The Sun.
London, England, 1842-11-09 00:00:00

KINGSTON.

A very fine young woman, who stated her name
to be Ellen Johnson, and that she was sixteen years
old, was brought before Mr. W. B. Jones, the Mayor
of Kingston, charged with having attempted to de-
stroy herself.
James Stevens Wiggins deposed that on Monday
morning he was going from Ham towards Kingston,
and when he arrived at a place called the One-tree,
a short distance from the Thames, he heard a noise in
the water which attracted his attention, and on going
to the bank of the river he saw a human body float-
ing in the stream, with the head part above water.
He immediately jumped into the river, and dragged
the drowning person, who turned out to be the
prisoner, to the shore. He asked her how she came
into the water, and she told him that she had thrown
herself in purposely. She at the same time told him
her name, and said that family disputes were the
cause of her desiring to destroy herself, and fearing
from her manner that if she were not prevented she
might repeat the attempt, he obtained the assistance
of a policeman, by whom the prisoner was taken into
custody.
The MAYOR asked the prisoner, who appeared quite
callous, and who did not evince the slightest regret
for the desperate act she had attempted to commit,
how she came to attempt self-destruction ? She re-
plied that she was very uncomfortable at home. Her
brothers were constantly abusing her, and her father
encouraged instead of checking them in their conduct.
She could not live at home any longer, and therefore
she attempted to destroy herself, and she would rather
do anything than go home again.
The MAYOR inquired whether any of the prisoner's
relatives were present, and a decent-looking young
woman, who represented herself to be her sister, step-
ped forward, and in answer to questions from the
Magistrate, she said that there was no truth in what
the prisoner said relative to her being ill used by her
brothers. The fact was that she had stopped from
home one day rather late, and her father, thinking
she had not been in good company, had remon-
strated with her upon the subject, and pointed out to
her the impropriety of her conduct, but instead of
listening to what he said she flew into a violent
passion, and declared that she would drown herself.
She added that the family were willing to receive the
prisoner home again.
The prisoner said she would not go home any
more, for she was sure to be " blowed up" by some of
them.
The MAYOR said the prisoner did not seem to be
at all aware of the dreadful character of the offence
she had attempted to commit, and he did not think it
prudent to discharge her at present. She was, there-
fore committed to Kingston Gaol, to give an oppor-
tunity for her friends to make some arrangement
respecting her, with a view to prevent her from
making any further attempt on her life.

MUNICIPAL. ELECTIONS.
FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)
POOLE, Nov. 4.—ln the !North-West Ward three
Reformers have been returned.
In the South-East Ward the Tories did not dare
to show fight, and Messrs. Durant, Lankester, and
Mullett were returned without opposition. Our
Town Council now consists of 18 Reform Coun-
cillors, three Reform Aldermen, and three Tory Al-
dermen, the latter of whom go out of office next year,
when there will not be a Tory in the whole Council.
At the first municipal election the Tories suc-
ceeded in this borough, by certain means, which have
been inquired into and exposed, both in a Court of
Law and before a Committee of the House of Com-
mons, in returning, and subsequently electing as Al-
dermen, 17 out of the 24 members of the Council.
By a lavish expenditure of money in the paying of
the rates of paupers, &c., the Tories succeeded at sub-
sequent elections, until every Reformer was out of the
Council, when their extravagant :demands upon the
pockets of their fellow townsmen, in the shape of
borough rates, and the utter recklessness of their con-
duct as a body, produced that reaction in the public
mind which has ended in ow finding ourselves with
only three Tory Aldermen in the Council out of the
24 members ; and they never attend a Council meet-
ing in the mean time. Our expenditure, and conse-
qtiently, our rates are lessening, and the better-dis-
posed of our Tory townsmen confess that public
matters are now managed as they ought to be, the
Council studying the interest of the Many instead of
that of the Pew.

The Duchess of Sutherland and Lady B. L. Gower
were expected to arrive on Saturday at Ravensworth
Castle on a visit to Lord and Lady Ravensworth,
and thence her Grace intends, after passing a few
days with the Earl and Countesstof Carlisle, at Castle
Howard, to proceed to Trentham Hall, Staffordshire.
MAINZER'S " MUSICAL TIMES."—In looking over
a newspaper, be it metropolitan, be it provincial, a
person often meets with paragraphs, headed, " Sing-
ing for the 1\ fillion.” How many " million" of times
this simple expression has been printed within the last
three or four months, we can form no adequate idea,
but that it has been printed millions of times cannot
be doubted. Most of our readers will associate the
idea with the name of Mr. Joseph Mainzer. This
gentleman has a musical reputation, and has exerted
himself for some time past in a laudable and energetic
manner to create a taste for music among the millions.
We are told that he has been eminently successful ;
and we rejoice to believe it. There is something so
sweet, so soothing, in music; ita tendencies are so
refining, so ethereal, so spiritual, so humanising, that
we cannot but wish that a taste for the science of
sweet sounds were as prevalent as is the capacity upon
which such a taste might be engrafted. Holding this
opinion, we like to see such a periodical as the Musical
Times—the organ of Mr. Mainzer, and the medium
through which, to the reading world, he enforces the
object of his chosen mission. The Musical Times is
published every alternate week, and is well worthy
the attention of amateurs.—Bradford Observer.
POISONING WITH PRUSSIC ACID.—On Monday, Mr.
Wakley held an inquest at the George, Brook-street,
Holborn, on the body of John Taylor, aged two
years and a half. Mary Taylor, of No. 17, Little
Saffron-hill, said she was the mother of the de-
ceased child, and that on Friday morning last she
found him in what she thought a fit on the floor. She
immediately took him to the Free Hospital, Greville-
street, but he died before she reached there. The Co-
roner—How do you account for the fit? Witness—
There were some phials on a shelf in the room, and
the child cried for one of them to play with. I gave
him one with a cork in it, and which I thought was
empty. The child had it but for two or three
minutes, when a daughter of mine, twelve years old,
called my attention to her brother, who was on the
floor with his eyes fixed. On questioning my little
girl, she told me she took the cork out of the phial, and
that deceased drank a portion of something that wasin
it. A Mr. Vinn, teacher of languages, was in the habit
of coming to my house, and leaving phials on the
mantel-shelf. The phial in question was one of them.
Mr. T. W. Harle, one of the surgeons to the Greville-
street Free Hospital, said that when deceased was
brought to him he was quite dead. The pupils of the
eye were dilated, the muscles relaxed, and the lips
black. The mouth emitted the odour of prussic acid.
Mr. B. 'Walker, one of the medical officers of the
Marlborough-street Dispensary, said Mr. Vinn
was in the habit of getting medicine there, ac-
cording to a prescription entered in the books
by a predecessor of witness s. The entry pre-
scribed thirty-two drops of prussic acid, and
which Mr. Vinn asked for and obtained about a
week ago. No label was put on the phial that con-
tamed it. Mr. Vinn 'was in the habit of taking un-
usually large doses of prussic acid. The Coroner—lt
ix monstrously imprudent to send out such a deadly
poison as prussic acid without a label indicating that
it was poison. A Juror—ls there no law to compel
medical men to do so ? Coroner—There is no law to
Icompel a chemist to label a deleterious dryg, though
he should send.out a hundred weight of it. Verdict
' --Accidental death.