husband to purchase a pint of the berries, which were about the size of a small sloe. She gave the prisoner 3d. for them. On the following day (Sunday), which was the anniversary of her wedding, she made a tart with the berries, after cutting the stalks off, and also cut up two apples, which she mixed with them. She and her husband partook of the tart at dinner time; her husband ate very heartily of it. Before the remains of the dinner were removed, a customer came in to pay some money, and was accompanied by a child, named Samuel Jones. The little boy looked very anxiously at the tart, and she gave him some, little thinking at that time that the berries were poisonous. A few minutes after her husband had finished his dinner, he said he was very drowsy, and went into the bar parlour. His lethargy soon increased, his countenance changed colour, and the pupils of his eyes became dilated. He said he had a very strange coppery taste in his mouth, and that he would go up-stairs and lie down upon the bed. As he went upstairs he staggered, and upon entering his bed-room fell upon the floor, and became insensible. She became alarmed, and immediately proceeded to the shop of Mr. Coleman, a chemist, in the Whitechapel Road, and obtained an emetic for him, and a seidlitz powder for herself. She attempted to administer the emetic to her husband, but could get very little down his throat, as his teeth were firmly set. He subsequently became delirious, and was very rough. His contortions were dreadful. He attempted to strike her in his delirium, and when he recovered a little, said he was sorry, and asked

The

her to kiss him. Those were the last words she heard him speak. He was conveyed to the London Hospital at seven o'clock the same evening, and died at ten o'clock on the following morning. The child, to whom she had given some of the tart, died on the same day. widow, who was deeply affected, then began to detail her own sufferings. She did not eat so heartily of the tart as her husband, but she was very seriously affected. She experienced a nauseous taste, like copperas, in her mouth, a tingling in the fingers, and stupor. Soon afterwards she lost the use of her limbs, and was taken to the hospital, where she remained till Wednesday, and was still very ill.

In answer to questions by Mr. Ballantine, the witness said the prisoner certainly called the berries nettleberries. He did not say that he had eaten any of them. The berries were about the size of black currants. After she had vomited, she selected one of the berries which came from her stomach, and observed it contained small seeds of a greenish cast.

He

Thomas Bilby, a post-boy, stated that he saw his fellow-servant buy some berries similar to those produced by Sugg, on Blackfriars Bridge, on Saturday last. also bought some himself; and after eating a few of them, was violently affected and taken to the hospital. He was still very weak. The prisoner is the man of whom he bought them.

Peter Martin, another post-boy, deposed that he also purchased similar berries of the prisoner on Blackfriars Bridge, and was suffering from their deadly effects. He was also taken to the hospital, and nearly lost his life. After

he ate the berries his throat was parched, his limbs were paralyzed, and he went raving mad, but was recovered.

Sugg here stated that other cases had been admitted into two other hospitals.

The prisoner was committed, and tried at the Central Criminal Court, and it being proved that he had. been warned of the deadly nature of the berries he was selling, was found"Guilty," and sentenced to six months' imprisonment, with hard labour.

24. RAILWAY ACCIDENT.-A serious accident occurred on the Brighton and Hastings Railway, about two miles beyond Pevensey. An engine and a train of ballastwaggons were drawn up upon a "siding," but the engineer had neglected to see that the points were turned off; when the halfpast twelve o'clock train from Brighton came up, the enginedriver, seeing the points improperly placed, endeavoured to stop the train, but was unable to do so, as it was going at the rate of twenty miles an hour; and it came into violent collision with the standing train in the siding. The engine and tender were thrown off the rails, iron plates torn and wrenched off, and the massive iron sides of the tender bent and dashed to pieces.

Of forty passengers who were in the train hardly one escaped uninjured. The Rev. Mr. Brown, of Tonbridge, had his leg broken, the fireman of the passenger train was dreadfully burnt and scalded, and the stoker was obliged to have his hand amputated.

THE RHINE AND THE DANUBE. The German papers announce the completion of a gigantic undertaking, which baffled the despotic

energy of Charlemagne and the skill of the best engineers of the middle ages, and which has ever since been considered a good of impossible attainment. The Rhine and the Danube, and consequently the Black Sea and German Ocean, are now united by a canal just completed, called the Ludwigs Kanal," after its creator the King of Bavaria, who has thus realized, in one day, one of the vast conceptions nurtured 800 years ago in the brain of Charlemagne. A vessel of small burden, now sailing from Rotterdam or from London, may carry its cargo through Bavaria, Austria, Hungary, and Wallachia, even to Trebizond and Constantinople; or if she be of large burden, may discharge her cargo at the mouth of the Rhine, and have it transhipped into smaller vessels at little expense.

29. EXTRAORDINARY FORGERY.Captain William Richardson, chairman of the Tenbury, Worcester, and Ludlow Railway Company, was brought up at the Mansion House charged with forgery, under the following extraordinary circumstances. On the 20th of July last, a check for 5,000l. was paid by Coutts and Co., the bankers to the railway company; that check was correctly signed by the chairman, and by Mr. Thomas Stevenson and Mr. William Lechmere Whitmore, two directors; but it had been originally drawn for ten pounds only, such, at least, was the supposition, but during the subsequent examination it did not appear that any erasure or discharge of original writing had taken place; and the probability seemed to be that it was a blank check fraudulently filled up. The matter was put into the hands of Messrs. Bush and Mullens, the solicitors to the com

mittee of bankers for protection against forgeries and frauds; the inquiries of Mr. Bush led him to suspect Captain Richardson, and he gave him into custody. The check, when drawn, was given to the chairman to pay to a certain party: this he declared he had done; but that person told Mr. Bush he had never received it.

Mr. Bush stated that he attended as agent to Messrs. Fry and Co., the agents to the Tenbury, Worcester, and Ludlow Railway Company; and he charged Captain Richardson with having altered the amount of a check originally drawn for 10l. to 5,000l., and with having received and applied to his own use part of the proceeds of the check so altered. The check was drawn on the 7th July. Mr. Hare, a clerk at Coutts's, deposed that he paid the check on the 20th July; he gave five notes of 1,000l. He did not know the person to whom he paid the money. Of course, he had no idea that the check had been altered. Mr. Gimingham, clerk at the Bank of England, gave gold for three 1,000l. notes on the 20th July; the notes were three of those given by Mr. Hare in payment of the check. The person who changed the notes said his name and address were 66 J. Jones, Linen Hall, Dublin." Mr. William Higman, of the Issue Department, corroborated this. As the sum was a large sum for gold, I went to consult Mr. Marshall, the chief cashier. I think I asked the person from whom he had received the notes; indeed, I am certain I asked him; and he said, From Coutts and Company.' I stated this to Mr. Marshall when I took the notes in; and Mr. Marshall requested me to trace to whom the notes had been first issued. I did so, and VOL. LXXXVIII.

found that they had been issued to Coutts and Company. On coming from Mr. Marshall's room, I found the prisoner had left the Bank; and I told Mr. Ager, who reckoned the gold, to fetch him back.

Mr. Ager had not the slightest doubt that the prisoner was the person who changed the notes.

The prisoner did not put any questions to the witnesses.

When the evidence was closed, Alderman Musgrove asked the prisoner if he wished to say anything.

Captain Richardson.-"Mr. Bush can himself bear evidence that I took considerable trouble to ascertain who really did forge this check. I did so as chairman of the company.

Mr. Bush.-"I am open to crossexamination upon my statement; but I now say, that the prisoner and others consulted me on the subject of this forgery; and what took place has led to this result."

A re-examination took place on Tuesday before the Lord Mayor and two Aldermen.

Mr. Pulsford, the secretary of the company, produced the minutebook containing the proceedings of the Board of Directors. Under the date of the 7th July was this entry-" And also that a check for 101. be given to Mr. Howell's messenger for his services," with the initial letters W. R. attached. He found an entry in the checkbook in Captain Richardson's writing-"No. 11, messenger from Mr. Howell, his services, July 10." He received a check for 107., which agreed with two exceptions with the counterfeit, from Captain Richardson, to obtain the signatures of two directors; this he did, and returned the check to Captain Richardson. The forged check had two alterations: the amount K

had been changed, and the figure "1" inserted, making the date 17th July. Mr. Pulsford was at Mr. Bush's offices on Wednesday week, when Captain Richardson said he had delivered the draft to a person with thin mustachios, rather sallow complexion, and thin stature. Mr. Fry, the solicitor to the company, stated that Mr. Whitmore and Mr. Stevenson were travelling.

Mr. Pulsford was recalled, and examined by the solicitor for the prisoner. As a cautious man, (he replied to one question,) he should say he had never seen the identical check for 5,000l. before.

Mr. Coulthurst, a partner in Coutts's bank, deposed to the fact that the accused and the solicitors of the company came to him respecting the forgery. Mr. Coulthurst said to the prisoner, "This is a frightful fraud;" to which he answered, it was. He then said he had drawn the check for 10l., and that it had been altered to 5,000l.; that his signature was genuine, and that he believed the other two were also. He said that the number of the check was in his handwriting, and that all was except the figure 1 and the 5,000l. He said that he had given the check to some person in the employ of an individual on the Stock Exchange.

Mr. Payne, an inspector of notes in the Bank of England, stated that the prisoner, on the 20th of July, applied to him for gold for the notes; stating that the commission for transferring money to Dublin was so heavy that he thought it better to take it over himself. Witness had no doubt of the prisoner's identity.

Two Bank of England porters spoke to the identity of the prisoner

Clerks and policemen stated the result of searches which had been made at the prisoner's residence, in Charlotte Street, Russell Square: in gold, bank notes, and bank postbills, 3,2251. had been discovered in various receptacles.

The prisoner was again remanded.

The accused was again brought up on Wednesday, September 9.

Mr. Skinner, a clerk in the Wexford, Waterford, and Wicklow Railway Company, of which the accused is a director, stated, that one day in August last he received a note for 10001. from Captain Richardson, with a request to take it to the Bank of England and get five hundred sovereigns and 5007.in notes in exchange for it. Witness went to the Bank of England and got it so exchanged; and afterwards delivered the gold and notes to Captain Richardson, at the board-room.

A Bank of England clerk corroborated this.

A number of witnesses deposed to the manner in which the prisoner had changed portions of the gold that he received from the Bank for notes. He obtained notes from the London and County Bank for 8001. From the Bank of England he got notes for a similar amount; the porter who went for

them giving Captain Richardson's name and address. Two other sums of 2001. each were also thus changed.

Mr. Thomas Stevenson, one of the directors of the railway company, who had come from Scotland to attend the examination, spoke to the days when he attended meetings of the directors. He was present on the 7th July. He had no recollection of signing any checks at that meeting, or at any of the subsequent meetings. He remembered receiving a letter from Mr. Pulsford, about June or July, enclosing three checks for his signature-one for 1007., one for 201., and one for 101. He signed those three checks, and returned them to Mr. Pulsford. The witness was shown the check for 5,000l., upon which the charge of forgery is raised, and was asked if the name, "Thomas Stevenson,' was in his handwriting. He believed it was. He gave the same answer respect ing the checks for 1007. and 201. He never recollected signing any checks upon the house of Coutts and Co. which were not filled up. There were signatures to all the three checks sent him by Mr. Pulsford before he signed themat least one or more. He never signed a check upon Coutts and Co. for 5,000l.

Mr. Clarkson, after stating that he had seen blank checks signed by Mr. Stevenson, repeatedly asked the witness if he had ever signed any blank checks.

Mr. Stevenson steadily denied having done so on any occasion.

Mr. Clarkson addressed the magistrates for the prisoner. He contended that there was not the slightest evidence, except some admissions of the accused, that any alteration had been made in the

check: there might have been a fraud, the signatures of Mr. Stevenson and Mr. Whitmore having been obtained to a blank check with a dishonest intention; but that did not constitute forgery. They should hold the prisoner to bail for fraud.

The prisoner was again remanded to Friday the 18th inst., when he was committed for trial on the charge of forgery.

At the ensuing sessions at the Central Criminal Court, September 24th, the Grand Jury ignored the bill against Captain Richardson ; but upon application he was detained until the Grand Jury was discharged, when he also was discharged from custody, no fresh bill being contemplated."

29. SUICIDE.-A person of gentlemanly appearance was taken into custody for attempting to pass a forged 51. note to a jeweller in Oxford Street. In consequence of the police having sent a notification to neighbouring tradesmen to beware of forged notes, a number of jewellers and other shopkeepers came to the station-house, and identified the prisoner as having passed forged notes on them. At midnight, the prisoner committed suicide, by suspending himself with a handkerchief to the grating of his cell, and placing himself in a kneeling posture. Nearly 207. was found on his person in money, a forged 51. note, and several articles of jewellery.

At an inquest, it was shown that the deceased, Charles Walter Thornton, had been Colonel in the East India Company's service, and had recently been in the service of the Indian Overland Transit Company in Egypt. At his lodgings were found more money and a variety of jewellery, some of which was identified by tradesmen who