21 JUNE 1856, Page 6

Trouittrial.

Sir William Williams of Kars arrived in England on Monday. Having selected Dover as his port of debarkation' he received an ovation from the municipal authorities. They waited on him on board the steamer that brought him from Franco, and were introduced by Colonel Lake. The crowd cheered vigorously as soon as they recognized the hero of Kars, and continued their shouts until he had reached the Ship Hotel. Here an address was read to the General ; to which he made an animated reply. He felt their kindness the more, he said, because it was the an- niversary of the day General Mouravieff appeared before Kars. He thanked them for himself and for the brave men who surrounded him in the hour of extreme distress, who supported and cheered him under every difficulty. "But, while I feel the greatest pleasure in adverting to their glorious conduct, I have a melancholy duty to perform, and a tribute to pay to de-, parted heroism and worth—to the memory of one of my brave companions, Captain Thompson. It was only the day before yesterday, while at Paris, that I heard of his severe illness ; and little did I then think that the scenes of this world would soon close upon him. I had looked forward to visiting his mother's house and cheering him as he had so frequently cheered me. Unfortunately—unhappily—it has been ordered otherwise. The only con- solation which can be offered to his widowed mother is that her lamented son died a glorious specimen of an English officer. (Cheers.) I can assure you that he was never daunted • that when reduced to a skeleton by dire disease, he was not prevented fnim doing his duty day or night. Poor Mrs. Thompson will have the consolation which has been the only consolation ex- perienced by many mothers during the present war—they have given their sons to the service of the country ! And if the day comes when -the repetition of this sacrifice shall be necessary, I believe there will be thonsands who will give up their offspring as readily as the mothers who are now weeping for the loss of theirs : for wo to the nation that forgets the military art 1 Wo to that nation—wo to that nation which heaps up riches but does not take the precaution to defend them. I have passed through armed Europe, and I take this the earliest opportunity of uttering a warning to those who forget the military art." (Cheers.) • Ile had another duty to perform—to bear testimony to the valour and endurance of the Turks ; and to our former enemies, but now friends, the Russians. When dire necessity compelled him to go to them, they received him with the politeness of the heart. "General Mouravieff is a man of the olden time. He is a stern man, but I believe that if there is an honest man on earth it is he. I have heard it said that a project has been debated in England, having for its object the presentation of a testimonial of British esteem to General Mouravieff: I can only say, that he and his brave army have my greatest esteem. He not only received me kindly, but in the hour of sickness he visited me, and in all my intercourse with him he acted as a brave and chivalrous man should act. In Kars he found a half-starved, half-clothed army. He fed and clothed them. Nor was he less attentive to the wants of those in whom the seeds of disease were sown, and in whom famine had more than half accomplished its deadly work." In passing through Russia, Prussia, and France, he had been received with the great- est consideration. "The day before yesterday I was presented to the Em- per6r from whom some time since I had the distinguished honour of reeeiv- mg the cross of Commander of the Legion of Honour. I was sorry that, having sent it to England, I was unable to wear it upon my breast upon that occasion; and I expressed that regret to the Emperor, and explained the reason ; upon which his Majesty immediately rose from his seat and said, I will get you another !' In a moment he brought me out the star of Grand Commander of the order, which he presented to me, I felt that the act was towards the British nation—not towards me; it was totally un- expected and uncalled-for. And now that I have arrived home among you, I feel that I am witnessing the happiest day of my life." - The feelings of the meeting broke through the etiquette usually ob- served on these occasions, and the gallant General was repeatedly cheered. At the close, cheers were given for Colonel Lake, Major Tees- dale, Mr. Churchill, and "one cheer more for the Russian General." These officers presented themselves on the balcony at the request of the Mayor, to satisfy the crowd outside.

Mr. Biggs, late Mayor of Leicester, was returned for that borough on Thursday, without opposition. Ile fills the seat left vacant by the death of Mr. Richard Gardner.

On Tuesday afternoon the whole gigantic goods-traffic of the North- Western Railway at Liverpool came to a stand-still : 900 servants of the company—clerks, porters, breaksmen, &c.—" struck." They have been dissatisfied for some time past. On Tuesday, the Marquis of Chandos Chairman of the Company, went to Liverpool; a deputation from the employes in the goods department had an interview with the Marquis, and laid their grievances before him : they met with a rebuff on all points ; and the turn-out quickly followed. The people complain that Mr. Carter, who became goods-manager at Liverpool a few months back, acts Unfairly and tyrannically towards them, passes over old ser- vants and puts his own creatures into vacant posts, and that he has begun an apparently systematic reduction of pay : they say they will not work under Mr. Carter. Lord Chandos asked them' did they want to appoint their own superiors ? The above account of the grievances of the em- ployes is from their statements : doubtless the Company would put the matter in a different light. Meanwhile, the shareholders will be great sufferers.

A deputation from the turn-outs had a second interview on Thursday with the Marquis of Chandos and other gentlemen interested in the rail- way. The Marquis told them that their demands would not be conceded, and that steps had been taken to supply their places. It appears that a number of hands have been taken-from London, Manchester, and other stations, while some common porters are hired in Liverpool : thus the goods-traffic was partially resumed on Thursday.

Another Preston strike is said to be imminent : the power-loom weavers and winders threaten to turn out for an advance of wages. The &rood and Maidstone branch railway, 11/ miles in length, was opened for traffic on Wednesday. It belongs to the South-Eastern Com. pany. The event was celebrated in Maidstone by a Corporation dinner to the Railway Directors, given in the Corn Exchange, and presided over by the Mayor.

The Manchester Exchange has now been completed, one end having been rebuilt to correspond with the greater portion of the structure. The floor is stated to be now "the largest of any public building in this country, or in feet in Europe."

Some 30,000 persons assembled on the Heath at Leeds on Sunday afternoon to listen to the music of a band : they behaved with great pro- priety during the performance, and then quietly dispersed.

A subscription has been opened at Halifax to make arrangements for having a band on Skircoat Moor on the Sunday evenings during the summer.

As our readers are aware, William Palmer was hanged at Stafford on Saturday morning. Some particulars attending his execution, more in de- tail than we were able to give last week, may be of interest.

- On the Sunday-before the execution, Palmer twice attended serVice in the gaol chapel, for the first time. In the course of the sermon he "frequently shed tears." He did not attend the chapel any more, although he might have done so ; but he read the Morning and Evening Service every day. His brother, the Reverend Thomas Palmer, saw him daily ; his brother George several times ; his sister Miss Sarah Palmer, twice; and Mr. Hey- wood, the husband of a deceased sister, visited hint once. The last inter- view he had with his brothers and sister was on the night immediately pre- ceding the execution. On the same day he expressed a desire to see Mr.

John Smith his solicitor ; and Mr. Smith arrived at the gaol late on Friday evening, and saw Palmer in the presence of Major Fulford, the Governor. "On gomg into the cell, the Governor informed Palmer that if he had any- thing confidential to say on family affairs to Mr. Smith, he (the Governor) would keep it a secret. The prisoner replied, that he had not,and he hoped the Governor would lose no time in publishing all he said. He also added, all he had to say was to thank Mr. Smith for his great exertions—the officers of the prison for their kindness to him—and that Cook did not die from strychnine. Major Fulford expressed a hope that in his then awful condi- tion he was not quibbling with the question and urged him to say 'Ay' or 'No,' whether or not he murdered Cook. He answered immediately, '.Lord Campbell summed up in favour of poisoning by strychnine.' The Governor retorted, it was of no importance how the deed was done, and asked him to say 'Yea' or 'No' to the question. Palmer said, he had nothing more to add : hewasquiteeasyinhiseonseienee, and happy in his mind.' This is

the Governor's version of the conversation; but upon the material point Mr. Smith stated, just after leaving the convict, that what Palmer said to him was, ' I am innocent of poisoning Cook by strychnine ; and all I ask is, that you will have his body examined, and that you will see to my mother and boy.'" -Palmer did not take a final leave of his relatives until after midnight. He then went to bed, and slept two hours and a half—wakening up com- fortable, and quite prepared.' .Shortly after seven, the High-Sheriff ar- rived; and to him Palmer repeated the assertion that he should die a mur- dered man. He quietly allowed himself to be pinioned. Just before the

procession moved to the drop, the Chaplain exhorted Palmer to admit the justice of his sentence. • But he firmly replied that it was not a just sen-

tence. "Then," said the Chaplain, your blood be upon your own head." Shortly before eight, he "tripped nimbly" down the stairs, followed by the executioner. "The remarkable appearance of the prisoner at this time will not easily be forgotten. Contrary to usage, [having no clothes of his own in the prison,] he wore the prison-dress, consisting of a dark grey jacket, trousers and waistcoat, all of the coarsest description, a blue checked cot- ton shirt, and a pair of thick list shoes. He carried a handkerchief in one hand, of the same coarse material. At his own request his light sandy hair had been closely cropped, which brought the whole configuration of his large round head and face into striking prominence, and, with the dress he wore gave to his whole physique an air of singular repulsiveness. The melancholy procession was now formed which was to conduct him to his doom. The Chaplain went first, reading the burial-service ; followed by the Under-Sheriff, then by the High-Sheriff, carrying their wands of office; next by Palmer, then by the executioner ; and finally by Major Fulford, the Governor of the prison, Mr. Hatton, the chief constable, and several of the officers of the gaol ; and in this way he was escorted to the scaffold amid the tolling of the prison-bell. His bearing in these last moments of his life elicited the amazement of all who witnessed it. As he passed Major Ful- ford, who was waiting to fall into the procession, he bowed to him in an easy off-hand manner, and then stopped for an instant to shake hands with one of the officials of the prison whom he recognized. He marched along with a light, jaunty step ; but the expression of his mouth and the pallor

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with which is features were suffused indicated a deep current of natural emotion which he strove in vain to conceal. The distance he had to tra- verse from his cell to the scaffold was very considerable, and included three short flights of stairs ; but his step never for an instant faltered. As the procession reached the entrance of the prison, Mr. Wright the philanthro- pist, who was standing near, stepped back to allow it to pass - the convict bowed courteously to him, and then walked lightly up the steps leading to the scaffold, and of his own accord placed himself under the beam. The executioner at once proceeded to adjust the rope round the culprit's neck, and was about to retire from the scaffold when he seemed to remember that he had not drawn the white cap over his face. He returned to do so, and then the convict shook hands with him and bade him good-bye. An instant elapsed before the bolt was withdrawn, and the rapid inflation and collap- sing of the part of the cap which covered his mouth evinced the intensity of his feelings at this awful moment. The drop at length fell, and he died almost without a struggle. Once or twice,. when the executioner was gently holding down his legs, he raised himself slightly up, and there was a simul- taneous convulsive movement of the shoulders for an instant; but he ex- hibited no other sign of life. He held a handkerchief in one of his hands, Where it still remained tightly clenched when the body was cut down." Palmer's corpse, in accordance with a custom at Stafford, was buried per- fectly naked, without even a shell.

The concourse attending the execution has been estimated at thirty thousand persons. Throughout the Friday they were pouring into Stafford along the roads and railways from all quarters. Nothing was talked of but the coming execution the probabilities of confession, and so forth. As early as nine o'clock on Friday evening, persons had taken their places within view of the scaffold, and they pertinaciously remained for hours until com- pelled to yield to a constant fall of rain. The tramp of hundreds was heard in the streets all night. Many got beds by paying high for them ; but many barely got shelter, and sonic none at all. The bulk of the crowd were artisans and tradesmen. There were some women, and a few well-dressed persons. On the whole they behaved well. The Reverend Thomas Palmer, in a letter to the Ernes which he signs as "brother of the unfortunate William Palmer," states that he is "not the author of the pamphlet called A Letter to the Lord Chief Justice Campbell, containing Remarks upon the Conduct of the Prosecution and the Judges ; with Strictures on the Charge delivered to the Jury, illustrative of its dan- gerous tendencies to the long-enjoyed Rights and Privileges of Englishmen' ; " and that the same was not published with his sanction or authority. [This pamphlet was published above a fortnight ago : the disavowal comes rather late.] A case of attempted suicide at Doncaster, last week, excites attention from the fact that the object of it swallowed a " vermin-destroyer " which con- tained strychnine. Mrs. Margaret was suffering from mental aberration; she tried to purchase poison, but failed ; at length she got some vermin- destroyer, and swallowed it. "Very shortly afterwards she was seized with a fit, and fell back upon her head. Medical aid was sent for, and an emetic, of sulphate of zinc was given to the patient, who evacuated the contents of the stomach. Dr. Dunn then arrived, and, finding her pulse very low, gave her a little sherry wine; when she was immediately seized with the most violent spasm of the whole muscular system. She became quite rigid ; the head was drawn back, the face turned livid, the hands were clenched, the body fixed, the legs stiff, the calves very hard and in lumps, as in cramp. She was laid upon the floor ; her pulse was gone, and she was to all appearance dead. In about a minute and a half she again breathed, and slowly re- covered. Tincture of iodine was then administered to her in doses of fifteen drops every fifteen minutes. From the first dose the spasms became less and less severe, until about five o'clock, when she had one more seizure, but not nearly so bad as the first she experienced at one o'clock. The spasms were very slight from five to nine p.m. when they entirely ceased, and the chemical antidote was discontinued 'fhe patient passed a quiet night ; on the follow- ing morning she complained very much of headache, numbness of the whole body, and was unable to use her lower limbs. Opium was then administered, and in two days she almost entirely recovered."

An elderly man, of unknown name, committed suicide on the 13th, by leaping from Shaksperc's Cliff at Dover. The body was discovered on the beach, a shapeless mass, with the features completely obliterated.