The Sun.
London, England, 1829-08-17 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNAL.

The suspicious conjectures and alarming ru-
mours'igurrent among our neighbours, respecting
the recent change in their Ministry, groundedion
the exertion of foreign influqice)in order to pro-
duce a change in the ford pitilicy of France,
we have repeatedly denounced as at once mis-
chievous and ridiculous. The very person now
at the head of the French Cabinet has been the
cordial negotiator of all those treaties, and the
willing subscriber to all those protocols, on
which the triple alliance acted during the sway
of his predecessor, by which the Morea has been
cleared of its Mussulman oppressors, and by
which a French and English Ambassador are
now at Constantinople, to complete the work of
Greek independence. Is it likely that lie would
accept of higher office to undo his own work—
to stultify his own exertions ? But as the
Court of France, without any immediate ne-
cessity, apparent to the world, in the state
of its foreign relations, has thought proper
to substitute a purely Royalist Adininistra-
tion popularly obnoxious, for a Royalist Ca-
bineel with liberal tendencies,—discarded, as
it sVoUld seem, on account of those very
~, 1,
tenom;:zes,—it must purpose now to pursue a
conrae of t";ternal policy, different in some re-
spects. , .
the
iie from
lm
of tatffraati
r:vinai c3n :yir.a.i...e,ss.,
tibecede
infe7cfmidoi
disposition
wolsee idtios iiiii ct(e)
unpo-
pular hands of Villeie.
characte-
ristic of the late Cabinet was .
make " concessions" (as they are ci;!led) to the
spirit of the age—in other words, to extt:rid po-
pular rights, or to increase the guarantees l'or
popular institutions. The motto of the new
iviinistry, as announced by what is suppbsed to
be their leading organ, is " No farther conces-
sions—no surrender.' The Ministry which has
just. .n dAinissed, during the first year of their
sway, elferilled the freedom of the press, abolished
the discretionary power of re-establishing the
censorship, and abrogated the hateful law of
tendency, as respected the journals. The same
Ministers likewise fortified the electoral rights of
the nation by securing the purity of the electoral
lists against the frauds of the local authorities ;
and,finally,by their ordinances on education, they
relieved society from the encroachments of the
Jesuits and the bugbear of clerical domination.
These are improvements or tranquillizing measures
of which the new Cabinet are not likely to at-
tempt the overthrow, as the same manifesto which
has announced " no concessions" has rounded
the device by adding, " no re-action." But the
late Cabinet had not ended its chapter " of con-
cessions." They had introduced, at the opening
of last session, a great measure for securing the
local interests of the provinces against the arbi-
trary interference of the general government ; or,
in other words, for organizing a more popular ad-
ministration of municipal and departmental
affairs, by vesting the nomination of communal
and provincial councils in bodies of local elec-
tors instead of the Crown. This most important
bill, the popular provisions of which were perhaps
extorted from the Court by the necessity of satis-
fying the demands of the Chambers, was hastily
withdrawn, on the pretext that some proposed
amendments of the Liberals had altered its
nature ; and certainly nothing could evince a
more foolish obstinacy on the part of the Liberal
party than to hazard the retraction of so momen-
tous a concession, on the mere question
whether the proposed quota of electors
was too small, and whether, instead of
40,000, they should not have been raised
to 80,000. But a hope was still held
out by the Ministry, that though the Bill of last
Session was withdrawn, a similar measure might
be prepared during the recess, and next year be
presented to the legislature under happier aus-
pices. The creation of a new cabinet out of a
party which resisted the original project with as
much violence as its amended provisions, may,
however, be deemed to give the death-blow to
any anticipations of the kind. In this respect
the Crown, by its announcement of " no con-
cessions," is suspected by the French liberals to
have got rid of its promises as well as its ser-
vants. All this, however, is merely negative—
it would only lead us to believe that the Court
desires to arrest the legislative machine in its
present career, and with its present direction ;
but the party out of which the Ministry is formed
cannot be satisfied with such a limited range of
action. We have already pointed out as extremely
probable some attempted alteration (though
not in the way of re-action) in the age of
admissibility to r the Chamber of Deputies, by
which some of the Lamarques and Pompieres
may be made to give place to younger and less
prejudiced members. Another change in the
constitution of the second Chamber, which, if
the new Ministry can maintain their ground,
will doubtless be attempted, will be an increase
in the number of Deputies returned by the
wealthier class of electors. At present the elec-
tive Chamber consists of 430 Deputies—not
nearly the amount of Members in the House of
Commons of England before the Scotch and
Irish unions, when our population did not ex-
ceed a fourth of that of constitutional France at
this moment. This body being sent to the
Chamber by two different classes of elector€,
those of departments and arrondissements (the
latter including all who pay 121. sterling in direct
taxes, and the former of one• fourth of the whole
who pay the highest rate above this sum), par-
takes generally of the feelings and views of their
respective constituency. The great majority of
the Royalist Members are returned by the higher
colleges, while the Liberal force is chiefly recruit-
ed by the votes of the lower. By adding, there-
fore, two Members for each department to be
sent to the elective assembly from the depart-
mental colleges, the Royalists might expect to
recover their ascendancy without electoral frauds
or Government corruption ; and no greater
breach would be made in the Charter than was
effected under De Caze's Ministry in 1840,_
when precisely the same measure was adopted.
We mention this as an extremely probable ex-
periment, without presuming, as foreigners, to
deliver any opinion with respect to its wisdom
or practicability. On the policy of another
point, though apparently more abstruse, we have
less hesitation, because it must be decided on
principles which are not peculiar to any particular
people—we mean the necessity (if monarchical
institutions are to be preserved under the control
of a constitutional government in France) of
making some change in the law which directs
the succession to property. Every precaution
taken
magainstust b
et heincreasing force
futile,
t ile,
so
long
as r ce of repub-
licanism
its
vitalprin-
sciiopilie,oifts ilrarieldsiesdtiblienisleprriitnagn,ceis. mauinntadienredthi: the
law ethniasctiswoavfiosirocteldofeqhteiarlictoydien,
Ftlriaencceliviis-
drifting fast towards a democracy, similar to that
of. the United States, where the proposal of a

aliaitiarch Or a peerage, as in France, would be
high
.treason against the people. The House
of Peers among our neighbours, without here-
ditary estates' of
.influence, is a mere nullity.
of itsThembers are pensioners on the Go-
vernment for their means of living. Its pro-
. ceedings during the last busy session in the
Lower Assembly, were scarcely heard of,
except from a stray speech which some mem-
ber's -personal. 'vanity prompted him to send
to the journals, reluctant often to receive such
an honour. The great fortunes in the other
Chamber will be found—not among the cottatry
111
geitllernen (if such a word can now be applied
to the French noblesse de province) but—
among the Lafittes, the Perriers, and the Ter-
neaux—the manufacturers, bankers, and mer-
chants of the capital, who have been the creators
of their own consequence. In many parts of
the country this division of landed property has
reached its minimum, as the Cudastre, or Go-
vernment survey now before us, describes the
state of whole.districts, in which there are found
nearly as, many landed proprietors as inhabitants,
and in which the average of land possessed by
each does net exceed .two or three acres. If
such a course of things were to continue,
for half a century longer, the Crown must
either become all-powerful, by having no
aristocratic counterpoise, or must be.- swept
away by the levelling torrent of demo-
cracy. The present Ministry, With the feelings
which naturally belong to cite class or party from
which they have sprAnig, will very likely endea-
vour to strength PA the constitutional monarchy,
t by proty.,sing a compulsory law of primoge-
niture, :Jut by relaxing the existing enactment
wh=c'tl compels an equal distribution of the fa-
mily inheritance among all the children df a
family. In addition to these changes, and sonde
relaxa`tion of the University monopoly of educa-
tion, to which we May afterwards refer, the new
Cabinet will probably show some additional,fa-
your to the established church, by calling some
of its Bishops to the Upper Chamber, and by
increasing the too limited income of its clergy.
In the conduct of their internal administration,
and in the management of the system for pre-
serving public order, Prince Polignac and his
colleagues may be expected to evince more
strictness and rigour than their predecessors,
in proportion as their principles are opposed
or their popularity decried. The theatres are
accused by their partisans of rioting at present
in all the luxury of unrestrained licence, indulg-
ing in political allusions and ecclesiastical stric-
tures, without check or controul. As all dra-
matic representations are under the domain of
the-authorities, this licence, as it exists, will be
'suppressed. A more attentive vigilance will be
exercised over the periodical press, and probably
some attempts will be made to narrow the limits
of political discussion—attempts which, if just,
the tribunal may be expected to repel with the
same impartiality and firmness which so honour-
ably distinguished their conduct during the Vil-
ielel,dmitastration. In making these hasty re-
'ma t 7--, as well as some former observations on
the probable conduct and policy of the new
Government, we presume to offer no advice and
-to pass no censure. By its acts, and not by its
names, it ought to be judged ; and we wait for
its acts before we mount the seat of judgm.ant.—

Times.
The Liberal Journals continue to assail the
.new Ministers, and the Gazette de France to
,protest against the iniqUity of condemning befbre-
hand. In the Journal des Debats of Thursday
there is an article distinguished for powerful
sarcasm, in which the characters of the Members
of the new Cabinet are hit off in a few epigram-
matic sentences. As the French are peculiarly
alive' to sarcasm, we can easily conceive the im-
patience of those who suffer from this fire. It is
hardly fair ..to condemn men before they have
been tried ; and therefore, whatever the charac-
ter of the new Ministers, we would allow them
the chance of earning a better one. The French
complain that there is no understanding the Eng-
lish ; but the 'English, we think, may return the
compliment. At present the French would seem
'at a loss to know what they would be at. It is
obvious that the good understanding with Eng-
land is unpopular in France, and hence the im-
portance attached to the promulgation of the
opinion that the new Ministry are the creation
of the English Ministry. We refer our readers
to an extract of a communication from Paris for
information respecting the cause of the hostility
of the French to this country. They are, it
seems, not satisfied with the estimation in which
France is at present held in Europe. There is
• an Italian proverb very applicable to people like
the French—Stava ben, ma per star meglio,
sto (pie The times are no longer favourable to
ambitious projects in this part of Europe. The
' French are, no doubt, a clever and enterprising
' people, but their neighbours are nowise inferior
to them ; and an attempt to extend their fron-
tiers would have very little chance of success, and
might be attended with very serious conse-
quences to themselves. The most profitable
conquest the French can make is improvement
of the territory they already possess, a great part
' of which is in a wretched state. That phantom,
military glory, we fear still disorders their imagi-
nations. Compared with England, France, not-
withstanding her extent of soil and her climate,
' is weak. Her agriculture is for the most part
wretched ; and the state of agriculture in any
country is the measure of its civilization.
Wherever the arts flourish, agriculture flourishes ;
and when we say that agriculture in France is no
• where very good, while in more than half the
kingdom it is wretched, the other arts cannot be
in a very enviable state. In the eighth number
of the Foreign Quarterly Review, just pub-
' lished, there is an able article on the letting of
land, in which the state of French agriculture is
particularly described. " The Aletayer system
(says the Reviewer) is upheld, in all its pristine
• vigour, in more than a half of the whole king-
dom of France ; and in all those districts where
it exists, the state of agriculture and the condi-
tion of the occupiers are quite as wretched as at
the period described by Mr. Young.
" In proof of what we have now stated, we beg
to subjoin the following passage from a very valu-
able article on the present state of French agricul-
ture, in the number of the Revue Trimestrielle for
April, 1828:—` When the proprietors do not cul-
tivate their own estates, nothing has so much in-
fluence on their cultivation as the mode in which
they are fet. In France that mode is in general de-
testable. With the exception of Flanders, and of a
very small number of provinces where the system
of cultivation by a rotation of crops has been long
- adopted, the duration of leases is far too short to
eitable the farmer to indemnify himself for the out-
lay which the introduction of a new system of culti-
vation would require, and to derive any profit from
it. Indeed in a very large part of the kingdom, in
all the central provinces, farmers are hardly known.
The land is cultivated by unfortunate metayers,
who engage to occupy it 4or,a period of three years,

and to perform the various operations required in
its husbandry, paying half the produce to the pro-
prietors as rept. The metayec furnishes his labour,
his ignorance, and his good. ti4etite ; the proprie-
tors supplying an exhausted soil, the stock indispen-
sable to its petty farming, the grain required for the
first sowing, and that which may be required for the
support of the meta, er and his family until the first
harvest. The
,me Byer works, sows, reaps, and
feeds on the produce. After he and., his family are
fed, the proprietor gets the rernaindeK7.. Sometimes
a middleman is interposed between the landlord and
the mOayer. This third party is, for the most part,
a sunhing inhabitant of the village, who agrees to
pay the landlord a certain rent, independent of the
variations of harvests, acquiring in return a right to
his share of the produce raised by the metayer. The
middle-man takes no part in the labours of cultiva-
tion, but he attends to all the harvesting of the
metayer; he follows him to every market to get
his half of the price of the produce. His art con-
sists in getting more than his half; as he knows how
to read and write, of which the other is most com-
monly ignorant,he is able to confuse the metayer's ac-
counts, and finally to plunder him. Under this mas-
ter, who is constantly present, the condition of the
metayer is still more miserable. The middle-man,
who has some capital, regularly pays the rent to the
proprietor ; he makes little speculations on the sale
of his produce, and sometimes becomes rich. This
division is very convenient for the proprietor, whom
it releases from the necessity of all surveillance, and
to whom it affords some security for the payment
of his rent ; but it is destructive of agriculture, be-
cause it keeps the metayer in a state of extreme in-
digence, who would cultivate less badly were he al-
low ed to make any profits or savings in abundant
years ; it hinders him from even rising to the con-
dition of a petty farmer; it puts the reward due to
labour into the pockets of fraud. Not less, perhaps,
than a half of the whole kingdom of France is oc-
cupied by metayers ; and the proprietors whose
estates are so let are hardly able to introduce a dif-
ferent system ; for in the provinces where this
miserable mode of occupying land is general, those
who have capital and skill, and who, consequently,
might cultivate land with advantage, become middle-
men; so that the business of cultivation is entirely
carried on by the poorest and most ignorant persons.
Agriculture is then really the most abject and de-
graded of all employment.' Such is the striking,
and we 'know authentic, account of the distressed
and miserable state of French agriculture at this
moment under the metayer system
. . While these practices are permitted to subsist,
France can enjoy no real or lasting prosperity; for
no country can be prosperous, the land of which is
divided into small patches, occupied by a beggarly
population, without either skill or capital; and who,
though they possessed both, have no motive to exert
the one or employ the other."
We hear a great deal from superficial persons
about the resources of France, and the com-
parative absence of taxation. Now, France is
really a highly taxed country, for we must not
judge of the taxes of a country by the amount
so much as by the ability of the people to pay
them. The French are, generally speaking, a
poor people, with little capital, and without the
ability to bear heavier burdens. Even in the
best provinces, Normandy, Flanders, Picardy,
and Alsace, where the race of men and breeds
of cattle are good, there still is a great inferiority
to England. We shall rejoice to see our
neighbours attempting the most important of all
conquests—the conquests over ignorance and
vicious practices. If they allow themselves to
indulge in dreams of other conquests, they will
assuredly be humbled, as they have been more
than once heretofore. It would be well for
them to bear in mind, that the Revolution, and
not the resources of France, gave to them the
triumphs which were followed by their late re-
verses.—Morning chronicle.
There are a few points in the.letteri of our
Manchester Correspondent which appeared on
Thursday and Saturday last, which it may be
worth while to bring somewhat more home to
the attention of our readers ;
.and these are the
changes which are operating in the Silk and
Cotton Manufactures, and the harvest of calamity
which appears to be stored up for the close of
the year. With regard to the silk trade, its mi-
gration to Manchester and the neighbouring
towns, appears to be now in rapid progress, and
little doubt, we believe, need be entertained that
in the course of a year or two, not a vestige of
it will be found in Spitalfields, with the exception
of a few particular kinds, in which it still holds
the pre-eminence.—This result became evident
to every one who reflected on the probable opera-
tion of the Free Trade Acts, but has of late
been greatly hastened by the outrages and shame-
ful destruction of property which took place in
Spitalfields. The manufacturer, on toe one
hand, will always select as the site of his esta-
blishment the spot where labour is cheapest and
his property most secure from violence ; while
the workman, on the other, finds it his interest
to go where his wages, whatever may be their
rate, will purchase for him most of the com-
forts and necessaries of life, and where also, if
he cannot find employment in his own pe-
culiar branch of industry, he can most readily
employ himself otherwise. Manchester affords
facilities in all these respects, both to the ma-
nufacturer and the workman, which are not to
be met with in the metropolis ; and to Manches-
ter, therefore, and the adjacent towns, the silk
manufacture is migrating with all possible speed.
The second point in the letters of our Man-
chester correspondent is the unwholesome and
rotten state of the cotton trade. There is no
longer any market for cotton cloths, except on
bills at long dates and ruinously low prices ;
but, on the other hand, the sale and export of
yarns is flourishing to a degree never before
known. The fact, however, of this very pro-
sperity proves the ruinous state of the market for
cotton cloths ; for the yarn is bought by fo-
reigners for the purpose of being manufactured
into cloth, and it is evident, in consequence,
that the more yarn we export the less of the
cloth will be demanded from us. The practice
and experience also, of some years, has rendered
foreigners expert in the weaving and dressing
of cotton fabrics ; and hence the ruinously low
prices which are given for British manufactures
of the same kind in the foreign market. To
conclude ; the extensive failures which have lately
taken place in the manufacturing districts are
considered by our correspondent as only the fore-
runners of still greater disasters. This result we
predicted long ago, as the inevitable effect of the
contraction of the currency. It could not, in
fact, have been expected by any reasonable person
that a country drained of its resources, taxed
beyond its means of payment, and sustaining a
growing rivalry in all the staple articles of its
manufacturing industry, could withstand, unhurt,
the shock of the withdrawal of two or three mil-
lions of its currency ; and there is accordingly no
quarter in which the evil effects of the measure
have not been felt. The manufacturers and mer-
chants are now suffering, and bye and bye the
revenue will suffer also, when, perhaps, the Go-
vernment will see the folly of its past conduct,
and the propriety of returning to a currency more
suited to the wants of the country than that which
now circulates.-- Morning Advertiser.

• • SUMMER ASSIZES.
•

NORFOLK CIRcUIT—NORWICII, Auo. 14.
John Stratfird, aged 4.2; was indicted for the wil-
ful murder OflJOhn Burgess, on the 2d day of March
last, at-,tht parish of St Andrew, in this city. The
indictment charged that the prisoner, feloniously
%in-
tending
/0 poiso - and murder one Thomas Briggs,
delivered a cert parcel containing a quantity of
flour, mixed with rsenic, to one Susannah Hook, for
the purpose of its being given to and taken by the
said Tho Mas Briggs ; and that one John Burgess,
not knowing that the flour was mixed with arsenic
or any other deleterious drug, made it into certain
dumplings, of which be afterwards ate, and of which
he died ; and that so the prisoner feloniously did kill
and murder the said John Burgess.
Mr. ALDERSON (with whom was Mr. Preston)
stated the case for the Crown. It happened, during
the last year, that Thomas Briggs, a pauper of this
city, being afflicted with a horrible and loathsome
disease, it was thought proper that he should be al-
together withdrawn from society, and provided for
in the workhouse. Accordingly, he was taken into
the workhouse, where, from the peculiar nature of
his disease, a room was kept entirely for himself, and
he was attended altogether by one of the nurses of
the workhouse, a Mrs. Burgess,, the wife of the de-
ceased John Burgess. The wife of Briggs, left to
maintain herself after he went to the workhouse, be-
came criminally connected with the prisdner, and in
progress of time she found herself in the family way
by him. She communicated this fact to him, and
he said he would give her something to prevent her
going her full time. She was in the habit, during
the residence of her husband in the workhouse, of
taking him weekly a small quantity of flour for his
support; sometimes she sent her daughter with it, but

in most instances she took it herself. The prisoner was
made acquainted with this circumstance, but he never
was employed to carry any himself. It would be in
evidence that, some time in February last, the
prisoner called at the workhouse where Briggs lived,
and delivered a small parcel in brown paper to Su-
sannah Hook, a servant in the house, with directions
to give it Briggs. It was tied up with twine., and
was directed " for Thomas Briggs, sick in the vork-
house," in the handwriting of the prisoner.l She
told him that Briggs should have it, and thepf sorer
then left the house. That he was the man who
brought the parcel to the workhouse would be cer-
tainly proved. As soon as the parcel was given to
Hook, she laid it on the window of the kitchen in
which she was working at the time, and in about an
hour (during which time she had never left the
kitchen) she delivered it to Mrs. Burgess, who, as
he had stated, attended on Briggs. She took it up
stairs to Briggs, but as there was no immediate oc-
casion for it, she put into a closet in his roorm There

it remained until the deceased, on the 2d of March,
in the absence of his wife, went to the cupboard,
took out the brown paper parcel which the prisoner
had taken to the workhouse, and made two dump-
lings of its contents. Of these, the deceased and
four other persons ate, and in a short time they
were all taken violently ill, and Burgess, who had
eaten by far the largest portion of them, in the
course of four hours died. That he died of some-
thing he had eaten, he should clearly prove; and he
should also as clearly show that he died of arsenic,
and that the arsenic was contained amongst the flour
which the prisoner took and gave to Hook, for the
use of Briggs. It would further appear in evidence
before them, that the prisoner, in the January pre-
vious to the death of Burgess, went to the shop of
an apothecary in this city, and purchased two ounces
of powdered arsenic, which he stated he wanted for
the purpose of poisoning rats on his premises. This
arsenic was wrapped up in two papers, and the ap-
prentice of the chymist wrote on each of them the
word " Poison" in large letters. On the death of
Burgess, suspicion having fallen on the prisoner, his
premises were searched, and in his shop were found
the two pieces of paper in which the poison had
been wrapped up by the apprentice of the apothe-
cary, and in them there was found to be a single
ounce only of the powdered arsenic. 1 hese were
the plain and simple facts of this case, which they
would hear more in detail from the witnesses whom
he should have to produce before them.
Susannah Hook—l am twenty. I was servant
in the city workhouse in February last. (Looks at
the prisoner.) I have seen him three times before.
The first time I ever saw him he brought a small
parcel to the workhouse: it was a brown paper
parcel. Can't say how it was done up. This was
about three weeks before Burgess died. He told
Me " the parcel was for one Mr. Briggs." I asked
him " if I should ask my mistress whether he might
carry it himself ?" He said " if you deliver it your-
self, it will do just as well." I was at work in the
kitchen,.and put it on the kitchen window, and he
then went away. It lay in the window for an hour,
and I was there all the time, and saw it lying where
I put it. Mrs. Burgess had the care of Briggs, who
was ill in the workhouse. She came past the window,
and I gave her the parcel. It had two lines of writ-
ing on one side, and one on the other. Mrs. Bur-
gess took the parcel and went away with it. The
prisoner was with me five minutes when he brought
the parcel, and he is the man. I have no doubt of him.
Rhoda Burgess—l am the widow of the late John
Burgess, and am a nurse in the workhouse. I at-
tended Briggs there on February and March last. I
received a parcel of Susannah Hook, in the governor's
kitchen. It was a brown paper, written on the out-
side, and tied up with a bit of twine. She said
" there was a parcel for Mr. Briggs, and I might
take it up to him." This was in the forenoon. It
was of a Wednesday; but I can't say the month.
I took it to Briggs by his bed-side, and he sat up in
bed at the time. I said " Here's a parcel that's
been left in the kitchen for you," and gave it into
' his hand ; and he said " What is it ?" and I said
" It appears to be flour." Briggs said " I suppose
there's no money in it ?" My husband was work-
ing at the foot of the bed at the time, and he undid
it, and felt about it, and did it up again, and I put it
into a cupboard at the foot of the bed. It was not
meddled with no more till my poor " unfortunable"
husband took it; arid that I can say with a clear
conscience. Nobody lodged in that room but
Briggs; he slept all alone, but my husband worked
there. I attended upon Briggs, and when I was not
by, my husband did. Briggs was bedsriddeo 'at the
time, and could'nt. get down stairs. He has got a
pot made on purpose to eat out of. He has never
been out of bed since he took the parcel. I re-
member the day my. husband died, it was on Mon-
day the 2d of March; the same day he took
this flour unbeknown to me. I had- been up
stairs, and when I came down I found him in my
kitchen, and saw a saucepan he had got on the ire;
he was making up some flour into dumplings.—
After my husband had finished making the dump-
lings he brought a couple, and put them into the
saucepan. When they were boiled, I saw my hus-
band carry them to the cupboard and cut them up.
There was nothing but water in the saucepan when
he took them out, except. a dark white froth. They
boiled over, and then there was a nasty, dirty-looking
froth came from the saucepan. When he had cut
them up, he asked me to have some ; but I said,
" No, I did not like the look of them." I saw him
eat very hearty of them, and seeing that, I thought
there was nothing in them, for I had a jealous sus-
picion there was. My husband said, " Wife, come
and have some of them :" and I took two pieces to
my son. Then I came up, and ate part of it myself,
and asked what people were there to have part of it.
Mary Morse and Ann Pillen were there, and they
ate of them along with me. The dumplings were
cut up between one and, two o'clock. After I had
eaten them, I felt violently sick. •,My husband felt
so sick that he went out to get a little air in the
garden. In about half an hour he was led up to his
bed. He said, " I am a-dying ;" and that was all
we could get out of him. He said his eye-sight was
a-leaving of him very fast. He retched violently;
but nothing came from him.
Thomas Briggs—(After a considerable pause,
this person was introduced into Court with hishead
and face covered with a handkerchief.)—l remem-
. her that Mrs. Porgess told me that somebody had

sent me some flour. I told her to put it up till, the
first time that I wanted it. As far as I k sow, it
was put into the cupboard, where the fl Jur was
always put, at the foot of the bed. It was in the
month of February, and as far as I can re,:ollect, it
was on the 9th, 10th, or 11th, or somewh :re there.
It was brought in a paper bag. There was my
name written on the bag. I never took the bag out
of the cupboard myself, nor did any body else that
I know of. I was always in the room. The de-
ceased, Burgess, used always to work in the room.
I did not see Burgess take any thing `rom the cup-
board on the day he died. I mostly lie with my
face covered. I saw him on the dAy he died, but
did not see him take any bag out of the cupboard,
or put any thing into it. I did r.ot see or hear him
go to the cupboard. I saw my wife a few days be-
fore Burgess died. I spoke tc her about her being
pregnant several weeks before he died,
By the Learned JuDGE—I4y own sister and my
own family used to come to my room, as well as
Burgess and his wife. Nibody else.
Cross-examined—l Lave known the prisoner a
many years. We were always on very good terms.
Other evidence wrs adduced, which clearly proved
the prisoner's guilt, after which the Jury found him
Guilty.

The prisoner was then asked what he had to say
why the Court should not give him judgment to die
according to law ? He again protested his inno-
cence, and declared that he never had been in the
Oorkhouse in his life.

Mr. Justice PARKE then put on the black cap, and
proceeded to pass the dreadful sentence of the law,
which he did in the most solemn and affecting
manner, and concluded by sentencing the unhappy
man to be executed on Monday morning next.