The Sun. — 1862-07-22 (London, England)

BATTY.  On Sunday morning the township of Webheath, near Redditch, was thrown into a great state of excitement by one of the most deliberate attempts at the murder of a whole family which we have ever had the pain to record. the perpetrators not having the excuse of the Irish murderers who confine their attacks to the party offending. The would-be murderers seem to have taken every step to ensure the success of their hellish design, as the following particulars will show. The family in question consists of Police-officer Stait, his wife, two daughters (one aged two years and the other six months), and a nephew (aged ten years). They occupy one of two semidetached houses facing the Bromsgrove and Headless Cross turnpike road, on the opposite side of which is a wood belonging to the Baroness Windsor ; the other house is inhabited by a Mr. Johnson and family. Stait was absent from home on duty, from which he would be relieved at 5 a.m. on Sunday. He had left his wife and infant in bed in one room, whilst his little girl occupied a cot by the side of her mother's bed; in the other front room lay the nephew. About half-past twelve on Saturday' night the family were startled by four successive discharges of firearms, and in a moment 30 sash squares of glass were smashed to atoms, and the terrified sleepers covered with splintered glass, but, fortunately, otherwise unhurt. Johnson, who was not in bed, ran out in time to see three men disappearing in the opposite wood. When Stait returned he saw the havoc done by the shots, and fully expected to see his family corpses, as the villains had not spared a room. The lower windows were protected by shutters, which were pierced and splintered in a hundred places, whilst the walls opposite were covered with ;shot marks. But it was up stairs where the mischief was most apparent. There were no shutters in these rooms, and in Mrs. Stait's room the gun had been pointed at the lower corner of the window, in a line with the sleepers' heads, and the window being on a level with the bed makes the escape the more marvellous. The sleepers in bed and cot were covered with broken glass and splinters, the counterpane was torn and pierced with shots, whilst the wall opposite to the window was literally riddled, and pieces as large as marbles cut out of the brickwork, showing that the shot used must have been large buckshot. Had a limb been raised but a few inches in the bed, it could not have escaped. The same description applies to the boy's room, save that the aim was higher, the pictures on the walls being pierced, and the wall chipped and cut; here likewise the sleeper received no worse injury than fright and being covered with broken glass. There had evidently been two men, each armed with a double-barrelled gun, whilst the third ruffian watched. They must have fired simultaneously a barrel each at the lower windows, and then at the upper, so as to make sure of their victims. And now as to the motive. Police-officer Stait is an energetic officer, who by his zeal has made himself particularly obnoxious to a few noted scamps, and has bravely done his duty in spite of threats and menaces. There is a unanimous feeling as to who are the guilty parties, although no traces have yet been found ; and for the sake of humanity we hope the villains will be speedily brought to justice and punished for their cowardly and horrible attempt, not only upon the life of a man who only did his duty, but upon his defenceless wife and sleeping children.—Birmingham Daily Post.  Triis Revival of "Maz ePpa." radEVENING will be performed MAZEPPA ; or, The llations.or of Tartary, with New Scenery, Dresses, and ecorse Jon be followed by a brilliant routine of novel and daring rnes in the Circle. .0e -RE on Lon. olude with the laughable farce of THE MARRIED Commence at 7.—Stage Manager, Mr. W. Searle.