Mrs. Whip was recalled to iden tify the pills.

Mr.West received the two boxes of pills on Saturday, the 5th of July, and now produced the boxes numbered 1 and 2. He analyzed them by a series of not less than 200 experiments, the result of which was as follows:-The pills No. 1 averaged 24 grains each pill, and were composed of aloes and colocynth, together one grain, but in what proportion he could not ascertain; gamboge half a grain; and cream of tartar three quarters of a grain. There was also a small portion of ginger, but not sufficient to affect the weight. The pills No. 2 averaged three grains each, and contained, of aloes and colocynth, one grain; gamboge one grain and a half; cream of tartar half a grain; and ginger as before.

Cross-examined by Mr. Pollock, -I examined about fifteen pills. The analysis I most rely upon was one of two pills each. I first dissolved them in alcohol, and obtained a yellow colour, which I afterwards verified to be gamboge, There were crystals formed. These proved to be cream of tartar. The aloes I could discover by the taste and smell, which it is impossible to disguise. I know no chymical test to rely upon for the colocynth, I picked out fragments of it from the pills, which I think no chymist could mistake. I first ascertained the ingredients of which the pills were composed, and next the quantities of each ingredient. To ascertain the quantities, I first separated the cream of tartar contained in two pills, by saturating them at a mean temperature, and having thus got rid of the other ingredients, weighed it. The experiment would show rather too little than too much, and I allowed 3-10ths of a grain

I

for waste. I then obtained the gamboge by making a precipitate with sulphate of copper, and am confident there was above half a grain in a pill. There might be three quarters of a grain; a quarter of a grain is on the safe side. believe there was more than a quarter of a grain. There remained one grain for the aloes and colocynth, which I could not separate. The quantities in the pills No. 2 were ascertained by a similar process.

The statement of the prisoner before the coroner, in which he fully admitted having administered the pills, was then put in, together with his letter to the witness. Robson, and read.

James Allen examined.-Is a surgeon in York. Was sent for to attend the deceased on Friday morning, the 28th of June. The prisoner was there. Deceased complained of pains in his head and stomach, and was throwing his arms about very restlessly. He was labouring under a severe confiuent small-pox. His whole body was then in a cold perspiration. He was in a very dangerous state. I apprehended death almost immediately. I inquired into the treatment, and the prisoner told me what had been given him. I returned in two hours. He was then insensible, and died in half an hour after that. Drs. Wake and Balcombe, Mr. Matterson and myself, afterwards opened the body. We examined the stomach and bowels particularly. They were much inflamed, the stomach approaching to mortification in the cardiac. I believe he died of smallpox, most probably aggravated by the treatment with drastic purges which he received. There was an appearance of piles in the rectum,

most probably produced by the same cause. A great proportion of the cases of small-pox which terminate fatally do so on the eighth day. I should not have looked for death on that day in the present case, because the pox was then matured, but if at all, during the secondary fever, between the 11th and 17th days. Drastic purges are decidedly improper, because they lessen the powers of life, already greatly reduced by the disease. The most proper treatment must, in a measure, depend upon the constitution of the patient and the degree of excitement he is under. Morrison's pills are improper, because they tend to depress the powers of life, and to produce inflammation in the stomach and bowels. Giving several doses would, in my opinion, tend to accelerate death. The window being opened on the Friday did no injury.

Mr. Matterson, surgeon of York for twenty-nine years, assisted in examining the body. In smallpox purgatives are to be given with great caution, and of the mildest kind. Gamboge and aloes are not at all proper. The exhibition of them would be very likely to accelerate death.

Dr. Balcombe. The probable cause of the deceased's death was small-pox, heightened by the treatment. Gamboge and colocynth might be taken in small quantities, but he would not administer them at all, especially if fever was high. They would produce inflammation, and might so accelerate death.

Dr. Baldwin Wake.-Has been a physician twenty-six years. Assisted in the post mortem examination of the body. Was struck with the appearance of inflammation in the stomach, so much so, that if he had not known the de

ceased had been labouring under small-pox, he should without hesitation have referred the death to the inflammation alone. He called the attention of the other gentlemen to it at the time. He should have said the inflammation was caused by a virulent poison. If previous inflammation existed, gamboge was of all things most calculated to increase it. There is not much harm in the aloes, but the pulp of the colocynth is an active vegetable poison. Drastic purges are highly improper in small-pox. He attributed the death to the inflammation of the stomach and bowels, and to the strong drastic purges which had been administered.

Mr. Pollock submitted that there was no case to go to the jury, and contended that the charge of felony could not be supported. It mattered not that the prisoner was not a licensed practitioner, especially as there was not only a total absence of malice, but, as was admitted, a most humane and anxious desire to cure and to heal.

The Lord Chief Baron (Lord Lyndhurst) stated, that if any person, whether a licensed medical and surgical practitioner or not, acted ignorantly in administering strong and improper medicines, the law would reach him. He should leave it to the jury to say, whether the death of the deceased was accelerated by the administering of these pills to him by the prisoner; if they found so, the prisoner was guilty of manslaughter.

The prisoner being called upon for his defence, read from a written paper a statement of the cure of his wife and one of his children, when other aid had failed, by those pills, and also receiving benefit from them himself, he was induced

to become an agent for the sale of them, and had been the means of administering benefit to thousands. When the cholera was in York, the deceased was attacked by it, and was very shortly cured by the pills. On these grounds, and from motives of regard to the deceased, he was induced to administer them, and did not believe that they had caused his death.

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Mr. Pollock then called a great number of witnesses for the defendant; among others, the son of Mr. Morrison, the proprietor of the celebrated pills, and Mr. Moat, his partner. The latter admitted, with reluctance, on cross-examination, that the pills did tain gamboge. Among the witnesses were many persons who professed to have received great benefit from them, or to have performed strange cures by means of them. A great many respectable witnesses gave the prisoner the highest character. He was nevertheless found Guilty. The sentence was six months' imprisonment.

MEATH ASSIZES,

JULY 3rd.

Michael Devine, James Slevin, and Patrick M'Kenna, were arraigned, the first for the murder of Thomas Cudden and James Bunn, at Rathkenny, on the 5th of March, 1833, and the other two for inciting him to commit the act. Devine, a miserable-looking man, upwards of 70, apparently labouring under much anxiety, and Slevin, a young man, of about 39, were put on their trial. Patrick M'Kenna was ordered to stand aside for a separate trial.

James Slevin was a tenant of Edward Thomas Hussey, esq., on

his estate of Rathkenny, where he held 100 acres at a rent of something above 2007., which he paid punctually. In 1827, he had a lease of the demesne, house, and garden, granted him, which, it appeared, Mr. Hussey had not a right to do without the concurrence of his son, who, on his part, desired that he and his father should retain a part of the house, the orchard, garden, and some land about the house. Slevin was dissatisfied with this "renewal with reservations." Mr. Hussey offered him some other land at a distance which would soon be out of lease. Slevin refused, and, in 1828, accepted the second lease, which left the Hussey family in possession of part of the house and garden, where they occasionally (and Slevin constantly) resided on terms of a mutually bad understanding. To increase it, they had a quarrel about rent, and Slevin paid it up to the day on an implied fear of his cattle being driven to pound for sale. Further, he had spoken against the tithe system at one of the popular meetings; his speech had been reported to Mr. Hussey, who thereupon told him his mind upon the matter, and informed him, moreover, that he had reported him to Mr. Blackburne, a neighbouring magistrate, who had, in his turn, reported him to the attorney-general. Thus the differences of these joint tenants of one house grew wider every day. Devine was a poor under-tenant on the same estate, who, it was sought to be proved, had been employed by Slevin, with others, to assassinate Mr. Hussey. The murdered James Bunn was steward, and his unfortunate companion an under-tenant to Mr. Hussey. They met their fate in a mistake, under the following singular circumstances: Mr.

Hussey was leaving Rathkenny on a short visit to England, unknown to his tenantry, and on the 5th of March had driven in his gig, with James Bunn, to reach the Monaghan coach at a crossroad, about a mile and a half from his house, where he intended to have left the gig to be brought home by his steward, and to proceed to Dublin in the coach. It appeared, both from the testimony of an approver (John M'Kenna, a tenant on the estate) and from the confession of Michael Devine (written while in gaol, under hope of pardon, held out by a fellowprisoner, an apothecary) that these two wretches, together with a third, named Andrew Callon (escaped to America), had laid in wait behind a hedge for Mr. Hussey on his expected return in the gig, to shoot him with a blunderbuss, which they said they got with the requisite ammunition, from James Slevin. Mr. Hussey had, however, missed the coach at the cross-roads, and had driven on with his steward three miles and a-half further to Slane, where he overtook the coach, and proceeded to Dublin, leaving the gig to the care of James Bunn, who returned in the dark of the evening to the house at Rathkenny, taking with him for company the tenant, Thomas Cudden, whom he called for at his house as he passed. The assassins seeing two men returning in the gig, who they had no doubt were the same that went in it a few hours before (though the darkness prevented them from distinguishing their faces), fired the blunderbuss at them heavily loaded with slugs, and at one shot killed both their victims, conceiving they had thus destroyed at once the obnoxious landlord and his no less hated steward. The alarmed horse

dashed on with the gig and the murdered men to the house, where Slevin and the servants found them both quite dead, Bunn pierced with fourteen slugs and Cudden with five (which five (which were subsequently extracted by Dr. O'Brien, and exhibited in court), besides others lodged in the lining and cushions.

The principal circumstances, which appeared to connect James Slevin with the transaction besides those already mentioned, were-1st, his positively denying (at the time he was arrested, and gave up his arms to George Despard, esq., stipendiary magistrate) that he had at any time any other arms than those of which he gave a list. concealing the fact of the blunderbuss having ever been in his possession, though it was afterwards proved that he purchased it at Truelock's shop in Dublin, sent it to the Navan coach-office, and finally lent it to Andrew Callon (the escaped assassin) by the hands. of John M'Kenna (the approver), whose son afterwards gave it up to the magistrates. This latter fact of the loan, however, rested on the testimony of the approver alone; 2nd, the anxiety displayed by Slevin respecting Mr. Hussey's return in the gig, or otherwise. Carney (Mr. Hussey's driver) stated that he saw James Slevin in the course of the day; he came to the door of Rathkenny-house, and asked witness if he could see Bunn. Wit ness called Bunn. Slevin asked him, when he came, could he see Mr. Hussey? Bunn asked Slevin would he tell Mr. Hussey that he wanted to speak to him? Slevin replied that he had heard among the men that Mr. Hussey was going to England and all he wished to know was, whether it was true, or was he to come back

in the gig that evening. Bunn told him that Mr. Hussey would come back that evening, and that he was not going to England.

Devine made no defence. Slevin produced E. Grainger and A. H. Pollock, esqrs., magistrates, who gave him an excellent character.

The chief approver, John M'Ken. na, on his cross-examination by Serjeant O'Loghlin, acknowledged that he heard of money being offered for information. Heard there was 1,000l. offered. Would rather shoot Mr. Hussey than get 1,000l. Would shoot six men to save his land. Would not kill 1,000 men to save his own life; after some hesitation, he said he would kill 500 men to save his own life. Believed there was a God. Knew he was forbidden to commit murder, and yet he would kill two men, at all events, to save seventeen acres of land. Would not swear falsely against any one, but would commit murder to save his seventeen acres of land. Would rather take a false oath than be hanged.

The jury retired, and returned in about half an hour saying, they agreed as to one of the prisoners, but could not agree as regarded the other. They were locked up all night, and on the following day found Slevin Not Guilty, and Devine Guilty.

SUMMER ASSIZES, WESTERN CIRCUIT, JULY 22, 23, 24, and 25.

Doe Dem. Wollaston, v. Barnes.

Forgery of a Will.

This was an ejectment brought by the coheirs at law, against an alleged devisee: and the question was whether or not a clergyman of the name of Clavell had made a will, by which he had devised es

tates of the value of upwards of 2,000l. a-year to the defendant, who was his bailiff at the time.

Sir James Scarlett, in support of the will, called the following witnesses:

Mrs. Elizabeth Churchill.-I am a widow. My husband had been a silversmith in Dorsetshire. I had three children, William, Frances, and Elizabeth. My daughters and myself kept a school in Dorchester. It was discontinued on account of the ill-health of my daughter Frances. I knew Mrs. Richards and Mrs. Frampton. In 1830, I received a letter from Mrs. Richards, the sister of Mr. Clavell, which was brought by Mr. Voss, who was bailiff and tenant to Mr. Clavell.

(A letter of the 12th April, 1830, was read, in which Mrs. Richards begged Mrs. Churchill to go to Mr. Clavell as his housekeeper.) That letter was delivered to me at Salisbury, and I went the next morning to Smedmore (Mr. Clavell's house). My youngest daughter was then in Salisbury, and my eldest at Sherborne, as a private governess. In about eight weeks after, Mr.Clavell told me to invite my daughters to come and see me. My daughters came in a week or a fortnight after. They stayed a month. While they were there, I heard of a school at Corfe. I took that school for my daughters. My eldest daughter, in September, 1831, became ill, and Mr. Clavell desired me to invite her again to Smedmore, where she recovered very slowly. Mr. Clavell was very kind to her. Mr. Clavell then slept in what is now called the muniment room. February, 1831, he removed into the alcove room. When I first went, no one was permitted to go into his bed-room. He made his own bed. When he removed to

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