The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-12 00:00:00

ALLEGED ATTEMPT TO KILL
BY A SUPPOSED BIGAMIST.
A mulatto, named Henry Desbury, who had been re.
manded several times, was again brought up on Satur-
day last, before the Cheltenham magistrates, charged
with assaultinc his wife so as to endanger her life.
From the evidence adduced it appeared that de
prisoner had married this woman on the
25th of January last, in London, and that he
lived with her until the latter end of March, when he
started off with some girl. The forsaken woman,
after many inquiries succeeded in tracing her
husband to Cheltenham, where she arrived some
few weeks back, r.nd took up her abode at 15,
Ambrose-street. Having ascertained tbat her husband
was living with some woman supposed to be mar-
ried to him, at 1, St. Philip's-terrace, she proceeded
thither on Wednesday, the 24th ult., at about seven
welock in the morning, accompanied by Mrs. Elizabeth
Ellis, of 2, Gratton-terrace. On her arrival at the
house, after knocking twice, the tio,r was ,paned by a
female in her night-dress, supposed to be the woman
with whom the prisoner was Mrs. Desbury in-
sisted upon seeing her husband, and asked the female
it' she was married to him. The woman made
no reply, but ordered Mrs. Desbury out of
the house. Mrs. Desbury refused to go, and
s.iid she considered it to be: her home, as she knew
her husband was there. The woman ran up stairs
into a bed-room, and Mrs. Desbury followed, but
ef'ore she had reached the landing. place the pri-
,oner came out of the room, and without uttering a
word, threw some missiles at her head, Mrs. Des-
bury ran down stairs into the passage, which she
had no sooner reached than she fell senseless. A plas-
terer, named Thomas Tibbles, who resided in the neigh-
bourhood was called to her assistance, while Mrs. Ellis
went for a medical man. Tibbles asked the prisoner if he
was not ashamed of himself ? to which he replied in the
negative, saying that he would have done it again if he had
had anything else in his hand. He then told Tibbles to take
his wife out of doors or to a public-house and let her bleed
there—she should not bleed in his house. Prisoner
pushed his wifo out and struck the door against her
head, whereupon Tibbles gave him a slap on the
bead, and prisoner ran into a room, crying " Where is
my knife?" Mr. Robert Askwith, surgeon, of Huntley
Lodge, was shortly in attendance. Mrs. Desbury was
taken Imo the parlour, and information having been given
to the police, Constable James Thomas, and Sergeant
George Seyes soon after arrived. By direction of the
surgeon, Mrs. Desbury was removed to her abode in
Ambrose. street, where she has since been lying in sl
dangerous state. The prisoner was taken into custody
by Seyes, and, on his way to the station-house, ac-
knowledged committing the offence. He said that Mrs.
Desbury was not his wife, but a person with whom he
had formerly lived in London, and when he saw her
come into the house he was under the impression
that she was going to kill his children, and, in
order to save them, he threw the before-mentioned
pans at her head. After he had arrived at the
police-station, the sergeant showed him a marriage cer-
tificate, and then he acknowledged that the unfortunate
woman was his wife. These facts were brought before
the magistrates. Mr. David Hartley, surgeon to the
hospital, who had attended Mrs. Desbury, appeared and
deposed that on the 21st of June he was called in and
found her perfectly insensible and in extreme danger;
she was suffering from concussion of the brain; depo-
nent subsequently examined her head, and found three
contused wounds—two of them were considerable, being
upwards of as inch in length—which had evidently been
inflicted by some blunt instrument, such as the utensils
described. Constable Thomas produced a bonnet, a pair
of gloves, a pocket handkerchief, cap, and piece of lace
covered with blood, said to have been worn by Mrs.
Desbury; as also a quantity of hair and some pieces of
white ware, the whole of which he had found at the back
01 the house in St. Philip's-terrace. It transpired that
the door which the prisoner pushed against his wife's
head was covered with blood for some days after. Mrs.
Desbury, who is a young woman, possessing great per-
sonal attractions, while giving her evidence, fainted
several times from weakness. 'The whole of the depo-
sitions having been taken down and read over to the
different witnesses, the prisoner was asked if he had
anything to say. He replied in the negative—he should
reserve his defence for another place. The magistrates
fully committed him for trial at the assizes.—Cheltenham
Journal.

..CIIE LATE SUICIDE AT BLACEFRIARS-BEIDGR.--• Last evening, Mr. William Payne, the City Coroner.
held an inquest at the Glaziers' Arms, Water-lane,
Blaekfriars, on the body of Mary Ann Colwell, aged
34, the unfortunate female who was so frightfully in-
jured by jumping over Blackfriars-bridge on Saturday
night last. Charles Greene, of 3, Meeting-house-court.
said that on Saturday night he saw the deceased, WllO
was in the company of a man and a child, run into a
recess and throw herself over the bridge. Witness laid
hold of her clothing, but was unable to keep her frdus
jumping over. The man who was with her did not run
after her, or pay any attention to her. Mrs. Elizabeth
Biddlecombe, of Brentford, said that the deceased wag. her sister. She had taken some money from her h)ss-
band, and he had in consequence ill-treated her. The
bruises on her face and over her arms were caused by
his ill-usage. Nicholas Colwell, of 12, Downs-street.
Southwark, husband of the deceased, said that his wife
had run him into debt, and pawned almost everything
he possessed. He believed that she destroyed her life
because she was afraid of meeting her neighbours again,
Vet dict—" Temporary insanity."
Tun HoLYIIEAD RAILWAY.--THE TUBULAR
BIIIDGES.—We had an opportunity last week of in-
specting the stupendous iron tubes which are in course
of construction a short distance above the Menai Suspen-
sion-bridge, tor the purpose of forming a passage for the
trains of the Holyhead Railway across the strait. Im-
mense piers of granite are being erected on each side of
the strait, and a massive pier of the same material is
rising in the middle of the stream. On these sulfa
masses of masonry the vast hollow metallic ways will
rest, forming a line continuous with the railway. 7,•he
most cursory inspection of the tubes will at once eon_
Vince the spectator of their prodigious strength, and
show them to be capable of sustaining a far greater
weight than any that is likely to pass across thorn. They
are not either cylindrical or elliptical, as many have
supposed, but rectangular, their form being what is not
uncommonly called an oblong square, about 30 feet
high and 15 feet wide. They are constructed of thick
plates of iron, firmly rivetted together, and strengthened
by girders at the top and bottom. The chiet ele-
ment of strength, however, is in the bed or
base of the work, which is composed of plates ex
iron set edgewise, so as to form cells, the under
land upper surfaces being firmly rivetted to the later-
mediate perpendicular plates, the whole with the walls
of the tube and its covering firmly girded and bound to-
gether with the utmost skill and ingenuity, forming a,
a compact piece of workmanship, the strength of which
is beyond conception. These enormous tubes are built
on stages erected over the stream. The spectator won-
ders, when contemplating them, how fabrics of such
stupendous weight, amounting to many thousands of
tons, are to be removed and lifted into the position which
they are destined to occupy. They will be floated to
the piers on pontoons, and lifted to their final resting-
place by hydraulic pressure. On the same day we
passed in the evening train of the Holyhead Railway, through the tube at Conway. As the train was pro-
ceeding at considerable speed the passage was effected
almost in an instant. We were not conscious of any
vibration, or indeed of any sensation different from that;
experienced in passing through an ordinary tunnel.
The Holyhead Railway will he a great favourite with,
tourists and those who travel for pleasure. The pros-
pects from the carriages on both sides are exceedingly
interesting. The line runs principally along the sea-
coast and the banks of the Dee, so that throag bout
nearly the whole journey from Bangor to Chester we
have on one side a fine view of the Irish Sea, and on the,
other a perpetually changing succession of mountain
scenery.—Liverpool /Alio&
EMIGRATION. Two Parliamentary document;
have recently been printed by order of the House of
Commons, on emigration. The first contains a return
ot.
from each of the British colonies of the amountf nland revenue, and the particulars of its application
h
to-
wards the introduction of emigrants; and t
con-
tains the report ofthecolonia"and
andt emigration
a tabular
f Pawith their
com-
missioners for the year 1847. In the firs
form, is given a return of the number() persons,
who hare been
on dpY
average cost per headto
aided in emigration under
that in
parishes, of the Poet.-
land and emigration commissioners, the
ee
provision
law Amendment Act. From thesr2io,t2r colonialtlsoopfppeetahrrsesons eemi-
grated
i
the course of last year asmany
63,000 from England,
grated from the United Kingdom,
79400 from Ireland, being
5,600 from Scotland, and ,
number of emigrants in pre-
cceodnisnidgerably beyond the
years.
We regret excee
dinglY being called on to announce
WinaeTherilhsoeairn. 0 HperrioLrya,d3;o-
grief of her noble husband and other
pre r
sthheipdeexcepairseedofenthme
Monday
yteslas of
last at
t ll
surviving
he x
TACKPOLE.--We have to announce
de
Stackpole, which event took
Inn, Lyndhurst, where he had been sojourning for a few
placethe demiseun
Saturday
oe f iab
llie e
:e
Ds
To Enu pt
last,ue after a short illness, at the Crown
days since his return from a visit to Wales.
THE FIRST EXPEDITION IN SEARCH OP SIR,
JoHN FRANKLIN.—Letters have been received from the
Herald, 26, surveying vessel, Captain Kellett, C. 8.,
She her way from Panama to 13ehring's
Straits, having (with the tender, the Pandora) been
towed from Loboga out of the trade winds by the Samp-
son steam frigate. The Pandora had parted company
with the Herald two days before, and proceeded to Ho-
nolulu, and the Sampson was on the point of separating
from the Herald on the day the letters were written.
EXTRAORDINARY CASE OF MUUDER AT LIVERPOOL
On Thursday last Charles Gallagher, an Irish labourer
at the ducks, was married to a young woman, a servant
in a sailors' lodging-house. On Saturday morning the
bride was found dead in bred, lying between the bride-
groom and his friend, another young Irishman. On
examination, it was totrad that the young woman had
been strangled. Both the men are in custody.
SINGULAR DEATIL—An inquest was held on Sa-
turday, at Bradfielit St. George, before 11. Wayman,
Esq., coroner, teaching the death of a poor woman,.
named Last, agv,d 60. It appears that the deceased has
for some years been in the habit of attending upon bees,
in the swarm:dig season; and on Friday, while engaged
in such employment, she was stung bye t into heroneofthehmeuso:
the thumb of her right hand. She went
and sat down on a chair, exclaiming " How bad I feeslhr:
She then. fainted, and never spoke afterwards. 4
trembled very much, and in the course of half an hour
she was a corpse. It was the opinion of the medical
gentlemen who were present that the nervous system re
ceived such a shock as to stop the circulation of blood
in the heart,—lpswich Express.