OUR LONDON LETTER.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 1073, 5 December 1877, Page 3

OUR LONDON LETTER.

[written specially for the clube.J London, October 18. I must commence this letter as I began my last with some reference to the disastrous collision between the New Zealand ship Avalanche and the Forest. The latter vessel was at length destroyed by explosion, but with one exception no more bodies either from her or from the sunken Avalanche have been washed ashore. The one exception was the body of the pilot of the Avalanche, which was found floating last Sunday morn iug in Lulworth Cove, on the Dorset coast, and not far removed from the scene of the collision. It had been so long in the water that the features were not recognisable, but the unfortunate man’s watch and some other articles which were found about his corpse, including hia pilot’s certificate, enabled the Lul worth people to tell .who he was. An inquiry was held bylMr Howard, the coroner for Portland, a clever solicitor whose acquaintance I made some years ago while sojourning at Weymouth; but tliis came to no result as to whether any one was to blame for the collision, though during the progress of this inquiry it was suggested that the Coast Guard at Portland ought to have kept a better look out, but the jury practically returned an open verdict, feiuce then the Board of Trade has caused an exhaustive inquiry to be made before Mr H C. Rothery, the wreck commissioner, who had the assistance of two nautical gentlemen as assessors. All the parties concerned were well represented by counsel, and every point that could be brought up has been thoroughly in vestigated. In the result the Court found that both vessels were equally to blame. Captain Lockhardt, the master of the Forest, escaped with a simple reprimand, in consideration of his long service, and his having done all that was possible after the collision had occured. The Court also entirely exonerated the Coast Guard from blame.

The Portland people will have a lasting memorial of this event, for some friends of the passengers intend to build a little church on the seaboard side of the island for the use of the fishermen and quarrymen, and in a small mortuary side chapel will be placed a record of the sad occurrence, together with a list of the drowned. Thus some good will arise out of this calamity, for the Rector of Portland tells me he has been trying for several years to get a church built near that spot; but although his Bishop and several other friends had promised their aid, sufficient funds were not forthcoming. While writing this letter, too, I have learned a curious piece of news —viz., that Mr Howard is not likely to be paid the costs of the inquest he held, as the Court of Quarter Sessions for Dorset, who control the county finances, have a rule not to pay for inquests on persons who have been manifestly drowned at sea. This, coupled with the wretched way in which the cast up corpses were buried, will cause a great scandal, and ought surely to lead to an amendment of the law. . . .

While writing on the subject of shipwreck 1 may mention that I have read in the “ East Sussex News” of last Friday, aspirited description of the loss of the Queen Bee, a vessel which was wrecked ofl the coast of New Zealand in August. It was written by a passenger named Beckett, the son of a gentleman who was formerly on the staff of that capital little newspaper, but now holding an official appointment in Sussex. The cause eelehre of the past month has been a trial for murder, which occupied one of the courts at the Old Bailey for a week, and the jury had the misfortune of being imprisoned from early one Wednesday morning until nearly midnight on the following Tuesday. The principal prisoner was Louis Staunton, and the charge was that he murdered his wife, and that the other piisoners, his brother Patrick, that brother’s wife and that wife’s single sister, Alice Rhodes, assisted him to do it. Each prisoner was defended by the ablest counsel, but they could scarcely make out any defence. The crime, which fiom the evidence appeared to be conclusively proved against the prisoners was of a most diabolical character. Louis Staunton had married a lady who was possessed of considerable property. There was no marriage settlement, and very speedily Louis began to possess himself piece by piece of his wife’s property. When he sold the last piece, for which he obtained £llOO, he sent his wife to his brother’s house, where, it was alleged she was starved to death, and he took another house about a mile away, where the girl Rhodes lived with him as his wife. The real wife gave birth to a child, which died in a London hospital, where it had been put under a false name, and there was every reason to believe that the prisoners murdered that child as well as its mother.

No sooner had the verdict of the jury and the sentence of death on all four prisoners been publised than there arose the most extraordinary outcry I ever recollect in reference to a criminal case, hirst of all the doctors began to doubt whether their friends who made the post mortem- examination had not been deceived. It was admitted that the deceased had been of somewhat weak intellect, and it was suggested that she might have died from brain disease. Then when it was objected that she was found to be only a skeleton it was said that she refused to eat the ample meals that were served to her. Kvcry subtlety that ingenuity could invent was raised in turn to cavil at the verdict and to hud some loophole for the convicts, in addition to which those people who are opposed to capital punishment altogether found this to be an excellent opportunity for asserting thenviews. There was a great consultation about all this at the Home Office, where several judges and doctors assembled practically to re-trv the case in a secret court. The result was that the Home Secretary resolved not to carry out the sentence of death, and now, having secured a reprieve, the prisoners’ friends are setting to work to demonstrate that they must be wholly innocent of crime. Nous verrons.

J heodorides, the Creek, and bis eo eon spiritor, Coriero, »-u Italian, who were arrested for having tried to extort money from Mis a Slade, the adopted daughter of the admiral of that name, under threat of publishing her love letters, have met with the fate I predicted for them when I men tioned the subject in a former letter, and are now condemned to penal t ervitade for seven years. 'lheodorides seems to have been, a man who was well off when lie courted Miss Slade in Constantinople, hut since he came to Kngland lie had fallen into abject poverty lu consideration of the respectability of his family, and perhaps also because of his having been aa old dams, Mias Slade recoin-

mended him to mercy, but Mr Justice Hawkins felt bound to pass a severe sentence, as their crime, jhe said, was ou< most dangerous to society. He could have sent them to penal servitude for life. They were not as much astonished at their sentence as two prisoners I happened to see yesterday at the Middlesex Sessions, who were tried on a charge which really has a spice of old-fashioned criminal romance about $). The prosecutrix was an elderly widow, who being in the City one morning, and feeling faint, took a little brandy, which so overcame her, that she became unconscious. Somebody put her into a cab belonging to one of the prisoners. He found out the other Jehu, and the pair of them drove the widow to several public houses, wher ;> they gave her drink until she was completely poisoned with alcohol. They next drove her some distance from London, stripped her of several valuable rings, and then left her in a field, where she was found by a labourer, who acted the part of a good Samaritan, cook her to his cottage, and fetched a doctor. These interesting prisoners had counsel, who endeavoured to whitewash their characters, but without avail, for the Assistant-Judge sentenced them to penal servitude for five years. They were considerably surprised at this, for it was a much bigger fare than they expected. The magistrate’s inquiry into the charge of conspiracy against the four detectives and a solicitor has at length finished, and all the defendants have been sent for trial before one of the Judges; but the more important stage of the proceedings is likely to be postponed for a little time. In the last hour of this protracted inquiry we had a remarkable specimen of the bribery and corruption with which this case literally reeks. One of the defendants, Mr Froggatt, the solicitor, addressed the Court in his own defence, and astonishedthe magistrate by reading verbatim the opinions which the Treasury had received from the Solicitor-General and another of their counsel, both of whom advised that the prosecution against him (Mr F.) should be aban loned, unless some more evidence could be obtained. Mr Froggatt said that these “ opinions” had been sent to him anonymously, and while every one admitted that that might be so, all in court compre bended that a very large bribe had been administered to the clerk who furnished the copies of them. The Solicitor-General has, however, denied that he furnished the Treasury with any opinion on the subject._ This affair was hardly out of the Magistrate’s Court before another detective was charged with having interfered in a divorce suit, and bribed witnesses to abstain from giving evidence. This case arose out of a notorious suit that has been before the Courts for several years, and threatens to be as good as an annuity to the counsel engaged in it. In this instance the policeman escaped. The dramatic season at our theatres has already commenced, and several most interesting plays have been brought out. One of these is a comedy called “The House of Darnley,” by the late Lord Lytton. This has been produced at quite a little house, the Court Theatre, one of the most modern of our many new theatres, and under very spirited management. The play, however, has not given very great satisfaction, for the entire work was not written by the gifted author of “The Lady of Lyons,” death having taken him away before be began the fifth act of this his last effort at _ play writing. The manuscript was placed in the hands of another dramatic writer, but it seems to be the general opinion that he has missed the spirit of the lirsfc four acts, and that had Lord Lytton lived to finish his play the ending would have been made much more effective, .still, as Bulwcr has so many legions of admirers, the Court Theatre has been crowded to suffocation during the last few nights that the piece has been running, but it will not have an enduring success.

People connected with the great publishing houses are looking forward to a better season this winter, Books will be generally better in quality, though not so numerous as in past years, t'ne of the-e books, to be brought out by the eminent house of Bentley and Son, will be quite a curiosity in its way. and I see from the list of subscribers that copies of it will find their way to New Zealand amongst other distant places, which must be my excuse for mentioning it here. This work is a History of the Tenth {or Prince of Wales’s Own) Royal Regiment of Hussars, It is being brought out by a gentleman who was in the regiment, and under the supervision of a committee of his brother officers, of which the Prince himself is president. This book, I am told, will he one of the best military histories in our language, and surely the records of the Famous Tenth are rich enough in materials for a most delightful volume. I told you in a recent letter all about the marriage of the .Lord Mayor’s daughter. Mrs Price is back at the Mansion House, where matrimony must be very catching this year, for this week it is formally announced that the Lord Mayor, who is a widower, tolerably well advanced in life, is about to be married to Miss Florence Simpson. His Worship would have done better to have kept this affair secret a few weeks longer, for now all the city is laughing at him.