say whether a butcher's cart dragged the pony into
Oxford—it was so dark he could not distinctly see if the
cart were attached, and so on. Pickett's counsel
besought that if the decision of the Bench were against
his client he might not be sent to prison—that would
be his ruin. The magistrates pronounced the accused
guilty, and fined him 40s. with £1 13s. costs—which
was paid immediately, of course.

At the Southwark police-office, on the 20th, three
boys, named James Cooper, Reuben Shaw, and John
Cook, the eldest eleven and the youngest eight years of
age, were charged with Stealing several iron articles
from Mr. Smith's timber-yard, in the Commercial-road,
Lambeth; and Mary Lambert, a corpulent, well-dressed
woman, was charged with Receiving them, knowing
them to have been stolen. The magistrate committed
the boys for three days each and to be well whipped in
gaol, and said he should afterwards require one of them
to appear as a witness on the trial of the woman
Lambert, to prove the fact of her having purchased the
stolen articles from him and his companions.

The reverend Dr. Rice, Head Master of Christ's
Hospital, has committed Suicide under a visitation of
morbid despondency. On Thursday morning, the 20th
inst., he was found suspended to his bedstead by a
handkerchief, quite dead. He had taken advantage of
a brief interval, during which he had been left alone;
Mrs. Rice having gone down stairs while he still slept.
Dr. Rice was in his fifty-seventh year. He had a severe
fever two years since, and a nervous fever in May or
June last: after the latter he was no longer the same
man, and during the last three months his mind was
evidently affected. The surgeon of Christ's Hospital
directed that the family should watch him closely; and
this was ordinarily done. In accordance with the advice
of the medical men, Dr. Rice had recently resigned the
Head Mastership. It was the fever alone that had
overturned his reason: his pecuniary aifairs were in a
very satisfactory state. Last Monday he asked his wife
if she thought he was "out of his mind"; to which she
replied, "Oh, certainly not." He had latterly been very
low-spirited. Mrs. Rice was the first to discover the
shocking fact of her husband's suicide. The jury of
course returned a verdict of "Temporary insanity."
Dr. Rice was connected with many of the public
institutions of the metropolis.

At the Warwick Assizes, last summer, the Court was
occupied with an action brought by Constant Derra de
Moroda against Mr. George Dawson and other gentlemen
of Birmingham, for having maliciously and falsely
charged him with Obtaining Money under False
Pretences. Constant Derra was the acting secretary of the
so-called Baroness von Beck, and was arrested with her
at Birmingham. The Baroness died in the police-court;
and there, as far as she was concerned, the matter
ended: Derra was discharged from custody, on the
ground that there was no evidence to inculpate him in
the alleged fraud. Hence the action for damages. At
the Warwick Assizes, Baron Alderson decided that
there was no case for the Jury, as the warrant
connecting the arrest with the defendants was not produced;
and the trial ended in the nonsuit of Derra; a result
unsatisfactory to both parties. In the Michaelmas term,
a rule was granted by the Court of Queen's Bench to
show cause why the nonsuit should not be set aside and
a new trial granted. The case has now been heard
before Lord Campbell, who has decided that the rule for
a new trial should be made absolute, on the ground that
there was some evidence to go to a jury against the
defendants. There was evidence that the charge
of obtaining money under false pretences had been
made; and as it had been made by somebody, the
question was, whether or not it had been made by the
defendants.

A disturbance took place in Ashton-under-Lyne on
the morning of the 20th inst., in consequence of about
500 rough-looking fellows having entered the town for
the purpose of Intimidating some Workmen employed
as brickmakers, who are not members of the Trades-
Union of Brickmakers. They came from Manchester.
On their approach having been made known to the
authorities of Ashton, they were met at the railway
station by Mr. Metcalfe the mayor, and the high
constable. The mayor addressed them, explaining that
their object was illegal if intended tn excite fear or to
intimidate other workmen, and he advised them not to
walk in procession, but quietly disperse. The advice
was disregarded, and having formed two-a-breast they
marched to the brickcroft of Mr. W. Conley, at Ashton,
where twelve men were working who did not belong to
the trades' union. Two of these men were so alarmed
that they left their work, and the mob of intimidators
then went to the Ashton Theatre, which had been
engaged for a meeting, and having held what they
termed a demonstration they separated. Three
companies of the 4th Regiment of Infantry had been called
out of barracks and placed in the Town-hall, but there
was no call for their further services.

An Inquest on the Body of a New-bom Child found
in a garden in Agar-town, St. Pancras, held on the 21st
inst., gave occasion to some observations by the coroner,
Mr. Wakley, on cases of this kind. The body had been
brought to the St. Pancras Infirmary, and the surgeon
who examined it said that the child must have been
born alive, and that death must have been caused by
want of proper attention at the birth, whether wilfully
or not there was no evidence to show. The Coroner:
If the child was born alive, as appears from the evidence,
and died for want of attention, it was as much a murder
as if the throat was cut. If the jury were convinced that
the proper attention was withheld, it was their duty to
return a verdict of wilful murder. Under the
circumstances this was the proper course to adopt; if at any
future time the mother should be forthcoming, it would
be for her to prove that proper attention was not
wilfully withheld. The jury would run no risk in
coming to this decision. In the event of the mother
being sent to the Old Bailey, it was exceedingly doubtful
if she would be convicted. It seldom happened that
persons were convicted of child murder. He (the
coroner) remembered one case, where a child's throat
was cut from ear to ear; but the magistrate refused to
convict, on the ground that there was no proof that it
had not been done after death. The present case was
an illustration of the utility of foundling hospitals. The
establishment of such an institution would, in his (the
coroner's) opinion, be the means of preventing 400
murders annually. The jury returned a verdict of
"Wilful Murder against some person or persons
unknown."

At the Lambeth Police Court, on the 21st, a man
assuming the name of the Rev. J. Bloomfield, with
numerous aliases, was remanded on various charges of
Swindling. Some curious circumstances of this man's
biography, have transpired. The Rev. J. Bloomfield,
alias Mr. Bradley, alias Roberts, alias Case, alias
Bradford, alias James Watson, alias Humphreys, or
Humphreyson, alias Collingwood, alias the Rev. J.
Kendall, alias the Rev. J. Kenny, alias Sinclair, alias
Kendall, on the 10th of May, 1849, lived at Lyston,
near Grantham, and continued his fraudulent attempts
to obtain goods of tradesmen under the name of the
Rev. J. Bloomfield, by sending written orders; his wife
sent orders in the name of Bradley. On December the
14th, he was at Allen's-street, Newland, Northamptonshire,
where he took the name of Roberts and Case. He
then went, on the 9th of May, 1850, to Wareham, near
Stoke Ferry, Norfolk, where, under the name of
R. Bradford, he carried on his old practices. He was
next traced, on the 9th April, 1851, to 4, King-street,
Broadway, Deptford, at which place Mrs. Bradley
represented herself as keeping a ladies' seminary. He
left there on the 10th July, and went to 4, Edge-terrace,
Kensington Gravel Pits, when he continued sending
orders for seeds under the name of James Wilson. His
next place of resort was 9, Hill's-terrace, Chatham,
where he described himself as a surveyor, under the
name of Humphreyson. On September 17, also at 63,
Harrow-road, Paddington. He left there, and on October
15 went to Chapel-street, Blue Tower, Sheerness,
where, under the name of Collingwood, he ordered a
telescope and a few dissolving views. On the 31st, he
wrote an order for goods to be forwarded without delay,
and promised a post-office order on the earliest
opportunity. He was on Nov. 8, committed for trial for
fraud by Mr. Alderman Wilson, from the Mansion-house