The Sun.
London, England, 1868-01-08 00:00:00

THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY AND HIS STEWARD.

The trial of Mr. Robert Waters, formerly steward
to the Earl of Shaftesbury, was again postponed
until the April Session.

CHARGE OF CHILD MURDER.

Sarah Amos, unmarried, was iodic' ed for the wil-
ful murder of her female infant. The prisoner
pleaded not guilty.
The prisoner was a domestic servant in the ser-
vice of a person residing at Newington, and sus-
picions having arisen as to her condition she was
questioned, but denied that she was enciente. How-
ever, the questions were pressed, and she at length
admitted that the fact was true, and that the
body of the child would be found in her box
in ha bedroom. Search was made, and, as the
prisoner had said so, the body was found with
a piece of red worsted tied tightly round its
throat. .There was no evidence to show that the
child had been born alive.

Mr. Fox, the medical gentleman, who had made
a post mortcm examination of the body, was of
opinion that it had.
The learned Judge, in summing up the case, said
the law of murder applied to all alike, women as
well as men, the age of the person whose life was
taken away not in the least altering the case. The
question for the jury to decide was, did the deceased
child die by strangulation ? It was not suggested
that it ever lived, or that it died of any other cause.
Mr. Fox, the surgeon, said the death of the child
was caused by the tying a piece of red worsted so
tightly round its neck that he was. prevented
from getting more than the tips of his
fingers between it and the neck of the deceased.
Then they would have to decide whether
murder.
the de-
de-
ceased was strangled by the prisoner, and whether
the intention was to kill ; if so, then it was his duty
to tell them that she had been guilty of
There was, however, another very important point
for them to consider and decide, and that was, was
the death of the child caused by the prisoner intend-
ing to facilitate the birth of the child ; and if so,
although it bad been born alive and had been
strangled by the prisoner in so doing, then it
was his duty to tell them that they could
not find a verdict of guilty of wilful murder against
her. Taking into consideration all the evidence
they would have to satisfy themselves that the in-
fant bad lived a separate existence from the mother,
and if they could not come to a certain and indisput-
able opinion that such was the fact then they could
not return a verdict convicting the unhappy woman
at the bar of murder. There was, however, an in-
dictment against the prisoner of concealment of
birth, which of itself was a very serious crime, and
he felt bound to tell them that there was abundant
evidence to enable them to arrive at a conclusion as
to that part of the case.
The jury, after a short deliberation, returned a
verdict of not guilty of murder, but guilty of con-
cealment of birth and recommended her to mercy.
The learned Judge sentenced her to imprisonment
with hard labour for 15 months. •

THE LATE FENIAN TRIALS AT MANCHESTER.--
At the Salford Quarter Sessions hold on Monday the county
magistrates unanimously passed a vote of thanks to Mr.
IL L. Trafford, chairman of Quarter Sessions, for his ad-
mirable management of the arrangements necessary for
safely escorting the Fenian prisoners backwards and
forwards between the New Bail,•y prison and the assize
courts during the sixteen days over which the trials ex-
tended.