The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1844-04-16 00:00:00

EXTRAORDINARY DEATH BY POISON,

AT BLACKBURN.

The Blackburn Standard, of Wednesday last, gives a
long and painfully interesting report of the death (as it
appeared by evidence at the coroner's court) of William
Wheaton Ball, a comedian, who had recently arrived in
that town. The inquest was held at Mr. John Wilson's,
the Dun Horse Inn, and it appeared that the deceased
was very respectably connected, and had at one time been
a man of property. Deceased went to the inn on Easter
Monday week—arriving by coach from Manchester, and
remained there until his death. He had talked with the
landlord of the places he had visited in Italy and eke-
where, and on general subjects. On Good Friday night
both went up stairs to go to bed. Deceased had pre-
vionily brought his writing desk into the bar, and took
from it a parcel, on which he wrote a direction that it was
not to be delivered before nine next morning. It was
sealed at each end and directed to Mr. Miils in Penny-
street. The deceased on retiring asked the landlord for
a glass of rum and water, to take up stairs with him.
He appeared to be in his usual health and spirits. He
also took pen and ink with him, expressing a hope that
they would not be wanted early in the morning as he did
not like to be disturbed. He had written three or four
letters which he put into his desk. Mr. Mills (alluded
to) called about 10 o'clock next day, and being etit to
deceased's bedroom, came down and said he could not
waken him. Deceased was immediately afterwards found
in a dying state, undressed, and in bed ; surgeons were
sent for but the deceased died shortly after eleven o'clock.
Mr. Wilson saw a letter in the room addressed to him,
and a sum of 245. was laying upon it. It was as follows :
" Blackburn, sth April, 1844.
" Sir,—This will inform you, when you find me dead,
the cause therefore.
" You will find by the contents of the accompanying
letters lam poisoned, and by the phials remaining. I
have placed on the table a sovereign and a few shillings,
with which you will be paid, and any other expenses in-
curred can be defrayed from Devon, or the produce of
the effects left.

" I have desired Mr. Clough, solicitor, to advise yon
on the disposal, according to instructions he or you will
receive from Devon on the subject; and you will please
have the trunk corded, directed, and forwarded as per
instructions.

" I wish you to send to Mr. Clough immediately on
the discovery.

" I am, Sir, yours,
" W. WHEATON BALL.
" Mr. J. Wilson, Dun Horse Inn.
" Please to forward all the letters as quickly as possi-
ble."

Several letters and papers were on the dressing table.
One letter was directed to W. Rogers, Esq., Theatre,
Boston, and thanked him, and his company, for past
kindnesses. The other letters were also read. One was

to Mr Savery, solicitor, Modbury, Devon, whom he had
met on the coach,—requesting him to call at the inn, and
see his wishes executed, and enclosing him a snuff-box as
a token of his regard. Throughout the whole. of the
letters deceased expressed an anxiety that his trunks
should be corded up and forwarded as by directions which
he left. The letters were all written in a kindly but busi-
ness-like manner—the language evincing a man of educa-
tion, and great coolness as to death. The last letter was
addressed to his wife, at Salcombe, Kingsbridge, Devon.
It commenced with—" When you receive this, my dear-
est Kate, I shall be free from all the troubles of this
world, and I hope in peace" ; and, after some affectionate
expressions, concluded—
" May God ever bless you!—
" I have swallowed the poison.

W. W. B.
" 'Tis now midnight, so 1 shall not be dead until the
sixth of April."
The words " I have swallowed the poison", were writ-
ten in a hand less clear than the preceding part of the
letter, and the last sentence in a still more tremulous
hand.
The other papers found in the deceased's room were
a list of furniture, &c., in Brook Cottage, " the property
of William Wheaton Ball, Esq.," which was to be de-
livered up to his wife Mrs. Catherine Savery Ball ; a
mem. of sums of money at interest in 1832 (amounting
to £7720) and in 1843 (amounting to £6114 193); a copy
of a bill of costs from 1832 to 1842 (amounting to
£957 14s. 2d,) ; a mem. of the disposal of three sums of
£3OOO, £1560, and £3160; and a copy of a deed of sepe-
ration (dated April, 1843) between deceased and his wife,
and which set forth that deceased was to be allowed by
his wife £52 per annum, and £8 per annum for the use
of furniture of his own in Brook Cottage.
Three phials were found in the room that had con-
tained and were labelled " Laudanum." He had pur-
chased, it appeared, three ounces. The deceased, it fur-
ther appeared, drank but moderately. Mr. Mills (before
alluded to) first met deceased on the previous Thursday.
and did not know him before. A letter was produced
signed by Arthur Dillon (25th of March) from the Harp,
Covent Garden, stating that the deceased had been en-
gaged to perform for Mr. Mills at a salary of £1 per
week—to do the heavy business of the theatre. De-
ceased called on Mr. Mills on Friday, and was to play in
"The Wife." He received the book to copy his part
but returned it on Saturday, with •a note stating that
if he would call at noon he (Mr. M.) would know all.
Deceased appeared fully acquainted with the theatrical
profession, and also to be quite cool and collected. The
friends of the deceased in Devon had been written to by
the coroner, but there had not been time for a reply to
be received. The jury returned a verdict :—" that the
deceased died from the effects of the laudanum he had
taken ; but whether he was in a sound state of mind or
not at the time of taking it there was no evidence before
the jury to show."
The deceased appeared to be about 35 or 40 years of
age.

HORRIBLE OCCURRENCE.—On Monday morning la'st,
a journeyman tanner named Frost, residing at Whitewell,
in Norfolk, murdered four of his children, by beating out
the brains of the three eldest with a hammer, and drown-
ing the youngest, an infant only ten weeks old, by putting
it head foremost in a large potful of water. The neigh-
bours were alarmed by hearing the cries of the agonized
wife of the murderer. She screamed, "Oh ! my chil-
dren !" and, when the parties who heard her went into the
house,they found the children dead in different parts thereof.
Frost has been accounted an honest, respectable man ;
and he always appeared very fond of his children. He
seemed but little concerned at the horrible deed which he
had committed, and made no attempt to deny it. An in-
quest was held on Tuesday last, when, after the evidence
had been given, the prisoner, who was duly cautioned,
made a commentary on the testimony, and concluded as
follows :—I saw the hammer produced by the policeman.
I had washed the handle of the hammer a little. The
hammer produced is the hammer 1 committed the act
with. I think the evidence of Mr. Harsant correct. I
think I gave the children more than two blows each. I
wished to put them out of their misery as quick as I
could. I cannot say how many blows I gave the eldest
child. I cannot say how many blows I gave them. I
think I gave the eldest child more blows than the others."
The jury returned a verdict of " wilful murder," and the
prisoner was committed to take his trial at the next as-
sizes, at Norwich. It is said that he has lately belonged
to a new sect, called the " Revivalists," and been very
active among them as a preacher. It is generally believed,
in Whitewell and the neighbourhood, that he committed
the above series of horrible murders on his children under
the influence of fanaticism.

THE CASE OF J. L. BROWN, OF SOUTH CAROLINA.—
A special meeting of the Birmingham Anti-slavery Com-
mittee was held on Wednesday week, at the Police-office,
to consider the case of a man now lying under sentence of
death, passed upon him by a judicial court, for aiding a
slave to escape. The case was spokm of by Lord Den-
man, some time ago, in the House of Lords, and excited
universal indignation. Several resolutions were adopted,
and among them a vote of thanks to Lord Denman, and
also to Lord Brougham, for the part they have taken in
holding up to the abhorrence of the world the enormity
of condemning a man to die for doing his duty. One of
the resolutions adverted to the fact that this deed occurs
under a republican government, and truly says that it has
tended to render the boasted American institutions odious
in the eyes of the civilised world. A. suitable, feeling,
and expostulatory address to " American cit;zens " was
adopted at the above meeting, and forwarded to the
United States for publication. It concludes in these
words :—" Citizens of America !—You live under a go-
vernment which professes to be democratic, and you tell
us truly that liberty is the birthright of all men, Do
justice to your principles. Give to every man his freedom,
and then, and not till then, will the moral influence of
America promote the cause of freedom in every part of
the world." A letter has since been received from Lord
Denman acknowledging a letter from the society. His
lordship states, " I am not entirely without hope that the
appeals which have been made to the ruling authorities
may secure our fellow-creature from the doom that •ap-
pears to await him. That he is very probably a fellow-
subject also, your distinguished townsman, Mr. Joseph
Sturge, apprized me ; and with the utmost satisfaction I
found Lord Aberdeen eager to interfere in his behalf."

THE FUNDS.—It appears that for the first time for
nearly a century, the Three per Cent Consols are at par,
or £lOO money for £lOO stock. The last time they were
at £lOO was in 1749, the year after the peace of Aix-la-
Chapelle ; at which period the amount of the public debt
was rather more than £78,000,000. The highest price
the Three per Cents ever rose to was in June, 1737, and
again in May, 1739, when they attained the high price of
£lO7. Between the years 1729 and the year of the re-
bellion, 1745, the Three per Cents were never lower than
£B9, and for a considerable portion of that period they
were above par. Again, in March, 1792, they rose to 97k,
when the amount of the national debt was .£239,350,000.
During the period between the peace of Paris, in 1763,
(when the amount of debt was £138,774,000), and the
breaking out of the American war, they fluctuated between
80 and 90 per cent. Towards the close of the American
war—namely, in February, 1782—they were as low as 544.
At the termination of the American war, the debt was
£249,851,628. In the years 1797-8, in consequence of the
great success of the French armies on the Continent, and
of the mutiny at the Nore, and of the rebellion in Ireland,
together with the failure of the attempt to negotiate with
the French republic, the price of stock became less than
it has been before or since that time. In May, and again
in June, 1797, the Three per Cents Reduced were as low
as 461. In the September of that year the Three per
Cent Consols fell to 478, being the lowest price to which
they have ever fallen. Dr. Hamilton, in his valuable
work on the national debt, states that they were also at
that price in January, 1798, The Three per Cent Consols
have not been under 68 since the latter part of the year
1820, when they were 678. The highest price the Five
per Cents ever attained was 1071, in August, 1791 ; and
the lowest price was 591, in January, 1798. The highest
price the Five per Cents ever attained was in August,
1791, when they were 1221, and the lowest price was in
August, 1798, when they were only 59g.—Globe.