The Sun.
London, England, 1831-01-15 00:00:00

CORONER'S INQUEST.

An occurrence as painful- to relate as it is dis-
tressing in its nature, has just taken place in the
parish of Kinfare. The circumstances of the case,
as they appeared from the evidence taken upon a
Coroner's inquisition, held on Monday, before H.
Smith, Esq., are these :—Some time een
Postings lived as servant with Mr. Whitehouse, e
respectable farmer, at Compton, by whose sen e;ie
had an illegitimate child, named Emma Louisa,
which was just turned twelve months old, and which
forms the object of the present inquiry. On Satur-
day evening., the Ist instant, at about eight o'clock,
as young Whitehouse was going from the ruble into
the house, he heard some one call out, and on turn-
ing saw a person leaning over the yard wall, who
immediately ran away ; he followed into the field,
and found it was Hannah Postings, with her cited
in her arms. They went into the wain-house, and
in the course of her conversation she said she did
not know what had brought her out, nor which way
she came, but she had a great deal to tell him.
That her father and mother and all at home
were continually complaining ;emit the chikl.
On which Mr. Whitehouse said he would remove
it, and would see her parents in a day or two. He
also offered her money, but she refused to take it,
saying it was of no tr,e to her; and laying hold of
his hands, repeated several times that she could trot
tell him what was upon her mind. She also declared
her intention of making away with herself, but did
riot say any thing about destroying the child. He
offered to go with her to one of his father's la-
bourers, and to send him to Wolverley with her,
where she lived in service, 1 ut she refused to go
very strenuously, sayirig that she would never see
Wolverley again; that she only came then to see
him (Mr. W.) for the last time, and that her place
was a very bad one, but she could not tell him " one
half of it." After mush persuasion on the part of
Mr. W. (she clinging to him all the time) to induce
her to return home, and in vain entreating her to go
into his father's house, while he fetched a man to
accompany her, they parted ; she taking a contrary
direction from her home, and Mr. W. going in:,
the house, when he told his sister and mother what
had passed. Mr. W. and his sister then took a lan-
tern and went in search of the wretched young
woman ; on proceeding down the meadow they
heard a screaming issue from a pool of water called
the Madbrook, to which they immediately hastened,
and arrived at it at the same time as Mr. Joseph
Brindley and Mn.. T. J. Brindley, who had been
alarmed by hearing the cries of distress, their house
being situated about 300 yards from the brook.
The first object that presented itself was the young
woman standing upright in the water; Mr. W.
jumped in and got her ont, having first taken the
child from her arms. The child was dead--every
means to restore life to it, under the direetion of a
surgeon, were tried to no purpose. The whole of
the young woman's clothes were wet, so that there
is no doubt but she had been entirely under the
water with the child. In the place where she
stood the water was so shallow that it did not reach
higher than her knees. On being removed from the
brook she uttered many incoherent expressions, and
did not seem to feel the slightest interest as to the
fate of her child. She was put to boil, and the
following morning delivered into the custody of the
constable, who removed her to the workhouse. On
her journey thither she of her own accord strati] to
the constable that she; wished to explain to him
the reason why she had acted in the way
she had done, and informed him that she
was then pregnant by her master, who is by trade
a clock and watchmaker; he also keeps a beer
shop, and is the pastor of a Methodist congregation.
He has a family of five children, trill his wife is
near her confinement again. She said she had merle
up her mind to destroy herself and child mote than
a month ago, because she knew that neither Mr.
Whitehouse nor his family would erer notice her
again, adding, that Mr. Whitehouee had always be-
haved well to her. Site also detailed the manner in
which she had attempted to drown herself, stating
that she first went to Mr. Brindley's pool, alai lay-
ing down her pocket handkerchief by the side of it,
knelt down and said her prayers; she then went on
the ice, but finding she could not get into tine water,
left her handkerchief by the pool side and proceeded
to the brook, where the made two attempts to carry
her purpose into effect. The water was not, however,
deep enough. She their laid her bend under the water
imsuitig from a weir, but it net being sufficient to
drown her, she got up, and found the child dead in
her arms ! She than began to scream. These facts
she detailed unsolicited, and told the constable that
he might timid the handkerchief by the pool side,
which he did. The reams she left it there, she
says, was, that sours person might find it, anti there'oy
know that she was in the water. The invesvgatien
into these circumstances occupied the attuniion of
the Coroner's Jury for tea hours, and the reselt wars
a verdict of tire " Wilful Alurder of Estella Louisa
Postings, by her mother, Hannah Postings," who has
been committed to our county gaol for trial at the
next Assiees. The wretched woman is, we un-
derstand, particularly fine end handsome in person,
and not quite nineteen years of age.—Wolver-
hampton Chronicle,

NEWSPAPERS,.--At first newspapers were ex-
tremely small and limited in their extent, nut exceeding
the bounds of an ordinary letter; bat after 1713, in
which year the newspapers were first stamped, it became
necessary, as much from this circumstance as frcm any
other, to enlarge the as well as to raise the prier.
Notwithstanding, however, the important scenes that,
from that time up to ti e year 1750, were acting on the
theatre of Europe, and the stirring events that took place
in El:gland and Scotland, the inventive powers of the
iditors appear frequently to have been at a ;
they were often ponied enough in what manner to till up
their columns, scanty as they still were; and in the latter
year the editor of the Leicester Journal —a paper which
was printed in London, and sent down to Leicester for
publication—actually had recourse to the _Bible to help
him out, and tilled up his empty space with extracts 11.0111
it ! lie commenced at the beginning of Genests,arot con-
tinued the extracts in every succeeding number,. ch,zei-
hy chapter, as far as the 10th chapter of Exodus !--
Sketches.