The Sun. — 1851-09-20 (London, England)

WRINGTON. BRISTOL, SEPT. 18.—The adjourned inquest as to the cause of the death of the unfortunate women Sarah Ann Roberts and Caroline Birch was held yes. terday at the Red Lion, Wrington, by Mr. R. Uphill, coroner. The affair has created quite a sensation throughont the surrounding district. Mr. H. J. Addington, of Langford Court, the Rev. J. Vane, and Dr. Baker, magistrates, were present at the inquiry, which lasted the whole day. A mass of evidence was adduced, but the following analysis contains everything relative to the point at issue : The inquiry was first gone into touching the death of Sarah Ann Roberts. The first witness called was Elizabeth Ridler, who deposed—l am a widow, living at Wrington. The deceased Sarah Ann Roberts is my daughter. She was a widow. On Friday the sth inst., I saw her between half-past 7 and 8 o'clock in the yard at the back of my house. She complained to me that she had been sick ; this was the evening. I said, " Sick, Sarah ?" and she said "Yes, but lam better." She was very commonly sick, and therefore I did not think much of it. She went away, and I was called afterwards to go to her a little before eleven o'clock. She was then at my son's house. I found her very sick and ill. I asked if she had been given anything to take, and they said she had had some gin. I sent to Mr. Chadwick, who ordered his dispenser to attend, which he did, with a mixture—a spoonful to be taken at a time. Mr. Chadwick saw her at seven the next morning. He sent her medicine and fetched Mr. Coates to her. I knew she was in the familyway. The deceased told me she had taken something to procure abortion. I first knew deceased was in the family way six weeks ago, and she was then six weeks gone. A month ago my daughter-in-law found some herbs in the pocket of the deceased which smelt very nasty. The deceased said it was a shrub that, if a- woman took, she would miscarry. She said she got it from a lady's garden, and that Fanny Marsh told her of it. After she gathered the herb she took it to ,Fanny Marsh to it it was the right thing, and she said it3was. She said John .Bonn had promised her marriage. He had cohabited with her. Deceased said she had boiled the herb in a saucepan. Amelia Ridler deposed to finding the herb in the pocket of the deceased. The day the deceased was taken ill Caroline Birch was with her. The deceased that day complained of being very poorly in her head. 'The Coroner—Had you any conversation with Sarah Roberts about the herb you found ? Witness —I had not ; she was not aware that I knew she was in the familyway. Henry Thomas deposed that the deceased had said Fanny Marsh told her in the singing gallery that she never would have a live child if she took some stuff to prevent it. By a juror—James Ashley told him that they used to hand the stuff about to one another in the church in the singing gallery. Mr. P. J. Chadwick deposed to having visited the deceased in her illness, and prescribed for her. He described her symptoms. On the post mortem examination he found the external surface of the body much discoloured, and the limbs not as rigid as usual. The abdomen was much distended. On opening the body the lungs and heart were healthy, except that they were much congested ; the blood in the heart and veins was very fluid. The peritoneum was very much congested. The whole of the bowels and the alimentary canal were much congested. The bladder was healthy, and the womb and dependencies contained a foetus of ten or twelve weeks old. He had no doubt the deceased died from taking some vegetable poison. Mr. Coates corroborated this evidence, and added that in searching the apartment of the deceased he found five quart bottles, three quite full of a lightcoloured liquid. It was a vegetable infusion they contained. The pills were made of flour, broken leaves of horehound, and ground ivy. Mr. Chadwick said, the deceased had admitted to him having taken herbs to procure abortion. The CORONER having summed up the jury returned a verdict of Felo de se against the deceased,Sarah Ann Roberts. The jury then entered on the inquiry as to the cause of death of Caroline Birch. Similar evidence to the foregoing was adduced. Emmanuel Ridley deposed that the deceased Birch, before she died, said she hoped this would be a warning to all young people, that Sarah (the deceased Roberts) drank a cupful and ske drank a cupful. Sarah Roberts told her, if it did not do her any good it would not do her any harm. The jury, as in the former instance, returned a verdict of Feb de se.  Consequent on these discoveries the prices of all articles of consumption had advanced to nn unprecedented height, among which we may enumerate flour from 201. to 301. per ton, and difficult to be procured at the latter exorbitant rate ; wheat, from 4s. 6d. to 103. per bushel ; butchers' meat, from 2f d. to Bd. per lb., and other articles in proportion. What will be the result of these changes it is scarcely difficult to conjecture : certain it is the country will be populated. From the neighbouring colonies there will be an immediate access of those hands, and within a few months thousands will be hurrying from their fatherland ; so that, on a moderate estimate, the year 1851 and 1852 will add at least one hundred thousand persona to the population of New South Wales. One letter says : " I reached Bathurst on Saturday, and found the gold mania still more violent than in Sydney, and much increased by the arrival of a mau with a piece of gold 3} lbs. weight, which he turned up, as he says, like a root of potatoes. It had such an effect upon him that he commenced filling his pockets with stones, thinking it all gold, and to-day even has not recovered so far as to be able to cat. It is sealed up, and as his partners have made him swear not to open the parcel until they aro all present, I have not seen it, but there is no doubt of its being there." With the view of checking desertion for the mines the Government Gazette, May 27, contains a notification from the Governor, directing that any person, of whatever grade, employed in the public service, who shall resign his post during the existing emergency will be noted as ineligible to serve again, and will certainly not be re-appointed. But, notwithstanding this notification, the desertions continued, thinning every department, and leaving the police force far too weak for its duties.