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same weapon. A coroner's inquest was held the same afternoon, to inquire into the deaths of those unhappy persons, Jeremiah Spence Stark, aged 23, and Helen, his wife who had not attained her 16th year.

Hannah Baxter.—The deceased, Helen Stark, was my sister. My sister would have been 16 years of age in May next. My sister and her husband have been married twelve months and four days. Wit. ness was in the back kitchen about half-past 7 o'clock, and her sister and her husband were in the front kitchen. She heard a scream, which was succeeded by a heavy fall in the front kitchen. Witness proceeded to the front kitchen, and saw her sister lying upon the floor, bleeding from her throat. Her brotherin-law was looking at his wife, with a carving-knife in his hand, in the act of cutting his own throat. My sister was on her hands and knees, with a shovel in one hand and a brush in the other, as if she had been busy at the fire when I first saw her. I fancied that my brother-in-law had cut my sister's throat, because he was in the act of cutting his own, and I ran up stairs and alarmed my father. The next time I saw my sister my father had her head in his hand at the foot of the stairs. Just at that spot there was a very large pool of blood, and I have no doubt she had fallen there from exhaustion and loss of blood. could not speak then.

She

Mr. Robert Baxter, the father of the deceased Helen Stark, deposed. My daughter has been married to Jeremiah Spence Stark about twelve months. They have lived in my house ever since. I have partly maintained both during that time. The conduct

of Stark to my daughter has been very unkind for several months past. Previous to that I heard no complaints respecting him. Yesterday morning my daughter told me, in the presence of my wife, that her husband had been very harsh in his conduct towards her, and had turned her out of bed for three successive nights, and accused her of being unkind to him. That was the first time she made any complaint to me, but she had previously made repeated complaints to her mother of his ill-usage. I requested my daughter to sleep in a room by herself, and promised to expostulate with her husband on his unkindness. Witness further stated circumstances showing an unhappy state of mind on the part of the husband, and to the circumstances attending the catastrophe.

Christian Kerr Temperley said he was on friendly terms with the deceased couple. He had observed the deceased, Jeremiah Stark, frequently intoxicated of late, and he came home intoxicated on Monday and Tuesday night. The deceased had appeared very sullen and reserved in his demeanour for some time past.

Stark had shown great sullenness on learning the arrangement that his wife should sleep in another room.

The Jury, after a short deliberation, returned a verdict that "The deceased Jeremiah Spence Stark killed his wife while labouring under insanity, and that he afterwards inflicted a wound upon himself while in the same state, of which he instantly died."

16. MURDER IN DRURY LANE.— Shortly after six o'clock in the morning the inhabitants of Pitt's Place, a narrow paved court leading from Drury Lane to Great

Wild Street, were alarmed by the report of a pistol from the house No. 4 in that place, the first-floor and cellar of which were occupied by James Bostock, in his trade as a working brass and gun-metal founder. The first person whose attention seems to have been particularly attracted by the circumstance was a man named Parsons, who occupied the second floor of the same house. Hearing the discharge of a pistol while in the act of dressing himself, he descended to the ground-floor for the purpose of discovering whence it had been fired. On reaching the passage at the foot of the stair-case, he stumbled over what appeared to be the body of a man, and on opening the street-door he at once discovered Bostock stretched upon the ground apparently lifeless, with a stream of blood issuing from one of his ears. Assistance was procured, and the wounded man was conveyed to King's College Hospital, where it was ascertained that a bullet had penetrated through the ear and still remained within the skull. Bostock lingered in a perfectly senseless state until four o'clock in the afternoon. Suspicion immediately fell upon Thomas Wicks, apprenticed to the deceased. On Saturday preceding Wicks was sent by the deceased to one of his customers to obtain payment of a small bill, amounting to 15s. or thereabouts. Wicks obtained the money, and on his return home informed his master that he had had the misfortune to lose 11s. out of the amount; he begged the deceased to allow him to make up the loss by payments of 2s. 6d. a week to be deducted out of his wages. This, however, the deceased objected to do; and, further, he expressed his determination to deduct the whole sum from VOL. LXXXVIII.

the wages due to Wicks on Saturday night, a determination which he carried into effect. This circumstance is supposed to have created a rancorous feeling against his master in the mind of Wicks, the more so as the parties are described to have lived generally on very indifferent terms. It was the custom of Wicks to knock up his master about six o'clock every morning, in order to obtain admission to the workshop. He is supposed to have done this in the morning as usual, as the widow of the deceased stated that it was in answer to a single knock at the door that her husband, who had just breakfasted, descended the staircase from their apartments on the first floor. The report of the pistol almost immediately followed the opening of the door, and from the position in which deceased was found, it is conjectured that the assassin had watched the opportunity afforded by the deceased turning round to proceed up stairs in order to take his deadly aim. It was immediately ascertained that Wicks had absconded, and the inquiries of the police elicited that he had about a week before purchased some gunpowder at an oil-shop, when he produced a pistol and some bullets. The police were immediately on the alert, and the prisoner was arrested in the afternoon. It appeared that after the commission of the murder the prisoner had gone to Gravesend, but, unable to rest, had returned to the scene of his crime, and going to a coffee-shop he was in the habit of frequenting was there immediately arrested. The prisoner was tried on the 26th of February, convicted, and executed on the 30th of March. His conduct exhibited a very brutal insensibility to his guilt, for he seemed to be really persuaded that the treatD

ment he had received was a full great pecuniary embarrassment. justification of his act. M. Horeau had been in the habit of rising about seven o'olock in the morning, and usually took down stairs with him one of the twin infants, (a boy and a girl,) who slept in the same bed with him and the mother. This morning, upon dressing himself, he so took the female child with him, leaving the male infant in bed with the mother. In a few minutes the mother was alarmed by a loud shrieking, and went to the upper room; upon opening the door she was met by the younger boy, who immediately ran bleeding down stairs, at the bottom of which he fell apparently lifeless; on entering the room, Mrs. Horeau saw her unfortunate husband in the act of cutting his own throat, and before she could interpose he had fallen down a corpse. On looking farther she discovered her eldest son dead in the bed, but could not perceive any trace of her infant child, who was, however, shortly afterwards discovered drowned in the rain-butt. No doubt the unfortunate father proceeded to the garden instantly on leaving his bedroom, and having drowned the child, then ascended to the children's room, where he perpetrated the other murders, committing suicide the moment an alarm was raised. A coroner's inquest was held upon the bodies, when the Jury returned a verdict, "That the two children' were wilfully murdered by Philarete Horeau, who afterwards destroyed his own life, he being at the time in a state of temporary insanity, produced by extreme privation and want."

FRIGHTFUL MURDERS AND SUICIDE. At the very same moment that the murder above recorded was perpetrated, another dreadful tragedy was enacting at another part of the town. Shortly after seven A. M. the neighbourhood of Southampton Street, Camberwell, was alarmed by the frantic screams of a woman who had just made her escape by the back-door of No. 5, Wellington Place, a small cottage residence, only two stories high. As Mr. Docaro, a neighbour, was taking down his shutters he was alarmed by screams proceeding from the house occupied by M. Horeau. The front door being fastened, he made his way in by a back-door, when a horrible scene was presented. In an upper room, upon the floor, lay the lifeless body of M. Philarete Horeau, a Frenchman, aged fifty-three, with his throat cut from ear to ear; on the bed, his son, aged thirteen, quite dead, shockingly mutilated about the throat; and in a lower room, another son, aged eleven, with his throat cut, a wound on the cheek, and his hand much lacerated, who was at first supposed to be dead, but afterwards showed some symptoms of life, though unable to articulate or give the least account of the dreadful catastrophe; and in a short time afterwards, a female child, aged eight months, was found dead in a water-butt which stood in the garden, but having no wounds whatever about its person. It appeared the unfortunate man had resided at No. 5 for nearly the last twelvemonth, supporting his family as a teacher of languages; but this mode of existence had been so precarious, that for some time past they had suffered extreme privation and

The younger son, who was so dreadfully injured, ultimately recovered.

18. FIRE IN LIVERPOOL. A most destructive fire commenced

about one o'clock in the afternoon, in a large warehouse in the vicinity of St. George's Dock, and in what is called the Back Goree, at the rear of a large pile of warehouses which, about twenty years ago, were destroyed by a similar conflagration. The flames spread with amazing rapidity; and although the fire-engines of the town exerted themselves to the utmost, in a few hours the entire was destroyed. It was now thought that the fire was completely subdued, but unfortunately, at seven o'clock it burst forth in the adjoining warehouse with great fury, and this also was totally consumed. The warehouse in which the fire commenced was heavily stored with cotton, corn, and flour. In the cellar was a large quantity of tallow and rum, which were saved by flooding them. The other warehouse was filled with cotton and sugar. In one story of this building there was East India and Mauritius sugar to the value of 10,000l., the property of the Messrs. Crossfield, of which not a single bag was saved. The amount of property destroyed, including buildings and merchandise, is estimated at upwards of 150,0007.

WESTMINSTER ELECTION.This being the most important city election consequent on the Ministerial arrangements, as that for South Notts was the principal county contest, it excited equal interest. It will be remembered that at the general election Captain Rous suddenly came forward on the Conservative interest, and, contrary to all expectation, inflicted a decisive defeat upon his opponent in this stronghold of liberal opinions. Among the changes and promotions following the resignation of some of the members of

Sir Robert Peel's ministry, which accompanied his announcement of his financial and political views, Captain Rous had been appointed one of the Lords of the Admiralty, and his acceptance of office having vacated his seat, a re-election became necessary. His former antagonist immediately came forward

to oppose him. The show of hands was declared to be in favour of Captain Rous, and a poll was thereon demanded by the other party. Sir De Lacy Evans took the lead from the first, gradually increased his advantage, and was returned by a considerable majority; a considerable number of Captain Rous' former supporters viewing the changes of policy he advocated with decided disapprobation, others standing neutral. The following statement of the poll during every hour was issued by Captain Rous' committee:

o'Clock. Evans. Rous.

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This election was attended with circumstances which gave to it great interest. The position of the Earl of Lincoln, the son of the Duke of Newcastle, the great proprietor of the county, in respect to the Government of which he is an influential member, and his adhesion to the policy of the Premier, while his venerable father remained a firm adherent to the cause of "Protection," gave rise to an embarrassing position, which caused great concern to the friends of both. The canvass of the noble earl in opposition to the declared wishes of his father, and to the presumed opinions of the agricultural interest of the county, must have been highly embarrassing; although it was understood to have caused no breach of parental or filial affection. As, moreover, this was the most important county election to which the recent Ministerial arrangements would give rise, the eyes of all parties were fixed upon the result. The opponent of the noble earl, Mr. Hildyard, came forward on the Tory and Protection interest. As will appear from the following statement, the poll rapidly turned against the Ministerial candidate in almost every polling place. It is understood that neither party made any exertion on the second day, the majority on the first day having decided the election.

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WRECK OF THE GREAT LIVERPOOL. The Great Liverpool, a steam-ship of great burden and power, running between Southampton and Alexandria, and forming one of the noble squadron belonging to the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, was unfortunately wrecked on the coast of Gallicia, near Corunna. At four o'clock in the morning, whilst steering N.N.E., with a strong wind from the S.S.W., and a heavy sea running, and about seven to ten miles from Cape Finisterre, the weather thick, dark, and hazy, the ship going about ten knots an hour, she struck upon a shoal or rock, and made so much water in the engine-room that she soon became unmanageable from the fires being put out; and consequently drifting towards the land, grounded in a small sandy shoal, called "Guros," about one league and a half to southward of Corcubion, where she lay with her head to the southward, broadside on the beach, at the distance of three hundred

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