The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1840-10-02 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION.—On Saturday morning last, upon the arrival of the mail-train at •the Paddington terminus of the Great Western Railway, a considerable excitement was created by two persons of highly respectable appearance desiring the conductor, immediately on their alighting on the platform, to open the door of one of the firstclass carriages, which they asserted contained a man who had shot at and wounded his uncle, a wealthy gentleman, residing at Dorchester, in Oxfordshire. The request was speedily complied with ; and on the suspected person leaving the vehicle with the rest of the passengers, he was rushed upon by his two pursuers, who held him until the arrival of some constables, when a severe and desperate struggle ensued. The accused was overpowered, and properly secured ; and on his being searched by Collard, the chief officer of the company's police, there were found in his possession two horse pistols, heavily loaded with powder and ball, a sword stick, and about 30s. in gold and silver. Collard explained to him the nature of the charge preferred, and after cautioning him with regard to anything which he might then state being hereafter used as evidence against him, he, in a few words, asserted his entire innocence. He was handcuffed, and shortly afterwards conveyed away in custody. The facts of the attempted assassination are these :—The prisoner, whose name is William Davey, and whose appearance is that of a military officer, has, since attaining his majority (he is now ouly 23 years of age), squandered away a good fortune, and has constantly been living at a large and fashionable hotel in the vicinity of Bond-street. About a fortnight back he arrived at Dorchester, and, after importuning his uncle, Mr. John Davey, for money, the latter presented him with £4O, at the same time giving }inn some good advice as to his future conduct. On Friday evening last, between eight and nine o'clock, as the uncle alluded to, who is a guardian of the poor of his parish, was returning to his house through his own garden, having attended a vestry meeting at a short distance off; he heard a noise which he imagined to be the explosion of a percussion cap, and almost at the same moment a pistol, or some other description of fire-arms, was discharged at him, and some hard substance struck with great force against his breast. He was not wounded, although severely bruised; but had he been walking with his face towards a laurel tree, behind which his intended assassin was, to the best of his belief, concealed, he would, in all probability, have been killed upon the spot. In a state of great fright, and imagining at the moment that he had received some serious injury, •he ran in doors, crying, " Murder, help ;" and on the circumstance being detailed by him to his brother and a neighbour, the most diligent inquiry was promptly instituted by them, from which they learned that a person answering the description of the prisoner had, on the same evening, been seen to come from the direction of his uncle's premises'. Suspecting that he would make his way up to London by the railway, Mr. Davey's brother and his friend went in pursuit, and on their arrival at Reading, found him in the act of stepping into one of the first-class carriages, his boots and trousers indicating, by their dirty condition, that he had walked many miles. Deeming it prudent not to capture him then, owing to the confusion and bustle that prevailed, they took their s?ats in another carriage, and on reaching Paddington gave the prisoner into custody, as previously stated. Collard conveyed hin away by the next down train, and on the same evening he underwent an examination upon the charge of " shooting at with intent to kill," before Mr. Ashford (chairman of the Oxford quarter sessions), at the residence of the intended victim : and after an inquiry which lasted several hours, he was remanded till Saturday next. At ten o'clock on the same night Collard lodged him in Oxford Castle Gaol. The prisoner is heir-at-law to the uncle, at whose decease he would be entitled to a very considerable property.