The Sun.
London, England, 1825-10-18 00:00:00

FRENCH PAPERS.

The Moniteur of Saturday, Oct. 15, contains,
in the Official Part, an Ordinancp of the King,
granting a bounty on the exportation of purified
or sublimated sulphur, proceeding from the ma-
ufa c t eicos of the kingdom.

NON.OFFICIAL PART.]
PAItTp„ QcT. 14.—The Francfort Gazette says:--" Accord-
ing to letters from Smyrna, of Sept. 5, the American squadron
had sailed again, withtbe intention, it was said, of proceeding
-to Napoli di Romania. Ibrahirri Pasha had arrived at Navarin.
The news of the insurrection which has broken out in Candia
has made alreat impression at Constantinople. The Greeks
have made themselves masters of the forts of Kissimo, Salina,
and Karvanza. At Smyrna, the Franks had lately been in
great alarm for their property, a band of incendiaries havinß
come from Mori, and threatening to destroy all the houses and
all the warehouses of those Europeans who were not known as
partisans of the Greeks. Within some weeks fires have broken
out more than once, but the Foreign Consuls have taken suit.
able measures to check the evil."

(From the Courier Francais of Saturday.)

- MADRID, OCT. 3.—(Private Correspondence.)—Though the
Government, it is said, are busy in preparing several important
affairs to be laid before the Consultative Junta, we know for
certain that it has hitherto been consulted on the following
questions:—l. The Municipalities.-2. The Seignorial juris-
dictions.-3. The means of bringing our finances into a flou-
rishing condition, and of making savings, reforms, &c.
On the last point, M. Etola proposed that the Government
should be advised to suspend all gratuitous pensions, &c.
The Junta appointed a Committee, consisting of Messrs. Etola,
Parga, Caballero, Juana, Pinilla, and another Member, to
examine the proposal. This Committee met to-day, and pro-
nounced this proposal to be premature.
The Government has desired the Junta to ask for all the in_
formation, documents, &c. that it may want, anti to propose
the internal regulations for its proceedings.

31. Gorgollo has signified that he is at present confined to his
bed, but that, as soon as he is recovered, and has put his affairs
in order, he would repair to Madrid, and exercise the functions
which it has been thought fit to confide to him.

- The Count d'Espagne, who has been for some time at the
Royal residence, complains much of the cool reception he meets
with from the courtiers about his Majesty. These gentlemen
doubtless, bear him a grudge for having so speedily dispatched
Bessieres. The King, however, seems to chew him great re-
gard. As our situation becomes every day worse, the English
capitalists, on whom the Government placed some hopes of a
loan, have plainly declared, that the present situation of Spain
is such, as not to inspire the smallest confidence, that the prii
cipal proprietors are proscribed, or in prison, that those who
return from America with their fortunes, do not venture to
land in the peninsula being terrified by the accounts of what
is passing there—lastly, that, even if the Government would
give all the securities required of it, and would biud itself in the
most solemn manner, they would not feel any more confidence
on that account, since a Royal Decree, according to our abso-
lute system, can annul the most sacred contracts. Our fanatics
are iu a rage at seeing things regarded 112 this light by the very
persons who, say they, lavished their gold on the Revolutionists/
• and will not open their purses for a legitimate Government like

OUTS.

The Etoile, dated Sunday, October 16, contains more at
length than it has before been published, the Act of the Govern-
ment of the lonian Islands, prescribing the regulations under
which Corfu is declared a free port, from the Ist September,
this year.

FRENCH FUNDI.—PARTS, OcT. 15.—Fire per Cents.
99.90.—Three per Cents., 71.80.—Bunk Stock, 2,132. 50.
Rente de Naples, (Certif. Falconnet), 86. 95.—Rente
pagne, 14—Royal Spanish Loan, 1823, 50i.—Exchange on
London, one month, 23f 15. ; three ditto, 24. 95.—(Coors Au-
thvitique.)

HAMBURGH and FRANKFORT PAPERS.

PETEP.4I3U EGLI, SEPT. 28.—An existing ordi-
nance, that no person in the service of the State
shall belong to a secret society or Freemasons'
Lodge, is now extended to all individuals who
are candidates for degrees in our Universities.—
All students, before they are admitted, are also
to give a certificate that they do not belong to a
secret society. _ _ _

The daughter of Sir R. K. Porter, whose
mother is of the princely family of Tscherbatow,
has been raised to the rank of nobility.
It is hoped that the amount of the gold ob-
tained from the mines of the Ural will be, this
year, not less than 10,000 lb. weight.
Furs, to the value of four• millions of rubles,
have. been purchased at the present fair of
Nischny Novogorod for the barter trade at
Kiachta.

STOCKHOLM, SEPT. 30.—The Russian Ambas-
sador has returned from Christiania, and imme-
diately dispatched his Aid-de-camp to St. Peters.
burgh. Baron Stockelberg, a Charge d'Affaires
to the United States, embarked this week in an
American Ship for New York.
OCT. 4.—lt is said their Majesties will be
here by the 17th.
The'affair of the ships of wat is said to be now
finally arranged, so that they will be able to sail
from 'Carlserona.

The Editor of the Argus has now given his
declaration respecting the insertion of the article
about 'the ships of war, and grounds his defence
chiefly on the following argument :—" That
the Chancellor, according to the Ordinance
relative to the freedom of tho press• is bound
to confiscate all the writings in foreign lan-
guages imported into Sweden, which contain
any thing contrary to the third section of
Art. 10. of that Ordinance." Now as no foreign
journal, not even the papers from which the arti-
cle was taken, has been confiscated by the Chan-
c*llor, the Editor of the Argus considered this
as a proof that the Chancellor himself did not
look upon this article as illegal, and consequently
did not hesitate to insert it in his paper. The
Jury will be chosen on Tuesday.
OCT. 3.—Yesterday was the open-
ing of the Session of the first Provincial Assem-
bly of the Duchy' of Silesia and the Margraviate
of Upper Lusatia. After Divine Service, Presi-
dent Merkel, the Royal Commissioner, opened
the Session with a suitable speech, which was
answered by the Prince of Anhalt, Coetheu
Ploss, as Marshal of the Diet.

BER LIN, OCT. B.—A Cabinet Order of the
17th August prescribes, that the declaration of
ROth Nov. 1803, by which the children of mixed

marriages are to be educated in the religion of
their father, is to be extended to the Western
Provinces.—His Majesty will return to Potsdam
by the 16th, which is the birth-day of his Royal
Highness the Crown Prince.—We have very fa-
vourable accounts from the Prussian Provinces in
the Rhine respecting the vintage. Here we have
uncommonly warm weather ; to-day, at noon, the
thermometer was Lit 20° (Reaumur).—Prince
William has returned from Brussels.

SWITZERLAND, OCT. 9.-A ball, originating
principally with British Philhellenes in Geneva,
which took place on the 24th September, and for
.which 217 tickets, at 20 francs, were given out,
produced, after deducting the axpences, 4430
francs, which were remitted to the Greek Com-
mittee in London. A new society for the as-
sistance of the Greeks has been formed at Lau-
sanne, which, in concert with that at Paris, in-
tends to provide for the education of several
young Greeks, in a manner suitable to the pre-
sent condition of their country.

FRANKFORT, OCT. 10.—The Count de Rap-
pin, who will leave this city the 15th, will visit
his sister the Electress at Wilhelmsbad, and
then proceed to Berlin by Gotha. Erfurt, &c.

EXCHANGES ON LONDON.
HAMBURGIL, OCT. 11.-36. 2 lis., 36. 0.
• ST. PETERSDURGH, SEPT. 2.7.-10. O.
LZIPSIG, OCT. 7.—Three months, 6. I3i.
BERLIN, OCT. B.—Three months, 6. 23g.
VIENNA, OCT. 10.—Three months, 9. 42.

HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF YORK.

(From the D:tblin Evening Mail of Ft iday.)

Again it is our pleasing duty to congratulate
the Protestants of these realms upon another unequivocal ma-
nifestation of Protestant feeling, evinced by his Royal High-
ness the Duke of YORK. This manifestation will be found
clearly and distinctly displayed in the answer transmitted by
his Royal Highness to the Address of the Corporation of Dub-
lin, and this day submitted to the Common Council, met in
Quarter Assembly. We are almost disposed to quarrel with
the authorities, whoever they may be, for witholding, for a
single hour, from the Corporation, from the Citizens, and from
the Nation, a document at once so important and so consolatory.
As to the sentiments of his Royal Highness, upon the great
question of our rights and liberties, of our laws and constitu-
tion,' of our religion and establishments, there could not be
a doubt entertained. His public avowals, on every occasion,
put the matter beyond controversy. But the great value
of the present documents in our mind, is the marked and
pointed allusion made, and we are led to believe made inten-
tionally, to the sentiments which he had not hesitated to avow
in other places. In other places and to whom ? To his Friend
his Brother, his Sovereign—to the King himself. ~sentiments
avowed—mark, avowed in other places. Aye, and acquiesced
in by the Illustrious Personage to whom they were communi-
cated. Made previously to the presentation of the Windsor
Petition, and to the delivery of the celebrated speech with
which its presentation was accompanied—a speech of which wa
I are permitted by the Nobleman to whom the occurrence was
communicated, by that member of the Royal Family to
whom the remark was made, to state that his Majesty observed
" had Frederick said more, would have gone too tar, had he.
said less, he would not have gone far enour:;." This accord-
ance in sentiment, this concurrence in opinion, this unity of
feeling, between the Illustriou4 Brothers, on a question of such
vital importance to the existence of their dominion and to the
happiness of their people, must be gratifying knowledge to every
well wisher of his country, to every supporter of the British
Constitution, as by law established.
TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF YORK, ICC.

" MAY IT PLEASE YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS,

lire, the Lord Mayor , Sheriffs, Commons, and Citizens of
the City of Dublin, anxiously embrace the first opportunity in
Common Council assembled, to express to your Royal High-
ness our sincere and unqualified admiration of those principles
which upon every question affecting our unpara'leled Consti-
tution in Church and State, have uniformly influenced your
Royal Highness's conduct, and which twere never more con-
spicuously displayed than upon a recent occasion, in your Royal
Highness's manly and uncompromising declaration to support,
unimpaired, the Protestant Establishment of these Realms, as
by law established.
" The undeviating attachment of our ancient Corporation to
the connection between the Sister Islands, has been manifested,
we are proud to recollect, in every period of their histories ; and
one of the strongest bulwarks of that connection we are con-
scientiously convinced, is the Establishment of the Reformed
Religion as the Religion of the State. Under this persuasion
we hail with the utmost gratification this avowal of your Royal
Highness's sentiments, and tender most respectfully to your
Royal Highness the homage of our warmest affection and gra-
titude."

" London, Sept. 26, 1625.
" MY Lon D—l have to acknowledge the receipt of your
Lordship's obliging letter of the 20th instant, transmitting the
Address voted to me by yourself, the Sheriffs, Commons, and
Citizens of the City of Dublin.
" I request that your Lordship will be assured, and that you
will do me the favour of conveying to the Sheriffs, Commons,
and Citizens of the City of Dublin, the expression of the sa-
tisfaction with which I have received this testimonial of the
approbation of so respectable a body of men, and that I am
deeply sensible of the friendly terms in which their sentiments
were stated. _ .

" No person can be more alive than I am to the importance of
the question to which the Address more especially adverts; no
subject of his Majesty can have felt more anxious that it should
be fairly and dispassionately considered ; no one, I will ven-
ture to assert, is a more decided and a more zealous advocate
for the unimpaired enjoyment, by all his Majesty's subjects, of
Civil and Religious Liberty, such as has been sanctioned by
our excellent Constitution—such as is consistent with the prin.
ciples upon which that Constitution is established, and has been
upheld during periods productive of events, which have shaken
other States to their foundation.

" With these feelings, early imbibed, and strictly adhered
to, I considered it to be my duty, as a subject of his Majesty,
and as a Peer of the realm, to express publicly, when the Ca-
tholic Question was last brought into discussion in the House
of Lords, those sentiments which I had not hesitated to avow
in other places.
" I cannot close this letter without assuring your Lordship
and the Citizens of Dublin in general, that I shall not cease
to take the most sincere and warm interest in their welfare and
prosperity.
" I am, my Lord, your's, &c.
" FREDERICK.
" The Lord Mayor of Dublin, &c. &c."

SHOCKING Acci DENT.—iesterday afternoon, at
four o'clock, an Inquisition was-taken by Tiross.s Hrucs,
Esq., the Deputy Coroner for the city and liberty of Westmin-
stFr, and a respectable jury, at the Marquis of Granby tavern,
Pimlico-road, near the Chelsea Water AVorks, touching the
melancholy death of Mr. George Bond, aged forty years,
who was appointed by Lord Grosvenor as. receiver of
the toll at the new canal at Pimlico since its opening...._
The deepest commiseration is felt for the unfortunate, widow or
the deceased, who is left with a family of 10 children, the youngest
only 6 weeks old, to lament her husband's untitnely dissolution.
Mrs. Hannah Carter, of the Union Tavern, Pinilico, stated,
that the deceased occasionally came to her house, but till Sa.
turday night last, he had not been there for ?ix weeks. lie
came about nine o'clock, and remained there till eleven, when
he went away with a gentleman named Baker. He was in ex.
cellent health and spirits, and witness considers he was quite
capable of taking care of himself; he was not inebriated, hay_
as
hag drank only a glass of gin and water, and three pints of por.
ter, during the time he was there. On leaving the house, he
wished to treat Mr. Baker with a glass of gin and bitters; but
witness advised him not to have any, he had such a
dangerous way to go home, but he only laughed at her advice.
The foreman of the Jury said, that it was his opinion, that the
deceased, who was in the habit of walking with his hands in his
Pockets, had from the effects of the potations lie had taken,
stumbled over the hillocks on the foot-path, and had fallen into
the water. In this the whole of the Jurors acquiesced, and
returned a verdict, " That the deceased was accidentally
drowned."

BATTLE BETWEEN THE SERAPIS ♦ND BON
HOIVIAIE RICHARD.

(FrOm an American Paper. )
The following account of some of th• circum-
stances attending the memorable and gallant ac-
tion between the Scrapis and the Bon Homme
Richard, is from the pen Of PAUL AQNES himself,
Comsnander of the American vessel :
" Earnest as I was for the action, I could not reach the Com-
modore's ship until seven in the, evening, being then within
pistol shot; when he hailed the Bon Homme Richard, and we
answered him by firing a whole broadside.
" The battle being thus began, was continued with unre-
mitting fury. Every method was practised on both sides to
gain an advantage, and rake each other; and I must confess
that the enemy's ship, being much more manageable than the
Bon Homme Richard, gained thereby several times an ad-
vantageous situation, in spite of my best endeavours to prevent
it. As I had to deal with an enemy of greatly superior force.
1 was under the necessity of closing with him, to prevent the
advantage which he had over me in point of manoeuvre. It was
my intention to lay the Bon Homme Richard athwart the
enemy's bow, but as that operation required great dexterity in
the management of both sails and helm, and some of our braces
being shot away, it did not exactly succeed to my wishes ; tire
enemy's bowsprit, however, came over the Bon Homme
Richard's poop by the rnizen-mast, and I made both ships
fast together in that situation, which by the action of the wind
on the enemy's sails, forced her stern close to the Bon Homme
Richard's bow, so that the ships lay square alongside of each
other, the yards being all entangled, and the cannon of each
ship touching the opponent's side. When this position took
place it was eight o'clock, previous to which the Bon Homme
Richard had received sundry eighteen pound shot below the
water, and leaked very much. My battery of twelve poun-
ders, on which I had placed my chief dependence, being
commanded by Lieutenant Dale and Colonel Weibert,
and manned principally by American seamen and French
volunteers, was entirely silenced and abandoned. As
to the six old eighteen-pounders that formed the battery of the
lower gun deck, they did no service whatever; two out of three
of them burst at the first tire, and killed almost all the men
who were stationed to manage them. Before this time, too,
Colonel De Chamillard, who commanded a party of twenty
soldiers on the poop, had abandoned that station, after hav-
ing lost some of his crew. These men deserted their quarters.
I had now only two pieces of cannon (nine-pounders) on
the quarter deck, that were not silenced : and not one of
the heavier cannon was fired during the rest of the ac-
tion. The purser, Mr. Mease, who commanded the guns
on the quarter-deck, being dangerously wounded ,in the head,
I was obliged to fill his place, and with great difficulty ral-
lied a few men, and shifted over one of the lee quarter-deck
guns, so that we afterwards played three pieces of 9-pounders
upon the enemy. The tops alone seconded the fire of this
little battery, and held out bravely during the whole of the ac-
tion ; especially the main-top, where Lieut. Stack command-
ed. I directed the fire of one of the three cannon against the
main-mast, with double-headed shot, while the other two
were exceedingly well served with grape and Cannister-shot to
silence the enemy's musketry and clear her decks, which was at
last effected. The enemy were, as I have since understood,
on the instant of calling for quarter, when the cowardice or
treachery of three of my under-officers induced them to call
to the enemy. The English Commodore asked'ine if I demand-
ed quarter, and I having answered him in the most deter-
mined negative, they renewed the battle with redoubled fury ;
they were unable to stand the deck, but the fire of their cannon,
especially the lower battery, which was entirely formed of 18
pounders, was incessant. Both ships were set on fire in various
places, and the scene was dreadful beyond the reach of language.
To account for the timidity of my three under-officers—l
tr.mta the gunner, the carpenter, and the master at arms, I must
onserve that the two first were slightly wounded, and as the
ship had received various shots under water, and one of the
pumps being shot away, the carpenter expressed his fear that
she would sink, and the other two thought she was sinking;
which occasioned the gunner to run aft on the poop without my
knowledge, to strike the colours ; fortunately for me, a cannon
ball had done that before, by carrying away the ensign staff; he
was therefore reduced to the necessity of sinking, as hesupposed,
or of calling for quarter, and lie preferred the latter.
" All this time the Bon Homme Richard bad sustained the
action alone, and the enemy, though much superior in force,
would have been very glad to have got clear, as appears by
their own acknowledgments, and by their having let go an
anchor the instant that I laid them on board, by which means
they would'haye escaped had I not made them well fast to the
Bon Homme Richard.

" At half-past nine o'clock, the Alliance appeared, and 1
now thought the battle at an end ; but, to my utter astonish-
ment, he discharged a broadside full into the stern of the
Pon Homme Richard. IVe called to him for God's sake
to forboar firing into the Bon Homme Richard; yet he passed
along the off side of the ship and continued firing. There
was no possibility of his mistaking the enemy's ship for the
Bon Minnie Richard, there being the most essential difference
in their appearance and construction ; besides, it was then
full moonlight, and the sides of the Bon Homme Richard were
all black, while the sides of the prizes were yellow: yet for
the greater security, I showed the signal of our reconnois-
mice, by. putting out three lanterns, one at the head (bow),
another at the cern (quarter), and the third in the middle, in
a horizontal line. Every tongue cried that he was firing into
the wrong ship, but nothing availed ; lie passed round, firing
into the Bon Homme Richard's head, stern, and broadside,
and by one of his vollies killed several of my best men, and
mortally wounded a good officer on the forecastle. My situa-
tion was really deplorable. The Bon Homme Richard receiv-
ed various shots under water from the Alliance • the leak gained
on the pumps, and the fire increased much on board both ships.
Some officers persuaded me to strike, of whose courage and good
sense I entertain a high opinion. My treecherous master at
arms let loose all my prisoners without my knowledge, and
my prospect became gloomy indeed. I would not, however,
give up the point. The enemy's mainmast began to shake,
their firing decreased, ours rather increased, and the British co-
lours were struck at half-past ten o'clock.
" The prize proved to be the British ship of war the Serapis,
a new ship of 44 guns, built upon a most approved construc-
tion, with tw,o complete batteries, one of them of 18 pounders,
and commanded by the brave commodore Richard Pearson.—
I had yet two enemies to encounter far more formidable than
the Britons—l mean the and water. The Serapis was at-
tacked only by the first, but the Bon Homeric Richard was
assailed by both • there were five feet water in the hold, and
though it was moderate from•the explosion of so much gun-
powder, yet the three pumps that remained could with diffi-
culty only keep the water from gaining. The fire broke out
in various parts of the ship, in spite of all the water that could
be thrown to quench it, and at length broke out as low as the
powder-magazine, and within a few inches of the powder. In
that dilemma, I took out the powder upon the deck, ready to
be thrown overboard at the last extremity, and it ,was ten
o'clock the next day, the 24th, before the fire was entirely
extinguished. With respect to the situation of the Bon Homme
Richard, the rudder was cut entirely off the stern frame, and
the transoms were almost entirely cut away ; the timbers by
the lower deck especially, from the main mast to the stern,
being greatly decayed with age, were mangled beyond my
power of description, and a person must have been an eye-wit-
ness to form a just idea of the tremendous scene of carnage,
wreck, and ruin, that every where appeared."

A duel was to have taken place on Saturday
last between R. C—ft, Esq. brother of Sir E. T. C—ft, Bart.,
and J. C—s, Esq. Mr. C—s arrived on the ground at
seven o'clock, accompanied by his second. After waiting an
hour, and Mr. C—ft not arriving, he was obliged to return to
town without receiving satisfaction.

11tndtavy,ALat %il,o,:stEotritS-- A fatal quarrel happened on
2
Rakes, Staffordshire. Two respectable
By oouunrgn e
,men met, t
of agremt
heerrs'atsoansf,rienndmed Abel
,slhouse Smith
,andof and
tiieraTrhtyomwanis
a female, also of respectable parentage, whose favour, it ap-
pears, both these young men aspired to obtain. In the course
of the afternoon a walk was agreed upon, and, on the point
which of the two should be favoured with the arm of the female
in question, an altercation arose between the young men,which
terminated by Bourne striking Smith a violent blow on the
side, from the effect of which he died instantly. Verdict of
the Coroner's Jury—" Manslaughter." It is somewhat sin-
gular, that the female in question, Who was the innocent cause
of this melancholy event, had to mourn the loss of a former
lover, with whom she was on the eve of marriage, and whose
death was occasioned by the upsetting of a boat on Alsager
Meer not a long time since.
A very ludicrous incident took place lately in
the village of Patiemuir, near Dunfermline. A young man
who had been rather half seas over, determined to pay his sweet-
heart a visit, but she being unwilling to admit him, after try-
ing both door and window, he resolved to enter the cottage by
the chimney top—" 0 love will venture in where it darna weel
be seen ;" but here he was both in and out, for he stuck fast
in the chimney. lie had got .so far down that his feet were
but further he could not go. The cries he uttered calling
upon his dear love to extricate him from his direful situation
were tremendous. The family was alarmed, the girl fainted,
the Doctor was seat for from a neighbouring village, and a
coaple of masons, who were under the necessity of digging a
breach over the fire-place, and taking him out in a very dismal
condition, after sticking there for several hours.--(Scotsman.)

WEST INDIA DOCKS.

STOCK ACCOUNT for the Week ending Saturday, the 15th

of October, 1825.

rered.

Stock on
Hand.

47,350
3,480
1,191
1,407
`2,825
13,059
1,359
25,156
1,503
2'21

1,224

947
15,952
2,125
102,116
1,933

.5;324

2,567
1,253
5,469

426
13,329
1,120

-582
1,000
207

612 i
6,981
4,762
1,404
30
43

52
28
40
196
48
46

322
468
10,040

4,667
13,724
57
1,211
3,912
6,427
229
26
4
61

177i26
6,799!
1,6221
804

2701
27i
7,810
37i
5,990
12,891
61,021

Casks 14,
Barrels 1,
Bage 2,
Bags 1,
Casks 1,
Barrels '
Bags 97,'

DREADFUIf OCCURRENCE.

[From the York Herald.]
11 We have never before had so painful a duty
to perform as we are now entering upon in the detail of an oc-
currence, which commenced at Scarborough on Friday last, and
which closed at a neighbouring village, attended by all the tragic
horrors of agonized parental feelings, and by all the dreadful
sufferings of four violent and premature dissolutions.
A poor, but well-disposed and industrious woman, of the
name of Outhwaite, the wife of a shoemaker, residing at the vil-
lage of Cloughton, near Scarborough, and the mother of 4 chil-
dren, the youngest of which is but a few months old, having
business at the latter place on Friday last, resolved to take
home, for the use of herself and children, a small portion of
an opening medicine. With this view, she called at a drug-
gist's shop in Scarborough, ordered the same, and said she
would call for it before she left the town. It was accordingly
weighed and placed ready for the poor woman. In the interim,
however, a farmer called at the same shop, and desired one
ounce of arsenic to be weighed, and he would call for it in a
short time. The dangerous mineral was also got ready accord-
ing to order, and as a proper precaution the " poison " was
written on the paper containing it ; but, unfortunately the two
were placed together. The poor woman called the first for her
medicine—she received the wrong packet—she could not read
—she travelled home to her little family, the innocent, un-
suspecting messenger of death.
Soon after her return she gave some of the arsenic to three of
her hapless children, one of them eight years of age, the second
six, and the other only four. The poor woman also took a
large portion herzelf. Death now commenced his havoc, and 1
the dreadful effects which always attend the taking of a deadly
poison were soon triumphant over the tender frames of the little
innocents. No medical assistant was near, and still more
strange, no one was sent for. Stupefaction or distraction must
have fixed upon the wretched parent.
Death, however, had not completed his work. The mother
was still left, with her infant—her only surviving child—laid
upon her lap. She felt the pangs of approaching dissolution—
but death had lost his terrors—he had become a welcome mes-
senger—the delight of her eyes had departed, and oh ! dreadful
thought ! she had been the innocent agent. No medical ad-
viser still was sent for. She struggled with the foul destroyer
till morning began to claim, when about the hour of five, her
wounded spirit took its fight to the eternal mansions, whither
her children had departed, and where no casual blunder or
careless deportment can distuirb their peace or destroy their hap-
piness. -
The infant, her only surviving child, we hear, is also in a
dangerous state—it having unfortunately been suckled by the
mother, after she had taken the deadly poison.
A Coroner's Jury sat upon the bodies of the deceased ; and,
after a very minute investigation into all the circumstances of
the case, they delivered a verdict (as regarded each) of" Ac-
cidental Death."
Hero we might close the subject; but we cannot, without
expressing our opinion oh the verdict of the Jury. It certainly
was a proper verdict ; but, in giving that, some severe reflec-
tions were. due (if we are rightly informed) upon the abomi-
nable carelessness of the man or boy who placed the poison, &c.
so near together, as to admit of a mistake. It is of little con-
sriquence to us that the word poison was written on the arse-
nic, since it was allowed to be taken from the shop by an illi-
terate woman without care, and without any thing like cau-
tion. A verdict of Accidental Death may protect the drug-
gist from the severities of the law,
,but it cannot throw into the
shades of oblivion, the recollection, that a little more care might
have prevented the evil, and that a little more attention would
have disappointed death of four hapless and innocent victims.