The Sun.
London, England, 1834-08-12 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

NORTHERN CIRCUIT.—ArpLEsr, Auc. 8.
The commission of Assize for the county of Westmoreland
was opened at this place by Mr. Baron GURNEY yesterday.
This morning he attended divine service, and about noon was
accompanied by the Lord Chief Baron to the Courts, where
the latter presided on the civil, and Mr. Baron GURNEY on the
criminal, side. On the criminal side there was one prisoner
for trial, who was charged with stealing a valuable horse, be-
longing to a Mr. Whitwell, of Kendal. The prisoner on
being arraigned pleaded guilty ,and was sentenced to be trans-
ported for life.
On the civil side there were four causes. In one, an eject-
ment, the plaintiff was called and did not appear. In two of
the others a juror was withdrawn. The third was an action
to recover part of a sum of money which the plaintiff had paid
to the overseers of the parish of Sedberg, to indemnify them
against the expenses of a child which had been filiated upon
him. The jury thought he had authorized the application of
the money, and part of which had been employed towards
enabling the mother with the child to emigrate to America,
and found a verdict for the defendant.
The whole Assize terminated in about two hours.

CORONER'S INQUEST—CHARGE of MURDER.

Yesterday an inquest was held at the Albany Arms, in the
Albany-road, Camberwell, before Mr. R. Carter, the Coroner
for Surrey, and a highly respectable Jury, on the body of
Matilda Finnegan, a child, who was found smothered in a
ditch near the Grand Surrey Canal. The deceased's father
was apprehended on Saturday on the charge of murder, and
is now in safe custody in the county gaol. The Jury having
viewed the body of the child, which appeared to be about two
years old, on their return to the room the following evidence
was adduced for their consideration :---George Pitt, the son
of Mr. Dibdin Pitt, the comedian; on Friday afternoon last, as
he was amusing himself fishing in a ditch adjacent to the Sur-
rey Canal, observed the body of a child at a short distance from
the bank, nearly the whole of its person immersed in the water
and mud. Witness seeing a man walking along the canal side,
called him, and pointing to the place where the deceased was
lying, the man immediately went down the bank and took it
out. A great portion of the clothes was covered with mud, and
the child was to all appearance quite dead at the time. The
witness added that the body was conveyed to the Albany Arms.
A medical gentleman was of opinion the child had been up-
wards of an hour in the ditch.

Matilda Finnegan deposed that the deceased was her niece,
and the child of her brother, who was then in custody. Wit-
ness lived at No. 4, New Church-street, Camberwell, with
her father, who supported the deceased in consequence of his
son and his wife having separated from each other about three
months ago. On Thursday last witness's brother called at
Church-street, and took out the deceased to see its mother in
George-street, Camberwell ; he brought it back again, and
then went away. On Friday her brother called again, about
twelve o'clock, and, after taking some refreshment, he said
that he should take the deceased out for a walk, and that he
should not be long away. He did not return again, and in-
quiries were set on foot to discover where he was ; when, in
the course of the same evening, the body of the deceased was
taken out of the ditch, near the canal, and conveyed to the
Albany Arms. The witness added, that her brother was in
the habit of taking the child to see its mother since their se-
paration, and always expressed the greatest fondness for it.
In answer to a Juror, the witness said that her brother's
mind appeared to be agitated when he called, both on Thurs-
day and Friday, and she remarked the change to her father,
who was also of the same opinion.
. Jane Finnegan, the mother of -the deceased, a respectable
and interesting young woman, was here assisted into the room
and her appearance indicated great mental suffering. It was
some tinbe before she was sufficiently recovered to be enabled
to give her evidence, and when she was at length sworn, she
deposed as follows :—I am the wife of Frederick Finnegan,
and have been married to him nearly three years. We have
had two children, the deceased, and an infant five months old.
Within the last three months we separated, my husband's fa-
ther taking the deceased child to live with him, while I main-
tained the infant and myself, and lodged with my own mother
in George-street. On Thursday last my husband brought
the deceased to see me, and we all three walked together, and
I left them at the Grove and went home again. On Friday
morning my husband called again, and desired me to clean my-
self and the infant, saying that he wished me to go and take
tea at his father's, as his brother and wife were coming from
town to see them. I said that I would not go myself, but told
him that I would get the infant ready, and he could take it
himself in the afternoon.

In answer to a juror, the witness said that she had since
ascertained, that her husband's sister was not to be at tea, for
both she and her husband were some distance in the country.
In continuation the witness proceeded as follows : —My hus-
band left me about twelve o'clock on the forenoon of Friday,
and said that he would return for the infant. He came again
between one and two o'clock and asked if the baby was ready,
and I replied that if he walked into the street that I would
follow him with the child. He then went out, and I followed
soon afterwards and gave it to him into his arms ; he then
requested me to walk, with him and pressed me very much,
but I said that I had some work to do at home, where I men-
tioned that it was necessary I should return immediately. He
then said that if I did not accompany him I should never see
him again, adding that he must fly the country, and that if I
had any regard for him I would go too. I expressed my asto-
nishment at these words, and said, " don't say that you are
about to quit the country, we shall yet be happy again." " No,"
said he, " that can never be, happiness is fled from us for ever."
I then said, "Why, what have you done ?" He exclaimed, " I
have committed murder l"—( Here the witness gave a convulsive
sob, and immediately swooned away. When she was so far re-
stored to be enabled to proceed, she continued her evidence. )
Upon hearing her husband utter the word murder, she looked at
him and said, " Surely you have not committed so dreadful an
act ?" He immediately exclaimed, " Come away, it will be found
out; the officers are perhaps now after me, and it will then be
too late. In her distraction of mind she said that she would not
accompany him and asked where her child Matilda was ; he
replied that she was happy in Heaven. I then asked him what
he had done with my child ? and his reply was, " If you come
a convenient distance I will tell you all." He then again
pressed me to go along with him, saying that he would show
me where my child was lying. I became now dreadfully
alarmed, said the witness, and he again urged me to go for-
ward with him, but I still refused, and his impatience then be-
came so great, that he once more said that he must fly or else
justice would overtake him, and conjured me to meet him the
following day near the church on Clapham Common. While
they were conversing a female cousin of the witness came up
and heard some part of it, and soon afterwards witness herself
fainted away, and was carried home. The witness recollected
that the last words her husband said to her previously to his
going away were these :—" Come along with me, and we
shall all die together."
In answer to various questions by the Jury, witness said that
her husband appeared a good deal agitated when she saw him
on the day in question. He always expressed great attach-
ment for the deceased child, and was a particularly sober man.
The reason of their separation was in consequence of his ill-
usage of her. She it was who left him.
The above being the whole of the evidence adduced, the
Jury deliberated for a short time, and returned a verdict of
" Wilful Murder" against Fred. Finnegan, now in custody.

ENGLISH PARTIES.-In England a Tory means
an oligarchist ; a Whig is merely an aristocrat ; a Liberal is
one who wishes rational feeling, founded on the base of the
people ; and a Radical is one who is for overturning everything
and beginning de noro.—Cooper's .Letter to his Countrymen.

Thirty-five thousand persons visited the Zoological
Gardens and Museum last month. Balance in favour of the
Society, 1,249/. The Council has great satisfaction in re-
porting that the Commissioners of Woods and Forests have
been authorised to let the Society ten acres of additional
ground, at 6/. 6s. per acre. The land is within the area of
the Regent's Park, and adjoins the south-west of the present
Gardens. The only work of • magnitude in progress at the
Gardens at present is the sinking of a well, from the bottom
which it is intended to bore to the main spring, and thence
derive a supply of pure water adequate to all the purposes of
the establishment.

METEOROLOGY.—Having for many years pre-
sented our readers with the most accurate meteorological ob-
servations from original sources, it is only with the view to
institute new grounds of comparison that we purpose to add
an account of the rain which falls at Highgate, so that the
difference between it and the fall in low stations in the vicinity
of the metropolis may be seen. The quantity which has
fallen at Highgate in the month of July, is 4, 11 5 inches.—
Literary Gazette.

FATAL ACCIDENT FROM 'INTOXICATION._
Yesterday afternoon, about four o'clock, a dreadful accident
occurred to Michael Carty, an Irish labourer, in the employ of
Mr. Burnell, an extensive builder, of Fetter-lane, who fell off
the house at the corner of Catherine-street, in the Strand,
which is at present undergoing repairs. It appears that Carty,
shortly after his return from dinner, was discovered to be very
much intoxicated by Mr. White, foreman to Mr. Burnell, who
desired him to quit his work and go home, adding that he would
not allow him to ascend the ladder in that state for fear of an
accident. In about ten minutes after Carty had received
these orders, he went up to the top floor of the house (for
what purpose is not known), and laying hold of a heavy rope
which overhung the roof of the house, he endeavoured to get
on a ladder placed against the building, and the top of which
was about five feet from the window sill, when the rope, not
being fastened at the other end, gave way to the weight of
Carty's body, and he fell into the street, a height of between
fifty and sixty feet. He was immediately picked up and carried
inside the house, where Mr. Kenny, a surgeon in the neigh-
bourhood, was soon after in attendance, and, on examination,
pronounced Carty to be in a dying state, his spine being se-
verely injured and his skull fractured. At Mr. Kenny's desira
he was removed on a shutter to Charing-cross Hospital, where
it was reported he shortly after expired.