3. MIRA

-During an awful storm that raged throughout the night, the sloop Perseverance, Morris Evans master, of Carnarvon, with a mate, one seaman and a boy, bound from South Yarmouth to Dublin, when between the South Bishops and the Smalls, carried away her bowsprit, and immediately after, a sea broke on board that swept the decks, carrying away her bulwarks and chain cables, stoving her boat, and making her a complete wreck, with every sea sweeping her fore and aft.

She was now driving before a furious north-wester, with her mainsail set; the captain, mate, and the man, took refuge in the cabin, up to their necks in water; but the boy, in endeavouring to follow their example, was washed overboard by a sea, and his wailing cries were instantly lost amidst the tumultuous howling of the troubled deep.

At about twelve o'clock at night the vessel struck in a small cove on a part of the coast near St. Bride's, in the Jack Sound, called the Deer Park, where the cliffs are nearly in perpendicular height from 150 to 200 feet (nearly opposite to the VOL. LXXXIV.

immediately broke into three or four pieces; and the last which the captain knew of his men, for they kept calling to each other as long as the seas permitted their heads to be above water, was the feeling one of their hands, as they held on to the wreck under water -such was the dreadful state they were in on the instant when the vessel struck!

The captain was instantaneously washed overboard, when he grasped one of the pieces of the mainmast, and was washed with it into a cavern in the perpendicular cliffs, and it was carried away the instant that he loosened his grasp, and had got a little beyond the force of the waves. This cavern at the high spring-tide, is many feet under water. There he lay, holding on to the rocks, with the sea bursting and bubbling over him, till the next morning.

This was the time of the neaptides, with a gale of wind blowing right upon the coast-when the tide recedes so little as to make it an impossibility for any one to get out of this cove save by climbing these perpendicular cliffs, or of getting out of the cavern, except B

by watching till the heaviest wave has broken.

After exhausting himself in crying for assistance, there seemed to be no alternative but that of being drowned in the cavern, or being starved to death by cold and hunger. He now cut his boots from his feet with his knife, and threw them upon a ledge of rock above the cavern, in the hope that they might meet the eye of some one in passing; and then commenced an attempt to scale the cliff, which he had mastered, a height of above forty feet-when, on taking hold of a stone which was loose, he began to slip, and at the very moment that he fell, and expected to have his brains dashed out on a huge rock immediately below, and on which he must fall, a tremendous sea swept over the rock, and bore him to the mouth of the same cavern to which he had before been cast, and in which he had lain before; and now, with feet and hands dreadfully swollen by climbing and the action of the salt water-battered, bruised, and dreadfully shaken, he lay another night in this awful cavern, with the sea breaking over and drenching him.

Sunday morning came, with no possibility of receiving human aid. Once more he nerved himself to try and get out of the cavern. He had prayed most fervently; he thought of his sick wife and his infant family; and he made the attempt, and he found himself most wonderfully strengthened every step he took.

After in credible toil, and tearing his hands and feet against the sharp-pointed rocks in a most dreadful way, he ascended very nearly to the sum. mit, where he was so very nearly calling again, that he looked where

abouts he should fall; but most providentially despair nerved him to almost superhuman resolution, which enabled him to seize hold of a projecting pinnacle of rock, upon which he climbed, and was thus enabled to reach the summit with sufficient strength to throw his body over, though his legs were still hanging down the side of the cliff. Here he regained strength to place himself out of danger, and to return thanks to the Almighty for his wonderful preservation.

He was found some time after by a man crawling on the ground, with his feet and hands completely doubled under, from the injuries' they had received. He was placed on an ass, and conveyed to the house of Mr. Jones, farmer, Trehill, near St. Bride's, where he was most charitably taken care of.

31. DREADFUL MURDER AT MANSFIELD, NEAR NOTTINGHAM.

This morning the peaceful little town of Mansfield was thrown into a state of consternation by the discovery of a most dreadful and cold-blooded murder. The hapless victim of this atrocious deed was a young woman in her twentieth year, named Mary Hallam, the daughter of a labourer, who has resided in Mansfield for many years, and who has saved a considerable sum of money by his industry. The murderer is a young man named John Jones, alias Samuel Moore, a shoemaker, a native of Market Bosworth. He has resided in Mansfield for four years, and had, until a few months ago, been considered the accepted suitor of the unfortunate deceased.

Moore rented two rooms at the bottom of a yard in Lister Lane, Mansfield, and the deceased lived with her parents in a house at the

top of the yard. A year ago the murderer lodged in the same house with the deceased; but about nine months since, he became rather unsteady, and took to drinking, in consequence of which, the parents of the deceased, thinking that his bad habits would not promote their daughter's happiness, declared against his suit. He then left their house, and went to lodge in the same yard, at the house of a widow named Wragg. At that time he made use of threatening language; but it would imply a degree of malignity unparalleled to suppose, that he formed a resolution, in consequence of what then passed, to perpetrate so savage and diabolical a crime.

He visited at Hallam's as a neighbour, and occasionally went out with the deceased. At Whit suntide, whilst walking in Mans field Forest, he committed a violent assault upon her, and fre quently gave evidence of being a most passionate fellow. On Thurs. day night the deceased, who had been out on a visit, called at his shop on going out of the yard, and from the evidence there appears not the slightest doubt, but that he fell upon and murdered her, by cutting her throat in the most dreadful manner.

He stayed in the workshop, the scene of this dreadful tragedy, with the body of his victim, for some time, and at length locked up the shop, and went to a publichouse. He there drank several glasses of ale, and sang a song at the request of the company; after which he went home to bed.

We extract the following from the evidence:

William Hallam, the father of the deceased, deposed, that he last

saw her alive at one o'clock on Thursday. She had just returned from a journey to Worksop, where she had gone on a visit on Christmas-day. Witness returned from his work about nine at night, and found that the deceased had just gone out without bonnet or shawl on. When the deceased did not return home, he became alarmed for her safety, and searched the whole town for her. At eleven he took a lantern, and went to the mill dam, but without finding her. Witness then thought that he would go to the prisoner's shop, and put a table against the wall, and look through the window, which was high up. By the light of a lantern he saw the deceased lying on the floor, weltering in her blood. He did not attempt to get in at the window, but stood and looked for signs of life, but could not perceive any. She lay on her right side, and her clothes were down within an inch or two of her shoes. Witness then took the table and chair away, and, after telling his wife that she was dead, went and fetched Metham the constable. Witness and Metham, with the nephew of the latter, went down to his lodgings and called up the prisoner, who was apprehended and taken to the lockup. Witness then described the wounds on the body to be several large cuts on the throat.

Several other witnesses were examined, and the prisoner being cautioned, was then asked if he had anything to say. He rose from his seat, and said, "I decline for the present," and then resumed his sitting.

In answer to the coroner, he said, My name is John Jones, and not Samuel Moore. I live at Mrs. Wragg's, Lister Lane. I am

a cordwainer, and twenty-four years of age. I have lived in Mansfield four years." He then declined answering any more questions.

The room being cleared, the jury almost immediately returned a verdict of "Wilful murder against John Jones," who was fully committed upon the coroner's warrant, to take his trial at the next Nottingham assizes.

The prisoner maintained a most unmoved demeanour, and stated, that before committing the fear ful deed, he asked the deceased if she would marry him. She replied that her parents would not consent. He then said that he would take care no one else did; and seized her After he had inflicted the first wound, which it appears was not immediately fatal, she begged for her life; but seeing him resolved, then asked for time to pray, before he killed her; he answered, that he would pray for both of them, and completed his dreadful purpose. He then prayed for "God to have mercy upon two unfortunate lovers," and stayed a considerable time on his knees.

and were not expected in town until the following Thursday. The stranger was then asked to leave his name, when he said he was commissioned by the principal officers of the Custom-house to deliver to Lord Stanley the box which he had with him, and which contained a most costly and magnificent chandelier, intended as a Christmas present to Lady Stanley from some of the foreign Courts; and that he was also instructed to say, that thirty-five cases of wine had been received as a present for his Lordship, which would be delivered on the following morning.

Some further conversation followed, in the course of which the stranger gave particular directions that the package he had with him should be carefully attended to. He then pulled out of his pocket some papers, which appeared to be the regular Custom-house certificates, signed "George Lamb," and stated that he was to receive 31. 5s. 4d., the amount of the regular dues.

The office-keeper desired him to write a receipt for the money, which he did in the presence of that gentleman's daughter, the amount was paid over to him, and he left the office. The costly present was removed with all due care, to the mansion of Lord Stanley in St. James's-square; and on the arrival of the noble Lord and Lady from Windsor opened with the greatest caution when its valuable contents were found to consist of a few brick-bats, packed in a manner to prevent them rolling in the case.

Immediately on the fraud being discovered, by the directions of the noble Secretary, information was given at the police-station in Scotland-yard, and also to the City