The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1856-04-10 00:00:00

POLICE
COURT.-YESTERDAY,

(BEFORE MR. MA.INSFIELD
CHARGE AGAINST A PUBLICAN.--Mr. H. Crosbie, of
Salisbury-street, was summoned by a police officer, who
said that shortly after twelve o'clock on Good Friday
morning, he saw a man leaving the house of Mr. Crosbie
with some ale in a jug. Mr. Bremner appeared for the
defendant, and asked if the house was respectable and
well conducted, and the answer was in the affirmative.
Mr. Bremner said there was not a more respectable house
in Liverpool than that kept by Mr. Crosbie. There never
had been, nor could there justly be, a charge against him,
for he did not transact business at illegal hours. In the
present instance a respectable neighbour went to the
house of defendant for some ale, which was supplied him
forin
conversation with him until the time the policeman
saw him go out ; the ale was drawn at eleven o'clock, and
remained so until the time the person went away. This
being proved by two respectable witnesses, the case was
dismissed.
i Ida y
alsoer,
fworasa
nc
ah
sasrague
Idt
agirblr,
with shAa uv
nr gs assault sCahual tr el .—Charles
a I iyounglck
on the Bridewell keeper of the south end docks. The wife
of the complainant came forward and said she had sup-
ported him for the last seven years, and during that time
he had never done a day's work. Mr. Mansfield : What
do you want ? Wife : He assaulted me a week ago. The
little girl who complained of the prisoner, said he struck
her on the head with a brush. The Bridewell keeper
stated that when the prisoner was brought to the station,
he kicked him in the knee which hurt him considerably.
The prisoner was fined £l, or, in default of payment, one
month's imprisonment with hard labour.
Patrick Puffy, a very powerful young man, was brought
up on a charge of having assaulted police officer 424, and
also a person on board a ship in one of the docks. The
policeman said he saw the prisoner on board the ship
striking a man, and when he went to arrest him, the
prisoner also struck him. One of the police, in answer to
the usual question of "is the prisoner known here ? ' said
he had been as often in the court as he had hairs on his
head. He was fined lOs and costs.
SMUGGLING.—John Edwards was convicted of attempt-
ing to smuggle about 21bs of tobacco from a Prussian
ship called the London, and was fined 18s, the value of
the article.

(BEFORE MR. T. D. ANDERSON.)
SHOP LlFTlNG.—Catherine Carr, and Mary Gibson,
two young Women, were charged with stealing a dozen
pair of
i children s stockings from the shop of Mr. Call-
wood, n Cleveland-square. The case was clearly proved,
and as the prisoners had been before convicted of a like
offence, they were sent for trial.

THE EDUCATION RESOLUTIONS.— In the House of Com-
mons this evening, on the motion that Mr. Speaker do
leave the chair, to go into committee on Lord John Russell's
resolution on education, Mr. Cobden will move " That, in
the opinion of this house, the erection and maintenance of
schools for teaching the various forms of doctrinal religion,
to be supported wholly or in part out of local rates, will
not be deemed a just or satisfactory system of education by
the people of this country."

CENTRAL CRIMINAL Y COURT.-- - ESTERDAY.

OLD COURT.--(Before Mr. Justice Cresswell and Mr,
Justice Crompton.)
MURDER OF Two CHILDREN BY THEIR MOTHER.

Mary Ann Harris, aged 25, unmarried, was indicted
for the wilful murder of her two illegitimate children,
Agnes Harris, aged four and a half years, and Emma
Harris, aged two and a half years, by drowning them in
the Grand Junction Canal, on Friday, the 15th of Feb-
ruary last. The prisoner, who seemed much affected, is
a respectable and good-looking young woman, having
a third illegitimate child in her arms. On being placed
at the bar pleaded Not Guilty.
Mr. Bodkin and Mr. Clarke appeared for the prose-
cution ; and Mr. Sleigh, instructed by the kindness of
the Sheriffs, defended the, prisoner.
Mr. Bodkin, in opening the case, said that the prisoner
was charged with one of the most serious crimes known
to the law—that of wilful murder, committed upon the
body of her own child ; and although she was only
upon her trial upon one charge, it would be useless to
endeavour to conceal the fact that two children were
destroyed by the prisoner at the same time, and probably
by the same act. He then proceded to give a narrative
of the facts. The prisoner, it will be remembered, had
three children, Agnes, Ellen, and a baby, all of whom
were illegitimate, and it appeared that the father of the
last child was living at Portsmouth, and at the time of
the fatal occurrence he was anxious that the prisoner
should join him with the baby. The prisouer and her
three children had been in the Uxbridge workhouse,
but on the Isth February she left, taking with her all
the children, at the same time expressing her intention
of proceeding to Portsmouth with them. She was
seen by some of her relations, who reside in the neigh-
bourhood of Uxbridge, at different periods of the day,
and towards the evening the prisoner announced her
intention to proceed by the train from the West Drayton
station on her way to Portsmouth. About half-past
seven o'clock in the evening she was seen with the two
elder children near a bridge over the Grand Junction
Canal called Yewsley Bridge, and a very few minutes
afterwards she was seen coining away from the canal
without the children. In about half an hour after this
time the bodies of the two unhappy children were seen
in the canal by a labouring man, and on their being
taken nut they were found to be quite dead. Suspicion,
of course, immediately fell on the prisoner, and she s as
taken into custody the same evening at a public-house
in the neighbourhood ; and on her being told that
the bodies of two children had been taken out of the
canal, and that she answered the description of the person
who was last seen with them, she made no reply. The
constable then took the prisoner to the public house
where the bodies of the children were lying, and when
the prisoner saw them she went up to them and kissed
them, and said they were her children, and that she had
brought them out of the workhouse that morning. The
prisoner was then taken to the police station, and while
the woman employed for the purpose was searching her,
she said to her, "Oh dear, oh dear ; do you know what
you have been doing ? " to which the prisoner replied,
" I know very well what I have been doing ;" and upon
another person who was present observing that it was
a wonder she had not drowned the baby as well as the
other children, the prisoner exclaimed, " The baby
has got a father, but the other children had not."
She subsequently, after having been cautioned that all
she said would be given in evidence against her, made
a statement, which amounted to an entire confession,
that she had thrown the children into the water, and
that she had done so because she could not take
them with her to Portsmouth ; and she also stated
that she was sorry her baby was not in Heaven as
well as the other children, and she added that she
had gone through so much trouble that she had no
desire to live.

The above facts were distinctly proved by the various
witnesses, and at the close of the case for the prosecution,
Mr. Sleigh made a most earnest appeal to the sympathy
of the jury on behalf of the unhappy prisoner, and
he urged that they might ultimately come to the conclu-
sion that the act was committed under the influence of
some sudden frenzy, or that the children might have
fallen accidentally into the water.
The learned Judge having summed up,
The Jury, after a very short consultation, returned a
verdict of guilty.
Mr. Justice Cresswell passed sentence of death in the
usual form, telling the miserable woman not to indulge
in any hope that mercy would be extended to her.
Upon hearing her sentence she shzieked out, " I am
innocent ;" and was removed from the dock screaming,
and in an almost fainting state.

THE SABBATH QUESTION.