The Sun.
London, England, 1847-02-22 00:00:00

SADLER'S WELLS THEATRE

The new play of Feudal Times, by the author of The
King of the Commons, was produced here on Thursday
with great and deserved success. As in his former play,
the author has chosen a Scottish story for the
subject of his drama. The date of the play
is 1482. James 111. (Mr. 11. Marston), King of Scot-
land, is apprehensive of an invasion from his brother,
the Duke of Albany, who, with the assistance of Eng-
land, is seeking to depose him. His nobles, headed by
Douglas, are jealous at the favours he confers on
Walter Cochrane (Mr. Phelps), and when Cochrane
is created Earl of Mar their discontent breaks
out, and James finds he can place no dependence
upon them. Margaret Randolph (Miss Laura Addison),
who dearly loves Mar, now comes forward, and being
the last of her race, she appoints him leader of her clan,
He, however, at length falls into the hands of his foes,
and is confined in Douglas Castle. In his prison Douglas.
Earl of Angus, comes to him, and offers to spare his life
on condition that he will join their party. This condition he
indignantly rejects ; Margaret, in vain prays him to ac-
cept it. He is surprised, and says that he will rush out
and die on their swords, and then the horrid truth is
told. His enemies have ordered that he shall die a
felon's death, and suffer by the hangman's hands.
As a last resource, she gives him a dagger,
bidding him show Roman courage, but he re-
pli‘!s, as he rejects " I have a nobler courage
than the Romans—submission," and as the door
opens he rushes out and endeavours to force a passage ;
he is driven back, wounded and dying. In his dying
agony he springs up, drives Douglas back from Mar-
garet, and falls dead at her feet ; she rushes on the
sword of Douglas, and falls on her lover's body, ex-
claiming " How happy 'tis to die thus," and the curtain
falls. The play is powerfully written, and admirably
acted. Miss Laura Addison, as Margaret, !Bore
than sustained her well-earned high reputation, and
Phelps, as Cochrane, was most spirited and chivalrous.
G. Bennett, as Douglas, Earl of Angus, was both in
acting and making up the very beau ideal of an old
proud, rough, overbearing, ignorant, and irritable feudal
chieftain. Marston, as the King, was very gcod.
Phelps, Marston and Miss Addison, were called 'for at
the conclusion, and the play was announceYfor repe-
tition every evening without a dissentient voice. The
house was crowded.

FALLING OF TWO HOUSES IN
CORE, AND MIRACULOUS ESCAPE OF
'MIR EY INMATES.
From an early hour this morning that part of Fish-
amb!e-lane immediately to the rear of the Courthouse,
was crowded by hundreds of gaping people, who g►zed
with wonder upon two completely gutted wrtcks of
houses, and upon a huge pile of ruin that
nearly blocked up the thoroughfare, in which stones,
mortar, slates, pieces of furniture, shuttered crockery,
fragments of wearing apparel, were heaped up
in one indiscriminate wreck. As to the houses,
with the exception of the flooring of one little
closet still supporting a' bed, not a single joist is
standing—the several floors and all they contained hav-
ing fallen into the street with the front wall, not one
stone of which stands upon another. At the first sight
of this dismal ruin one would naturally suppose, that
underneath that mass of rubbish there lay the mangled
bodies of a number of human victims ; but, happily,
such was not the case—for although thirty human
beings were hushed in sleep when the first rumble of the
parting wall was heard, not a single person was killed
or iniureJ !
We understand that in one of the houses, a sailor slept
with his wife and children; and he being more easily
aroused than others, from the habits of his profession,
was alarmed by a slight crash, and by perceiving that
part of the room in which he lay, was yielding in a
curious manner, he immediately discovere,l the danger,
and gave the alarm. The confusion that followed can
scarcely be imagined, as the inmates of the falling houses
awoke to a full consciousness of their fearful position—
the walls cracking, the floors crushing under their feet,
an instant destruction seemingly inevitable! Some ran
to the back, while others a tually slid, with the ruined
walls, into the street ; more were shielded by a chance
beam, others by some of those marvellous means really
providential, but often attributed to chance. Many re-
mained in the ruins. The alarm was soon given ; in fact,
the thumh r of the falling walls aroused the neighbour-
hood, the whole population of which were at once in the
street. On the first alarm, the clergymen of the Fran-
ciscan Chapel, which is only divided by a narrow river,
or mill race, from the hacks of the homes, were on the
spot, and lent every assistance that humanity could dic-
tate. They provided clothes for the shivering creatures
who thus, in an instant, were bereft of shelter and pro-
perty—all they had in the world. The Rey. Mr. Hurly,
of St. Peter and Paul's Chapel, was also foremost in
the good work. By the courage and intrepidity of the
young lads of the neighbourhood, who boldly risked
their lives over and over again, those who still clung to
the standing portion of the ruins were brought away in
safety. The police also lent valueble assistance.
The above sketch of an accident, that but for a
miracle of Providence, would have produced a dreadful
loss of life, will, we trust, be sufficient to enlist public
sympathy for the unhappy sufferers, whose houseless,
foodless, and deserted state indeed merits compassion.—
Cork Examiner.

DEATH by POISONOUS MEDICINE.
On Friday Mr. Waklev resumed the adjourned inquest
on the body of Miss Sarah Ellen Collier. It appeared
that the deceased died a few minutes after swallowing some
medicine, and the proceedings were adjourned for a post mortem
examination yesterday.
Mr. James Pound was examined. He said, deceased was
his cousin, and they resided at the same house. She died on
Monday evening last, about twenty or twenty-five minutes
after she had taken part of a mixture prescribed for her by
Dr. Cronin. She took less than two. -table spoonsful. She
had taken some medicine before that Dr. Cronin's assistant
had prepared from the same prescription. That medicine did
not seem so strong as this, which he believed had been pre-
pared from the same prescription by Mr. Corfield, chemist, of
47, High-street, Camden• town. As soon as she had taken
the medicine she said, " How queer I feel !" she then walked
out of the room, and he, seeing that something was the matter
with her, followed her. When she got to the back garden
door she fell. Mr. Corfield was sent for, who fetched Mr.
Weathers, a neighbouring surgeon. She died about twenty
minutes after his arrival. Deceased was not subject to
fits; she was lively and cheerful just before she took the
medicine.

Mr. John Weathers, surgeon, of 41, lligh-street, said
that when he was called in he found deceased perfectly in-
sensible. The pulse was exceedingly tremulous, and she
laboured under symptoms of having taken prussic acid.
Finding the pulse rapidly sinking, he administered stimu-
lants internally and externally. He was assisted by Mr.
Tunally, a surgeon, but their efforts were of no avail. The
young lady died in about a quarter of an hour. He did not
use the stomach pump because he saw that the poison was
making such rapid strides, and thought stimulants the only
chance of saving her. He considered the case hopeless from
the first. The witness proceeded to state the results of the
pest mortem examination, which had not left the slightest
doubt on his mind but that prussic acid was the cause of
death. The bitter almond water, which formed the chief in-
gredient of the mixture deceased had taken, was also tested,
and found to contain a large quantity of prussic acid.
Mr. Johnson, of 48, St. Martin's-lane, a friend of deceased,
proved getting the medicine from Mr. Corfield. The pre-
scription had been sent to Mr. Corfield's about seven o'clock
on Monday evening, but not dispensed till about nine o'clock.
He said also that the quantity of the mixture taken by de .
ceased was a little more than one table spoonful, and the
spoon being measured, was found to hold half an ounce. The
deceased, therefore, had taken more—probably three-quar-
ters of an ounce of the mixture.

By direction of the Coroner, Mr. Corfield, the chemist, read
the prescription, which Dr. Cronin acknowledged he had
written. It was as follow:—" Compund spirits of am-
monia, two drachms ; tincture of opium, sixteen drops ;
prussic acid, Scheele's strength, four drops ; compound
strychnia powder, two grains; bitter almond water six oz.,
of which makes miztwe, and take two spoonsfui three times
a day."