CHRONICLE. 



101 



duce of a new fishery contiguous 

 to Otalieite, was lately referred 

 from the board of trade to the 

 East India company. The direc- 

 tors refused their permission, un- 

 less the pearl shall be laden on 

 board vessels chartered by the 

 compai)}' from Botany Bay to 

 China, and from thence to Eng- 

 land with tea. 



In the cause for non-residence, 



Hardy v Hon. and Rev 



Cathcart, tried last week at York, 

 before Baron Wood, a verdict was 

 found for the plaintiff with 930/. 

 damages. 



4. Last week, a shark of consi- 

 derable length was caught with a 

 strong conger line, at Devil's Point; 

 Stonehouse, near Plymouth Dock : 

 seven mackerel were found in his 

 belly, and it is supposed to have 

 been the same fish that the day 

 before attacked a soldier of the 

 Lancashire militia, who was swim- 

 ming in Mill Bay, and wounded 

 him severely in the legs. This 

 should operate as a caution toswim- 

 mers, who reside on the shores 

 washed by the Atlantic, as sharks 

 are not unfrequent in the channel, 

 and at this season pursue the shoals 

 of mackerel and pilchards into the 

 bay and harbours. 



7. Maidstone. — William Brown, 

 a private of the roj^al artiller}', 

 was indicted for the wilful murder 

 of Isabella M'ouire, a child of the 

 age of seven years. The circum- 

 stances of this case were of an ex- 

 traordinary nature. The prisoner 

 was servant to a lieutenant Web- 

 ber, and bore a most exemplary 

 character in the regiment ; some 

 things, however, had been stolen 

 from his master's closet, and he 

 was suspected of the theft. He ab- 

 sented himself all the night of the 



4th of April, and on the morning 

 of the 5th, as early as between five 

 and six he came back to the bar- 

 racks, and wakened a person of 

 the name of Jefterys, with whom 

 he had lived. After some preli- 

 minary conversation, he told him 

 he had committed a crime for 

 which he must be hanged, and de- 

 sired to be taken to the guard-house. 

 Adam Little, serjeant-major, there 

 received him in custody; and de- 

 siring to speak to the serjeant in 

 private, he then told him, that the 

 last night he had murdered a little 

 girl. The serjeant desired him to 

 state further particular?. He said, 

 that getting over a style, which led 

 into a lane, he saw the child at 

 play, who cried when she saw 

 him ; that he then took the child in 

 his arms, and with his finger and 

 thumb strangeld it. As soon as 

 it was dead, he carried it under 

 his arm for some distance, and laid 

 it on some stone steps in a place he 

 described. 



A witness was called, who found 

 the child in a place where the pri- 

 soner had described he had left it ; 

 and the surgeon slated, that by the 

 marks under the throat, the child 

 had evidently been strangled ia 

 the manner described by the pri- 

 soner. 



The prisoner could ascribe no 

 motive lor this act; but told the 

 serieant he had no malice against 

 the child, and could not tell how 

 he came to do it. 



Mr. Curvvood, as counsel for 

 the prisoner, examined as to whe- 

 ther the prisoner might not be la- 

 bouring under temporary inflam- 

 mation of the brain, from the im- 

 proper use of mercurial medicine. 



The serjeant said, he knew the 

 prisoner had administered mercury 



and 



