The Barrow Herald and Furness Advertiser. — 1866-01-27 (Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, England)

MELANCHOLY .I)EATH TX/LOUGH DRUNKENNESS AT PENRITII.—An inquest has been held on view of the body of Jane Vipond, of Penrith, a married woman, who met with her death under the following circumstances as described in the evidence adduced :—lt appeared that the deceased who was adicted to habits of intemperance, called on Thursday last at a shop where her son is an apprentice and told him she wished to see him at her house in the course of the day. Accordingly the young man went to see his mother, about twelve , o'clock. The son lodged with his employer, and two sisters lived with their mother. His sisters complained that their mother used them so badly that they had determined not to stay with her any longer. He did not think the deceased was perfectly sober at the time. Shortly afterwards she fell asleep and he carried her up stairs in that state and laid her upon the bed. When the son left the house his sisters were there, but they shortly afterwards left the house and had gone he knew not where, but he had heard to Liverpool. Mrs. Smith, a neighbour, deposed that about halfpast fivo in the evening she heard deceased screaming. She would not have taken notice of this had it not been dark, because it was nothing uncommon during the day. Knowing that the daughters were net in the house witness went to the back door to try to get into the house but it was fastened inside. She went into another neighbour's, Mr. Russell, and whilst there they heard a fall, resembling a rambling on the stairs. They heard nothing more , after that and Mr. Russell went to the back part of the house and got in by the window. Mr. Russell said when he went into the house by the window all was in darkness. He found deceased lying apparently dead at foot of the stairs. Her head was against the , skirting board and her feet was upon the stairs. There was a great quantity of blood below her head. He went for a medical man.— When the jury viewed the body there was a large wound bel_ind the left car and one on the right temple, and the right eye was black. A large quantity of bloOd had been discharged from the wounds.—The Coroner, in summing up the evidence, said there was no doubt deceased had fallen down stairs and sustained the injuries which had caused her death. He could not suggest that it was a case of suicide, but under all the circumstances ke thought they could, not return any other verdict than of "accidental death." The jury accordingly returned a verdict in accordance with the suggestion of the Coroner.  The Commissioner, a Tyne steamer, sank in that river on Saturday, after being in collision with a brig. The Irish Times contradicts, at the request of Mr. Gregory, 111. P., the announcement that he had been offered, and had declined, a loratilliP of the Admirality. Mr. Benjamin, ex-Secretary of the Confederate States, is studying English law, in the chambers of Mr. C. E. Pollock, in the Temple, with the view of being called to the English bar.  M. Madieu, the mayor of Sarlat, has been sentenced to three. months' imprisonment for falsifying a muncipal election for his own benefit, by means of a ballot-box with a false bottom.  The ship Lincolnshire, belonging to Messrs. Wigram and Co., which was to follow the steamship London, and left on Saturday for Melbourne, has returned to the East India, Dock, having been in collision with a brig off Greenhithe. _  The Queen has, we learn, been pleased to appoint Lord Dunfermline, Dr. John Brown, and Mr. John Tate, sheriffs of Linlithgowshire, &c., as additional members of the Royal Commission upon Education in Scotland.— Scotsman. Princess Anna Murat, now Duchess de Mouchy, accompanied her father on a tour in Egypt in 1864. In remembrance of this visit Ismail Pasha has sent a present to the princess on the occasion of her marriage of a diamond coronet worth 100,000 f. The Montreal Gazette of the sth instant states that opposite that city the River St. Lawrence was frozen completely over on the 4th, and some persons ventured to walk across. It was expected that on the sth there would be a free safe bridge of ice to last till spring. Messrs. Boudet, of Ca,stlenaoran, convicted before the imperial court of Agen, in France, on a charge of selling wine with which a quantity of litharge had been mixed for the purpose of covering acidity, has been sentenced to one year's imprisonment and a fine equal to £2O. Three persons died from the 'effects of partaking of the wine. An influential deputation from the North of 'lreland waited on the Lord-Lieutenant on Saturday to solicit his influence with the Government against the charges supposad to be intended in the system of Irish national education. Lord Wodehouse, after a lengthened conversation with the party in private, promised to lay their views before the Ministry. A final report by Messrs. Greenwood and Hindmarsh to the Lord Chancellor in reference to the Patent Office has been insured. :they recommend that the office of clerk of the patents be abolished, and that a superintending officer, with a salary of not less than £l5OO, be appointed. They think the clerks generallyare underpaid, and they . recommend that the staff in the specifications department be increased.  .