The Sun.
London, England, 1830-05-05 00:00:00

OPENING OF THE CANTERBURY

RAIL-ROAD.

On Monday this important local undertaking was
brought into operation, and the rail-road to Whit-
stable opened for the purposes of business. The
work has been five years in progress. The whole
length is between six and seven miles, and runs
bract to Whitstable. There is a tunnel, 822 yards
in length, carried through the Brethren Hills, which
cost 13,0001. The first four miles are constructed
upon an inclination of one foot in 90, down which
waggons travel at the velocity of 25 miles in an
hour, merely from receiving the impulse of one man's
exertions. The remaining distance, three miles, is
a level, and here the waggons are attached to a lo-
comotive steam-engine.
The immense advantages which this district will
derive from the facility of transmission may be anti-
cipated from the circumstance that coals alone will
experience a reduction of Gs. a chaldron for carriage.
Passengers also will be conveyed for 9d. per head in
twenty minutes—the usual time in land conveyance
being nearly two hours. The. Company have also
in contemplation to establish a steam-conveyance to
the metropolis, for which it is proposed to charge
only 6s.
At an early hour the road was thronged; by
eleven o'clock the procession began to form. The
most judicious arrangements were entered into to
prevent accidents, and secure the public safety,
constables being stationed at proper distances to
prevent persona from walking upon the road and
embankments. These precautions were most judi-
cious, the previous experiments, four in number,
having been attended with loss f human life. Ten
carriages were now placed on the rail-road. The
first contained the Directors, and the second the
Civic dignities. The remaining eight were filled
with elegantly dressed females and bands of music.
They were drawn at a safe pace to the engine-house,
from whence the Directors and band returned with
six waggons, loaded with the first merchandise de-
livered from the railway. Ten more carriages were
then linked to the other ten, and the whole con-
tained about 240 persons, who proceeded rapidly
over the plain to Clowes Wood, where they were
yoked to the engine, and drawn with great pomp to
Whitstable. After waiting a short time, the whole
train returned to Canterbury, and a large party ad-
journed to the King's Head, and sat down to a
sumptuous dinner.

MURDER NEAR GILMERTON : UNPRE

CEDENTED ATROCITY.

(Abridged from the North Briton.),

We have been for some time in possession of the
leading facts and circumstances in this case, but the
details communicated to us were of a nature so
monstrous and so revolting, far exceeding indeed
any atrocity, however diabolical, with which the
history of crime had previously made us acquainted,
that the story appeared to us to be grossly exag-
gerated, if not altogether unworthy of unbelief; and
therefore we resolved to content ourselves with
merely giving place to a short paragraph copied
from a contemporary print, stating in very general
terms that a murder, accompanied with circum-
stances of a shocking and brutal description, had
been committed, until we should have an opportu-
nity of personally examining into the truth of the
dreadful details which had been transmitted to us.
This examination we have accordingly made with
all the care and attention possible, and the following
details, part of which are necessarily consigned to a
dead language, will, if we are not greatly mistaken,
add a new page even to the blackest chapter in the
annals of crime and murder :

The unhappy victim whose miserable fate we are
about to record was called Margaret Paterson. At
the period of her death, Margaret Paterson was about
35 years of age. She was formerly a servant in Edin-
burgh, and while in that capacity had, as we are in-
formed, conducted herself with great propriety. Lat-
terly, however, she had taken to the trade of hawk-
ing lace in and about Edinburgh, and unhappily
contracted a great penchant for liquor, which had
very much alienated from her the affections of her
relatives. At the same time we have been assured
that she was not habitually given to liquor; and, as
an evidence of this, it was stated to us that she was
remarkably Peat and cleanly in her person, of which,
indeed, she appears to have been somewhat vain, in
consequence of being regarded by those of her own
class as " strapping " and handsome.
On Saturday, the 17th ult., at a pretty late hour
in the evening, this unfortunate woman set out
from Edinburgh for Dalkeith. On her way she
came up with two Gilmerton carters, whom she
afterwards stated to be persons of the names of
Dobie and Thomson, on their return home with
their carts. She never saw these persons before,
and suppo►ing that they belonged to Dalkeith,
asked them for a ride, offering them a dram by way
of compensation. They told her they were going
round to Gilmerton, and proposed conveying her to
that place, provided she would give them some
whisky. The unfortunate woman agreed to this
proposal, and the parties in consequence adjourned
to a public-house near the toll-bar, where the car-
ters called and paid for two gills, and Margaret
Paterson for an equal quantity, which was all drunk.
They then set out for Gilmerton. About half an
hour past midnight, Dingwall, a quarrier, found
Thomson's horse and cart at his door unattended.
The animal had evidently returned with the cart
alone. Seeing nobody near, Dingwall proceeded to
unloose the horse, which he put into the stable; and
on coming out he looked into the cart, where he
observed a woman's shawl, a bundle,and some other
articles, which were afterwards ascertained to be the
property of Margaret Paterson. He then set out,
accompanied by a boy, for Libberton Kirk, but
he had proceeded only a short way when he met
Thomson. As soon as Dingwall iecognezed Thom-
son, he said to him, " You have had a woman in
your cart ;" to which Thomson replied, " Oh yes,
she is coming up there behind." Dingwall then
proceeded to Libberton Kirk, and returned the
same way, without discovering any person by the
road side.

At a later hour in the Sunday morning, that is,
between one and two o'clock, a slater, called Ban-
bury or Bamborough, who had previously gone out
with some others along the road towards Edin-
burgh, to look for a person of the name of Wright,
heard, on his return, at a spot close by the mile-
stone above-mentioned, faint moaniegs and cries of
distress, as if proceeding from the field on the other
side of the dike. He was at first somewhat
startled, but hearing the cries repeated, he imme-
diately went in the direction whence they appeared
to issue, and found a woman lying, not within the
field, but in the ditch or gutter by the road side,
and close to the fence-wall or dike. He spoke
to her, inquiring what was the matter; upon
which she asked in a faint voice for water.
Banbury thought her "much the worse for liquor,"
but nevertheless, as a matter of humanity, he had
her carried to Gilmerton, where she was laid down
at a stair-foo', opposite the eastern extremity of the
principal street of the village. It was now dis-
covered that she was in a state of extreme suffering;
and as none of the persons who had collected around
Banbury would give her admission, he took her
along with him to his own house. Here she sat
upon a chair, completely doubled up as it were,
with her head resting, or rather hanging, upon her
knees, and constantly calling for water, which she
drank in large quantities, without being satiated,
till between five and six o'clock on Sunday morn-
ing, when she was persuaded to attempt to proceed
to Dalkeith. On going out she exclaimed, " Oh,
Peggy Paterson, this is the last of you now."
During her stay in Banbury's, she complained much
of internal pain, but blamed no one as the cause cf
her sufferings.
On leaving Banbury's she moved, evidently in a
very distressed state, towards the southern extremity
of the village ; but being unable to proceed further,
she crawled into a field on the east side of the road,
immediately behind the cabin of one William Ga-
lore, where she lay down, and remained until about

•
eleven o'clock a.m. At this time she was disco.
vered in the field, apparently in a dying state, and
carried into Galone's house. Here, recovering a
little, she asked for a warm, and was placed in 11,
chair by the side of the fire ; but in the afternoon.
;he was, at her own earnest request, put into a bed•
When found in the field she was perfectly sober.
and collected, and though evidently suffering the
most excruciating pain at intervals, gave clear and.
distinct answers to the different questions put to her.
Being interrogated who the persons were that had
abused her, she replied " It's done now • I am a
murdered woman ;" but she added, " if I was at
Dalkeith with Dr. Morrison, I would have no shame
to tell him all ; for I have been sadly abused, and
am a murdered woman." While in Galone's, she
never of her own accord named the persona who
had " abused" her ; but when the carters, in whose
company she had been, were mentioned, she admitted
they were the individuals who had maltreated her.—
She remained in Galone's all Monday, and until five
o'clock in the afternoon of Tuesday; but no sur-
geon was called to her, on account of her concealing,
from shame, the nature and extent of the injuries
she had sustained. In the course of Tuesday fore-
noon, she was visited by a respectable inhabitant of
Gilmerton, connected with Dalkeith, whom she had
expressed a wish to see, in consequence of one of
her brothers being in the employ of a near relative
of his ; but all that he could gather from what she
said was, that the carters, Dobie and Thomson,
" stuprum cum ea fecisse, vel polies crimen raptus
admisisse ambos," and had afterwards maltreated her
by kicks, blows, and otherwise. It was in a cart
belonging to this gentleman that she was conveyed
to Dalkeith on the evening of Tuesday, accompanied
by the wife of Galone, who, at his request, attended
her, in case any accident should happen by the way►
At this time she must have been in a state that
defies all description; for at every jolt of the cart
she uttered the most piercing tries, sometimes
shrieking outright, as if she bad been stabbed, and
at others moaning bitterly, as if life were about to
bec.)me extinct.

Arrived at Dalkeith, she was put to bed, and Dr.
Morrison sent for. On learning from the patient
herself the beastly and inhuman treatment she had
received, Dr. Morrison proceeded to take the neces-
sary means for affording her' rel!ef; and as the case
was one which had never been paralleled either in
the practice of Dr. Morrison or of any other surgeon
or physician, Dr. Renton was also called in, and no
time lost in removing the more immediate cause of
suffering. But all efforts were fruitless. The inju-
ries inflicted were of themselves sufficient to cause
death ; and, besides mortification had already ex-
tended itself over the greater part of the abdomen'-
The miserable sufferer, however, lingered in great
agony till three o'clock in the afternoon of Thurs.
day, when she expired, retaining the use of her fa-
culties to the very last moment. A short time be-
fore her death, her mother having heard her mutter-
ing something, approached the bedside, when she
discovered that the unhappy creature was offering
up an earnest prayer to Almighty God for the Par',
don of her sins, and the salvation of her immorta,
soul. A few minutes after this she called her mother,
and said, " Oh mother, if you would set me up by
the shoulder till I get a mouthful of air, I would be
better." 1 he unhappy mother did so, upon which the
patient uttered a loud shriek, and instantly expired.
After she arrived in Dalkeith, and was visited by
the medical gentlemen, Margaret Paterson comnse-
Ideated to them the whole particulars of the diaboli-
cal treatment she had experienced at the hands of
the monsters who had violated her person. Fry°
all the circumstances, there can be no doubt that the
crime was committed, and the fiendish brutalities
which followed its commission done in the cart, and
that when the incarnate demons, who had contrived
to perpetrate two capital crimes at once, approached
Gilmerton, they threw their victim cut of the cart,
and flung her into the ditch by the wayside, near the
milestone, where she was afterwards found by Ban-
bury and his companions. What follows, we shall
use the freedom of stating in another language.
Quum ii scelestissimi vehicularii supra dicti omnia
nequitim et immanitatis capaces, Diabolo suadente,
fceminam etiam supra dictam semel atque iterum, in
vehiculo suo constupraverant, procul dubio est, ut
in vaginam misserimre, lupides tres, its similes quibus
via publica strata est, carbonem, stramentum, grainer'
cum spinis quibusdam, injecertint, osse thoracis 1'
ut fistuca, utentes : •quo facto, raptores, EteNatia
gaudentes, miserrimam e vehiculo dejecerunt et pos'
tea corpus exanime in fossam juxta viam publican!
abripuerunt. lit plus triduo, id est dum Gilmertonl
commorata est, ac etiam usquedum mors finer!fec!t
miseriis fcemina haecce intra abdomen suum habult
Lapides, carbonem, stramentum, gramen, cum spittle
quibusdam, scelestissimis vehiculariis inferta, more
nefando, per os thoracis nexilis, ut jam superius dic-
tum est. Post mortem, dissectione corporis facts,
omnia hmc inrenta ant in recto aut in vagina; peri-
neum its dilaceratum ut ex vagina et recto una
tantum cattails facia, quod rarius accidit etiam in
patturitione difficilima ; hasmorrhagia fere continua,
qua multus sanguis effusus et indusiutn penitus toturn
cruore tinctum ; signa violentiae cruribus impressa;
atque omnia intra abdomen inflammata. Quibus
causis mors baud sero obvettit ut malorum et mise-
riarum infelicis remedium.
The unfortunate victim made a full disclosUre of
every timing to the medical gentlemen, whose evi-
dence will consequently be doubly important; as re-
ferring, not merely to the nature of the injuries in-
flicted, but also us containing in effect the dying de-
claration of the deceased. To her parents she was
naturally more reserved. In answer, however, to a
question put by her mother as to which of the two
carters had used her worse, she replied, " They were
both alike."

Drunkenness is not only a vice itself, but it is the
parei.t of many other vices, and a fruitful source of
misery. In the case of this unhappy woman, the
eldest of twelve children, and who ought to have
show,: an example to the younger branches of the
family, it led to another vice, generally united with
it in females; and such an effect did her irregular
conduct and habits produce upon the mind of one
of her brothers, that, unaLle to brook the scandal
and shame, he left this country some time ago, and
set sail for Amer:ca. It was this circumstance
chiefly that had exasperated her parents against her,
and made• them at first refuse her admission into
their humble dwelling when brought in the cart
from Gilinerton. They- looked upon her not only
as having disgraced them by her conduct, but al
being the cause of forcing a favourite son to abandon
his parents, his connexions, Und h-is country,perhape
for ever.

Thomson is aged from twenty to twenty-two
years, and unmarried ; Dobie, who is about twenty
eight years of age, is married, and has two children.
On making inquiry as to their previous characters►
we learned that neither was considered as hones',
and that otherwise they were just such stuff as Ga"
merton carters are usually made of, neither much
worse nor at all better than the other members of
that hopeful fraternity.