The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-16 00:00:00

TIORRIBLE MURDER.

The village of Win3cembe, lying under the Mendip
Hills, has just been the scene of a murder, probably com-
mitted during insanity. On Friday a lad 13 years of age
had been employed by Mr. Henry Hancock to keep birds
from off a field that has recently been planted with corn.
At about six o'clock in the evening, from a rumour that
was in circulation, his friends went to the field in question
and there found the lifeless body of the lad, about ten
yards from the gateway leading to the high road, with a
frightful gash in the throat, extending nearly from ear to
ear. About the same time the body was discovered
a young man named Alexander Holmes called at
the lodgings of Actin;-sergeant' Hancock, at Ban-
well, and stated that he had just killed a boy. The con-
stable was at the time out on duty, but Holmes re-
mained with the old landlady of the houso until the parish
constable arrived, by whom he was taken in charge, but
was subsequently handed over to Police-constable Her-
rington, who conveyed him to the Axbridge police-station.
Prisoner stated that be was a son of Colonel Holmes, a
retired officer of the 12th Lancers, now residing at
Boscrea, Ireland ; that he had for some time past lived
with one Edwin Godfrey, at Edington, near Bridgwater,
Somerset, where he had been placed by his friends.
He further stated that he felt he must kill some one,
and he wondered how it was that he had not killed
more, as he had passed several persons on the road. On
coming to the field where lie saw the unforLunate. lad
at work he could no longer resist the temptation ; so,
opening the gate, he went up to him, and, without
speaking him, dealt him a heavy blow on the head with
a stick that he had in his hand, and afterwards took out a
knife, and nearly severed the head from the trunk. The
police, on making a search, found a heavy stick, marked
with blood, about ten yards from where the body was
found, and about six yards further on they discovered a
knife by the side of a small brook that runs through the
fields, at which place prisoner stated he washed his hands.
There are several stains of blood on prisoner's clothes.
The atrocity of the deed has caused the greatest excite.
ment in the neighbourhood, and some hundreds of persons
have visited the scene of the murder.

THE CONSCIENCE CLAUSE.—Tho Vicar of Green-
wich (Rev. Dr. Miller) having resuscitated the committee
for the government of his girls' and infants' schools, and
drawn up a code of laws for their management, inserted a
liberal conscience clause, referring both to religious instruc-
tion and attendance at public worship. The 'clause waft
received with marked approval and unanimously adopted
by the laymen of a committee composed of the gentry and
tradesmen and Greenwich.

DEFRAUDING A FRIENDLY SOCIETY.—A singular
charge of fraud has been investigated in the Liverpool
Police-court. Two women insured the lives of relatives in
the Liver Friendly Society, and on pro!lucing the neces-
sary certificates of death were paid the insurance money.
It was subsequently ascertained that the relatives
in question were no.' dead, and that the certifi-
cites of death were obtained by misrepresentation.
The medical men who gave the certificates bad
visited patients who personated the insured relatives,
and on being told that the sufferers were dead the doctors,
in accordance with the usual practice, gave certificates
without further inquiry. The accused women were sent
for trial at the assizes, and the stipendiary magistrate, Mr.
Raffles, intends to direct the attention of the judges to the
case, with the view of obtaining such an alteration of
the law as will make it incumbent upon surgeons to satisfy
themselves of the truth of representations of death.