The Sun.
London, England, 1865-06-27 00:00:00

AQUATICS.

SMILERS' RACE FOR £5O.—A scullers' race of a very in-
teresting description was rowed yesterday between George
Cannon, of Blackwall, and Joseph Heath of Greenwich,
from Putney to Mortlake, for £25 a-side. Both are water-
men, and had several times previously distinguished them-
selves, and they met before last year below bridge, when,
after a severe race for three miles, Heath nearly drove his
man ashore, and going by, won with ease. Since then Heath
has rowed Horace Cole, of Chelsea, and would have won
easily, but a foul early in the race was given in against him.
Cannon had trained at Harry Kelly's, the Bolls, Putney ;
Heath at Salter's, the Feathers, Wandsworth ; and both
were very fit. Three steamers, densely crowded, accom-
panied, and betting was 6 to 4 on the Greenwich lad. Mr.
Heath having been appointed umpire for his son, George
Hommorton for Cannon, and the veteran Bill Pocock re-
feree, they went to the Aqueduct at 4 o'clock, Cannon
with the station, and after an amount of fiddling got away
at 20 minutes past, Cannon obtaining a strong lead. In a
few strokes Heath came up, but Cannon got away again a
little, and a splendid race followed by the Star and Gar-
ter and London Boat-house, Cannon all the time drawing
slightly, aided by Heath's faulty steerage. At the
Point Cannon was all but clear of his man, but Heath stuck
to him gamely, and a little further drew over his quarter,
and they so rowed till near the Dung-wharf. Here Cannon
drew clear again, taking Heath's water, and after another
desperate race went away at the Soap Works, and led by a
good two lengths under Ilammersmith-bridge. After this,
in spite of Heath's plucky rowing, Cannon gradually in-
creased his lead without any remarkable effort, and won
by four lengths, in 24 min. 10 secs. The winner is pos-
sessessed of a very useful style, especially for a below
bridge man, and may be looked for to do something better
ere long.

The Murder of a Child and Alleged Poison-
ing of a Wife at Woolwih.

-

Last evening Mr. C.J. Carttar, coroner for West Kent,
resumed at the Royal Oak Tavern, Woolwich, the inquiry
respecting the death of Benjamin Jones, an infant, whose
body was found in the Thames under circumstances that
have given rise to a charge of wilful murder against his
father, Thomas Jones.

The court was densely crowded, and the proceedings
were regarded with great interest, as it was known that the
accused was also charged with the murder of the child's

mother.

The Coroner said that ho had to request the jury to
attend carefully to the links of evidence in the case, and
not to suffer themselves to be led away by the excitement
which prevailed in the neighbourhood.
Louisa Beer, 32, Raglan-row, Plumstead, repeated the
evidence which she had already given before the magistrate,
and which was to the effect that the deceased was born on
Good Friday, and that its mother died on the 30th April,
leaving the child in her care. On the Bth June she took
the child to the father's by his orders, and she never saw it
alive after. She now added that the father had paid her
2s. Gd. a week for minding the child. When she objected
to tho child being sent to London then, as its clothes were
dirty, ho said, "Never mind the clothes ; I will send it
where there is another baby," and he asked her for a pint
bottle of milk. Two days after she saw the milk, unused,
in the cupboard, and she asked him why he had not given
it to the child. He said, " Because the woman had the
breast." When she afterwards, on the 14th instant, told
him that she felt very uneasy, and if he did not tell her
where the child was she would go to the magistrate, he
said, "If you ask again, and don't mind your own business,
I will go to Mr. Hughes (the solicitor), and see what he
can do for you."

Mary Holman, 5, Raglan-row, Plumstead, said that the
deceased's father lodged with her. He was a labourer at
the dockyard. He had been in the workhouse previous to
the birth of the child. Shortly after the child had been
brought to the father, on the Bth of June, witness, at ten
in the evening, went into the room, and, not seeing it, said,
" Where is the baby gone ?" Jones said, "It is gone to

Camberwell. I have sent it to my sister's. Did you not see
the lady go out with it ?" Witness said that she had not.
She afterwards asked him to let his friends know where
his sister lived in Camberwell, so that they might write.
He merely replied, "I am the father of my own babe, and
shall do as I like by it."
Henry Smith, a painter, said that on a Thursday night
a short time since, either the 15th or the Bth June, he was
larking with two girls in New-street, Woolwich. It was
about ten o'clock. A woman came and told him that

Jones wanted to see him outside the Ship and Half Moon
public-house. Witness continued, I went and saw Jones,
who said, "Hallo, Harry, whore can I get a boat ?" I said.
"What do you want of a boat at this hour of the night ?"
He answered, "My landlady has given me half-a-crown to
go and drown some cats and dogs which I have now under
my arm." I said, "It is very strange for her to give you
half-a-crown to drown cats and dogs at this hour of the
night." Jones answered, " No, it is not. I may as well
do that as nothing," and "I have drowned them in the
water-butt." He said that he would not throw them into
the river from the bank as there might be a bother ; and he
asked me for a piece of string to tie them up tight, and said
that they would sink because he had put a flat iron with
them. I asked him to give me the iron for my mother, but
he refused. We went down to the stairs and got a boat
from a man for a pot of half-and-half, and we gave two
boys a penny each to row it. We went towards the
arsenal. I again asked him for the iron, and tried to get at
the bundle, but he would not let me. We rowed out into
the river to the middle, and ho threw the bundle in. We
rowed away. He turned round and looked, and suddenly
exclaimed, " Oh, good God ! it has not sunk. Let us row
back." I could not see it in the darkness, and I said, " No,
po, lam not going back to your - cats and dogs. Row
ashore, boys." Nothing more was said.
The witness stated that he was not quite sober at the
time, and that he had no suspicion that anything was
wrong.
Two boys, Alfred Brewer and Thomas Nolan, proved
rowing a boat out in the river on the night of Thursday
• three weeks, for two men, who said they were going to
drown puppies.
The Coroner said that he would not conclude the present
inquiry until he had taken the inquest upon the body of
the child's mother.
The court was then adjourned.

THE EXHUMATION, OF THE BODY OF THE
CHILD'S MOTHER.

Mr. Carttar, the coroner, accompanied by Dr. Stuart,
Inspector Brown, and a body of police of the R divisioa
proceeded with a jury to the picturesque churchyard of
St. Nicholas, Plumstead, where the remains of Mrs. Mary
Ann Jones, the mother of the murdered child, had just
been exhumed. Large crowds were assembled, and looked
on at the proceedings with some degree of awe. The de-
ceased was much decomposed, and when Mrs. Holman, the
person in whose house she had lived, was asked if she
could recognise her late lodger, she burst into tears, and
said that she could not. She ultimately, however, stated
that she would bo able to identify the shroud and the
stockings by certain marks and by the letters "M. A. C."
The coroner and jury then proceeded to the Plume of
Feathers Tavern, in the village of Plumstead, for the pur-
pose of hearing tho evidence.
Louisa Beer, a married woman, said--I had a sister
named Mary Ann Savage, who married Thomas Jones.
She was twenty-one years of ago, and had two children, a
little girl aged three years, and an infant born on Good
Friday. She died on the 30th April, and was buried on
May 4.
Mrs. Mary Holman said—l made the deceased's shroud,
and put the flowers in her coffin. 1 can swear to the
shroud. Her husband cut her on the back with a razor
two years before her death.
The Coroner at this stage adjourned the inquiry for the
medical evidence, and to give time for a chemical analysis
to be made of the stomach and viscera of the deceased.
During the afternoon the accused, Thomas Jones, aged
23, was brought up on remand, before the magistrate, at
Woolwich. He is an intelligent-looking young man, and
made no statement whatever. The evidence taken was not
so full as that given before the coroner's court.
4 The prisoner was remanded for a week.