Mr. C. Baring Wall, member for Guildford, has been held
to bail to take his trial at the next Clerkenwell Sessions, on a charge of having indecently assaulted a policeman on the night of Tuesday, the 26th February.
Folgar, the Kentuckian, who shot Mr. Mellish, was brought before the Lord Mayor on Wednesday, to undergo his final examination previous to being committed for trial. Mr. Mellish attended and gave evidence as to the injury which he had received. The Lord Mayor examined the surgeon who had attended Folgar in prison as to the question of his sanity. Mr. Pelham, who appeared to defend the prisoner, strongly objected to this course, as tending unnecessarily to prejudice the prisoner. The Lord Mayor said, it was proper that the public mind should be disabused of the reports which had been in circulation as to his insanity; and observed, that he was empowered to inquire into the circumstances of every case which came before him, in the manner which appeared most likely to elicit the whole truth. Sir Robert Peel's Act was his authority for doing so. He also remarked, that if this prisoner was to be considered insane, no man's life was safe. He then committed him to take his trial. [If it had been necessary to ascertain the prisoner's sanity before he could have been legally committed, there would not have been much doubt as to the propriety of the course pursued on the occasion by Sir Peter Laurie ; but as it was by no means necessary for that purpose, it seems a little too bad that a sheer love of gossip should have induced the worthy Magistrate thus prematurely to decide a question which must make the difference of life or death to the prisoner.] A fire broke out, on Tuesday night, in the house of Mr. Watts, No. 56, London Street, in which Mrs. Mensay, the widow of a captain of Marines, was burnt to: death. She was nearly seventy-five, and was in the habit of sitting up late to read. It is conjectured that she fell asleep, and that the candle set fire to her clothes. The furniture and wood-work of the house were entirely consumed.
The Erin steam-packet, which was reported to have been lost in the Bristol Channel during the late gales, has arrived at Milford, with her engines damaged, but her passengers and crew all safe.
The Marquis of Anglesea has dismissed the Earl of Milton from the commission of the peace for the counties of Wicklow and Kildare, in consequence of his joining the Volunteer Society.
A petition is now in progress of signature in Dublin, calling upon the Legislature to extend to this country a system of poor-laws which shall secure the means of existence to the imbecile, the disabled, and the destitute, and which shall promote employment for able -bodied paupers. This is the essence of the petition ; which has been got up without any public meeting, and which professes to be merely the petition of" the undersigned." The first signature attached to it is that of the Duke of Leinster. Having carefully inspected the names,. which arc already very numerous, I can assure you that they comprise the great bulk of the wealth, intelligence, and respectability of the population of Dublin.—Dublin Correspondent of the Globe.
Previous page
