to enable him to prove them. The prisoner, declined,
not wishing to have any more "bother" about the
matter. The magistrate believed the wife's statements,
and sentenced the prisoner to six months' hard labour.
Cases of the sort, at the various police courts, are now of
daily occurrence.

At the Middlesex Sessions on the 19th, John Donoghue,
a middle-aged man, pleaded guilty to a charge of having
feloniously embezzled the sums of £12 11s. 3d., £7,
£1 9s. 2d., £22 18s. 9d. and other sums, which he had
received for and on account of Thomas Mordell Smith
and William Mate, his employers. The prosecutors
carry on a very extensive business as tallow-chandlers at
Kensington, under the name of Tucker and Co., the
original name of the firm, and the prisoner was in their
employ as money-collector. He had mixed himself up
with betting-office transactions to some extent, and had
made use of money he had received on his employers'
account for the purpose of speculating upon the result of
horse-races. Mr. Smith, the prosecutor, said he was
sorry he had felt himself compelled to prosecute in this
case. The prisoner had been in the employ of the firm
13 years, and altogether he had known him about 20
years. The character of the prisoner had been
irreproachable up to these transactions. He had collected
between £40,000 and £50,000 a year for the firm; he had
a wife and eight children to support, and he had been
the trustee of a charitable fund amounting to £200,
which he had not in any way misappropriated. The
defalcations amounted to about £50. Mr. Smith most
strongly recommended him to mercy, and said that if
the court would deal leniently with him, he would
insure that at the expiration of his sentence he should
leave the country. In consequence of this recommendation
the prisoner's sentence was mitigated to six-months'
imprisonment with hard labour.

Two cases of Poaching, tried at York Assizes, are of
considerable interest.—Close and Hodgson were charged
with night-poaching on the Earl of Harewood's estate.
The keepers, who encountered them, had a dog, but it
was muzzled: there was a sharp conflict; the poachers
shot the dog. Verdict, "Guilty." Mr. Justice
Coleridge strongly deprecated the use of dogs by keepers on
such occasions: nothing is more likely to excite the
passions of men than setting dogs at them; it is most
likely to bring about a conflict. The prisoners were
sentenced to four years' penal servitude. The Judge
refused to allow the costs of the prosecution. On a
subsequent day, Mr. Overend again applied for the costs.
The Judge observed, that preserving such large
quantities of game was a direct incentive to the commission
of such offences as the prisoners in this case had been
convicted of committing. So far as his own opinion
went, such a practice was quite contrary to good sporting.
At all events, to ask for costs in such prosecutions,
was to ask the community at large to pay for the
private pleasure and amusement of those who chose to
preserve such quantities af game; and this he could not
sanction.—Six men were indicted for night-poaching
and for wounding Thomas Phillips, a keeper. Eight
keepers encountered eleven poachers. The keepers
had a bull-dog and a terrier with them. The poachers
called out to shoot the dogs. They fired at the keepers,
and Phillips was wounded. The keepers fired in
retaliation. A desperate hand-to-hand fight ensued.
During the struggle, one of the poachers, Scholefield,
by some means discharged the contents of his gun into
his own thigh, and he died in a few days afterwards.
The whole of the prisoners were convicted. Mr. Justice
Wightman commented on the fact of the prisoners
having wantonly fired on the keepers; and he sentenced
the whole to four years' penal servitude. On an
application for the costs of the prosecution, he refused to
allow them: "he was only surprised that any person
should purchase his pleasure at such a price."

An action for Breach of Contract, brought by a
Governess against her Employer, was tried at the Court
of Queen's Bench on the 21st inst. The plaintiff was
Mademoiselle Abrassant, a Belgian; the defendant the
Reverend Mr. Moysey, minister of Combe St. Nicholas,
in Somersetshire; the damages claimed were £22 17s.
6d. Mrs. Moysey had engaged the plaintiff, at £50 per
annum; the engagement being subject, as she asserted,
to the character given by Mrs. Blanche, a former
employer of Miss Abrassant. Mrs. Blanche wrote a
letter giving an unsatisfactory character; and Mrs.
Moysey summarily and without due notice dismissed the
plaintiff. The alleged reason for this step was that
Miss Abrassant had, at the house of Mrs. Blanche,
several times called herself an infidel; had spoken of
the bible as an obscene book; and had said that our
Saviour was too intimate with Martha and Mary. The
evidence on this point was very direct; but Miss
Abrassant explained, that she had once, in friendly
talk, jestingly said she was a pagan, and denied the two
latter allegations. Lord Campbell, in summing up,
said there was no doubt that a contract had been made;
but it was for the jury to say whether the evidence
showed that Miss Abrassant was an infidel, and had
obtained the situation by fraud. The jury found for
the plaintiff to the full amount.

At the Lambeth police office, on the 17th inst., Mr.
Samuel Kelly, a middle-aged man, was charged with
assaulting the Reverend Robert Gibson, keeper of a
school at Walworth, and, apparently, a Wesleyan or
Independent preacher. Gibson's head had been broken.
He alleged that Mr. Kelly had entered his school, beat
him with a stick, and cut his head open with the fire-
shovel. A person who accompanied Mr. Kelly stated
that there were high words; Gibson seized the fire-
shovel; a struggle ensued, and blows were given, but he
could not say who struck first. For the defence, it was
alleged that Gibson had seduced Mrs. Kelly when she
attended a chapel of which he was minister at Bethnal
Green; that she lived with him; and that her husband
subsequently received her back into his house, as they
had four children, and he wished to reclaim her.
Apparently, she has again quitted his roof. Gibson "declined
to answer" certain pointed questions respecting his
connexions with Mrs. Kelly. As the complainant's wound
seemed rather serious, Mr. Norton remanded the case,
but accepted bail for the defendant. Mr. Kelly has since
been mulcted of the nominal fine of one shilling, and
ordered to find bail to keep the peace for three months
towards Gibson.

NARRATIVE OF ACCIDENT AND
DISASTER.

There was an Accident on the London and North-
Western Railway on the morning of the 1st inst. As
the fast Scotch train from Euston Square was proceeding
on its way northward, the axle of the engine broke near
Berkhampstead; the near leading wheel bounded off,
ran up the embankment forty feet high, dashed through
a hedge, and after describing a curve, buried itself in
the grass. The engine and tender turned over; the
guard's break and a second-class carriage were thrown
across the up-rails, and a first-class carriage, containing
Barons Meyer and Lionel Rothschild, and four officers
of the Guards going to a stag-hunt, and two ladies, one
with an infant, turned round and stood across the rails.
All the passengers got out of the carriage, but the ladies
missed the child's nurse; she was found under the flooring
of the second-class carriage, but still alive. Subsequently,
the guard was found, breathing, under the wreck of his
own break; and while attempts were made to extricate
the guard, the up-express was seen approaching.
Fortunately it came at a comparatively slow pace; but the
collision with the débris threw the engine and tender off
the rails. John Page, a farm-labourer, who had seen
the first accident, also saw the express coming, and
with admirable presence of mind he ran towards it:
when it entered the tunnel he stood at the other end,
and as it emerged he waved his cap and shouted. He
was observed, and this accounts for the slowness of
speed at which the express arrived among the ruins.
Another train now came from Euston Square, but was
stopped by detonating signals. As the accident destroyed
the telegraph, the line was blocked up for some miles
bv trains, before the intelligence could be sent on to
Wolverton. The guard was got out of the wreck,
breathing: but he died on the embankment. An
inquest on his body was held on the 3rd inst. It
appeared that the engine was not in a sound condition.