The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1842-01-11 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

SINGULAR JURY.—Rather an unusual circumstance  occurred at the Hertfordshire Quarter Sessions on Monday last. A man named Thomas Godfrey was charged with stealing a quantity of wheat, the property of his mistress, a widow, and convicted on the clearest evidence. The deputy clerk of the peace had, however, scarcely recorded the verdict when Mr. Pryor, the counsel for the prisoner, rose to move an arrest of judgment, on the ground that an improper affirmation had been administered to one of the jurors, a Quaker, or rather that this juror had made no affirmation at all. The affirmation repeated to him by the clerk began with, " You being one of the people called Quakers do solemnly affirm," and ended with "So help you, God." In addition to this singular informality, the clerk of the peace had neglected to require the Quaker juror to repeat the words of the affirmation after him. The Court, after a short consultation, admitted the objection of the learned counsel, and ordered the prisoner to be discharged. Shortly after this occurrence the jury returned a verdict (in the case of a young girl charged with shoplifting) of " Guilty of stealing, but without a felonious intention." Mr. Wordsworth, counsel for the prisoner, submitted that such a verdict was a verdict of acquittal. The Court also admitted the objection, and ordered the prisoner to be discharged.  SPIOCKING Occurtauarci.—On Friday night last a woman named Mary Digney, the wife of a small farmer residing at Drumlough, near Rathfriland, while labouring under a fit of insanity, took advantage of her husband's absence to attempt the destruction of her own life, and the lives also of her two children. Having, it appears, previously provided herself with a quantity of arsenic, she administered some of it to the younger child, aged about seven years, at the same time swallowing herself a large portion of the same deadly drug. The elder child, aged ten years, obstinately refused the proffered draught ; upon which she was laid hold of by her wretched parent, and violently strangled. Shortly afterwards the husband arrived, and was, by his wife, informed of all her proceedings. He instantly alarmed his neighbours, and sent for a doctor. In the mean time, the dose having, it is probable, been larger than ordinary, both the mother and the child, who had taken the arsenic, discharged the contents of their stomachs, and was thereby preserved. The other child was discovered entirely bereft of life. On the day following an inquest was held upon the body, and a verdict of " wilful murder" recorded. The unhappy woman has been committed to the county gaol. Her insanity—of which, in our opinion, there cannot exist a doubt—is said to have originated in the followirw, circumstance, as stated by a correspondent : —" Some time back the poor woman (Mary Digney,) who was a strict member of the Romish church, being engaged in sacred communion accordini- to its practice, happened to close her teeth upon the consecrated wafer. For this she was strongly reprimanded by the priest, and told that, as she had ' divided her God,' sbe need not entertain any hope of salvation ! The awful denunciation so prayed upon her mind as to lead to disordertnent of intellect; and hence the frightful tragedy which we have now to deplore.”—Newry Telegraph.