Star.
London, England, 1829-11-18 00:00:00

ANDERDON v. BURROWS.
Copy of a Letter from Nii7W;t7rSudbury, (in Suffolk) ad-
dressed to the Right Hon. Robert Peel, NI P. Chief Commis-
sioner of Lunatic Asylums.

SUMMIT, Nov. 11, 1829.
Sta.—After all, is it come to this ? After all the estrum dinary
"evidences" which have been given before " the select committee
of the House of Commons in 1827," is it come to this? After all
the mass of minutes" which were taken before " the select cent-
mitt. of the .House of Lords in 1828," is it come to this ? After
all the pleasing expectancy of amendment and amelioration in
" law lunacy,' in the enlightened era of 1829, is it come to this,
that a man styling himself an M.D. a self-interested mad doctor
and physician, is to, and do, sign a " certificate of lunacy," of,
concerning, or relating to a person of high respectability, whom he
(the M.D.) has himself actually not seen, but upon the bare report
of another, or the mere representations of others, has done this
deed of monstrous cruelty, of hellish inhumanity.
Question upon question will 'leggiest itself, to the breast of every
feeling man, on this cruel ease; but this interrogation receives a
ready solution, from the most ignorant or illiterate,—" What is,
or, wherein does, lay the difference, between a' Lettre de Cachet,'
and a ' Certificate of Lunacy ?' " None, venly none, as they both
are, in this case, alike in its dreadful effect, or in their diabolical
consequences.
This case is somewhat similar to the one of poor Mr. GrindaU's,
which at that time excited such an extraordinary sensation.
I call upon you, Sir, in the name of Goo!—in the name of hu-
manity—and in the name of the honour of this country—to search
into this case, and to such like abuses, as in so doing you will serve
those whom, in many hasty and heartless instances, are unable to
serve themselves. Interim, I am, Sir, Ste.
JAMES WELLS.
" Nunquam dormice, sod semper miserite vivo."
Postcript.—Common sense, common reason, and common un-
derstanding, in conjunction with common feeling. detater this
vital and virtuous truth :—" Private madhouses are a vile stigma
upon the honour and humanity of England, and upon the English
character; and ought at once, by a prompt act of the legislature, to
be done away with." For they are altogether, in a greater or less
degree, no other than earthly hells—or English bastiles !J. W.
Copy of a Letter transmitted from the Secretary of State's Office
to Mr. Wells, of Sudbury, in reply to one front that Gentleman
on the subject of Dr. Burrows's Certificate of Lunacy.
WHITZNALL, Nov. 12.
Sir,—l am directed by Mr. Secretary Peel to acknowledge the
receipt of your letter of the 11th inst. on the subject of the certi-
ficate of lunacy recently signed by Dr. Burrows in the case of Mr.
Ancirrdon. And lam to inform you, that Mr. Peel has forwarded
your letter to the Metropolitan Commissioners of Lunacy, who, be
has no doubt, will direct their attention to the subject to which it
refers. I am, Sir, your most obedient bumble servant,
To Mr. James Wells, Sudbury. THOMAS PHILLIPS.

FRENCH TRIAL.

The Journal des Deeds is filled with a long report of the trial of
two men accused of murdering a female who was pregnant by one
of them. The facts which cast suspicion upon them lie, however,
within a very narrow compass. Marie Anne Bonnet, an Inha-
bitant of the village of St. Thomas, after having had the misfor-
tune of bearing two bastard children, had the still greater mis-
fortune of becoming pregnant with a third, in consequence of her
intercourse with Andrew Nathan, the sun of a rich landholder
in the same village. For some time she concealed from her
friends the name of the father of her unborn child; but as
Mathon refused to give her any means of support, and threatened
her with vengeance if she dared to fillate upon him her forth-
coming bastard, she went, on the Nst of March last, before the
Asp de Pair at Viviers, to declare him to be the father of it,
and to inform the police of the murderous threats which he
uttered against her. On the evening of the same day, she returned
with one of her neighbours in high spirits to St. Thomas ; and
after telling leer mother of what she had been doing, left her house
to keep her appointment with Mathon, who had promised to give
her a sack of wheat. She was seen by several persons going to a
ruined castle, of which the Ma tbons had the key, with a man dressed
in dark clothes, who repeatedly kissed her ; she was heard to say,
" Come, let us go there ; every body is now at prayers, and we
shall not have any body to disturb us." After that evening, she
was seen no more ; and suspicion, in iionsequence, arose that she
bad been murdered by Matbon. About ten days afterwards her
body, which was then in a putrid state, was discovered in a ca.
Tern in the rocks on which the ruined castle was built, by a man
of the name of Chevalier. From the appearances which the sur-
geons observed on inspection of her person, they were decidedly of
opinion that she had been strangled ; and from the footsteps which
were discovered Within the saver'', which was difficult of approach,
it became almost certain that she must have been pulled into it by
two persons. Public opinion, which had already marked Matbon
as one of her murderers' designated, as his accomplice, Stephen
Guillon, a farmer of bad character, who had vowed vengeance
against the deceased for some offence which she had given him.
They were in consequence taken into custody, and a few days ago
were placed upon their trial, which lasted three days. Mathon is
described as a tall young man, with a figure of so much sweetness,
as to have earned for him the title of " Handsome Mathon." fits
answers to the questions were brief and precise, and he maintained
that he had never had any connexion of any sort or description with
the deceased. Guillon's answers are said to have been unconnected
and inconsistent with each other, except so far as they west to deny
his guilt of the crime imputed to him. Sixty witnesses were
examined. We subjoin the depositions of two or three of the
most important :
Joseph Chevalier deposed as follows :—" In the beginning of
April, the son of Anne Bonnet told my son that his mother was
lying dead in the &atone de Fees (the name of the cavern above.
mentioned). My son informed me of it. On the following night
I dreamt that the corpse of Anne Bonnet was in the Grotto of the
Fairies. Placing confidence in this dream, I took my gun, and
accompanied by my dog, went early in the morning to that grotto.
Arriving at the mouth of it, my dug went in, and soon after began
to howl frightfully. I followed him in, bending almost double,
and at a distance of fifteen or twenty yards from the mouth of it
1 saw a dead body, which I recognised as that of Anne Bonnet."
The witness then d scribed the state of the body, and the two
different foot-marks which he observed in the grotto. He then
added—" I went with all speed to inform the Mayor of what I
had discovered. (laud told me that the corps had remained two
days out of the Beaume.....that both Anne Bonnet and her tether
were" bad characters—and that I ought to say nothing, though I
bad found the corpse."
John Bonnet, a child of the deceased, aged seven yea's, declared
that on the night of the day after his mother disappeared,he dreamt
that his mother was dead in the Fairies' Grotto. lie told his
dream to his grandfather. They went together to the grotto, but
on account of his grandfather's great age, and the difficulty of access
to the grotto, his grandfather could not approach it ; and he was
afraid of entering it, on account of the fairies.
The Paeunaex—What are these fairies, of which you are speak-
ing. my little fellow?
John Bonnet (crying.)—Wild women, Sir : I saw Mathon on
two different occasions in company with my mother.
Jean Baptiste Baud, who admitted that be was a common
beggar, deposed to this effect :—" I was returning from Sc. Mon-
te= at eight o'clock in the evening. After I bad crossed the
river, I had scarcely got 50 paces, when I beard a cry of murder.
I made all the haste I could, and arriving at a turn of the road I
saw at a distance of 50 paces, not far from the Fairies' Grotto,
Anne Bonnet, whunt Mathon held fast by the neck. Guillon put
a cord round her neck, and said • Despatch, for prayers i.re just
over.' I then saw them pull the cord tight by means of a stick.
Anne Bonnet kept crying. blathoti wore a white cotton bonnet,
and withdrew hastily in the dire cti ni of St. Thomas. Guillon,
who had on a black hat, withdrew in the opposite direction. I
withdrew myself and was at prayers. I saw Meilen' in the church
that night, near the dour."
Witnesses were called to prove the immiscibility of Baud's tes-
timony being true, owing to the nature of the ground which pre-
vented him from seeing any such scene as he pretended.
Jean Chambon deposed, that on the Slat of March, as he was
returning from his work, when he wart near the middle of the mea-
dow,
_he beard two cries of ''Abi! Ahi !" proceeding from the
ruined castle ; that on proceeding onwards he beard other cries,
but in a weaker tone; that he had some intention to have goer
there, but that be was afraid; that he had scarcely reached home,
when he heard the angilas* which informed hint that prayers were
over.
Without giving any particulars of the defence, the Journal des
Deism informs its readers, that in consequence of the exertions of
their advocates, both the accused were acquitted.