The Sun.
London, England, 1839-02-05 00:00:00

READFUL MURDER

DEN, NEAR LENHAM.

A dreadful murder was committed on Saturday evening last at Otter_
den, Kent. A steal farmer and his wife, named Jenkins being desirous
of spending the evening at a wedding party, had engaged Hannah Giles,

the wife of a rat catcher, who lived about a quarter of a mile distant, to
take care of their four children in their absence. It was arranged
that Mrs. Giles was to CONTI.` at tea time, and the children, the eldest
of whom was about thirteen or fourteen years of age, after they had
in ♦ain waited for her to come and make their ha, sent one of the
younger ones, aged about nine or tell, to see why she did not come.
He shortly returned much frightened, saying that he saw some person
tying on the snow in the roast, with a light as if smoking a pipe.
This alarmed the children so much that they locked themselves
in, and remained so till the return of their parents at about ono
or two o'clock in the morning. Mr. Jenkins and his wife then went to-
wards Mrs. Giles's cottage, and saw the body of the unfortunate woman
lying in the snow, which was horribly stained with blood, from a shot
wound in her breast, and a dreadful gash her throat, which was
severed from ear to ear. Her clothes had bean partly burned from her
body, having apparently been ignited by the shot of a pistol which was
lying beside her, together with a sheath of a razor. Jenkins alarmed
the few persons a ho lived near to the spot, and proceeded to look for her
husband before they removed the body. In two hours lie was found
returning from Charing, much in liquor. The spot around where the
body was found having been closely examined, it was found that the
needlework which the unfortunate woman had taken with her, and also
her shawl, were a few steps nearer to the house of Mr. Jenkins than
the spot where the body was found, as if she had att:mpted to return
after having been shot. Footmarks were traced in the snow through
the fields, by a circuitous route towards Lenham In one place the
person tracked seemed to have fallen on his hands and knees in getting
through the gap of a hedge, and marks of blood were traced on the
snow where his left hand had fallen. The pistol was identified by a
blacksmith, as one which he had sold about a fortnight before to Samuel
Scagus, who had been living in the adjoining parish of Stalesfleld, and
who had been staying with the deceased, in the absence of her hus.
band, from ten o'clock till twelve on the day before the murder, when
he went towards home. He had been seen casting bullets a few days
previously, and took out the above-mentioned pistol at two o'clock.
He was afterwards seen at Charing in the course of the afternoon, and
begged a draught of cold water from a person there, who gave him
some cold tea, which he drank and departed. Seagus is a widower with
two children, and his intimacy with the unfortunate deceased had been
the subject of much remark amongst the neighbours. The deceased
was the mother of four children. The eldest girl is out at service,
and the youngest was left in the care of a woman of about eighty years
of age, within about a stone's throw of the place of the murder. The
two eldest boys of the unfortunate woman, of the respective ages of
ten and twelve years, were passing from shopping along a footpath
in a field in their way to the old woman's cottage, at about half-past six
o'clock in the evening, and heard the report of a shot, and some female
immediately afterwards scream several times. They were dreadfully
frightened, but little thought it was their unfortunate mother! The
unfortunate woman was about forty years of age, and Seagus about
thirty. The following is the description of Samuel Seagus :—" Ile is
about 5 feet 4 or 5 inches high, of a light complexion, pale face, and
light hair, walks atoopingly, has a slow, whining mode of speaking
through his nose, is about thirty years of age, and a shoemaker by trade.
He had en when last seen a dirty fustian shooting coat, corded striped
trousers, besot shoes, newly soled and specked, and black hat." It is
understood that he has relations somewhere in London, and also beyond
London, from this county. —3laidstonc Gazette.

ADMISSION TO THE FRENCH

CHAMBER OF DEPUTIES.

A Member of the British Parliament, being lately at Paris, felt de-
sirous to witness the proceedings in the Chamber of Deptitiec. Under
the impression that, as in England, the President of the Chamber had
a number of admission tickets at his disposal, and in any case expect-
ing at the least a civil reply through the President's Secretary, he wrote
a polite note to M. Dupin, requesting the favour of admission. The
answer he received was couched as follows :—" Persons who want ad-
mission to the Chamber ought to address themselves to the Questors,*
and not to the President." Not much encouraged by this specimen of
gentlemanly feeling and consideration for a stranger, yet moved by his
anxiety to be present at an approaching debate of importance, the ap-
plicant addressed himself to one of the Questors, whose name he was in-
formed was M. Clement. This functionary improved upon the con.
duct of his superior by returning no answer whatever.
Such conduct contrasts rather strongly with the even anxious at-
tention shown to the applications from French Deputies and other
foreigners here, when they seek admittance to the House of Commons.
* The office of Questor is somewhat paral:el to that of our Deputy
Sergeant-at- A rms. •

MISS PA RDOE'S NEW WORK, " THE ROMANCE
OF THE ll•arst."—Miss Pardo° Is a writer peculiarly fitted by ber
pecsonal acquaintance with Eastern manners, and the vigour of her
imalination, for the accomplishment of the task she has here under.
taken, and so ably performed. She Is rich in fancifblneorgeousrwas
of ideas, and expresses them with a power not surpassed byss, g
the author
of " Vathek." Most evident also is her intimate knowledge of the
habits of the people of whom she writes, and her experience in the
nature of their characters, moral and intellectual. The scenes into
which she takes us, imaginative as they arc, and the adventures she
nsrrates, are, none of them, incompatible with probability; and thus, to
the excitement afforded us by the fiction, is added the greater chasm of
apparent reality. No one of her stories flags in its interest; while
nothing can surpass her descriptions of Oriental grandeur of scenery,
I costume, and manners.—Court Journal.