Star.
London, England, 1830-10-01 00:00:00

JURISDICTION OF CORONERS.

At the second Inquest holden by Mr. Baker, the lately-elected
Coroner for Middlesex, his jurisdiction was called in
,ie:e.liohu in a nun.
ner to require his legal more than his surgical knowl •
A workman in the service of Mr. Ferguson. a erehant, in
Mark-lane, died suddenly in a :prethisea occupied by hti muter, in
Well-street, Wellclose-square. A jury was in consequence sum-
moned by the constable of Whitechapd to make the neteseary en.
quarks touching the man's death, and they assembled at the
Horse public-house in Well-atreet, for that rupee. After
they were sworn, they proceeded with the Coroner le view the
body ; and having done so, and returned to the Inquest-roan,
evidente was about to be taken in the case, WWI livgood,
the high constable for the precinct of the Tower aM the
liberties of Wellclose-square., entered the room, and intimated to the'
Coroner his belief that lie was exercising the duties of his office beyond
the bounds of Ms jurisdiction. He (Hopgood) understood that the duo
ceased died, and his body then lay, within the libertie? oC,the Tower,
which was a separate jurisdiction 4 sad had a Corimer, W. Malaise
Thomas. especially appointed to thiiluty.
The constable of Whitechapel, on the other hand, maintained that tbe-
man had died in his parish, and therefore the inquiry, as far as it went,
was strictly legal.
The Coaowza, however, to set all doubts on the subject at rest, MD
quested that the jury would'take takes view of the premises and place when
the deceased died. They did so, and after examining several witnesses
on the spot as to the boundary-line of the parish, it was dearly ascer.
tallied that the head, shoulders, and about half the body, at the time of
death, lay in the parish, and the remainder of the body and lower ex-
tremities, within the liberties of WeUclose.
The jury feeling that the deceased had died in .the parish, his head
and heart, the principal seat of life, being in it at the time of death,
they returned again to the Inquest room; but here a second obstacle
presented itself, and of course a second objection to the jurisdiction of
Mr. Baker, viz. that the public-house and the room in which the Jury
sat were within the liberties of the Tower, and consequently the inquest,
if holden, would be null and void. . . .

The CUroner,:after some consideration of the subject, and in order to
remove the objection, adjourned the proceedings to a public-home in
the parish of Whitechapel ; and having there examined various wit.
sasses touching the death of the decats, the jury returned a verdict of
—Natural Death.

SHOCKING ACCIDENT ON BLACKHEATH HILL.-
Yestaday morning, as Raikes's Dover Waggon, loaded with French
eggs, and on the top,of which were several poor women and their chil.
dren, was proceeding to town, at Blackheath Hill, which is remarkably
steep, the driver neglected to skid the hinder wheel ; the consequence
was that the waggon descended the hill with frightful velocity. The
waggoner caught hold of the bridles of the wheeorses, but they were
unable to check the progress of the waggon, and in their struggle to
back, the breeching broke, and they fell down, and were carried by the
I force of the waggon down the hill. Up= the arrival of the waggon at
the brow of the bill it turned over with such violence that It was
dashed- to atoms, and the two horses were killed on the spot t the whole
of the me were broken, and in the fall of the waggon the iron lamp
port and -palisades of Mr. Newton's house were torn down. Fenn-
' nately for the women and children, they escaped without any serious
injuryTH .
E WEATHER AND CRoPa.—While the mariaon is ad-
vane rag, aid thus abridging the opportunities of the farmer, the weather
1 continues as uncertain as ever. The fields ere completely maturated with
moisture—have become like a sponge filled to repletion, that gushes out
on the slightest tough; and hence the rapidity with which the streams
overleap their banks at every fresh visitatioa of the elements. Repeat.
oily last week the husbandman stood on the alert, upset the stools, pat
the shillbends on the carts, and where ready to lead, when all their elites
were rendered abortive by another angry storm of wind and rain. These
repeated handlings have, or course, done the crops no good ; and in the
ass of potato oats, the loss from shedding cannot be under from four to
siz bushels per acre. In a few instances the bands of the barley sheaves
were observed springing; but the damage done in this way is slight as
yet, though there is no saying what it may amount to in the end, should
the present miserable weather continue. Never was there a more tan-
talizing harvest. In proof of this we may quote the case of a farmer in
or about Wigtownshire, who, out of twenty-three days, found by a
careful calculation, that his shearers had only been able to work nine
days and a half, at the rate of ten hours per day. This calculation was
made upwards of a week ago, and since that time matters have become
wane in place of better. Saturday last, it may be said, was the only fa-
vourable day experienced during the week. The morning set in with
• 'tiff breeze, and although showers fell at intervals, not a moment wee
lost from the peep of dawn till a late hour at night. In most places,
the reapers laid aside their hooks to assist in opening and drying the
sheaves; in moon light and star light the wains wererseen threading
their way through the fields, and in all favourable 'hoodoos a gent
deal of work ass satisfactorily performed. One fanner in this neigh.
bourhood put up no fewer than nine stacks, some of them &her
nightfall, and we could name many that succeeded in erecting three
or four. On Sunday the glass mounted rapidly, and the weather con-
tinued dry throughout; but the effect was temporary, and yesterday
the claimants were U unkind as ever. We have often said, . that the
crops are much worse in Annandale than Nithadale. The following,'
from a correspondent :—" The weather continues diaastrous: in afew
parishes, such as Dumfries, Tinweld, Kirkmaboe, pert of Clambers.
Morton Tynron, Penpont, Moffat, and Kirkpatriek.Axta, wham the
soil is light and warm, the crops may be tolerable; but over all the
rest of the country the deficiency is to an extent unpisseant- to think
of, to say the haat of it. On all damp and cold soils the failure is
complete; perhaps it never was more so. It is particularly painful to
think of the short-coming of potatoes as they now form too great a
of the food of the labouriog clams, who, when this of
portion
tails, have nothing to descend to—and ascend to beef and wheaten
bred, they camiot."—Dsnafrice Courier.