Lieutenant- Colonel Madox, commandin_g the Enniskillen Dragoons, has written to
the editor of the Dorset County Chronicle a statement of the affair between the country-people and the military on the race- course, which imputes all the blame of the encounter to the people, whom be asserts to have been the aggressors. The soldiers were assailed by men with loaded cudgels, and several were wounded se- verely. On a report being made that there were others then on the course whom the people were ill-treating, the Adjutant ordered out * picket-guard under the command of a quartermaster, with strict injunc- tions not to draw a sword upon the people, but, if they were ihl.using the soldiers, to take the offenders into custody. The Colonel also states, that if, under the darkness of the night, any soldier presumed to draw his sword and wound any party, every facility shall be granted for the fullest investigation.—Dorset County Chronicle.
Henry Brooks, nephew and lately clerk of Mr. Brooks, plate.glass- manufacturer in the Strand, was committed to prison on Monday, by the Magistrates of Dover, on a charge of forgery. It appeared that this young man had raised about 4001. in London and the country on forged checks and drafts. He passed as Mr. Henry Beauclerk, a relation of the Duke of St. Alban's, and travelled in a carriage and four with a lady who pretended to be a Beresford, sister of Lord Waterford. The only circumstance worth notice in the career of this young scoundrel, is the facility with which he gained credit, for no other reason, apparently, than his assumption of an aristocratic name. Men cashed his checks and gave him credit as a Beauclerk, who would have kicked him out of their shops had he called himself Mr. Jones or Mr. Rogers.
On Tuesday night, as Mr. Sergeant Merewether was returning from the Conservative dinner at Devizes, in his carriage, three men rushed out upon it and commenced a furious attack. The servant was much injured by the blows he received ; but the learned sergeant escaped un- hurt. — Wiltshire Independent. [This is a curious story.]
A labouring man named May has been committed to Exeter Gaol, charged with the wilful murder near Barnstaple of a little boy, four years of age, by smashing his head to pieces with a shovel. The man is supposed to be insane, as the child was at play at the time he was at- tacked, and no motive can be assigned for the murder.
Early on Sunday morning, the town of Bolton was alarmed by a rumour that the house of Mr. James Massey, retailer of beer, Moor Lane, had been broken into and robbed during the night, and Massey himself murdered in bed. On inquiry it was ascertained that Massey had been found in bed with a wound in his throat, and his fingers slightly cut, as if he had seized the instrument with which his life had been attempted. The account which he gives of this transaction (which at present is certainly involved in much obscurity) is, that in the night he was suddenly awakened in bed by some one taking hold of his throat. He opened his eyes, and saw two or three men at his bed- side with their faces blacked, and at that moment one of them drew a sharp instrument across his throat and wounded him. He struggled for some time, and in endeavouring to prevent further wounds his hands were cut. Very soon afterwards he became unconscious of what was going on ; and when he recovered his senses, was unable to speak or give an alarm. In this state be lay for nearly two hours ; but at length contrived, by tapping at the wall, and making moans, to awaken a man and his wife, who lodged in the house and slept in an adjoining room. It appeared that 151. and some clothes had been stolen from him. Although he struggled violently, and several per- sons lodged in the same house, nobody was roused. No clue has been found to the robbers.—Abridged from the Manchester Courier.
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