Page images
PDF
EPUB

back to the Sands, a distance of nearly 200 yards. Five of the unfortunate persons were picked up in about twenty minutes, but life was wholly extinct. Nine were picked up at low water, making fourteen in all who perished on the lamentable occasion. Great blame is attributed to the ferryman, who also lost his life, in not using the regular ferry-boat, which was at hand, instead of a small boat which he generally went in, and which was the cause of the loss of so many lives.

JUNE.

2. EXTRAORDINARY AFFAIR.This afternoon, at four o'clock, a lengthened investigation was entered into before Mr. Baker, on the body of Anne Friesdale, aged twenty-one, a remarkably beautiful young woman, who was alleged to have been murdered, by being thrown into the Regent's Canal, on the night of the 31st ult., under the very suspicious circumstances subjoined :

Mary Mills deposed, that on Tuesday night last, the 31st ult., about eleven o'clock, she was walking along the Eagle Wharf-road, near the Regent's Canal, and observed a man standing about three yards from the edge of the water, and a female walking near him. In a moment after she heard a loud splash in the water, and exclaimed, "My God, what's the matter?" and at the same moment heard a voice like that of a woman, cry out, "Murder, murder! my God, it's a woman!" On looking towards the spot where the man was standing she found he was gone, and she ran and told what had happened. The man

had on dark clothes, and was of short stature. She did not see a second female there, but thought it possible there might be one, from the voice she heard. She could not swear that deceased was pushed or thrown into the water.

Mr. Clarke, the landlord of the Blockmakers' Arms, ran to the spot, and got the deceased out with the drags, but life was quite extinct.

Mr. John Friesdale said he was father of deceased, and kept the Steeple-chase Inn at St. Alban's. She had held the situation of lady's maid, in the family of the Rev. A. Donald, of St. Alban's, up to the 21st ult., when she left of her own accord, and had since been staying with her sister, No. 3, Park-street, City-road. She much feared him, and he had written her a letter of admonition on her conduct, but had not seen her since she left St. Alban's. It further appeared that the deceased was attached to a young gentleman, a student in the Rev. Mr. Donald's establishment, and that she had left her situation on his account. He was present and was deeply affected, but begged not to be examined, as if his name went forth, it would cause him to be discarded by his family. He proved that he was not near the spot at the time of the occurrence, and stated that he was fondly attached to the deceased, and would pay the expences of her funeral. She had been very desponding since she had been at her sister's, and expressed great fear of meeting her father. On the 30th ult. she went out, and was not afterwards heard of.

Mr. Coward, surgeon, gave it as his opinion, that the unfortunate deceased was enceinte.

The coroner and jury remarked upon the extraordinary and mysterious nature of the case; and, for some time it was considered advisable that the inquiry should be adjourned for the production of the man seen by the first witness. Ultimately, however, the jury agreed to a verdict of "Found drowned, but by what means deceased came into the water there was no evidence to show."

3. MURDER NEAR LEOMIN STER. The quiet and romantic hamlet of Westhope-hill, about four miles from Leominster, has been the scene of a fatal attempt on the life of a widow named Lucy Parker, who resided on the common, and kept a grocer's shop, by the hands of her nephew, the son of her sister, all of whom resided together. The deceased had resided with her husband in London, where he carried on the trade of a market-gardener, and amassed sufficient money to enable him to leave London about four years since, and spend the remainder of his own and his wife's days, as he hoped, in happiness and ease. On his settling down at Westhope, he purchased houses, &c.; and as a means of adding something to his income, but more as an employment, he kept a shop for grocery and other articles. His nephew, William Powell (the accused), resided with his mother, an aged woman, at Westhope, and shortly after Mr. Parker's settling there, he became jealous of his nephew, and, as subsequent events showed, not without ample cause. In February last Mr. Parker died, since which period Powell and his mother resided with the widow, with whom Powell is said to have cohabited, and to whom he was to have been married on Tuesday last, the 31st ult. On Sun

day morning, however, it was discovered that Mrs. Parker had been murdered; and the nephew was apprehended, to await the result of the coroner's inquisition, which was held and continued by adjournment until to-day. From the evidence it appeared that the prisoner was seen on Saturday, the 28th ult., in the room with the deceased, with a piece of paper in his hand; blows were shortly afterwards heard to pass, and the prisoner to say, "You should not have kept this from me." The prisoner then went upstairs, declaring that he would kill her. Mrs. Parker almost immediately after rushed out of the back door of the house, and called out "Murder!" four or five times, but was pulled back again into the house by the prisoner. On some persons going to the house, the deceased was found to be quite dead; and the prisoner on being apprehended, was found to have blood about him. The jury believing that there had been a quarrel, returned a verdict of " Manslaughter" against William Powell and his mother, both of whom were committed for trial.

4. ALARMING EXPLOSION AT APOTHECARIES' HALL, AND Loss OF LIFE.-At a few minutes past ten o'clock this morning the neighbourhood of Apothecaries' Hall to a considerable extent was alarmed by a loud explosion, which shook nearly all the houses to the foundation. The inhabitants and passengers ran from all directions towards the spot from which the sound appeared to come; and at first it was imagined that a steamboiler had burst. It was, however, almost immediately ascertained, that the explosion had taken place at Apothecaries' Hall,

at the back of the premises adjoining the laboratory, and had caused the death of Mr. Hen nell, the Company's chemical operator. It appears that at the request of the Directors of the East India Company, the Apothecaries' Com pany had undertaken, contrary to their usual practice, the preparation of fulminating mercury for the percussion caps to be used by the troops of the Company in the East Indies. Both yesterday and to-day he, Mr. Hennell, had been engaged in preparing about 61b. of fulminating mercury, which, at the time of its explosion was mixed with full one-third its weight of water. At the moment the accident occurred, it is believed that he was standing by a large block of wood, about three feet high, and about three feet in circumference, on which was placed a white evaporating dish, containing the mercury. The situation of the apparatus was between the still-house and the gas-room, where gas was formerly manufactured for the use of the establishment. About 400 grains of the preparation had been taken from a steam-drying stove, at a temperature of about 115 by Mr. Hennell, in order to ascertain its strength. Two or three slight explosions were heard, occasioned by his striking a grain or two in the still-house. Mr. Hennell then proceeded to the block of wood before-mentioned, for the purpose of mixing two parcels of the powder, when, from some cause, which, of course, cannot be explained, the explosion took place, striking Mr. Hennell immediately below the chest, and, taking an upward direction, carried away the right arm and the same side of the face, together with the whole of the upper portion of the

head, laying open the entire chest, and exhibiting the action of the heart and lungs. Some parts of the remains were scattered over the tops of the building, and other portions were actually picked up by the workmen upon the roofs of the adjoining houses. The deceased's right arm was found full twenty yards from the scene of the fatal event, and had, in its progress, indented considerably the leaden gutter pipe. The unfortunate gentleman was formerly apprenticed to the Company, and had been engaged in their service thirty years. He left behind him a widow to lament his loss, but no children.

5. CHARTIST CAMP MEeting. -To-day (Sunday) there was a very large meeting held on Enfield Moor, near Blackburn, to consider the next steps to be taken in order to obtain the people's charter. Many persons present are said to have had fire-arms. A person named Marsden, from Bolton, one named Tattersall, and others, addressed the people in extremely violent language. Marsden declared that they all meant to obtain arms, march up to Buckingham Palace, and demand the charter. If the Queen granted it, well; but if not, they would know how to use their arms; and he hoped every man would get ready by their next meeting. Tattersall was even more violent than the above. On the same day there was also a camp held near Failsworth; about 1,500 persons attended. Leech and another man from Manchester, with several persons from Oldham, addressed the audience; but the language was mild compared with that of the speakers near Blackburn; some of them contended that they had

as good a right to hold political camp meetings on a Sunday as other persons had to hold religious meetings.

6. ANOTHER MADAME LAFFARGE. At the assizes of the Rhone, to-day, the wife of a workman named Pre was tried for attempting to murder him by cutting his throat with a razor. The victim of her fury escaped, bleeding profusely, before she could consum. mate her crime by repeating the attack, and with skilful attention recovered in less than a month. The motive assigned for this offence in the act of accusation was jealousy, but the evidence left no doubt that the woman was at the time, and had long been, labouring under monomania. On the day of the attack, after some words with her husband, she had requested him to kiss her, and, on his refusing to do so, she seized a razor and drew it across his throat. In her defence she declared she had acted under a momentary impulse for which she could not account, and it was proved that she was at the time under an impression that she and her four children had been

drinking something which would cause death, and that she had attempted to murder her husband in order that the whole family might go out of the world together. She was very indignant, however, on her trial, at the attempt of her counsel and medical witnesses to establish her insanity, and her replies were intended to remove this belief from the mind of the jury, but there were occasional symptoms of incoherence which left no doubt of the fact, and the jury consequently returned a verdict of acquittal, after which the president of the court ordered that she should be placed in a lunatic asylum.

8. DREADFUL DEATH.-OVIEDO.-This morning, M. Bernardo Gonzales Alvera, solicitor of the Audiencia of this town, died suddenly. He was upwards of seventy years of age, but very strong, and displaying still considerable energy in the discharge of his official duties. At nine o'clock in the evening his body was placed in a coffin, which was immediately carried to the church of St. Sebastian, where his funeral was to take place on the following day. Next morning, at five o'clock, when the sacristan opened the church he was not a little surprised to find the coffin lying on the ground, near the table on which it had been deposited. He ran to the spot, and found the lid broken in the direction of the head. The hands and face of the deceased were covered with scratches still bleeding, and his mouth and ears were full of blood. On inquiry it was ascertained that nobody had entered the church during the night, and that M. Gonzales Alvera was not dead when he was shut up in the coffin Had a person been left to watch him, as is usually the case, he would perhaps be still alive. The municipality of Oviedo, in accord with the clergy, decreed that thereafter no corpse should be admitted into the church or interred until it should have been visited by a physician to certify his death.

FIRE IN ELY CATHEDRAL. -At eleven o'clock this morning, the immense wooden roof of Ely Cathedral was found to be on fire. The performance of service was going on, and it was hastily brought to a close. The inhabitants assembled in large numbers, and with great exertion the fire was extinguished without doing much injury. A spark from a

fire, kindled by plumbers who were making repairs, had set light to the timbers.

[ocr errors]

SUICIDE OF LORD CONGLETON. Lord Congleton, better known as Sir Henry Parnell, committed suicide this day. An inquest on the body was held before Mr. Wakley, at Lord Congleton's private house, in Cadogan-place, Chelsea. Isaac Manning, the peer's valet, stated that Lord Congleton was sixty-six or sixty seven years of age. This morning he was thought to be very long in dressing; and the valet went into his room at a few minutes after ten o'clock, and found him hanging from the bed-post by his neckerchief. Manning called Mr. Parnell, the eldest son, who was in the dining-room; the body was cut down as quick as possible, and a surgeon came in about ten minutes. Bleeding was attempted; but life was quite gone. The valet had seen him alive in bed at nine o'clock. Mr. Parnell, now Lord Congleton, said, that his father was taken ill on the 1st of April, with fever and delirium: he was sent for, and he arrived on the 7th.

"As soon as I came here, I found that a strict watch was required in his room, and that he was not to be left to himself: if I went away the servant was to be there, or my brother-some one was to be in his room continually. I did not, for several days, understand why this was. But in a few days, when my father got better, he wished to be left by himself. When Mr. Bolton found that this was the case, he told my father that he could not allow it at all. From my brother Henry Parnell's account of the matter, it appeared that, at the commencement of the attack, my father had presented to

his mind the thought of selfdestruction : he communicated this to Mr. Bolton, his medical attendant; and the result was that Mr. Bolton took with him my father's razors from the house, and gave injunctions that he should not be left by himself at all." Mr. Bolton was surprised at finding that Lord Congleton was left alone; and he told Mr. Parnell to lock up his razors; Mr. Henry Parnell, the second son, was sent to collect every thing in the house with which his father could commit suicide; and all such things were given into Mr. Parnell's care. One day Lord Congleton observed a bell-rope which had been taken down, coiled upon a peg; and he ordered it to be taken away, with evident alarm. In ten days after that, he told the medical man that he ceased to have those impulses to self-destruction; and at his own desire he was left more to himself. He still suffered from want of sleep at nights; and when asked about his feelings, his constant answer was that he felt "very low." He had lost his interest in things; he tried to read, but used to give it up; and he declined being read to. He occupied much of his time in walking about. He was a very reserved man. Manning said that he never spoke to a servant except to give orders. Latterly he had been so much better, that he had resumed the management of his household, which had been intrusted to Mr. Parnell. Mr. Edward Henry Cole, his son-in-law, attributed his extreme melancholy and weakness to the original malady, and to the immense quantity of medicine which he had taken: he was reduced from a stout man to a mere skeleton. After retiring for a short time, the jury returned the following

« PreviousContinue »