npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1839-11-22 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

DREADFUL MURDER OF A WIFE BY HER HUSBAND.  On Monday evening the eastern district of the metropolis was in a state of great commotion, in consequence of a dreadful murder committed in the house, No.l, Lower Chapmanstreet, St. George's in the East. The unfortunate victim is a young woman named Lees, the wife of a hair-dresser, who has carried on business in the above house for about twelve months. The parties have been on bad terms for some time, and have frequently quarrelled. Yesterday afternoon between hours of of three and four o'clock, William Lees the murderer, closed his shop, and proceeded to the house o some relations at Islington. He seemed in a very perturbed state, and communieated to his relations that he had murdered his wife by nearly severing her head. from her body with a razor. They were horror-struck at this intimation, and for some time disbelieved what he said ; but he repeated the dreadful tale so often, and his manner appeared so strange that they were induced to accompany him to his house, where they found his story to be too true. On entering the shop they found the young woman lying stretched on the ground, which was covered with blood. There were several gashes on her face, and a deep wound in the throat separating the jugular vein. There was also a bruise on the right eyebrow, which appeared to have been inflicted by some blunt instrument.  The relations of the unfortunate deceased immediately secured Lees, and sent off to the Denmark-street stationhouse for assistance. The divisional of police soon afterwards attended, who said the woman had been dead more than two hours. The body will remain in the house in the custody of Serjeant Graves of the K division and policeman 190 K, until the inquest is held. The murderer was taken to the station-house, in Denmarkstreet, Ratcliff-highway, and he will be brought before the magistrates this morning. His deportment was most extraordinary. He appeared very unconcerned, and did not express any regret at having committed the horrid deed. On being searched a rope was found upon the prisoner, and on being asked what he intended to do with it, his reply was that he meant to hang himself with it, but afterwards altered his intention. The deceased was about 30 years of age, and her husband five years older.—Morning Herald of Tuesday  The mails and stage coaches on the western roads, were delayed on Monday morning several hours beyond their usual times of arrival, by the great floods in several parts of the road.  A gentleman resident in the village of Greasborough gathered in his gardeiron Saturday last a small dish of green peas, one of Windsor beans, and another of French beans, a brace of fine cauliflowers, a small plate of gooseberries, and one of radishes. Of flowers he plucked the common and double purple primrose, the sweetwilliam, the sweet pea, the candytuft, the carnation, blue nepatica, Clarkea pulchella, the French and African marygold, the pansy, the stock, the hollyhock, the rose, and many other flowers in full' bloom.— Halifax Express.
The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1839-07-30 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

THE CONSUMPTION OF OPIUM IN CHINA.—It iS assumed that in China there are 300,000,000 people, and that 33,320,000 taels of the smokeable extract are imported yearly, making of " victimized smokers," 912,000, at the rate of 365 taels each, or 301 pounds-weight per annum, 24 pounds per month, t; of an ounce per day, or 11 ounce per head for each and all of the immense population of China, from the remotest part of Tartary and Bokh6ra to the sea; besides the native poison grown in the country, which is supposed to be not inconsiderable. Of the 300,000,000 in China, &c., more than one-half may safely be put down as children and youth ; of the remainder, one-half may be women ; leaving probably, not (much) more than fifty millions of men ; thus supposing that all the men in China could, and would use the drug, the number of the victimized, 1 in 912, is brought to 1 in 150 ; and from this enormous deduction must be made for the aged, sick, and poor, and for those too far removed from the head quarters of the importers and sea-board to be able to obtain it at even enormous prices. It is, in fact, unlikely that it can as yet penetrate in large quantities much beyond the maritime provinces : and if only their population is taken, it will be seen that the ration of " victimized smokers" will be prodigious ; though even allowing the validity of the argument, I can scarcely admire a defence resting solely on the fact that only a share has been contaminated, and not all ! If a mace weight (nearly one drachm) would fill twelve pipes (which may be allowed to be " a tolerably good allowance" for each day,) and if it be further observed that (according to some accounts) the mace weight which has served a luxurious smoker to-day will supply the pipe of a more wretched slave to this habit to-morrow ; then will 34,000 chests (the amount imported during the last year to which my information extends) be abundantly sufficient to ruin the health and shorten the days of no less than 2,980,000 individuals. And, if he who begins to use this baneful drug at twenty years of age can never expect to reach his fortieth year, then what must be the average number per annum, of those who are cut off prematurely by the use of opium. The ordinary calculation is, unless my memory fails me, that of sixty persons living and in health at the age of twenty, one may be expected to die every year. That is to say, the above-mentioned 2,980,000 persons who are living and in health at the age of twenty, would not, in the ordinary course of nature, be all dead in less than sixty years. If, on the contrary, in consequence of the use of opium, they all die in twenty years, the rate of mortality is triple ! and thus within the space of twenty years, not less than 1,996,000 are murdered by the use of this pernicious drug ;or 29,300 every year ! I confine myself, in this calculation, to the effects of imported opium. At whose hands will the blood of all these victims to opium-smoking be required ?—lniquities of the Opium trade.
The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1839-04-09 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

MURDER OF LORD NORBURY.  (From the Carlow Sentinel.) A man named Costello, living in the vicinity of Tullamore, came to Doctor Wallace, a few days ago, and informed him that he had something to say to him on the subject of Lord Norbury's murder. He then stated that a tenant of Lord Norbury's, named Patrick Dawson, who had been ejected, met him in Tullamore, on the Saturday before the to der, and brought him into a public-house in the town, and said that it was intended to murder Lord Norbury • Dawson told him that he (Costello) should get three sacks of potatoes and one pound in cash, if he would shoot Lord Norbury ; that Dawson would provide him with fire-arms for the purpose, and that on the Sunday following, when he would come in to mass, they would finally arrange the business ; he (Costello) consented to become the murderer, but on further consideration, he did not appear at Tullamore, on the day appointed, and went to the fair of Maryborough • in a few days after the murder he met Dawson again in Tullamore, when he asked him to take some liquor ; they went into a public-house, where Dawson rebuked him for not having kept his word, and said they had the job done without him ; he got Pat Kennedy to do it. On this information, Dawson and Kennedy to do it. On this information, Dawson and Kennedy were arrested ; but on strict examination the latter was discharged ; when Dawson was about two days in prison, he sent for Dr. Wallace, and told him, he was in the knowledge of the, murder : that he was near his own house, a day or two before the occurrence ; when a man named Rafter came up and told him that a plot was laid to murder Lord Norbury, and that he (Rafter) was going over to Durrow on the subject.; that a packet-driver was to furnish a gun for the purpose ; that after the murder, he (Dawson) met Rafter, when he told him, they had murdered Lord Norbury, and that it was one Henessy, of Durrow, a tenant to his Lordship, who shot him. On this information Rafter, Hennessy, and the packet-driver were arrested.  In consequence of the foregoing, a lengthened investigation has taken place, at which Messrs. Brownrigg and Hely, Government magistrates, attended. Dawson's story turned out-a fabrication from beginning end, and the men arrested on his statement were of course discharged. He is, however, in custody, as it is supposed he told the story to remove suspicion from himself. The only portion of Costello's statement that was disproved is with regard to Kennedy—the person he says Dawson mentioned as having fired the shot— still, although Kennedy cannot be implicated, Dawson may have made the statement to Costello. Costello is also in custody, and thus the matter stands at present. Dr. Wallace has been most energetic since the melancholy occurrence, and there is reason to hope that the conspiracy will still be discovered.
The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1852-04-27 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

ROMANIST MODERATION.  TN these days of professed moderation and forbearance, one is sometimes startled by a sudden contrast. It is persecution to repeal a useless or an injurious statute; we must not adjust the balance of free trade (so called) to the shoulders of the various classes of the community; and if Louis Napoleon, Emperor of France " that is to be," should invade our shores, it would be very unchristian and ungentlemanly, not to say undignified, to defend ourselves. The persons who prate so from day to day,  are consistent in at least one thing—the horse-leech principle of " Give, give." The urgency of their pleading is only equalled by the fierceness of their threatening. We have been roused by the waving of the olive branch by some gentlemen across the channel. The first is the meek and humane Dr. Cahill, who, in avoiding the spirit of a heretical translation, is harmless as a serpent, and wise as a dove. His cooings, however, have sometimes been said to resemble the roaring of the lion. He exults at the idea of French corsairs and cut-throats burying their steel in the bosoms of English matrons and infants ; and, therefore, we do:not despair of finding him appointed, in due time, lecturer to the Anti-Militia Society. He supports the theories of his friend Dr. Cullen, who believes that the sun is a two-feet globe, and we presume it was for that reason he was solicited to lecture on astronomy in Liverpool. He is fond of writing litters to great men, Lord John Russell for example, and now the Earl of Derby. We wonder how the Ministry can possibly stand, after the powerful exposure of its inconsistency in paying only £30,000 a-year to the college of those who honour the Pope and Our Lady. The following is an extract from Dr. Cahill's epistle to Lord Derby : " Wc (the Catholics) had nearly forgotten this robbery of our church, and of the patrimony of the poor, and we were beginning to entertain feelings of charitable intercourse with the descendants of the greatest villains and assassins and murderers that ever the world saw in any age or country, till Lord John Russell raised the the empire against us, by an insult and a slander w  a parallel in modern history. And as iCit is intended to tread out every feeling that could bind us to the Throne, your colleague (which means your Lordship) has commenced the session of '52 by a gratuitous insult on our creed, and has threatened, in a rare combination of slander and bigotry, to support Mr. Spooner 's motion for the entire repeal of the grant to Maynoot Lord, will you be kind enough to tell  Ne have forfeited ld what f  the penalty of rover  what crime have we co Praise-God-Barebones  empire by the words ' P  Papay' ?  ad will  a us in what mar  confidence a  the cro  have never, within  opposed the ada  Bence of tha  «;e the pr __•  W, my  . _ collection, even in one instance n of the laws  in any one instance, encourazed insut  We have never, .dination to the  .nere is not a stain on our  conscientious alles  e are the avowed abettors of  him in  us to be present  plain and open
The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1852-08-03 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD, TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 1852.  , The shirt which had been worn by the prisoner at the time of the murder had the sleeves turned up abov elbows, and was covered with blood in front. The witness, Joseph Thomas, identified the clothes produced by Hughes as belongity, to his brother, the prisoner, and worn by him on Saturday night. The pocket handkerchief was like one which belonged to his mother, but could not exactly identify the pocket. M Isaac Byerley said, I live at Upton, and am a I went yesterday to see the body, I examined the wound in the throat. It was a transverse wound across the throat, five or six inches in length, which divided the windpipe, the front of the gullet, and several of the large blood vessels—which would cause almost instantaneous death. There was only another slight wound upon the right arm. T know the prisoner. Was called in to attend him 6or 7 weeks ago. He complained of headache and drowsiness, and other symptoms, which led me to conclude the brain was in an excited state. He was bled, and other appropriate remedies were used to allay the excitement. He improved under the treatment; and at the end of a fortnight he came to my house and told me he was better, and able to go to work. About a fortnight after (between two and three weeks ago) his mother came to me again, and told me he was odd in his manner, and made queer remarks. I saw him ; his 'leadache and giddiness appeared to be relieved. I 'm, to discover the state of his mind, his answers rational. I again ordered  Isurgeon  Questioned 11 found  lies, and his mother reported On Friday morning she called not quite so well. I gave  and other reme favourably of his state. on me and said he was  another blister for the back of the neck, and the mother promised to bring him over, but she did not, and I never saw her alive again, and understand the blister was not applied. I think such a wound as I saw on the throat of the deceased, if inflicted during sleep, would have caused such a rush of blood as to produce almost instantaneous death, and would prevent any resistance  being offered  In answer to Sir Edward Cust, the witness said, when he saw the prisoner's mother on Friday, she said if he did not get better it would be well to have him sent to the Asylum, and he strongly urged her to do so. He was always quiet, and she never complained of any violence, only of his absurd remarks. _ _ _  The depositions were then read over by Mr. Townsend, the magistrates' clerk, after which Mr. Case read over the prescribed form of caution, to which the prisoner, with considerable indifference, merely replied :—" I have nothing to say against it." He was then taken from the bar, and in the course of the afternoon removed to Chester Castle, to await his trial at the assizes, which commence on Saturday.
The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1852-04-13 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

PEEL.  ITES. Lord CLARENDON cannot be thought of, as he would not be supported by the Popish brigade; and on the whole the honorary office is gone a begging. Lord PALMERSTON, who so faithfully served so many administrations of so many different political opinions, the Kossuth mob once intended should before he died have an administration of his own ; but Diis aliter visum. His approval of the coup d'etat has banished the glorious vision, and he is fain to go back and consult with the inconsolables in Chesham-place. It is to be hoped that no immediate necessity for a leader of the revolutionary party is likely to arise, as not even Feargus O'Connor is in trim to accept the office.  So Louts NAPOLEON i 5 to be Emperor by hereditary right, as the man in the farce is a tailor " by right of primogeniture." He has traced the appointment up to four years before he was born, when four millions of votes made the Empire hereditary in his family. It will be recollected that in his address to his livery servants whom be lately assembled as a senate, he threatened that, if the people were not quiet, he would favour them with the Empire. Accordingly, convenient conspiracies are beginning to appear to the well-accustomed eyes of the police. Socialism is becoming adventurous, if you believe the  en in cocked hats and yellow baldrics, and the  " President of the Republic" is standing over a volcano. The prefects of police point clearly to a state of affairs,  among what were the Red Republicans, beyond the reach of applications of Cayenne to cure. There is nothing for it but the desperate remedy of the Empire. The " cruellest way is the kindest way," they think, and is better to put on the bee-embroidered robes at ce ; for, if all that is wanted is a conspiracy, when difficult to get one up in France ? The priests raptures, and there is hope of his Holiness finding f once more in Notre Dame. Cardinals' hats will soon s great a discount as crosses of the legion of honour, 7 are being put to similar uses—the maintenance of iapartistregime. In the meantime, a trifle of ridicule wn upon the incipient empire by the sudden deteron of LuctEN MURAT to assume the kingdom of 3. In a fit of democratic pomp, worthy of his father m Napoleon was accustomed to call, after the aw of the day, " King FRANCONI"--he proceeded Assembly in a carriage bearing the Royal arms of a.:-)llitan throne ! What will Austria and NICOLAS this ? and what apology will the amiable BOMBA, >tcge of CHARLES MACFARLANE, require from the ous aspirant ? A file of musketeers, it seems, cannot wish the monarchy of the 3lntATs, and LUCIEN bly is of opinion that his hereditary right is as good lo can say it is not ? The Bishop  to the  +l,l, NP;  dn'a, and wt  3RAUX says that the popular voice is not only ght, but the only Divine right which can be conasserted and ascertained. Of course he excepts d when the popular voice murdered the French )r when the other day it expressed itself by the lazzlNl and
The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1852-08-10 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

HORRIBLE MURDER IN SPAIN.—A great deal of excitement prevails at present in the province of Andalusia, in Spain, in consequence of the discovery of a great crime. A goat-keeper, named Tradilla, lived with his wife mad ten children in a lonely part of the mountains of Alcala. He conceived a violent passion for one of his daughters, named Maria Josefa, aged 13. She rejected his advances with horror, and frequent quarrels took place between them. At length, to get out of the reach of her father, the poor girl determined to marry. She accordingly, some time ago, got a young farm labourer, named Antonio de los Rios, to whom she had some time been attached, to demand her hand of her father. This he did, and Tradilla received him with great apparent courtesy, made him stop all day, and at night provided him a sleeping-place in a barn. When the visiter and all the family were plunged in sleep, Tradilla rose, slipped to the barn, and bound the legs and arms of Antonio. He then cut his throat with a large razor. He afterwards knocked up his eldest son, named Pedro, and told him to go to a deep ravine at some distance, and dig a hole. Pedro shortly after arrived with his spade and pickaxe at the place indicated, and there found his father with the dead body of Antonio. The young man started with horror, but Tradilla rudely told him to dig a grave for the victim. He at first refused, but intimidated by the dreadful threats of his father, he set to work. As, however, he did not get on fast enough, Tradilla knocked up his wife and all his children, and made them help him. Maria was amongst them. On seeing the body of her lover she fainted, but her father beat her until she recovered, and then took a sort of malignant pleasure in compelling her to work at the grave. From this time Maria could not bear the sight of her father, and he frequently shamefully ill-treated her. One day, a fortnight back, he tied her to a tree and beat her most severely. Her cries attracted her mother, brothers, and some peasants to the spot. On seeing them Tradilla took to flight. He was pursued, but when the pursuers were about to seize him he resisted furiously, and struck right and left with a large stick. In so doing he broke the arm of one of his little children. Eventually he escaped, and secreted himself among the rocks. His son Pedro informed the local authorities of the crimes committed by his father. They sent a strong detachment of the civic guard to search the mountains, and after a while Tradilla was secured and safely lodged in the gaol of Medina-Sidonia. He readily confessed his guilt, and is to be brought to trial in the course of the month. The body of his victim was dug up, and after being recognised was interred in the cemetery.