MURDER OP A POLICE max.—John Long, belonging to the New
Police, was murdered on Monday night, in Gray's Inn Road, by a stab in the breast, inflicted with a shoemaker's knife. A female, who was but a few yards from the unfortunate man when the murder was com- mitted, gives evidence, that while talking to a gentleman, " she saw Long and three men standing together ' • suddenly one of the men, who was dressed in blue, run off, and in a few seconds he was followed by another in brown ; when the latter ran away, Long cried out that he was murdered. The man to whom she was talking also run off with the rest. She went up to the policeman ; and on her repeated cries for help, a man named Cod, a bricklayer, came up, who raised the murdered man on his knee, and attempted to loosen his stock, but before he could ac- complish it, Long was a corpse. Amos Denis, another man who ran forward on hearing the cries of the female, sprung Long's rattle; and in consequence of the alarm, two men, who were running along the dark side of the street were seized,—one of them, Smith, by the private watchman of Mr. Cubitt, another, Somers, by a mau named Milliken ; She third escaped. Smith was recognized by the female as having been one of the three who were near the policeman when the murder was committed. Somers, the other, a person of indifferent character, was also recognized as having been near the spot immediately after. Smith was pronounced guilty of the murder, by the Coroner's verdict ; and both he and Somers were committed by the magistrate of Hatton 'Gar- den. The deceased was stabbed in the left side, between the fourth and fifth ribs ; the weapon had penetrated to the heart, theright ventricle of which it had pierced. So firmly was it wedged in the wound, that in attempting to withdraw it, the handle came off. It was to this that the policeman owed a few minutes of prolonged existence, which it is hoped . may lead to the punishment of so daring a crime ; had not the blade re- mained in the wound, he must have died instantly, Several burglars' implements were found near the place where the men were seized, as if
. thrown away in their flight ; and it appears that Longy who bore a good character as an honest man and a vigilant officer, had mentioned to one of his comrades that an attempt at housebreaking was meditated in that limner, and he was in the act of compelling the ruffians to move on, when he received his death blow.
MURDER IN LAMBETII.—A widow, named Jane Whinnett, was found barbarously murdered in her house, 30, Upper Princes Street, on Thursday evening. It appears that her daughter and son-in-law, an unmarried son, and a person named Witham, lodged in the house. They left it, the daughter and her husband,, to visit Camberwell Fair, and Withan to his work, at four o'clock. On Withan's return with the younger son, at night, they found the deceased lying in the passage, with her head almost beaten to pieces, and quite dead. A wooden win- dow-bar, with which the wounds had evidently been inflicted, was found covered with bloOd, behind the door. There were two ferocious dogs on the premises ; but no noise nor struggling seems, to have been heard, although, from the state of the body, there can be no doubt that much and violent struggling had taken place. The deceased has some fifty pounds in gold and silver in the house ; which was, however, not disco- vered by the murderer. The money she had in her pockets was carried off. There are no traces as yet of the guilty parties. LAND SHARKS.—A set of nondescripts, called crimps, have recently been detected in the perpetration of a series of frauds upon poor seamen, scarcely credible in a civilized country. During the interval which, by the regulations of the East India House, elapses between the arrival of their vessels and the payment of the men's wages, these crimps inveigle . the sailors into purchasing goods of various kinds; and as soon as a debt of four or five pounds has been incurred, they make oath of twenty pounds and upwards, and thus procure the arrest of their victims. The poor seamen, impatient of restraint, and thoughtless of the value of money, have usually satisfied the demand to get free ; but one or two of the more shrewd have lately resisted ; and their condition has at length become the subject of investigation. The East India Company, it is said, intend to prosecute one of the offenders, by way of example. Why one ? Should not the villany of all these depredators be punished? or is it to be kept in decent restraint merely ? There is some gross de- ' feet in the administration of the law, which permits such practices. "Why are not persons suing out writs on mesne process compelled to take such steps, previous to obtaining them, as would afford some guarantee of the reality of the debt ? KIDNAPPING .—A curious case of this kind was heard last week before the Magistrates of Belfast. The details are almost incredible. The subject, a man fifty years of age, named Brown, described himself as a free Black; born in Baltimore, where he was married, and had five chil- dren. He was suddenly hurried away during the night some months ago ; and after crossing with his oppressors an unknown length of cowl-
, 'found himself, after twenty-five days' travel, in New Orleans. after being detained nearly three months, he was sold to
a man named King. He however got away from his master, and purchased a dollar's worth of biscuit ; and with this as his sea-stock, he, by the aid of one of the crew, concealed - himself on board the Planter of Belfast, and by that means to reach Europe. His presence -was known to none but the man in question; and he even contrived to land at Belfast unperceived by the crew. He was afterwards arrested— why or how, does not appear ; but as soon as he had told his wondrous tale, which may be true, he was of course set at liberty, as he must have been whether it were true or not, there being no legal ground for depriv- ing him of it. The Quakers of Belfast have, with the characteristic hu- manity of their sect, interested themselves greatly in Brown's favour.
IRISH ELECTION PasrimE.—During the late election in Galway, Mr. Macdonnell, the Deputy Clerk of the Peace, was murdered, for his attachment to some of the parties. So much for the open and bold de- portment of British voters, which Mr. Brougham fears the ballot would wholly destroy.
DESPERATE RIOT.—A bloody fight took place at the fair of Muff on Thursday last week, between the Catholic and Protestant factions. Six of the former were killed on the spot, one of them a female, and a great number was wounded. Two houses belonging to the Protestants were burned to the ground ; and in the neighbourhood of the town, a man named Maharry, a Protestant, was killed, and his father, who accompa- nied him, sorely injured, but it is said not mortally. The Roman Ca- ' tholics in Ireland finely exemplify the degrading effect of long-con- linued subordination. In almost all their contests with the Protestants, they come off second-best, even where they form the majority. EXECUTION.—Thomas Surtees was executed on Thursday, at Pen- enden Heath, for the violation, under circumstances of great atrocity, of a female named Taylor. He was convicted at the last Kent Assizes. Surtees was a sailor in a coal-vessel trading between Shields and Stroud, where the girl lived. He appears to have been a ruffian of the first water. During his visits to Kent, he used to roam the fields at night insulting every woman he met, and commonly armed with a large knife for the purpose of intimidation.
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