The Express.
London, England, 1851-03-13 00:00:00

VACANCIKS.

Creggan rectory, county and archdiocese of Armagh;
patron, Archbishop of Armagh; Rev. C. Atkinson, LLD.,
deceit, d.
Moynalty rectory, diocese of Meath ; patron, the Crown ;
Rev. W. Kellett, deceased.
Dallinumara vicarage, diocese of °wry ; patrons, Dean
and Chapter of Ossory ; Rev. C. A. Vignoles, promoted.
Llanfynydd perpetual curacy, ltintshire, diocese of St
Asaph, value 15t4.; patron, Vicar of Rope; Rev. T.l
Lloyd, promoted.
CHAPLAINCY.—Stecrens' Hospital, Dublin; Rev. A.
Sillcry, deceased.

ST. MARGARET'S AND ST. JOHN'S, WESTMINSTER.
—Last night a large and influential meeting of the rate-
payers and inhabitants of the above parishes was held in the
Lecture-room, Vauxholl-bridge-road, on the subject of the
proposed house tax. This was the second meeting on the
same subject, and was held for the purpose of appointing
delegates to meet those of other parishes at the Marylebone
court, and also to receive petitions and convey them to the
mongers previous to Lord DUIICUTI'S motion. Mr.
Stewart took the chair. Mr. Wisewould proposes' a re-
solution to the effect that the window tax ought to be re-
pealed without the substitution of a house tas. The rest►
lotion was adopted, and Messrs. David Matlock, of Mill-
bank-street, and Clarke, of llorsefiary-road were unani-
mously appointed delegates. The ine,ting received more
than 30 petitions numerously signed, and then separated.

INQUEST ON Ma. THOMAS RU,SEI.T., THE COUNTY
Man IbTll %Tn.—Yesterday Mr. Wakley, M.P., held an in-
quest, at the Victoria Tavern, Mornington-road, Camden-
town, on the body of 'Thomas Russell, Esq., aged 73, a
church trustee, and chairman of the bench of magistrates
for the St. Pancras division.—llurrict Bloom, lute house-
keeper to Mr. Russell, said that he left home on Monday
morning, about II o'clock, and she heard no more of him
until about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, when she was in-
formed of what had happened. Deceased had an attack of
apoplexy about two years since, mid from that time he ap-
peared more forgetful, and had but indifferent health.—
Charlotte Farnan deposed that she was the wife of a white-
smith, and lived at No. I, Little George-stmt, Ramp-
stead-road. On Monday afternoon, shortly after 3 o'clock,
she was standing at her door. Deceased was passing at the
time, and she heard him say, "Oh dear." Ile then turned
round, and addressing her, said, " Pray permit me to pass
into your yard." She replied, " Certainly ;" and he went
through to the back yard. In a minute or two after she
heard a noise, and, on going to the hack window, saw the
deceased's hat fall into the yard, and that the closet-dour
was open. She ran out, and saw that the deceased
gentleman had fallen forward on his knees. She raised
an alarm, and he was lifted up, and froth was issuing from
his nose. Mr. Day, a surgeon, was sent for, and came
directly, but said he was dead. When lie tusked witness
to allow him to loss into the yard, he said he was in much
pain. Not more than ten minutes elapsed from the time
she first saw him to the time he was gone.—Mr. John
Christian Day, surgeon, residing at 42, Robert-street,
Hampstead-road, said he was called about half-past 3'
o'clock on Monday. On reaching the house in Little
George-street he found deceased on his knees in the
closet, and a man holding him up in his arms. Ile was
quite dead. lle had since made a post mortens examina-
tion. The brain was congested, and had been previously
inflamed. The heart contained a great mass of fluid blood,
was much dilated, and exceedingly vascular. The lungs
were gorged with blood, although no vessel had given way
in the chest. lie had no doubt whatever, from the state of
the head and chest, that death had resulted from apoplexy.
—The Coroner observed that it was nut usual for persons in
apoplexy to die so suddenly as Mr. Russell, whereas in
disease of the heart people dropped dead as if struck by a
cannon ball. In all his experience he never knew such an
extraordinary number of sudden deaths as at the present
time. In two days (Monday and Tuesday) he had received
at his office no less than 31 notices of sudden deaths. It
certainly was most astonishing.—The jury returned a ver-
dict of " Natural death."

AN ENTIRE HOUnELIOLD POISONED.—A most un-
usual and painful degree of excitement has been produced
throughout the district of Chew Magna, Somerset, in con-
sequence of its becoming known that the family of a highly-
respected farmer, named occupying an Estate in the
hamlet of Bishop's Sutton had, with some friends, to the
number of 16, been poisoned by the accidental administra-
tion to them of arsenious acid, the white arsenic of com-
merce. It was at first stated that three of them had died,
but this, upon inquiry, happily proved to be incorrect, and
it is gratifying to be able to state that they are all con-
sidered out of danger. The real facts of the occurrence arc
these: As the occurrence of the family monthly wash inter-
fered on Shrove Tuesday with the customary feast of pan-
cakes, it was resolved to have it at the end of the week, and
Mrs. Hagen directed her eldest daughter, a young woman
of eighteen or nineteen years of age, to make them.
It happened that Miss Resell had partaken of some cakes,
in the composition of which some carbonate of soda had
. been used for the purpose of raising or lightening them,
and determining to add a portion to the batter she was
making, hut having none by her at the time, she sent a
messenger to the shop of a Mr. Collins, a baker (in whose
cakes it was she had known the carbonate to be used), to
purchase an ounce. Mr. Collins, for the aecommilation of
his neighbours, is in the habit of selling a few drugs, and it
unfortunately happened that his wife, who was unused to
the business, and to whose lot it fell to serve Mr. Ilarell's
messenger, gave in mistake for the carbonate of soda an
ounce of white arsenic. The drug was taken home and
mixed in with the other ingredients used for the pancake.,
and, as it did not produce the expected lightening of the
mass, the entire quantity was stirred in, and the
cakes made ready. They were all fried, and a large
dishful served up, and a few having been sent, according to
a friendly custom which prevails, to a neighbour, Mr.
Dasill's family party, to the number of twelve, sat down to
the meal. It happened very luckily that there was a some-
thing in the cakes which was not very well liked, so that no
one—not even the children—ate heartily of them, and upon
rising from table a goodly pile was left. In about a quarter
of an hour all who had eaten of the cakes (including the
neighbour and three persons whom he had asked to taste
those sent to him), began to feel nausea, and in a very short
time afterwards violent retching and purging, burning
pains in the stomach and belly, coldness, and other alarm-
ing symptoms followed. The utmost alarm was felt, and a
messenger dispatched with all speed to Chew, from which
village medical assistance was procured. Mr. Collins, the sur-
geon called in, saw at once that the parties were suffering
from arsenical poison, and he treated the case accordingly,
and happily with success, as although, for a time, some of
their lives were considered in imminent jeopardy, the whole
sixteen are now recovering rapidly, and no fatal muse-
goences are anticipated. The occurrence, however, illus-
trates in a very forcible manner the necessity for legisla-
tire interfereuce, with a view to placing some restrictions
upon the sale of so deadly a poison. It is really marvellous
that many lives were not sacrificed on this occasion.
TILE GAME LAws.--On Monday, at Ixworth petty 1
sessions, Isaac Ilaward, a labouring man, was committed
• for trial on a charge of perjury, in having falsely sworn
I that he saw a Mr. Devereux fire at and shoot a partridge
on the lands of \Vest Stow, on the 23rtl of Sept,rnber lust.
fhe magistrates required substantial hail from the prisoner,
and, not being provided with it, he was sent to Bury Gaol.
• ,