recommendation of the jury he should have felt it his
duty to have left Drew for execution; he should, however,
order sentence of death to be recorded, and should
recommend her Majesty to commute that sentence into
transportation for life; the sentence upon Andrews was
that he be transported for fifteen years.

At Bow Street Police Office, on the 17th instant, the
Board of Inland Revenue proceeded against Mr. Truelove,
a newsman in the Strand, for Selling an Unstamped
Paper, to which offence a penalty of £20 is attached. The
paper is the Potteries Free Press, published weekly,
and to all intents and purposes a local newspaper. Mr.
C. D. Collet, the proprietor, stated that he has started
it to "try the question," contending that the government
should not allow the Athenæum, the Builder, the
Racing Times, and other journals which contained
news, to be published without a stamp, or they should
allow entire freedom in the matter. Mr. Collett gave
notice at the Stamp-office of his intention to publish;
but his virtual challenge to go before a jury was not
accepted: and the Board has proceeded against the
newsvendor, not the proprietor, or publisher. The
Magistrate reserved his decision, which he gave on the
24th instant. He was of opinion that a newspaper
liable to stamp duty, may be described to be any paper
containing public news, intelligence, or occurrences,
which is printed for sale, and published periodically at
intervals not exceeding twenty-six days; and that there
is a manifest distinction between the defendant's paper
and the Athenæum, the Builder, and the Racing Times;
those papers being confined to one particular or class
subject: while the Potteries Free Press is published
for the purpose of narrating events generally. He
therefore convicted the defendant in the mitigated
penalty of £5, and 2s. costs.

A most melancholy Suicide has been committed by a
female named Mary Ann Adams, whose body was found
in the Thames, off Rotherhithe, on the 10th inst. She
was the wife of a clerk in the City, who had absconded
after committing extensive forgeries, leaving his wife
and children helpless. She had been compelled to seek
refuge in St. Mark's workhouse, but immediately before
her death was residing by permission in the house of a
friend at Old Brentford. She left this place for London
in very low spirits, ostensibly for the purpose of re-
entering the union with her infant, aged seventeen
months. Her friends saw no more of her till called to
identify her at a coroner's inquest held on her body.
Letters in her handwriting, of which the following are
copies, were produced:

"My dear friend—I hope the Almighty God will pardon my
sins for the crime I have committed, but I can never be happy
in this world, neither could I leave my infant in this cold
world. God grant I maybe forgiven for such a rash act. I
freely forgive my husband as I hope to be forgiven. Wherever
he is, he is quite as unhappy as myself. I also sincerely
hope my dear boys will do well in the world, wherever they
are. Do not tell my dear little daughter anything that has
occurred to me. I hope the Lord may protect her, and may
she see her father again. He, and her brothers, and herself,
has a mother's dying blessing, also the party who protects my
little girl. I bid adieu to all dear friends; many thanks for
their kindnesses. From an unhappy wife.
"(Signed)                                                Mary Ann Adams.
"P. S. Judge not harshly."

The next was as follows:

"I have preferred Waterloo-bridge. Send to Mrs. Tappin,
and don't tell Anna for the world. Good bye, God bless you
all. I hope to be at rest with my poor infant. Do not shed a
tear."

On a scrap of paper was written in her handwriting:

"Of sorrows and troubles I have had my share. To leave
an infant to the buffets of the world is a worse crime than the
one I have committed. I hope God will forgive me, for my
heart is too full to support my spirits any longer. I hope we
shall both rest in peace."

The body of the child, which doubtless perished with
her, has not been found. The jury returned a verdict
to the effect that Mary Ann Adams committed suicide,
being of unsound mind.

The trial of the four Frenchmen, Allam, Barronet,
Barthelemy, and Marnet, on a charge of Murder,
arising out of a duel at Egham, in October last (the
particulars of which were stated in this and other
journals at the time), took place at the Kingston assizes
on the 21st inst. The prisoners were indicted for the
wilful murder of Frederick Cournet. They were found
guilty of manslaughter; and the Judge, considering
that they had already been in prison more than five
months, and that, being foreigners, they were probably
ignorant of the law of England on the subject of duelling,
sentenced them to be further imprisoned for two
months.

A dreadful case of Murder, attended with very
singular circumstances, has been tried at the Stafford
assizes, the trial occupying three days. The prisoners
were Henry Blackburn, Charles Moore, and Edward
Walsh, charged with the wilful murder of John and
Jane Blackburn, on the morning of the 2.5th of October,
at Ash Flats, near Stafford. Peter Kirwan was also
arraigned upon the coroner's inquisition, the grand jury
having ignored the bill, but no evidence was offered
against him, and he was subsequently discharged. The
coroner's jury had in their verdict exculpated Blackburn,
who was a son of the deceased, from any participation
in the crime, but the magistrates having committed
him, and the grand jury having found a bill
against him, he was accordingly put on his trial. The
murdered man, John Blackburn, who was seventy-eight
years of age, was formerly a maltster, had retired from
business, and, with his wife, aged seventy-three, lived at
Ash Flats. Although possessed of some property, their
house was but very meanly furnished. They kept no
servant, and lived by themselves, sleeping in different
apartments. They were miserly in their habits, and
old Blackburn was known to have considerable sums of
money in his place at times. They had a large family
grown up, some being married. The last time the old
couple were seen alive was on the evening of Sunday,
the 24th of October, when they were observed to be in
good health. On the following morning, about half-
past 7, a gentleman named Spilsby was going by the
cottage, when he perceived smoke issuing from the
roof. He obtained assistance, and the door was broken
open by a crow-bar, which happened to be on the spot.
After some time the fire was subdued; and on going
upstairs to the old man's bedroom, a shocking spectacle
presented itself. On the burnt bedstead were lying the
bodies of the old couple; they were charred considerably,
and the fire had almost made them trunkless. The
man was lying on his back on the top of the bed. The
head of the old man had been severely wounded in
several places, and there were two places near the eyes
where the skull had actually been forced in. On the body
of Mrs. Blackburn there was a severe wound on the right
eye, and also on the back of the head, and it was also clear
that something had been tied round the throat as if to
cause strangulation. A pool of blood was discovered at the
bottom of the stairs leading to her door and blood on the
wall of the staircase, and it would seem that the old lady
was in bed at the time, and hearing a noise she came out
and encountered the wretches, who afterwards took her
body upstairs and threw it on the bed where it was
found. There was a strong smell of resin and pitch in
the cottage, and the bodies appeared to have been
besmeared with such inflammable matter, so as to hasten
their destruction. A well outside the cottage was
searched, and in it was found an axe, with blood and
hair upon it, and a dog with his head smashed in. The
animal belonged to the prisoner Blackburn, and he had
taken it to his parents' abode about three weeks previous.
A flat iron besmeared with gore was also found in the
house. On the morning of the murder, the police
arrested Henry Blackburn, who himself had expressed
some belief that Moore, who was in the service of the
deceased, had some hand in the horrible deed. Some
days transpired, and nothing satisfactory was elicited
until the receipt of some anonymous letters by Mr.
Richards of the Stafford police, and Mr. Hatton, the
chief of the county force. The letters described how the
murders were committed, and named the guilty parties.
They were peculiarly worded, and evidently showed the
writer to be a very illiterate person. At the examination
of Blackburn, Moore was examined as a witness, and on
his signing his deposition Mr. Richards was struck with
the similarity of his writing to that of the letters. Mr.
Hatton, the chief of the constabulary, was consulted,