The Sun.
London, England, 1862-10-25 00:00:00

I have, by the directions of the coroner, made a full
post-mortem examination. A most elaborate report
was then given in. After speaking of the injuries
inflicted upon the body it said death resulted from
asphixia or suffocation of the nose, mouth, and
throat. The marks of violence had been produced
by a left and right hand. No other signs to account
for death were found upon the body. Violation had
been completed with very great force. Could not
say whether violation had been completed before
suffocation.
' Some further evidence was given, in which the
frail produced was identified as having been in the
possession of the prisoner on the night of the murder.
Priioner declined to say anything in defence, and
the jury, vi,;!hour hesitation, returned a verdict of
Wilful Murder, upon which charge he was com-
mitted for trial.

HORRIBLE MU.RDER NZAR CIREN-
CESTER.

Yesterday (Friday morning a painful state o
excitement was created at Cirencester by the ne Ws
that a barbarous murder had been committed at the
pleasant village of Rendcombe, about four miles
from this town, on the Cheltenham road, the victim
being a young woman named Sarah Moss, and the
murderer a man named William Mealing, who was
engaged to be married to her.
The murderer, William Mealing, is about 26 or
27 years of age, and is an agricultural labourer. He
is a tall, thin young man, with a stupid expression
of countenance and ungainly appearance, and with
the stooping gait peculiar to men of his class. His
father and mother are labourers in the same parish
and bear a respectable character.
Sarah Moss, the unfortunate victim of this dread-
ful crime, was about 32 years of age, and had been
for some time staying at the cottage of her father,
which is situate in a secluded part of the road, near
the vicarage. She was formerlyi n the service of
the Rev. Mr. Bloxsome, of N orth ibley, and while
there she formed an acquaintance with a young
farmer in the neighbourhood, which resulted in the
birth of a child, which has since been affiliated, and
the father contributes ls. 6d. a week towards its
maintenance. This child is now three years old.
The mother of Sarah Moss was burnt to death
some years since, and the household, until about
last Christmas, consisted of the deceased, her child,
and her father, an infirm old man of about 80 and
very deaf.
Shortly before Christmas last the prisoner left his
father's cottage and went to live at Moss's house.
A very close intimacy took place between Mealing
and Sarah, and the woman was at the time of the
murder very near her confinement. The bans o.
marriage between the parties had been put up at
the parish church, and the wedding was to have
taken place immediately. The deceased have saved
£6 or £7 for the occasion, and she asked Mr. Riddi-
ford, the superintendent of police at Cirencester, to
intercede for her with the father of her child, and
try and get him to give her £5 more. Mr. Riddi-
ford, it appears, was in the habit of receiving her
child's money from its father, and handing it over
to her.
On Saturday last the parties quarrelled, and
Mealing returned to his father's house, where he
stayed until Thursday, the night of the murder.
On Thursday evening he went back to Moss's, and
his mother and other persons were present. A re-
conciliation apparently took place, and Mealing
and his victim went to bed, her child sleeping in
the same room.
About 3 o'clock yesterday morning Mealing west
to the house of Timothy Tarrant, the village black-
smith, who is also the parish constable, and, hav-
ing aroused him, informed him, that he had killed
a woman. Tarrant at first was incredulous, but at
length he went to Moss's cottage, and there he found
that it was too true, the poor woman being quite

dead, with her throat cut and her child crying, as
if it could realise the dreadful facts of the case
An alarm was created, and the prisoner, who had
gone to his father's house, was placed in safe charge.
Information was sent to Cirencester, and Mr.
Superintendent Riddiford, Sergeant Eyles, and
Constables Basil and Townsend were as sopn as
possible at the scene of the awful tragedy.
Mr. Riddiford found the body of the ill-fated
woman lying on her left side, with her arms crossed,
and her throat literally cut from ear to ear. The
bed was saturated with her blooa, which was
running through the floor into the room below.
From the calm and tranquil appearance of the body,
and the absence of blood on her hands, it would
seem that the murder was suddenly committed,
while she was asleep. Mr. Riddiford has possession
of the instrument with which the fatal deed was
perpetrated. It is a common black-handled razor,
with the words" shilling razor" on the blood-stained
blade, which is also notched like a saw.
The prisoner, after murdering the poor woman,
robbed her of her purse and money. This money,
consisting of six sovereigns, one half-sovereign, a
threepenny piece, and three penny worth of coppers,
he gave to his mother, from whom Mr. Riddiford
received it.
The dreadful news was attempted to be communi-
cated to the aged father of the deceased, but he ap-
peared to persist in believing that she had only been
confined, for which he was prepared, but the real
facts he could not be made to comprehend.
The prisoner was removed to the police-station at
Cirencester, where he appears to be in a moat de-
jected and miserable plight, and evidently fully
alive to the horrors of his position. His face and
hands were blood-stained.

THE ALLEGED DEATH THROUGH UN-
SKILFUL 7REA7MENT.

Xesterday afternoon Mr. Raffles Walthew, the
deputy-coroner for East Middlesex, resumed, at the
Red Cow Tavern, Mile-end-road, the adjourned in-
quest on the body of a child 16 months old, named
James Woodley. It will be remembered from what
took place at the former inquiry that the parents of
the child were poor but respectable persons, and re-
sided in Cleveland-street, Stepney. The subject of
the inquiry had been ailing for some time, and suf-
fering from a kind of hacking cough, in consequence
of which the mother went to a shop which was
kept by a Mr. Timpson, of the Dog-row, Mile-end,
who had the words surgeon and accoucheur over the
door, by which she was led to believe that he was a
duly qualified member of the Royal Colldge of Sur-
geons, more especially as he had attended her in
confinement with the deceased. After stating the
symptoms of the child, Mr. Timpson prescribed
a mixture termed " paregoric tincture," which had
been labelled with instruction to give the child a
teaspoonful of mixture when the cough was bad. A
medical gentleman mimed Irwin, upon being called
in found the child in a dying state, evidently suf-
fering from disease of the brain and the effects of
some narcotic, and the child quickly expired, appa-
rently from disease and the effects of the mixture
given to him. The inquiry was therefore adjourned
for a post mortem examination of the body.
Mr. Irwin, surgeon, of Mile-end-road, said that
since the last inquiry he had made a post mortem
examination, and foand about four ounces of turbid
serum on the brain, and on cutting through the
substance he found some red spots, indicating in-
flammation, proving that the deceased had acute
hydrocephalus. Upon opening the body he was
still of opinion that if such a narcotic as opium had
been given to a child of such a tender age it was
likely to cause death.
_ _ _

A Juror—What did you do for the child ?
Witness—l gave it some stimulant in the shape
of spirits of ammonia and camphor mixture with
golden syrup and water coloured. I also prescribed
some powders composed of mercury and chalk. I
gave orders for one of the powders to be given to
the child every two or three hours.
By a Juror—The child would have died if the
medicine had not been administered; but it might
have accelerated the death.
Mr, Henry Clare Timpson, in answer to questions
from the coroner, admitted that he was not a legally
qualified practitioner, although fully qualified more
than many others.
The Coroner—Have you got the certificate from
the College of Surgeons ?
Mr. Timpson—l have not.
The Coroner—Then you are not fully qualified.
Mr. Timpson—l confined the mother 16 months
since, and out of the whole number of women I have
confined I never lopt a single person, and if I had a
solicitor I have no doubt but the case would be at
once cleared up to the satisfaction of the gentlemen
of the jury.
The Coroner—l will adjourn the case again for
that purpose, if you like.
Witness—No ;lam in the hands of the court. I
wish to say that I never prescribed anything for
the deceased; merely sold some simple cough drops.
In answer to questions put by Mr. Timpson, the
mother said that she never found the child to sleep
sounder after taking the mixture than before.
By the Coroner—He never allowed his wife to
prescribe for any one, but he allowed her to sell
simple mixtures.
Dr. Letheby, analytical chemist at the London
Hospital, and medical officer of health of the City
of London, said that on Thursday the summon-
ing officer delivered to him the bottle (produced)
which had contained a liquid of ten drops of
opium and oil of aniseed, the constituents of pare-
goric. He was certain that the other two bottles
did not contain the same mixture as the one that
, had been handed to him.

By a Juror.—Such a medicine would be impro-
per to give to a child at any time, and was calcu-
lated to accelerate death.
The learned Deputy Coroner said—lf a physi-
cian or surgeon should give medicine to his patients
to cure them, and, contrary to expectation, it Milo