The Brecon Reporter and South Wales General Advertiser

THE ROAD MURDER AND ELIZABETH GOUGH. Mr. J. W. Stapleton, a surgeon of Trowbridge, has written the folia wing letter to the Times In few and touching words Mr. Coleridge spoke to every heart while Constance Kent, convicted of murder on her own confession, stood penitently in the shadow of death. Solemnly, in the presence of Al- mighty God, and as one who values her own soul, she desires me to say that the guilt is hers alone, and that her father and others who have so long suffered most unjust and cruel suspicions are wholly and absolutely innocent. The linger of suspision was first pointed at the nurse and father of the murdered child by an un- founded and unfortunate conjecture that he had suffered partial or complete suffocation. Upon a prosecution by the Government, founded upon this conjecture, Elizabeth Gough stood, with her life in her hand, accused of the double crime of impurity and murder. By God's mercy, this terrible mistake was not permitted, to send her, with the father of the child, as her accomplice, to an ignominious death; and now, by Constance Kent's confession, the suggestion of suffocation, which placed Elizabeth Gough in mortal peril, is completely refuted. The story of this young woman's life is known to me and to others, and it is without a blot. The his- tory of her girlhood and of her domestic service; the uniform modesty and purity of her character; her fidelity to her master and to his family; her unwaver- ing courage and simple truthfulness in her time of trial and peril—these have made her an example to her station and to her sex. For five long years. she has been shut out from pro- fitable domestic employment under a social ban. It is now proposed. that a small annuity shall be pur- chased for her by a fund raised by subscriptions, limited to one guinea each, an account being opened by a committee of gentlemen appointed for the pur- pose with the bank of Messrs. Dimsdale and Fowler, of London, and with the North Wilts Bank, Trow- bridge. The case and prospects of William Kent, the younger brother of Constance Kent, are also deserving of something more than the., poor reparation of kind words and good wishes. This young man, now nearly twenty-one years of age, is a good son, a devoted brother, amiable and talented beyond the ordinary en- dowment of such qualities; but the thick dark cloud of this enduring family sorrow rests on him and bars his entrance into life. Will no one bring William Kent under the notice of the Government ? Would the Go. vernment resist an appeal on his behalf for employ- ment suitable to his education and habits P The unhappy convict throws herself at the feet of her earthly Sovereign. She prays for her life, for- feited, as she says, for her solitary crime. She prays also for those whose hearts have been wrung and whose fortunes have been mined by her long silence. As the veil drops over her sad story, the wrong she has done to her father ajiu to his ohildren and servants troubles her heart and fills her eyes with tears.

AN EXTRAORDINARY CASE OF FORGERY. Henry Augustus Winsor, a man of gentlemanly ap- pearance, described as a professor of music, was tried at the Lewes Assizes for feloniously forging a deed purporting to be a conveyance to him of certain pro- perty at Brighton, with intent to efralld. He was also charged with feloniously forging an ac- ceptance to a bill with the same intent. The prisoner pleaded guilty. Mr. Pearce, who, with Mr. Austin, appeared for the defence, said that, after carefully looking at the de. positions, he had felt that it was impossible to offer any legal answer to the charge, but he was instructed to put the court in possession of certain circumstances which might possibly affeot the sentence about to be passed. a ?°cupied a most respectable po- sition at Brighton; he was a professor of music, and an organist at one of the churches; but it ap- peared that he had unhappily become embarrassed, and at the time the offence was committed he was in daily expectation at a judgment being issued against him for the^sum of £ 900. He was entitled at this naPPeared, the reversion of a suin of m Consols, in the event of his surviving his wife, and he had been in treaty with some insurance company to advance him the money to payoff the debt that he had incurred, and there was no doubt that he expected to receive the money, and, being pressed, it appeared that he had executed the deed in question, which referred to property for which he was at the time in the course of treaty to purchase, and took it to a bank at Brighton, which advanced him the money he required upon it. He would add that at the time the offence was committed the prisoner really believed he should be in a position to repay it, and he had no intention to defraud. His character down to the present period had been un- impeachable, and a number of witnesses were in at- tendance, among whom were several clergymen and a lady of title, who would have deposed to that fact, but, under the circumstances, he considered it unne- cessary to call them. Mr. Pollock said he believed that the prisoner was really entitled to the reversion that had been spoken of by his learned friend, and he was also not in- structed to deny that he had heretofore borne a most respectable character. At the same time he felt it his duty to urge upon the court the very serious nature of the crime to which the prisoner had pleaded guilty, and the great deliberation with which it had been committed. Mr. Justice Crompton, in passing sentence, said that the prisoner had pleaded guilty to a very serious crime indeed-the forgery of a document purporting to be a conveyance of real property. Only a very few years ago his life would most undoubtedly have been for- feited for the offence, and although at the present time that mightpossibly be considered a savage law, still there could be no doubt that the offence was a most serious one, as deeds of this description were the only instruments by which property could be con- veyed, and were the only security for the transfer of property. The prisoner, no doubt, bore a good cha- racter, but when it was stated that clergymen and persons of title were present to speak to his character, he considered that this was rather an aggravation than otherwise, as he must have known perfectly well the serious character of the offence he was committing. He then sentenced the prisoner to be kept in penal servi- tude for eight years.

THE CONDEMN A TI&N OF CONSTANCE KENT. The commission for holding the Wilts Assizes having been read at Salisbury, the business of the Criminal Court commenced on Thursday, before Mr. Justice Willes. Considerable interest was manifested to hear the charge of the learned judge, as Constance Kent was one of the prisoners with whose case the grand jury would have to deal. The Crown Court, which is a very small and inconvenient place, was densely crowded. The usual formalities having been observed, and the gentlemen of the grand jury sworn, The learned Judge, in addressing the grand jury, expressed his regret that the calendar was, for this county, a long and heavy one. He then referred to the more serious cases in the order in which they stood in the calendar, and on coming lastly to the case of Miss Kent, addressed the jury as follows: Gentle- men-This is a case in which Constance Emilie Kent is charged with the murder of her brother by the second marriage of her father, which murder is alleged to have been committed as far back as the night of the 29th June, 1860. I shall abstain from making any remarks upon that case, except those which I think may be useful to you when you come to consider it in your room, and to determine whether you will find a true bill, or throw out the bill. [ do not think it would become me here to enter into any general remarks upon a case which has caused so much discussion. It would be unwise and imprudent on my part to discuss certain questions which may arise in the course of the trial, bat which do not appear by the depositions to have arisen before the magistrates, in such a form as to render it necessary that I should express an opinion upon them. I shall simply inform you that this is a case in which the boy who was murdered, unquestionably by some one, was taken in the course of the morning out of the room where he was sleeping with a maid or governess and another child-taken in a blanket, apparently through the drawing-room window, and then to the privy, where, it would seem, his throat was cut, and he was thrust down the hole. The blanket on which it ap- pears more than likely he was carried was removed from the bed. Inquiries were made, and persons skilled in investigating crime were sent forth, and every exertion was made to discover who was the mur- derer, but at that time all these efforts failed. There was one circumstance, however, of a remarkable cha- racter which will be brought under your notice in the course of your inquiry into the evidence. A night-shift of the person now charged with the crime was with- drawn from the wash, and a night-shift with blood upon it was found coneealed in the scullery the day after the murder, or oil the day of the murder, if it was com- mitted, as most likely it was, in the morning. There is, evidence from which it may be concluded—but this is a matter to be determined by the petty jury if you find a true bill-that that night-shift was abstracted by the prisoner, and was her own. That circumstance you will find is of exceeding importance in determining upon her guilt. Now, I have mentioned that the in- quiries were fruitless. Attention was withdrawn from the case the family left the neighbourhood, and the prisoner appears to have been sent to school abroad. In 1863, however, she was at an establishment at Brighten, called St. Mary's Hospital, presided over by Miss Graeme, who was -called! the Lady Superioress. The evidence of Miss Graeme was given before the magistrates,! asd in the course of it it seemed that she commenced conversing with Constance Emilie Kent as early as 1863 v. ith reference to certain suspicions which existed in her mind as to Constance Emilie Kent having been the murderer of her brother, and in answer to her inquiries the prisoner appears to ,have fftated-that is if the evidence of Miss Graeme ,can be relied upon—that she committed the murder, not out of spite to the child, but out of spite against her mother-in-law. Shellac stated that she took the child away in the blanket, and that she did withdraw from the wash the night-shift that had blood, upon it. It would; seem that conversations of a similar kind took place between the prisoner and a gentleman named Wagner, who is the incumbent of a church at Brighton. The precise import of these conversations does not appear upon the depositions, but they resulted in the prisoner writing down upon paper a statement that she had committed the murder in I860, and in her expressing a desire to give herself up to justice. Accordingly, communications took place with the authorities, into the particulars of which it is un- necessary for you to enter; and, finally, the prisoner, accompanied by Mr. Wagner, went before a magistrate of great experience, who is probably known to many of you the chief magistrate at Bow-street, and handed him a statement, not signed by her, but in her handwriting, in these terms I, Constance Emilie Kent, alone and unaided, en the 29th June, 1860, murdered at Road-hill-house, Wilts, one Francis Saville Kent. Before the deed none knew of my intention, nor afterwards of my guilt. No one assisted me in the crime, nor in any evasion of discovery." She was ordered into custody by Sir Thomas Henry, and sent before the magistrates of this county, who have taken the remaining depositions; and the result was that when she was called upon to say whether she wished to make any statement in answer to the evidence—after the warning had been administered pursuant to the statute—she replied, I wish to hand in, of my own free will, the piece of paper with the following writing upon it, in my own handwriting." She then handed in the paper to which I have already directed your attention, and which is given in the depositions. She then proceeds to say, "I do not wish to add anything to the above statement.—Con- stance Emilie Kent." She spells her name Emilie, which is probablv owing to her having been educated to some extent abroad. A person unacquainted with judieial inquiries might ask, Why so much discussion of the other evidence when here are two confessions of the prisoner herself, one in her handwriting and the other signed by her ? I answer, because admissions of this description ought always to be very closely in- vestigated, and we ought, if possible, for the purpose arnving at a satisfactory conclusion as to the guilt ot the prisoner, who says I am guilty," to take care that such an answer is not given upon any misappre- hension of the charge, or upon some motive other than the consciousness of guilt, and the desire to make a confession. The proper way to deal with such ad- mission is first to see whether it is a mere statement of guilt, or whether it is circumstantial as to time, place, and other things. Secondly, in a matter of so much importance to the prisoner, to see whether the circumstances of the case, established by independent evidence, do or do not confirm such admission. I am bound to say, upon the outline of the case as pre- sented by the depositions, it is one in which, in my judgment, you ought to act upon these admissions, and you ought to find a true bill. Whatever questions may remain to be dealt with in the case will be more satisfactorily investigated here. I trust the case will be tried in the ordinary way, before a petty jury, with the advantage of the prisoner being represented by counsel, who can urge anything that remains to be said in her favour. I have no doubt in advising you that it is your duty to find a true bill for the murder with which the prisoner is charged, in order that the case may be fully investigated here. The grand jury found a true bill. On Friday morning the court was thrown open. at nine o'clock and the very limited space appropriated to the public was immediately filled by persons anxious ) to hear the trial of Constance Kent. The arrange- ments of the police, however, were perfect, and as the wise precaution was adopted in this case of admitting no more to the court than it would comfortably hold, anything like undue crowding was avoided. A short time before the entrance of the judge the Rev. Mr. Wagner and Miss Green, who is known as the Lady Superior of St. Mary's Hospital, entered the court and took their seats on the bench appropriated to witnesses, which is a little behind the dock. They attracted some attention by the pecularity of their dress of the lady, but it was almost im- mediately diverted from them by the entrance of the learned judge and the high officials of the assize. The jury had been previously called, and directly the court was opened the pisoner was brought up. She was dressed in deep black, and wore black gauntlet gloves. Her face was hidden by a black worsted veil, which she raised on being called upon to plead. She wore a plain black cloak, but her bonnet was adorned with a black bugle trimming. There was nothing striking about her personal appear- ance, nor probably would she be considered in ordinary society particularly ladv-like, her features being dull and heavy, her forehead low, and there being an entire absence of anything like vivacity in her air and countenance. She was accompanied by a female warder. Directly after she entered the dock, Mr. Rodway, the solicitor of the family, stepped up to her, and entered into a short but apparently earnest conversation of a minute or two's duration, Having been formally given in charge by the governor of the county gaol to the court, the pro- ceedings were commenced by The Clerk of the Assizes, who, addressing the prisoner, said: Constance Emilie Kent, you stand charged with having wilfully murdered Francis Saville Kent, at Road-hill- house, on the 30th of June, 1860. How say you, are you guilty or not guilty ? The prisoner, who spoke in so low a tone as to be almost inaudible, replied: Guilty, After a pause of about a minute, Mr. Justice Wille-3 said: Are you aware that you are charged with having wilfully, intentionally, and with malice killed your brother ? The prisoner (who never raised her head from the front of the dock) Yes. Mr. Justice Willes: And you plead guilty to that ? Another pause here took place. Mr. Justice Willes What is your name? The prisoner still remained silent. Mr. Justice Willes: I must repeat to you that you are charged with having wilfully, and intentionally, and with inalace, killed and murdered your brother. Are you guilty or not guilty ? The prisoner: Guilty. Mr. Justice Willes (after a pause): The plea must be recorded. This having been done by the Clerk of Assize, Mr. Coleridge, Q.C., said: My lord, as counsel for the prisoner, acting on her behalf, and by her direct instructions, I desire to say two things before your lordship passes sentence. First, solemnly in the presence of Almighty God, and as a person who values her own soul, she desires me to say that the guilt is hers alone, and that her father and others who have so long suffered most unjust and cruel suspicions are whally and absolutely innocent. Next, she desires me to say that she was not driven to this act, as has been asserted, by any unsind treatment at home, as she met with nothing there but tender and forbear- ing love. I hope I may add, my lord, not improperly, that it gives one a melancholy pleasure to be made the organ of these statements, because, on my honour, I believe them to be true. Mr. Justice Willes: She must be called upon. The Deputy Clerk of the Arraigns Constance Emilie Kent, you have confessed yourself guilty of the wilful murder of Francis Saville Kent; what have you to say why sentence of death should not be passed upon you according to law ? The prisoner made no reply. The crier of the court: My Lords the Queen's Justices command silence while sentence is being pro- nounced. Mr. Justice Willes, assuming the black cap, said: Constance Emilie Kent, you have pleaded guilty to an indictment charging you with the wilful murder of your brother, Francis Saville Kent, on the 30th of 5ane, 1860. It is my duty to receive the plea which you have deliberately put forward, and it is a satisfaction to know that it was not pleaded until after you have had the advice of counsel, who would have freed you from this dreadful charge if you could have been freed therefrom. I can entertain no doubt, after having read the, evidence in the depositions, and after having considered this, your third confes- sion of the crime, that your plea is the plea of a really guilty person. The murder was one committed under circumstances of great deliberation and cruelty. You appear to have allowed feelings of jealousy and anger to have worked in your breast, until at last they as- sumed over you the: iiiflucmoe and power of the Evil One. (The learned judge here became so deeply af- fected that he was unable to proceed with the sen- tence for a few moments. At length, however, master- ing his emotion, he continued)—Whether her Majesty, in whom alone the prerogative of mercy rests, may be advised to consider the fact of your youth at the time whan the murder was committed, the fact that you have been convicted chiefly on your own con- fession, and the fact that that confession has removed suspicion from others, is a question which it would be presumptuous in me to answer here. It well be- hoves you to live what is left you of life as one who is about to die, and to seek for more enduring mercy by sincere and deep contrition, and by a reliance on the only redemption, propitiation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world. It remains for me to dis- charge the duty which the law imposes upon the court without alternative, and that is to pass upon you the sentence which the law adjudges to wilful murderers: that you be taken from the place where you now stand to the place from whence you came, from thence to a place of execution, that there you be hanged by the neck until your body be dead, and that your body when dead be buried within the precincts of the gaol in which you may be last confined, and may God have mercy upon your soul. The prisoner, on the whole, heard the sentence with extraordinary composure. When the learned judge said that she had allowed feelings of jealousy to work in her breast, she murmured a word or two almost in- articulately, but which were stated by two gentlemen at the bar who were seated just below her to be not jealousy," but the words certainly did not reach the reporter's box, though it could be seen she had ut- tered something. Immediately afterwards, when the learned judge said that her feelings had assumed over her the power of the Evil One, she burst into a fit of hysterical sobbing. The learned judge, also, was so affectthat, immediately after pass- ing sentence he was obliged to retire from the court for some time previous to proceeding with the trial of other prisoners. Among the spectators were a considerable number of females, who, however, ap- peared to regard the whole proceedings with perfect equanimity. Several of the jurymen appeared deeply affected. Immediately after the sentence was passed, the convict, who was accompanied by a female warder, left the dock with a firm step, and without the slightest help descended the stairs leading te the cells below. A very large crowd had assembled outside the court-house, but, owing to the precautions adopted by the authorities there was no undue crowding within the court itself. The sudden termination of the case, as detailed above, WitS received with the greatest possible surprise, not only in the court but amongst the large number of persons who were congregated outside anxions to hear the result of the proceedings. Many of the authorities up to the last moment fully anticipated that the case would proceed.to trial before the petty jury, and every preparation had been made for a lengthened inquiry, there being no less than thirty-five witnesses to be examined for the prosecution. This is a much larger number than has ever been brought together upon any occasion in connection with the investigations of this extraordinary case. The evidence which has been col- lected since Miss Kent's committal at Trowbridge is said to be of a most conclusive and damaging character. Had the case gone to trial, a motive would have been shown for the commission of the crime by Miss Constance Kent, and amongst the witnesses who would have been called were two young ladies, one named Miss Hattrell, and the other Miss Moody, who were schoolfellows of the prisoner, and it is said their evidence would have shown that shortly before the commission of the crime Miss Kent had been heard to use strong expressions of dislike and animosity against her brother Francis Saville Kent. The necessity for calling witnesses, however, was done away with by the prisoner maintaining her plea of guilty. When she first entered the dock she was the object of much attention from a crowded court, "but I she did not in the least waver under the gaze of the many spectators. Her dress was plain and simple, and her manner, with one single exception, that of the most unconeerned person in the court. During the passing of the sentence she remained perfeetlyoom- posed, until Mr. Justice Willes alluded to the influence ot the Evil One, and himself gave way to the painful emotions which animated him. For several minutes Mr. Justice Willes was unable to proceed with the words of the solemn sentenoe which \passinf on,the ™^appy sirl> and the spectators deeply moved at;this exhibition of feelin» on the part of thej udge. Then it was that Miss Kent could no longer retain that fixed composure which had previously characterised her conduct while in court, and turning her head aside she wept loudly and bitterly for several minutes. No sooner, however, had Mr. Justice Willes recommenced his remarks than the prisoner dried up her tears, and in a few minutes she had settled down into that same stern and appa- rent indifference which Ie not the least extraordinary trait of her character. When the concluding words of the awful sentence were being pronaanced, the prisoner remained immovable; not a liab not a muscle quivered; and though there was not a dry"eva m the assembly, the prisoner at the bar had ceased weeping, and received her sentence in a manner which was perfectly astounding, and which caused the greatest sensation in court. When Mr. Justice Willes had concluded, the prisoner turned round 0 the female warder who had accompanied her into the dock, and who was bathed in tears, and with an unfaultering step she descended the flight of stairs into the cell below. The whole of the proceedings did not occupy more than twenty minutes; and when the news be- came spread abroad that the trial was over and the unhappy girl condemned to death, the intelligence was received with the utmost incredulity. Such composure upon the part of a prisoner placed in the awful position of Miss Kent, was, perhaps, never wit- nessed in a court of justice, and from the highest to the lowest expressions of astonishment were freely given vent to. cc j- It is said that there is good authority for stating that Miss Kent has made a detailed written statement of the crime for which she has now been sentenced to death, and that this confession conhaiaa her motive for the commission of the deed, which was, hatred of her mother-in-law and half-brother. The confession will not, it is thought, be made public at present, though its publication could not be but satisfactory, as tending to settle and dispose of many doubts which have arisen in the public mind as to the real perpe- trator of this most foul deed Commutation of Sentence. The commutation of the extreme sentence, in the case of Constance Kent, to penal servitude for life, will at once approve itself to the public mind as a de- cision conformable to justice and humanity, under all the circumstances of the crime and its confession. There is no reason to suppose that the prisoner pleaded guilty in the hope of extenuating her guilt, or of elud- mg the consequences of its discovery. Her confession was declared by her counsel to be an act of contrition remorse, expiation, whatever external influences may have stirred her heart or her conscience to make it. Con- sidering the failure of detection in the first instance, and the improbability of discovering, after the lapse of years, except by the confession of the one suspected person, a mystery which had defied the first investigations; considering the inevitably unsatisfactory nature of any such confession, and the difficulty at least of excluding some merciful doubts of the respsnsible state of a young girl's mind that could have harboured such a horror out of mere spite and jealousy, and prompted to so foul and unnatural a revenge upon a harmles child; considering all these circumstances, it may well have been felt that this was an instance of all others in which justice and humanity would alike be satisfied by a punishment not indeed incom- mensurate with the guilt confessed, but commensu- rate also with the conditions of its discovery and the chances of a trial if the trial had taken its course. The Home Secretary has lost no time in coming to a deci- sion, and in recommending to her Majesty to commute the sentence of death to penal servitude for life. We believe the public mind will be relieved by this deci- sion of the Home-office, and Sir George Grey deserves credit for having made it known without a day's un- necessary delay.

FULL CONFESSION OF DR. PRITCHARD. It will be remembered that Dr. Pritchard, nearly a fortnight ago, made a confession as to the murder of his wife, and denying that of his mother-in-law. It was believed at the time to be less than half the truth, as it did not accord with the evidence adduced. Some journals, not very wisely, pitted that half confession against the medical analysis, and suggested that the doctors were now on their trial." The full confession now obtained shows that our medical jurisprudence is more to be trusted than the assertion of a crafty criminal at his last shift. "Confession by Edward William Pritchard, and made in the presence of an All-seeing God, and of the Rev. T. Watson Raid, my present spiritual adviser, on the 19th day of July, 1865, at Glasgow Prison, "for communication to the proper authorities. I, Edward William Pritchard, in the full possession of all my senses, and understanding the awful position in which I am placed, do make free and open confession that the sentence pronounced upon me is just: that I am guilty of the death of my mother-in-law, Mrs. Taylor, and of my wife, Mary Jane Pritchard; that I can assign no motive for the conduct which actuated me beyond a species of terrible madness and the use of ardent spirits. I hereby freely and fully state that the confession made to the Rev. R. S. Oldham on the 11th day of this month was not true, and I hereby confess that I alone, not Mary BTLeod, poisoned my wife in the way brought out in evi- dence at my trial; that Mrs. Taylor's death was caused according to the wording of the indictment I farther state to be true; and the main facts brought out on my trial, I hereby fully acknowledge, and now plead wholly and solely guilty thereto, and may God have mercy on my soul! I pray earnestly for repentance not to be repented of, and for forgiveness from Al- mighty God, through the intercession of our blessed Redeemer, Mediator, and Advocate, Jesus Christ, the Lord and Saviour. Fellow-creatures, pray for me, and let me add I am in charity with all men. I have now to record my humble thanks to all who have taken part in any way for my interest. First to their lordships the judges for their great patience, forbearance, and careful consideration of my case, and to the gen- tlemen of the jury; to all the officials. I cannot help mentioning the Clerk of the High Court of Justiciary, the Governor (Mr. Smith) of the Edinburgh Gaol, the chaplain, Rev. Mr. Russell, Head-Warder Nelson, Warders John Livingstone and Mackintosh; the Governor of Glasgow Prison, Mr. Stirling; Mr. Armour, head-warder; chaplain, Mr. Doran; his as- sistants, Messrs. Hogg and Troup; Warders Mutrie, Thomson, &o.; to Drs. Leishman and Dewar, surgeons to Glasgow Prison; and Dr. Simpson, of Edinburgh Gaol. To the non-officials my heartfelt thanks are specially due; to the Eav. Dr. Miller, of Free St. Matthew's, Glasgow; and tÐ other ministers who have written to me, not adding their names; to Dr. Norman M'Leod, may God bless him; and to my own immediate faith-professors, J^ev..B. S. Oldham and Rev. T. Watson Reid; to the police authorities- Superintendent M'Call and police at the cen- tral office, Glasgow; to Sergeant Stewart, of the Edinburgh police force and the sheriff officers, Wilson, of Glasgow, and Ferguson, of Edinburgh; and to many others whose courtesy and kindness I cannot forget; above all to Sir Archibald Alison, Sheriff, &0.; for*hi3^'humane, gentle treatment while undergoing hia legal duties. May each and all accept the thanks of a dearly penitent sinner, and may Heaven be their re- ward, is the last prayer of Edward William Pritchard. John Stirling, Governor, WitSf Edward Geast, Warder, Witne==?' "JOHN MUTRIE, Warder, Witness?''

The Birmingham Penny Bank Failure.- The affairs of the late Birmingham Penny Bank have come before Mr. Registrar Tudor, in the Birmingham Bankruptcy Court. The proposal to take the estate out of court, under the 110th section was confirmed. There were about 300 depositors present. Although the hearing on Friday was only a formal one, they were Very much excited, and frequently interf-upted the proceedings. Being required to be silent they only became more violent. One man exclaimed, that the whole affair was a piece of swindling and rob- bery." Several of the people in court were weeping lothers were shouting, arguing, and protesting that they had been robbed by the Penny Bank. The scene I was one of the most disorderly and at the same time I one of the moat affecting ever seen in a court of | justice.