The Sun.
London, England, 1836-09-14 00:00:00

MURDER.

(From the Bath Gazette.)
BRISTOL, SEPT. 12.—We regret to state that the imme-
diate neighbourhood of our city has been made the scene of
as brutal and cold-blooded a murder, as any which disgrace
our criminal annals. On arriving the officers found the
lifeless body of a respectably dressed female. Her death
appeared to have been caused by her havir', received the
contents of a pistol at the back of her head. The slugs
with which the pistol had been loaded had entered just
above the nape of the neck, and made their way through
the brain upwards and forwards, until stopped by the
frontal bone. The landlord informed the officers that, be-
tween one and two o'clock on that day (Saturday), the
female in question (who was about forty-five years of age),
together with a young man attired in a white hat, plaid
waistcoat and trousers, striped shirt, and dark coat,
came to his house, and called for tvvo small glasses of
gin and water, which were sent in to the parlour to them ;
the young man then came out of the room, and borrowed
a knife, for the purpose, as he said, of " cutting a bit of
stick ;" he then went for some time into the back yard,
and when be returned the knife to the landlady, she ob-
served that he hung down his head, and appeared much
agitated ; there was a notch in the knife when he brought
it back ; determined to make him speak, she said, " It is
stormy weather ;" to which, after considerable hesitation,
he made an unconnected and vague reply ; he then paid
for the two glasses of gin-and-water, and he and his com-
panion both went away, and turned up the road ; when a
female saw them turn down Libbett's-lane, the entrance to
which is about 8 or 10 yards front the Mason's Arms.
Upon reaching the bottom of the lane, where there is a stone
stile, another person saw them, and they turned back-up the
lane, the young man having his arm behind the woman's back.
In a short time, a man, who was at work in a quarry, heard
the report of a pistol or gen in the direction of the lane, but,
from its being Sept., he took no notice of the circumstance :
and in less than an hour from the time of her leav-
ing the public-house, the unfortunate woman was brought
back to it a murdered corpse ! having been found lying
dead in the lane, with her gown torn o4' (the hooks and
eyes of which were afterwards found in the lane), which,
together with her shawl, was gone ; her bonnet had also
been removed, and the ribbons torn off it ; but there were
evident marks of the shot having passed through it ; her
gloves were half off her hands, as if the murderer had at-
tempted to take them off, but had been disturbed in his
purpose. In her pocket was found 4s. 6d., and upon her
finger was a gold ring with hair in it. She was found with
one leg doubled under her, apparently from her struggles in
the agonies of death. It appeared that the deceased was a
Mrs. Lewis, who, hearing that her daughter and her hus-
band were in Bristol, had come from Monmouthshire to see
them. The deceased's daughter had resided in Bath as a
lady's-maid ; but, a short time since, she married a man
named Robert Bartlett, who has been acting as a p,r7ormer
in one of the shows (the Sans Pareil Theatre) during the
late Bristol Fair ; in which capacity he had very frequently,
as is the practice here, fired off the pistol to draw attention
to the exhibition.

Yesterday (Sunday) afternoon, as if by a strange fatality,
Bartlett went to the house of Stapleton, where the body
was lying, apparently from curiosity, and upon entering the
room, before he could see the face of the deceased, he ex-
claimed, " Good God! it is Mrs. Lewis, my mother-in-
law," and threw himself upon the chair in a state of great
agitation. He then wanted to go away ; but the landlord
got him to stay, and sent for the landlady and a Mrs.
White, who had been in the room with Bartlett and the
deceased, and they both identified him : he was conse-
quently taken into custody to await the result of the in-
quest.. It is understood that the deceased was possessed
of some property, which would come to him at her de-
cease.
This morning an inquest was held at the Mason's Arms,
Stapleton. After a lengthened investigation a verdict of
Wilful Murder was returned against Robert Bartlett, and
he was accordingly committed by the Coroner to Gloucester
Gaol, for trial.

A master silversmith in
recentlywhich
hthe been _-- ___-__
this city has
detected carrying on a system of fraud, by
has suffered to a considerable extent during the course ofof five
that he
which
years, in which it has bee" in operation. it
-appears
had contrived to form a fac simile of the stamp the law
renders it imperative on every tradesman to have struck on
articles of silver manufacture, and in this way evaded payment
of the Government duty to the amount, it is said, of from 81.
to 10/. weekly.
Suspicions were first excited in consequence
of the delinquent getting stamped the proper officials a
much smaller quantity of
warrant
work than
by
the number of men em-
by him would
ploycd judges in thinking ought to have
been produced ; and, the
matter being taken up, led to the
disclosure: we have referred to, a person in his employment
having, as we are informed, divulged the secret. A warrant
from the Stamp-officehis apprehension, , Edinburgh, was instantly procured for
but a friend having given him the hint of
what was 7
of.—Glasgow Ar
going on, he absconded, and has not since been heard
Illisn WASTTEANDS.—Yesterday a general meet-
ing of the diretors and sharehOlders of the Irish Waste Land
Improvement
street, City,Society was held at their offices,s 7, Old Broad-
in conformity
poration, andy,
also the purpose of hearing the first report of
the society's f()r
proceedings. Staples, Esq., having been
unanimously called to the chair, the secretary rad the report,
from which it appeared that the original capital proposed was
500,000/., in 10,000 shares of 501. each, and that 6,075 shares
have already been subscribed for, which arc suilicient to enable
the society to carry the objects of their incorporation into ex-
tensive and beneficial effect. The Directors are about to send
a deputation of their own body and their Secretary to Ireland,
to place them in communication with the proprietors of the
uncultivated lands who have offered, and to arrange with them
negotiations now pending. The report was unanimously re-
ceived, and, there being no further business to transact, the
meeting separates.