The Express.
London, England, 1846-10-31 00:00:00

SCOTLAND.

A COLLIIION OCCeRRED ON TUB EDINRCROII AND
GLASGOW RAILWAY ON MONDAY.—It appears some coal
trucks had been left on the rails at the Coratorphine station,
and when the express train from Glasgow reached the spot
about five o'clock, it run amongst them and smashed one, at
the same time being thrown off the rails and crushing some
of the chairs. The engineer, it is said, observed the ob-
t.truction, and after passing Coggar stopped the locomotive
as much as possible, so that instead of nearly forty miles the
train had only an impetus of about seven miles an hour at
the time it reached the spot, otherwise the accident nr,ght
have been productive of fatal results.

PROVINCIAL.
LANCASIII!tE.

ADULTERATED FLOUR.—At Liverpool on Thursday, T.
Lightbound was charged with selling highly-adulterated
flour to Philip Ennis. The complainant stated that he
obtained a livelihood by making and selling light cakes and
muffins. He went to Mr. Lightbouod's shop, Cockspur-
street, and purchased 75. 6d. worth of fine flour. The same
evening he mixed a portion of it with salt, water, and harm,
and put it to rise as usual over-night. The following morn-
ing, when he came to examine it, he found that it had not
risen.; and when he put it to bake, he still found it would
not nee. On taking it out of the mug, he found a coarse
and slightly consolidated sediment at the bottom. He placed
a small portion on a plate and afterwards made another
batch from the remaining portion of the flour, • hen he
again, found exactly similar results. Suspicions arising
in his mind he took a small portion of unmixed
flour, together with the sediment, to Mr. Vosc,
• chemist, who, after examining it, said that the
flour submitted to him had been adulterated with Yorkshire
spar (gypsum). In his cross-examination, Ennis said that
he hail purchased flour before at the same place, and found
partly the same results, and on going to the shop and coin-
he was told it had been mixed by mistake with some
/Pestle our. Mr. Vose was sent for, and stated that he had
not made a sufficiently careful examination of the flour to
warrant him in affirming positively with what it was adul-
terated. Mr. Rushton said he considered it his duty, both
to Mr. Lightbound and the public, to have the flour ana-
lysed by one of the most skilful chemists, and that he would
againiconfer with the parties. Mr. Harden, who was counsel
for Mr. Lightbound, wished to have the parcels to get them
analysed, but Mr. Rushton said they should not go out of
his hands until they were placed in the hands of an eminent
chemist.
CONDUCT OP THE GOVERNOR or LIVERPOOL WORE-
aorsz.—Catherine Comerford, who had been remanded on
a charge of concealing the birth of a child, state again brought
before the magistrate on Thursday, at Liverpool. Evans,
the governor of the workhouse, with Mr. Orimsdale, the
surgeon, appeared in court, agreeably to a request made by
Mr. Rushton, at the previous investigation. From the ad-
ditional evidence produced it appeared that the prisoner
went, on the 29th ult., to the parish-office, and obtained an
order, under the name of Roberta, for admission into the
lying-in ward of the workhouse, but being in a fit state to
be sent to her native place in Ireland, measures were adopted
according. On her way to the steam-packet, in the care of
a parish messenger, she contrived to get away, choosing
rather, u she said, to remain in Liverpool, where her
clothes and other articles were in pawn, than go to Ireland,
where she had neither friends nor home. She then
went to the house of Mies Darby, Hart•street, there gave
birth to the child, and was afterwards admitted into
the workhouse. Mr. Rushton asked police-officer 165, to
state what transpired when he went for the prisoner, when
he made the same statement as on Saturday. Mr. Rushton
said if she officer's statement were true, the conduct of the
governor was exceedingly improper, and highly reprehen-
sible, and was not admissible, however hard the case might
be in a public officer. Evans, in reply, said the statement of
the officer was a mixture of truth and falsehood. Mr. Rush-
ton said, when persons coins to the workhouse in the state:in
which the prisoner was, they ought not to be ill-used in that
manner, but be carefully and hospitably treated. Such lan-
guage and treatment to a poor female, in a weak and deli-
cate state, was cruel and inhuman. Evans made an attempt
to speak, but was again reprimanded by Mr. Rushton. He
added that there was no reason for detaining the prisoner,
and immediately ordered her discharge.
YORKSIIIRE.
ANOTHER POISONING " ST MISTAKE."—At Huddersfield,
during the past week, another case occurred illustrative of
the danger of permitting ignorant persons to deal in poison-
ous drugs. W. Ratcliffe, wholesale tea-dealer, was charged
with a misdemeanor, for " selling a poisonous drug,"
whereby the lives of three 'persons, viz., Joseph Armitage,
his wife, and infant child, were endangered."—Joseph Armi-
tage, butcher, of Crossland Moor, said, on Sunday morning
last I sent my little girl aged 14, for one pennyworth of
cream of tartar. I had had sore eyes for a week, and I
thought a cooling drink would do me good; I had not been
advised to take it by any medical person. On the child's
return I put two teaspoonfuls of it into a tea-cup, and
then poured some tea on it. My wife took a teaspoonful
of the mixture, part of which she gave to a child two years
old, and the other part she took herself; and I took
the remainder in the cup and drank it off ; I had a little
tea after it, and I then set off to a shop I have r Mow
bridge, about half a mile distant ; as soon as I arrived them
I was taken very poorly and began. to vomit ; I was also very
much purged, and a cold shivering came over me ; I went to
the Warren-house Inn, to my brother, and called for four
pennyworth of brandy, warm, but I could not drink it; I
then went up stairs and lay down on the bed ; in about three
minutes I was called down, and informed that my child was
dying ; the gig was got ready, and I was driven home ; I
could not walk ; I was then paddled into the house and con
veyed up stairs to bed ,• I saw my child on some woman's
; knees in the house, and I thought it was dying. When I
got up stairs my wife was in bed, and had suffered very
i much; she was affected in the same way as myself. I eon-
, tiaued in the same state till about three o'clock, when I
felt better ,• the surgeons gave me something that relieved
me. I had not taken any cream of tartar for eight or
r nine years, and could not distinguish a genuine from a

spurious article.—Mrs. M. Hartley: I am a small shop-
keeper, at Croesland-moor ; my husband has left me, and I
live with my brother-in-law, David Crossland. On Sunday
morning last, just before I went to chapel, I sold Armitage's
daughter, Maria, one penny-worth of cream of tartar ; my
daughter weighed it up, butl stood over her while she did
it; I believe she put it up in a clean paper ; I keep the cream
of tartar loose in a drawer. I got it from Mr. Ratcliffe's; his
traveller called at my shop and pressed foran order, and I gave
him one fur two pounds of the cream of tartar and several
other things ; in a few days after they were sent ; each parcel
had the name of the article it contained written upon it; I had
no ere un of tartar but what was sent from Mr. Ratelitto. I
have dealt in cream of tartar before ; I thought this was of a
dirtier colour than what I had formerly had ; I make ginger-
beer, I made ten quarts, and put half-an-ounce of the tartar
into it . • my little girl has drank of it several times, and has
always been taken ill after it; I once took some at night, and
I thought I must have died after it, I was so ill. One or
two of my neighbours who had purchased my ginger-beer,
were taken in the same way after drinking at.—Mr. John
Dow, surgeon, of Lockwood, said, I called at Armitage
house on Sunday last, in the afternoon ; my assistant had
been there in the morning. I found the family recovering.
My assistant had seized the paper containing the remainder
of the cream of tartar. I examined it, and Mund it to con-
tain 25 per cent, of tartar emetic.; the remaining portion was
cream of tartar. Tartar emetic is a strong poison, and would
produce all the symptoms as described by Armitage. The
next morning the constable went to Ratcliffe's shop, and
purchased hslf a pound of cream of tartar, which, on
my analysing, I found to contain tartar emetic.—
John Stanclifte is in Ratcliffe's warehouse: he deposed
to the fact of the cream of tartar in question being purchased
on the 3rd of July last from Mr. Robert Jacques, a druggist,
—Mr. Barker, ]solicitor, made a speech for the defence
and showed that there was no case against his client.—Alter
a short consultation of the magistrates, W. W. Bettye and
Joseph Starkey, Esqs., Ratcliffe was discharged with a
caution.

THE BOARD OP G Of the Leicester union were
busily engaged on Tuesday investigating a charge of forgery
against " some parson or persons unknown." It appears that
at the last election of the board of guardians, several forged
voting papers were given in, and the imposition has only
recently been detected. No decision was arrived at by the
board.