The Express.
London, England, 1847-04-01 00:00:00

MIDLAND CIRCUIT.—WARWICK, MAace 31.
CRIMINAL Cove.

CHARGE OP Cif ILD M UKI/SR.—HAYAK RILATIYES.--AM
Taylor, aged 21, was indicted for the wilful murder of her in-
fant etiild, Henry Peter Taylor. Mr. Macaulay was for the
I prosecution; Mr. Mellor conducted the defence. Tbe
drum-
sances attending this case were of a very painful nature.
The prisoner, a respectable and good looking person, had
been in service at Leamington, and while there was seduced
by a person, whose name did not transpire. When her state
because apparent she lent her situation. A child being born,
she went to her mother's, but she shut the door in her face,
and told her if she did not go away she would give her in
I charge to the police. The poor girl went to a married
brother's, at Hunningham, where she and her child
lived for six weeks, but the brother having 'ee-
-1 ceived notice to quit his cottage for harbouring
his frail sister and her innocent babe, he was
obliged to tell her to depart, so he himself would
have no home on the following day. The prisoner, then in
a weakly state, left her brother's house with her baby,
about 5 o'clock on the 28th of February, when it was getting
dark. She went in the direction of Leamington, to which
place her sister-in-law understood she was going. Between
8 and 7 o'clock of that evening something white was seen
Boating, and a gurgling noise heard, by one Page, on the
water of the Warwicg and Ksapton Canal. Instead of
going into the water to render assistance, Page went off for
wistance, and, at the distance of 500 yards from the
place in question, he fell in with one Gibbons, the tenant
of the Offehurch Mill. This man went to the spot and
succeeded in bringing the prisoner to the opposite side of
the canal, where he held her in his arms until further assist-
ance could be procured: it was then found she hail a
baby wrapped in a shawl lying in her arms, pressed to her
breast. On taking it to the light, the child was found to be
dead. The night in question was • stormy one, and at the
time when Gibbons took the mother end her infant out of
the canal, there was a violent storm of hail. The prisoner
was taken, in an inwnsibls state, to the Lion Inn, at
Radford. Upon coming to herself, the Brat word she uttered
was, " babe," or "baby." To a nurse who was in attendance
upon her, and who inquired how she could go into the water
on such a night as that, or if anybody bad pushed her in,
she replied, " No; no one pushed me In; I went in myself."
She then asked if her child was dead, to which the
nurse replied, "She did not know • she bad not seen
it." She then said, " I hope it is not ; if it is, I drowned it ;
but I did not mean, without going with it." She said she
had gone to her mother's; that her mother shut the door in
her face ; that she should not have done it if her mother had
let her in. ILis, however, appeared to have ben sons^ time
back. The learned counsel made an able address for the
prisoner, contending that, putting the evidence of the nurse
aside, there was nothing to show the prisoner had thrown
herself in. The, night was dark and stormy; the road
rough. At all events, they would require the strictest proof
before convicting of so serious an offence.—The judge having
summed up, the fury returned a verdict of Not Cushy.--
The jury, to testify their approval of Gibbons' conduct,
subscribed Ms. among themselves, and the learned judge or-
dered a rum of Si. to be paid to him' in addition to his ex-
penses.—The High Sheriff and the bar subscribed a liberal
sum, and placed it in the hands of Mr. Adkins, the governor
of the gaol, for the use of the prisoner, until a decent situa-
tion can be provided for her.