A horrid murder has taken place in Derbyshire, which, because
the author of it is a cultivated man, is quaintly sup- posed to imply insanity. Mr. George Victor Townly, of Manchester, had for some time been paying his addresses to Miss Goodwin, daughter of Captain Goodwin, of Wigwell Hall, near Wirksworth, in Derbyshire, who is in his eighty- fourth year. About a fortnight before the murder Miss Good- win broke off the engagement by letter. Mr. Townly suspected her of intending to marry some clergyman who was staying with the family, and insisted on receiving his dismissal from her own mouth. He called on her yesterday week, and spent some time with her in her own grounds, and then she accompanied him a part of the way on the road, when he cut her throat. A. farm labourer found the young lady sitting by the road still living, but bleeding profusely, and to him she pointed out "a gentleman standing in the road" who had committed the crime. Soon after Mr. Townly himself came up and helped to move her to the hall; but she died before reaching it. He gave himself into custody, acknowledging the crime with perfect calmness, and saying, "I feel far more happy now than I did before I did it, and I hope she is so." There is nothing very remarkable about the motive of the murder, jealousy being in. all classes one of the murderous passions, except the apparently complete self-command of the murderer, and his satisfaction when the act was irrevocable; but when culture does not inspire a certain horror of anything like butchery, it would naturally give a steadier mind in facing the whole issue. Mr. Townly is, of course, committed for trial.
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