The Sun.
London, England, 1846-06-03 00:00:00

duct, witness believed him to be a gentleman wholly un-
connected with business or jobbing. It was ultimately
agreed that Mr. Solomons should cash his own cheque
fur 4801. upon the scrip which Fabian brought to him.
After the productinn of some confirmatory evidence,
Mr. Clarkson stated that he should apply for the com-
mittal of the prisoner on Thursday next.
_ _

Mr. Ballantine submitted the offences charged against
the prisoners were not offences under any Act of Par-
liament. The evidence went to impute only a misde-
meanour at common law,or a misdemeanour of some other
kind. The magistrate was therefore bound to accept
bail f)r their appearance to take their trial on
that charge. That was the only request he had to make
on the part of his clients, and he applied for it, not as a
favour, but as a right.
Mr. Clarkson hoped the magistrate would not come
to any decision of the sort, but send the prisoners for
trial for felony. tic could show dealings of the kind he
had described to the amount, not merely of hundreds,
but of many thousands. The question whether the scrip
constituted a valigable security was not to be determined
there.

Alderman GIBBS said he should remand the prisoners
until Thursday, in order that the depositions might be
fairly made out, and that he should then commit them
for trial at the next sessions of the Cemtral Criminal
Court.

POISONING IN NORFOLK.
THE CORONER'S INQUIRY RESUMED.
HAPPISBURGH, MONDAY MORNING.—In consequence
of the disclosures that have been made in the course of
the private inquiry instituted by the Secretary of State,
J. Pilgrim, Esq., one of the coroners for Norfolk,
opened another investigation this day at East Ruston,
a village three miles distant, on the bodies of other
persons related to the deceased Jonathan Balls, who are
supposed to have died from the effects of poison admi-
nes te red by him.
The empannelling of another jury to inquire into this
appalling affair is understood to be the result of
very important communications from the Government
officers to the coroner, the result of their in-
quiries having led to considerable suspicion as
to other deaths in the family of Jonathan
Balls. By the list handed to the coroner, by the
officers, of the suspected victims, we find, in addition to
the persons whose deaths were inquired into
..at the
former inquest, that of Anna Peggs, a grandchild, who
died on the 7th of June, 1839, in her eighth year, and
was buried at InghamChapel, in the neighbourhood.
From some unexplained circumstances it was, exhumed
about three weeks after it had been interred, and Mr.
Pilgrim held an inquest upon the body ; but the sur-
geon considering that it had died from fever, a verdict of
natural dt ath was returned. The next on the list is
Maria Green, daughter of Mrs. Green (another daughter
of Jonathan Balls). It was fift,en months old, died on
the 25th of December, 1836 ; William Green, also a
grandchild, aged two years, died on the 31st of October,
1841 ; lastly, Martha Green, of the same family. She
died when fifteen months old, after visiting old Balls'
house, and was buried with the others in East Ruston
church -yard.
At nine o'clock the jury, composed of the principal
gentry in the neighbourhood, met Mr. Pilgrim, the
county coroner, at the public inn, East Ruston, and after
the usual formalities were sworn, the bodies of the
three children named Green, which had that morning
been e,isinterred, being viewed by them, were handed
over to the medical gentlemen for examination, but
owing to the early hour the report was forced to be dis-
patched the result cannot be stated.
It was the determination of the coroner, at the con-
clusion of the evidence in these cases to proceed to
Ingham, and there enter into another inquiry on Mrs.
Pegg's children, which are directed to be exhumed, and
to undergo a post mortem examination.
In reference to the death of the deceased Jonathan
Balls' parents, who are suspected of having been poi-
soned, from the circumstance of its being recollected
that they were attacked in a similar way as the children,
little beyond that has been ascertained. They have been
dead about twenty-two years; and it seems the informa-
tion received by the officials is of such a description as
to prevent their placing much reliance upon it.
The inquest was expected to occupy several days.

CHARGE OF URDER AT THE
THAMES POLICE-COURT.
Yesterday, Benjamin Gibbins, a mild-looking man, a
labourer, was brought before Mr. Broderip, charged with
the wilful murder of a woman named Jane Sloman,
otherwise Gibbins, with whom he had lived for some
time in a state of concubinage. The case excited great
interest from a rumour that was spread, and which bears
with it an air of probability, that the life of the unfor-
tunate deceased was sacrificed by some parties engaged
in carrying on illicit distillation, in the house where she
met with her death, in consequence of her having threat-
ened to give information to the Excise. It appears there
was a still at work in the tenement for some time, and
that it was hastily removed on Monday night, about the
time the woman met with her death.
Edward Wanderer Townson, police-sergeant No. 8 K,
an officer of great intelligence and activity, stated that
at half-past eight that morning, he was sent for to the
house, No. 6, Labour-in-vain-street, Shadwell Market,
the residence of the prisoner. On arriving there, he
went up stairs, and found a woman in the front room, a
corpse, and Dr. Ross examining the body. Dr. Ross
called his attention to a wound on the back part of the
head, and also to three wounds on the right side of the
face. At the same time, the medical gentleman ex-
pressed an opinion that the case was a very suspicious
one. Shortly afterwards the prisoner came in. He asked
him, in presence of Dr. Ross, what time he came
home ? The prisoner replied that he returned to his
home about seven o'clock, and found the deceased lying
dead in the passage, at the foot of the stairs, with her
head towards the door. Witness then observed a mat,
folded up in the form of a pillow, which Dr. Ross said,
in the presence of the prisoner, was in the -same state,
and under the deceased's head when he was called into
the house. There was a large stain of blood on it. Dr.
Ross also called the attention of witness to some blood
spattered upon the wall in the passage. There were
also scratches on the wall as if the nails of some
human hand had been scratching the wall. Witness also
observed a spot of blood on the second stair from the
passage, which appeared to have been smeared with the
finger. On questioning the prisoner he stated that he
was employed at Stepney fair during the whole of Mon-
day, in turning the wheel of a machine called an up-and-
down, with cars in the shape of boats, and that the de-
ceased came to him at five o'clock on Monday evening,
and then appeared half drunk; that he came home about
one o'clock in the morning, and knocked at the door for
some considerable time, and could obtain no admittance,
but that he heard a noise inside ; that he then went
away, and went to a coffee-shop opposite Shadwell
Church, where he remained until four o'clock ; went
from there to the Duke of York public-house in the
High-street, Shadwell, and stayed there till he went
home at seven o'clock. The prisoner also stated that he
was again unable to obtain admission to his dwelling,
and borrowed a ladder of his next-door neighbour. and
entered the house by a back window; that he went down
stairs and found the body of the woman lying as before
described, and that on opening the street door some
women came in and said she was dead. Witness asked
the prisoner if he had touched the body ; and he replied
that he had merely lifted the feet. Witness then ob-
served some marks of blood on the prisoner's hands, and
asked him how he accounted for it ? The prisoner said
he had cut his hand on Monday, and it bled a good deal.
Mr. Broderip—Did you examine his hand?
Townson—Yes, I did.
Mr. Broderip—Was there a wound upon it?
Townson—Not a fresh wound, Sir. After I had
looked at his hands I observed large spots of blood on
the left arm of his jacket, and I asked him how he ac-
counted for them. He said he did not know, and I also
observed several other marks of blood about the inside
of the jacket, next the pocket, mid also several spots of
blood on his waistcoat. I afterwards told him I should
take him to the station-house, and he said the blood on
his clothes was caused by his lifting the head of the
deceased. I searched the house, but did not find any
instrument likely to have caused the wound on the back
part of the head. I should say there was a large
spot of blood on the thigh of the trousers the man now
has on.
Mr. Daniel Ross, surgeon, of High-street, Shadwell,
was called to the deceased a little after 7 o'clock that
morning, He found the deceased lying in the passage
of her dwelling, with her head supported by a roll of
matting made into a sort of pillow. The head was
towards the street-door, and the feet at the foot of the
stairs. About two or three feet above the body there
were two or three patches of coagulated blood on the
wall facing the staircase. On either side of the patches
of blood there were marks of scratches on the wall.
After describing some other marks, which was merely a
repetition of Townson's evidence, he said he had the
body very carefully removed up stairs into the front
room. His attention was first called to a wound at the
back of the head, and afterwards to five marks or disco-
lourations of the skin on the right of the face. The
wound on the back of the head was a jagged or lacerated
wound, and somewhat triangular.
Mr. Broderip—Can you tell whether it was done by
any instrument or not?
or by her falling against someobl
Mr. Ross—The wound was inflicted instru-
ment,bytainbslturnutmentorpass my finger above the upper part j
the passage, to
projecting surface. The bone was laid
oidfubirtla bare,
oauntdaln
in c couldh.
had
there, but as
afsecaerretafuinliexamined the
yirobtsheerrveedwtah:asnkyirbtilnogod-iboola.rhairra
vomiting- there on the floor,
ruenetleu
ptoottlaeitrese detect either.
ther body
dy i
s subsequentlyilo,vl,n
g.- •
There
evidently been some one rs
and the effluvia of rum was very powerful. I then en-
tered a small room on the ground floor, the door of
which opened close to the head of the deceased where
she was first seen. The effluvia from Equor was very
powerful there. He should say it was whisky, and the
holleditts!
pfl
ao
sosre
do
tf
htrhoeu g ahptaor tamsemn
at
ia) sa
kfl o irr,t)l
ee
md wwi
ht he
riet .
vered the remains of a still, and the floor of that apart.
meat was also flooded with strong spirits like whisky.
The still was gone, but a quantity of strong wash in
tubs and the utensils were lyingdadheout. The brickwork
in
dwhich
doubtthe stillthe %.I,raesmqouvieted,haoitl.d
the
stillbad hb
Liquor(ltiv o
of
allowedthe s
still-room
wastedias oivi(e),ll-mt
aeefln beeniffib hastily
hc
floor. The win •
'but unfastened ; it
might very easily have been thrown up from the outside.
Ile had been ordered by the Coroner, Mr. Baker, to
make a post mortem examination of the body, and until
he had done so he could not state positively the cause of
death.
Mr. Lindley, the clerk, asked if the deceased appeared
to have been drinking ? Mr. Ross—Yes ; she smelt
very strongly of liquor.
Inspector Valentine, of the K division, said he had no
further evidence to offer at present, but if the case was
remanded he should be able to bring forward several
witnesses, and most probably trace the parties who had
worked and removed the still.