At the Oxford Assizes, held at Worcester on the 18th
instant, Joseph Meadows, aged 23, a whitesmith, was
charged with the wilful Murder of Mary Ann Mason,
at Dudley, on the 12th of May last. The deceased was
servant at a public-house called the Sailor's Return.
The prisoner had passed there as her brother, but was
her lover, and had been discarded after a courtship of
some months. He went to the public-house armed
with a carbine, which he managed to conceal until he
had an opportunity of discharging it in the unfortunate
girl's face. The charge consisted of shot, some of
which entered the tongue, while a wound behind the
ear was mortal. She died in less than fifteen minutes.
The prisoner, who was not sober, was at once captured,
and made a voluntary confession of his crime, which
he said he had long intended. The prisoner was
found guilty, and sentence of death was passed
upon him.

The Affair of Mr. E. O' Flaherty was revived in the
case of Richardson v. Gregory, tried in the Dublin
Court of Queen's Bench on the 30th of June. It was
an action on a bill purporting to be signed by Mr. W.
H. Gregory, late M.P. Mr. Gregory pleaded that the
bills were forgeries, and the jury, after hearing the
evidence, gave a verdict to the same effect.

The Commission appointed to inquire into the
Conduct of the Police in Hyde Park, on the 1st of July,
assembled in the Court of Exchequer, at Westminster,
on Tuesday the 17th inst., and have continued their
sittings. Mr. Stuart Wortley acted as president of
the court, Mr. Henderson and Mr. Armstrong sitting
with him. Mr. Ellis, of the firm of Lyon, Barnes, and
Ellis, attended on behalf of the police, and Mr. Mitchell
for several aggrieved persons. A great number of
witnesses have been examined. The witnesses included
gentlemen, officers of the army, barristers, master
tailors, master builders, tradesmen, workmen, men and
women servants, and others. Without exception, these
witnesses averred that the crowd was respectable and
orderly, and that the riot was entirely provoked by the
police. The constables are described as charging in
all directions, beating persons without provocation or
warning, and threatening them with severer punishment.
Some persons were inclosed between two bodies,
and knocked about from one to another. One young
man was thrown violently over the rails. The case of
Mr. Mair was amply made out, so far as witnesses on
his side go. He was arrested, with great roughness,
confined with six persons in a room ten feet by seven,
and suffered severely in health in consequence. The
case of Mr. Stephens was still worse. He was walking
home with a relation of his wife. There was a slight
rush of the people near Grosvenor-street. He was
struck on the back; turning round, a policeman struck
him repeated blows with a truncheon, felling him to
the ground. He told the police that he was merely a
passer-by. A gentleman from a neighbouring balcony
called out, "Take their numbers!" On attempting to
do so, he received a violent blow on the back of the
ear, and remembered nothing more until he was placed
in a cab. This story was fully corroborated by several
witnesses, including the gentleman on the balcony.
John King, a youth, was knocked down, and struck
three times while on the ground. James Fassie was
disabled for a week by a blow from D 20. James Martin,
one of the Naval Brigade, wounded in four places, was
struck on one of his wounds several times by A 349.
Adam Houlding, going to see what was the matter,
"found himself in the middle of a ring of policemen,"
and was arrested. In the Humane Society's yard, he
saw a policeman beat a prisoner with his fist. George
Coulshaw was lifted up by the police and flung over
the rails among the people. John Thomas King saw
A 147 break a woman's head. Mr. Hugh Bates
Maxwell, brother of Sir William Maxwell, seeing the police
driving the people, asked what this meant? and, instead
of receiving any reply, a policeman, whom he should
recognise, seized him by the collar, and pitched him
forward, at the same time giving witness a blow on the
back with his truncheon. A great quantity of similar
testimony having been given, the Commission proceeded
to examine witnesses on behalf of the police, and the
investigation still continues.

NARRATIVE OF ACCIDENT AND
DISASTER.

The barque Abberton, of London, from the Chincha
Islands, with a cargo of guano, Foundered off the coast
of Patagonia, on the 25th of May. The officers and crew,
alter being eight days and nights in the long boat, were
picked up by the Cypress, of London, and carried to
Pemambuco.

On the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway,
the Roof of the Outhwaite Tunnel Fell in on the
14th inst. A goods train passed through at nine o'clock
in the morning, when all appeared safe. A quarter of
an hour afterwards two workmen heard the roof fall,
and gave warning just in time to stop a passenger train
from Penistone. The passengers and their luggage were
conveyed over the interrupted portion by omnibuses
and carts. The stratum for a great thickness above the
roof of the tunnel is soft shale. The heavy rain of
Saturday morning penetrated the shale, and added so
much to its weight, that it burst in the roof of the tunnel.

A Railway Accident took place on Sunday the 15th
inst., on the Midland line. As the morning train from
Mansfield to Nottingham was proceeding over Ilkeston
Moor, the engine was suddenly thrown off the rails, and
ran for about 70 yards on the side of the rails, and was
then precipitated down an embankment, dragging with
it the tender and partially dislodging the first carriage
from the rails. Fortunately, the couplings broke, so
the remaining carriages were not displaced. The driver
was tossed into the hedge, and escaped in a wonderful
manner without injury. Four or five of the passengers
came in collision by the concussion, but a few bruises
were the only result.

A fatal Colliery Accident happened on the 15th inst.
Three men and a boy went down into a coalpit at Dukinfield,
Cheshire, to feed some horses left in the mine. A
young man, named Charles Bebbington, had charge of
the steam-engine, over which he lost all command, so
that, when the men reached the pit-mouth, they were
drawn with great force over the pulley, 50 feet above
the pit, and hurled to a great distance. Three of them
were thrown into a reservoir 40 yards distance, whilst
another was thrown a great way in a contrary direction.
They all received severe injuries, causing almost instant
death. At the inquest a verdict was returned of culpable
negligence against Bebbington, who was committed.

An inquest was held on the 17th inst., on the body of
Mr. Joseph Ryan, commercial clerk, who was Drowned
in the Grand Junction Trunk of the Royal Surrey
Canal. It appeared that the deceased, accompanied by
two friends, proceeded to the Surrey Canal to bathe.
He was not perfectly sober, but insisted on going into
the water, and in swimming from one bank to the other
he became exhausted, and was nearly drowned. One
of his friends seeing the difficulty he had in reaching
the opposite bank, told him that he would bring his
clothes, but he jumped in again to return, and sank
almost immediately, the body not being recovered for
about two hours. The coroner said that when the
system was excited with drink, if a person plunged into
the water, it almost in every case produced apoplexy.
He hoped that the knowledge of such a fact would act
as a caution. Verdict "Accidental death."

The Rev. S. Sunderland, vicar of Penistone, in
Yorkshire, was accidentally Killed on the 18th inst., by the
upsetting of an omnibus, heavily laden, between
Chatsworth and Rowsley. He was thrown out, and so much
injured that he died almost immediately.

Lately, at the works of Messrs. Cummings, machinists,
Belmont, near Bolton, a man met with a melancholy
Accident whilst oiling some machinery in motion. His
arm was caught by a wheel making about 100 revolutions
per minute, and he was carried round with it bodily,
two of his limbs being literally torn off, his head smashed
to pieces, and his body shockingly mutilated.

Miss Wetherby, a young lady residing with her family
at Broadstairs, has lost her life by Falling from the Cliff
between that place and Ramsgate. She was walking
and reading on the verge of the precipice when this
lamentable accident happened.