The Sun.
London, England, 1847-12-09 00:00:00

appeared; and it will be remembered that a remand took
place in order to afford an opportunity for a strict and
careful analysis of the contents of a cup and a basin,
suppth.ed to have in them opium, mixed by the prisoner
in some tea.
The following additional evidence was now adduced:—
Mr. Charles Heisch, lecturer on practical chemistry at
St. Thomas's Hospital, deposed that around the inside
of the cup there adhered something of a dark colour,
and in the basin there was about half a cup of tea. He
subjected the contents of both to a close analysis; and
on scraping the powder from the cup, he found that it
smelt of opium. He separated morphia, which is the
active principle of opium, and also meconia acid, which
was a substance peculiar to opium, and not met with in
anything else.
Mr. BROUGHTON—Then you mean to say, Sir, that
there was opium both in , the cup and basin ? Mr.
Heisch—l do, Sir.
Mr. BROUGHTON—What quantity do you suppose yoa
detected ? Mr. Heisch—Perhaps not more than half a
grain.
Mr. BeouctuToN—ls it sold by chemists in a powder,
or otherwise? Mr. Heisch—Generally in a lump.
Mr. BROUGHTON—What effect would eight or ten
grains, which is the quantity supposed to have been pur-
chased by the accused, be likely to have upon a woman,
admitting that she was to partake of the whole of it in a
cup of tea ? Mr. Heisch—lt would be lilt( ly to cause
excessive drowsiness, and in some cases fatal conse-
quences might ensue; that would depend, however, •Poh
the constitution.
The prisoner, who had more than once interrupted the
proceedings, here said, " I wish to tell the truth, and
nothing more. On Tuesday fortnight, I went into Mr.
Watt's, a chemist, in the Edgeware-road, feeling at the
time very unwell, and asked for two opium pills. He
gave me the pills, and I went home. I'm innocent of
what my wife charges me with. I suffered through thi
complaint nearly three years, but I have kept it secret
from my wife until now. I have always taken the pill*
in tea."
Mr. BROUSIITON—This is a new story from you alto•
gether, and, as it appears to me, has suddenly arisen in
your mind. After hearing the evidence of this gen-
tleman (Mr. Heisch) when you were here first, you
never mentioned a single word about your having 4'
tained any opium for yourself, and asserted that if there
was any in the tea, it must have been put in by your
wife for the purpose of destroying you. You also said
you had reason to believe that she endeavoured some
time ago to induce you to partake of a herring which
you believed had poison in it.
Prisoner—l said I could not tell how it was that the
cup got on her side of the table.
Some further evidence, principally corroborative of •
portion of the proceeding, was then gone into, when Mr.
Broughton asked the prisoner it' he wished to say Or
thing more.
Prisoner—l'm as innocent as any baby that has never
seen the dawn of day.
The prisoner will be brought up again next Monday'.
WESTMINSTER.
Ellen Mottram and Jane Mee, two women of the town'
were finally examined, charged with drugging a gentle°
man and robbing him of his gold watch and appendages,
and some money.
In consequence of the gentleman being at present the
inmate of a lunatic asylum from the effects of the drug
administered, and the police not having had the uPPor.
tueity of any communication with him since the appre-
hension of. the prisoners, considerable difficulty has been
experienced in getting up the necessary evidence. The
facts as deposed to yesterday by the various witnesses,
are briefly these.—On the 19th of last August, two sol-
diers named Stoddy and Darby, the former of the Sd
battalion of Grenadier Guards, offered a very handsome
gold watch and appendages in pledge at the shop of Ilfr•
Ryas, 147, St. George's-in-the-East, when the pawn-
broker, not being satisfied with their account of the
means by which they became possessed of the property,
sent for a policeman and gave them into custody or tih;
lawfully having it in their possession. They wer fe
triea
and convicted at the Central Criminal Court in the Sep-
tember session, and sentenced to six months'
imprison-
meut. Mr. J. Sercombe, the owner of the watch, having
the property restored to him, nothing more was beard_
of the matter or those implicated in it until the 30th o!
October, when Christopher Lucas, acting sergeant of
the 2d battalion of Grenadier Guards, met the prisoner
Mottram in Hernming's-row, Leicester-square, near St.
George's barracks, when she inquired whether he knew
a man named Stoddy, of his battalion, and, on his re_:
plying in the affirmative, she inquired whether he wtmi
not in prison. The sergeant having replied that he
was, she entered into conversation with him, in the
course of which she said, speaking of Stoddy, " He jel
d—d fool, and if he had acted as I advised him he would
not have been detected." She then said that she Intl
the gentleman (Mr. Sercombe) near the Nations'
Gallery one night, when she was out with Jane,
(the prisoner Mee), and he accompanied them home'
He then gave her half a sovereign to procure some Wine,'
and on her return she gave him some of it mixed with
laudanum and sugar, and not being aware of its being
drugged, on her telling him that it would do him good
he drank it, and immediately afterwards fell asleep. She
then took the watch from his pocket, and her associate
took four sovereigns and three half-crowns from hie
pocket, but " as she did not like to leave the poor
without a farthing she put half a-crown back into his
pocket." After making this statement she left the ser-
geant, who immediately acquainted the police with
what had occurred, and on meeting her next night
near the barracks the sergeant gave her into cus-
tody. She was taken to the station-house of the
A division, when in the course of a statement con•
firmatory of some portion of that made to the sergeant,
she informed Mr. John Lund, the inspector on duty,
that after they had taken the watch and money from
the gentleman, a soldier, whom they knew, came in,
when they packed up their wearing apparel, gave it to
the soldier to carry, and left the gentleman asleep
in the
room (in a den of infamy called the New Way, West-
minster). The next day they met two soldiers, a Colds
streamer and a Grenadier (Darby and Stoddy), and gave
them the watch and appendages to take to Ratcliffe
Highway to sell. In consequence of the description
given of Mottram's companion (Mee), Portsmouth, h
constable of the B division, meeting her in the street, told
her she must accompany him to the station. She en-
treated him not to take her, but upon his declaring that
he must, she said, without being told the nature of the
charge, " I know it's about that gentleman's watch." It
was in the course of the evidence distinctly shown that
Mr. Sercombe was the gentleman alluded to by the
pre.
•Lund.
pri-
soner Mottram, in some observations made by her at the
station, which did not escape the attention o f Mr.
The prisoners admitted, upon the first examination,
that the statements made against them were true in part,
but were not perfectly so. They subsequently
they had
into a faint denial of the robbery, and declared
not drugged the gentleman. The prisoner Mee
e.
yester-
day entered into a long statement, in the course of which
she admitted being with the other woman, Mottram, with
the gentleman at their lodgings,
't you for
entered
Mr. BRODERIP said, it is my duty to commit
trial, upon this very serious charge, at the next sessions
of the Central Criminal Court. In consequence of ,the
lamentable affliction which had fallen upon Mr. ker,
combo, this case has been beset by difficultiesi and I
cannot let it pass without observing that Inspector Lund
r
and the police are deserving of much commendation for
their diligence and astuteness in completing the links of
the necessary chain of evidence.
The prisoner Mee said, " We are innocent of adminis-
tering poison to him."
Mr. BRODERIP observed that a jury would determine
upon their guilt or innocence.
CLEI?KEN WELL.
Maitin Bowman, a well-known thief, was finally exa-
mined, charged by Mr. Gibbons, of No. 45, Hatton-
garden, with having stolen a quantity of silver plate and
other property, and James Townsend was also charged
with having aided and abetted him in the robbery.
The prisoners said nothing in their defence, and they
were fully committed for trial.

THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH versus TIME.TINIE
DEAD BEAT.—In a letter received by a gentleman of
Manchester from a friend in Indiana, United States, is
the following passage relative to the electric telegraph
in that state:—" That wonderful invention, the magnetic
telegraph, passes through our country from the eastern
cities, communicating intelligence almost instanta-
neously. News has been transmitted from Philadelphia
to Cincinnati, a distance of 750 miles, on one unbroken
chain of wires. Of course, as Cincinnati is ten degrees
west of Philadelphia, or 40 minutes of time later, the
news is that much ahead of the time."