The Sun. — 1846-09-28 (London, England)

CORONER. said, from what he had seen of Mr. Pearce, he felt satisfied that he was incapable of acting in :a harsh manner towards any female, especially to Mrs. Parsons, who was placed in her present situation by the misconduct of her husband. Mr. Superintendent Pearce said he could assure the coroner that he pitied the situation in which Mrs. Parsons was placed, and instead of acting harshly towards her, he had treated her with the greatest kindness consistent v%ith the duty he had to perform, which was one of great importance and responsibility. Mr. Rawlings was perfectly satisfied with Mr. Pearce that he had not acted harshly towards Mrs. Parsons, but as Mr. Rawlings, her father, was now present, perhaps Mr. Pearce would satisfy him. Mr. Rawlins (the father) said that his child was then in a most dangerous state, suffering from nervous fever, which she said had been caused by Mr. Pearce's treatment of her, he having ordered the police to watch her, and not let her escape. This was what his daughter stated ; and if anything serious happened to her, he should insist on having:a coroner's inquest on her, the surgeon who attended her saying that fright, so soon after her confinement (only five weeks), had caused her illness.  Mr. Pearce said he had never ordered any of the police to watch her, but had told the man to attend to any communication that might pass between her and her husband. He felt deeply for her situation, but had done no more than his duty. Mr. Rawlins, who is the keeper of a beer shop at Barking Side, appeared satisfied with Mr. Pearce's explanation. _  This was the conversation before the Coroner, and we must now go back to the time of Mrs. Parsons leaving her husband's abode, and taking refuge with her father. This was shortly after the strict surveillance commenced, when Parsons could not move without a constable being in attendance upon him, and it began to make such a visible effect upon Mrs. Parsons that it was thought advisable to remove her to her father's house at Barking Side. The fright and grief at her husband's situation had, however, taken so deep an effect upon her system, that, despite the active attendance of a medical gentleman, death terminated her mental and bodily sufferings late on Thursday night. With regard to the constables who committed such wholesale perjury, the almost universal cry is, " What is to be done with them ?" but no one knows. An indictment for perjury against them, it is stated by several lawyers, will not stand, and therefore the only punishment will be dismissal from the force. In justice to Sergeant Parsons, it may be stated that it has been satisfactorily proved to the police authorities, although for some reason withheld from the coroner's jury, that Parsons was doing his duty properly from half-past ten o'clock till twelve on the night of the murder. The constables are still under surveillance.  In addition to the above, a correspondent states, we know not how truly, that there has been a meeting of the several heads of divisions of police at Scotland-yard, for the purpose of devising the best means of discovering the murderer or murderers of the unfortunate man Clarke. The result of that meeting is the proposition of enlarging the amount of reward for the discoverer of the murderer from 1001. to 500/. ; and as the police feel that a certain odium has been cast upon the force generally by the non-discovery of the murderer, they propose to raise by voluntary subscriptions amongst themselves the other 4001., in order that the perpetrator may be brought to justice. The scale of subscriptions from constables, inspectors, &c., will be settled by the heads of divisions, when it will be left to the men's discretion to subscribe to it.