The Sun. — 1868-09-18 (London, England)

THE CHARGE OF MURDER AGAINST A LIFEGUARDSMAN.-011 Wednesday, Richard Robins, a trooper in the Ist Life Guards, was brought up on remand before the magistrates at the Town Hall, Northampton, charged with the murder of Eliza Shield. The deceased had been on intimate terms with the prisoner, and was enciente by him. At a little before two on Sunday morning, the 6th inst., they were seen talking together, and shortly afterwards screams were heard by the riverside. A man named Gurley saw the poor girl struggling in the water, but he appears to have made no effort to save her beyond sending for a policeman, and by the time she was got out she was dead. Evidence was given on Wednesday that entirely exculpated Robins, clearly proving that the deceased had committed suicide. She had recently been frequently heard to declare that she would destroy herself, and on the 12th of July she wrote to the prisoner to the effect that " if he as well as her friends turned against her she would soon leave this world of misery and trouble." It was also proved that Robins was in bed at tho time of her death, and the magistrates eventually ordered the prisoner to be discharged.  The paraffin accident on the Queenstown Direct Railway is described at length in the latest editions of the Cork papers :—The Reporter says :—" The injured men, whose names are Buckley, Hayes, and Sullivan, were employed as lodgemen on the line. They are unmarried, and were from the neighbourhood of Carriglowhill, Glanmire, and Cork. They were at work on timber piles, and for the purpose, it being then a dark night, were provided with large tin lamps, which they were in the act of replenishing from a large cask of naphtha, containing about 36 gallons, which was partly open, when a spark from a torch carried by one of them flew into the barrel and caused the explosion. The naphtha blazed up in an instant, and enveloped the unfortunate men in a sheet of flame before they had time to retreat. They attempted to run away, but were so burned and stunned that they fell down before they had proceeded many steps. Mr. O'Regan, the station-master, came out, and seeing Hayes with his clothes still burning near the lines opposite the platform, brought out a pitcher of water and threw it over him for the purpose of extinguishing the flames. The two other men were lying near the finger-post. The station-master, with the assistance of one of the porters, succeeded in bringing them into the waiting-room, and with all haste telegraphed to Mr. M'Ardle, the stationmaster at Queenstown, who sent down Dr. Bricknell. Upon examination they were found to have been most severely burnt all over the front of the body, the skin being almost completely burned off the hands and the hair singed. The priests were sent for, and remained with them until morning. Mr. Collard, district superintendent, and Mr. Fennessy, traffic superintendent, arrived by the twelve o'clock train from Cork. Dr. Tanner and Dr. Townsend were also called in, and the medical gentlemen and those left in charge have been most attentive to the unfortunate sufferers, whose condition was so critical that it was not deemed advisable to permit them to be conveyed to the hospital ; indeed, very little hope is entertained of their recovery. They are at present lying in the waiting-room and one of the station master's apartments. The barrel stood three or four yards from the platform, and so large must bave been the flame from the ignited oil that about 15 large baulks of timber which lay near it were all scorched from one end to the other. It appears to us to have been au incautious thing to have placed a large barrel containing a quantity of explosive stuff, partly open, and thereby more likely to catch fire, in such close proximity to a station-house, which was at the time inhabited, and near which men were at work. We do not mean to attach blame to any particular parties. The deplorable occurrence was certainly mainly attributable to the incautiousness of the man who held the torch, who must have gone too near the barrel, or, perhaps, stood with his back to the wind, so that the torch was blown towards the aperture."