The North Cumberland Reformer. — 1891-01-29 (Carlisle, Cumbria, England)

THE FAVERSHAM MYSTERY. . _ _ _ _  Charles Lyddon has again ap—pei-re-1-, on *remand, before the Faversham magistrates, charged with I h wilful murder of his stepbrother, Dr. Lyddon. The prisoner was represented by a fresh solicitor, Mr. R. M. Mercer, of Canterbury ; and Mr. Worsf old Mowll, of Dover, again appeared to prosecute on behalf of the Treasury. Esther Hunt, charwoman, of Faversham, stated that she h tcl been in the habit of doing work at the residence of theLyddons for the past four years. On the day before his death Dr. Lyddon spoke to her in the hall, and she fetched him some stout. Witness in the evening got a bottle of whisky, by order of the prisoner, end took it up into Dr. Lyddon's room. Dr. Lyddon was about to have some when he was called away to the surgery.—William Bedster, recalled, stated that when Dr. Lyddon called upon him on the night previous to his death he made an appointmeut for the morning. Replying to the solicitor for tho defence the witness said that although the deceased looked very bad, he did not think he had been drinking.—Mr. Mowll said this was the whole of the evidence he proposed to lay before the Bench on behalf of the crown. He iuthnated to them at the last sitting, in asking for the adjournment, that he should consider what course it would be his duty to take with reference to calling Mrs. Lyddon as a witness. He had since had the advantage of a very careful consultation with the Solicitor to the Treasury, and it had been determined not to call her at this stage of the inquiry. He had endeavoured to lay before the Bench every information, however remotely it might have seemed to bear on the case, because, no doubt, it was a matter of the most supreme importance. It now became the duty of the Bench to say what course should be taken in the case. It seemed to him, if the Bench would allow him to say 80, that there were two points for their consideration. Firstly, whether the deceased met with his death by foul means; and, secondly, whether there was a prima facie ease against the prisoner. Mr. Mercer stated that before the Bench took the usual cours3 ,;of charging the prisoner, perhaps they would allow him to make a few remarks on the position in which he stood. He was called into the case at rather a late period, and that rendered it the more difficult for him to make up his mind as to the course he would pursue. But it had struck him, as it must have done everyone, that .the case had created a considerable amount of sensation. Had it not been inquired into before this investigation he should have adopted a very different course to that which he had taken; but, having regard to the coroner's inquisition, he said that no useful end would be gained by disputing a committal. He therefore expressed a hope, which he was sure would be echoed by the Bench, that persons reading the account of the trial, which had been so widely reported,would in their mercy be kind enough to remember that he might be called upon to deal with this case at the assizes, and also to bear constantly in memory that the defence had not yet been heard,and that in reading they should not prejudge. The prisoner, who reserved his defence, was committed for trial at the Kent Assizes,to be held about the middle of February.  The Chess Match between Mossrs. Stoinitz and Gunsberg at New York, has ended in the victory of the former by seven games to four, the other eight having been drawn. It has been reported on the Newcastle Exchange that 230 steamers are now laid idle at various ports in the United Kingdom, and that 4,500 seamen have been thrown out of work. The London and North-Western Railway Company have posted at all their stations in South Staffordshire notices of advances in the rates for the conveyance of iron, varying according to the distance travelled.  the Inquest on Joieph Dickens, the old man wh6 was found dead in a ditch at Rushden, Northamptonshire, bearing marks of brutal injury, was opened on Saturday, and adjourned. The Marquis of Lothian, who has returned to Ne wbattle Abbey from Dalkeith, is now better; but he has been a good deal weakened by the very severe cold from which he suffered.