The Sun.
London, England, 1845-08-29 00:00:00

ADELPHI THEATRE.

A new one act spectacle, entitled the Boy King, was
produced here last evening. The Boy King is Louis
XV. of France (Madame Celeste), who was married at
15 years of age, and the action of the drama takes place
on the day of his wedding. In honour of the occasion
a grand fete is given at Court, at which till the youthful
nobility of his own age (represented by Miss Woo Agar,
Miss E. Chaplin, and several of the ladies of the t stab
lishment) attend, and there is a review of an army of
"Infantine Infantry," who go through their exercises
admirably. The tutor of the king has arranged that his
Majesty and his youthful Court shall go to bed at ten
o'clock, and that himself and his coadjutors shall enjoy
a good supper after. The Boy King, however, demurs
to this arrangement. He determines to write " man" from
that day, and as a man to sit up to supper. He finds certain
blank letters deeachet which have beeuleft by his Ministers
for his signature, and filling them up with the names of
his tutor and those friends whom the tutor had invited
to supper, he consigns them to the J3astile, and enjoys
himself with his youthful friends. Eventually the Regent
frees the tutor and his companions, but not until the
King and his friends have sat up to and eaten the
supper, and from that night the King not only reigns,
but governs. This trifle is put on the stave in exquisite
taste. The " Infantine Infantry': are admirably drilled,
and go through their exercise with the most laughable
preci,ion. The curtain fell amidst considerable applause,
and the piece will no doubt have a run. It was preceded
by Sweethearts and Wives, with Munyard as Billy
Lackaday, the best Billy Lackaday that has appeared
since the days of Liston. The house was crammed to
suffocation.

THE LATE ACCIDENT ON THE

MOONLIGHT STEAM-BOAT.

Yesterday afternoon, at 3 o'clock, Mr. Bedford, the coroner,
and his jury, re-assembled at the St. Martin's public-house,
Duke-street, Adelphi, to resume the inquiry relative to the
death of James Purcell, the lad whose shocking fate has been
already noticed in this journal.
From shat has transpired at the inquest it is manifest that
the poor boy's death was the consequence of the negligence on
the part of the crew of either the Moonlight or the Prince of
Wales steam-boat, and the chief point to which the conflicting
testimszty already elicited has reference, is the question as to
which of the two vessels was put in motion before the rope
connecting them had been unfastened.
As the captains and mates of these boats contradict each
other in their statements respecting the material fact, the evi-
dence of the passengers will be probably regarded as the most
important.
A lighterman, named Maclaren, stated that he was on board
the Prince of Wales at the time when the Moonlight came up
alongside of that vessel at the Hungerford-pier. The head
rope of the former was thrown over and fastened to the lar-
board sponson of the latter. After landing her passengers, &c.,
he saw the Moonlight going ahead, without having been freed
from the other boat, upon which witness called oat, " Cut the
rope," it having become too tight to be removed from the
sponson. At this moment he saw the deceased, boy fall upon
ilie'deck 'of the Moonlight, one of his feet, wrenched off by the
rope, having fallen into the water. He did ne.t see any one in
charge of the rope. He could not say if it was the appointed
duty of any one to remove the eye of the head rope from the
Prince of Wales boat, but he conceived it to be the duty of
every captain to see that the rope had been taken in before giv-
ing the command to proceed.
The captain of the Prince of Wales attributed all the blame
to the whose duty it was to provide
asufficient
attend upon the boats arriving
number Hungerford Piero f hands Company,to
at that pier. It was notorious, however, that there was not
half enough assistance provided for the large number of ves-
sels calling there. It was possible that the Prince of Wales
might have gone a little astern at the moment when the acci-
dent occurred from the action of the ebbing tide.• He did not
consider that any blame was attributable to the crew of his
boat. He had known many similar accidents to occur in con-
sequence of the insufficiency of piermen to attend to the boats
arriving at the pier.
A discussion of nearly an hour's duration now took place as
to the admissibility of certain evidence offered by Mr. Cat-
tarns, on the part of the Iron Steamboat Company, to which
an objection had been raised in consequence of the presence of
the two witnesses (Mr. Simmonds and-Mr. Fier? sings, passen-
gers in the Moonlight) at an earlier period of the investigation.
Mr. Coppoek, the solicitor of the lad's parents, and several
of the jurymen submitted, that as the Coroner had determined
at the commencement of the inquiry to receive the evidence of
no one who had been in the room during the examination of
other witnesses, neither Mr. Simmonds nor Mr. Fleming, both
of whom had been present, could be heard.
Mr. Simmonds observed that his evidence, if admitted,
would be found of great importance to the jury in considering
their decision.

Mr. Fleming submitted, that although he had been in the
room a few minutes during the former proceedings, he had no
recollection of what happened at the time.
One of the jurymen proposed that a show of hands should be
taken upon the subject, and in the confusion of talking that
followed,
Mr. Simmonds urged that, as his 'evidence had been taken
in writing before he had attended the inquest, there could be
no reasonable objection to its reception.
Mr. Coppock inquired what Mr. Simmonds meant by his
evidence " being taken in writing ?"
This was explained by Mr. Cattarns, who stated that the
witness had called at his office, in his (Mr. Cattarns's) ab-
sence, and that his statements were taken down in writing by
his clerk. But he had not seen him personally upon the sub-
ject, and did not know him when he was sitting in the room.
The CORONER, having been incessantly appealed to for his
opinion upon the point at issue, expressed his willingness to
wave any objection that might tend to deprive them of im •
portant evidence ; but he was inclined to doubt whether the
witness could be examined after what had happened.
Eventually the Coroner deckled on taking an opinion upon
the question before pronouncing his determination as to the
admissibility of the evidence.
There were two
Alexander Mills, a wood-turner, depesedetvheantinhge, wtahsea
IpBatsh-
sivneens tsgaeenlrst 'on b
at a nt
aer wdi
ituhinleegsNes Moonlight
accident.
Monday
tahye Moonlight arrived.
The eye of the head-rope was attached to the Prince of
Wales, and the remainder was lying in a coil in the bow
of the Moonlight. Witness saw a youth standing close to it
when the signal to " Go ahead" was given by the captain of
the Moonlight. The boat moved on, and a man seized the
rope, which he tried to jerk off from the Prince of Wales's
sponson. He failed in doing so, and the deceased, whose foot
was somehow entangled in the rope, was
against the
timber-head. Witness ran to his assistance, and prevented
ales, near the sponson, to set the head-rope at
htfrimet,pfwrroihmniceehfaohlfladivvngdroevpeprebdoairritde, but the trhiveerr.opeNhe one was
off his
was on board
liberty. He was confident that the Moonlight was proceeding
when the accident happened. The whole occurrence did not
last more than two or three minutes after the Moonlight had
started.
By Mr. Coppock—He did not see the Prince of Wales go
astern.
Mr. Coppock drew attention to a discrepancy in the state-
ments of this witness and those of Henry Tucker, one of the
Moonlight crew, who had deposed to the effect that no one
but himself was present with the rope, which, according to his
evidence, was tightened by the Prince of Wales boat going
astern. _

Another passenger named Gordon, of 17, Frederick-place,
Goswell-street, stated that he saw a lad sitting on the coiled
head-rope after the Moonlight had arrived at the pier, and
witnessed the accident. [This witness confirmed many of the
statements of the preceding witness ; but declared his epinion
that the rope was drawn out by the Prince of Wales boat goit,g
astern.] The Moonlight boat had not proceedad more than a
up the foot and
of the
and assisted in taking him to the hospital at Charing-
stationary.when
Witness he r " was given
yet he
deceased,
ra o sdvessels.an da
was hal f the cry of "Stop
picked

It was announced that there were several other passengers
who wished to be examined, some of whom had been waiting
until now (eight o'clock), but were unable to remain any
longer.
The inquiry was further adjourned to Alonday evening, at
six o'clock.

A LATE BAPTISM.—At the Baptist Chapel, in By-
rom-street, Liverpool, on Thursday evening last, a female,
aged seventy-three, named Mary Jones, was baptised by im
Mersion.