The Sun.
London, England, 1846-09-07 00:00:00

LowritiN, MO DA`. EVtisTING; sEPTPMBER 1, 1846

BRENTFORD PETTY SESSIONS.

LEGALITY OF ROMAN CATHOLIC MARRIAGES.,--011
Saturday a case of considerable importance to parishes
generally throughput the kingdom, involving the lega-
lity of Roman Catholic marriages, occupied a consi-
derable portion of the time of Mr. G. Baillie, chairman.
Patrick Daly, an Irishman of respectable appear-
ance, about eighty years of age, appeared before the
Bench to answer a summons at the instance of the pa-
rish officers of Isleworth, to show cause why he re-
fused to support and maintain Rosina Daly, his wife.
W. L. Lewis, assistant-overseer of Isleworth, deposed
to the fact of Mrs. Daly having been chargeable to that
parish for the last fortnight.
It appeared from the evidence of W. L. Daly that she
was married to the defendant in 1833 by the Rev. John
Wlring, the Roman Catholic clergyman of Isleworth.
She was the defendant's second wife.
A solicitor, who attended on behalf of the defendant,
submitted that he could not be compelled to support the
female who called herself his wife, inasmuch as the
marriage was an illegal one, it not having been per-
formed—as required by the provisions of the statute of
George IV., cap, 76, sec. 22—by a person in " holy
orders, nor under the authority of a " license,"inor in
accordance with a " publication of banns," nor in " a
church," Ste.
In the course of the litigation which had taken place
between the parties, the opinion of Mr. Gibbon, the
barrister, bad bean taken on the point, who was de-
cidedly of opinion that the marriage was null and void,
in which opinion Mr. Sergeant Shee and Mr. Peteradorf
fully concurred.
The Bench decided that as the marriage of the de-
fendant and the female now claiming relief from the
parish of Isleworth, took place previous to 1837, when
the New Marriage Act, which repealed the statute of
the 4th of George IV., came into operation, it was an
illegal one. They, therefore, refused to.make any order
on the defendant. The summons was consequently dis-
missed.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
CLERKENWELL.

On Saturday Ann Saunders was charged with severely
wounding a young man named Wit. Pipkin. It appeared
that the prisoner had on the evening of the previous day
been drunk in the streets, and was followed by a mob of
boys, who hooted and called her names. She at last
rushed into a public-house in Vine-street, St. Andrew's,
Holborn, when the complainant happening to go in for
his supper beer, she exclaimed in a violent manner,
" This is one of the -- that hooted at me 1" and
lifting up a large knife, three feet in length, with which
she had previously wounded some boys, made a desperate
chop at his head. He retreated and held up his arms to
ward off the blows, but she continued chopping at him,
and swearing to have his life. His arms were dreadfully
mutilated. The instrument was very sharp, and one cut
which she made at the poor fellow actually cut a large
piece of flesh from his shoulder. The young man called
for assistance, when the landlord and several other per-
sons seized the prisoner, took the knife from her, and
kept her until the arrival of policeman, 209 G, who
took her to the station-house, where she gave her name
Ann Saunders. She was locked up, and in the morning
she was taken before a magistrate, when Mr. Pipkin at-
tended in a weak state, with his arm in a sling. He gave
evidence confirmatory of the above particulars. He posi-
tively swore that he gave the prisoner no provocation for
the attack upon him. He never saw her before in his life-
time. He ,bled profusely from his wounds, and he was
taken to the house of Mr. Dalton, surgeon, of Leather-
lane, who dressed them, and he was put to bed. After
giving his evidence he was conveyed home in an ex-
hausted state. _ _ _

In answer to questions, he said that the prisoner de-
liberately chopped at him, and had the instrument struck
his head, he would inevitably have been murdered.
Mr. Francis Dalton, surgeon, of 52.., Leather-lane,
said that the prosecutor was brought to his house bleed-
ing from several severe wounds, which might have been
inflicted by such an instrument as the one now pro.
duced, about three feet in length, and five inches broad,
with a very sharp edge, and such as is generally used by
chaff-cutters and skin-dressers. One of the wounds on
the prosecutor's wrist was a very dangerous one.
The police-constable who took the prisoner into cus-
tody saw her flourishing a large knife at a crowd of chil-
dren who were following her. He heard that some of
them were injured. Saw her lift up the knife in both
hands and chop at people, and he cautioned her to be-
ware of such conduct. Shortly afterwards he was called
upon to take her into custody, when she went quietly
to the station house.

The prisoner, in her defence, said she had been
drinking freely, when she Wa3 followed, bQaten, and
kicked by the mob, when she threw herself under the
protection of the police, as she felt her life to be in
danger. She thought the prosecutor was one of the
party when she struck him with the knife. She was
very sorry for what had happened.
She was fully committed for trial for the felony, when,
in the course of the day, she was conveyed to Newgate
in the police van.

The prisoner—No young man told me anything of the
kind, your Worship.
Mr. BALLANTINE—We have it in evidence that you I
were cautioned, and that you afterwards continued to
hawk the berries. Can anything be more horrible?
Joseph Lester, assistant to Mr Hiscox, confirmed
that gentleman's evidence as to the prisoner's knowledge
of herbs and plants, and described him as the best herb
gatherer in England. He should not think it at all pro-
bable that the prisoner would be ignorant of the quali-
ties of the belladonna. He saw the prisoner on the 15th
of August, when he called at his masters shop with two
baskets ; one contained berries, the other herbs. He
asked the prisoner what berries he had in his basket, and
he replied nettle berries. The witness said, "Do you
call these nettle berries ?" and the prisoner replied,
" They are hockle berries."
Mr. BALLANTINE—Did he say whortle berries ? Les-
ter—No, Sir, he said hockle berries ; but his first ex-
pression was nettle berries.
Mr. Hiscox was re-called, and said he had seen the
whortle berry, commonly called the bilberry, growing in
Surrey. The berry of the deadly nightshade was a very
different thing, and much larger.
Lester stated that the prisoner did not say the berries
were for his master on the 15th of August. They were
separated from the stalk.
Mr. BALLANTINE (to the prisoner)—Well, I shall
commit you fur trial fur wilful murder.
Mr. /Symonds, the chief clerk, said there was other
evidence, and .

John Donegan, a police inspector, was called, who
said the prisoner was brought to the Denmark-street
station-house on the 20th of August, in the custody of
a police constable named Bird, of the B division, who
apprehended him in Strutton-ground, Westminster. He
told the prisoner he was identified as the man who sold
the poistuous berries in Whitechapel on the previous
Saturday, and be said he had never been in that neigh-
bourhood at all. The prisoner had a basket in his pos-
session containing blackberries when he was appre-
hended They were common blackberries.
Mary Ann Cox, a young woman, who appeared in a
very ill state of health, said that she purchased a half-
pennyworth of berries of the prisoner on the 15th cf
August, in Whiteehapel. He said they were hockle
berries, and recommended them strongly for making
tarts and pies. She was attacked with severe illness
after eating the berries, and was taken to the Loudon
Hospital, where she remained for several days.
The evidence of several other persons who had pur-
chased berries of the prisoner on the same day, and who
were similarly affected,' was read over.
A woman, many years younger than the prisoner,
here got into the witness box, and said he was a good
husband to her, and had never been in the hands of the
police before.
John Donegan said the woman was the prisoner's wife.
Mr. BALLANTINE—What of that? she has a right to
be heard.

The worthy magistrate then addressed the woman,
and said the prisoner was charged with selling poisonous
berries, well knowing them to be so, and he could not
help him. It was his duty to commit him for trial for
the wiltul.murder of Thomas Parker and Samuel Jones.
The witnesses were then bound over in the usual form.

ALLEGED WHOLESALE POISON-
ING OF CHILDREN.
An inquest was held on Friday night at the London
Hospital, on the body of a female who had committed
suicide by swallowing a pennyworth of fly water.
Mr. Thomas Jessop, the house-surgeon of the institu-
tion, on being examined by the coroner and jury, took
occasion to make an important statement. He said he
had analysed some of the liquid which deceased had
taken, and he found that it contained a great quantity
of arsenic, and the liquor was so sweetened as to attract
the vermin to partake of it. He wished particularly to
call the attention of the worthy coroner and jury to the
label on the bottle (handing in a bottle of fly water). The
coroner having attentively perused the label, said it ap-
peared to him a most extraordinary heading for a bottle
of poison, " Sleeping made easy." Why, a person
might purchase a bottle of the mixture, and,
without reading the whole of the label, might
conclude that it was a cooling draught, and
calculated to do the party good. He (the coroner)
thought the heading of the label ought to be imme-
diately altered. Mr. Jessop said he wanted to call the
attention of the court to one part of the label, where it
stated, " to destroy black beetles, cockroaches, and
crickets, soak crumbs of bread in some of the liquor, and
strew them about the floor, and the_vermin will eat the
same and instantly die." Now what could be more dan-
gerous than throwing crumbs of bread, containing poi-
son, about the floor ? It was a well-known fact, that
in the neighbourhood of Whitechapel and other densely
populated districts, where the fly water had the greatest
sale, there was scarcely a house but what contained
many families, and the number of young children
living in the same rooms with their parents it was almost
impossible to tell. Of late it was well known that a
vast number of children had been treated for, and died
from, what was imagined natural diarrhoea. He (Mr.
Jessop) had no doubt that one-third of the children said
to have died from that complaint had been poisoned
with fly water. It was equally well known that children,
if left playing on the floor, would pick up anything they
could find and put it in their mouths. Crumbs of bread,
thus scattered over the floor, and left in the way of
children, was exceedingly dangerous. What were the
symptoms after taking the poison? He would explain.
first sickness, and then diarrhoea. The children were
taken in some instances to a surgeon, who prescribed
for them; but the poison having become absorbed in the
system, it was unknown that the deceased had died from
anything deleterious. From what he had ascertained he
had no doubt, as he bad before stated, that one-third of
the children, supposed to have died from diarrhoea, had
died from the effects of poison. Ho believed, if his
remarks were noticed by the press, that they would have
a very beneficial effect.

LLOYD'S SHIPPING•
TO MARINERS.
QUARANTINE REGULATIONS.
The following is an extract of a letter from Lloyd s
agency, at Palermo, dated 20th August:—
"In consequence of a new saintary regulation, all
vessels coming through the Straits of Gibraltar, to any
port of the kingdom of the two Sicilies, are subject to
seven days' quarantine, and if the hatches should, on
arrival, be found open, the quarantine will be 14 days,
and the goods landed at the Lazaretto.
" Our Minister at Naples has asked for an explana-
tion of this new measure.'
NOTICE TO MARINERS.
NEW LIGHT, ISLAND OF HONDURAS.
Extract of a letter from Lloyd's agent, at Belize.
dated July 20:—
"On the 17th July, three lights in the shape of a
triangle were exhibited at Manger Kaye, in lat. 17 deg.
36 min. N., long. 87 deg. 67 min. W., which were seen
by the. writer 12 to 16 miles distant, in a very squally
night.
The light is so placed that by bringing the two lower
lights (which are 75 feet above the level of the sea) into
one, a vessel may shape her course at a distance of six
miles from the Kaye for English Kaye. The top light
of Manger Kaye is 95 feet above the level of the sea."