The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1847-12-28 00:00:00

THE MIRFIELD MURDERS.-CONFESSION

The trial of Reid and M`Cabe, for the triple murder at
Mirfield, occupied the court three days last week at the
York Assizes. Reid was very composed, and respectably
dressed. but 111`Cabe appeared careworn. Afteraa very
gfoubnedhitniembibm7whgliiiptyla,ced. and the
abnuxti ofours
aent
uqr.utiirkye,yt et
a.inudriyn
sensation. Whilst Mr. Justice Patteson was
passing sentence. M Cal?e fainted, and would have fallen,
sentence, when
owfhenpro,nounced. against M abe, excited a
upon a chair.

Immediately after the sentence of death had been passed
upon the prisoners, Mr. Robert Dale, the attorney of
Reid communicated to Mr. Matthews, (M`Cabe's coun-
sel) a confession made to him by the prisoner Reid pre-
vious to his trial. Mr. Matthews thereupon communi-
cated with Mr. Justice Pltteson the purport of that con-
fession, which, we understand, is to the following effect :
That on the 12th day of May, Reid went to Mr. Wraith's
house, about 25 minutes to one o'clock, that he conversed
with the servant girl, Caroline Ellis, about five minutes,
that he then took out the soldering iron he had that day
borrowed of Kilt', and had concealed in his basket, and
struck Caroline Ellis, a severe blow on the back of the
head. She shrieked out and staggered to the back door,
when he struck her again, and felled her to the ground,
and Mr. Wraith coming at that moment from the cellar
into the passage, which connects the kitchen with the two
front parlours, with a silver pint containing beer in his
hand, he (Reid) struck him a violent blow on the head
with the iron, -in doing which the iron flew from the
handle, and Mr. Wraith staggered into the parlour. Reid
then returned and got the kitchen poker and ran to the
parlour, and met Mrs. Wraith running out to the front
door. He then struck her two or three blows on the head,
and felled her to the ground, he went into the parlour,
and Mr.' Wraith was then laid bleeding on the floor in-
sensible. He rifled his pockets and took his keys out, and
opened the drawers with them. He then heard a knock
at the kitchen door. which he thought was Caroline Ellis
getting up. He went to the kitchen and found her per-
fectly still, and again returned. He then got some money
out of the drawers, took the watch from Mr. Wraith, and
the ring from Mrs. Wraith's finger, and heard another
knock at the door. He thereupon went to kitchen door,
and slightly opened it, when he saw the other prisoner,
M`Cabe, who inquired if they wanted anything in his line,
and he (Reid) replied " No, sir," and thinking M'Cabe
was a stranger, and would not recognise him, he shut and
bolted the door. He then returned and ransacked the
drawers, and found in them a razor case containing two
razors. He took one and cut the throats of all the three
parties, and then washed his hands and wiped them upon
the towel. He then quitted the house, locked the kitchen
door, and threw the soldering iron and key into the well
near the back door, and then hurried towards his own
home.

Measures will be taken to procure M'Cabe's liberation.
Since the trial, Reid has, in the presence of the chaplain
at the Castle, and other persons, corroborated the state-
ment he made to Mr. Dale.
Reid evinces great calmness and resignation to his fate.
M'Cabe appears greatly affected by his position, and un-
able to bear up.
Of course nothing can yet be known as to the ultimate
fate of M'Cabe. The case will doubtless undergo further
investigation, and it is not improbable that his life will be
spared, and that he will be dealt with as an accessory after
the fact, and subjected to a term of transportation. The
verdict of the jury was clearly justified by the evidence ;
and it will remain for the secretary of state to determine
can be relied upon. The
alin°,lnaasfbtbeyrrißenthe murder must have been
gehtlhe two prisoners together,
eiwnvhi
close
re thecoof
n 3vefeoarnr
ys fa ersi
os
committed ; and there are other important portions of evi-
dence irreconcileable with the entire innocence of M'Cabe,
especially that given by Benjamin Morton, who swears to
seeing both the prisoners within sixty yards of each other,
proceeding in a direction towards Wraith's house.
On Thursday, the prisoner Reid was visited by his fa-
ther ; and, as may be supposed, the interview was most

Dee. 28, 1847.

FINANCIAL AND COMMERCIAL SUMMARY.

The broken character of the past week, so far as busi-
ness is concerned, is sufficient to account for the limited
remarks which we shall have to offer under this head.
The only two events of importance which have occurred
are the reduction of the rate of interest by the Bank of
England to five per cent., and the arrival of the Overland
Mail, with accounts of the impression produced in India
by the receipt of news of the first of the series of commer-
cial disasters which have occurred in this country. The
prudence -of the policy of the step taken by the Bank,
in offering increased monetary facilities at this precise
moment, in the face of the call which will be made
upon it for the payment of the January Dividends, is
doubted by some parties, as affording an additional proof
that the action of the Directors is prompted more, on al-
most every occasion, by a desire to promote the profit of
the holders of Bank Stocks rather than to protect the
public from improvident speculations. It is remarked that
the position of the Bank, as shewn by the weekly returns,
is by no means such as to warrant any considerable in-
crease in its operations. The private letters received from.
India represent the shock produced in Calcutta by the an-
nouncement of the early failures in England, as very se-
vere. Bills on this country had become quite unsaleable ;
and produce was recommended as the only safe medium
in which to make returns.

Our cotton market has been very dull throughout the
week, and prices lower. The sales up to Thursday
evening have been 15,500, chiefly to the trade. There is
an improved feeling in the cotton manufacturing districts►
but with little doing.

The corn markets remain firm, being operated upon by
the fact of the communications with the countries of the
Baltic being expected to be closed by the frost.
The following is the comparative weekly return of the
Bank of England:—

Public deposits..
Other deposits 8,606,276.. Increase, 169,600
Rest
On the other side of the account,—
Government securities, £10,998,214.. Increase, £51,620
Other securities..
Notes unemployed . 7,551,140.. Increase, 1,102,360
The amount of notes in circulation is £17,758,254
being a decrease of £562,650; and the stock of bullion in
both departments is £11,991,376, showing an increase of.
£565,200, when compared with the preceding return.
The fallowing is from Messrs. Gibson, Ord, and Co.'s
Circular, dated Manchester, December 23,1847 :—" Not-
withstanding a reduction in the minimum rate of interest
by the Bank of England, from 8 to 6 per cent., and the
continued influx of specie, we regret to say it is not in our
power to report a more favourable state of business this
than last month. Prices of almost every commedity, both
in imnorts and exports. have receded, and the general
aspect of commercial affairs is gloomy in the extreme;
nor can we look for any material or rapid improvement
under our present prostration of credit, the natural con-
sequence of the severe ordeal we have been, and now are,
passing through. True it is, that there are many impor-
tant elements which, combined, induce a belief that, at
no very distant period, we shall experience our wonted
activity, and also a gradual advance towards a time of
prosperity : but to effect this, we must have fresh spring
opened to supply capital for that which has been destroyed,
and a filling up of the vacuum created by the suspension-
of so many of our leading firms, through whom our pro-
ductions have found their way to foreign markets. This
will apply more particularly to India, with which market
and China our trade, as regards exports, has virtually
been suspended for several months. As the most promi-
nent feature, tending to the prosperity of this district, we
e
rank the low prices ruling for cotton, based on the eer-
•

may of 'our receiving a most abundant supply from the
United States. The present crop is now estimated by
some as high as 2,800,000, down to 2,300,000 by others,
whilst a general opinion prevails that it will reach 2,300,006
bales. The transactions in our market during the last
month have been on the most limited scale : for India
and China scarcely a purchase has been made, and our
home trade houses have bought very sparingly. With
the exception of a good demand for the markets of the
Levant, we have little or

.ning doing for any quarter,
and we have every prospect of closing the year in a more
depressed and gloomy state than at any period during our
present troubles."

We are not aware that any failures of shareholders in,
the Ayrshire Iron Company have taken place in Glasgow,
in consequence of the insolvency of that company; but,
indeed, the shareholders have been urged not to allow
themselves to become insolvent, as the company could
prefer claims that would carry off seven-eighths of their
estates, and so leave nothing to private creditors. In Ed-
inburgh, the caution to avoid the Gazette has been made
too late, as several shareholders there have been declared
insolvent. Other failures have also taken place, and more
are expected amongst writers to the signet. accountants,
&c. extensively employed as agents for landed proprietors,
who have been in the habit of borrowing for or lending to
their clients. These casualties tell directly on shopkeepers.
and tradesmen. and have caused a stagnation and distrust
exceeding even the panic of 1826.
The failure of a house in Glasgow is reported, Messrs.
Mitchell and Co., Canada merchants, with liabilities stated
at £150,000. It was understood that they were very
large holders of bre:tel.-tan-, .t r.r.i.a

tained ; it was attempted at the time to sustain them, but
this would appear to have been ineffectual.
We are very sorry to find that the commercial letters
received from China give a much more gloomy account of
the state of business than the report in the public papers-

• .
The sacrifices made on manufactured goods of every de-
scription were ruinous in the extreme, and the prices paid
for every article in the shape of returns, we know from
the existing state of affairs at home, will be still worse.
As an example, we are informed on good authority that a
lot of Penang sugar was sold on Monday, duty paid, at
the rate of 21s. per cwt., and gunpowder at the rate of 11d.
per lb. the colonial duty on the sugar being 145., and the
actual freight 75., and the other charges about 35., making
in all 245. per cwt., whilst the tea was purchased at Can-
ton at 2s. 3d. per lb. These must not be taken as the
current rates in the market, but as specimens of the prices
that can be obtained when sales are forced to raise money