received the intelligence with Christian resignation;
took an affectionate leave of his family and servants;
expressed a desire to partake of the sacrament, which
was administered to him by a clerical friend and
neighbour; and he expired, in a state of almost
unconscious exhaustion, between eight and nine
o'clock on Sunday evening. An officer of the Detective
force was sent from London to aid the local
police; and on Sunday evening three men, calling
themselves Smith, Jones, and Harwood were apprehended
at Guildford. They were known as daring thieves who
had been several times in custody before. Government
offered £100, and the fiimily of Mr. Hollest £50 for the
conviction of the criminals. An inquest was begun on
the 30th. The facts above stated were proved; and
Mary Gouldstone, a servant of Mr. Mayberry, a surgeon
at Frimley Grove, identified Smith and Jones as two of
three men whom she saw talking on a grass-plat before
her master's house at half-past twelve on Friday night.
Smith and Jones denied this; saying they could bring
witnesses to prove they were not at Frimley. The inquest
was adjourned for a week.—Samuel Harwood, a brother
of the man already in custody, was arrested subsequently.
A keeper found in a plantation the masks worn by the
men, made of green baize; and a piece of corresponding
baize was found in Samuel Harwood's house. The
inquest was resumed on the 8th, and again adjourned to
the 22nd.—On the 12th the prisoners were examined
before the magistrates of the county. The reporters for
a number of newspapers attended, but were refused
admission. The principal witness was Mrs. Hollest,
who had been likewise examined before the inquest.
Her deposition, it is stated, contained a remarkable fact
relative to a copper token found in the pocket of one of
the prisoners, which she positively identified as a coin that
had been paid to her a few days previously to the murder,
by a Miss Bulpin, the village school-mistress, and which
was stolen, with other copper moneys, by the thieves.
This token formed the weekly payment of one of the
little school-girls to a provident fund for purchasing
clothes, set on foot in Frimley by Mrs. Hollest. It was
paid to Miss Bulpin, the schoolmistress, by the little
girl, and handed over a few hours afterwards by her to
Mrs. Hollest, with the remark that it was a very odd
looking penny. Miss Bulpin added, that she did not
think it would pass; but Mrs. Hollest expressing her
belief that it would, showed it to Mr. Hollest, remarking
to him, that "they had not paid much respect to poor
King George's nose" (the nose on the profile of King
George is much scratched and battered). Mrs. Hollest
then put the token with other moneys into a bag, where
she was in the habit of keeping the "clothes fund,"
and there it remained up to the night of the murder.

The investigation was resumed on the 18th. In the
meantime Hiram Smith had volunteered a confession of
his own guilt, involving also his associates; and his
statement had been taken down by Mr. Keene, the
governor of the gaol, and police-sergeant Hollington.
The other prisoners were kept in total ignorance of
this circumstance. When brought for further examination,
the four prisoners were placed in a semicircle
before the magistrates, separated from each other by
turnkeys, that all possibility of their communicating
with each other might be cut off. The magistrates
went through all the steps of the evidence against the
prisoners, independently of the confession, as if that had
not been made; and Hiram Smith put questions to the
witnesses as if he had made no confession. The evidence
concerning the confession began with the statement of
Sergeant Hollington, that "on Monday last the 14th
inst," in consequence of what had passed on the previous
day between Smith and the governor, Mr. Keene,
"Smith was brought into the room, where they were
then assembled." Levi Harwood here glanced rapidly
and suspiciously at Smith, whose eyes were fixed on the
ground. Jones looked doggedly forward, turning his
eyes neither to the right nor to the left; while Samuel
Harwood, whose face became suddenly pale with
apprehension, gazed with an alarmed expression at the
chairman. The chairman—"What passed?" The
witness—"Mr. Keene said to the prisoner, 'Here is
Mr. Hollington.' Smith then wanted to see one of the
handbills, but Mr. Keene had no copy, and he therefore
produced the Hue and Cry. I afterwards sent for a
bill, which the prisoner read himself. He then wanted
to know the meaning of the word 'accomplice;' and we
told him that he must use his own judgment. He also
wished to know whether the promise of pardon in the
bill would be acted up to if he were to 'peach.' We
told him that he had the bill before him, and must use
his own judgment. Neither of us held out any hope to
him founded thereon; but he said that he saw it was
plain, and he would therefore make a statement."
[Levi Harwood again directed a rapid but furious look
at the prisoner Smith.] He had been cautioned several
times, and told that his words would be taken down
and used against him; but he answered, "Every man
is bound to take care of himself;" and made the
statement which Sergeant Hollington took down, and
which was now read to the court. It was to the effect
that the robbery was planned by Smith himself and
the three other prisoners, and gave a minute detail of the
outrage, corresponding to the circumstances which had
already transpired. It declared that Levi Harwood
was the person who fired the fatal shot at Mr. Hollest.
It added, that, after the robbery and murder, they went
to Kingston, and that Levi Harwood then went to
London to dispose of the booty. While this document
was read by the clerk to the magistrates, Smith remained
with his eyes fixed on the ground. Levi Harwood
swung himself to and fro occasionally, and shot looks
full of the most savage anger at his approver-accomplice;
his hands all the time bemg deeply buried in his breeches-
pockets, as if to restrain himself from some act of
violence. Jones scowled fiercely forward; and Samuel
Harwood looked more and more alarmed. When the
reading of the confession had terminated, Levi Harwood
exclaimed, though in a subdued tone of voice—"It is
all false what he says, gentlemen, all of it." The
chairman observed, that the confession was important
evidence against Smith himself; whether it affected any
one else would be matter for future consideration.
Smith—"It's all true, every word of it." Mr. Keene's
written account of the confession was then handed in
and read: it agreed exactly with that of Sergeant
Hollington. Smith repeated—"It's the truth, and
ne'er a one of them can deny it." Levi Harwood—"I
can deny it, for I don't know anything about it." Smith,
with an air of astonishment on seeing the preparations
making for the removal of himself as well as his
associates, here asked the chairman whether he was to
be locked up as he used to be? The chairman—
"Certainly. What you have said is strong evidence
against yourself." Jones then, for the first time since
the announcement of the confession, turned towards
Smith, and in a voice rendered hoarse by the
vehemence of his passions, said, "I hope you will get
shot yourself some day for what you have said." The
prisoners were remanded, and removed; Levi Harwood
vehemently protesting that Smith was a liar. The
adjourned coroner's inquest was resumed on the 22nd,
Among the other evidence brought forward was the
confession of Hiram Smith. The inquiry was again
adjourned to the 29th.

In July last a daring Robbery was committed in
Northgate, one of the principal streets of Halifax, by a
party of very expert thieves, who entered the premises
of Mr. Lewis Balerna, watchmaker and jeweller, during
the night, and cleared the premises of upwards of 50
silver watches, 11 gold watches, 320 fancy gold rings, 30
diamond rings and a great quantity of articles of jewellery.
A reward of £50 was at the time offered for the
conviction of any of the thieves, but no trace of them, or
of the property stolen, was gained until Sunday the 29th
of September. On, that day Mr. Beswick, the chief
superintendent of the Manchester detective force, received
some information which led him to visit a house in
Ashley Lane, Manchester, where he found a large box,
which had been left there by a woman who called
herself Ellen Moult, and which contained forty-four
gold and silver watches, a large number of gold pins,
and other articles, many of which he recognised as the
produce of the Halifax robbery. Next day he went to
Liverpool, and discovered that Ellen Moult had been
living there as the wife of a man named Hawkins. She
had been arrested on suspicion of felony by the Liverpool