The National Register.
London, England, 1818-08-17 00:00:00

Cu tnon MURDER.

Mary Stone, aged 29,was charged on the oath of her sister,
millet 'tampion. with Isaviu %$ ilftilly murdered her female
child, its September, ItSlli, at Itichsnotwl.
Tile prisoner, a most interesting young woman, was placed
on the seat near the table, as she appeared too weak to sup-
pert herself in the usual place where prisoners stand. Shy
seemed dejected and worn down ; her teatutes, which were
Lit elligesit and expressive, in:heated extrc ne anxiety and
emotion. On heist?, arraigned, she pleaded in a faint and
agunized tone, " Nut Godly."
Mrs. Hampton was put inks the witnesses box. She ap-
peared a liar voting WOlll4ll, about 19 ur 20 years o.'sige. On
casting her cc es to wisese the prisoner sat, she Insist into
tears, and e sclaisned with great apparent anguish, al 0, my
sister, my sister !" The prisoner fainted during har sister.*
agitation,bnl was speedily recovered; she letter, after having
been taken out into the open air, was soon well thong's to give
!ler evidence, which she dill with less apparent embarrass.
mint 111441 Might have been expected. "In the !smooth of
September. lila, she said, I slept, as was my enstonl,witli my
sister. About two in the anus fling she said she was in ests eine
pails, and shortly after she was delivered of a female child;
it cried, and I wanted to call in assistance, but she would not •
let use. Very shmstsy after the child was burn, my sister forced
her hand into the infant's month, and elsoaked it, and sauss
thrust the body tutu a pan under the hell. She threw herself
oil the bed, lull got up in a moment ; I then said r 4,1 6.r
sossiebo ly ; iiis sister replied, that if I attempted to do su she
wpm," kill sue, and then herself. 1 was su lelghtt'llttll 111.11 I
desisted. My sister left the body in the pass 01.0 nigist, and
on the follow tog morning made up a tire in the roo.stosisil tried
to Introit, but the tiesh made such a crackling noise that she was
afraid it would be heard, and she took it oil the first and re-
placed it in the pan. The next morning she Issok it dam'
stairs,and ourot U to the copper to ashes—she then cleauedtbe
copper out, and threw the ashes uu the dunghill.'
Cross-exassiiised.-1 first told this about twelve 111)ntki ago,
or shortly after I got married. I let it out one night in my
sleep, :tad 00 my being ossestioned by my husband, I con-
fessed tile is ettli. My sister kept the house we lived in ; it had
only Coree rooms, and being thinly partitioned, so that what
passed within might be heard by the neighbasis s My sister
and Isle pt its the same bed; my sweetheart then, but husband
now, its the opposite room to onrs ; a man named Kenyon
and lily brother generally slept in the third roam. I never
said m. sister, wits was an unsuarried woman, was pregnant,
before this matter took place. I don't know that any body
noticed it. My sister's ill usage commenced about a furtuiglii
after it happenesl ; she then threatened to turn me out ofdours.
She dislikes' my marriage, though I never had to her
or expressed myself to that effect to any body. I never said
to Mrs. Wilke that I'd ruin the prisoner, or that I wished her
dead to get the 5001. out of the bank. I never said that as I
was not of age, t could not get the money yet, or hoped that
the might she tirst. I believe we are entitled to 5001. which
is in the Bank. My sister had a child before this last, it
iv a grown boy, has slways lived with her, and she treats it
well.

Tills was the vole witness for the prosecution.
Mrs. W►lks said, that iu September, 1816, she lived at
Trentham, where sue knew the prisoner. Witness repeatedly
heard the prusecntri♦ wish for her sister's (the prisoner's)
death saying that she waisted her monev. She remem-
bered her saying on one occasion, " I wish she was dead,
for then l would have the money, and my husband and use
• could get into Inisines?. on our own account."
Mr. Justice Abbott commented upon the Improbability of
Ilse whole story ; that no one had observed the prisoner to be
pregnant ; that noise in the house heard any noise, and that
the prusecutrix should have so long concealed the murder if
true, and concluded by observing to the Jury, that if the pri-
soner had really committed the act in the manner described,
cothing was inure unlikely than that she should linve quarrelled,
and almost immediately after the fact, with the person who
balanced her life in her hands.

The Jury inithuut hewitation returned a verdict of Not

Mary Poulter,oaty thirteen years of age :sstJanaany, stood
charged with the 'der of her bastard child. S l wit
nesses proved time birth of this child in a healthy state, on the
24th June, The prisoner seemed fond of it, but it was found
dead with !ter two days afterwards,and with some livid marks
-*bout its mouth, which the woman who assisted in dressing it,
after its birth, attributed to something like a eiaivielsive tit.
The chief witness to prove that the child died a violent death,
was Mr. Newman, a surgeon, who was decidedly of opinion,
that it met its death by strangulation and fractures in the
head ; but two witnesses, who chit* remained with the pri-
soner and child, repeated their declaration, that her treat-
ment of it seemed matcrialiy kind and attt utive. Not
&Wry.
Mr. R. Hampton was indicted for escaping from the rules
of the King's Balch.
The facts were merely these:—The defendant's debts were
over SOW. he broke therules,was at Hamborgh, amid other pat is
of the nos th of Europe; and was not retaken until two or
t tree mouths ago.
Mr. Adolphus, for the defendant, contended, that the pd.
loner could be only amenable to indictment for an actual es-
cape from the waits of a prison. A breach of this contract
was merely.a departure Irons a moral obligation, and Out a
in each of a legal contract punishable as a misdemeanor.
Ibe Lerrued Judge thrseuted from this view of the ques-
tion, and declared that what were termed the rules legally
imported actual custody, and that a Great:hot them was a nit*.
dooms:tutor in the es e of the law.
"Ille.lory tumid the defendant Gitilry, and the Court Sell•
•tZ nerd ham to four inuntles imprisonment.

The Manchester papers state that affairs tliere still
continue in a menacing posture. A samil portion, and
nnly a small portion, of the refractory workmen have
availed themselves of the protection of the civil power,
to resume their labour : the great body of the discon-
tented remains in open defiance, subsisting upon preca-
rious bounty' or upon funds whi, h must be rapidly di-
minishing. From 12 to 15,000 persons have been now
nearly five weeks voluntarily foregoing the means of
supporting themselves and their

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