'When," says he, "athletic exercises become the principal occupation, when they take the place of intellectual labour instead of being its auxiliary, then no thinking man can do otherwise than object to their excess and misuse, and object very earnestly. . . . . . . . There is a natural inclination, in early age, to active out-door occupations. Young people rush, not unnaturally, from the irksome drudgery of the school to the play-ground; for in the school there is little to engage the faculties of the mind then most active.

of another instinct possesses the mind.”

The gratification

PART II.

CHRONICLE

OF REMARKABLE OCCURRENCES

IN 1870.

JANUARY.

4. THEFT OF COLONEL HICKIE'S CHILD AT MAIDENHEAD.-At the Berkshire Epiphany Quarter Sessions, held at the Assize Courts, Reading, Elizabeth Barry, aged 39, nurse, was indicted for unlawfully and by force taking away a female child, of the ageof seventeen months, named Amelia Maria Victoria Hickie, the daughter of James Francis Hickie, with intent to deprive the said James Francis Hickie of the possession of the said child, at Maidenhead, on the 8th of October, 1869. The Court was crowded in every part to hear the trial of this extraordinary case.

The prisoner, who had rather a prepossessing appearance, pleaded guilty to taking the child, but denied the latter part of the indictment, that she did it to deprive Colonel Hickie of his child; and she expressed a desire to defend herself from this charge before the jury.

Colonel Hickie stated that he was in Ireland at the time of the abduction of the child. The prisoner was a nurse in his employ, and he left her at home with his wife at Kidwell Park, Maidenhead. On hearing of the loss of his child, he immediately offered a reward for its discovery. It was his youngest child at the time of its abduction, and was aged seventeen months. On the 17th of October he received a telegram, in consequence of which he went direct to Liverpool, and received his child from the hands of Major Greig, the Chief Constable of Liverpool. The child's hair had been cut, it was looking pale and bad, and there were marks of bruises on its body. The child's clothes had also been altered.

Louisa Cooper, cook in Colonel Hickie's service, said she saw the prisoner leave the house at Maidenhead, on the afternoon of the 8th

A

of October, with the child; and she did not see the child again until it was brought home by Colonel Hickie, on the 19th of October, looking poorly, and with its hair cut. She knew the prisoner received notice to leave Mrs. Hickie's service shortly before the 8th of October, and she heard the prisoner say, "I have not done with Mrs. Hickie yet, and that she will know before I have left the house."

William Holdway, of the Maidenhead police force, proved apprehending the woman in Liverpool, when she said she took the child away as a companion, because she thought of settling down at Liverpool at needlework. She was sorry then that she had taken the child.

Catherine O'Brien, residing at 7, St. Jude's-place, Liverpool, said the prisoner came with the child and took lodgings at her house on the 9th of October, and remained there eight days. The prisoner told her that she was married, that her husband was on board a New York steamer, and that she was going to take in needlework. The prisoner got in but very little food for the child, and on the third day witness saw the prisoner beat the child. She said it had got a bad temper, like its father. The child was very much neglected, and the prisoner gave way to drink very much. She was in drink five days out of the eight. On one occasion witness saw the child eating some dry bread and drinking cold water. At the latter part of the time the child got very poorly. On the last Sunday the prisoner was there witness went into her room and noticed a mole on the upper part of her lip, as described in the papers. She saw the prisoner beat the child several times. The detective apprehended the prisoner on the same Sunday afternoon.

The prisoner cross-examined this witness as to the food she had in the house and gave to the child, and as to the drink she took. The witness maintained her original statement, and said that when she remarked the mole on the woman's face she immediately asked for a sheet of paper and envelope, and commenced to write.

The prisoner entered into a long, rambling defence, in an agitated voice. She admitted taking the child, but said she regretted it from the first. She treated the child well, and gave it plenty of wholesome food. With regard to her being in drink, she pointed out that her extreme excitement and anxiety about the child might have been mistaken for intoxication. She went to the priest, and asked him to come to her, that she might tell him all about the affair, and give up the child. As he did not come, she sat down and wrote to Mrs. Hickie, that she could have her child on applying at 7, St. Jude's-place, Liverpool. She was going to post this letter when taken into custody by the detective. She was extremely sorry for the offence, and would willingly undo it if she could. At the conclusion of her statement she burst into tears.

Mr. R. Benyon, M.P., the Chairman, in summing up, pointed out that the only question for the jury to decide was whether the prisoner took the child against the father's will, and this she

admitted. The matter of the ill-treatment of the child was merely stated in aggravation of the punishment, if the jury found her guilty.

The jury, after a short consultation, found the woman guilty.

The Chairman, in sentencing the prisoner, said she had been found guilty, not so much by the jury as by her own conscience, of having taken away this child from the custody and possession of its parents; and a greater offence, or more iniquitous proceeding on her part could scarcely be committed. She had rendered herself liable to seven years' penal servitude, but the Bench were willing to remember mercy, if they could consistently; and, taking into consideration that she had already been imprisoned three months, she would be committed for fifteen calendar months' imprisonment, with hard labour.

The prisoner was taken away from the dock weeping.

5. BURGLARY AT THE AMERICAN MINISTER'S.-A robbery was committed in the evening at the residence of the Hon. J. Lothrop Motley (the American Minister), 17, Arlington-street. There was every reason to believe that the thief or thieves must have concealed themselves on the premises some time before the robbery was perpetrated, and that they escaped by the back way leading into the park. Property to the amount of about 10007, was carried off, the property consisting of jewellery, &c. The thieves left behind them a "jemmy" and a long rope.

8. SHOCKING ACCIDENT.-An appalling accident, by which five colliers lost their lives, occurred at No. 1 Voiheiw Pit, the property of the Dowlais Iron Company, this evening, when, at about six o'clock, the colliers were ascending from the workings. Some in their impatience, it would appear, rushed to the shaft which was not used for the ascent of men, but for drawing coal. This shaft had, however, been in use all day in hauling up coal, and had given no evidence of defectiveness. At the time stated five men, among whom was the manager, resorted to the coal shaft, which was the lesser of the two, and, having given the signal, were unfortunately drawn up; but when they had reached to within about twentyseven yards of the top of the shaft, the rope suddenly broke, and the poor fellows were hurled back to the bottom, and were killed instantaneously. In age the deceased ranged from fifteen to forty years. It was stated that the rope was cut by coming in contact with a broken "sheave."

9. ACCOUCHEMENT OF THE PRINCESS MARY OF TECK.-The following bulletin was issued :—

"Kensington Palace, January 9, 12 p.m. "Her Royal Highness the Princess Mary Adelaide was safely delivered of a Prince at eleven o'clock this evening.

"Her Royal Highness and the infant Prince are doing perfectly

well.

"ARTHUR FARRE, M.D. "EDWD. H. HILLS."

12. DESTRUCTION OF THE OLD STAR AND GARTER HOTEL, RICHMOND.-The Old Star and Garter Hotel, so long known as a resort of convivial parties from London, was totally destroyed by fire at an early hour this morning. Only three persons were in the building at the time, and so rapidly did the flames spread after the outbreak in the basement had been discovered that Mr. John C. W. Lever, who had assumed the position of manager but a fortnight before, had no time to escape, and was burnt to death.

The fire was first observed by the coachman of Colonel Burdett, late of the 17th Lancers, who resided at Ancaster-house, opposite the hotel, and adjoining the great gates of Richmond Park. He was driving the Misses Burdett home from a party in the neighbourhood, and at a quarter past one o'clock had arrived at his master's house, when he remarked smoke issuing from the areas and beneath the entrance-door of the hotel. He directly called the attention of the Misses Burdett to the fact, and while he was shutting up his horses these ladies, with great presence of mind, regardless of the slender protection their evening dresses afforded, crossed the road and knocked and rang loudly at the door of the new hotel, which was built in 1864, a few yards nearer to Richmond Park, and which, though belonging to the same proprietary, is an entirely distinct building. Having roused the inmates, they returned to their house and called Colonel Burdett, who was just retiring to bed. He immediately directed his butler to ring his alarm-bell and rouse the neighbourhood. By this time Mrs. Bearpark, the housekeeper of the hotel, who, with half-a-dozen female domestics, slept in the new building, had arrived in front of the old hotel, and, in reply to inquiries addressed to her by the only two policemen who had arrived on the spot at the time, she described the persons sleeping in the old building to be Mr. Lever, the manager; Mr. Simpson, his clerk; and George Mingey, the cellarman. Meantime Colonel Burdett had been very active, and with the assistance of his coachman and butler had brought a ladder from his grounds, which arrived most opportunely, and just at the moment when Lever the manager, and Simpson the clerk, presented themselves together at the window of a bedroom on the third floor, calling piteously for aid. Although at this moment. the flames had not broken through any of the front windows of the hotel, a dense smoke was escaping from every casement, including those on the third floor, where the two men were imploring help. Unfortunately, the ladder brought from Colonel Burdett's would not reach higher than the second floor, and there appeared imminent probability of both lives being sacrificed. But, happily, Colonel Bull, of the 19th Surrey Volunteers, arrived about this time, and, seeing the difficulty, called out to the inmates to lower themselves, which Simpson immediately did by tying one end of a sheet round the iron flower-basket outside the window, and lowering himself as far as the sheet permitted. There were still some inches between his feet and the top spar of the ladder, when Colonel Bull, with