The Nuneaton Times. — 1875-07-31 (Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England)

WARWICKSHIRE MINERS' STRIKE. Messrs. Crawford and Monism, secretary and treasurer of the Miners' National Union, have i.sued a circular to the entire mining population of England, Scotland, anci Wales, appealing strongly for help on behalf of the Warwickshire miners. They any heaven and earth might to be moved to support these men.  whilst the latter was in the duty. The serious nature Of the erime, originating as it did from the lawlessness which has characterised the class to which Corkery belonged, and the respectability 'and undaunted conduct of the .unfortunate constable, whop lingered sdine *me through painftil efforts to preserve lis. life, to'ether with, on the other hand, the comparative uth of the murderer—who was but 20 years of —excited in the public mind a degree of meloninterest whieh has not had a parallel in our . annals for many years past THE CRIME for which Corkery suffered the extreme penalty of the law may be thus briefly told :—Qn Sunday night, March 7th; a distarbance occurred in Fordrough-street and Navigation-street, through the apprehension of a man named Downes on a charge of burglary at the Bull*Head, in the first-named street. Anyone acquainted with Birmingham will scarcely need to be told that this locality may be ranked among the lo*est quarters of the town— harbouring a population which may be described by the term the "dangerous-classes." On the previous night a burglary had been committed at the 'inshtie-honse, and a cash-box and some articles of clothing were stolen. A woman in the house was passing the room on the landing when the robbery was being committed, and she, it appears, peeped in at the half-open door and recognised the persons engaged in it. The following night she identified one of them—a man named Downes—in the taproom, and intimating the fact to the landlord, a policeman was sent for, and Polioe-constables Goodman and Fletcher arrived. They had arrested Downes, and were proceeding with him towards Moor-street, when they were set upon by a body of roughs, who had assembled in Navigation-street. Police-sergeant Fletcher and Lines came up to the rescue, and it was whilst Lines was striving against these men, and endeavouring to keep them back, that he was stabbed behind the ear by some person, who has since been indisputably proved to have been Corkery. Policeconstable Fletcher was also severely maltreated by the mob, but he escaped with what were comparatively but superficial injuries. He and the poor fellow whose death Lad caused so much regret were conveyed to the Queen's Hospital, and their injuries attended to ; but while Fletcher was enabled shortly afterwards to proceed to his own home, it was found necessary to detain Lines, whose injuries it was feared from the first would prove fatal. The carotid artery was found to have been puncture?, yet notwithstanding this the patient rallied two or three times during the first few days, and hopes were entertained of his reoovery. Subsequently, however, an effusion of blood took place, a blood tumour formed over the punctured artery, and it was believed that the suff.rer must either sink , loss of blood or die from suffocation, have before hinted every means k edical profession were resorted to ceding, but without success. From ion of the artery it was impossible to stay the effusion by the vein, and an effort was made in some measure to stay the flow of blood by pressing the artery, and thereby partly closing. it. A number of students, greatly to their praise and honour, undertook the trying and wearisome duty of pressing, each in turn, a finger on the affected part, and in this way the blood vessel for thirty hours was operated on and nearly closed. At this stage of the proceedings however, the prscese failed. It was deemed expedient to ligature the arlery, but this proved unavailing, and the unfortunate man, who throughout had exhibited an amount of courage and palience that were astounding, died at noon on the 24th of March. At the trial, as our readers will well remember, the unfortunate young man was most ably defended by the Hon. E. Chandos Leigh, Who urged the jury to pronounce in favour of the lesser crime of manslaughter, submitting that the evidence was not of a sufficiently reliable character to entitle them to come to the conclusion that the prisoner was guilty of the capital crime The jury, however, without hesitation, found the prisoner guilty of murder.