+ ~ -
 
Please report pronunciation problems here. Select and sample other voices. Options Pause Play
 
Report an Error
Go!
 
Go!
 
TOC
 

adjoining Brentwood, was charged with a Criminal
Assault on his Servant Girl, of fifteen; and the
preliminary depositions of the girl and her mother made
the affair look very disgraceful. On the day appointed
for the second examination, both the women were
absent; and it was stated that the family, a very poor
one, had been hurried up to London, and could not be
traced by the police. Mr. Johnstone was held to bail
to appear again. He (the accused) attended before the
Brentwood Magistrates on the 7th. Mr. Clarkson was
his legal adviser. The police had not yet succeeded in
bringing forward the girl and her mother, though on
Thursday the officers entered a house in the suburbs of
London only a few hours after the fugitives had left it.
Mr. Clarkson tried to make the magistrates believe that
as there were no witnesses against his client they ought
at once to discharge him: but the bench refused, and
again remanded Mr. Johnstone. The accused has been
a very popular man in the locality, and an effective
preacher. He is married, but has no children. He
holds the rectory of West Horndon with Ingrave. On
the 14th he again appeared before the magistrates. The
girl (Mary Anne Doe by name) and her family had been
at length discovered in London, and captured by the
police. When Mrs. Doe saw her daughter in custody,
she ran towards her, grasped her hand, and exclaimed
—"Now, mind, my child, you tell the gentlemen it was
all wrong which you told them before: and if they ask
you how you came to tell such a tale, say you wasn't in
your right mind, and you didn't know what you said."
When the other witnesses were ordered out of court,
that the girl might be questioned, her mother held up
her finger to the daughter in a threatening manner.
Mary Anne Doe's former deposition was read, and she
declared it was untrueshe did not know what she was
after when she made it. Mr. Johnstone had not touched
hershe believed he had not, but she fainted away in
the kitchen; she had been ill all night before. In a
word, Mary Anne utterly denied all her former
statements against the defendant. Mr. Tower, a magistrate,
expressed his opinion that the complainant had been
most disgracefully tutored. The chairman said, they
had two depositions before themone sworn in
defendant's absence; the other made in his presence, and
entirely rebutting the other. The case must therefore
be dismissed. The bench subsequently directed that a
bill of indictment for perjury should be prepared against
the girl.

An inquest was held on the 14th on the body of Emily
Nott, a servant girl of one-and-twenty, who had
committed Suicide at Blackfriars Bridge. The girl had
formed an attachment to a police constable, who being
engaged to another woman, gave no encouragement to
her passion. On the preceding Monday she left her
situation and went to the Borough, where the officer
was, but before doing so, she placed on the window-sill
a letter which ran as follows:—"Dear Madam,—By the
time you receive this I shall be no more. I am, madam,
your unhappy servant, Emily Nott." She inquired
the way to Blackfriars Bridge, and having reached it,
mounted to the top, and plunged head foremost on to
the causeway below. The policeman at the bridge saw
her fall, and on going to her, found her head battered
in. He lifted her up, when she groaned twice and
expired. The jury returned a verdict of Temporary
Insanity, and were further of opinion that the police
constable was free from blame.

Mr. Pennington, who for fifteen years past has filled
highly important offices in her Majesty's Treasury,
committed Suicide on the 14th. About half-past
4 o'clock, a police constable heard the report of firearms
in one of the plantations in Hyde Park, almost
opposite Gore House. He immediately entered the
park at the small wicket gate close to the spot, and
discovered Mr. Pennington lying on his back in the plantation, with his arms extended. In his right hand a
double-barrelled pistol was tightly grasped, one of the
barrels of which had just been discharged; and on the
lock of the other barrel was a percussion cap, and the
lock was cocked. He was then still breathing, a motion
of the lips and mouth being perceptible for five or six
minutes. Mr. Bonney, a surgeon of Knightsbridge,
examined the body, found that the deceased had shot
himself through the temple, and that the ball had passed
out at the back of the head. The body was then
removed to the dead-house of the parish, and the clothes
of the deceased were searched, where, besides money
and other effects, was a card-case, in which were two
cards with his name and address. Subsequently the
butler in the family went to Knlghtsbridge, and
identified the body as that of his master. Mr.
Pennington had a fit about three months since, from the
effects of which he had scarcely recovered, and about a
fortnight since he had resigned his situation. He had
left his house about half-past 2 o'clock in the afternoon,
to take a walk with his daughter, and returned home
in about an hour. Shortly afterwards he again went
out alone, saying he would take another walk. At the
coroner's inquest, on the 16th, it appeared clearly that he
had suffered from aberration of the mind. He was in his
fifty-sixth year; he was Auditor of the Civil List, and had
been a barrister. On one occasion, he told a friend that
he had experienced suicidal feelingsa desire to throw
himself from a cliff at Brighton, or to shoot himself if
a pistol had been within reach. Sir Frederick Thesiger
saw him a few days before his death, and felt sure his
mind was not in a sound state. This was the impression
of the other gentlemen who were examined. Before
his illness, Mr. Pennington "was of a particularly calm
and well-disciplined mind," said Sir Frederick Thesiger,
"and was the last man who would commit suicide."
The jury at once gave this verdict—"That the deceased
had died by his own hand, while in a state of unsound
mind."

John Onslow, a policeman, was charged at the
Lambeth Police Court on the 16th, with having made a
False and Malicious Statement against Mr. Brookes,
the proprietor of the Jolly Butchers beerhouse, in
Lock's-fields. On Sunday evening, the 3d, Onslow
presented himself at the door of the Jolly Butchers, and
having beckoned out the landlord, addressed him in a
low and confidential manner, saying, "Tell them not
to make such a noise." Mr. Brookes, surprised at his
manner, asked him what he meant; and Onslow, in
the same tone, said, "Why, they are a-playing at cards
in your parlour." Mr. Brookes denied the assertion,
and asked him to go into his parlour and disabuse his
mind on the subject. Onslow went into the parlour,
and on his return said he knew the company had been
playing at cards, but had put them away. Soon after
this a sergeant came up, when Onslow improved upon
his story by saying that he had been watching the house,
and that he distinctly heard the parties inside call out
"High, low, jack, and game," as if they had been playing
at all fours; and further he said he mounted the window,
and saw the party engaged in playing cards. The
landlord, astonished at the hardihood of the man's statement,
spoke to his customers, and it was agreed that
they should at once proceed to the station-house, and
mention the circumstance to the inspector on duty. On
reaching the station-house, however, they found Onslow
there, and that he had actually made a report of card-
playing at the house. No information was laid on his
representation, but on the complaint of Mr. Brooks,
through Mr. Robinson, the superintendent, the
Commissioners of police ordered the present inquiry. A
number of respectable witnesses, who had been in the
parlour of Mr. Brooks from 7 o'clock in the evening
until they went to the station-house, were called, and
swore distinctly that not only were there no cards played,
but not a single syllable was uttered about cards or
gaming of any sort, and therefore that the statement of
the defendant was a deliberate falsehood. The
magistrate considered the charge clearly established against
the defendant, and that he was a most improper person
to hold the situation of constable longer. He then
convicted him in a penalty of 10s., or four days' imprisonment,
which would lead to his immediate discharge from
the force.

A Fearful Outrage has been committed at Leeds by
a band of Irish immigrants. On the night of Saturday,
the 16th, a body of men, armed with pokers, bludgeons,
and other weapons, marched to the Foresters' Arms,
and finding it barred against them, broke the windows
and did other damage. They then proceeded to Ball's
beer-house, at the door of which stood a pony, and one