The Sun.
London, England, 1828-03-24 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE pußLie 3OURNALS.

Mr. Kennedy's Bill for Altering at,d mond-
ing the Scotch Law of Entails seems to be viewed
with very general satisfaction in the northeiti Fart
of the island. It is hardly possible to coni:Piye
a mode of regulating the possession of
more pregnant with mischief than that whic!:
exists in Scotland. In England, the fgmoij,
statute de donis had for object the renderin,
landed property for ever after subject to continue
in the families to which it might happen to Lm,
disposed by, persons living in the 18th year o,t.
Edward the :first; but by a famous decision
the reign of Edward the, Fourth, that statute
became thenceforward almost a dead letter, for it
sanctioned a proceeding by Which any tenant, on
coming into possession, could destroy the entail
by suffering what is termed a recovery. In Scot-
land, an Act of the Parliament. of that coutitrl
passed in 1685, enables proprietors to lock on
their lands for ever ; and under that Act, neariv
the whole of the land will, at no distant per;od,
be completely withdrawn from commerce. En
tails, it appears, are multiplying every day; ante.
Englishmen, captivated with this power of tyinc
up their Nucceszors for ever from alienation, pur -
chase land in Scotland with the view of entailin,:;:
it, so that the northern part of the Island is
scourged by the family pride of the natives of
both kingdoms. According to a Statement
made up from the Records of Entails, the num,.
hers recorded appear to have been as follow
From 1685 to 1705
170 b to 1725
1725 to 1745
1745 to 1765
1765 to 1785
1765 to 1805
1895 to 1825

1592

It appears from calculations that have been
made with care, that in 1814, about one-third
of the land of Scotland was under entail, and
that at this time the proportion under entail is
about one-half. In some counties nearly the
whole land is under entail. The making of en-
tails is not confined to proprietors of - large
estates. It is states by a gentleman of high au.
thority, that small properties have frequently
been entailed of late ; some of them, it is said,
from the patriotic motive of preventing the ex-
tinction of the class of small proprietors, from
their properties being added to the large terri-
tories of their aristocratical neighbours:. When
in England a landholder is embarrassed, he re-
covers himself by disposing of part of his estate.
The unfortunate proprietor of an entailed estate
in Scotland, if ever involved in difficulties, has
no means of recovering himself. If it was the
object of the Act of 1685 to keep up a heredi-
tary aristocracy, and to supply them with the
means of living splendidly, that Act has been a
complete failure.. The 'Legislature should have-
gone farther. It should have declared all aliena-
tions of life interests, all annuity bonds of heirs.
of entail, to be illegal ; and it should haVe, more-
over, prevented life interests
,from being taken
from them by a process of law termed 'adjudica
tion ; in short, it should have declared the rents
of entailed estates to be purely alienatory, neither
assignable, nor liable to be seized by legal pro-
cess, the effect of which would have , been, no
doubt, to diprive them of all credit,. except to
a very trifling amount ; hut it would at the same
• .
time nave secured them from what is now stated
to be the situation in which a great proportion
of possessors of Entailed.Estates'are involv-
ed, namely, a state of privation not unfrequently
approaching ' to absolute destitution.. It is •a
strange way of conferring lustre • on Aristocracy,
to devise a mode for the transmission of land by
I which the greater.part of those who hold Estates
are constantly exhibited as objects of pity.
: " The nation," says the Scotsman, " is deeply icte-
rested that the land, which is that of the great liolitics,
community, shall be cultivated for national good; whiel.
it cannot possibly he, if entirely excluded from the market,
and held for heirs of entail, drowned in debt, and bwoala.
reckless or tieeperate by early dissipation, and subsequent.
irretrievable embarrassment. Such, generally speaking,
rosy be said to be t.be fate and condition awaiting heirs et'
entail. And although it be desirable, as a stimulus to el-4 -
terprise, that the architect of a fortune should have the
power of disposing of it, the very principle here contended
for requires that this power should be limited ; since, if
all the land in a country were once entailed, where, ther.,
would be this sort of stimulus to exertion ? The prirce,
would all be gone ; there would be nothing to acquir.,
nothing. to dispose of; and all that existed of property in
that shape would be not only destined I,linclig to good, bad.
and indifferent,- but destined in such a way, as almost in-
evitably, to make the good expectant a bad or indifferent
possessor. The very expediency, therefore, on which en-
Itails have been sought to be justified, calls loudly for their
abolition as nuisaticea. both in the political and moral
world—as holding out the strongest inducewenta to dis-
obedience and wilfulness in children, to extrayaganee and
profligacy in the citizen ; and, by fettering, ci. tiltimately
preventing commerce in land, retarding improvement, or
rather insuring retrogradation in agriculture, and stri-kirig,
in a political sense, at the very roots of national prosperity."
The plan for getting rid of this evil was ori-
ginally suggested by Mr. Charles Selkrig, an
eminent accountant in Edinburgh, in a pamphlet
which created a great sensation in •Scotland ; and
Mr. Cockburn, the partner of Mr.•Selkrig, ha;
followed up the subject., by furnishing the -details
of the manner in which the scheme can be worked.
These two gentlemen have had a most extensive
practice respecting Trust and Entailed Estates,
and are but too well acquainted with the evils
suffered from the existing state of the law. Tin:-
plan for getting rid of Entails is one which is,
extremely simple, and which has the merit of n.e.
complishing a great public benefit, without the
if so disposed, libe-
rate is empowered, if so disposed, to liberate from
drawback of injury to exies.tin.,Te.ie
iintielreexsttsi.leiTr Joie
Heir, or as we should term it, the Tenant in tail:
next,anner, or any succeedine-
property, Which be
tmhaeyEeiiittnaeilr
soeilile-otrhimrdortogfagthe
Traetenaantthminaly;,
ainndlikdaeem
Heir, may liberate the remaining third. Three.
generations must come into possession before
the whole of the Estate can be wholly disen-
tailed. Even on the supposition that every Heir
• of Entail shall avail himself of the privilege
thus conceded to him (for he mav,ot he may not
ii
laeAN(‘'l.la)iiy,c,l it
hbfiif'
reoirgeohrtoson, -
agt
hlelinr
pedrearstsii ja)nni
persons now
hsy Ilaioav,levl
avail himself of his privilege, and we may stip-
in existence
ph ao
beenvsee dpc iaassseestesitat( il
may be said to he unaffected. Ac-
cording to all the rules for calculating pro-
babilities, the persons now -in existence hay.,
ing expectations to succeed will be extinct
before the ' expiration of the tenancy of the
third in order ; and the plan, therefore, embraces
all .persons in existence interested
bertesatteditiins tnheeceosscacary-
sion. It will not be contended by the stoutest
tsoticaktlteerndfotor vtheseteccliaims
of
persons not in being.
, It has been shewn by ealcutm, that the -third
of the estate pen absolutzt to each of the
heirs in suecesmon, is equal in value to the life
interest of what he would other Wise have suc-
ceeded to. For instance, the person who first
disentails a third, say A, evidentiy gains an ad-
vantage. The person who may succeed A,
and whom re shall call 11, likewise gains an ad-
vantage ; 3134 CD who fIicIXICU to Bi i 5 not

placed in a worse
,situation by receiving the ab-
solute property of one4hird, than if he'were to
succeed to the whole of the entailed estate. It must
be kept in mind that when C; the third, suc-
-ceeds, from his advanced .age, his tenure, accord-
ing to every law of pr‘)bability, must be very
`shoorL In legislating in a Matter of this kind,
the good of the community must not be defeated
by a'regard for fanciful claims. We occasionally
see individuals succeed most unexpectedly to
-estates, by the extinction of a number of in-
'ilividnals between them and the succession.
But it would be absurd to tike these contin-
'gencies in a question of this nature. Every
existing interest which would sell for one farthing
'ln the market is attended to. It is proposed to
prohibit all future entails, and to allow each indi-
:vidual in possession to regulate his succession as
Ott present, in cases of unentailed property. The
Scotch Newspapers seem to regret that an ex-
ception is made of the estates of the titled
4-iristocraey.—Morning Chronicle.

We .have given the preamble of the bill, ha-
traduced by Mr. Potter
.Macqueen, the Member
f;i- the county of Bedford, to repeal the acts
conferring settlements by hiring and service.
Vv'e have before called the attention of our
readers to this important subject. The benefits
which, if the Bill should pass, will accrue to rich
well a' poor, are indeed manifold. From the
4:ttracts we have already made from Mr. Layton
Cooke's tables, it will be seen that from the
E,000,000/. annually raised by poor-rates, nearly
2,000,000/. is consumed in law charges ; from
600,000/. is expended in litigation on hiring
.snd service only ! Mr. Marqueen'S Bill is in-
tended effectually to cure this evil : it will also
eztend relief to the unemployed poor, by the
work which will be afforded them in other
parishes, when it is known that settlement does
110 follow- It will terminate, moreover, those
endless di.:ptites and harassing cases;',l'vliere set-
.tlerrients are obtained by) sleepingiorty nights in
-
'fife cOurie of yearly hiring. and.serrice These
'are among some of the numerous advantages
riellich this Bill 'Will afford. And we ask (in.the
iirip.roved state of the laws so lately adopted. and
fAind to he so beneficial to the commercial in-
terests), is labour to be the only article on wlsich
at restraint equal to serfship is to be continued ?
we trust that Mr. Potter Macqueen, and
the p:-,swerful end able Committee granted to
Lira, will effect that which the policy of the
wisest legislators have ardently struggled for, but
;n lain, from the opposition they have encoun-
tered from the selfish or contracted notions of
the political economists of the day ;—that the
fallacy of their views, now happily so obvious,
induce the Legislature to act with prompt-
Tess and decision in passing this Bill :

PARLIAMENTARY PAPER.
FILL TO lii.EPEAL SO mrcu OP AN V ACTS ILEIATINC 'IO
THE RELIEF OR SETTLEMENT OP THE POOR, AS CONFER

SIITTLEME:4Tc. HY lIIRINQ AND SERVICE.
-kripte.,---The words printed in Italics are proposed to be

inierie:d in the committee.]

Whereas it is expedient that the settlement of poor per-
tors in any parish in England should no longer be ob-
-:ained by -means of hiring and ,;e4.-vice ;be it therefore
enacted by the King's meet excellent Majesty, by and with
the advice and consent ref the Lords Spiritual and Tempo-
ral, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled,
and by the authority of the same; that no person who shall
be hired into any parish or township at any time after the
first day of September, -one thousand eight hundred and
twenty-eight, shall he adjudged or deemed to have or attain
a settlement in any such parish or township, by any such
Liring, or by continuing and abiding in the same service
for one whole year, nr for any other space of time what-
ever, subsequent to the said first slay of September, one
th*ugand eight hundred and twenty-eight ; any thing
contained in an act made in the third year of the reign of
King William and Queen Mary, entitled "An act for the
better explanation and supplying the defects of the former
laws for the settlement of the poor," or in an Act made in the
eighth and ninth years oftheteigo of the said King
*at tied "An act for supplying some defects the laws for
the relief of the poor of thia.kingdom," or in any crt or
acts referred to by the saidacts, or either of them, or con,
stained in any other act or arts in force at the time of the
pwassing of this act, or any law, wa.ze, or custom to the
contrary, in anywise notwithstanding.— Times.
The Ministerial vote in the House of Com-
mons on Friday last, for transferring the franchise
of East Retford to the hundred, has had one
effect, to which its supporters, however heedless
they might be at the time, cannot afterwards
long remain insensible,—we mean, the extinction
of those sanguine hopes which eome persons had
in their simplicity, given way to, that the Wel-
lington Cabinet, if but mediocre or perverse, on
!natters where only statesman-like ability was re-
iuired, would at least endeavour to redeem them-
.eelves by a regard to the decencies of political
obligation, should a plain question of renstitu-
tional right and public justice come before them.
Ministers did not oppose an inquiry into the
corrupt practises' prevalent at East Retford, nor
can they claim the slightest credit for such a
show of deference to the spirit of the House
.of Commons ; because it le not in those
boroughs the seats for which are openly con-
tested, and carried by the candidates olio bleed
:cost freely, that the rank strength of ministerial
enaprity may be said to lie. Such boroughs
..are, in fact, a 3 open to men with full purses on
the oppoeetion bench, as on that behind the
Treasury. The Minister saw that lie would lose
nothing by lending himself to the demolition
. of.a ship and cargo which might as well, in the
course of things, be seized upon by an enemy as
an ally. He reserved his dexterity for a profit-
able conversion of the wreck. The Member: ,
for East RetfOrdinight be.nien of any party in
.the State, of any town or province in Great Bri-
al,. But it would be a grand stroke of Parlia-
mentary science, if, by waiting patiently for time
and tide, the Minister could manage to tow the
drifted vesbeel into the strong hold of one of
his own friend se and patrons : what though that
patron might be ti),,e most notorious bucanneer that
ever infested the poiet. ical ocean. In short, the
Ministry appear to have helped to destroy an
open borough that they might secure a close one,
and have punished two or three hundred poor
electors because they sold their votes in the pub-
c only to enable one rich and titled
trafficker in the same species of merchandise to
sell wholesale, to the great shop in Downing-
2treet, the franchise Thus transferred to the names
of another body of electors. We cannot under-
stand the argument for turning over to the neigh-
bourhood of East Retford that privilege of which
the town itself was unworthy. If stolen goods
are in want of an owner, is it usual to commit
them, as a matter of justice, to the hands of any
one who happens to !eve next door to the thief ?
No ; confiscated property belongs to the Crown,
and ought to be disposed of for the public benefit.
Will it be alleged, then, by one honest and seri-
.,
fall* Englishman, that as between Birmingham
einel :be Drake of Newcastle, there exists the re-
motest question:how a right of representation
should be conferred ? Is Nottinghainshire deficient
in members representing the agricultural interest?
Or did that county possess the slightest influence
over the electors of East Retford, which was not
.—eicrejoyed by Cornishmen,by Scotchmen, or Dutch-
'',- jam ' if Any of these latter personages had
!;*L., „
prcilut money enough to buy the votes ? In

:.
,q.

=Li

fact, East Retford was hardly ever represented
by a native of the county. Nottinghamshire,
therefore, having lost nothing, what title had
she to be indemnified? But on the part of the
areat commercial communities of Birmingham,
Leeds, and Manchester, and so on, is there not
deep cause to complain ? Do not these vast
de-
positories of wealth and industry, and national
pre-eminence, illustrate every thing in the social
system which constitutes the want of special
representatives, and contain within them all
those principles and materials to which, un-
der any and every theory of our Consti-
tution, the right of representation can be at-
tached ? Not merely are numbers truly formid -
able to he found in these great towns, but that
power which is inseparable from useful know-
ledge, and property acquired by the most unex-
ceptionable means,—the application of intelli-
gence and peaceful labour to the comforts and
well-being of society. Ministers, however, have
mad© their choice,—an unworthy choice,—
which humbles them in the esteem of the whole
nation, and arms still more heavily than ever
the heel of that inexorable aristocracy which
tramples alike on Minister and people,—an aris-
tocracy too ignorant to see, too insolent to feel
its duties ; and which nothing but the iron hand
of necessity will ever force to a performance of
them. Is this a power which an honest or pru-
dent Cabinet would wish to bolster up with
fresh supplies of strength ? Is this the way for
a Ministry to acquire the confidence of an en-
lightened nation

There is one objection to the payment of fees
in Courts of Justice, which appears, to us at
least, unanswerable—vim that they must in every
case act as an addition to-the losses, the injuries,
or oppresSion, which have driven the parties of
whom they are demanded for redress to the
Courts from which the demand emanates. We
are 'glaft; therefore, to see that Mr. Hume, in
his mdefatigable endeavours to ferret out,- ex-
pOse, and correct abuses, has,turned his attention
to one.of those heads of exaction and abuse,
which is not the less flagrant and--oppressive from
falling, ss it does, almost exclusively on. the lower
and middling ranks of society—we mean the
fees demanded by Clerks of the Peace on the
discharge of recoguizances, not, in fact, for-
feited. Indeed, if the whole system of the office
of Clerk of the Peace were looked into, and
the office put under FfiVe: inspection, restraint,
and controul, a great evil would be remedied—
and one the greater, as we have already said,
from falling so especially upon the poor and
the already injured. In Middlesex we have
heard that the Clerkship of the Peace produces
to the principal and his deputies not less than
5,000/. a year; and in Yorkshire, Lancashire.
and other large counties, probably nearly as
much. This is an evil which can only be set
right by Parliament ; for we are told that, if the
Magistrates in the different counties try to cor-
rect it, they are met, and actually, in some in-
stances, set at defiance, with the old hackneyed
plea of vested interests, and of the office and its
emoluments being the freehold of the holder.—.
The first step which should be taken, after as-
certaining what the emoluments throughout the
kingdom actually are, is ro put a stop to the du-
ties of the office tieing performed by deputies.
The idea of a judicial office performed by de-
puty itself " out-Herods Herod." What would
be thought of a Chief Justice of the King's
Bench being, as some Clerks of the Peace are,
an Officer in the Army, and his duties done by a
locum tenens? But absurdity, unfortunately,
puts no extinguisher upon abuse. Those who
win continue to laugh at those who lose ; and
the March of Intellect brings us no nearer to
common sense in such matters, than if were the
merest nation of simpletons who ever allowed
themselves to be fleeced. One thing is certain,
that if this and similar anomalies are ever over-
come, it will be by the uncompterable power of
the Press urging Parliament unceasingly till the
object is attained.—Morning Herald.

The report of the East Retford Disfranchise-
ment Bill is to be further considered in the
House of Commons to-night. We wish very
sincerely we could prevail upon Mr. Secretary
Peel to give it his farther attention. If the
question were, " shall the nomination of two
members he given to this or that individual?"
we do not know one to whom we should be
more inclined to give it than to his Grace the
Duke of Newcastle, because we do not know
one w,;,-ho is more likely to use the influence such
a nomination confers for the purpose of strength-
ening the landed interest. But, as we said on
Saturday, the Duke is not immortal, nor are his
seni:iments entailed with his estate;;; and honours,
and it is always unsafe to hazard the interests
of a great anti important class of the corn-
munity, by entrusting them to the judgment or
caprice of any individual, however respectable.
Of Mr. Peel's argument against detracting two
Members from Nottinghamshire, thaeat present it
returns only eight, we really cannot see the force.
The' object in throwing the votes into the hun-
dred 14 to strengthen the agriculturists in the
House of Commons
;. hut from Mr. Peel's rea-
soning it would follow, that they derive as much
sup Fort from the boroughs as from the counties.
Even supposing that Nottingham county had a
real participation in the representation of its bo-
roughs, still six members might, we should
think, very well content it, seeing that Middlesex
has but eight There is, however, no truth
more trite than that our boroughs all over Eng-
land may be, and in point of fact are represented ,
indiscriminately by gentlemen from every quarter
of the empire, not only strangers to the county
where the borough is situated, but strangers to
the kingdom—by Scotchmen and Irishmen as
frequently as Englishmen. Mr. Peel arrived on
Friday at an average of twelve members
for each county, by a very simple process,
namely, diyiding the number of members by the
number of counties; but in order to get at the
real average, we ought nfit :o take the number
' of counties as if the term had aro: constant
meaning, but their magnitude and pomlation.
And if Mr. Peel cal.cuLte according to that rule,
he will find that six is perhapc more than Not-
tingham has any claim to. But we abjure the
quackery of equalised representation as heartily
as Mr. Pee) does, Our object is to strengthen
the landed interest, now that a fair opportunity
presents itself, not to strengthen a landed pro-
prietor, for doing which there never was a ftur
opportunity, nor is there now. We pointed to
Yorkshire, which, by its being already divided
into three ridings, each of them in itself a large
county, may more naturally claim the two
Members ofwhom the House is about to dispose,
than any other; but we have no predilection for
one county more than the rest, and we should
say, if Nottingham must have eight Members,
" give the forfeited franchise not to the hundred
but to the county." This would be consistent
acting. Mr. Huskisson seemed to he of
opinion that the Bill, as altered by Mr. Cal-
vert, would more' readily pass the Lords. It

may be so, but it is a poor reason for the Com-
mons doing what is wrong that the Lords will
concur with them. We should much rather
have the Lords correct the errors of their less
dignified fellow-legislators, than confirm them.
It is rather a curious demand to ask the vote of
the Members of the Lower House, because it
may please a set of men of whom they are alto-
gether independent, and of whose sentiments
they are, and must be, supposed to be wholly
ignorant. Grant that the Lords alter or throw
out the Bill when sent up, let the blame rest
with them. The House of Commons has quite
enough of its own burdens to bear. An impres-
sion has already been made, that Ministers wish
to strengthen their influence by the proposition
of Mr. N. Calvert—we hope it is a mistake,
and we hope they will show it to be so in the
only way they can. Those that are strong can
afford to be just. If the present Ministry wish
to bring their strength into question, they can-
not pursue a plan more likely to succeed, than
by giving way to individual interests where the
interests of the nation call for. their attention.—
Neu Times.

CONFESSION OF JANE SCOTT,

LANCASTEP., FRIDAY NICHT.

After this miserable woman was removed from
the dock, and led by the gaoler into the condemned
cell, she became dreadfully agitated, and appeared
to be in the deepest agony of mind, and shed tears
in abundance. The Rev. Mr. Rowley, the Chaplain
to the Castle, in vain endeavoured to soothe her, as
also did Mrs. Leach, the Matron, till about four
o'clock, when she became more composed, arid lis-
tened attentively -to the religious exhortations of the
worthy Chaplain, and to those of the Matron, who
employs herself at every opportunity in reading -to
and affording spiritual comfort to the miserable
creature. She haring been acquitted of the murder
of her father last Assizes, had ever since entertained
a strong idea that she would also be acquitted of de-
stroying her mother, in which she was upheld by
her fellow-prisoners, who told her to cheer up, for
they were satisfied that she.would be set at liberty
these Assizes; and this expectation she had_ so
strongly indulged in, that' after the Learned
Judge had fixed her-• awful doom, she ac-
tually did not believe that she was to suffer.
In the course of Thursday evening her sister vi-
sited her in the cell in the presence of the Matron.
The interview was not of that nature that might be
expected between them—the unhappy woman re-
ceived her with considerable coolness, but the sister
shed tears, and earnestly intreated her to implore the
forgiveness of the Almighty for her manifold sins,
and called upon her to relieve her mind by confess-
ing if she knew any thins, relative to the sudden
death of her sister's child,' a little girl about 18
months old, about two years ago. The miserable
woman replied," Well, I will tell thee all about it.
When you quarrelled with me I took the child out
for a walk, and out of revenge to you I gave it some
laudanum and killed it." The child died very
shortly after the culprit brought it home, and it was
thought, at the time, it had died in a fit. She also
confessed that shortly after this she formed the reso-
lution of poisoning her own illegitimate child (as a
young man had promised her marriage), a tine boy,
about four yeais old ; that she went to the doctor's
in Preston, and purchased an (mice of white powder,
to use her own words (arsenic), and at tea time
she says, Tommy was sitting at the table, and he
cried; she then kissed him, and made him quiet;
she then mixed the arsenic in some treacle, and
gave it him all; that she then set him in the
chair ; she took her seat opposite him, and watched
him; she says, that almost directly after she saw
the glass come over his eyes, and he died shortly.
The miserable woman says that there was a bit of a
stir made about it at the time, and many of the folks
said they thought it had not died properly, .but she
was never taken up about it. She says that she was
brought up in a Sunday school, and from the age of
fourteen years she- led a very dissolute life, and that
through the instrumentality of others—women of
the town ; and at the age of fifteen she was seduced
by a man, whose name we forbear mentioning, at the
house of one —, at Prestons who was tried at the
Castle for maiming Mr. Horrocks some years back.
The unhappy creature says that her poor old father
and mother always behaved kindly to her, and en-
deavoured to keep her out of the streets, but so
strongly had the Devil got possession of her, that she
resisted all their attempts to save her, and by her
dissolute habits and continually robbing them of their
property and ready money, had, before their
death, reduced them to the greatest distress.—
She says that she always expended the pro-
perty she had deprived her parents of upon the
bad women in and about the town, who urged her
from one robbery to another. The miserable culprit
states that on the afternoon previous to her administer-
big the deadly draughts to the old couple she met
George Richardson (the yoesig man that she wished
to marry), and the boy SfiOrrocks, who gave evi-
dence against her on her trial, and they went to a
public-house and drank a quantity of ale, which
Richardson paid for, and they then went away ; that
she met them again at six o'clock, and they had
more, to the amount of two shillings, and they wished
her to rob her father of the money to pay for it.
She refused; upon which one of them said " Oh,
never mind your father and mother ; Let them go
to Hell ; you can easily get rid of them, you know,
and then all will be yours, and then you can de as
you please." She said, " This so overcome me, and
the j)evil was in me so, I left them at eight o'clock,
went home, and I took the arsenic that I had in my
pocket, and mixed it, first in hot water, and then
mixed the meal in it, and made it into porridge, and
gave it my father and mother ! They partook of it,
and, as soon as I found I had poisoned them, I ran
for Mrs Craig. I should not have done it only for
the observations that fell from Richardson and Shor-
rocks." She admitted the justice of her sentence, and
avows that her crimes are innumerable, She says that
she did think of poisoning her brother's wife, but had
relented. Thellev.Mr.ReWley,aftershehad detailed
these horrid truths, asked how she could think of keep-
ing them so concealed from the time of her first trial ?
The miserable Woman, with the utmost indifference,
replied, " Because I thought I should get off." She
has never got out of bed since her condemnation,
and has refused food since Wednesday. She fre-
quently dreams, and calls aloud, " Oh my dear
father and mother +. oh my dear Tommy ! (meaning
her child); oh, do forgive me ! sau'e me ! save me!"
She passed a very restless night, and this morning
was visited by the chaplain, who found her more
composed, and apparently resigned to her fate. Her
execution will take place at twelve o'clock to-mor-
row forenoon (Saturday last.)
Mr. Baron Bullock has not left the town, as he
has several other causes to try, and should they not
be terminated at the hour of execution, it is under-,
stood the Court will adjourn for a time. The enor-
mity of the crimes of the wretched woman creates
a horror in the mind of every person, and it is there-
fore expected that the multitude will he very great
to witness the dying moments of the parricide,

HORRIBLE CRIME.—A few days since,
single young woman who was in the family way, and who
resided with her father near Buxton, was by him turned
out of doors. She wandered till night among the moors,
and about teer o'clock entered the cottage of a poor widow
woman. She was soon afterwards taken in labour and
delivered herself. In the course of the night she arose,
made a fire, and threw the baby into it, which was almost
instantly consumed to ashes. She has absconded, but the
officers of justice are in pursuit of her. A person answer-
ing the description of this unhappy woman has been seen
in a most piteous situation in the neighbourhood of Chapel-
en-le-Frith. We understand that the unfeeling father is
frantic at the recollection of the brutality of his conduct
towards his unfortunate offspring, and that her seducer has
with difficulty been prevented frcra ccmmittinv tlicide:
Macclesfield Courier,