The Sun. — 1828-10-08 (London, England)

UNION-HALL.—Yesterday John Jordan, late acting bombardier, and now a pensioner in the Royal Artillery, was brought up for a final examination, charged on suspicion with having administered arsenic to his wife Mary with intent to murder her.  Mrs. Jordan still labours under general debility, owing to the baneful effects produced by the mineral poison on her constitution. Her health is evidently improved since the last examination. The prisoner's appearance has undergone a considerable change for the worse since his apprehension on the charge, and on seeing his wife he was a good deal affected, and shed tears in abundance. Mr. Boast, the surgeon, who was called in to attend the complainant, subsequently to her having taken the poison, and applied the stomach-pump, with which he extracted, it, stated that on his leaving this office on Wednesday last, he proceeded to the lodgings previously occupied by the prisoner and his wife, and there examined the contents of the butt out of which the complainant • alleged she had filled her tea-kettle on the morning she bad taken the poison. The water in the butt, Mr. Boast added, was perfectly pure, and did not retai❑ a particle of any deleterious substance.  Mrs. Harriet Shoel, who resides in the same house recently occupied by the prisoner and his wife, stated that on the morning in question she filled her teakettle out of the same butt, and neither herself nor any of her family were affected by the tea made from it. The prisoner's wife, in addition to her former deposition, stated, that on the night previous to her having drank the poison, she boiled the water in the same kettle, and made her tea from it, and was not affected. She left the kettle afterwards on the bob by the fire-place, and no one had access to the room from that time but her husband and herself, until she drank the poison. The complainant's son, by a former husband, now stepped forward, and implored the Magistrate to be as lenient with the prisoner as he could, under all tke circumstances. He added that he was at present doing duty at Woolwich as a soldier, and that should his father-in-law be committed on this charge, he (the step-son) would be pointed at by his comrades, and held in utter contempt by them. The complainant here joined in an appeal with her son, on behalf of the prisoner, who sobbed aloud, and in the intervals protested his entire innocence of the charge, exclaiming, that such a diabolical attempt as to deprive his wife of her life by administering poison to her never for a moment entered his mind.  The prisoner's step-son here approached the bar where he was standing, and they spoke for some time in an undertone of voice, after which, the complaipant evinced a disposition not to proceed against the prisoner. The Magistrate perceiving this, after having remarked on the enormity of the offence with which the accused was charged, observed that he should certainly call upon her to procure bail for her appearance at the Assizes to prosecute, to prevent the possibility of her being kept purposely out of the way.  The prisoner said, that it had been alleged be was living with a woman named White. He now declared there was no foundation for the assertion, and that he should be enabled to contradict it most satisfactorily. He again burst into tears, appealing to his wife, and ejaculating,— " Mary, you know I never could have had in my heart to have attempted your life in the way you have charged me." The unfortunate man was then committed, and he was led from the bar in a state apparently of great affliction. The following note the prisoner addressed to his wife after the first examination :  " Horsemonger-lane Gaol, Oct. 4. " Dear Wife,--I write these few lines to inform you of the melancholy situation that I am in; and you are well aware that I am innocent of the crime that lam accused of—as innocent as the babe unborn. You must think on that account what my state and condition must be. I beg you will come and see me OH Monday, as you will have permission from twelve to two o'clock, when I am persuaded a mutual reconciloment will take place between us, which is the sincere desire of your unfortunate husband, "