The Sun.
London, England, 1839-10-05 00:00:00

EVENIN EDITION' \-:fi

MYSTERIOUS CASE of POISONING.

On Thursday an inquiry, which was adjourned from
the 25th, took place before J. T. Osbaldeston, Esq., one
of her Majesty's Coroners for the county of Herts, at the
Crown Inn, tlitchin, and the circumstances connected
with the death of Richard Brice, a tradesmen of the
town of Hitelein, who died under very mysterious cir-
cumstances, and whose body had been exhumed after
several days' interment, for the purpose of the original
inquiry being hastituted before the Coroner.
Tiles proceedise,es occupied the Court and Jury for
thirteens hours, :And they appeared to excite very great
inter st. The inn where the inquest was held was
surroi ended by a crowd of persons the whole day, and
the in quest-room was filled almost to suffocation.
The follewein,g- facts connected with this mysterious
case were adduced in evidence upon the former invests-
anti ons 1:e fore the Coroner :—lt appeared that the de-
cear led Isms a young man, respectably connected, and
by trade. a plumber and glazier. About twelve months
ago he 'bricame Ottuaint'ed with a young female, named
Mas,ia 'Browne,'4hp (-laughter of persons who do not
bear- .a very restieetelde character in Hitchin, and as
she :possessed vdty contiderable personal attractions,
Brice was inducnA- to overlook this circumstance, and
he sl iortly after;Vards married her. The marriage
turne d out a meafunhappy one—they were continually
grusn Sling, and hefore a very long time had elapsed
theie differences attained such a height that she left the
roof
of her husband and went to live with her father.
Atthe time the marriage took place Brice was about
23 years of age, and his wife 20. After the separation
ma item were made up, and they lived together again,
but still very unhappily. Thing went on in this we until Sunday, the Bth of' September, when it appenrs that Brice had agreed to meet his mother, a
fer settle cousin, and some other members of his family
at E litchin, and he did so ; and, in the morning, he ac-
cc ml )anied his cou,in part of the way home ; and it would
seenthat he was iobserved by a little boy, who went
immi adiately to Mrs. Brice, and told her that he is
seen her husband walking with the wife of a painter
nem, sd Eastell. This put her into a violent passion,
aru'l when the deceased came home at night. a quarrel
toe I; place between them, and she was heard to make
use, of threatening language. Brice eid not undeceivo
her • as to who had reply accompanied him in the even-
ing in question, and uricier the impression that she had
be m truly informed, Mrs. Brice the next day went to
th• person referred to, and told her that it was fortu-
na to she did not see her with her husband, for if she had,
sh, t would have marked her, and made use of other ex-
pr amions tending to show that she was highly exasperated
at what bad occurred. On the Tucsdey following.
w hi le the deceased was at work, a little boy came to
tell him to go home to dinner, and about half-past
t•ve lye o'clock he left his work for that purpose, being
at :the time in the enjoyment of perfect health. He re-
nal red to his work, and in a short time was seized with
eras, ep and violent retching, and the symptons in-
creel red to such an extent that at length he was corn-
pellet Ito leave his work and go home. As he was pro-
coedit, g thither he was met by his wife, who was heard
to say to him that he was not half ill enough, and that
she hoped_ he would be a box of " cold meat" by the
meaning, and that she wished to be his cold nurse.
On the same night she told a person who went
to inquire after him, that she did cot think
he would see " Dick," meaning her husband, again
very soon. The deceased continued in dreadful agony
until NVednesday the 11th, when he died. The medical
gentleman who had been called in considered the case
to be of such a peculiar kind that he expressed a wish
to opt !n the body, but this was resolutely opposed by
Mrs. Brice and the relations, and on the Saturday fol-
lowinr f the deceased was buried in Hitchin churchyard.
In cce as equence, however, of the rumours that were
abroad, and the excitement upon the subject in the
town, the Coroner issued his warrant for the disinter-
ment of the body, which was done, and a surgical exa-
minatilon of it took place. No external marks of vio-
lence :presented themselves ; but, upon the body
being opened, the medical gentleman was im-
mediate ly struck with its extraordinary appear-
ance, and which could not be accounted for, as the
result of any apparent disease. There was in particular
one bright yellow spot, presenting a very peculiar ap-
pearaerce. A minute analysis of the contents of the
stomad s took place, and at length the presence of
white a rsenic was distinctly ascertained, and the sur-
geon deposed positively that the man's death was oc-
casio acel through the administration of this poison.
U! ?on ascertaining those facts the inquiry was again
adjoi ailed until Thursday, when the following additional
evid€ race was adduced.
D uring the proceedings Maria Brice, the deceased's
widow, made an application to the Coroner to be al-
lowed to be present to hear the proceedings ?
The' CORONER said he had no objection, and she
was brought into the room, and had a chair placed
for her close to the witnesses. She is a very good-
lookin g young woman. When she came into the room
she lo oked at the Jury attentively, and it was evident
that ;she regarded the proceedings with the deepest
anxiet y.
\Vii ham Day deposed that lie knew the deceased,
and on the morning of the day on which he was taken
ill he met him about twelve o'clock. He appeared
quite hearty and well, and proposed that they should
have some beer together, and they did so, and when he
left him he appeared quite well and in good spirits.
A woman named Ballard deposed that on the 10th
of Sfsptember, the day the deceased was taken ill,
she twits with Mrs. Brown, the mother of Maria Brice,
the wife of the deceased, and she said that she
was very uneasy about her daughter—that she
was gone home to get her husband's din-
ner, and that she had murder in her heart.
She asked whoa it was all about, and she replied
that Maria had heard that Dick had been walk-
ing with another woman. The witness also stated that
on Sunday evening last the widow of the deceased said
to h,er, " There's another that wants a little blood-
money, but they will all be chet' (cheated) yet."
Anne Pearson deposed that between three and four
o'clock in the afternoon of the 10th of September she
saw the deceased. He was in the street leaning upon
some rails retching violently, and appeared to be in
great agony. 'Witness remarked to him how ill he ap-
peared to be, and he replied, " I am indeed neigh-
bour Pearson." Witness asked him what was the
matter with him? and he replied, "He did
not know, but that he had been so ever
since he had his dinner." She asked bins what
he had had for dinner ? and he replied, " I have
only bad—," and then his voice became indistinct, in
consequence of his retching ; but witness thought he
said " dumpling." Witness remained with him several
minutes. He appeared unable to stand upright, and
he placed both his hands on his belly, and said, " My
belly seems to be drawn up in one knot." The deceased
went away in the direction of his own home, and she
saw no more of him.

" Gentlemen," said the CHAIRMAN, one of whose du-
ties appeared to be that of restraining the oratorical
seizures of his coadjutors, " as the Court appears to
be divided, the shortest way will be to put the ques-
tion at once."

The question was put, the publican gained the day,
and the coalheaver was ordered to pay the full amount.
If I pay a farden," said the coalheaver, wrathfully,
I wish I may be--"
The constable of the Court succeeded in closing the
door on the angry coalheaver, thus rendering his con-
cluding word inaudible.

THE REVIVALS.

(From a Corrspondrnt of the Scotsman.)
A respectable woman, who was formerly my servant,
and is now housekeeper to a clergyman at some dis-
tance from Edinburgh, went to visit some relations
at Kilsyth on Saturday last, and was desired to bring
back some account of the Revival Sacrament held
there on Sunday. She attended preachings in the
fields on Sunday and Monday, during the day, from
11 A.M. till about 6 ram., and on Sunday night, in the
church, from eight in the evening till three next morning.
There had been preaching every day for some weeks,
and it was said that fifty clergymen had tendered their
assistance. From 10,000 to 12,000 persons were said
to be present on Sunday last. I had asked her to visit
me on her return, in order to give me also some account
of what might take place. I was surprised and shocked
at what I heard, and thought it right to take down in
writing part of what she said ,
" The most conspicuous preacher was a Mr. Burns,
junior, whose manner was much the same as that of
some Methodists. There was not much regular con-
nected discourse, but a mixture of Scripture quotations
and remarks, and anecdotes, and ejaculations ;
such as, " Ye are rotten-hearted sinners !"--
" I see the Devil looking out of your eyeballs I"
The torments of hell were much dwelt on.' Many
took hysterics and appeared to faint. Their cries
seemed infectious, and became very general. Those
who were most affected were chiefly children under
twelve years of age. I saw one girl, who was cer-
tainly under twelve, who, after she had been carried
out in a faint, was brought back. She crawled in, and
lay looking with a wild stare at._ the preacher. The
Ministers called these affections the work of Gad. I
saw one grown up young woman lying apparently dead
in the Session-room, and a young man who seemed to
be a clergyman, lecturing over her to the effect that
it
was the hand of God. She afterwards revived, and was
carried away to her friends, but had, bad relapses, and
was said to be in a bad way."
Surely the pure and rational relfion-of-christ has
no connexion with these laintirigsn%and convulsions.
Who can believe that the first alep :to render men
and women Christians is to disturb -Or itupifv their senses and unsettle their understandings ! ,
Is it not evident that a faith planted in this way
has its root in the nerves, and not in the rational
faculties? I -am not surprised that ignorant weakly
men, and hysterical women, worn out by fasting,
terrified by pictures of future judgment, and ex-
efted by tie presence of a dense multitude, shall
have their feelings overpowerecL and - iris-take tem-
porary delirium for a miraculous change ir, their minds ;
but that educated clergymen, who ought to have
studied human nature, and who should know from his-
tory the thousand extravagant and monstrous things
which religious phrensy has produced in past times, to
the dishonour of Christianity, should become the
prime movers of such disgraceful proceedings, is no
less humiliating than melancholy. It is mortifying
to see how little men profit by experience, and
how ready one generation is to repeat the follies
and absurdities of another. The question has been
asked, whether meetings of males and females through
the night are not disorderly in a legal point of view,
and whether the terrifying human beings into fits
by rhapsodical appeals to the imagination, intended to
produce that very effect, are not off,nces against the
peace and security of society, which would justify the
interference of the Sheriffs of counties ? These arc
questions which I do not pretend to answer.
(From another Correspondent.)
GLASGOW, SEPT. 27.-1 was at Kilsyth last night, or
rather this morning, for it was nearly two o'clock before
we got out, and heard such a rhapsody from young Mr.
Burns, the great organ in the Kilsyth Revivals, as fnever
listened to before—his sermon being a mere compound
of enthusiasm, weakness, and trifling--not to mention
the approaches to blasphemy which characterized some
of his statements. Think only of such expressions as
these--" This is Christ's shooting season," --and then
asking the audience, " Have yon been shot ?"--.a:Haye
you felt his arrows within you ?" Again, itralsis con-
cluding remarks, he pressed upon all present not to
leave the place, not to go out at the door without taking
Christ in their arms—" Take an armful of Ctrist, and
carry him home with you."

In answer to questions from the Coroner, the witness
said that the father of Mrs. Brice had told her that he
was sure she was mistaken as to the deceased saying
that he had his dinner on the day in question, for he
assured her he had not, but she said she was positive
the deceased said what she had stated.
A person who lived in the house next to Brown, the
deceased's father-in-law, deposed, that after the inquest
had been adjourned the first day, he overheard Brown
say to some female to whom he was conversing in his
garden, " Never mind, you have only to stick to the
same story, and it will be all right."
Scvcral witnesses were then called to depose to the
various threats made use of by the wife of the deceased
towards him.

Sophia Eastell, the person whom the wife of the
deceased supposed- tb have been walking with him on
the Sunday rderred Vo, was then examined. She de-
nied that she had ever been on any terms of intimacy
with the deceased, or that there was the slightest
ground for the suspicion entertained by the deceased's
wife.

The father and brother of Maria Brice were then
called in and separately examined, but little informa-
tion was obtained.

A woman named Pateman was called to prove that
the deceased's wife told her that she must not be sur-
prised if she heard a row—that she would do for her
husband, and that she had looked out his carriers.
Maria Brice here declared that she had not made use
of any such expressions.
The Coroner then, in consequence of the crowded
state of the inquest room, adjourned the Court to the
Sun inn, and after the Jury had re-assembled, he briefly
addressed them. He observed that hi this case it was
quite clear that the deceased died from the effects of
poison, and that he had not administered that poison to
himself, and there could be very little doubt but that he
must have been murdered. The only question for the
Jury was, whether the evidence would warrant them in
charging any particular person with that offence, or
whether they would return a general verdict of murder
against some person unknown ; thus leaving the matter
open for further investigation.
The Court was then cleared, and at half-past one
o'clock on Friday morning the Jury returned a verdict
of °'Wilful Murder against Maria Brice, the widow of
the deceased."

HAIII/3LTRGH MAIL.

1{ - ANOI•EP., SEPT. 28.—How much the people
Gottingen are in general adverse to the Opposition, ap.
pears from the fact, that the heads of the Guilds in that
city (which there are 28) have approved and signedia
address to the King, which not only implores his Ma-
jesty's favour for the city of Gotteogin, but further dis_
approves the attempts of the Opposition, and promises
that every means shall be tried that the city oia„
I not
persist in refusing to elect a Deputy to the
=Assembly
of the Estates.
next
HANOVER, SEPT. '_'9. 4t the beginning
month there is to be a Congress of_ inmerchants
this
city, to which deputies will be scat by the most consi-
derable w
It is .reported that the
dinisethuesstile
kingdom.
question of the Prussian Com-
mercial Congress
is to s
League, and whether it
n
would be desirablefar
the kingdom of Hanover to accede to it.

The IVlatquis and _Marchioness of Bute, who ar-
rived at Campden-hill, a few days back, from Deal, have
siucc left for Cardiff Castle, their seat in Wale:.
INCORPOR A TED SOCIETY OF LICENSE'
VicTc ALLERS.—Yesterday there was held, at the Li-
censed Victuallers' School, Kennington lane, a Quar
terly General Court of Members of the above Society,
lOr the purpose of transacting the usual business of the
Court, and of taking into consideration a letter from
the Committee of the I•.Tewsvenders' Benevolent and
Provident Institution. The application from the News-
venders' Benevolent Society for pecuniary aid, met with
TOM HAND VERSOS JIM HARRIS.—The plaintiff thed general concurrence of the Court, and after some
the donation, it was ul-
a publican, possessing a Mosaic cast of countenance, iscussion as to the amount of
___ _ _
seemed to be just that sort of personage likely
tonce,
be timately agreed,
, on
that
motion of Mr. Vousley, seconded
well-versed in the mystery of " nicking the chalk," andofthe 111 •'.. 4d •
byi. Mr. brisborne, the sum of 251. be given to the
Institution by the proprietors
who, if he kept books at all, kept them on the profitable tiser. After some votes of thanks the Governor ad-
principle of " double entry."
The defendant, a rough-spun son journe
of nature, with a TAIL-LESS CATS FOR
ci the Court to the first Thursday in iunEJanEicu.a_ryernehxot.:
pair of English-built shoulders, exhibited all those unso- m
• Howard, Esq., alias " his Grace of Norfolk," last
w
phisticated characteristics which exclusively belong to
eaesk transmitted to her Majesty, at Windsor Castle
that grimy, but hardworking, class—the coalheaver.
Six and cightpence-halfpenn is the cl • a pair of that very singular species of thaendfehlianse
hreaeci
you, James Harris," said the CHAIRMAN, aim against peculiarto
this
ah i most i island,os t eou courteous utsa letterlliess fromcat,
aj or- ene-
the publican's bill ; HAIRMAN, glancing at honoured by ,.,
by her Majesty's
~ Don't owe it, by "do you admit the amount ?" ral Sir Henry Wheatley, i.x.C.11.,
gracious acceptance of the kittens so forwarded.—lsle
--1..' roared Coaly, with stentora-
phonic voice, giving the desk a blow with his b 'rawny,fi t of Man Paper.
s
______

COURT OF REQUESTS,

WESTMINSTER.

I that would have irrevocably annihilated some half-d 4917'..‘
• , ,7 , _
isoap boiling legislators. :,-
CHAIRMAN—Don't speak so loud, man. . .
.......
Coaly—Can't speak no softerer ; ---',:m”Ye,so :
„,,,,,,,P.
don't 'spose I've got a woice like a wirg,in.m.- -;:,' ..-_,--..—' ---, ‘.....:,...' /
CHAIRMAN—The Court can't permit 3"idultikOribSiliajel
language.
Coaly—Bad langvidge, vy, vots there 'as I've said 't
/
aint perlite and proper ? If you calls that ere bad lang-
vidge, I 'under rot you'd say if you heard von on us
come out ven the monkey's up.
CHAlRMAN—Defendant, take the account and point
out to the Court what you object to ? The coalheaver
took the paper, turned it up, down, and over, "'Taint
no use to me !" said he, tossing it away, " Can't wad
writing, cos I never get no flirder in my laming than poi--
hooks and tar bottles ; but for all that ere, my account
don't tally vith his'n.
CHAIRMAN—How can you keep accounts if you can- i
not write ?

C)aly—Sal, bring the coal peck.
A coal measure was produced, which on being reversed
was found to be covered with the coalheaver's own
algebra. " Here, your honors," said he, " them there
long beggars stands for pots, and these here short uns
for pints, and that there lot of dots for drops of gin.
Now, six long uns and ten short uns, is four and a
joey,' and twelve dots is a bob' more, rich makes
together five and fourpence vet I owes jest and lorful."
Plaintiff—l put down every thing you had.
Coalv —I nose you has, and a precious sight more.
You've stuck a pot or two every veek into all on us ever
since you've carved the drat'.

CHAIRMAN—Where du you work ? Coaly—l works
at Muster Bottowlev's. rtn none o' yer five farden
men.; I'm a full-priced un, and never means to cut it
fat like. the Hirish waggerbons.
A C OMMISSIONER (rising with forensic dignity).—
Gentlemen, the Court, in this delicate emergency.
tau-st take the whole concatenation of circumstances
into .eonsiklyration. On one hand we have a respect-
able tradesman ready to swcar to his amount ; on the
Other we itave a coalheaver who has nothing to allege.
against it except his bare word. Can this intelligent
Court entertain a doubt how to decide between an
educated publican and an illiterate coalheaver? With
its usual impartiality it will do justice bttwcen man
and man ; and if ,there is a doubt record its verdict
in favour of my cl?:-L-,'N'a is to say, in favour of the
plaintiff.—(Sitting down.)
Another COMMISSIONER (getting up)—l oppose my
learned brother Commissioner, because I think a coal-
beaver quite as respectable as a' publican ; and though
the coalheaver might, if he had been properly educated,
have turned out a second Newton, yet the chances are
equal that he would, like publicans who shall be name-
less, have acquired only the knowledge of working
with greater skill the system of " double chalks."
For this reason I shall certainly move that the plain-
tiff's demand be reduced to the sum admitted to 'be
due by the coalheaver.