The Sun. — 1840-11-04 (London, England)

POOK-RATE.  - TO THE EDITOR 01 THE SUN. Sta,—The Poor-rate for the present quarter, in Great Yarmouth, has been increased twenty-five per cent. From what cause does this arise? The Corn.laws, or the bad administration of the parish funds by the Board of Guardians? My own opinion, Mr. Editor, is—the Corn-laws are the sole cause, and are steeping the little trademacop and all the labourers al England, in want and misery. I am, Sir, T. B.  The LATE MIL Ito w L ES.—The Merthyr. Guardian gives the following particulars respecting Mr. Rowles, the timber-merchant, who recently committed suicide under circumstances detailed in The Sun :—Rumours having been in circulation that serious differences bad existed between the deceased and the other Directors of the Rhymaey Iron Company, we are happy to give, on unquestionable authority, the most positive contradiction to those rumours, which are utterly without foundation, the. truth being that the best understanding prevailed between them, which will be shown satisfactorily from: the following short statement of facts :—Mr. Rowles having been seriously indisposed for some time in his health, wrote to the Directors, explaining his eon dition to them, and tendering his resignation of the responsible office of Managing Director; upon receipt of which the Directors had a meeting, when they were sosatisfied of the condition of Mr. Rowles's health, that they resolved to accept his resignation ; but they did this with great regret, and, being desirous of expressing their feelings on the subject, as well as their opinion of the manner in which, in their judgment, he had discharged the onerous duties of his office, they wrote to him a latter, stating their sorrow for the necessity he felt himself under of resigning, and their approbation of the manner in which he had devoted his eminent talents to the service of the Company, adding a hope that, although he had thought proper to resign the situation he held, he would still continue to retain a seat in the direction. In reply to another rumour, that the reason of the deceased committing suicide was the disordered state of his pecuniary affairs, we have to say, that so far from this being the case, he was actually at the time of his decease in the possession of a fortune of from six to seven thousand pounds a year, having acquired large property as a Government contractor, by building military barracks, &c., fur them ; great public edifies, he also built several in which he showed much taste and judgment. The deceased constructed. large works at Rhymney, which, besides their being remarkable for their perfect adaptation 1:0 the PI"poses for which they were designed, were distingte'sh. cd for the taste and talent displayed in their erection. Ta'e teal cause that lcd to the melancholy catastrophe appear,' to have been mental derangement, produced by great irrita.. bility of the system, arising from general bad health and greatly disordered state of the stomach. On Thursday last the subcutaneous section of the muscles of the back, for the cure of lateral curvature of the spine, was, for the first time in this country, performed by Dr. Hunter, Professor of Anatomy, Andersonian University, Glasgow. The operation consists ire cutting across the muscles of the back that produce the curvature, and although it has the appearance, at first sight, of being a formidable operation, vet it is so cunningly and simply performed under the skin, that the patient, although in this instance a delicate joung lady, complained of no pain, lost noL more than three drops of blood, and was only thirty seconds under the hands of the operator. A good deal of interest has been excited in the town of Halstead, within the last few days, on account of the discovery of the dead body of an infant in a wood near that town, under such circumstances as to induce a strong belief that it had been murdered. It appears that a farmer being on his way home, heard a peculiar noise in the wood in question, which he at first thought was the shriek of a hare in a snare, bat in consequence of something that afterwards came to his knowledge, he was induced to make a search at tee spot from whence the noise appeared to proceed, 'and he there found in a ditch the body of a female child, tied up in a piece of sacking. Two medical gentlemen were called in, and they both expressed their belief that the infant had been born alive. but they would not pledge themselves positively to the fact. Further inquiries were then made, and a suspicion arose that a )(yang woman named Hannah Wickers was the [weber of the child, and she was taken into custody, and underwent an examination before the Halstead Bench cf Ma. gistrates, upon the charge of murdering the infant. Evidence tv,s then adduced, to show that about two months before the child was discovered in the way above stated, a medical gentleman who had been in the habit of attending upon the prisoner, suspected that she was in the family way, and accused her of it, but she denied that it was the case. Several neighbours of the prisoner also spoke to their belief of her having been in the family way a short time before the discovery of the dead infant. A witness was likewise examined, who stated that a day or two before the body was found, he saw two women, one of whom was leading the other, who seemed to be in very great pain, go towards the spot, and he believed the prisoner to be the one who seemed to be suffering as he described. The Magistrates, after a minute inquiry, said that although thore were certainly some suspicious circumstances against the prisoner, there was not sufficient legal evidence to warrant them in committing her to take her trial. The prisoner was accordingly set at liberty.