Carrington and his friends, the defendant having procured Mr. Murray's photograph in order to familiarize himself with his features. The jury, he hoped, would divest their minds of all consideration of the position of the parties, and if the defendant's position as a peer and lord-lieutenant should affect their minds in any way, it would not be to his favour. He should call evidence to show that a cowardly and dastardly attack was committed at midnight on Mr. Murray, an innocent and unarmed gentleman, as he was unsuspectingly leaving his club, and he should then be entitled to ask the Court to visit the defendant with such a punishment as should be actually a punishment, and not a mere nominal fine, which Lord Carrington would not even care for, and which, under the circumstances, would be no punishment at all.

Mr. Eustace Clare Grenville Murray, the plaintiff, was the chief witness. In answer to Mr. Gill, he said, "I recollect the night of the 22nd of June. I was going home from the Conservative Club, when I met a young man on the steps, who asked if I was Mr. Murray. On my answering in the affirmative, he struck a blow on my hat. I went back into the club, and told the porter to send for a policeman. The defendant came in, and said, I am Lord Carrington; you know where to find me. If you wish to hear of me again, you will know where to find me.' That was after he had struck me. There was somebody with him whom I do not know. I had never seen Lord Carrington before, and had had no quarrel with his friends or relations. He struck me with a whip or stick."

Cross-examined by the Solicitor-General.-"Did you write a paper in the Queen's Messenger,' giving an account of the transaction?"

Mr. Gill objected to the question.

The Solicitor-General.-"I have a right to ask what statement he has made, without putting it before him. Have you written in the Queen's Messenger?""

6

Witness."I am advised to decline answering any questions connected with the Queen's Messenger.' I come here on a charge of assault."

"Why do you decline?"

"Because there has been an attempt to convict me of perjury on stolen evidence."

"On what ground have you been advised not to answer?" "My counsel has advised it."

"On the ground that it would criminate you?"

My counsel has advised me to refuse."

"But you have no right to refuse, except on the ground that it would tend to criminate you."

"I must take the consequences."

In answer to further questions the witness said he resigned membership in the Conservative Club the day before, and sub

sequently he was informed that he had been voted out by 190 votes to 10.

The Solicitor-General then read extracts of a most malignant and scurrilous nature from an article in the "Queen's Messenger," reflecting on the Carrington family, called "Bob Coachington, Lord Jarvey;" but the plaintiff persistently refused to state his connexion with the article.

The porter and a page of the Conservative Club also gave evidence of the assault.

Mr. Gill addressed the jury, and contended that the assault had been clearly proved, and that there had been no palliation of or attempt to justify it. Lord Carrington's proper course would have been to bring an action, or lay a criminal information against the publisher or printer.

The Solicitor-General said he was not going to ask the jury to do any violence to their consciences, or to act against their oath, but simply to show them, as far as he could, the true circumstances of the case, the character of the real assault in this matter, and the conduct of Lord Carrington, which he thought they would say was becoming to him as a nobleman and a man of honour. If the jury were of opinion that the law had been broken, it must be vindicated. If they thought that Mr. Murray had been assaulted, although he could not deny that he had himself once said that he never was assaulted, the jury would be bound to convict; and the question of punishment, which, as far as his experience had gone, was not generally insisted upon by counsel for the prosecution, would remain entirely in the hands of the Court. He had been rather surprised to hear that it was Lord Carrington's duty in a case of this description to make admissions for the purpose of facilitating Mr. Murray's case, and assisting him to prove the charge. It was Mr. Murray's duty to prove Lord Carrington guilty. Mr. Murray, said the Solicitor-General, had taken refuge in the anonymous character which, for the most part, distinguished the English press. Mr. Murray would not deny, or at least he had refused to answer, on the ground that it might criminate him if he did deny, that a series of the most malignant and disreputable articles, similar to those which disgraced the English press of thirty or forty years ago, had appeared in the "Queen's Messenger." Nor would he deny that an article had appeared in it commenting upon even the personal infirmities of a gentleman who had been called before them. Nor would he deny that he had given an indemnity to the printer and publisher of the paper against any actions which might be brought against them.

The learned counsel commented on the extraordinary way in which Mr. Murray had fenced with him in the witness-box on questions which he must have known had nothing to do with the "Queen's Messenger," and questions which he had no earthly reason for refusing to answer. Mr. Murray had not denied that he knew the

F

family name was originally Smith, and that the article referred to Lord Carrington, his father, grandfather, and the whole of his family, nor that it cast contumely upon them, because they had risen from that respectable class from which half the peerage of this country was descended. Pitt, whom all admitted to be one of the greatest and most high-minded of men, made the first Lord Carrington a peer in consequence of his distinguished commercial prosperity and success, and this was made a matter of attack on the defendant at a time when his father was hardly cold in the grave. He found himself, as a young man, placarded over London in this disgraceful article; and as an honourable man he felt still more the disgraceful attack on those who had gone before him, and whose reputation was dearer to him than his own. This attack appeared in a paper with which Mr. Murray would not deny that he was connected, it being one of a series of personal attacks on the Duke of Cambridge and others, showing the utmost malignity to all kinds of distinguished men. It was Lord Carrington who had really been assailed, and the true criminal was Mr. Murray; but if Lord Carrington had transgressed the law, he was ready to suffer the consequences, and he was not afraid of leaving his honour and character, and the issue of the case, in the hands of the jury and the Court.

Sir W. H. Bodkin having summed up, the jury retired from the Court to consider their verdict, and returned in about half an hour, finding Lord Carrington "Guilty of a common assault, committed under circumstances of the strongest provocation."

The learned Judge expressed his concurrence in the verdict of the jury, but strongly deprecated the gross and personal attacks made in the extracts from the "Queen's Messenger." He considered that circumstances existed which, whether the prosecutor was the author or not, connected him sufficiently with those publications to justify Lord Carrington in believing that he was the author of them. The verdict of the jury had sufficiently vindicated the law, and shown that no one, no matter what his position, could violate the law with impunity. Their duty was to take such a course as would prevent the recurrence of any breach of the peace. The learned Judge said, in conclusion, "We must call on you, Lord Carrington, to enter into your own recognizances in 1007. to come up for judgment if you should be called upon. there should be any renewal of violence or breach of the peace, you will undoubtedly be liable to be called up at any time to receive sentence; but if not, you may consider this unpleasant affair, as far as this Court is concerned, as at an end."

The parties then left the Court.

27. FATAL ACCIDENT ON THE SCHRECKHORN.-A fatal accident occurred to the Rev. Julius M. Elliott, of Brighton, while ascending the Schreckhorn. The following letter from Captain Ramsay Phipps, gives an account of the melancholy occurrence :—

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Mr. Elliott was travelling in Switzerland with my brother, the

Rev. P. W. Phipps, with the object of ascending several mountains together. They were accompanied by Franz Biner, of Zermatt, Mr. Elliott's guide for the last four years, and by Joseph Lauber, of Zermatt, as porter. On Monday afternoon, the 26th inst., they left Grindelwald, to sleep at the cave under the Kastenstein, taking with them Peter Baumann, of Grindelwald, as an additional porter.

"Their intention was to separate on Tuesday morning, Mr. Elliott to ascend the Schreckhorn with Biner and Lauber, my brother to go over the Strahleck and back with Baumann. However, Tuesday morning proved so fine, that Mr. Elliott advised my brother to change his plans, and accompany him up the Schreckhorn. This my brother agreed to do, on the stipulation that Mr. Elliott should still go as he had originally proposed, allowing my brother to follow independently with Peter Baumann, so that he might be no hindrance to Mr. Elliott's well-known rapid climbing. "The first half of the ascent was effected with comparative ease, the weather being perfect, and the snow in first-rate condition. "As the rocks became more difficult, Baumann and my brother put on their rope. Mr. Elliott, however, declined to put on his, as he thought it unnecessary. He ascended very rapidly, and went on some distance in advance with his two guides.

"When my brother and Baumann reached the Col at the top, Mr. Elliot, with Biner and Lauber, were about half-way up the final peak; they were just leaving the snow, and were cutting the last steps to reach the rocks of the summit; they were in great spirits at their success, and the two parties shouted in congratulation one to another.

"At this moment, it appears that in springing from the snow on to the rocks, Mr. Elliott slipped and fell. Lauber was on the rocks, but not firmly placed, and could render no assistance. Biner caught him by the arm for the instant, but failed to hold him, and, being unroped, Mr. Elliott glided rapidly down the steep snow slopes of the north-east face of the mountain, rolling occasionally over, until he disappeared from their sight, some 1000 feet below, near the Lauter-aar glacier.

"My brother urged eagerly upon the guides that some attempt should be made to descend after his friend, but it was declared by them to be utterly impossible. The only way, they said, by which the spot could be reached, was by returning to Grindelwald, and sending men thence up to the Lauter-aar glacier by the upper Grindelwald glacier. One effort was made by joining the two ropes together, and letting Baumann down as far as they would reach, in the hope of his being able to see any thing; but he could see only the furrow marked in the snow by the fall, and though he shouted repeatedly no answer came.

"They then returned to Grindelwald as rapidly as they could, but the descent was rendered difficult by the then insecure state of the snow, and by the rocks, and they did not reach it until five

o'clock in the afternoon. My brother immediately applied to Herr Bohren, of the Hôtel de l'Aigle, who at once exerted himself with a promptitude and zeal which cannot sufficiently be praised, and which demand our grateful acknowledgment. He sent off directly six guides, under the direction of Peter Michel, to use their utmost efforts to discover the body of Mr. Elliott.

Grindelwald, July 28."

The body of Mr. Elliott was ultimately found shockingly lacerated, and was buried in Grindelwald churchyard.

AUGUST.

7. OPENING OF FINSBURY PARK.-Finsbury Park was formally opened to the public by Sir John Thwaites, Chairman of the Metropolitan Board of Works. The ceremonial was of a simple character, and the spectators were comparatively few. At three o'clock a procession was formed, composed of vestrymen, schoolboys, the 39th Middlesex Volunteers, the Stoke Newington Rifles, and Sir John Thwaites and several of his colleagues. A circuit of the park having been made, the processionists marched to a spot upon which a rude platform had been erected, and from this Sir John Thwaites declared the park open "in perpetuity." The volunteer bands then played the National Anthem, after which the admission of the public was signalized by the firing of twenty-one maroons. The next part of the programme was a brief address by Sir John Thwaites; Mr. Sheriff Cotton then offered a few remarks; the National Anthem was played a second time, and the ceremony was brought to a close.

12. EXECUTION AT PORTLAND.-Jonah Dethridge was executed for the wilful murder of a warder at the Portland convict establishment, within the walls of the county prison at Dorchester. The prisoner's life revealed a long series of offences against the law, and a considerable portion of his existence had been passed in gaol. He was a native of Wednesbury, and although only twenty years of age when sentenced to penal servitude by the magistrates at the Stafford Sessions, in January, 1865, it was stated that he had been summarily convicted no less than eleven times previously. The offence of which he was charged was that of stealing from the person of Annie Morris Constable a purse and the sum of 1s. 11d., at Great Barr, on November 11, 1864, and the Court, taking into consideration the number of previous convictions, sentenced him to seven years' penal servitude. During his six months' probation in Stafford Gaol, his conduct was reported to have been good, and on May 15, 1865, he was sent to Pentonville, where he remained six months, before being transferred