The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-10-06 00:00:00

CORONERS' INQUESTS.

Yesterday afternoon an inquest was held (which is the Mated
only since the re.epening of the establishment), at the Geneval
Penitentiary. Milbank, before Mr. Gill, - she Concise, and a
respectable Jury, touehing the death of a coaviot, John Lam&
aged 12 years, who died on Monday last of cholera nimbus.
The Jury having been sworn, the following evidence was taken ;
Mr. James Wide swom.—l am surgeon to the Penitentiary.
The deceased has been here four or five months ; when he first
Immo tide his health eau very frond ; on doe 28th ult. be eau seined
•vkb °boleti* merlins ; was called to attend to him between tie and
EL:cgcnkionnathvaetryalexhetnugglidertem, goin
om tgewsehivearitiyu7fl the. el.!
The deceased did not communicate to any pints the ailed
111611118181 six o'clock.
Qtr
e---__How was that?
Te cell deers were net opened till then. I asked him
bow bag he had beta ? and he said that be believed he had
ha:l%W soon after twelve o'clock.
—You say he did not communicate with any one. Now
amid he have done se if he had been so inclined ?
Witriese.—Movt certainly he could r there were cells on widow
side of him, and, if he had knocked, his kllow-convida must have
heard him.
Coroner—How would they have heard the knock? because die
cells are very strong, and a knock would 'not hate been heard
through them.
Witness—lf he had knocked the report on the call side would
have sounded on the ear like thunder, and mutt have bsenbeerd by
theturnkeys.
Coronee—h it a customary practice among the unfortunate tap-
dyes to knock at the cell doors when they are in need of merionatice?
Via ess--It is. I asked him. 'when I went to hint, if he had
knocked, and he more than once said he had not. I attended him
every day. in company with Dm. White and Wight, and every
thing was done for him that his case would admit of, out he died
the id lost.
Comer—How many prisoners are thete now confined here?
Witness—From 200 to 21)0.
Corona—And are any now labouring under the attack of which
the deceased died ?
IVitneu—None. There were two attacked the day after with
the lamstcomplaint, but only one seriously, and they are now quite
free from the disease.
Coronet—Do you attach this complaint to any' particular cause
WitneesOnly to the season of the yeai.
Coroner—To no loCal.canse?
N'itness—None but probably it was'pebduced by thl% season
of the year. It is a complaint prevailing evefywhere, and we
cannot toped to be exempt from it.
Coroner—l know it does prevail: 'People in my part of the
country are dying continually from it.
Witness—lt is my opinion decradd died-a natural death.
Mr. Jordison White SP/0111.-1 am Acting Governor of this pri.
eon. The deceased was tried at the Old Bailey on the 7th April,
lad. He was convicted of stealing two she asses, and sentenced to
seven years' transportation, which was subsequentlii commuted to
tire ye are Imprisonment in this Penitentiary. e was received
here on the 25th April; 1825.
Co ever.-Are there any officers of the establishment present to
show the Jury the body ?
Witness—There are two, who will render every accommodation.
The Coroner and Jury were then conducted into an apartment in
the rear of the building, and, On stewing the body, which was
placed in a shell, their one and all expressed their satisfaction at
seeing such an improved alteration in the prison.
One of the Jury said that he. recollected being on an Inqnest
about two years ago, and then the eyes of the deceased persons
were found wide open, as if they were left to die without any per-
son to attend them in their last moments; but in this case the
greatest attention appeared to have beep shown the deceased.
The Coroner said that it wad highly creditable to the Governor
to see the excellent management that ems now observed throughout
the Prison.
Juror —(to Mr. Wade, the Surgeon)—ls the general state of
health of the prisoners good ?
Mr. Wade—lt is.
The Coroner said he could set bat express the approbation of
himself and the Jury of the appearance the prison now presented.
I The Jury that retuned a verdict of—" Died by the visitation of
God."
The Coroner observed that this was orry the second death in the
Penitentiary since the re-opening of the establishment, which is
twenty months.

On Tuesday evening an inquest was held by Thomas Stirling,
Eaq. Curette?, at tie King's Head. Lower-street, Islington, on the
body of Anthony Searle, a respectable young man, about twenty-
three years of age, residing in that parish. who was drowned whilst
bathing in the Regent's Canal, near the Basin, Slaiden-lane, Bat-
tie-bridge, ou Sunday morning.
.It appeared In evidence that the deceased had, in com-
pany with two other penning, named Delaltunt and Chapman,
gone from Islington to the Canal, for the perpose of bathing. and
having arrived at the above-mentioned spot, adjoining the Basin,
they undressed, and all three went into AN water and remained
in • short time. Chapman and Delehunt were about to get out,
but the deceased asked Delahunt to swim at his side and accompany
him over to the other side of the Canal, which he complied with,
and when they had arrived on the other side, they both stood up
close to the towing-path, and rested ; DeJuhunt perceiving a barge
coming down the Canal, towed by a horse, was desirous of getting
back to the tiller side, to avoid the barge and the towing-rope to
which the horse was attached to the barge, and said to the deceased,
" Can you swim back ?" he made no reply but darted into the wa- I
ter to swim to the opposite shore. Delahunt did the same, and
when they had reached the middle of the Canal, the deceased cried
out, " Lend me your band ;" and he answered, " Stnke out."
The deemed made several grasps to catch hold of him, but he was
afraid to go near to him, and swain to the shore as fast be could,
and having arrived there, he looked for the deceased, but could only
see one of his hands above the water ; the barge coming up. the men
in it threw out a rope, which the deceased did not catch hold tit', but
shortly after sunk out of sight. Two men on the towing-path of the
canal stripped, and went into the water to find the body, but did
not succeed, and an hour elapseid before it was brought out. It
was then taken to the Maiden /lead, at Battle-bridge. end a Doc-
tor was sent for, who attended, and tried the usual means to restore
animation, without
The Jury remarked, that from the number of accidents that hap-
per.t.nl oa tide spot. it was surprising that the Humane Society bad
Dot established a Receiving-house, with the necessary implements
uied on such occasions. Verdict—" Accidentally Drowned."

MELAwcerottr Suieinc.—At the above house, on the same
evening, helots the same Coroner and Jury, and inquest was taken
on view of the body of Wm. Wilmot, a man 32 years of age, a
drover in Smlditleldmiarket, who was found drowned near the
Sluice house at Homsey, on Sunday morning.
The deceased had been ill a week previous, but had not had any
medical sisiatatice, saying, when solicited so to du, that it would
be of no use.
On Saturday last Mr. Thomas Olover, of Holloway, surgeon,
attended the deceased by desire of his wife, at his residence, the
back of aciente's-place, Holloway, and found him in a very
emaciated sat o, and labouring under typhus fever and great op-
pression of rite lungs, but was perfectly rational in his conversa-
tion. He bled bun, to reduce the action of the heart and relieve
the chest, and called again on Sunday, but the deceased was then
missing.
ft appeared from the evidence of James Woods, a gardener re-
siding In Ploftwpolnt-rent., Islington, that on Sunday morning
last he had been to see some relations at liomsey, and on his way
back to Islington, in passing the bridge near the Sluice-hours, he
saw a well-dreesed gentleman with a silk umbrella, who called to
him, and said there was somebody In the water. The gendeman,
with the hook of his umbrella, drew the deceased to the bank of
the river, and Woods assisted him in gelling the body out, and it was
laid on the gram, They starched his pockets. and found a knife,
a pocket-handkerchief, and a bill of a Mr. Mots. The deceased
had all his clothes on excepting his h.rt and shoes, and Woods was
told that they had been found on the bridge by a pot-boy, at a 'late
hour on Saturday night. The gentleman requested Woods, as he
was going through Islington ohurch-yard, to mil on the beadle
siniiinform him of the circumstance, which he accordingly did. It
appeared that the wife of the deceased went out about
eight o'clock oo Saturday evening to market, when the deceased
requested her to take the child with her, which she did, and during
her absence he got up and dressed himself, walked across the
?Icicle to the above-mentioned spot. and fete; takingroff his hat and
Shoes, threw himself into the water.
Mr. (linen attended the inquest, and titer he had given his eat-
&nee the (hoverer thanked hint for his preempt atteedanee, not only
011 the present occasion, but also on another of the like nature,
when he- paid immediate attention to a poor man who had hang
himself although three other medical men had been applied to.
The Jury returned & verdict, " That the deceased drowned him•
self, being lu a state of delirium at the time.
PA aatelDE.—Friday, Peter Moffat, jun., accused of the
, murder of his father, Peter Moffat, carter in Kilsyth, on
the nd April, 1822., was apprehended by Mr. William
M'Kenzie, .Sherifra officer, and Sergeant Leckie, of the
, Gabon police, Glasgow, at Auchenairn, where be bad bees
working as a weaver formate time past, ander the assumed
name of Watson.—Cale/arias Mercer!.