The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-07-22 00:00:00

(BEFORE MESSES. CROPPER AND BENN.)

HUSBAND AND WlFE.—Anne Wright, the wife of a
hair dresser, residing in Boundary-street, was brought
up on a warrant, charged by her husband, John Wright,
under the following circumstances :—From a statement
made by Mr. Bluck, who appeared for the complainant,
and the evidence in support of it, it seemed that the
parties lived very unhappily for some time. They had
been married about five years (each having been pre-
viously married to other persons), and the complainant
alleged that out of that time his wife was for 200 nights
absent from his house, and that he frequently found her
in bad places, and amid bad company. On the Ist July
a dispute arose between the woman's youngest daughter
(by her former husband) and the complainant's youngest
son, about the mode of cooking something for breakfast,
when the prisoner interfered and created a row. Her
husband begged she would be quiet, when she flung a
cup of hot coffee at his face, and it scalded him
considerably ; she then seized a knife, and inflicted a
wound on his head. After that, she absconded, and was
not heard of until last Saturday. After a scene of
mutual abuse and charges of each other, it. was
•ultimately agreed that they should separate, the com-
plainant allowing her a weekly stipend. So the matter
terminated.

Poisompto IN FRANCS.—The Court of Assize of the
Somme has been occupied with the trial of Geoffrey
Lambert, a farmer, aged 25 years, and his wife Clemen-
tine, aged 43, for the murder by poison of the wife's
father, mother, and sister, between 1847 and 1851, in
order to obtain the property which belonged to the
wife's family. This wicked design had been carried on
by them for several years ; the father, Honore Nollent,
was first destroyed in 1847 ; the mother died in the fol-
lowing year, and the married sister in 1851. The only
remaining obstacles to the inhuman cupidity of the
murderers were the sister's husband and son. Arsenic
was given them in January last, in some soup prepared
by Clementine Geoffrey ; they were in extreme danger,
but by immediate m idical treatment their lives were
saved. The wretched pair, when convicted of these
hideous crimes, each attempted to acccuse the other.
They were found guilty, and sentenced to death. The
execution will be at Amiens ; the woman will be executed
as a parricide.

THE BALLOT.—The result of the oosition made by
Mr. Berkeley, I" .. to the Corrupt Pcacpptices Prevention
Act, has been to drive the government to promise that
next session an enquiry shall be made into the working
of that act. This is a step gained—for the government,
when they introduced the bill, had assuredly nointen-
tion of instituting such enquiry. Mr. Berkeley having
obtained this pledge, and finding that many of his usual
supporters were absent, would not risk a defeat on ths
ballot clauses of which he bad given notice. The
Ballot Society are in possession of evidence of the ineffi-
ciency of the act teOl
elections; nt
thisbri d
bribery, and
emtohreeyp
savritlilcbue-
lparrepcaoreedrctioon. at
bring
before the intended committee. Re-
membering the effect produced on the public mind by
the evidence taken in 1855 by Mr. Grote's committee on
bribery and intimidation, there can be little doubt that
if the friends of the ballot are diligent in the conduct of
the proposed enquiry, that measure will be materially
advanced towards success. The agents of the society
are actively engaged in distributing tracts among the
electors of Dorchester and Dorsetshire, preparatory to
the approaching election for that borough and county.