—The Coroner: How old were those two boys?—
Witness: One was seventeen and the other twenty-
one.—The Coroner: Did you all sleep in one bed?—
Witness: Addison and my cousin slept in one bed, the
two boys in another on the floor, and myself in another
bed on the floor.—Then altogether there were six persons
of both sexes sleeping in the room. What were the
names of the boys, and who were they?—The witness
said she did not exactly know their names. They were
the sons of Mrs. Hailes. The witness was asked whether
she had not a child two years old sleeping with her?—
The witness said she had. (Great sensation in court.)—
The Coroner: Then why did you keep that back?—
Was that illegitimate like the rest?—Witness said it
was.—Caroline Hailes, the mother, gave nearly a similar
account of finding the child dead in the morning, and
was asked by the Coroner if she considered this a fit state
of living in?—She said she believed it was usual with
poor persons. She was examined at some length, but
her answers were only a corroboration of the testimony
of the last witness.—William Addison, the father, was
next called, and, in addition to the above, stated that the
whole six had, in different places, slept in the room for
the last two years.—The foreman of the jury: Now,
mind what you swear. When you lived in Little
Serle's-place, had you not an old woman residing in the
same room?—Witness replied he had, but she was dead.
—The Coroner: Then that made seven of both sexes.—
The house physician at King's College Hospital,
examined the body of the child when it was brought there.
He attributed death, not to suffocation, but to a want of
free air, under which the child gradually sank and died.
—The Coroner observed that never in his life had he
heard of such a gross case of immorality as had that day
been placed before him.—The jury found "That the
deceased died accidentally from a want of free air, and
had gradually sank."

A serious Mutiny occurred in the Mersey on the 6th,
on board the New York packet-ship Queen of the West.
When the crew were mustered for the outward voyage,
there were only twenty-six hands; the seamen held
that there should be thirty; grumbling ensued, and
symptoms of insubordination. The Master, Mors, a
German, seized one man by the collar; immediately
several of the crew fell foul of him, knocked him down,
and beat him with handspikes and belaying-pins. Mors
got away and fetched a revolving pistol, which he
attempted to fire at one of the men, but it missed fire.
Again the crew attacked the master; but eventually
they were quelled by the master and mates using cut-
lasses with great freedom, inflicting numerous wounds,
and nearly cutting off the arm of one of the men. The
master then tied up a seaman and flogged him.
Subsequently, eleven of the crew were taken ashore by the
police to Liverpool; but as the riot took place on the
Cheshire shore, the prisoners were sent to Birkenhead.
On the 8th nine of the men were produced before the
Birkenhead magistrates; two were in the hospital, and
others were much hurt. The master stated his case,
and witnesses were called to corroborate the statement.
Mors admitted that he had twice appeared before the
authorities at New York on charges of ill-treating
passengers, and that he had been fined in small sums on
those occasions. Witnesses called on the part of the
men stated that the master committed the first assault.
The magistrates convicted the seamen of assault: they
sentenced one to pay a fine of £ 5, three to pay £ 3 each,
and the others to pay costs; with imprisonments, in
default, varying in extent from two months to fourteen
days.

Messrs. Wilson, omnibus proprietors on a very large
scale, having for some time suspected that their conductors
have Robbed them, hired a man to ride in certain
omnibuses and count the number of passengers on a journey.
This led to the detection of embezzlement; some
of the conductors not accounting at the end of the
journey for the full number of passengers. Three
delinquents have been convicted at the Middlesex sessions,
and sent to prison for a year. It was stated that since
the commencement of the proceedings against the
culprits, Messrs. Wilson's receipts had increased £ 80 a
week.

A Commission of Lunacy has been held to inquire
into the state of mind of Mr. John Price, a Chancery
prisoner in the Queen's Bench Prison. Mr. Price is a
gentleman of Margate; he is eighty-four years old, and
blind. He has property to the extent of £ 80,000. Nine-
teen years ago he lent money to a Mr. Darby, on
mortgage of property at Broadstairs; in 1849, Mr. Price
refused to receive the interest from Mr. Darby, claimed
the property as his own, and would give no account.
Mr. Darby made an application in Chancery; Mr. Price
refused to obey an order to render accounts, and he
was committed for contempt. His son obtained this
commission that his father might be released. It
appeared from the evidence, that for eight or nine years
past the old gentleman has exhibited tokens of insanity.
Without the least cause, he had an ill-feeling against
his son, and declared that he was constantly attempting
to kill him by throwing poison on his bed clothes; he
also averred that he received electric shocks from his
son, even at times when the son was not near him. Old
Mr. Price hung his bed-clothes and his dress out of
window, or before the fire, to dry the supposed liquid
poison thrown upon them. He said other persons were
in league with his son; and he had padlocks put on his
door to keep out the "poisoners," but he found them
useless, for "the devil got through the keyhole."
When the jury visited the unfortunate gentleman in
the prison, he exhibited great shrewdness in parrying
or answering some of the questions put; he denied
several of the statements that had been made to prove
his madness, but others of his replies were sufficient to
show his unhappy condition. The jury found that he
had been of unsound mind since October 1843.

A shocking Murder of a Child has been committed at
Boyn-hill, a village near Maidenhead, in Berkshire. A
labouring man, named John Cannon, has, for the last
two years, taken as a lodger a relative of his wife,
named Isaac Lee, who has always shown certain indications
of weak intellect. On Tuesday morning, the 16th,
having been left in the house with a little girl about
four years of age, a granddaughter of John Cannon's,
he cruelly murdered the poor child, it is supposed, by
knocking its head against the floor, and afterwards
kicking it about the room. He was taken before the
magistrates for the borough of Maidenhead, and
committed for trial at the next assizes for murder.

At the Lewes Assizes, on the 20th, Sarah Anne French
was tried for the Murder of her Husband. It was proved
that the prisoner, a young woman of 27, had conceived
a criminal attachment to a young man, named Hickman,
and had poisoned her husband, in order that she
might marry her paramour. Hickman was one of the
witnesses, and his evidence showed a profligate
intercourse between the prisoner and himself; but it did
not appear that there were any circumstances which
rendered him an accessory to the murder. In the course
of the examination for the prosecution, the son of the
prisoner was introduced as a witness. The prisoner
turned her head and looked at him for a moment, and
then burst into tears. In answer to preliminary
questions that were put to him by Mr. Creasy, he
said he was eight years old. He had only once been to
chapel. He had been taught some prayers, but he did
not know the Lord's Prayer. He did not know what
happened to people who took an oath to tell the truth
and told a lie. It was a wicked thing to tell a lie. He
was aware that something would be done to wicked
people who told lies, after they were dead, but he did
not know what it was. Mr. Baron Parke, upon this,
said he did not think the boy understood sufficiently
the moral obligations of an oath to be examined, and
he was accordingly removed without being sworn. The
woman was convicted and sentenced to death, the Judge
telling her that she must entertain no hope of mercy. The
young man Hickman was in court when the sentence
was given, and he heard his wretched paramour ordered
for execution without betraying the slightest emotion.

At the same Assizes, Charlotte Larkin, a widow,
was indicted for the Manslaughter of a Child ten months
old. This was one of those cases so frequently occurring
in the country, where the deaths of children have been
occasioned by the administration of narcotics sold under
different names to the poorer classes, for the purpose of
"soothing " their children. In the present instance it