31. THE NEWTOWN-STEWART MURDER.-Sub-Inspector Montgomery, after being tried three times, has been found guilty of the murder of Mr. Glasse, the cashier at the Newtown-Stewart Bank, on June 29, 1871. Before he left the dock, the prisoner made a confession. The evidence, although entirely circumstantial, was such as to point very clearly to the guilt of the accused :—

The deceased gentleman, it will be remembered, was cashier of the Northern Bank at Newtown-Stewart, and on June 29, 1871, about an hour after the closing of the outer door, he was found lying in the inner or back office, his skull fractured by several wounds. The prisoner had formerly been a bank clerk, was on terms of intimacy with the deceased, and was accustomed to visit him in the inner office. At the time of the murder he was in great pecuniary difficulties. The theory of the prosecution was that he went into the inner office, remained there with the deceased until the bank closed at three o'clock, and then committed the murder, taking away 16057. The greater part of this money, together with a billhook with which the wounds might have been inflicted, was found buried in a gravel-pit at Grange Wood. The prisoner was seen going towards Grange Wood, and returning from there on the night after the murder.

The jury, after a quarter of an hour's deliberation, found the prisoner guilty. When asked what he had to say, the prisoner coolly leaned forward on the rails of the dock, and having thanked the Judge for his consideration and impartiality, said that at the time of the perpetration of the murder, and for twelve months before, he was in a state of complete insanity. In June, 1870, he was invited to Molecross, the residence of the Rev. Mr. Bradshaw. At that time he was in excellent health. He was then deliberately drugged and poisoned with the object of weakening his mind, so that a doctor told him he might die in a day or a week, but he could scarcely recover. While thus weak-minded he consented to marry, but he grew worse and worse, and in the month of November embarked in those foolish and ridiculous speculations by which he lost enormous sums of money, much larger than had transpired in the evidence, some of the persons from whom he got sums of money not having come forward. A monomania for robbing banks then took possession of him, and he told his orderly on one occasion of his intention to rob a bank and murder the cashier. Sergeant Armstrong had said it was a terrible murder; there could be no doubt of that. A man of education or feeling would not have committed such a deed but he was demented at the time. As to its being wilful, he was helpless, weak-minded, and silly, and he did not think that the action of a man in that state ought to be visited upon him as the action of a man in possession of his senses. That was all he had to

say. The Judge then passed sentence of death.

Some reporters for the Irish papers have been allowed to have an interview with Montgomery, who is said to have related to them with great minuteness the details of the murder. He said the

weapon was lying on the bank table, and was not concealed. Mr. Glasse saw it, and asked him what he was going to do with it. The prisoner replied that he was dangerous, and commenced brandishing it about his head; but the deceased only laughed. Mr. Glasse then turned round to look at a map on the wall, and the prisoner struck him a heavy blow on the head. He turned round and looked, but he was powerless to do anything. Afterwards he fell on the floor, and Montgomery sat down and began to read the Belfast Newsletter till Mr. Glasse was dead.

THE GOLD CUP DAY AT GOODWOOD attracted as usual a large and fashionable assemblage. The Prince and Princess of Wales, the Czarewitch and the Czarevna, Prince Arthur, the Duke and Duchess of Teck, Prince and Princess Edward of Saxe-Weimar, and the Duke of Cambridge, were all present.

Only three numbers-those of Cremorne, Favonius, and Flageolet-were hoisted for the Cup, and the paddock inspection was so decidedly adverse to Cremorne that by common consent the issue became reduced to the representatives of M. Lefevre and Baron Rothschild. Although fielding was freely indulged in, there was yet plenty of money forthcoming against Flageolet-the colt, indeed, going rather badly in the market at the finish. The race was one of the most hollow ever witnessed, as Flageolet, dashing away from the start, was never headed; Cremorne was beaten after a mile had been covered, and at the end of the next half-mile Favonius began to evince symptoms of distress. The winner was well ridden by Huxtable, who obeyed his instructions to force the pace to the letter.

AUGUST.

2. GREAT RAILWAY DISASTER.-A most terrible accident, causing the death of twelve passengers and serious hurts to many more, occurred on the London and North-Western Railway, at the Wigan junction station, to the tourists' night express train from London to Scotland, leaving the Euston-square terminus at eight in the evening.

The train, which was an unusually heavy one (consisting of two engines, twenty-two carriages, and three vans), left Euston station at 8.5 p.m., five minutes after the advertised time. When, at eighteen minutes past one p.m., the train (more than fifteen minutes late) approached Wigan, the signals showed "all right." Within a few yards of the down platform, and opposite the south box, a pair of "facing" points work in connexion with the main down line and a single-line siding which runs along the back of the down

platform for a distance of about one hundred yards, and again into the down line at the extreme end of the platform. The two engines (both of which were at the head) and seventeen or eighteen of the carriages passed the facing points in safety at the usual rate of from thirty-five to thirty-eight miles an hour. Owing to some cause unexplained, the remaining six or seven carriages and a guard's van were jerked from the body of the train and the main line at the facing points, and rushed up the siding. Having lost their equilibrium, they veered over against that portion of the platform abutting on the siding, and ploughed up the flags and earth a length of twenty or thirty yards. The leading carriage, which was of composite construction, was overturned and broken to pieces, the wheels and flooring being all that remained. The other carriages sprang from the metals to the platform and fell over upon their sides. One or two others turned almost completely over, a few yards beyond, blocking the siding; and these, too, were knocked to pieces.

The shock was tremendous with which the carriages that parted from the train came against the station buildings. One corner of the wall from which springs the roof of the station was knocked out of plumb along several yards of its length, to the extent of six inches. One of the iron pillars on the roof, which stood midway on the platform, was struck down by the extraordinary leap of one of the carriages against it, and by three or four of the carriages running right on the top of each other. The telegraph-wires were caught and dragged asunder. A length of thick brick wall adjoining, built between the railway and Queen-street, which is five or six yards below the level of the railway, was partly knocked down. A large fragment of one of the carriages, with a lady passenger inside it, was hurled over the wall and fell upon and through the slated roof of a portion of Mr. Walker's foundry. A number of men working a "night turn" on the premises escaped injury, but the lady was killed.

The leading portion of the train, which kept to the main line, was brought to a standstill at Turner's siding, several hundred yards from the scene of the accident. Except the conductor, who received some bruises, nobody in these carriages was injured; but the Perth van, occupied by him, which was at the extreme end of those which kept on the main line, jumped from the metals when the separation occurred at the facing points, and ran, half in the four-feet space and half in the six-feet, as far as the pointsman's post at the north box, where it was guided back to the metals. The van was much damaged, one side being completely torn away. How the conductor escaped as he did is surprising. The footboard of a saloon carriage which ran next in order was broken off and an axle-box damaged.

The officials in charge of the station sent messengers to the town for medical and other assistance, and people living near were roused from their beds by the shrill whistles and cries of the porters. A

"night-shift" of men on duty at the adjoining foundry came quickly to render aid. Very soon a numerous party of assistants, including the police, were endeavouring to extricate the sufferers from the broken carriages. Some were rending the air with shrieks and moans. At first there was much delay for want of tools. A saw was in urgent request, but was not immediately procured. A fire was made of carriage remnants to give the workers light. The fitful glare fell upon the mangled and bruised remains of the dead and dying; but all the passengers who had not been disabled by their injuries laboured to help the injured. Poignant cries were heard from two carriages, or rather the remains of them, which were heaped together across the siding.

Beneath the carriage which was thrown wheels uppermost on the platform the dead bodies of four passengers, one being that of a woman, were found. Some of the bodies were fearfully crushed and mangled. Two ladies were got out alive from other carriages, but died shortly after being taken into the first-class refreshmentrooms. Another passenger, Sir J. W. Anson, Bart., died at the "Royal Hotel" two hours after the accident. His two daughters were with him. There were several miraculous escapes from death. A saloon-carriage, which was occupied by a young lady and her brother, with a lady's-maid, was driven into the carriage immediately before it. The saloon-carriage and its passengers sustained little, if any, damage. Several members of one family (that of Mr. Andrew Wark, of Highgate) were in the next, a first-class carriage, and two of the children and a domestic servant were killed. The father escaped uninjured, but his wife was seriously hurt. Another of their children was jammed at the bottom of the carriage among the woodwork, but was got out alive. The passengers in three of the carriages escaped without any one being killed among them. The guard who was on duty in the van at the end of the carriages which ran on the siding had a narrow escape. He was stunned for several minutes, but comparatively uninjured. Some of the passengers, although severely shaken, were not prevented from continuing their journey northwards at a later hour in the morning. About thirty of the passengers, who were more seriously hurt, were conveyed to the "Victoria," "Clarence," and "Royal" Hotels, the "Wheatsheaf Inn," and "Ropemaker's Arms," where they were kindly tended, and surgical aid procured for them as early as possible.

An eye-witness of the disaster has recorded the following particulars about the occupants of two carriages which were lying heaped together across the siding when the dreadful task began of extricating the dead and the wounded from this hideous wreck. It was found that a saloon-carriage which was occupied by a son and daughter of the Hon. S. W. Palmer, who, accompanied by a lady'smaid, were journeying to Ballymena, Stranraer, had been driven into the end of a carriage in front, the two end compartments of which were occupied by the family of Mr. A. Wark. The

carriage consisted of two second-class compartments, one at each end, two first-class compartments, and a luggage compartment in the centre. Mr. Wark and family, consisting of Mrs. Wark, a governess, a maid, and four children, occupied the first and second compartments at one end. Mr. and Mrs. Wark, the governess, and eldest son, a boy of twelve years, occupied the first-class compartment; the maid and three children the end second-class one. Mr. Wark's account of the accident is that a violent oscillation of the carriage occurred after passing the points, and then the carriage knocked against some heavy substance. The two sides of the compartment were partly crushed. Mr. Wark and two of his companions escaped apparently uninjured; but Mrs. Wark's leg was jammed between the seats, which nearly met each other, and it was a long time before she could be extricated. This difficult task could only be accomplished by sawing up the carriage. The unfortunate maid and three children in the next compartment fured much worse. The two sides of the second-class compartment were forced together, and the poor girl and the two elder children were killed. The bodies were so entangled in the broken timber that it was more than an hour before they could be got at. The third child, a little fellow of three years and a half old, was pinned fast down by the buffer of the carriage, and his cries were heartrending, while the men were perspiring at every pore in their strenuous efforts to remove the heavy mass inclosing him. One of the foundrymen, whilst his fellows were so exerting themselves, was engaged in moistening the child's lips with brandy and water. At last they reached the little fellow, and it was found that his thigh was fractured. He is since reported dead, as he had also sustained severe internal injuries. The entreaties of some of the women who were imprisoned in the wreck were heartrending, one lady pleading to be saved for the sake of her husband and little ones. Sir John Anson, who was among the killed, occupied a first-class compartment with his two daughters. The account which the young ladies, who escaped uninjured, give is that they were awakened from sleep by the violent oscillation of the carriage, and as they started up found the carriage going to pieces, and they were thrown out on the ground. Sir John Anson was struck on the head by a portion of the carriage. He was not killed on the spot, but was mortally injured. He was removed to the "Royal Hotel," where he died about an hour afterwards. The injuries which some of the dead sustained were frightful.

15. THE NAPOLEONIC FÊTE AT CHISELHURST.-Chiselhurst was, on this day, the rendezvous of sympathizers with the Napoleonic dynasty. On the previous night M. Rouher, Duc and Duchesse D'Albe, Duc Bassano, Marquis Bassano, General Ney, Baron Corvisart, Duc de Cabassera, and other known Bonapartists, arrived at Camden House. During the day between 100 and 200 Frenchmen, Frenchwomen, and youths were at Charing Cross, and carried with them a flag bearing the inscription, "La Jeunesse Française au Prince