The Sun.
London, England, 1835-06-08 00:00:00

T REMEN DO

,ER STORM..

( From the Manchester Guardian.)
On Wednesday last this town and its neighbourhood were
visited by a thunder-storm of more than ordinary violence and
duration, and which proved fatal to at least one individual, and
marks of its effects have been left in various other points of
the town. The storm, which appeared to come from the West,
commenced about one o'clock, and lasted until nearly three,
during which time there was very heavy rain on all the
Southerly side of the town, and especially in Hulme and Ard-
wick, where the principal violence of the storm appears to have
fallen. The individual who lost his life on the occasion was
Richard Shuttleworth, surveyor of the Gorton road. Is ap-
pears that he had been at Longsight, and was returning in-
wards Manchester about two o'clock, when the violence of the
storm was greatest. He was walking on the foot-path, about
one hundred yards beyond the Shakspeare Inn. He was, we
believe, just opposite the house of Mr. Powell, in Ardwick-
place, and that gentleman, who happened to be looking out
of the window at the same time, saw an umbrella which
Shuttleworth carried over his head apparently enveloped in
flame, and in an instant afterwards he dropped upon the.
footpath, and was never seen to move afterwards. Mr. -
Powell immediately hastened to the spot, accompanied by
one or two other persons who had seen the man fall, and
he was conveyed to the Shakspeare Inn, where a surgeon
promptly attended him, and tried to bleed him in the jugular
vein ; but he was quite dead. On examining his person and
dress, some appearances presented themselves which, coupled
with other facts that were observed, seem to show that the
electrid fluid, in this case, as in some others, proceeded, not
from the clouds, but from the earth. In the first place, just at
the moment when Shuttleworth was killed, several persons
who happened to be in the neighbourhood witnessed explosions
of electric fluid at different points on the road, just as if so
many pistols had been fired out of the ground. One of these
explosions appears to have taken place under Shuttleworth's
right foot. Round the heel of the shoe was a row of strong
nails, which seem to have conducted into the shoe a larger
quantity of the electric fluid than could be transmitted up-
wards by any conducting substance which presented itself;
and the shoe-heel had been torn. asunder along the hne of
nails, whilst the upper-leather had been torn out at the
side. The left shoe did not exhibit any mark of injury ; so
that there had either been no communication of electric
fluid from the earth to it, or it had been only in such
quantity as could be conducted upwards. The stocking on
the right leg was much burnt, and a long gaiter which he
wore was torn open in various places. His person, from
the right foot up to the head, exhibited strong marks of being
scorched, and his whiskers and eyebrows were burnt off. The
unfortunate deceased was about 52 years of age, and very
highly respected in his situation, which he had filled for a num-
ber of years. He has left a wife and four children, all of whom,
however, arc grown up.
Another point which the lightning appears to have struck
with considerable force, though without any fatal result, is a
row of six small houses in Back Silver-street, Hulme. Seve-
ral of the chimnics and walls bear visible marks of the pro-
gress of the electric fluid. In one of these.houses, an old wo-
man named Mary Boffey, who was washing clothes in au
earthenware mug under the window, having turned to the fire
to dry some clothes, felt a severe blow on the head, as if from
a brick-bat, which threw her down on the floor, where she
remained for some time in a state of insensibility. When the
storm commenced the daughter of Boffey, who is the mother
of several children, ran into the third house in the order de-
scribed, taking with her her little boy. She was struck as
she was sitting near the window holding the boy's hand, was
thrown upon her knees on the floor, and for some time was
unable to rise. On recovering herself she found that her left
hand was deprived of its muscular power, and the finger
nails were quite black. She obtained the use of the
hand again, although it still remains numb, by bath-
ing it in hot water. At the same time she was hurled
down, her little boy cried out, " Oh, my foot !" and as
soon as she was able to examine it she found one of his feet of
a purplish colour, somewhat resembling the discolouration
produced on the skin by exploded gunpowder. He was
unable to stand for some time ; but after using some applica-
tion supplied by a druggist, he was able to walk, though he is
still lame from the effects of the shock. In a chamber in the
same house, a cane enclosing a dirk was split up into strips.
In the sixth house of the row, a woman who was washing near
the window when the lightning Lame exclaimed, " I must shift
from here ; I can't stand this ;" and immediately she was struck
on the head, so as to throw her forward on to the mug. In
the same house another female, a fustian-cutter, who had been
sharpening her knife in the cellar, was returning, when she felt
a blow on her head, and at the same time perceived what she
describes as " thousands of sparks flashing." In every case
in this neighbourhood, including one in which two little girls
at a school were knocked down by the shock, the smell of sul-
phur is stated to have been so strong as to be almost suffo-
cating. All these shocks were felt about the same time, as
nearly as could be ascertained, namely, shortly after two o'clock
in the afternoon.

The General Steam Navigation Company's Mail
Packet, the William Jollift'e, from Hamburg, arrived off the
Custom-house, at 3 o'clock P.M. on Saturday. Also, the Lord

Melville, from Calais.
Col. Austin and family, Mr. Daubeny and family,
Mr. Morland, Monsieur David, &c., took their departure
yesterday for Antwerp, in the General Steam Navigation
Company's packet, the Tourist.
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY.—The friends of civil and
religious liberty in Bungay have invited Mr. John Childs to a
Public Dinner on Friday, the 19th instant, to testify their gra-
titude for the impulse which he has, by exposing the iniquities
of the Ecclesiastical Court, given to the cause of national Re-
form. Sir Thomas Beevor, Bart., in the Chair.—Norwich

Mercury.
A new Novel from Cooper is an event of marked
prominence in the literary world. His forthcoming produc-
tion is to be entitled The Monikins." How innumerable
are those who feel indebted to this great master of fiction for
some of the most delightful of their solitary hours—hours re-
deemed from the cares of the world by the magic of his pen !
And to what fresh and new scenes does he not transport his
readers ! He makes them familiar with the vast sea, no less
in its beauty and romance than in its terror, as the most fearful
home of the tempest and the battle. Then, for delineations of
the humours of the sons of ocean, who can match with
Cooper? But if his genius as a naval novelist is unrivalled,
so also is it in those tales of which the scene is laid in the in-
terminable prairies and primeval forests of his native land.

PORTRAIT OF MUNDIG, THE WINNER OF THE
Life in London and Sporting Chronicle, of
Sunday next, June 14, will contain an accurate Portrait of
Mundig, by Mr. Herring, the celebrated animal painter, with
all the Sporting News of the week—important Cricket
Matches—Trotting Matches—the Practical Angler, No. 3.
Wrestling—Aquatic Sports, &c.—the usual copious Political
and Domestic Miscellany—ln the Gallery of Comicalities, a
humourous Scetch, entitled " Touching the Spanish," or the
Carlos Rocket on the Stock Exchange. Bell's Life, of June 7,
had the best account of Epsom Races. Price of Bell's Life
in London, 7d. Office, 170, Strand. An edition for the
country published early on Saturday afternoon.
On Saturday evening, between eleven and twelve
o'clock, an appalling outrage was committed upon the per-
son of a quiet, inoffensive man, named John Henry Pedley,
by a man named Robert Potter. The circumstances, as col-
lected upon the spot by the reporter, were as follow :—Mr.
Pedley, who is brother to the celebrated soda water and gin-
ger-beer manufacturer in Oxford-street and the Strand,
lived at No. 3, Salutation-court, St. Giles's, next to Lascelles-
place, and the accused with his wife resided in the first floor
at the next door, No. 2. At about half-past eleven o'clock on
Saturday night, Potter, who is what is called a vice-man, at a
coacn-maker's in Long-acre, went home in a state of intoxi-
cation, and quarrelled with his wife. He beat her with great
violence, and the whole neighbourhood was in a state of alarm,
from the cries of " Murder" sent forth by the unfortunate
woman. At length Mr. Pedley, thinking that, as a neigh-
bour, a remonstrance on his part might have the effect of
quieting Potter, went into the apartment of the latter, and
endeavoured to prevail on him to abstain from further vio-
lence towards his wife. Potter, however, seemed deter-
mined upon mischief, and struck his wife several times, until
she ran out into the Court, and called out for protectiosl.
Several young men, living close by, had assembled about the
door, and as Potter came out, pursuing his wife, threatening to
kill her, they laid hold of him, while Mr. Pedley caught Mrs.
Potter in his arms, assuring her that she was safe. All at once
Potter broke loose from those who had seized him, and ran up
stairs ; and returning in about a minute with a sharp table-
knife in his hand, he made a rush at poor Pedley, and thrust
the knife into his bowels just above the navel, at the same
time drawing the deadly instrument across, so as to bring it
nearly to the ribs of the unfortunate man. Pedley screamed
out, " 0 God ! he has cut my bowels out ;" and placing his
hands towards the lower part of his person, absolutely held
his intestines until those about him, assisted by policeman
Edward Davies, No. 74, E, placed him on a shutter, and con-
veyed him to the Middlesex Hospital, where he was attended
by the house-surgeon and the other gentlemen of the esta-
blishment, by whom, it is needless to say, every possible
attention was given, and the dreadful wound was sewn up,
but not the least hope was entertained of his recovery.
Davies, the constable, in the midst of the confusion, before
Mr. Pedley was removed to the hospital, missed Potter,
and running up to his apartment, found him lying on his
bed, and was compelled to drag him off. Underneath
where he had lain the constable found the knife with
which the wound had been inflicted, still wet with blood.
Potter was taken to the station house in George-street,
St. Giles's and a watch set over him during the night. Yes-
terday, at one o'clock, a communication was received by the
inspector on duty at the station-house, from the house-sur-
geon of the hospital, that Pedley was in so bad a state that
he could not survive many hours, in consequence of which
Mr. Laing, the Magistrate of Hatton-garden, who happened
to be at home at his chambers in the Temple, was sent to,
and went to the bedside of the wounded man to take his
statement of the affair. The accused person, Potter, was at
the same time taken from the George-street station-house to
the hospital, strongly handcuffed, in the custody of Sergeant
Palmer and Davies, the constable. He was conducted into
the room, and Pedley being warned by the surgeon that he
was not likely to survive, related the circumstances as they are
above described. At the conclusion of the examination, which
was very short, Pedley was much exhausted. Potter was
conducted by the police-officers back to the station-house.
When asked if he had anything to say, he-stated that he,
was very drunk, and did not know what .he did.: Heljak:
no recollection of having a knife with hini,..4,0 he 113.01 .4rer3r
sorry for having hurt the poor fellow. -...,*1145)i-.wks.:a, col-
lector of_rents for Mr. Groat, the proprastottol:t*l houses
in Salutation-court, who lives in Church St.