AN EXPLANATION.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 1166, 27 September 1865, Page 6

AN EXPLANATION.

(To the Hditor of the Daii.t Times.)

Sia—Xo prevent misapprehension, we beg to state we are not the parties mentioned in to-day* paper as defendants in the case of," D. 11. Smith v. Matheson and Campbell." As. there is no other firm oi the name in Dunedin, we presume your reporter has fallen into an error, which please rectify in your next. : ■ We are, &c. Matheson and Campbeli..

Princes street, Sept. 23, 1865,

[It is true our correspondents are not the parties referred to in our report, but the report is correct.~ED. D. T.]

Singuxab Death.bt Hanging, through Attempting tub Daye.nfoet Bbotiibbs' Trick. —An inquest was held by one of the coroners for the county of Derby on the body of Thomas Leatherbarrow, who came by his death under the following singular circumstances :~The deceased was at the Holly bush public-house, Linton, on the previous evening, and amused, the company by dancing in skates,.and also by being tied in a cord and freeing himself somewhat after the manner of the, 4? Davenport Broihera." About ten o'clock, the deceased, who rwas quite spber, requested two men, named Siddals and-Lilley, to go out of doors with him, which they did. When the deceased had prpceeded-about a> quarter of-a mile toward?' Lullington, he eaid he would show them a trick, aqd, Btopping uudef a tree, produced a rope, with which he tied himself round each ancle and thigh, and round his body more than once, but not round his neck. After, this, the deceased threw the ,cod of the rope over a bough, of the tree, and at hia request one lot' the men raised the deceased, and the other tied the end of tho rope to a stake or aomeihing of that sort in the hedge. Jhe deceased was then suspended about a yard from, the, ground,, and he to!d his two companions.that.before they conll. get to :the llpliybusn public-house and drink a glass of ale he (the deceased) would be there, and that if be failed in doing so he would pay for half a gallon of ale. The tyro men. then Bet off for the public T house, drank their ale, and, after waiting for a quarter of ap hour, h aa the deceased did not make his appearance, ( they returned to the spot where they :had left him, and found him hanging by the neck, having liberated his ancles aud thighs.; . The two men let him down, but he was quite dead. The verdict was-r-^Dicd; from accidental strangling." ;;; j .; .-r .. T! r Prince ; Napoleon; is now ; writing a history of the Bonaparte family, to which his speech at Ajaccio may,be supposed to beja prefaced The first: volume of,this histoiy ii already in the,presß >; :, ; ..j -~-. ■[■■■..:■? .•,■■';