THE WEST AUCKLAND POISONINGS. Some surprise and dissatisfaction have doubtless been excited by tbe apparent delay in the prosecution ot this important investigation ; bat when all tbe facts come to be known, at the forth-coming assizea, we are assured that satisfactory reasons will be given for the proceedings of the local authorities. It appears that the Sunderland anihori-t.es think there ia no necessity whatever for action being taken in reference to the cases of alleged secret poisoning which occurred in that borough until after the prosecutions UuUerlaken t.y the Durham Count; Constabulary have been brought to their iue ; and the delay in reference to these latter has arisen from a variety of circumstances knowu only to a few. It seeuis that a writ of habtat coryut must be o tamed from a Judge iu Chambers, as authority, for the removal of the prisoner, Mary Ann Cotton, from Durham Gaol 10 Bishop Auckland before tbe preliminary examinations before the magiatratea could be legally coud acted, which are necessary to her arraignment ou the threar additional cbargea of wilful murder to be preferred against her by Superintendent Henderson ; and this writ has not eS, if applied for, been obtained. But there is another cause for delay the state of the prisoner's health, wuich has greatly altered for the worse. She is now a mere haggard, feeble, broken-. pirited wreck of her former self. But not only is her aeneral health aud coudit.ou reduced, but it is we believe, a fact well known o tbe prison authorities that the nnfoitunate winian is far advanced in pregnancy, presumably the result of her illicit intercourse with the mau Nattrass. Frederick Cotton, third husband of the prisoner, died at West Auckland ou tbe 19th of September, 1871, Nattrass, the lodger, with wboin prisoner subsequently lived, died on the 1st of April of the present yar. The Assizes are to be opened at Durham by Mr. Justice Deninau on the 10th of December uxi ; and it is ju-it possible that not only the additional indictments, but tue prisoner's arraignment ou the existing charge, may be interfered with by tbe fact to which we have alluded.