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REPORTED WREcK OF AN ABYSSINIAN…

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REPORTED WREcK OF AN ABYSSINIAN TRANSPORT. The following account of the wreck of an Abyssinian transport, which appeared in the Western Morning News of last week, requires confirmation 'At the latter end of January last, Mr W. D. H. Grose, engineer, R.N., residing at Plymouth, and Mr G. S. Cornish, first-class assistant-engineer, of Devonport, having been appointed to F.M.S. Octavia, 35 guns, now in the Red Sea, pro- ceeded by a mail packet to join that vessel. Letters have just been received from each of these officers giving it. deplorable account of the disasters which have befallen them. It appears that they arrived at Aden on the 18th Feb, and the same evening were transferred to a trans. port, the name of which is not given, and set sail for the Octavia. About midnight the transport ran on a reef of rocks during a heavy gale, and remained stuck fast, the sea breaking over her. In lbi- pitiful olight, expecting every moment that the ship would break up, the unhappy passengers and crew, many of whom appeared to be offi- cers on their way to join the Abyssinian expedition, remained on board until noon next day, when it being evident thllt the ship could not longer stand the strain to which she was subjected, seven of those on board, in- cluding Mr Grose and Mr Cornish, resolved to trust themselves to a boat, apparently the only boat left with the ship, hoping to make land, although the tremendous, breakers almost forbade the hope that they could be saved. After a short but most dangerous trip the little party reacted land, and were immediately surrounded by a body of Arabs, armed, it is said, with pistols, who, under threats of instant death, compelled the seven un- happy men to strip themselves of the whole of their clothing, and of all else they bad succeeded in bringing ashore, and then abandoned thf m to their fate in an un- known country. The seven survivors believe that soon after they left the transport she broke up, aad that the remainder on board. 67 in number, perished. After waiting some hours the seven set off to walk to Aden, and for two days and a night were without clothing, even their boots having been taken, under the burning sun by day and the cold by night. At length, however, on the 20th of February they reached Aden, and were at once provided fcr on board her Majesty's ship Nymph. They were, of course, very weak and exhausted, their limbs being greatly swollen; and at the date of the letter?, the 21st February, were extremely ill, and hardly able to write. A steamer was despatched to the scene of tbs wreck to endeavour to save some of the valuables on board, and also to pick up other survivors.' THE FEARFUL WJFg MURDER AT SWANSEA. On the lith inst, Win. Lake was brought up in custody before Mr Brock (mayor) Mr J. D. Llewellyn, and Mr Phillips, charged with the wilful murder of Martha, his wife. The prisoner was removed to the police court from the gaol, where he has been incarcerated since the tragic event. The greatest anxiety was evinced to obtain a plimpse of the prisoner, as is invariably the case under similar circumstances when a fearful crime has been perpetrated. Lake is apparently about 55 years of age: rather above the middle size; of arobitst build: rather hold; and of a determined and rather severe cast of features; but there is nothing ferocious cr brutal in his appearance or general demeanour. He was permitted to be seated in the dock during the examination. At first he maintained a composed and collected aspect; but when the more harrowing and atrocious revelations were made in regard to the condition in which his unhappy wife Was found, and when Qr. Paddon detailed the results of the post mortem examination, his fortitude appears to have given way, and ho leaned his hepd, and seemed deeply affected. His two sons, one about twenty-four, and tha other nineteen years of age, were present during the examination, end both of them appeared to feel very deeply the painitil position which tlJey relatively occu- pied. The court was crowded, and a large concourse of people assembled outside the police-court during the day. Mr Gascodine (Essery and Ga codine) ap- peared for the prosecution, and conducted the prose- cution with considerable tact; Mr Smith (Smith and Lewis), ably conducted the defence, as before the coroner. The evidence deposed to by the various witnesses is much the same as that elicited before the coroners; and which we have alreadjT published in extenso. Inspector Brooks produced the boots worn by the prisoner on the melancholy rrght of the murder. They were heavy boots, tipped with iron as is <reneraily the case with the boots of working men. Dr Paddon stated that boots similar to ihose produced were likely to inflict the injury which resulted in four broken ribs, and the frightful laceration of the liver, which must have caused death almost immediately, the blow or kick bein^ of a most violent description, whilst the body was prostrated and exhausted from the previous wounds and contusions which were on the head, face, arms, breast, and other parts of the body. Mr Smith, after cress examining the medical gentlemen who gave evidence, addressed the court on behalf of the prisoner with great eloquence and earnestness, amid the greatest silence in the crowded court. The leirned advocate, in the first p'aee, coniend-d that there was no conclusive evidence to connect the prisoner with the actual murder at all. But ho would assume that the Bench were of opinion that the case ought to go before a jury, and that there was primn focie, or presumptive evidence, to show that the prisoner had caused the death of his wife by an unfortunate push or biow, he submitted t.hat all the circumstances of the case pointed rather to thecrimo ol manslaughter than to that of wilful and deliberate murder. Let them only regard the melancholy facts of the case as detailed so painfully in evidence, and they must arrive at the conclusion that immense pro- vocation and acgrav uion had been given by the deceased. At eight o'clock she went to ask for her husband at the inn. Up to that time there was no evidence of his having any malicious feeling towards bis wHe. lie appeared according to evidence, to be a hard-working, peaceful' civil fellow: but he had one of the most heartrending domestic calamities indicted on him in the shape of a drunken wife. It was shoyu how wijh touching earnest- ness he had begged, prayed, and entreated her to give up her intemperate habits. They had seen how soi'ed dirty and filthy, she had left her bed-clothes. The little child, which it was her bounden duty to her husband and her God to care for and cherish, was neglected and the unhappy mother, instead of making a Heaven of her little home, had actually made it into a hell. Well might he, indeed, have been filled with horror and dismay at such a spectacle as was pre,ented to his gaze on his return to his house; and bad he in a moment of despera- tion and despair used violence which had resulted so disastrously to his future peace of mind, and to his hitherto good character, which, had he been the cause of death, would henceforth be deeply stained-he ear- nestly submitted that the crime perpetrated was, in the eye of man. and in the eye of the law, not wWulaDd delibe- rate murder, but that of manslaughter. The magistrates retired to consider the course they should adopt, and after ten minutes' ab ence they returned to court, and the Mayor, addressing the prisoner, informed him that they bad given the case their best attention, and that they felt it to be their painful duty to commit him for trial on the capital charge—wilful murder -at the next assizes, at Cardiff. The prisoner was then formally committed, and the fourteen witnesses in the case bound over to prosecute. The prisoner, on being asked if he had anything to say after he had been duly cautioned, said: I am not guilty of it; and that I can say to the last moment of my life. He was then removed to a cell, and thencejconveyed to prison in a cab. Mr Phillipll intimated to the head constable that a fly should have been provided instead of parading the pri- soner before a crowd that followed from the gaol. RESPITE OF A AIURDFRPR.Ihe condemned man named George Nuttall, who has been under sentence of death in the Lancaster Prison, was on Saturday respited. It will be remembered that the prisoner was convicted for stabbing a man in. the streets, supposed to be in a drunken row.