Beek ks ma — 
1828. | Notes for the Month. 293 
curious, too, the reason assigned in this case for the subscription having 
only reached 500/.:—the “ indiscreet” neglect to propitiate the “ ehurch- 
wardens,” and other local dignitaries, in the first instance. Hence it 
appears that the real question—whether the tribute suggested should 
be paid to the late reverend incumbent of St. Botholph’s ?>—did not depend 
upon the feeling of the parishioners, but on the countenance that the 
“vestry” might or might not give to the object. Such “subscribing 
propositions” generally are the jobs of a handful of meddling indivi- 
duals, who are desirous to pay some court or serve some private purpose, 
at the expense of their neighbours ; and the public is indebted to every 
individual who has the courage to risk unpopularity by setting the 
example of resistance to them. 
The public attention continues to be devoted very sedulously to the 
subject of Mr. Corder’s murder ; and a weekly newspaper advertises 
“ the picturesque” of it! in a series of wood-cuts, engraved for the occa- 
sion. The John Bull, speaking of the result of Corder’s trial, makes a 
very extraordinary assertion. “Itis singular,” he says, “ that of all the 
murders on record, not six have been committed with impunity!” John’s 
wish, we are afraid, has been father to his belief here. To go back to 
“all the murders upon record,” or even to those on record within the last 
ten years, collecting all particulars of name and place, would be more 
trouble than we can bestow just now upon the subject. But, within only 
the last twelvemonths, four cases at once suggest themselves to us, in 
which murders have been “‘ committed with impunity.” The case of the 
old man, Akehurst (if we recollect the name right), and his housekeeper, 
near Leatherhead, for which William Page and Mary Acres were tried 
and acquitted ; the case of Mrs. Jeffs, for which Jones was tried and 
acquitted ; the case, only a few weeks since, at Bedford, in which Eave- 
staff was tried for the murder of a woman, found in a wood with her 
throat cut, and (very properly, upon the evidence) acquitted; and the 
case of Sheen, who cut his own child’s head off, and who was also tried, 
and, upon an informality in the indictment, acquitted. Besides these, 
there is at once the case of Mrs. Donatty, and a number of others which 
we could refer to: but the names and dates are not exactly in our 
memory, and they will probably be familiar to the greater portion of our 
readers. 
It is a singular feature, in the case of this fellow Corder, who seems to 
have been a “ cogging rascal” all his life, that he makes what he calls a 
confession of his guilt before he dies, and even that confession is a lie. 
His story of “the quarrel,” and “ the scufile,” ig which he is, in our 
view, wholly unworthy of credit. It is too inconsistent with the fact of 
his having enticed the woman from her home by a false statement ; and, 
besides, it is manifestly a piracy from the scheme first hit upon for his 
defence—that he should acknowledge the manslaughter, and fudge some 
story of “a struggle” in which the fatal wound had been given. The 
denial, too, of having inflicted the wounds with a sharp instrument, seems 
to us to be entitled to no consideration. It becomes a question of 
importance, whether the medical men examined were, or even could be, 
entirely in error in all that they stated. And we do not think that the 
evidence of intelligent and respectable individuals, ought for a moment 
to be impugned upon the statement of such a ruffian. 
The newspapers have announced the final resignation of the Duke of 
Clarence as Lord High Admiral. His highness and the heads of the 
government are known to have been jarring for some time; but the 
