old. He went to the Bull and George on the morning
of the 7th inst., and was writing during a great part of
the day. He went to bed at about eleven at night,
having first smoked a cigar with the landlord, and asked
the girl to call him at seven. She did so, but received
no answer. She went again about ten o'clock, and still
receiving no reply, she announced it to her mistress,
who instantly told her husband her fear that something
was wrong, a recollection flashing across her mind that
early in the morning she had heard the report of
firearms. The landlord instantly sent for a constable, who
burst the door open, when Mr. Culmer, partly dressed,
was found lying on the floor in a pool of blood, his head
literally severed from his body, nothing but the vertebrae
sustaining it. Close to his head was a razor; a pistol
recently discharged lay on the table covered with blood,
and also another, likewise covered with blood,
loaded, but having no cap on. A hole was discovered
beside his ear, which had received the contents of the
pistol, but it is supposed that the first discharge not
proving effective, he had taken up the second pistol, but
could not discharge it, the cap being off, and that he
then resorted to the razor. He had said in a letter to a
medical friend that he was in a depressed state of mind,
and added that before he received his letter the hand
which wrote it would be closed in death. His father
had committed suicide about twelve years ago, and some
family matters had preyed much on his mind. He had
made an allowance to his mother, who, nevertheless, was
constantly writing to him for money, and had latterly
threatened to expose him to his employers if he did not
give her more. This seemed to excite him very much,
and to prey on his spirits, as there were no grounds for
any exposure, the young man being highly trustworthy,
and enjoying the full confidence of his employers.
There was another source of trouble to him. He had
been engaged to a young lady, who had broken off the
correspondence in consequence of the frequently excited
state of his mind. It appeared that he possessed some
property, had made a will, and bore an unimpeachable
character. An inquest was held on his body, and a
verdict of temporary insanity was returned.

A coroner's inquest was held on the 8th inst., at
Pentonville upon the body of John Gordon Bailey,
F.R S., &c., who committed Suicide the day before, by
swallowing a large quantity of essential oil of almonds,
at his residence, Penton-street. He was in the 30th
year of his age, and was to have been married next
August. The evidence went to prove that for some
time past he had been in a state of nervous irritation,
and talked of making away with himself, though he
followed his medical practice till the last day of his life,
and exhibited no signs of absolute insanity. He was a
rising man in his profession, the author of several medical
works, and lecturer on midwifery to the Hunterian
School of Medicine. The jury returned a verdict of
insanity.

In the Insolvent Debtors Court, on the 11th inst., the
Rev. Theodore Williams, vicar of Hendon, applied to be
Discharged from Prison. The schedule contains 158
creditors and 70 debtors. The debts are £54,244, and for
£14,287 no consideration had been received, leaving the
actual debts at £39,957 5s. 8d., beginning at 1812. The
debts due to the insolvent are £6,522. The income from
tithes is about £800 a-year, as vicar of Hendon;
besides which the insolvent has had considerable West
India property, and his wife has a separate estate of
£400 a-year. The insolvency was attributed to the
great depreciation of West India property, and the
losses sustained in the purchase of pictures. Several
creditors appeared to oppose, but after some argument
the opposition was withdrawn, and the insolvent was
sworn to the schedule and discharged.

At the Central Criminal Court on the 13th, the trial
of John Richards, a young man, for feloniously entering
the house of Mr. Crossley, a tradesman in Bentinckstreet,
was notable for a specimen of the Licence of the
Bar in Defending a Client. Richards was found in a
bedroom of the house, before he had time to purloin
anything; he said he expected to meet a gentleman,
but his real object was quite apparent. The bedroom
was in the occupation of a lady, the widow of a military
officer Mr. Sleigh, in defence of the accused, insinuated
that the young man had an appointment with the lady,
and called on the jury to acquit him. The recorder
condemned this attack on the character of an absent lady,
made without the slightest proof. The verdict was
"Guilty." A certificate was then produced to prove a
former conviction for felony. Mr. Sleigh intimated that
if he had been aware of the existence of a previous
conviction, he should not have suggested the defence he
did. The prisoner said it was not suggested in his brief.
Mr. Sleigh admitted that the defence was not suggested
to him in his brief, but said that it occurred to him as a
legitimate one to offer to the jury upon the facts of the
case. The jury, however, joined in condemning the
defence; and the Recorder repeated his strong
disapprobation. The sentence on Richards was transportation
for ten years.

At the High Court of Justiciary at Edinburgh, on the
13th, Mr. David Robertson Williamson, of Lawers,
Perthshire, formerly an officer in the Coldstream Guards,
pleaded guilty to a charge of Assaulting the Reverend
William Robertson, minister of Monzievaird and
Strowan. Mr. Williamson got admittance to the
clergyman's house during his absence, waited for him
in the study, and when he entered, violently beat him
with a stick. The motive for the attack did not transpire.
Sentence, nine months imprisonment. The
culprit had been originally indicted tor " hamesüken"
—seeking after a person in his own domicile with the
intention of using violence towards him; the extreme
penalty for which ancient Scotch offence is death. The
Solicitor-General withdrew this charge: the Court
intimated that had Mr. Williamson been convicted of
it, he would have been transported.

William Wilson, the young man who Attempted to
Extort Money or a Government Situation from Mr.
Gladstone, was tried at the Central Criminal Court on
the 15th. He pleaded guilty. His counsel stated that
this plea was of the prisoner's own motion, not his
lawyer's act. The offender had given way to a sudden
morbid desire for notoriety by connecting his name
with that of a man so distinguished as Mr. Gladstone.
He had since exhibited contrition, and he threw
himself on the mercy of the prosecutor. The counsel for
the prosecution, stated that inquiries led to the belief
that there was no collusion between the woman and
Wilson. Mr. Gladstone had no personal feeling in the
matter, and left the case entirely in the hands of the
Court. Witnesses were called to character. Wilson is
a Scotchman, and has but recently been residing in
London; the witnesses spoke only of his London life.
The Chief Baron said it was important that the
Court, in a case like this, should know something of
the early career of the accused. Mr. Robinson
remarked, that the prisoner could not bring witnesses
from Scotland, on account of the expense. The Chief
Baron said, Wilson might make an affidavit in mitigation
of punishment. His counsel said it should be
done. On the following day the Chief Baron, after
remarking that the prisoner's offence did not seem to
be premeditated—that he did not systematically
attempt by such means to gain a livelihood—passed the
mitigated sentence of twelve months' imprisonment,
with hard labour.

The prosecution against Mr. Hale for Manufacturing
War-rockets at Rotherhithe has been abandoned. His
solicitor has received a letter from Mr. Waddington,
the Under-Secretary of State, announcing the fact, and
that Government is willing that Mr. Hale should
select one of four officers named to make a reasonable
yet liberal valuation of the property seized. Mr. Hale
has fixed on Colonel Chalmer, Inspector of Artillery
at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, and now awaits his
decision. The prosecution has been withdrawn at the
solicitation of Mr. Hale himself. On the 1st instant,
he addressed a letter to Lord Palmerston, stating that
he was advised to plead guilty; that he never had the
slightest idea that making rockets was a breach of the
law, as he now knows it is; and praying that as the
law was now sufficiently vindicated, the pending
proceedings against him might be abandoned. On the 3rd,
Lord Palmerston, through Mr. Waddington, informed
Mr. Hale that instructions should be given to the
Crown counsel not to call him up for judgment.