stated that he was in custody there in August last, for
threatening to shoot a person on the high road. Mr.
John Cathie, his uncle, gave evidence at great length.
The mother seems to have been too indulgent to her son:
he escaped from Wandsworth asylum, and though she
was warned that he was still insane, she allowed him to
remain at home. On Tuesday se'nnight, the young man
went to his uncle's, at Dalston, and behaved so strangely
that Mr. Cathie remarked to his wife, "Poor Tom
Wheeler is very bad; I'm sure something fearful will
happen." He warned his sister, and she promised to
have her son confined immediately. He had never
attacked any one before: he was "an exceedingly mild
young man—had not the heart to kill a mouse." He
had twice enlisted in the army; and on the last occasion
had been immediately discharged as unfit for service.
The prisoner was then asked in the usual form, by the
chief clerk, whether he had anything to say?—Prisoner
(starting up suddenly): No; I have nothing further to
say at present.—Mr. Cathie stated that he had been
informed by the coroner, that in such an evident case
of lunacy, the magistrate had power to commit the
prisoner at once to close custody, without the painful
exposure of a public trial. If possible, it would be
most desirable that such a course should be taken. The
magistrate said he was not aware that he had such
power, but he would look into the act. The prisoner
was then committed for trial.

A case occurred at Bow Street on the 3rd, showing the
urgent need for Sanitary Regulations as to the Dwellings
of the Poor. Eight men were summoned for non-
compliance with the provisions of the Common Lodging-
houses Act. They rent rooms at No. 214 Church Lane,
St. Giles's; the proceedings were for the sake of the
lodgers, whose health and lives must be endangered by
the present state of things. Charles Reeves, a surveyor
under the act, gave this evidence. On the night of the
8th March, he went to the house in order to inspect it.
In the room No. 1, belonging to the defendant Collins,
the size of which was 15 feet 6 inches by 14 feet 6 inches,
which ought to have contained only nine persons, he
found five families. In one bed, a man, his wife, and
three children; in a second, a boy and a girl; in a third,
a man and his wife; in a fourth, a man, his wife, and
three children; and the same in a fifth, making in all
twenty. There were no partitions, nor was the act in
any way complied with. In the second room, belonging
to Caiman, there were ten people, the regulations allowing
three; in the third room, in which Leary was the
landlord, there were twelve persons, the proper number
being eight. In the fourth room, 11 feet 8 inches by 10
feet 8 inches, there were fourteen occupants, the
regulation number being four. In the fifth room there were
eight lodgers instead of three; in the sixth room, which
ought to have contained only seven, there were twenty-
two men, women, and children; in the seventh room,
there were twelve, six being the authorised number;
in the eighth room, there were nine, instead of seven;
making altogether, one hundred and seven people
sleeping in a house which was adapted to accommodate
only forty-seven. The whole of the rooms were in a
most filthy and pestilential condition. There were
very few bedsteads, and the occupants slept all together
without any regard to decency. There was no water
laid on, nor was there any means by which these
unfortunate creatures could cleanse their persons. The
defendants, several of whom could only speak Irish,
pleaded ignorance of the act, and promised to do all
that was requisite. Mr. Henry remarked upon the
miserable condition of the unhappy creatures, who were
obliged to resort to such filthy abodes; and said the evil
was attributable in a great measure to the owners of the
houses, who let them to such persons as the defendants,
and extorted from them rents so high that they were
obliged to overcrowd their rooms in order to pay
them, or even to get their own living. The summons
was ultimately adjourned until the 1st of May.

Mr. Charles Washbourne, a gentleman living in
Cloudesley Square, has been the victim of a daring
Street Robbery. On Sunday night, the 4th instant, a
woman accosted him near the Angel at Islington, and
would not leave him; presently another woman and a
man came up; the man knocked Mr. Washbourne
down, and the three then robbed him of his watch.
The police apprehended the two women; and stated at
Clerkenwell Police Office, on Monday, that the man
was known to them; the women were remanded, to allow
time for his apprehension.

The ecclesiastical Appeal by Mr. Whiston, the
dismissed Master of Rochester Grammar School, from the
Bishop of Rochester, as Dean of Rochester Cathedral,
and head of the Chapter, whose proceedings Mr.
Whiston has impugned in his pamphlet on Cathedral
Trusts, to the same Bishop as visitor of the Chapter—
was begun in the Court of Arches on the 5th inst. The
Bishop was assisted by Baron Parke and Dr.
Lushington as assessors. Mr. Whiston conducted his
own case; and Dr. Adams and Mr. Cowling appeared
for the Chapter. Mr. Whiston occupied three days in
his opening; exhibiting immense learning and legal
erudition, great eloquence of oratory, and a respectful
but firm bearing to Bishop and Court. The case was
adjourned until after Easter.

At Taunton assizes, on the 5th inst., Thomas Crosby,
a solicitor of Bristol, and Elizabeth Lewis, a young
woman of respectable connections, were tried for the
Murder of their Infant Child at Bath. The prisoners
went to Bath as "Mr. and Mrs. Slater," and took
lodgings at Mr. Searle's, a druggist; a few weeks after
the child was born, it was left at nurse with Mrs.
Searle; on several occasions, after the mother or both
parents had visited the infant, it became ill, and, until
the last fatal illness, it always recovered while they
were absent. The symptoms were those of poisoning;
and at length suspicion was excited, and the prisoners
were arrested. The testimony of Mr. Herapath, the
analytical chemist, and of the medical man who
attended the infant, proved that it had died of poisoning
by arsenic. But there was no evidence tracing the
possession of arsenic home to the prisoners. An attempt
was made to elicit, by cross-examination, that Mr.
Searle was very careless with the arsenic he had in his
shop, (of course with the intention to imply that some
might by mischance have got into the food or medicine
of the infant,) but the attempt was not successful. For
the defence, the general insufficiency of the evidence to
make out the case was urged; and the strong affection
for the infant shown by the female prisoner. It was
shown that she had also alive a second illegitimate
child. The jury acquitted both prisoners.

At the same assizes, on the 6th and 7th, William
Sparrow, William Maggs, and Robert Hurd, were tried
for the Murder of Sarah Watts, on the 24th of
September. Sarah Watts was the daughter, about 14
years old, of John Watts and Leah Watts, who occupy
a small farm at a place about two miles from Frome. It
appeared that the girl had been stunned, and then
violated and murdered; and the house was robbed.
The evidence against the prisoners consisted of a
remarkable declaration made by one of themselves, and
its confirmation by another of them, and some
circumstantial proofs of a strong nature. Sparrow, on the
Monday after the crime, had spoken of having seen the
body on "the day after the murder:" he described its
position on the floor on that day—but the body had
been removed on the day of the murder. He had stated
some additional facts as to the mode in which the
murder was done, which were not then known to the
police, but which afterwards proved true. There was
also on his hand a wound such as would have made a
similar stain to one found on the wall near where the
murder was done; and a handkerchief left by the
murderers is believed to have been his. The prisoner
Maggs declared that Sparrow committed the murder,
because he found the girl knew him. But Mr. Justice
Erie summed up for acquittals, and the jury found
verdicts of "not guilty." When the verdicts were
given, Hurd said, "My lord, we are all innocent:
Providence has done this." Maggs said, "I declare to
God we are innocent." Sparrow said, "We were not
within a mile of the spot: God has done it." Hurd
again said, "My lord, it will all be found out within a
month: let me speak to Mr. Smith (the detective
officer)." They all then said, "Let us see Mr. Smith."

Three corpses, those of a man and two boys, were
discovered on the 9th inst., in a tide-pond at Putney;