npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
The Sun. — 1846-12-04 (London, England)

BAUER:— " 11. That while regarding with veneration the heroic efforts of the Polish patriots of 1830, this meeting considers the insurrection at Cracow, on the 22d of February, 1846, as the manifestation of a more democratic movement, because made not only in support of the national independence of Poland, but also in support of the equal rights of the entire Polish people; and this meeting, accepting the Cracow manifesto as the charter of Polish liberty, rejoices to learn that the said manifesto has been adopted by the great miss of the exiled heroes who poured out their blood in the struggle of 1830; and this meeting recommends to the British people the propriety of signalising the 22,1 of February, 1847, by some public demonstration in behalf of Poland and the principles of the Cracow manifesto." Moved by Mr. JULIAN HARNEY, and seconded by Mr. H. Ross:—  "111. That this meeting invokes the just hatred of all nations against the Austrian murderers of the assassinated victims in Gallicia; and this meeting, regarding the recent seizure of the republic of Cracow by Aw.tt to be not only the crowning act of the long list of atrocities committed by Poland's spoliators, but also a gross and irreparable violation of the " Treaty of Vienna," declares that treaty to be no longer binding upon Europe ; and, therefore, considers that the Government of Great Britain is now at liberty to fulfil the desires of the national will, by insis,ing upon the restoration, it,y, of Cracow only, but of Poland, to the full extent of her ancient boundaries."  On the motion of Messrs. Mor and BAILEY, a subcommittee was appointed to draw up an address to the British people, founded on the foregoing resolutions; the said sub-committee being authorised to publish the " Address," and also the abcve res(lutions.  It was further resolved that a copy of the above resolutions should be transmitted to Lord Palmerston.  It having been announced that the Fraternal Memocrats would assemble on next Monday evening, et eight o'clock, in the same room, for the purpose of adopting an address in reply to the French democrats, the meeting concluded by singing the " Marseillaise."  The new Duchess de Montpensier has appeared at the Academie Royale and the Italian Opera. She was " the observed of all observers;" and it is but justice to say that her grace, beauty, and, above all, her extreme youth, phased every one. If report be true, she is a very lively young lady—rather too much so, indeed, for the staid pru,kry of the Tuileries. some of her sallies are said to have ben sharply reproved by the Queen, who is solemnly rigid; and her escapades are represented to have displeased the prim princesses of the royal palace. It is even said that her first interview with the royal family was marked by a piece of indecorousness— in embracing the King she accidentally deranged the royal wig, which is somewhat of the largest and curliest, and instead of making an excuse or saying nothing, she had the irreverence to burst into a hearty fit oflaughter I —Paris Correspondent of the Brighton Gazette.
The Sun. — 1834-06-26 (London, England)

SCENE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. —CHARLOTTE CORDAY.—AS the cart in which she was seated proceeded towards the place of execution, . a crowd of wretches in the street, ever ready to insult the unfortunate, and glut their eyes withthe sight of blood, called out, " To the guillotine with her !"—" I am on my way thither," she mildly replied, turning towards them. She was a striking figure as she sat in the cart. The extraordinary beauty of her features, and the mildness of her look, strongly contrasted with the murderer's red garment which she wore. She smiled at the spectators whenever she perceived marks of sympathy rather than of curiosity, and this smile gave a truly Raphaelic expression to her countenance. Adam Lux, a deputy of Mayence, having met the cart, shortly after it left the Conciergerie, gazed with wonder at this beautiful apparition—for he had never before seen Charlotte—and a passion, as singular as it was deep, immediately took possession of his mind. " Oh !" cried he, " this woman is surely greater than Brutus !" Anxious once more to behold her, he ran at full speed towards the Palais Royal, which he reached before the cart arrived in front of it. Another look which he cast upon Charlotte Corday completely unsettled his reason. The world to him had suddenly become a void, and he resolved to quit it. Rushing like a madman to his own house, he wrote a letter to the revolutionary tribunal, in which he repeated the words he bad already uttered at the sight of Charlotte Corday, and concluded by asking to be condemned to death, in order that he might join her in a better world. His request was granted, and he was executed soon after. Before he died, he begged the executioner to bind him with the very cords that had before encircled the delicate limbs of Charlotte upon the same scaffold, and his head fell as he was pronouncing her name. Charlotte Corday, wholly absorbed by the solemnity of her last moments, had not perceived the effect she had produced upon Adam Lux, and died in ignorance of it. Having reached the foot of the guillotine, she ascended the platform with a firm step, but with the greatest modesty of demeanour. " Her countenance," says an eye-witnes3, " evinced only the calmness of a soul at peace with itself." The executioner having removed the handkerchief which covered her shoulders and bosom, her face and neck became suffused with a deep blush. Death had no terrors for her, but her innate feelings of modesty were deeply wounded at being thus exposed to public gaze. Her being fastened to the fatal plank seemed a relief to her ; and she eargerly rushed to death as a refuge against this violation of female delicacy. When her head fell, the executioner took it up, and bestowed a buffet upon one of the cheeks. The eyes, which were already closed, again opened and cast a look of indignation upon the brute, as if consciousness had survived the separation of the head from the body. This fact, extraordinary as it may seem, has been averred by hundreds of eyewitnesses; it has been accounted for in various ways, and no one has ever questioned its truth.—Memoirs iby the Duchess ql Abruntes.
The Sun. — 1834-08-20 (London, England)

DARING OUTRAGE AND ROBBERY.  On Monday night last, at about nine o'clock, as a gentleman, attired in the height of fashion, was walking through Russell-square, he was by a handsome, genteel-looking girl, who accosted him, and requested him to treat-her to a glass of wine. He entered into conversation with her, and eventually consented to accompany her to her lodgings in Lascelles's-court, St. Giles's. On entering the place he sent the servant for some wine, and made her a handsome present, when he pulled out his purse, which contained several sovereigns and some silver. They had not been long together when his there conic made an excuse to quit the room. The gentleman sat patiently for some minutes, when he was suddenly alarmed by three ruffianly looking fellows rushing into the room, and inquiring what business he had there ; and on informing them of the nature of his visit, they demanded his money. He at first hesitated, but they swore that he should not leave the place until he acceded to their demand, and he offered them half a sovereign, which they received, but expressed their dissatisfaction. 'The ruffians then threatened violence unless more was given them, on which the gentleman resisted them, and 'lnstil; called out " Police, murder," &c., and by a desperate effort got out of the apartment, and made his way as fast as possible into the street. On his arrival there, not being able to find a policeman, he instantly proceeded to St. Giles's station-house, where he gave information of the outrage to inspector Titterton, who was on duty, and a description of the persons of the girl and the fellows who assaulted and robbed him, and that officer dispatched some of his men to the house in Lascelles-court (a common brothel), when they ascertained the name of the girl to be Caroline Davis, a notorious young prostitute, whom they shortly after took into custody ; but they could get no tidings of the men. They then took her• to, the station-house, where the gentleman attended, and made his charge against her, but refused to give his name and address. Yesterday morning she was brought before Mr. Serjeant Sellon, at Hatton-garden Police-office, and on the case being called on the prosecutor did not answer. Mr. Serjeant SELLON considered it a daring outrage, and inquired whether there was any probability of the gentleman making his appearance ? Inspector Titterton thought there was not, as, when he refused to give his name and address, he seemed exceedingly afraid of exposure ; but he promised to attend. He was a middle-aged man, fashionably dressed, with gold rings on his fingers, gold watch chains and seals, a valuable guard, and eye-glass. The house, he said, was a most notorious receptacle for thieves, &c., and he considered it a most fortunate circumstance that the gentleman was not murdered for the sake of his property. Mr. Serjeant SELLON concurred in this opinion, and said that as there was no prosecutor he must discharge the prisoner, which he did, after severely' reprimanding her, and ordered the officers to keep a strict watch after her and the house in future.
The Sun. — 1834-10-18 (London, England)

ANOTHER RUGANTINO.  A daring robbery was recently committed by night at the manor of Charmes, near Laon, in France, belonging to the Baron de Marguerit. Suspicion fell upon a man named Picard, a native of the place, at that time serving as trumpeter in the Bth regiment of artillery, in the garrison at La Fere. When brought to trial on the 29th of last August, he was condemned to hard labour for five years. Picard, who is very young, had already been sentenced to imprisonment for theft by the Tribunal of Correctional Police. One of his uncles died in the gallies, another is at this moment m the bagnio of Toulon, and the father of the young man was executed on the scaffold for murder. To this genealogy may be added, on the authority of M. Marauerit, that Picard's grandfather died in the bagnio, where he was confined for robbery. It seems that young Picard treads worthily in the footsteps of his ancestors, and promises to occupy a prominent position among criminals of the first class. When condemned by the Council of War to hard labour, Picard took advantage of the delay previous to the execution of the sentence, to interest the director of the military prison of the Abbaye in his favour. He took advantage of this circumstance, and on the 25th of September contrived to make his escape. But he was not long before he re-appeared in his own country,_ to renew his former outrages. On the night of the 30th of September a robbery, under very peculiar circumstances, was committed at Charmes, on the person of M. Gomard, assistant to the Mayor of St. Gobain. An attempt at assassination was also made by an unknown person on the same spot. Both these acts were attributed to Picard, who had become the terror of the country. At,length he was discovered near a wood in the neighb9urhood of Charmes by a Garde Champetie, who vainly endeavoured to take him prisoner, and whO even' succeeded in wounded him with a musket-ball. He however, escaped into the forest. On a subsequent ocZasion he was seen and pursued. by 15 of the soldiers orhis regiment, but without success. The country has latterly been entirely raised against him. The King's Advocate exerted himself to procure his capture ; the Mayor of Charmes and a detachment of artillerymen hunted the forest St. Gobain for him in vain ; the only traces of him which they found were several articles of little value, which Picard had stolen from the house of M. Gomard. It is generally thought that he is favoured in his conceal.. ment by some of his relations, who are numerous ; but though several domiciliary visits have been paid to their dwellings, they have been without result. The pursuit is still being actively continued, but it is thoUght that it will not be without extreme difficulty that they will succeed in getting hold of . this second Rugantino, whose youth, strength, and boldness, coupled with a perfect knowledge of the country where be conceals himself, render him almost sieure.
The Sun. — 1834-10-07 (London, England)

RENS.  STO W, OCT. I.—The examination before the Magistrates led to the apprehension of Edwin Jeaffrey, alias Butcher, (living as carter with Mr. Ellis, butcher, in this place), who, in his confession, says— " That about a week before the murder, as he was cutting hay in his master's rick-yard, adjoining the road, he saw Mr. Rens pass, and observed he had a nice gold chain and seals attached to his watch, and thought he should like to get pessession of it. He still harboured that thought until the night of the murder, when he again saw the deceased pass his master's rick-yard, wished him good night, followed him down to his stable, at the back part of his master's house, which leads into the lane where the deceased was walking ; he went into the slaughter-house and took a large stick, which the butchers use for knocking down calves ; he followed the deceased, and leant against a gate, near the spot where the murder was committed, while the deceased passed round the head of the horsepond ; the deceased came up to him, wished him good night, and he wished the deceased good night; turned round, and knocked him down, when he took his gold watch, purse, and a piece of Indian rubber from his pocket ; he heard some person coming, and jumped over the wall into a garden, concealed the watch, and lay concealed himself until the person passed ; he then got back over the wall, went to his stable, fetched his lanthorn, returned to the spot, and lighted the persons who had discovered it home, with the body ; he then went home, ate his supper, and went to bed, as if nothing had happened. He concealed the watch for a few days, when he put it into his pocket, and has worn it constantly until within a few days of his detection, when he changed it away for another watch of very trivial value. On being asked how he could suffer two men to be imprisoned and tried for the crime, knowing they would most probably receive sentence, he said, he was aware of that, but he did not care so as he kept the watch—he was so in love with that watch—but at last he got so tired of it that he was determined to get rid of it."  There is no doubt that it produced such uneasiness of mind as to lead to a confession of the horrid crime. Since his confession, he says he feels happy, and has nothing to do but to pray to God to, forgive him. He is about twenty years of age, of a boyish appearance, and during his examination he displayed the greatest indifference ; there was such a vacancy in the expression of his countenance, that it remained unaltered during the whole of the examination ; and afterwards, when his friends came to take their farewell, he exhibited the carelessness of feeling and recklessness which characterised him throughout. He says he had no enmity against the deceased, but his sole motive was the stealing of the watch. He is committed to Gloucester gaol to take his trial at the next assizes.-oxford Journal.
The Sun. — 1834-06-06 (London, England)

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.  Mr. Ewart's bill for permitting counsel to plead for prisoners on their trials on charges of felony has not attracted that attention which its importance deserves, though we are glad to see that it has surmounted the feeble opposition with which it was on Wednesday assailed, and has been read a second time. It has always appeared to us inconceivable on what ground counsel should be allowed to display their eloquence and ingenuity in defence of their clients, when accused of misdemeanors or high treason, and yet should be debarred from opening their lips for them when the indictment charges them with robbery or murder. The extreme cases of offences known to the law—namely, misdemeanors and high treason—have thus a particular privilege, of which prisoners tried for the intermediate species of crimes are deprived, and we think that it would puzzle even Mr. Sergeant Spankie to tell us why this should be the case. It cannot be traced to the practice of other civilised nations, because if we go to France, to Germany, to Scotland, or to the United States of America, we find all prisoners entitled to employ the eloquence of their advocates in exciting the commiseration or enlightening the conscience of their judges—in pointing out the bear:ng of the evidence, or showing its insufficiency to warrant a conviction. Neither will the oft-repeated and stale argument, that the judge is advocate for the prisoner, explain the anomaly, because the judge is the advocate for the prisoner equally in misdemeanors and high treason as in felony ; and yet counsel are permitted to plead in the two former cases, and not in the latter. Mr. Sergeant Spankie's equally recondite reasoning against the bill, that if counselwere allowed to plead for felonies, a trial for felony would become an arena of contest between opposite advocates, who in their struggle for victory would lose sight of the interest of their clients and of justice, is equally inadmissible ; because, if this were the case in charges of felony, why should it not be so in misdemeanors and in high treason? Besides, the learned sergeant must have forgotten, that though the bill relieves the Judge from the office (which, by the way, he never undertook) of being counsel for the prisoner, it does not. depose him from the bench, but enables him to prevent those amphitheatric ccntests, alike hurtful to the interests of justice and to the due examination of evidence, which seem to haunt his learned fancy. As to the supposition that a learned Judge may be provoked by the eloquence of the prisoner's counsel into a hostile feeling against the prisoner, and therefore labour to procure the conviction of an innocent man, it is too monstrous to require refutation. The question, in fact, appears to us to be decided almost by a statement of the arguments against the bill, and we entertain little doubt of its ultimate success, after the plain sense spoken by Lord Althorp in its support.— Times.  SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE (THIS DAY)  (Frwm r imvirs
The Sun. — 1834-10-08 (London, England)

TWYFORD—I have no power under the new Act to order the parish to give you relief ; all I can do is to commit you to prison under the Vagrant Act on your own statements.  The poor orphans said they would be thankful if the Magistrate would even do that. Mr. TWYFORD said that if any poor creature was to die from want, the overseers of the parish to which the unfortunate wretch belonged would certainly be indictable for murder.  The prisoners were each committed as vagabonds to the House of Correction for a month.  HORRIBLE NUlSANCE.—Yesterday a man of the name of Lewis, the proprietor of a penny theatre in the Kingsland-road, was charged before Messrs. BENETT and TWYFORD, with having on the preceding night assaulted police constable 34, N division, while in the execution of his duty. It appeared that in consequence of various complaints having been made at this office by a great many very respectable tradesmen in the Kingsland-road, of the nuisance of the defendant's theatre, Mr. Twyford directed the police to keep a sharp look out, and to abolish such a public nuisance, and on Monday night ordered Hanley and Brown, two officers of this establishment, to go and witness the actions. The nuisance, as described by them on that night, was immense. There were about a thousand persons assembled in front of the theatre, and most of them were young `thieves. Hanley and Brown finding it quite impossible to disperse the crowd without considerable assistance, sent to the station-house for a body of the police, and on their arriving, the defendant became quite incorrigible, and struck N 34, a violent blow in the face ; for which he was taken. into custody. • The MAGISTRATES informed the defendant that they would have every person apprehended that was found in the act of performing at his theatre, and they should therefore recommend him to cease violating the law in such a manner ; for he was under a very heavy penalty for conductinn- an unlicensed playhouse, and that, the Magistrates said, the defendant must be aware of. The defendant said that he would not persist in opening the theatre for the future ; but he denied having assaulted the officer. One of the police constables conducted himself in a most cowardly manner towards a respectable female who was passing by at the time. The officer Brown said that lie witnessed that fact. The constable alluded to by the defendant certainly acted in a most unfeeling manner to the woman, and knocked her violently to the ground.  BENETT asked Serjeant Hall who the constable was, as it was highly proper that his conduct should be reported to the Commissioners of Police. The serjeant said that the constable's name was Fitzgerald, and his number 255.  The MAGISTRATES Said that previous to the case going before the Commissioners, they would investigate it, and ordered Fitzgerald, who was not in attendance, to be taken into custody when he went to the station-house.  The defendant was ordered to gay a fine of 10s. to the King for the assault he had committed on 34 N, and on his doing so he was discharged.