The Sun.
London, England, 1850-10-22 00:00:00

WORSHIP-STREET.

Mr. James Clarke, house-surgeon of Shoreditch
workhouse, accompanied by one of the trustees and
other officials of that parish, attended before Mr.
Arnold to obtain his advice as to the proper mode of
proceeding against a young man named John Sayers,
who was suspected to have administered poison to one
of the male inmates, whereby his life had been placed
in imminent danger.
Sayers, a spare, sickly-looking lad, about 16 years
of age, was brought up in the custody of Waller, the
beadle, but not placed at the bar, the charge net
having been formally entered at the station-house.
Mr. Clarke stated that on the morning of Wednes-
day last he was hastily summoned to the workhouse
infirmary, to attend a pauper named William White,
whom he found suffering from severe pains in the sto-
mach and bowels, accompanied by constriction of the
throat, with violent purging, sickness, and other
symptoms denoting that something of a poisonous
and irritating nature had been administered. The
proper remedies were so promptly and successfully
applied that the man was now convalescent,
but the liquid discharged by the patient had
been unfortunately thrown away in his absence,
and he had not, therefore, had an opportunity
of analyzing its contents. He considered the case,
however, to be of such a suspicious nature, that he
felt it his duty to make a formal report of the facts to
the board of guardians, who instituted an immediate
investigation into the matter, in the course of which
they obtained such disclosures from some of the other
paupers as to induce them that morning to subject
the 13:)y Sayers to a close examination, and he then
admitted that he had a familiar acquaintance with the
properties of arsenic, acd had been on intimate terms
with one of the male paupers in the refractory ward,
of a most abandoned character, who had been sen-
tenced to transportation for stabbing, hut had since
returned to the workhouse :and that he had also been
present when the latter administered chloroform to a
dog, which became almost instantly insensible. Under
these circumstances, they deemed it advisable to
submit the facts for the magistrate's opinion as to
whether there was sufficient evidence of criminality
to au,tain a criminal prosecution.
William Macdonald, a pauper in the house, was
then called, and stated that on that day week the
accused accosted him in one of the wards of the
workhouse, and in reference to the illness of the
man White, who was then in a very dangerous
condition, told him that he had mixed up some
stuff to give to another pauper, who went
by the appellation of the " Old Prophet,"
and that he was sorry it had been taken by
White, for whom it was not intended. Witness asked
him what the stuff was, to which he then replied that
it was a strong dose of Spanish flies, but subsequently
said that it was arsenic, which he had procured from
a doctor's surgery, and intended to give it to " the
Prophet," who had predicted that he would die upon
the gallows, a prophecy he was determined should
never be realised, unless it was upon his own account.
White, the man who had taken the supposed poison,
and who occupied the same ward with Sayers, then
stated that on Sunday se'nnight, after the inmates
had had their breakfast, he noticed that Sayers had
left the basin of gruel apportioned to him wholly un-
touched, and he accordingly drank it himself, with
the assent of the accused to his so doing; but, ob-
serving a glossy brown-coloured sediment at the.
bottom of the basin, he questioned him as to what it
was, and he answered that it was only the brown
sugar with which it had been sweetened. A few
hours after he had taken the gruel he was seized with
such violent pains and sickness that he was obliged to
go to bed, and continued in a state of excruciating
suffering until the medical officer was called in, when
he gradually improved, but he still felt himself in a
very shattered and debilitated condition.
In answer to a question from the Magistrate, Mr.
Clarke intimated that, from the description of the
sediment discovered by the man White at the bottom
of the basin, he should be induced to infer, if any de-
leterious ingredient had been mixed up in the gruel,
it must necessarily have been cantharides, which would
present an exactly similar appearance.
Several other witnesses were in attendance, and
about to be examined, but

Mr. ARNOLD &aid it would be useless to pursue the
inquiry any further at present, as he had no power
to entertain a charge which had not been regularly
entered at the police station, and brought before him
in the usual manner for adjudication ; and he would,
therefore, recommend the parish authorities to enter
into a further investigation of the case, and adopt at
their own discretion such steps as the facts would
justify, and bring the matter properly within his ju-
risdiction.

The parish authorities expressed their intention to
adopt the magistrate's suggestion, and the accused was
transferred back to the workhouse in the charge of
the beadle.