The Sun. — 1835-03-09 (London, England)

EDINBURGH POLICE COURT.—On Monday, a person named M'Gillivray, a dull, heavy-looking fellow, lately from Elgin, was placed at the bar, charged with fraud and wilful imposition, in so far as, in the months of March, April, May, and Juno last, he addressed several letters to a respectable agent for a large estate then exposed for sale, with the false pretence of purchasing the said estate for a Major M' Pherson, and did latterly, in the name of the said Major M'Pherson, conclude a bargain therefor with the said agent, at the price of 18,0001., he well knowing that there was no such person as Major M'Pherson in existence; and the said M'Gillivray did, on or about the 16th of Juno last, fraudulently and feloniously transmit, in a letter by post, from Elgin, to the said agent, a false, fabricated, and fictitious draft or order for 201., at 60 days' sight, bearing to be drawn by W. G. M'Pherson, major, H.P., and addressed to Messrs. John Robinson and Co., No. 6, Winchester-street, London Wall, London ; at the same time requesting the said agent to discount the same, and return him IN., which the agent, believing the draft to be genuine, did accordingly, and since the draft became due it has been discovered to be false and fictitious, there being no such persons as either the drawer or acceptor in existence, and the said agent has been defrauded and swindled out of the said sum of 101. by the said William M'Gillivray. Magistrate—" Are you guilty of this charge ?" Prisoner—" Ou, ay, but I wasna compos mentis." Magistrate —" You was not what?" Prisoner—" I didna ken what I was doin'." Superintendent—" You knew what to do with the money though ?" Prisoner—" Ou, ay." Superintendent— And you knew that there was no such person as Major M'Pherson in existence." Prisoner—" I daresay there mayna be sic a person." Superintendent to the Magistrate—" This person has written an account of his life, Sir. It seems he has been imprisoned for a similar offence before. During the period he will have to remain in confinement here he will have an opportunity of writing a continuation of his life." The Magistrate then remitted him for trial to a higher court.— Scots Times.  A melancholy case of the murder of an infant by its mother, in an insane state of mind, occurred on Thursday at Purbrook. The child, Frederick Dilloway, was five months old, and the mother being about to wean it, her sister-in-law, Jane Dilloway, had come to stay a few days with her, to assist her in so doing. After the father, who is a schoolmaster, with the mother and sister, had partaken of breakfast together, the sister went into the garden to hang out some clothes to dry, and the father into his school-room, to clean it. They had scarcely quitted the unhappy woman, whom they left in the act of washing and dressing the child, before they were recalled by a strange noise, when they found that she had taken a table knife off the breakfast table, and cut the child's throat to the neck bone, the consequence of which was instantaneous death. An inquest was held before C. B. Longcroft, Esq., Coroner, when it appeared in evidence that both husband and sister had used every precaution, and had taken every pains to quiet the nervous irritation under which the mother suffered. Verdict—" That Rhoda Dilloway, the mother, not being of sound mind, killed her child, but not feloniously of her malice aforethought."— Hampshire Telegraph.