The Press.
London, England, 1856-02-23 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

was a man of extraordinary coolness and strength of mind,
and my impression was that these reverses having come
suddenly upon him, his mind would break under them at
once. I was told last week that his losses were very severe,
and Mr. Sadleir admitted it.

The butler being recalled, stated that the three
letters he found in the hall were addressed to Mr.
Keating, M.P. fcr Waterford. He sent a message
with the letters to Mr. Keating's house, Shamrock
Lodge, Clapham. There was a fourth letter in
another place addressed to Mr. Norris, but that wit-
ness did not interfere with.

After some further evidence the room was cleared,
and on the readmission of strangers the Coroner an-
nounced that the jury were unanitnotbly of opinion
that the inquiry should be adjourned, in order that
the letters written by the deceased on Saturday night
might be produced.
The inquiry was then adjourned until Monday
next.

AT the opening of the Court of Queen's Bench, on
Tuesday, on the calling over of the special jury, a
person in court answered to the name of " David
Wilson," and stepped into the box. Something in
his exterior struck Mr. Campbell, the Associate, as
not being quite compatible with the presumed posi-
tion and means of a special juryman. Mr. David
Wilson was requested to produce his summons. He
had forgotten it. A little cross-examination ensued,
and the gentleman becoming confused, he was
ordered by Lord Campbell to be taken into custody,
until inquiries should be instituted. On Wednesday
the prisoner was brought up after a night's solitary
reflection, and, being confronted with Mr. David
Wilson's servant, was pronounced to be not only not
her master, who is in Calcutta, but not even to
possess a " bad likeness " to him. Being asked what
he had to say for himself, he expressed regret for
what he had done. Lord Campbell, then addressing
him, said he was sorry to say that the offence was a
very common one, either from a desire to get on the
panel and influence the jury, or from the more sordid
motive of pocketing a guinea. Now that he caught
an offender, it was his duty to make au example of
him, and he should, therefore, sentence him tollbe
imprisoned for three calendar months in Newgate
ga)l.

ONE OF THOSE HORRIBLE MURDERS, the fact of
which at first appears incredible, from the cruelty
of its nature, has been discovered this week, within

twenty-four hours after its commission. A Mr. and
Mrs. Somner, people of respectable connections, he
an engraver by profession, and she the daughter of
a highly respectable silversmith in the Croswell-road,
living at 18, Linton-street, Hoxton, were brought up
on Monday, at the Clerkenwell Police-court, charged
with the wilful murder of a little girl of fourteen
years of age. The prisoners denied the charge,
whereupon Rachael Moot, a child of fifteen, and
servant to the prisoners, gave the following evi-
dence :

On Saturday night my mistress went out about ten
o'clock, but before she did so she came and said I was
to go to bed. I did not go to Led, but sat up making ni).
self an apron. That was in the kitchen. After my mis-
tress had been out some time I heard the key put into the
street door, and then I put out the candle and got into bed.
I heard my mistress come into the passage, and she bad a
person with her. She came to the top of the stairs and
said, " Are you abed, Rachael ?" I made no answer. She
then went 'upstairs, and afterwards came down and drew
the kitchen blind down. She then left the kitchen, and
said to a little girl, Come down here." The girl did so,
and then my mistress went into the cellar and told the
girl to come to her, bnt the girl stopped at the kitchen
door. Mistress said, " Come here ; what are you afraid
of?" They both came into the kitchen. The girl then
said, " I am nat afraid ; but it is a strange place to me, I
have not been here before." They then went out into
the area, when the little virl said, "Some one wants to cut
my throat :" when my mistress said, " Suppose I was to
cut it ?" The girl said, " Oh, you are going to kill me,"
and then called out " Mnrder." This she called out
several times, and said, " The devil will take you ; the
devil will take you ; yon will kill me ; you will kill me ; I
am dying ; lam dying." The girl then made a horrid
noise, as if she was breathing bard, and my mistress said
" Hush," several times. My mistress then put the candle
out, came into the kitchen and walked up and down in
the dark several times, and said toherself "I will kill you
She then got the Weiler-box, lit the candle, and went into
the cellar again, and was there for some time, bnt I did
not hear the girl speak again, and all was quiet. After all
was quiet my mistress came to my bedside and said she
had been to market ; that she had got change for half a
crown, but that she would not pay me until Sunday morn-
ing. My mistress then went up to bed, and I did not see
her again that night. When she was talking to me at my
bedside she appeared to be very white and much agitated.
My master was out at the time, but be came home about
one o'clock. He let himself in with a key.

Police-inspector Hutton and Sergeant Townsbeml,
of the N division, deposed to the discovery of the
body in the cellar on Sunday morning, and to having
further discovered spots of blood upon a licifer-box,
and on an old black gown of the female prisoner.
The female searcher at the station house deposed to

183

having found the female prisoner's petticoat saturated
with blood.

Mr. Coward, the divisional surgeon, stated the
nature of the wounds upon the child's body:-
1 discovered three large wounds, from the back of the
neck to the front, embracing the whole of the left side.
The jutzular vein was divided, and the carotid artery had
three small wounds in it. There were several small flesh
wounds about the neck and face, also on the left hand and
one on the left arm, as if done in a struggle to save her
throat. Her right side was very dirty, as if she had lain on
her right side while the throat was cut from the front and
then been pulled round. From the nature of the wounds,
I am satisfied they were inflicted by some other person.
She could not have done it herself.

The prisoners having declined to put any ques-
tions, Mr. Corrie said that there was no evidence to
warrant the detention of the male prisoner, but he
should remand the woman until Monday next.
The witnesses already examined were then bound
over to prosecute the prisoner at the Central Criminal
Court on the charge of wilful murder.

The husband was then liberated, and the wife was
conveyed to the House of Detention.

By great perseverance on the part of the police
officers engaged in the matter, the body of the child
has since been recognised as the illegitimate child
either of the murderess or of her deceased brother.
The child had been until a week since under the care
of a Mrs. Harrington, in the Hackney-road, from
whence her reputed mother removed her to the
house of a friend in the neighbourhood of the New
North-road. On Saturday evening last, it appears,
Mrs. Somner called at this house ( 18, Murray. street)
and took the child away on the plea of having ob-
tained a situation for her. On Monday Mrs. Har•
rington identified the body of the child as that of
"Celestine Christmas," the child which she had
brought up since birth, and of which Mrs. Sumner
was the refuted mother.
Mrs. Somner has since confessed to the murder,
alleging as her reason for committing so horrible an
act the constant quarrels with her husband relative
to the keep of the child. Mr. Somner denies this,
and states that he freely paid 2s. ad. a week towards
the support of the child.
An inquest was held on Wedneslay, and a verdict
of " Wilful Murder " returned against Mrs. Somner.