Much interest has been excited in the neighbourhood of 'Uxbridge,
by a fatal affray between two young men, pupils of the Reverend Frederic Stunner, of Hayes. Mr. Francis Hastings Medhurst, having quarrelled violently with his fellow pupil, Joseph Alsop, attacked him, on the llth instant, in a room of Mr. Stunner's house, and in his pre- sence ; the weapon of assault being a large knob-headed stick. Mr. Stammer left his two pupils ugh Lung, and walked away, without making any attempt to part them. Soon after, Medhurst stabbed Alsop with a double-edged knife or dirk, below the navel. The poor young mono lingered a few days in extreme pain, and then died. Medhurst was arrested on a charge of murder ; and after a lengthened and minute inquiry into all the details, before Mr. Wakley the Coroner, a Jury, composed of seventeen persons, returned the following verdict, with two dissentients-
" Wilful murder against Mn Francis Hastings Maoist. The Jure are unanimously of opinion, that the conduct of Mr. Stunner is highly repr:ffien- sille, in not interfering to prevent the altercation between the parties, as such interference might" have prevented the unhappy consequences which have ensued."
Medhurst is nearly twenty-one, and will in a few weeks conic into possession of property worth 7,000/. a year. Alsop was about eighteen, and belonged to a most respectable family in Staffordshire. Medhurst was noted for ungovernable temper, which he seems to have inhe- rited by right of brood. His mother was an Italian. His grandfather stabbed his wife in a fit of insanity, and is now, at an advanced age, in it lunatic asylum near Uxbridge. A story has appeared in the news- payers, that be cut his wife's bead off, and then, placing it on the table, said—" There, now you'll hold your tongue?'
At -Uxbridge, on Thursday, after an examination by the Magistrates, Medhurst was committed on a charge of manslaughter ; the Bench being of opinion that malice was not to be inferred from the evidence.
A fire broke out early on Friday morning at the school and vicarage of Warfield. It was discovered by a son of the Reverend Temple Frere; Prebendary of Westminster ; and it is singadar that he alone, of all the inmates, lost his life by the fire. The owner of' the house, the Reverend Mr. Furlong, with his wife and children, thirty-seven pupils, and seven servants, escaped. When the names of the boys were called over, all answered but Frere ; who at that moment was seen at a win- dow of time blazing building. Mr. Furlong raised a ladder against the wall, but it was too short to reach the window. The poor boy tried to get his leg through time sash, but could not, and disappeared. Several others had very narrow escapes. Every thing was destroyed. The fire originated, it is supposed, in the butler s pantry. The neighbours, espe- cially Lady and Miss Malcolm, were active in rendering assistance. It is supposed that two more boys must have perished, but fir the intre- pidity of one of the Miss Furlongs, who at great risk awakened them • in bed.
On Saturday, as a luggage-train was proceeding from Liverpool to Manchester, some bags of cotton caught fire, and between forty and fifty were destroyed.
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