The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-04 00:00:00

THE COVENTRY POISONING CASE.

_
The adjourned inquest was resumed on Mon-
day, at the Gloucester Arms, before Mr. Poole,
the coroner.

A number of additional witnesses were called,
some of whom spoke to acts of great familiarity
between the husband of the deceased woman and
the girl Statham.
Dr. Wrightson said—l have concluded my exa-
mination of the stomach and viscera of the
deceased. Tha blood obtained from the heart of
the deceased contained arsenic. I also examined
the liver and the transverse colon. I found each
of them to contain arsenic; it had evidently per-
meated the entire substance. I could find no
trace of arsenic upon the coats of the stomach or
elsewhere ; it was evident it had been entirely
absorbed during life; in all probability two or
three days had elapsed between the first taking
of the arsenic and the death of the deceased. It,
must have been taken at least 24 hours before.
I should say several doses of arsenic were admi-
nistered to the deceased. I have examined the
stomach, part of the liver, a kidney and spleen
of the child of the prisoner Beamish, which I
received from Dr. Goate in a bottle. I sub-
mitted the parts to separate analysis, and I found
small portions of arsenic in each—a much smaller
portion than in the case of the woman. In the
absence of any other cause, and the poison being
found in the stomach and diffused through the
viscera in the way it was, I can have no moral
doubt the child died from taking arsenic. The
stomach of the child was not so inflamed as in
the case of the woman. That would show that
death had taken place sooner after the adminis-
tration of the poison. The result of my exami-
nation proves not only the administration of
arsenic, but that arsenic has been given in two
different forms to the deceased woman, namely,
in the form of a sulphate and also in the form
of metal itself. This shows the impossibility of
the poison being any other than arsenic. There
was, however, very great difficulty in arriving
at this result, and it requires the exercise of the
greatest care to obtain it in cases where only a
minute quantity of the poison existo in a mass
of flesh and blood. The slightest overheating, or
one of fifty causes in the performance of the
analysis, may have prevented my obtaining it in
this instance.
The inquiry was further adjourned.

CONVICTION UNDER THE BLEACHING
AND DYEIVORK6 ACT.

At the City Police-court, yesterday, Mr. Robt. Howarth,
fustian finisher, of Gaythorn, was summoned for a breach
of the regulations of the Bleaching and Dyeworks Act,
passed at the close of the last session.
Mr. R. B. B. Cobbett, who appeared in support of the
complaint, said the information had been laid by Mr. R.
W. Coles, the sub-inspector of factories for this district.
He believed there would be no dispute as to the fact of
the case—namely, that the defendant had employed a
boy, named John Davis, under 13 years of age, without
having a school certificate. Mr. Cobbett read those sec-
tions of the act which he held applied to the case in ques-
tion, and particularly dwelt upon the seventh or interpre-
tation clause, which provided that the words "bleaching or
dyeworks" should be held to mean any building or pre-
mises where females, young persons, or children were
employed, in one or more of which buildings or premises
any process was carried on connected with the occupation
of bleaching, dyeing, or finishing any yarns, cotton, cloth,
silk, &c., by steam or other power. The morning of this
section, he said, was rendered still clearer by the 11th
section, which showed, undoubtedly, that it was the inten-
tion of the Legislature that finishing works should be
included in the operations of the act, because the words
" finishing works" were mentioned as a separate and dis-
tinct trade.
31r. R. W. Coles, sub-inspector of factories, was called,
and stated that he visited the defendant's premises on two
occasions, and there found the lad Davis employed in the
finishing of fustian. The boy was under thirteen years
of age, and had not the requisite certificate. In reply to
Mr. Leresche, who appeared for the defence, the witness
said the defendant received the cloth from the manu-
facturers, and it was his business to make it ready
for the market. There was no bleaching or dyeing
whatever carried on upon the premises. The cloth was in
the grey when it was received, and it was still in the grey
when sent away.
Mr. Leresche, for the defence, submitted that these works
did not come within the meaning of the statute. His Wor-
ship would find that in the title and also in the preamble of
the bill the words " bleaching" and " dyeing" only were
used, and, in point of fact, the ward " finishing" did not
occur anywhere until the seventh section, when it was
found in collocation with bleaching and dyeing.
His argument was this, that the term " finishing"
was not used in the statute at all as descriptive of
a separate and distinct trade ; but was used only as
a description of anything which might be done in-
cidental to bleaching and dyeing, and in connection
therewith—that, in fact, it was only one of a apples of
general words used to explain the sense of words gone
before, and not to extend Vieir meaning to something
unconnected with dyeing or bleaching. In illustration,
Mr. Leresche referred to the Factories Regulation Act,
1844, and to the Printworks Act, Bth and 9th Victoria, in
both of which acts a number of words were employed as
generally descriptive of the various operations carried on
in the manufactures specified, the term, " finishing" being
used in this sense. He need not say how much light these
acts throw upon the construction of the act now about to be
interpreted for the first time.
Mr. Cobbett replied at some length, reiterating the points
he had alluded to in his opening address. He referred
especially to the 11th section specifying dyeing, bleaching,
and finishing works, and remarked that had it not been
intended that the act should apply to finishing
works there was no need to have mentioned them
at all. Mr. Ellison inquired if Mr. Leresche had
anything further to say as to the 11th section.—Mr.
Leresche observed that it was certainly singular that the
word should have been used there, but he thought, taking
into consideration the whole bearing of the statute, the
Magistrates would not attach too much weight to the one
casual expression. If his Worship would look at another
section he would find that finishing was spoken as of the
occupation of dyeing. There were operations such as pre-
paring, beetling, &c., which were called finishing, and were
carried on in the same works as the dyeing and the bleach-
ing. Therefore, the 11th section might be explained in this
way, but he took his stand upon the 7th section.
Mr. Ellison said the 11th section certainly seemed to him
to be fatal to Mr. Leresche's argument. Even if it were not
so, taking the 7th section of the act, he could not help
thinking that the three words "bleaching, dyeing, finish-
ing" were intended to refer to separate and distinct pro-
cesses. If the word finishing had been intended to refer to
an incidental process of the dyeing trade, he should have
expected to have -found other incidental processes men-
tioned at the same time, because they found that in the
Factory Acts and other acts the Legislature mentioned
almost all incidental processes. " Finishing" was certainly
one of them, but in this instance they had finishing alone,
and placed in such a position with regard to the other terms,
that it seemed to him to be quite clear that it was not in-
tended to refer to an incidental or separate process. There
must be a conviction in the lowest penalty.
Mr. Leresche said the decision was of great importance,
and he therefore asked that a case might be granted for the
superior courts.

Mr. Ellison complied with the request, and the required
recognisances were entered into at once.

THIS DAY'S MARKETS.

CORN EXCHANGE.
The arrivals of English whest to this morning's market
were very moderate, and the trade, both for red and white
samples, ruled firm, at Monday's advance in the quotations
of 2s to 3s per quarter.

Importers of foreign wheat were very firm, and all de-
scriptions were held at extreme rates. The show of samples
was not extensive.

Floating cargoes of grain were in fair request, at full cur-
rencies.

Wo were scantily supplied with barley, and the trade
ruled firm, at fully previous rates.
The inquiry for fine malt was steady, at full quotations,
but inferior kinds were a slow sale.
The oat trade was firm, and prices were well supported.
Both beans and peas moved off slowly at late rates. New
Mazagan beans, 365; pigeon, 40s; white peas, 40s per
quarter.

Most kinds of flour changed hands to a moderate extent,
at extreme quotations.

ARRIVALS THIS WEEK.
Wheat. Barley. Malt. Oats. Flour.
Eng1i5h........ 1, t5O 80) 810 310 1
590
Irish.. ..... ....•
3,880 310 , —1 13,620 sack
2,720 brls.