DEATH OF SIR H. G. WARD, AND MR. JAMES WILSON.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 312, 16 October 1860, Page 4

DEATH OF SIR H. G. WARD, AND MR. JAMES WILSON.

(From the Overland Ceylon Times.) It is our sad duty to chronicle the sudden death of two public characters, eminent not less for their political career in Parliament than for the mark they had attained, and the great things that were expected from them in India. The sudden death of our late Governor, Sir H. G. Ward, at Madras, is no doubt a calamity to that Presidency in these times of financial difficulty and legislative experiment. Much was expected at his hands, and he had, although but a month in office, commenced an energetic inquiry into many pressing matters, and given signs of a vigorous and practical administration of that Government, when, by a severe attack of cholera, lasting but twelve hours, he was removed from the scene of his active labors. We can imagine that her Majesty's Government will find it no easy matter to replace the late ruler of Madras by one equal to the task. Possibly Sir F. Halliday, the late Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, may be selected, as possessing at once first rate talent and matured Indian experience. Another melancholy event was telegraphed to us on the 12th instant,—the death of Mr. Wilson at Calcutta. We are, as yet, without particulars, but there is only too much reason to fear that this catastrophe was hastened, if not caused, by excessive labor and great anxiety with reference to the new measures which he had inaugurated, and which had encountered so much opposition from officials and a large portion of the public. We need not do more than briefly refer to the opposition which the new Indian taxes encountered, first in Madras, and afterwards in Bombay and the North-west. The Calcutta community acquiesced in these, nevertheless we have already seen the tobacco tax abandoned, and the others considerably modified; and, more recently when the " Disarming Act" was made to apply to Europeans equally with natives, the Calcutta merchants and the indigo planters ranged themselves with the opponents of the new taxes. This last measure led to so much bitter opposition, and there were so many symptoms of wide-spread discontent amongst the natives at the anticipated fiscal burthens, that it need be no matter for surprise that the financier, whose reputation was in a great measure staked upon the success of the new imposts, should have felt deeply anxious for the result. But the propounder of all these plans is no longer amongst us, and it remains to be seen if he has left any one in Calcutta, or in all India, who possesses the courage to carry them out. We think not: we do not believe that Lord Canning alone would hazard the danger of further troubles, and it is to be seen if the Ministry can find apy statesman at home willing to come out and play the difficult game. The natives of India, ever superstitious, will on this occasion very naturally point to the two recent disasters as ominous of the evil nature of the new policy. They will say " you disgrace the man who protested against these unjust taxes; and Providence, in return, has cut off the first man who replaced the recalled Governor, and was sent to Madras to carry out these imposts; and now the promoter of all thf evil is suddenly struck down." This will be the view they will take, and, however erroneous, it will carry some weight amongst the masses, only too ready to believe anything to the prejudice of their rulers. In the late Mr. James Wilson, England has lost an able financier, —India a minister who might have rescued her from present financial difficulties, in spite of his European prejudices. Such a man it will be difficult, if not impossible, to replace, and coming as this blow does so soon after the loss of another able man, the Ministry will find themselves beset with difficulties of no ordinary character, as regards the future of Madras and Calcutta. Murder.—A shocking and very mysterious murder was perpetrated at Road, a village about four miles from Frome, a short time ago. Mr. S. S. Kent, inspector of factories for the district, lives in a house standing in its own grounds at Road. One morning, about 7 o'clock, it was found that one of his sons, a fine lad just four years of age, was missing from his cot in the nurse's room, in which he usually slept, and after an hour's search his body was found stuffed down the seat of a water closet on the premises, the throat being cut so as almost to sever the head from the body, and a large stab being apparent near the heart, evidently inflicted after death, as no blood had flowed from it. The body was wrapped in a blanket belonging to its bed, and he appeared to have been killed while asleep. It seemed evident that the guilty person must have been in the house over night, for all the fastenings were exactly as they had been left on the previous night, when Mr. Kent himself saw they were secure, except the drawing room window which opens on to the lawn; this was a little way open, and the shutters unfastened, but no violence had been used either there or at the drawing-room door. The wounds were apparently inflicted with a large table-knife, but no such weapon or any clothes stained with blood have as yet been found on the premises. The knife it is supposed was wiped on a piece of paper which has been found. The family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Kent and seven children, three girls and one boy being children by the first wife, and too little girls and the deceased by the present Mrs. Kent. An inquest on the body of the child was held, but it brought 'nothing to light. The nursemaid out of whose room deceased was abstracted, the housemaid who examined the drawing-room fastenings the night before the murder, and found them undone, and the persons who discovered the dead body in the water-closet were examined,

but no fresh facts of any kind were elicited, and the barbarous, affair still remained in inexplicable obscurity. After a five hours' inquiry the jury returned a verdict of "Wilful murder against some person or persons unknown." It was nottillthe2oth of July that information was obtained which seemed likely to result in the discovery of the guilty person. On that day, Inspector Whicher, of the London detective force, who had been sent down a short time before to investigate the case, obtained from the magistrates a warrant for the apprehension of Miss Constance Kent, half sister of the deceased child. On Miss Constance Kent being removed to Devizes, she maintained a dogged silence, not speaking throughout the whole journey, or on her arrival at the county gaol. Mr. Kent's present wife, the mother of the unfortunate deceased child, lived in the family as governess for 13 years during the lifetime of the first Mrs. Kent, and had the entire | charge of the children, the then Mrs. Kent, having for several years previous to her death been afflicted in her mind and incapable of attending to the discharge of her household duties. Mr Kent was married to the present Mrs Kent, who is a lady very respectably connected, 16 months after the death of his first wife. It has also bee n ascertained that the grandmother of Constance Kent was decidedly of unsound mind, and, as has been already stated, her mother was for many years considered to be of weak intellect. An uncle of the accused has been twice confined in a lunatic asylum so that should the evidence produced be sufficient to warrant the committal of the [ prisoner, there is no doubt that the question of hereditary insanity^ will be raised as having prompted the perpetration of such a fearful crime. The prisoner absconded from home disguised in boy's clothes with her younger brother some four years ago; and since that time her conduct has not been considered unusual or extraordinary, but two medical men acquainted with her temperament have given it as their opinion that in a paroxym of mental aberration she might have committed the offence with which she stands charged. Lovf.—The deputy-coroner for West Middlese%lately held an inquiry into the circumstances attending the death of Bliss ! Ann Page, aged 17, who committed suicide on June 28, by throwing herself into the ! New Rwer, at Highbury-vale, in company with a female friend, Miss Harding, who ; was rescued. It appeared that the young ' girls were of respectable families. They became acquainted about three years since at a Sunday-school treat, and were so attached, that their greatest happiness was in each other's company. On the 25th of June deceased remained from home all night, and between 2 and 3 in the morning the father of the deceased in great alarm called upon Mrs. Harding, thinking the two young girls were together. Miss Harding, however, was in bed. Deceased had called upon her friend, and wished her to accompany her on the previous afternoon, but she was unable to do so. The following was elicited in the examination of Miss Harding: —Deceased returned home on the morning of June 26. It appeared that she had been to the Tailors' ball at Hybury-barn with some woman. She was very fond of pleasure. Mrs. Page dressed for the purpose of seeing the young woman, and deceased was allowed to accompany witness home if she returned in half an hour. Deceased took 6d. away with her, and on getting outside the door she said she would buy poison with it. She told her mother it was the last time she would see her. They both walked about some time, when they got very hungry, and deceased proposed to buy arsenic for both. They, however, walked beyond Edmonton, and back to London. On the night of the 26th witness was taken ill in the street, and'cried; when a gentleman asked her why she cried; and on her replying that she was ill, and without anything to eat, he gave her Is. 3d. which was all he had. They lived upon ' the Is. 3d. till the morning of the 28th. The previous day they passed in St. James's-park, calling upon deceased's sister in Oxford-street, where they washed, but had nothing to eat. On Thursday morning very early they walked to Highbury-vale, and witness asked deceased if she would go home. She replied, " I never will." She then asked witness if she would agree to die with her; and after an expression of their love, they joined hands, and exclaiming "Oh, love! love!" jumped into the water together. She remembered nothing more. Witness had no wish to leave her home, but she could not leave her friend. The jury returned the following verdict:— " That the deceased Jane Page committed suicide, but there was not sufficient evidence before the jury to prove her state of mind at the time of the commission of the act." The painful inquiry then terminated; the ; mother of each young girl was present. i The Militia.—Mr. Sidney Herbert has I introduced a Bill for the amendment of the I Militia Act, so as to make all the Militia equally serviceable. Here is a summary of the measure done to hand by a contemporary :—" It is proposed to raise the Militia in England from the nominal force of 80,000 to 120,000 effectives, and to raise the Scotch and Irish Militias from 5000 and 15,000 to double those numbers. With all the recent experience of the laxity of the service, it implies some faith in the power of administration to hope for anything better; but Mr. Sidney Herbert speaks with confidence. To prevent double personation he proposes that all the regiments shall practise at the same time. To secure good training, every regiment is to have an adjutant and two sergeants who have passed the School at Hythe. Besides various minor provisions, it is intended that the Militia of adjoining counties may be amalgamated for training. The depots for stores are to be built by counties, if they desire, and rented by Government. In this case, however, it is desirable that the

site and design of the building should be approved by the engineers, as a depot for arms should always be made defensible, and cannot therefore be left to the county architect, as if it were an almshouse or a County Court. The whole of the Militia, disembodied as well as embodied, have been furnished with the Enfield rifle, and all that is now wanted is to secure the attendance of those who are on the books, and in respect of whom a considerable outlay has been made. If the principle of the General Militia, as a local force, under officers of local influence and knowledge, be faithfully carried out, there, must be an end of the systematic desertion and nonattendance, which make the whole force little better than a delusion and scandal. These are not, or at least ought not to be, men enlisted from the publichouses of Westminster, or any other recruiting ground, but men whose character and life are well known. As the Rifle Corps, with their occasional hour of practice, will be chiefly from the middle ranks of the towns, and the Yeomanry will be from the village farmers, so the Militia should be from the peasant class, which can meet for practice in months so fixed as not to interfere with the operations of husbandry. This is a reasonable way of meeting all cases and classes; and, when it is fairly carried out, there can no longer be any pretence for embodying one regiment of Militia and disembodying another, as caprice may suggest." Women in England.—-During the last five years, 1900 persons have been sentenced to imprisonment by the Metropolitan Magistrates for aggravated assaults on their wives or other women. The average has been 392 a year, and it may be assumed from the two returns, in which a distinction is made, that about one-third of these assaults were made on the wives of the offenders. Milk, O!—The Rev. Canon Trevor, irritated by a milk boy pursuing his vocation, that is ringing at the belland crying milk, until the servant came, rushed out and struck the boy a violent blow. Summoned before the Westminster Magistrate, Mr. Ingham, that functionary took a very lenient view of the case, suggested its withdrawal, and when the father of the child refused,[fixed the fine for the assault at one shilling. Whence we may infer that in Westminster irritable canons may beat milk boys at a shilling a head. The Late G. P. R. James.—A very interesting incident in the life of the late eminent novelist has been related by one of his oldest and most intimate literary friends, and it tells so highly in favor of the late Mr. James's generous and honorable disposition, that it ought not to be reserved only for private relating. When Mr. James was a young man his cousin was about to marry the daughter of an eminent lawyer of the time, and the title deeds of this gentleman's entailed property were at the request of the father of the young lady submitted to his examination. The keen lawyer discovered that the parents of the gentleman, although moving in the best society of London, had never been married. Mr. James was made acquainted with this awkward fact, and at the same time informed that he himself was the heir-at-law. This match was about to be broken off, and much distress occasioned on every side, when Mr. James having quietly taken possession of the property, went at once to the unhappy young man, and conveyed to him the whole of the property, which amounted to a very handsome independency. Our Ambassador to China!— The London correspondent of the Liverpool Albion ill-naturedly says of Lord Elgin:— " Probably a less imposing mien or dignified exterior, whether of feature or figure, one fiom which every trace of the patrician is more completely obliterated, is not to be found in either house of parliament than Elgin's. This is saying a good deal, for perhaps a thousand men could not be taken promiscuously from any class of her Majesty's subjects, of whom their countrymen would feel smaller reason to be satisfied as ordinary specimens of the race, much less the elite, the governing classes, than the Peers and Commons of England, the Commons being the less commonplace of the two. Elgin, at best, looked like a small cordwainer in Sunday clothes of very uncomfortable fit, or like Sayers in the dress coat Tom lately put on for the first time in his life, and which he wore with the easy naturalness of a man trying to laugh under the operation of a galvanic battery. Yet in the terrible affair of the Malabar this poor looking little creature acted with a coolness, determination, and: disinterestedness worthy of any Bruce of his ancestry; and doubtless he and all his clan, and ten thousand clans like them, would 'do or die' in the spirit of * Scots wa' hae,' were his celestian colleague's (Baron Gros') master to attempt the amiable towards us in the shape of * chains and slavery.'" An Overgrown Power.—The House of Commons has paid the penalty of its thoughtlessness. Its decision has been overruled, its pretensions corrected, and its amenability to a court of error, even in finance, established. What the Commons have lost, the country has gained. It has gained an invaluable safeguard against the only formidable danger of modern times, the disproportionate growth of the power of the House of Commons and its consti-tuencies.-—National Review. An English paper reports the resignation of two-thirds of the members of the second Whitehaven company of volunteer rifles owing to the captain's treatment of their petition against the appointment of one of the non-commissioned officers. ! In London, the Lord Chamberlain has prohibited " Oliver Twist" from being played on the stage, many of its scenes and speeches being deemed to be one of a demoralising character.