The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1826-04-11 00:00:00

TO TILE EDITOR Qr• THE BRITISH PRESS.

Stu.--I beg leave, through the medium of your excellent Jour-
nal, to suggest to the Manages of the London Theatres, who have
often stootl forerd'st in their endeavours to relieve the unfortunate,
to give up half the receipts of any one night they choose to appoint,
towards the relief of the starving Silk Weavers.
Now, Mr. Editor, there are no less than ten Theatres open at
present, viz. :—Drury-lane. Covent-garden, English Opera,
Adeiphi, Sadler's Wells, Coburg. Surrey, Astley's, Royalty, and
West hoodoo. Surely, then. calculating at the lowest, they could
not raise less than fifteen hundred pounds between them ; and
what an immensity of good would hot that sum do to the poor
Weavers. Besides, that might not be the only way in which it
would be beneficial I for, no doubt, the ladies who went on those
rights would, in honour of the occasion, be dressed in silk, which
would, of course. be of British manufacture, and thus prove an.
other source of benefit to these unhappy men.
With the hope that thee few hints (should they meet with an
insertion) may not pass unnoticed. I beg leave to subscribe myself,
Sir, your's, wish the greatest resnecr, E. L.
Palsgrave-place, Temple, April 0, 1826.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE BRITISH PRESS.

Stn.—ln your report of the Middlesex Sessions, which you gave
in yesterday 'is paper, your readers must have remarked the case of
John Humphreys, who was sentenced to ttvo months' imprisonment
fur vending indecent publications. The crfrence is of such a dis-
gusting and dangerous tendency, that the defendant could only have
screened himselt from a severer sentence by expressing a sense of
contrition and repentance for committing it. Even with this palli-
ation, many will be inclined to think that the punishment was
scarcely proportioned to the crime. Here is a young " bookseller,"
so at least he designates himself, stimulating the worst passions o 7
the people by exhibitions of nauseous pictures; and pandering to
their curiosity by insidious titles of works, the tendency of which
is to destroy every principle of common decency. Every species
of iniquitous jobbing. tried Mustier to cites/Imo them among the
lower orders= and they 'are rendered accessible to them by being
printed on coarse paper and sold for a tew half-pence. The youth
of the metropolis, too prone unfortunately to coarse excitement,
purchase and peruse them with avidity ; and guilty feelings, which
were formerly strangers to their minds, become so many motives to
action. The pollution of these platter* of offal Cannot be speedily
erased ; and thus a deep blow is struck at the purity of moral feel.
ing throughout the nation. When the stake is so important, no
efforts ought to be spared in stirring for it :and I sincerely trust
that the Vice-Suppression Society will devote their means and their
exertions in order to put down such nuisances as Juba Humphreys.
I am, Sir, yours, &c. X.
Southampton.street, Monday.

CORONERS' INQUESTS.
Lovz AND SUlClDE.—Yetaday evening an inquisition was
taken at the White Hart public-house, Ratcliffe, before J. W.
Unwin, Esq. the Coroner, on view of the body of Elizabeth Mills,
who terminated her existence on the preceding day, while under
the influence of a paroxysm of insanity, produced by jealousy of
the conduct of a young man who had been paying his addresses
to her.

Mr. Sitllnow—l am a surgeon, and reside in the Hamlet of Rat-
cliffe. Yeterday morning, about mix o'clock, I was called on to
attend the deceased, who had been a few minutes before taken out
of the Canal. I went. in consequence. to the place where she lay, and
used every means to recover her. My exertions succeeded. and I
restored her to reopiration and sense. She contested to me that she
had thrown herself in, and accounted for doing so front a jealous
feeling. She complained of the misconduct of Henry make, who
paid his addresses to her, and who she said she had seen keeping
company with another female. 1 entertained certain hopes of her
recovery, and left her for a short time. I returned back in about
half an hour: during my absence she had had an itnerview with
Blake, which I think was too great an exertion for a person in her
debilitated state. Site survived about two hours, and died from
the effects of her immersion. She appeared about twenty years
of age.
Mr. Bennington. one of the Jury, said, he went to the Canal,
and saw deceased taken out. She was brought to that house, and
I medical assistance was procured ; the only mark of violence per.
reptible on her person was a graze near the eye, occasioned by the
drags. Site was not above five minutes in the water.
Henry Blake, the person who caused this calamity, said, I am a
atone-mason, and live in Stepney. I have been acquainted with
the deceased about three months; during that time she told me that
I she had another Krim. I saw her alive the night before she threw
herself into the Canal ; she then appeared as well as usual.
The Coroner briefly summed up, and the Jury returned a ver.
diet of " Suicide." committed while labouring under insanity.
The deceased, who possessed much personal attraction, was the
daughter of a moat respectable tradesman in the neighbourhood.
Yesterday forenoon another Inquest was held at the White Sean
public-house, Great Dover-street, on the bialy of Catherine
Keaton, whose ease was fully detailed on Friday in our Union.
hall report. The surgeon, who examined the deceased's body,
deposed that there were three bruises on the angle of the left eye ;
that he had opened the heart, and discovered that they had not pro.
duceti death ; but that her dissolution was occasioned by a tit of
apoplexy. A verdict to that effect was then returned.

FATAL. At-Tint...KT.—On Friday se'nnight, an two men,
one named Green, master of a vessel, the other a young man named
Morrish, an apprentice to Mr. Glibbett, shipbuilder, at Appledore,
were crossing from that place in a boat to Instow, a sudden squall
of wind upset 11,4.; they both hung to the boat for some time, in
hopes of being drifted to the shore, or picked up by another boat,
but the young man being unable to continue his hold till he could
receive assistance, was unfortunately drowned. Green was picked
up by one of the gigs of Appledore, and taken to Instow in a very
weak state. In a short time after, he persisted in crossing the river
to A ppledore: this was complied with, but he died immediately on
reaching the shore.—Plymouth Paper.
Huts: IN CIIANCLITY-LANE.—About five o'clock yester-
day morning the inmates of the house No. 72, Chancery-lane, oc-
cupied by a person of the name of Cornish, a bookseller, anti an-
other, named Joyce, a silversmith, were alarmed by the watch-
man, in consequence of his perceiving volumes of smoke issuing,
not only from the cellar, but trout every window in front of the
house. On the front door being opened, a lodger front the next
Fouler, occupied by Mr. Creed, bookseller, immediately ran with a
bucket or water to the c-liar, when he perceived a quantity of
lighted straw stuffed beneath the staircase and the beams and rafters
'on fire, which he partially subdued by hot own exertione. In a
short tithe seven engines arrived at the spot. and soon after they
had commenced playing upon the premises the fire was completely
extinguished. Various conjectures are afloat in the neighbourhood
as to the origin of the fire, which we decline repeating, as we un-
derstand that legal inquirica are on the eve of taking place. A
female residing in the saute house, who had only been confined on
Saturday last, was, at the imminent peril of her life, removed to a
neighbour's close by, sr:upped tip in a blanket. Had not the fire
been fortunately discovered at the moment it was, from the crowded
state of the neighbourhood. and the immense quantity of timber of
which the houses were composed, there is every probability that the
devouring element would have caused the total destruction of that
part of Holborn reaching from the corner of Chancery-lane to the
end of Illiddle-row. Since this statement was written a variety of
circumstances have come to our knowledge, which we think warrant
us in stating that the whole affair ought to be sifted to the bottom,
not less for the purpose of elicitiqg the truth titan for punishing
those who may hare thus endangetcd the lives and property of the
public.