At Pointon, near Falkingham, on Saturday week, Eliza Christian, an
infant twenty weeks old, was shot by her brother, a lad twelve years of age. He was left in the care of his sister, and whilst amusing himself with a loaded gun, it went off, and killed the child upon the spot. The boy, fearful of being punished, attempted to put the body on the fire, with a view of inducing a belief that the child had been ac- cidentally burnt to death ; and being unable to do so, from their being a pot on the fire, lie stuffed the body under toe fire-grate, and burnt a hole in it with hot cinders. The Coroner's Jury returned a verdict of " Accidental death."
A boy committed suicide the other day at Haslemere, in Berkshire. Tying a stable-halter round his neck, and throwing the end over a beam, he caught hold of it with his hands, and thus strangled himself.
Some of the ignorant, misguided poor, in the neighbourhood of Okehampton, have entertained a prejudiced motion of the recently formed Union of Parishes under the new Poor-law Act. We hear that they foolishly sought a remedy for their supposed grievances in the burning of a barn and a farm-house ; fortunately, however, the latter was saved by prompt assistance. They blocked up all the thorough. fares to the town of Okehampton ; hence it may be said to be in a state of siege. Application has, however, been made to Sir Wil- loughby Cotton for soldiery ; and, yesterday morning, a detachment from the depot of the Thirty-sixth Regiment marched at an early hour from Devonport to Okehampton ; when, no doubt, the siege will be raised, and the poor fellows convinced of their mistake.—Plymouth Journal.
Previous page
