npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
The Press. — 1854-05-20 (London, England)

YOUNG LADY. apparently about thirty years of age, committed suicide last Saturday evening in one of the most fashionable hotels of Glasgow, by suspending herself with a cord from the window-shutter. The melancholy act appears to have been the result of disappointed love, and to have been deliberately premeditated. A DESTRUCTIVE FIRE occurred on Monday at the extensive establishment of Messrs. Dunbar and Sons, shipowners, Fore-street, Limehouse, which raged fiercely for nearly two hours, destroying much property. A large warehouse, containing several hundred loads of unpressed straw, was among the property totally consumed. Ox Tuesday night a female was seen floating in the Serpentine, buoyed up by her clothes. She was rescued by some boatmen of the Humane Society when on the point of sinking, and, singularly enough, was quite unable to tell how she came there. She had been fast asleep, she said, and, when awoke by a sensation of cold, found herself struggling in the water. If this story be true, it forms one of the moat curious cases of somnambulism ever recorded. The woman is servant to a gentleman residing in Lowndessquare.  AN EIANTLI of the way in which newspaper reports grow is given by the Dundee Courier. There was a story of Highlanders hurrahing on a steamer at Constantinople, and shocking the Turkish ladies who sat in boats. Turkish ladies seldom travel thus; but, swallowing that difficulty, how can we get over the fact that no Highlanders had arrived at Constantinople ? There was a Scotch surgeon to a regiment; the Scotchman, we presume, has fine legs, or fancies he has, and he dons the modern antique garb of the Highlands ; he walks about Constantinople, and astonishes the natives: there is a Highlander—a Highland soldier; where there is a Highland soldier, ingenious rumour infers, there must be a Highland regiment; if a Highland regiment arrives, it must be per steamer; if it arrives per steamer, it must hurrah; if it hurrahs, it will assuredly mount paddle-box; ladies in boats below will be astonished ; and there is the tale. TER EMPEROR SOULOUQUI is making great preparations for the invasion of Dominica both by sea and land.
The Press. — 1853-08-13 (London, England)

THE NEW SHIP C.ESAI4 which stuck fast while launching at Pembroke-dock, has, after many fruitless efforts, been successfully transmitted to her des tined clement. She is, however, very seriously damaged by the accident, the cause of which has hitherto escaped all inquiry. To three things, however, in creased attention will in future be paid in launching such enormous vessels—first, the ways will he carried further out ; secondly, the greatest attention will he paid to greasing them ; and, thirdly, Sr planks will never be used in their formation.  THE STRIKE OF THE DOCK LABouItERS, which at one time threatened to be serious, is now virtually at an end, great numbers of the old hands having left the turnouts, and returned to their employment at their old wages, and the places of the rest having been filled up by new hands from all parts of the metropolis and the country.—At Paisley, the strike amongst the pattern drawers and print-cutters still exists, and, though negotiations with the masters are being carried on, there are no decided prospects of an early settlement. The points upon which the workmen are standing out are—the restriction of the number of apprentices to three for every five journeymen in a shop; the retention of the apprentice entry money; and the giving an equal share of the work to the journeymen in the slack season.—On Saturday a meeting of the pitmen of the Tyne and Wear collieries was held on the Black Fell, in the heart of the Durham coalfield, about five miles from Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The handbill announced that the time was now come for the coalminers " to seek that proper remuneration for their labour of which they had been long deprived." Some 1,500 persons obeyed the summons, most of whom were from collieries south of the Tyne. IL was stated that the pitmen of the Northumberland collieries had recently got an advance of a penny per score, which accounted for their non-attendance. AU the speakers were working pitmen, and they addressed the meeting in an intelligent manner, pointing out the necessity of a more perfect agreement among themselves, if they hoped to secure better terms from their employers.  AN EXTRAORDINARY CASE OF SUICIDE VMS investigated by the Coroner for the Duchy of Lancaster in Essex-street on Saturday. The deceased was a Dr. Stokes, formerly a physician in eminent practice in Dublin, but lately residing at Herne Bay. The facts were detailed by Mr. Lee, a barrister, at whose chant. hers in the Temple Dr. Stokes was a frequent visitor when in town :  Deceased had breakfasted with him on the previous day, when he appeared in low 9)irits, but went out, saying he was going towards Whitehall. He returned about seven in the evening, when he appeared exceedingly confused. Witness was taking tea in company with another barrister, and invited the deceased to join them, but be declined. and aiterwards asked fora glass of wine. Witness poured him
The Press. — 1853-07-09 (London, England)

FRIGHTFUL. SUICIDE was perpetrated by Mr. Frederick Cope, jun., the only son of Mr. Frederick Cope, of Chorlton, near Manchester, yesterday week. On the previous Wednesday his eldest sister was married, and amongst the guests invited was a young lady to whom the unfortunate gentleman was engaged. Since that day he had been observed to be very melancholy, and on the Friday went up into his bedroom, and shortly afterwards shot himself through the heart with a gun. A Coi.r.mtv F.xetosrox, followed by the loss of eighteen lives, occurred at Oldham on the Ist inst. There would appear to have been no neglect on the part of the men, or disorder in the ventilating system adopted in the pit, which was always considered sate and admirably worked. At three in the afternoon, however, a sudden explosion of firedamp took place, while nearly eighty persons were at work in the various shafts, and eighteen were either found dead in the workings, or have died since froni the injuries they received. A SUICIDE, with some affecting circumstances, was committed by Jane l'apson, who at the same tune destroyed the life of her illegitimate infant. The bodies of mother and child were found in the River Thames. On the police inquiring at the address written on a paper found in the woman's pocket, they learnt that she had suffered long and severely from distress. For some weeks she had lived on  el uty 9, 1853.  bread and water, and had complained bitterly of being deserted by the father of her child, a man named Metcalfe. She had pledged all her clothes for rent, after endeavouring in vain to earn a support by shirtmaking. Three letters, written in anticipation of the act afterwards committed, were found in her room. One was to the man Metealfe—in these terms :  " the time you receive this I hope to be no more. It is you that has brought me to this—you bad, wicked man. 1 know that I was greatly in fault In giving way to you, and bitterly I have had reason to repent it, which 1 do from the bottom of my heart. But had you never have promised things which you did, it would never have happened ; end then, as soon as you saw how things turned, because I would not leave my dear baby at some workhouse, nor to the mercy of the world, you thought proper to leave us to starve and die. Oh! you bad, bad, winked man, hanging is too good 14 you. Ih repent, before it is too late. I will say no more for to-night. I hope, please the Lord, to be in heaven and my baby as well, and may our blood rest upon your head, for it is you that is the reuse of it; but my kind love, for as I look for forgiveness, so do I forgive you. Farewell, farewell! -
The Press. — 1858-09-04 (London, England)

MICHAEL ANGELO. But, for the most part, literature and the fine arts were the to could scarcely be withstood, or even checked, her confidence to that most credulous of prints— panders of their patron. They helped to propabt with safety. But we have now arrived at a new how should we be appalled were there suddenly gate the corruption which what was called relinr phase of our operations which may fairly suggest laid before us a statement of all that has been gion bred wherever it was carried. Vice and of a change of system. We have probably seen the suffered by native women from our soldiery, crime were everywhere just in proportion to the last of pitched battles against regular armies, or especially from those more recently recruited! wealth and influence of the clergy, and they were ne sieges of great towns, and must prepare fora .T his r is is a subject too painful to dwell on ; we of everywhere enormous. Words are unequal to harassing guerilla warfare—for desultory moveile only hint at it as one of the reasons for wishing describe, with any regard to modesty, the real meets against irregular bodies of freebooters, and eh that the thirst of vengeance may at length be state of higher society. Corruption almost laid for the surprise and storm of detached hill forts. quelled in English hearts. To regret is to pity ; aside hypocrisy. There was hardly place left for se. We may hope to hear no more of large British sy to blush is to relent. And such as is the feeling shame where adultery and incest were alike open, divisions, perfectly armed for slaughter, and no of the English people, such will be substantially assassination by poison and the dagger a fashion a less wonderfully equipped for suicide, moving by the course of our re-established rule in India. of the day, and no treachery, no cruelty shrunk )151 forced marches against fivefold numbers, under in llappily, the Governor-General is a man to whom from, or pretended to be shrunk from, if convea sun hotter and more deadly than the enemy's en merciful counsels are congenial—who can be firm nient for any purpose of a Pope, a King, a Carfire. Oude itself, which by a sort of retributive to when need is, but is naturally averse to cruelty. justice became the scene of our greatest difficulty, dinal, or petty prince. The tales of BOCCACCIO We most cordially concur in Mr. LAYARD'S and of MARGUERITE of VALOIS are chronicles as In- as it had been of our last injustice, now requires the 3.- panegyric on Lord
The Press. — 1858-10-23 (London, England)

THE PRESS, OCTOBER 23,1858.  A RAILWAY Comstori, by which twenty persons were more or less injured, occurred on the Birkenhead, Lancashire, and Cheshire Junction Railway on Friday afternoon. It appears that the express train which left Birkenhead at 3.30, and which ought to have arrived in Chester at 4.10 p.m., ran into a light engine which had broken down, on its way to Chester, near the Mollington station. The drivers and stokers of both engines were hurt slightly, and one was taken to the Chester Infirmary, though he has not been seriously injured. The passengers were thrown from side to side in the compartments of the carriages, and several had their faces cut. None of the carriages were smashed, but the divisions in several, which are very slight, were completely destroyed. After about half an hour's delay the train was taken on to Chester, when the sufferers promptly received medical assistance. An inquiry into the cause of the accident was commenced on Saturday by the board of directors, and was adjourned to this day.  Enwann SURTEES, bottlemaker, aged twenty-one, working with Laing and Co., Sunderland, breakfasted in the works at five o'clock on Wednesday morning, it being then dark, and walked out on to the narrow way. " Mind !" exclaimed a fellow•workman ; " don't go over the quay." The next moment a splash was heard. Surtees had fallen into the flood-tide, and was drowned.  A COLLISION, by which the lives of a large number of passengers were endangered, and seven received contusions, occurred at the Exeter station of the Bristol and Exeter Railway on Tuesday. The engine-driver and the fireman were at once taken into custody as the culpable parties. They have been fined W., or one month's imprisonment. MAJOR LUMLEY, of the 23rd Fusiliers, who had greatly distinguished himself at the siege of Sebastopol, committed suicide on Sunday last, at Brecon Barracks, by discharging a pistol close under his right ear, the bullet lodging in his head. The gallant officer had been severely wounded during the attack on the ltedan, a musket-ball having passed through the roof of his mouth, and this circumstance, together with arduous exertions in drilling recruits, had severely affected his health. At an inquest a verdict of " Temporary Insanity " was returned.  LORD LEIGH met with an accident while driving over bis estate on Thursday week in a dogcart. The horse took fright, and his lordship was thrown from the valet° with such force that his collar-bone was dislocated. Medical aid was promptly obtained, and the bone was set, so that no permanent injury will supervene.
The Press. — 1858-04-03 (London, England)

TURKEY AND THE SUEZ CANAL.  CONSTANTINOPLE, March 27. The Porte has rejected the demand made by the French Ambassador, M. Thouvenel, for the authorisation of the cutting of the canal through the Isthmus of Suez.  A Vienna letter in the Swabian Mercury says that the Turkish Governmsnt is about to fortify its new Asiatic frontiers. It intends to construct a military road from Batoum to Ardaham ; to fortify the latter point, to form large depots and storehouses at Baerbout, to augment the fortifications at Erzeronm and at all the places on the frontier from Erzeroum to Kereson on the Black Sea, and from Erzeronm to Baerbout and Sumina, at two leagues to the east of Trehizond. Macadamised roads are to be formed between these places, and Sumina is to be fortified. Russia is also about to fortify her frontier towns in the same part of the world.  A case of suspected poisoning has occurred in Sussex. A labouring man aold his wife, by the name of Boys, have died suddenly and under the most suspicious circumstances at Alciston, in East Sussex. A post mortem examination has taken place, and the contents of the stomach are to be analyzed forthwith by Professor Taylor.  Davis, the convicted murderer of Ann Morgan at Much Wenlock, near Shrewsbury, has been respited upon recommendation for mercy.  Dr. Travers Twiss, Vicar-General, has delivered his opinion upon the seizure of the Cagliari, which, "under the circumstances stated in the log of the seizers, was not justifiable by the law of nations; which," adds Dr. Twiss, " is the only law by which the cruisers of a sovereign power can be entitled to seize ur detain on the high seas a merchant ship sailing under the protection of the flag of another sovereign."  The Globe of last night reports an appalling murder and suicide as having been committed at Lenwick in Scotland. Mr. Peter Williamson, a gentleman of high mercantile standing, in a fit of insanity last Thursday week rose at an early hour in the morning and deliberately cut the throats of his wife acd daughter; he then went up into the chit dren's rooms, murdered his two youngest, a boy and a girl, and after vain attempt to destroy his eldest boy, who escaped, Mr. Williamson returned to his wife's room and destroyed himself. No reason is assigned for the dreadful act. Another child, a boy, was happily away from home on a visit.  THE DUBLIN COLLEGE ELECTION terminated on Saturday in the return of Mr. Lefroy. The numbers were—Lefroy, 589 ; Gayer, 350 ; majority for Lefroy, 239. The declaration was received with mingled applause and hisses, and the proceedings were gen3rally uproarious. Mr. Lefroy and Dr. Gayer addressed the crowd assembled in the E:amination•hall.
The Press. — 1858-10-16 (London, England)

NIGHTINGALE. The subject of the former was " The Influence of our Elective System on Sanitary Improvement," and the object of it was to show that local measures of reform were impeded by local interests, as those of builders, attorneys, &c., who objected to interference with their property. Our readers should compare with this view some remarks of Lord ROBERT CEicti. in his recent paper on Parliamentary Reform, contributed to the " Oxford Essays." The opinion of the meeting, however, seemed to be hostile to Mr. KINGSLEY'S suggestion, on the ground that wholesale Government interference would never be tolerated by the people. Miss NwarrlNGALE's paper was on The Health of Hospitals." She expressed herself as decidedly sceptical on the aubject. sof contagion and infection, and declared that these notions were all originally generated by bad management and the want of light and air. The sittings of the departments terminated yesterday, but we have not yet re• ceived reports of the later readings.  The destruction of the Austria by fire at sea is one of the most real and authentic horrors that has for a long time stirred the emotions and excited the pity not only of English society hut of the world at large. The narrative of her loss is one of the most circumstantial and painful that we can call to mind. The President two decades of years ago foundered suddenly, or drifted to some more dreadful though more gradual ruin. The hope deferred that made the heart sick nevertheless buoyed up that heart with expectation, and thereby alleviated the very suffering that it caused. To the fond imagination of affection the case of Sir JOHN FRAYKLIN and his brave comrades may yet present hopeful features. But in this instance of the Austria, as in Nit of the Amazon, Ivc know everything, and what we know is tragic beyond tragedy. An English-built screw steamer of 2,500 tons, trading between Hamburg and New York, left that port on the 2nd of September, touched at Southampton, and eleven days afterwards was seen by the officers and crew of the French bark Maurice, in lat. 4.5.01, long. 41.30, a mass of flames, confusion, wreck, and terror. By the lurid light of this hideous destruction, scenes were witnessed which dwarf into ordinary dimensions the wildest scene paintings of the poet or novelist. Families leaping together in the sea—a pardonable suicide, which migM. puzzle a cold casuist, but which ordinary men must -accept, if they
The Press. — 1858-10-02 (London, England)

THE SUICIDE OF MR. GERARD B. SMITH, Warwicksquare, Belgravia, and proprietor of the well-known Pimlico Wheel Works, has been the subject of the coroner's inquiry. Evidence was brought to prove that the deceased deliberately threw himself across the tramroad when the Hampton-court train was approaching the Wandsworth station, and before the driver of the engine could stop the train the whole of the carriages went over him, causing instantaneous death, and mutilating the body in a most frightful manner. The jury returned a verdict of "Temporary insanity." The deceased has left a widow and young family to lament his premature and awful death.  Ohituarg.  THE COUNTESS OF CLANWILLIAM, sister to the Right Ron. Sidney Herbert, M.P., the Marchioness of Ailesbary, the Countess of Dunmore, and Viscountess De Vesci, died unexpectedly a few days since. The Countess bad been staying with the Countess of Dunmore in the north of Scotland, and was taken seriously ill while on her return southwards. The relatives of the Countess were telegraphed to, but before they could reach her she died. The Countess was the eldest daughter of George Augustus, eleventh Earl of Pembroke, by his second marriage, with the Countess Catherine, only daughter of his Excellency Simon, Count Woronzow. Her ladyship was born on the 31st of March, 1809, and married the sth of July, 1830, the Earl of Clanwilliam, by whom she had issue, a daughter, Lady Selina Vernon, married in 1851 to Mr. Granville Edward Vernon ; and four sons, the eldest, Viscount Gilford, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and who gained his promotion by his gallantry in the recent operations in the Chinese waters, born in October, 1832. LADY BOWRING, wife of Sir John Bowring, her Majesty's Plenipotentiary in (Mina, died at Taunton, on Monday, aged 6-1. THE DUCHESS OF MONTMORENCY has died in Paris, after a long and painful illness.
The Press. — 1858-09-11 (London, England)

THE PRESS, SEPTEMBER 11, 1858.  After this the unfortunate woman sank rapidly, and Aft medical man, Dr. Girdwood, sen., was sent for, but before he arrived she was dead. On the following day a postmortem examination of the body was made by Dr. Forrest, Stirling ; Dr. Hamilton, Falkirk ; and Dr. Myrtle, Polmont. The report made by these gentlemen, and which is in the hands of the authorities, has of course been kept private; but we understand that it was to the effect that the uterus was found to have ben pierced in two places, one on each side, by some© nstrument, and that death had been caused by the excessive hemorrhage produced by these wounds. The deceased was about twenty three years of age. We now come to the second part of this shocking case—the suicide of Dr. Girdwood, jun., the son of Dr. Girdwood who was called in to attend the woman Taylor. The news of Ann Taylor's death, it was observed, threw young Girdwood into a state of great excitement. He went into the publiahouse in High•street, Falkirk, occupied by Mr. M`Naughton, and called for writing materials, stating that he had a letter to write, and giving orders that it was not to be posted before eleven o'clock next day (Tuesday). At the same time he sent out to Mr. Cochrane's, druggist, for four ounces of laudanum, and when the messenger returned with the laudanum, he said he had to go to Linlithgow, and requested Mr. NPNaughton to go to the Red Lion for the purpose of hiring a machine. Mr. Scott refused the machine, but one was got from Mr. Hutton, of the Railway Hotel. Having requested M'Naughton to accompany him, the party proceeded in the direction of Linlithgow. On the journey, the deceased was heard to moan very much, and seemed asleep. When near the Free Church at Linlithgow, about twelve p.m., Mr. 31.Naughton proposed to the driver that Mr. Girdwood should be aroused. This was attempted, but without success ; and as he seemed much excited and not well, it was resolved to return to Falkirk, which was accordingly done. On arrival, deceased was taken into M‘Naughton's, and laid upon a sofa, while the machine was despatched to Grahamston for his father. Before that gentleman arrived, however, his son was dead. The letter written by the deceased Mr. Girdwood was found by his father in one of his pockets, but its contents have not been disclosed. Immediately on discovering what had been done to Ann Taylor, Dr. Myrtle gave notice to the police authorities, and suspicion falling on Reid as being concerned in the affair, a warrant was a once issued for his apprehension. Raid, it will be remembered, was tried along with a fellow-clerk named Gentles and convicted at the Stirling Circuit in 1857 of having abetted Mr. Henry Salmon in his plun • dering of the Commercial Bank at Falkirk, of which he was agent, of money to the amount of upwards of