The Sun.
London, England, 1851-08-22 00:00:00

JOINT-STOCK BANKS.

Bank of Westmoreland, Kendal
Barnsley Banking Company, Barnsley
Bradford Banking Company, Bradford 48,159
Bilstoa District Banking Company, Wolver-
hampton
Bank of Whitehaven, Whitehaven
Bradford Commercial Banking Company, Brad-
__

ford — _ -
20,075
Burton, Uttoxeter, and Staffordshire Union
Banking Company, Burton-upon-Trent
Chester field and North Derbyshire Banking
- _ _

Company, Chesterfield
Cumberland Union Banking Company, Work-

ington .
Cheltenham and Gloucestershire Banking Com-

_
piny, Cheltenham
Coventry and Warwickshire Banking Company
Coventry
Coventry Union Banking Company, Coventry 10,091
County of Gloucester Banking Company, Chel-
tenham
Carlisle and Cumberland Banking Company
Carlisle
Carlisle City and District Bank, Carlisle 20,272
' Dudley and West Bromwich Banking Company,
Dudley
Derby and Derbyshire Banking Company, Derby 16,410
Darlington District Joint-Stock Banking Corn- _
___

!my, Darlington
East of England Bank, Norwich
Gloucestershire Banking Company, Gloucester 128,074
Halifax Joint-Stock Bank, HaUfa- 18,036
Huddersfield Banking Company, Huddersfield 33,278
Hull Banking Company, Hull . 22,415
Halifsaa Commercial Banking Company, Ha-
lifax
Halifax and Huddersfield Union Banking Com-
pany, Halifax
Helston Banking Company, Helston 1,319
Herefordshire Banking Company, Hereford 15,529
Knaresborough and Claro Banking Company,
Knaresborough 20,781
Kingsbridge Joint-Stock Bank, Kingsbridge . 2,780
Lancaster Banking Company, Lancaster . 46,372
Leeds Banking Company, Leeds ... 17,078
Leicestershire Banking Company, Leicester ... 52,173
Lincoln and Lindsey Banking Company, Lincoln 40,735
Leamington Priors and Warwickshire Banking
Company, Leamington Priors
Ludlow and Tenbury Bank, Ludlow 8,415
Moore and Robinson's Nottinghamshire Bank-
ing Company, Nottingham 26,992
Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Banking
Company, Nottingham
Newcastle, Shields, and Sunderland Union Joint-
Stock Banking Company, Newcastle 1,255
National Provincial Bank of England, Birming-
ham, Head-office, 112, Bishopsgate-street,
London
North Wilts Banking Company, Melksha: 347,955:39250
Northamptonshire Union Bank, Northampton.. 55,838
Nortliampton.thire Banking Company,
North-
ampton
North and South Wales Bank, Liverp001....... 22,320
Pares's Leicestershire Banking Company, Lei-

- cester .
Saddleworth Bankinf, Company, Sadgleworth, 2,821
S:

Sheffield Banking Company, ..heffield 33,605
Stamford, Spalding, and Boston Banking Com-
pany, Stamiord. .................... 40,133
Stuckey's Banking Company, Bristol Somerset-
shire Bank, and Somersetshire Bank, Lang-
port
Shropshire Banking Company, Shiffnall
Stourbridge and Kidderminster Banking Com-
pany, Stourbridge
Sheffield and liallamshire Banking Company,
Sheffield
Sheffield and Rotherham Joint-Stock Banking
Company, Shni,lid . . 49,523
Swaledale and Wensleydale Banking Company,
Richmond 39,636
Storey and Thomas's Banking Company
Shaftesbury
Wolverhampton and Staffordshire Banking Com-
pany, Wolverhampton 31,927
Wakefield and Barnsley Union Bank, Wakefield 12,631
Whitehaven Joint-Stock Banking Company,
Whitehaven
Warwick and Leamington Banking Company,
Warwick
West of England and South Wales District
Bank. Bristol .. ..
Wilts and Dorset Banking Comc ypoamnpya,nBa,lisHbuurdy.
Hud-
dersfield 70,070
West Riding
32,021ing.y.i0n Banking
Whitchurch and Ellesmere Banking Company,
Whitchurch .~•—•
Worcester City and County Banking Company,
Worcester... .. ............ , 3,323
York Union Banking Company, York 62,283
York City and County Banking Company, York 73,447
Yorkshire Banking Company,. Leeds
P. DEANS, Registrar of Bank Returns.
Inland Revenue, Somerset House, Aug. 16, 1851.

STEAM-BOAT EXPERIMENTS.—On Monday, the
18th, and two following days, we load the gratification of
witnessing a series of experiments on the Serpentine, Hyde-
park, to test the qualities of a model steam-vessel, invented
by a gentleman near Colchester, named Vint, who has, we
understand, been occupied many years in its completion,
attended of course with much labour and expense. The
model is taken from the Fairy, its length being 10 feet, beam
14 inches, fitted with submarine paddles, of 44 inches, at-
tached to her quarters below the water line, working under
water. The engine is also placed in a similar situation, and
consequently protected from shot and all other missiles. The
experiments were all quite successful, and proved the inven-
tion to be of great value and consequence, the speed per-
formed by the model being as near as could be ascertained
five knots. We have been informed that the model will in
future be shown at the Polytechnic Institution.
SILVER VALLEY AND WHEAL BROTHERS MINING
COMPANY.—Letters received from the agent of this mine an-
nounce an important discovery in the 24 fathom level ; rich
atones of silver ore in the form of grey oxide and native
silver have been broken, the assay from which gives 2,387 oz.
of tine silver to the ton. The accounts received up to this
morning
report the lode to be still improving, and producing
rPre; at the 35 fathom level they appear to be ap-
proachingcue the same orey ground.
The Earl of Dnbyresi resigns the patronage of the
new church of S;. James's, at Litbam, to the vicar of Orms-
kirk. The par''
repair,
about to underOchurch of Newton-in-llakerfield being
the bishop has licensed the national
school-room for divine
aervice until the church, which must
be temporarily
Mercury. closed, shall be re-opened.—Liverpool

SINGULAR TRIAL.

An extraordinary trial took place last week before
the Court of Assize of the Seine•et•Marne. In the
month of January of the present year a female, named
Petit, the wife of a miller at Nemours, near Fontaine-
bleau, was at breakfast with her two children. One
of the children, about seven years of age, after taking
a small portion of chocolate, refused to take any more
on account of its disagreeable taste, and the other
child did not touch it. The mother, fancying that the
child who had refused to take any more was actuated
by caprice, drank some of the chocolate herself, and
soon afterwards she and the child were attacked with
severe vomiting. The husband, who came in at this
time, went immediately for medical aid; and the
doctor, on arriving, was so convinced from the symp-
toms that his patients bad been poisoned, that ❑e
administered antidotes and saved their lives. The
chocolate which remained was subsequently examined
by a chemist, and found to contain a considerable
quantity of arsenic. No suspicion fell for a time
upon the husband, for he lived on good terms with
wife and almost adored his children. 'The only other
person in the house was a girl named Boulay, only
l3i years old, who had lived with Petit and his wife
as servant for fifteen months. As this girl appeared
to be fond of her mistress and of the children, she was
not suspected. Many days, however, did not elapse
before she cast suspicions on Petit, and being interro-
gated by the examining magistrates, declared that
Petit ill-treated his wife, and had expressed a desire
to get rid of :her. At another interrogatory she,
finding that her former depositions had created some
suspicions against herself, declared that Petit had had
criminal relation with her, and had resolved to de-
stroy his wife in order that they might be able to
carry on their intercourse without control. He, she
said, had given her the poison, and had instructed her
to put it into the milk, which was to be mixed up
with the chocolate. A surgeon who had examined
the girl Boulay declared that she was no longer a
virgin, and this fact seeming to confirm the girl's
statement, Petit was arrested, as was also the girl.
Petit, when taken from his home, was much agitated,
and declared that, although innocent, he was a lost
man. His wife behaved with great tenderness, and
implored the officers of justice not to believe the
statement of the girl, for Petit was a kind husband
and doating father, and never could have contemplated
her destruction and that of his children. The girl
Boulay, after her arrest, changed her story. At four
or five examinations she said she had been guilty of
falsehood, that her master had never had any criminal
intercourse with her, and that, knowing where he
kept arsenic for th© destruction of rats,
she had taken it, and put it into the milk. When
asked what motive she had for this horrible act,
she replied that she wished to get rid of her
mistress, in order that she might possess her fine
clothes and jewellery. In these examinations she de-
clared that her seducer was a man who worked at
the mill. At her twelfth and thirteenth examination
she equivocated a great deal, but still admitted that
she had administered the poison without the know-
ledge of her master, and that her seducer was not the
journeyman miller as she at first said, but another young
man, whom she married. Her motive for attempting
to poison her mistress, she now said, was not to ob-
tain possession of her clothes, but in order that her
death might put an end to her servitude, and enable
her to return home; and this there is reason to be-
lieve was the true motive of the crime, for it was
ascertained that she had frequently entreated her
mother to have her home and had been refused, on
account of the inability of the mother to support her.
Notwithstanding these confessions it was thought
right to keep Petit in prison, and even to bring him
to trial; for as the first charges of the girl had
been made so positively, and as she had so
frequently equivocated, it was difficult to de-
cide as to what part of her statement was to be
believed. She and her master were, therefore,
both put to the bar. It was naturally sup-
posed that her interrogatory by the president of the
tribunal would produce the same result as her last
examinations, but to the astonishment of the court
she declared that her first account was the correct
one—that her master had repeatedly slept with her—
that he had given the poison to her, and desired her
to administer it, and as an inducement had assured
her that after the death of her mistress they should
live together as man and wife. Petit underwent his
interrogatory with great firmness, and the whole of
his demeanour was such as to carry a conviction of
his innocence to the crowd who heard the trial. The
witnesses who were called were to establish the fact
of the poisoning, and to speak to the character of the
two prisoners. A few persons deposed to rumours of
ill-treatment of the wife by her husband, but several
persons who know him intimately, end had frequent
opportunities of observing his conduct towards his
wife, deposed that he was a kind and indulgent hus-
band. Madame Petit, who appeared as a witness, as-
sured the Court that her husband had al ways behaved
in the kindest manner, and that he was passionately
fond of his children. It was utterly impossible,
she said, that he could ever have harboured a criminal
design towards her or them. As to the girl
Boulay, it was proved that she was utterly un-
educated, and was precociously wicked. The Pro-
cureur of the Republic, in addressing the court, said
that as he could not believe the prisoner Petit to be
guilty he could not ask the jury to convict him, but
of the guilt of the girl he had no doubt. The jury,
however, might think that, from her youth, she had
acted without a full consciousness of the crime she
was committing, and if their verdict was to that
effect it would enable the Court to order her imprison-
ment in a house of correction for the purpose of im-
proving her morals and restoring her to society, cured
of the wretched propensities of her mind. The jury
withdrew to deliberate on their verdict, and, to the
astonishment of the people in the Court, and perhaps
of the judges, who had made up their minds as to the
merits of the case, and supposed that much delibera-
tion was not necessary on the part of the jury, an
hour elapsed before the verdict was delivered. This
verdict created greater astonishment than the delay
which preceded it, for it pronounced the acquittal of
both prisoners. The girl left the court immediately.
As to Petit, he was not able to move for some time,
for his wife fell into his arms and his friends
crowded round him to congratulate him on his
escape.