The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-08-28 00:00:00

A GIRL SHOT AT EGREMONT.

of a man who hires out donkeys at Egremont, was
playing
On Tuesday morning, a girl named Margaret Hasler,
daughter
with some children at the house of a labourer, named
G
Miller, at Egremont. It happened that there was a
gunethe house which had been loaded with shot and slugs.
By
what at means the children got the gun is not known, but
y o
wr
after a short time a discharge was heard. When the girl ran out
of the house, it was found that the contents of the gun had
entered her breast. !Surgical assistance was promptly obtained,
but the girl's breast was so severely shattered that she died
almost immediately after. As all the children wore young,
great difficulty was necessarily found in ascertaining by what
means, and whether accidental or otherwise, this fatal occurrence
took place. The witnesses as to the cause of the accident were
numerous and conflicting ; but, at the enquiry, hell last
evening, it was clearly proved that it was neither a case of
murder or suicide, as was industriously circulated by some per-
sons, who prefer retailing gossip to taking the trouble of aseer•
taining facts. At THE INQUEST,
Held last evening, at the Black Horse, Wallasey village,
before Mr. Churton, the coroner for the district, and a respec-
table jury, the following facts were adduced :—Eliza Miller, a
girl about twelve years of age, stated that she knew deceased,
who was about ten years of age. Yesterday (Tuesday) morn-
ing, about eleven o'clock, the deceased was in our house.
My brother, Thomas Miller, as well as three other
little chldren, were present. There was a gun in the
corner of the room. The deceased got hold of it,
and put the muzzle to her ear. I went out, and in about five
minutes I heard the gun go off. At that time there was no
person in the house hut the deceased. She came running out
and asked me to hold her up, but she fell down, and I
perceived that she was shot. I then went for my brother, who
was in the stable, and I desired him to go for her father. A
surgeon was immediately sent for, but his services were of no
avail, she having died in half an hour after the discharge of
the gun. This was the only witness that could be examined,
the others in the locality being mere infants, but had it been
otherwise, no further evidence could have been adduced.
The boy, the brother of the deceased, who was in the stable,
said, be believed that what his sister had said was
true, but all he knew about it was that he was told to go for
the girl's father, which he did. The coroner said that it
appeared to him that there could be no further evidence brought
forward. The jury had, therefore, to decide whether they
believed the girl's account of the occurrence—and he saw no
reason to doubt it, as she had arrived at years that gave her the
power of judging—therefore, if they believed her statement,
they could only find a verdict of accidental death ; but, on the
other hand, if they were not satisfied with her account, they
could return such a verdict that at any other time more
evidence, if there were any, might be brought forward. He
strongly condemned the practice of persons having loaded
guns or pistols in the house, particularly where they
were accessiblo to children. Miller the father of
the witness, in whose house this lamentable occur.
rence took place, said that the gun was his, but that he
did not know it was loaded, as it had been done by his
son some weeks since. The boy acknowledged that Ile had
loaded the gun a few Sundays since, and had left it in the
house without discharging it, The jury at once found a
verdict of accidental death, and were discharged.