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THE LATE POISONINGS AT LAUGHARNE.

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THE LATE POISONINGS AT LAUGHARNE. greatest excitement continues to prevail in this little village, in consequence of the recent disclosures relative to tile poisoni i-gs by arsenic. It will be remembered that G.bbs, the cook in the family of Mr. T. Severne, stands a reai y committed for the wilful murder of one of her fe low-si rvants. The inquest on the body of Mrs. Severne which bad been exhumed, and in which Mr. Herapath. of Bristol, found traces of arsenic, has been again adjonrne l for the production of expected material evidence. At the inqutrv at the Globe. Lant'harne, before the coroner, a "reHt deal of evidence was given, but, in addition to the facts which have already appeared in our columns, the following briel summary contains everything elicited of any interest. Mr. Hughes, slIrgeon, in deposing to the appea.ances presented on the past mortem examination of the body. said that 011 the inner coat of the stomacn lie found a brown fluid, but ro traces of lood tiieie was also inflammation of ilio curvature of the stomach. He believed that death had been caused by the administration of arsenic. Severne deposed that his wife had been subject to bilious attacks. On the Friday or Saturday before her death she was unwell and took some rahbit broth. which he had no doubt was prepared hy the co k (the pr souer Gibb-) Afterwards she complained of being very weak and bad and went to bed. On the Sunday morning she seemed better, and expressed a ",i,h to go to Church with him, but as she had been poorly the day be'ore, he thought she had better not do so until the afternoon. lie ordered a cup of tea to be prepared and sent up to her; it wan made iu the kitchen, and 110 doubt by G bbs. He went to Church, and left Gibbs in the house with no other servant but all old Oian he employed about his farm. On his return home, he louud Mrs. Severne very much worse, and he asked her if she had taken anything that di-ajreed with her. She re- plted tliat she had taken nothing but gruel and broth. Gibbs had been waiting on her. He found Gibbs up-stairs with her when he went home, ami he saw her go up and down her when he went home, ami he saw her go up and down several times. He ascribed her illness to a b lious attack. Gibbs made her some more tea. Aftet that she was sick, and vomited a good deal of matter of a yellow colour. Her bowels were also very much affected, and she complained of pains in her stomach and head. Towards five or six o'clock in the evening she began to get very cold, and her body assumed a blue appearance, which frightened him very much. He had previously, vevt his boy for Nlr. Hamilton, the surgeon, but he now mounted his horse and rode alter him himseK He tried to give her some castor oil, ) ut .he could not swallow it. Site was frothing at the mouth. During the ni-ht she died. lie had no arsenic about his farm for two months. Two months ago he used so ne to poison rats, and his impression was that some of it had been left in the house. It yullow arsenic. He had searched diligently to find the remains, but could not; but in the store-room he found a paper of sugar of lead. He could not tell how it came there. Mary Lewis, all old woman who used to do odd jobs about the house, was examined with a view of ascertaining who ther she had purchased any arsenic from a druggist named Davis, at Langhiirne. but she denied positively having ever bought anything of the kind. She had no rats in the house to destroy. Mrs. Davis, on being called, said that the last witness used frequently to come to their shop and buy things. About the month of March last, and certainly not latertilin April, she cime and bought a packet of white arsenic, aud said it was to kill some rats in her house. Witness labelled it -1 Poison," and cautioned her respecting it. John Lewis, son of the old woman, Mary Lewis, who gave his evidence very reluctantly, deposed that the cook Gibbs was frequently in the habit ot coming to his mother's hou.-e of an evening, lie had carried things from his mother's house to her, but he did not know what they were. Ann Beynon, a servant III the house, deposed that she had heard Gibbs say file would not submit to be ordered about by Mrs. Severne, and she had frequently heard her answer her mistress improperly. She was also anxious that no one should wait on Mrs. Severne but herself. She had heard Gibbs speak about being married to her master, and she had said that when she was Mrs. Severue she would give witness a plaid gown of hers. Mary Ilowell deposed that she had heard Gibbs, when •peaking of an old servant, named William, say, "The old devil, he wanted to thrust me out, like the rest; but they shall go from here before me, the same way that mistress did." Witness said, "What makes thee think that, Betty?" She replied, The devil i« here every night putting me to sleep." She had also spoken of her master as her dear master, and said that he had wanted her to take his arm and go for a walk with him. Mary Lewis and Mrs. Davis were both recalled. The former having been cautioned, persisted in her denial of having purchased any arsenic, but Mrs. Davis as strongly affirmed that she was the woman to whom she had sold a packet of white arsenic.—The inquest was then adjourned. THE FRIMLEY MURDER. FKIMLEY, MONDAY.—This morning having been ap- pointed for the interment of the remains of the Rev. Mr. Holiest, the inhabitants and villagers uf the surrounding districts flocked into Frimley at an early hour, anxious to testify their respect for the memory of the deceased gentle- man. The funeral was fixed to take place at 11 o'clock. By desire of the family, the ceremony was conducted in as private a manner as possible, but the melancholy circum- stances attending the death of the unfortunate gentleman, aud the very general respect entertained for his character throughout the district over which his ministration estend- ( ed, had the effect of attracting a very large concourse of ipectators, the feelings of many of whom were no less pain- Fully excited than those of the relatives of the deceased. The funeral procession left the vicarage at five minutes ( ifter I) o'ctock, preceded by the officiating clergyman, the < Rev. J. Cliyton. lector of Farnborough, in his clerical 'obes. The medical attendants of the deceased, Mr. Clark, )f Farnham, and Mr. Davies, of York Town, came next, and vere succeeded by the servants of the family. The coffin iontaining the remains of the deceased, borue by 12 respect- ive tradesmen of the village of Frimley, followed, and hen came the mourners, of whom there were but four viz. he two youthful sons of the deceased, aud his two brothers Mr. Lee Williams and .Mr. William Holiest. About 50 boys • ind Irirls belonging to the village school followed behind the church is se.irceiy JUU i r procession at the sacred edifice the coffin was conveyed into the church, and placed upon trestles in front of the altar, I while the appointed portion of the burial service was pro- ceeded with. The coffin was afterwards reconveyed into the churchyard, and deposited in the vault, when the con- cluding portion of the service was read, and the mourners retired. Among the resident c ergy and gentry present we observed Mr. John Tickeil, of Frimley-grove; Air. J. F. Burrell. of Frimley; the liev. Gilbert Heatbcote, rector of Ash the Rev. John Laurel, curate of Cove, 8cc. Nothing of importance, calculated to lead to the detection of the as-assins, has been discovered up to the present time. Sergeant Kendall, of the London detective force, is actively engaged in investigating the affair on the spot, and the local superintendents 01 the Guildford and Godalming police, Mr. Hxllingtou and Mr. Biddlecombe, have not relaxed in their exertions. On Sunday afternoon the camlet cloak be- longing to the deceased gentleman, which was among the article. stolen, wis tound iu a ditch near the spot where the masks and the retinitis of the bread and meat were dis- covered. Uufoi'tuuitelv, this discovery gives no clue as to "hat has becoin,- of the remaining porti jn of the property, upon the finding of which tiiere is too much reisou to fear the convictioa oi' the assassins depend*. A great deal has been said as t,) the wjnt of an efficient rural police in the neighb mrliood where this tragedy has taken plac, The fact, however, is that there is no police at all. The county of Surrey is one of those districts of England which either will not or cannot afford to support a loi-al constabulary. Aft,r fhi:, who emi wonder at the commission of cri-ne in the district? Tne only police in Sutrfey are the few constable* whom encii of the principal towns support for their own safety and protec:iou. RETURN OF THE EXPEDITIONS IN SEARCH OF SIR JO .IN FRANKLIN. The accounts which have been received from the three ex- peditions which left England last summer, in search of Sir John Franklin, will be read with melancholy interest. Traces of the missing ships have, at last, been found in two places at the entrance of the Wellington Channel; but beyond an improbable story of their destruction hv the ice, in 184G, and of the subsequent murder of their crews by the Bsquitaaux, nothing has betMi ascertained which throws the 'aintest light upon their fate. The story of their destrue- ion, it unexplaned, is calculated to excile painful appre- leus ons ill the minds of surviving relative*, and it may herefore, be well to examine it in detail. On the 13th of August, some natives were dLeov^red tin the ice, near Cape York; with whom it wa< thought de-irable to communicate. Several officers of the different expeditions, which had unex- pectedly met near the spit a few days previously, were iespatclied upon this service, and were HCi-ompanied by Sir John Ross's Esquimaux interpreter. With this man the Datives entered into a long and earnest conversation; but, as he was unacquainted with the English tongue, he was unable to couvmiuicate the intelligence he had received, until he was taken on board the Intrepid, the steward of which understood something of his lan^ua^e. The steward's interpretation revealed the startling tie- that, in the win- ter of 184G. when the snow Wit. falling, two ship* were broken up by the ice about 40 miles off. in the direction of Wolstenholme Biy, and were nlterwarcis burned by a large and savage tribe of natives; that a part t,r the crews were drowned, and that the remainder lived for some time in tent< apart from the nttives, who ultimately took advan- tage of their weak and exhiusttd cotitli,io;i to kill them with darts or arrow*. Tlti, information was considered of such importance that Ca;>t. Austin determined at once to test its truth by confronting the E quimaus with Mr. Patersen, the Danish interpreter attached to Capt. Penny's ship, the Irdy Franklin. The result Wit., that the Danish interpretratiou of the narra iv* was totally different from that of the ft'vard of the Intrepid, though the latter ap- pears afterward* to hare stoutly maintained the accuracy of his version. What the Danixh aceount was is nowhere mated in the desp.tfch-s. but it left no df) fbt on the tnindt of the different captains thar the sole foundation for the story was the fact that the North Star had wintered in the place refe red to. This fact, indeed, had been ascertained while the investigation of the interpreters was pending and it is now confirmed by the arrival of the North Star herself, which reached Portsmouth on Saturday. All the other det iils were regarded by the officer* or the different expeditions as proceeding either from a fabrication on the part of the native*, or fiorn a misconception on the part of the interpreter. It is satisfactory to add that every nautical man in the metropolis who is acquainted with the Arctic regions, concurs in declaring that the circumstantial narra- A tive carries with it its o"n refutation. The E quimaux of the region* mentioned, arc neNer, it appears, met with in numbers suflicient to overpower even a scanty crew; they have, moreover, ne ther daits nor arrows, and are by no mentis of a savage disposit on. It appears, also that the statement of the ship's destruction while the snow was falling, i* altogether ut variance with the experience of Arctic navigators, us the ice a' that st-a,oii is always immov- able. and the fhipo must have been frozen in for the winter without ti,e slightest chance "f such a casualty. Since the arriva) of tlte North Star with the despatches on which we have commented, the Prince Ali>e; t, un ler Capt. For-yth, has returned t,1 Aberdeen. From her we le tru ihat at Cape Rilev and at Beeciiy Iilaud, at the entrance to Wellington Chatiuel, which, as our read«riwill remember, Sir James Ross last year failed to reach, Capt. Ommatu-y and Cap;. Forsyth discovered traces of encampmeu s wtrch had evi- dently been occupies by Sir John Franklin. After explor- ing as far as Fnry Beach, a point not reached by any vessel fir nearly 20 years, and afier examining the whole of the coasts of Baffin's lViy without finding any other tr ices of the missing expedition, Capt. Forsyth found it impossible to effect tne exploration of Priuce Regent's Inlet, and was compelled by the advancing winter to return home. The American vessels had not been more successful than the English, but were left working up Wellington Channel with the ships under Capt. Austin and Capt. Penny. It was ex- pected that Sir John Rosa would shortly be obliged to re- turn to England, and that Capt. Austin's expedition would be the only one which would attempt to winter in the ice. — Garde ne is' Chronicle.

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T~A F F V A L li RAILWAY.

GREAT WEST EliX RAILWAY. J

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