had been in business for a long time as a dramatic
bookseller, but had failed, and that misfortune preyed upon
his mind. Although she was in straitened circumstances,
she was not reduced to beg charity at a police-office.—
Sir P. Laurie said he had no doubt the newspapers would
set her right with the public.

Two smart young women, sisters, named Bridget and
Julia Connolly, were charged at Croydon Sessions with
slaughtering a Fat Wether on the lands of Mr. Fuller,
farmer, Addiscomb, on Sunday morning, the 6th, and
carrying away the carcass. As two police constables
were going their rounds that morning, they met the
girls, and, observing something bulky on their persons,
they questioned them as to what they had about them.
They said, nothing but their bed-things; but the officers,
not satisfied with this, overhauled them, and found on
each a half-carcass of mutton. They in consequence
conveyed them to the station-house, and some time after
they found the hide, head, and entrails of a sheep in a
field belonging to Mr. Fuller. On comparing the mutton
with the skin no doubt could remain they both belonged
to one and the same animal; and as little doubt remained
that the prisoners were its butchers, as a sharp claspknife
was found on each, with a part of the fresh suet
and fat attached to them.

At the High Court of Justiciary in Edinburgh, on
Saturday the 5th, Andrew Forrest, a youth of eighteen,
was tried for the Murder of a Gamekeeper, named Kirby,
at Cambuslang. There was no doubt, from the youth's
confession as well as other evidence, that he killed the
man; the trial turned upon the question whether he
did it wilfully. Forrest was out with a gun, intending
to poach; on the road he encountered Kirby, who had
two dogs in a leash, one a very fierce creature, a cross
between a Newfoundland and a bull-dog. Some
altercation ensued, and probably the savage dog seized
Forrest's leg, for it was wounded by a dog; then the
youth fired—as he said, at the dog; but the man was
killed. The dog might have torn the prisoner after he
had fired; or, on the contrary, the lad's story might be
true. The Lord Justice Clerk summed up very favourably
for the accused; severely censuring the gamekeeper's
practice of leading about the savage dog. The Jury
returned a verdict of "Not proven."

In the Bankruptcy Court, two Swindling Bill
Transactions were exposed on Monday, the 7th, when
William Thomas Ferris, professedly a builder and
carpenter, applied for his certificate. He was opposed
by Mr. Walter Lockhart Scott, the grandson of Sir
Walter Scott, as creditor for more than £600 of costs
incurred in defending an action brought by Ferris on a
bill of exchange fraudulently obtained. The bankrupt's
name will be recollected as that of the plaintiff in actions
against Mr. Scott and the Reverend Mr. Curzon, tried
some eighteen months ago. Bills had been fraudulently
obtained without the payment of consideration, and then
Ferris had been used as the "respectable tradesman into
whose hands the bills had come honestly for full
consideration," to sue for the amount. Mr. Scott successfully
defended the action against himself, and exposed
the transactions of the gang of swindlers who obtained
the bill from him. Commissioner Goulburn was
convinced that Ferris had been art and part in the conspiracy
from commencement to close; the certificate was
therefore refused.

An appalling case of Sudden Death occurred at the
Central Criminal Court on Monday, the 7th, during the
trial of Samuel Grieves Harvey, a tall, powerful man,
for an assault on James Dodsley Tawney. Mr. Tawney
was a slender, diminutive attorney; Harvey was a stout
horse-dealer: the two frequently met each other at
Messrs. Osborn and Co.'s stables in Gray's Inn Lane.
Mr. Tawney had, on behalf of clients, taken legal
measures against Harvey—sued him for debts, and
opposed his discharge in the Insolvent Court; and
Harvey had been much exasperated. The two meeting
at Osborn's, Harvey charged Mr. Tawney with getting
up the opposition, and wanted to know who were the
opposing creditors. The solicitor declined to tell him.
The defendant went out, and returned in a short time
with two hunting-whips, one of them loaded at the end
with iron, and the other a plane cane one. The defendant
offered Mr. Tawney the latter; saying, "Take
that." This was declined, and the defendant went out.
Mr. Tawney waited a short time, thinking he would go
away:  he then went towards his gig, which had been
waiting for him; and he observed the defendant standing
with the heavy hunting-whip in his hand. As he
was about to get into his gig, Harvey attacked him
behind, beat him on the back and shoulders, and tried
to beat him on the head, but the prosecutor held up his
hands and warded off the blows. Mr. Banks, one of
the partners, came up and laid hold of the defendant, and
said to him, "Good God! Harvey, are you mad?" but
the defendant threw him away from him, and continued
his violence. Mr. Tawney had just succeeded in getting
into the gig, when the defendant struck him on the
back of the head; the blow stunned him for a moment,
and his horse ran off, but was soon stopped by some
cabmen in the King's Road. When this assault took
place, Harvey well knew that his victim was suffering
from a disease of the heart. As the prosecutor was
about to leave the witness-box, he fell senseless. Two
surgeons immediately attended him. Mr. Ballantine,
who appeared for the prisoner, was unable to offer any
defence. The Recorder briefly addressed the Jury, and
they immediately gave a verdict of "Guilty." The
Recorder said he would not pass sentence at present on
Harvey for his aggravated assault: if Mr. Tawney
should die, he would have to meet a more serious charge.
This had hardly been said when the surgeons announced
that Mr. Tawney had died, as he lay on the floor of the
witness-box. The Recorder ordered Harvey to be
detained. An inquest was held on the body of Mr.
Tawney, on Thursday. The evidence showed the ill
health that he had suffered for years ; his medical
attendant stated that he had warned the deceased's
relatives that he would die suddenly. Death had been
caused by congestion of the brain, resulting from a
disease of the heart. Several witnesses described the
altercation between Mr. Tawney and Harvey. The
Jury returned a verdict, that James Dodsley Tawney
died from congestion of blood on the brain, produced by
disease of the heart; and that he had been cruelly and
brutally assaulted by Harvey. Sentence of imprisonment
for twelve months was passed on Harvey, by the
Recorder, on the 11th. He regretted that the result of
the medical inquiry respecting the immediate cause of
Mr. Tawney's death would prevent Harvey's trial for a
more serious oflence.

A boy named George Ruby, who appeared about
14 years of age, was put in the witness-box at Guildhall,
on the 8th, to Give Evidence in a Case of Assault on a
police-officer, when the following dialogue took place:—
Alderman Humphery: Well, do you know what you
are about? Do you know what an oath is? Boy: No.
Alderman: Can you read? Boy: No. Alderman:
Do you ever say your prayers? Boy: No; never.
Alderman: Do you know what prayers are?  Boy: No.
Alderman: Do you know what God is?  Boy: No.
Alderman: Do you know what the devil is?  Boy:
I 've heard of the devil, but I don't know him.
Alderman: What do you know? Boy; I knows how to
sweep the crossings. Alderman: And that's all? Boy:
That's all. I sweeps a crossing. The Alderman said
that in all his experience he had never met with
anything like the deplorable ignorance of the poor unfortunate
child in the witness-box.

At the Hereford City Sessions on the 8th, the
Recorder, in his Charge to the Grand Jury, said, it appeared
to him a very serious circumstance that there should be
at the present sessions a greater number of prisoners by
one-half than at any previous sessions since he had had
the honour of sitting as recorder. He was further sorry
to say that some of the offences charged were of a very
serious description. He had compared the present
calendar with the calendars at other sessions for boroughs.
At the last Maidstone Sessions, a few days ago, where
the population amounted to at least 20,000, the number
of prisoners was five only. At Dover, where the
jurisdiction comprehended, not only the large town of Dover
but much of the adjacent district, and also Margate,
there were only eight prisoners for trial. At Canterbury,
situated on the great highway to the Continent,
and a large thoroughfare for people of all descriptions,
witli a population of 20,000, the number of prisoners for