npedrazzini/19thc_murder_suicide_news huggingface dataset:
The Sun. — 1825-03-02 (London, England)

EDITOR.--Observing by an extract from the Times in your Paper of yesterday, that Commissioners are now in London, on the part of Spain, endeavouring to procure a new Loan-trust for the honour of England, the interest of our countrymen, and all others concerned, I hope that strict justice will be done, in the first place, in re.; spect to the last Loan, or that Spain will be cogn..: pelted so to act, previous to her presenting herself for a second time before a British Public, whose national integrity is so justly appreciated. This business must be most narrontly watched by our free, glorious, and respectable press, when we consider the anguish which has been thus brought to our fire-side. The calamity of this hitherto swindling transaction on the part of the King of Spain and his present Government has already to my knowledge entailed suicide and dire misfortunes on too many families in this country ; and well are we aware as Britons, that were it not for the 'danger of disturbing the general tranquillity, our 'own Government would no doubt vindicate the rights of its most injured subjects, for although private, it may in truth be said that it is also na-: tional British Capital which has been then stolen.  —Thank God it is not thus that Great Britain has established her far-spread renown, for if had, she never would have become the admira Lion (and proud am I to say) and the enq of surrounding nations. Perhaps on the Continent they think us too much absorbed with our affairs in Ireland and elsewhere, to be very scrttpulous on this point,—let them be aware that though made of much sterner stuff, we are nevertheless not less acute than themselves ; and if they want to return there for means, their passport to our purses must be Honour and Probity. No compromise must we make, as Englishmen, with those who would in any or the smallest wise fail to keep faith with us. I conclude by sincerely hoping that the Press of England will look well to this. I remain,  Sir, your's most respectfully, A Constant Reader, M. G. H.  Deal, Fib. 27, 1825.
The Sun. — 1825-10-25 (London, England)

INQUESTS.-'There is be found hi Mr. PEPYS' Diary, among other curious traits of the times in which he ! lived, an anecdote on the subject of inquests on cases of suicide, which presents a remarkable contrast to the practice of the present day. A respectable and wealthy tradesman related to Mr. Pepys, had the misthrtune, in the great fire of London, to lose a considerable amount of property, which threw hint into a state of despondency, and under the influence of this disease of the mind, he attempted to drown himself, but was preserved by the by-standers, and brought home. lie caught, however, in consequence of the drenching, such a cold as brought on a fever, that terminated some weeks afterwards in his death. A Coroner's Inquest was to be held notwithstanding, and so great was the apprehension of the widow and his other relatives, that their verdict would be .felo de se, in which oase all his remaining property would fall to the Crown, that Mr. Pepys was obliged to exert his personal influence beforehand with the Duke of York and the King, to obtain a promise of a grant of the estate to the surviving family, in case such a verdict ensued; sad this was the more necessary in mannerfroefgteunently had it promised on gaining scent of a to the King for a grant thewthemselves,ask appliedn o in nn courtiers like veryana beforeoct la; os t'sheteoidlf ecassyvuts verdict idistceo: A CHEAP HusnANn.—A young servant girl, Who had conducted herself very much to the satisfaction of her mistress, was presented by her with 51., to serve as a marriage portion. Some time after her mistress desired to see the lover.— He was ugly and mis-shapen. " Illy good lass," said the t to lady, " what a comical husband you have chosen !" "Ah ! xMadam,"ec g repliedettorut. .17,girl with much simplicity, " what can one e
The Sun. — 1825-09-17 (London, England)

THE THAMES.— The River above bridge presented on Thursday a curious scene of motley groups engaged in fish-taking, by divers expedients net contemplated by the statute for that purpose made and • provided. The late heavy rains caused the river to be much swollen, in some parts overflowing its banks, and threatening the adjacent level with a visit similar to that experienced two or three years back, so much to the discomfiture of the live . and dead stock of every description upon -the neighbouring premises. At the turn of the tide the heavy,swell, acting in - conjunction, as is supposed, with the thunder-storm of the preceding day, produced a strange effect upon.the.fish. They rose in shoals to the surface of the water, and, .although they did not go the length which -fowls and turkies are represented to do in some countries, erbibiting themselves -reedy cooked., -crying " come eat me," they allowed themselves-to be taken in ;great numbers by anyinind.that deemed them worth the trou.ble of capture. In this manner many pails-full were caught.; .and so attractive was.the sport, that every hamlet -and mann• factory on the banks of the aiver .above Lambeth, 4V34 deserted, and every boat manned for the purpose. Business was entirely at a stand ; the turn out was general, and the most unsportsmanlike, and. in sonic instances, diverting schemes were practised to profit by the favourable opportunity. Pails, sieves, soup ladles, and other descriptions of domestic implements. were variously employed by the women and children on the banks. A boat load of men, each armed with a sieve, was very successful, and made a good haul. In one part, where the bank was made higher than its natural elevation by a brick-wall, some men were seen angling with one of their own number, whom they lowered by the heels to the great peril of his head.• In the centre of the river, well appointed cutters, manned by six or eight oars, suspended the progress of their journey for a season allowing themselves to be carried down with the stream, actively engaged on both sides in taking the inviting pray. Flounders and eels formed the majority of the fish secured by these means. Barbie, dace, and ether varieties, were, however, similarly affected.  PARIS, TUESDAY MORNlNG.—Considerable sen-sation,has been excited here by the suicide of an English officer (Captain G--,ee), who blew ont his brains this morning at the Hotel de Castile, where he had been residing. No satisfactory tory cause has been assigned for this act, but ruraour is of course busy. It is said that the Captain had been a loser at play, but I cannot trace this to any authentic source.—(Morning Paper)
The Sun. — 1825-09-01 (London, England)

ATROCIOUS OUTRAGE.-011 Monday night a daring outrage was committed in the house of Mr. Ellerbuck, of Castle-street, Finsbury-square. Mr. Ellerbuck and inmates were all from home during the evening, when about eleven o'clock he returned alone, and let himself in with a latch-key, but had scarcely entered the house when he was attacked by three men, who beat him unmercifully, and .one of the ruffians making a snatch at watch, the chain broke, leaving two seals in his hand. The robbers having secured Mr. Ellerbuck, locked him into a lower room, while they proseeded up stairs to ransack the house. Finding an iron chest in an upper room, they carried it to another part of the house to break it open, but after being sometime thus engaged, they made a precipitate retreat, alarmed, it is supposed, by some noise in the lower part of the house. Mr. laerbuck, in his struggle with the robbers, received a severe cut on the head, and was otherwise severely injured. Information of the out.. rage was immediately given, at the Police-office, Worship-street, and Attfield, Armstrong, and Eagles, three of the officers, examined the premises, and found a crow-bar, . with which the robbers had attempted to open the iron chest, and a bludgeon covered with blood, the instrument with which Mr. Ellerbuck had been wounded. The only articles carried off were the two seals and a dressing-case. No trace of the robbers has as yet been discovered.  A late Number of the Brussels Oracle says— Two women of Strasburgh, a mother and doughter, disappeared last week. A letter was found in the apartment they had quitted, which stated, that it was the intention of the mother to destroy herself, and that the daughter had exclaimed, " Yes, mother, I will follow thee into the other world." Several days elapsed without any tidings being had what had become of them. On Thursday last, however, the sluiceman at the mill at Dinsen found the body of the mother in the mill-dam ; and on searching further the corpse of the unfortunate daughter was also found.— Family-quarrels, it appeared, had occasioned this double suicide,  i t:
The Sun. — 1871-02-22 (London, England)

MURDER AND SUICIDE IN LINCOLNSHIRE.  A shocking tragedy has taken place near Grimsby, in Lincolnshire. On Saturday a brickmaker named Christopher Leedham and his family were at dinner at Stallingborough, four miles from Grimsby. Mrs. Leedham, noticing that her stepson George, aged thirty six, looked unwell, asked him to have some rice pudding, saying it would do him good. He ate a little, and then jumped up, stabbed Mrs. Leedham in the throat with a knife, and then ran out of the house and threw himself into a pond in the brickyard. He was rescued by one of his brothers and a labourer named Jackson. Jackson held Leedham while the brother went for assistance ; but Leedham struggled with Jackson and again threw himself into the pond, dragging the man with him. Jackson freed himself, and Leedham sank directly. Mrs. Leedham, after receiving the wound, ran out of the house, but had not gone far before she fell down and died immediately. Her stepson's body was not got out of the pond for fifteen or twenty minutes, and life was then extinct. At the inquest Mr. Leedham, sen., stated that his son had been wandering about in the fields for several days, and he (the father) had followed him. "Once (he said) my son was sitting by the side of a dyke, and said, What do you follow me about for ?' On Friday night he came down and made faces in the glass, and asked where Sally (his mother) was. In the morning I went to him in bed. He said he was poisoned—that we had poisoned him. A day or two before he appeared frightened that I should hurt him. He cried and sobbed out. I felt his pulse, which was going eight times as fast as it ought. He said, 'Oh ! father, I shall die broken-hearted.' I believe he thought of drowning himself two or three times. I think insanity is in the blood. His grandmother went off her mind, and had a strait-waistcoat, at Attieborough, Warwickshire." The jury found that George Leedham had committed the murder and suicide while in a fit of insanity.
The Sun. — 1871-01-24 (London, England)

THE STATE OF FEELING IN PARIS.  Commenting on the excitement in Paris wrought by the  news of the failure of the last sortie, the Daily News observes :—Paris is evidently in a perilous state. The social atmosphere is full of combustible elements which the most trivial circumstance might ignite, causing far more ruin than any bombardment by the Imperial troops. Paris has borne the privations of this siege so nobly, that we should all be sorry to find her perplexed and weakened, in what may be the last days of her great trial, by political tumult. But a few days more of calm and self-reliance, and, if she must succumb, she will know that she has striven bravely and well to the end, and Europe will regard this portion of her history as wiping out the stains which the Empire placed upon her. The provinces have been of late learning to do without the capital. They are not presided over by a Government against which any complaint of inaction can be preferred. Army after army may be raised only to be defeated, but M. Gambetta accepts no defeat; and, in his most recent proclamations, he announces that if the Prussians are three months hence on French soil they are lost. Indeed, there is more of the true Republican fire and ring in his last speeches than in the semi-military bulletins which he issued after leaving Paris. France, he says, only needs faith. She will be saved, " not by a man, but by an idea, by the Republic; which will have taken its place amongst us, and will guide our destinies." Nevertheless, the idea must be represented by agents, and it is military men of whom France is most urgently in need just now. M. Gambetta may fan the flames of patriotism, and stir the departments to fresh efforts, but he cannot command armies. If the recent departure of Bourbaki was due to his counsels, the result has only been another instance in the present campaign of the fatal influence sometimes wrought by politicians in controlling military movements. M. Gambetta, we hear, is now engaged at Lille in reorganising the shattered remnants of the Army of the North. Although the weight of public cares has told upon hisphysique, he is as full of undaunted courage and hope as ever. He says little or nothing about Paris. It is upon France he calls, in terms which reminds one of another period in French history. It is possible that Paris may come out of her prison to fini that the country has not been wholly concerned in thinking how to release her, but has begun on its own account an enormous enterprise which will involve either victory or suicide.
The Sun. — 1871-02-09 (London, England)

REMARKABLE DIVORCE CAE. In the Court for Di.° and Matrimonial Causes Lord Penzance had before him the cause of " De Gendre v. Do Gendre," which was a wife's petition for a dissolution of her marriage, on the ground of her husband's adultery and cruelty. The petitioner is a lady possessing some £40,000, and the respondent, the Count De Gendre was formerly an officer in the Neapolitan army, and the petitioner met him whilst at Rome, and an acquaintance soon sprung up. The Countess de Gendre said that she was after the marriage desirous of annulling her marriage settlement, so as not to have the money settled on her; but found she could not. She was married at St. Mary's, Dover, and the honeymoon was passed at Tunbridge Wells. The respondent made some assertions tending to doubt the witness's virtue, and she saw that she could at once leave him. The Count, however, said that if she did he would commit suicide. He soon afterwards began to illtreat witness, and frequently pinched her. In August, 1866, they had been at Brighton,and on their return they were going to a party At Henley when he tore witness's dress from top to bottom, and on another occasion when witness was dressing her hair he came into her room and asked her to kiss him. She replied that she would in a moment as soon as she had finishedher. hair. He then without any for ewarning clinched his fist and struck her on the breast, and from injuries then sustained witnessAuffered for severalmonths. His conduct was so bad that witness ultimately determined to go and live at her trustees at Blackheath. Whilst walking out at that place a carriage drove up, and the respondent got out. He attempted to thrust witness in ; but she resisted very much, and the Count called in a servant, named Hull, to assist him; but for some time she resisted successfully, and made an appeal to Hull for mercy. He, however, took no notice. A crowd had by this time collected, and witness appealed to them for help, but before, that could be rendered she was forced into the carriage with her legs hanging out. Some one in the crowd said, " Put the poor woman's legs in," and her legs were then pushed inside. Her husband then drove her to his house. She there stayed an hour and a-half, and promised to see the Count the next day, and did so ; but had not been with him since.—Ellen Whittker, the lady's maid, gave corroborative evidence.—There was really no defence, and the learned judge pronounced a decree nisi 'or a dissolution of the marriage.  "
The Sun. — 1871-01-23 (London, England)

DRAWING-ROOM ALCIIOLISM.  The Saturday _Review observes there is an increasing evil under the sun, one of pressing importance, but so contrary to our English traditions, and to our notion of the fitness of things, that we are unwisely inclined to hush it up. Now and then a whispered scandal reminds our Pharisees that a Pharisee's wife indulges in alcholic stimulants, " has been taken away from some ball by her friends, quite drunk, poor thing. How shocking !" or " Really she should not have been allowed to ride when she could hardly sit on her horse." But such stories we agree to get rid of as quickly as possible. Yet some sincere effort should be made to check habits which are notoriously on the increase, and which threaten to degrade women even of the well-born and educated classes beyond the help of theories, however brilliant, of their rights. It is honest and prudent to confess that drunkenness is no longer quite unknown even in the most charming drawing-rooms, be it under the form of dipsomania or oinomania, habitual or occasional excess. The increasing prevalence of what is considered allowable stimulation is the evil especially to be remarked. Marguerite dallying with Faust's gifts is but the prelude to Marguerite's suicide, and it is more useful to check her as she opens the glittering casket than when she is the helpless.prey of passion. Women seldom drink for the gratification of their palate, and the pitiable dram-drinker sometimes loathes the spirit she gulps down. Good or bad wine, potato-brandy, curacoa, or gin will satirfy her if only her nervous organization be sufficiently saturated. The volume of light wine or beer sometimes taken is almost incredible. One important step will be gained if the use of stimulants between meals is sedulously checked. The test of safety in the moderate use of alcoholic drinks seems to be the power in persons of fair health to leave off their accustomed beer or sherry without inconvenience or moral effort. This test might be occasionally applied by rational women to themselves or insisted on by their mankind, and a sensible improvement in both moral and physic;al wellbeing would generally surprise the fair abstainer.  CABINET COUNClL.—Summonses have been issued for a Cabinet Council to be held on Wednesday next, in Downing-street, at three o'clock. We understand no day has been fixed for her Royal Highness Princess Louise's marriage, but that it will not be celebrated so early a,s.the 9th of March, as has been stated.
The Sun. — 1852-10-28 (London, England)

OLYMPIC THEATRE.  A new drama, in five acts, by Mr. Morris Barnett, called Sarah Blangi, a translatio❑ of a French play of " terrible interest" (Sarah la Creole), was successfully produced here last evening. Like many recent productions on our stage, it will be all tho better for contraction. The heroine, a Creole, has sworn to avenge the death of her presumed father, who has been shot under some military necessity not very clearly explained, by order of Colonel Dumont. The colonel becomes a protector to the child of the man he has executed, and brings her up with his own daughter, Alice. The bitter and revengeful spirit of the Creole girl, and the processes by which she compasses the ruin and desolation of her benefactor, form the groundwork of the action. Under the guise of friendship and sincerity, the fiend-like Sarah meditates the most demoniacal projects. She separates Alice from her lover, and causes her to be married to a vain and careless profligate. Finding that the profligate is reformed by the grace and virtue of his wife, she introduces jealousy and distrust, and the husband is mysteriously apprised of the ♦isit of the former lover, and misled by the arts of Sarah as to his purpose. The mind of Alice, on the other hand, is tortured with suspicions of her husband by like contrivances, and she determines on suicide. In the meanwhile explanations take place which restore the mutual confidences of the couple; but Sarah, not to be foiled, being in possession of a letter written by Alice, in her horror of anguish, resolves on poisoning her victim, and avoid the personal consequences of the crime under the exculpatory shelter of the letter. Bat all these schemes are frustrated by the individual, a brother of tho colonel, who, before the commencement of the piece, it was supposed had been secretly made away with by Sarah, who hoped by this means to divert the wealth from the colonel's family, with which his relative had proposed to enrich bim. Affecting to be a dry and imperturbable humorist, he dogs the steps of Sarah, becomes privy to all her secrets, and finally constitutes himself as her agent in the destruction of Alice, who, it is unnecessary to remark, is saved by his interference. Further piquancy is given to the denouement by the discovery of the fact that Sarah and Alice are sisters, and that the revenge for which the former pined had no origin in a filial wrong. The part of Sarah Blangi was performed by Miss Fanny Wallack, a lady whom we do not remember to have seen before, but who is evidently well acquainted with the stage, and possesses considereele talent as a melodramatic actress. Miss Harriet Gordon acted the interesting character of Alice Dumont with great sweetness and feeling. Mr. Farren, as Colonel Dumont, represented to the life the fine old militaire, and made the part very affecting. But the most remarkable piece of acting in the play was Mr. Compton's Monsieur Vandris. It was exceedingly quiet and natural. The applause at the conclusion was loud and general, and the author and principal actors were called for. The piece was announced for repetition every night.
The Sun. — 1852-08-21 (London, England)

GEORGE CRUIESHANK. says— " A greengrocer lad was ove;heard, juat before the last Derby day,' telling another boy how his father had been a going it for a whole week, a drinking and a betting ;' and after speaking very learnedly about the horses,' concluded by saying, 'if that 'ere horse loses, my father 's a dead man.' Now as we have not heard of the suicide of any sporting greengrocer, since the Derby day, we may conclude that that horse did not lose, and that this youth is still blest with a paternal parent, to train him up in the drinking and betting path which lies before him." Various other illustrations of a like kind might be extracted from this remarkable pamphlet, but to the publication itself we would seriously commend the attention of the community. It will there be seen how the writer, by sketching out a little bit of the " Map of London," has shown that in the immediate neighbourhood of one corner of Leicester-square there are at this moment nestling together, within pistol-shot of eleh other , twelve betting-offices cud twentyone on aia buy an- d tweint ces twelve shops for robseen, moreover, how for drunkenness. It will be elsewhere in this grand, wndrife the evil complained of is tunate capital—teed h gambling, prosperous, unforinterference of the law in ngbreehat need there is for the of the Betting-offices. Upon ofl the unlucky dupes pith a grateful sense towards ClCl:ising the pamphlet t;on that occurs to us is—Cannot the Vagrant quesgrant Act ho brought jato effect against these felleVia s Rogues and Vagabonds?  , the farce The inquiry into the fatal affray at Six-mile length, after a protracted sitting of Bridge has at been brought to a conclusion. So far as fourteen day,, jury the majority of the . , with. A more extraordinary concerned been returned since that which nary verdict has not might have been