The Sun.
London, England, 1822-03-11 00:00:00

BARBAROUS MURDER.

A murder, attended with circumstances of pe-
culiar atrocity and cruelty, was committed on Saturday night,
in Robert-street, Bedford-row, upon an elderly lady named
Donatty, residing at No. 2, in that street. Mrs. Donatty was
the widow of a merchant of the Jewish persuasion, but was her-
self a Christian, and hid resided for several years at the house
mentioned, havinc, a small independent fortune to subsist upon.
The house is rather a large one, consisting of about ten rooms,
bat she was the sole occupant, with the exception of a girl
who came at night merely to sleep with her. It was well fur-
nished, and among other valuables which the old lady possessed,
were several pictures by some of the old masters, for which sh e had
been offered very considerable sums. It was her custom to sleep in
the kitchen, and the girl, who was paid to sleep with her, generally
came to her about rialf-past nine or ten o'clock 'at night, and
left the house after breakfast in the morning. On Saturday
afternoon, Mrs. Donatty went out for the purpose, as it was
understood, of receiving rents due to her from some tenants of.
hers, and she returned home about ten minutes past nine in
the evening. She stood for some few minutes at the door talk-
ing to a neighbour, and then went in and shut the door. She
bad scarcely been in a moment, when her neighbour (the mistress
of the next house) heard a faint cry of " murder" in the voice
of Mrs. Donatty, and she immediately called one of the parish
patrol, and acquainted him with what she had heard, and
expresed her suspicion that something dreadful had happen-
ed. The patrol called others to his assistance, and they knock-
ed at the door a great number of times, but received no an-
swer. Notwithstanding this, however, the patrol did not take
any measure to get into the house until half-past 10 (a lapse of
upwards of an hour,) and then some parish constables having
arrived, an entrance was effected by a ladder being placed at
the first floor window. Two constables entered by that win-
dow with a light, and went down stairs, where the first ob-
ject which presented itself was the corpse of the unfortunate
widow, mangled in a most horrible manner, lying in the centre
of the passage, which was discoloured with streams of blood.—
Upon examining the body, a handkerchief was found stuffed into
the mouth, and a stab, apparently inflicted with a butcher's
knife, under the left ear, and penetrating nearly through the neck
to the other side; there was also a cut on the back of the neck, and
another on the right side. Both ears were lacerated, and the ear-
rings which she was known to wear were gone. Her wedding-
ring was also forced from her finger, in doing which very
brutal violence must have been used, as the flesh was literally
torn from her finger. No signs of life were remaining when
the body was found. An alarm was immediately spread in
the neighbourhood, and some officers of Bow-street and Iht-
ton garden being sent for, the house was narrowly searched,
and two bags were found, in which every thing of any value
which could be removed was packed. These bags were in the
passage up stairs. The window-curtains of the first floor, and
some of the other rooms, were removed, and put into these bags.
No person was found in the house, and the supposition was,
that the perpetrators of this most foul murder had taken advan-
tage of the time which was given them, and had escaped by
the back part of the house, there being no other impediment
that way than a wall about 11 feet high, which encloses the yard,
and by surnionting which they could escape into Millman-
' place, a thoroughfare situate at the back of Robert-street._
About 11 o'clock, the girl who usually slept with Mrs. Donatty
came to the house, and on being informed of what had hap-
pened, she seemed very_little concerned, and said she should
go home. She was asxed where her father was ; she said
lie was not at home. An officer was dispatched to his re-
sidence, and it was found that he was from home. The
girl meanwhile went away from the house in Robert-street,
and it being afterwards thought expedient to apprehend
her, an officer went in search of her, and found her convers-
ing with her father in the street at Mount Pleasant, near Cold
Bath Fields Prison. They were both taken up and conveyed
to the watchhouse. A great number of reports were in circula-
tion yesterday as to the supposed perpetrators of the murder,
but as at present they must rest entirely upon conjecture, we
forbear to state them. The body was removed to the back par-
lour, where it will remain until a Coroner's Inquest can assem-
ble to investigate the matter. A great crowd was assembled
about the house the whole of yesterday.

Extract from a Meteorological Journal for Fe-
bruary, kept at the Observatory of the Academy
at Gosport :

This Month has been fine and mild for the season, with the
exception of four or five rainy days. The mean pressure is
high, and the barometer, on the 28th instant, rose to 30.80
inches, a height which it seldom arrives, eves; in winter.
This very great weight of the atmospheric column was ac-
companied by a frosty air, and two winds crossing each other
at right angles. The mean temperature of the air is up-
wards of 8 degrees higher than in February 1821, and about
4i degrees higher than the mean of that month for many
years past. It is remarkable that we have scarcely felt the
winter constitution of the air, except in the absence of the
sun, when the dews and slight frosts have prevailed; and
that the external thermometer has not yet receded inure than
2 degrees below the freezing point. The ground, however,
is still clogged and consolidated by the late heavy rains.
Spring water being at its minimum temperature for the win-
ter, the ground, without an addition of much wet, will begin
to exhale its moisture, and get warm as the sun's rays make
a greater angle with the earth. All nature having a forward
appearance, and the fruit trees already putting forth their
buds, indicate a very early spring. The atmospheric and
meteoric phenomena that have come within our observation
this nnintli, are one solar halo, one double rainbow, three
swill meteors, lightning and thunder in the morning of the
2d, accompanied with rain, and four gales of wind, or days
on which they have prevailed, namely, one from south-east,
one from south, and two‘fnma south-west.

COURSE OF EXCHANGE, March 8.
Amsterdam . l2 8 C. F.
Ditto, at Sight l2 5

Rotterdam V l2 9
Antwerp l2 5

. _
(lamb o rgh
Aitona.
Paris, 3 Day's sight
Ditto
'tiiiirdeatix, ditto
Frank Girton the Main
Madrid • 371 Ettecti.i e
Cadiz
Gilboa . 366 Effective
BarCelona
Seville
Gibraltar
Lagliorn
G. ra,a .... 431--Venice, Ital. Lie 27 60
Malta - 45 -Naples 39;
Palermo
Lisbon
Oporto
Ilio•laneiro
Dublin .... 9i Corti 9 pet Cent.