The Northern Daily Times. — 1856-08-28 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

GIRL SHOT AT EGREMONT.  of a man who hires out donkeys at Egremont, was playing On Tuesday morning, a girl named Margaret Hasler, daughter with some children at the house of a labourer, named G Miller, at Egremont. It happened that there was a gunethe house which had been loaded with shot and slugs. By what at means the children got the gun is not known, but y o wr after a short time a discharge was heard. When the girl ran out of the house, it was found that the contents of the gun had entered her breast. !Surgical assistance was promptly obtained, but the girl's breast was so severely shattered that she died almost immediately after. As all the children wore young, great difficulty was necessarily found in ascertaining by what means, and whether accidental or otherwise, this fatal occurrence took place. The witnesses as to the cause of the accident were numerous and conflicting ; but, at the enquiry, hell last evening, it was clearly proved that it was neither a case of murder or suicide, as was industriously circulated by some persons, who prefer retailing gossip to taking the trouble of aseer• taining facts. At THE INQUEST, Held last evening, at the Black Horse, Wallasey village, before Mr. Churton, the coroner for the district, and a respectable jury, the following facts were adduced :—Eliza Miller, a girl about twelve years of age, stated that she knew deceased, who was about ten years of age. Yesterday (Tuesday) morning, about eleven o'clock, the deceased was in our house. My brother, Thomas Miller, as well as three other little chldren, were present. There was a gun in the corner of the room. The deceased got hold of it, and put the muzzle to her ear. I went out, and in about five minutes I heard the gun go off. At that time there was no person in the house hut the deceased. She came running out and asked me to hold her up, but she fell down, and I perceived that she was shot. I then went for my brother, who was in the stable, and I desired him to go for her father. A surgeon was immediately sent for, but his services were of no avail, she having died in half an hour after the discharge of the gun. This was the only witness that could be examined, the others in the locality being mere infants, but had it been otherwise, no further evidence could have been adduced. The boy, the brother of the deceased, who was in the stable, said, be believed that what his sister had said was true, but all he knew about it was that he was told to go for the girl's father, which he did. The coroner said that it appeared to him that there could be no further evidence brought forward. The jury had, therefore, to decide whether they believed the girl's account of the occurrence—and he saw no reason to doubt it, as she had arrived at years that gave her the power of judging—therefore, if they believed her statement, they could only find a verdict of accidental death ; but, on the other hand, if they were not satisfied with her account, they could return such a verdict that at any other time more evidence, if there were any, might be brought forward. He strongly condemned the practice of persons having loaded guns or pistols in the house, particularly where they were accessiblo to children. Miller the father of the witness, in whose house this lamentable occur. rence took place, said that the gun was his, but that he did not know it was loaded, as it had been done by his son some weeks since. The boy acknowledged that Ile had loaded the gun a few Sundays since, and had left it in the house without discharging it, The jury at once found a verdict of accidental death, and were discharged.