The Sun.
London, England, 1851-10-23 00:00:00

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011L.L. (2 7
I THE CASE OF INFANTICIDE .NEAI6URK 7.... ; E'.
thisDMUND S T '.... . .. .
A brief account of
painful case, in which a ',... --'3---Y s
..,
ning woman named Maria Stewart was charged, on
:r own confession, with the murder of her two ille-
;itimate children, was published in The Sun of Mon-
day. Tile following particulars have since tran-
spired
:
It had been incorrectly represented that the priso-
ner moved in a somewhat superior station in life, the
fact being that her uncle, with whom she was pre-
viously living, is a brickmaker, at Cockfield, near
Bury ; nor i 3 the rumour, stating that the father of
her children was "an extensive landowner in Suffolk,"
more accurate; the person with whom the prisoner
carried on an illicit connexion being, in fact, a la-
bourer, the son of a farmer at Cockfield, where Maria
Stewart lived.
The wretched woman's confession of her crime was
made on Wednesday last, in the county gaol, Bury,
in the presence of the Rev. N. Hallward, the magis-
trate, who attended at the gaol to take the depositions
of the witnesses, the Rev. R. Jeffreys, rector of Cock-
field, and Mr. Macintyre, the governor of the gaol.
The evidence was taken in the cell where she was
confined since her commitment, and where, on ac-
count of her mental excitement, it had been found ne-
cessary to place her under restraint. The confession
referred to, which was, in the first instance, made
to police-constable Banham when apprehended by him
on Wednesday last, was stated by the witness in the
following terms :—She said—" It is a fortnight to-day
since my child was born ?" I asked her if it was born
alive ? She said, " Yes, it was ; it was a fine little
girl, and after it was born it cried and sucked its
fingers, pretty dear." And then in a lamentable kind
of way she said, "Bless the dear child ! I cried over
it, and did not know what to do with it. I asked her
what time on the 'Wednesday was the child born. She
said, " It was born about nine o'clock
in the morning,
and was alive in the afternoon, when I laid hands on
it, held it to my breast, and let it suck. It began to
cackle, and I thought some would hear it, and that I
must kill it. I put my
nipped the throat with my fingers,
hand outh, and
over the
and then took my
garter and tied or put it round the neck, so that it
might die easy. I killed it because I thought .I
ailnuld -net have a fatherm form.y child., I kept it in
my bed until Monde
was taken, when cfnbingt buried it
mfg .of the
day I
lodge. It is the second girllittluerle li in
my
I strangled them both. After I i
f murderedvee
forgave
murdered.the
first
uncle's
hand oirfglavpermaye
child, I prayed to God, and told him
I would not do so again. But I have,
to him again he will not hear me."
The evidence of police-constables Hoggar and Card-
well, who apprehended the prisoner, was also taken.
To the latter she said, when apprehended, "I sup-
pose you have come after me. Have you been to
'my house ? I expected you to come for me. I shall
be sure to be hung." The child was found buried in
the middle of her uncle's lodge, and on Sunday morn-
ing the constable Cardwell went to a place named by
the prisoner, and found the remains of the skeleton of
a child about a foot underground ; he took them up,
and delivered them to Mr. Image, surgeon, of Bury.
The evidence of Mr. Image was distinctly to the
eft'ect that the child was born alive, had lived several
hours, and had taken nourishment, viz., milk. There
were patches of decomposition on the side of the mouth
and the anterior part of the neck; the left eye was
engorged with blood and projected. He had no doubt
that the child died from suffocation ; the bones after-
wards produced were those of a full• grown infant that
had been buried for a length of time.
Although at first tolerably composed during the
statement of the police-constable relative to the con-
fession made by her, she became afterwards greatly
agitated ; and, apparently losing all control over her
feelings, she repeatedly confessed her crime—assert-
ing, however, that her uncle was wholly ignorant of
her guilt. When the evidence was subsequently read
over to her, she said in a feeble voice, so as to be heard
by the governor of the gaol only—" I buried the
child in the lodge, having strangled it with my garter,
and nobody knew anything about it but myself." The
local paper (the Bury Post) gives the following con-
clusion of this melancholy scene :
Mr. Hallward having taken this statement down in
writing, read it over to her, and inquired if that was
what she said. She replied, 4 Yes, it was quite
right.' Being asked if she would like to put her hand
to the statement, she said, ' Yes,' and being raised
in the bed,ler hands, which had been confined to
prevent the possibility of her doing herself any in-
jury, were released, and a pen was banded to her
but the effort was too much, and she became so
greatly distressed that Mr. Macintyre laid her head
again upon the pillow, and by kindness of manner,
and by assuring her that she need not sign it unless
she liked, sought to soothe her mind. Becoming
somewhat more composed, she renewed her wish to
sign the paper, and was again held up for that pur.
pose. But again her strength or her resolution
failed her. She gazed wildly round the cell, and then
with a convulsive heave burst into a fit of raving
which too painfully showed that reason bad given way
1 under the bitter agony of remorse and the conflict of
excited passions. At first she fancied the father of the
child to be before her, and heaping curses on ' the vil-
lain' as the murderer of her child, threatened to in-
flict upon him personal injury, and to tear his hair
from his head, being with difficulty prevented from
suiting the action to the word on her own fevered
head. Then, as the situation of her uncle came before
her disordered imagination, she gave utterance to her
feelings of gratitude for past kindness, and again and
again earnestly protested his innocence. At one mo
ment the fear of the justice of her Creator was before
her in all its horrors ; and then, as the feeling of ma-
ternity overpowered all others, she would hug the
infant of her fancy to her breast, and nestling it
within her arms and bowed head, amid a flood of
tears, give vent to all a mother's fondness. It was a
sad—a terrific scene, this couch of a self-accused
murderess."
Since the examination at the gaol, at which the
above evidence was given, the prisoner has been much
calmer, and apparently easier in her mind than for
some days after her committal, when she was greatly
agitated, and at times deranged.

<

THE EGYPTIAN RAILWAY.
We are requested to publish the following cor-
respondence

(Copy.)
" Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation
Company, London, Oct. 22,1851.
" Sir,—By order of the directors of the Peninsular
and oriental Steam Navigation Company, I have the
honour to transmit to you, as chairman of the public
meeting held on the 14th inst., at the London Tavern,
a copy of a letter from Viscount Palmerston which
has been received by them subsequent to the holding
of that meeting; and I am desired also to state that
the directors have no objection to your making such
public use of this communication as you may deem
expedient.

" I am, Sir, your most obedient servant,
" C. ANT. IIowELL, Secretary.
" Samuel Gregson, EN., Chairman East India
and China Association."

(Copy )
b'oreign-office, Oct. 14.
" Sir,—l am directed; by Viscount Palmerston to
acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 10th
Oriental ultimo,etl Steam
aexpres
siugon behalf of the Peninsular and
Navigation Company, the apprehen-
sions entertained by that association lest the issue of
the discussions between the Porte and the Pacha of
Egypt should have a prejudicial effect upon the transit
of passengers and goods through Egypt.
" I am to state to you in reply, for the information
of the company, that whatever questions of etiquette
and form may have arisen between the Sultan and
Abbas Pacha in regard to the construction of a rail-
road between Alexandria and Cairo, or in regard to
the introduction of the tanzimat into Egypt, Viscount
Palmerston entertains no apprehension that the con-
struction of the railroad will be stopped, or that
the
local Government of Egypt will be deprived of h
means of maintaining order in that province.

I am, Sir,
" Your most obedient humble servant,
"11. U. ADDINGTON.
" C. W. Howell, Esq., Peninsular and Oriental
Steam Navigation Company.

EXTRAORD
aEt E
tDh Ie Ns e G
sSe s sAi 0 Tiu , TwlhiEen
his Counsel, Mr.
BIRMINGHAM SESSIONS.
NESDAY.—During the " present
week a prisoner, named
BIRMINGHAM, 1,,,V I)
(d James Irving, was called upon
to plead to a charge
instructed by Mr. Thomas
Harding, oINARY
PltnyOCf
Birmingham, handed in a plea, upon patch-
meat, that the grand jury by Atom that and other bills,
during felo:
the present sessions. were fuund, were not legally
'Berrien.
constituted. lt appeared that one of its members (Mr.
Thomas Aspinall) was alco a member of the Birming-
ham Town Council, and that by the sth and 6th of Wit.
liam IV. (commonly called the Municipal Corporation
Act), town councillors are absolutely incapacitated from
sitting upon grand juries, and that such Act does rot
provide for a mare exemption only. Sir Eardley Wil-
iint, the counsel fur the prosecution, obtained time tor
putting in a replication or denaurrt r to this plea; and
the Recorder, Mr. M. D. Hill, Q.C., adjourned the
court until the next sitting for that purpose. Yester-
day mernitig the Learned .Recorder made a very able
and elaborate statement, eating forth the law upon
the
subject, and from which it appeared that no similaram
course had Rri scn for the .amt 400 years. ThecLeo
the d
Gentleman did not, however, finally
.dlisphees disposeof
matter, but adjourned the sessions unnati t
more complete
October, to afford time for a fuller
a to proceed with
consideration of the case, and
refused
Another the trial of any more of the prisoners.
very prisoner who has
objec-
tion was raised, which applies toviz ,
that there were 24
been tried during the sessions;
. of 23; and it is
members of the grand jury
cf; insteadtt to reverseeachof the
stated that this will bo su.c.u:n
the
.__
in Court of Queen's
convictions, by writ of error,
bench,