The Sun.
London, England, 1845-08-07 00:00:00

CHILD MURDER.

Monday afternoon an inquest was held in the borough
gaol, Windsor, before Thomas Marlin, Esq , the Coro-
ner for Windsor, and a respectable jury, on the body of
a new-born male infant, which was found dead in the
privy attached to the residence of Mr. Charles Alder, in
Spring-gardens, on Friday last. The servant of Mr. Alder,
a young girl, named Susan Douglas, between twenty and
twenty-one years of age, who had given birth to the in-
fant, was in custody of the gaoler, but too ill, from the
weak state she was in, to be present during the inquiry,
which lasted nearly four hours. Mr. Geoffrey Pearl,
surgeon, deposed that he was sent for by Mr. Alder ow
Friday last, in consequence, as Mr. Alder stated, of a sus-
picious circumstance having taken place with reference
to his female servant. When he went there the girl was
out upon an errand. Mrs. Alder told him she thought
the girl had been delivered of a child. When the girl
returned he told her of the suspicions entertained, but
she denied that she had been delivered. Upon examin-
ing her in the presence of Mrs. Alder, he found that she
had borne a child, and very recently ; he told her so,
and that she had better say at once what had become of
it. She then told him that she had been taken ill while
in the privy She looked pale, but not particularly ill.
The next day he made a post mortem examination of
the child, by the desire of the Mayor. It was a lull-
grown male infant ; there were no appearances of any
external marks of violence to account for its death,
and he bad no doubt it was born alive. The
umbilical cord was not tied. He had attended the mother
of the deceased in the prison since Friday. Mrs.
Jane Alder stated that Susan Douglas had lived with
her as servant for upwards of four years, and during
that time had been particularly steady and honest.
Witness was net aware she was in the family way.
Witness, in consequence of the girl appearing very ill
on Friday last, sent for Mr. Pearl. Mr. Charles Alder,
the husband of last witness, said that upon Mr. Pearl
discovering that his servant had given birth to a
child, he immediately ordered the privy to be
opened, when the body of a new-born male child
was found by the police near the mouth of
the drain leading into the cesspool. James Dobson,
police-sergeant, deposed to searching the privy, and find-
ing the infant lying on its back on the surface of the
soil, quite dead. This being the whole of the evidence, the
room in which the inquest was held was ordered to be
cleared. After the jury had been in deliberation for
half-an-hour, Mr. and . Mrs. Alder were again called in
and privately examined, and the jury then remained in
deliberation for upwards of an hour, and ultimately re-
turned a verdict of " Wilful murder against Susan
Douglas." The prisoner will be removed to the county
gaol at Reading, to take her trial at the next Berkshire
assizes, as soon as she is in a fit state to undertake the
journey. The girl, who is a native of Wokingham, states
the father of the unfortunate infant to be an old man
named Day, who died at Windsor, where he was well
known, about three weeks since, at the advanced age of
between seventy and eighty.

THE CONDEMNED AT EXETER.—When the tidings
of their respite- was
,cornmunitrated to the prisoners, they all
received it with"-gratitude and delight except the imperturb-
able Serva. This man (the captain of the Echo, a schooner
of seventy tons only, with 434 slaves stowed and packed in it)
has stood alike unmoved by the terrors of this world and the
world to come. For three days, though smitten with a foul
and loathsome disease, he underwent the ordeal of the trial
without manifesting the slightest sign of uneasiness. He re-
ceived the doom of death without emotion, and he has since
rejected the consolations of religion and the holy offices of the
priest, with a cold and bitter sneer. He says his own heart is
the depository of its ewn secrets, and no mortal man shall
wrest them from him. He received unmoved the merciful de-
claration of the high sheriff, and turned away with r.s much
apathy as if the message of prolonged life and rekindling hope
had been the most ordinary matter which a heedless man could
impart to an indifferent one.
By a private letter which has reached us from
Gibraltar, we are informed, upon good authority, that 20,000
slave shackles, for men, women, and children—in all, fourteen
cart-loads—have been fished up from the wreck of the
American war-steamer, lately burnt at that port I—Ship-
ping Gazette.
THE RECENT MAGISTERIAL FRACAS AT RO-
CHESTER.—In consequence of the painful scene which took
place between the magistrates on the bench at the County
Police Court on Monday, the 21st ult., William Henry
Bodkin, one of the Members of the city and borough, has been
called upon by some friends to intercede between the parties,
and that Learned Gentleman, after some considerable pains,
has brought the Rev. George Davies and the Rev. Mr. Formby
to an amicable understanding. It is, however, stated that
another obstacle has since exhibited itself, which is that Captain
Baker and Mr. James Smith feel that an apology is due from
the Rev. Mr. Formby to them, as they constituted a portion of
the bench on the occasion when the insult was offered, which
Mr. Formby declines doing. Several special meetings of the
magistrates of this division have been held on the subject,
which have been private. It is, however, reported that the
matter has been laid before the Secretary of State. The cir-
cumstance creates considerable public interest, and the wonder
is how matters are to end.

` Dr. Campbell in his Hermippus Redivivus, quotes a A SERIES OF MURDERS.— AwTuLDEEDs or BLOOD.
singular book published under the title ' Melanges —A gentleman who arrived in Cincinnati lately gave the editor
d'Histoire et de Literature par M. de Vigneul Marville,' of the Commercial the following particulars of dreadful deeds of
Bonaventure d'Argonne was the real name of the author blood committed on the Wachitta river, in Louisiana a few
who called himself Vigneul de Marville ; he was a
days since. He stated that two planters, living on adjoining
plantations, had a difficulty. An unruly horse belongieg to
Chartreux religieux, and died about 1704. The follow- oSoieonjuamftrrd into a
,lot
belongingbelonging
tt o
owner of
and was shot.
r o f
shot.the horse,l same
Mg tale is told, by way of exemplifying the notions above
named:—` The day after our arrival in London, several over to the saa?degprinantationwashehetoown
andto
1 tradesmen came to our lodgings, in order to sell us the evening the planter, who owned the horse and tiegr, o, tonic his
commodities and curiosities of their country. Every one gun, and went over to the planter's house who had shot his
of the company fixed readily his attention on whet horse and negro, and, as he stood in his yard, deliberately shot
pleased him most ; acme brought gloves, others ribbons, him dead. The son of the dead planter, hearing the report,
and others silk gloves. The merchandise which fell to came out of the house, when he was commanded to stand. As
soon as the gun was reloaded the son was shot and immediately
hemy share was several perspective glasses and microscopes;
of
gwrheoatscoaldpatehietmy, NaVnads
caonueldxcsell,eankt}m,Atheehmtaotliecri
aabn
I,ya
well.man expired. The daughter of the planter then came to the door,
I. kept him to dinner, and as he' when the monster took his bowie-knife and cut her throat from
was mighty well pleased ear to ear, and then fled. The slaves on the plantation raised
with the entertainment, he toldthe alarm, and the fiend was pus-Axed and taken, and committed
me,n .after he rose from
then rook out of a shagreen box an instrument in a for doubt
table, that he had a great curi
dto o theu bt
tnbeeamr 71
zigaolm etrio
cawait trial.aaper.
silty to show me. He are said to be from a reliable source, but we feel inclined to
discover
t(iseshell case, which proved to be a most excellent ail- DEATH I'l:031 DRINKING THE CONTENTS OF A
er,),eope. I may well bestow this epithet upon it, since GINGER-BEER BOTTLE.—On Saturday art inquest was held
t ova; so excellent as not only to
01 in Liverpool, betore the Coroner, on view of the body of
bodies imperceptible to the naked eye, but even the
of Epicurus, the subtle matter of Descartes, the veaaptAnns Ruth Gotodldsmihth, e
fallchild of two years of ro,oewaho met her
of the earth, those which flow from our own bodies,oaunrds deathHoldsmitiher
deposedte singularethwaitnghewas a circumstances
and kept' a beer-s
,ofeh as bring down to us here the influence of the stars, house in Craven-street. The deceasedj was his daughter.
'rile first experiment I made was looking on the person On Thursday afternoon last he went into his cellar for the
from whom I received it, at the distance of four or five purpose of shifting
a quantity of empty ginger-beer bottles
ace- which gave me an opportunity of discerning an out of his way, and, finding a full one among them, he
p ~.,
infinite number of
little worms, that were feeding most
sma
opened it to see if it were good, as it had been seven or eight
ono to thsi the house. He took a little himself, and gave
m
voraciously upon his clothes; by which I perceived histhat, wife, which she tasted. Several other persons
contrary to the common opinion, it is not we who wear partook of it, and
out our clothes, but they are fairly eaten off our backs ten minutes after, all those who had t par aken of the contents
by these invisible insects. I changed toy situation, and of the bottle became sick and vomited. The deceased kept
considered my mathematician in another light. He ap- getting better and worse until about nine o'clock the ;erne night,
neared to be enveloped in a dark cloud. He told me, vs hekn. she fell asleep and appeared to be somewhat better. On
aw, a 19g the following
that this appearance was owing to his perspiring strongly morning she called for a drink and
given some mint tea, which she had had before. ' She
after dinner ; and that this ought to convince me of the "as .
kept getting worse from that • . time until about four o'clock,
truth of what Sanetorius had delivered in respect to the when a surgeon was sent for,
proportion between this and other secretions. We next her last. The contents:ifut before his arrival she breathed
the
dto bottle, so far as taste
went into the kitchen, where there was a large piece o!.. and appearance went,
beef roasting for the servants, and I had the pleasure of which he (witness) hadil' purchasedeare from be
ginger beer,
Messrs.
seeing with the same microscope, how the fire separates Evans and Matthews, ginger-beer manufacturers, of Queen
all the parts of the wood upon which it acts, and darts Anne-street. The cork in the bottle was secured in
them by the violence of its motion against the beef that manner by a wire, but whether it was iron the usual
or copperw ire it
turns before it, wounding it as it were with an infinite was impossible to say. When the wire was taken off the cork
shafts, number ofit to pieces,
some of and so tearing 'flew out. When the bottle was opened witness
poured its
which are converted into juice, and others into a delicate contents into a tumbler glass, out of which the parties drank,
kind of smoke or vapour, which filled the ki.ch , and when they had all drank of it a white sediment was ob-
. en, and served in the bottom of the glass. The glass was quite clean
was very sensibly distinguished by our nostrils.
Going before the contents of the bottle were put into it. Other wit-
out of the house, we saw four younginclination
nen
PlN'ing at nesses confirmed the statement of this witness. The surgeon
_in favour of eould net state the cause of death, and the inquest was ad-
ono, and as strong an aversion ag • t another, whence I ourned that the contents of the stomach might be analood