The Central Glamorgan Gazette, and General, Commercial, and Agricultural Advertiser. — 1872-05-03 (Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan, Wales)

HORRIBLE WIFE MURDER IN SOMER.  SETSHIRE.  On Saturday, the Coroner for Somersetshire (Mr. I Cradock), held an inquest at the National Schoolroom, Charterhouse, on the body of Eliza Lease, aged 30, who had been brutally murdered. For some years past deceased and her husband, who was an overlooker at one of the lead mines on the Mendip Hills, had lived together in a solitary part of the hamlet of Charterhouse. On returning from work a few evenings ago he attacked his wife in a most savage manner without provocation. With a baby in her arms, she ran to the nearest house for shelter followed by her husband, threatening to kill her. He told her to go home, and on his promising, in answer to her entreaties, not to strike her, she went home. He again violently assaulted her, and she again sought refuge in the same house. The door, however, had been locked, and she could not gain admittance. Her husband dragged her into his garden, and in the presence of two or three witnesses most brutally killed her. One of them I stated that he saw the husband violently I knock her down four times, each time raising her from the ground with one hand, and knocking her down with the other. Whilst she lay on the ground she prayed for mercy, and asked her husband what he did it for, and he violently kicked her about the head and body with his thick h avy boots. At last the deceased became motionless, and her husband was seen to drag her into the house. On their eldest daughter, a girl of fifteen, coming home soon afterwards, she saw her father setting her mother up in a chair.. She said, " Oh, father, you have killed mother;" to which he replied, "Pooh, pooh; she's dead drunk." Subsequently he went out and stated that he had killed ha; wife. The police were sent for, and about two hours afterwards the husband was apprehended. He was then perfectly calm and sober, and in reply to the char of having murdered his wife, he said he did it in a passion. The post-mortem examination of the body revealed the most revolting brutality, and the muI goon had no difficulty in ascribing death to the injuries inflicted. His boots and clothes were produced at the inquest. The former had blood and hair adhering to them, and the latter were saturated in a variety of places with blood. The jury unhesitatingly returned a verdict of "Wilful murder." All the witnesses at the inquest spoke very highly of the moral and general character of the deceased.  The Marquis of Lansdowne, under secretary cf State for War, has appointed Mr. T. Dighy Pigott, who held the appointment of private secretary to Lord Northbrook at the War Office, to be his private secretary. THE LATE NAVAL DisAsrEas.—Lord Clarence Paget, writing to the Times, attributes the late naval disasters mainly to the Admiralty orders restricting the use of the engine for the purpose of economising coal. If the Captain had had her engines in use she would have been Mired to the wind and saved. The Agincourt drifted crab-like on the Pearl Rock because she had not headway to stein the current. The Lord Clyde drifted on to the rocks ' because her engines were not ready in time to save her. The Defence drove from her anchors because she had not full power of steam on; and the Royal Alfred got aground in Bahama Channel because she had no steam ready. Lord Clarence contends that the large ironclads are not safe when near the land or one another, or in bad weather without steam power. lie has reason to believe the Admiralty contemplate a revision of their orders, and he is certain no measure will be more beneficial to the navy or advantageous to the country. 1 THE GoVERNMENT