npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
The Sun. — 1869-07-07 (London, England)

IRISH LIBEL CASE.  An interesting and important action for libel has just been concluded in the Court of Exchequer of Dublin, before Mr. Baron Fitzgerald and a special jury. The case arose out of the murder of Mr. Anketell, the stationmaster, of Mullingar. The plaintiff was the Rev. Michael Gogerty, a Roman Catholic clergyman of Mullingar, and the defendant Mr. John Robinson, proprietor of the Daily Express. The plaintiff claimed £l,OOO damages for a libel on him contained in two letters in the Dublin Express. The alleged libel consisted of two letters published on the Bth and 10th of March last. In the first letter, which was written by the Rev. C. P. Reichel, vicar of the parish, it was stated that 'Mr. Anketell had for some time known be was " a marked man ;" that on the 16thof December last he took the writer aside on the platform of the station, and, to quote the words of the letter, told him that "his dismissing a railway official had been referred to from the altar of a Roman Catholic chapel in such terms as induced two most respectable Roman Catholics, both personally known to me, to go to him and disavow all sympathy with what had been said." The second letter, signed "A Looker-on," referred to Mr. Reichel's, and asked why a priest should not be amenable to the law, and remarked that it would be too much to expect that Cardinal Cullen would suspend him. The defendant pleaded that the words were a fair and bond fide comment on the conduct of the plaintiff, and were published without malice. The facts were that Lawrence Moran, a railway policeman, who had been a great many years in the employment of the railway company, had been dismissed, and that a great many persons who thought him a very estimable servant addressed a memorial to the directors to have him reinstated, and also raised a subscription for him. The subscribers to this testimonial stated that they thought him hardly treated. The Rev. Mr. Gogerty was s':ed to recommend the matter to his congregation, and he did so in the chapel on the 6th of December last. He said nothing hostile to Mr. Anketell, and did not even mention his name, but he said that Moran had been hardly treated on account of his religion. It seemed that this was not so ; Moran was dismissed because he disobeyed Mr. Anketell's orders, but there was a strong feeling against the station-master in the neighbourhood. The case for the plaintiff was that the letters alleged that he was the instigator of the murder. But several Roman Catholics gave it as their opinion that the plaintiff committed an indiscretion, and that they had told him so. The juiy did not think the letters_ said much more. They found a verdict for the defendant, at the same time exonerating the plaintiff from any intention to injure Mr. Anketell, and stating their belief that his object was charitable.
The Sun. — 1869-07-07 (London, England)

IRISH LIBEL CASE.  An interesting and important action for libel has just been concluded in the Court of Exchequer of Dublin, before Mr. Baron Fitzgerald and a special jury. The case arose out of the murder of Mr. Anketell, the stationmaster, of Mullingar. The plaintiff was the Rev. Michael Gogerty, a Roman Catholic clergyman of Mullingar, and the defendant Mr. John Robinson, proprietor of the Daily Express. The plaintiff claimed £l,OOO damages for a libel on him contained in two letters in the Dublin Express. The alleged libel consisted of two letters published on the Bth and 10th of March last. In the first letter, which was written by the Rev. C. P. Reichel, vicar of the parish, it was stated that Mr. Anketell had for some time known he was "a marked man ;" that on the 16th of December last he took the writer aside on the platform of the station, and, to quote the words of the letter, told him that "his dismissing a railway official had been referred to from the altar of a Roman Catholic chapel in such terms as induced two most respectable Roman Catholics, both personally known to me, to go to him and disavow all sympathy with what had been said." The second letter, signed "A Looker-on," referred to Mr. Reichel's, and asked why a priest should not be amenable to the law, and remarked that it would be too much to expect that Cardinal Cullen would suspend him. The defendant pleaded that the words were a fair and bond Ilde comment on the conduct of the plaintiff, and were published without malice. The facts were that Lawrence Moran, a railway police• man, who had been a great many years in the employment of the railway company, had been dismissed, and that a great many persons who thought him a very estimable servant addressed a memorial to the directors to have him reinstated, and also raised a subscription for him. The subscribers to this testimonial stated that they thought him hardly treated. The Rev. Mr. Gogerty was s'ced to recommend the matter to his congregation, and he did so in the chapel on the 6th of December last. He said nothing hostile to Mr. Anketell, and did not even mention his name, but he said that Moran had been hardly treated on account of his religion. It seemed that this was not so ; Moran was dismissed because he disobeyed Mr. Anketell's orders, but there was a strong feeling against the station-master in the neighbourhood. The case for the plaintiff was that the letters alleged that he was the instigator of the murder. But several Roman Catholics gave it as their opinion that the plaintiff committed an indiscretion, and that they had told him so. The jury did not think the letters said much more. They found a verdict for the defendant, at the same time exonerating the plaintiff from any intention to injure Mr. Anketell, and stating their belief that his object was charitable.
The Sun. — 1869-12-08 (London, England)

VIBBATBNINO A P.RIESt  The oispenents of Fenianism and extravagarir deininds for the tenants, are retaliating upon the tenant-right advocates. The Rev. Mr. Doyle, P.P., cf Wexford, is reported to have received the following letter, bearing the London postmark. It is so shockingly virulent that doubt has been thrown upcn its authenticity : " Rev. Sir,—We have read with interest of a peculiar kind the enclosed account of a speech that you lately delivered at a tenant-right meeting at Enniscorthy. Now carefully mark the following, and read it to the end. Your speeches and actions, as well as Lord Granard's and Mitchel's, will for the future be carefully watched, and not quite in the spirit you expect, peel:ens. Should any assassination be traced, however so slightly, to any one of you three, the fate of two of you will be settled—yours first, as the bloody instigator of a dastardly crime, and the actual perpetrator. A man will be told oil especially,by a society existing in the mother country, which by the aid of both power and capital will carry wet more than empty threats. ..ould there even be the slightest de• •on the occasion of a poor' agent being murdered as to who was the instigator of the vile plot, one of you three b— scum will be sent to from behind a hedge. We are forced to emplcy your own cowardly means. Therefore if any one is assassinated, we recommend you to confess (heaven save the mark) chat blasted wretch Lord Granard, and carefully think over the many poor men you yourself have robbed, quieting your conscience (if you have any) that your Church required it. If true Irishmen knew the loathsome vapours and the hellish deceit that your breed carry about with them under the guise of a long coat, they would rid the country of such a pestilence. As it is, you acquired a power over these poor ignorant men, and cause them to commit actions which you yourself shrank from with abject fear. The next time you move your foul lips to deliver a cowardly lecture like the enclosed, you had better mind who is in the room. The matter was in our hands a few hours afterwards !! ! Now beware. Remember, that among your own congregation there may be those who, though as great hypocrites awl consummate actors as yourself, may yet by our means be the very ones to betray any of your vile doings and sentiments. It will be a charity to him should you warn that skulking Yankee Fenian John Mitchel, that his advent to Ireland will be communicated to us without fail. Were it in our power we should dearly like to confine the three of you to rot in holes excavated especially for the purpose under your own native bogs, from which you would some day be dug out as so many lumps of --- : but for the present (should justice demand it) a speedier death will be yours; and we must employ your own favourite plan, and descend to the rank of a Roman Catholic assassin ! We now, in deep disgust, take our leave of you, as far as this epistle goes. Our language, though forcible, is just. Remember and beware. " Jueurs."
The Sun. — 1869-01-12 (London, England)

IRISH MATTERS.  Ireland has peculiar grievances, but that fact can hardly account for the very strange way some of the people have of shewing that they are dissatisfied. What good, for instance, can come of shooting at a train ? Except as an exercise ala the running deer, the whole thing seons senseless. Yet that is what has now been done several times. True, in one case the story resolved itself into a hoax ; but in the other account there is more evidence of reality. The driver of the up-mail train from Waterford to• Limerick on Wednesday stiles that about four miles from Pilltown he observed two men, one of whom levelled a gun and fired at the train. The window glass of the engine protection van was broken. Did the "miscreants " fire at any one in particular, or was the shot levelled at travelling humanity in general ? It might have killed the best head of " repeal," if " repeal " be the object, or the foremost upholder of State Churches, if the men are aggrieved at the way the elections have turned. They must have done the deed out of pure (or rather impure) love of wickedness. The best thing that could happen to them would be that they should be sent to gaol for a few months.  There are some leaders and pictures in the " national" prints this week which will give the Conservative journals a good text for a sermon on Irish wants. I7irst, there is the Irisbnum condoning, if not altogether excusing the murder of Mr. Baker. The Weekly News condemns the murder, but has a much more " pronounced " cartoon. The chief figures are " Erin,' Mr. Gladstone, and Mr. Bright. Mr. Gladstone is consoling the disconsolate Miss Erin by first taking away the odious Church and giving her the one she is fond of ; next, by presenting. her with the Portlind prison key ; and then by giving her a tenant-right charter. But she refuses to be comforted. She still wants more. " What is it ?" asks the Prime Minister, puzzled. " Here it is," says Mr. Bright, bringing in a heavy trunk labelled " Repeal of the Union."  Dublin is to be en fete on the 13th inst. She then welcomes the new Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Earl Spencer made a public entry yesterday as the representative of the Queen. his will be no easy task to please after so popular a man as the Duke of Abereorn.  The Mayor of Cork, whatever may be said by the party papers, must be an eccentric man. The other night he was in the local theatre during the pantomime. An allusion was made to the Tories, and one of the characters exclaimed "Down with them." Up rose the Mayor, his excitement boiling over at the name of those he disliked. " That's right !" he exclaimed, making threatening gestures towards the boxes. " Down with Orangemen." The boxkeeper had to come to the exceedingly political first magistrate and intimate that he was breaking the law. Mr. O'Sullivan had to subside, amidst loud hisses. Let us charitably hope that he was suffering from " a heated imagination."
The Sun. — 1869-08-24 (London, England)

TUE LAND QUESTION.  The land question is coming to the fore in an unmistakeable manner. Tho already-announced association has published its programme. It contains the best names amongst the advanced Reformers. Mr. John Stuart Mill is its chairman ; Sir George Grey, Sir C. IV. Dilke, M.P., Messrs. Fawcett, Dixon, Jacob Bright, Tom Hughes. M'Laren„ Morrison, and Muntz, M.P.'s • Sir J. Bowring, Messrs. Hare, Neate, Harrison, Beales, Rogers, Potter, and many others are down on the committee. The efforts of the organisation will be devoted to obtaining free trade in land. They support Mr. Locke's Real Established ill testacy Bill; wish to preserve the rights of the public over commons ; and will promote measures whereby a peasant proprietary may be established. Towards this Litter end they will agitate for a reform in the law as to land held by public bodies. To the Duke of Richmond this association seems to be working against all practical experience. He pointed out at a recent meeting at Strathbogie, Scotland, that in Ireland small holdings were already the rule for farms. They were the curse of the country. The proper thing for Parliament to do, he said, nas not to divide and split up land any more, but to take measures whereby farms should become larger, so that there might be security for influence, intelligence, enterprise, energy, and capital being used in the agriculture of tne country.  'The 7Vines Commissioner continues his investigation into the Irish land question by an account of agrarian outrages in the districts of Tipperary. The principal crimes committed in that neighbourhood within the last twelve months are the homicides on the late Mr. Scully's estate at Ballycohey, and the murders of Messrs. Bradshaw, Baker, and Tracey, all of which, with the exception of Mr. Bradshaw's murder, are agrarian crimes. As to the terrible affair on the Scully estate, the commissioner observes there can be no doubt that Mr. Scully was asserting his right, but that it was a case of 81117:»271»1 ;US being sumnia infuria. The tenants of Mr. Scully had previously held from year to year; but they were, when the murder took place, required to pay rents quarterly, and to hold their tenure on twenty-one days' notice. The murders of Mr. Tracy and Mr. Baker were much more ruthlcs3, each arising from cases of ordinary ejectment. But in no single instance has an offender been brought to justice. • All these crimes, says this inquirer, have one common object—to maintain the title of the tenant to his holding, according to a popular standard of right, and to punish those Who attempt to disturb it. They aro not the results of individual passion, but are systematic to a certain extent, and show the signs of a kind 'of method; they exact vengeance not only from the authors of what is supposed a wrong, but from those who, though innocent of it, help to carry it out, and become its instruments. On the whole, the existing relations of property, though occasionally grievous, cannot be held responsible for this lawless spirit. It could grow up and spread only in a state of society that has been for a long time deeply disordered.
The Sun. — 1869-12-11 (London, England)

LONDON, SATURDAY, DEC. 11, 1859.  THE Protestant demonstration just held at Belfast is another striking proof that the party which professes to represent the educated classes of the community does not always do honour to its pretensions. ' It was not the mark of an enlightened assembly to hiss and groan when the health of the Lonn-LIEuTENANT was proposed. It is customary, no doubt, for popular meetings to rage furiously when the name of an obnoxious politician is mentioned. But the precedent of Hyde Park meetings and fixity-of-tenure demonstrations ought scarcely to be followed by the "educated party" on hearing the name of the nobleman who represents the QUEEN in Ireland. The representatives of British wealth and intelligence ought to set, not follow, an example in courtesy and moderation. Still more strange must be esteemed the Duke of ABERCORN'S comparison between the state of Ireland now and its condition under his beneficent sway. That parties should claim superiority for their own style of government is an ordinary and reasonable means of carrying on political warfare ; but statesmen out of office might advantageously leave the condemnation of their individual successors to other partisans, who have not held the same post. The Duke of ABERCORN'S comparison between himself and Earl SPENCER was in bad taste, and it was inaccurate. His Grace affirmed that the effects of the "message of peace " were agrarian murder's, insecurity of property, and an increase of aggressive bigotry. No doubt all these evils prevail, especially aggressive bigotry, which is particularly rampant at Protestant demonstrations; but each and all existed to an equal extent during the reign of the Conservative Ministry. There is much disturbance in Ireland during Mr. GLADSTONE'S Government ; there was more disturbance under the late Earl DERBY'S Government. The disaffection has risen to its highest point a year after the former took office ; the Fenian outbreak of 1867 was at its worst twelve months after the accession of the Conservative Ministry. We are now in the midst of alarms. Agrarian outrages have been numerous; seditious preaching is common; the whole nation has been insulted by the return of a convict as a member of Parliament. But in the latter half of 1867 occurred the Manchester murders, the tragedy at Clerkenwell, numerous raids in different parts of Ireland, and immense funeral processions in honour of the "martyrs " at Dublin, Limerick, and Cork. The Duke of ABERCORN, though his term of office was marked by no very striking achievement, was a fairly good ruler ; but he could not prevent the Fenian insurrection. It is just as unfair to attribute the present disaffection to Mr. GLADSTONE'S attempt at conciliation, as to attribute the late rebellion to the lack of peace-making measures under the Tory Government. The latter, at all events, only followed the example of their predecessors. The evils in Ireland are the result, not of the doings of any single Ministry, but of chronic grievances which have neither arisen no can be dispelled in a brief space.
The Sun. — 1869-04-26 (London, England)

THE STOR►Y ABOUT HARE, THE  " BURKER."  On Saturday, at the Bow-street Police-court, William Hawkes, a blind man, of somewhat remarkable appearance from his tall stature and Herculean proportions, and wellknown at the court as having been repeatedly charged with begging in the streets, applied to the sitting magistrate, Mr. Flowers, for advice.  The applicant said he had been subject to a great deal of annoyance in consequence of the following paragraph having appeared in a daily paper:—" Hare the Burker,Still Alive.—Persons accustomed to pass through Trafalgarsquare will have noticed from time to time a sturdy and disreputable beggar who is blind of both eyes. This fellow is a notorious scoundrel. He is no other than Hare, the associate of Burke, in the Edinburgh murders, who originated the term `Barking' forty-one years ago. Hare turned King's evidence, and saved his own neck from the gallows. Subsequently he went to work under a borrowed name, but his fe low-workmen discovered who he was, and threw him into a I:me-pit, and there both his eyes were burnt out. He now appeals to the charity of the public, who have, of course, no idea who he is." Since the publication of this paragraph many persons had conceived an impression that he was the blind beggar referred to, and he bad been annoyed by people asking if his name was Hare. He wished to know whether he had not some remedy against those who had so injured him. Mr. Flowers asked how he knew that he was the-person meant.  The applicant said be knew by the description. Mr. Flowers : I see the description is " a sturdy and disreputable beggar." (A laugh). But there might be other beggars, and they might be sturdy and disreputable. A woman who accompanied the applicant said it was mentioned that he stood in Trafalgar-square.  Mr. Flowers: Yes, and you stand there, too—to beg? The Woman : He stands there, and is asking alms. Applicant : No, Ido not beg. I do not ask for alms. I stand there, if anybody gives me anything— Mr. Flowers : You do not refuse it ? (A laughl. Applicant : No, Ido not. (Laughter.)  Mr. Flowers : I thought not. (Renewed laughter.) But I presume—though I really have no right to ask you, and you axe not bound to answer unless you like—you arc not Hare, are you?  Applicant : No, sir, I aint him. (A laugh.) He used to beg there, but he is dead. Mr. Flowers : Then you clearly are not the man. (A laugh.) If you can shew that the paragraph was levelled at you, you have an action for libel against the papers that inserted it. (Laughter.) The Applicant: That is too dear a way for me. (Laughter.) Mr. Flowers : Then write to each paper that inserted the paragraph to say you are not the man.  The applicant left the court muttering something to the effect that he only wanted to vindicate his character, and that there ought to be justice for a poor man.
The Sun. — 1869-04-26 (London, England)

STATEMENT OF THE CONVICT WILTSHIRE.  The convict Wiltshire, now that the commutation of his sentence is secure, has made a long written statement to the Rev. H. G. Layton, chaplain of the Gloucester County Gaol. In it he tells how, after leaving the publichouse on the Saturday night, he and Milsom found the woman lying in the mud, and he pulled her hair, and said he thought he knew her. He accuses Milsom of inciting him to the first offence, and then brings against him 3 much more serious accusation. The two, he says, left her after the first abuse of her, but returned almost at once and pulled her about to see if she had any money. During the operation, he alleges, Mi!som's dog caught hold of either her clothes or her flesh, and Milsom kicked the dog aside, and then bitched his fingers in the woman's gown, and tore it down to her breast. The two lifted her on the bank, and then, fearing some one was approaching, went away to the convict's brother's. On the way there, as Wiltshire alleges, Milsom wiped blood off his hand on the grass. The most important part of the statement is the convict's admission that when he left his brother's be went back to the woman, us to which there was no evidence at the trial. He says : " I went on down to my home, and when I come some way down the lane I heard something, and thought upon the woman. I went along about ten yards farther, and I heard it again shout ' Murder !' I stopped, and looked about, and went in through the gate after a bit of hay for my donkey, and there I saw the woman with her head hanging down inside the railings, and her hands down. She was lying across the palings on her stomach, with one foot caught by the shoe in the thorn, and the other foot on the rail, and her clothes all down over her head. I asked her to get up. She did not seem to move. I pulled her shoe out of the thorn, and let her fall over. She cried 'Murder three times, and I went away and left her, and went on to ref home. He then makes further accusations against Milsom. Most of the details of his confession are so revolting that they cannot be published. .We are told • that he has not denied throughout that the woman died from suffocation, but that when asked whether he placed his hand on her mouth he replied that he couldn't say, and would rather talk about something else. On Saturday his wife received a letter from him, in which he says, " I am thankful to the Almighty ,that my life is to be, spared, but am very sorry to think I shall be parted from you as long as I live. The chaplain tells me . I am to be sent into penal servitude for life, but I am very thankful I have got this instead of being hung. Everything was got ready for me to be hung last Monda3r, and on Friday I gave up all the world to die, but I couldn't get my wife off my mind. I cannot tell you how very thankful I am for my life being spared till God shall see fit to call me." He then says he thinks the trouble fallen upon him is a punishment for his desertion of religion.