The Sun.
London, England, 1846-05-20 00:00:00

SERIOUS AFFRAY ON THE RIVER

TYNE.
Between 11 and 12 o'clock on Sunday night, a serious
affray occurred at the mouth of the Tyne, between two
crews of Italian seamen and a body of river police. It ap-
pears that three Neapolitan sailors, belonging to the barque
St. Francesco, now in Shields Harbour, were on shore at
North Shields, trafficking with a man named Field and two
of his companions, and a misunderstanding arising, a fight
took- place, in the midst of which one of the Neapolitans
stabbed Field, immediately afterwards running away.
Being joined by his countrymen, they jumped into their boat
and rowed to their vessel, Field's companions removed him
to a neighbouring surgery, when it was found that a very
serious wound had been inflicted. In the mean time a
report of the, occurrence reached a crew of the
river police, who were rowing about the harbour,
and they then proceeded on board the barque, to
apprehend the parties. Two or three of the Neapolitans
were identified, and just as they were being transferred to the
police-boat, the whole crew suddenly mustered, and with
loud cries assailed the police. The crew of another Italian
brig, lying near, came to the rescue, and increased the serious
affray. The Neapolitans armed themselves with handspikes
and similar dangerous weapons, and the police, in self-de-
fence, drew their cutlasses. Wounds were inflicted on both
sides. Eventually, the police, finding themselves unequally
matched, prepared to retire from the struggle, not, however,
before one of the officers had received an extensive wound
on the head, and was knocked between the two vessels. The
police being reinforced by, a body from the town, returned
and captured twelve of the Neapolitans, who were brought
before one of the resident magistrates on Monday morning,
by whom they were remanded till Friday, when they will be
transferred to the custody of the Newcastle authorities. Field
remains in a precarious state. The wounded policeman is,
however, not considered in danger.

[ADVERTISEMENT.]—A BAD LEG OF SEVERAL YEARS
STANDING CORED BY HOLLOWAY'S OINTMENT AND PILLS.-3.ir
Tarpin Prowse, Richmond Cottage, Widcombe, Bath, has made ,
declaration to the following effect :—" That he had been suffering
for more than five years with an ulcerated leg, covered with fourteen
wounds, and that he had been a patient at the United Hospital at
Bath for three or foer years, and that he had also used the sulphur-
bath every other day for six months, and all to no purpose, but that
he is now perfecely cured after every other means had failed, and
by the use of Holloway's Ointment and Pills." Mr. King, chemist,
Bath. will vouch for the truth of this extraordinary ease.—Sold by
all chemist' and at Professor Holloway's Establishment, 244-,
Strand London.
SALT MINE` IN ALGERIA. The French Govern-
Dent is about to cause the salt mines In Algeria to be worked on its
ffra §96101,

"-7
WHOLESALE POISONING I
NORFOLK. lad
During the last week the inhabitants of Happisburgh, a
village on the Norfolk coast, have been in a state of great
excitement in consequence of the exhumation of a number
of bodies believed to be poisoned, including those of a matt
named Jonathan Balls, his wife, and four grandchildren, all
of whom recently died under very suspicious circumstances.
Information was not given to either of the county coroners
after the first death, as the parish officers throughout the
county had received a circular from the magistrates request-
ing them to make strict inquiries before the expense of an.
inquest was incurred, there having been a deal of complaint
at the magistrates' meetings as to the heavy expense of
coroners' inquests. Mr. Pilgrim, the county coroner for the
district, received information of the deaths, but was, at first,
unwilling to institute an inquiry until a second and third ap-
plication had been made to him; and. rumours increasing of
many persons having been poisoned, he found it necessary
for him to issue his warrant for the exhumation of the bodies.
They were placed in a tent at the back of the parish church,
round which hundreds of people collected. Special con-
stables had to be sworn in to' prevent improper interference
and to preserve order.

On Monday last an inquest was held before Mr. Pilgrim
and a very respectable jury, at the Hill-house, Happisburgh.
The bodies were identified by the relatives, and the surgeons
who attended, after making a post mortem examination, re-
moved the stomachs from the bodies, and stated that the ap-
pearances created great suspicion in their minds that the
parties had been poisonet
The Bev. Mr. Birch, Vicar of Happisburgh, and the parish
officers, expressed the most anxious desire to have the matter
thoroughly investigated, and offered to render any assist-
ance in their power.
The jury having been sworn,
The CORONER explained the nature of the inquiry to
them. He begged they would dismiss from their minds any
rumours they might have heard, and attend only to the
evidence.
The jury having returned from viewing the bodies, several
witnesses were examined.
Ann Pestle, a married woman, living at Happisbnrgh, de-
posed that she had identified the bodies of Jonathan Balls,
her father, and of Elizabeth Pestle, her child. -Her father
had died on the 20th, and her child on the 15th of April last,
after violent vomiting and purging, but she did not think
they had taken poison. On her return home from washing
she found the child very sick, but unable to get anything
up. The child died in a few hours after. Her father also
.was taken very ill after returning from a walk and paztak•
mg of a slight dinner. He also died ilia few hours after.
adjourned
Still she did not suspect that either of them had been poisoned.
She thought her
oldfrom e r a
tg oe , aa
a sore throat.
The inquest wassathr died fm
ein d
allodwthteimchile
fdotfrothme
surgeons to analyze the stomachs r
On Thursday:last, at 9 A.M., the jury re-assembled at the
. Hill House, and the surgeons were examined.
Mr. Clowes, a surgeon of Statham, deposed that on the
20th of April last he was called in to Mr. Balls, and found
him vomiting and retching violently. Deceased complained
of great pain in his bowels and about the stomach. He died
soon after. Witness did not. suspect that he had taken.
poison, but some improper food. Witness had examined the
body and found it perfectly healthy, with the exception of
the stomach. The appearances in that organ were quite suf-
ficient to account for death. He analyzed a portion of the
stomach, and found that it contained a large quantity of
arsenic, which was undoubtedly the cause of death. He also
removed the stomach of the child, Elizabeth Pestle, and
examined it chemically, and found a quantity of arsenic in
it, quite sufficient to cause death.
Mr. Hewitt, another surgeon, who assisted the last witness
in examining the stomachs, confirmed his evidence.
Mr. Firth, a Norwick surgeon, had also analyzed the con-
tents of the stomachs, and said they contained arsenic enough
to poison the whole parish.
Phoebe Ann Eliza Neave, a single woman, living in the
parish, deposed that she had known the deceased Jonathan
Balls, and that some years since she refused, at his request,
to write a note to Mr. Saddler, chemist, of North Walsham,
for some arsenic, which he said he wanted for the purpose of
destroying rats. She had previously written a note to that
effect for his daughter, Mrs. Pestle, for that purpose.
Mr. Hewitt, the surgeon, here observed, he had reason to
believe that all the parties who had recently died there came
by their deaths in a similar way to those whose bodies had
been raised and examined.
The Rev. Mr. Birch exceedingly regretted such en occur.
rence in his parish, and again hoped that the matter would
be thoroughly investigated, and that no pains would be
spared to find out the guilty parties. Several gentlennee
present at the inquiry regretted that an inquest was not held
immediately after the first death, as it might have operated.
as a check, and been the means of saving several live
They believed that an inquest had not been held in the first
instance is consequence of the circular issued by the magis-
trates to the parish officers.
It was considered necessary that the bodies of three other
persons should be taken up and examined, and in order to
allow time for this to be done the inqueet was further ad-
journed. Summonses were issued for the attendance of
witnesses from Yarmouth and other places.
HAPPISBUR(3 (NEAR NORTH WALSHAM), TUESDAY MORN..
ING.—The investigation concerning the recent murders by
poisoning in this village was brought to a close last evening
by Mr. Pilgrim, one of the Norfolk county coroners, at the
Hasberough-hill House, and the disclosures which were made
during the inquiry leave very little doubt that the acts of
poisoning must have been going on for years, and it is im-
possible to conjecture how many unfortunate persons have
fallen a sacrifice.
In accordance with the adjournment, Mr.skilgrim' the
Coroner, arrived from Norwich at nine o'clock, at the Has-
borough-hill House, to prosecute the inquiry. On the jury
being called over they proceeded to view the bodies, which
had been ordered to be exhumed at the previous inquiry.
On reaching the churchyard a novel sight presented itself.
The police were stationed at the gates to prevent the erowd
pressing their way in. In the churchyard, by the side of the
tower, was a temporary tent erected, under which the coffins,
that had only that morning been exhumed, were deposited.
The lids had not been opened until the jury's arrival, thereby
rendering their duty of a most unpleasant character. With
the exception of the infant; the bodies were not so decom-
posed as to prevent identity. At the conclusion of the pain-
ful ceremony they retired to the inquest-room, the Coroner
directing the surgedn to make an immediate post mortem
examination of the bodies.
Evidence was then adduced at great length. It was shovra
that all the deceased had died of poison by arsenic; and
one witness swore that she saw old Balls put into his wife's
teapot pinches of a white powder resembling flour. All the
deceased had died in a short time, and had shown symptoms
attendant upon metallic poison. Judging by the evidence,
Balls must have wound up the tragedy by administering to
himself a portion of the arsenic with which he destroyed the
others.
The three married daughters of the deceased were present
at the deaths of their mother and father, but there did not
appear to be any ground for suspicion that they partook of
the terrible crime.
The Coroner proceeded to sum up the evidence. Re
thought the facts did not fix upon any party so as to warrant
them in sending the ease to another tribunal. If any one was
inculpated the finger of suspicion most certainly pointed to
the deceased Jonathan Balls, and he was beyond the reach
of the law. He recommended them to return such a verdict
as would enable the officers to have the matter further in-
quired into should such circumstances arise as required it.
It was a case of great suspicion.
The jury then found, after half an hour's consultation,
" that the deceased Jonathan Balls, Elizabeth Balls, Samuel
Pestle, and Ann Elizabeth Pestle, died from the effects of
poison, but how administered there was no evidence to show."

EMILIA WYNDHAN.—Let no one (says the John Buil)
who wishes to read a work of fiction with the stamp of
genius upon it, hesitate in procuring Emilia Wyndham.
The author's " Two Old Men's Tales," and " Mount Sorel,"
have won for him no mean reputation—a reputation which
" Emilia Wyndham " will deservedly expand. This novel
has the, peculiar merit of rivetting the attention, rousing
the feelings, and creating an interest that never flags, with-
out having recourse to any of the ordinary devices by which
novel writers attain these ends. It is a tale of domestic
life; all the characters are characters of home ; and yet,
from the trials which are prepared for the latter, and the
moral virtues they are called upon to exercise in passing
through them, the reader feels precisely that sort of deep
interest which he would do if he were the intimate friendni of
the parties. Mr. Denby, Lisa, Colonel Levox,
ltu
Wyndham, her father, Jonny Wilcox, Mr..D.ani2bY _r_
they, the faithful, plain-spoken Susan,Torm tliviefrigreoluoUr
the memory long after the third volume Teaching
The author has considerable humour, p
miraotlii!,reaonrdAfudidi isoofn,;igwobuirl! hAisiodftiyalonfuoreaal sat:on:oess pecneet!valldt that
powerful,
sadtt r a
heef
rapid,whole story, which
graceful.whl'cb is enforced by a style
'THE THAvErs OF LADY
RESTER STANHOPE, just
published, exceed, if possible, in interest, the " Memoirs" of
this extraordinary personage, which created, last yea] s se
great a sensation—for, independently of the valuableinfor-
mation the volumes contain respecting the countries visited.
by her Ladyship, comprising Turkey, Egypt, Palestine,
Syria, and the Desert, with the curious characteristics pre-
served of the different races of the human family there to be
met with, more particularly of the Bedouins, Druses, Jews,
and Christians, the narrative abounds with remarkable
inci-
dents of personal adventure in which her Ladyship was the
heroine. In one place she is seen enduring the horrors of
shipwreck or the fears of plague—in another, enjoying the
dignity of Queen of Palmyra, conferred upon her by the
most intractable of the Arab tribes, as she marched at their
head through the burning Desert—further on, directing the
Turkish authorities in making excavations for buried trap
sure—elsewhere, equally honoured as a visitor to the harems
of the most powerful of the nobles ; and always exhibiting
to the astonished people extraordinary courage, wiedom, anal
benevolence.

There were present yesterday evening at her Majesty's
Theatre, her Majesty the Queen Adelaide, attended by the Earl sad
Countess Howe, the Marquis :and Marchioness of Ormond, the
Miss Hudson, the Hon. Miss Seymour, and Captaits
Somerset ; her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge, accom-
panied by her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester, and at.
tended by the Baroness Ahlefeldt, the Baron Knesebeck, and Mr. Eh
round 11111dt:clay ; -
his Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge, the
Duke and Duchess of Cleveland, the Duchess of Beaufort, the Marquis!
and Marchioness of Rorcester, and the Ladies B. and B. Somerset,
his Excellency the Russian Ambassador andithe Baroness Brunnow,
and Mdlle. Olga de Lechner, the Marquis and Marchioness of Douro,
the Marquis of Clanricarde, the Marquis and Marchioness of
Abercorn, the Marchioness of Sligo, the Marchioness of West•
meatb, the Marquis of Huntley, the Marquis of Titehfleld ; his Ex..
cellency the Hanoverian Minister, the Earl and Countess of Wilton,
the Earl of Clare, the Earl of Lonsdale, the Countess of Kinnoul, the
Viscount:Cantalupe, Viscount Duncannon, the Viscount Dupplill.
Lady Fitzroy Somerset, Lady Charles Wellesley, the Earl of Fat.
mouth, the Earl of Munster, Lord and Lady Trimleston, Lord and
Lady Ashburton, Lady Macdonald, Lady Eldon, Lord Harry Vane,
Lady Mary Hood, Lord Foley, the Hon. Captain Foley, and the Hon.
Misses Foley, Lord Saltoun, Sir W. W. Wynn, Sir James Langbant,
Sir Thomas Hare, Sir W. and Lady Houlston, Sir and Lady Dan l.!
vile, Lady Clay, Sir John Guest, Lady Meux, Br,e.

- -
PEACE SOCIETY.—Last evening the members and
friends of the Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Universal
Peace held their annual general meeting at Finsbury Chapel, Moer.
fields. The chair was taken by Charles Hindley, Esq., 31. P. The
report of the committee of management, rend by the secretary.
stated the pacific principles, which it was the object of the society to
encourage, had made considerable progress during the p y
Since the last anniversary the committee had distributed an imm
number of tracts on the subject of the wars in India, and had ad.
dressed letters to the ministers of religion, calling upon them to I
cate the c,auseof the society. The Oregon question had occupied";
close, the Governments of
great portion of the committee's attention, and, with a view to luring
that long-disputed amicablesubjec3et4re4tnol.c,eaansnbdy
England and America had been prestaherneb
tediterxaptilithdi
expenditure left
memorial, pra
tthheemyerr aZaoliguneteclantodi2ff,
during
o(
5501. The report was adopted, and the usual resolutions passed.
When the meeting separated.
SOCIETY FOR THE ABOLITION OF THE PUNISHMENT
OF DEATII—A. public discussion upon the question of the abolition of
capital punishment took place, on Tuesday evening, at the City of
London Literary Institution, Aldersgate-street. The theatre of the
institution was crowded. In the absence of the Rev. Dr. Mortimer,
from domestic bereavement, the chair was taken by Mr. Wrightson.
The discussion was opened by Mr. George Thompson, who addressed
the meeting at considerable length. Mr. Iloalton read some in.,
terestiug statistical details, to show that where the punishment of
death was most used the crime of murder was most prevalent. The
meeting separated at a late hour.
PEDESTRIANISM.—Yesterday the half-mile race for
101., between Ray and Anderton, was decided at Camberwill, an 4
won by the latter, who covered the distance in two miautas sitiAr
voirtor.