Children of Robert and Jane White

SHOCKING CATASTROPHE.—On Friday morning last, a young man, named John Gales, servant to John White, farmer, of Branking Moor, near Darlington, met an untimely death, through the insanity of his master. White has at different times of late exhibited strong symptoms of mental derangement, and on the evening preceding the melancholy event which we are about to describe, was strongly impressed with the idea that his house was infested by robbers. Under this impression he would not retire to rest, but he wandered about the house with a loaded gun in his hand the whole night, to shoot (he said) the robbers as they came in, fancying he heard and saw them at the windows. A young man from Darlington, named Bowser, who was with him all night, endeavoured, but without effect, to divert and dissuade him from his wild idea. Early in the morning, White left Bowser alone in the kitchen and again traversed the house with his gun. The unfortunate deceased came down stairs about six o'clock, and proceeded to go out to his work, but finding the outer door fastened so as to prevent him, he returned and went into the kitchen, where Bowser was standing by the fireside. White that time being in the passage, suddenly approached and fired, lodging the contents of his gun in the body of the unfortunate Gales, near the hip bone. He fell at the feet of Bowser, and in about two hours expired. A coroner's jury, after a careful enquiry into the circumstances, returned the following verdict:—"That John Gales came to his death by John White firing a gun, loaded with gunpowder and shot, whilst the said John White was in a fit of mental derangement." White has been committed to our County Gaol, to take his trial for murder at the ensuing assizes.

A short time since, a circumstance of a very melancholy description occurred near Darlington. A respectable farmer named White, shot one of his servants, who died in consequence almost immediately. It does not appear that there was any thing to palliate this horrible act—except insanity. The Coroner's Inquest sat upon the deceased, and brought in a verdict in the following terms, viz.:—"That, John Gales came to his death by John White firing a gun, loaded with unpowder and shot, whilst the said John White was in a fit of derangement." White was sent to our county gaol to take his trial for murder, and at the last assizes held in this city an indictment was preferred against him; but as there were no witnesses in attendance, the bill was thrown out by the Grand Jury. He has been since liberated, and is now at large. We are induced to call public attention to these fact, because they are, in our opinion, extremely important. The legislature has provided for cases of this kind, for, by an act, 39 Geo. 111. cap. 94, persons who have committed the crime of murder while under mental derangement, are placed under the superintendence of the law, and ought to be subjected to proper custody, in order that they may prevented increasing the injury they have done to society. Now, we think it very extraordinary, nay altogether novel, that a man who who has committed murder, and against whom a Coroner's Inquest has pronounced a verdict of insanity, should be allowed, a few weeks afterwards to walk out of prison as free, as much at liberty, as any other of his Majesty's subjects. There must be something wrong in this; for what security has society—that the same person may not commit to-morrow another act as fatal as the one he has already perpetrated? We are actuated in making these remarks by no motive of ill-will toward the unfortunate man to whom they apply, by no wish to a aggravate his feelings; but it is a duty which we owe to the public not to pass over in silence a matter which appears to us not only singular but pregnant with danger. We do not impute culpability to the Coroner, but we think he is liable to a charge of neglect in not using proper means for the purpose of bringing White to trial; for if he had used such means the latter would not now be in a situation  to perpetrate another catastrophe of an equally lamentable kind. There can be little or no doubt that the absence of witnesses to support the Bill of Indictment before the Grand Jury, caused by a private arrangement or accommodation between the friends of White and the relatives or connexions of the unfortunate Gales; but is it to be permitted that the Magistrates are to stand by and witness this shameful compromise, without striving to promote the ends of justice, which, in this instance, are so essentially connected with the preservation of the lives of our fellow-creatures? The Learned Judge (Bayley) who presided here at the last assizes, could not have been acquainted with the case, or he would never have suffered, much less sanctioned the unconditional discharge of a man who had wantonly shed the blood of his fellow. But reasoning upon the subject is supererogatory, because, happily, there is a statute imposing necessary restraint upon all persons who have violated the laws by taking away the life of an unoffending human being. Why has not the law been enforced in the present instance? Whether it is now the duty of the Magistrates or the Coroner to look to it we know not, but it is evidently somebody's business; and we hope that this notice will have due effect in the proper quarter.—Durham Chronicle.