The Sun. — 1850-05-11 (London, England)

CRESSWELL.) ATTEMPTED PARRICIDE.—A young woman, named Louisa Susan Hartley, aged 19, described in the calendar as a spinster, was indicted for feloniously administering to Joseph William Hartley, her father, a quantity of deadly poison, called arsenic, with intent to kill and murder him. Mr. Parry prosecuted, and Mr. Ballantine defended the prisoner. The facts of this case have so recently come to light that they must still be familiar to the reader of The Sun. The prosecutor was a fellowship porter, who, in April last, lived at the Hope public-house, in Gravel-lane, Southwark, where his daughter, the prisoner, resided with him, and attended to his domestic affairs, his wife having been dead some years. Oa the 16th of April, about eight o'clock in the morning, the prisoner, who generally prepared his breakfast, woke hint up, and told him that his breakfast was ready. She then handed him a cup of coffee and some bread and butter on a small tray. Upon tasting the coffee, it seemed very unpleasant, which induced him to eay to the prisoner, " Louisa, you must have put something into the coffee," and she replied, " No, I have not, father." He tasted it a second time, when his mouth became parched, and his teeth shook very much, and he said to the prisoner, " Why, daughter, you have put poison in the coffee," but she denied it, of coffee and emptied it into a washand took up the cup hand basin. There was a second cup of coffee on the table, which she had poured out fur herself, and which he afterwards tasted. It had not the flavour of the cup, and he therefore secured the contents of the first cup, and carried it to Guy's Hospital, where it was found to be strongly impregnated with vitriolic acid, but not sufficient to (muse death. His stomach was also cleansd with the pump, and then he returned home and gave his daughter into custody, when she denied having attempted to poison him, and stated that she accidentally dropped a little soda into the cup. The cause assigned for the rush act was revenge for the father's ill-treatment, and on more than one occasion she had been heard to threaten the life of her father. Once she declared that she would get some vitriol and administer to her father, and just prior to the com.. mittal.olAiis offence she vowed she would cut her father'S ihroit with a razor, and stab herself afterwards. Mr. BALLANTINE obtained an admission from the prosecutor, in cross-examination, that he was discharged from the service of the Watermen's Company for, embezzlement and forgery, while some time before that he took a quantity of laudanum, but it was not for the purpose of destroying himself. During the lifetime of his wilfa he usually kept fire-arms in his house, but he never slept with them under his pillow. It was thirteen or fourteen'years ago that he took poison, and about eleven years had elapsed since he was discharged from - the Watermen's Company. After-an able and pathetic address from the prisoner's Learned Counsel, who insinuated that the charge was the result of an abominable and deep-laid scheme of the prosecutor to get rid of his daughter, as she was-too feeble to work, and was therefore an expense to himself; The jury returned a verdict of Nut Guilty, and the prisoner was accordingly liberated.