NARRATIVE OF LAW AND CRIME

ON the 2nd, Thomas Denny was tried at Kingston-on-
Thames for Murdering his Child. He was a farm-servant,
and so poor that he lived in a hay-loft on his master's
premises with his reputed wife. In August a child was born,
and died immediately. Suspicions arose, and an investigation
took place, which led to the prisoner's commitment
charged with murdering the infant. On the trial the
prisoner's son, an intelligent boy of eight years old, told
the following graphic story of his father's guilt:—"We
all," he said, "lived together in the hay-loft at Ewell.
When mother had a baby, I went to my father and told
him to come home directly. When we got back, my
father took up the baby in his arms. He then took up
an awl. [Here the child became much affected and
cried bitterly, and it was some time before he could
proceed with his testimony. At length he went on.]
My father took up the awl, and killed the baby with it.
He struck the awl into its throat. The baby cried, and
my father took the child to its mother, and asked her if
he should make a coffin for it. Before he said this, he
asked her if she would help to kill it, and gave her the
awl. She tried to kill it also. My father gave her the
child and the awl, and she did the same to it that he
had done. I was very much frightened at what I saw,
and ran away, and when I came back I found mother in
bed." The woman (Eliza Tarrant) had been charged as an
accomplice, but the bill against her was ignored by the
Grand Jury. On the trial, she was called as a witness;
to which the prisoner's counsel objected, she being a
presumed participator in the crime. The woman
however was called, and partly corroborated her son's
testimony; but denied that she took any share in killing
her offspring. The prisoner was convicted, and Mr.
Justice Maule passed sentence of death, informing him
that there was no hope of respite.—Subsequently however
the objections of the prisoner's counsel proved more
valid than the judge supposed, for the Secretary of State
thought proper to commute the sentence. The unfortunate
man received the respite with heartfelt gratitude.
Since his conviction he appeared to be overcome with
grief at his awful position.

"I'll throw you over!" exclaimed a carpenter of the
Strand Theatre, named Lepridge, to a fellow-workman.
They were quarrelling violently, and the latter
(Matthews) having taken refuge in one of the upper
boxes from the rage of his companion, was followed by
Lepridge, who seized him by the throat and actually
threw him over into the orchestra. This happened on
the 2nd. Matthews was seriously injured, but was able
to attend and give his evidence a few days afterwards
at Bow-street. The prosecutor humanely begged his
fellow-workman off, notwithstanding his savage
conduct. The excuse was, that having been drinking
all day, Lepridge was furious from intoxication. The
magistrate sentenced him to a fine of £5, or two months
imprisonment.

A Tale of Misery was revealed on the 3rd to Mr.
à Beckett, the magistrate of Southwark police court. He
received a letter from a gentleman who stated that as he
was walking home one evening, his attention was attracted
to a young woman. She was evidently following an immoral
career; but her appearance and demeanour interesting him
he spoke to her. She candidly acknowledged, that having
been deserted by her parents, she was leading an
abandoned life to obtain food for her three sisters, all younger
than herself. Her father had been in decent circumstances,
but that unfortunately her mother was addicted
to drink, and owing to this infirmity their parents had
separated, and abandoned them. The writer concluded
by hoping that the magistrate would cause an inquiry to
be made. Mr. à Beckett directed an officer of the court
to investigate into this case. On the 4th, the officer called
at the abode of the young woman, in a wretched street,
at a time when such a visit could not have been expected.
He found Mary Ann Bannister, the girl alluded to, and
her three sisters, of the respective ages of eight, eleven,
and fourteen, in deep distress. The eldest was washing
some clothing for her sisters. There was no food of any
description in the place. Altogether the case was a
very distressing one, and although accustomed to scenes
of misery, in the course of his duties, yet this was
one of the most lamentable the officer had met
with. The publication of the case had the effect of
inducing several benevolent individuals to transmit
donations to Mr. à Beckett for these destitute girls, to
the amount, as he stated on a subsequent day, of above
£25. He added that it was in contemplation to enable
the girls to emigrate to South Australia, and that
meanwhile they had been admitted into the workhouse of
St. George's parish, where they would be kept till a
passage was procured for them to the colony. More
than one person had offered to take Mary Ann Bannister
into domestic service; but emigration for the whole four
was thought more advisable.

A female named Lewis, who resided at Bassalleg, left
her home on the 3rd to go to Newport, about three
miles distant, to make purchases. She never returned.
A search was made by her son and husband, who
is a cripple, and on the night of the following day
they discovered her Murdered in a Wood at no very
great distance from the village, so frightfully mangled
as to leave no doubt that she had been waylaid and
brutally murdered. The head was shockingly
disfigured, battered by some heavy instrument, and the
clothes were saturated with blood. For some days the
perpetrators escaped detection, but eventually Murphy
and Sullivan, two young Irishmen, were arrested at
Cheltenham, on suspicion. Wearing apparel covered
with blood, and a number of trifling articles were found
on them. They were sent off to Newport, where it was
found they had been engaged in an atrocious outrage
in Gloucestershire, on an old man whom they had
assailed and robbed on the road near Purby; his skull
was fractured; and his life was considered to be in
imminent peril. Both prisoners were fully committed
to the county gaol at Monmouth to take their trial
for wilful murder.

A Dreadful Murder has been discovered in the
neighbourhood of Frome, in Somersetshire. On the 3rd a
young man named Thomas George, the son of a labourer
residing near that town, left his father's house about
eight in the evening and never returned. Next morning
his father went in search of him, and found his body
in a farmer's barn; he had been apparently dead for
some hours, and there were deep wounds in his head
and throat. A man named Henry Hallier, who had
been seen in company with the deceased, the night he
disappeared, close to the barn where his body was
found, was apprehended on the 18th on suspicion, and
committed to the county gaol.

An act of Unparallelled Atrocity was committed during
the Easter week in the Isle of Man. Two poor men
named Craine and Gill went to a hill-side to procure
a bundle of heather to make brooms. The proprietor
of the premises observed them, and remarked that he
would quickly make them remove their quarters. He at
once set fire to the dry furze and heather, directly under
the hilly place where the poor men were engaged. The
fire spread furiously, and it was only by rolling himself
down the brow of the hill, and falling over the edge of
a precipice into the river underneath, that Gill escaped.
His unfortunate companion, who was a pensioner, aged
80 years, and quite a cripple, was left in his helpless
state a prey to the flames. After they had subsided, Gill
went in search of Craine, whom he found burnt to a
cinder. The proprietor of the heath has been apprehended.

A Shot at his Sweetheart was fired by John Humble
Sharpe, a young man of 21, who was tried for it at
the Norfolk Circuit on the 9th. The accused, a young
carpenter, had courted and had been accepted by the
prosecutrix, Sarah Lingwood. She, however, listened
to other vows; the lover grew jealous, and was at
length rejected. In the night after he had received
his dismissal, the family of the girl's uncle with whom
she lived were alarmed by the report of a gun. On
examining her bed-room it was discovered that a bullet
had been fired through the window, had crossed the
girl's bed, close to the bottom where she lay, grazed
a dress that was lying on the bedclothes, and struck a
chest of drawers beyond. Suspicion having fallen on the
prisoner, he was apprehended. The prisoner's counsel
admitted the fact, but denied the intent. The prisoner had,
he said, no desire to harm the girl, whom he tenderly loved,