The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-27 00:00:00

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A singular charge of murder has been concluded at the
Brecon Assizes. No fewer than sixty witneges had been
subpoenaed for and against the prisoner, a Magi 4nained
William Protheroe. He was indicted for the wilful
murder of illartha Thomas, at Rhymney, on the 18th of
June, 1867. The deceased was a single young woman, --
residing with her brother, Walter Thomas, at TaVarnau-
bach, a place on the borders of Breconshire, and imme-
diately adjacent to Rhymney, on the high-road from Mei.?
thyr to Abergavenny. For a considerable period she had
kept company with the prisoner, who was also single,
,and her senior by a great number of years, and ulti-
mately she had a child by him. This child appears to
have been the cause of contention between them,
both before and after its birth. Before the birth pri. •
senor met deceased one day on the mountain between
Rhymney and Dowlais, and an altercation took place,
which ended in his committing a desperate assault upon
her, for which he was sinninoned before the magistrates at
Merthyr, mid sentenced to a term of imprisonment.
During his imprisonment the child was born, and after
his discharge, une unsuccessful efforts having been made
with the view of bringing abtait a marriage between the par-
ties, the deceased summoned Protheroe before the Merthyr
magistrates, and obtained an order of affiliation against -
him. The prisoner contested the summons, but at the Con-
elusion of the young woman's case he admitted the pater-
nity. That t:iok place on the Saturday previous to Tues-
day, the rStli June. On the last-mentioned day,
about seven o'clock in the evening, deceased told her
,sister-in-law that she wanted to go down to Rhymney,
but the latter refused to allow her to go. Late in
the evening, about half-past ten, or between that
and eleven o'clock, while her sister-in-law was absent for a
few minutes, deceased left the house, and was never after-
wards seen alive. Search was made for her in every place
around where it was supposed that she might have con-
cealed herself, but with no success. On the Saturday
following some workpeople were at dinner near an
abandoned shaft called Nantllesk Pit (in the county of
Glamorgan), and a girl in passing asked them why they
did not go somewhere else to take their food, as there .
was a smell of horseflesh at that spot. This remark
induced one of the party
.to look about, and incidentally
he looked into the -old shaft, and saw something at the
bottom, forty-two yards deep, which appeared to be a
human body. His discovery attracted others to the pit,
and a descent having been made in the presence of the
police, the body was discovered to be that of a woman.
It was carefully raised by ropes, and, having been recog-
nised by the clothing as that of the missing Martha
Thomas, was removed to the house of her brother in Bre-
conshire. Her face and head were smashed to pieces, her
arms and legs were also shattered, and the head was
doubled up as though the body had gone down the pit
head foremost. Foul play being suspected, the surgeon
who. examined the body was requested to look carefully
for marks of violence, but the only marks which he could
find other than those which he would have expected on a
body which had fallen such a depth upon jagged stones at
the bottom, were two or three marks on the neck, which
appeared something like finger-marks, as though it
had been fastened in a tremendous grip. The head,
however, had been literally doubled up by the force
of the concussion, and that would leave marks on the
neck. There was no evidence of a struggle at the top of
the pit. Suspicion was at first attached to a gen-
tleman of position at Rhymney, but this having been
proved to be nothing more than a foul slander, the man
Protheroe was then suspected. Protheroe at that time
worked at the Rhymney Ironworks, and frequently walked
over to Cfncoedycymmr, near Merthyr, where he has a
brother residing. Knowing that he was suspected, he
volunteered a statement to the Glamorganshire police,
which was verified in almost every particular by Mr.
Superintendent Wren, and so satisfied that officer that ho
was not near Rhymney at the time the woman was missed,
that he declined to arrest him. The coroner for Brecon.
shire, however, at the second sitting of the inquest, ordered
Protheroe into custody, and the Breconshire police arrested
him, and he was committed for trial. At the trial the
evidence was very conflicting. The summing up by the
judge was very much in favour of the prisoner, and the
jury returned a verdict of not guilty.—Cambria Dail
Leader.

LAW AND POLICE.

WHAT IS OBSTRUCTING A LINE ?—This was the questiot,
raised in a case at the Kingston Assizes, before Mr.
Justice Byles. Two respectable-looking boys, named
Songey and Butterworth, the one 16, the other only 12,
were indicted in various counts for unlawfully obstructing
the line of a railway, or causing it to be obstructed, and
endangering, or causing to be endangered, the safety of
the passengers in trains upon the line. The boys, it
appeared, from a mere idle frolic and no idea of
mischief, took out of a box by the side of the line a red
flag, and put it up to the signal post. Had a train come
by it would have stopped on account of this signal. No
train did come by, however, and the learned judge observed
that it appeared that in point of fact there was no obstruc.
tion of the line, though there might have been ; and the
statute required, in order to create the offence, that there
should have been an obstruction actually caused. The
boys were then charged with-attempting to obstruct, but
his lordship again remarked that felonious intent must be
proved, and the boys did not seem to have known what
the effect of their frolic might be. Under these circum-
stances they were acquitted.

SENTENCE OF DEATH.-At the Liverpool Assizes, oL
Thursday, Thomas Quigley was tried on a charge of having
murdered his wife on the 18th December last. The case
was one exhibiting the utter brutality of the prisoner. His
wife now and then took, as she admitted when dying, 3
glass or two too much, and for that, as she supposed, he
had often beaten her. On the night of the 18th December
last, when she was quite sober, he beat her with a poker
and with a broken chair so severely that she died soon after
in the hospital. He left Liverpool, and was captured in
Holland. A verdict of guilty was returned, and he was
sentenced to death.

THE MARQUIS Or TOWNSHEND AT THE POLICE-COURT
AGAIN.—The Marquis Townshend has again come before
the metropolitan magistrates, this time at Marylebone, on
a charge of assault. The noble lord, it appears, was
solicited by the aunt of a girl in the service of a Mr. Pitt,
to get the girl away from her master. Mr. Pitt had
opened the girl's (Esther Grover's) letters because they
were addressed to "Miss" Grover, it being, in his opinion,
unbecoming in her to accept such a title. Esther Grover
resented the liberty, and gave notice to leave, but Mr. Pitt
refused to allow her. The aunt therefore applied to the
Marquis, who, without sending in his card, and indeed
hardly announcing himself, passed by Mr. Pitt, and,
pushing him aside, went down into the kitchen and
brought away the girl. This constituted the assault com-
plained of, and the Marquis apologising, the charge was
dismissed. Mr. Pitt was then charged with assaulting
Esther Grover, and the charge having been proved he was
fined 20s. and costs.

Four arrests were made at Cork on Thursday
for renianism. The prisoners' names are Ferris, Coughlan,
Griffin, and Adams. Ferris has only just returned from
America. The arrests are deemed important.

DESTRUCTION OF A COTTON MILL.-011 Thursday
morning, Denton Bridge Mill, near Sowerby Bridge, was
destroyed by fire. The loss is estimated as upwards of
£5.000.

The friends of Mr. Johnston, in Belfast, aro
acting strictly on his advice to them not to permit his
incarceration to interfere with his chances of election,
should a vacancy occur in the representation of that town.
Ward committees, to canvass the electors on his behalf,
have been formed, and other steps taken for carrying out
his recommendation, or, more properly speaking, his
appeal to the Orange portion of the constituency.

REPRESENTATION OF WESTMINSTER.—At a com-
bined meeting of the Westminster Conservative and London
and Westminster Working Men's Associations, held on
Thursday evening at their offices, 4, Victoria-street,
Viscount Nevill in the chair, it was unanimously resolved
that a requisition be immediately prepared to Mr. W. H.
Smith asking him to stand as a candidate for the city at
the next election.

RAILWAY ACCIDENT.—About five o'clock on
rhursday morning an accident occurred on the Great
Eastern Railway, near Park Station. Several trucks
laden with coals were overturned, and being dragged on by
the engine to which they were attached, tore up the rails
for some length. Several men were set to work to clear
the line and to make it ready again for traffic, which was
effected in about two hours.

The statement of the Earl of Mayo, in the House
of Commons, has led to an inquiry into the manner in
which Mr, Johnston is treated in Down Gaol. "A letter
of inquiry," the Evening Mail says; "was received by the
governor from the Inspector-General of Prisons, requiring
a statement as to what relaxations have been made in the
prisoner's favour by the Board of Superintendence. This
was probably caused by Lord Mayo's erroneous state•
ment the other night. The governor, it is understood,
wrote to say that practically no relaxation of the rules had
been made in Mr. Johnston's favour, and that the only
request he had made, which was to be allowed to see his
wife otherwise than in the cage,' had been refused. Mr.
Johnston has no complaint to make of the prison officials,
who are all as kind as is at all consistent with their
dutv."