The Sun. — 1853-10-28 (London, England)

WILFUL MURDER.  Elizabeth Widgery, aged 25, a married woman, was ndicted for the wilful murder of her male child. The prisoner had been in the service of a gentleman residing at Tulse Hill, and towards the close of August her fellow servants suspected and taxed her with being in the family way, but she denied it. Some time later, on the 16th of Sept., the prisoner complained of pain about her body, and said she had the toothache, She was advised to go to bed, and she did so about half-past 8 o'clock in the evening, when she was supplied with medicine and gruel. At a later period of the evening, two of her fellow-servants, who slept in the same room, retired to rest, and directly they got into the room she gave a sudden shriek. One of the other servants asked her what was the matter, and she replied that she was very ill, at the same time requesting her to put her hand under the bed-clothes. The other servant did as she was requested, and was surprised to find her hand upon, the head of an infant. The prisoner upon this burst into tears, and confessing that she was in the family-way and about to be confined, she asked what she had better do ? Her fellow-servant very naturally thought that the only thing to be done was to send for a medical man, which they did after consulting with their mistress, and when the surgeon arrived he found a new born infant in the prisoner's bed. The child was a healthy one, and thrived for the next two or three days, but on the following Sunday the medical man discovered an appearance upon the throat of the child as if some ligature had been drawn tightly round it. The prisoner denied all knowledge of it, but the child dying shortly afterwards, a post mortem examination took place, the result of which satisfied the medical man that the child died of suffocation. The prisoner had made no preparation for the birth, nor had she evinced any disposition to nourish the child, and the latter circumstance, coupled with the red mark round the neck of the child, led to the prisoner's being given into custody on the present charge.  The following are one or two colonial items, but the letters are not yet delivered. A Port Philip journalist states :  " The agitation among the diggers for a reduction of the license fee, is assuming a formidable aspect. So long as the gold fields were highly productive, there was little to be feared from any movement of dissatisfaction ; but now there is a large mass of disappointed men, who are not only unwilling, but unable, to comply with the demands of the tax collector. The re-adjustment of the license-fee appears to us to be imperative. The truth is, we believe that during the last six months nine-tenths of the license-fees have been paid, not out of the profits of (Told digging, but from the funds brought to the colony by new arrivals, or from funds the proceeds of labour at other pursuits. This cannot last long, The revenue from license-fees is certain to fall to a low figure during the present quarter."  Mr. Ribton, who defended the prisoner, insisted, in his address to the jury, that the case depended so much upon circumstantial evidence, that it would be inhuman, if not unjust, to convict the prisoner of the capital offence. The jury found a verdict of not guilty.