The Sun.
London, England, 1853-01-01 00:00:00

MURDER AND SUICIDE AT MLVCRESTER,

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A fearful circumstance occurred in Manchester on
Thursday morning, a man named James Rowe, 36 years
of age, who resided in Worthington's-court, Rochdale•
road, in that town, having murdered his son, aged
about seven years, and then committed suicide by throw-
ing himself across the rails of the Lancashire and York-
shire Railway, which runs near to his residence, and
allowing an engine to pass over him when going, down
to the Victoria-station, at Hui-it's-bank. The unfortu-
nate wretch guilty of this double crime, who had been
for some time a mechanic's labourer in the employ of
the Lancaihire and Yorkshire Railway Company, rose
between`? ie and six o'clock on Thursday morning, at an
• earlier htiur than'. usti4i;
.but there was then nothing re-
markable about his appearance to excite alarm, and he
remained in the house, down etairs, as if preparing to go
to his work. It may be stated as a fact-of some impor-
tance, in accounting for his perpetration of the horrid
crime, that some time ago, 'while at work, he received a
serious injury on the head, end since then he has mani-
fested symptoms of incipient insanity, but not of such a
character as to attract much attention. Between six and
seven o'clock he went up-staiN into the bedroom, where his
three children were sleeping, and took one of them, John
his favourite child, out of lvd, from between the other
two. He carried him intciisn unoccupied room, in the
front of the house, on the same floor, without saying
why or wherefore ; and soot after, saying, as was usual
with him, " God bless you,' he left the house, and went
to work. No sound was hoard to proceed from the un-
occupied room, nor was there anything to indicate that
so fearful a crime had been perpetrated in it. He
reached his work at seven o'clock, the usual hour, and
remained in the performance of his usual duties until
within five minutes past eight o'clock, when, as an en-
gine was proceeding at a rapid rate down the steep in-
cline from the engine-house .to the Victoria station, to
fetch out the express train, ' the wretched man rushed
forward, threw himself across the rails titi front of the
engine, and was instantly cut to pieces The news of
this last fatal catastrophe had just reached his home
about nine o'clock, and Mrs. Leicester, a neighbour,
was just telling his wifhthat he was killed, without say-
ing that it was his own act, when one of her children
rushed into the house, half dead with terror, and told
her that John had beet found in the iroccupied room,
bleeding terribly from the throat. Thebereaved woman'
hastened to the place, and found that ter child's throat
had been cut with a razor, and that he was quite dead,
having bled to death. The murderer must have accom-
plished his deed before he left the house, as he never
returned to it, and the unfortunate child was thus left
to die unaided, when probably early 'ty3 sistanpe might
have saved life.

An inquest was held, on view of tirbbdy, on Thurs-
day evening, at the Spread Eagle, Roclidale-road, when
Mrs. Rowe, the widow, stated that on Wednesday night
her lirdirand wheifilting a goocl-431-...waued--zile
so much excited that she, took the paper from him. He
said he had been thinking of destroying himself and two
of his children, and he had previously said that when he
died John should die the same day. She thought he
looked wild when he left home on Thursday morning for
Work, but there did not seem to be anything particular the
matter with him. The injury to his head was done a
year ago.
The fireman of the engine stated that, as he was going
down the Victoria-bank, in a tunnel formed by a broad
road carried ever the railway, be saw the deceased step
from the abutment, kneel down, and put his body across
the rails, when the engine was only 20 yards off, and on
a heavy incline. There was, of course, no chance of
saving him. He was quite dead, and in one of his
pockets there was a razor besmeared with blood, the
fatal instrument with which he had committed the murder.
Evidence was given to show that the deceased had
been low within the last few days, and the jury returned
a verdict that "John Rowe was murdered by James
Rowe ; and that James Rowe, while in a state of in-
sanity, killed himself."

DEATH FROM LAUDANUM.—Yesterday afternoon Mr.
W. Payne, the City coroner, held a lengthened investi-
gation at the Shepherd and Flock tavern, Little Bell-
alley, Coleman-street, into the circumstances attending
the death of Ann Brannan, aged five weeks, which was
caused by laudanum. Catherine Brannan, No. 3, Blue
Hart-court, deposed that deceased was her daughter.
On Wednesday morning she went out to look for some
work soon after breakfast, leaving the deceased to the
care of a girl named Ann Wayland, who was appren-
ticed to witness. She returned about dinner iime, when
deceased was asleep, and had been so for some time.
Wayland said she had given deceased some laudanum
from a wine glass, in which there were still a few drops.
The girl's mother came in and said, "Let the baby sleep
—it will sleep for some hours." Witness allowed the
baby to sleep until one o'clock on Thursday morning,
when finding she did not wake she put deceased in a
warm bath, which appeared to cause the child to
recover. Witness then wrapped the deceased in
flannel and went to bed. On awaking about eight
o'clock in the morning she found the baby quite dead.
Wayland told witness that she had bought a penny-
worth of laudanum for her toothache. Ann Way-
land, the girl in question, said she was minding the de-
ceased, whose mother went out on Wednesday morning.
Soon after the deceased began to cry and was very cross,
and she mixed some sugar with about a half a tea spoon-
ful of laudanum, which she gave to the child. She
purchased the laudanum at the shop of Mr. Tweed, near
Finsbury-circus, who neither labelled the vessel in which
it was bought or told her that it was poison. Mr.
John Roberts, surgeon, Finsbury-circus, said that he
was called to see the deceased about nine o'clock on
Thursday morning, when life was quite extinct. It ap-
peared that the child had died from the effects of lauda-
num. The girl Ann Wayland, showed witness the
quantity of laudanum she had given the child—about
half a tea spoonful, which was quite sufficient to kill a
child seven or eight years old. The Coroner, in sum-
ming up, said that, in his opinion, there was no inten-
tion on the part of the girl Wayland to destroy the child's
life. It appeared to be an innocent act of the girl's to
quiet the child, rather than an intention to destroy its
life. The jury returned a verdict to the effect that Ann
Wayland did not administer the laudanum to deceased
to destroy life knowingly, but the jury could not sepa-
rate without expressing to Mr. Tweed, the chemist, their
disapproval of his selling the laudanum as he did. Mr.
Tweed was then summoned into court, when, address.
ing him, the coroner said that there appeared to be some
doubt about the propriety of selling pennyworths of
laudanum indiscriminately. Any person might go to
one shop for that quantity, then to others, and so obtain
a large quantity. He thought it would be much better
if the chemist were to have some knowledge of the pur-
chaser. Mr. Tweed : This girl told me she wanted the
laudanum for the toothache, which is a very common
thing. A Juror : But what we think wrong is, that you
did not tell her that it was poison. Mr. Tweed : I had
no thought that she would have given any to the de-
ceased. Several Jurors : But you should have told her
that it was poison, and then, in all probability, the girl
would not have given it to the child. The Coroner (to
Mr. Tweed) : You will, for the future take more care in
selling these poisons, or the attendant responsibility may
be great. Mr. Tweed said he would act on the learned
coroner's suggestions, and properly caution all persons
buying laudanum, by telling them of its poisonous qua-
lities.

FIRST SUBMARINE TELEGRAPH IN AMERICA. - The
laying down of the first submarine cable in the United
States, and which is ultimately intended to connect this
country and the continent of Europe with the continent
of America has just been successfully completed. The
cable which forms the first section of the Newfoundland
Electric Telegraph works has been sunk between Cape
Tormentine, in the province of New Brunswick, and
Carlton Head, on Prince Edward's Island, by Captain
Kennedy and Mr. Gisborne. It was a work of consi-
derable difficulty, and the water being shallow ou the
New Brunswick coast, the steamer could not get within
a mile of the shore, so that one mile of cable had to be
conveyed on shore by means of a kedge anchor and four
horses and oxen. The entire operation occupied eleven
hours. The wind and tide swept the vessels down west-
ward, and it was at one time feared the cable would run
short before reaching shore, but there were three-quar-
ters of a mile to spare on reaching it, and the insulation
on being tested was found perfect. The line, having
been completed from Sackville, New Brunswick, to
Charlotte Town, Prince Edward's Island, has been
thrown open to the public.