Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-07-22 00:00:00

THE NORTHERN TIMES.-LIVERPOOL, WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 1857.

under agent to the Marquis of Drogheda, and was also ;
baronial cess collector. Mr. Ball, Q C., addressed the
jury on hehalf of the defendant. He said that ha would
examine witnesses, but regretted that the parties them-
selves could not be examined, for if they could, the real
facts of the case would be elicited. Mrs. Conlan examined
by Mr. Maunsell : The plaintiff told her that she was
goirg to see her pew in the chinch ; witness asked her what
the priest would say to that, and she replied that she might
as well go first as last; the defendant in her presence said
to the plaintiff that if she did not wish to be married in
the Church of Monasterevan, he would drive her to Kil-
Idare or elsewhere, and she said "That Monasterevan would
do;" when the marriage was broken off the plaintiff began to
cry one day, and witness did the same (a laugh), and she
(plaintiff) said that she was so much persecuted about the
marriage, and her mother said so much to her for marrying
a Protestant, that she eheuld beeak it off. Cross-examined
by Mr. Hayes: She began to cry because the young
people were disappointed ; av coorse she had a feelin' for
;hem. (Laughter.) A witness named Lennox gave
evidence to the same effect, that the plaintiff consented to
become a Protestant, and that he remarked to her that it
would look so odd that when they came to the malt house
she should turn one way and he another. Mr. Curran :
Which side of the malt-house do you go to ? Witness
The right. (Laughter.) Mr. Curran: I mean of. what
religion are you? Witness : I'm a tailor, and a Protestant
of course. (Laughter.) Mr. Carran : What did you say
about the malt-house? Witness: I mean that you go one
way from the malt-house to the church and another way
to the chapel. Mr. Munsell then spoke to evidence on
behalf of the defendant. The Chief Justice charged, and
the jury returned a verdict of £6O damages. •

POISONING OF A STOCK BROKER BY

PRUSSIC ACID.

On Saturday evening Mr. W. Carter, coroner for East
Surrey, instituted an ieg,iry at the Albany Arms Tavern,
Albany-road, Camberwell, relative to the death of Mr.
James Sebastian Yeates, aged 62, a stockbroker, residing
in the Crescer t, Albany-road. • Mr: George Edward
Yeates, the deceased's son, on Thursday morning last
found his father lying in bed dead He then went for Mr.
Gower, a surgeon, who attende3. About twelve the same
day witness again went to his father's room, and there per-
ceived on the dressing-room table a small bottle, not
labelled ; but there was a cork, which, however, did not
quire St. He took up the bottle, and found it smelt very
strongly of amends. When wieness first entered the room
in the morning there was no such smell pervading the room,
and Mr. Gower, the surgeon, did not notice the bottle.
Mrs. Letitia Yeates, the wife of the deceased, who was
dreadfully agitated, proved that she had never seen the
bottle produced, and that when she went into the room
after her son George arrived see did cot smell anything
peculiar. Mr. Thomas Griffith, surgeon, of High-street,
Peckham, said he found the deceased dead in bed. While
in the room he noticed a phial on the dressing table, which
ha took up, and at once detected a powerfel smell of
prussic acid. He went to the body of Mr. Yeatee, and
pressing on the chest placed his nose to the mouth, but
could not smell anything. He took possession of tho
phial, Ewhich contained about half an ounce. He had
made a post morfenz examination, and when he opened the
body the smell of prussic acid was very powerful. He had
not the slightest doubt that the deceased died from the
effects of that poison. The witness added that he went
down stairs and, addressing ore of M r. Yeates's daughters
asked her if she could give. the slightest clue to the cause
of her father's death, and she said, " Have you seen the
bottle?" The whole of the family declared that they had
never seen the bottle containing the poison before it was
found on the dressing-table The coroner said the last
statement made by Mr. Griffith was of a most important
character, and he (the coroner) would not he doing
his duty if he allowed such a case to pass without the
fullest investigation, as the circumstance of the bottle not
being found in the morning, and no one detecting the
smell of the poison, including a medical gentleman, was
most strange. He should therefore adjourn the case for a
few days, to examine the young lady who made the state-
ment to Mr. Griffith relative to the bottle containing the
poison.—On Tuesday, Mr. Carter resumed, and coneuded
an inquiry into the above case, and some further evidence
having been adduced, from which it appeared that the
deceased gentleman had been in embarrassed circumstance,,
and that there was little doubt be had committed suicide,

the ilry retlrned a verdict that deceased had destroyed
himself whilst labouring under temporary insanity.

THE TASTE OF ARSENIC AND SOOT.—The queslion of
the taste of arsensic was of moment, but of 1( es moment
than one which escaped attention altogether, viz : the test
of soot. Let it be assumed that a man weuld receive and
swallow, from the hand of another person, some 200 or 300
grains of simple arsenic, and not taste it ; but what shall
be said of arsenic mixed with soot I If the packets of
arsenic bought by Miss Smith were give❑ to L'Angelier, he
must, once at least, have taken from her a soot and arsenic
potion, so atrociously noxious that, we believe, no mortal
man could be induced to do more than taste it. The
thing is absurd. L'Angelier took no soot and arse,. is in
the murder draught. If he did, nothing apolies to his case
hut the rustic axiom, " Served him right." But L'Aege-
lier was just the man not to be caught in such an exposed
trap.—Medical Times.
ROBBERY or £140. At the Manchester City Police
Court, on Monday, William Lee, a lad about 14 years of
age, who was employed as an errand boy in the shop of
Mr. Booth. grocer, Brook-street, and James Leech and
William Nelson. both about 12 years of age, companions
of Lee, were charged with being concerned in robbing Mr.
Booth of £llO. It appears that on Saturday morning,
about half-past seven o'clock, Mr. Moth was washing his
counter, and Lee fetched the water for him from the cellar.
After the counter was washed, Tee was sent back to the
cellar with the water; but, instead of doing as directed, he
went into the lobby, left the water them, and then pro-
ceeded to the sitting room, and from the chiffonier lifted
the cash box and went out by the back door. He seems to
have been shortly afterwards joined by his two companions,
and in a field cn the Stockport-road the box was broken
open, the £l4O abstracted, and the box thrown away. The
three youths went all the way to Stockport, where they pur-
chased suits of clothes and watches a piece, and from thence
they returned to Manchester and took train for Southport,
where they were apprehendecian;: taken into custody about
half-past nine on the same evening. When taken £lO5.
was found upon them, part in notes which Mr. Booth
identified. In the absence of the Southport officers, the
c,se was remanded.

CHARGE OF HIGHWAY ROBBERY.—On Monday, at the
Bury petty sessions, a young mau, named James Hamer,
of Harwood, was charged with having, in company with
another person, assaulted and robbed Dennis Howorth,
labourer, Tottington, ab ut midnight on Saturday last, on
the highway, near to Fonr Line Ends. Howorth stated
that when he was on his way towards home he heard
footsteps approaching him, and presently two young men
laid hold up.oi him, threw him down, and threatened to
throw him into a lodge of water. They took from his
pocket four scvereigns and nineteen shillings, and then de-
camped. Howorth then got up, and called out murder,"
and "stop thief." Subsequently Hamer was apprehended
by a police officer, road Horror h declared that 111 was one
of the men who robbed hm. Mr. Crossland, solicitor, ap-
peared for the prisoner, and cross-examined the witneesql
at great length. The investigation of the case occupied
the attention of the court nearly five hours, and towards
the close of the inquiry it came out in evidence that Ho-
worth, on Saturday night last, while at a public house,
was partially s ripped, and his waistcoat containing his
money had been in charge of another person. It was also
shown that on a former occasion, when Howorth was drink-
ing, he had charged persons with robbing him. On the
whole case so much doubt was raised, that the bench de-
cided to acquit the prisoner.
THE COTTON CROP IN AMERICA —Mr. Henry Ashworth,
the president of the Manchester Chamber of Commerc3,
writes as follows to the Bolton Chronicle :—Since the
month of April my daughter and myself have b_en in the
Northern States and in Canada, and not in the cotton
growing states; and, therefore, I have not been able to
add to my previous knowledge anything more than the
information which I derived from planters and others
whom I met in New York a few days before sailing,
and the accounts received from them in relation to
the growing crops, were, as a whole, by no means pr.--
pitious. In the States of Alabama, Georgia, South
Carolina, and Tenessee, the cotton plant was represented
as standing, in the second week of June, from one to
four inches above ground. Had it at the time be,-..n the
second week of May and not of June, the appearance
would have been considered favourable for the coming
crop. The season being a month later than usual may not
prevent a plentiful growth of cotton, but it may reasonably
be expected that the gathering of the crop will be small,
seeing that whatever may be the yield of the plant, the loss
for the first month of the picking season cannot be expected
to be recovered by subsequent efforts, even if the frosts of
winter should be delayed. From the States of Louisiana
and Mississippi the accounts were of a more favourable
character. It will be remembered that it is in these states
that the climate and soil are reckoned the more favourable ;
the cotton plant was represented as looking more promis-
ing, and the planters were looking forward more hopefully
than they had previously done when I visited them two
months before. lam glad to find that the subject of
cotton growing is exciting attention. The famine in
Ireland which followed the loss of the potato crop will
not soon be forgotten. What other parallel less painful
could any .one depict to this country if the cotton crop
should fail !