The Sun. — 1848-02-05 (London, England)

ALUADER OF TWO CHILDREN IN ST. LUXE'S. the slop-yard, and the effluvium was a cause of geneThe trial of Harriet Parker (continued from our rating lever and other diseases. There was constantly Afternoon Edition of yesterday). disease in the lanes and courts adjoining—in MidMr. Thomas Mallet, the chief clerk at the Ciesdlesex-row Dean's-court, and Golden-lane. The parish had recently put down new paving and improved the kenwell Police-court, proved that when the depositionas sewerage. The paint of the several houses was diswere read over to the prisoner, on the Bth of January, coloured by the gases emitted from Mr. Gore's place. she made a statement to the magistrate which was In warm weather, and after rain, the surrounding afterwards reduced to writing. space was crowded with vapour of the most offensive The statement was then read. It was simply a , nature. The smell was worst when it was moved detailed account of what occurred from the time about, and the witness was of opinion that the place Blake came to tea till she missed him from the Duke was a great public nuisance. of Bedford public-house. William Hetman Harris, of the City- road, one of George Maddox, a police-constable, stated that the surgeons of the parish, examined the yard, and after she made this statement she told him that she ' found decomposed animal and vegetable matter, and watched the children on the night of the murder for 'scavengers' refuse, and he had also seen dead animals a long time, and fancied they would never go to sleep.. in a putrid state. The vapours from the yard At length, however, they did close their eyes, and were very prejudicial to the health of the neighbourputting out the candle, she sprang upon the bed and. I hood. seized the female child by the throat, when she felts Dr. Southwood Smith stated that he was one of 4 that if there had been a thousand children she could'. ; Coe Sanitary Commissioners, and for the last ten have murdered them ; but she showed them no mercy, i yearshad applied himself more particularlyto ma matand she did not want any mercy shown to her. i tern connected with the health of the public than to Mr. Frederick Wright, a surgeon, deposed to being i any other inquiry. He had examined the place in called in on the morning of the Ist of January, about t. nin .and reported. the result of his four o'clock, to examine the bodies of the two children. He found marks of violence an their faces, and, 'nquiries to the parish authorities of St. Luke's. when His i opinion was, that the atmospheric upon a post mortem examination, he discovered that death had been caused by forcibly holding the nose conditions were favourable to the development and mouth, so as to prevent breathing. of the poison, every inmate, young and old, in the immediate neighbourhood of the nuisance This was the case for the prosecution. Mr. CLARKSON then addressed the jury for the was in danger of fever. There was there a larger defence, entreating them, before they returned accumulation of decayed animal and r vegetable matter their verdict, to take into their serious consi- • than he had ever seen anywhere. 'rho height of the deration the frenzy and madness which she, dust-heaps was equal to that of the sleeping apartcruel conduct of the witness Blake had producedl ments of the adjoining houses. He confirmed the upon the mind of the prisoner on the night of they , evidence of the preceding witnesses as to the kind of murder. It was extremely doubtful whether. the, gas given out from the heaps of dust, and as to the deleterious effect on the health of the inhabitants. prisoner was in her right senses when she committed/ Witness had been twenty years connected with the the dreadful act, and although it was beyond the scope' Fever Hospital, and had written on and given great of human evidence to prove putative insanity in a crsae, ; attention to the subject. In cross-examination, the witness said that he like this, the jury, he was sure, would not disrega 01 conthe tantalising brutality the had been su lo- sidered all such places in crowded neighbourhoods a jetted to by her paramour Blake. No e• ii- nuisance, and he considered Smithfield-market a dence, however, could more strongly prove an nuisance. unsound state of intellect, could more strongly ilk E- 'the