prison. It appears on in-
vestigation by the authorities, that there had not
been evidence sufficient to warrant them in taking
criminal proceedings against either of the parties,
and they were accordingly liberated from prison on
Wednesday evening. A strong feeling prevailed
against the female prisoner in consequence of her
name having been associated with the proceedings
in connection with the Bathgate murder some years
ago. On liberation from prison, Christina Peters
and Johnston proceeded to the house which they pre-
viously occupied at a part of the Castle-hill leading
to Ballangeich--a wretched hovel of small dimen-
sions, an consisting apparently of only one
room and a small closet. On arriving at their
old quarters, between eight and nine o'clock, the
woman Peters was speedily recognised, and
a number of persons soon collected, who
proceeded to eject them summarily from the
domicile. The crowd rapidly increased, and
Johnston ran seeking protection to the doors of
the prison, where he could not, of course, be ad-
mitted, but made his escape elsewhere. In the
meantime, the woman Peters was pursued by some
hundreds of persons; but by doubling and running
actively she escaped through a close, and found re-
fuge in the Burgh Police-office. Here a crowd as-
sembled ; but after a brief interval the greater por-
tion proceeded to her house in the Castle-hill,where
demolition of the building was commenced by the
mob, and by one o'clock on Thursday morning it
had been all but levelled with the ground. In the
forenoon of Thursday a number of boys completed
the work of destruction. The woman Peters re-
mained for protection in the police-office all night."

THE SUICIDE A 7 TIIF, 87EPNEY
dIL IVA Y 'STAMM'.

On Saturday a great many persons waited upon
Mr. Pemble, the beadle of Rateliff, for the purpose
of identifying the body of a foreigner, who commit-
led suicide on Friday evening, by flinging himself
in front of the" Tilbury and Southend express train,
which left the Fenchurch-street station at half-past
4 o'clock. The deceased had been on the platform
for 5 or 6 minutes before the train approached, and
directly it reached the station he raised his arms,
put himself in the attitude of a man about to dive
into the water, and threw himself on to the railway,
to the horror and astonishment of the bystanders.
His body was terribly mangled, which rendered
identification very difficult. No one recognised the
deceased. Pemblo found in the deceased's pockets
a small pocketbook, worked in coloured beads,
which had been crushed while the train was pass-
ing over him, and a small purse. There was no
money in the purse. From inquires made by Fern-
ble, the deceased, it appears, was quite destitute.
His name is Legon, a native of Germany, and he
arrived in England about three weeks since. The
deceased was a mechanical draughtsman, and had
sought employment at several engineering Erms in
London, and was unsuccessful. The want of em-
ployment, and the prospect of starvation before him,
caused him to commit suicide. The deceased had
been in a low and desponding state for several days.

THE LATE LORD FORTH-A SAD S 2 O.RY

Some additional particulars with regard to the
late Lord Forth and the lady with whom he was
living and died, to those which appeared at the in-
quest, have been elicited. The deceased was born
at Naples in 1834, and in 1853 he was appointed to
an ensigncy in the 42d Regiment, which, however,
it appears he left in the following year. Report
asserts that he went to the Crimea, and, not relish-
ing " the pomp and circumstances of glorious war,"
or rather the peril, he speedily abandoned the mili-
tary life for other pursuits. In 1853 he married the
eldest daughter of the Hon. Adolphus Capel, niece
of the Earl of Essex. The sad eventful history of
their marriage life was told, the viscountess herself
being the narrator, to Sir Cresswell Cresswell, early
in the present year. Lady Forth petitioned for a
dissolution of her marriage on account of Lord
Forth's adultery, and for a judicial separation on
account of his cruelty ; but the application was re-
sisted by the Queen's Proctor, on the ground of col-
lusion and the adultery of the lady herself. It ap-
peared from Lady Forth's evidence, and that of her
mother, that during three years they 'lived together
their daily life, from the day after the marriage,
was one of drunkenness and brutality on tho part
of the husband towards his wife, her sisters, brothers,
and even his own child, an infant. During the
whole of that time he seems to have contributed not
a farthing towards his own maintenance, but was
supported by his wife's father and mother; and at
last he became so outrageous that they parted:com-
pany, we believe, in 1858, and Lady Forth never
saw him afterwards. Some time after his departure
Lady Forth seems to have formed an acquaintance
with a Mr. Dering, and to have visited the United
States with him ; and on the ground of this inti-
macy her divorce was upset.
Nor is the history of Mrs. Drummond, or rather
Mrs, Lloyd, the lady who has been living with
Lord Forth, as his wife, and who died with him, a
whit less sad, if the statements respecting her which
have gained currency are true. She was the only
daughter and heiress of a gentleman of property
and a magistrate for the county of Hereford, resid-
ing near Leominster. When about twenty she fell
to the seductive will of a scion of a noble house, and
had two children, who are now living with her
father. Subsequently she appeared to become peni-
tent, and after a time she was married to a man
named Lloyd, by whom it is said she had two more
children, who are now also living with her father.
Lloyd was in debt, and having married a lady of
property was sued by his creditors, and found his
way to the Queen's Bench, where Lord Forth had
also found a local habitatien and a name. Mrs.
Lloyd visited her husband in the bench, an inti-
macy sprang up between her and Lord Forth, and
on his liberation they joined company, and have
lived together ever since.
The remains of Mrs. Lloyd are to be taken to the
family vault for interment. At the inquest the
surgeon said her death was attributable to natural
causes, apart from her recent confinement. Those
" natural causes" are said to have been intemper-
ance. She was at the time of her death only 28
years of age.
Thee Earl of Perth, it is said, has directed that
Lord Forth shall be " decently interred" at Glou-
cester.—Bristol Mercury.

The admirers of Elizabeth Barrett Browning Nv ill
be glad to hear that she has left behind her a number of
unpublished poems. They are being prepared for the press,
and a volume of them will probably be publidiea about
Cluiotmag,

RUMOURED REDUCTION OF THE
ARMY.

We are glad that the rumour to which we alluded
a fortnight since, respecting the project of using
the strength and efficiency of the volunteers as an
argument for the reduction of the regular army,
has been so well met by the volunteers themselves.
From the many private communications we have
received, of which we insert one merely as a sample
of the general feeling, and the public declarations
of the officers, we feel certain that if any such step
were taken by the authorities the falling off in the
volunteer ranks would be so great as effectually to
destroy the force of the argument. In his speech to
the Liverpool Volunteers Col. M'Murdo repudiates
the idea. If he had done so a little less boldly be
would have given us more comfort. From the way
in which he ridicules it, we are afraid our excellent
Inspector of Volunteers does not know how much
the idea had approached the formidable dimensions
of a distinct proposal, although we think he must
have known that several months ago a proposition
made by one of his own country corps to relieve the
local regular garrison of their duty was seriously
entertained and deliberated upon. When we speak
of the last idea in the pluperfect tense we by no
means seek to imply that it is all over, although we
hope that the general expression of public opinion
which has taken place will not be without its effect.
But as yet we are not altogether easy. if practical
men like Col. M'Murdo were allowed to influence
such questions we should be more confident ; but in
the present day economy and its representatives
rule over generals of all kinds. Recruiting is en-
tirely stopped. At first we hear that it is only done
to allow the army—whose numbers were unduly
swollen by the return home of several regiments,
and by the new Indian depot arrangements—to be
brought down to the dimensions contemplated in
the estimates of 1861-62. Then we are told that
the extra expense of maintaining so many thou-
sand men above the establishment in the early
part of the year will oblige us to lower our
military strength to a similar extent below oar
Establishment in the latter portion, so that the
estimate for the whole 12 months may not be ex-
ceeded. If this be so, the reduction in a financial
sense will be more than neutralised by the expense
of bringing the army up to the old strength next
year, while in a military sense the effect will be
much worse. We earnestly trust that a permanent
reduction is not contemplated in the present aspect
of affairs over the world. We should be glad to be
able to speak a word of positive assurance to the
contrary, but at present we cannot with perfect
truth do so.—Army and Navy Gazette.