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May 23, 1857.] _ THE LEADEBi 489
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THE BACONS. The confession of Mrs. Bacon...
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. A Man Starved to Death by Workhouse Pr...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Middlesex Sessions. M Ernoflt Augustus L...
dav for fraudulently obtaining two pairs of boots from Daniel Roberts , 51 . from John Marsh , 81 . from John Beneougb , and 51 . from Joseph Wilson , by means of false pretences , with intent to defraud . The case excited & good deal of interest , as the prisoner until recently had been a lieutenant in the Royal Artillery , with which corps he served in the Crimean campaign . He wa 3 the son of Colonel Lloyd , who died of cholera while on a mission to the seat of war . The offence charged against him was that , in exchange for goods and cash , he had given various tradesmen cheques upon Messrs . Cox and Greenwood , where he had had an account , which , however was overdrawn , so that the cheques were dishonoured . In cross-examination , Mr . Woollacott , clerk to Messrs . Cox and Greenwood , said : — " The prisoner was suspended from the army ; but sometimes a suspension is taken off , and the back pay then becomes due . He -was suspended for being absent without leave . He served with his corps at the siege of Sebastopol , and had the medal . He could only receive his pay through their house in London ; in the Crimea , he had it through their agent there . He had been allowed to overdraw his account ; officers occasionally do so , and a little liberality is shown to them in that respect . ' Mr . Lloyd ' s father died of cholera in the Crimea , and his mother died a short time since . [ The prisoner here seemed much affected . ] The firm , of course , would not permit a suspended officer to overdraw . Mr . Lloyd ' s account was still open , and money would be received and placed to his credit if offered . If money had been lodged on his account , of course the cheques would have been paid as far as the money went . " The defence rested upon the probability of the accused believing that money would be lodged to his account , by which the cheques would be met . He was Acquitted . The Assistant-Judge said the verdict was perfectly right , but that the conduct of Mr . Lloyd had been deserving of the severest reprobation . " It was impossible to hope that the military authorities would reinstate him in his position in the army , and he would therefore earnestly advise him to get his friends together , to render him help to leave England , so that he might sever himself from that course of life in London into which it was too evident he had plunged within the last few months , and by a new -career abroad wipe from his name the stain he had brought upon it . " Henry Hills , aged forty-nine , a clerk , was tried for an attempt to debauch a girl under twelve years of age . His wife kept a school , and Hills appears to have misconducted himself towards sixteen or seventeen of the girls . He pleaded Guilty , and his counsel solicited for him the merciful consideration of the Court on account of the deep contrition and distress of mind he had since shown . A sentence was passed on him of hard labour for one year . John Loose , described as a groom , was indicted for stealing a watch and chain from Thomas Rawlins , a footman . The latter had one night been out to a rather late hour , and had met the accused , to whom he was quite unknown , but with whom he nevertheless drank somewhat freely . After a time , the two got into a cab together , and Rawlins , who was then in a state of intoxication , told the cabman to drive to Grosvenorsquare . " When , however , they arrived at Regent-street , Loose told the driver that he wanted to get out , and at the same time ordered him to proceed to Grosvcnorsquare with his fellow-servant . ' The cabman resolutely refused to comply with this request , and continued to drive on until ho saw a policeman , when he stopped , and related to him what had happened . Another person who had observed the two men get into the cab , and who , suspecting the conduct of one of them , had followed the vehicle , now came up , and saw that Rawlins ' s watch-chain , which ho had previously worn , was missing from his waistcoat-pocket ; upon which , Loose was charged with stealing his companion ' s watMh . Ho at first denied all knowledge of it , but both watch and chain were afterwards found in his trowsera-poeket , and he then said thnt ho only took them for safety until his friend , who was drunk and asleep , got sober . The jury found the accused Guilt } -, and ho was sentenced to aix months' hard labour . Much approbation was oxpressed by the court at the praiseworthy conduct of the cabman .
May 23, 1857.] _ The Leadebi 489
May 23 , 1857 . ] _ THE LEADEBi 489
The Bacons. The Confession Of Mrs. Bacon...
THE BACONS . The confession of Mrs . Bacon , to which Lord Campbell alluded at the close of the trial last week , was inndo at the end of the first day ( Wednesday ) . She said it was quite true that Bacon had loft hor in bed when lie proceeded on his journey to Reigato , and that very soon afterwards the idea of destroying hor children came into . her mind . She first took the little boy out of his bod and out his throat , and thon carried him down Mtairs and i placed him in the chair in the position in which ho was I found , with the toys before him . The child died almost ] instantaneously , and uttered a very slight cry when she I first cut him with the knifo . She then determined to I kill the baby , but felt groat reluctance to destroy the ' youngest child , and she did not do so until some timo ' after the boy was dead ; but at length she could no longer resist the dosiro for destruction , and she cut the second ( child ' s throat . She added that Bho has very little rooollec- t tion of what occurred afterwards ; but she remembered f hearing her relation , Mrs . Mvinro , knock at the door in j
the afternoon . She was afraid to let her in ; and she remained in the house with her dead children all the Monday and the succeeding night . On the following morning , she went out with the intention of paying her rent ; and , upon meeting Mrs . Munro and her mother , the thought suddenly came into her mind that she would tell them that a strange man had got in at the window and murdered the children . She expected that this would avert suspicion from herself ; but , on its failing to do so , she accused her husband of the crime . This confession was communicated to the judges on the Thursday morning ; but it could not legally be taken as evidence , and so the trial went on . On the afternoon of Friday week , Bacon had an interview with his wife in Newgate , when both were much affected . The man Bacon was examined last Saturday before the magistrates at Stamford on the charge of killing his mother by arsenic . The evidence was substantially the same as that given at the inquest at Great Casterton last February , the main facts of which appeared in these columns at the time . The case was remanded till Wednesday , when Bacon was committed for trial . s- - .- ; e 1 v a o - j
. A Man Starved To Death By Workhouse Pr...
. A Man Starved to Death by Workhouse Procrastination . —A painful inquiry , conducted by Mr . Baker , coroner , was concluded on Friday week . Patrick Driscoll , a labouring man , aged thirty , has been starved to death , owing to the scandalous delay of the parish authorities of the Stepney Union . Having been unable , from illness , to follow his usual occupation , Driscoll went about the street selling ballads , but at length became too ill even for that . He took to his bed , and his wife went to the workhouse and obtained an order on the medical officer , who attended , and gave some advice . On the following morning , Mrs . Driscoll endeavoured to obtain from the workhouse some food for the family . She was told she must have an order from the medical officer . She then went to that gentleman , and said that her husband wanted food ; to which he replied , " I cannot order him any meat unless I see him here . " The wife went back and told her husband of this ; and he then rose ( to the great surprise of the landlady , who said , " Does the doctor want a dead man to go to him for food ? " ) and hobbled , very slowly and painfully , to the office of the medical gentleman ; but the doors were closed . Another medical man gave Driscoll an order for meat ; but , when this was tendered by his wife at the house of the relieving officer , the applicant was told that the usual time for presenting such orders was past for that day , and that nothing could be done . She replied that "it was not too late fora dying man ; " but she was told that she must come again at ten o ' clock the following morning . \ At that moment , the relieving officer and his family were at dinner . Mrs . Driscoll told the woman at the door that she would go to the police station , and get relief there , as her husband was dying . The woman threw the order on the pavement , saying , " I don ' t care ; take it away with you . " Mrs . Driscoll then went back to her husband , whom she had left at the workhouse , gate , and told him of her want of success ; on which he burst into tears ; " I , " said the poor woman when giving her evidence , " could not help crying too . " The gate porter gave Driscoll a portion of his own dinner ; but the sick man was so weak that he vomited the greater part . " I saw him home , " continued the wife , " but he was a corpse the next day . " Up to the time of his death , no relief had been administered . The jury gave the following as their verdict : — " That death was caused by bronchitis , and that it was accelerated by the exertion of the deceased in proceeding to the workhouse while in a state of great exhaustion , caused by the order of Mr . Stephenson , one of the medical oilicers of the Stepney Union ; and the jury are of opinion that Mr . Stephenson was guilty of groat neglect in not visiting the deceased at his own home , instead of sending him to the workhouse while ho was in a state of uttor prostration , which was highly reprehensible and deserving of censure ; and the jury are also of opinion that the circumstances of the caso should bo laid before the Board of Guardians of the Stepnoy Union . " Fuhtiibii Rkspiti ! ov Mansici . ^ . —Munsell , the murderer , who was to have boon executed last Monday , has been further respited to Monday , Juno 22 nd , tho Attorney-General not being satisfied with tho judgment recontly given on tho disputed points of law . Those will now bo argued before a higher court . Committal ok a Siikoison kok Manslauoiitku . — An inquest , winch lmd extended over thrco sittings , was brought to a conclusion last Saturday . It was held on tho bodies of Mia . Mary Bingham and her infant . Tho woman had been attended in hor lying-in by a Mr . Morgan , a member of tho Collcgo of Surgeons and a Licentiate of tho Society of Apothecaries , living nuar tho Vauxhall Bridge-road . Ho appears to have notfleutod lior a good deal , and finally loft , when tho child was only partially bom . IIo then sont another surgeon , v ho did Lho beat ho could ; but such violence had boon exorcised towards tho poor woman that h 1 \ o mill tho child diod . The jury gave a verdict of Manslaughter against Mr , Morgan . Victimising Ciiinamkn . —William Shorwood haa boon jhargod at tho Marylobono police-court with having itolon a gold watch , together with a gold guard and lomo charms , tho property of Arr Shoo , a Chinoso ugglor , at present engaged , with two of his companions ,
exhibiting his feats at the Surrey Theatre . He was recently acting at the Marylebone Theatre , and he then lodged at a coffee-house in New Church-street , where Sherwood was waiter . Sherwood possessed himself of the proper ty one morning by means of a stratagem , and then absconded , but was afterwards taken into custody . He admitted that he had . abstracted the watch , & c , and said he had sold the whole for twenty-five shillings in Petticoat-lane . He was committed to prison for six months with hard labour . —At the Thames police-office , Charles Fenwick , described as a lodginghouse-keeper of Lower Cornwall-street , St . George's-in-the-East , appeared before Mr . Selfe to answer a charge of detaining 10 ? ., the money of a Chinaman , whose real name is Arze , but who has adopted the English name of John Williams . Mr . Selfe said he was very glad this matter had been taken up by Lieutenant-Colonel Hughes in the manner it had been , and that the Strangers' Home for Asiatics , Africans , and South Sea Islanders would be opened in a few days , as coloured seamen are liable to gross imposition by crimps and boardinghouse-keepers . He fined the defendant 10 ? ., and also ordered him to pay ll . to the Chinaman , or be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for two calendar months . If 11 . were paid to Arze before five o ' clock he would not enforce the penalty . —The 71 . were almost immediately forthcoming and paid to Arze . The Murder by a Maniac . —Since the imprisonment of John Blackwell , the maniac who killed a man appointed to take care of him , he has exhibited still further signs of his tendency to a homicidal form of insanity . He has made an attempt to kill the gaoler , but assistance speedily arrived , and the man was not seriously hurt . Blackwell shows great readiness in quoting Scripture , and is fond of standing on a stool and preaching to his attendants . The inquest on the body of Ranee has terminated in a verdict of Wilful Murder against Blackwell . Cock Fighting . —This barbarous sport has been , commonly indulged in by the depraved of Shrewsbury during the race week . The more respectable inhabitants , being resolved to put it down , obtained the assistance of some of the officers of the London Society for the Suppression of Cruelty to Animals ; and five of the participators in the brutal amusement were apprehended , and brought before the Mayor . Mr . Gordon , who appeared for the prisoners , said that the only advice he could give his clients was , that they should severally plead guilty . He had not a word to say against the way in which the case had been got up by the very useful society through their respected agent . The defendants were fined 50 s . each and costs . Half of the penalty , to which the society were entitled , was given to the poor-box of the court . Another Bank Defaulter . —A good deal of excitement was caused last Saturday in Edinburgh , Glasgow , and elsewhere ( say the daily papers ) , by a report that Mr . Henry Salmon , the agent for the Commercial Bank of Scotland , at Falkirk , had absconded , after having made free to a large extent with the coffers of the bank . It is understood that Mr . Salmon ' s defalcations extend to at least 30 , 000 / . The Commercial Bank , like all the other Scotch banking establishments , has a regular system of inspection of tho most searching kind ; but it would appear that Mr . Salmon had made free with the funds in a way which set ordinary detection at defiance . When certain deposits were lodged , he granted a receipt iu the name of the bank in the ordinary way , but applied tho funds to his own use ; and , as the transaction did not appear in tho books of the bank , detection by -the ordinary check-3 was impossible . He must , however , have retained a private memorandum of these deposit receipts , so as to arrange for the payment of the interest upon them as it became regularly due . Up to this exposure , Mr . Salmon was a man of high consideration iu the district , took a prominent part in every public movement , ami lived sumptuously . Ho was tho oldest o / licial in the Commercial Hank , having been connected with the establishment for the long period of forty years . A Muiidisrisk ' . s Funisral . —A verdict of felo da so having boon returned at tho inquest on tho body of tho man Charlton , who , as we related last week , committed suicide after murdoring a Mrs . Holroyd , a grave was dug the same <) ay in tho burial-ground attached to the primitive Methodist chapel at Groat llorton , near Bradford . At eleven o ' clock at night , tho corpse was convoyed to tho spot . A crowd of more than two thousand people had assembled on tho road in front of the chapel yard , and groat confusion prevailed . Tho mob wore loud in expressing their objection to tho interment of the corpse . Tho authorities of the chapel wore also opposed to its intormonfc in tho ground ; and they had keen sympathisers in tho crowd . They met tho bearers of tho coffin at tho gates , and endeavoured to prevent its entrance into tho ground . Exclamations of u Throw it over tho wall ! " " Burn it 1 " & c , mingled with tho uproar . 13 y tho aid of tho police , the coflin was at last got to tho gravo-rtidc ; but thon objection was taken to tho grave not boing doop enough , and also to its being nn old one . Tho consequence wan that tho sextons procoodod to illy a now yravo in , a plot of . virgiiv soil adjoining , Monuwhilo , tho noise and confusion provailod for many houro . Tho interment was at length completed . Many of tho crowd remained on tho spot till llvo o ' clock tho loilowing morning . „ .. RoniiKnr at A CoNFiuMATiON . -At n confirmation by tho Bishop of London , at St . Muiy ' a , Greenwich , on
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 23, 1857, page 9, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_23051857/page/9/
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