The Sun. — 1844-10-23 (London, England)

WORSHIP -STREET. The Baron Rehausen, the Swedish Minister, sat on the bench on Monday with Mr. Broughton, the presiding magistrate, and appeared to take a lively interest in the proceedings. Alfred Edwards, a young man describing himself as " a pickle manufacturer," who has been many times examined, was placed at the bar for final examination before Mr. Broughton, upon a charge of having poisoned Jane Gregory, a young woman of loose character, with whom he had been for some time past intimately connected. There had been a little quarrel between them, but on the occasion out of which the present charge originated the prisoner visited the deceased at her lodgings in Spitalfields, and a reconciliation appeared to have taken place, and in the course of that evening the deceased drank several times from a bottle containing what was said to be 44 brandy and bitters," given to her at the'time by the prisoner. She was afterwards exceedingly sick, and continued so until the following morning, when she died with the symptoms of poison, having repeatedly, and with her dying breath, declared to every one that her illness was occasioned solely by the liquid which "Alf," the prisoner, had given her. Mr. Smith, who was called to her just before her death, and afterwards made the post mortem examination, found the stomach so inflamed in patches, as convinced him that death bad been caused by some acid poison. Mr. Leeson, lecturer on chemistry at St. Thomas's Hospital, to whom the various substances were transmitted for the purpose of analysis, obtained from the coats of the stomach a precipitate which yielded a globule of pure lead weighing four grains, and had no doubt that a considerable quantity of some preparation of lead had been swallowed and probably ejected from the stomach during the deceased's mortal sickness. The liquid in the bottle, however, did not contain any lead, but was found to consist in great part of the strongest spirit, almost pure alcohol, with an infusion of bitter herbs, flavoured with bitter almonds or kernels. In the stomach a slight odour of hydrocyanic (prussic) acid was detected, arising no doubt from the flavouring of bitter almonds, from which it is abundantly obtained. At the prisoner's residence Sergeant Lambert found a paper, marked "Poison," containing a quantity of sugar of lead, and another paper containing a white powder, which Dr. Leeson said was what is called white precipitate, used sometimes for cleaning plate, &c., but decidedly poisonous. The Coroner's jury returned a verdict of "Wilful murder" against the soner more than a fortnight since, and the Coroner's warrant was of course issued for his committal to Newgate upon that charge, but the evidence appeared to be very unsatisfactory, and at length it was suggested that the body, which had been buried immediately after the inquest, should be exhumed and further examined.. 011 Friday last it was accordingly taken from the grave, and y such of the viscera as were required being removed from it in the presence of the churchwardens, the police, and other witnesses, the remains were again committed to the earth. After a good deal of evidence Mr. BROUGHTON informed the prisoner that he would be committed to Newgate to take his trial, and the witnesses were bound over to prosecute. The prisoner, who appeared very dejected, and looked as if he had wept a great deal, said he would reserve his defence until the trial.