The Sun.
London, England, 1841-06-21 00:00:00

FRENCH ASSIZES.

INF A NTICIDE.—Iti August, 1840, a woman named
Josephine Leger, living at Brenod, was brought. before
the Assizes of the Ain, on the charge of having concealed
the birth of her child, and of having destroyed it. The
indictment averred that the said child was born in the
month of April, 1840. This crime was attributed to the
following must :—Josepliine Leger has been separated
from her husband, who lives in another village, for some
years past, and resides with her father and mother. In
1839 she had been suspected of having given birth to a
child IN hich had disappeared, and her husband had com-
plained of his wife's behaviour, and had declared to the
curate and mayor of Brenod that he was for nothing in
the pregnancy of his wife, and at the same time forbade
their registering the birth and baptising the child till he
had been informed of its birth. It was supposed that
the fear that Leger inspired his wife with, and the neces-
sity of removing all traces of a second fault, had induced
her to commit, in 1840, the crime laid to her charge.
Josephine Leger was no sooner arrested than she ac-
knowledged having beep confined of a child on the 26th
of April, 1840, adding that as it was still-born she
thought that there was no harm in her burying IL She
was then summoned to mention the place where she had
interred the child, but, although she mentioned divers
places, no remains of the child were found, in spite of the
judicial searches made on the occasion.
While in prison, it appears, Josephine Leger informed
a fellow-prisoner that her motive for not discovering the
place where she had buried her child proceeded,from the
fear of' certain marks being found on the child's neck.
The trial was commenced last August, but certain de-
tails of importance having transpired, it was judged ex-
pedient to adjourn the trial for a session. A woman of
the name of Carrier, belonging to an adj c, oinin village,
that of Maconod, had come forward and stated that a
young lad of eleven years old, called Lascoine, who had
been shepherd-boy to the father of Josephine Leger,
since her arrest had told her something which seemed to
throw a new light on the charge brought against Jose-
phine Leger. This lad, when examined, deposed that
he one day asked Josephine Leger's little boy, who lived
at his grandfather's, why his mother was in prison?
And the child answered, " It is for having killed my
little brother." He added, " She put him first into a
cradle, and then carried him into an upper room, where
my grandmother was. They both placed him on a table;
and, while grandmother held him, mother plunged a
knife into his belly. My little brother squalled ' Hein,
he in."rhey then carried him into the stable, and after-
wards to the dung-hill. Grandmother told me not to
say a word of what I had seen, and that my, little bro-
ther would have beaten me if he had grown bigger. She
afterwards gave me some nuts to make me bold my
tongue."
In consequence of this Mine. Minet, the mother of
Josephine Leger, was arrested as an accomplice of her
daughter.
The trial of the mother and daughter commenced on
Monday. Josephine Leger persisted in having been
confined of a still-born child, and that her mother knew
nothing of her pregnancy or of her confinement.
Mine. Millet affirmed that she was not at all acquainted
with her daughter's pregnancy, and that she caused her
to be examined by a medical man as soon as she heard
the reports in circulation. She attributed to malevo-
lence the depositions of the lad Lascoine.
Several witnesses deposed that they believed that
Josephine Leger was pregnant in 1837, but that they
had never heard what had been done with the child she
had had, and that as they entertained a similar idea in
1840 respecting the pregnancy of Josephine Leger, they
had intimated their suspicions to the proper authorities,
in order that measures might be taken to prevent a crime
beirg committed.
The judicial authorities of Brenord deposed that they
had questioned Josephine on her pregnancy, stating the
report in circulation on the subject, and. requestins, her
to submit to medical examination, which she had always
strenuously refused.

Lascoine related with great simplicity the details he
had received from Josephine's child, and his testimony
was strengthened by that of M. Carrier, who deposed
that on hearing the above details from Lascoine, she
had questioned young Leger, and that he had said, " Yes,
if I had been bigger, I would have prevented my little
brother's being killed."

This closed the evidence against the prisoners.
After a talented defence by their Counsel, Madame
Minot was acquitted, and Josephine I eger was sentenced
to twenty years hard labour and the pillory, mitigating
circumstances having been found by the Jury.

CAUTION TO PERSONS LEtTING LODG-
INGS.—Another of those specious robberies which have
become so numerous of late was perpetrated by two
females in the garb of ladies on Thursday last. It ap-
pears that at about two o'clock in the afternoon of that
day the ladies called at the residence of Mrs. Rumpling,
of Elm-cottage, Kennington-lane, Lambeth, and re-
quested permission to see the furnished lodgings which
she (Mrs. Rumpling) had to let. They were imme-
diately shown up stairs, and after viewing the apart-
ments expressed their satisfaction with them, and having
stated that they were mother and daughter, desired to
be furnished with pen, ink, and paper. Mrs. Rumpling
immediately went down stairs for that purpose, leaving
them in the drawing-room. On her return, the elder
female hastily wrote what she stated to be her name and
address, and withdrew. The parties had not, however,
left the house many minutes, when Mrs. Rumpling dis-
covered that they had taken with them a pair of silver
sugar tongs, value 21. lOs. The elder female appears to
be about forty, and the younger sixteen years of age.
The address which they gave was, of course, a ficti-
tious one.

ATTEMPT TO MURDER.—A man of the name
of Goodman, employed as a labourer on the Eastern
Counties Railway, has this week been apprehended and
committed for trial to the county gaol, for violently as-
saulting and attempting to cut the throat of a girl of the
name of Sarah Jones, at Brentwood, on Monday evening
last. Particulars of the assault having been given at the
police station, Superintendent Davis proceeded to the
spot, a back lane, where she was found lying in a ditch,
bleeding profusely from her mouth, and apparently in a
dying state ; assistance having been procured she was
conveyed to a place of safety, and a description of the
man being given, he was traced to his lodgings, where
he was apprehended.—Cheksjiird Chronicle.
SUDDEN DEATH.—We have to record another
of those sad and melancholy visitations of Providence
which we have so frequently to deplore, in the sudden
death of David Dingle, a very respectable old inhabitant
of Saltash. He retired to his bed in perfect health and
spirits on Tuesday se'nnight ; and on Wednesday morn-
ing early his wife found him dead by her side. As no
inquest was held on the body, we are unable to state the
immediate cause of his death, probably apoplexy.— West
Briton.

Thursday night, between nine and ten o'clock,
an interesting young female named Ann Carter, aged 19
years, threw herself into the river Thames, nearly op-
posite the lied House, at Battersea, from a boat m
which were another female and three young men, in a fit
of jealousy. The body has not yet been found. She
was the principal support of an aged mother.
NORWICH.—We are sorry to learn that one of
our factories is about to close. Hundreds of people in
this city are now out of employment, and are parading
the market place. Many are earnestly hoping that there
may be " a good sharp contest" at the election, that they
may have an opportunity of selling themselves for good
round sums. Others that have no such expectations are
denouncing the Corn-laws, believing that they are the
cause of their want of employment. We have not yet
heard that there is to be an opposition. Any person who
intends to fight Norwich must bring 20,000/. There is,
undoubtedly, a wish to compromise amongst the leaders
of each party, and a very great fear of it amongst the
venal electors. No address has at present been issued.—
Bury Post.
MURDER AND RETRIBUTION.---A soldier of
the army in Algiers, named Jugla, having in one of last
year's expeditions received a wound which rendered am-
putation of his left arm unavoidable, was, when re-
covered, discharged from service with a pension of 360
francs. He returned to Paris, his native city, and was
received by a maiden aunt, named Guery, living on the
Quai de Bethune, who, though her earnings were not
more than enough for her subsistence, gave him board
and lodging. Jugla, instead of endeavouring to con-
tribute towards their joint support, became dissolute, and
gave his hes‘oss repeated cause of complaint by coming
home intoxicated. On Monday night he was in a worse
state than ever, and used coarse language towards his be-
nefactress, who, though late, was still working for his
maintenance. She recommended him to go to bed, but as be
persevered in his ungrateful conduct she was provoked 40
say she would no longer converse with a drunkard. This
reproach so exasperated Jugla that he drew a knife,
stabbed her in the side, and was preparing to repeat the
stroke, when she escaped, ran down into the porter's
lodge, and there fainted. A surgeon was called, who
dressed her wound, and she is likely to recover. The
nephew, brought partially to his senses by the struggle
and the outcry raised against him, and struck with re-
morse, threw himself from the window of the fourth
story, and would have come headlong to the pavement,
had not his fall been shortened by a balcony on the first
floor, the rails of which he broke, but as he rolled inwards
he lay between them and the window. The inhabitants
of the apartment were out of town, and had not left the
key. Jugla, therefore, remained on the balcony till a
ladder was brought, when he was taken down and carried
to the Hotel Dieu, where he expired in a few minutes.:—
Galignani's Messenger. ,

CAUTION TO- PARENTS —A distressing oc-
currence took place at Upwell, Norfolk, on Saturday last.
It appeared that the children of William May, labourer,
had, in the absence of their mother, without her permis-
sion, been accustomed to drink water out of a tea-kettle,
when cold. A practice so dangerous, amongst children,
cannot ba too carefully guarded against, as the sequel
will show. About six o'clock on Saturday evening, May
was sitting with his children, in his cottage, reading, the
table being set for tea, and the kettle boiling on the
grate, when one of them, named Ann, three years of age,
unobserved by her father, approached the fire and drank
out of the kettle-spout, before he could prevent her. It
appeared he snatched her away, but it was too late. The
child was immediately carried to its mother, who was at
work at a relation's not far off, and medical aid was pro-
cured, but the poor creature, after suffering the most in-
tense agonies, expired on Monday morning about six
o'clock. An inquest was held on the body the same
day, when the jury returned a verdict to the effect that
the deceased died in consequence of drinking boiling
water from a tea-kettle.—Cambridge Chronicle.
The collection of living animals in the Garden
of Plants has lately had added to it a specimen never
before seen alive in any zoological collection of Europe.
It is a monitor lizard, from the Brazils, three feet in
length, two-thirds of which are formed by the tai'. The
1::, the ::.,..o=rance of bh2.;;l: c,llgrin,
bright yellow. Although possessing great _ strength, it
is harmless and gentle, and frequently darts from
mouth a long forked tongue.—Gatigriani. •