The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-08 00:00:00

Furnall—l am uncle by marriage to the young woman
at the bar. Her aunt was out of her mind—incurably so.
She died so.'
William Jones—l am a doctor of medicine, living at Lut-
terworth, in Leicestershire. In February last I was snaking
a visit toihe house of Sir Robert Otway. At the request of
the ladies of his family I went to see the young woman at the
bar. I remember the opinion I formed then, and I have
heard all the evidence given in Court this day, and I have no
doubt whatever that, at the time of this sad event, there was
a disease of the brain that incapacitated her from being re-
sponsible for her acts.

Cross-examined by Mr. Doius-E—Distress of mind might
so surcharge the brain with blood, as in a day or two to
drive a person mad ; and, as in this case, a subsequent great
loss of blood might bring that person to a state of rationality
so as to be able properly to answer questions.
Mr. DoE simply replied on the evidence, and the
Learned Judge having summed up,
The jury immediately returned a verdict of "Not Guilty
of murder, being at the time in a state of insanity," to the
great relief of a crowded and distressed Court.
There was another indictment against the prisoner for the
murder of her other child, on which she was also arraigned.
The same verdict was given as in the last case.
The unhappy woman, whose sufferings throughout were of
the most acute character. was then removed from the dock.

•
CLERItENWELL-(r-HIS DAY.)
Ann Smith was charged with assaulting Mr. Robert Duke,
chief usher of this Court.
Mr. Duke, a very respectable and obliging officer, deposed
that on the previous night, between twelve and one o'clock,
he was passing along Pentonville-hill, when the prisoner and
two other girls attacked him. He had not given them the
slightest provocation. The prisoner was particularly violent.
She first pushed him off the path, and then kicked him in
the legs and struck him with her clenched fist in the face.
A police-constable came up, and he gave her into custody.
The prisoner, who had not the least excuse to make for
the outrage, was sentenced to seven days' imprisonment.

RAILWAY BILLS.
SECOND REPORT FROM THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON RAIL-
WAY BILLS CLASSIFICATION.
The Select Committee appointed to consider which of the pending
Railway Bills shall be deemed competing Bills, according to the reso-
utions agreed to by the House, have agreed to the following Re-
port :

Your Committee having cons.
Railway Bills, viz. :
Ashton, Staleybridge, and Liver- Manchester and. Leeds ;(Bury
pool Junction, Branch),
Barnsley Junction, Manchester, Bury, and Rossendale,
Blackburn and Preston, Manchester and Leeds and Hull
Brighton, Lewes, and Hastings, Associated,
Colchester and Harwich (No. 1), Maryport and Carlisle,'
Croydon and Epsom, Monkiand (Nos. 1 and 2),'
Delabole and Rock, Newbury, Basingstoke, London,
Eastern Union, and Southampton,
Edinburgh, Leith, and Granton, Newbury and Great Western
Epsom and South Western, (Valley of the Kennet),
Garnkirk, Glasgow, & Coatbridge, Newquay,
Gravesend, 'North British,
Gravesend,Rochester,andChathara North Wales Mineral,
Harrogate and Knaresborough, Pontop and South Shields.
Leeds and Bradford, Sheffield and Chesterfield Junction,
Leeds and Selby, Sheffield, Ashton-under-Lyne, and
London and South Western,l- Manchester,
(No. 2.) 'South Eastern and Hastings,
Manchester and Birmingham Stratford (Eastern Counties) and
(Macclesfield and Poynton Thames Junction,
Brunches) (No. 2), .Whitehaven and Maryport,
Manchester and Leeds (Bradford York and Scarborough,
Branch),
are of opinion, that, of the said Bills, the following are Bills to au-
thorise the .construction of new Lines of Railway respectively com-
peting with one another, viz. :
Ashton, Staley-bridge, and Liverpool Junction, with Sheffield, Ashton-
under-Lyne, and Manchester,
Brighton, Lewes, and Hastings, with South Eastern and Hastings,
Croydon and Epsom, with Epsom and South Western,
Gravesend, with Gravesend, Rochester, and Chatham,
Manchester and Leeds (Bury Branch), with Manchester, Bury, and
Rossendale,
Newbury, Basingstoke, London and Southampton, with Newbury and
Great Western (Valley of the Kennet),
and that the following are Bills to authorise the construction of new
Lines of Railway which will compete with existing Railways, viz.:—
Barnsley Junction,
Garnkirk, Glasgow, and Coatbridge,
Sheffield and Chesterfield Junction.

Mend the oases of the following

Covent Garden Theatre is now under the hands of
the Committee for the O'Connell dinner, on Tuesday
next, and great preparations are being made for the
occasion. Every attention is being paid to enlarge
the area to its fullest extent, so as, if possible, to ac-
commodate a larger number of persons than originally.
contemplated. The- Stewards have come to the reso-
lution of giving up their own tickets to the public,
rather than allow the great disappointment that would
have ensued, from not being able to find places for
the dinner. The lighting of the house is entrusted
to Mr. Gye, whose talents in this way are well
known. The military band will be full and com-
plete. Harper has the control of the trumpets; and
neither pains nor expense have been spared to make
the tout ensemble worthy of the occasion. The Peers
and Members of Parliament are to sit on a raised plat-
form; and the plan of the dinner tables, which we have
seen, appears complete and perfect in all parts. The
influx of strangers is great merely to attend this
dinner; and a large number of eminent Irishmen
have come over for the express purpose of witnessing
—what it will certainly be—one of the most inter-
esting occurrences of our times.

Meyerbeer's opera, the Huguenots, which has been
performed for many years at the theatre at Wurzburg, has
Just been interdicted, upon representation of the clerical
authorities of that city,

and am a licensed victualler, living in Cannon-street. I saw
the body of the little boy at my brother's house.
Cross-examined.—I did not know the prisoner before she
was married. After they were married, in 1839, she came
as housekeeper to the house I then kept. She had an acci-
dent by failing down the steps into the yard. Her forehead
was much hurt—so much so, that I had to send for a doctor.
She was very ill after that, and left ; about three months after
the accident she was confined with her first child. I always
thought she was of a desponding character, but more so,
much more so, after this accident. I have often heard her
complain of her head, and put her hand up to it. I knew no-
thing of her family.
By the JUDGE—After the accident she was very low
spirited—very much more so than before. This I observed
particularly from the time of the accident to her first con-
finement. They took a public-house in 1839, and stayed in
it till 1841, when my brother failed, and since then he has
been doing nothing.
John Hills examined—l am churchwarden of the parish
of Deptford. Having heard of this melancholy affair, I went
to the house about six o'clock. 1 found the husband there,
and what he first said to me was in the absence of his wife.
When I first went down and saw three bodies lying, as I
thought murdered, I thought the husband had done it. The
woman was, as I thought, lying in the agonies of death, but
it soon appeared that, wounded as she was, she knew all that
was going on. I examined the husband's hands, when she
said it was not he who had done it, but herself. She after-
wards, when somewhat recovered, gave me an account of it.
She said she murdered the little boy first, because he was the
strongest, and the little girl afterwards. This was her own
spontaneous declaration. She appeared most anxious to excul-
pate her husband, whom I suspected and was examining.
She said that having cut the throats of her children, she had
cut her own, but was afraid she had not done it effectually.
In the evening she said she attempted it the day before, but
her heart failed her. She appeared in the greatest agony
of mind, upbraiding herself bitterly for her wickedness. The
room was in a very distressed state—no bed and no bed
clothes—indeed the most abject misery. I found duplicates
for very many things, but the children's silk clothes were
there packed In boxes very carefully; they were very clean
and very nice.
Cross-examined—The distress was shocking to see. I did
not warn her not to tell me anything, and did not ask her to
tell me. I was present at the inquest. I remember that
eleven out of twelve of the jury wished Mr. Carttar to take
a verdict that she was of unsound mind. He refused to do
so, and they kept him for a long while.
George Worman—l am relieving-officer of Deptford union.
Neither prisoner nor her husband ever applied for relief.
John Hewitt—l am a police-constable. I went to the
house of the prisoner at the bar. I found a razor there, which
I now produce. I saw the prisoner bleeding terribly, and
the two children murdered. She .said, "It is I that have
done the horrid deed." She also said she had attempted
to do it the day before, but her heart failed her. She said she
murdered the boy first, and it was two or three minutes
before she could murder the little girl. She heard the chime
of the clock strike a quarter past one, when she commenced
the horrid deed, and she added she sat up looking at her
murdered infants till a quarter past five, and then she cut
her own throat.
Cross-examined—When I first went into the room:the
prisoner was not able to speak. Did you caution the woman
not to speak. Did you not feel it your duty to do so ?
Mr. Justice PArrnsoN—lt was not his duty to do so.
There is a very mistaken notion on that subject. A police-
man has no right to warn any person.
Mr. CLARKSON—Oh, very well, my Lord ; be it so then.
I shall not urge the question. It is a pity, however, that
some judges should have one opinion on this subject and
some another.
Roscoe----I am a policeman and was present on the
occasion. I began to search the husband, and the prisoner
said, "It was I who did it. I did it at a quarter past one."
Arthur—l am a surgeon, living at Deptford. I was called
to the house, and saw the dead body of the boy George. I
examined him, and in my opinion his death was caused by a
wound from the razor. The prisoner was then in a dreadful
state ; her wind-pipe was actually severed in one place, and
in another nearly cut through. I sewed up the wound, and
did all that was necessary.
Cross-examined—This was about five o'clock. I thought
she was dying, and did so for many days after. She was in
a state of collapse. She was not in a state to have questions
put to her. Ido not think it would have been right to attach
any weight to her answers, in the state she was then in. I
believe her to have been in a state of aberration, whilst under
my care, since the dreadful event. I considered her mind to
be in a " state of a sort of imbecility since the affair." The
diScharge of blood, consequent on the cutting of her throat,
would have relieved her head. I consider her weak state of
mind to be altogether foreign from the circumstances attend-
ing the dreadful deed.
This was the case for the prosecution.
Mr. CLARKSON then made a most powerful and touching
address to the jury, urging that from the intense misery the
prisoner was strugglingwith there was ample ground to main-
tain that her mind had given way, even supposing it to have
been originally a sound and strong one. But, happily for
himself, for the Judge, for the jury, and for the sake of our
common nature, he was in a position to prove that insanity
was in her family, and that she had herself, on many
occasions, from want :and suffering, been labouring under
an aberration of mind, and not responsible for the acts
she did. The Learned Counsel then called witnesses, whose
evidence we give the chief points of:—
Jane March—The young woman at the bar is my sister.
When she was in a situation, about eight years ago, her mis-
tress brought her to me in a cab ; but seven years previously
to that I had observed her do very strange things. Her mis-
tress brought her to me on account of the eccentricity of her
conduct, and through it she lost her situation. I have known
her lie in bed days and nights:together without any food or
nourishment whatever. Once for three days and three
nights she did this, and although urged by all of us to take
something she never would. Another time she sat up three
nights in the kitchen. She assigned as a reason the dreadful
state of her head. During those three nights she had no sus-
tenance. She was always complaining of her head. She
would often go out by herself, come home again, and go
right off to bed in the middle of the day. At other times she
would wander about the house, for hours and hours together,
never saying a word to any one, and when we spoke to her,
however kindly, never replying. This was before the acci-
dent, when her head was so much hurt. She was always
low in her spirits, but at times very melancholy indeed. She
was often bled to relieve the head. Bleeding had that effect
for a time. My aunt was in a madhouse for souse time, and
I believe died there.