the glass door which opens to the street. Wallace
hastily snatched up the small notes and rushed out,
but by this time the thief had got into the midst of
the crowd continually rolling along Argyll–street.
£100 has been offered as a reward for his discovery, but
there are no traces either of the thief or the money.

A daring Burglary has been committed in Warwickshire,
rendered very remarkable by the courage with
which an old couple defended their house. Mr. and
Mrs. Perkins occupy a small farm–house, about a mile
from Coleshill, near Birmingham. On Saturday night,
the 14th inst., they were roused from sleep near
midnight, by a noise in the yard. Mrs. Perkins got up, and
looking out of the window saw three or four men
standing near the door. In reply to her inquiry, they
said they wanted water. She directed them to the
pump and told them to go away immediately. One of
the men replied they wanted to come into the house,
and come in they would. Mrs. Perkins rejoined that
her husband had guns in the house, and that he would
certainly fire if any attempt was made to enter the
premises. The ruffians began to throw stones in at the
chamber window, and made a furious assault on the
front door. The old couple instantly put out their light,
and in the dark proceeded down stairs and deliberately
prepared to meet their assailants; the burglars
continued to batter at the door, but whilst the old man was
making ready his guns, his brave old wife busied herself
in barricading it with a quantity of furniture. In the
dark, the old man was some time in finding his gun–
caps; fortunately he succeeded in doing so at a very
critical moment, for the burglars had given up the assault
on the door and commenced battering in the window–
shutters; here their efforts were successful—they
effected an entrance. The old couple instantly retreated
up stairs, and from thence warned the burglars that
they would be shot if they attempted to follow them;
the fellows disregarded the threat, and ascended the
narrow stairs one by one. Mr. Perkins again warned
them, that if they set one other foot in that direction he
would fire; the foremost burglar raised his arm to
protect his face, and at the same moment he ascended
another step; the old man instantly fired, and hit his
mark; the man uttered a cry and fell backwards upon
his companions, and in a few minutes they bore him
away from the house; the inmates meanwhile remaining
up stairs. On the burglars taking their departure,
Mrs. Perkins urged her husband to fire again, but with
a forbearance and humanity somewhat out of place he
refused to do so, believing (as he said) that the party
had had enough of it. A quantity of blood was found
on the stairs, and a piece of cloth was picked up,
apparently shot out of the wounded robber's smock–frock.
Next day a man, with a gunshot wound, was admitted
into the Birmingham Hospital. He had on a smock–frock,
the sleeve of which had been cut off, but the texture of
the material corresponded with the piece found on the
staircase. The wound is frightfully severe, and though
still at the hospital he is in the custody of the police.

Three medical men have been brought before the
Lambeth Police Court, on the charge of Procuring
Abortion by Mechanical Means. They are Mr.
Cunningham, of Slough, Mr. Currie, of Norfolk Street,
Middlesex Hospital, and Mr. Thomas, a chemist in
Leather Lane. It appeared that Miss Eliza Mardon,
the daughter of a retired tradesman living in Ely Place,
went to lodge for a time at Stockwell, for change of air,
as she was unwell: her mother was not aware of her
condition. At Stockwell, Cunningham attended the
young woman; the landlady of the house, and Mr.
Greenwood, a surgeon, who was afterwards called in,
gave testimony supporting the charge. Cunningham
went by the name of "Smith." At the close of the
examination on the 30th ult., the three surgeons were
remanded, and bail was refused. It was announced to
the magistrate on the 2nd inst., that Mr. Currie had
become insane. He and Mr. Cunningham were
confined in the same cell at Horsemonger Lane Gaol; on
the previous night the officers heard loud cries, and they
found Mr. Currie beating his fellow prisoner with his
fists; the assailant was evidently deranged; fortunately,
there was no dangerous weapon in the cell, or he might
have cummitted murder. On the 5th inst., Miss Eliza
Mardon was examined. She stated that her seducer
was the Reverend George Campbell Gordon, curate of
St. Andrew's, Holborn, a man of fifty–three years of
age, and unmarried. Mr. Gordon lodged at Mrs.
Mardon's house. Miss Mardon went to Thomas's shop
for medicine; he told her she was in the family–way,
and said a friend of his could "put her all right," for
the sum of ten pounds. Thomas sent her to Currie's,
where she saw Cunningham or "Smith." Cunningham
said he must have the money before he performed any
operation. Miss Mardon got the ten pounds from
Mr. Gordon: at that time she had lodgings at Hackney,
for the benefit of her health; Cunningham went there,
received the money, and used an instrument.
Subsequently, Miss Mardon met the surgeon in a room at
a lawyer's in Essex Street. After this the young woman
removed to Stockwell; there Cunningham visited her
several times, and seems to have at length succeeded in
procuring the result he had been aiming at. After
giving a long account of these matters, the witness
became so unwell, that it was necessary to postpone
cross–examination to another day. The magistrate
liberated Currie on bail, but remanded Cunningham and
Thomas to prison.

Edwin Hucker, a boy not ten years old, has been
committed on a Coroner's warrant for the Murder of
another boy, William Saunders, by pushing him into
the river Avon, at Keynsham, near Bristol. A playmate,
three days after the boy was found drowned;
said that Hucker pushed Saunders into the water, after
Saunders had jumped upon Hucker's neck as he was
lying on the grass. The extreme youth of Hucker has
raised a question as to the legal responsibility of one
of such tender years in a case of "murder." It appears
that a boy of ten was convicted at Bury, in 1748: he
killed a girl five years of age, cut up the body, and
buried it in a heap of dung; he was sentenced to be
hanged, but punishment was respited till the opinion
of all the Judges could be taken, and they held that he
was an object for capital punishment. But subsequently
he was pardoned by the Crown, on condition
of entering the Navy.

Mr. Sill, the attorney who had been Struck off the Roll
on the ground of misconduct in connection with the
"Brighton Card–cheating Case," applied on the 25th in
the Court of Queen's Bench for a rule to have the
previous judgment rescinded. His application was refused.

              NARRATIVE OF ACCIDENT AND
                             DISASTER.

A MAN named Steel, possessed of property, met with
a Frightful Death at Bolsover, on the night of the 3rd.
inst. He went to the Swan Inn, where he had a
quantity of drink, and, as he had done several times
before, refused to go home. He was therefore left
asleep in a chair. There was a fire in the room, which
had a guard before it two or three feet high. On the
landlord coming down stairs, about 4 o'clock in the
morning, he found the poor man leaning over the bar
and burning. All his clothes which the fire could reach
were destroyed, and a hole, which exposed the intestines,
had also been burnt in his side next to the grate. The
family were not disturbed in the slightest manner during
the night, and he was quite dead when discovered.

A coroner's inquest, arising out of a railway accident
has terminated in a verdict of Manslaughter against the
Directors. The accident took place on the 6th instant,
on the York and North Midland Railway near Selby,
and caused the deaths of Thomson an engine driver and
Sykes a stoker. The investigation was attended by
Captain Galton, government inspector. Mr. Cabrey,
engineer to the company, said he had examined the
line to ascertain the cause of the accident, and found
that 100 yards of the down rails, by which the train
travelled, were bent as if by the violent oscillation of the
engine from one side to the other, and then the engine
passed on obliquely to the up rails, for about 65 yards,
and was thrown into the adjoining field, where it buried
itself. He considered the engine and the railway to
have been in good working order. Mr. James Fenton,
of Low Moor, who has superintended large engineering