The Sun. — 1834-01-07 (London, England)

HORRIBLE MURDER.  It is our painful duty to commence the labours of the new year by having to record one of the most horrible murders which has ever been committed in this part of the country. On the evening of Saturday last, betwixt five and six o'clock, an honest and industrious labourer, of the name of William Ritchie, residing in Langbride, while proceeding homewards from Capt. Stewart's, of Lesmurdie Cottage, where he had been employed trenching ground, was most inhumanly murdered about sixty yards to the eastward of the second milestone on the turnpike-road leading from Elgin to Fochabers. So de•ermined had the murderer been to take the life of his victim, that although the body was found, by two persons proceeding along the road, within ten, or, at most fifteen minutes of the time when the deed had been committed, the poor sufferer only gave a few groans before he expired. Mr. Brown, procurator fiscal, addressed the assembled multitude, requesting them to co-operate with the officers of justice in endeavouring to detect the murderer; and, after despatching parties to all the passes of the county, proceeded with the Sheriff to examine several persons, but nothing further was elicited, than that a tall person, having on a light coloured coat, and broad bonnet, had been seen walking backwards and forwards near the spot, a few minutes before the murder was committed. It would appear, from the dreadful fractures the skull received, that this horrible murder was committed by some powerful person, considerably taller than the object of their attack, as the wound referred to was quite horizontal, and must have been inflicted before he fell to the ground, as although the body was found in a small ditch, about six inches deep, the upper part of his clothes were not in the least soiled. On Sunday Sheriff C3tneron and Mr. Brown went to the spot and examined every part near it, but, we understand, found nothing ni the neighbourhood of any importance. They continued theT labours on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, when the whoie of the persons residing in the parish of St. Andrews, Langbride, were examined, and are persevering by every means to detect the murderer. The murdered person has left a wife and two children. Her Grate the Duetess of GJrdon, on hearing of the murder, on Sunday, immediately forwarded one pound and a pair of blankets to the widow, and his Grace, while passing through Langbride on the following day, on his return from Elgin, went into the cottage of the widow and gave her a guinea, and told her lie would see that she was taken care of.— Elgin Courier, Jan. 3.  SAFE METHOD FOR EXTERMINATING RATs. --Let those who wish to poison rats, instead of applying to the chymist, intimately mix a pound of pies. ter of Paris (in its unslaked state) with about double the quantity of oatmeal. Let them place this within the reach of the rats; they will cat it eagerly, and without bring deterred by any bad taste. 't Itrough the humidity contained in their stomachs, the plaster of Paris will "set" and form an indigestible hard mass• which will, in fact, present upon dissection a good cast of the rat's stomach, and speedily produce a kind of Aldermanic death, i. a., by irremediable. indigestion.