The Weymouth, Portland and Dorchester Telegram. — 1878-07-19 (Weymouth, Dorset, England)

PRIVATE DETECTIVES. Sir Thomas Chambers' the learned Recorder of the City of London, was on Wednesday occupied, in the Lord Mayor's Court, with a very curious case. The plaintiffs, Messrs. Forrester and Death, sued the defendant, Mr. Von Meyern, for a sum of forty-three pounds for services rendered. Mr. Von Meyern, had been divorced from his wife, and a sum of two thousand pounds had been settled on the lady by order of the Divorce Court, which would, however, revert to her husb.nd should she be guilty of misconduct. He accordingly, having his suspicions as to her mode of life, employed Messrs. Forrester and Death to watch her, and paid them on account the sum of forty pounds. The case, it appears, was at first entrusted to Mr. Death himself, who, under instructions from Mr. Greenop, the defendant's solicitor, watched Mrs. Von Meyern himself for a few days, and then employed a man named William Robinson to do so. The sum charged Mr. Von Meyern was a guinea a day by way of retainer, together with all expenses out of pocket. Robinson was paid something like two or three halfcrowns for each day's work, the firm of Forrester and Death, it is to be presumed, retaining the difference. Mr. Robins tn, however, was not up to his work, and sent in reports which although they were exactly what Mr. Van Meyern expected to hear, yet proved to be ' Aher inaccurate. He stated, amongst other atravo.. -•- - •• • e things, that h. haa sea Mr, Von 1.4.# • rn, in the • company of a gentleman, enter a certain honstllii tild Harrow-road and another in Werrington-street. It turns out, nevertheless, on inquiry, that the house in the Harrow-road is in the occupation of the Charity Organisation Society ; that is not a private hotel in any form or shape ; that its character is above suspicion • and that Mrs. Von Meyern, as is sworn by the housekeeper, has never visited it either alone or accompained by any one else. Similar evidence was given with regard to the house in Werrington-street ; and Mr. Wallii, Mrs. Von Meyem's brother, who was in her company during the major portion of the day when she was said by the spy to have been seen elsewhere, was able to swear most positively that the account given by Robinson of her doings was altogether inaccurate, and that she had been to no one of the places to which he said he had followed her. After a little more evidence of the kind, the learned Recorder expressed his opinion that there was literally no case in behalf of the plaintiffs, and, accordingly, the claim of forty-three pounds against Mr. Von Meyern was disallowed, while, by way of counter-claim, the plaintiffs were ordered to refund to him no less than twenty-five pounds put of the forty pounds he had already paid them, the jury strongly intimating their opinion that the whole of the reports furnished by Mr. Robinson were altogether untrue.  -A remarkable trial for murder took place a few days ago, before Mr. Justice Grove, at the Hampshire Summer Assizes. The circumstances connected with the charge were peculiar, and were most perplexing. The accused waq a labourer named John Warrington, aged 58, living at Eastney, and for twenty-one years in the Royal Marine Artillery, in which corps he bore an excellent character. He was charged with the murder of his wife Jane, at Portsea, on the 2nd of June. The deceased was evidently a most disreputable character, generally, as a witness at the trial stated, three-parts drunk, and had not alone frequently threatened to commit suicide, hut had on two or three occasions actually attempted to destroy herself. On Sunday, the 2nd of June, Warrington and his wife were at a public-house. the Highland House, at Esstney, kept by one Thomas Simpson. A little squabble—not at all unusual with the deceased—occurred there between Warrington and the murdered woman, but they subsequently left for their home. A short time afterwards Warrington was seen rushing out of his cottags, covered with blood, and calling for help. S!veral persons at the trial deposed that the .deceased was found seated on a chair in the cottage, with her throat completely cut across and quite dead. One witness stated that Wm rington told him his wife had cut her throat, and, after doing so, had said to him, "Now I have done it." Medical experts were called in to examine the wound, with a view to ascertain whether it was of such a nature as to indicate suicide or homicide. The force used in inflicting this must have been very great, for all the larger arteries and veins were cut, and the knife was proved to have notched the vertebrm to the depth of a quarter of an inch. The statement of the prisoner that deceased had spoken after cutting her throat is not credible, for, the muscles of the neck and chest being severed, such a thing is clearly impossible. The evidence was, however, circumstantial. In view of the good character of the accused and the declaration often made by the deceased that she would "do for herself some day," the public will approve of the verdict of not guilty which the jury, after a careful hearing, brought in.  accidentally 11).(ibury. a lady living at Itowington, was Wednesday mornit.q. Her horse shied at some bicycles, and threw her on to ..104 road. 1011 ed when driving to Birmingham on A fire broke out L. 4., Southampton on Saturday evening on the. premises of Messrs. Lawrence and Co., ship chandlers, situated near the 44.14 y. The large warehouse and all its contents, valued to seven thousand pounds, were totally destroyed. On Saturday, at Maidator_e assizes, Charles Brown, who was found guilty of the manslaughter of his child, was sentenced by Baron Cleastby to twelve years' penal servitude. _ _ _ _  In several parishes in Surrey the parochial officials have allowed the inmates of the workhouse to go out and work in the hayfields, and retain the proceed of their labour; and in some parishes the weekly allowances to the poor have not been stopped during the haymiking season, as hitherto. _ _  A memorandum presented to the Berlit Congress by the Poles recapitulates the chief instances of the political and religious persecution of the Poles in Russla, which, it says, "show that during the last 14 years tht object of Russian government in Poland has been nothingless than to exterminate and annihilate the entire nation." _  A shocking murder is reported from S'ieffitld. A farmer named Waterhouse, liviug at a village fumed Worrell, went to Sheffield on Thursday night to get a cheque cashed. On his way home at night he stopped at a wayside inn, where he incautiously showed his twmey. He was not afterwards seen alive. Friday morning his dead body was found in a secluded spot, with shocking