CHIIONICLE. 



71 



wretch. She has lately given out 

 that she is pregnant with the true 

 Messiah, and expects to he-in in a 

 few weeks. It is a fact that a cot 

 or cradle, formed of most expen- 

 sive and magniticent materials, has 

 been bespoke, by a lady of fortune, 

 for Mrs. Southcote's acco%ichement, 

 and has been for some days exhi- 

 bited at the warehouse of an emi- 

 nent cabinet-maker in Alclersgate- 

 street. Hundieds of genteel per- 

 sons, of both sexes, have been to 

 see this cradle, in which the fol- 

 lowers of Joanna believe the true 

 Messiah is to be rocked ! 



3. Mr. Verity, surgeon of Bridg- 

 end, has lately attended a case of 

 Fragilitas Oss'mm : the patient was 

 a female, aged G2, and such was 

 the brittle state of her bones, that 

 she fractured the thigh-bone, and 

 the bones of the upper arms, in 

 several places, in the short space of 

 six weeks, though confined to her 

 bed, merely by the ordinary action 

 of the muscles. This disease was 

 preceded by slight pains in the 

 limbs similar to chionic rheuma- 

 tism. 



5. This mornlno:, between 12 

 and one o'clock. Miss Mary Anne 

 Welchman, a respectable young 

 woman, who carried on the busi- 

 ness of a dress-maker in the first- 

 floor of a house opposite the watch- 

 liou?;e of St. George, Hanover- 

 square, in Mount-street, was barba- 

 rously murdered in the front room 

 of the first floor. The report of a 

 pistol was beard by the landlord 

 and other persons in the house 

 where she lodged, soon after twelve 

 o'clock, which greatly alarmed 

 them ; immediately after, they 

 heard the discharge of another pis- 

 tol ; great alarm was also created 

 in the neighbourhood; it was not. 



however, at first discovered that 

 the pistols had been discharged in 

 Miss Wekhman's apartments, till 

 tlie smell of gunpov.der became 

 extremely strong in the house. 

 Several [)ersons proceeded to ex- 

 amine the hc:use : they knocked 

 at Miss Wekhman's room door 

 several times, and, receiving no 

 answer, opened the door and be- 

 held Miss Welchman a lifeless 

 corpse on the floor. Her head, on 

 examination, proved to have been 

 shot in two places, and but little 

 remained of it. Two pistols weie 

 found on a table, which, on exami- 

 naton, proved beyond a doubt that 

 they were the deadly instruments 

 which had done the deed ; as they 

 must have been lately discharged. 

 A man's hat was also found in the 

 room, but no person of any de- 

 scription could be found on the 

 premises who was suspected of 

 being the perpetrator of the horrid 

 act. ^ The hat that was found in 

 the room, on examination, led to 

 the discovery of the murder, as it 

 was ascertained to belong to a 

 young man of the name of James 

 Mitchell ; and his not being found 

 on the premises was afterwards 

 accounted for by some persons who 

 were in Mount-street at the time, 

 a short distance from the house in 

 which the deceased lodged, who 

 heard the report of the discharge 

 of the pistols, and immediately 

 after saw a man come out of the 

 window of the first floor, and let 

 himself down into tlie street by 

 the assistance of the lamp-iron and 

 the door, and then instantly ran off 

 with all possible speed down the 

 middle of the street. It was recol- 

 lected that Mitchell had bt^en ad- 

 mitted into the house between 

 eight and nine o'clock on Thursday 



