The Sun. — 1842-09-21 (London, England)

THE MARE'S NEST AT SOUTH AMPTON.  An Evening paper, on the authority of a Southampton Correspondent, publishes the following elaborate refutation of the ridiculous story which ascribes to the leading Chartists a plot to assassinate the Queen. We published the account as it appeared in a Hampshire paper in our yesterday's impression. " Peirce, the person alluded to as the individual whom a gang of Chartists tried to secure in a conspiracy to murder the Queen, and who, because he refused, narrowly escaped assassination, was some time ago possessed of considerable property, which he lost by investing it in an unsuccessful joint-stock bank in this town. He now keeps a small grocer's shop in a place called the Ditches. He formerly was a Liberal in politics. Two or three years ago he obtained a situation in the Excise, but he was reported to Government as having attended a Chartist meeting as chairman, and was instantly dismissed from his situation. He subsequently became a Tory. The marks in his hat, which he says were occasioned by his being fired at in the Houndwell, prove the improbability of his story ; for the mark in the front of the hat appears as if a broomstick was thrust through it, just above the band, while it bears a bullet-mark at the back part, close up to the crown. Thus, it appears, that the bullet fired from the pistol must have entered the hat (which Peirce always wears to almost cover his forehead, and then must have passed in a semicircular direction towards the back part of his hat, to avoid touching his head. It is most unlikely that an assassin would have attempted murder in a place like the Houndwell, which is a small open place in the centre of the town, intersected with roads and paths, and persons walking there at all hours of the night. It appears also that Peirce never attempted to secure the assassin, although it was impossible for the latter to have escaped if an alarm had been given ; and though he went to sup afterwards with a friend, he never told that friend what had happened, nor his wife, nor any of the Southampton police or Magistrates, but went immediately to London to speak to Sir J. Graham. The story about , the carriage being suddenly heard by the assassin on I the Winchester-road is considered by all persons ac- , qhaintvd with the spot as mast improbable. The statemMit of -Peirce, that Francis, who fired at the Queen, was one of the gang of Chartists who visited him, will be disbelieved by all persons who read an account of Francis's trial, for the evidence given on the trial proves, almost demonstrably, that the firing at the Queen was done from an envious feeling towards the fate of Oxford. Again, Peirce in his depositions has stated that he walked with the three Chartists who visited him round the beach ; and that, though he met a great number of persons, he cannot recollect a single individual, so that any one might be brought forward to prove that he was walking in company with such persons at the time he states. No one not deprived of his senses can believe that a gang of desperadoes, bent on murdering the Queen, would travel to Southampton and seek an accomplice in a man engaged in business, and who never went outside the town."