The Bee-Hive. — 1872-11-02 (London, England)

THE LICENSING ACT.  Colonel Henderson has received a deputation of the licensed vietuallers from the Strand district, introduced by Ur. Douglas Straight, M.P., to represent the insufficiency of the accommodation t for playgoers and theatrical employes. Mr. Straight cited figures to show that the accommodation allowed at present by special licence after midnght was altogether inadequate to the need of furnishing refreshment for the 28,000 persons who were nightly either spectators or employes of the theatres; and he asked either that accommodation should be indeased, or that there should be no special licences at all. The Commissioner of Police, in reply, pointed out that the public had not appealed to him in the matter, but only persons concerned for their own interests; and dwelt on the difficulty of drawing the line even if many more houses were specially licensed to keep open after midnignt. In the end it was agreed that the matter should stand over for a week, during which interval Colonel Henderson :would consult with the Home Secretary, and announce the result to Mr. Straight.  Another step has been taken towards the happy butfar-off time when railway oompanies will, fairly consult the comfort of their passengers; the London and North-Western is now supplying all first and second ()lass passengers with foot-warmers without extra charge.  The Bermonilsey murder case—in which William Taylor stood charged with the murder of Susannah ilebden, his paramour, on the 30th of June last—came on before Mr. Justice Keating, at the Central Criminal Court. The prisoner, after killing the woman and her little daughter, and inflicting on her son wounds at one timetliought to be fatal, made two attempts to commit suicide ; one of them after be had been taken to Guy's hospital, where, after tearing offthe bandages from his gashed throat, he make a violent attack on some of the warders, and finally jumped out of a window. The substance of the defence was that the prisoner was insane, and the jury accepted it, returning a verdict of "Not guilty" on that ground. Taylor was therefore ordered to be detained in custody during her Majesty's pleasure.  At the London University, on Wednesday, the Bishop of Winchester distributed the prizes won in connection with the Local Examinations, and added his testimony tO the searching and intellectually benefioial character of these competitions. It was one of the happiest thoughts of these later times, he observed, to enlist in these ancient institutions all the young blood of England.  Begging by the aid of pictorial illustration was explained at Marlborough-street Police Court on Wednesday. A blind man was drawn along the street in a cart, a woman leading the horse, and displuing.in front of the cart two pictures which seem to have been very harrowing, and, for the purpose, eff'ebtive, representing respectively a person in flames, and a naked body horribly burnt and scorched. These were intended to convey - the impression. that the blind man had suffered from burning, for which there seemed no foundation. Both the man and the woman were sent to prison for a month.  A motion to exclude Jews from the Landwolir has been rejected by the Servian Skuptsohina, the exemption being possibly less welcome than the ethnical and social stigma which it involves. 

Article type: Incident