The Sun.
London, England, 1862-11-26 00:00:00

THE INQUEST.

The inquest upon the bodies of the sixteen men
and boys was opened on Monday afternoon, at the
Railway Hotel, Walker, by Stephen Reed, Esq.,
the coroner for the southern division of the county
of Northumberland.

The Coroner, in addressing the jury, said—l am
very sorry to require your assistance upon this
very melancholy loss of life at Walker Colliery. It
is one of those accidents that too frequently occur,
and the difficulty is to come at the cause or origin
of the accident. I think Walker Pit is one of the
very last pits that I should have expected to have
been called to perform such a duty at. It is now
three years since I had to attend any death at this
colliery by accident—a circumstance which I attri-
bute, in a great measure, to the perfect way in
which the colliery is managed, and the great care
tat en by the viewer, deputy viewer, overman,
deputy overmen, and pitmen themselves these things
are generally of a very mysterious character, and it
is very difficult to get at their origin, though I
have no doubt that in the present case it will be
found to have been entirely accidental ; however, it
will be for you to judge when you hear all the
evidence. It will be very satisfactory if you can
make up your minds as to how, and by what means,
the accident occurred. I have no further remarks
to make to you on the present occasion, and as the
inquiry will, perhaps, extend to more than one day,
I propose, if it suits your convenience, to adjourn
the inquest till next Thursday, at ten o'clock, and I
hope you will be able to get through at one sitting.
In the meantime I shall have all the witnesses
marshalled, so that they shall come before you in
order.

As Thursday suited the convenience of most of
the jurors, the inquest was accordingly adjourned
until that date.

Before the jurors were sworn, they were taken
round for the purpose of inspecting the various
bodies of the men.

711 E RECENT POISONING CASE IN
YORK

All the persons in the family of Mr. Cooke, op-
tician, York, who, we stated in Saturday's impres-
sion, had partaken of something for dinner, which
had caused them to be ill, have recovered. It
appears that an apple dumpling and mince pie, of
which the family had eaten, contained poison. An-
timony was mentioned in our former report; and it

was thought at the time, from the symptoms which
were exhibited, that either antimony or arsenic had
been used. The analysis, however, of a portion of
mince pie and a small quantity of flour, by Mr.
Greener, has clearly proved that the flour contained
a considerable quantity of arsenic, and quite suffi-
cient to produce a fatal effect.
From information received the chief constable
arrested on the charge of administering poison to
the Cooke family, Mrs. Maria Edwin Cooke,
wife of Mr. Cooke's eldest son, who lived apart
from the rest of the family, keeping a watch-
maker's and optician's shop in Covey-street. The
prisoner was brought up on Tuesday at the
Guildhall, before the Lord Mayor, for exami-
nation, on the charge of having administered
arsenic to Mr. and Mrs. Cooke, the three sons
and a daughter. The prisoner was unattended by
any ;legal adviser. Mr. T. S. Noble prosecuted,
and called the following evidence :
W. Reed, Esq., surgeon, York, proved having
attended the family on three distinct occasions,
when they were suffering from the effects of poi-
soning by arsenic, or some other acrid poison. On
the last occasion of poisoning precisely the same
train of symptoms presented themselves as had
appeared on the two previous occasions.
Mr. Chief Constable Haley, said—l attended at
Mr. Cooke's house on Bishop-hill on Saturday last,
when I made an examination of the premises, and
from them took possession of various articles of
food, which I placed in the hands of Dr. Procter for
analysis. That gentleman has not yet completed
the analysis of all the food I sent him. From in-
formation I received I apprehended the prisoner at
her residence, Covey-street, yesterday, about half-
past one o'clock. When 1 told her what she was
accused of she said, " I am quite innocent of the
charge." I then took her to the police station. I
have since made an examination of the premises
where the poisoning took place, and I noticed the
flour bin was placed in a position easy of access to
any one not resident in the house. I have now to
ask the magistrates for a remand, as I believe be-
fore next Monday I shall be able to obtain further
evidence.

Alice Clancey said—l went to live with the pri-
soner, Mrs. E. Cooke, on Jan. 20 last, and I con-
tinued to live there until about six weeks ago. About
sP/ing, some six or seven weeks before the first