The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-06 00:00:00

MARLBOI?OUGH-STREET.

James Williams. a young man well-known to the
police, was charged under the following circumstances:
—Mr. James Logan, of Duke-street, Portland-place,
stated, that about one o'clock on Saturday night last,
as he was proceeding along Oxford-street, he was beset
by the prisoner and two other men, who hus►led him.
and he felt their hands in his pockets, they then struck
him down, and were running off, but a police constable
of the E division succeeded in securing the prisoner,
although his companions escaped.
The prisoner said he had never touched the prose-
cutor.

Mr. MALTBY asked the prosecutor if he had lost any-
thing. The prosecutor said he believed not, excepting his
latchkey, which might have fallen out of his pocket in
the scuffle.

The prisoner was remanded until Thursday next.

SUSPICIOUS CASE of POISONING

AT BROMLEY.

It may be within the recollection of the public, that
about eightevin months ago a young woman, named
Harriet Mont ton, was found poisoned by prussic acid
at Bromley, under such circumstances as to leave little
doubt that sb e had been murdered. As so long a period
has elapsed since the occurrence, it may not be amiss to
briefly bring to the recollection of the public the circum-
stances of tb is mysterious affair. It appeared, upon the
different inquiries that took place upon the coroner's
jury, that the deceased was a young woman of respect-
able connexions in the neighbourhood of Bromley, and
at the period in question she had come down from
London to see her friends for a short period, preparatory
to going Lc) a situation as governess in a family in
Arundel, io. Sussex. She left her mother's house in the
evening in good health and spirits, and nothing more
was heard e.f her until she was found dead in a privy at
the rear of a Dissenting chapel at the back of the High-
street, Broniley. At first not the slightest suspicion was
entertained that there had been any foul play, but from
circumstanc es that subsequently transpired, the coroner's
jury deemed it requisite that an adjournment should
take place, in order that the surgeons who were called
in might b ave an opportunity of making a post mortem
examinati.wa. This was accordingly done, when it was
discovered that the deceased was very far advanced in
pregnancy, and that her death was occasioned by the
administriedon of a large dose of prussic acid.
It appeared quite clear, from the medical and other
testimony,. that it was almost impossible for the deceased
to have herself administered the large quantity of deadly
poison tha t was found on her stomach, and the inference
was that it was given to her, and, from the evidence,
probably in the chapel, where it was supposed she had
gone to to eet her seducer, and that afterwards the body
had been removed wh ,re it was found, with a view to
lead to tit e idea that the unhappy young woman had
destroyed herself, or had died in a fit. One circumstance
of great tsuspicion, however, arose in the mind of the
Coroner's jury, which was the absence of any weapon or
instrument likely to produce death, or any vessel calcu-
lated to c ontain poison, and this chiefly occasioned the
adjournin ent which led to the discovery above alluded to.
After two or three adjournments of the inquiry, when
no very ,rnaterial additional evidence was adduced, the
Commias inners of Police employed Mr. Pearce, who wai
at the head of the detective force, to prosecute the in-
quiry, and several meetings of the jury took place, but
no fresh evidence calculated to throw any light upon the
mysterie us transaction was brought forward, and at
length ene matter seemed to have entirely dropped.
The jury, or rather a considerable maj,irity of its
memberrs, who felt a very strong impression that a most
foul eci me had been committed, were determined, how-
ever, t.,iat the matter should be brought to some issue,
and t 6 ey made repeated and pressing applications to the
Coro!u it 'to continue the inquiry. The Coroner, how-
ever, refused to call the jury together to conclude the
inqurry ; and after repeated applications a memorial has,
with,n the last few days, been sent to the Secretary of
t ferpolm wSiill be
be taken
Jaynes Graham
toav have
State,. requesting him to interfere to compel the Coroner
to p erform what the jury consider to be his duty. An
answert
o the e ffweacst treceivedhat t e on
necessary
sa
full! inquiry into the circumstances of the case, and that
no feu they delay4shall take place ; and it is understood
that a, communication has been sent to the Coroner of
such a character as will compel him to commence the in-
quiry.

DE'STRUCTI'VE FIRE, AND LOSS

OF TWO LIVES.

OA Saturday morning a fire, which was attended with
disatit rous consequences to both life and property, took
plae., upon the premises occupied by Mrs. Pryer, a
laun d ress, situated at 23, Cambridge-place, Junction -
road,. near the Great Western Railway terminus at Pad-
ding to in. It appears that police-constable D 179, on
goin g his rounds early on Saturday morning, observed
an u n usual light in the first floor of the building, which
indus, ?.d him to raise the alarm of fire ; but unfortunately
it wt some time before the inmates could be roused
from their slumbers, and not until the flames were burst-
ing trough the front windows, as well as up the stair-
case, with the greatest impetuosity. Several of the
lodg rrs managed to escape from the blazing building, as
did-. t trs. Pryer and another female, wbo was severely
burnt: upon the body as she descended the stairs. The scene
shortil.y afterwards was of the most heartrending descrip-
tion, Jr not only the inhabitants of the burning house, hut
also ti] ()se adjoining, were seen either at the windows or
huddid d together in the street in their night-dresses. Upon
the fir at alarm information was speedily conveyed to the
differ e nt stations, and the Baker-street engine was soon
upon the spot, as well as neighbouring engines. The
paris h and West of England were also early in arriving,
and s i • was an escape belonging to the Royal Society for
the .E 'rotection of Life from Fire, Mr. Staples, the
supei'.tntendent of the fire brigade, soon set the men to
work,, but, unfortunately, before the engines began to
play, the fire had reached the second floor, and after
pierc'a ig through the windows of that story, they made
their v /ay through the roof, and burst out with redoubled
fury. The Grand Junction Works furnished a suffi-
cient :supply of water, which was speedily discharged
into t h e midst of the burning-property, and by the most
praise -worthy exertions of the firemen, they were enabled
to cut off any further communication, but it was past
time
after tvs .rds it was imagined that all parties had made a
safe roykreat from the premises, and when they were eon-
gratul a ting each other that such was the case, a dis
covert' nf a most melancholy character was made upon the
ground of the back parlour. On further examination, it
was found that two human beings, man and wife, had
been tworificed to the fury of the devastating element,
who ha d rented that room, and whose remains were so
mutilated that no likeness was discernible, although no
doubt remains that they are the unfortunate parties re-
ferr d to. Their name was Wane, or Ward, and their
remains were conveyed from the seene, in order that a
coronet 's jury may arrive at a verdict. The origin of
the fire is not known, and we regret to add that nut one
of the- inmates was insured to the amount of a single
farthing; so that they have lost everything, and have

Veil kindly lodged since the oecurrence by their neigh- •
bours. From inquiries, made up to the latest period,
there is no doubt that the two unfortunate persons were
suffocated in their beds, as they were not seen nor heard
of by any of the other inmates, and if it had been known.
that they were in the building they could have been
saved by the firemen, as well as with the assistance of
the fire escape froth the Royel S,eiety.
(ADDITIONAL PARTIeULAIt9)
The following additional particulars. were obtained
yesterthy :—lt appears that shortly atter the outbreak,
the Royal Society's escape for the protection of life from
fire, reached the spot. This was quickly raised in front
of the burning building, and the conductor ascending the
same, he called !may to the parties within, and happily
succeeded in awaking; the majority of them. Whilst,
however, he was on the machine ihe flames burst through
the windows with such violence as to can-,e him to leave
his pest. The persons who were thus aroused were
enabled, alter some trouble, to rush through the flame
and smoke on the stairs, arid thereby escape a horrible
death. Had it not been for the intrepid conduct of the
man in charge of the escape, the loss of life unquestion-
ably would have been far more extensive. Some time
after the firemen had succeeded in getting the flames
subdued, and whilst they were exploring the ruins, intel
ligence was received that a lodger in the house named -
Wain, was, together with his wife, missing. This in-
duced the firemen to examine the place more minutely,
and in the course of a short period the remains of the two
parties were found in the midst of a heap of rubbish, most
frightfully burned. The two feet of the man, together
with one of hiS arms were completely burned away by the
action of the fire. The woman was also burned to such
an extent that the head was laid open, and the brains
scattered about the ground.