The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette. — 1859-02-15 (Dorchester, Dorset, England)

TILE PAPER DUTY. —DEPETATION TO LORD DERRT.—On Friday afternoon last deputations Irons Scotland, Ireland, the out Association for the Repeal of Taxes upon Knowledge, the Newspaper Press Association, the Association of Paper Makers of Birmingham, and a large numbet of the members of the House of Commons, waited upon the Earl of Derby, at his official residence in Downing-street, to urge upon his lordship the necessity I repealing the paper duties. Mr. T. 31. Gibson introduced the deputation, and called upon the Secretary of the Association for prtnuoting the repeal of the taxes on knowledge.—Mr. U. Collet then read the address, which was a lengthy document. Mr. Vizetelly, Mr. Cassell, Mr. Frar.cis, of the Athentrum, Dr. Gray, on the part of the Irish deputation, Mr. W. chambers, and other gentlemen, having stated their views on the subject, the Earl of Derby said he had listened very attentively to the statements made by the deputation. He had never concealed his objections to the tax, but looking to the state of the public revenue, he could give the deputation no distinct answer on the subject. He could not express any opinion on the subject, or anticipate the statement that the Chancellor of the Exchequer would be called upon to make during the next two months. All he could say was that the state of public finances was the only thing that stood in the way of the repeal of the duty. The deputation then withdrew.  Many Nswet.t.. -The convict Mary Newell, who was tried at the winter Berkshire assizes, and sentenced to death for the wilful Murder of her child by drowning in the river Thames, near Reading, ham become a lunatic. Immediately after her conviction her grief was most poignant, and she was perfectly resigned to the awful fate which seemed to await her. As it appeared from the evidence at her trial that she had been betrayed into the commission of the crime by the conduct of her seducer in heartlessly refusing to afford her or her offspring any assistance, though in a state of the most abject poverty, a memorial from the town, signed by hundreds of the inhabitants of Reading and neighbourhood, was forwarded to the Hight Hon. S. Walpole, the Home Secretary, praying for a remission of the sentence, and it resulted in the capital punishment being remitted for one of penal servitude for life. The unfortunate young woman, even when this pleasing intelligence was PAW municated to her, exhibited signs of great mental anxiety, and, being unable for several days and nights to obtain sleep, an aberration of intellect followed. The greatest attention was paid to her by the medical officer of Beading gaol to afford her relief, but without success. Her case was reported to the Home-office, and, by direction of the Secretary of State, the unfortunate woman was • few days since removed to lisherton Asylum, at Salisbury. On her admission into that in,titution the strait waistcoat was removed, and active medical means were resorted to. After passing four days and nights without any prospect of surviving the shock which her nervous systcin had received she has become tranquil, sleep has been induced, and she is now in a inure favourable state, although not yet out of danger. It is, however, hoped that she may recover. Her case altogether is t painful, and has excited the deepest cominiseration in the town of Reading, near which town the crime was committed. It is earnestly hoped that the Royal clemency may be further extended to her. )14INIST