The Express.
London, England, 1867-05-02 00:00:00

FEARFUL EXPLOSION IN BIRMINGHAM.

A fnghtful explosion has taken place at Messrs.
Kyneeh's percussion cap manufactory,atAston, in the shed
where 12 girls were at work. Six of them were dreadfully
burned, and two are not expected to live. This is the fifth
or sixth explosion in the same place within a few years.

THE MURDER AND ATTEMPTED SUICIDE IN
LAMBETH.

INQUEST.—{THIS DAY.)
At half-past 12 o'clock to-day Mr. Wm. Carter,
the Surrey coroner, held an inquiry at the Ship Tavern,
Fore-street, Lambeth, respecting the above case.
The Coroner said that the case was a very serious one,
and it having been alleged that the deceased had been
killed by his mother, he could not take any
evidence tendered by the father of the child,
for a man could not give evidence against his
own wife. He would investigate the case with great
cAre, and he would bent every witness except the husband.
As the jury had already investigated two cases at great
length, the Coroner gave them leave to retire for the pur-
pose of taking refreshment.
. . . . .

l'pon the re-assembling of the jury, at 1 o'clock this I,
afternoon, the first witness called was
Anne Jacobs, who said that she was the wife of '
bricklayer living at No. 26, Royal-street, Lambeth. The
deceased was the son of Thomas and Elizabeth
Belcher, who lived in lodgings at the same house.
They Awed in a back room upstairs. On Tuesday
last at half-past 5 o'clock Mr. Belcher came down-
stairs to witness room and said. "My wife has cut her
throat and the child's too." Witness told him to call
some one in, and Mr. Collard, a neighbour, and they went
upstairs into Mrs. Belcher's room. She was lying on
, the bed, in a very weak state, and her throat was cut.
The baby was lying dead in the bed by her side. The child
was dressed, and there was blood upon it.
After hearing a good deal of evidence,
The Coroner summed up. He said that be believed from
the evidence that the mother had cut the child's throat
before she had cut her own. If another person had at-
tacked her, the probability was that she would have called
out.

The jury returned a verdict of " Wilful murder" against
Elizabeth Belcher.

SINGULAR DISCOVERY OF A DEAD CHILD IN
A RAILWAY CARRIAGE.

INQUINT.—(THIS DAY.)
An inquiry was held this morning by Mr. Carter,
the Surrey coroner, respecting the discovery of the dead
body of a male child in a railway carriage at the Waterloo
railway-station.
Police-constable Reathenkay said that he was a con-
stable in the employ of the South Western Railway
Company, and last Tuesday, when the 5.50 p.m.
down train to Windsor was leaving the sta-
tion, three gentlemen in • second-class carriage
called him and said that they had found •
parcel underneath one of the sesta. It contained the
body of a male child. It was a brown paper parcel, and it
was tied with string. The police had made every inquiry
in order to ascertain who had left the parcel in the car-
riage, but they bad discovered noshing. The child was
dressed in • white cotton night dress, and a piece of flounce
was wrapped round it.
A juror said that it was rather a mysterious affair.
The Coroner said that he was sorry to say that be had •
number of such cases. Only the other day he had • case
in which a dead child was found in the l►dies' waiting-
room at • railway station.
Mr. Ball, surgeon, proved that the deceased child
was eight days old. Is was a fine baby, and to
live eight days it must of course have breathed.
The post mortem examination of the body found
that the lungs% were gorged with blood. Witness
believed that the child had been dead from eight to nine
days. The lips were blue, and the lungs were
congested. The lungs might have become congested front
suffocation. The congestion of the lungs might have
arisen if the child had been smothered by bed clothes.
The child was remarkably fat and well developed. The
child's lungs might have become congested from natural
causes. V. itnesa could not say positively what had caused
the child's death.

The Coroner said that the parcel in which the child was
found was a very large one, and he had had the space
between the seat and the Moor in a second-clau railway
carnage measured in order to see if the child could have
been fitted into the space. and he had found that it would.
A railway porter proved that he cleaned out the train
in which the child was found when it left Clapham June-
aTl that the child was not then in it.

The Coroner having summed up, tbe jury returned an
open verdict, " That the deceased child was found dead in
a railway carriage, but how he came by his death there
was not sufficient evidence to show."

Mu.

1,000 100
10,000 2f
60.0001 16
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17,600 60
12,600 Al
72,000 60
16,100 10
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SAM 60
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