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Tiptree Hall has become famous. Mr. Mechi gave his annual enter- tainment on Wednesday ; and a very striking set of guests he assembled. There were present, one Peer, Earl Fortescue, two Foreign Ministers, Mr. Abbott Lawrence and Baron Bentinck, sanitary reformers, chemists, farmers, stock-breeders, implement-makers, and improving landlords. Throughout the livelong day these gentlemen followed Mr. Mechi through rich fields of wheat and mangold-wurzel, and cabbages and turnips, and listened to his picturesque descriptions of things agricultural, past, pre- sent, and to come. He explained how all the manure made on the farm was liquefied, and by steam power impelled in fertilizing streams over the lands. In illustration of this, he said that fodder cut during the day would in forty-eight hours be on the field again in the shape of manure. He brought out a new improved reaping-machine, made by Garrett and Son ; which was tried against M'Cormack's and Hussey's, and distanced them all. Mr. Mechi, says an eye-witness, was so delighted with its 'operations, that all consideration for his unripened corn seemed over- looked by him. After surveying the farm, the large company dined with their host. The toasts and speeches incident to a good British dinner " followed hard upon,"
At the Derby election, the Police succeeded in catching a man in a dark room with money in his possession, and documents proving that he was en- gaged in bribery. Amongst other things, there was this letter, addressed to
Mr. John Frail, Clerk of the Course, Shrewsbury "—
A good and safe man, with judgment and quickness, is wanted immediately at Derby. I suppose that you cannot leave your own place; if not, send some one whom you can trust in your place. Let him go to Derby on receiving this, and find the County Tavern, in the centre of the town, and send his card to Cox, Brothers, and Company, lead-works, as coming from Chester; that will be enough.
" Monday. W. B." The question arose, who was " W. B." ? When the investigation was re-
sumed before. Magistrates, agistrates, on Thursday, Mr. Moss, who conducted the prosecution brought forward Mr. J. Keogh, said to be related to Mr. Keogh M.P. Mr:Keogh had been, some five years ago, secretary of the Reading and Reigate Railway, at which time Major William Beresford was chairman. Mr. Keogh stated, that the letter, and the address on the envelope, were in the handwriting of Major William Beresford M.P., now Secretary at War : he had not the least doubt of it. Bribery by Morgan was clearly proved by
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a butcher, whose name was marked 1053 in Morgan's pocket-book, and who admitted that he had taken 21. to vote for Horsfall. Morgan was committed' but afterwards liberated on bail, himself in 3001. and two sureties in 1501. each.
Mr. Dighy Seymour, the newly-elected Member for Sunderland, used ex- pressions in one of his election-speeches which were considered mjurioua Mr. Campbell Foster. A mutual friend interfered, and obtained an expres- sion of regret from Mr. Seymour. This, it was thought, would end the peaceful duel. But on Monday the two gentlemen met in the robing-room at York Castle, and a dispute arose as to whether Mr. Seymour's letter was an apology. Angry words were exchanged. Mr. Foster struck Mr. Seymour with a cane ; Mr. Seymour " squared " at Mr. Foster; a " set-to " began with great spirit, and the round ended by both gentlemen "coming to the ground." Bystanders, headed by Mr. Knowles, Q.C., interfered, and the learned pugilists were taken before Lord Campbell and Mr. Justice Wightman; there admonished on the great impropriety of their conduct, and bound on their
. own recognizances 5001. each to keep the peace for six months.
This week the investigation at Stockport has been continued. On Mon- day, twenty-four of the prisoners were liberated, upon their own recog- nizances in 201. each. Several witnesses were also examined, and some new facts were elicited, illustrative of the temper of the mob. Mary Howley said, the mob were crying out, "Five pounds for an Irishman's bead !" Some of the English rioters have been arrested, among them one Henry Ashton. Two women, Bridget Murray and Ellen Sheridan, deposed against him. Bridget Murray having reproved him for boasting of his share in the destruction of Edgeley Chapel, he is said to have replied—" It is no shame at all ; I was told to do so by the Police. What we did last night is nothing to what we will do tonight ; for the colliers are coming to help us." Ellen Sheridan saw him near the priest's house on the 29th of June, and heard him say, alluding to the priest, that he had deprived that — of his soft bed that night. Some leaves of books were flying about, and the young man said, " Harry, where are all those leaves coming from ? " Ashton said, "Out of the library, as they call it : we have made a smash of that." The young man asked him, where the old priest was. Ashton answered, that they did not know when they first came up, but were just getting to know when the red — came up ; adding, "All we wanted was the — old priest, and that thing at the top," pointing to the cross at the to of the chapel-tower. He said, if he had got the — old priest, he would have burned him the same as the old sofa. - • • • • Mary Goodey heard-Joseph Birch say that, he •would show them a sight they never saw before ; for they would "behead their priest." Ellen Mac- donald heard a rioter say, " If we catch the old priest, we'll kill him." The proceedings were again adjourned.
The inquest upon the body of Moran, the man who was killed, terminated on Tuesday, in a verdict of y" Wilful murder " against Mulligan, who was in custody. It appeared that he had intended to strike one Wood, but the blow fell on Moran. The Coroner said, that if he meant to kill one man and killed another, it was still murder.
An action for breach of promise of marriage was tried at Cardiff, before Mr. Justice Crompton, on Wednesday. The offender was one Rees, a farmer living near Carephilly; his victim was a Miss Davies, also the daughter of a farmer of that district. He was forty years old, she only twenty-two. They were introduced to each other in 1850, and by the time May 1851 arrived they went about " as lovers." Rees promised marriage ; seduced, and then deserted Miss Davies. The evidence was strong on the lady's side. The defence set up was a counter charge of conspiracy, and an attempt to damage the character of the lad y. Mr. Justice Crompton thought these imputations groundless; and the Jury returned a verdict of 4001. damages.
After the Judges had finished the Assize cases at Nottingham on Friday week, the Under Sheriff; Mr. Brewster, proceeded with a Jury to assess da- mages under a writ of inquiry issued by the Court of Exchequer, on an ac- tion for breach of promise of marriage ; the defendant having withdrawn his original plea that he did not make the promise. The facts of the story were narrated by Mr. Sergeant Miller. Fanny Bird, a farmer's daughter, about four-and-twenty years of age, went in April 1850 to perform the duties of housekeeper for her brother, who held a small farm and water corn-mill at Shirland Park, in Derbyshire. Near to her brother's house lived a family named Bengali who soon became intimate with their new neighbours. George Bansall the son, twenty years old, fell in love with Miss Bird, who was pretty, lively, and well educated for a farmer's daughter. For some months Barisal simply paid assiduous court to the young lady in the ordinary way ; but at length he wrote a letter formally declaring his passion, and so- liciting an instant reply. Miss Bird did not send one. About a week after, Russell met her at Mansfield fair; went home in her company ; declared his love, and was accepted. The courtship now ran smoothly ; Bansall being constantly at the Birds', writing foolish verses, and making presents. At length a mishap befell Fanny Bird, and she found herself about to become a mother. In her terror she told her lover : he replied, they would soon be married ; his father would take a farm for him, and all would go well. The wedding-day was fixed, the ring bought, the clothes made ; but the farm was not taken, and the day was adjourned. }Jansen now proposed that they should go to Australia ; but their plan failed. Another day was fixed, but Bansall did not come ; and gradually he deserted her, and she went home. On the 23d of October 1851 a female child was born. Bansall was again asked whether he intended to marry her; but he did not reply. Poor Fanny was now in the lowest state of mental distress, nearly mad. There was only one course left for her friends—an action against Bansall. The Jury assessed the damages at 8001.
At the Nottingham Assizes, on Monday, a verdict for 5001. damages, against the Midland Railway Company, was obtained by Mr. Blacklock, one of the sufferers from the "accident " which occurred on the 19th of May 1851, near the Clay Cross tunnel on the Midland Railway.
At Oxford Assizes, Elijah Noon, the plasterer who killed his wife with a sword, was tried for murder. The chief witness was the daughter of the couple, a girl of twelve. Her evidence was not very conclusive. Noon came home intoxicated ; his wife upbraided him ; he took a sword from its sheath, and she received a fatal wound in the side. Before she died, Mrs. Noon said her husband had stabbed her : but she forgave him. He paid every atten- tion to her in her last hours. His counsel suggested that the deceased might have accidentally fallen back upon the sword while her daughter was trying to pull her from the room, Noon being too drunk to know that the weapon was unsheathed. The Jury gave a verdict of "Manslaughter" only ; and the homicide was sentenced to be imprisoned for two years.
At Derby Assizes, Selina Ride, a young married woman, was tried for the murder of her illegitimate infant, by throwing it into a canal. Ride did not know his wife had a child when he married her ; but he afterwards over- looked it, on condition that the child should not be brought to his house. The mother kept it for some time with relatives ; then it was missed. Sub- sequently a little corpse was found in a canal, with a brick tied to it. Sus- picion fell upon Selina. She gave false and contradictory accounts as to her infant having died by natural causes, and of its having been interred. The case against her failed; for there was no proof that she had thrown the in- fant into the water' and the body was so decomposed that it could not be clearly identified. The Jury gave the woman the benefit of these doubts, and acquitted her.
Daniel Freeman has been tried at the Derby Assizes, for the murder of Mrs. Walters, at Sawley. It was proved that he entered the woman's house in her absence ; when she returned he butchered her, put the body in the yard, and covered it with all kinds of things. He resisted arrest. It was evident at the trial that he is not possessed of the usual faculties ; and it appeared that he had been confined in a workhouse for some time, but after- wards allowed to go free. The Jury found him guilty, but recommended him to mercy on account of his weak intellect. The Judge, in passing sen- tence of death upon the prisoner, intimated that it would not be carried into effect, but that he would be kept in durance an that he would be pre- vented from doing harm in future. The Judge also censured the parish- officers for allowing a person of weak mind like the prisoner to go about : if it arose from a feeling of wishing to save a few miserable pounds, shillings, and pence, they were responsible in the sight of God for the acts the prisoner had committed.
Some months since, George Bush wax found murdered in a field at Priston, near Bath. Several persons were arrested on suspicion, but no evidence was obtained to warrant their detention : the Police were completely baffled in their search for the murderer. Recently, a young man going by the name of Busies', otherwise John Smith, was committed to Dorchester Gaol for vagrancy. There he accused himself of having committed a murder in Somersetshire six months before. The Superintendent of the Bath Police went to Dorchester and arrested him for the murder of Bush. Smith con- fessed his guilt, and ratified the confession before the Bath Magistrates, by the following statement-
" I was in a public-house, and at the time selling limiters and other little things. I had half a pint of beer ; and I saw the man I murdered pull out his purse, which tempted me. I followed him from the public-house until he went through two or three fields and over a stile ; and when he was seventy or eighty yards on I tripped ban up with my foot. He fell on the back of his head, and called out Murder!' very loudly; and said to me, Do you want to murder me I' I replied to him,' Yes!' I held him a few minutes, and drew my knife across his throat two or three iimes ; and he never moved afterwards. There was not much struggling—it was soon over. I knelt upon him, and when I was on him the blood came over me. I tore up some grass and stuffed it into the cut. I then took out his purse, but did not get more than seven or eight shillings. Had I thought he had no more, it would not have hap- pened. I am sorry for it ; it was a cold-blooded deed, and one of the worst murders that ever was done. I have never heard al any worse. I slept in a cart-house that night, and in barns and under hay-stacks ever since ; but wherever I was I could not rest, as I saw the man before me. It was a dreadful thing to have on the mind, and I am perfectly prepared to die for it." He inquired of the Superintendent how long it .weald be before the-Assizes began, and how long a condemned man is allowed. to live after sentence of death. When asked if he would have something to eat, he replied, " No ; it is no use to give food to a man like me ; I am a murderer : I committed the deed, and a bloodthirsty fellow like me ought to be quartered alive." He was remanded by the Magistrates.
Another man has died from an election riot at Liverpool. A mob of the lowest class made an attack on the house of a Mr. Morgan, because he had voted for Mackenzie and Turner ; the Police had to interfere, and a struggle ensued. During the riot, Patrick Bulger was knocked into a cellar ; -and he died next day, from a fractured skull. At the inquest there was no evidence to implicate any Policeman ; and the fury found that " Patrick Bulger died from a wound in the head, but how inflicted there was no evidence to show." They added, that, in their opinion, the conduct of the Police had been such as to merit entire approbation, not only on this but on other ocea- 5ions.
There was a serious collision on the Leeds Northern Railway, near Stock- ton-on-Tees, on Wednesday evening. A driver having negligently attempt- ed to shunt a luggage-train while signals were up prohibiting it, the train came into violent contact with a passenger-train. The engine and several carriages were thrown off the line and shattered. A number of passengers were hurt, and four suffered fracture of the legs.
An inquest is proceeding on the four persons who perished at the Burnley station by an excursion-train having run into a siding, and struck violently againsi the " dead-buffers," from not having been turned on to tho main line by the pointsman. It would seem that Parker, the pointamau, left the points in charge of a man named Crabtree while he went forward to meet ay. train ; Crabtree, in turn, gave one Bridge charge of the points ; but Bridge went to another place to turn points that the engine might enter a shed, and did not return in time to his original post ; and hence the disaster to the passenger-train. Neither Crabtree nor Bridge was employed on the railway : the- former went there to pick up jobs as a porter ; and Bridge " for his own smuts:I- ment," after he had done work. Extraordinary as it may appear, Crabtree for months has worked at the station on Sundays as an unpaid servant, that one of the paid men might have an alternate holyday ; a former station- master having permitted the arrangement : Crabtree's only recompense was the permission to carry passengers' luggage if they desired a paid porter.