Just as our paper was going to press, we learn that the brother of Dr. Rivers, who had been sent for, had arrived, and immediately shot Lawyer Ferguson.  He at first shot him with a shot gun, upon his retreat, which did not prove fatal; he then approached him immediately with a pistol, and killed him on the spot.”

The Right Rev. B.B.  Smith, Bishop of the Episcopal diocese of Kentucky, published about two years since an article in the Lexington (Ky.) Intelligencer, entitled “Thoughts on the frequency of homicides in the state of Kentucky.”  We conclude this head with a brief extract from the testimony of the Bishop, contained in that article.

“The writer has never conversed with a traveled and enlightened European or eastern man, who has not expressed the most undisguised horror at the frequency of homicide and murder within our bounds, and at the ease with which the homicide escapes from punishment.

“As to the frequency of these shocking occurrences, the writer has some opportunity of being correctly impressed, by means of a yearly tour through many counties of the State.  He has also been particular in making inquiries of our most distinguished legal and political characters, and from some has derived conjectural estimates which were truly alarming.  A few have been of the opinion, that on an average one murder a year may be charged to the account of every county in the state, making the frightful aggregate of 850 human lives sacrificed to revenge, or the victims of momentary passion, in the course of every ten years.

“Others have placed the estimate much lower, and have thought that thirty for the whole state, every year, would be found much nearer the truth.  An attempt has been made lately to obtain data more satisfactory than conjecture, and circulars have been addressed to the clerks of most of the counties, in order to arrive at as correct an estimate as possible of the actual number of homicides during the three years last past.  It will be seen, however, that statistics thus obtained, even from every county in the state, would necessarily be imperfect, inasmuch as the records of the courts by no means show all the cases, which occur, some escaping without any of the forms of a legal examination, and there being many affrays which end only in wounds, or where the parties are separated.

“From these returns, it appears that in 27 counties there have been, within the last three years, of homicides of every grade, 35, but only 8 convictions in the same period, leaving 27 cases which have passed wholly unpunished.  During the same period there have been from eighty-five counties, only eleven commitments to the state prison, nine for manslaughter, and two for shooting with intent to kill, and not an instance of capital punishment in the person of any white offender.  Thus an approximation is made to a general average, which probably would not vary much from one in each county every three years, or about 280 in ten years.