The Sun.
London, England, 1842-09-12 00:00:00

S N

COMMITTAL OF WM. DAVIS. ,
The final examination of the sold; z.
„,, Willit,m `,
Davis, of the 6th Regiment, for shooting ac• kill- ' '
ing, Stephen Clasby, the junior math of I. :;.-"York 1-- .
convict hulk, on the 2d inst., whilst on duty . \ ard --/----
at Haslar, took place on Thursday last, at th tem :1 ‘,-: kkg 14
hall at Gosport, before Mr. W. Page and 141'x' E.- P.
itgu
Samuel. The evidence previously given against the
prisoner was again read over and sworn to, and the
following additional produced :—James Cooper, an
excavator, deposed that he was at work on the day of
the unfortunate occurrence in a dirt barge, with other
men, in Hasler Lake ; that he saw the deceased,
who had charge over the men at work in the barge,
as well as of the convicts, walking with his arms be-
hind him in a direction towards the barge ; that the
prisoner was walking about with his hands folded, and
his gun by his side : that he saw the prisoner point his
gun and level it, and heard the report, and saw the
deceased fall : that the deceased was walking in a side-
way direction to the prisoner, and quite slow, at the
time, and was about 25 yards from the prisoner : that
the witness was about 100 yards from the deceased,
and did not hear the prisoner call out at ail before
firing, and that from the situation he (witness) was in,
if he had done so he must have heard him ; that after
the deceased fell he (witness) got out of the barge,
and ran to the prisoner as quickly as possible, and
asked him why he had shot the deceased ? to which
he replied, " I did not shoot him, but he shot him-
self." The witness said, " You did shoot him ;" and
the prisoner, then said, " I do not care, he was on my
post. ' That the corporal of the guard afterwards
took the prisoner's gun away and examined it, and
it proved to have been recently discharged. That
the deceased, when witness went to him, was lying on
his right side, and witness lifted up-
his head twice,
and found he had been shot through the left side of
the head, and that the ball had passed out at the
right side, and blood was flowing from both sides of
the head, but mostly from the right. Dr. Richardson
Inspector of Haslar Hospital, proved that he was
coming out of Haslar-gates, and heard a person call-
ing out that one of the guards had been shot by a
soldier ; that he went to the spot where deceased was
lying, and found him quite dead; that there was a
wound right through the deceased's head, such as would
he caused by a musket ball, and which was the cause of
the deceased's death. Corporal Loftus, who placed the
sentinels, swore that his orders from the keepers were
not to allow any convicts to pass out of the field, cr across
the lake, unless accompanied by a keeper; that he
repeated these instructions to the sentinels (Davis
among the number), and added, " I also told the sen-
tries, that if any convict attempted to make his es-
cape, and persisted in so doing, after being called to,
they were to give an alarm and fire." The prisoner,
in his defence, made a very incoherent statement, evi-
dently indicating a disordered state of mind, pretend-
ing that on the morning of the day he was in bed in the
barrack-room, and other soldiers were also in bed in
the room at the time ; tha,t it was about daylight, and
he saw a convict and deceased in the room ; that the
soldiers were afterwards called up by a sergeant to
prepare for guard; that he found himself weak and
wet in the morning, and blood was running down his
trousers to his feet; and that he also found it so on
the post he was stationed at, and that the two men
assaulted him in the room in the morning. No evi-
dence, medical or otherwise, was offered, showing that
the prisoner was previously incompetent to his duty,
although rumours are afloat that such was the case •
that the man had been seriously affected by a coup d;
soleil, while on his sixteen years' service, and that he
was regimentally understood to be fit for nothing more
than a,.ram-rod sentry; if this be true, it will be
elicited by the Military Commission now sitting. The
Magistrates committed the prisoner for trial at the
next assizes for manslaughter.

TILE LATE STORM LOSS OF
LIVES OFF THE COAST.
From the various accounts received on Saturday
from different parts of the kingdom, we regret to
state that the storm which visited the metropolis on
Wednesday night, and the hurricane of the following
day, have been felt throughout the kingdom, par-
ticularly along the coast, and have been attended
with the loss of a vast deal of property, besides
human life. During the whole of Wednesday and
Thursday the wind blew a gale from the west-south-
west to south-west, which did considerable damage
amongst the shipping on the eastern coast, several
having their whole suit of sails, rigging, anchors,
and cables carried away, and were obliged to put
back to the Yarmouth Roads, Margate, and Harwich,
being unable, from the damage sustained, to proceed
on their destination. Off Mulford, on Thursday,
Captain Rees, of the Fair Hope, of Aberavon, passed
a smack ashore in Ramsey Sound, and a schooner on
the rocks of Skomer Island, both deserted ; and also
the mast and part of the hull of a smack, N.E. of
the North Bishop, which is supposed to have foun-
dered, and the crew perished.
So violent was the gale that the Phcenix coasting
vessel belonging to Cotton's Wharf, while off Folke-
stone, lost one of her men, of the name of John But-
ton. The poor fellow was reefing the mainsail, when
he was blown over and lost, the mate very nearly
escaping the same fate, he being washed overboard
and saved with considerable difficulty. Between the
night of the Bth and the morning of the 9th, the Hal-
cyon, loaded with salt, from Gloucester, was wrecked
on the west end of the Gore Sands, and the whole, of
the crew, supposed to be nine in number, met with a
watery grave. In the course of the day, two of the
bodies were picked up on Blenheim Strand.
On the Welsh coast the loss of life has been caw-
siderable. The Milford packet lost a man of the name
of Williams, a native of St. David's, Pembrokeshire,
when the vessel was about four miles west of the
Smalls ; in o msequence of the terrific violence of the
gale the pa r fellow was blown from the crosstrees, and,
although mye al spars and ropes were thrown out,
these exert on ; were ineffectual. From the state of
the sea, ar sing from the fury of the gale, it was
found impoi Bible to lower the boat ; within a few mi-
ntee after the acciee It the poor fellow disappeared.
Off Cardiff, the De Esterning, bound from Amster-
dam, had a seaman washed overboard ; and at Madoc,
the following melancholy event occurred the
morning of the Bth, a boat left the port containing
three lads, amongst them was the son of Mr. Rees
Jones, for the purpose of mackerel fishing, in wlich
the party were very successful, having in the course
of two hours loaded their boat. On returning to the
port a sudden squall arose, which caught the boat and
turned her over. Assistance immediately put off, but
only two of the youths were saved, the son of Mr.
Jones met a watery grave ; the other two were com-
pletely exhausted when rescued from their perilous
situation. Along the Scotch coast the same calami-
tous results took place ; a number of vessels were
damaged, and at Bude, a large vessel laden with grain
was wrecked near Sharp's Nose, and, with one excep-
tion, the whole of the crew were lost ; the poor fellow
who was washed ashore was in so exhausted a condi-
tion as to be unable at the time to give any informa-
tion as to the name of the ill-fated vessel or number
of the crew.

There are now between 300 and 400 prisoners in
•Whitecross-street Prison, 200 in the Queen's Prison, and
about 85 in the Fleet. Several alterations are shortly
expected in the Queen's Prison, which has been visited
(utterly by the General Inspector of Prisons, by the autho-
rity of Sir James Graham. It is understood that there
will be " four classes," the chief of which will be for
persons remanded, and who refuse to file their schedules
under the compulsory clause of the Insolvent Debtors'
Act. A place with iron bars is to be erected for the
latter class, and it is said that in the Bench, by a regula-
tion to be made, no person will be allowed more than a
pint of wine a day. The coffee-room in the prison is to
be pulled down, and all extravagance prevented. The
prisoner in
rules are shortly
warrant against
expectedwriliiainto Loftus, be issued, n 0 w a
the Fleet, applied a few days ago to the Magistrates at
Lord George
Major Willan, and
Guildhall for a peace
a gentleman named Tolfrey, both also in the Fleet.
Lord Loftus stated in his application that on the 6th
instant he answered a knock at his door, when he saw
Tolfrey, who said to him, " I'll settle with you." The
same person came on the second visit ; Major Willett
was with him, and they both used the same phrase
that Tolfrey used before, via., "I'll settle with
y„," His Lordship states that he considered these
expressions to be threats against his life, and he
told the intruders that he should appeal to the
higher powers. The Major then said "If you refer the
matte: to a Magistrate, I'll cane you ;" and Tolfrey said,
"If you do, I'll post you." Upon these, and other re-
presentations, Mr. Roe, the officer, was sent to the prison
to make inquiry whether it was a case which required
the intervention of a Ma"istrate. The result was that
on Friday afternoon Sir G. Carroll and Mr. Payne went
to the Fleet to hear a viva voce statement. his Lord-
ship repeated the same threats which he had communi-
cated by letter to the Justice-room, and declared that he
was apprehensive of personal violence. Major Milan,
in ansuer to a question from Sir George Carroll, said,
" That by the words I'll settle with you," he alluded to a
sum of money which his Lordship owed him. After a
lengthened inquiry, Sir G. Carroll said, that as Lord
Loftus had sworn that he was in personal fear, he should
order the warrant to be lodged at the Warden's office
against Major Willan.
KENDAL TRADE.—The appearances of improvement
here are by no means satisfactory. In the woollen trade
there is a better demand; indeed, the low price of this
description of goods is sufficient to tempt buyers. In
the linsey trade there are as yet no very favourable
prognostications; the manufacturers appear operating as if
they did nut anticipate more orders than the next three
months can complete. The fine trade is also gloomy.
Wools continue stationary in price. A good deal has
been done latterly in fleece wools at former rates. At
Threlkeld fair, on the Ist inst., from one to two hundred
sheets of fine lierdwick were sold at Bs. per stone. At
Grasmere fair, on Monday last, not much was done; but
some good lots were bought at 7s. per stone, being about
the prices recently quoted by us. We fear that trade
amongst the shopkeepers has not improved of late.—
Kendal Mercury.
Mr. Iledworth Lambton, M.P., and Mrs.Lambton,
have arrived at their residence in Chester-street, Bel-
grave. square, from the Isle cf Wight.

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