cessary to re-organise the management of the bank. The revised system included the appointment of a new officer as actuary. That gentleman proceeded in due course to examine the books of the establishment, and speedily discovered that under Mr. Fletcher's management about 80001. of the funds of the bank had disappeared. Further investigation revealed a commonplace story. The misappropriation had been effected as such transactions always are, and concealed as such proceedings always are concealed. The regulations of the bank provided that the secretary should receive and pay all the money passing between the bank and the depositors, and account to the treasurer for the balance; but as Mr. Fletcher was both secretary and treasurer, this check was of no practical avail.

There was another check, however, which might have proved effectual, had not the unfortunate peculator taken fraudulent measures to conceal his delinquencies. The Commissioners for the Reduction of the National Debt are the custodiers of the funds of the Savings Banks; and as such, the trustees must not only remit to them the moneys of the depositors, but must send to them a weekly and annual account, showing the balance due to the depositors, which must of course agree with the money standing to the credit of each institution. The discrepancy which true accounts would have shown between the figures and the funds, the prisoner concealed by increasing the figures of his payments, and decreasing those of his receipts.

The statute requires that the accounts shall be vouched by the

signatures of two managers or trustees, or one manager and one trustee. From deaths, indifference, or blind confidence, the trustees of the Bilston Savings Bank had ceased to be an operative body; one trustee only, beside the pri. soner, signed the accounts; and he did so, as a matter of course, without satisfying himself by inspection or comparison that they were really correct or honest. He took the prisoner's word, in short, for the accuracy of the accounts; and so, in fact, there was no check at all-Mr. Fletcher (at once secretary, treasurer, and trustee), did as he pleased; and for what he did, he now appeared to answer before a crowded Criminal Court. The prisoner was defended by Mr. Matthews; who freely admitted the receipts and the appropriation by the accused of the moneys charged, but suggested in his defence that his client probably had lent the money and lost it, and that, though such a mode of investing the funds entrusted to his care was not a judicious one, it did not amount to a deliberate fraud upon the depositors so as to satisfy the statute. He further admitted that he should be ashamed to deny the fact, that the returns had been falsified to conceal the misappropriation. But the learned counsel rested his defence mainly upon an objection that the prisoner WAS not a trustee within the meaning of the "Fraudulent Trustees Act," i. e. "a trustee for public purposes;" or "a trustee for depositors;" or a trustee under "an express trust created by an instrument in writing;" which points were eventually left for the decision of the Court for Crown Cases Reserved, the prisoner. meanwhile, being found Guilty of

appropriating the moneys with a fraudulent intent. The points reserved belng afterwards argued before the full Court at Westminster, the conviction of the prisoner was affirmed.

The negligence and mismanage ment of these valuable institutions, as exhibited by the failures of the Tralee, the Preston, and the Bilston Savings' Banks, in the numerous cases in which the trustees were known, though not liable in law, to have made up deficiencies, proved the necessity for remodelling the whole system. Accordingly, in 1861, the Government intro. duced the Post Office Savings' Banks Bill; by which the depositors and the State will be in direct connection, the arrangements will be simple and secure, and public functionaries substituted for private trustees. There are now about 600 savings' banks in the country--the new Act will establish 2500. The money received and paid at the old establishments does not exceed 3,000,000l. annually, and the losses and defalcations have amounted to a large percentage. About 13,000,000l. a-year passes through the PostOffice Money-Order Office; and the whole loss since that system has been established is trifling.

SHAKSPEARE.-Among the lots in a recent sale of choice and rare autographs were two of great in terest-one, the original deed of bargain and sale to Shakspeare of a house in Blackfriars. It is the counterpart to this deed, bearing the autograph of the immortal bard, which is possessed by the Guildhall Library. The other, a conveyance to the uses of Shakspeare's will, in which, amongst other curious facts in relation to

AT

17. THE "TRADE OUTRAGES” A SHEFFIELD.-The flourishing town. of Sheffield has long been notorious for that system of crime which has been popularly described as a "trade outrage." Like the "agrarian murders" of Ireland, these atrocities are not the deeds of individuals acting on impulses of their own; they are not always dictated by, although they frequently originate in private malice; and they are perpetrated, if not always in obedience to the order of a secret tribunal, at least, in conformity with a recognized system of terrorism, and express the resentment, not of any particular man, but of a class. They are perpetrated (so far as anything can be discovered) by persons who have no connection with the sufferer, and who are sometimes brought from distant places; and the ruffians have with them the sympathies of that class without whose connivance detection would be easy.

The victims of these outrages are persons who have in some way or other offended against the laws by which "trade unions" affect to regulate trade; and the punishment is always of a uniform type-a grenade formed of a canister, glass bottle, or some other article capable of conversion into a formidable bomb-shell, with a fuse, is thrown into the offender's dwelling or workshop; or so placed that he or some of his family will probably be injured by the ex

plosion. The ANNUAL REGISTER has frequently recorded instances of these dastardly offences.

On the 23rd November last, a crime of this character, of very great atrocity, was committed at Sheffield. Messrs. Hoole, extensive manufacturers at Masborough, employed a considerable number of men, who were all members of a "trade union." In consequence of a dispute, some of these men left their employ; others, who were not members of trade-unions, were engaged in their place. According to the custom in such cases, the unionists tried to bribe these new men to leave their employers--as much as 201. a man was offered. The men refused, and were in consequence hunted down, abused, outlawed by the peculiar name of "knobsticks," and maltreated. Among the of fending persons was a man named Wasney. One of the "turn-outs" was a grinder, named Thompson. He had been a leader in the dispute, and had been the most violent in ill-treating the new men. On the Thursday before, Thompson met Mrs. Wasney, and told her significantly, "it would be done." Wasney lived in a street called Acorn Street, and in his house lodged a woman named Bridget O'Rourke, who was a seamstress. Her bed-room was on the first floor, and Wasney and his wife and little boy slept in the room above her. On the night of the 23rd of November, she was out late, and Wasney and his wife had gone to bed, leaving the outer door unfastened for her to enter. The unfortunate seamstress arrived at home about 10 o'clock and went to bed. About 1 o'clock in the morning, Mrs. Wasney was lying

awake, suffering from face-ache, when she heard footsteps in the street, and then a loud crash through the window of Bridget O'Rourke's bed-room below them. She instantly jumped out of bed, and rushed to the window. It was a moonlight night. On looking out of the window, she saw two men running away down the street, and the coat of one of them, as he was running close to the wall, was caught by a "cotter," or windowshutter fastener, in the wall. The man stopped and turned round for a moment to unloose his coat, and part of his face was then seen by Mrs. Wasney, and she recognized him as the man Thompson, whom she had known several months. She spoke to an opposite neighbour, who had run to his door alarmed by the crash, but did not mention Thompson by name. She then went downstairs to Bridget O'Rourke's bed-room and found her out of bed, having in her hand a paper parcel which she said had been thrown through the window, and from which sparks were flying, and who asked her if she should throw it out of the window. had scarcely spoken when the parcel exploded with a loud report. Mrs. Wasney was blinded, her night-dress set on fire, and she rushed upstairs to her husband, who was following her. He pulled her dress off to save her from being burnt, and the poor woman, in a half-frantic state, rushed to the bed to save her child, as the house was then discovered to be on fire, and was full of sulphurous smoke. Meantime, the neighbours had got a ladder, which they attempted to place at the window; but it was too short. Mrs. Wasney threw herself head foremost out of the

She

window, and fell on the ladder aud was saved, though so dreadfully burnt, that it was supposed that she was mortally injured. Her husband held the child out of the window, and, at the appeal of the people below to let it drop and they would catch it, did so, and it was caught. He then contrived to get out himself, much burnt about the legs. The deceased was seen running about, her night-dress on fire, and, after the fire in the house had been put out, was discovered in the cellar, dreadfully burnt, and taken to the infirmary, where she subsequently died. When Mrs. Wasney had sufficiently recovered to make a statement, she distinctly indicated Thompson as one of the two she had seen running away. He was apprehended; and it was found that a short shooting-coat or jacket, which was found in his house, and which he usually wore, had a tear at the pocket, as though it had been caught by a nail or a window-fastener. A tradesman and his shop-boy recognized (though not with certainty) the prisoner as a man who, two days before the outrage, had come to their shop with a can of a peculiar form and had asked for 2 lbs. of blasting powder; and a hairdresser, who sold fireworks, distinctly identified him as the man who had about the same time bought a fuse of him. When Thompson was apprehended he said to the superintendent of police, in great agitation, "It's very hard, Mr. Jackson; if I don't tell, it seems I may be hung, and if I say anything they will kill me." He then used expressions which showed that he was no stranger to these "trade outrages," and afterwards said, "Hellewell, Cutler, Platts, and Byles were the persons who got Wasney's job done."

Thompson was tried at the Sheffield assizes, on the 17th March, when these facts were proved in evidence. In defence, it was alleged that Mrs. Wasney's evidence as to the person was uncertain, that the tear in the coat was such as might have occurred under the ordinary circumstances of life, and that it could be distinctly proved that the prisoner was engaged in actual work elsewhere, at the time he was said to have purchased the gunpowder and fuse. The jury thought the direct evidence insufficient and the alibi probably proved, and returned a verdict of Not Guilty.

After his acquittal, Thompson made a statement, which is a very extraordinary document. He spoke of the trade union to which he belonged as though it were an association to commit murder. He had himself been questioned about a room in which he had lodged at one Ripley's, because, "They are going to blow Old Ripley up this week." At a club-meeting, in connection with "our union," at which Thompson was present, "It was said by several of us that something must be done" with one Tyberry. This unfortunate man was accordingly waylaid and maltreated, and would have been worse used but that some one happened to approach. "I suppose the club paid for doing Tyberry's job." He knew that "Wasney's job" was arranged, and had talked it over afterwards. And he stated that the men who had assaulted Mr. Hoole's grinders in Watery Lane had been paid 6l. for the job, and they wanted 101.; but the club could not raise it without notice.

On the day following the acquittal of Thompson, three men,

named James and Isaac Watson, and Joseph Tomlinson, were indicted for maliciously placing gunpowder in a nailmaker's shop, occupied by James Hattersley, at Thorpe, near Rotherham, on the 21st December, with intent to damage and destroy the same.

see

Hattersley and Butcher were in the employ of a small manufacturer, and worked at a shop at Thorpe. The accused were 66 out on strike." Attempts were made by the idlers to induce Hattersley and Butcher to join them; and on their refusal, violent threats were used towards them; and Tomlinson was heard to declare that he "would blow every up." On the night of the 21st December, the shop in which they worked was blown up with a loud explosion. The windows were shivered to atoms, and the tiles blown off the roof. Immediately afterwards three men ran past Butcher's daughter and her sweetheart. They did not their faces; but in a few minutes afterwards the men ran back, and in passing the girl recognized two of them to be Tomlinson and James Watson, whom she had long known; the other she believed to be Isaac Watson. On searching the destroyed workshop were found some fragments of tin, such as is used in making tin cans, and in the nailshop at Chesterfield, where Tomlinson and Isaac Watson worked, were found other pieces of tin, which had dropped fron an anvil; on these being compared with the pieces picked up at Thorpe, it was evident that both had originally formed part of one piece. Chesterfield is at considerable distance from Thorpe : a railway runs from Chesterfield to Masborough, which is four

miles from Thorpe; but it was shown to be perfectly possible for the accused to have left Chesterfield, gone to Thorpe, completed their wicked plot, and returned to the former place within the time when they were first and last seen at Chesterfield on the 21st-22nd December, and it was attempted to be shown that they had made that journey.

For the prisoners it was argued that they could not, from the arrangement of the trains, have made the journey attributed to them; and that, in point of fact, they were in Chesterfield during the whole of that night; and a great number of witnesses declared that they had seen them there in various occupations. As to the pieces of tin, it was proved that there were other persons employed in the same shop at Chesterfield, one of whom had since absconded. The evidence of the girl Butcher as to identity was shown to be utterly uncertain; that the night was so dark that it was impossible to recognize even well-known persons; and one person whom the runaway men had passed, and who tried to distinguish them, was unable to do so; but he said that these men were of sizes that did not at all agree with the accused.

The evidence in exculpation was so decisive, that Mr. Justice Mellor asked the counsel for the Crown whether he intended to go on?

Some of the jury, however, desired to hear it out, and the case proceeded. Witness after witness proved the prisoners to have been elsewhere at the time the outrage was perpetrated; the Judge and counsel looked at the jury with surprise that they did not stop the case. Finally the