The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser. — 1826-07-20 (London, England)

DREADFUL EFFECTS OF ANGER.  Amongst the many dreadful occurrences which fall under our notice, we have to add the following lamentable ease of manslaughter. What renders it more distressing to the feelings is, that the crime has been perpetrated by a father upon the person of his own son, an infant of between six and sevsn years of age, and the catastrophe arose front giving way to an unbounded fit of pas. sine, excited by a cause the most trivial. The unhappy man, who now stands charged upon the Coroner's warrant for the offence, is a Mr. Banton, a person about fifty years of age. and holding a respectable situation in society, that of steward to Thomas Boner, Eaq. of Elmstead Lodge, about two miles below Bromley, in Kent. From what taez facts have come t o our knowledge, it appeared that the child was in the habit of going daily to school to Bromley, but on account of the diatance was in the habit of going home only once a day, at the close of the -school in the evening. About ten days since, the boy, upon leaving school, loitered on his way, which occasioned him to arrive home considerably after the usual time. Upon going in doors, his father questioned him as to the cause which had kept him so long, and the child not giving a satisfactory answer, the unguarded parent ordered him into a room. On entering the room the door was fastened by the father, when it appeared he took up the nil of a chair, which was lying upon the lbw, and began to chastise t!ie psor child in a most unmerciful manner ; the cries of the child only served to exasperate the frenzied fit which had taken possession of the father. The boy, endeavouring to avoid the blows, stooped, when, horrible to relate, the stick lighted with the utmost violence upon the buck past of his head, and in an instant he fell senseless on the ground, the blood gushing in torreets from the wound. The unhappy man, on beeing the fatal effects which his passion bad occasioned, instantly gave the alarm. The intelligence was promptly carried to the house of his master, and a messenger was despatched for surgical aid. In the course of a quarter of an hour a surgeon arrival. who attempted to bleed the child, but medical aid was of no avail, the vital spark having fled. Upon the surgeon examining the wound he found the skull fractured, which produced a concussion of the brain, and was the immediate cause of death. The medical gentleman, upon finding his skill of no use, inquired how the accident had occurred, when a female who was present stated, that the parent of the child had been chastising him with a stirrup, the buckle of which had entered the head. At this instant the unfortunate mother rushed into the room, exclaiming that her child had been murdered, and that it had been done by the rail of the chair, and not the stirrup. A further examinaion then look place, when a violent blow was discovered near the abdomen, shich, from the discoloration, was evidently produced by a kick, but which the same female endeavoured to account for by saying that the child had been bathed with strong vinegar. Upon the day following the dreadful catastrophe, the Coroner held an inquest on the body, when, after the examination of two witnesses, a verdict of " Manslaughter" was returned, and the unfortunate man was committed to Maidatone gaol, to take his trial at the Sessions for the offence.