this noble achievement, "Their Honours"
left Mr. Archer to his fate.

Up to the present moment, Mr. Archer's
machinery—good, bad, or indifferent—
remains unused, somewhere in limbo. Either
"the authorities" desire to throw away six
hundred pounds of the public money upon
Mr. Archer uselessly; or the public is
deprived of the great advantages which that
gentleman has offered to them in respect of
the Queen's Head.

CHIPS.
A DISAPPEARANCE CLEARED UP.

IT will be remembered, that amongst the
narratives detailed under the head of
"Disappearances," at pages 249 and 305 of the
third volume of "Household Words," was one
of a physician's boy at North Shields, who,
after delivering some medicine to a patient,
disappeared, and was not heard of for seven
years afterwards. We are now put in
possession, in the following letter, of some
singular and painful circumstances which
occurred to the family of the patient, and
which we lay before our readers, in a letter
from her son, in justice to him and to his
relatives:—

"SIR,—On taking out your 'Household
Words' from a Library I am a subscriber to,
I was much surprised on reading, in the
publication of 7th June, 1851, under the head of
'Disappearances,' an account of the
disappearance of a young man from North Shields.
I enclose you an account of a meeting held at
North Shields on the 9th of May, 1834, just
seven years after the young man's disappearance,
in which the whole mystery is explained;
by which you will perceive that the young
man enlisted into the East India Company's
service, and was sent out to India. I have a
painful recollection of the circumstances; for
in consequence of it being to my mother that
he brought the medicine, (which he delivered
at the door, and was no more heard of till the
seven years afterwards,) a most scandalous
report was raised, that our family had
murdered him, and sold his body for dissection.
Such was the belief in this story, that from
doing a very respectable business as
confectioners, with every prospect of making a
comfortable living, our trade fell off to such
a degree, that the stuff spoiled upon our
hands, and as much money was not taken as
would pay the shop-rent; and if it had not
been that, fortunately, about two years
previous, my brother and myself had got
employment in a glass manufactory, by which
we were enabled to support the family, they
would have been reduced to parish relief; and
yet our masters were many times (as they
have since told us, on the mystery being
cleared up) solicited by very respectable
people to dismiss us, in consequence of these
reports; but nobly refused to do so.

"The parents of the young man, but
especially the mother, when she met any of
our family in the street, always accused us of
murdering her son; and such was the
sympathy of the public aroused in their favour,
that, had we stopped to resent it, I have no
doubt but we should have been destroyed by
the mob that would have soon arisen. And
for seven long years did we bear this stigma;
and when the affair of Burke and Hare came
out it revived it; so that our house was
nightly surrounded by a mob; and had it not
been that one or two of the magistrates took
our part, I have no doubt but it would have
been pulled down about our ears, and the
whole family murdered.

"At length we were obliged to prosecute
two men, separately, who accused my father of
the murder of the young man, in the White
Hart Inn, at Newcastle; and it seemed to me
that the jury and the court were prejudiced
against us; as, though, we got verdicts; yet
one was for only twenty shillings, which did
not carry costs, and the other for five pounds,
and the judge would not certify.

"We have always been regular in our
attendance on divine worship, and our moral
character stood as high as any family in the
kingdom. It is true, several of the most active
propagators of the scandal seem to have met
with retributive justice. The parents died,
both of them, comparatively young; and of
three of the most active propagators, one was
drowned in a very curious manner; another
committed suicide; and another, from being
one of the most affluent men in North Shields,
is now receiving parish relief. But what
benefit are these things to us? We are still
struggling with difficulties brought on by this
scandal. My mother is still living, aged
eighty-one. My father died, aged seventy-
four, as easily as ever man died in the world.
My brother and I are old bachelors; for
although we could keep our parents and family,
we could not do it if we had married and got
families.

"In conclusion, I beg to say, that you are
left entirely at liberty to make any use of this
communication or not, as you think proper;
but I could not resist the temptation of
informing you of the true circumstances of the
case.

"I am, Sir,
"Your most obedient servant,
"JOHN GAUNT.

"Coatham, near Redcar,
"Jan. 26, 1852."

To this Mr. Gaunt's brother adds:—

"SIR,—I have just come home, and see
what my brother has written, and wish to add,
that we had at that time a brother, Ellis
Gaunt, Surgeon, Idle, near Bradford (since
dead), and the North Shields public sent
police and constables there, and searched his
house, and two or three houses on either side
to see if he had the missing youth there for