The Sun.
London, England, 1804-05-28 00:00:00

DUBLIN, MAY 23.

ON Saturday last, a trial of an important nature,
before the Chief Justice of the King's Bench and a
respeftable special Jury, was concluded, having
commenced the day before. It was the case of five
fatherless children, of the .name of Cairncross,
against Atkinson, rtmainder.man in a will of the
late Joseph Cairncross, who, by a long process in

Chancery, sought to bastardize the Plair►tiffs, and
take the benefit of the will. This was an issue di..
retied by the Lord Chancellor to try the fart of le-
gitimacy-, or the contrary. The Plaintiffs rested
their case simply on proofs of a legal marriage be-
fore their birth, between their father, George Cairn-

'cross, coach-maker, late of Cole's-lane, Henry-
' mreet, with Eliza Murphy, who previously aled
in capacity of his house-keeper.
The first witness called was Anne Nunn, who
deposed, she was sister to Eliza Murphy, and that
the said Eliza, who previously, as witness be-

• .
came accompanied by any rernalee—heard a rumner.!
that Cairncross was married to Betty ; but the:ru-
mour of vco'ncubinatien was more prevalente-e-Other
witoesses were Prodaited to support the reputation. of
concubinage.
Mary Lacy, an old woman of eighty, deposed,
that she knew Cairncross for a great number of
years—attended a woman at his house called Mrs.
Betty, in the capacity of a nurse tender, at three
different- periods of her lying-in. At one of these
visits she heard Mrs. Betty acknowledge she was
married to a man cf the name. of Rowan, who was
then alive, and that they had formerly kept a hucka
ster's shop in Gravel-walk—that their tempers could
not agree, and she was compelled to leave him ;
after which she hired with Cairncross as a servant,
at a.i..a-year. At another time, while Mrs. Betty
was sitting at breakfast with Mr. Cairncross, wit_
ness heard her press him to marry her ; on which he
replied, that one husband was surely enough for
her. On this rebuff Mrs. Betty pouted, and ob.
served, it was plain he wished his property should
go to. the Atkinsons, in preference to his own
chi!dren by her. Cairncross was often embarrassed
for want of money to pay his workmen, and witness, '
though he had a clerk, was much employed in ex-
ertions to borrow money for him ; she had herself
lent him six guineas, and was, from the tardiness of
his payments, obliged to sue him at the Court of
Conscience for a small balance which lay over. Mrs.
Betty attended to oppose the summons, and after
she arrived before the Alderman, Rowan, the hus-
band, whom she previously. spoke to, and who called
at Cairncross's house before that oecuraence, inecon.
sequence of which Mrs. Betty sent something to a
friend's house in Thomas-street, to prevent his
being further, troublesornea--Rowan% at the Court
of Conscience, addressed his =wife, .and said, thought
he world tibelive'with 'Vise:himself, yet. he Vessuld
punish her for li v inge in adultery with -M r. Cairn-
}oil which itheeturnecl' round to Mr. Cairn-
Cross's- clerk, invited:. him to take •a drop, and
went' bffs • •
ierriegatories and cross. ntereogatories, ..the;
equity cause, were interchangeably read; beir4athe!,
depositioriS of persons who are since dead. • 7- - :
Mr. GEORGE PoNsoetev,ein a very able: Speech ;-
to evidence, in favour of the Defendant, dwelt'
upon:- the exclusive evidence of the alledged-faa
marriage, 'being a species -which must exclude all
evidenbe of general reputation of marriage. He;
also dwelt with much strength on the rtanapresdu; e
tion of Eliza Murphy, certainly a legal evidence,
still alive; and the only one who could throw a de.
tided light upon the fast. The Plaintiffs, he con-
cluded, thought it prudent not to produce her, lest
they might subjeSl themselves to unpleasant disco-
veries through her cross.examination.
Mr. CURRAN, for the Plaintiffs, replied with
his usual, force of elocution. He opposed the last
argument of Mr. PONSONBY, by asserting, that the
Defendant might have produced the mother of the
Plaintiffs, if they conceived her testimony could he
useful to them ; at all events, it could hardly be
expetted that a Jury could attach any extraordinary
weight to the testimony of a woman who deposed
to the validity of her own marriage, and the legiti-
macy of her own children, when the converse must
prove her a —, and her children illegitimate.
The LORD CHIEF JUSTICE complimented the
very able exertions and great zeal testified by the
Gentlemen of the Bar on both sides, which rendered
it unnecessary for him to recapitulate the entire of
the evidence ; a few observations, however, he
conceived it necessary to make, which he did with
peculiar force and perspicuity, contrasting the ar-
guments of Mr. PONiONBY and Mi. Coaitaat, par-
ticularly leaving it, howe-ver, to the Jury to draw
an inference.
VerdiSt for the Plaintiffs, with costs, which will
leave them
•a handsome property, and rescue them
from impending beggary and ruin.—lt should have
been observed, that Cairncr, ~s, en his deathbed,
made a Wig in favour of Eliza Murphy, whom he
calls his wile, and her children by him.

BURIAL OF THE DUKE OF SAXE-GOTHA.

Tire simple burial ceremony of this Sovereign
took place on the night of the zsth April, accord-
ing to the wish he expressed in h►s will. The grave
waa dug on the Island, in the English garden, at the
foot of those of his two deceased children. The
false glitter so ill becoming such an occasion, was
entirely laid aside. The reigning Dutche•s, with
her child on her arm, had the evening before strew-
ed flowers in, and round the grave. The midnight
hour struck, when the body e►►tered the garden, car-
ried by the servants of the late Duke. . The walk
to the Island was laid with black cloth, with . the
boat that carried it over. A dark, but quiet night,
favoured this melancholy performance.. The cere.
mony was only interrupted by the sighs Arid by the
tears of all present, *hidt ren in abut►dance on th'e
coffin. The grave had been dug by the f,ateVakc4s
Courtiers, and was filled by the hands of Cie:Mem-
bers of His Highness's family. Prince FREDER.TC
planted a tree on the grave.- No drums were heat-
ing, no sermon was pronounced, no cannons were
fired, no bells were tolled.

AI,4TUR ._;EPT.' 2.1.4

(FROM THE. CALCUTTA POST OF OCTOBER 24, 1803.)

" Ott the night between'the 3tst of August and
rst of September, ar h.lf an hour after midnight,
a severe shock of an earthquake was felt at this
place, which lasted for many minutes, and was
violent beyond 'the memory of man. Probably not
a living creature in the place, but was roused from
ltis slumhers on the alarm, and fei,t its effeds ; many
Of the PAc ei buildings were cast down, and Zena-
nas, hitherto unassailed by violen!-:?, were deserted,
*and their fair inhabitants took refuge in the streets
and in the fields*, in aeshabilles,
to conceal their charms, and in an affright which
eleVated their' chaims, sought proteCtion ith
men, whose visages. it • would otherwise have
disgraced them to have beheld. The night was
calm, and enjoyed the full influence of a bright
moon ; and, when the alarm was over, the blushes
and modesty of the fair deserters of their conse-
crated mansions, affirded a gleasing contrast to their
previous distresses, and amply consoled their pro-
tetlors for the desolatiOn they had suffered in their
own 11,ti.es;
NOQR "AiL 'NtssA BA/cum, a beaptifal and
`aCeomplished,youtt woman, then pregnant' with hex
'third child., •to 'the unspeakkle;:atlll(Aion of her
husband, was
which
killed by the-fallin-,
cif
,a tile, under she had' run
-for 'safety ; and°an-
-other lady of eniinence was cruelly put to death,
Upon a sus,picton of-rallantiy, with the person who
attended 'hit iii 'her >flight, though wholly unwar-
ranted by any othei.aoearance of suspicion than the
disordered state of the-few garments they respec-
tively wore.
" In the morning, very. extensiv,e.fi§spres were
observed in the fieid,':which had been caused by the
percussion•-of the .night before, throtghh, which the
water rose whit great violence', and continues to run
to the present'lar!er though its viblinCe has gradu-
ally abated; this-has bekn;Or gt.,.lienefit to the
neighbouring RyOttS as they Wetrei thence- enabled
to draw the.water over their'parched fields. •
" The principal Mosque of the place, eraleed *on
an eminence, by the famous GHAUZE KRAttsi-,-as
token of his. triumph dyer the infidelity of the Hin_
&ins, has been-shattered to pieces, and ji considerable-
part of the dome was swallowed up during the open-
ing of the earth.
" Several slighter shocks have since occurred ;
but I, do not hear they have occasioned any farther