The Sun.
London, England, 1857-11-10 00:00:00

BANKRUPTS.

William Charles Barnes, and William Cordingley manu-
facturing chemists, Bow-common, Middlesex, to sur-
render, Nov. 25, and Dec. 22, at two, at the Cuurt of
Bankruptcy. Graham, official assignee, Coleman-street;
Marten, Thomas, and Hollams, Mincing-lane, City.
Robert Bradley, paper-stainer, Trafalgar-road, Old
Pent-rood, Surrey, Nov. 20, at one, and Dec. 19, at eleven,
at the Court of Bankruptcy. Whitmore, official assignee,
Basiuglaall-street ; Spicer, Staple-inn.
A petition for winding up the Welsh Potosi Lead and
Mining Company (limited), has been presented by George
Hutton. Parties must present and prove their claims on
the 27th November, at the Court of Bankruptcy.
William Stevenson, cooper, Sheffield, Nov. 21, and Dec..
10, at ten, at the Council-hall, Sheffield. Brewin, official
assignee, Sheffield ; Branson and sun, Sheffield.
Samuel Hawkins Napier and John Hewitson, ship
chandlers, Liverpool, Nov. 26, and Dec. 11, at eleven, at
the Liverpool District Court. Bird, official assignee, Liver-
pool ; Neal and Martin, Liverpool.
William Harrison, draper, Rochdale, Nor. 20, and Dec.
21, at one, at the Manchester District Court. Hernaman,
official assignee, Manchester; Cooper and Sons, Man-
chester.
Joseph Slater Platt and Henry Sutcliff, manufacturers,
Manchester, Nov. 26 and Dec. 11, at twelve, at the Man-
chester District Court. Romanian, official assignee, Man-
chester; Higson and Robinson, Manchester.
Charles Warwick, fancy dress warehouseman, Friday-
street, Cheepside, Nov. 21 and Dec. 24, at twelve, at the
Court of Bankruptcy. Bell, official assignee, Coleman-
street-buildings ; Reed, Langford, and Marsden, Friday-
street.

William Benjamin Phillips, bolt manufacturer, Bir-
mingham, Nov. 20 and Dec. 10, at half-past eleven,
at tho Birmingham District Court. Whitmore, official
assignee, Birmingham ; Southall and Nelson, Birmingham.
James Robert Page, iron, coal, and coke manufacturer,
Cannon-street West, Nov. 18, and Dec. 23, at twelve, at
the Court of Bankruptcy. Stansfeld, official assignee ;
Lawrance, Plows, and Boyer, Old Jewry-chambers.
Benjamin Fletcher Burton, timber merchant, Notting.
ham, Nov. 27, and Dec. 18, at half-past ten, at the Shire-
hall, Nottingham. Harris, official assignee, Nottingham;
Deverill, Nottingham; Hodgson and Allen, Birmingham.
Charles Gray, baker, Cheltenham, Nor. 23, and Dec.
28, at eleven, at the Bristol District Court. E. Miller,
official assignee, Bristol; John Miller, Bristol; Williams,
Cheltenham.

John Turton, laco manufacturer, Nottingham, Nov. 24,
and Dec. 15, at half-past ten, at the Shire-hall, Notting-
ham. Harris, official assignee, Nottingham ; Bowley and
Ashwell, Nottingham.
Chadors Edward Merry, grocer, Bristol, Nov. 23 and
Dec. 28, at eleven, at the Bristol District Court. Area-
man, official assignee, Bristol; Strickland, Bristol;
Harris, Bristol.
John Scott Perkin, builder and painter, Bruntcliff,
Yorkshire, Nov. 23, at twelve, and Dee. 21, at eleven, at
the Leeds District Court. Hope, official assignee, Leeds ;
Terry and Watson, Bradford ; Bond and Barwick, Leeds.
Wiliam Barber, cattle dealer, Dunston, Derbyshire,
Nov. 21 and Dec.l9, at ten, at the Council Hall, Sheffield.
Brewen, official assignee, Sheffield; Cutts, Chesterfield;
Smith and Burookin, Sheffield.

SCOTCH SEQUESTR AkTIONS.

David Park, warehouseman, Glasgow.
John Fawkner, upholsterer, Glasgow.
John Lawrie, bookseller, Kelso.

COURSE OF EXCHANGE.—This DAY.
Am5t0rdgm............ 11 18 .• ••

Ditto, three months .. 12 216 Legnorn .• . 30 70
Rotterdam ............ 12 2% Genoa ••••• •• •... 26 10
Brussels .... ........ 25 85 yente0........••

Baniburgh •••• 13 14
Alicna •• •• •• .• •• •• •• • •
Paris•• •• •••••• •• •••• 25 45
Do. three montlia •• 26 20
Marseilles ............ 26 20
Bourdeauz .• ••
!Frair&fort-on-Mnine 122
Berlin •••• •••• •• •• • • •• • •
Y 101111.8••• •• •• •• •• •• • • •• 10 54
Trieste •• •• •• •• •• •• 54
Petz.isbarg 34
laaarid ....• •• •• •.•••• 45
Barcelona ............ .•
5evi11e....... ••

'Naples
;Palermo .... 126,
!Messina . 126%
Lisbon .. 524)
Oporto ................ 52%
ktio Janeiro ..... .......
Buenos Ayres ••
New York,6o days'sight
Philadelphia
FRICEA OF BULLION, PER OZ:
Foreign Gold In Bars Is 17 9
Portugal Gold Coin •• 0 0 0
Slexican Dollars .... 0 0 0
New Dollars 0 0 0
Silver in Lars 0 0 0

THE MURDER OP A POLICE-CONSTABLE
IN HERTFORDSHIRE.

STEVENAGE, Nov. 9.
The inquest on the body of John Starkins, of the
Hertfordshire county constabulary, who was found
barbarously murdered in a pond, near St,venage,
a few days ago, was resumed to-day at the National
School-room in that town before Mr. C. Times,
coroner.

The case up to the present time is one of entirely
circumstantial evidence as against the man appre-
hended. The crime has caused the deepest feeling
of horror in the neighbourhood. It appeared on
examination of the body that such had been the
strength with which the knife was used that it had
actually penetrated to the vertebrae at the back of
the neck, and the head was nearly dropping off.
Captain Robinson, the chief constable, attended
to watch the proceedings.
The first witness examined was Mr. Dunn, sur-
geon, who made the post-mortem examination.
He stated that he had found on inspection of the
body that the scalp had been removed, the head
sawn off, and the brains examined by another prc-
feasional man. On the day of the inquest he had a
communication with Captain Robinson, who desired
him to make an immediate examination, as it was
important that it should be made at once. Witness
said that he could not do it that evening, but was
prepared to do it early next morning. Finding
that the body had been partially examined, he com-
municated with the coroner, who directed him to
proceed with it. On the following Thursday, when
he presented himself to make the examination as
directed, he was refused admission to the room by
the police until Mr. Smith, the other practitioner
who had been called in, arrived, when they pro-
ceeded to make the examination together. The
deceased was 5 feet 9 inches high, about 25 years
of age, and of a robust constitution. The bcdy
appeared to have been caking a day or two in
water, the hands and feet in particular being quite
sodden. There was a piece of skin knocked off the
joint of the little finger, apparently by a blow.
There was also a wound on the lips, as if they had
been torn by a point of a knife. Below the chin
was a wound about two inches long, and an oblique
out on the left side of the neck. The principal
wound was one in the throat, about six inches long,
extending from one angle of the jaw to the other.
The wound had irregular edges, and appeared to
have been done with three distinct cuts of a knife.
The commencement of the wound was on the right
side. The knife appeared to have been thrust two
inches deep into the neck and then violently drawn
across the throat. Both the internal and external
carotid arteries were divided, as well as each of the
jugular veins. The knife appeared to have cut
close down to the spine ; consequently the head
was almsot severed from the body. On the left
side the jugular veins were also divided. In con-
sequence of the length of time that life had been
extinct the rigor mortis had nearly disappeared.
The carotid artery on the left side was not divided,
the consequence of which was that the head being
lower than the body some blood might have run
into the head and caused the general extravasation
visible in the skull. It did not appear to have re-
sulted from strangulation. No doubt in case of
strangulation the brain would be greatly congested,
but he was of opinion that in conseqc nce of the
large vessels being cut the blood would have run
out of the body very soon, and the extravasation
would disappear. There was no doubt that the
large wound on the throat mint have caused almost
immediate death. Probably the mar was dead in
less than a minute after the wound was made. It
appeared to have been caused by a pointed instru-
ment, but not a very sharp one, though sufficiently
sharp, with the exertion of some strength, to have
caused the cut. His reason for supposing that it
was not a very sharp knife was because it appeared
to have pushed aside some of the cartilage, which a
sharper one would have cut through. There was
no doubt in his mind that the wound could not
have been inflicted by the deceased. Witness saw
the body soon after it was taken out of the water,
before it was undressed. The collar was cut as if
by a pointed knife, such as was sometimes used by
labourers.

The coat and also the stock of the deceased were
here produced and shown to the j ury, and the witness
said that, from the mutilated condition of the coat
collar, and the fact of the stock being bent down,
it appeared to him that some person had grasped
the deceased by the collar, forced him down, and
then cut his throat. There were also no traces of
blood from the place where the marks of a struggle
were visible to the pond in which the body was
found ; whereas, if it were possible to suppose that
the man crawled to the pond, there must have been
a distinct track of blood. The wound appeared to
bave been made when the man had been brought
to the ground by another leaning over him or while
standing in front of him.

By the Jury—The wound was much deeper on
the right side of the throat, and the cut on the coat
seemed rather to have been made after the knife
came out of the throat.

By the Coroner—The back of the coat appeared
to have been drenched with blood, as if the wound
had been made either when the man was standing,
and that he had fallen on his back, or that the
wound had been made when he was he was lying
on the ground. Witness thought that from such
an incision as appeared to have been made a great
quantity of blood would have spurted on the person
who inflicted injury. When veins of that descrip-
tion were cut the blood jetted out with considerable
force. The elasticity of the stock would probably
have prevented a good deal of the blood • from
covering any person near, because after the person
had let go his hold the stock would go back again
to its original position. When the body was found
the stock completely covered and almost concealed
the wound. If blood jetted out from the neck of
one man on to the body of another it would depend
upon the distance whether the blood would be in
spots or patches upon the clothes of the other.
Witness thought that the hands and wrists of the
murderer must have been covered with blood,
especially if one hand grasped the stock of the man.
The Coroner then addressing the jury, said th it
it was quite clear that the decease 1 had met his
death by foul means, and not by his own act ;
therefore it now became their duty to investigate
the matter further.

Mr. Chalkley, ore of the jury, demurred to this
course of proceeding, stating that he thought all they
had to do so was to say whether the mau ha i com-
mitted suicide or had been murdered.

The Coroner reminded the jurymen that they
were bound to inquire by what means tLie deceased
came to hi 3 death.

Mr. Chalkley appeared incline I to clißpute this
ruling, and was about to raise a discussion on the
question, when

The Coroner said that, as 14 jurymen had been
sworn, h 3 might retire if he thought fit. Mr.
Chalk!ey accordingly adopted that alternative, and
retired from the room.

Thomas Cooper, a flydriver, living at Stevenage,
stated hat last Friday evening week he took a lady
from the Stevenage station to to Chapel Bury be-
tween five and six o'clock. As be passed. Norton-
green lane be saw a policeman standing on the rail-
way-bridge, looking about. Although he did not
like to swear to the fact, he was pretty well sure
that it was Starkins.

Elizabeth Rowe, the inhabitant of a cottage
situated in a field a short distance frOm the pond
in which the body was found, stated that she saw a
person answering the description of the policeman
pass down alone at the bottom of the field in which
her cottage was situated, and go on in the direction
of the field called Cooper's Braches, in which is the
pond in question. She knew a meta called Jere-
miah Carpenter, who had been apprehended on the
charge of murder, but did not see him pass her
house that evening on his return from work, though
she remained outside the door till six o'clock.
Mr. Edward Horn, the occupier of a farm in the
neighbourhood of Stevenage, called Norton-green
Farm, deposed that he employed Jeremiah Car-
penter, the accused person. Witness was present
at the time the body was found last Monday, and
in the afternoon of that day, on making an inspec-
tion of the field, he found some wheat on the
ground in a place where there seemed to have been
a scuffle. The wheat was of the same description
ofwheat that he had been sowing, and was mixed
with some barley. He finished sowing the day
before the murder. It was a very unusual thing
for barley to be mixed with wheat. To the best of
his belief the wheat belonged to him, and he sup-
posed from that circumstance that it had been
stolen from him.
Some wheat which had been found in a neigh-
bouring wood was here produced, and compared
with the wheat picked up at the placa at which the
struggle occurred, and with wheat taken from Mr.
Horn's barn. This wheat was closely examined by
the jury, most of whom were farmers, and who de-
clared all the samples possessed a general resem-
blance. _

Examination resumed. —The sample taken from
the wood did not seem to be exactly the same in his
opinion as the other. Carpenter was employed by
witness on Friday week in a field on Norton-free❑
Farm, and Cooper's Britches would be in a direut
line to Carpenter's cott lore from that spot. Car-
penter's cottage was in the high road near Steven-
age, a little under a mile from the field in which he
was at work. It would take him about 20 minutes
to walk to the field in which he worked. From the
place at wbich the marks of the struggle were visi-
ble to Carpenter's house was about 150 yard., and
it might take him two minutes to walk there. Car-
penter left work at half-past 5 o'clock. On Th urs-
ay, the 29th of October, Carpenter was assisting in