The Statesman.
London, England, 1823-07-21 00:00:00

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then taken up, and identified by those tere
persons ;•and immediate search was made for the prisoner,
who was found in Hull.
:11iehard Belcher deposed that he was an assistant to
Mr. t.Leuth in February lane; proved the deliiery of,the
prisoner of a healthy • male child en the 20th of Fe.
fluttery, and ter illicit removal on the 22nd to Mrs. Fos-
ter% house.
Nothing appeared in the Cross-examination but that the
labour wad rather severe. ,Ile could not speak of the
tionriebnient she received.
Mrs. Frances Foster corroborated the testimony of the
last witness as to the delivery. The prisoner left her
house on the 6th of March to go to. her parents, io the
boat to Howden. Both the mother anti child appeared
io perfect health. Witneir knew the Child and the
clothes it wore, having repeatedly dressetfit. The same
ehild she sawdead,•and the tame eldthes she saw with it
on the Tuesday following. She knew the child from the
peculiar yellowness of the skin.
On her cross-examination the said, when prisoner left
her house, sis put a handkerchief over the child's head ;
Witness then tool the ptisoner'a large shawl, and wrap-
ped over the child; and it heing very cold,when the pia
woes left the door, she also put her pelisse over the in-
fant. and wrapped it close to her breast. • The distance
from witness's house to the place where the boats sailed
from was between three quarters of a mile' and a mile;
she went away in a great hurry to be in time kir the
boat; and the way in which that child, of hfortnight old,
was wrapped up, and the harry id wltich the another
walked the three qttirters of a mile, very possibly might
have occasioned its death. She was very cheerful the
Morning she left witness's house, and ate a hearty break-
fast.- When the constable called to make inquiries re-
specting the child's clothes. she had not the slightest-
conception that prisoner bad murdered her child- •
) Mary Ann Foster, the daughter of the last wrested;
confirmed her mother's evidence, with respect to the
residence of • the prisoner for l days in her bonsai.
during which the club' was very healthy, and the pri-
soner in as
.good health and spirits, as could be.expected;
mildest. with respect to the clothed' and Child found
being those of the prisoner.
• Ow her cross-examination, she said, during the 12
days the prisoner was at their house, she appeared a
land humane girl, and fond of children.
.oho Wassey, who lives at Yarmouth, was at Hell on
Thursday. the 6th of Marsh; when in company with
Ilaistuel Sheperdson, he found a child in what is called
the Spring Ditch. It was Seating on the top of the
enter; with the face downwards. He went for a COD.
Stable, and left Sheperdson with the child. The child
was doating when found, and part of the flannel was dry.
Wassey's evidence was confirmed by Samuel Sitep-
Odeon. When the former came with the constable,
they put the child in a basket, and took it to the Man--
sion House. The child was quite cold when taken out
of the water.
. [The prisoner here fainted away, hod was obliged to
betaken out of Court. She was sabsent about twenty
minutes. On her,return shit was again accommodated
_with a seat.]
John Ward, Mayor's officer, and constable of Hull—
Was called upon by John Wassey, about ten o'clork on
the 6th of blarch; he accompanied Wassey to Spring
Ditch. The child was taken to the Mansion House. It
was examined by Mr. Craven, a sirgeon ; the next day
-au inquest was held, and the child was afterwards bu-
ried. I have kept the clothes in my possession. The
same clothes were afterwards shewn to Mrs. Foster and
her daughter; and after they had seen the clothes, I
went with the mother to the burial ground, where the
child was taken up and shown tar her. The prisoner
-was apprehended the day the child was shewn to Mrs.
Foster.
I Ile case here turned on a point of great curiosity.—
The ditch in which the child was found was between
Hell and Sculcoates ; no decisive evidence was produced
to show whether the ditch was wholly in Hull, or partly
is Sculcoates ; one witness (John Ward) said, he
always understood that the boundary ran in the middle
of the ditch ; but, admitting that to be the ease, there
was no evidence to show either on which.side the body
was put in, or where the death took place, admitting that
it did take pace from drowning, and not from suffoca-
tion ; for, when the child nas found, it was floating
straight down the ditch, rather nearer one side than the
ether. All the proceedings had been had in.the town
wad county of Kingatomnpon-Hull, and the venue was
laid there, the prisoner being removed for trial
by a writ of habeas corpus to the Castle of York. It
was, therefore,necessary, that the death should be proved
to have taken place in Hull. His Lordship, after et:in-
tuiting several authorities, reserved the point for the
.present. and the case went on.
'Mr. Craven, a surgeon, was called upon to examine
the body on Thursday the 6th of March; found no marks
of violence upon the body.; on the following day "he
opened the body and examined it. In the month and
stomach he found a quantity of milk. The child, in his
lodgment, died of convulsions; if he had found the child
with its head under water, be should have concluded
that its death was caused by drowning.
By Mr. A lICHDOLD.—Any kind of suffocation would
produce the same symptoms. In drowning, great exer-
tion is used to inhale the air ;has never seen the stomach
Of a drowned person. Thinks that water would be in
the stomach of a drowned person:

Re-examined.--A child of a fortnight old would not
make much struggling ; does not think the position of
the body, whether down or up, would make much differ-
ence as to the quantity of water received into the stomach;
he found io water in the stomach ; the milk was cove-
Wed ; the milk in she mouth was very much like recent
milk; is of opinion that the symptotriA he saw were such
as would be produced by putting the child into the
water.

Mary Anne Foster was re-called, and identified the
child's cap, night gown, and swaddles.
. George Codd—The Spring Ditch is the boundary be-
tween the County of Hull and Yorkshire; he can speak
positively to its being so for half a mile from the cow-
' mencement.

The case for the prosecution closed here.
The prisoner being called upon for her defence, stated,
that she left Mrs. Foyer's, on her journey to her father's
residence, having, from the coldness of the weather,
wrapped up her child warmly, hurrying to the boat, and
hugging the child, as she proceeded closely to ber breast.
When she arrived at the place, finding the child very
still, she opened the clothes,! and discovered to her hor-
ror that the child was dead.- In the agitation of her
feelings, unconscious of what she was doing, she laid
the child down, and returned to the boase of a friend at
Whitefriars, where she remained openly until she was
arrested.

Mr. George Champneys, surgeon, deposed, that he,
bad been for fifteen years surgeon to the Castle, in York.
Witness had much experience in drowned cases; in all
his experience in such caws be found water in the sto-
mach of the drowned person ; thought himself qualified.
to form an opinion from the statement of Mr. Craven,
the former witness. . He considered it very probable that
the coil l died by suffocation, from being over-wrapped,
in the same way. as if it'were overlaid.
Crost.exansined by Mr. Asoaasow.—He would not say
that the opinion be delivered was a decided opinion in
the profession; it was, however. his own impression.
Mrs. Taylor, a lady-like looking weasan, stated, that
the prisoner lived In her service one pa road a hairs she
found her extremely kind tockildrew...off-ef a benseee
disposition.
Mr. Jdotiat Hos.asirD thee seamed- lip ovidemoit.
and did not copelads his charge till dmpedsokirbes.

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