The Press. — 1857-12-19 (London, England)

JACKSON AND ATWELL, AND MRS. JACKSON, engaged in the robbery of Lady Ellesmere's jewels, were tried at the Old Bailey on Tuesday. Jackson was convicted, and sentenced to ten years' penal servitude. Atwell, in consideration of the valuable information he bad given relative to the robbery, was sentenced only to receive an additional six months' imprisonment. Mrs. Jackson was acquitted on the ground of having acted under the compulsion of her husband.  UPON the application of Mr. Bodkin, the Recorder on Tuesday issued a warrant for the apprehension e Mr. E. A. Glover, the late member for Beverley, on a charge of having make a false declaration to the House of Commons as to his qualification to sit in that house. The Morning Star thinks that "it would be a curious subject of inquiry to ascertain how many hon. gentlemen now sitting and voting in the house might be placed in a similar position." Two HORRIBLE CASES ,F MURDER AND SUICIDE have been brought to light this week. The first, which occurred on Thursday week at Croydon, acid was inquired into on Tuesday before Mr. Carter, the Surrey coroner, arose from that "lust for gold" which drives so many men to misery and death. It appeared from the evidence that Mr. William Smithers, a clerk in the Bank of England. resided with his mother and a younger brother at Tbornton•heath, near Croydon. William, contrary to all the rules of the Bank of England, bad been speculating freely on the Stock Exchange, and had been unsuccessful. He had borrowed 701. of a friend, which he was unable to pay ; he had appropriated to his own use 201. which his mother had intrusted to him to pay some accounts, and from letters which have been found it seems that he was about assigning some life policies as security for his engagements. The mental depression produced by his unsuccessful speculations drove him to drink, and that only maddened his overexcited brain. On the morning of Thursday, Mrs. Smithers knocked at the door of Elizabeth Morgan, a servant residing in the house, and desired her to get up, as she heard Mr. William moving, and supposed he might be wanting to go out. It was *ben a little utter tivo o'clock. At that  1227  time lie was in Charles's bedroom, which was adjacent to that of Mrs. Smithers. As soon as she had dressed horself, William called to the servant, and requested her to bring him a wineglass, as he had got some medicine for hi, mother. Oa receiving the glass, he went back again into Charles's room. When she had prepared breakfast, she went upstairs to see whether the gentlemen were coming down. She knocked at the door, and receiving no answer, listened, when she heard one of them snoring. She went downstairs again, thinking she would let theta sleep on. About nine o'clock a lad brought a letter, which he said was to be given to Mr. William Smithers at once, and . Elizabeth Morgan took it up. Not being able to obtain any reply to repeated knocks, she opened the door, when both the young men appeared as though . they were lying dead in bed. Charles was foaming at the mouth. She asked a young woman residing in the next house to accompany her upstairs, and upon entering the room they found that both the young men • were dead. Morgan then exclaimed, " Good God, Anne, here is a poison bottle, and the wineglass I gave Mr. William this morning." They wore lying on the bed, between the two brothers., Morgan then went into her mistress's bedroom, and found her in a ball-sitting posture, her head resting against the bedpost. She was quite dead. Mr. Bottomley, who was called in, at once decided that the two brothers had died from the effects of prussio acid, and there could be no doubt that William administered a dose to his brother, probably in his sleep, and that he then took the poison himself. It appeared also, from the results of a post-mortem examination, that his mother, who was in the habit of taking medicine of a morning, had also taken a dose of prussic acid which had caused her death. The jury deliberated for an hour, when the following verdict was returned :—" That Mary Smithers and Charles Smithers were wilfully murdered by the administration of poison by William Holton Smithers, and that William Holton Smithers afterwards committed self-destruction while suffering under temporary mental derangement." The second cas's to which we allude was that of a man and womar temporarily residing at Harper's Coffee-shop, in. Dram- .J-street, Euston square. These peopl. ,•om Dover on 25th November, and stopped at the Penton Hotel ; from thence, on the 3rd inst., after paying their bill, they removed to Harper's Coffee-house, in Drummond-street, Euston-square. From that date to last Sunday they had lived at this coffee-house without paying their bill. On that day Mr. Harper asked for payment just as his lodgers were going out. They returned to their room, and nothing more was heard of them till, on the door being broken open at night, both man and woman were found lying one over the other on the floor with their throats cut. From the bloodstains on the towel, and the basin full of blood, it is clear that the man cut the throat of the woman first, held her over the basin, deliberately wiped the razor, and then, kneeling down over her dead body, nearly severed his own bead from his body. An inquiry is pending, but from en examination of the bodies of each, and of a discovery of a peculiar nature on the man, it is believed that jealousy, and a fear of parting with the woman under their necessities, I induced him to murder her.