The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-02 00:00:00

THE SUICIDE AT PLYO.IIUTH.

An inquest was held yesterday afternoon, at the
Guildhall, Plyrn ,rth, before Mr. John Edmonds,
the coroner for the borough, to inquire into the cir-
cumstances attending the death of Mary Anne
Luke, who died on Wednesday evening from in
juries she sustained by jumping out of a window
on the previous afternoon.
The case having been much talked about during
the day, there was a very large crowd in and
around the Guildhall. The hall itself was com-
pletely filled, as were also its approaches, and there
were hundreds in the street who could not get in.
The Coroner addressed the jury, and said they
were called together for the purpose of inquiring
into the circumstances attending the death of Mary
Anne Luke. This investigation was of considerable
importance, not only on account of the station of
the deceased, but also as to how far the fatal occur-
rence was attributable to the conduct of the father.
By the rule of the law, a parent might chastise his
child properly, but that must not be done violently.
It seemed, from what he had heard—but they
would have the evidence by and by—that this
young woman, the deceased, was violently beaten
with a rope, and that she fled in consequence
from her father, and jumped out of a window.
By law, if one person, under a well-grounded
apprehension of violence from another, had to
resort to such means as that by which this young
woman met her death, he who had caused it was
held responsible.
The jury then adjourned to the house to view the
body.
-When Thomas Luke, the father of the unfortu-
nate girl, came into court, he was received with
yells from the assembled crowd.
Mary Abbott, the first witness called, was exa-
mined, and said—l am a widow and reside at Mr.
Thomas Luke's house, 30, Union-street. Mr. Luke
and all his family reside there. lam employed
by him as housekeeper. The deceased was his
daughter, and was single ; her age was 18, and
she was a healthy girl, except during the last few
months. Her employment was keeping her father's
business and selling boots and shoes. Mr. Luke
has a wife and five and other children, the deceased
being the eldest. All the family lived in the house,
with the exception of Mr. Luke and the eldest son,
who took their meals at one of the other shops, Mr.
Luke having four in different parts of the town.
All the family slept at the house in Union-street.
At two minutes to nine, on Tuesday night last,
Miss Luke came home to the shop with her mother,
having been at the establishment in Bedford-street
all the afternoon, where she went with her father.
They appeared to be good friends. She went up
to her bedroom, which was two stories high,
to take' off her bonnet and shawl. She came
down again on her sister calling her, and went
into the kitchen. Her father was there, and
insisted on an explanation, which she said she
could not give, and he then slapped her face with
his hand. He might have given her two or three
slaps, but I cannot say. She cried, but said she
could not give any explanation. Her father then
took a piece of line and struck her. (The " line" was
handed to the coroner. It was apparently a piece
of clothes-line, about the thickness of a small finger.
As it was exhibited a roar of execration burst forth
from the densely-crowded court, which the coroner
appeased by requesting the crowd to desist from
anylexhibition of feeling, whatever:their thoughts
might be.) Her father went into the yard and
cut it from a clothes-line. He held it in his right
hand when he came in, and the deceased was
standing up. No one had hold of her. I think
the line was once doubled, and her father struck
her with it on the arm. Ido not think more than
two or three blows were struck. She held up her
arm, receiving the stripes on it, and said, "Don't,
father." He ordered her to bed, and she went.
That was instantly after he struck her the last blow.
She was crying then, but not much, and left the
room quickly. No one followed her. The kitchen
door was then shut. When Mr. Luke ordered his
daughter to bed he threw the rope down on the
floor. He did not threaten to beat her again, but
sat down, and she ran up stairs, and I stood at the
kitchen table. We heard deceased's window thrown
open, and her sister Emily screaming that deceased
was out of window. I ran into the court with Mr.
Luke, and there we found her on the ground quite
insensible. She was lying on her back, with her
head thrown on one side. She was removed in-
doors, and I went for a surgeon, Mr. Whipple.
Deceased died at 10 minutes after eight o'clock
last night. Deceased spoke yesterday, and she
was attended by Mr. Whipple and Mr. Square.
Confirmatory evidence having been given, the
jury returned the following verdict :—" That on
the 27th of May, in the year of our Lord, 1864,
the said Mary Ann l.uke, having been severely
beaten by her father, Thomas Luke, .of Ply-
mouth, at No. 30, Union-street, within the
borough, became excited, and, while labouring
under temporary derangement, jumped from the
bedroom window of her father's premises and fell
on the ground below, whereby her skull was frac-
tured and brain lacerated. That she languished
therefrom, at 30, Union-street aforesaid, until the
30th day of the said month of May, and then and
there died of the said fracture of the skull and
laceration of the brain, and the jury further say
that, her said father's conduct towards the deceased
was marked by undue severity."
During the time the foreman was reading the
decision of the jury, Luke made use of some inco-
herent expressions, and then sank forward on the
desk weeping like a child.

PALACE OF A CHINESE MERCHANT.

A letter from Canton of the 11th April, in the
Gazette tie France, says :—" I lately visited the
estate of a Chinese merchant of Canton, named
Portingua, and of which he spends 3,000,000 f. a
year--an immense sum in a country where labour
is to be had almost for nothing. The property is
larger than a king's domain. This Chinaman made
his fortune in the opium trade, and is said to pos-
sess more than 100,000,000 f. He has 50 wives
and 80 domestics, without counting 30 gardeners,
labourers, &c., and owns in the north of China a
still finer estate. He has a great liking for the
French, and receives them well. When I went
with two friends to visit his mansion, he had just
left, but I was received by a steward, who con-
ducted us over the house and grounds. In front
of the house is a vast garden in which are the
rarest flowers, and a wide alley leads to the prin-
cipal entrance. The apartments are vast, the
floors being in marble ; they are ornamented with
columns of the same material and of sandal wood
encrusted with mother-o'-pearl, gold, silver, and
precious stones. Splendid looking glasses of a
prodigious height, furniture in precious wood
covered with Japan lacquer, and magnificent car-
pets of velvet and silk decorate the rooms. The
apartments are separated from each other by
moveable partitions of cypress and sandal wood,
which are ornamented with charming designs cut
right through the wood, so as to permit one room
to be seen from the other. From the ceilings are
suspended chandeliers ornamented with precious
stones. There are more than thirty piles of build-
ing in the whole edifice, which are united by
covered galleries with columns and pavements in
marble. The lodgings of the women are decorated
with more than Eastern splendour. An entire
army might be lodged in the house and grounds.
Water-courses, on which are gilded junks, traverse
them in all directions ; and at intervals are vast
basins, in which are swans, ibises, and an infinite
variety of birds. There are also pagodas nine
storeys high, which are very remarkable; some are
in marble, others in sandal-wood, carved with
great art. In the gardens are extensive aviaries
of the rarest and most beautiful birds. In front of
the womens' apartments is a theatre in which a
hundred actors can perform, and so placed that
people in the apartments can see without difficulty.
Near the outer door is a printing-office, in which
M. Portingua causes the memoirs of his family to
be prepared for posterity."

THE PULLINGER FRALTDS.—The Stock-Exchange
Committee yesterday concluded their investigations regard-
ing the transactions of Pullinger, and resolved to suspend
Messrs. R. S. and J. S. Scrimgeour and Co. until the 25th
of March, when the next annual election will take place.
Messrs. Scrimgeour are the brokers to the Union Bank of
London, and near relatives of the manager. They appear
to have executed speculative order= for Pullinger in June,
1856, and to have continued them to the period of his ap-
prehension, but these were all of comparatively small
amount, and were chiefly in Turkish Stock and Sambre
and Meuse, North of Europe Steam, and Grand Russian
Railway shares. The firm of Messrs. Scrimgeour is of the
most respectable character, and no one supposes fa- an in-
stant thr..l they would have deliberately encouraged any
dangerous operations on the part of a person in Pullinger's
position; but their gross indiscretion in listening to his re-
presentations, and the fact of their having continued to act
for him for three years after the notice issued by the Com-
mittee warning all members against such dealings seemed
to render it impossible for a less penalty to be awarded than
that which had appeared necessary in the most prominent
of the previous cases. The decision will stand for confir-
mation on Monday next. Twenty-six out of the thirty
members composing the Committee were present to-day,
and it was passed by the requisite majority of three-fourths,
an amendment that the suspension should be limited to six
months having been negatived.
It is alleged that the arrangement mentioned
yesterday for the building of 10 large steamers in this coun-
try for the Emperor Napoleon, with capital to be raised
under a French guarantee of 5 per cent ~ ostensibly for the
purposes of Eastern commerce, was :intended to be signed
in Paris this day.
The Birkenhead commissioners have agreed to
the introduction of horse railways through the principal
thoroughfares of that town, on a plan proposed- by gr.
Train, of New York.