The Sun.
London, England, 1829-08-21 00:00:00

ROWING MATCH.

The annual contest for a new wherry and other prizes,
given by the Ladies and Gentlemen inhabitants of St.
Clement Danes and St. Mary•le-Strand, to be rowed for
by free watermen belonging to Strand-lane and Arundel-
stairs, took place yesterday. The match was one of minor
interest, and was not well attended. The distance to
start from buoys moored off Strand-lane, row through the
centre arch of Blackfriars•bridge, return up the north
shore through Waterloo bridge, round a boat moored off
the Fox-under-the-Hill, down again to Blackfriars, and up
to the prize wherry at Strand-lane. At half-past three
the following men were placed for the first heat :

Henry Joyce
Arundel-stairs ... Scarlet
James Parish
T. Audley
} Light Blue
Richard Godfrey Strand-lane.
_ _

John Joyce Arundel.stAits ... 1 Pink.
James Teesdell
Pink twit the lead for a few minutes, but after about
two hundred yards Scarlet took the lead, and won the
heat; Pink being second, and Light Blue third. At half-
past four the following men were placed for the second
heat :

John Gadd Arundel-stairs ... 1 Green
Charles Baker
Thomas Porfar Arundel-stairs ...1 yellow
James Daly Strand-lane ......
John Parker
Samuel Godfrey ....
Green took the lead, but soon lost it, and Yellow at the
conclusion of the heat was first, and Green was second.
At a quarter past seven, the men (the two first pairs of
each heat) were placed for the grand heat. At starting
Scarlet took the lead, and maintained it all the way ; the
boats coming in thus—Scarlet first, Pink second, Yellow
third, and Green iast.

The Duchess of GLOUCESTER left the resi-
dence of her sister the Princess AUGUSTA, at Frogmore,
on Tuesday, for her seat in Bagshot-park.

Prince ESTERHAZY, the Austrian Ambassa-
dor, had a long conference yesterday afternoon witli the
Earl of ABERDEEN, at the Foreign-office; after the inter-
view the Noble Earl, accompanied by the Marquis of ABER,
coati, left town in his carriage and four for Tunbridge-wells

On Wednesday night, about eleven o'clock, a
most determined attempt at self-destruction was made by
Mr. HENRY CALDWELL, one of the clerks in the British
Gas Company's works. About the hour above stated,
Mr. CALDWELL went into the shop of Mr. HUGHES, the
clsernist and druggist, in the Kent-road, near the Green
Man, and asked for two-pennyworth of hellebore powder,
which he said he wanted to make into an ointment. Mr.
HuGuas felt no hesitation in serving him, and wrapped
up the powder in paper, on which he, as usual, wrote
" poison," back and front. The unfortunate man then
left the shop apparently in good spirits, and nothing about
him indicating an aberration of intellect. He proceeded
immediately to the house of Mr. ALLFORD, the Dun Cow
public-house, and going into the bar, he requested Mrs.
ALLFORD to let him have a tumbler of cold water; the
water was given him, when he introduced the powder and
swallowed it off in the presence of Mrs. ALLFORD, and
threw the paper in which it was enveloped at her. She
felt alarmed, and said, " My good Sir, what have you been
taking ?" The unfortunate man replied, " I have taken
that, Madam, that will soon send me to beavers." Mrs.
ALLroan gave an immediate alarm, and her husband and
several other persons came in, and found the unhappy man
labouring under the direful effects of the poison, which is
of the worst description. They without delay removed
him to Guy's Hospital, where the stomach-pump was re-
sorted to by Mr. HILLS and Mr. PERRINS, and the sto-
mach emptied of its contents, which was strongly im-
pregnated with hellebore, The unfortunate man was
placed in bed, and after he somewhat recovered his senses,
he related the above facts, but could not assign any reason
for committing the dreadful act. Mr. CALDWELL is
only 2t years of age, and his family are highly respectable
at Kildare, of which place he is a native. He now lies
at Guy's Hospital in a very precarious state.

ANOTHER 13URKE.-TIIE LIFE OF

STEWART THE MURDERER.

(From the Scotsman.)
This remorseless homicide, who will this day
suffer an ignominotis and painful death, was born in
the parish of Sionneykirk, in 1803. Tried, con-
victed, and conierniird, lie must of course be held
up to lasting infamy by the name of Stewart—but
Bradfoot was his real name. His parents belonged
to Ireland, and being possessed of a little money
when they came to this country, they rented a small
farm in the district of Galloway. Forced from the
farm by misfortune or rather mismanagement, and
divested of their little all, they sent their son, Stew-
art, to serve witl► Mr. M`;l7 n, a pious, benevo-
lent, and good hearted man, then residing in the
parish of Glen!lice. While in his service, he was
industrious, sober, frugal, and indeed every way
circumspect in his conduct, and in consequence
enjoyed the complete confidence and esteem
of his employer. When about twenty years of
age, he married a respectable young woman,
whose parents were more wealthy than his
own, and being influenced with some idle whim
or pr►judice, they disapproved highly of the marriage.
Being of an independent, haughty, and rather im-
perious disposition, he scorned to brook their hatred,
jeers, and misrepresentations; and while under the
influence of passion, he enlisted in the marines. He
was sent off to Chatham in 1825, and the health of
his wife being affected, by the neglect of her parents
and the severity of her fortune, she died in that
town in a few months after her arrival. He solicited,
and was indulged with a pass to Scotland, to convey
his only child home to his wife's parents, but he never
returned. Tortured and rendered restless and reck-
less by the constant apprehension of being seized as
a deserter, estrang►ed from his habits of application
and sobriety, sinking in his own estimation, and
avoided by his former companions arid friends, he
associated with idle and unprincipled profligates, and
progressively fell into a life of irregularity and crime.
For nearly four years he has now been prowling up
and down the country, like the arch-enemy of man-
kind, seeking whom he might devour. In this rapid
sketch we shall only notice a few of the principal
incidents of his life—for we should be loath to tire
and disgust our readers with minute details of all his
revolting delinquencies.
He was either too cautious, or too great a re-
creant, to attempt any desperate or perilous expe-
dient to obtain money or property. Even when
reduced to the greatest distress, he never once
dreamed of housebreaking or highway robbery.
Sheep-stealing was his boldest adventure, and
though lie succeeded in breaking Stranraer jail, his
narrow escape made an impression upon him for the
subsequent part of his profligate life. He enlisted
frequently, and decamped with the moray he re-
ceived. He was a pretty dexterous pickpocket, and
a veteran gambler and cheat at country fairs. In
the course of his criminal career, he became ac-
quainted with a gang of coiners and venders of
forged notes, and being soon initiated into their
modes of procedure, he associated with them for
nearly two years. Considering that the gang could
not always escape detection, and dreading that the
apprehension cf one might lead to the conviction
and punishment of the whole, he cut the connection,
and commenced business on his own account. About
two years ago, he left the border counties—the
scenes of his former proceedings—as " a shanner,"
and rented a small room in an obscure part of Dum-
fries. By his previous knowledge and experience,
he was enabled to construct a variety of excel-
lent moulds or dies, exclusively for his own use,
and by this means reduced this branch of robbery to
a system, by which he obtained the greatest profit
with the least possible danger of detection. At the
same time, to keep up a decent appearance, and ob-
viate suspicion, he occasionally wrought at such
jobs as suited his inclination. While he resided at
Dumfries he became acquainted with his second
wife, his coadjutor in murderer, and fellow-sufferer
on the gibbet. They furnished themselves with a
considerable amount of base money, with which they
set out on a tour, for the purpose of exchanging it.,
for the genuine coin of the realm. When t hey ar-
rived in Gretna they were there married with the
usual formalities, by virtue of the unique powers of
the very obliging blacksmith. During their travels,
though they had a number of very narrow escapes,'
they were so successful as to accumulate a little
money ; but it was almost uniformly squandered .as
fast as it was obtained, in drunkenness and de-
bauchery, among their infamous male and female
companions. Such, in a few words, was the diabo-
lical, chequered, and perilous manner of subsistence
of John Bradfoot alias Stewart, before he reached
the zenith of atrocity, by a novel and recreant mode
of murder and robbery.
When travelling one night between this city and
Biggar, he quite unexpectedly encountered an old
companion in crime, who was lurking by the way-
side, waiting an opportunity to commit a burglary,
when a genteel family he named were wrapt in pro-
found repose. In the course of conversation he
stated, that this was the last housebreaking he ever
intended to perpetrate, as he had learned a much
more profitable and less dangerous way of obtaining
money. Stewart made a number of inquiries, and
it was then and there he first learned, that by the
administration of a stupifying and mortal drug,
warm-hearted, unsuspecting men, especially, might
be easily overcome and plundered. He resolved in-
stantly to profit by this new expedient ; he concert-
ed measures with his wife; they repaired forthwith
to Glasgow, and made their first attempts in that
great commercial city. Though they realized but
small sums, their success exceeded their expectations,.
but deeming it dangerous, both for their personal
safety and the exposure and neutralization of their tar-
tarean discovery, to remain too long in one place,
after a short stay they set off, and began their career
of plunder in a town in the south of Scotland, at
no very great distance from their former place of
residence. But here we can be minute no farther,
it must suffice to state, that the robberies were all
perpetrated under the same guise—with the same
insidious display of candour, kindness, and strong
partiality for their victims—with the same fiendish
manoeuvring to promote their mutual design—and
the poison was always administered by the Fury in
female form. The most patient investigation war-
rants the assertion that they have occasioned the
death of three men—one in the south, and another
in the west of Scotland, and Lamont, for whose
murder and robbery they are to suffer, was the third.
There may have been more, but on this head no
farther authentic information can be obtained.

Stewart's first victim was a quiet, kind, good
man, and while he held the poisoned draught, by
which he was soon to be bereaved of life, he ex-
pressed his astonishment at the ostensible kindness
of the murderers, and the most sincere wishes for
their prosperity. He was greatly esteemed by all
who knew him, and " a man who had lived without
an enemy died by the hand of a pretended friend."
In our short history of the notorious Burke, it was
stated that "for a long time after he had murdered
his first victim, he found it utterly impossible to
banish for a single hour the recollection of the fatal
struggle—the screams of distress and despair—the
agonizing groans—and all the realities of the dread-
ful dead. At night the bloody tragedy, accompanied
by frightful visions of supernatural beings, tormented
him in his dreams ; but he ultimately became so
callous, that a murder added but little to his mental
anguish." The same facts are applicable to Mrs.
Stewart. When she first learned that she was a
murderer, she was plunged into the deepest
alarm, horror, and despair. She declared that she
saw the pallid and distorted countenance of the
murdered man frequently in her dreams—that he ac-
tually stared at her out of the stone walls of her
apartment, and that for some time he followed and
tortured her wherever she went. Stewart himself
was made of " sterner stuff," and was far more alarm-
ed and annoyed by a dread of the officers of justice,
than by any compunctious visitings of nature. It
was then that dark and gloomy forebodings of the
awful punishment that follows crime, shot with full

force across his perturbed mind. Indeed, it may be
said, that the almost boundless circle of humiin
wretchedness and 4uffertng cannot contain more mi-
serable beings than criminals in this state. Without
money—without friends—
without character or ho-
nest mean, of subsiwence, and tortured by the gall-
ing consciousness that they have mi rited the abhor..
rence of all the good and virtuous part of mankind;
and, to crown all, they cannot starve—they cannot
obtain employment—they are almost compelled by
dire necessity to hurry on in the path of destruction
rashly chosen, till arrested by the strong arm of jus•
tice, they are cut off by the common executioner.
From the hour in which he was committed for
trial, Stewart was well convinced that his death on
the gallows was inevitable, unless he effected his
escape by breaking the prison. Ile instantly resolved
to make every possible exertion, to run all hazards,
and even to shed more blood, if by additional murders
he could accomplish his design. While in Glasgow
jail, he organised a scheme by which he expected to
accomplish his purpose, but it was happily discovered,
and he was subsequently confined in one of the iron-
rooms or " condemned cells." A few days pre-
vious to his trial, in conjunction with eight stout
and desperate ruffians, he resolved on another at
tempt to break the jail of this city. Their plan was,
to seize an opportunity when the turnkeys were
employed with the prisoners in the other wards,
and murder the one attending on them, and Mr.
Fisher, deputy-governor of the jail, and seize the
keys, but failing in this atrocious project, they
intended to take one of the massive seats,
which they had loosened for the purpose,
dash out the stauneheous of the windows at
the foot of their stair, break the interposing
cast-iron barriers, and force their way to the outer
gate. If the turnkey then offered the least re-
sistance, he was to be instantly dispatched. When
they reached the outside, they were to fly in dif-
ferent directions, and they were all bound by oath
never to disclose the names of the ringleaders. They
had procured two of the small spikes from the top
of one of the railings, which they had carefully
sharpened for the purpose of murdering the turn-
keys who opposed their e.lcape. The conspiracy
was discovered of course, the necessary precautions
promptly adopted, and when the two. spikes were
taken from Stewart's cell, he coolly said he had done
no more than any man would have done in his cir-
cumstances. When he found that all his plans were
discovered, and that he would be watched if pos-
sible with redoubled vigilance, " his hope turned
black despair," and he resigned himself to his fate.
In our report of his trial, it was stated that their
confident behaviour evinced that they had not the
least hope of escaping the gallows.
It must be still fresh in the recollection of our
readers, that the murder and robbery for which these
wretches are to be executed this day, was perpe-
trated on board the Toward castle steam-boat, while
on her passage from Tarbot to Glasgow. They
had observed a hawker's wife with nearly twenty
pounds in her possession, and they resolved to de-
prive her of her property, though by the sacrifice of
her life. Finding her too prudent to be easily en-
snared, and observing that Robert Lamont was pos-
sessed of a sum of money, he next engrossed their
whole attention. Stewart sung, told him idle le-
gendary tales, while his partner in spoliation plied
him with affected kindness, and gossip about " Rob
Roy tartan," till he swallowed the fatal draught.
The homicides were apprehended on arriving at the
Broomielaw, and notwithstanding their experience
and caution, they were convicted and condemned on
as clear and satisfactory evidence, direct and cir-
cumstantial, as ever came under the consideration
of a jury.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

MANSION-HOUSE.

A gentleman named Bailey complained against a
watermac under the Cireumltances stated below,
which Mr. Bailey thought the public should be made
acquainted with.

"on SaturdarTgrxiipg, at eight o'clock, I took the
'defendant's hoat;'at'the Temple-stairs, and directed
him to go through London-bridge, to put me on
board a steamer. It was perfectly safe at the time ;
but he resolutely assured me that he would land me
at the Old Swan Stairs. I requested, in the most
pressing manner, that he would not do so, but take
me through the bridge ; he however persisted, and
did land me at Old Swan Stairs, and I was at the
expense of hiring a porter to take my luggage to the
Tower Stairs. I told him that I would certainly
punish him, and his reason for refusing me was, that
he could not, on account of the tide, return.
The defendant considered it dangerous to attempt
to pass under the bridge, as the tide was ebbing
about three quarters of an hour. He had made in-
quiries of the Waterman's Company, and learned
that he was justified in refusing to do as he had
been required in this instance. The increasing dan-
ger of the navigation at the bridge made the refusal
more necessary.

The LORD MAYOR asked whether any danger
was to be apprehended at the time.
An assistant of the Waterman's Company at-
tended—He had been a practical man for 30 years,
and he would not on any account try the bridge un-
der the circumstances stated. The waterman was
justified for two reasons—first, the danger of the
experiment; and, secondly, the book of fares said
not a word of a fare from any place above bridge to
any place below bridge : the witness said that the
bridge was in a terribly dangerous condition, and
every day would no doubt render it more so.
The LORD MAYOR said, that the energy of the
Duke of Wellington, who so rigidly superintended
the new London-bridge, would soon make a change
which would be most beneficial to the public. His
Lordship then stated that he could not in this case
inflict a penalty, as the defendant was perfectly
justified.
GUILDHALL.

Mr. Harris, the salesman in Newgate-market,
appeared upon the summons, for unlawfully selling
a lamb unfit for human food, attended by Mr. Hob-
ler, jun., as his solicitor ; but the complainant making
oath that that his witnesses refused to give evidence
unless they were compelled, the hearing was ad-
journed, and summonses were issued for the attend-
ance of persons named by the complainant.