CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 73, 25 February 1884, Page 2

CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE.

A remarkable casejof circumstantial evidence has just occurred m the English County 'of Middlesex. Oae George ■ Manners having had an altercation with Edmund Lascelles-^a morose and sullen i fellow— about. Lascelles' sister Mary, to •whom Manners was engaged* was heard sayiug .•: ff Next time; Lascelles. . I shall not ask for youi hand, I shall take.it." Upon this he departed and was soon after follow^djby Lascelles. About 11 o'clock tw'o^meh knocked at the door bearing m their arms the dead body of Lascelles, wEo had been been murdered with a knife and blud ji geou. Following them was Manners with hands and clothing blpodstaiued. The dead man's j right hand hand on .which : he had/ wopn rjn<*,had : ' be'eii cut' off, 1 ard'-wai nowhere ' io'l be found. „ ."'.^ Manners was^arreslted.- ; At his tria£ a farm; laborer testified; that] asAh> w^s nearing the park gate, Manners turned towards Kim-,' exclaiming, "Quick? quick 4: heljf] 'Mr Lascelles has been murdered!" He. found that the xn'ur-' dered man's had been cut off' at ; the wrist/arid^ asked Manners if ( he knew of 'it. ! Hesaidy "How horrible!" The laborer proposed looking' for the hand, but Manners objected on the score of losing l i;i^e and that the doctor must be' 1 sent for. 'He said to Manners it v^s \ desparate strtjg^lej- and Mamvera saW 'hew'sa very strong tpa'nv U\t'iiQt qxiite as strong as hiaiself, ; Manners said nothing rqore, except Ai "Who -will break it to his sister !" ; ' The sistev had to testify th'e last interview held with her brother and tne peculiar words addressed him by her lover. Manners was thereupon found guilty and sentenced to death.- -■■■•■ • . His irieuUs prosecuted the search for "ih'e missing hand; which was at length found m tne : cellar of a barn belonging to a man named Pavker. There was. with it a blopdy rusty knife. Parker :i a'dthitted his giiilt. •' LaScelfes Kad4jct him that niglit, and, as was his habit, began taunting 1 and insulting him. In a fit of anger Parker killed him with a stake, and m order to remove his ting, cut the hand off at the wrist and tookifc home with him. 'Manners was thereupon released arid married "Iris heart; but it was a narrow, e§c^eftokm the othet kind of a noqs^ ' *