The Sun.
London, England, 1849-08-30 00:00:00

OBSERVER.

" Sir,—You will, I presume, favour me with the in-
sertion of the following medical certificate. The
italics are Mr. Laxon's own :
"`I hereby certify that on the third day subsequent
to the slight injury inflicted on the late May Ball's
hand, by the flame of a candle (no evidence of mis-
chief remaining), I directed the covering to be re-
moved from it.
" ` WILLIAM LARON, M.D., Surgeon to the Gaol.
" ` Coventry, Aug. 21, 1849.'
" There is an inaccuracy in the deposition of the
chief witness, where the singular is substituted for
the plural number, viz., "a hundred years" for
" hundreds of years ;" and also an important omis-
sion. My words were to this effect :
" What is this compared with the flames of hell,
where your whole frame will be in torments for hun-
dreds of years, if you depart this life without making
an acknowledgment of your guilt ?
" RICHARD CHAPMAN."
COPY OF A. LETTER FORWARDED BY THE LATE CHAP-
LAIN OF COVENTRY GAOL TO THE SECRETARY OF
STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT.
" August 10, 1849.
" Right Honourable Sir,—Although an official no-
tice from the visiting magistrates of Coventry Gaol,
respecting my suspension from the duties of the
chaplaincy, and my consequent resignation of th e
office, may have already reached you, I have never-
theless thought it not inexpedient to trouble you with
a brief account of the circumstances which led to such
an unfortunate result. The condemned prisoner,
Mary Ball (who was executed yesterday), I had at-
tended privately for several weeks prior to her con-
demnation ; and from the time the sentence of death
was pronounced upon her until the Saturday before
her execution (i. e. for the space of a week), I was
unremitting in my exertions to prepare her for the
awful fate which awaited her. No pains, I assure
you, were spared on my part to awaken her mind
to a sense of her condition. But I had to contend
with an obtuse intellect, a lethargic temperament, a
moral sense exceedingly debased, and a conscience
apparently benumbed by long-continued habits of
vice. The proofs of her guilt had been clearly
established at her trial, but no acknowledgment
of it could I extort from her. On the contrary,
her protestations and assertions of innocence were
repeatedly conveyed to me from her lips in the
strongest language that she had at her command. I
trust that, as a Christian gentleman, you will make
every reasonable allowance for a clergyman anxious
for the salvation of a human soul, and in a state of
perplexity how to secure it. On the morning of
Saturday, the 4th instant, I read and explained to
her several of the parables of our Blessed Lord, which
inculcate the necessity of repentance ; I also read to
her the gospel account of the penitent thief, and en-
deavoured from these instances, and from other pas-
sages of Scripture, to prove to her that repentance
without confession, or an unreserved acknowledgment
of guilt, was necessarily imperfect. I then pointed
out to her, as plainly as I could, the dreadful conse-
quences of departing this life without having com-
pleted the work of repentance ; and read to her some
passages from a work of Jeremy Taylor, on the nature
of eternal punishment in hellfire. Having expatiated
thereupon at some length, I implored her, in the
kindest and most soothing accents, not to incur the
wrath of God by persisting in the assertion of
her innocence, and requested her to kneel down
with me in prayer. After these religious exer-
cises. were finished her manner seemed to be
rather subdued, in spite of a little sullenness which
now and then betrayed itself, and an unwilling-
ness to be communicative. On revisiting her in
the afternoon, a thought struck me that an application
to the senses of a person who was inaccessible to reason
might be attended with the desired result. I called
for a lighted candle, and requested her to give me
her hand, which she unresistingly placed (or suffered
to be placed) in my own. I then held it over the
lighted candle, and asked her if she suffered pain, to
which she made no reply, but presently began to
struggle, when I instantly released her hand. This
operation did net occupy more than two seconds, or
three at the most, during which she never once cried
out. I then inquired of her if she would venture
on another trial, and proceeded to take her hand for
that purpose, but perceiving her disinclination, I did
not persist in my attempt. Whereupon I addressed
her in the following or similar words Do not
imagine that I have been influenced by any feelings
of cruelty towards you in thus placing your hand
over the candle, I have done this to teach you the
value of your immortal soul. If you flinch from such
a trifling amount of pain as this which I have been
inflicting upon you, how will you endure the torments
of an eternal fire hereafter, which will inevitably be
your portion unless you make an ample confession o f
your guilt before you die?'
" I regret very much to state that the hand of the
unfortunate woman was slightly blistered by the
flame ; but two days before she suffered I received
intelligence of its entire recovery, and that she had
almost forgotten the circumstance.
" Perhaps it may not be unimportant to mention
that she subsequently confessed her crime, and ad-
mitted the justice of her sentence.
" I have thus endeavoured to give you as clear a
statement as possible of the transaction which occa-
sioned my suspension. The possibility of the other
prisoners entertaining a prejudice against me, on their
coming to a knowledge of thiscircumstance, has doubt-
less influenced the decision of the magistrates and this
consideration will, perhaps, account for the apparent
harshness of their resolution. Erroneous and exag-
gerated reports relative to this affair have been circu-
lated, some of them too ridiculous to be credited by
any person of intelligence. I have, therefore, thought
it advisable to write to you myself upon the subject,
not forgetting to mention that, by the advice of my
friends, I have forwarded my resignation of the
chaplaincy to the Chairman of the Quarter Sessions.
" I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
" R. CHAPMAN."

A Greek, a German, an Irish, an English, and a
Scotch naturalist, are at present in the Orkneys, each on
a scientific tour.
LONDON PRICE or BREAD.—The general price of
the best bread in London is 7d. and 7kd., second quality
from sd. and 54d. to 6d. and 61d. In the neighbourhood
of Somers Town bread is selling at sd. and sid. The
master bakers of that district have been endeavour-
ing, for some time past, to obtain a living profit on their
bread, and succeeded, after great exertions, in putting a
stop to that unfair competition that had so long existed
among them. After the whole of them had been for a
short time at one price, and each came to be reduced to
the trade to be done in their own immediate locality,
one of them made an excuse that he would no longer
continue to sell his bread at the same price as the rest
so long as one or two in the neighbourhood made second,
or rather bread of the third quality, and immediately
commenced selling under the agreed price, whereby he
advanced his trade considerably, to the injury of his
neighbours, who have been obliged in consequence to
sell their bread at the same rate as he did in order to
retain their customers. Similar accounts may be given
of other parts of London.—Bakers' Gazette.
SUDDEN DEATH. Father Dominic, of Poplar
House, Westend, Hampstead, has been suddenly removed
from his earthly labours, and his death was accompanied
by most untoward circumstances and peculiar suffering.
He left London in good spirits on Monday morning by
the 7.30 train on the Great Western Railway, accom-
panied by Father Lewes, on his way to Stroud. When
very near the Pangbourne station he was suddenly in-
disposed, and upon being removed from the train symp-
toms of a choleraic character appeared. The attendance
of a medical gentleman (Mr. H. Muggridge, who hap-
pened to be travelling) was immediately given, and his
complaint ascertained to be disease of the heart. Reme-
dies were applied, and application made to the inns for
admission, but no room could, as it was stated, bo af-
forded. The unfortunate sufferer was then removed to
a cottage,land laid upon some straw on the brick floor for
upwards of au hour. Upon the arrival of the up-train he
was lifted in and brough to the Railway Tavern at Read-
ing. The prescriptions of the medical gentleman were
again applied, and temporary ease was obtained. The
spasm at the heart, however, returned with violence, and
he expired at three o'clock the same afternoon. The
medical gentleman certified that death arose from natural
causes. Father Dominic was very generally known to
the Roman Catholic community, and particularly to the
rev. gentlemen who have seceded from the church of

England.
The Trieste papers quote the exchange on London
at 11 52 to 11 53, on receipt of telegraphic news
from Vienna; money was in continued demand, and the
rate of discount was four per cent. The value of the
English sovereign was quoted at 11 40.