The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-16 00:00:00

Another Dreadful Tragedy in Lambeth.

1864.

EXAMINATION OF THE PRISONER
(THIS DAY)

As soon as the night charges had been disposed of, Sarah
Weston, a decent-looking female, about 30 years of age,
who appeared to be suffering severely from the effects of
drink, was placed at the bar before Mr. Woolrych, charged
with causing the death of Stephen Weston, her husband, by
violently assaulting him on Sunday morning in their own
house, Johanna-street, Lower Marsh, Lambeth,

Samuel Samuels, a cooper, living in the Borough. road,
said that about two on Sunday morning he heard cries of
murder inside the prisoner's house. He climbed up to a
front window which was opened by a girl,
and he saw the 'prisoner and her husband on
the floor. She was partly sitting and had hold
of her husband's head, when she struck him on the
floor. He called out, and then she turned around and let
.go her husband's head, which dropped on one side, and he
saw he was dead. The mother of the deceased came and
calleed out "For God's sake fetch a policeman or she'll kill
my son." The prisoner then got up, put on her husband's
boots, and went downstairs. He went down to the front
door and saw her coming out, when she told him to go
away, but he refused, and remained until a policeman came
up, when they entered the house, and saw the deceased
lying dead. A surgeon was sent for immediately.
Susan Weekly, residing at No. 3, Plum-street, said that
between 2 and 3 she heard cries of murder as she went
in the house and saw the mother and the prisoner. She
went upstairs and saw the prisoner's husband dead. The
last time she saw him alive was on Saturday morning, and
then he appeared in his usual health. When she entered
the room he was lying partly on the bed and partly oil the
floor. Witness knew that he had been very ill for some
time, especially the last two or three days, therefore he
was extremely weak. During the Saturday night
she had called the attention of the police to him.
The children opened the door and cried "Murder," and
then she entered the house. She saw no blood or mark
of any kind. He looked as if he fell down and died.
Cotterell, 92 L, said he was called in about two o'clock
on Sunday morning, when a man said you had better go
upstairs as the man is dead. He went there and found
deceased lying on the bed, and he was quite dead, Witness
then fetched Waken, the divisional surgeon.
Inspector Edwards here asked for a remand until after
the coroner's inquest.

Mr Woolrych accordingly remanded her for a week, and
she was removed immediately to Horsemonger-lane Gaol.

SOUTHERN VIEWS.

From the headewaters of the Red River to the
coast of North Carolina the horizon is fairly radiant
with Confederate victory. Forcing its way through
the darkness of Yankee concealment, Banke's defeat
tells that all is well in the Trans-Mississippi depart-
ment. Forrest, at Fort Pillow, undoes in an hour
the year's work of Grant, and obstructs, in a very
inconvenient manner, the free navigation of the
Mississippi. Confederate horsemen career confidently
in Western Kentucky, and white flags are barging
out at Columbus. It was proper that these brilliant
affairs in the West should be furnished with a pen-
dant in the East, and nobly has it been done by
Hoke, at Plymouth. There, too, has storming been
the order of the day, and success has been as cola-
plete as at Fort Pillow. Hitherto, though often
led against fieldwork; the Confederate soldiers have
rarely been called upon to assail permanent fortifica-
tions. These twe brilliant examples fully attest
their prowess in this trying mode of warfare, and
evince that striking eupereerity of elan which most
signally elevates them above the Yankee soldier.
Not an instance in the war can be mentioned
of the Yankees having driven our men from in-
trenched positions. These cheering victories, coming
in such rapid succession from so many different
quarters, are auspicious of final success. They re-
semble those minor combats which so often, on the
eve of great battles, have seemed to cast the shadow
of coming events before them, and to give an
earnest of future victory. While the two great
armies are collecting their strength and preparing
for a decisive spring, these hopeful auguries
cannot fail to inspirit the one and to throw a gloom
over the other. Thus far the year has been marked
by a series of unbroken triumphs to the Confede-
rate arms. Should the stream continue to set a little
longer in the same direction, it will sweep away all
the impediments in the coarse of our youthful
republic. The facility with which we have achieved
these triumphs is encouraging in another point
pf view. The enemy must have weakened his
armies of occupation in the various districts he has
overrun. His garrisons are a mixture of whites
and blacks—enough, probably, of the former to
prevent the Africans from following their own in-
clination and surrendering at the first summons.
By such a disposition it was thought that their
conquests might be retained, and the negro soldiery
be made to serve a useful purpose. The event
has disappointed these expectations. They have
lost their hard-won conquests, and as yet have
failed to strike any compensating blow by means of
the cuncentratioe for the sake of which they have
weakened themselves elsewhere. The details
of the affair at Plymouth are not yet fully
ascertained. It is, however, safe to pronounce
it one of the most brilliant affairs of the
war. Its immediate fruits are important.
Those which may ultimately flow from it,
the possession of an abundant country, and the
possible command of the inland waters of North
Carolina (though as yet the subject of uncertain
speculation), may well excite high hopes for the
future. General Hoke, judging from the large
number of his prisoners, does not seem to have
made such thorough work as that by which
Forrest has so shocked the tender souls and
frozen the warm blood of the Yankees. The
re-
sistance he encountered was, probably, not so
des-
perate, and the blood of the victors wabsnott:tea
tcd,
though in a fortification carriedte
Tthhee
gahrtrison muses
.civilised
strictloss
the
laws warfare
b ly large.
acknowledge
power of example might seem,
the victor to put all to the swo.d in such
cases. However severe such an
and their
it would strike a salutary terror in
end,
the Yankees
which will be useful to them in the
melancholy
their barbarities merit is absurd. ln the rapid fall of
whine at meeting apart of the punishment
we see something like a revulsion of the gunboat
these positions which the Yankees gained so easily
At that period they made most of the
acquisitiod's which they have since bed apparently
in a firm grasp. The reflux of the tide is no less
sudden than its advance. The year 1864 may undo
the work of 1862, and suggest a solution of many
difficulties which seemed almost insurmountable.—
Richmond Examiner, April 27.

mania.

During the whole of yesterday (Sunday) the greatest ex-
citement prevailed throughout the neighbourhood of the
New Cut, Lambeth, owing to the circulation of a report that
a female had murdered her husband in his place of business,
a narrow thoroughfare, known as Johanna-street, running
out of Lower Marsh, New Cut, Lambeth. At No. 1,
Johanna-street, have resided a man and his wife named
Weston, the former being a vendor of cats' and dogs' meat,
and the latter, owing to her dissipated habits and violent
conduct, was described as the " terror of the neighbourhood.'
Some time since, during one of her drunken fits, after
spending all her money, and asking for more to get
drink, and being by her husband very properly refused, she
commenced to knock him abou', and then took up a knife
and stabbed him. He was uider surgical attendance for a
considerable time, and it was then expected that he wculci
have died from The effects of the injuries he had received.
His wife was then locked up and taken before the magis-
trate. After her examination she was remanded, but her
husband having recovered from the injuries he received,
he refused to prosecute, and she was in consequence dis-
charged from custody. From that time up to yesterday she
had still gone on in the same abandoned manner.

About two o'clock yesterday, whilst the usually noisy
neighbourhood was comparatively quiet, the inhabi-
tants were aroused by cries of " murder I" Police• con-
stable Cotterell, No. 92 of the L division, who was on duty
close by, was proceeding towards the spot, when he was met
by a female who pointed out the house the cries proceeded
from. He entered the front shop, and upon looking through
a window he saw a woman beating her husband on the head
and knocking it against the drawers. The woman who
pointed cut the house to him accompanied him into the
room, when they found the man lying on the floor perfectly
insensible. The woman was forthwith taken into cus-
tody, and surgical assistance sent for. Mr. Wakem, the
divisional surgeon of the police, promptly attended
and upon making a careful examination of the unfortunate
man pronounced life to be extinct. Dr. Donahoe, of the
Westminster-road, likewise promptly attended; but of
course could not render any assistance. The woman was
removed to Tower-street Police-station. So drunk was she
at the time that it was the opinion of the police that she
was labouring under delirium tremens. Orders were there-
fore given that she should be carefully watched through-
out the night lest she should attempt to destroy her own
life as well as that of her husband. The brother of the
woman has taken the children of the deceased to his own
house for protection for the present.