The Sun. — 1844-05-01 (London, England)

MURDER AT BATTERSEA. (FURTHER PARTICULARS.) Yesterday a more accurate personal description of the supposed murderer was sent by route to the different stations of the Metropolitan Police and elsewhere than that furnished on Monday night. He is described as being 50 years of age, 5 feet 6 inches in height, dark hair, bald in the front of the head, has a deep scar on his forehead, small square cut whiskers, aid is supposed to be dressed in a black surtout coat, black velvet waistcoat, with blue glass buttons, black stock, and rather broad-trimmed hat ; he has absconded from his lodgings, and expressed his intention of committing suicide.  The police, in the course of their inquiries, have ascertained that the deceased and Augusta Dalmas, the murderer's youngest daughter, left home between seven and eight o'clock on Monday evening ; that they were met near to Batterseabridge by I)almas, who accompanied them to the house of Mrs. Dolley, No. 9, Bolton-place, Upper Church-lane, Chelsea, where he had obtained a situation for his daughter. The girl states, that her father and Mrs. M'Farlane saw her to the door, took her boxes into the passage, and they then left her This was about half-past eight o'clock. The chain of evidence is then broken until about ten o'clock, when a woman saw them together at the foot of the bridge on the Chelsea side.  It having been ascertained that the prisoner had visited Charlotte, who is the second eldest daughter, and is in the service of Mr. Patrick, 18, Montpelier-square, Brompton, Inspectors Busain and Sheppard proceeded thither yesterday afternoon, and those officers gleaned particulars, of which the following is a correct synopsis :—That Dahnas came to her at a quarter past eleven o'clock—about three-quarters of an hour after the murder took place. He was so pale, and trembled so much, that his daughter, who received him on the door-step, became exceedingly alarmed, and entreated of him to tell her what was the matter. Her father, in a loud and passionate tone, said, " I have poisoned Mrs.M‘Farlane." His daughter dropped on her knees, and, embracing her father, said, " Tell me, oh tell me what you have done? You cannot have done that." He replied, "No I've not poisoned her, but I've given her that which will do for her." The daughter stated that she then caught hold of her father's hand ; it was cold, and had an open knife in it, which cut her finger, and it bled profusely. The murderer then took his daughter's finger with his left hand, raised his right, in which the knife was, but giving her finer a violent wrench he dropped- it, and darted from her.' Since that time he has not been heard of. •  The letters found at his lodgings in Monpelier-placo are very lengthy. They are certainly not the production of a man labouring under excitement, although allusion to selfdestruction is constantly made. The nerderer is said to have come from the south of France. He is not only a clever operative chemist, but an excellent linguist. A most melancholy occurrence has happened in connection with this dreadful affair. Caroline, the eldest daughter of the murderer, who is in service at No. 2, Halkin-place, Belgrave-square, was yesterday morning incautiously acquainted with the dreadful occurrence, and has since become a maniac. No clue has as yet been obtained as to the retreat of the murderer.  D EATII FROM EXCESSIVE DRlNKlNG.—Yesterday, Mr. Baker held an inquest at the Ben Jonson, Palmer-street, Spitalfields, on the body of John Hopkins, aged fifty-six years. It appeared by the evidence that deceased was a weaver, and for several months past had been in the habit of drinking ardent spirits, and had not been sober a single day since the Ist of April last. On Tuesday week last he had been drinking the whole of the day, and on returning home about twelve o'clock at night, slipped from the kerbstone into the kennel, in doing which he struck himself a blow on the right eye, in which condition he was found by a police-constable. He was thereupon conveyed to the station-house, when Mr. Mears, a surgeon, dressed his wounds, and on the following morning he was taken before the magistrate at Worship-street, who fined him five shillings for drunkenness. The following day he complained much of his head, and he was again medically attended by Mr. Mears ; but he grew worse, and on Friday last he suddenly expired. Mr. Mears stated that deceased had died from effusion of the brain, accelerated by his habits of drinking and the injuries he had sustained by the fall. The jury returned a verdict in accordance with the medical testimony. Our Contemporaries are full of speculation as to who will succeed Lord Ellenborough. Some have already appointed Sir James Graham; others have been bounteous enough to bestow the high office on Sir Henry Pottinger. Of the former appointment we have, as yet, no knowledge ; but to the latter, in addition to Sir Henry's absence from England, there is, we would remind his patrons of the press, another objection. It has of late years been a rule not to appoint servants of the East India Company, either to the supreme or to the subordinate governments of India. In the intervals which have, as is about to happen, occurred between the departure of one Governor-General and the arrival of another, the senior member of Council undertakes the duties of that great office ; but permanently the Company's servants are not made Governors. It is to such a rule—for which good reasons prevail—that we may attribute Charles exclusion Metcalfexclusion of Mr. Mountstuart Elphinstone and Sir Chie from a position for which either distinguishedesol statesmen is the Herald. so re-eminently qualified.— JOB AND POST -MASTERC:r,reet'ofC•, PROVIDENT FUND 'this charity was