He charged this young woman with having stolen into his bedroom, knowing it to be unfastened, when she calculated that he would be asleep, and knowing also that he had been imprudent enough during his stay in the house to leave his razors on the toilet-table. He declared that he awoke just as she was in the act of putting the razor to her own throat, intending to commit suicide in his room, with the intention, it was suggested, of fastening upon him the crime of her murder. It will only be necessary to further inform the reader, that although no evidence could be procured sufficient to maintain an indictment for wilful murder against this nurse, and although it was generally believed that she had committed the murder (a fact about which I had my doubts, for I believe the child was accidentally smothered in its sleep, as children often are), no evidence was offered to the jury in support of an indictment for the capital offence; but she was accused and punished for the attempted suicide. THE INCENDIARY GANG In the year 1833 I was engaged to investigate the circumstances attending a fire--one of a series--which had ended in claims upon several of the great London offices, and which fires were believed to have arisen out of wilful fraud. The present fire broke out on a Monday afternoon between one and two o'clock, in a warehouse belonging to an extensive bonnet manufactory near Dunstable, in Bedfordshire. Among the peculiar circumstances of this case was the somewhat remarkable fact, that the business of the manufactory had just been transferred from one proprietor to another, and that the policy of insurance was in the hands of the company's officers, at its headquarters in London, for the purpose of having a transfer of the contract endorsed thereon. The new proprietor informed the fire-office that he had resolved upon enlarging his premises, in order to extend his business. In a letter to the company he indeed stated, in precise terms, that he then had on hand several large export orders to complete. The policy, which had covered an insurance of 3000_l._ hitherto, was now increased to 4500_l._ Shortly after this another letter was received by the office, in which the writer stated that 4500_l._ would, he found, not cover the value of all his improvements, machinery, and stock-in-trade, so that he proposed to still further increase the insurance to 6000_l._ As this was an unusually heavy risk on a country policy, and as the premises were only about thirty miles from town, the board determined that the surveyor for the office should go down and report upon the case before the last proposal was accepted.