npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
The Sun. — 1870-04-30 (London, England)

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING, APRIL 30, 1870.  A'T'TEMPT TO MURDER A MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT.  About ten o'clock yesterday morning a desperate attempt was made to murder Mr. Charles, Buxton, M.P. For several years past Mr. Buxton has employed as secretary a young man, named White, a, person of somewhat eccentric habits. Owing to his irregular conduct of late a three months' notice to leave was given at the commencement of the session, which afterwards was reduced to a month. Mr. Buxton desired him to attend at his residence in Grosvenor-crescent yesterday morning at 9.30, when he was slightly reproved for not waiting for Mr. Buxton on Tuesday, and for not sending some papers by post. To this he made no answer. Mr. Buxton then said he required the direction of Colonel -, and asked his secretary to procure for him the Army List from another apartment. To this request at first White made no reply, but afterwards said, in a sullen manner, that he was going to fetch it. Mr. Buxton felt annoyed at the man's conduct, and told him he had better leave the house. White remained silent, and then said, " You want the `Army List,' do you ?" and then he left the study to fetch it. On returning, his conduct became still more remarkable, and Mr. Buxton again reproved him for the manner in which he was behaving, observing that although he wished him to leave his service, he was willing to assist him in every way, and to procure for him another situation. To this White said, "I do not believe a word of it," and then leaned over the table, and gave a ferocious scowl at his master. Thinking that, the man merely meant to assault him, and feeling that be was the more powerful of the two, Mr. Buxton remained sitting, and White then proceeded to his usual place at the table. Mr. Buxton again told him he had better leave the house, and was walking out of the study when he heard the report of firearms, and turning round he saw White standing looking at him, with a revolver pointing towards him. Mr. Buxton instantly threw himself on the floor of the room behind the table, when White coolly said " Are you wounded, sir ?" Mr. Buxton then rushed at his assailant, when White ran out of the room, opened the street door, hailed a hansom cab, and in a moment or so was out of sight. Mr. Buxton followed to the door but the man had then gone. The mark of the bullet was found on the wall directly over the place where Mr. Buxton was standing at the time the pistol was fired, and the bullet was picked up in the middle of the room. White is still at large, and the belief is that he is insane. Information was immediately given to the authorities at Scotland-yard, and Colonel Henderson directed Inspector Tay and Sergeant Davy to take every means for securing the would-be murderer.
The Sun. — 1870-11-09 (London, England)

THE MURDER NEAR WARRINGTON. The Warrington Guardian says that Mr. John Forest, the collector who was so brutally attacked on his way home to Sankey on Thursday evening by some unknown person or persons, and robbed of his purse, has died from the injuries he then received. The d.eceased never recovered consciousness from the time the injury was inflicted, and died at twelve o'clock on Monday. At present the matter is involved in the greatest mystery, as the deceased was never able to give any account of the transaction, and all efforts made by the police to clear the matter have been unavailing. _ _  THE EARTHQUAKE IN AMlCRlCA.—Professor Hough, of the Dudley Observatory, Albany, reports as follows:—"The shock of an earthquake was felt here at 11.15 a.m, Oct. 20, and lasted about one minute. The walls of the building had a very marked vibration ; open doors were made to vibrate ; objects hanging on the walls were put in oscillation, and even tables and chairs on the ground floor, had a sensible.tremour. At. the time of the shock a rumbling noise was heard. . The clock pendulums swinging north and south were made to vibrate east and west, shewing that the earthquake pasied in an eastward direction. Since 9 a.m. of yesterday the barometer has been falling rapidly, the total fall =bunting to seventenths of an inch. During the shock the mercury in the registering barometer was in a violent state of agitation." A Boston reporter gives an account of the earthquake as felt in that city, and says :—" The Flynt dress making case was in progress in the Superior Court-room, and the reporters at first accused each other of joggling the table, and then resumed their writing. The shaking continuing, they looked at each other's legs under the table very suspiciously, and again turned their attention to their pencils. The vibration not yet ceasing, they made a third investigation, when one remarked, 'lt is an earthquake.' Simultaneously all the people in court rose to their feet, and some 20 or 30 left the room." Many persons felt a sensation as of sea sickness. Accounts have been gathered from all parts of New York. "It seemed to me," said an imaginative individual, " that an elephant must have been scratching himself against the foundationof my house." " I was taking a drink," said another, " and had the contents of my glass sent down my throat quicker a good deal than I liked, though I confess I have no objection to whisky." Two or three physical incidents of note preceded the earthquake at short intervals. There were, in the first place, within a few clays, unusually brilliant displays of the aurora borealis. Just prior to this, extraordinary freshets inundated the middle belt of States. The great Cuban hurricane clune before the earthquake by not many hours, and, finally, a great gale raged on the Atlantic coast on the night immediately preceding. The morning of the 20th had a sultry atmosphere in New York, oppressive both to man and beast.
The Sun. — 1870-10-12 (London, England)

ATTENTIVE RELATIVES.  There can be little doubt that it would be a great charity to establish an institution to serve as a refuge for elderly people in weak health who have a small competence of their own, and are accordingly subjected to every kind of torture which the ingenuity of attentive relations can inflict upon them. Relations, as a rule, never trouble themselves about the existence of any member of their family if he is an utterly penniless pauper, because the sight of his distress is too painful for them to see; but their hearts are really so warm by nature that a very slight spark will suffice to kindle the flame of affection within their bosoms. It is not only the sickly millionaire but even the poor old worn-out Chelsea pensioner, who is followed to the grave by an officious crowd of loving relatives. Major-General Hutt, in his evidence before the Committee on Chelsea and Kilmainham Hospitals, which appears in their report just issued, speaking of the pensioners in Chelsea Hospital whom it would be impossible to remove, says there are now eighty-seven in the infirmary, some of them perfectly paralysed and otherwise disabled. General Hutt says : —" When men of this class have got pensions they are preyed upon by their relatives. Many a man comes into the hospital to seek refuge from his relations. A man came to me, and begged to be taken into the hospital. I said to him, You have got a good pension.' He said, 'Pray ake me in, and do not let anything which you hear prevent me from being taken in.' I said, It rests entirely with you.' A day or two afterwards I got half-a-dozen letters about this man, from people calling themselves his relatives, and they said that they were broken-hearted at this poor old man coming to the . hospital, and that it was the freak of the moment, that he had had a quarrel. I sent to him and he said; For God's sake, sir, take me in,' and he was accordingly taken in. It is only a few weeks ago that a poor old man of eighty years of age dragged his limbs from Hampshire and begged to be taken in. His antecedents were very g.ood. I said to him, Certainly you shall come in. We cannot take you in at this moment, because there are some days to run before your out-pension expires.' I gave him a few shillings, and sent him to the workhouse until he should come in ; but two or three days afterwards some of his relatives came and dragged him back again, and he never came in." It is wonderful that, when so much tenderness can be purchased for a few sixpences, so little of it is given away gratuitously.—. Pall Mall Gazette.  Mrs. Cope, of Castledermot, who was nearly murdered the other day by her rejected suitor, is recovering, although her wounds were of a frightful description.
The Sun. — 1870-05-14 (London, England)

THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF MR. BUXTON, M.P.  BOW-STREET.-(THIS DAY.)  To-day Alfred Shelley White, aged 27, was brought before Mr. Flowers, under a warrant issued under the Extradition Treaty, charged with feloniously shoDting at Mr. Charles Buxton, M.l'., on the 19th of April last, with intent to murder him. The prisoner, when placed in the dock, appeared in an excessively nervous state, and, from his vacant and dejected appearance, he seemed to be a person of unsound mind.  Inspector Druscovitcb, of the detective department of the police, said the prisoner was given into his custody at the Prefecture of Police, and on being asked his name said it was Alfred Shelley. He (witness) showed his warrant, and also told him he was a detective police officer, and that he was about to convey him to London upon the authority of the warrant he held, in which he was charged with attempting to murder bis late employer, Mr. Charles Buxton, M.P. The only reply the prisoner made was " Yes," When the prisoner •was arrested a revolver was found upon him, and on a further search four bullets, fitting the chamber of the weapon, were found wrapped up in paper in one of his pockets. The pistol and bullets were shown to him, and when asked some questions relative to them, said they belonged to him, and be had signed a declaration to that effect.  William Gamble, a footman in the service of Mr. Charles Buxton, said the prisoner was, up to the day on which the attempt was made, in the employ of that gentleman as secretary. Inspector Druscovitch said be did not intend to offer any further evidence on that occasion than that which was absolutely necessary to justify a remand. The prisoner, on being asked by the magistrate, declined to say anything in answer to the charge. The Magistrate then formally remanded the prisoner, and he was removed from the bar. During the short examination he appeared to be in a wandering, dreamy state, and totally indifferent to the proceedings.  Mr. Fechter's return from America is daily expected. His career has been successful, as he has entered into an engagement to go back again in the autumn.  Bell's Life hears that, o❑ account of the continued illness of Mr H ene, his entire stud of horses in training, including Bismark, Acorn, Hawthornden, and some highly bred two year olds, will be sold without reserve at Albert Gate on the Thursday before the Derby.  Mr. E. M. Ward's picture of " Judge Jefferys aud. Richard Baxter." and Mr. Fri,h's picture of Mrs. liousby as Princess Elizabeth, in "'Twist A is and Crown," have been purchased by Mr. Brooke, of Kenwood Tower, Highgate. The sum paid for the first was £1,500, and 350 guineas for the second.  Renforth, the champion sculler, offers to row any man in the world on the Tyne, and beat him by six lengths at the finish, for £2OO a side.  Last night a serious fire broke out in the Metropolitan Steam Saw Mills, Borough-road. The engines were set to work, but the whole of the mills were destroyed, and the factory nearly gutted. Some houses in the neighbourhood were also much burnt,
The Sun. — 1870-02-03 (London, England)

NOMINATION DAY AT MALLOW.  The Irish generally save us all trouble in estimating the value of the wisdom.propounded in their nomination speeches. Most commonly there is such an uproar that it is well if the reporters can treasure up the candidates' orations for the use of posterity. At Mallow the town was pretty quiet, but, to make amends for this discredit to Irish politics, " the Court-house was crammed with a mob armed with bludgeons, and including. a considerable number of women, who contributed more than their fair share to the general uproar." Mr. Munster's supporters had a decided majority amongst the mob, and consequently neither Major Knox, nor his proposer nor seconder, could obtain a hearing. He gallantly vowed that he would stand until morning rather than succumb to clamour. For a lone time Mr. Munster appealed in vain on behalf of his opponent, who at length was allowed to utter a few sentences, the burden of which was that he (Major Knox) was au Irishman, whilst Mr. Munster laboured under the insuperable disadvantage of being an Englishman. Mr. Munster was constrained to admit this afflicting disqualification, "but tie believed that to be an advantage to him and to the borough, for the relation of the intolerable injustice under which the Irish tenant laboured would have more weight coming from an Englishman than from an Irishman." Whether English or Irish, Liberal or Conservative, both candidates were lavish in their promises. They ()tiered everything that the mob could wish—release of the Fenian prisoners, the " rights " of farmers and labourers, and the rest of it. All of -which probeedings furnish one more instinctive comment on the blessings of nomination day. Can anything for instance, be neater than to procure a mob " armed with bludgeons" to drown the voice of your antagonist, and then charitably appeal to the tender mercies of the crowd for a bearing ? The Times publishes a letter which gives us a liyely picture of life in the North of Ireland in this very highly civilised generation. It could hardly be paralleled, except in some white habitation in a district of savages. The writer describes what he saw returning from a ball in passing the dwelling of a gentleman whose life had been threatened. This gentleman—a landowner—had once been shot at while in his carriage. His coachman was killed instead of himself. "In consequence of this (says the writer of the letter), his house was now garrisoned by a dozen constabulary, and is barricaded from top to bottom. I happened to come across the old gentleman going out for a constitutional, and a pretty sight it was in a civilised land. First came a brace of policemen armed with carbines, who kept a sharp look out round all the hedges and other places that might hide a murderer in them. At a distance of some twenty yards or so came the old gentleman and his son, each with a double-barrelled gun over his shoulder, and flanked by other policemen, with two more in the rear. Nobody dared to stop at his house for the ball, lest they should be shot at in passing to and fro." Truly an exciting place for lovers of adventure.
The Sun. — 1870-06-06 (London, England)

CHIEF BARON. A civil action is an action for redress ; the chief object of criminal proceedings is to punish. It rarely happens, indeed, that any redress for crimes can be obtained. Hanging does not compensate the victim of a murder. The property taken in robberies is frequently lost beyond recovery. In these cases the sole mission of the law is to administer punishment to the offender and thereby terrify other evil-doers. A petition for dissolution of marriage does not partake of this nature. Its primary object is, as in any ordinary civil case, redress. It is to relieve the petitioner of the burden of a wife or husband who is not worthy of the trust reposed in them, to guard against imposing spurious issue on the husband, to give the innocent party the chance of enjoying the domestic happiness of which they have been robbed. It is true that severe punishment to the offender is involved in securing this redress to the offended. But it is involved only as an accident. It is not the primary object ; and, indeed, had punishment only been in contemplation, the divorce law would have remained unaltered. The court might, in case of insanity, take special precautions against miscarriage of justice ; for instance, it might insist that in all cases of insanity the suit should take the form of a specific charge against some corespondent, thus debarring general plaints of bad conduct, and bringing in, as it were; some defendant to represent the insane person. Stricter conditions of proof should be required. In short, the law directs that the court should "satisfy itself "on all the matters concerning which the Act provides; and if it cannot so satisfy itself without the evidence of the wife, the simple remedy is to suspend the suit. The whole case should be put before the court, and its decision should give full weight to the consideration that the wife cannot appear. This seems a preferable course to arbitrarily staying the proceedings. On the whole, the balance of argument rests in favour of the single judge.  Two years ago the Derby was witnessed by a young marquis who had been compelled to sell one after another of his ancestral estates, and who hoped to retrieve his fortunes by a tardy success. Another disappointment, further disasters awaited him, and a little later he lay dead, worn out in less than five and twenty years. A year later it was a duke whose losses were the theme of every gossip. He bore an honoured name—a name associated with statesmanship and philanthropy. But the Duke of NEWCASTLE had turned his back upon the path which his father had taken— had chosen a path of his own, the path of pleasure, the path of ruin. He is not dead but he is a bankrupt, and is self banished from his own country. A bankrupt duke—that is a new thing ; but before we have had time to get accustomed to it we have had the spectacle of a bankrupt viscount. As the Derby of 1868 had its Marquis • of HASTINGS, and the Derby of 1869, its Duke of NEWCASTLE, so the Derby of 1870, has had its Viscount
The Sun. — 1870-04-05 (London, England)

BAD.—The Daily News says that a practical joke of a harmless kind has been played off in Wales. It being known that the bishopric recently vacant would probably be filled up by the appointment of a Welsh clergyman able to hold an ordination in his native tongue, every local Boanerges, from Holyhead to Cardiff, became at once agape. And no doubt, if the ability to take a conspicuous part at an Eisteddfod were all that was wanted in a Welsh bishop, many of these gentlemen had a very good claim. Some of them, however, who were indiscreet enough to express their disappointment at the fact that the piece of preferment in question had not been awarded as they themselves could have desired, have received by postd a lawn pocket-handkerchief, with a deep mourning borer, and in each corner a bishop's mitre reversed, with the motto. " Paradise Lost." encircling it. A Bristol paper says that a variety or rumours are current respecting the petition against the return of Mr. Robinson. One is to the effect that the effort to obtain evidence has proved so fruitless that a 21,000 cheque, given by " a lady," as the secnrity, and now held by a prominent mover in the matter, is to be returned forthwith, and the proceedings abando id Another is to the effect that a section of the party loos upon the movement so coldly that it has been deemed desirable not to proceed. The Freeman's Journal says that a crucial test is preparing for all parties with reference to the Land Bill, which will at least develops the animus of the Government„ if it do nothing else. Having refused to extend the Ulster custom to the rest of Ireland, the Government will be asked to allow such Irish gentlemen as may desire it to create a parliamentary tenant-right, such as that suggested by Mr. Gregory in his speech on the second reading, and embodied in amendments by Sir John Gray in some of the notices already published. James Lowe, a convict at Melbourne, has confessed to a murder committed at Bridgnorth 27 years ago. He informed a fellow convict that he shot Wiggins, and threw the gun into the hole under the shearing bush in the river Severn. He was arrested for the offence at the time, and committed to gaol, but escaped at the time. In communicating these circumstances to the Police authorities at Whitehall, the Chief Commissioner at Melbourne asks to be informed whether the evidence now available renders it expedient to proceed against the alleged offender. The Echo says it is generally reported that when Lerd Clarendon appears for examination as a witness before the Diplomatic and Consular Services Committee, he will be pressed with the question which was put to Mr. Hammond as to the disposal by the Foreign Office of the Secret Service Money. "Ifhe is asked whether any portion of it is expended in pensions, we do not see how he can be thoroug,+dy justified in refusing to give an answer. NATa believe that a portion of the money is spent in this way, and there is an obvious impropriety and no bcmfil iiitAteyer in allowing such patronage to be secret,"
The Sun. — 1870-08-29 (London, England)

BEFORE AND AFTER THE WAR.  Let us transfer ourselves for a moment to the extreme frontier of France, on the little river Saar, and close to the main line of operations selected by the French and Prussian armies. "We will put the date at the 16th of July, or less than one brief month'ago. We are at the inn door of the small town of Sarragttemines, looking out beyond the slender stream that separates us from Prussian soil. The Saar winds placidly between its low, flat banks, and " disappears gracefully," says the French correspondent,whose eyes we borrow for the occasion, "behind a screen of poplars." On the other side is a neat little cottage home, with white curtains and yellow blinds at the windows, and in the tiny garden that slopes down to the river side a peasant saunters quietly, pipe in mouth, caressing his dog, who gambols beside him. Peeping over the green top of a gentle acclivity is the sharp spire of a small village church. Near by is a wide field of waving grain, and on the rustic road that descends to the edge of the Saar is a hay waggon of quaint construction, drawn lazily by four sleek oxen. The driver, in a blouse and pantaloons of coarse linen, his brows screened with a straw hat, lazily swings his axgoad and hums a country song of the ,Fatherland. Suddenly the scene is enlivened by a group of chubby, flaxenhaired children, who emerge from the cottage and clatter down the garden walk, the youngest clinging to the hand of an elder sister, herself not six years old. A grim Zouave who is near us on the French bank leans against the vine-covered doorpost of the inn where we are standing, and involuntarily smiles as lie looks out upon this pastoral little piotuie in an enemy's country. An enemy? Poor little home•on the verdant slope on the farther bank - does it shelter enemies? And those humble peasants, all uncon' scions of the wrong that even now holds murder and ruin over their heads ; those playful children, laughing in the sunshine, are they also to be 010 victims of the infernal orgie which madmen call "glorious war?" Even so. Beind yon green meadows and poplars and waving grain fields lies the gathering might of an indignant nation, while here are concentrating the martial terrors of an empire famous for its fearful energy in warfare. A few days more and all this peaceful scene will have disappeared ; these banks will be stained with human blood ; fire and havoc will have scattered for ever that humble home and its helpless occupants—the peasant and his little ones—and all that makes the domestic groupt at which we now gaze so charming, even in their unpretending humbleness, to the true heart. Yet this is no mere fancy sketch. Such is an accurate portrayal; although feebly given, of just.the scenes that were witnessed, only the other day, along the streams and in the' smiling- valleys that unite, not separate, the " fair land of France and thrifty, hardworking Rhenish Prussia and Bavaria.—New York Herald of August the 13th.