their own clerk to continue the prosecution. James
and Staden have since been convicted at Lewes; John
Broome did not surrender to take his trial with them,
but was subsequently traced to Belgium. The case was
fully made out. Mr. Secretary Walpole was examined,
to prove that Sill had never called upon him, and that
the attorney had no "influence" with him: Mr. Walpole
knew nothing about the case except from seeing it in
the newspapers. The jury consulted for three-quarters
of an hour, and convicted the accused. When he was
brought up to receive sentence on Thursday, Sill
applied for a postponement, on the ground that he had
been the victim of a conspiracy, and that he could
disprove the evidence by affidavits. The Recorder, after
consulting the other judges, consented to postpone
judgment till next Sessions.

The first decision under the act for preventing the
Over-crowding of River Steam-boats was given by the
Lord Mayor on the 17th. Mr. Chipperfield, master of
the Queen, was charged with conveying an excessive
number of persons to Herne Bay and back, on the 26th
July. The certificate of the Board of Trade permitted
300 persons to be conveyed for the excursion; but the
number on board was 666. The penalty is £20 and 5s.
for each passenger beyond the legal number. As this
was the first case the Lord Mayor was lenient, but
threatened severity to the next offender: he inflicted a
fine of £5 for breaking the law, and £5 for the excess of
number. 5s. on each passenger would have amounted
to £91.10s.

A coroner's inquest on the bodies of Five men killed in
a Riot at a place called Six-Mile Bridge, during the election
for the county of Clare, closed a long investigation
on the 18th inst. A great mob, in a state of excitement
had pressed upon a party of soldiers of the 31st regiment,
who were escorting some voters to the hustings,
and were fired upon by the soldiers. An immense mass
of evidence was taken; the witnesses being a number of
the persons engaged in the riot, several priests who were
among them, some of the soldiers, and other persons
who were eye-witnesses. The evidence was exceedingly
confused and contradictory; but it appeared that the
soldiers were met and assaulted by bodies of people
throwing stones, pushing in amongst the cars, seizing
the firelocks of the troops, and hauling away at the
voters. Lieutenant Hutton, and Captain Eager, who
had charge of the detachment of the 31st, distinctly
showed that the soldiers were under great provocation.
Lieutenant Hutton, who had served in the Affghan war,
restrained his men, although they repeatedly begged to
be permitted to fire. Captain Eager considered that his
men would have been disarmed and killed had they not
fired. These statements were sustained under cross-
examination, and corroborated by the privates of the
31st. It seems also clear that the soldiers fired without
orders; and that some of them fired twice, once
in presumed self-defence, and once into the crowd flying
up the street. This latter fact weighed very much with
the coroner and the jury. The verdict returned, after
an hour and a half of deliberation, was agreed to by
twelve out of fifteen—"We are satisfied that John. C.
Delmege, J. P., John Gleeson (first), James Postings,
William Barnes, John Thompson, John Dwyer, James
Sharpe, Thomas Clarke, and John Carter, soldiers of
the 31st regiment, are guilty of the wilful murder
of Jeremiah Frawley." Five jurors dissented from the
verdict. One of them, Mr. W. Mahon, stated that
although they had not agreed to the above verdict, they
did not acquit the soldiers of all criminality, and that they
would all have agreed to a verdict of manslaughter by
soldiers whose persons were not identified. The five
dissentient jurors also acquitted Mr. J. C. Delmege, the
magistrate who had been present, of having either fired
himself or given any orders to fire. The jury were then
requested to again retire and consider their verdict as to
the cause of death in the other cases, namely, M.
Connellan, M. Colman, T. Ryan, J. Casey, and J. Flaherty.
The counsel for the soldiers applied to have them
admitted to bail. In consequence of the extraordinary
verdict which had been given in, against even the
opinion intimated in the coroner's charge, it would be
necessary to make such an application immediately to
the Queen's Bench; but he apprehended that it was in
the discretion of the coroner to allow bail to be given
for them. Another ground on which he pressed his
application was, that the jury had not been regularly
empanelled, no precept having been issued to the sub-
inspector of police to summon a jury, except in the case
of Frawley. The coroner said it should be remembered
that the five dissentient jurors had stated that they
would have brought in a verdict of manslaughter, in
which case, if it were civilians he was dealing with, he
should have no hesitation in issuing a warrant. He
could make no distinction between a red coat and a
dark one, but was there to do his duty fairly but firmly
to all parties. The jury having returned a similar
verdict in the other cases, the requisition was engrossed in
due form. The coroner then issued his warrant for the
arrest of the persons implicated in the verdict, and it
was intrusted for execution to sub-inspector Donovan
and a party of constabulary, by whom the eight soldiers
were conducted to Ennis gaol. Mr. Delmege was not
present in the court.

At the Liverpool Assizes, on the 19th, Policeman Slaney
was tried for the Murder of an old Woman, who was
killed during an election-riot. The woman died from a
violent blow on the temple, such as a constable's staff
would inflict; that blow was dealt while the police were
struggling with the mob in a court; but the evidence was
not conclusive that Slaney struck the blow. Policeman
Doane, who was one of the body engaged in the fight,
has since absconded; it was suggested that he was the
homicide. The Jury acquitted the prisoner. When he
appeared outside the court, the crowd cheered, and he
was borne along in triumph on men's shoulders.

Alfred Waddington, a dissolute young man of
Sheffield, has Murdered his Illegitimate Child, and attempted
to kill its mother, Sarah Slater. The mother had taken
out a summons because Waddington had not paid for
the child's support; on the evening of the 19th inst.
he got the infant from a girl who was nursing it,
carried it to a wood, and cut its head off, leaving the
remains in the wood; then he went to a place where
the mother was, called her into the street, and with a
large clasp-knife attempted to cut her throat; but she
held up her hands and saved her neck at their expense,
and Waddington ran away. After this he met Sarah
Dobson, and when she questioned him, he cut her on
the face with the knife, and again fled. He subsequently
surrendered himself to the police, and has been
committed for trial.

David Davies, landlord of a public-house at Lower
Swinford, has been committed to Worcester Gaol for
Murder, perpetrated under very extraordinary
circumstances. His son, a boy of fifteen, has also been
committed as an accessory before the fact; but he has
been allowed to put in bail. Some railway labourers
who had been drinking at the public-house turned out
to fight, and then went back to the house, where they
made a great disturbance; in consequence, a crowd
assembled outside, consisting mostly of noisy boys.
Davies, who had been from home, now returned, and
attempted to disperse the mob, striking several with his
stick. The boys hooted and threw stones. Davies
withdrew into the house, threatening to shoot them.
He had two guns, which his son now loaded; and the
father went to an upper window and fired into the
crowd, using violent language. The guns were reloaded,
and again fired, killing one person and wounding four
others. Mrs. Pardoe, wife of a collier, with six
children, was shot dead in the act of looking for one of
her children in the crowd. Mrs. Brentall, a middle-aged
lady, was wounded in several places while attempting to
aid the deceased, who was formerly her servant. The
other sufferers were two men—one a miner, wounded in
the neck, it is feared mortally; and a bricklayer's wife,
who was shot in the legs.

An incident of Romance in Real Life has just
transpired. In April 1843, a vagrant woman was charged
at the Mansion-house with stealing a little boy three or
four years of age. In a state of destitution the woman
had entered the Asylum for the Houseless Poor. Dr.
Bowie, the surgeon, suspected that she had stolen the
child; and, along with Mr. Edwards, chairman of the
asylum, caused her to be arrested. She pretended that
the child was her own; but there was no doubt that he