The Sun. — 1842-10-20 (London, England)

CORONER'S INQUEST. HORRIBLE DEPRAVITY. Tuesday, at 12 o'clock, an inquiry was ;instituted before Mr. Wakley, M.P., at the Crown Tavern, Edgeware-road, on view of the body of Elizabeth Bell Woodroffe, aged 32, who committed suicide by taking poison, under the circumstances subjoined : Mr. Richard Keene, surgeon and chemist, No. 17, Crawford-street, Bryanstonsquare, deposed to being called, and having found the deceased lying in bed, her extremities quite cold, and she evidently in a dying state. She had been vomiting very much, and was almost if beyondshehad tthakeen Power of speech. Witness asked .poison, to which she made no reply ; but on his ,again putting the question and whether iin t was arsenic, she by a movement of her sulphate , head signified in the affirmative. Witness then administered to her two scruples ofof zinc • but she never rallied, anddiedin less than 20minutes. He had since made a post mortem examination of the body, and found the whole internal surface of the mpatches, indicating that shest hadstomach c h takendiscoloured arsenic, Nt‘h. h ircehd, by subsequently using tests, he had proved beyond doubt to be the fact; the arsenic he had ascertained to have been purchased at his shop by the deceased. William Woodroffe stated that the deceased was his wife. On Saturday morning last she placed a cup out of which she had been drinking on the table, and throwing down a piece of paper, said, "There, that's poison. I have done it." Witness saidyou are always up to some of your tricks, and taking up the paper, threw it ~,into the fire. About half an hour hour afterwards she began vomiting, when witness fetched her half a quartern of gin, part of which she only drank. Subsequently getting worse, Mr. Keene was sent for, shortly after whose arrival she died. Sarah Blanchard (who cohabited with the husband under the same roof) corroborated this statement. A respectable-looking mechanic here stepped for- ward, and stated to the Jury that he was acquainted forof vet, so respectable fane years, and had all of whom with the with her up to the hmwaii dti yh a. thef sa thaeil yil deceased,aodof beel eleven vn ewnr ah caohr rwi li dea drs e n z About two years ago her husband, who was a zinc-plate teixinceepotifonheorf doenaethSwwleorwe dasealdiv. ing worker, deserted h ,fuwr further assistance. assistance. She destitute. She had e r leaving ,since h celived er i n Yorkshire ontlie bounty of her family and friends, who at length, being wearied out with her then importunities,sough t refusedafter she at length found living as described. She was at first repulsed, but refusing to quit the place without him, an offer was made to her to lodge with them, to which truly revolting proposition she was induced, through fear her hhuesrbaannyd of actual starvation of herself' and child, to accede. Since then she had been subjected to constant illusage from her husband, for protection against whom she had more than once applied to a Magistrate ; and while he and the female Blanchard occupied the bed, she had been forced to submit to lie on a piece of old carpet on the floor. Mr. WAxinz remarked that the case was one which disclosed facts of a disgraceful and immoral nature, and one which could not have been supposed to exist in the present enlightened age. The Jury, however, had only met for the purpose of inquiring into the cause of the death of the deceased ; and although the conduct of certain parties might have led her to commit self-murder, such parties were not answerable there for the manner in which they had acted. The Jury, after some consultation, returned a verdict, "That the deceased had destroyed herself while in a state of temporary insanity," at the same time expressing their opinion that she was driven to the commission of the crime by the base and cruel treatment of her husband William Woodroffe. On the husband of the deceased making his appearance in the street after the inquiry he was greeted with the groans and hisses of about 100 women, who had assembled round the house, and who would, had it not been for the protection afforded him by the police, have proceeded to the infliction of personal chastisement  The Poet, James Montgomery, and the Rev. Peter Latrobe have come over to this country as a deputation from the Moravian Church. A debt of 6,0001. has been incurred by the Society, chiefly in keeping up their missions in the Wrest Indies ; and they have been compelled to throw themselves on the benevolence of the Christian public, of all religious persuasions, to enable them to discharge this debt. Three thousand pounds have been alread7 subscribed in England, and about one thousand in the West Indies. Dublin ,Evening Mail.