A very motiveless sort of murder was committed at Hackney
-on Tuesday. A man named Stanley, lodging at the house of one -James, a boot and shoe manufacturer, had had a dispute with -James on a trade question, when James told him to leave the -house, which Stanley declined to do, and went on with his taunts. James then told him he would shoot him if he did not leave, a threat which Stanley treated as pure menace, and did not heed. -James, however, actually fired in succession three barrels of his revolver, the first two discharges missing Stanley, and only the third taking effect, but that fatal effect. Stanley was killed, and James when arrested for murder said coolly, "Well, I didn't intend to do it, but he provoked me so." Certainly this is the age when great crimes seem to be committed rather because the moral horror of them is weak, than because the moral temptation to them is strong.
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