Sonic idea of the depression of trade in Worcester may
be formed from the fact that of 497 houses in St. Andrew's parish rated to the relief of the poor, there are no less than 118 void. What is still more extraordinary, is the fact that a respectable tradesman is actually pull- ing down several subitantially-built modern dwelling-houses to avoid paying the rates, there being so much difficulty in letting them.— 'Worcester Chronicle.
Last week, a young man named John Binks, who had recently inlisted into the Ninety-sixth Regiment at Manchester. and a girl named Dinah Spence, whom he was in love with and had promised to marry, resolved to destroy themselves together, in consequence of some
obstacles to their union. They accordingly shut themselves up in room, after the manner of the French, and took arsenic in tea. The man died of the poison ; but the girl, after suffering great agony for several days, is recovering. The man was under the age of twenty- one, and the woman is twenty-six. An inquest has been held on the body of Binks. The Coroner said, had the deceased been twenty-one years of age, this would have been a clear case of/do de se; but, being- in law an infant, he could not commitfe/o de se. The Jury accordingly returned a verdict, " That the deceased had conic to his death by taking arsenic ; and he being an infant under the age of twenty-one, was con- sequently not of the age of discretion."
Esther 'Watson, the illegitimate daughter of Ann Watson, an old wo- man of seventy-seven, living at Alne in the North Riding of Yorkshire,. has been committed to York Castle on the charge of murdering her another, with whom she lived. Lately the mother and daughter had quarrelled often, and Esther Watson had beaten the old woman. On Friday, an unusual noise was heard in their cottage ; and a man, look- ing through the window, saw the daughter on her knees on the Hoer, grappling her mother, and violently bumping her against the ground.. The man immediately called the assistance of his neighbours and forced in the door. They seized the murderess, and endeavoured to recover her mother ; but every attempt was fruitless, as the poor old creature was dead before they gained admittance. An inquest was held; and a surgeon, who was called in, described the appearance of the murdered woman— When he first saw the body of the deceased, she lay upon the floor, with her gray lode clotted with blood. The scalp was much lacerated, and the vessels of the scalp were filled with blood. Ile ibund the chest also in a state es if it had suffered violence ; the lungs and the large blood-vessels were filled with blood. The arms of the old woman exhibited several contusions, and the neck wasgreatly bruised. lie was of opinion that she died from strangulation.
[It appeared from the evidence of the other witnesses examined, that when they entered the cottage they found a handkerchief twisted tightly round the neck of the deceased.] Esther Watson, the surgeon said, was in "a state of mania " when he entered the cottage ; but the neighbours sail she had always before appeared sensible enough. She is a cripple, and between thirty and forty years of age.
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