Denton and Haughton Examiner, etc. — 1878-05-04 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

HEREY WARD BEECHER.  Waver ley N.Y.. Monday Evening April 15  The Moods of Mr Biecher intimate that the confession no drawn from Mrs Tilton by the in flounce of her husband, and doctor* it to be false.  TIIE CASE OF CONSTANCE KENT, Dr. J. C. Ittumknill, in closing the second of his Lorelei= lectures on "Insanity in its legal relations," before the Royal College of Pliyeicians, said: It is a happy circumstance for us pr.dessionally that we have not often to give direct evidence of crime. It is painful enough to give negative evi• den= which is incriminating. The most remarkable case in which I have been concerned, not =en excepting that of Victor Townley, was the case of Constance Kent, who murdered her young brother, and escaped detection. After an interval of several years, a truly conscientious motive led her to con• fees, and the most painful and interesting duty fell to my lot of examining her for the purpose of ascertaining whether it would be right to enter th• plea of "not guilty on the ground et insanity." I MY compelled to advise against it, and her coon. eel, Mr (now Lord) Coleridge, on reading the notes of toy eleininetion. =omitted that I could not do otherwise. By her own wish, and that of her relatives, I publis led a letter in the Times describing the material facts mif time crime, but to save the feelings of those who were alive at the time, I did net make =own the motive, and on this account it has been that time strange portent has remained in the history of our social life that a young girl, not insane, should have been capable of murderind her beautiful lboy-brother in cold blood and witheat motive. I think the right time and opportunity has come for me to explain away this apparent monatrosity of conduct. A real and dreadful motive did exist. The girl's own mother, =via; become partially demented, was left by her husband to live in the seclusioc of her own room, while the management of the household was taken over the heads of grownup daughters by a high-spirited governess, who, after the decease of the first Mrs Kent, and a decent interval. became Constance Keut's step-mother. In this position she was unwise enough to make disparaging remarks about her predeceAsor, little dreatning, poor lady, of the fund of rage and revengeful feeling she was etirr iug up in time heart of her young stepdaughter. le escape from her hatred presence, Constance once ran away from home, but was brought back; and after this ehe only thought of the most effioient manner of wreaking her veugeance. She thought of poisoning her stepmother, but that, on reflection else felt would be tin real punishment, and then it ma 9 that she determined to murder the poor lady's boy, her only child. A dreadful story this; but who can fail to pity the depths of household misery which its denotes? At her =cols nment, Constance Kent persisted in pleading "guilty." Had the plea been "not guilty," it would, I suppose, have been my most painful duty to have told the Court the tragic history which I now tell to you, in the belief that it can give no pain to theme concerned in it, and that it is miachievotie that so great and notorious • crime should remain unexplained.  A portion of the Guards will leave London for Malta on Wednesday.  The boiler explosion in Dublin resulted in the loss of 15 live. All the bodies have teen recovered from the debris with one exception.  A telegram from Yokohama, of Sunday's date, says the Pacific mail matinee Pekiug (?), has put back with machinery out of order. She will beable to prooetd in a few day..  The Hon. William Cawing Ooodloe. the American mioieter to the Belgian Court, and his family, were paisoingere by the White Star steamer Adriatic, whits has arrived at Liverpool from liew York.  Clerks and others who are constantly engaged in writing, would do well to try Macnivan and Cameron's celebrated pens, as we are convinced that there are none better, one trial is sufficient to prove their excellence. A sample box may be had at the office of this paper.  The Operative painters of Liverpool, who are on strike in ooneequence of the refusal of the masters of their claim tor an increase of wages of a penny per hour, having shown symptoms of returning to , work, tug maetere have intimated their timeline.' to receive back unionists and non•unioniste alike on the old terms, and to afford every protection to all who comply with the hevitaiion.