The Sun.
London, England, 1847-01-14 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY AFFAIR,

SALIsEtnnY, SATURDAY.—ShortIy after two o'clock
this morning, cries of " Murder" were heard from the
residence of the Rev. Isaac New, of Castle-street, which
speedily alarmed the whole neighbourhood, and several
neighbours got up, and ran into the street almost in a
state of nudity. Police-constable Axton at this time
was standing at Chipper-lane corner, and consequently
was the first on the spot, owing to the distance being so
short. On arriving there the lady of this c ergyman
and a female servant were crying " Murder" from the
front windows, and the lady was in such a state of alarm
that it was feared she would precipitate herself into tie
street. The neighbours and police having effected an
entrance, they were met by Mr. New, who was un-
dressed, and who appeared to be much terrified ; he
held in his hand a carving-knife, with which he said
the servant-maid had been stabbed by a burglar, who,
he supposed, had escaped. The parties then armed
themselves with the most formidable weapons which
they, at the spur of the moment, could avail
.them-
selves of, and commenced a search. The back door
appeared to have been forced open, as the protection
had been removed from a sort of heart hole at the
top of the door, where a man could then put his arm
through, and by so doing draw back the top bolt, which
appeared to have been the case, as the staple of the
lower bolt had been forced off. Close to the back door
was a dwsrf wall, which communicated with the next
house ; and the result of their search not being attended
wish a discovery, it was resolved that these adjoining
premises should be immediately searched. By this time
the Rev. Mr. Greenfield, a gentleman living close by,
and who had heard the alarm, arrived from the police
station, with ether constables. The apartments of two
families in this house were then, without ceremony,
searchedi but nothing suspicious discovered. The con-
stables then returned to Mr. New's house, where they
found a bundle of' things tied up in the parlour, as if in-
tended for removal. The furniture was in a state of dis-
order, and bore evident appearances of a case of bur-
glary. The Rev. Mr. New, by this time, having in a mea-
sure recovered from his fright, began to state, that he
heard the maid-servant blow-stairs screaming " Mur-
der!" whereupon he hurried down stairs, and found she
had been stabbed, and, producing the kni'e, said that
he himself had removed it from her. The maid-ser-
vant, who till this period was crying "Murder !" stated
that she heard footsteps and noises below, and that she
dressed herself and went down stairs. She was then
attacked by a man whose dress she attempted to de-
scribe, but, in her flurried moments, particular reliance
was not placed en it. His trousers and waistcoat, she
said, were of a lightish colour, his coat dark, and he
wore a sort of carpet shoes. This man came up to her
and stabbed her. After these particulars, search was
made in every direction, but without success. As soon
as it was daybreak the whole neighbourhood was thrown
into confusion and deep anxiety, more especially as the
last number of the Salisbury and Winchester Journal
contained a letter to the editor, signed by the Rev. Mr.
New himself, narrating an affair which had oceurred to
this maid-servant only a
.few days before.— 'let some
man entered his house in the even* by means of a key,
and went upstairs into the room in which she was
sitting alone (as himself and family were from home).
This man then presented a pistol at her, and told her
he would fire at her if she did not tell him where her
master kept his money. She then told the fellow that
her master was in the next room, and he had better go
and ask him himself. Hearing this, the fellow
became frightened, and having struck her a blow
on the bead with a bunch of keys, he left the room and
ran down stairs. This second attempt, therefore, quite
horrified the public, and many were the determinations of
the neighbours, who were congregated during the
morning, to prepare against such midnight robbery and
violence. One purchased a pair of pistols, and another
resolved to hire a man to sleep on the ground-floor.
While this was going on, a number of gentlemen called
at the Rev. Mr. New's residence to learn the particulars,.
and among others our active inspector, Blake of the City
force, who, having an interview with this gentleman, ex-
pressed his dissAtisfaction at the maid-servants story.
These observatons highly offendedM. r.
character,New,
who
placed
and,
implicit confidence in her as a religious
therefore, he expressly forbade a search of her box to be
suggested
made. The inspector then, w
the propriety of such a course to
smunderstand,
o e intimate f sriend
of the rev, gentleman, and they prevailed on him to allow
it to be adopted. The iuspeotor then searched her box,
and there discovered several articles which were identi-
fied by Mr. and Mrs. New as their property. An in-
quiry as to the nature of the wound inflicted on her by
the stab with the carving-knife followed, and the
interposition of Providence, which at first appeared to
have prevented a dangerous consequence, then induced
a very strong suspicion of fabrication ! The breaking
open of the back door also caused suspicion that the vio-
lence took place from within, and this, coupled with the
circumstance of her coolly dressing herself and going
down stairs to the robber after she had been previously
attacked by a man, and that too without giving the
slightest alarm to her master or mistress, till Mr. New
was awakened by her cries of " Murder"—all these facts
together induced her master to allow her to be taken to
the police station. While this search was being made,
a large number of persons congregated in front of the
house, and as scon as the particulars were generally
.known here described, the public became warm with
indignation against the maid servant, believing the whole
of her alarms to be fabricated. Shortly after two o'clock
she was brought out of Mr. New's residence, in custody
of the inspector and two other constables, to protect her
from violence. As soon as she appeared she was saluted
with hissing and yells. She wept very much on her way
to the police-station. Her name is danuah Maria
Salmon; she is 20 years old, and is a native of Warmin-
ster, Wilts. She has been living in Salisbury four years,
and a considerable part of that time she wus in the em-
ployment of Mr. New. At seven o'clock this evening
she was examined by the magistrates on the testimony
of Inspector Blake, and remanded at nine o'clock, for
further endeuce, t 9 litlerwa Gaol.