which the deceased has stedfastly refused. On the
above morning, while the girl was in the kitchen,
Baker came behind her, and placing a loaded pistol at
the back of her ear, deliberately blew her brains out.
An alarm was immediately raised by the other servant,
who at once rushed to the front door in a state of the
greatest alarm, and, a policeman having arrived, the
murderer was taken into custody, and lodged in the
police-station. As soon as Baker had murdered his
victim he remained perfectly still, and never attempted
in the slightest degree to make his escape, or excuse
himself for his horrible conduct. The prisoner was
brought before the magistrates next day, when he
was committed for trial. He has since made a confession.
After he had committed the murder he appeared
stupified, but soon after he was committed for trial he
became aware of his dreadful situation, and sent for the
mayor to make a communication to him. Baker is a
very ignorant man, being unable to spell the commonest
words correctly. His excuse for the murder is that he
entertained a sincere attachment for his victim, and
that she was perpetually tantalising him by accepting
and rejecting his attentions, and that, after behaving
to him in this way for some considerable time, she
finally rejected him with contempt. He had a wedding
ring in his possession when he was apprehended, by
which it would seem that he had contemplated being
married to the poor girl he murdered.

On two successive Sundays, the 14th and 21st,
attempts have been made to create disturbances in
Hyde-park, under the pretext of holding meetings on
the subject of the High Price of Bread. Several
thousand persons were got together each day, who
listened to some inflammatory harangues, but no breach
of the peace took place, nor was any interference of the
police necessary.

At the meeting of the Middlesex Magistrates on the
18th, a report from the Visiting Justices of the House
of Detention was brought up. A charge had been made
that the three bankers, Strahan, Paul, and Bates, had
not been subjected to the ordinary Regulations of the
Prison. The charge was investigated, and the justices
state that they find it to be borne out by the evidence.
The regulations of the prison require that prisoners
should not associate or converse with one another: but
these prisoners were allowed to associate, converse, and
walk with each other, in violation of those rules, and
without any consent previously obtained from the
Visiting Justices. The regulations of the prison allow
prisoners to see two friends daily, but not together, and
then only for twenty minutes at a time, except with the
express permission of the governor, under very special
circumstances: in the case of these prisoners, however,
persons were admitted without their names being taken,
indiscriminately, at all hours; and as to letters, which
by the rules were required to be examined, they were
received and passed without being seen or opened by
the governor. The prisoners were also allowed to send
out letters to their friends, without having to undergo
the usual supervision of the governor. Mrs. Strahan
visited her husband; she saw him at the governor's
house, and remained in his cell until a late hour at
night. "Wine and fruit were freely brought in for the
use of the prisoners. In the case of Paul the wine was
ordered by the surgeon, but in the case of the other two
the surgeon gave no order. In short, the prisoners
lived with the utmost freedom. When Mr. Strahan
went out on the 2nd of August, he said to Forth, a
warder, "You are getting more harsh every day; and
the next thing I expect to hear is to go into the common
cell." He said, "The magistrates are a sot of Radicals—
they are no gentlemen. Never mind; I leave you
today. But as for Captain Hill, I shall reward him for
his kindness to me." Mr. Woodward moved that
Captain Hill the governor should be publicly
reprimanded. But Mr. Antrobus moved, as an amendment,
"That the governor of the House of Detention be
suspended; and that the evidence that has been taken be
circulated, and taken into consideration on a future
day." This amendment was carried by 24 to 5; and
Mr. Sims, the deputy governor, was appointed governor
pro tempore.

The trial of the bankers, Strahan, Paul, & Bates,
came on in the Central Criminal Court on the 26th inst.
The indictment stated that the defendants had been
intrusted with Danish bonds of the value of £5,000 for
safe custody, and that they had, without authority, sold
these bonds and converted the money to their own use.
The circumstances of the case are well known to the
public. The bonds in question were the property of
Dr. Griffith, prebendary of Rochester, by whose orders
the defendants, as his bankers, had invested money
belonging to him in the purchase of these bonds. When
the bankruptcy took place, Dr. Griffith discovered that
the defendants had disposed of his securities for their
own purposes, and immediately instituted criminal
proceedings against them.—The case for the prosecution
having been stated by the Attorney-General, evidence
was taken, similar to that already given in the police
court. It was proved that Sir John Dean Paul had
instructed the Secretary of the National Insurance
Company to sell Dr. Griffith's bonds, which he did,
and paid over the money to Paul: and Dr. Griffith
deposed to conversations subsequent to the
bankruptcy, from which it appeared that Mr. Strahan
and Mr. Bates were accessory to the transaction. Sir
F. Thesiger, who appeared for Mr. Strahan, defended
him on the ground that the sale of the Danish bonds
was effected solely by Sir John Paul; that he received
the proceeds; and that there was no proof that Mr.
Strahan was privy to the transaction; and further, that
Mr. Strahan, having made a disclosure of the
circumstances before the Court of Bankruptcy, was not (according
to the Act of 7 & 8 Geo. IV.) liable to be indicted on
account of such circumstances.—Mr. Serjeant Byles, for
Sir John Paul, admitted the facts as stated by Dr.
Griffith; but said that it was his intention to replace
the bonds, which was shown by his having subsequently
purchased other bonds to a similar amount. He also
maintained that Sir J. Paul having made a full
disclosure (as he was bound to do) in the Bankruptcy
Court, was no longer liable to criminal proceedings.
— Mr. James, for Mr. Bates, rested his case upon
his total ignorance of the transaction in question.
The court then adjourned to the following morning;
when, Baron Alderson having charged the jury, they
retired, and after an absence of half an hour, returned
a verdict of Guilty against all the prisoners. The judge
proceeded to pass sentence. After commenting on the
heinous nature of the offonce, he observed that all the
prisoners had been well educated, and had moved in a
high position of society. The punishment which was
about to fall on them, therefore, would be far more
heavy, and more keenly felt than by persons in a lower
condition of life. It would also, he regretted to say,
afflict those who were connected with them. These,
however, were not considerations for him at that
moment; all he had to do was to say that he could not
conceive any worse case of the sort that could arise under
the statute under which they had been convicted, and
that being the case, he had no alternative but to pass
upon them the sentence which the act of parliament
provided for the worst class of offences arising under it
— that was, that they be severally transported for the
term of fourteen years.

          NARRATIVE OF ACCIDENT AND
                         DISASTER.

An inquest has been held on the body of John Hart,
guard of a goods-train on the Oxford, Worcester, and
Wolverhampton Railway, who was Killed by a
Passenger-train running into his van, near Kidderminster.
The disaster originated from mismanagement at
Churchill station. When the luggage-train arrived
there, as a passenger-train was not far behind, it should
have been put aside till the faster train had passed; but
the station-master explained that he had no siding, and
he could not shunt it on to the other line, for a train
was also just due on that: as the best course, he sent it
forward. But when the passenger-train approached
shortly after, it was not stopped by signals. The
evidence of a number of witnesses as to what signals were
exhibited was utterly contradictory; but no one seems
to assert that the danger-signal was up before the train