The Sun.
London, England, 1850-09-07 00:00:00

. .
Has not the number of registered letter; in the offices
very much increased?-Very much. On looking at
the report of the Committee on mi4cellaneous expen-
diture, I find that Mr. Parker estimated that the
number of registered lette7s in the year 1800 in the
Treasury was near 6,000, and in the year 1849 it
was near 30,000. Now, admitting that in 1849 a class
of letters was registered that probably would not
have been registered in 1800, and that, therefore, the
incrrase of business is not 60 great as those figures
would indica,e, that it is rot six- old, still it lust
have increased in a very great degree.

THE SWINSCOE MURDER.

COMMITTAL OF CHADWICK'S WIFE AND
HER MOTHER.
STAFFORD, FRIDAY. —lt will probably be in the
recollection of our readers that at the late Stafford
Assizes sentence of death was passed upon William
Chadwick for the murder of his uncle, Samuel Turd •
cliffe, by administering poison to him, but which
sentence has not been carried into effect, in conse-
quence of strong representations having been made
to the Learned Judge, Mr. Justice Williams, before
whom the trial took place, and also to the Secretary
of State, that other parties were equally guilty with
Chadwick in the perpetration of the dreadful crime,
the result of which was that he received a respite
during her Majesty's pleasure.
The facts relating to the murder are briefly these :
For several years previously to last Christmas an old
man, named Samuel Tunicliffe, had re-sided upou a
little property belonging to himself, situated at But-
terton, near Leek, in Staffordshire. In the latter
part of that year Chadwick and his wife visited him
several times, and importuned him to leave his pro-
perty and reside with them at Swinscoe, where
they had just removed from the Potteries. The im-
portunities of Chadwick and his wife ultimately
proved effectual, and the old man went to live with
them, being then, although seventy years cf age, in
apparently good health. Shortly after he had been
there he complained of illness, and was violently
purged, arid after the lapse of a month from his re-
moval to Swinscoe he died. In consequence of the
anxiety of the parties to claim the deceased's property,
and from other circumstances, suspicions were excited
and the body was exhumed, when large quantities of
arsenic were found in the stomach and intestines.
Chadwick, his wife, and her mother were subsequently
arrested, but from some cause or other the two latter
were discharged, and Chadwick himself was commit-
ted to gaol. In consequence of statements made by
hien, and also from corroborative circumstances,
Chadwick's wife and her mother, Ann Tunicliffe,
were ag sin apprehended, and on Thursday last, after
the examination of several witnesses at the county
prison at Stafford, before the Hon. and Rev. A. C.
Talbot and Mr. E. Knight, both prisoners were fully
committed to take their trial at the next ass'zes upon
the capital charge.
From the evidence taken at the examination,
it appears that in the latter end of January the
prisoner Ann Chadwick went to a druggist's shop
at Ashbourne, and asked for two-pennyworth of
croton oil, when the assistant gave sixty drops only,
mixed in linseed oil. The prisoner stated at the time
that it was for cattle ; but this was subsequently
proved to be false, as Chadwick never had any cattle
in his possession. On the morning of the old man's
death a neighbour was called in by Chadwick to wit-
ness the signing of a deed of gift by the deceased, at
which time both the prisoners were supporting the
deceased in a chair; but he expired without signing
the deed. When Chadwick found the old man was
dead he appeared very angry, and said, "I knew what
would be up when that d—d old bitch came from the
Potteries ;" and then, addressing the prisoner, Ann
Chadwick, said, "D—n you, you are as bad as her;
you know what we have done !" Oa the morning of
the 25:h of February, the day appointed for the in-
quest, both the prisoner s arrived very early at the house
of Chadwick's fstht r, who also resided at Swinscoe, and
waited until Mr. Chadwick came down stairs. On
see ieig him, the prisoner Tunicliffe said, they had been
walking nearly all night from the Potteries to get to
the inquest, and that he must go there also; and
then, turning to the other prisoner, continued, " He
must say that he had bcen boiling wheat in water
with arsenic, for the purpose of poisoning crows ;
that he had then set it on the slop-stone to cool, and
probably the old man might have come in and eat of
it, as he was a greedy old fellow." A few minutes
after this had been said a daughter of Mr. ChadwiLk's
catne down stairs, when the prisoner Tunicliffe said
to her, " We have burnt the deed ; we have burnt it
un :er the teakettle," pointing to the kitchen fire.
'l2he prisoner Ann Chadwick said, "Yes, we have."
Upon being asked why they had done so, the prisoner
Tunicliffe replied, "The last thing my husband said
was, that we must burn it, for it might bring both
families into trouble." Oa being further questioned
as to whether they had forged the name of the de-
ceased, they returned nu answer. The prisoner
Tunicliffe then said she should go to the Waterhouses,
and ask Mr. Hall to go to the inquest and say he had
attended the old man while he was ill, observing that
it would be a good deal in their favour. In the
course of conversation with a man named Roberts,
that person said to botch the prisoners, " The old man
was poisose I, it is well known, and some of you have
done it ;" to which the prisoner Ann Chadwick said,
" I know nothing of it," but Tunicliffe was not heard
to reply. It was also proved that at the inquest the
convict Chadwick said to his wife, "You know you
are the guiltiest party," to which she replied, " Hush,
man ; you do not know what you are B:lying.; you
are mad."
William Tunicliffe, a youth, and son of the priso-
ner, proved that his mother had desired him to fetch
some deeds from a drawer in an upstairs room after
her return from Swinscoe, because his father would
not let them remain in the house, and which deeds he
subsequently et:livered to Mr. Hatton, the chief-con-
stable, by whom they were produced, and proved to
be deeds which had been taken from the house of the
deceased at Butterton before his removal.
O, her corroborative evidence was given, and medi-
cal testimony adduced to prove that the deceased had
died from the effects of poison.

TOTAL LOSS of the INDIAN INDIA3fAN

SHOCKING SUFFERINGS OF TIIE SURVIVORS.

It is with much regret we announce the shocking
loss of this fine Indiaman, 500 tons burden, on her
outward voyage from England for Bombay, on a reef
of rocks, named the Cargados Garayos or Narerett
Bank, with melancholy loss of human life. The an-
nexed narrative is from a gentleman who was a pas-
senger on board the ill-fated vessel :—" Nothing of
any note occurred until the night of the 4th of April
last, when, at eight o'clock, the captain informed us
that, if his reckoning was correct, we should either
be clear of, or very nearly upon, the Cargados resf.
Being rather taken aback at the cool way in which
he expressed himself, I ran forward to the forecastle,
followed by the captain and one of the passen-
gers. Twenty minutes had not elapsed before I
distinctly saw breakers ahead, which I immedi-
ately pointed out to the captain, who turned to one
of the seamen standing near him at the time (named
Peter Martin), and asked him if he thought they
were breakers ? lle replied, yes they are—and the
same moment the lock out man on the foreyard sang
out, " breakers ahead." Ive
were then going six
knots, with the starboard tacks about two points, free
wind east, steering north. The captain ordered the
helm to be put up, andtheship f
time than fell off to the north-
west, and in far less it luta taken me to
write she struck—at first slightly, then went on with
a fearful crash, starting ever timber in her,,r pieces of
wreck fllsting up all around us. e saw in a
moment all holes to save the vessel were at an end,
as she heeled over to seaward suddenly, the sea mak-
ing a clear breach over her every roller. This was
the work of a few minutes only. Three parts of the
crew were by this time on their knees, crying, and
making the most frantic appeals to heaven for aid.
All order and discipline were now at an end. The
carpentt r and two seamen attempted to cut away the
!nests, but owing, I supose, to the excitement of the
moment, they cut away the weather rigging only;
the masts of caurse went by the beard, but being still
attached to the vessel by the lee rigging, and falling
over to seaward, they served as a battering-ram, beat-
ing the vessel to pieces every successive railer. After the
first burst of excitement was over, a simultaneous rush
was made fur the boats, but we found the only one
that was available was the starboard quarter boat,
the other two had been stove to pieces by the wreck.
The captain was not slow in taking to our only ap-
parent chance of escape, the remaining boat, eight of
the seamen speedily following him ; and as he was
going over the aide I reminded him that he ought to
be the last person to leave the vessel, instead of which
he was evidently desirous to be the first. They
shoved off, and pulled back once or twice near the
vessel, asking for water and bread, which of course it
was out of our power, and much more out of our in.