At a Protection Meeting at Dorchester, on the 20th,
a Violent Affray took place between the farmers and the
freetraders; and a young man, named Allen, was killed
by a struck down blow by one of the farmers. He died
in the County Hospital a few days afterwards. It has
not been discovered who inflicted the blow.

A case of Extraordinary Credulity was disclosed at
the Islington County Court on the 23rd, when a poor
Irish girl, named Sullivan, sought to recover the sum of
£4 15s. from a man named Taylor. She stated that she
was in respectable service at Hoxton, and met the
defendant nine weeks back, when he suddenly pretended
to admire her, telling her she resembled a sister who had
died, and asked her to favour him with her company for
a walk, as he was a single man and anxious to get
married. She believed his representations, and he
continued paying his addresses to her until a fortnight ago,
when he induced her to obtain leave of absence from
her mistress for a day and a night, for the purpose of
taking her to Shoreditch church to be married. Her
mistress granted her request, and she met the defendant,
who took her to the church, which was closed, when, on
his entreaty, she accompanied him to a beer-shop in
Whitecross-street, where several men and women, who,
he said, were his relatives, induced her to jump over a
broom, and go through other mock ceremonies of
marriage, under an impression that it was legal; and she
parted with the amount now claimed, fully believing
that he was her lawful husband. After enjoying herself
in his company and that of his friends, during the day
at the beer-shop, she accompanied him to his lodgings
for the night, and went to her service in the morning,
when she mentioned to her mistress that she had
practised a deception on her in obtaining permission of
absence, and then detailed the above extraordinary
circumstances, which reaching her master's ears, he
adopted the present proceedings, and convinced her of
the cruel trick of which she had become the victim.
The Judge expressed his surprise that the girl's master
had not handed over the defendant to be dealt with
criminally, which he most richly deserved; before giving
judgment, an officer of the court was sent to her master,
and ascertained the truth of her statement. The Judge
ordered the defendant to pay the money and costs in a
week. The fellow was then hissed from the Court.

At Marylebone Police Office, on the 27th, Elizabeth
Higgins, wife of a wheelwright, was committed to
Newgate for trial, charged with Attempting to Murder
her Three Children, respectively of the ages of seven
years, five years, and seven months. Anne West, in
passing along the Bloomfield Road on the 18th, saw the
accused on the towing-path of the Regent's Canal; she
had the three children with her; she lowered the baby
into the water, put another child in, and then walked
in herself with the third child. West saw this through
a paling; she raised an alarm, and two men came up.
One of these, John Rollins, a painter, plunged into the
canal, and successively rescued all four. The mother
was taken to the Paddington workhouse. To the
inquiries of a police inspector there, she alleged her
husband's cruelty and ill-usage as the cause of the act. She
said: "He earns 27s. a week, and out of that he gives
me the odd 7s. to keep house and find everything: the
20s. he spends entirely upon himself He comes home
drunk, pulls me out of bed, and beats me, saying that
he will be the death of me, and that it shall not be a
sudden but a lingering death. I have also been afraid
that he would poison me, and I thought that I and my
children might as well have died at once as not." The
magistrate warmly applauded the conduct of Rollins and
Mrs. West for their exertions in this distressing case.

Two more Savings-Bank Defalcations have been
discovered, at St. Helen's, near Liverpool, and at
Scarborough. The St. Helen's Bank was established about
the year 1818; the management was vested in six
trustees and fifty managers, who agreed to attend in
rotation and affix their initials to the depositors'
passbooks. Mr. John Johnson was appointed actuary, with
a commission amounting to about £50 a year; and,
about 1833, he introduced his brother William as his
deputy, calling him the sub-actuary. Mr. John Johnson
was then, and is still, the managing partner in an extensive
colliery firm. Recent events in connexion with
savings-banks made the trustees and managers vigilant;
and as the accounts tendered them showed that the
amount of deposits had decreased of late years, though
the neighbourhood was increasing in prosperousness,
they resolved to examine the pass-books. On learning
this resolve, Mr. Johnson admitted that he had also
received a government notice ordering the same step.
This precipitated a disclosure. William Johnson
informed the trustees that money had been misappropriated
by his brother, and that he had falsified accounts
by his brother's direction; but he declared that this
had been done during the past year only, and to the
amount of but £1500. As the examination of the books
proceeded, it was found that these declarations were
untrue. The malversations have amounted to about
£10,000 and have been carried on for about seventeen
years. The accounts tampered with were principally
those of friendly societies. A person who was a
depositor before the alteration of the law restricted the
amount of deposits, had paid in £800: Johnson
appropriated the whole. The original trustees and managers
having mostly died, it was only within the last few
years that their places were supplied; the attendance
to check the books became a mere irregular form;
unlimited confidence was placed in the popular Mr.
Johnson; and "at last the bank degenerated into an
institution managed by Mr. Johnson for his own
purposes." Hence the impunity for his frauds. Mr. John
Johnson lived in a most expensive style, was very
hospitable, and spent much money upon his conservatories.
Fortunately, both the brothers have property; and
they have made it over to the trustees of the bank: it is
expected that it will be sufficient to meet the deficiency.
Mr. John Johnson has been arrested on a charge of
embezzlement, his brother for conspiracy and aiding.
The private book, in which the frauds were noted, has
been found, and is likely to show the true nature of the
bank transactions.—Mr. Smurwaite, a wine-merchant,
has been arrested for embezzling the funds of the
Scarborough Bank, of which he was the actuary and
secretary. He carried on a good business in the town.
The total amount of his frauds is not yet ascertained.
At present it is nearly £4000. Mr. Smurwaite has been
gazetted as a bankrupt.

Henry Jackson, a money-taker in the service of the
Citizen Steamboat company, has committed Suicide.
Serious defalcations having occurred in the receipts of
the company, a number of the people employed were
suspected. Among them was Jackson, who was ordered,
on the 11th of January, to attend the solicitor to the
company. He left the place, saying he would presently
return, but was never seen alive again. On the 20th
inst. his body was found floating in the Thames, at
Rotherhithe. A coroner's jury gave this verdict:
"That the deceased had destroyed himself while in a
state of temporary insanity, arising from fear of a
criminal prosecution."

NARRATIVE OF ACCIDENT AND
DISASTER.

James Wilson, an engine-driver, and John Tinkler,
fireman, were Killed on the 2nd near the Darlington
station of the York, Newcastle, and Berwick Railway,
by the bursting of a locomotive engine boiler. At the
inquest, Mr. George Barker of Roundhill, stated, that
whilst attending to his homestead, he was alarmed by a
loud explosion, proceeding from a train on the railway,
which runs close by his farm. Perceiving a great body
of fire and steam proceed from the train, he ran to
render assistance, and on gaining the line, found the
engine had burst. It was off the line, and the tender
seemed to have been blown on to the opposite rails.
Between the two lines lay a man apparently dead, and
on looking round he found another in a ditch. Mr.
Bell, the superintendent of the locomotive department,
stated he was at the Darlington station when the train
took its departure. It was a luggage train, consisting
of 26 waggons, five loaded with timber, and the rest
with coals. It was drawn by an old locomotive, one
that had been damaged by a collision, but the boiler
and its machinery were perfect in every respect, capable