The Express. — 1853-01-11 (London, England)

SINGULAR CASE OF ROBBERY.—On Saturday, information was given, with a description of Joseph Rogers, a miller, who had absconded from Whitehaven, charged with stealing a cash box containing upwards of 901. Ile is a native of Egremont, in Cumberland, and on New Year'seve was seen in a small plantation near that place looking anxiously about him, but, finding that he was observed, he made a precipitate retreat, and the spat where he had been standing being approached and examined, it was discovered that in his haste he had dropped between 501. and 601. in gold and silver. _ _ _  SUICIDE IN MILLBANK PRlSON.—Yesterday Mr. Bedford held an inquest in Millbank Prison on the body of Thomas Wilkinson, aged 20, • convict under sentence of transportation, who committed suicide by nearly severing his head from his body with a razor. The deceased, described as a cloth-dresser, was, on the 12th of July, 1651, convicted of robbery and wounding, and sentenced to 20 years' transportation at the York Assizes, pursuantto which sentence, oa the 25th of August last, he was received into the above prison, apparently in good health. After being there two months, being ill, he was removed to the Infirmary, where in a short time recovering, he was transferred back to the prison, and placed in separate confinement, to follow the trade of a tailor, of which he had some previous knowledge. He never appeared desponding, or intimated by his demeanour that he meditated selfelestruction. On Saturday last, Warder Thomas Roach gave him into his cell some shaving tackle, which he left with him while he proceeded along the passage, when on returning he found the cell door shut, and on looking through the signal hole discovered blood on the fluor and table. Immediately calling the religions instructor, Mr. Postance, who happened to be passing at the time, they entered together, when deceased was discovered lying on the floor with his head nearly severed from his body, the frightful wound which was exposed having been inflicted by the razor given him to shave with, and which lay open by his aide clotted with blood. Mr. Itendle, the resident surgeon, followed by Dr. Bailey, physician of the prison, were in immediate attendance, and pronounced life to be extinct. In answer to the coroner, Dr. Bailey said that he considered the act of suicide by deceased was induced by the impression on his mind of kis length of sentence, and the separate confinement he underwent. It was a question he would rather not give an opinion. upon, but leave it to the legislature as to the abandonment or not of the silent and separate system. It was impossible for him to say, but he thought it probable that the solitary system of punishment deceased had undergone had affected his mind. Captain Groves observed that ho would express what he formerly had done, which was that separate and solitary confinement, however mitigated, was injurious to body and mind, although he was not an advocate for making prisons pleasant places. The Coroner having summed up, and remarked that the system of classification and separation was one of vast public vital importance, the jury, after a few minutes consideration, returned the following epecialverdict: " That the deceased, Thomas Wilkinson, destroyed himself by cutting his throat with a razor while in a state of temporary insanity, produced by separate confinement."