The Sun.
London, England, 1847-11-09 00:00:00

she heard the sister accusing her brother, whom she
called a villian, of poisoning her mother, and that, al-
though the accusation was frequently repeated by
her, the prisoner made no denial of it upon either oc-
casion. The sister afterwards told her that she had
been seriously ill-used by the prisoner in consequence
of her interference.

William Randal, the landlord of the house, spoke
to his having heard constant altercations between
the prisoner and the other members of his family,
and to his having been disturbed by one of these
scenes of unusual violence on the night preceding the
death r‘f the deceased, and while, the latter was con-
fined to her bed.

Police-constable Attwood, 94 N, also proved that
in the course of a conversation with the injured sister,
who expressed great indignation against her brother,
and regret that she was too ill to appear against him,
she earnestly declared that the prisoner had poisoned
his mother, to whom three powders had been adminis-
tered, and that a bottle containing ether or some such
liquid had been thrown away that day, for which she
was extremely sorry.
Mr. Edward Hacon, a surgeon in Mare-street, de •
posed to having attended the deceased for the last
four days preceding her death, in succession to seve-
ral other medical men, whose services had been
dispensed with after short intervals of attendance, and
that during that time she had been labouring under
diarrhoea and extreme vomiting. She was progress-
ing favourably, however, under his treatment, until
the day preceding her death, when the ques-
tion was put to him whether she was not in such
a state of danger as to require the immediate prepa-
ration of her will ; to which he replied with some
surprise in the negative, as she was decidedly better ;
but upon► visiting her in the evening he found her
alarmingly worse, and labouring under symptoms
which could not have been produced by anything he
had prescribed for her. This was about ten o'clock
at night, and at four the next morning she was dead.
The witness had since, in company with Dr. Letheby,
chemical lecturer to the London Hospital, performed
a post mortern examination of the body, and from a
careful analysis of the contents of the stomach, and
the extraordinary appearances presented by the liver,
they had had no hesitation in coming to the conclu-
sive conviction that the death of the deceased had been
produced by arsenic, of which they had discovered
sufficient in the body to destroy the lives of several
persons; and they were also decidedly of opinion,
from the manner in which the poison had been ab-
sorbed, that some portion of it must have been admi-
nistered at least a week, and perhaps a fortnight,
antecedent to death, and that a considerable quantity
must likewise have been received into the stomach
within 48 hours before she expired.
On being called upon for his defence the prisoner
repeated the statement he had previously made to the
officer, that the charge had solely emanated from the
malicious feeling of his sister, who was actuated by a
groundless fear that he, as the eldest son, would take
possession of the whole of the property ; and stated
that he had been in the habit for some time past of
allowing his mother 701. per annum out of his income
for her sole use, but that she had been accustomed to
allow his two sisters and a niece to participate in it,
one of the former of whom, though married, was of
such drunken, dissolute habits, that he had been in-
cessantly obliged to remonstrate against her being
permitted to come to the house to disturb his mother,
whom he was anxious to secure from annoyance, but
that she persisted in doing so, and that that had
given occasion to the violent contentions deposed to,
in one of which he admitted he had used his other
sister, as had been described.

Sergeant Hawkes informed the magistrate that:but
a short time before the death of the deceased applica-
tion had been made to the rector of South Hackney
by some one on the part of the deceased, for his signature
to a certificate of her existence, to facilitate the receipt
of a pension of 401. per year, to which she was entitled as
a captain's widow, and that, precaution having been
taken to ascertain that she was really alive, the certi-
ficate was ultimately granted by the clergyman. Ile
(the sergeant) would be provided at the next exami-
nation with additional evidence of a conclusive nature
against the accused, and asked for time to be afforded
him for its production.
Mr. HAmmu.r. assented, and the prisoner, who
displayed great self-possession throughout, was or-
dered to be brought up next week, when his sister,
it was stated, would probably be well enough to
attend.

THE LATE SUSPICIOUS CASE OF
POISONING.

Yesterday Mr. IV. Baker, the Coroner for East
Middlesex, resumed, at the Dolphin Tavern, Mare-
street, Hackney, an inquest on the body of Mrs
Frances Sheridan, aged 70, alleged to have been
poisoned under the following circumstances :
.

The deceased was the widow of an officer in the
army, and lately resided with her son, William, an
Excise officer, and two daughters, in the above street.
On the former assembling of the jury, William was
charged with having murdered the deceased by
poison, and he was yesterday apprehended and taken
into custody on the Coroner's order.
Mr. W. Tidy, surgeon, of Mare-street, stated that
he was first called to deceased on the 23d ult., and
found her very sick and vomiting. She was having
involuntary motions, and one of the daughters (a
spinster) told witness that she had been taken sud-
denly ill, and had vomited similarly to her mother.
Witness suspected that she had been taking some-
thing deleterious, and upon witness's inquiries upon
this point, she volunteered an accusation against her
brother William, complaining, at the same time, of
various acts of violence on his part towards the
family.
It was stated by police-sergeant Hawkes,. N divi-
sion, that there had been family disturbances for
some twelve months past, and they were of an eccen-
tric character, and somewhat addicted to drink.
Mr. Hakin, surgeon, said he had been called to
deceased,hiacrihd
tooks
saw
phlearce fnew the hours
29th
auit.sHt:
had
death, w
since made a post mortem examination, and found the
-kin about the posterior part of the body almost ors
ap-
proaching to mortification, and a dark coloured
mucus escaping from the mouth. The liver was
unusually large, whilst the lungs were perfectly
healthy ; the pericardium was also healthy. The
stomach contained about six ounces of dark fluid. In
the abdomen there was considerable congestion of the
vessels of the posterior part of the belly and liver.
Fhe cesophagus was very thin, and its lining mem-
brane ecchymosed, and exhibited such appearances
as to require analysis. There were also su3pigious
appearances about the duodenum. The contents
of the stomach were sent to Dr. Letheby, for ana-
lysis. There was sufficient in the bowels to account
for death.
By the CORONER—lnstant poison could have pro-
duced all the appearances described.
Dr. 11. Letheby, chemical lecturer at the London
Hospital, stated that on Thursday last he received li
three jars from Mr. Hakin, the smallest one contain-
ing the contents of the stomach, and the two larger
ones the stomach and intestines, together with por-
tions of the liver and lungs.
The CORONER—Can you just tell me one thing,
that is, if there be anything in the shape of poison in
this case ? Witness—Yes ; I have discovered arsenic,
and more than in Mr. Nelme's case.—(Sensation.)
The CORONER (to the summoning officer)—The
prisoner had better be taken into custody at once.
The man was immediately apprehended accord-
ingly.
Evidence of Dr. Letheby continued—Witness sub-
jected about half a pound of the liver to analysis,
and was able to detect an abundance of arsenic.
(Exhibited to the jury a glass tube.) It was more
than sufficient to cause death. Had further analysed
the contents of the stomach, and detected arsenic
there also.
By the jury—There was an abundance of arsenic.
The learned doctor then went into a very minute and
elaborate account of the whole of the analysis, and
added that deceased had evidently for some time been
suffering from arsenic, and from the circumstances of
hie detecting arsenic in the contents of the intestines,
he was led to an opinion that deceased had had a dose
recently, viz., within forty-eight hours of her death.
After much more evidence,
The CORONER said it was clearly a case of such
magnitude and importance that it required the double
agency
.of coroner and magistrate, and he should
suggest an adjournment of the proceedings, so as in
the interim the prisoner might be taken before the
magistrate, and thus the matter would undergo a
thorough investigation, especially as the magistrate's
power of examining witnesses, &c , was not of so
limited a character as his (the Coroner's).
Adjourned accordingly.
The prisoner, who seemed much affected, endea-
voured to escape.

IRISH MINE3.—MEETING OF IRISH 1111311BERS.—
We observe, in the report of the proceedings of the
meeting of Irish Members yesterday, that one of the
propositions brought forward related to the necessity for
developing the great mineral resources of Leland. 'We
think it necessary to remark, in erder to prevent misap-
prehension on this important subject, that nothing what-
ever in the shape of pecuniary aid is required by the
Irish mining companies. What they require, and what
is imperatively necessary, to facilitate employment in a
great extension of mining operations in this country, is
such a change in the law as would empower trustees and
guardians of minors and lunatics, and holders of eccle-
siastical property, to take a lower rate than one•tenth as
royalty, to what they are now most absurdly restricted
by law, and also to enable them to make leases of suffi-
cient length to induce capitalists to embark their pro-
perty. A simple change in the law to this effect is all
that is wished for, and, indeed, all that is necessary, to
ensure employment to many thousands of people, in ad-
dition to those already employed in mines. We are
confident that it is only necessary to call the attention of
the Government to the subject, in order to ensure a
prompt remedy for this crying evil, which none but the
Government can supply,—Dubin Everting Post.