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fluence of liquor. The whole disgraceful transaction arose out of a deep belief in witchcraft which possesses to a lamentable extent the tradespeople and the lower orders of the district.

The victim of this superstition was a deaf and dumb Frenchman, whose age was about eighty--some persons suppose him to have been about eighty-six years. Being unable to express himself, and being of a somewhat vivacious disposition, he was accustomed to make use of energetic and somewhat grotesque gestures, which were taken by the rustics generally as cabalistic and diabolical signs, and he was consequently regarded with considerable awe. He lived alone in a wretched hut. Who the unfortunate Frenchman was, or whence he came, could not be ascertained. For the last seven or eight years he resided in Sible Hedingham, and previous to that he lived in Braintree. There is little doubt that he gained his living, to a great extent, by telling fortunes, if not by pretences to witchcraft. Some hundreds of scraps of paper were found by the police in his hut after his death, and upon most of them were written questions which, neither in their style nor their subject-matter, say much for the enlightenment of the district. The following are fair samples :-"Her husband have left her manny yrs, and she want to know weather he is dead or alive." "What was the reesen my son do not right ?-i meen that solger." "Do you charge any more ?" The answer to this query was doubtless satisfactory, for this momentous question was then put, "Shall I ever marry?" Love-letters from girls to their sweethearts were also found, with "Shall I marry," and "How many children shall I have?" written in pencil on them. The most business-like of all the notes was the curt one, "Did you say we kild your dog? If you did, I will send for the policeman." Nor were his patrons altogether confined to the lower orders. One letter states that the lady was "comen herself on Mundy to see yoo, and she gave you oll them things and the shillen."

In the hovel were found, besides, between 400 and 500 walkingsticks, a quantity of umbrellas, some French books, a number of tin boxes, some foreign coins, chiefly of the French empire, and about a ton of rubbish, which it was found impossible to classify in the inventory that was taken. The most definite ideas about the man have been suggested by the following questions which were found written, seriatim, on a scrap of "Were you :paper: born at Paris ?" "The name of the town where you were born?" "Where was your tongue cut out f" "Le nom de votre ville ?" The answers were no doubt made by signs.

It appeared from the evidence, that the prisoner Smith took it into her head that she had been bewitched by this poor Dummy; sought him in his dwelling, and offered him three sovereigns if he would accompany her home and heal her. The old man refused by signs both offers. She then followed him to the tap-room of a public-house called the Swan, and repeated her offers, which he again refused; a mob collected, and at length the woman Smith

struck the poor old man on the head with a stick. This not satisfying her and the mob, it was proposed, as in days of old, to submit him to the ordeal of water. Thereupon the poor old Frenchman was thrust into a ditch, but that not being deep enough, he was dragged up to the mill-head, and dragged through it again and again, until his tormentors began to be frightened at the possible results, and allowed him to crawl on shore, where he lay on the bank exhausted. The old man at length managed to crawl towards the Swan, and leant against the wall for support, and asked for shelter of a butcher named Ames, who refused to let him in. At last two women, and a man named Neville, took compassion on him, and helped him to his own hut, and recommended him to change his wet clothes. The poor old Dummy kissed their hands to express his gratitude. Two days afterwards he was found to be so ill as to be obliged to be removed to the workhouse, where he died from the effects of his ill-usage.

Evidence having been given that the cause of death was clearly traceable to the cruel treatment sustained by the deceased, and as to the part taken by the two prisoners in the ill-usage, they were asked what they had to say in their defence.

Smith replied in a peculiar voice, and evidently under the influence of some superstitious fear, that she would tell the truth. Deceased came to her house first. He spat upon her, and told her that after a time she should be ill, and she was ill. A doctor came to her twice in one night, but could not cure her. The man (Dummy) came to her shop ten months ago, and asked leave to sleep in her shed. She let him, but in a few days when she wanted him to leave, he made signs and wrote upon a door that she should be ill in ten days. He made her ill and bewitched her, and she went every where, but no one could set her right again, she was afraid, for no medicine could do her any good.

The Chairman.-Are you aware of the nature of the charge against you that you caused the death of the old man by your conduct on the 3rd of August?

The prisoner. That night? I will tell you the truth. That night I went to the Swan very bad. I went up to the old gentleman and asked him to go home with me to do me good. He said he would not go. Gibson took him up, and put him in my face, to kiss me, but I did not want to do that, as I had a husband of my own. A number of plaiters (of straw for bonnets) came in, and said "How bad this woman is!" There were forty or fifty people there, few of them men. They got him out. Some stoned him, some shoved him into mud, and did more to him than I did. I begged and prayed that he would go home with me, but he said he would not unless he liked. I do not deny that I put my hand to his head, but I was so bad I could not lift a dog, and this man here (Stammers) took him by the heels and threw him in the water, and then he (Stammers) jumped in and got him out. I may die any moment. There was one there who did not touch him,

and that was Mrs. Bruty, who said she was afraid of him. That is the truth.

Stammers simply said he was not guilty.

The Chairman said it was a fearful and a disgraceful fact that at the present day an old and mutilated man should meet with such a fate, and that no one of all the crowd of men and women present should have interfered to save him, or even have told the police of what was going forward. The prisoners stood committed to Chelmsford Gaol for trial at the next spring assizes.

OCTOBER.

5. His Majesty the newly-elected King of the Greeks, brother of Her Royal Highness the Princess of Wales, arrived at Dover at three p.m., from Calais, by the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Company's new steamer the "Samphire," performing the passage in one hour twenty-six minutes. His Majesty was accompanied across the Channel by Lieutenant Morgan, R.N., the naval superintendent of the company. His Majesty was received on arrival at Dover by the Greek Consul; General Sutton, commanding the garrison; Captain Triscott, R.N., Admiralty Superintendent, &c., and after partaking of lunch at the Lord Warden Hotel, proceeded by special train to Victoria station, London, on the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway. The arrangements at the station at Dover were under the superintendence of Mr. Cox, the station-master, who had charge of the train to London. His Majesty arrived at the Victoria station punctually at six o'clock, the special train performing the journey in two hours and ten minutes.

On arrival at the Victoria station His Majesty was met by his brother-in-law, His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and was received by Lord Harris, the deputy-chairman, and Mr. Forbes, the general manager of the London, Chatham, and Dover Railway Company, and proceeded direct to Marlborough-house.

6. EARTHQUAKE IN ENGLAND.-This morning, about half-past three, the central and western parts of England were shaken by an earthquake. Comparing the various reports received from the districts over which the wave of agitation travelled, it appears that the shocks were as nearly as possible simultaneous from Milford Haven to Burton-on-Trent, and from the Mersey to Plymouth. The sky seems to have been clear and the air still, an observation quite consistent with the experience of travellers in countries where earthquakes are most frequent and violent. The shocks were in many if not in most places unaccompanied by any subterranean noise. In all the effects were about the same-the

furniture was shaken in houses, gates rattled, and high buildings oscillated alarmingly, but no actual damage was done. In the case of a vessel at sea, about twenty miles from Milford Haven, which felt the earthquake, the captain says that the ship reeled as if she had struck on a rock.

A zigzag line drawn from Liverpool through Derby, Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Worcester, Hereford, and Taunton, to Exeter, would seem to mark the course along which the main shock proceeded. The shock seems to have been general throughout a large stretch of country, embracing South Staffordshire and parts of Warwick and Worcestershire.

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THE LORD-LIEUTENANT OF IRELAND AND THE EARL OF LEITRIM. On the occasion of the Lord-Lieutenant making a journey through the extreme western part of Ireland, he was refused accommodation at a little inn belonging to the Earl of Leitrim, at a place called Maam, in Connemara, in consequence of orders given by the Earl to his tenant the innkeeper, which were contained in the following letter:

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"Galway, October 6, 1863.

King, I will be obliged to you to fill the hotel with my tenants forthwith. Let every room be occupied immediately, and continue to be occupied; and when so occupied you will refuse admittance to Lord Carlisle and his party. If there should be the slightest difficulty as to filling the hotel, the occupation of the rooms, my desire is that you will fill each room with the workmen; but you must not admit Lord Carlisle, and consequently the rooms should be occupied previous to his coming there. Any orders you may have received notwithstanding, I rely on your observing my wishes to the letter.

"Yours faithfully,

"LEITRIM.

"P.S.-I will pay for the tenants using the rooms."

When the vice-regal carriage was within two miles of Leenane, it was met by a police-constable, who delivered a note to Mr. Hatchell, the secretary of his Excellency, who, in reply to the constable, said he would make all right at Leenane. The note, which turned out to be from Mr. M'Dermott, S.I. of the district, conveyed the information that accommodation could not be obtained at Maam, where it was intended the vice-regal party should stop for the night. At Leenane, Mr. M'Dermott conversed with Mr. Hatchell for a considerable time, after which Mr. Hatchell called one of the postilions, and told him that he would be required to go to Cong direct, instead of stopping at Maam. This seemed to be rather unaccountable to the postilions, who stated that it was a very long journey, being twenty miles from Leenane. Mr. Hatchell replied that he was sorry to have to ask them to drive so

far, but he was obliged to do so, as they should go to Cong that day. The horses were then put to, and his Excellency having thanked Mr. M'Keown for his attention and kindness, the journey to Cong commenced. On nearing Maam a large number of persons were collected on the bridge, no doubt out of curiosity. The resident magistrate of Oughterard was on the spot, and a party of constabulary, who paid due homage to the vice-regal party as they passed. As the carriage approached the hotel, Mr. Hatchell stood up and requested the horsemen on no account to stop there, but to pass as quickly as possible towards Cong. The order was obeyed, and they reached Cong after a sharp drive of twenty miles, which was accomplished in three hours. Mr. Burke's hotel was selected as the place at which his Excellency should put up, and every thing possible was done to ensure his Excellency's comfort during his short stay at the town of Cong, which is remarkable for the natural curiosities with which it abounds. Mr. M'Dermott, S.I., drove into Cong at an early hour, and had all the arrangements made for the proper reception of the party. His Excellency thanked the postilions for their good driving, and dismissed them, as he proposed returning per steamer from Cong to Galway.

As soon as this extraordinary act of discourtesy to the Queen's representative became known, it excited a general feeling of surprise and indignation throughout the district. An address to the Lord-Lieutenant, signed by a large number of peers, magistrates, and gentry of that part of Ireland, expressing their strong sense of the impropriety of Lord Leitrim's conduct, and their regret at the insult offered to the vice-regal dignity, was presented to the Lord-Lieutenant. As a mark of the disapprobation of the Crown, Lord Leitrim was superseded in the Commission of the Peace for the counties of Donegal, Leitrim, and Galway. The only excuse offered by the noble Earl for his conduct consisted of allegations as to the prevalence of agrarian outrages and disturbances of the peace, from which he had himself been a sufferer, and the responsibility of which he imputed to the lax administration of the law in Ireland under Lord Carlisle's government.

13. INAUGURATION OF A MEMORIAL STATUE AT ABERDEEN.-The ceremony of inaugurating the memorial statue of His Royal Highness the late Prince Consort at Aberdeen took place in presence of Her Majesty and various members of the Royal Family. The occasion excited great interest, it being the first on which Her Majesty has appeared in public since her widowhood. The statue, which was subscribed for by the city and county of Aberdeen, is of bronze, by Marochetti. It is placed upon a polished granite pedestal, and represents the late Prince seated and wearing a fieldmarshal's uniform, with the robe of the Thistle over it. In one hand he holds a scroll, and in the other the field-marshal's hat. Her Majesty arrived by a special train from Balmoral, and was re

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