The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1849-11-06 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

HIGHWAY ROBBERY IN CUMBERLAND.—On Saturday evening week, about seven o'clock, as Joseph Little, of Houghton, was returning home, after attending the Hempton fair, three men and a boy sprang from the hedge-side, a short distance beyond the lodge gate at the entrance to Rickerby Holme, and knocking him down, rifled his pockets, and abstracted 4s. 6d. in silver, a ft w coppers, and a handkerchief. He fought with the robbers as well as he could, but with such odds against him, was, of course, easily overpowered. When he was attempting to use his stick, one of them, finding all other attempts to wrest it from him fruitless, pulled out a knife, and smashed his thumb nearly in two. The fellows then, hearing two men approaching decamped—in which direction Little was unable to perceive, owing to the darkness of the night. With the assistance of two men who came up to him, he succeeded in walking to the Boot Inn, Houghton, whence he was conveyed home, in a cart, in a faint and exhausted state. Medical assistance was procured with as little delay as possible, and every means used to avert dangerous consequences. The unfortunate man believes ke can identify the man who maltreated him, who, as well, as his companions, spoke an Irish brogue ; but no trace of them has as yet been obtained.—Carlisle Journal. SINGULAR ATTEMPT TO MURDER A CHlLD.—Great excitement has prevailed in the neighbourhood of Merthyr since the 18th inst., in consequence of the following diabolical attempt to murder a child having been made by a single woman, named Ann Williams, mother of the infant. It appears that on the 17th inst. Daniel Davies, one of the gamekeepers to William Crawshaw, Esq. whilst going his round at a place called Gornos, on his master's estate, had his attention attracted by a noise, which he ' at first imagined proceeded from a hare in a trap, but on paying more attention, he found it to be the voic of a child. He looked round, and, after some search, he discovered a portion of a child's dress protruding from a rabbit hole, which was covered up with mould and leaves. On removing the rubbish, he found, placed in the hole, head foremost, a fine infant child, about six weeks old. It was crying strongly, and its limbs were black and blue with cold. He immediately took the poor child out, and handed it over to Mrs. Haryard, the wife of the head keeper, who took it home, gave it a warm bath, and by other kind treatment, saved its life. Information having been given to the police, they ascertained that a young female had left Dowlais on the Tuesday morning, having a child with her. The child found having been shown to her late landlady, she identified it as having been the one the female left with. Search having been made in all directions for this party, she was at length apprehended by police-constable Rees, at Glyn Cywr, near Bridgend. Upon the constable informing her of the nature of the charge against her, she pretended to know nothing about the affair, but on her way back to 11Ierthyr she admitted that she placed the child in the rabbit warren, and said her reason for so doing was that she had no means to support it. The prisoner stated that the child must have been left exposed in the hole the whole of one night and the greater portion of two days. She was fully committed to take her trial.