The Sun.
London, England, 1829-10-02 00:00:00

PRICE 7D.

SEDUCTION AND SUICIDE.

A melancholy case of suicide has taken place at
Carshaltoa, in Surrey, by a young female, aged only
i 9 years, named Sophia Scott, which has thrown
the village into a state of excitement, in consequence
of a report which gated that the unfortunate girl
had fallen a victim to seduction, and that a young
man to whom she was much attached had been the
seducer. The person alluded to had certainly kept
her company for some time, but from some cause or
other not yet explained, they quarrelled, and he de-
serted her. This circumstance is supposed to have
preyed heavily on her mind, and although she was
treated by Mrs. Paine, a widow lady, at Carshalton,
in whose service she was, with the greatest kind•
nes:, nothing could throw off the melancholy and
depression prevailed on her spirits. On
Finlay last she called at her mother's for .the last
time, and then wrote a letter to her lover, notwith-
standing•the urgent solicitations of her parent not
to do so. On Sunday evening the unfortunate girl
by some means procured a quantity of laudanum,
which she swallowed, and put an end to her
existence. • _

On Tuesday evening an inquest was held on her
body, before Mr. CARTER, coroner for Surrey, at the
Greyhound, at Carshalton.

The evidence of Mrs. Paine, the girl's mother,
and Mr. Wallace, a surgeon, proved the girl's me-
lancholy, and her death by laudanum.
Frederick Charles Smith, a tradesman at Carsh-
allot], the young man alluded to by the mother of
the deceased, was also examined. He stated that
he bad been acquainted with the deceased about
eleven months. About six weeks ago he had
reason to know that tha deceased was with child.

Juror—When did you see her last ? . Witness—
On Friday evening.
Juror—Had you any conversation with her at that
time ? Witness—None whatever. I did not speak
to her at all.

Juror—Have you received any letter from the de-
ceased lately ? Witness—She left a note for me on
Friday evening last.
Juror—Have you got that note in your posses-
sion ? Witness—l have not. I read it, and after-
wards destroyed it.
In answer to several other questions put by the
Jury to the witness, he firmly denied ever having
any criminal intercourse with the deceased, although
he admitted he had associated with her, and fre-
quently walked out with her.
The Coroner summed up the evidence; and the
Jury, after a short consultation, returned a verdict—
" That the deceased destroyed herself by taking
laudanum, in a temporary fit of insanity."

IMPROVEMENT IN TRADE.

(From the Times' City Article.)

In an article written under this head on Sa

turday last, a very guarded opinion was ventured

on, that there were symptoms of a partial im-
provement, at least in the trade of London, par-
ticularly in some of the chief colonial produc-
tions. We feel much pleasure now in expressing
our conviction, that to the extent then described

opinion was a correct one ; and further, tha

appearances of the same favourable kind are be-
ginning to manifest themselves in the out-ports,
and that in a way, too, which leads fairly to the
inference that they are the prelude to an im-
provement of a far more important nature,—viz.,
that of the great manufacturing districts. The
demand for cotton has usually been taken as one
of the surest indications of the prosperity of our
manufactures ; and we believe that the sales both
here and at Liverpool, as well as the low rate of
value, have for a longtime past borne the most
conclusive testimony to their depressed and im-
poverished conditions. It seems, however, by
the letters received this morning from Liverpool,
that an unexampled briskness was experienced in
that market on Monday last, when no less than
4,000 bags of cotton of various descriptions and
qualities changed hands in the course of the day.
Among the purchasers were several of the prin-
cipal manufacturers in Manchester and the
neighbouring towns, who were supposed to be
actuated by the belief that the " turn-out," as it
is called, of the weavers generally, was coming
to an end, and that a winter-season of much

briskness in the fabric 'of cotton goods might
fairly be looked forward to. The Liverpool let-
ters remark that the demand was not confined
to manufacturing purposes, but that there was
also a good deal of export and speculative
business doing, the natural consequence, in all
probability, of the more legitimate demand.
The advance on the previous prices, from this
activity in the Liverpool cotton-market, was not
very material, but it had induced the holders, as
might be expected, to stand out for better terms,
so that one of the principal Liverpool houses,
which had orders to purchase, at a limit, to the
extent of 3,000 bags, was only able to procure
about 300 in Monday's market. These facts
are derived from letters of respectable merchants
and brokers, on which, as we believe, dependence
may be placed ; if we err in thinking that this is
the beginning of a change for the better (of
course with some exceptions) in the general
trade of the country, we do so with those whose
judgment stands as high, in common estimation,
as that of any individuals in the city.
We do not intend to say'now, nor did we ever
intend to say, that trade is to pass all at once
from a depressed to a prosperous state. The
disease of a bad system has been too deep for a
sudden cure, but a country like this can never
be cast away : there must be an end of the crisis,
or a turning point somewhere ; and the pre-
sumption
is warranted by many concurrent cir-
cumstances, that that point has now been reached.
The commercial distreSs of the last two years has
not been felt in England alone, but has spread
more or less over the Continents of EUrope,
Asia, and America, which is a sufficient answer,
as has frequently before been remarked, to the
outcry respecting free trade; and we should not
be at all surprised to find that another trium-
phant argument is afforded in its favour by the
ilia of England's being the first country to re-
cover effectually from that distress.
It was predicted early in the 4pririg, that ow-
ing to the prevalent low prices, which naturally
tended to cheek importation in goods, there
would be a considerable influx of the precious
metals in the latter end of the year, and this pre-
diction is now obviously in course of fulfilthent.
Most of the late arrivals from America, North
and South, have brought large supplies of bul-
lion ; and the state of the foreign exchanges
plainly indicates that our exportations of last,
o.
It timet, greaterimt
year to the Continent of Europe must shortly
come back to us. The great London', houses
resourcesposses s i
consequently,n t
tathan
fothisr a Tola n en
a
y