The Sun.
London, England, 1847-09-09 00:00:00

A CURIOUS WILL.

The Courrier des Mats Unis gives an account of a
singular will left by a wealthy notary in Paris, about
25 years since, and which is yet in course of fulfil-
ment. His greatest pleasure in life had been to gather
his numerous friends around his table and treat them
splendidly, being generous and a good liver, and he
conceived the notion of perpetuating these social
gatherings after his death. Accordingly, by his will
he instituted an annual banquet for twenty of his
chosen friends, appropriating to the purpose the sum
of 2,000 f. The details of the feast were strictly en-
joined, directing the expense always to be 100 f. a
head. The memory of the deceased was to be toasted,
and the subject of conversation to be as friendship or
politeness might dictate. The feast was to be invio-
lably the same same, twenty-one plates to be always
set (one for himself as perpetual head of the table),
and the 2,000 f. to be expended. The first year the
twenty friends were all there, but year after year
they were...removed by death, until in twenty years
they were reduced to eight. These partook as custo-
mary of the feast, and toasted the memories of their
departed companions. Last year, however, there
were but two, who solely shared the luxurious but
melancholy banquet. The two knew each other but

little, and met yearly at this table. Their positions
were very different. One was very rich, while mis-
fortune had reduced the other to destitution. The
rich and tho poor man sat coldly opposite to each
other, until, warmed by the wines, they had forgotten
their different circumstances. On the Ist of June,
this year, the feast again returned, but the rich man
was dead, and the poor and only survivor seated him-
self at the table laden with silver, with its 21 covers
and its delicious'. viands. There he sat, the victim of
poverty, subject to all privations, pervaded by a feel-
ing of sadness and desolation, at a magnificent ban-
quet of 2,000 f. Pressed by his wants he made bold
to request that the sum which was supplied to this
yearly feast for himself might be appropriated to his
daily sustenance. The lawyer showed him the posi-
tive clause of the will, which he was compelled to see
executed to the letter. The poor man retired in sad-
ness, thinking how many days he would be obliged
to go without a dinner, while once a year he was
compelled to be surfeited with a feast prepared for
21 persons, and valued at 2,000 f. A singular piece
of folly truly.

HORRIBLE MURDER of a CHILD.
LOUTH, LINCOLNSHIRE, SEPT. B.—Yesterday an
examination of a young woman, charged with the
murder of her infant daughter, was resumed before
a full bench of magistrates at the Town Hall. The
prisoner, whose name is Ellen Tuxford, aged 24
years, is a fine, handsome-looking female. Upon
being placed in the dock the following evidence was
adduced : _ .

Superintendent Tracey said—From information
which I received respecting the prisoner I was in-
duced to make inquiry at the Louth workhouse, where
I learned that the prisoner, who had for some time
been an inmate, had there been delivered of a female
child about five weeks before, and that she left the
house on the 25th of August, stating that she was
going to Thorby. I traced her to Thorby, but she
had no child with her. Upon going to the house
where she was staying she denied that she had
had a child. I did not therefore at that time
take her into custody. Finding that she had after.
wards absented herself from the house, and secreted
herself in another, I gave orders for her apprehen-
sion, and went in search of the child. The result
of this inquiry was, that I traced the prisoner as far
as Houghton, on the Spilby road, with the child in
her possession, beyond which all trace of the child
was lost. The prisoner was there seen near
a pond with what appeared to be an infant in her
arms. Upon the apprehension of the prisoner I
asked her if she would state what had become of the
child, to which she replied that it had been thrown
into a pond by a man whom she had met, to account
for which she said that the child had died, and that
she was crying, that the man asked her the reason,
she told him, upon which he said he would soon get
over that for her, and then threw the child into the
pond. I then went, continued the constable, and
searched the pond, where I found the child ; it was
quite naked, and I afterwards searched the prisoner's
house, where I found the child's clothes ; they were
quite wet, and spotted with blood ; they had been
hidden in a coal-hole.
Mr. Bogg, surgeon, of Louth, said—l made a post
mortem examination of the body of the child. One
side of its mouth was cut away, and a portion of the
tongue had been cut out. There were several wounds
in the abdomen, which had evidently been made by
the scissors which were found on the prisoner.
B en cthb—e le
bai ml d qwu
was
tse
ac
leirvtea.i n thea t
ttroinbguut
ee wt•ial
es
immediate
oyeudi the
deceased would never have recovered from the injuries
whilela'ete cause of death to drowning, although the
which it had received.
Several other witnesses were examined, whose tes-
timony corroborated the above facts, after which the
prisoner was remanded.
An inquest has been held on the body, before Mr.
F. Gae, and notwithstanding the above facts were
sworn to, the jury returned a verdict of " Wilful
Murder against some person or persons unknown."

Three early white potatoes have been dug during
the week, in the garden of Colonel South, of Southlands,
Heavitree, which weigh together two pounds and a half.
They are very fine in appearance, and show no trace of
disease.— Western Luminary.