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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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WHY MANSLAUGHTER ? Groat indignation has been excited by a verdict given by a Cornish jury towards the latter end of last week in the case of a trial for murder . We borrow a brief statement of the facts from the leading columns of the Times : — " Ann Matthews , aged thirty-two , James Gregory , aged nineteen , and Richard Jose , aged thirty-five , were indicted at Bodmin for the wilful murder of an infant born of Matthews at Truro on the 27 th of March last . This woman was a shoemaker by trade , and had resided for many years in respectability at Truro . Her husband died about four years back , and about a twelvemonth ago , in a fatal hour for herself , she
met with Jose , who was a married man . A connexion ensued between Jose and Matthews , and she became pregnant by him . Jose lodged at her house , and in the same house lived the prisoner George and a young woman named Eliza Burns , but nineteen years of age , who were also living together in a state of concubinage . Matthews had an allowance from the parish , and she feared that this allowance would be withdrawn if it were known that she had given birth to a natural child . About four o ' clock on the morning of Thursday , the 27 th of March , Matthews was seized with the pains of labour , and she went down into the kitchen , where she delivered herself of a female child . Jose came down also to the kitchen , and he called to the girl Burns to
come and assist Matthews in her pain . After some little delay , she was admitted into the kitchen , where she found Matthews , Jose , and the new-born baby . George also came down , and in a little while he assisted Matthews to leave the kitchen . As she was going out , she called to Jose to stop the child ' s crying . After these two persons had left the kitchen , Jose thrust his finger down the baby ' s throat , and retained it there for some time , bu ^ , as this did not suffice to destroy life , he fetched a pan , into which he poured a quantity of water , and in it he drowned the child . On the evening of the next day , Jose and George took the dead body in a basket to a pond near Truro . Jose attached a stone by a cord to it ,
and threw it into the pond . On the 29 th of the same month , the body was discovered by a lad who was fishing in the pond , the water being unusually low at the time . A coroner ' s inquest was held , and a verdict was returned of ' Wilful murder against some person or persona unknown . ' The name of Matthews soon became involved in the gossip of the neighbourhood , and the end was that she was examined by a surgeon , and it was ascertained that she had recently been delivered . In the end , Burns was admitted as Queen ' s evidence , and upon her testimony the prisoners were convicted . The jury found Jose guilty , not of murder , but of manslaughter ; George guilty as an accessary after the fact : and Matthews guilty of concealing the birth . "
The singular part of this verdict is that which refers to Jose , who , if guilty of any crime at all in connexion with the case , was clearly guilty of murder . The jury took the advice of Mr . Baron Martin previous to sending in their verdict , as to whether they could convict Jose merely of manslaughter : the opinion of the Judge was strongly against such a finding ; but the besotted Corniahmen carried their point , and Jose simply stands convicted of the lesser offence . Why not of the greater ?
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A SERVIAN'S REVENGE . A double murder has been committed about five miles from Dover by a man named Scdca ( or Dedea ) Bedanius , a Servian in the Anglo-Swiss Legion now stationed at ShornclifFc . He had been paying his addresses to a girl of eighteen , named Caroline Beck . Fancying that oho had been corresponding with another soldier , he taxed her with unfaithfulness , but ultimately asked her to accompany him to the camp . Her parents made no objection , provided her younger sister , Maria , accompanied her . The proposal was agreed to , and they started . This happened last Saturday . On the following morning , about eight o ' clock , the bodies of both the girls were
found in a hollow , cloae by a footpath leading to Folk-Htono . The elder sister hud received four stabs near the heart , and waa quite dead . The younger girl , Maria , appears to have struggled hard with hor assailant . Several of her lingers were soverely cut . The discovery waa made by « farm servant , who obtained niedicul assistance , but it was of no avail . The supposed murderer waa seen running through the village of Capol shortly after the occurrence . He lias wince been arrested by some labourers . On being seized , ho stubbed himself several times with a knife ; but was at length overpowered and scoured , and he now lies in a very precarious state in the hospital .
Subsequent investigations have given riso to a suspicion that tho destruction of the elder girl was effected under peculiarly devilish circumstances It was discovered that some one hud recently hud sexual intercourse with tho poor victim ; and it is not unlikely that tho soldier committed the first of his crimes while tho young woman was receiving his embraces . Tho other girl was probably attracted to the spot by tho cries which accompanied the death-struggle .
The inquest has terminated in a verdict of Wilful Murder . In the course of the inquiry , a letter from Bedanius to the mother of the girls , written on Monday at a stationer ' s shop where the murderer bought some paper , was put in and read . It was written in German , in a very wandering style ; expressed contrition for the acts ; and attributed them to the fact of Caroline intending to go to Woolwich , and to his being unable to follow her . He therefore determined that she should die . He did not intend , he asserts , to kill Maria , but , " as she was in his way , he could not do otherwise . " The letter then proceeds in this extraordinary fashion , according to the translation that has been put forth : — " Dear mother , —
Saturday evening , when I came , I had not at least any intention to commit this awful act ; but as I learned that my dear Caroline gave me back my likeness , and as she told me she would leave , I did not know any other way than that leading to the cutler , where I bought a poniard which divided the hearty lovers . Arm by arm I brought my dearest souls in the world over to the unlucky place , near the road before Folkestone , and requested them to sit down . But the grass being wet , they refused to do so , and I directed then Caroline to go forward , and I went behind Maria , into whose breast I ran the dagger . With a dull cry she sank down . With a most broken heart I rushed then after Caroline , lifting the poniard in my hand towards her . ' Dear Dedea , ' cried she , with a half-dead voice ,
and fell down with weeping eyes . Then I rushed over her , and gave her the last kisses as an everlasting remembrance . I could not live a more dreadful hour in my life than that was , and my broken heart could not feel when my senses were gone . And I took both the black capes of Maria and dear Caroline , as a mourning suit for me , leaving the awful spot with weeping eyes and a broken heart . Never I shall forget my dear Caroline and Maria , and the poniard will be covered with blood until it will be put in my own breast , and I shall see again my dear Maria and Caroline in the eternal life . Farewell , and be not unhappy about the blissful deceased—they are angels of God—and forget the unhappy , ever weeeping , Dedea Bkdajjius . "
Another letter was addressed to Lieutenant Schmidt , also confessing the crime . One of the witnesses , a carpenter named Thomas Girling , though taking the usual oath , declared that he had no religion , that he did not believe in a Supreme Being nor in a future state , and that he thought men would be punished for their ill deeds here , but not hereafter . The Coroner said that , after thirtj ' -six years ' experience in his office , that was the first time he had heard such a declaration made by a witness ; but he received Girling ' s testimony nevertheless .
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Assize Cases . —Grace Richardson , a straw bonnetmaker , was tried at Carlisle on a charge of administering oxalic acid to her daughter . The woman was intoxicated , and , having quarrelled with her daughter , and beaten her , she forced her to drink part of a mugful of oxalic acid she kept in the cupboard for use in her trade . Finding it burn her throat , the girl refused to take any more ; but the mother endeavoured to force it upon her , and in the struggle the remainder was spilt over her clothes . She then escaped to a neighbour ' s house , where she was extremely ill , though her mother took very little heed of her . For the defence it was argued ( on the suggestion of the girl herself , who was much affected ) thattlie prisoner intended to administer a
dose of salts , but that , in her drunkenness , she committed a mistake . In answer to a question from the Judge , the girl said that salts were kept in the same cupboard ; and the jury gave a verdict of Acquittal . — The trial of Theodore Evans , the late manager of the Tewkcsbury branch of the Gloucestershire Banking Company , for stealing 1500 J ., the money of the bank , lias resulted in an Acquittal . We stated tho chief facts last week ; it now only remains to mention the grounds of the discharge . It appeared that the accused was himself the holder of some shares in the bunk , of tho value of 1600 / . and upwards ; that he kept an account there ; that tho directors allowed him to overdraw his account ; that he always admitted life liability with regard to tho 1500 / . ; and that the bank had security from him for the fuithful discharge of his duties . Under these circumstances , tho counsel for the defence asked the Judge
if ho thought any answer to tho case for the prosecution were needed . Mr . Justice Wightmun said he did not conceive the charge could be maintained , and lie directed the jury to return a verdict of Not Guilty ; which they did with evident reluctance . Several other indictments against tho prisoner , arising out of the same facts , were then withdrawn . —James Ford , a labourer , was charged at Wells with the wilful murder of his wife . He was offended with her for joining a marriage party , mid ho threatened to her sister to make her head jump up tho chimney when nho came back . Going to a public-house , ho remained drinking thoro for a considerable time , when one of tho neighbours advised tho wife to fetch him home . She went , and was several times knocked down by tho ruflian . Shortly afterwards , she waa found dead on tho floor of tho tup-room . Mr . Baron Martin suid the evidence could only load to a verdict of
nuuiHlaughter , which was accordingly returned , and sentence of transportation for life was pasted . —Ann Farley , aged fourteen , a servant , pleaded Guilty at Oxford to a charge of setting fire to a barn and rick of straw , by which property to the amount of 500 / 1 was lost . She was sentenced to imprisonment and hard labour foe one fortnight , and then to be sent to the Reformatory at AUesley , near Coventry , for four years . —William Ho » - kins , aged twenty-three , a sawyer , was charged at Gloucester with the manslaughter of Joseph Wetherall . The deceased was also a labouring man ; and on the 7 th of last June , having been paid his wages , he left Witley Court for Wootten , where he resided . On the following morning , he was found dead and weltering in his blood
on the road . His purse was empty . When Hoskins was taken into custody , blood and road dust were found on his clothes , and he had a black eye . In answer to questions , he said he had been in a scuffle ; but he gave various accounts of the nature and origin of the contest . He was found Guilty , and sentenced to fifteen years' transportation . — Charles William Treagrove Creuse , a gentlemanly-looking man , who had formerlybeen a captain in the Cape Mounted Rifles , was indicted at Guildford for a criminal assault on a young girl who had gone to his house to be engaged as a servant . The defence was that long residence in a hot climate had disordered the prisoner ' s intellects . On hearing this
alleged , he burst out with great vehemence that he objected "to what his counsel was stating , as his reason was in no way impaired . This interruption , however , had the effect of confirming the alleged insanity , for he proceeded , in a very incoherent and violent strain , to declare that he had beheld all the wonders of the world , and that he had seen hell dragged up by the roots . The present charge , he said , was got up against him by the Roman Catholics , because they knew that he was a Protestant ; but he was determined to support his religion . Some testimony having been , given in support of the defence of impaired intellect , the accused was Acquitted on that ground , and ordered to be detained during her Majesty ' s pleasure . named
Garotte Robbery . —A reporter , Anthony Frederick Beevor , has been assaulted and robbed in the streets by two men , both notorious thieves , and one a ticket-of-leave man . Mr . Beevor was returning home , rather intoxicated , as he himself admitted , between one and two o ' clock in the morning , when he went into a public-house in Crown-street , Soho—a neighbourhood notorious for these attacks . He there saw two men in front of the bar , who requested him to " treat" them . Mr . Beevor complied , and then left the house ; the men followed him , and presently afterwards one of them knocked him down with a blow from a bludgeon , while the other rifled his pockets of all the money they contained , amounting to about 11 . 5 s . The thieves escaped before any assistance could be obtained ; however , they were subsequently traced out by the police , and apprehended . They denied the charge against them , but were committed for trial .
Kijdnawino . —A cooper , named Michael Murphy , has been examined on remand at the Greenwich policeoffice , on a charge of having unlawfully deprived a woman , named Ann Davis , of her son . Mrs . Davis , who lived with Murphy ' s motlier at Deptford , had often heard the prisoner threaten to take her child away from her . One Sunday , about a month ago , she sent the boy to the Sunday-school at Deptford-green , and , finding that he did not return at the usual time , she suspected that Murphy had run away with him , and therefore gave information to the police . The authorities at Deptford immediately communicated with those of Liverpool , to which place Murphy had told Mrs . Davis he should take her boy ; but , not being able to learn anything satisfactory concerning him , the Deptford police
inspector called at Mrs . Murphy ' s house , and seeing the prisoner there , ho charged him > Vith having committed the offence , and asked him what he had done with the child . At first , Murphy denied all knowledge of the matter , but , on the officer threatening to take him into custody , he made a full confession . Tho inspector afterwards proceeded to Liverpool , and brought the boy back to town , when he was restored to his mother . Murphy stated that his reason for hiking the child away was , because the latter had told him that his mother ill-used and half-fed him . He ( Murpliy ) had intended to bring Mrs . Davis ' s son up to his own trade . Tho magistrate thought that tho taking tho child from his parent without her permission was u sufficient offence , and ho therefore committed tho accused for trial .
The Road to Ruin . —Bernard Murphy , a clerk , pleaded Guilty at tho Middlesox Sessions to a charge of embezzling various sums of money from his master . When asked what he had to urge , ho said : —" The first of these misfortunes was a cheque of nearly 88 t , which was abstracted from mo by a person whom I presumed to be n friend ; but I afterwards got 50 / . of the amount from him , which I duly paid over . " The Assistant-Judge hero asked why ho did not prosecute tho man . He replied : ¦*— " I could not prosecute him , for ho absconded . Well , in tho madness of desperation I took to tho dice , in the hope of redeeming tho loss ; but I was uniformly unsuccessful in every thing I did with tho view of achieving that object . Look , too , at tho extremely low wages I nud—1 / . 6 a . a week ! I had out of that a nick wife
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OUR CIVILIZATION . ?—
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August 9 , 1856 . ] ( THE LEADBH 749
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Leader (1850-1860), Aug. 9, 1856, page 749, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2153/page/5/
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