Blandford, Wimborne and Poole Telegram. — 1877-10-12 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

OOO. The following letter aprears in the Daily Telegraph:— "As the sister of the girl Clara Brown, so much abused by many of your correspondents, kindly allow me to say that never before riy sister entered the service of Mrs. Staunton was she found out to be untruthful. On the contrary, she was very highly praised by the superintendent of the school she attended before she went to Mrs. Staunton's. If you will kindly publish this letter you will relieve toy mind much, as it is hard to see one's sister abused without having means of denying the accusations made against her.—Yours respectfully, MARTHA Mums. Pi, Brighton-road, Dalston, Oct. 4." The Bedfordskire Times says :—" It has been stated that the deceased Harriett Staunton was a niece of Lord Rivers. The late Lady Rivers was originally of very humble birth. Her father was a fisherman at Brighton, and she being remarkably light-headed, and remarkably fond of pleasure and gaiety, came to grief. She then appeared in town, where, as " Nelly Holmes" she was what is called "successful" in her career, and, strange to say, kept free from intemperate habits. She thus saved a goodly sum of money, and, being of a generous disposition she was not backward at even lending a little to a favourite lover in pecuniary distress. One of her favourite. —" Handsome Horace Pitt," to wit—was almost always in , this position, and Mistress Nelly relieved his needs till ultimately Horace stood her debtor to the tune of £2,000. Of course, he could not pay her—poor Horace could never pay anybody; but when his fair creditor began to dun him, he hit on an ingenious expedient for squaring 'accounts. He offered to marry her, and after a little hesitation she accepted her debtor's hand. Thus were the two united, Nelly knowing absolutely nothing of her husbands prospects. As matters turned out, to everybody's surprise, Horace Pitt fell heir to the earldom of Rivers, and poor Nelly Holmes suddenly found herself a real live countess. She never forgot her poor friends, however ; and, having her money carefully settled on herself, she provided for her sister's child, the poor creature who has met with such a shocking death at Pence" The announcement to the two male convicts that they have only seven or eight more ila, s to live does not appear to have wrought any material effect upon their minds. they continue to read the whole day through, with the exception of the customary intervals for meals and for seperate exercise in the small yard near their cells allotted to the use of prisoners undergoing solitary confinement. It is a very small enclosure, and the exercise consists in walking round and round until the hour has expired. It opens into the debtors' yard, hut the hours are so arranged that but one of these enclosures is occupied at a time. Every morning _the male convicts are visited by the governor or deputy-governor, the surgeon, and the priest. They answer freely the questions put to them. They maintain good appetites, and look altogether better in health. Mrs. Patrick Staunton and Alice Rhodes also employ their time principally in reading, and the latter sews occasionally. The number of tracts and pamphlets addressed to the convicts has decreased considerably since the intimation that they were withheld from them, but the governor of the prison has been lectured in anonymous communications for the action which he hasithought well to take in the matter. He has also received post cards of various kinds. Meanvfhile the agitation for a commutation of the sentence goes on. Extracts from the daily and medical Press, in type of various sines, are posted prominently upon the walls, or left at the doors of the inhabitants. At the commence• ment of the week an advertisement announced that a public meeting would shortly be held in the borough, but hitherto the promoters have contented themselves with issuing placards asking "whether Maidstone is to be disgraced by the execution of four persons whose guilt has not been satisfactorily .proved." The petition in the principal street has received 70 signatures. Among the other towns where a similar movement is on foot, petitions urging a commutation of the sentence on the convicts are being exhibited in Brighton, with which place, it is understood, the unfortunate woman Harriet Staunton was connected by family ties. The petitions, which lay stress on an alleged absence of incentive to murder, and on the character of the evidence given by Clara Brown, suggest that on the whole the guilt of the convicts is too problematical to justify the carrying out of the capital sentence. As yet they have not met with any considerable support.