The Sun. — 1867-07-18 (London, England)

ANOTHER MURDER AT BIRMINGHAM.  Birmingham is becoming famous for deeds of violence. At a late hour on Tuesday night an affray took place in a publichouse in Dale-end in that town, the result of which is that a man named II M'Nallay, a striker, was shot dead. The occurrence is thus described in the Daily Post :—" About ten o'clock at night, the deceased, in company with two other men, entered the gin shop of one Morris Roberts, in which there was a number of persons drinking. These persons asked to be supplied with two pennyworth of whi-ky, but Roberts being under the impression, as he said, that they had had enough to drink, refused to supply them with any more liquor. They pressed him, however, to give them more drink, but Roberts firmly refused, and as he was turning away from the counter to go to another part of the shop the deceased picked up a plate which lay upon the counter and threw it at him. Roberts, observing the man's movements, stooped and avoided the missile. The deceased and his companions followed up this act by throwing the glasses on the counter at Roberts, but he escaped without being struck. Going to a drawer, then, Roberts took out a loaded six-barrelled revolver, and presented it at the men, saying he would shoot them. The deceased, retreating a few yards, said, Shoot, you shoot ! The other men—deceased's companions—cried out, " We'll settle the --,' and more glasses were then thrown at Roberts, who fired upon the party, the deceased immediately dropping to the ground, but his fall was not noticed by the other men, who continued their demonstrations of violence towards the proprietor, whereupon one of the waiters rushed to the door to prevent the escape of his master's assailants. Oneof the men, however, prevented him shutting the door, and, after a struggle, got into the street. At the request of Roberts the waiter went up stairs to the front window aad sprung a rattle for the purpose of obtaining the assistance of the police. A crowd speedily collected, and a number of persons rushed into the house to see what was the matter ; but before this the two men who had accompanied the deceased, and who, like himself, appeared to be Irishmen, had escaped. The people in the house at the time took no part in the affray, but when the police came in a gentleman who witnessed what took place informed the officers of the facts, and gave Roberts into custody. The prisoner, expressing his willingness to gowith the police, put on his jacket, and was then taken to the lock-up. The deceased at this time was lying upon the floor of his shop in a pool of blood, which had issued from his mouth. Upon examination it was found he was in a dying state, and that being so he was without loss of time removed to the General Hospital, but the unfortunate man died on the way to that institution. The bullet, it was found, had entered at a point about two inches from theleft br'east. Roberts on being charged at the police-station made a statement to the effect that the deceased and two other men came into his vaults and requested him to serve them with some liquor ; that he refused ; that they then made use of bad expressions, and threw plates and glasses at him ; and that it was then he took a pistol and fired at him. Roberts, who was very nervous and dejected, and appeared to be in a state of great excitement, expressed himself as very sorry for what had happened. The prisoner, when taken into custody, had the revolver in his hand. Roberts was for some time an active supporter of Mr. Murphy ; but it would seem that for some cause or other he had withdrawn himself from any participation in .the lectures at the Tabernacle. At the time of the riots his windows were broken, among those of other friends of the so-called Protestant movement ; and, being threatened with personal violence, he is said to have kept the revolver at hand, in readiness to defend himself. It is said that the deceased and his companions were Roman Catholics, and that their visit was made with no friendly intentions. *A man who was present at the time of the outrage informs us that while the men were throwing glasses at Roberts one of them exclaimed Let's settle the Murphyite.' " Yesterday morning Roberts was brought up before the magistrates, and remanded till Friday. He is a noted pugilist.