The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 2/2 being a series of memoirs and anecdotes of notorious characters who have outraged the laws of Great Britain from the earliest period to 1841 (part 4 of 4)

The Chronicles of Crime or The New Newgate Calendar. v. 2/2 being a series of memoirs and anecdotes of notorious characters who have outraged the laws of Great Britain from the earliest period to 1841 (part 4 of 4)

At half-past eight the riot may be said to have actually commenced. The mob at that hour began an attack upon all the lamps in High-street, and Spiceall-street, and this was immediately followed by a furious assault upon the windows of the houses there, and then upon the houses themselves. An entrance was attempted to be forced into many of them; but the infuriated crowd finding the weapons which they possessed (clubs and sticks) insufficient to enable them to effect this object, turned to procure others of a more formidable character. These were speedily afforded by the palisades surrounding the Nelson Monument, in the midst of the Bull-ring, which were speedily wrenched from their mortices, and thus armed they proceeded to the work of destruction. In an incredibly short space of time they had forced their way into the house of Messrs. Bourne, tea-dealers, whose premises were situated at the corner of the Bull-ring, and Moor-street, and extended to a frontage of twenty feet in the former, and sixty feet in the latter. The shutters and doors having yielded to their attack, they were immediately torn down,--the warehouses were entered and pillaged, and their contents thrown into the street. At five minutes past nine, so rapidly did they complete their dreadful designs, they turned to the premises of Mr. Leggett, an upholsterer, which in like manner they sacked, carrying from it, among other things, large rolls of bed-ticking, which was speedily spread, like a carpet, over the whole area of the space on which they were assembled. At a quarter-past nine, a shout was raised that they should extinguish the lamps, and speedily the mob ascended every lamp-post, and turned off the gas, and darkness added her powers to increase the horrors of the night.

At this period the inhabitants of the vicinity were engaged in removing their families, and such of their property as they could conveniently carry; for the fury of the mob would evidently call for still further mischief, before it was satiated. The houses of Mr. Murcott, a cheesemonger; Mr. Dakin, a tea-dealer; Mr. Horton, a silversmith; and Mr. Parkes, a tobacconist, were in succession assailed, and the windows of the shop of the last-named individual were actually battered in with silver candlesticks, removed from the shelves of Mr. Horton. The bed-ticking which had been spread over the Bull-ring, was now collected in a heap, and, as if to afford light to the diabolical marauders, was set on fire.

Simultaneously with these proceedings another party of rioters had been engaged in like acts of determined violence. By these the houses of Mr. Allen, a biscuit-baker, Mr. Perkins, brushmaker, who was the headborough of Birmingham; Mr. Arnold, pork-butcher; Mr. Pounteney, grocer; Mr. Heath, cheesemonger; Mr. Walton, butcher; Mr. Fincher, leather-seller; Mr. Bliss, (the Spread Eagle,) a person who had never rendered himself obnoxious; Mrs. Martyns, cutler; Mr. Banks, druggist; and Mr. Gooden, (the Nelson Inn,) were successively attacked, and more or less injured and pillaged. The mob were about to visit the house of Mr. Wainwright, liquor-merchant, with the same species of violence, when, however, their respect for his articles of traffic seemed to overcome their determination, and a cry of "No! no!" was instantly raised, and obeyed.

The shout of "Fire!" was now heard, and scarcely had the idea been expressed when numbers of the rioters were seen carrying heaps of the burning materials from the streets into the houses of Messrs. Leggett and Bourne. Within a quarter of an hour the flames burst forth with awful violence amidst the hellish yells of the rabble. The police nor the soldiery had appeared, and the astonishment of the peaceful witnesses to these dreadful scenes at the apparent supineness of the magistracy, may be easily appreciated. The alarm of fire was speedily conveyed through the town, and an engine now drove into the Bull-ring, but the threats of violence of the crowd compelled the firemen to lash their horses and escape from the dreadful scene of confusion into which they had intruded themselves. New efforts were then made by the mob to carry the fire to other houses, but by good fortune they were unavailing, and before they could secure their object the whole body of metropolitan police in the town, under the orders of Mr. Superintendant May, rushed upon them armed with sabres. This was at a quarter before ten, and thus for nearly an hour and a half had the town been left to the unchecked violence of a furious mob. The abject fear with which they instantly fled upon the appearance now of resistance to their further mischievous designs, showed the ease with which their previous proceedings might have been stayed. They were pursued by the police only to a short distance, and then this body returned to the late scene of action, in order to procure the extinguishment of the flames which were still reigning with unabated violence in the houses which had been the objects of the fury of the mob. The appearance of bodies of dragoons marching towards the Bull-ring through Moor-street and High-street served to complete the rout; and the immediate advance of three hundred of the Rifle Brigade, at once dispelled all apprehension of future danger.

While a portion of the troops remained in the Bull-ring to aid the firemen who had now again arrived with several engines, in preventing the further spread of the conflagration, the rest proceeded to scour the neighbouring streets, and to clear them of the crowds of people by which they were still occupied. This they did in excellent style, and by a few minutes after ten o'clock there were few of the people to be seen in the vicinity of the Bull-ring. The flames at this time were bursting from every part of the burning houses, presenting a spectacle of awful grandeur. At about eleven o'clock the roof of Mr. Bourne's house fell in, and by midnight that of Messrs. Leggett had shared the same fate. The engines continued playing upon the ruins until a late hour, so as to avoid the possibility of a renewal of the danger.

During the night the police made many prisoners who were charged with having been parties to the riot.

Throughout the whole of Tuesday the Bull-ring presented an appearance of desolation which was much increased by the stillness which prevailed. The whole town was pervaded by a similar gloom; and few shops, except those in the outskirts, were open. As night approached, the streets began to exhibit their usual feverish aspect; and, according to an announcement which had been made, between seven and eight o'clock a meeting was held at Holloway-head, which was attended by considerable numbers. Loud complaints were to be heard escaping from many of the persons present as to the treatment which they had experienced on the previous night from the police, and threats of vengeance were held out. Others pointed out the means of revenge by suggesting the seizure of the cannon in the barrack-yard; but at about eight o'clock the whole party was suddenly put to flight by the appearance of a troop of dragoons and yeomanry advancing towards the spot where the meeting was held. At first a few hisses and groans escaped them, but presently the advance of the soldiers induced them to give way, and then they were finally entirely put to rout by the riflemen, who scoured all the neighbouring streets, many of the more refractory of the malcontents receiving some slight wounds in the violence of their opposition to the authority of the law. The soldiers soon afterwards returned to the town, and charge of the streets was then given up to the special constables, who had been sworn in in great numbers during the day, and the police. Parties of the military, however, were posted at Holloway-head and the Bull-ring, at each of which places a cannon was placed with a view to awe the people, and to show the determination of the authorities that any new act of aggression should be received with becoming firmness.

On Wednesday, the town seemed to be again restored to quietude, but the military and constabulary were still on the alert.

During the week many persons were committed to Warwick jail to stand their trial for having been parties to the riots, and for having committed depredations in the houses which they had ransacked: but we shall hereafter refer to the particular cases of these individuals.

With regard to the precise and immediate cause of these distressing riots, many suggestions were thrown out, without, however, doing more than showing them to have arisen from a general and undefinable feeling of discontent, increased perhaps by the supposed harshness of the conduct of the police-force. The correspondent of a morning newspaper, who appears to have made assiduous inquiries upon the spot upon the subject, thus sensibly describes the result of the information which he was able to obtain. He says,--'The more opportunities that I have of conversation with different parties, and different classes of persons in this town, the more thoroughly am I convinced that the social condition of the people is disorganised, and that the worst feelings, consistent with the stability and safety of property, prevail. There is a bitter and almost universal feeling of hatred amongst the operative classes against employers, or those who are apparently raised above the pressing wants and necessities of life. This is the feeling which has been conveyed to me, not only by bankers and the richest merchants with whom I have conversed, but it is confirmed to the letter even by employers whose means are so humble that they toil as hard as the very workmen to whom they pay wages. One of the latter class of employers said to me, that what the operatives want is, 'to make every one as poor as themselves,' to drag all down to their own level, in order that all may feel how great are the evils of poverty. The general spread of such a feeling was ascribed by this person to the speeches of the Chartist leaders, to the doctrines of political economy (if they can be called so) which they now preach, and to the incitements which they have held out for the working classes to arm themselves. In this respect it is plain that great pains have been taken to accustom the minds of the populace to consider the best means of fighting with the regular soldiers, and the most suitable means of destroying them.

"Having stated what is the description given to me of the feeling and condition of the operatives, I next endeavoured to ascertain what were the notions of the operatives themselves; and I may say that to my questions, I received but one answer, namely--that it was a shame to bring the London police amongst them; that the police had acted very badly; that they attacked them without telling them to disperse; that many innocent men, some bringing home their work to their employers, were struck down by the police; and that in short the town would never be quiet again until the London police were sent away."

With reference to the number of persons engaged in the riot, the same writer declared his impression, that no more than two hundred individuals were actually employed in those scenes of disorder which we have described. Hundreds looked on without attempting to check the progress of the events which they were witnessing, exhibiting perhaps feelings of satisfaction rather than regret, at seeing, as they supposed, the wealthy shopkeepers reduced to the level of poverty of themselves; but the persons who were actively engaged did not exceed the number mentioned. The checking of the riot, according to the same authority, would have been of easy accomplishment, for the greater proportion of the mischief was commenced by parties of two and three, who were not joined by any others until it was perceived that the attack was successful. Had the inhabitants joined to repel these assaults upon their property, much of the mischief might have been prevented, and still more so if the military and police forces had been brought into operation at the commencement of the proceedings.

The conduct of the magistrates almost immediately became the object of attack and animadversion; and memorials were presented to the government that it might be made the subject of investigation. Mr. Dundas, a barrister, was subsequently appointed to undertake the task of inquiring into the grounds of complaint made, and we subjoin extracts of the report which he presented upon the subject to the Marquis of Normanby, Secretary of State for the Home Department. Having stated the nature of the memorial presented to the government, in which it was alleged, that "on the evening of the 15th of July, from half-past eight to a quarter before ten o'clock, the mayor and magistrates failed in their duty, by leaving the property and lives of the citizens unprotected to the violence of an organised mob, although full and authenticated information had been early given to the mayor and magistrates of the borough of the intentions and plans of the rioters," he proceeded to detail the mode in which he had carried on the investigation, and then he said,--

"I have now the honour to transmit to your lordship the short-hand writer's notes of the evidence, together with my opinion on the points submitted to me.

"It appeared on the inquiry, that for several weeks before the day in question, that is to say, before Monday, the 15th of July last, Chartist meetings, at times consisting of many hundred persons, were frequently held in Birmingham and the immediate neighbourhood. These meetings, although calculated to alarm the peaceable inhabitants of the place, for the most part passed off quietly; but some of them, and especially a meeting held on the 4th of July, it was necessary to put down by the military in aid of the civil power. To preserve the peace thus disturbed, the Birmingham police was altogether inadequate, a few constables and street-keepers being the whole force of the borough; but between the 10th of May and the day in question, upwards of two thousand special constables were sworn in, ward and section leaders appointed, and instructions furnished them from the public-office for organising and effectually employing the men in time of need. For additional security, two detachments of the metropolitan police were sent from London on the 4th and 5th of July; and though forty had returned in a few days after, the rest (about fifty) remained at Birmingham, and on the day in question were stationed at the public-office under Mr. May, an active superintendant of the force.

"The usual course of the public-office was for some of the magistrates to give daily attendance there from about eleven in the forenoon to three or four in the afternoon, for the despatch of business; but it appeared that for some time before the day in question not only were they there in the day-time, but that some of them staid to a late hour at night.

"The officer in command at the barracks (three-quarters of a mile off) used to call twice a-day at the office, to communicate with the mayor on the state of the peace of the town; nor should it be omitted, that an excellent understanding was kept up between the civil and military authorities, and that on every occasion when the soldiers had been called upon to act in aid of the civil power, the assistance required was both promptly and efficiently given.

"Some of the magistrates resided in the town; Dr. Booth's house, for instance, was about six minutes' walk from the public-office; the mayor and some others lived in the suburbs; while the houses of a few were still further off; George Redford, the prison keeper, lived at the public-office--a well-known, confidential, and intelligent man of business.

"Such was, in general, the state of things at Birmingham, when, in the forenoon of the day in question, a bellman was heard in several of the streets, crying a Chartist meeting to be held that day at Holloway-head at one, or, as it was differently reported, at half-past twelve and half-past six o'clock. Holloway-head and the Bull-ring, about a mile from each other, were the usual places of holding such meetings.

"It appeared, also, that at eleven o'clock of the forenoon the following letter was sent to Captain Moorsom, a special constable of the borough, who had acted as the medium of communication between the ward leaders and the magistrates, viz.--

"Public-office, Monday July 15, 1839, 11 a.m.

"'Dear Sir,--The magistrates here assembled are desirous, with your permission, to avail themselves of the advantage of your aid and means in watching and ascertaining the character and proceedings of the meeting, should one take place, at Holloway-head. Some magistrates will be in attendance at this office, and quite prepared to act according to circumstances, and to the nature of the information you may transmit to them. This is a precautionary measure which the magistrates feel it incumbent upon them to adopt, although they venture to anticipate a peaceful issue. They would not have felt themselves warranted in taking this liberty, but from the encouragement they have derived from your uniformly courteous, able, and kind co-operation with them during the existing troubles.

"'I remain, dear Sir, yours faithfully, "'Captain Moorsom, R.N.'" "'J. K. BOOTH.

"On receiving the letter at noon. Captain Moorsom arranged with the Edgbaston ward leader that proper men should be appointed to convey information to the public-office as to the character of the meeting, while he himself watched its proceedings; but nothing occurred to cause any apprehension. By two o'clock about three hundred persons had assembled at Holloway-head; in an hour or so afterwards the numbers had diminished, and seemed to Captain Moorsom to be quite insignificant.

"About this time Colonel Chatterton, of the dragoons, called as usual at the public-office, and was told by the mayor that there was no occasion to keep the soldiers at the barracks in readiness, since, from all he heard, the town was quiet. Hence it appeared that the mayor set no value on the information of Mr. Coburn, who had told him in an earlier part of the day that from what had been said in his hearing the day before, at a meeting at Holloway-head, disturbance was to be expected at night.

"At five o'clock the mayor left the public-office to go home to his own house, about a mile-and-a-half off, the other magistrates having left before him; and before going away he gave express directions to George Redfern, the prison-keeper, that if magistrates were wanted he was to send or go for him or Dr. Booth.

"It further appeared that later in the evening, about seven o'clock, a great number of persons (probably about one thousand) was assembled at Holloway-head, and these, instead of dispersing when they left the ground, proceeded in a body towards the Warwick-road, to meet (as was supposed) two Chartists who had been bailed out of prison that day, and were expected to return to Birmingham that night. From some cause or other, never satisfactorily accounted for, a mob of men and boys came back from the Warwick-road, and suddenly arrived by hundreds in the Bull-ring, about half-past eight o'clock; there they violently set fire to several valuable premises, burned and destroyed a great deal of furniture and other property, broke many of the windows of the public-office (a little way off), and having done the work of destruction uninterruptedly for not less than an hour, at last they gave way and retired, either seeing the police had turned out against them, or expecting the speedy arrival of the military.

"It is here to be observed that Captain Moorsom had been watching the proceedings of the people at Holloway-head (in the evening), till he saw them go away; then, thinking they might have adjourned to the Bull-ring, while in fact they had passed it on their left, he went to the Bull-ring, and finding nothing that to his mind indicated disturbance, about eight o'clock he proceeded to the public-office to report what he had witnessed, and ascertain from the magistrates what were their arrangements for the night; but though he asked for a magistrate he did not go or send for one; and having told the superintendant of police, whom he saw there, that everything was quiet, he returned home about a quarter before nine, after expressing his opinion to the Edgbaston ward leader that there was no fear of disturbance. George Redfern, the prison-keeper, staid at the public-office till some time after eight, when a constable came in and asked for the magistrates, adding that the town was in an excited state. On hearing this he lost not a moment, but set off to Dr. Booth's, and thence to the mayor's. He found both of them at home; and the mayor having joined Dr. Booth at his house, they proceeded to the barracks as quick as they could, called out the military, and accompanied them on horseback to the Bull-ring. Whilst George Redfern was thus away for forty-two minutes, and after he returned to the public-office, the superintendant of police was repeatedly called upon to act against the rioters, but he steadily refused, in consequence of orders that without the military or a magistrate's sanction the police were not to go out, nor, in fact, did the police begin to act at all till Mr. Walker (a magistrate) came to the public-office, and with him they went against the mob soon after half-past nine. It was the opinion of some, that had the police gone out and acted earlier the mob might have been dispersed, or at least that the property thus destroyed by the rioters might have been defended; but it appeared a very doubtful question.

"Upon such a state of facts, though the evidence will supply a great deal more in relation to the issue, the mayor and magistrates are charged with neglect of duty.

"Now, the case must be looked at as it presented itself to the mayor and magistrates at the time, and not as if they could have foreseen the extent of calamity, which their want of preparation, their absence from the public-office, or any other circumstances may be thought to have occasioned.

"Believing then that they acted with perfect good faith throughout, and considering besides that they took reasonable measures to watch the proceedings of the Chartists at Holloway-head, that they relied on information which led them to apprehend no disturbance or outbreak, that on leaving the public-office in the afternoon at five, the mayor gave directions to George Redfern, the prison-keeper, to send or go for him or Dr. Booth, if magistrates should be wanted; and taking into account that the mayor and Dr. Booth were each of them at home when George Redfern came for them, I am of opinion that under all the circumstances, the mayor and magistrates were not guilty of neglecting their duty on the occasion referred to in the memorial.

"The general orders to the police, which prevented them from acting when first they were called upon to do so, I think ought not to have been given; but it is reasonable to believe that the mayor and magistrates laid on the restraint purely out of consideration to the men themselves.

"I have, &c. "DAVID DUNDAS."

This was a report which entirely exonerated the magistrates from all blame; and leaving this part of the case, we shall now proceed to the trial of the persons implicated in these transactions, which took place at the Warwick assizes, in the month of August, in the same year.

On Thursday the 1st of August, a lad named Perry, was first tried for breaking into the house of Mr. Horton, the silversmith, and stealing a silver sugar-basin; but he was acquitted. In a second indictment, the charge made was that he had received the basin well knowing it to have been stolen. The evidence went to show that the basin had been found in his possession, and that he refused to give it up; but it appeared that he had picked it up, and the jury acquitted him, discrediting the allegation of his felonious intention.

On the next day John Neale, William Shears, John Storey, William Edes, and Frederick Mason, were tried upon an indictment charging them with being parties to the riot of the 4th of July, and a verdict of "Guilty" returned.

On Saturday the 3rd of August, Jeremiah Howell, aged thirty-four; Francis Roberts, twenty-six; John Jones, twenty-one; Thomas Aston, fifteen; and Henry Wilkes, twenty-one; were put upon their trial. The indictment charged them with having at Birmingham, on the 15th of July 1839, with other persons to the number of two thousand, unlawfully and feloniously assembled, to the disturbance of the public peace, and with having feloniously pulled down and demolished the house of James and Henry Bourne. The evidence showed the implication of all except Wilkes, and with that exception the prisoners were found guilty.

On the same day John Collins, whose name has been already alluded to, was called in and arraigned upon an indictment preferred against him. The indictment recited that there had been an unlawful assembly called together in the town of Birmingham on the 4th of July, and that George Masters and John Hugh Sweeting, being officers of the London Metropolitan Police, and being duly sworn in as special constables, did, by order of the magistrates, remove such unlawful assembly; and then it alleged that John Collins, being a wicked, seditious, and disaffected person, and endeavouring to bring into hatred and contempt the police force, and to excite tumults amongst the Queen's subjects, did cause to be written and published a certain false, scandalous, and malicious libel on the police and the administration, which were the resolutions of the National Convention. These resolutions were then set forth.

The libel was proved to have been taken to the printer by the prisoner, and to have been printed and posted through the town by his directions. It was in the following terms:--

"Resolutions unanimously agreed to by the General Convention.

"Resolved--1. That this Convention is of opinion that a wanton, flagrant, and unjust outrage has been made upon the people of Birmingham by a bloodthirsty and unconstitutional force from London, acting under the authority of men who, when out of office, sanctioned and took part in the meetings of the people, and now, when they share in the public plunder, seek to keep the people in social slavery and political degradation.

"2. That the people of Birmingham are the best judges of their own right to meet in the Bull-ring or elsewhere, have their own feelings to consult respecting the outrage given, and are the best judges of their own power and resources to obtain justice.

"That the summary and despotic arrest of Dr. Taylor, our respected colleague, affords another convincing proof of the absence of all justice in England, and clearly shows that there is no security for life, liberty, or property, till the people have some control over the laws they are called upon to obey.

(By order)

"W. LOVETT, Sec.

"Friday, July 5, 1839."

The prisoner was found "Guilty," but recommended to mercy on account of his former good character.

On Tuesday, William Lovett, who was the secretary to the National Convention, was tried upon a similar indictment, charging the publication by him of the same libel; and after a long and impartial trial, in which the prisoner defended himself with much tact, a verdict of "Guilty" was returned.

Several other prisoners were, during the ensuing week, found guilty of riot, but the prosecutions against many were withdrawn.

On Thursday morning, the 8th of August, Mr. Justice Littledale passed sentence on the prisoners against whom convictions had been recorded.

Jeremiah Howell, Francis Roberts, and John Jones were first placed in the dock.

The Clerk of the Arraigns asked the prisoners what they had to say why sentence of death should not be passed upon them.

Mr. Justice Littledale then put on his black cap, and addressed them. They had been convicted of felony by a jury of their country, for demolishing the house of James and Henry Bourne, of Birmingham. This offence, by the policy of our law, had for many years been punishable with death; and though of late years many offences which were before capital had, by the humanity of the legislature, been mitigated, the punishment for that offence had not been reduced, and it was still thought proper to retain the punishment of death for it. Even at this time, as to such offences as remained capital, where there were any alleviating circumstances, mercy was usually and properly extended. But, he regretted to say, that their offence was not one of that description, nor could he, in the discharge of his public duty, honestly recommend them to mercy. They had been aware that Birmingham had for some time been in a very excited state. Riots had from time to time occurred, which it had been found very difficult to suppress, till at length on the 15th of July they reached their highest pitch--houses were then demolished and burnt, property to a great value destroyed, and, but for the interposition of a superior force, the mob might have had possession of the town, and a much greater amount of property might have been destroyed, and many lives sacrificed. In this act of demolition the prisoners unfortunately engaged themselves, and began the devastation. He therefore found it necessary, as far as lay in his power, to make an example of those who had been convicted, in order to prevent similar outrages in Birmingham and other parts of the kingdom where such things might be contemplated. He hoped that some benefit to others, at least, would result from their sad example, and that those who should hear the account of these lamentable outrages and their result, would be warned by it from the commission of similar offences. But although he could hold out no hope of mercy here, there was for them a hope of obtaining it in another world from that Almighty Being who understood all hearts, and was always disposed to grant it where there was an humble and true repentance. Their time here was fast approaching to its end, and they must be prepared to meet their God. He entreated them to employ that time in true repentance for all their offences, and endeavour to obtain, through the merits and intercession of our Saviour Jesus Christ, that mercy from God which they could not hope for from man. It now only remained for him to pronounce the awful sentence of the law, which was, that they, Jeremiah Howell, Francis Roberts, and John Jones, be severally taken to the place from whence they came, and that they be severally taken from thence to the place of execution, and there severally hanged by the neck till they were dead; and (concluded the judge) may the Lord, in his infinite mercy, have mercy on your souls.

Thomas Aston (the lad who was convicted for the same offence as the other prisoners) was then brought to the front of the dock.

Mr. Justice Littledale said, in his case it did not appear to him that the awful sentence of the law, which would be recorded against him, should be carried into effect, and his life would probably be spared. He would take time to consider for what his sentence should be commuted.

John Neale, William Shears, William Edes, Eleazer Hughes, and James Pomeroy, convicted of misdemeanour and riot, were next placed the dock.

The learned judge, after commenting on the offences of which they had been found guilty, said he found it necessary in their cases, and in order to discourage such scenes of tumult, the consequences of which, when once begun, no man could foresee, and protect life and property in Birmingham and elsewhere, to inflict a severe punishment. He, therefore, sentenced them severally to eighteen months' imprisonment in the House of Correction, and hard labour.

The following prisoners, convicted of the same offence, some of whom pleaded guilty, and in favour of whom there were mitigating circumstances, were then placed at the bar, and received the following sentences:--

John Drinkworth, twelve months' imprisonment and hard labour.

James Rhodes, nine months' imprisonment and hard labour.

John Storey, Frederick Mason, and Thomas Salter, six months' imprisonment and hard labour.

John Taplow, for the same offence (who pleaded guilty), one month's imprisonment and hard labour.

John Smith, William Clift, and Thomas King, were discharged on entering into their own recognizances in 40_l._ each to appear and receive judgment when called upon.

John Collins and William Lovett were then brought up and asked why the court should not pronounce sentence upon them for the misdemeanour of which they had been convicted?

Mr. Lovett addressed the Court:--Because, in the first place, he was convinced that the jury were prejudiced against him. He had it from very good authority that several of them declared their express wish that all the Chartists should be hanged. That, he submitted, was a very good reason for a lenient sentence. His lordship would also take into consideration the evidence on the trial, and the proof of the facts set forth in the placard, combined with the prejudiced feelings of the jury--circumstances which ought to weigh much in the present case.

Mr. Justice Littledale then addressed the prisoners. They stood severally convicted of having published a seditious libel. He had taken all the circumstances of the case into his serious consideration. John Collins had received a good character, and the jury, on that account, had recommended him to mercy. In Lovett's case, the jury did not so recommend. At the same time he observed, that Lovett had received a very good character, and though the jury had not recommended him to the merciful consideration of the court, he would not on that account make any difference in their sentence. The sentence of the court was, that they be severally imprisoned in the common jail of this county for one year.

They applied to be imprisoned on the debtors' side; but the learned judge said he had not the power to make such an order.

The business of the assize was then closed.

The final merciful consideration of the cases of the convicts who had received sentence of death, exhibited the leniency with which the government desired to deal with their offences, in spite of their enormity. On Thursday the 15th of August, a large deputation of members of parliament waited upon the minister of the crown within whose department of office the subject came, for the purpose of soliciting mercy for the condemned men. They happily succeeded in their philanthropic object, and a reprieve was instantly despatched to Warwick. It was felt, however, that although the punishment of death was removed, the infliction of a severe penalty was rendered necessary by the enormity of the offence, and the sentence of the prisoners was commuted only to transportation for life.

It would be impossible in the space to which we are limited, to go through the cases of all the persons who were convicted in the course of the years 1839 and 1840, for their advocacy, by the violence of their language, or of their deeds, of the cause of Chartism. Throughout the greater part of the manufacturing districts of England, the agitation which prevailed upon this subject was very great, and repeated and frequent acts of violence were committed, the participators in which suffered the penalties of their offences; but to recite each particular case would be little more than to repeat the same details.

The events of the latter end of the year 1839, when a most systematic and violent attempt was made to seize the town of Newport, in Monmouthshire, by an organised band of Chartists, will be found to be hereafter described; and for a more complete view of the abominable conspiracy which existed in reference to the advancement of the cause of Chartism, we must refer our readers to the article in which the riots of Wales are delineated.

THE CHARTIST RIOTS 1839-40.

The riots which took place at the end of the year 1839, in the manufacturing districts of England and Wales, will long be remembered as among the most serious and violent popular commotions which have occurred in this country in the course of the current century. The Chartists, whose proceedings we have already alluded to, are alone answerable for the mischievous "risings" to which the country was made the prey, and many of them have paid the forfeit of their offences by the infliction of the punishments of transportation, fine, and imprisonment.

Among the most distinguished of the Chartist leaders, who were concerned in the Newport outbreak, which was the most serious of those to which public attention was directed, was Mr. John Frost, who previously to the time of his connection with these proceedings had been a magistrate, and a respectable inhabitant of the borough of Newport, in Monmouthshire. Mr. Frost was well-known to have long entertained political feelings extending to the extreme of radicalism; but, considering the situation of trust which he had held in his native town, it was scarcely deemed possible that he should be engaged in proceedings, the declared object of which was to subvert the government of the day.

Preparatory to entering into a description of the circumstances immediately attending the great Chartist movement against Newport, we shall give a short narrative of the life of Mr. Frost. At the time of his conviction, in the month of January 1840, he had just attained the age of fifty years; his birth, therefore, must have taken place in the year 1790. At an early period of his life he was deprived of the paternal care of his father, and the direction of his education devolved upon his maternal grandfather, a boot and shoemaker at Newport, in extensive business. The schools of Bristol it was found, afforded far better means of education than those of Newport; and, to obtain the benefit of them, Frost was sent to the former place, where he sedulously laboured to avail himself of the good opportunities which were so considerately and timely offered to him.

He became early devoted to books, and little relished his grandfather's business to which he was at first indentured. From these indentures he was released by the interference of an uncle, then mayor of Newport; and he became assistant to a woollen-draper, in Bridge-street, Bristol. Leaving this city he remained for some time in London in the same capacity; and at last returning to Newport, at the solicitation of his mother, he took the house and business of a Mr. Thomas, draper and tailor, the drapery branch of which he carried on until 1812, when finding himself prosperous, he married his present wife, a distant relation of his own, and niece to Mr. Foster, the mayor of Newport, who had been the means of getting him released from his first indentures.

Whilst in London, although not more than twenty years of age, he was entrusted with the chief management of the business of the house in which he was engaged. He was particularly esteemed for his sobriety, and generally spent his evenings at some of the political club meetings which were then so numerous. In these clubs the unhappy subject of these records was in the habit of associating with Gale Jones, Thelwall, Hardy, Galloway, and others of the same school; and although he spoke but seldom, it cannot be disputed that the lessons which he there received and the principles which he there imbibed, had a great influence in directing his mind to that course which he subsequently pursued.

In the year 1817, Mr. Frost entered into a public political discussion with Mr. Cobbett, which was the first occasion on which he had been placed in a conspicuous position before the world. From this period he became a constant agitator. In all questions, whether of a local or a general character, he took an active part, and more than once before his connection with that struggle for chartism, which was productive to him of so serious results, he became involved in situations threatening him with ruin.

In the year 1822 Mr. Frost was subjected to a severe imprisonment, upon a conviction founded upon a libel published by him against Mr. Protheroe, the town-clerk of Newport. Upon this subject a writer, apparently favourable to Mr. Frost and the views which he took upon this question, thus expresses himself:--

"Up to this period the current of Mr. Frost's life seems to have run smoothly and prosperously; a happy husband and father, and a prosperous tradesman, he seemed destined to go through life without a cloud on his fortunes, when he unfortunately became involved in law proceedings with a Mr. Protheroe, town-clerk of Newport, and land-steward to Sir Charles Morgan, a man of great influence in the neighbourhood. The immediate cause of this quarrel was Mr. Frost's having become bail for a relation, whom Mr. Protheroe (an attorney) was suing for an alleged debt of 150_l._ The legality and existence of the debt were both denied; but owing, it is said, to some informality, the suit was decided against the defendant, and in the consequences of this decision Mr. Frost became involved. Conceiving himself wronged, Mr. Frost, it appears, threatened to lay a statement of the whole affair before the public, unless his portion of the loss was refunded. The judgment not being upon the merits, but merely in consequence of a technical mistake, he conceived he was not morally bound to pay the money. This argument it seems was not satisfactory to the plaintiff, and the end was, that Mr. Protheroe brought an action against Mr. Frost, upon the ground that this threat of publication was an attempt to extort money. In the eye of the law it was so, and Mr. Frost had 1000_l._ damages awarded against him for this rash step. Mr. Frost immediately sold his stock, and paid all his creditors, save one relation, who arrested him for a debt of 200_l._ Upon this Mr. Frost declared himself insolvent, and surrendered himself as such."

The matter, however, did not end here; but the writer already quoted says further:--

"In the mean time his opponent, Mr. Protheroe, had commenced a fresh action against him for libel. Mr. Frost had, in reference to the former action, alluded to the jury as being 'packed,' and also asserted that two of the witnesses, clerks of the plaintiff, were perjured. Upon this Mr. Frost was tried and found guilty of a libel, for which he paid the penalty of six months' imprisonment in Coldbath-fields Prison, London.

"Public opinion was, however, in Mr. Frost's favour, though the law was his enemy. On his return to his native town, after his imprisonment for this libel, he was met by fifteen thousand of his neighbours, with banners and music, and so made a sort of triumphal entry into Newport, ruined by course of law, without having, in general estimation, been guilty of a shadow of crime."

From this period Mr. Frost continued to reside in Newport, exerting his influence, upon every occasion, in support of the more popular views upon the various questions coming under discussion, and advocating, with considerable effect, the necessity of reform in the corporation of that small borough. When the Municipal Corporation Reform Bill was passed, he was looked upon by his fellow-townsmen as the fittest person to represent their opinions; and, in the year 1837, he was elected mayor, notwithstanding the strenuous exertions of the party opposed to him in political opinions. At the same time he held the office of guardian of the poor of the union in which he lived, under the Poor Law Amendment Act; and in reference to this law, as well as all others upon which any popular feeling existed, he espoused the cause of opposition.

At the conclusion of the year of his mayoralty, he was placed on the list of justices of the peace for the district of Newport, in consequence of the representations of his fellow-townsmen, by Lord John Russell, at that time Secretary of State for the Home Department; but, notwithstanding his elevation to this undoubtedly honourable post, he continued to employ his greatest efforts in favour of the wishes of the working classes. In 1838 he joined a society called "The Working Men's Association," at Newport, and this was the first step which he took towards that unfortunate termination of his career which subsequent circumstances brought about. In the course of the ensuing year he was elected, as the representative of the district of Monmouthshire and its vicinity, in "The Convention of the Working Classes," an assembly which met in London in order to endeavour to procure the adoption of the principles of the "Charter" by parliament. Preparatory to his quitting Newport to take his share in the discussions which took place at this Convention, he attended several meetings of the persons by whom he had been elected, for the purpose of their determining upon the precise grounds to be taken by him upon his arrival in London. Acting as chairman at several of them, he made such assertions, and employed such arguments, as were considered by the officers of her majesty's government inconsistent with the duties of the office of magistrate, which he then held; and Lord John Russell in consequence wrote to him, to demand an explanation of his conduct. A long correspondence took place, and considerable public excitement was occasioned; but the result was that, in the month of May 1839, the name of Mr. Frost was removed from the list of persons in the commission of the peace.

This step upon the part of the government had the effect of raising Mr. Frost still higher in the opinions of those persons of whom he was now the professed leader; and, while in the Convention in the metropolis, he acquired considerable influence, on his return to Newport he was received with great enthusiasm. In his speeches, the views which he took, although undoubtedly opposed to the government of the day, of whom he spoke in no measured terms, were decidedly in favour of the operation of "moral force," as distinguished from "physical force," in securing the object which his partisans had in view. It is surprising, therefore, to find, that on his eventual re-appearance at his native town, he should have espoused the cause of violence, and should have consented to take the lead in so formidable a movement as that which was made under his immediate control and direction.

Frost, however, was not the only individual whose proceedings attracted attention. Other delegates to the Convention had been appointed from the same district, and the violence of the declared opinions of one of them, named Vincent, laid him open to charges against him of a very serious nature. He was found to have gained great power over the operatives in the coal and iron districts around Monmouth; and his outrageous language soon obtained for him the notice of Mr. Phillips, the mayor of Newport, within whose sphere of action he most frequently exhibited himself. A prosecution was in consequence determined upon; and, on the 2nd of August 1839, true bills were found at the Monmouth Assizes against him, together with other persons, his associates in the cause of violence, upon a charge of unlawfully meeting together, intending to disturb the peace and tranquillity of this realm, and to excite disaffection and hatred to the government and constitution of the country. Amongst the defendants upon these indictments was Mr. Frost; but, unfortunately for him, his case was postponed to the ensuing assizes. A verdict of "Guilty" was returned upon the charge preferred against Vincent, and he was sentenced to one year's imprisonment, while his companion, William Edwards, was ordered to undergo nine months' imprisonment, and John Dickenson and William Townsend were sentenced to six months' imprisonment.

After this conviction no popular movement took place, but the prisoners were conveyed, without any attempt at disturbance, to the county jail; and although many remonstrances were heard as to their being subjected to the rigorous discipline of the jail, these eventually ceased, and a prospect of peace and quietude presented itself. While yet the authorities were congratulating themselves upon the check which appeared to have been given to physical-force chartism, however, information reached them that secret meetings were nightly held in beer-shops and club-rooms in the country districts, the proceedings at which were calculated to excite feelings of the greatest uneasiness amongst the well-disposed subjects of her majesty. Rumours were afloat that a rising was meditated on the hills, for the purpose of attacking Newport, and, in the event of success, of marching to Monmouth to liberate Vincent and the other Chartist prisoners confined in the jail of that town. From the frequency and vagueness of such reports, little importance (generally speaking) was attached to them until Sunday, the 3rd of November, when Mr. Phillips, mayor of Newport, obtained information, to which some credence was attached, that an insurrectionary movement had been determined on in the Chartist lodges. The mayor, from the first moment of serious alarm, adopted every precautionary measure, which firmness, correct judgment, and indefatigable exertion could accomplish. On the first intimation of danger, he sent the police-officers to summon all the special constables to attend him at the King's Head Hotel, at eight o'clock in the evening. The call was promptly responded to by all the respectable inhabitants; and it was resolved that, in consequence of the information received, it was necessary that fifty special constables should remain on duty in the King's Head Hotel all night, fifty at the Westgate Hotel, and fifty at the Parrot Inn. The mayor afterwards adjourned to the Westgate Hotel, where the magistrates held their sittings; and a detachment of the 45th foot, consisting of thirty soldiers only, was stationed in the house, under the command of Lieutenant Gray, it having been deemed advisable that the remainder of the troop should stay at the workhouse with Captain Stack, where about two hundred stand of arms were deposited. In the course of the evening and the night, the special constables, who were on duty parading the streets, captured many Chartists, armed with pistols, pikes, and other deadly weapons. The alarm was complete; for, during the whole of the afternoon, every inhabitant, or stranger, who happened to arrive in town from the vicinity of the works, brought in the terrifying intelligence that the ringleaders of the Chartists had been scouring the hills during the whole of the day, in all directions, and compelling, by brute force, all who came within their reach to join their ranks, and that it was highly probable that an attack would be made upon Newport that night. This induced the mayor to look for further assistance, and he accordingly sent an express to the mayor of Bristol, requesting a reinforcement of troops. The morning dawned upon the affrighted town without apparent danger, but still alarms were abroad; and, as the hours advanced, business appeared at a complete stand-still, and no one ventured to open his shop. At eight o'clock Lieut. Gray, of the 45th, with two sergeants and twenty-eight soldiers, arrived at the Westgate Hotel, from the barracks at the poor-house, beyond Stow Hill, the remainder being left under the command of Captain Stack at their barracks. The gallant lieutenant immediately placed himself and men under the direction of the mayor; and the brave and determined fellows were judiciously posted in the room which commanded the entire extent of the front of the premises. The shutters of the Westgate Hotel windows were closed, but the entrance was open, and the passage occupied by special constables with staves, there being no appearance of a military force from the exterior of the house.

The subsequent circumstances attending this unfortunate affair, are best detailed by the Attorney-General's speech, and by the evidence which was produced at the trial; and having merely stated the fact of the riot having occurred on the 4th of November, 1839, we shall proceed to the description of the circumstances attending the investigation before the jury.

The importance of the inquiry was deemed by the officers of the crown to be sufficient to warrant the issuing of a special commission for the trial of the prisoners, and the necessary preliminary arrangements having been made, the business of the commission at length commenced on Wednesday, the 1st of January, 1840, at Monmouth, Sir N. C. Tindal, the Lord Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas; Sir J. Parke, one of the Barons of the Court of Exchequer; and Sir J. Williams, one of the Justices of the Court of Queen's Bench, being the Judges appointed to undertake the difficult task of trying the numerous prisoners in custody; and the Attorney-General (Sir John Campbell), the Solicitor-General (Mr. Serjeant Wilde), Mr. Serjeant Ludlow, Mr. Serjeant Talfourd, Mr. Wightman, and Mr. Talbot, being the counsel for the crown. The counsel engaged for the prisoners were Sir F. Pollock, Mr. Kelly, Mr. Thomas, and Mr. Rickards.

The whole of the prisoners had been arraigned upon the indictment preferred against them on a former day, and had solicited to be tried separately, in obedience to a right conferred upon them by act of parliament.

Mr. John Frost was the first put upon his trial. He was placed at the bar at nine o'clock in the morning, and appeared to posses great confidence.

The Attorney-General then rose, and thus proceeded to address the court and jury:--"May it please your lordships, gentlemen of the jury; In the discharge of my official duty, I have the honour of attending here to conduct this important prosecution. I hope you will believe that my only object is, that the facts of the case may be fairly laid before you; that truth may be fully investigated; that innocence may be vindicated, if innocence be found to exist; and that you will only pronounce the verdict of guilty upon clear and convincing proof. It is highly important that parties accused should be zealously and ably defended; but it is likewise of importance that the law should be vindicated; that the peace of society should be preserved; and that, when crime has been committed, guilt should be brought to punishment. I think that no one will deny the necessity for the solemn inquiry in which we are engaged. There has recently been in this county an armed insurrection; the law has been set at defiance; an attempt has been made to take possession of the town of Newport; there has been a conflict between the insurgents and the Queen's troops; there has been bloodshed; there has been the loss of many lives. Gentlemen, the intelligence of these outrages has caused great alarm and dismay throughout the kingdom. Various prisoners, charged with having been concerned in these outrages, are now accused of having committed the highest crime known to the law. Not only on account of the importance of the occasion, but from the forms of the law, it became necessary for her Majesty to issue a special commission for the trial of those charged as offenders. A bill of indictment for high treason was found by a jury of the county against (amongst others) John Frost, the prisoner at the bar; but still he is presumed to be innocent. All the indictment says is this, that he should be put upon his trial. I need hardly caution you, gentlemen of the jury, that you are to dismiss from your recollection all that you have read, and all that you have heard, upon this subject. You are to be guided entirely by the evidence, and you will proceed as if you never had heard of the case until the indictment was read to you. I further use the liberty of saying that you are not to regard my statement, either as to the law or as to the fact. The law you will receive from the venerable judges who preside over this court--the facts you will hear from the witnesses, and you will be guided by the evidence they give, and the credit that you think their testimony is entitled to. A most important charge is given to you, for it is one which bears upon the guilt or innocence of the prisoner. No men can have higher functions to discharge--the life and the reputation of the accused are in your hands--but there are likewise in your hands the public safety and the public justice of the country."

Having then referred at great length to the law affecting the case, the learned gentleman proceeded to say:--"I shall now, therefore, give you a short outline of the facts, which I understand will be clearly proved in evidence before you. For that purpose I must remind you of the geographical situation of the county in which these disturbances took place. You are probably well acquainted with what is called the 'hill district,' in the county of Monmouth. It is of a triangular form, having for its apex a place called Risca, about five miles from Newport. The base is at a distance of from fifteen to twenty miles as you ascend the country. On the west side you have Nantiglo and Beaufort iron-works--on the east, Blaenavon, and the hills in the neighbourhood; Blorage, I think, being one of the heights. The country is intersected by deep glens, watered by rapid streams; the Rumney being on the west, and the Sirhowy parallel to it; then come the rivers Ebbw Upper and Ebbw Lower, which join and flow down towards Newport; and near to that is Lanthewy, and the river Avon. In that county, as you are aware, are mines of coal and iron. These mines have of late years been worked to a very great extent; and those mountainous hills which, fifty years ago, were almost uninhabited--a few shepherds' huts only being scattered up and down, are now the seat of a dense population, estimated, I am told, at forty thousand persons, employed in working the iron and coal mines, and in supplying the wants of those so engaged. I am afraid the population which has thus suddenly sprung up is, in many instances, not the most peaceable. I am afraid that a degree of ignorance prevails which is much to be deplored; and that many of those who live there are subject to be practised upon by designing men. It would appear that this population had been organised to a considerable degree by societies established amongst them, so that on any occasion a command might be issued and circulated amongst the population, and speedily obeyed. It will appear that the prisoner, John Frost, who had been for many years a linen-draper in the town of Newport, possessed extensive influence in this part of the country, the hill district of the county of Monmouth. Newport, you are aware, is the place from which the coal and iron obtained in the mines is exported. It is a considerable town, and great importance is attached to it. It is the highway from South Wales to Bristol, Gloucester, Birmingham, and the north of England. It will appear in evidence before you, that in the week preceding Sunday, the 3rd of November, a plan was formed for a general rising of the population of the district, to take place on the night of that Sunday, when it should arrive. Various consultations were held, at which Mr. Frost was present. Those consultations were held chiefly at a place called Blackwood, between Rumney and Sirhowy. There is a public-house called the Coach and Horses, where there was a lodge or society, and where meetings were held, and where it is clear this scheme was devised or matured. There was particularly a meeting held on Friday before Sunday, the 3rd of November. Deputies attended at that meeting; there was a return of the armed forced which could be mustered; and it would appear that there the plan or scheme was laid down which was afterwards to be carried into effect. What was that plan? It appears that orders were to be issued to the men to assemble armed on the evening of Sunday, November the 3d. There were to be three principal divisions--one was to be under the command of John Frost himself, who was at that time stationed at Blackwood. Another division was to be under the command of Zephaniah Williams. Williams lived higher up the country; he kept a beer-house at Coalbrook-vale, on the Ebbw, near Nantiglo. He was to collect the men up the country, and to bring them down towards Newport. The 3d division was to be under the command of a person of the name of William Jones, a watchmaker, at Pontypool. He was to collect the people from the north and west, and bring them down, and they were all to meet somewhere near Risca or Cefn, and to come on to Newport. They were to be at Cefn about midnight on Sunday, and, being assembled there, they were to march to Newport about two o'clock in the morning--a time when it was expected that there would be no preparation to receive them; when the inhabitants would be buried in sleep, and entirely disarmed of all suspicion or apprehension of danger. They were, when at Newport, to attack the troops who were there, to take possession of the town, to break down the bridge which is there across the river Usk, to stop the mail, and then, by a signal, the success of the scheme was to be announced. The mail not arriving in an hour and a half after its usual time, those who were in concert with them in that town would know that the plan had succeeded, and there was to be a general rising there, and in Lancashire generally, and elsewhere. Gentlemen, there never was a charter law universally and instantly established--there never was the remotest chance of this scheme being accomplished; but, had it not most providentially happened that the night between Sunday and Monday was one of the darkest and most tempestuous that was ever known in England, it is difficult to conjecture the degree of mischief which might have been wrought before the insurrection could have been suppressed, and peace and tranquillity restored. Gentlemen, John Frost, the prisoner, remaining at Blackwood, the men under his command did assemble considerably earlier than the other divisions. He crossed over from Blackwood to a place called Newbridge, on the Ebbw, and came by Abercairn to Risca and the Welsh Oak, and there he was early in the night; but, from the difficulties which presented themselves, the other divisions, which were to come from the upper parts of the country, did not arrive until long after the expected hour. Zephaniah Williams, who was to bring the men from Nantiglo, did not arrive till after daylight. William Jones, who was to bring his division from the north and west, did not arrive at the appointed time. A man of the name of Britton, who commanded a party of this division, did arrive in time, but Z. Williams with the others was too late. John Frost having come to Risca, remained there until shortly before daylight. It was then thought necessary to muster the forces there collected, and to march on towards Newport. There were collected at that time, according to the best computation that could be made, about five thousand men. Many of them were armed with guns and pistols, many had spears or pikes, and many were provided with an instrument called a mandril, which, as I understand, is a short instrument, made of iron, for picking coal in the mines--a very dangerous and deadly weapon if used for hostile purposes--resembling a pickaxe in shape; others had scythes fixed on sticks, and those who had not weapons of this kind were armed with sticks and bludgeons. Mr. Frost commanded them, and they marched towards Newport. They marched in military order, five abreast. The word of command was given from time to time by Frost, and they came down from Cefn by Pie-corner to Tredegar-park, the seat of Sir Charles Morgan, and through which the highway of a tram-road passes. By the time they had got to Tredegar-park, the day had dawned. Here inquiries were made by Frost as to the position of the military. I may now mention what had been passing at Newport during the night. Intelligence had been brought to Newport on the Sunday night of what had been passing in the hills. Mr. Phillips, who was the mayor of Newport, immediately took measures for the safety of the town, and special constables were sworn and stationed at the most important points. There are three principal inns in Newport, the Westgate, the King's Head, and the Parrot. These inns commanded the principal streets, and there the special constables were stationed. The Westgate is in the market-place, and was considered the most important station of all. The mayor went to the Westgate with other magistrates, and sat up the whole night, sending out constantly for information, and making the best preparations to preserve the peace and defend the town. When the day dawned intelligence was brought that the insurgents were advancing, and were in the neighbourhood of Newport. The mayor had sent a person of the name of Walker, to gain information. That person had been shot at, and returned dangerously wounded. The mayor then sent for military assistance. There was in the neighbourhood only one company of soldiers, under the command of Captain Stack, who were stationed in the workhouse, which had been converted into a temporary barracks, and is on the outskirts of the town. Captain Stack sent thirty of his men to the assistance of the mayor, under the command of Lieutenant Grey and two sergeants. I believe the barracks are about half a mile from the Westgate. Lieutenant Grey brought his men to the Westgate, and in a little time they were stationed in a room in the inn which it is material, gentlemen, I should describe to you. That inn is in Westgate-street, fronting the north. On the east side there is a room, with a bow-window, looking out upon the street. In that room the military were stationed. There is a corresponding room on the western side of the house, where the magistrates were assembled. Between these two rooms is a corridor or passage, which you will find was a scene of strife. The special constables remained before the door of the inn where they had been placed. The military had not loaded, and it will be a fact most material to the case, that the soldiers did not load their muskets till they were fired upon. This being the state of things at Newport as the insurgents approached, Frost at the head of the body, and giving the word of command, they reached the machine at Court-y-bella, and there Mr. Frost inquired respecting the military. He was told by two boys whom he met at the turnpike, that a number of soldiers had marched to the Westgate Inn. On that the insurgents divided, and part of them turned to the left and went up the hill leading to St. Wollo's Church, whilst another part kept to the right and went towards the town of Newport, through Commercial-street. This last division afterwards came up and joined the others. Those who had gone by St. Wollo's or the Friars, went down Stow-hill, which leads to the Westgate Inn, where Mr. Frost had been told the military were. Mr. Frost still walked at their head, and when they had passed a place called the Catholic-chapel, which is close to the back of the Westgate, the insurgents tried to gain admission to the Westgate Inn by the carriage entrance to the courtyard, behind the premises I have been describing. That entrance is from Westgate-street, and when they failed to procure admission there, they wheeled round to the front of the Westgate Inn. Mr. Frost was still with them, and, as it will be distinctly shown to you, was in front of the Westgate Inn at that time. The special constables were before the door, and the insurgents asked them to surrender; one of the constables said they would not surrender, on which the command to fire was given, and immediately the firing began upon the bow-window of the room in which the military were stationed, and the insurgents attempted to break through the front door of the porch to the interior of the house. They used their pikes for the purpose of forcing the door, and having succeeded, they got into the hall and the passage leading from the magistrates' room to the room where the military were stationed. It was now the time for Lieutenant Grey to do what became him as an officer of her Majesty, and as a good subject of this country, who wished to preserve the lives of his fellow-subjects, and to take care that universal confusion should not occur. Orders were given by him to the military to load. They loaded. I should mention to you, gentlemen, that the room in which they were stationed was that in which was the bow-window--that is, a projecting window having three sides, and not being circular. The shutters of this window were closed, and the glass had been broken by the shots which had been discharged. But while the shutters remained shut the soldiers could not use their guns and fire on the insurgents. Lieutenant Grey, who on that occasion acted certainly in a manner which is above all praise, for the moderation, the firmness, the energy, and intelligence he displayed--went to open the shutters of one part of the window; the mayor went to open another part of the window, and Serjeant Daly to open another. As the mayor opened the shutters he received two wounds, one in the shoulder and the other in the hip. Serjeant Daly was also wounded in the head by slugs, which passed into it, and the gun which he had in his hand had its lock knocked off by a ball which had been fired by the insurgents. The soldiers were then ordered to fire. At this time the insurgents had gained the various approaches to the house; they were in the passage leading to the room in which the military were assembled, and if the order to fire had not then been given, there is no reason to doubt that the military would all have been massacred. The order, however, was given, and it was speedily and effectually obeyed. The insurgents in the passage were fired on, and several of them fell and were killed. The shutters being also removed from the window, the men directed their pieces through it, and thus had command of the space in which the insurgents were drawn up. They accordingly fired into the street, and several of the insurgents were wounded and fell, and the others were speedily dispersed (Mr. Frost had not been seen after the firing first began), and they fled in every direction. Zephaniah Williams was about ten minutes too late, but he did arrive at last with the Nant-i-glo men, a band almost as numerous as that led by Frost himself. William Jones, of Pont-y-pool, did not come nearer to Newport than Malpas, but he was proceeding onward when he heard of the disasters which had happened to his associates in Newport. He likewise fled, and the men who were with him dispersed. I should mention that these three parties in their progress scoured the country and pressed various persons whom they compelled to march with them, at the same time seizing all the arms they could find. Mr. Frost himself was seen soon after the defeat of his associates in Commercial-street, which leads to Tredegar; after the action was over, he was seen in Tredegar-park escaping into a wood, and he was apprehended in Newport on the Monday night with pistols and powder in his pocket. Gentlemen, thus tranquillity was restored, and it will be for you to say, if these facts be true, whether there is any reasonable doubt of the guilt of the prisoner Frost. And how are those facts to be proved? With regard to the main circumstances, no doubt whatever can be entertained; and I shall prove the facts by witnesses who are above exception, who were unconnected with the circumstances, and who were employed in trying to establish peace and to restore tranquillity. With regard to the declarations made by Frost, which I have avoided to detail for the present, the proof of these will much depend on the evidence of persons who were concerned with him in the insurrection. When my learned friend comes to remark upon their testimony, he will probably call them accomplices; but, gentlemen, whether they are voluntary or compulsory witnesses, there is no doubt that their evidence ought to be received with great suspicion, and weighed with anxious care; but if you do sift it, and find no good reason to doubt its veracity, you will not hesitate to believe the evidence given by such individuals. In such cases evidence of this kind must be laid before the juries who try them; for it is evident that treasonable conspiracies are not concocted in public; and how can they be proved but by the employment of spies and informers, whose evidence, it is true, is generally condemned and often disbelieved. In this case, however, I purpose to call no spies, no informers--for none such were employed--but I propose to call persons who were engaged more or less in the insurrection, and who, I submit, may be trusted if their evidence be consistent, and if it be corroborated as to the main points to which they will speak. On that evidence no doubt will exist in your minds with regard to the guilt of the prisoner. Gentlemen, it gives me sincere satisfaction to find that he is defended by gentlemen of the first eminence and the first talent at the bar of England. All that zeal, learning, and eloquence can accomplish, will be achieved in his cause, so that the result of this trial must satisfy the public justice of the country. I own it seems to me, that my learned friends will have a difficult task to perform. I think they will hardly deny the law of treason as it was laid down by Mr. Justice Foster and Lord Tenterden; and here was an insurrection of men, formidable from their numbers, met for a public purpose, and actually engaged in conflict with the Queen's troops, not accidentally, or in a sudden affray, but publicly, with premeditation and design. Will my learned friend say that it was a private object the prisoner sought to obtain? What this was I am at a loss to conjecture. It was not private revenge, or a private grievance. The insurgents did not meet for the purpose of discussing petitions to be presented to the Queen, or to either of the houses of parliament. It was not a meeting arising out of disputes between the masters and servants engaged in the coal and iron trade. It was not a sudden outbreak arising from want of employment, or the want of food; for, I believe, that if inquiry be made, it will turn out that the coal and iron trade has not been in a more prosperous condition than it was when this insurrection occurred; that the wages of those employed in it were high, and that those persons who were engaged in the insurrection had no pretended private grievances which they wished to redress. What conclusion then must be drawn from this if the witnesses speak the truth? That they assembled for a public object with an armed force to change the law and the constitution of the country. Unless this offence be satisfactorily made out there can be no question, gentlemen, that it will be your duty to acquit the prisoner, and that you will have great satisfaction in doing so; but if the evidence clearly and satisfactorily establishes the case against him, you will no doubt act the manly part which it will be your duty to perform. You will not shrink from your duty, whatever may be your feelings. It imports all persons, whatever may be their situation, that the law shall be respected and obeyed: whether they possess landed property, or if they are merchants, or tradesmen, or labourers. Whatever may be their situation, whether it be high or humble, it imports them all that such tumults as this should be suppressed, and, for the sake of example, that punishment should take place. I have given you a short outline of the facts of the case. I have no doubt that the witnesses who will be called and examined will receive from you the most careful attention, and that you will listen, with the respect due to them, to the arguments which may be adduced in favour of the prisoner. On these it will then be your important duty to pronounce your verdict of 'guilty' or 'not guilty;' and I have no doubt that you will do so with justice towards the prisoner, and with satisfaction to the public justice of the country."

The learned Attorney-General having concluded his address, the first witness, named Samuel Simmons, was called.

Sir F. Pollock rose to submit an objection to the court, to the examination of the witness. It appeared that by various statutes, the prisoner was entitled to the delivery of a copy of the list of witnesses to be examined at the trial, and also of a copy of the indictment, and of the panel. The statute of the 7th William III. entitled the prisoner to the delivery of a copy of the indictment five days before the trial, and to the delivery of a copy of the panel two days before the trial. The statute of the 7th Ann, c. 21, s. 11, provided that "when any person should be indicted for high treason or misprision of treason, a list of the witnesses who should be produced on the trial for proving the said indictment, and of the jurors, mentioning the names, professions, and places of abode of the said witnesses and jurors, should be also given at the same time that the copy of the indictment was delivered to the party indicted." It then further provided in favour of the prisoner, that "a copy of all indictments for the offences aforesaid, with such lists, should be delivered to the party indicted ten days before the trial, and in the presence of two or more credible witnesses, any law or statute to the contrary notwithstanding." In the present case the list of witnesses had been handed to the prisoner on the 17th of December, but the copy of the indictment had been served on the 12th of the same month. The distinct provisions of the act therefore had not been complied with.

The Attorney-General, on the other side, contended first, that the objection was too late, and that it ought to have been made before the arraignment of the prisoner on the indictment, when the formal error, if any had been committed, might have been remedied by fresh service; but secondly, that in fact there was no error at all, for that the service of the copy of the list of witnesses and of the copy of the indictment before the time required by the act of Queen Ann was advantageous to the prisoner, and that their not having been handed to him both together could not be deemed by the court to be sufficient ground for setting aside the proceedings, or for directing an acquittal of the prisoners.

In answer to these arguments, which occupied the whole day, Chief Justice Tindal said, "It seems to me that the prisoner's counsel have raised a very great doubt, and the point is one which requires serious consideration. It is the more important as the same objection may apply itself, under existing circumstances, to several other cases. We propose, therefore, to take a course in the present case, to prevent the possibility of any hasty decision operating to the disadvantage or prejudice of the prisoner on the one hand, or to the prejudice of public justice on the other. We shall allow the trial to proceed, and take the opinion of her Majesty's judges on the subject, in the event of the result of the trial on the present occasion making such a reference necessary."

On the 2nd of January the learned counsel for the crown proceeded to the examination of witnesses in support of the allegations against the prisoner. The evidence was corroborative of the statement made by the learned Attorney-General, and it is unnecessary to repeat the facts which were sworn to. Sir Thomas Phillips, the mayor, who had been knighted, and Captain Grey, who had received a new rank in consequence of their gallant and praiseworthy exertions in defence of the town, were called and examined, but they in effect related the same story which had been detailed in the opening speech.

The next witness called was Thomas Walker, the special constable, who had been wounded. He stated that he went out by order of the mayor to make observations upon the district towards Risca, which is about six miles from Newport. He found several parties of men on the road, apparently armed; and at Risca he heard shots fired, and some cheering. On his return he was stopped by about sixteen men, and he was stabbed by one in the thigh, while another fired a pistol at him, the ball from which inflicted a very severe wound. He managed to reach Newport, but on his arrival there he was so weak as to be unable to walk any further; and having reported himself to the mayor, he was carried home and put to bed.

The mode by which the men, under the command of the prisoner, increased the number of his followers, was detailed by several witnesses, who were labouring men, residing on the different lines of march taken by the Chartists. From their testimony, it appeared that every cottage was attacked and the male inhabitants forced to take such implements as they might possess, (fit to be employed as offensive weapons,) and accompany the main body. In case of refusal, or of disinclination being exhibited to obey the orders which were given, force was used, and persons were set to guard those who appeared likely to attempt to escape. Out-scouts, it was also proved, were appointed to watch the districts in the neighbourhood of the Welsh Oak, and the various places of meeting, and upon the approach of any strangers, they were directly seized and carried before some of the leaders for examination. Chartist lodges were shown to have been established throughout the whole district of country surrounding Newport; and at the meetings which were held antecedent to the insurrection, collections were made for the purpose of defraying the expenses of the purchase of arms to be used against the authorities of the town.

Other witnesses were called, who deposed to facts implicating Zephaniah Williams and William Jones, as well as the prisoner Frost, and proved the employment of great violence by them and their followers.

The evidence as to the apprehension of Frost, was that of Mr. Thomas Jones Phillips, clerk to the magistrates of Newport. Having proved the issuing of the warrant for the prisoner, he said "On Monday the 4th of November I went to Mr. Frost's house with the superintendant of police, but he was not there. I afterwards went to Partridge's house, but not in search of Mr. Frost. I had a search warrant for Partridge's house. I went to the house attended by some special constables. It was between the hours of seven and eight o'clock at night. I knocked at the door, but no notice was taken. I then attempted to enter the house, but finding the door fastened, I called out 'Partridge,' and he said 'I am gone to bed.' I said 'Get up and open the door, or I must force it open.' The door not being opened, I forced it open. I heard the cross, that seemed to fasten the door inside, falling down, and then, when the door was open, I saw Mr. Frost standing within two yards of it. He was facing me. The cottage in which Partridge lives is a very small one, and the door opens from the street into the room. There is no passage. I walked up to Mr. Frost, and laid my hand upon his shoulder on one side, while Mr. Rogers, who was with me, laid his hand on his other shoulder, and said to Mr. Frost, 'He was a prisoner.' Mr. Frost said, 'Very well, I will go with you directly.' I said, 'No, I am not yet prepared to go with you,' for I had the search warrant to execute. I then searched the house. Mr. Frost appeared to me (at the time) to be very much fatigued; and he himself told me that he felt very uncomfortable. He walked arm-in-arm with me from Partridge's house to the Westgate Inn. He was not searched till he got to the Westgate Inn. There were found upon him three pistols, a powder-flask, and some balls. The balls I believe were loose in his pocket. The pistols were all loaded."

This evidence, which was concluded at the end of the fifth day of the trial, completed the case for the prosecution.

Sir F. Pollock, on the following Monday morning, proceeded to open the case for the defence. The learned gentleman occupied more than five hours and a half in addressing the jury; commenting in the most able manner upon the whole of the vast mass of evidence which had been adduced, and contending that there was nothing in the conduct of the prisoner, or of his associates, which could in the slightest degree warrant a presumption that they had assembled for the purpose of committing any offence which could be supposed to amount to high-treason. He urged that the probability was, that the assemblage took place with a view (on the part of the Chartists), to exhibit their power, and, by making a general movement, to procure the release of Vincent, their partisan, at that time undergoing an imprisonment, on a charge of sedition, in Monmouth jail; and that some prisoners having been made from amongst them, they had gone to demand their liberation, and had become exasperated by the harsh measures adopted against them by the authorities.

Several witnesses were called with a view to support these suggestions, and to show that the first act of aggression was on the part of the soldiers; and many persons gave the prisoner an excellent character for humanity and general mildness of disposition.

Mr. Kelly then proceeded to sum up the whole of the evidence, on the part of the prisoner, in a most able speech, and he was followed by the Solicitor-General in reply.

Towards the conclusion of the eighth day's proceedings, the Lord Chief Justice addressed the jury upon the whole case. At six o'clock the jury retired to consider their verdict, and in about half an hour returned into court, and declared that the prisoner was "Guilty" of the offence imputed to him, but recommended him, generally, to the merciful consideration of the crown.

On the following morning, the 9th of January, Zephaniah Williams was put upon his trial. As we have already entered so fully into the facts proved against the prisoner Frost, it would be useless to repeat the evidence adduced in any of the subsequent cases, which was merely a repetition of that already given. On Monday the 12th of January, this prisoner was called upon for his defence, when he appeared dreadfully affected. His counsel had already addressed the jury at great length in his behalf, and he contented himself with denying that he ever entertained any notion of the kind imputed to him, and solemnly protested that he never had the least design of revolting against the Queen. He was found "Guilty," but, as in the case of Frost, was recommended to mercy.

William Jones was then put on his trial, and on Wednesday he was also pronounced "Guilty," with a similar recommendation to mercy.

It now became the duty of the learned judges to proceed to the consideration of the indictments preferred against the other prisoners, in custody for minor offences alleged against them. Charles Walters, Jenkins Morgan, John Rees, Richard Benfield, and John Lovell, confessed themselves guilty of the charges laid against them; and the Attorney-General withdrew the prosecutions against Edmund Edmunds, James Aust, George Turner, and Solomon Britton, in reference to the propriety of whose indictment great doubts existed. On the same day several other prisoners pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy, riot, pike-making, burglary, &c.; and on Thursday, the business of the special commission was terminated by the learned judges passing sentence on the prisoners.

Frost, Williams, and Jones, were first brought up; and their lordships having gone through the usual forms put on the black caps, and--

Chief Justice Tindal addressed the prisoners in the following words:--"John Frost, Zephaniah Williams, and William Jones, after the most anxious and careful investigation of your respective cases before juries of great intelligence and almost unexampled patience, you stand at the bar of this court to receive the last sentence of the law, for the commission of a crime which, beyond all others, is the most pernicious in its example, and the most injurious in its consequences, to the peace and happiness of human society--that of high-treason against your sovereign. You can have no just ground of complaint that your several cases have not met with the most full consideration, both from the jury and the court; but as that jury have, in each of them, pronounced you guilty of the crime with which you have been charged, I should be wanting in justice to them if I did not openly declare that the verdicts which they have found meet with the entire concurrence of my learned brethren and myself. In the case of all ordinary breaches of the law, the mischief of the offence does, for the most part, terminate with the immediate injury sustained by the individual against whom it is levelled. The man who plunders the property, or lifts his hand against the life of his neighbour, does by his guilty act inflict, in that particular instance, and to that intent, a loss or injury on the sufferer or his surviving friends; but they who, by armed numbers, or violence, or terror, endeavour to put down established institutions, and to introduce in their stead a new order of things, open wide the flood-gates of rapine and bloodshed, destroy all security of property and life, and do their utmost to involve a whole nation in anarchy and ruin. It has been proved in your case, that you combined together to lead from the hills, at the dead hour of night, into the town of Newport, many thousands of men, armed in many instances with weapons of a dangerous description, in order that they might take possession of the town, and supersede the lawful authority of the Queen therein, as a preliminary step to a more general insurrection throughout the kingdom. It is owing to the interposition of Providence alone, that your wicked designs were frustrated. Your followers arrive by daylight, and, after firing upon the civil power and the Queen's troops, are, by the firmness of the magistrates, and the cool and determined bravery of a small band of soldiers, defeated and dispersed. What would have been the fate of the peaceable and unoffending inhabitants, if success had attended your rebellious designs, it is useless to conjecture. The invasion of a foreign foe would, in all probability, have been less destructive to property and life. It is for the crime of treason, committed under these circumstances, that you are now called upon yourselves to answer; and by the penalty which you are about to suffer, you hold out a warning to all your fellow-subjects, that the law of your country is strong enough to repress and to punish all attempts to alter the established order of things, by insurrection and armed force, and that those who are found guilty of such treasonable attempts must expiate their crime by an ignominious death. I do, therefore, most earnestly exhort you, to employ the little time that remains to you, in preparing for the great change that doth await you, by sincere penitence and fervent prayer; for although we shall not fail to forward to the proper quarter that recommendation which the jury intrusted to us, we cannot hold out to you any hope of mercy on this side the grave. And now doth nothing more remain than that the Court pronounces (to all of us a most painful duty) the last sentence of the law, which is, 'That each of you, John Frost, Zephaniah Williams, and William Jones, be taken hence to the place from whence you came, and be thence drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution, and that each of you be there hanged by the neck until you be dead, and that afterwards the head of each of you shall be severed from his body, and the body of each, divided into four quarters, shall be disposed of as her Majesty shall think fit; and may the Lord have mercy upon your souls.'"

The prisoners received the announcement of their fate with the utmost firmness, yet propriety of demeanour. They were the only persons in the crowded court whom the fearful nature of the sentence, and the low, solemn tone, in which it was pronounced, did not most deeply affect.

The prisoners were then removed from the bar, and the clanking of their chains was painfully audible.

Charles Waters, John Lovell, Richard Benfield, John Rees, and Jenkin Morgan, were next placed at the bar, and, as in the former case, were addressed by the learned Judge with great solemnity. Their cases, though sufficiently aggravated, presented features of palliation which entitled them to an extension of mercy, and their lives would be spared. "At the same time (said his lordship), looking to the active and prominent share which each of you has taken in the lawless proceedings at Newport, on the fatal 4th of November, we cannot hold out to you the hope of further mitigation than that you must be prepared to leave your native country, and probably for the remainder of your lives. For the present, and with the object of obtaining such mitigation of the execution of your sentence, it is our duty to pass the sentence required by law;" which his lordship did in the form adopted with the other prisoners.

All the prisoners received the intimation that they should be transported with some indication of surprise. Rees alone leant his head upon the bar and wept.

Notwithstanding the extremely perilous situation of the unfortunate men, who were thus convicted and left under sentence of death at Monmouth, during the whole period occupied in their trials their brother Chartists throughout the county persisted in pursuing their reckless and mischievous career. In the immediate vicinity of Monmouth, small armed bands associated themselves for the purpose of deterring the attendance of jurymen and witnesses at the trial; but the active interference of a large body of the London police-force, sent down with a view to the preservation of peace and good order, effectually prevented the success of their schemes. Rumours were industriously circulated, as well before the commencement of the proceedings of the special commission as during their continuance, that a new rising was intended, to procure the release of the prisoners from custody; and the most active preparations were made to meet any outbreak which might occur; but it eventually turned out, either that the reports were unfounded, or that the devisers of the plots wanted the courage or the means to carry them into execution. In Sheffield, Dewsbury, and many of the northern towns, the Chartist agitation was kept up, avowedly without the least consideration for the wretched prisoners; and, by the vigorous agency of the police, the most atrocious plots were discovered and frustrated.

In the metropolis, too, the work of disaffection was apparent. Repeated meetings took place, and schemes of the very worst character were devised; and, on Tuesday the 15th of January, the government received private information that an insurrection was to break out on that night or on the following morning, and that the firing of London in various parts was to be the signal for a general rising throughout the country. Orders were in consequence instantly transmitted to the Horse Guards, for the preparation of a sufficient force to repel any treasonable attack which might be made; and here, as well as at all the barracks in the vicinity of the metropolis, and at the Tower, the whole of the men were put under arms. The metropolitan police-force and the city constables received orders to be ready for immediate action, and the London Fire-engine Establishment--a body of most enterprising and active officers--formed into a fire-police, was placed in readiness to employ their exertions to assist the municipal authorities to suppress the supposed intended conflagration.

The alarm, which was necessarily spread through the metropolis in consequence of these warlike preparations, however, turned out to be without cause; for although on that night a very large meeting of Chartists took place at the Hall of Trades, in Abbey-street, Bethnal-green, there was no attempt at violence. The conduct of the speakers at this assemblage, indeed, sufficiently showed the extremes to which they desired their followers to go; and a subsequent meeting on the following Thursday proved that they were not quite so harmless as their apologists would have had it supposed. At this convention, held, as it was announced, for the purpose of discussing the existing state of the working-classes throughout the country, upwards of seven hundred persons attended, the majority of whom seemed to be individuals of low rank. At nine o'clock the committee came upon the platform, when Mr. Neesom was called to the chair. After the chairman had detailed the objects for which the meeting had been called, Mr. Spurr, who had on a former occasion taken an active part in the discussions, rose to propose the first resolution. After a few preliminary observations, he contended that the only way to preserve the peace was to be prepared to wage war; and in support of such an assertion he thought it would be well deserving the attention of the meeting to bear in mind the words of a celebrated person, "to put their trust in God, and keep their powder dry," which was received with loud cheering. On silence being restored, the speaker was about to proceed, but a body of police appearing at the door with drawn sabres, caused the greatest possible confusion. The chairman entreated the meeting not to be disturbed, as it was held on constitutional principles, but in order not to give their enemies an opportunity of succeeding, he hoped there would be no breach of the peace committed. The police then, having blocked up every avenue leading to the room, prevented all present from retiring, and proceeded to search their persons. Daggers, knives, sabres, pistols primed and loaded, and other weapons of an offensive character, were taken from many of them, while upon the floor were discovered others of a like description, evidently thrown away by their owners in order to enable them to escape detection. Twenty-one of the persons who were taken into custody on this occasion unarmed, were detained in the Trades Hall, and eleven others, upon whom pistols and daggers had been found, were removed to safe custody, in order to await their examination before the magistrates. Upon subsequent inquiries taking place, several of them were discharged, while, however, others, with new prisoners subsequently secured and identified as parties to the meeting, were tried and convicted at the Old Bailey Sessions, and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment.

The accounts received from some of the country districts also, showed that the conduct of the Chartists there was still more alarming; although from the vigilance of the police, and the constant watch kept on their movements, all serious mischief was prevented.

At Sheffield a plot of a most fearful description, which had for its object the burning of the town, was discovered to have been formed, and considerable preparations towards carrying this diabolical attempt into execution were found to have been completed. The magistrates immediately procured the assistance of the military, and the most anxious exertions were made to render any attack which might be attempted futile. It was ascertained that a midnight meeting was to be held among the Chartists on the night of Saturday, the 11th of January; and Colonel Martin, commanding the troops in the vicinity of the town, was called upon by the magistrates to render them such assistance as should be necessary to prevent any outbreak. In the outskirts of the town it was found that the Chartists had assembled in great numbers, and were prepared to undertake any mischievous attack which might appear to their leaders to be proper. The police, who were stationed in the roads to gain intelligence of their proceedings, were repeatedly fired upon and wounded; and one individual, who, from his dress, was mistaken for one of their body, received no fewer than twenty-seven slugs in his neck and shoulders from repeated discharges at him. In the course of the night a great many persons were taken into custody, and a large quantity of muskets, pikes, daggers, a species of instrument intended to impede the progress of horse-soldiers, with three long and sharp prongs, called a cat, with powder, balls, and hand-grenades, were secured. In the darkness of the night large bodies of men, armed with muskets and spears, were seen moving from various points towards the town; but, upon their approaching as far as the pickets which had been thrown out, they appeared to come to the conclusion that their scheme had been discovered, and that therefore their attack would be repelled, and they turned back and marched off into the country districts. During the whole of Saturday night and of Sunday, the greatest degree of excitement prevailed throughout the neighbourhood of Sheffield, and frequent seizures of combustibles and arms took place in houses in the suburbs.

The prisoners who were taken were instantly conveyed before the magistrates for examination, and Samuel Holberry, Thomas Booker, his son William Booker, James Duffey, William Wells, John Marshall, Thomas Penthorpe, Joseph Benison, and William Martin, were eventually committed to York Castle for trial.

Throughout the whole week, great alarm prevailed among the well-disposed inhabitants of the town; and the military continued in possession of the principal places of strength to prevent any new effort against the public peace.

The exhibition of violence on the part of the Chartists, however, was not confined to Sheffield; but at Dewsbury a simultaneous rising took place. On the Saturday night the town was seized by a number of armed men; and the private watchmen, six in number, were compelled to fly. Mr. Hale, an inhabitant of the town, who was acting as inspector of the watch, was fired at, although without effect, and the mob kept the neighbourhood in a state of terror during the whole night by the constant discharge of fire-arms. In Heckmondwicke, and other villages, similar scenes were enacted; and it was afterwards learned that the men who thus disturbed the public peace, were proceeding to join the Sheffield Chartists, but before morning all of them had dispersed.

While these disturbances, however, had occupied the attention of the authorities in the North, in London the government and the law officers of the crown had been occupied in determining the fate of the prisoners under sentence at Monmouth. The questions for the consideration of the judges, reserved at the time of the trials of Frost, Williams, and Jones, for in each the same points arose, were argued before the fifteen judges in the Exchequer Chamber; and after a most lengthy and learned discussion, extending through three days, the case terminated on the afternoon of the 28th of January.

The conclusion arrived at by the judges was communicated by the Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas to the Home Secretary, in the following letter:--

"Westminster-hall, 28th January, 1840.

"MY LORD--I have the honour to inform your lordship that the argument upon the three cases of The Queen v. Frost, The Queen v. Williams, and The Queen v. Jones closed this afternoon, and that the judges, after considering the subject, have come to the following determination upon the two questions which have been argued before them, viz:--First--A majority of the judges, in the proportion of nine to six, are of opinion that the delivery of the list of witnesses was not a good delivery in point of law.

"But secondly--A majority of the judges, in the proportion of nine to six, are of opinion that the objection to the delivery of the list of witnesses was not taken in due time. All the judges agreed that if the objection had been made in due time, the effect of it would have been a postponement of the trial in order to give time for a proper delivery of the list. The result, therefore, of the determination of the judges is, that the conviction is right.

"I have the honour to remain, my lord, your lordship's faithful and obedient servant,

"N. C. TINDAL.

"The Lord Marquess of Normanby, &c. &c. &c."

On the day following the receipt of this communication, at a Privy Council which was held, it was determined that the lives of the convicts must be forfeited to the laws of the country, and the following letter was transmitted to Monmouth:--

"Whitehall, January 29, 1840.

"SIR--I am to signify to you the Queen's commands that the execution of the sentence of Death, passed upon Zephaniah Williams, John Frost, and William Jones, now in the jail at Monmouth, be respited until Thursday the 6th day of February next. But the prisoners are to be distinctly informed that the sentence of the law will then be carried into effect.

"I am, sir, your obedient humble servant, "NORMANBY.

"To the High Sheriff of the County of Monmouth."

The governor of the jail, in obedience to these instructions, delivered a copy of this letter to each of the prisoners, and they appeared perfectly composed, and as if they had never entertained any hopes of mercy being extended to them. Every exertion had been made in the metropolis in the meantime with a view to procure the mitigation of the sentence of the prisoners. Petitions from all classes poured in to the Home Office; but all were declared to be of no avail, and it was not until Friday evening, the 31st of January, at a late hour, that her majesty's ministers came to a resolution to spare their lives. Sir Frederick Pollock used his greatest efforts to procure this desirable end; and having had no fewer than six interviews with Viscount Melbourne upon the subject, he had given up his task in despair, when, urged by Lord Brougham once again to see the premier, the learned and indefatigable advocate retired with the promise of her majesty's ministers, that the crimes of Frost and his two wretched partners in guilt should not be expiated on the scaffold.

On the following evening an express was sent off to Monmouth, bearing intelligence of this decision on the part of the government; and on Sunday night it arrived in that place. The reprieve, however, was accompanied by an order for the immediate removal of the prisoners to the hulks; and a military escort having been procured, at half-past one o'clock on Monday morning, the prisoners were roused from their beds, informed for the first time of their altered fortunes, and ordered instantly to prepare themselves for their removal. The wretched men had already taken leave of their families, supposing death to be inevitable, and their first feelings at their escape can be well imagined. They were now supplied with refreshments: and at two o'clock they were hurried into the prison van, and, escorted by a troop of lancers, were conveyed to Chepstow, and there put on board the Usk steamer, to be carried to Portsmouth, from whence they were to be transported for life.

In the course of the time during which the prisoners lay at Portsmouth awaiting the sailing of a vessel for New South Wales, renewed attempts were made to procure their freedom. Petitions from many districts, numerously signed, were presented, in which the impolicy of tarnishing the annals of a month in which the nuptials of the young queen were to be celebrated was urged; and even parliament was occupied with the discussion of the propriety of the steps taken by the government. In the House of Commons and in the House of Lords motions were made with a view to obtaining the pardon of the prisoners, but the ministers of the Crown, in a wise exercise of the duties of their office, strengthened in their opinion upon the case by that of the learned judges, before whom the prisoners were tried, declined to recommend that Her Majesty should make any farther alteration in the sentence of the prisoners. The following letter, conveying the sentiments of the judges upon this occasion, was produced in both Houses of Parliament:--

"Westminster-hall, January 31st, 1840.

"MY LORD--As to the law, the uniform practice has been, so far back as we have any means of knowledge, that if the judge upon the trial of an indictment feels any serious doubt as to an objection that occurs in point of law, he decides the point against the prisoner, and allows the trial to proceed, reserving such point of law, in order that he may take the advice and opinion of all the other judges thereon. After consulting them, and hearing argument thereon (if thought necessary) the opinion of the judges is taken, and that of the majority binds the judge who has reserved the question. If that opinion should be against the prisoner, the law is suffered to take its course, and the sentence which has been passed remains. If the opinion of the judges is in favour of the prisoner, the constant course is for the judge who tried the prisoner, and passed the sentence, to apply to the Secretary of State for a free pardon. And this course in no way depends on any consent, express or implied, on the part of the prisoner; the judge pursues it at his own discretion, and decides the point for the present against the prisoner, giving him the benefit of further consideration and advice with the other judges. And this course is pursued for the manifest purpose of preventing a failure of justice; inasmuch as if the judge decided under his immediate impression, supposing it to be in favour of the prisoner, and directed an acquittal, there could be no new trial, although upon reference to the other judges his own opinion was held to be wrong. On the other hand, if the opinion of the judge is at the time unfavourable to the prisoner, it can be reserved by that course, and if erroneous set right.

"With respect to the statement in the memorial, of what took place at the trial, so far as relates to ourselves, we cannot but remark, that the learned counsel labour under a complete misapprehension, at which we are the more surprised, as we expressly stated that no distinction would be made between this and other cases tried at the assizes, but that it must follow the ordinary course.

"At the time of the discussion, we all of us entertained serious doubts, more or less strong, on the objection that was raised before us. And if the law had obliged us to come to an immediate and final decision, without the power of consulting the judges, which the law does not, we were not prepared, without much further consideration, nor without hearing the argument on the part of the Crown concluded, to come to any determination on the point. We therefore followed the ordinary course pursued on similar occasions, decided the point against the prisoner by allowing the trial to proceed, subject to the revision before referred to.

"We beg to inform your lordship, that we think the circumstance stated and relied on in the memorial; viz., that two of the judges under the special commission ultimately declared their opinion in favour of the objection, does in our judgment make no difference whatever; nor do we think that any inclination in their minds at the time of the trial ought to affect the question; the law is taken from the majority of the judges when consulted.

"Under the circumstances above mentioned, we beg leave to represent to your lordship, that in our opinion there is no ground whatever to entitle the prisoner, John Frost, to a free pardon.

"N. C. TINDAL. "J. PARKE. "J. WILLIAMS.

"To the Most Noble the Marquess of Normanby, &c."

While these proceedings were going on in London, on the 26th of January, Bradford, in Yorkshire, was made the scene of acts of conspiracy against the government; but as the particulars of this affair appear in the allusion to the trial of the conspirators, which we make hereafter, we shall not here further refer to it.

The trial of those prisoners whose names we have already mentioned as having been parties to the Sheffield conspiracy, came on at the York assizes on the 16th of March, before Mr. Justice Erskine.

The court was at an early hour besieged by parties anxious to obtain admission. In a part of the hall a great number of pikes, knives, daggers, and fire-arms of various kinds, were laid in readiness to be produced at the trial. On the table in the court was a large basket containing pistols, muskets, balls, powder, and shells of various kinds, some of them nine or ten inches in diameter, and bound round with great quantities of pitched twine.

At nine o'clock his lordship entered the court, and was immediately followed by the Attorney-General (Sir John Campbell) who had gone down specially to conduct these prosecutions.

Samuel Holberry, Thomas Booker, William Booker, and James Duffey were put to the bar. Wells, included in the same indictment, had pleaded guilty.

The prisoners were charged with a conspiracy to violate the law, to create insurrection, and to disturb the public peace. The inquiry extended to a very great length, but the most interesting evidence was that of one of the associates of the prisoners, named Samuel Powell Thomson. He said, "I had been in Sheffield about three years in January last. I became a member of the Secret Association the first or second Sunday after the disturbance in Wales, some weeks before Christmas. I belonged to a class held at Valentine Benison's, in the park. I attended meetings from time to time there and at other places. There was a room in Figtree-lane. There were two sorts of meetings, one a public meeting, to which any one was admitted, the other a secret one for those who were made members. I knew Samuel Holberry. I got acquainted with him the latter end of August or the beginning of September. He attended the meetings in Figtree-lane. I saw him on Sunday, the 5th of January; it was at his own house. There were some other men I had seen at the Chartist public meetings. Holberry said he had been to Dewsbury, and he was happy to tell us that the day, and the hour, and the moment were settled when a unanimous rise would take place, but only two people in each town were to know the time. He had pledged his word, he said, that no place of worship should be destroyed, and no provision stores. We then went to the room in Figtree-lane, where there was a party of members belonging to the Secret Association. Holberry repeated what he had previously said, and said the time would be short, but he was not allowed to make it known to any but two. He said he had another journey to go, and would want some money. He had to go round by Nottingham and that district. He mentioned Sutton and Ashfield. We began to make a subscription of 10_s._ or 11_s._ I gave sixpence." The witness having detailed the occurrences at subsequent meetings at which he was present, and at which the quantity of arms in the possession of the conspirators was calculated, went on to say:--"On the Saturday Boardman desired me to come to the Figtree-lane room about three o'clock. I went and found several men there, one of the name of Cooper. Samuel Holberry came; he told us to follow him. We went to a public-house in Lambeth-street. We went into the lodge-room up stairs. We found a person of the name of M'Catterick and others. Holberry spoke; he stated that the first thing to be done was for us all to assemble, and be at the Town-hall and Tontine exactly as the clock struck two, as they were first to be taken. That the classes were to come up to take them. One was to come up first from every class, and then two, and then the whole body. Boardman said he could bring about fifty. I said I could bring fifty. M'Catterick said he could bring about forty. Duffy said he would bring sixty-four. The Irishmen present began to talk about getting arms. It was decided that they should go to the shops where weapons were exposed for sale, and break them open. They were to shut the gates of the Tontine, and barricade them with the coaches. In the Town-hall, one part was to occupy the lower floor and the other the upper. They began to talk about the "cats." It was decided that they should be thrown between the barracks and the Tontine. Holberry said, that he and eight others would go, after the soldiers were called out, and fire the straw chamber. One was to climb the spout and throw a fire-ball into the straw-chamber. They were also to fire the riding-school. The ones and twos who were to come up first were to assassinate all the watchmen they met. We remained in Lambert-street till nearly six o'clock. Holberry said they had agreed as to what was to be done, but they had not agreed provided they were put off. In that case they were to 'Moscow' the town. I was in company with fourteen or sixteen belonging to my class. I took these men to Burke's class, in Mill-lane. They were generally armed. William Wells brought three daggers, and gave them to me; he wished the name to be filed out. We remained at Burke's till two o'clock. Burke dipped some torches in turpentine. A person came down from the council, which had met at Lambert-street, and brought word we were to meet at the top of Watery-lane. We set off thither, about twenty-four of us. We got there near about three o'clock. We then came back to Tobacco-box-walk. We met a few Irishmen of Duffy's class. They said they were seeking Duffy. I accompanied them to Duffy's house. The people were armed with dirks, and weapons of that sort; some with pistols. We then went to Burke's. We did not find him at home. As I was coming from Burke's house to my father's I was stopped by a policeman on the Ladies'-bridge, and taken to the Town-hall. I have seen Booker at these meetings, I think on the Friday."

Cross-examined: I took a promise of secrecy. I remember the terms of it: "Will you do all that lies in your power, even to the loss of your own life, and the shedding of the blood of the tyrants?" That was the first part. The person replies, "Yes." The second part was, "I do most solemnly and sincerely promise, in the sight of Almighty God, and the assembly here present, that I will assassinate any one who shall betray the secrets of this meeting, and bear assassination if I should betray." This was what I said; I revealed these secrets, but not till I was taken as a prisoner. I consider the oath I have taken to-day binding on my conscience. The witness was further cross-examined with a view to show that he was unworthy of belief.

Several other persons were subsequently called, whose testimony was corroborative of the statements which had been made, and the jury having been addressed by the learned counsel for the several prisoners, a verdict of "Guilty" was returned.

On the following day John Clayton, John Marshall, Thomas Penthorpe, and Joseph Bennison, pleaded guilty to an indictment charging them with a seditious conspiracy to procure arms and disturb the public peace in the town of Sheffield, on the 12th of January; and William Martin was convicted of uttering certain seditious words in the room in Figtree-lane.

On the 18th of March the trial of the conspirators in custody for the affair at Bradford took place.

Robert Peddie, William Brooke, Thomas Drake, James Holdsworth, and Paul Holdsworth, were put to the bar charged with a seditious conspiracy to oppose the law.

The most important evidence in this case was also that of an accomplice, named James Harrison; and his testimony showed the implication of all the prisoners in a plot to attack and burn the town. Peddie, who with Marsden had come from Scotland, was to assume the whole command; and it was agreed, that arms should be procured and other means taken to oppose the constabulary and military forces. The statement of the witness as to the arrangement for the attack was as follows:--

"They were to meet at the Green-market, as near two o'clock as possible, but not later. When they got to the Green-market, they were to take possession of the Bazaar and the Piece-hall for ammunition, and the News-room was to be the depôt for the men. Peddie said they would soon set the colliers to work, and make holes through the walls of the News-room, to put the cannon through; and they were to get food and clothes. After they had done with Bradford they were to take the cannon and the baggage-carts with shoes, clothes, and provisions, and go to Dewsbury. 'We shall gain strength,' he said, 'as we go; if we have five hundred in the morning we shall have two thousand at night.' From Dewsbury we were to make our way up to London. I went to the Green-market a little after two o'clock. Peddie was there; George Flynn, Isaac Holloway, and Paul and James Holdsworth. There were near thirty; some had guns, some pistols, some pikes. Peddie had a belt with a pistol and dagger. Peddie asked if I had seen Turner? I said I had not. Peddie said 'I don't know what the man is doing to be so much out of his time. I have had possession of the Green-market near half an hour. We have got two watchmen prisoners,' and he pointed to the shed. I went across the market to look at the watchmen. I saw Brook that night at the New Inn, after I left the market. He was with another man, coming into the town. He returned in about ten minutes. He asked me to take a walk through the town, and see what was going on. On the way to the Court-house we met some foot-soldiers; and at the Court-house the cavalry were coming out of the yard. Brooke said 'It is a plain proof we're deceived, for the magistrates know as much about it as we do ourselves.' We went down towards New-street. We saw some people in the distance. Brooke said, 'I have something about me; if these are constables I shall be taken.' We were stopped, and Brooke was taken into custody. They searched me, and let me go. I saw Paul Holdsworth on the Sunday evening, about nine o'clock, in Nelson-street. I know Smith, an orange-seller. He lives down a passage leading out of Nelson-street. Holdsworth was going there; he had something in his hand like a brush-handle, about six feet long. He was one of the sentries over the watchmen in the shed. James Holdsworth was in the Green-market. He had a spear."

Other evidence was adduced, showing the intention of the Chartists to be to secure the town; and that they had gone fully armed for the purpose of attaining their object. Several of the witnesses admitted that they were parties to the design, and that they were taken into custody; but were subsequently induced to make a statement of the circumstances within their knowledge.

For the defence it was argued that the whole story related, bore the character of fabrication; and that none of the expressions imputed to the prisoners, at all warranted the jury in coming to a conclusion that they were guilty of sedition.

The jury, however, found a verdict of "Guilty." At the conclusion of the assizes, the learned judge passed sentence upon the prisoners who had been convicted:--

Samuel Holberry was sentenced to be imprisoned in the jail of Northallerton for four years, and at the expiration of that period to be bound, himself in 50_l._, and to find two sureties of 10_l._ each, to keep the peace towards her Majesty's subjects. Thomas Booker, to be imprisoned at Northallerton for three years, and to be bound, himself in 30_l._, and to find two sureties of 10_l._ each. William Booker, his son, to be imprisoned two years at Northallerton, and to be bound in his own recognizance in 20_l._, to keep the peace for two years. James Duffy, three years in Beverley jail, and at the expiration of that period to enter into his own recognizance of 20_l._, to keep the peace for three years, and to find two sureties of 10_l._ each. William Wells, one year's imprisonment, and at its expiration to enter into his own recognizance of 20_l._ to keep the peace for one year. John Marshall, Thomas Penthorpe, and Joseph Bennison, otherwise Benson, convicted of riot, were sentenced to two years' imprisonment at Northallerton, and to enter into their own recognizances of 20_l._ to keep the peace for two years. William Martin, for using seditious language was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment, without hard labour, in the jail at Northallerton.

Robert Peddie, William Brooke, Thomas Drake, and Paul Holdsworth, for conspiracy, with intent to create riot at Bradford, were sentenced--Peddie to be imprisoned in Beverley House of Correction for three years, and to enter into his own recognizances for three years, in the sum of 30_l._, and find two sureties of 10_l._ each. William Brooke, three years' imprisonment in Northallerton House of Correction, and to enter into his own recognizances of 30_l._ to keep the peace. Thomas Drake, to be imprisoned in Beverley jail for eighteen months, and enter into his own recognizances of 30_l._ for three years. Paul Holdsworth, three years in Northallerton House of Correction, and the same recognizances as Brooke.

John Walker, Joseph Naylor, John Riding, Phineas Smithies, Hutton, and Rishworth, convicted of riot at Bradford, were sentenced to imprisonment; Walker, Naylor, Riding, and Rishworth, for two years in Wakefield House of Correction, and to enter into their own recognizances of 30_l._ each, and Hutton and Smithies eighteen months in the same place, recognizances 30_l._

In the course of the assizes many other convictions for sedition, for seditious publications, and other offences of a like character, took place.

At Monmouth, Henry Vincent and William Edwards, persons who were long notorious for their opinions--the former of whom (as we have stated) had already been convicted of an offence of a similar description, were indicted for having conspired with John Frost, to subvert the constituted authorities, and to alter, by force, the constitution of the country.

The trial came on before Mr. Baron Gurney, on the 20th of March; the case for the prosecution being conducted by Mr. Serjeant Talfourd, Mr. Richards, and Mr. Whateley.

Several witnesses were called, whose testimony was adduced with a view to show the nature of the language employed by the prisoners. Vincent was the principal orator; but he was proved to have been supported by Edwards and Frost. The tenor of his speech was condemnatory of the whole course of proceeding of the government, with threats against both Whigs and Tories; and it contained a declaration of the intention of the Chartists to rise on the 6th of May in the year 1839 (the meeting being held on the 1st of January), if the charter was not granted before then, and send the ministers to "look for lodgings at New York."

The jury delivered a verdict of "Guilty;" but in consideration of the long imprisonment which the defendants had already undergone, recommended them to mercy.

They were sentenced, Edwards to fourteen months', and Vincent to twelve months' imprisonment.

At Liverpool, on the 6th of April, R. W. Jackson, R. J. Richardson, William Butterworth, and Bronterre O'Brien, were tried before Mr. Justice Coleridge, on an indictment charging them with sedition.

The meeting at which the sedition was alleged to have been spoken, was held on the 23rd of April, 1839, at Batty's Circus, Manchester, pursuant to a placard which was posted through the streets. The four defendants were there; and their speeches sufficiently indicated their political opinions to be of the most violent description. Various expressions were proved to have been used, by which the adoption of force was recommended, and the jury found the prisoners "Guilty."

In the course of the ensuing three days, several other convictions for sedition took place, at the same assizes, before the same learned judge. Many prisoners, whose cases presented circumstances of a mitigating character, were allowed by the government prosecutors to be discharged upon recognizances to keep the peace; while others, who had been convicted of being parties to riots, which had occurred at Wigan, Bolton, and Ashton, were allowed to plead guilty, with a view to the mitigation of their sentences.

On the 9th of April, Mr. Justice Coleridge passed sentence upon the prisoners.

Richardson and Butterworth, who had long been known as connected with the Chartists and their proceedings, were sentenced to be imprisoned in Lancaster Castle for nine months, and at the expiration of that time, to enter into their own recognizances in 100_l._, with two sureties in 50_l._ each, to keep the peace for three years. Upon Jackson being placed at the bar, his lordship said "that it was a melancholy thing to find a person of his station in society, attending such meetings as those which had been referred to in the evidence. He was a minister of religion, presiding over its services in a chapel where Christians met for sacred worship; and yet he was found at a public meeting, using language which one would have rather expected from the lips of one who had been a follower of the camp, than a member of a sacred profession. He had talked, if a constable came to his house to search for arms, of presenting to him the sharp end of the pike, the muzzle of the gun, and what came out of it. He must, in passing sentence, consider his station, abilities, and power of injuring society." He was ordered to be imprisoned for eighteen months, and to enter into his own recognizance of 500_l._, with two sureties in 250_l._ each, to keep the peace for three years.

Mr. O'Brien was next brought up. He was one of the most popular leaders of the day, and was notorious for the active part which he had taken throughout the whole of the proceedings of the Chartists. Upon his being informed that a sentence of imprisonment would be passed upon him, he implored the court rather to send him out of the country for life, declaring that he had no hope of England in its present state. His sentence was similar in its terms to that of Mr. Jackson.

Mr. Jackson was then sentenced to six months' further imprisonment on a second indictment against him, and the following prisoners received the judgments appended to their names for their participation in the mischievous events which had recently before occurred.

George H. Smith, to be imprisoned in the House of Correction at Preston for eighteen months, and to enter into his own recognizance in 500_l._, with two sureties in 100_l._, to keep the peace for three years. John Kaye, six months; recognizances in 200_l._, with two sureties in 50_l._ Christopher Doyle, nine months; recognizances in 300_l._, two sureties in 100_l._ each. William Barker was sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment in the House of Correction at Kirkdale, with hard labour. Frederick Davidson, six months, with hard labour. Samuel Scott, eight months' imprisonment; to enter into his own recognizance in 100_l._, with two sureties in 50_l._ each, to keep the peace for three years. Charles Morris, twelve months' imprisonment; recognizances in 100_l._, with two sureties in 20_l._ Daniel Ball, eighteen months' with hard labour; similar recognizances. Peter Murdin, six months' imprisonment with hard labour. William Willoughby, three months' with hard labour.

FEARGUS O'CONNOR, ESQ.

CONVICTED OF THE PUBLICATION OF A SEDITIOUS LIBEL.

The trial of Mr. Feargus O'Connor came on at York, before Mr. Justice Coleridge, on the 17th of March 1840, when the Attorney-general appeared to conduct the prosecution on the part of the crown. The information charged the publication of two seditious libels in a newspaper called the "Northern Star," of which the defendant was proprietor and editor, upon the 13th and 20th of July in the preceding year.

The Attorney-general, in opening the case to the jury, read the libels which were complained of. The first consisted of a report of a speech made by the defendant himself, at a meeting which, in the "Northern Star," was designated "The Rochdale Defence Fund Meeting." This speech was highly inflammatory in its terms, and was directed against the government. Mr. O'Connor congratulated the people upon the successes which they had already achieved, but recommended them to maintain the ground on which they stood, and not to listen to the propositions of the government. He recommended the employment of physical force in opposition to any attempt to put down their cause by force; and having entered into a long tirade against the expenses of the government, and the vast sums of money which were paid to the bishops and lawyers, and the disparity between this expenditure and that which was incurred for the paupers of the country, he said, that all he contended for was, that these immense disparities should no longer exist--that the poor man should have his store-house, and his cottage should be his sentry-box--that he should have, as his friend Bussey recommended, a flitch of bacon on one side of the chimney, and a musket on the other, so that the musket might defend the bacon. He would never descend to catch a fleeting popularity by going too far; but the moment they were provided with arms, they would be in a condition to defend those rights which were still left to them, while government would be induced to give up those of which they had been deprived. In their progress towards political emancipation, they had three stages to go through--to create, to unite, and to direct. They had created opinion, and they were united in it, and, when it was properly directed, their victory would be complete. The learned Attorney-general having urged that these passages contained strong incitements to insubordination and violence, proceeded to refer to a notice of another meeting at Newcastle in the same paper, where similar doctrines were promulgated, which were approved of and supported by the editor. He then proceeded to the paper of the 20th of July, which contained the report of a speech made by Mr. William Taylor at Manchester, who strove, from various expressions in the Bible, to show the justice of the cause which they supported. In the course of his address he said:--"What it is for a people to be in captivity, I need not tell you; that you are captives I need not tell you. Though they (Parliament) have given twenty millions for the emancipation of black slaves, they would not give twenty shillings for the emancipation of the white slaves. I need not tell you that you are slaves, slaves bearing a great burden, slaves bearing a great load, slaves enduring great toil, slaves under the most oppressive system of government, and slaves that alone must work out their own freedom. Now if you ask, 'What shall we do?' I will tell you what God says you should do, and you will find that in the second verse of the fifteenth chapter of the book of Jeremiah. The prophet says, 'And if the people inquire, What shall we do? whither shall we go? thou shalt say to them, Thus saith the Lord: Those that are for death, to death; such as are for the sword, to the sword; such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as for the captivity, to the captivity.' What are we to do, then? (Loud cries of 'Fight! fight! fight!') I'll tell you what we are to do. The people must become united together in one mind. Let not religious sentiments divide your interests. Whatsoever your religious sentiments are, look for peace here and not so much up yonder; look for happiness here as well as in the future. Look for comfort here as well as in days to come. Look for happiness in your cottage, by your fire-sides, and happiness with your families; look to the lessening of the hours of labour; look for the overthrow of the present wretched system. Your will will be God's will, and God's will is, that his people should be free. What are we to do? We are to be free, and no mistake; we are to be free, whatever the cost; we are to be free, however great the difficulty to accomplish it; we are to be free, though we wade through streams of blood. Though we pass through streams of trouble, we are to be free by the best means we can; we are to be free, by the only means we have left. Now, the people may ask, What are the means left? I am not going to blink the question; I'm not going to teach you a doctrine I don't believe myself. We will go back again to the old book, and I will ask you, or any minister, whether we read, in either ancient or modern history, of any nation in bondage becoming free without the use of physical force?" In the same report was a speech of Mr. Bronterre O'Brien, which was spoken of as a long and eloquent address, and in which doctrines of a similar kind were broached. The latter part contained an incitement indirectly to interfere with the administration of justice, and to put an end by force to judicial proceedings. "He had some news to tell them, not that he told them to do the same; only having heard it, there was surely no more harm in telling news than selling it. Now the people of Newcastle had decided upon adopting a certain plan during the assizes, not that he advised the meeting to follow it--no, not by any means. When their representatives were brought up for trial, unless contrary instructions came down from the Convention, the brave men in the north were determined on that day to have a universal strike; and, assembling round the trial-house in their mighty strength, would send word to the judge that they were standing outside waiting for an acquittal. The effect would be wondrous. He did not advise them to do so, because it would be against the law, and they knew how illegal it was. He had now an important question to ask them; were they up to the mark? (We are!) By that he meant, were they provided with all legal and constitutional appliances, wherewith to bring these cursed profit-mongers to their senses? (Yes!) He could tell them no plainer, but if they did not by this understand what he meant, why they would soon. He bid them cast aside their braggadocias, and by fierce looks and something shining over their chimney-pieces, to be determined; for until something in earnest like this were done, the government, who knew all about them through their spies, would take advantage of their want of preparedness, they having already cannons of enormous calibre, fire-arms, &c., manufacturing in large quantities. He was determined to stand by his constituents to the death, reduced though he was by exertion in the public cause, and, if needs be, die in the last ditch in their defence."

The necessary evidence as to the publication of the libels, and the proprietorship of the newspaper having then been given, Mr. O'Connor was called upon for his defence. He addressed the court at great length, and some demonstrations of applause from the auditors were heard at the commencement of his speech, but immediately silenced. "He said he thanked the Attorney-general for this prosecution. His character had been aspersed for seven long years, and the Attorney-general had given him an opportunity of defending it. He came under great disadvantages before a Yorkshire jury. He had been represented as a spoliator of property, as an advocate of physical force, as inciting the poor against the rich. He would be able to disprove all these charges, and would show from sources they could not dispute, what his real sentiments were. There was nothing in his own speech, garbled as it was, that could be a basis for these accusations. His true sentiments were to be found in the leading articles of the paper, and to them and to his conduct throughout life he would appeal, to show that he entertained no such doctrines. It was not he, or those who acted with him, who had given rise to physical force Chartism. It was the act of the Attorney-general (with whom he had once sat in the House of Commons), and of his party, who had turned the moral force Chartist into the Chartist advocating the use of physical force, and drove them to armed meetings by putting down the meetings where they 'morally' discussed their grievances. In the present case the intent was everything; without the intent alleged there was no libel; and it was to be remarked, that if the advice said to be given was so pernicious, it had not been acted on at Newcastle. The course of justice was unimpeded, and the persons who had used these speeches were acquitted. It was absurd to say he adopted and approved of the doctrines in these speeches, because in the report they were interspersed with cheers. He never said that arms give rights, but he was of opinion that rights gave arms, and arms protected them. He complained that great offenders had been passed by, while he was prosecuted. He complained of the hardships imposed upon him by the mode of proceeding ex officio, the abuse of which had been one of the causes of the revolution of 1688. It was going to the jury with the opinion of the Attorney-general against him, that he had been guilty of an offence, and it gave the Attorney-general the benefit of the last word. Mr. O'Connor quoted a number of authorities as to the law of ex officio informations, and proceeded to read at length a great number of passages from the leading articles of the "Northern Star," and from his speeches reported there, to show that he had always opposed the doctrine of physical force, making comments as he proceeded on the conduct of Mr. O'Connell, on the Whigs, the Attorney-general, the language of the London morning papers, Mr. Muntz of Birmingham, physical force, moral force, his own character, and a great variety of other topics. His speech lasted nearly five hours, and he concluded by declaring that he was, and always had been, a Chartist, and determined to have all the five points, but peaceably. He asked from the jury but justice; he asked not for mercy; and if their verdict should consign him to a dungeon, he would at least go there with his principles unsullied.

The Attorney-General having addressed the jury in reply, a verdict of "Guilty" was returned, but judgment was respited until the following term, in consequence of an application by the defendant on the ground that he should be able to produce affidavits in mitigation.

The illness of Mr. O'Connor prevented his appearing in the Court of Queen's Bench, to receive judgment until the 11th of May. Affidavits were then put in disclosing grounds for the mitigation of the sentence of the defendant, and tending to absolve him from the imputation of having excited the people to acts of violence. Mr. O'Connor subsequently also addressed the court, and was followed by the Attorney-General in reply.

The judges having then consulted together for a short time, Mr. Justice Littledale, as senior puisne judge, pronounced sentence. After stating the nature of the prosecution and the evidence in favour of it, he said that though the defendant might argue that his speeches and writings had never excited people to physical force, still no one could doubt that these speeches and writings had that tendency. The law could not suffer publications of this sort, so dangerous to the peace of society, to be made with impunity. The sentence of the court on the defendant was, that he should be imprisoned in the Castle of York for eighteen calendar months, and that he should then find security for his good behaviour for the space of two years, himself in 300_l._ and two sureties in 150_l._ each.

Mr. O'Connor was in consequence removed to York Castle, and upon his arrival there was placed upon the felons' side of the prison. Strong arguments were employed by his friends against this course being adopted; and it was urged, that having been convicted of a misdemeanour only, he should be removed to the debtors' side, where he would not be subjected to such hardships as those which he would experience in the place in which he was confined. Petitions to parliament were drawn up and presented, that Mr. O'Connor's quarters should be changed; but the members of the government declined in any way to interfere with what was in reality a mere internal arrangement of the jail, for which the visiting justices alone were answerable.

In quitting the subject of Chartism, we may present our readers with what we believe to be a correct statement of the number of persons, who, since the month of January 1839, have been imprisoned by reason of their connexion with the illegal proceedings taken with a view to the adoption of their principles. Of the persons thus convicted there were about half-a-dozen licensed victuallers, one barrister (Mr. Feargus O'Connor), one magistrate (Mr. Frost), and one surgeon (Mr. Peter Murray M'Douall). The remainder were, with a few exceptions, all poor and uneducated men.

ENGLAND, 496.

No. confined. Chester, County Jail 29 Durham, County Jail 3 Kent, House of Corrections 1 Lancaster, Lancaster Castle 5 County Jail and House of Correction, Kirkdale 156 House of Correction, Preston 3 Lincoln, Lincoln Castle 1 Middlesex, House of Correction, Giltspur-street 1 Ditto, Coldbath-fields 13 Jail of Newgate 3 Westminster Bridewell 13 Monmouth, County Jail 63 House of Correction, Usk 4 Northumberland, House of Correction, Newcastle 19 Nottingham, County Jail 23 House of Correction, Southwell 12 Somerset, County Jail, Ilchester 3 Surrey, Queen's Bench Prison 2 Warwick, County Jail 28 Wilts, County Jail 8 House of Correction, Devizes 1 Worcester, Jail and House of Correction 3 York, York Castle 69 E. Riding, House of Correction, Beverley 2 N. Riding, House of Correction, Northallerton 12 W. Riding, House of Correction, Wakefield 19

WALES, 63.

Brecon, County Jail and House of Correction 12 Glamorgan, House of Correction, Swansea 1 Montgomery, Jail and House of Correction 50 --- Total 559

JAMES OWEN, GEORGE THOMAS, alias DOBELL, AND WILLIAM ELLIS, alias LAMBERT.

CONVICTED OF MURDER.

The case of these prisoners is scarcely excelled in brutal atrocity by any of those by which it is preceded.

The prisoners were tried at the Lent Assizes at Stafford on the 16th of March 1840, on an indictment which charged them with the wilful murder of Christina Collins, on the 17th of June 1839, at the parish of Rugeley, in the same county.

On the part of the prosecution a great number of witnesses were called, from whose evidence the circumstances appeared as follows:--

The deceased, Christina Collins, wife of Robert Collins, was by business a dress-maker, and had resided for some time at Liverpool, supporting her husband, who found it difficult to obtain employment there, by her needlework. Her husband being very anxious himself to obtain work for their mutual support, resolved upon a journey to London. He accordingly left Liverpool, and arriving in London was so fortunate as presently to meet with a situation according to his wishes. Upon this he wrote a letter to his wife at Liverpool, inclosing her a sovereign to assist her upon her journey, that being all the money he could command, and requesting that she would immediately come to him in London. She left Liverpool, and having little money beyond the sovereign received from her husband, took her passage by one of Messrs. Pickford and Co.'s fly-boats, as being the cheapest conveyance to London. The three prisoners, with a boy named Musson, had the care of the boat, Owen being the captain. Deceased entered the boat at Preston Brook. It was proved that the boat arrived at Stoke-upon-Trent, in Staffordshire, at noon on Sunday the 16th of June, and left that place again about four o'clock the same afternoon, the deceased being then on board. The boat proceeded thence to Stone, where it arrived about eight the same evening. At Stone the deceased complained to a check clerk of the canal company that the prisoners were becoming inflamed with liquor, and said, that she was afraid of going on in the boat with them. The deceased, however, went on with the boat from Stone, having got out there and walked by the towing-path side some distance. About dusk they were met by another boat, when some gross language in reference to the deceased was used by one of the prisoners, and a short time afterwards they were again met, and the prisoners used expressions in reference to their intentions as to the deceased of too disgusting a nature for publication. About twelve o'clock on Sunday night the boat arrived at a place called Hoo-mill-lock. By the side of the lock was a house occupied by the lock-keeper and his wife. They were both awoke at midnight by loud cries of distress, and immediately opened their bed-room window, when they perceived the boat in question in the lock. The deceased was in the boat, and upon the prisoners being asked who she was, they replied that she was a passenger, and that her husband was in the boat with her. Proceeding a little farther, they came to a place called Colwich-lock, and after they quitted that place the deceased was not seen alive. The body of the deceased was found in the canal at a part of the canal known as Brindley's-bank, between Colwich-lock and Rugeley, and about three miles from the former place. The prisoner Owen appeared in great alarm when seen by a woman early on Monday morning. He stated that a passenger was lost and must have drowned herself, and he believed that she must be deranged, for that she had constantly been calling out, "Collins, Collins, oh, my Collins!" The arrival of the boat at Fazeley at six o'clock on Monday morning was proved, when, in consequence of suspicions against the prisoners, they were taken into custody and examined. Before any questions were asked them about the deceased, they had abused her with oaths and foul language, saying, that if she had chosen to drown herself they could not help it. The cabin of the boat was searched, and in it were found the bonnet and shoes of the deceased, the bonnet being very much crushed.

The remaining evidence against the prisoners consisted of a declaration made by Owen, on his apprehension by Harrison, the headborough of Fazeley, to whom, in answer to an observation that the deceased had been found in a very shallow part of the canal, he intimated that she was dead before she reached the canal; and a similar confession, attended with a detail of other circumstances, which he made to a fellow prisoner named Orgill, while in custody in Stafford jail.

The prisoners, it appeared, had been tried at the summer assizes at Stafford in the year 1839 for the rape upon Mrs. Collins, a bill of indictment for the murder having then been also preferred and found. The prosecution for the rape rested upon evidence similar to that which we have just detailed, added to the testimony of two surgeons, who swore that the capital offence of violation had been committed, apparently with great barbarity; but the jury deemed the proofs adduced insufficient to warrant them in pronouncing a verdict of conviction. Upon the indictment for the murder being then proposed to be proceeded with by the learned judge, an application was made on the part of the prosecution for the postponement of that trial until the next assizes, on an affidavit, which stated that there were grounds for believing, that further evidence of a very important character might then be produced. This evidence was the testimony of a man named Joseph Orgill, who had been just before convicted of bigamy, and sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment, and who had received from Owen a narrative of the circumstances attending the commission of the crime upon the deceased woman. The application was immediately acceded to; and upon representations at the Home Office, a free pardon had been granted to Orgill to enable him to become a competent witness upon this investigation.

Orgill was now called, and he stated that he was a prisoner in Stafford jail at the same time with the prisoners. On Sunday, the 21st of July, he attended the Jail Chapel in company with them, and slept with the prisoner Owen at night. After witness and prisoner Owen were in bed they talked of the crimes with which they stood charged, when Owen told witness he knew he should be hung, from the lesson taken from the Old Testament read in the chapel in the morning, which was concerning the hanging of Saul's sons. Owen then made a statement to witness, speaking of the charge for which he and the others were in custody, informing him that they (the prisoners) had some whiskey on board the boat, which they stole and drank; that they then used the woman roughly, and she got out and walked on the towing-path. The greater part of the rest of the statement is unfit for publication; but it amounted to an admission, that the capital offence charged in the former indictment had been committed upon the unfortunate woman by all three of the prisoners, and that her struggles to escape were so great that, in their belief, she died, and they then threw her overboard.

The supposition of the prisoner as to the cause of death, however, was now clearly contradicted by a surgeon, who stated that there could be no doubt that the deceased had come to her death by drowning.

On behalf of the prisoners every effort was made by the counsel who were employed by them to negative the circumstances of suspicion proved against them, but in vain, and a verdict of "Guilty" was returned by the jury after mature deliberation.

Mr. Baron Gurney, before whom the prisoners were tried, immediately passed upon them the sentence of death, pointing out to them the awful situation in which they were placed by the dreadful crimes of which there could be no doubt they had been guilty, and warning them that no prospect of mercy in this world could be held out to them.

For a considerable time after their conviction, neither of the wretched convicts exhibited the slightest degree of compunction or regret for their past offences. They persisted in making repeated declarations of their innocence; and so far did they carry their asseverations that a respite was granted from the day first named for their execution, to the 18th of April, in order that full inquiries might be made at the Home-office into the circumstances attending their guilt.

This investigation tended but to confirm the impression of the justice of the conviction and sentence on the two prisoners, Owen and Thomas, (alias Dobell); but some facts which were elicited induced the grant of a further respite in the case of Ellis.

On the day before execution, Thomas became in some degree softened, and he and Ellis, who was not aware of the distinction drawn in his favour, made some disclosures as to the mode of life of persons of their class, of the most frightful description. The scenes which they described as of daily occurrence amongst the boatmen were dreadful. Thieving was said to be an accomplishment reckoned highly valuable; and men who possessed the greatest powers of pilfering the cargoes, by reason of their adroitness, were described to be invariably selected by the captains of the barges as best fitted to undertake the employment tendered to them. Ale, spirit, or other liquids, were abstracted from the casks by means of syphon pumps, which were in common use in the boats; and drunkenness being the common and necessary consequence, the boatmen were stated to be prepared for the perpetration of offences of the very worst description.

On the morning of the execution the three prisoners were again visited by the chaplain, when they appeared much more firm than they had before been, and perfectly ready to meet their execution. They all asserted that they knew nothing of the manner in which their murdered victim met her death, as they were all intoxicated at the time.

The drop had been erected at an early hour in the morning in front of the county prison. About twelve o'clock the three culprits were summoned from their cells to the chapel of the prison, in order to partake of the sacrament. Owen and Thomas were supplied with prayer-books, which they held with an unwavering hand, and repeated the responses in an audible voice. Ellis, not being able to read, had no book. The chaplain went through the service in a manner the most impressive and affecting, though his utterance occasionally was almost overpowered by the strength of his emotions. At its conclusion Owen and Thomas were conducted to the press-room. Ellis remained, and was then informed by the governor, for the first time, that Her Majesty had been pleased to respite his execution. The governor communicated this information in a most feeling manner, and Ellis received it in a very proper spirit: he wept much, and appeared thankful for the mercy extended to him. At his own request he was conducted to the press-room to take leave of Owen and Thomas. The governor accompanied him, and made known to the other two that a further respite had been received for Ellis, and that he would not be executed with them. On this communication being made, it was difficult to ascertain which of the men felt the most acutely. Ellis burst into tears, and taking each of his former associates by the hands, kissed them most affectionately, and exclaimed repeatedly, "God bless you, dear boys!" This conduct of Ellis appeared to overcome the feelings of both the men, particularly Owen, who wept bitterly.

The period of execution was now announced by the solemn sound of the prison bell. Soon afterwards the mournful procession moved from the press-room to the lodge of the county prison. The men walked with a firm step, and ascended the steps of the drop without assistance. The executioner immediately placed the ropes round their necks, shook hands with them, and as the chaplain pronounced the words, "In the midst of life we are in death," the fatal bolt was drawn, and the wretched men ceased to live.

The concourse of persons who witnessed the execution was almost unprecedentedly great. It was supposed that there were nearly ten thousand persons present. Every spot, remote and near, from which a view of the drop could be obtained, was occupied--walls, trees, roofs of houses, &c., being fixed upon by many as convenient places from which to view the scene. The three thoroughfares approaching the jail were densely crowded as far as the sight could reach, and the neighbouring gardens were filled with people. No peculiar feeling was displayed when the men made their appearance on the drop; though when it fell the females, who were very numerous, gave partial vent to their emotions.

The punishment of the prisoner Ellis was subsequently commuted to transportation for life.

WILLIAM RACE.

CONVICTED OF MANSLAUGHTER.

The case of this prisoner affords a remarkable proof of the folly of practical jokes, and the mischievous results which may proceed from them.

Race was indicted at Bury St. Edmunds, on Monday the 30th of March 1840, for the manslaughter of Thomas Buck. It appeared that the prisoner was a vendor of hot-spice gingerbread at fairs; and the deceased was a well-known itinerant son of Thespis in that part of the country, who presented the primitive drama in all its original simplicity to the wondering rustics. Sometimes, when "deep tragedy" failed in its natural effect upon the popular mind, Buck, always fertile in the resources of his art, though, perhaps, not overflowing with other resources, would have recourse to the ready expedient of producing a "sensation" which is called by the learned "practical joking," and by the vulgar "larking." One of the rural actors, not in Buck's "legitimate drama," but in his "larks," was the hot-spice gingerbread artist, whose cakes and "nuts" were not more spicy than his jokes. On the evening laid in the indictment, the theatrical booth, with its uncovered stage in front, had been erected on the classic ground of Felsham, celebrated for its fair--the corps dramatique appeared on the stage in front of the booth, and, in the flaming robes and sweeping drapery of the tragic muse, endeavoured to attract the attention of the motley crowd, who were just then busily intent upon the performances of a neighbouring juggler, whose comic grimaces and fantastic gambols they greatly admired. Under these circumstances, the solemn pomp and tragic splendour of Buck's stage, paraded as it was by heroes of herculean proportions and stentorian voices, and by heroines of matchless grace and disdainful beauty, lost its powers of attraction--it did not "draw" an audience,--and it was necessary, for many reasons, that an audience should be assembled. The gingerbread baker, who, perhaps, had cause to take an interest in the finances of the company, and who had frequently before, as was stated, enacted the part of one of the dramatis personæ of a "lark," saw that this was the moment when a decisive blow ought to be struck to detach the admiring crowd from the too successful juggler, and bring them to Buck's theatre by the attractive influence of some novelty. He, therefore, with the best intentions towards Buck and his company, went up to a "property-man" who had a gun in his hand, took it gently from him, and asked him whether it was loaded; the other told him that it was loaded with powder and wadding only, upon which the manufacturer of gilt gingerbread said, "I will have a lark with Buck, and bring people on the stage." Having said this, he ran up the steps of the outside stage, presented the gun at Buck, and discharged it within two feet and a half of his body. Buck reeled, and fell into the arms of one of the orchestral performers; and the spectators, thinking the whole thing an excellent piece of acting, rapturously applauded. But alas! it was no acting at all. The wadding had penetrated his side, and inflicted a rupture of the heart, of which he almost instantly died. Buck's "poor play of life" was over, and the curtain fell that evening on a deeper tragedy than the company had performed for many a year.

An excellent character for kindness and humanity was given to the prisoner by many persons, which the learned judge took into account in sentencing him, upon being pronounced "Guilty of Manslaughter" by the jury.

After some admonitory remarks upon the danger and criminality of indulging in "larks" and practical jokes with fire-arms, his lordship ordered him to be imprisoned for one month.

JAMES LIGHTFOOT, AND WILLIAM LIGHTFOOT.

EXECUTED FOR MURDER.

These unhappy men were labourers, and were born and brought up in the neighbourhood of the spot, where they committed the inhuman and premeditated murder, for which their lives were eventually taken away by the executioner.

They were tried at Bodmin, in Cornwall, on the 30th of March, 1840, before Mr. Justice Coltman, on an indictment, which charged them with the wilful murder of Mr. Nevill Norway, a timber merchant, residing at Wadebridge, in the same county, on the 8th of the preceding month of February.

The case excited the greatest interest in the remote district in which it occurred, as well from the high estimation in which the unfortunate deceased gentleman was held, as from the circumstance of his murder having been effected by two brothers; each of whom, since their apprehension, had sought to fix the guilt of the transaction on the other. At an early hour in the morning on which the trial was appointed to take place, every corner of the Court-house was crowded with persons, many of whom had travelled a considerable distance, in the hope of obtaining a glimpse of the culprits.

At nine o'clock in the morning the learned judge entered the court, and the prisoners were then immediately placed at the bar. They betrayed little agitation at the awful position in which they were placed, and surveyed the assembled multitude with great coolness and self-possession. Up to the time of their trial, they had been kept apart in the jail in which they had been confined; and they now observed each other with evident mutual dislike and mistrust.

The circumstances of the case, as they were proved on the trial, were as follows:--

Mr. Norway was a highly respectable timber and general merchant, residing at Wadebridge, about nine miles from Bodmin. In the course of his business he was in the habit of visiting the different markets in the neighbourhood, and on the 8th of February, he attended the market at Bodmin. About four o'clock that afternoon he had his purse in his hand, and was in the act of paying some money, when the prisoner, William Lightfoot, walked close by him, and must have seen what he was doing. Shortly before ten in the evening, he left Bodmin on his grey horse, accompanied by another person, who, however, left him, after they had proceeded about three miles on the road, and Mr. Norway was observed to pursue his course towards Wadebridge. A farmer of the neighbourhood was shortly afterwards going to the same village, and when about two miles from it he saw a grey horse on the road, saddled, but without a rider. He tried at first to overtake it, but the horse struck into a gallop, and he gave up the race; but his curiosity was excited, and upon meeting some men on the road, and making inquiry, they told him they thought it was Mr. Norway's horse. This induced him to call at Mr. Norway's house, and he found the horse standing at the stable gate. The servants were called out, and spots of blood were found upon the saddle. A doctor was immediately summoned, and two of the servants sallied forth on the Bodmin road, in quest of their master. It may be remarked that this road was extremely lonely, and very hilly; and altogether presenting a most favourable place for the commission of any atrocious act. The servants pursued the course of the road, and having got about two miles, one of them perceived something shining in a small stream of water, or rivulet, on the right hand side. This led to a further examination, and it proved to be the body of their unfortunate master, lying on his back in the stream, with his feet towards the road, quite dead.

The body was directly placed on the horse, and conveyed home, and Mr. Tickle, the surgeon, proceeded to examine it. He found that the deceased had received injuries about the face and head, produced apparently by heavy and repeated blows from some blunt instrument, which had undoubtedly been the cause of death. A wound was discovered on the chin, into which it appeared as if some gunpowder had been carried in its infliction; and the bones of the nose, the forehead, the left side of the head, and the back of the head, were fractured in a most frightful manner; severe lacerations of the flesh having been caused by the blows with which the injuries had been dealt. An immediate examination of the spot where the body of Mr. Norway was found, took place, and on the left hand side of the road a pool of blood was discovered, from which, to the rivulet opposite, there was distinctly visible a track, as if produced by some heavy body being dragged from one to the other. Around this spot were marks of footsteps, as if, in the language of one of the witnesses who was examined, there had been "a scramble" there; and at the rivulet there were also indications of a man having been there recently before. In the course of the subsequent search in the vicinity of this spot, it became obvious that two persons had been engaged in the murder, and that they had remained, as if on watch for their intended victim, pacing backwards and forwards, in an orchard attached to an uninhabited cottage close by. The hat of the deceased was picked up immediately near the spot where the murderers' footsteps were distinguishable, and at a distance of about a foot and a half or two feet from the pool of blood, was picked up the hammer of a pistol, which appeared to have been newly broken off. Other appearances were observed, which gave clear indications that a terrible struggle had taken place; but at this time no circumstances transpired, which could in the slightest degree tend to cast suspicion upon any one.

Upon the pockets of the clothes of the deceased being examined, it became obvious that robbery had been the object of the attack upon him. His purse and money, and a tablet and bunch of keys, were found to have been carried off; and all efforts to find any of the missing articles in the neighbourhood of the scene of the murder proved ineffectual.

Every exertion was now made to discover the perpetrators of this diabolical crime, and large rewards were offered for evidence which should tend to point them out. Jackson, a constable attached to the London police, was sent for; and through his exertions, facts were elicited which distinctly showed that the prisoners were the men who were the real offenders. A man named Harris, a shoe-maker, was first brought forward, who recollected having seen the prisoners on the night of the murder, in the immediate vicinity of the brook where the body was found; and a man named Ayres, who lived next door to James Lightfoot, having suggested that every man, who was out late that night, should be made to account for his time, stated that he recollected having heard his neighbour, the prisoner, enter his house at a late hour; and having communicated something to his wife, which, although the partition between their houses was very thin, he could not hear, she and her child began to cry. This led to an examination of the prisoner's house, on the 14th of February, and a pistol was found, without a lock, concealed in a hole in a beam, running across the ceiling. The prisoner attempted to account for the pistol being broken, by saying, that he had done it in killing a cat; but his manner being suspicious, he was taken into custody.

He was directly carried before a magistrate, by whom he was remanded until the 19th of the same month; and on the 17th his brother William was also secured, in consequence of a conversation which he had had on the 14th, with a man named Vercoe, upon the subject of the murder; in which he had suggested that Ayres was the cause of his brother's apprehension, and that if his brother were punished, he must be so too, for that "they were both in it." He was also examined before a magistrate, and he directly made the following confession:--

"I went to Bodmin last Saturday week, the 8th instant, and in returning I met my brother James, just up at the head of Dunmeer Hill. It was just come dim like. My brother had been to Egloshayle Burlawn, to buy potatoes. Something had been said about meeting; but I was not certain about that. My brother was not in Bodmin on that day. Mr. Vercoe overtook us between Mount Charles turnpike-gate, at the top of Dunmeer Hill, and a place called Lane End. We came on the turnpike-road all the way till we came to the house near the spot where the murder was committed. We did not go into the house, but hid ourselves in a field. We did not see Mr. Abbott's waggon. My brother knocked Mr. Norway down. He snapped a pistol at him twice and it did not go off. Then he knocked him down with the pistol. I was there along with him. He was struck whilst on horseback. It was on the turnpike-road between Pencarrow Mill and the directing-post towards Wadebridge; and it was last Saturday week. I cannot say at what time of the night it was. We left the body in the water, on the left side of the road coming to Wadebridge. We took something. It was money, in a purse; but I do not know how much. It was a brownish purse. There were some papers, which my brother took and pitched away in a field, on the left hand side of the road behind the house. They were pitched away at the head of the field into some browse or furze. The purse was hid away by me in my garden; and afterwards I threw it over Pendavey-bridge: the lower side of the bridge. My brother drew the body across the road to the watering. I threw away the purse last Friday. The contents of it were not examined before it was thrown away. We did not know who it was before we stopped him. When my brother snapped the pistol at Mr. Norway, Mr. Norway said 'I know what you are about, I see you.' We went home across the fields. We were not disturbed by any one. It was not above three or four minutes before we left him. The pistol belonged to my brother; I don't know whether it was broken; I never saw it afterwards; and I do not know what became of it. I never advised my brother to burn it; and I don't know whether it was soiled with blood. I did not see any blood on my brother's clothes; we returned together from the spot, crossing the river at Pendavey-bridge, and crossed Treraren fields over Treraren ground, across a field or two to Burlawn village. My brother then went to his house, and I went to my own house. I think it was handy about eleven o'clock; but I cannot tell more than what I think about the time. I saw my brother again on the Sunday morning. He came up to my house. There was nobody there, I believe, but my own family. He said, 'Dear me, Mr. Norway's killed.' I did not make any reply. I went to bed as soon as I came home on the Saturday night."

The prisoner upon this was remanded to Bodmin Jail, where his brother was already confined; and, on his way to that place, he pointed out a furze-bush in which the tablets and keys of the deceased gentleman were found concealed.

On the 19th the prisoner James Lightfoot was carried back from Bodmin to Wadebridge for re-examination, and upon this point the evidence of Jackson, the policeman, was taken at the trial, to prove a confession made by the prisoner, corresponding in effect with that which had been made by his brother, though he strove to fix on him the guilt of the commencement of the murderous attack.

The evidence of this witness was corroborated by that of another constable, who was in the same chaise with them; and the turnkey of Bodmin Jail also swore, that very shortly after William Lightfoot had been in prison, he said to him that his mind had been so much troubled that he had told Mr. Molesworth the whole truth. That he and his brother had met by appointment, and were determined to have some money; that when Mr. Norway came up, James snapped his pistol at him twice; that he (William) then gave him a blow with a stick; that he fell off his horse, and that James struck him with his pistol.

Other evidence was produced, the effect of which was to corroborate the statements of the two prisoners; but, when called upon for their defence, the wretched men declared themselves innocent of the offence imputed to them.

The learned judge having then summed up the evidence, the jury returned a verdict of "Guilty."

Mr. Justice Coltman passed the awful sentence of death in the most feeling terms.

The prisoners exhibited no agitation or want of firmness during the address of the learned judge, and, at its conclusion, were directly conducted from the bar to the interior of the jail.

Up to this time, as we have already stated, the miserable brothers had been allowed no opportunity for communication, and the discrepancy between their stories exhibits distinctly enough the object of each to screen himself, and to secure the conviction of the other. The double confession, however, prevented the attainment of their desires, and they both fell just victims to their crimes. After the passing of the sentence on them, they were carried to the same cell, and were now, for the first time, allowed to approach each other. They had scarcely met before, in the most hardened manner, they commenced mutually vituperative attacks, and even proceeded to blows. The immediate interference of the jailors prevented a continuance of this disgraceful scene, and the wretched convicts were once again removed to separate apartments.

For several days the unhappy culprits exhibited the most callous indifference to their situation.

On the 7th of April they had a farewell interview with their families. It was of the most distressing description. After the departure of their wives and children, they appeared to be conscious of the awful situation in which they were placed; they became communicative, and listened more attentively to the exhortations of the Rev. F. Kendall and the Rev. W. Molesworth, whose parishioners they were. Great hopes are indulged that the unhappy men were actuated by sincere feelings of repentance.

On Sunday morning, the 12th of April, they attended the chapel belonging to the jail, when an appropriate sermon was preached by the chaplain, from Acts xvi. v. 25--"And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God; and the prisoners heard them;" and, in the afternoon, the Rev. F. Cole, of St. Feock, delivered an impressive sermon, from Romans vi. v. 23--"The wages of sin is death;" to which the prisoners paid the deepest attention. After the service they returned to their cells, ate and drank heartily what was given them, retired to bed at the usual hour, and slept soundly all night.

Monday, the 13th of April, had been fixed upon as the day of execution, and on that morning, shortly before eleven, Mr. Smith, the under-sheriff, proceeded to the cells, when portions of Scripture were read by the Rev. Mr. Kendall, and the sacrament was administered to the prisoners by the Rev. W. Molesworth. During the whole of this trying scene the brothers evinced the greatest fortitude. They were then conducted across the yard to the place of execution, preceded by the clergyman, reading the burial service--"I am the resurrection and the life," &c. The unhappy men were ghastly pale, but were perfectly collected, walked with a firm step, and ascended the ladder without the slightest assistance. Before being placed on the drop, they shook hands with the persons around them, and thanked the clergymen and others for their kindness and attention. They each then requested the conveyance of some last communication to their families, and, in a few moments, the drop fell.

Upwards of ten thousand persons had assembled to witness the dreadful end of the unhappy wretches, and but little commiseration was exhibited for their fate.

It is highly creditable to the inhabitants of Cornwall to state, that no less a sum than 3500_l._ was collected between the time at which the murder was committed and that of the execution, for the use of the destitute widow and family of the murdered man.

The execution took place at Bodmin, on Monday, the 13th April, 1840; the prisoner, William Lightfoot, being thirty-six years of age, while his brother, James, had only attained his twenty-third year.

RICHARD GOULD, alias ARTHUR NICHOLSON.

TRIED FOR MURDER, BUT CONVICTED OF BURGLARY.

The early life of this most atrocious malefactor is involved in some degree of uncertainty, as, from his sullen and dogged indifference during the period of his confinement in jail, but few particulars concerning his parentage and education could be obtained from him. From his own statement, at the period of his trial he was only twenty-three years of age; and there is good reason to believe, that although upon all occasions he stated his name to be Richard Gould, he was born of respectable parents, whose name was Nicholson. His father carried on the business of a publican; but, having failed, he determined to emigrate to Van Diemen's Land with his family, and the necessary preparations for the voyage were made. Our hero, however, whose disposition had always exhibited him to be a person of unsteady determination, at the last moment rejected the offer of his father to accompany him, and, having secreted himself until the period of the departure of the vessel in which he was to have sailed, had passed, at the age of eighteen years found himself his own master, and without employment, in London.

In a condition of absolute destitution, he was driven to seek for the means of livelihood; and, devoid of the knowledge or the introduction requisite to procure for him a situation in exact consonance with the rank of life in which the condition of his parents had entitled him to move, he accepted an engagement as pot-boy at the Duke of Cumberland public-house, Red Lion-street, Spitalfields. In this condition, by no means calculated to lead him to form connexions or habits likely to improve his position in society, he appears to have made acquaintances by whose instrumentality he was gradually conducted to the vices of dissipation and intemperance, and, after about twelve months' employment, he was discharged by his master. From this time he seems to have supported himself in a loose and discreditable manner for about a year and a half, at the expiration of which time he called at the house of his late master, and informed him, that he had enlisted in the hussars. Subsequently, he again made his appearance there, saying that he was about to proceed to Ireland, where he hoped to obtain employment as an engineer; and, about three weeks before his apprehension on the dreadful charge of murder, upon which he was subsequently tried, he a third time called, saying that he had just returned from the trip, the nature of which he had described upon his former visit. This statement, however, appears to be untrue; for during a considerable portion of the period of his absence, he was known in the neighbourhood of Islington, where he was employed as a pot-boy at the Barnsbury Castle public-house.

It was upon the morning of Tuesday, the 17th of March 1840, that the murder was discovered for which Gould was eventually indicted. Mr. John Templeman, the unfortunate victim of this most dreadful crime, was about seventy years of age at the period of his death. He resided in one of numerous small cottages erected in an open space called Pocock's-fields, near Barnsbury Park, Islington, principally occupied by persons of the poorer grades of life. He lived by himself, and was possessed of a small income, arising from the rents of one or two houses which belonged to him in Somers Town. The supposed miserly habits of the old man, and the great desire which he appeared to entertain to be considered rich, and which he exhibited by constantly boasting of his property, were the undoubted causes which led to the dreadful catastrophe by which he was deprived of life.

It appears that on Monday the 16th of March, he went as usual to Somers Town to collect the money due to him for the rent of his houses; and having called upon his tenants, he received of them 6_l._, the whole of which was paid him in silver, except one half-sovereign. Upon his return home, he sent for a Mrs. Thornton, who acted as his char-woman, and who lived in an adjacent cottage, to whom he communicated the fact of the receipt of the money; and having instructed her to procure various trifling articles of which he stood in need, at about six o'clock he retired to rest. On the following morning Mrs. Thornton sent her daughter to the house of the deceased with some of the commodities which she had been directed to purchase, and she knocked at the door, and called Mr. Templeman by name. No answer was returned, and she went back and informed her mother of her inability to obtain admittance to the house; and then upon Mrs. Thornton proceeding to the cottage and looking in at the bed-room window, she was horror-stricken at finding the unfortunate old man stretched upon the floor brutally murdered. For a time she was at a loss to know what proceedings to take in reference to this most dreadful transaction; but being aware that the deceased had a grandson, a solicitor, in Mortimer-street, Cavendish-square, she determined to await the arrival of her son-in-law, a Frenchman, named Capriani, who was employed as a night-watchman at Sadler's Wells theatre, in order that he might take the necessary steps in the affair. At eleven o'clock in the day he returned home; and then upon his being made acquainted with what had occurred, he at once proceeded to the residence of Mr. Templeman, jun., to inform him of the murder, omitting altogether to give any information to the police of the discovery which had taken place. During the absence of Capriani, the baker who was in the habit of delivering bread at the cottage of the deceased arrived, but was met by Mrs. Thornton, who sent him away, saying he would get no answer there; but Mr. Templeman, jun., soon after making his appearance, the police were called in, and informed of the horrid transaction.

A minute examination of the house of the deceased then took place; and from the appearances which presented themselves, it became evident that the murder had been committed in the most savage manner. The body of the deceased lay extended on the ground, covered only with a night-gown, his hands being bound in front with a strong cord, and his eyes being also bandaged with a stocking bearing marks of blood. The bed was completely saturated with blood, and the floor presented indications of a desperate conflict having taken place. On examining the body, several severe wounds were found at the back of the head; the forehead was completely dashed in by a violent blow from some heavy instrument; the nose and both jaw-bones were broken; and the mouth was severely bruised and mutilated; while three of the teeth of the poor old man, wrenched from their sockets, were found lying on the carpet. The house, which consisted of two rooms only, was in a state of great confusion. The drawers had been forced open, and the box in which it was known the deceased kept his money had been ransacked of its contents. In the sitting-room the pipe of the deceased was found lying upon the table, and beside it lay a number of books of a religious tendency exhibiting the manner in which the old man had spent the later hours of his life. Upon the search being continued, to ascertain the means by which ingress had been obtained to the house, it was discovered that the outer shutter, which was of slight materials, having been first forced open, a pane of glass in the parlour window had been broken through, and then a hand might have been introduced to open the door on the inside.

The circumstances which had hitherto been disclosed left but little clue to the murderer, but some suspicion being attached to Capriani from the delay which had taken place in the discovery of the murder by him to the police, he was taken into custody. The examinations which were made by the police in the course of the ensuing day or two, however, satisfactorily proved that Capriani was in nowise implicated in the horrid affair, and he was discharged; but soon afterwards Gould, and a man and his wife, named John and Mary Ann Jarvis, were apprehended. The evidence which was discovered in reference to these persons soon demonstrated the innocence of the man Jarvis, and he was set at liberty; and subsequently, although a close intimacy was proved to exist between Gould and Mrs. Jarvis, it was found that no such proofs remained against the latter as to induce a probable belief of her guilt, and she too was discharged from custody.

Gould, in the mean time, underwent many examinations at Hatton-Garden police-office, upon the charge of being concerned in the murder, the utmost interest and excitement being occasioned by the mystery connected with its committal. It would be useless to go through the history of the investigations which took place before the magistrates, and also before the coroner, upon this case; but there can be little doubt, that if those functionaries had not suffered themselves to be led away by feelings with respect to the comparative importance of their respective offices, inconsistent with the due performance of their duties, and that if the police had, in the ordinary language of their calling, "managed the case well," a conviction which every one now must believe would have been a proper one, would have secured to justice the punishment of a most heinous offender. Such portion of the evidence which was brought forward at these various examinations, as could legally be produced against the prisoner, was adduced upon his trial at the Old Bailey; and we shall proceed to describe that inquiry, and the occurrences which subsequently took place.

The case came on to be tried before Mr. Baron Alderson, at the Central Criminal Court, on Tuesday, the 14th of April, Mr. Chadwick Jones appearing as counsel for the prosecution, and Mr. Chambers conducting the defence of the prisoner. Witnesses were examined as to the facts which have been already detailed; and other persons were produced, from whose testimony it appeared that the prisoner for some time before the murder had lodged in the house of a Mrs. Allen, who lived in Pocock's-fields, near the cottage of the deceased. The most important facts proved against him were, that previous to the murder he had frequently declared to many of his companions that he was greatly in want of money, and that he had suggested to one of them, a pot-boy at the Duchess of Kent public-house in the Dover-road, that he knew an old man who had got money, for that he had seen him flashing about a 50_l._ note; that he knew where to put his hand upon it in the drawer where it was kept, and that it was "just like a gift" to him, and that he wished he could get "a right one" to assist him in the robbery. Other witnesses proved that he had expressed to them a desire to procure "a screw" and "a darkey" (meaning a picklock key and a dark lantern), to "serve" an old gentleman in a lonely cottage; and the concluding evidence was that of Mr. and Mrs. Allen, his landlord and landlady, as to his conduct on the night of the murder, and of some police-officers, who proved the discovery of some money in the rafters of the wash-house of Allen's cottage, corresponding in its denominations with the silver which had been paid to Mr. Templeman by his lodgers at Somers Town.

Allen's evidence was as follows:--"I live at Wilson's Cottage, Pocock's Fields, Islington. I know the cottage in which the deceased lived. I have known the prisoner about twelve months; he has lodged at my house several times, and he came to lodge there seven nights before this occurrence took place. I remember the 16th of March; and at that time, from circumstances that occurred, I am confident that he had no money. On that day the prisoner went out between eight and nine o'clock without having any breakfast. He had on a pair of shoes which I sold him, and they had nails in them. The prisoner wore them constantly. He returned home about three o'clock in the morning, and he immediately went into his room. My wife said to him, 'Richard, is it early, or late?' and he replied, 'It is early.' The prisoner got up between eight and nine o'clock the next morning, and came into my sitting-room, and passed through into the wash-house, which leads to the privy. He staid out from five-and-twenty minutes to half-an-hour, when he returned into the house and went out at the front door. I did not observe anything unusual in his appearance. The prisoner returned home about seven o'clock in the evening, and in the mean time I had heard of the murder of Mr. Templeman, and I told him of it. The prisoner said it was a shocking thing, and he asked me if I considered Mr. Templeman could have done it himself. I said, 'Richard, how can a man bind his own hands and eyes?' The prisoner then appeared agitated, and said his inside was out of order, and he went into the yard, and remained for a few minutes. My attention had been attracted to the prisoner having a new pair of shoes on, and I had a suspicion. I asked him about them, and he said that his cousin had given them to him. He then asked me to get him some bacon and beer for his supper, and I fetched it for him. He gave me a shilling to pay for it. I asked him where he had been so late on the night before. He said he had been at the Rainbow, and had stopped there until twelve o'clock at night, and when he came out he met some friends, who detained him. Before this time I had a piece of wood in my possession, which was about a foot and a half long. The prisoner went to bed about nine o'clock, and I bolted him in and gave information to the police. He accounted to me for the possession of the money by saying that it had been given to him by his relations.

Mrs. Allen's evidence was to the same effect; but she proved in addition, that a stocking in which the money was found concealed belonged to the prisoner.

The evidence otherwise was of a very general description, and although many expressions of a very suspicious character were attributed to the prisoner by the witnesses, none of them amounted to an admission by him of his guilt. The jury, after having received the customary charge from the learned Judge, returned a verdict of acquittal.

During the whole of the time occupied by this investigation, the avenues of the court, as well as the court itself, were crowded to excess by persons anxious to obtain early information as to its result. The verdict of the jury appeared to excite considerable dissatisfaction in the minds of many persons; and so great was the anger exhibited by a great portion of the populace, that the prisoner deemed it prudent to accept an offer of protection which was made to him by the sheriffs, and to remain in the Compter prison until the popular clamour should have in some degree subsided.

While there, a very great degree of commiseration appears to have been unjustly excited in his behalf. Mr. Alderman Pirie, a gentleman for whose humane feelings and intentions every one must give him the highest praise, offered to Gould that he should quit this country, and that he should proceed in a vessel of his own, on the point of sailing to Sydney, to that colony; and the wretched culprit, conscious of his guilt and of the dangerous position in which he stood, at once accepted the offer which was so liberally held out to him. A few days sufficed to show how far the humanity of the worthy alderman was misapplied. A man was committed to the Compter from the Mansion-house, upon a charge of stealing from his employers a quantity of tea, entrusted to him for delivery. His answer to the allegations made against him was unsatisfactory; and in the Compter he was imprisoned in the same ward in which Gould was suffered to remain. Upon his second examination he started a line of defence, which it was thought would afford him a moderate chance of escape. He imputed to two men, that they had met him in the street, and having given him a shilling to go on an errand for them, had run off with his tea. The men whom he pointed out were eventually taken into custody, and they proved to be two of the persons who had given evidence upon Gould's trial, and whose false impeachment this fellow had basely procured for the purpose of revenging himself upon them for their having stated that which was undoubtedly true. The two men were fortunately able satisfactorily to prove that they were elsewhere at the time of the supposed robbery; and the other prisoner was conveyed to Newgate to await his trial.

In the mean time, Gould, exulting in what he then supposed to be the success of his scheme, had been removed on board the Elizabeth, the vessel in which he was to be conveyed to Sydney, and which lay at Gravesend. She was on the point of sailing, when the government, hitherto supine in its exertions to secure the discovery of the perpetrators of this most diabolical murder offered a reward of 200_l._ for their apprehension. An idea was entertained that for the reward Gould would disclose all he knew upon the subject, for that he knew something was obvious, and Otway, a police serjeant, was despatched to communicate with him upon the subject. A long conversation took place, in the course of which the reward was hinted at, and Gould expressed his willingness to open a communication, provided some portion of the booty sufficient to satisfy him for the loss of his passage were guaranteed to him; but on the next day, he was surprised at finding that he had again got into the custody of the police, a warrant having been executed upon him, in which he was charged with being a party to the robbery which had been committed in the house of Mr. Templeman, on the night of the murder.

He was carried to London loudly complaining of the breach of good faith on the part of serjeant Otway, and on being conveyed to Bow-street, he repeatedly expressed his willingness to disclose all he knew upon his being liberated. This condition, however, was refused to be acceded to, and in the hope of obtaining the reward, on the 11th of May he made a statement to the following effect.

He said, that "the robbery of Mr. Templeman's house had been talked over for some time, by himself, Jarvis, and his wife, but it was not finally agreed upon until the morning before that on which it took place. He was then at Jarvis' house but he did no remain long, as Jarvis expected his brother, but before he went away, Jarvis went into the garden and got a piece of wood used as a dibber, and bored a hole in the handle and passed a piece of string through it so as to hang it on his arm. He then went to the Rainbow public-house and got drunk and went to bed at his lodgings. He was to have gone to Jarvis' on the next morning, but he lay in bed so late that Mrs. Jarvis came to fetch him. Jarvis had given her a message how it was to be done, and he (Gould) was not to go near the place until after the public-houses were closed. Mrs. Jarvis told him that she had prepared breakfast and that there was no fear of being noticed, but he went again to the Rainbow, and remained there until twelve o'clock at night. At that hour he went to Jarvis' house, and in a few minutes they went to Mr. Templeman's together, Mrs. Jarvis standing at the door of her own cottage to give an alarm in case of necessity. He (Gould) removed a piece of paper which was pasted over the window, and introducing his hand opened the door, and then he and Jarvis went in. He broke open a box which was in the sitting-room, and found some silver, and Jarvis went into the bed-room. Jarvis now suggested, that as the notes had not been found they must be under the old man's head, and that they might quiet him and fasten him. They had brought a cord with them, and Jarvis directly struck the old man with the dibber. He jumped out of bed as if to resist their attack, but the blows being repeated he was overpowered and his hands tied. They then continued their search for the notes, and they were found in the drawer in the box from which they had taken the silver, but upon their looking at them they found that they were useless, for they were barbers' notes upon 'the bank of fashion.' The deceased by this time had in some degree recovered, and exclaimed 'I know you,' upon which Jarvis declared, that he had rather finish him than be found out, and went into the bed-room. He (Gould) ran out of the house and was presently followed by Jarvis, and they went together to the house of the latter. Mrs. Jarvis was still standing on the look-out. He wanted to divide the money, but Jarvis said 'No, you had better plant (conceal) it, for the cottages here will all be frisked (searched).' He then took the dibber away and threw it into the New River, and he also threw the dark lantern which they had used into a pond in Pocock's Fields. Before he went away he agreed to meet Mrs. Jarvis the next morning at the Three Goats' Heads, Wandsworth-road, and when he quitted them he said that he would then show himself as quickly as he could. He went accordingly to a coffee-shop near the Angel, at Islington, and remained there for an hour and half, and when he returned home it was two o'clock. He went to bed, and on the next morning he placed all the money with the exception of 9_s._ in an old stocking, and put it where it had been found. He then proceeded to the Three Goats' Heads, and soon after he was joined by Mrs. Jarvis, who had her child with her. They went to Lambeth together, and he bought a pair of boots for 7_s._ 6_d._, and he sold his old ones in the New Cut. They subsequently went towards home, Mrs. Jarvis on quitting him desiring him not to go near her cottage that night, as there was a rare 'stink' about it."

The villany and falsehood of this declaration, except as regarded his own guilt, was soon clearly proved, for on the very same day on which it was made it was contradicted by the prisoner, but while as regarded Mr. and Mrs. Jarvis it was distinctly shown to be false, the prisoner had told so much of the truth as to enable the police to trace out so many new proofs as to leave the most conclusive evidence against him.

He had already been acquitted of the murder, and it was impossible that he should be tried upon any fresh indictment upon that charge; but it still remained open to the friends of the deceased to prefer against him a charge of burglary, subjecting him to a penalty of transportation for life. The statement of facts with regard to the dark lantern, and the purchase of the pair of shoes made by the prisoner, was plainly corroborated by investigation; and while he had unsuccessfully endeavoured to procure the new implication of Jarvis in the murder, he had unwittingly afforded evidence that he had himself committed the burglary with which he now stood accused.

Upon this latter charge he was indicted at the sessions of the Central Criminal Court, on the 22nd of June, and the same evidence which had been before adduced having been again brought forward, together with proof of those additional facts admitted in his own confession, he was found "Guilty."

Mr. Baron Parke, in addressing the prisoner, declared that there could be no possible doubt that he had been guilty of the murder of the unhappy deceased, and that he was justly brought to punishment. He sentenced him to be transported for life.

The prisoner, during his confinement in Newgate upon this new charge, made a most desperate attempt to escape, in company with a fellow-prisoner; but their schemes being discovered by the ever-watchful and most excellent governor of the jail, Mr. Cope, and frustrated, he became much impressed with the dreadful situation in which he had placed himself. At his trial he conducted himself with much firmness, cross-examining the witnesses with considerable tact--and subsequently addressing the jury and court upon the case, with boldness and effect; but upon his hearing the verdict of "Guilty," which was returned, he lost his presence of mind, and became deeply agitated. During the period occupied by the learned judge in passing sentence, he recovered his self-possession, and at the conclusion of the address, he skipped away from the bar with great alacrity.

The terms of his sentence of transportation were subsequently carried out; but the prisoner was not removed from this country without having made a fresh effort to secure his escape.

FRANÇOIS BENJAMIN COURVOISIER.

EXECUTED FOR MURDER.

For a considerable number of years scarcely any circumstance occurred in the metropolis which created a greater degree of consternation and interest than the tragical event which it now becomes our duty to record. At an early hour on the morning of Wednesday the 6th of May, 1840, Lord William Russell, an aged and most esteemed member of the illustrious house of Bedford, was discovered to have been barbarously murdered in his bed, at his house No. 14, Norfolk-street, Park-lane. The noble deceased was the posthumous child of Francis, Marquis of Tavistock, eldest son of the fourth Duke of Bedford, by Lady Elizabeth Keppel, daughter of the second Earl of Albemarle. He was the third and youngest brother of the two late Dukes of Bedford, and uncle of the existing duke, who was the seventh of the family who had succeeded to the title. He was uncle also to the noble and highly talented Lord John Russell, who at the time of this most melancholy catastrophe held the office of Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs. By his marriage with Lady Charlotte Villiers, eldest daughter of the fourth Earl of Jersey, his lordship had seven children, several of whom were still alive and were married into other noble families; but at the time of his death he was a widower, his wife having died in the year 1806. His lordship having been born in August, 1767, was consequently in the seventy-third year of his age.

Allied as the noble lord was to so many of the families of the nobility, the horrible event of his murder, it may be presumed, created the most extraordinary degree of alarm; and inquiries the most eager and the most scrutinizing were immediately set on foot, with a view to the discovery of the person by whose hand the dreadful deed had been committed. The result of the preliminary investigations which took place, tended to fix strong suspicion upon the valet of the unfortunate nobleman, François Benjamin Courvoisier, which, however, was so little supported by positive evidence, as to leave his guilt of the crime a matter of the greatest doubt, and it was not until the second day of his trial for the murder, that circumstances were discovered, in a manner, which appeared to denote the presence of the hand of the Almighty, by which his conviction was secured.

The first discovery of the murder, as we have already said, took place upon the morning of the 6th of May; but, in order to render what then took place more intelligible, we shall first describe the family of his lordship, and the proceedings of the day preceding this most diabolical outrage. Lord William Russell resided, attended only by his servants, at the house in Norfolk-street, Park-lane. At the age at which he had arrived, it is not to be supposed that he was unaffected by indisposition or weakness; but although he suffered slightly from deafness and bodily infirmity, his health was sufficiently good to enable him to enjoy life with comparative comfort. His family consisted of two female servants; a housemaid, Sarah Mancer, and a cook, Mary Hannell, besides his valet, Courvoisier, and a coachman and groom, all of whom lived in the house, with the exception of the two latter individuals. The house was small, and consisted of only two rooms on a floor. On the basement story were the kitchen, and the usual offices, and a room used by Courvoisier as a pantry. On the ground floor were two parlours, used as dining-rooms; on the first floor were the drawing-room and library; on the second floor were the bed-room and dressing-room of his lordship; and in the story above were the sleeping apartments of the servants. His lordship was a member of Brookes's Club, in St. James's-street, and usually spent a considerable portion of the day there; but he generally dined at home, and then having passed several hours in reading, commonly retired to rest at about twelve o'clock. The valet had been in his lordship's service during a period of five weeks only; and in the course of that time had been heard by his fellow servants to express himself in terms of dislike to his master, whom he described as testy and dissatisfied, and to declare that if he only had his money, he should soon return to Switzerland of which country he was a native. Upon the 5th of May, his lordship rose at nine o'clock, and breakfasted at the usual hour; and at about noon he went out, proposing to go to Brookes's, in accordance with his usual habit. Before he quitted the house, however, he called his valet, and gave him several messages to deliver, amongst which was one to the coachman, to prepare his carriage and to be in readiness to take him home from his club at five o'clock. Upon Courvoisier going into the kitchen after this, he declared his fears that he should forget some of his errands; and in recounting them, he omitted that to the coachman. At half-past five his lordship returned home to dinner, in a cab, and showed some dissatisfaction at the neglect of his servant; but it does not appear that he exhibited any such anger as could well excite a feeling of hatred or ill will. Dinner was served at about seven o'clock; tea and coffee were subsequently handed to his lordship, and at about nine o'clock he retired to his library. At this time, the three house servants only were at home. Some other persons had called in the course of the day, but they had all left; and Courvoisier, Sarah Mancer, and Mary Hannell, only were in the house. Hannell had been out, but upon her return Courvoisier admitted her, and it was observed that he locked and chained the street door after her entrance. Supper was, at about ten o'clock, prepared in the kitchen, and some beer was fetched by Courvoisier; but he quitted the house, and returned by way of the area, and the gate and kitchen door were fastened by Hannell upon his re-admission. The means of access to the house, from the street, therefore, were closed, and the only entrance from the back, on the basement story, was through the pantry.

At about half-past ten, the women-servants went to bed, leaving Courvoisier to attend upon his master, and it was not until half-past twelve o'clock that his lordship rang his bell for him to assist him in retiring to his apartment. It was the custom of his lordship to have his bed warmed, and it was the duty of the valet to perform this duty for him, and then to return the warming-pan to the kitchen. The bed appears to have been warmed as usual on this occasion; but as the subsequent events of this dreadful night remained in mystery until after the discovery of the murder and the conviction of its perpetrator, we shall abstain from describing them at present, in order that they may be laid before our readers in the words which Courvoisier himself employed in recounting them.

On the following morning, at about half-past six o'clock, Sarah Mancer, the housemaid, rose from her bed, and, having dressed herself, quitted her bed-room. As she passed the door of the prisoner's room she knocked, in order to awake him, and then proceeded down-stairs. The first circumstance which she remarked was, that the warming-pan had been left at her master's bed-room door, as if indicating that the valet had gone to rest immediately after having attended upon his master, without subsequently going below; but, upon her proceeding to the lower floors of the house, she found everything in such a state of confusion, as to excite a suspicion in her mind that thieves had entered the house with a view to the commission of a robbery. She hurried through the drawing-room, the parlour, and the passage on the ground-floor, and there she found the furniture strewed about, the drawers and boxes open, a bundle lying on the ground, as if ready packed up to be carried off, while the street-door had been unfastened, and was only upon the latch. A momentary examination of these matters was sufficient to excite alarm in her mind, and, hurrying up-stairs again, she repaired to the cook to inform her of what she had seen, by whose directions she at once proceeded to the apartment of the valet. Ten minutes had scarcely elapsed since she had before knocked at his door, and half-an-hour was ordinarily occupied by him in dressing, but, to her surprise, she now found him dressed and ready to descend. Hastily informing him of what she had witnessed below, he accompanied her down stairs; and, upon his seeing the state in which the lower part of the house appeared to be, he exclaimed, "Oh, God! somebody has robbed us." Mancer now suggested the propriety of their ascertaining whether anything had occurred to his lordship, and they went together to his bedroom.

Immediately upon their entrance, Courvoisier proceeded to the window to open the shutters, but Mancer, going to the bed-side, saw the pillow saturated with blood, and his lordship lying in bed, quite dead, with his throat frightfully cut. His face was covered with a towel or napkin, but upon this being removed, his countenance was found to be perfectly placid while the position of his body, undisturbed, and as if in a state of repose, betokened the suddenness with which the death-stroke had been inflicted. The woman suddenly screamed and ran out of the room, and, rushing from the house, she obtained the aid of some neighbours and of the police, by whom a surgeon was called in. Upon the entrance of these persons, Courvoisier, whose conduct throughout the whole transaction was of the most singular description, was found dreadfully agitated, leaning on the bed where the body of his master lay; and although questions were asked him, he made no answer, and took no part in the proceedings which succeeded. The death of the deceased nobleman was too evidently the result of violence from another hand to render a suggestion of suicide possible. One gash only had been given, which extended to the very back of the neck, and nearly severed the head from the body; and the absence of any instrument by which such an act could have been committed, at once negatived any supposition of that description.

In a few minutes Courvoisier appeared to recover from the agitation by which he had been affected, and at his suggestion an intimation of the dreadful occurrence was conveyed to the son of the deceased nobleman, who resided in Belgrave-square. Upon his going down-stairs, he immediately took Sarah Mancer into his pantry, and pointing to some marks of violence which were perceptible upon the door, which was open, remarked, "It was here they entered."

The police now took possession of the house, and the mysterious nature of the transaction fully warranted them in the first step which they took--the detention of the three servants. A minute examination of the premises took place, the result of which was, a firm conviction on their minds that the murder had been perpetrated by an inmate of the house, and that a simulated robbery had been got up, for the purpose of raising a belief that the diabolical crime which had been committed was the act of a nocturnal plunderer and assassin. Upon the street door there were no marks of violence perceptible, while the indentations which were observable upon the door of the pantry had been so clearly produced from within, instead of from without, as to leave no doubt of the truth of their supposition. Their belief was further supported by the position of the back part of the house and the contiguous dwellings. It was so surrounded by buildings and high walls, as to render approach from that quarter next to impossible; and a minute examination of the neighbouring roofs of houses, &c., clearly negatived the suggestion that any person had obtained access to the house of Lord William Russell by clambering over any of them. In the house, the appearances were such as to indicate that the work had not been done by any practised housebreaker or marauder; and, furthermore, instruments were discovered, in the pantry poker, and a chisel which was found in the drawing room, and which had been known to be in the kitchen for some weeks before, which exactly corresponded with the marks in the pantry door, and which, as they could not have come into the possession of any stranger, must have been employed by some person having access to, and being well acquainted with, the premises.

The parcel which had been observed by the woman Mancer was examined, and was found to contain many articles of his lordship's property. A cloth cloak, which had been hanging up in the hall, was found rolled up, and within it were his lordship's gold opera-glass, his gold toothpick, a silver sugar-dredger, a pair of spectacles, a caddy spoon, and a thimble belonging to the cook; but it was remarked, that the latter articles were of a nature which a thief would rather have put into his pocket than have packed up in so large a parcel; and although the drawers of the sideboard in the parlour, and of the writing-desk in the drawing-room, were pulled open, nothing was found to have been extracted. In his lordship's bedroom a state of things presented itself which tended to confirm the suspicions of the police, and to supply a motive for the crime. His lordship had been in possession of a case containing ivory rouleau boxes, which are usually employed to contain gold coin. The boxes belonging to his lordship would hold about five hundred sovereigns, and it had been remarked by Courvoisier, that although he was entrusted with the keys of his master's drawers and trunks, his lordship would never permit him to go to this case. Upon examination by the police, the rouleau case was found to have been opened, and the rouleaux having been searched, fruitlessly for money, they had been placed on one side. The jewel-box and the note-case of the deceased had also been opened, and while from the former several articles of small value had been taken, from the latter a 10_l._ note, known to have been in the possession of his lordship, had been carried off. A purse containing gold had also disappeared. The rushlight, which had been lighted by the valet, according to his own statement, when his lordship went to bed, was found to have been extinguished within about an hour and a half after it had been left; his lordship's gold watch, together with its appendages, had been removed; and, furthermore, an attempt had been made to give an appearance to the room as if his lordship had been attacked while reading in bed. A book which his lordship was known to have been reading in the course of the evening, "The Life of Sir Samuel Romilly," who, by a most remarkable circumstance, came to his death by cutting his throat, was lying by his bed-side, and near him was a wax-candle, burned down into the socket of the candlestick, but placed in such a situation as that it would have afforded no sufficient light to enable his lordship, in the position in which his body was found, to read one word by its light. These circumstances induced a strong suspicion against Courvoisier, and his boxes were searched, but without anything being discovered tending to fix upon him the guilt of the crime; but it was nevertheless thought advisable that he should remain in custody, or under surveillance, until an examination of the drains of the house should have been made. For reasons of precaution, the women servants were also detained, and the most active exertions were made by the police to discover evidence which should lead to the discovery of the murderer. The commissioners of police, and several members of the nobility were indefatigable in their efforts to render assistance throughout the whole investigation, and through their instrumentality some discoveries were made.

On Friday, the 8th of May, it was thought that a more comprehensive search ought to be made through the house, and particularly in the pantry, and some most important disclosures took place. Some appearances were observed on the mortar and on the skirting-board of the room, which induced a police-officer to remove them. He examined the floor, the skirting, and the sink, and behind the skirting-board he found five gold rings, most undoubtedly the property of his lordship. In the same place were also found five pieces of gold coin and a piece of wax. Behind another part of the skirting was found a Waterloo medal, which was known to have been in the possession of his lordship, with a ribbon attached to it; and there was also found the 10_l._ note which has been mentioned before. The fact of the discovery of this note was a most important feature in this case. If it had been removed from the note-case, in which it had been placed, by any ordinary thief, it would undoubtedly have been carried off by him. Found as it was, however, concealed within the skirting-board of this pantry, it was taken as almost conclusive of the guilt of the valet, because no hand but his could have placed it in that position; for it is to be observed, that, from the moment of the discovery of the murder, he was placed under surveillance, and could not, therefore, have conveyed away anything from the house. A further search was subsequently made, and a split gold ring, on which his lordship kept his keys, and which had been attached to his watch by a ribbon, was found; and then, on the evening of the next day, a locket was taken from Courvoisier's pocket.

The discovery of this small article was one to which very great attention was paid, and which formed a very singular feature in the case. Upon it being taken from the pocket of the valet, he claimed it as his own. It was well known amongst the family and domestics of the deceased nobleman, that he had always carried a locket about him, containing a small portion of the hair of his deceased lady. A short time before his murder, he had missed this relic, to which he attached great value, under circumstances of considerable mystery. He had been staying at Richmond, accompanied by no other servant but his valet, and during his sojourn there he occasionally went to Hampton, to visit his relative, Lady Sarah Bailey. In the course of a conversation which he had with her ladyship, he dropped the locket out of the case in which he usually kept it, and quitted her ladyship's apartments, without having discovered his loss, to attend divine service at the chapel of Hampton Court. On his return the locket was presented to him, and he placed it in his pocket, but from that moment he never saw it again. It was missed, and the most diligent search was made for it, but in vain; and his lordship, grieved at his loss, eventually returned to London without having recovered this relic of his former affections. Upon the discovery of a locket in the possession of Courvoisier, a presumption was raised that it was that of his deceased master, with which it corresponded in every particular; but, in obedience to his repeated asseverations that it was his own, it was returned to him. On the next day, by a most remarkable accident, the same locket, of the identity of which now no doubt any longer remained, was found concealed in a small hole under the hearth-stone in the pantry, the room in which Courvoisier remained. Upon this the police thought fit to take him into custody, and he was conveyed away from the house; and, after he had been taken off, still further discoveries were made. On the 11th of May, a chased gold-key was discovered; and, on Wednesday the 13th, it was determined to examine the sink in the pantry. A part of the sink was covered with lead, and that portion having been removed in the course of the investigation, it occurred to the police-officer that there was something extraordinary in the appearance of the lead. He turned it up, and there he found the watch, which had been placed at the noble lord's bed-head on the night of the murder, but which on the next morning was discovered to have been removed.

These were the material facts adduced in evidence against Courvoisier upon his various examinations before the magistrates; but strong as were the suspicions excited against him, it was felt that there was still good reason to believe that he would escape conviction. An experienced attorney, Mr. Flower, was engaged to conduct his defence; and so strong a feeling had been excited in his behalf, that a liberal subscription was raised among the foreign servants in London to defray the expenses of employing the necessary counsel to appear for him at his trial. Mr. Hobler, an attorney, was engaged on behalf of the prosecution; and at length, on Thursday, the 18th of June, the trial of the prisoner came on at the Central Criminal Court, before Lord Chief Justice Tindal and Mr. Baron Parke.

The court was then crowded with persons whom curiosity had drawn together to procure a sight of the prisoner, and to hear the evidence adduced against him; and, amongst the noble and distinguished individuals present were, the Duke of Sussex, who remained during the whole of the day, and appeared to take great interest in the proceedings; the Countess of Charleville, Lady Burghersh, Lady Sondes, Lady A. Lennox, Lady Granville Somerset, Lady Julia Lockwood, Lady Bentinck; the Earls of Sheffield, Mansfield, Cavan, Clarendon, Lucan, and Louth; Lords Rivers, Gardner, and A. Lennox; M. Dedel, the Dutch ambassador; Marshal Saldanha, the Portuguese ambassador extraordinary; Sir Gilbert Heathcote, Sir Stratford Canning, Sir W. Montagu, Colonel Fox, Lord Frederick Gordon, Hon. Mr. Villiers, &c. As a proof that every part of the court was brought into requisition, it may be mentioned, that the prisoners' dock was filled with chairs, every one of which was occupied.

Mr. Adolphus, Mr. Bodkin, and Mr. Chambers, appeared for the prosecution. The prisoner was defended by Mr. C. Phillips and Mr. Clarkson.

The prisoner, who was an alien, elected to be tried by a jury of Englishmen; and the indictment having been read, he pleaded "Not guilty."

Evidence in proof of the circumstances which we have detailed was then produced, and the first day's proceedings had closed, when the new and important testimony to which we have already referred, affording conclusive proof of the guilt of the prisoner, was discovered.

In the course of the inquiries which had been made subsequently to the murder, some articles of plate were found to have been removed from the house of his lordship; but, after the minute examination of the house which took place, there was good reason to believe that this portion of the transaction had occurred long before, and not after, the murder. All the efforts of the police to discover this stolen property had proved ineffectual; and although large rewards had been offered for its production, it was not until the evening of the first day's trial that it was brought forward. An intimation was then conveyed to Mr. Hobler of the fact of its being in the possession of Madame Piolaine, the keeper of a French hotel in Leicester-place, Leicester-square; and upon its being inspected by persons who were competent to speak to its identity, they at once most positively proved that it was the same which had been formerly in the possession of his lordship. The circumstance of this most extraordinary discovery was directly notified to the prisoner's attorney; and Courvoisier being by him consulted as to the truth of the allegations made, he at once admitted his guilt. At this stage of the proceedings, it was felt that such a confession placed the advocates who had been employed on his behalf in a condition of the greatest difficulty. For them to have thrown up their briefs would have been at once to admit the uselessness of any efforts to save their client from an ignominious death--a duty to the performance of which they had pledged themselves; and it was therefore determined that they should continue their defence of the prisoner, although the line of conduct which it became proper to pursue was necessarily much altered by the discovery which had been made to them. The instructions which they had originally received, went to the extent of calling upon them to endeavour to procure the implication of the female servants of his lordship, and of the police, who were to be charged as their companions and associates in crime in the murder of Lord Russell, and in a conspiracy to secure the conviction and execution of the valet; but although the former portion of this defence was of course deemed fit to be withdrawn, a considerable degree of abuse was heaped upon the police by Mr. C. Phillips in his speech for the defence of the prisoner, in consequence of some improper conduct of which he alleged they had been guilty, tending to prejudice his case, and even going to the length of fabricating evidence to excite suspicion in the minds of the jury against him.

To proceed, however, to the new evidence which had been obtained, we shall, in order to make it more easily understood, lay it before our readers in the terms in which it was produced at the trial at the end of the second day's proceedings.

After being sworn, Charlotte Piolaine deposed as follows:--"My husband keeps L'Hôtel de Dieppe, in Leicester-place, Leicester-square. I know the prisoner at the bar. I knew him about four years ago. He came to our hotel in the situation of waiter. I don't recollect that he gave me his name, nor did I know it. We used to call him John in the hotel. French is generally spoken in our hotel; and we called him Jean. He lived with me as a servant for about a month or five weeks, not longer. I never saw him since that time till about six weeks ago. He came to me at the Hôtel de Dieppe on a Sunday morning. He merely asked me how I was, staid a short time, and went away. I did not recognise him when he first came. As it had been some time since I saw him, I could not recall his features to memory. He said, 'Don't you remember me? I am Jean, who lived with you some time ago.' He staid but a few moments and went away. I asked him in the bar if he was in a situation, and he said 'Yes;' and I said, 'I am very glad of it.' I saw him again on the Sunday week or fortnight afterwards, I cannot remember which. He came in and asked me how I was. It was in the evening, and he had a parcel in his hand--a paper parcel. He asked me to take care of it till the Tuesday following, and he would call for it. I said 'Certainly I would,' and he left it and went away. I put up the parcel in a closet. I did not know at that time what the parcel contained. It was a sort of brown paper parcel, about eighteen inches long, and it was tied up and sealed. He did not call for it on the Tuesday following, and I never saw him since until to-day. I heard once or twice of the murder of Lord William Russell. The parcel had certainly been left with me before I heard of the murder, but I did not suppose it to be connected with that event. I took it out of the closet for the first time yesterday morning. I kept it at the bottom of the cupboard. I was induced to take it out in consequence of an account which my cousin read in a French newspaper, and showed to me. I communicated with my cousin, and with Mr. Gardine, for whom I sent. He lives in King-street, Soho, and is a chaser and modeller, and I sent also for Mr. Cumming. He is a solicitor, I believe, and is a very intimate friend of ours. My cousin Vincent is my husband's partner in the hotel. The parcel was opened in the presence of these persons. It was never opened before from the moment it came into my possession. (Mr. Cumming, who was subsequently examined, here produced the parcel, which was about eighteen inches long by six wide.) That is the parcel, and that is the paper that was on it. (The witness, by the direction of counsel, opened the parcel.) It contains spoons and forks of silver, two pairs of new stockings, a pair of gold auricles for assisting the hearing, a pair of dirty socks, and an old flannel waistcoat and a jacket. The jacket was wrapped round the other articles, and there is also some tow or yarn which would have the effect of preventing the plate from being felt or rattling. When we discovered these things, Mr. Cumming immediately put it up again, having first put in an inventory which he took down on paper, and which we all signed, and took it away. He brought it here, I believe."

Louis Gardine: "I am a chaser and modeller, and live in King-street, Soho. I know M. Piolaine, who keeps the Hôtel de Dieppe in Leicester-place. I remember a man bringing a parcel to the hotel on a Sunday, but I do not recollect the exact time. I was only a visitor, and did not take much notice. The parcel was wrapped up in brown paper. I do not know the man who brought it, and had not, to my knowledge, ever seen him before. I cannot identify the prisoner as the man. I was fetched by Mr. Vincent yesterday about some news that was in the paper, and I went to the hotel. We went directly to Mr. Cumming in the city. We found him there, and he came back with us to the hotel. A parcel was then produced, and Mr. Cumming cut the string and opened it, and it was found to contain some silver and some other articles; and a list was made out of its contents."

Mr. Richard Cumming: "I am a solicitor, and carry on business in the Old Jewry. In consequence of a communication I received from Gardine and Joseph Vincent yesterday, I went with them to M. Piolaine's, in Leicester-place; and a brown paper parcel was produced. I was consulted as to the propriety of opening it, and it was ultimately opened by me. I made out a list of the articles, which I now have, and fastened the parcel up again. Before doing so I observed the crest on the spoons, and proceeded to Ridgway's, the booksellers, where I learned that the crest, a goat, was that of the Bedford family. I immediately proceeded to Marlborough-street police-office, to seek the magistrates' advice and to be relieved of the possession of the parcel. I had an interview with the clerk to the magistrates, and in consequence of what transpired, I came down to the Old Bailey in a cab. I arrived here about six o'clock, and sent in a note to the solicitors for the prosecution, Mr. Wing and Mr. Hobler, to whom I made a communication. The paper brought in some time ago contains a portion of the contents of the brown paper parcel, but having placed my initials upon it and the articles, I gave up the brown paper and the remaining contents to an officer by direction of Mr. Hobler. The paper produced is the covering of the parcel, and the articles I produced were contained in it. On the back of the cover there has been an address, which is nearly erased. Besides the spoons and forks there was some ear apparatus, made of gold, in a box. I produce the list signed by myself and the other parties. The articles consisted of four silver table-spoons, four silver dessert-spoons, two silver tea-spoons, four silver forks, one leather box containing two instruments for the ears, two pairs of white stockings, with no mark on them, one pair of white socks, each marked C 4, one flannel jacket, another jacket which I have called a flannel jacket, and a small quantity of tow or yarn."

Other evidence, by which the stockings were proved to have belonged to the prisoner by his washerwoman, and by which the brown paper in which the parcel was wrapped was proved to have been sent to Lord William Russell, around a framed print of the "Vision of Ezekiel," from the shop of Mr. Molteno, a printseller in Pall Mall, was then produced, and the trial was again adjourned to Saturday.

On that morning, Mr. C. Phillips addressed the jury at very great length on the part of the prisoner, contending with great talent, that the evidence was that of suspicion only; but Chief Justice Tindal having summed up, a verdict of "Guilty" was returned.

The learned judge then proceeded to pass upon the prisoner the sentence of death. He said, that he had been found guilty by an intelligent, patient, and impartial jury of the crime of wilful murder. His guilt had been established beyond the possibility of doubt. The circumstances which surrounded the case were not of an ordinary description. It was ordered by the holiness of God that this crime should not go unpunished; and his power was exemplified in no common manner in the course and progress of the investigation. It was ordained that that which was hid in darkness should be brought to light, and that an offence of the greatest magnitude and the most hateful in the sight of God should not remain concealed. He (the prisoner) had felt no compunction at his conduct; he entertained no regard for the sacred duties which bound a servant to his master; but under his own roof he had committed upon him, aged and unprotected as he was, the awful crime of murder. By this horrid act, domestic and social society received a shock; and in order to prevent the perpetration of such offences by others, it was necessary that the law in this instance should take its course. He could hold out no hope to him in this world, and he earnestly entreated him to prepare to undergo the last sentence of the law. It was necessary that he should receive that punishment, in order that others should take warning, and abstain from a breach of the law. What had inclined him to commit the horrid act did not appear. The love of lucre first induced him to break the law, and that might have led to the commission of this offence. The learned judge again earnestly entreated him to make the best use of his time, and endeavour to make his peace with the Almighty; and his lordship then passed the ordinary sentence of death upon the convict.

Throughout the whole of the three days occupied by this trial, the court was crowded to excess with persons who most anxiously watched every change of evidence affecting the prisoner. Courvoisier during the first day appeared confident, and surveyed the court with much apparent courage and coolness; but upon the following morning, his altered position was clearly exhibited by the anxious expression of his countenance, and the melancholy hopelessness by which his whole conduct seemed to be characterised. On the last day his demeanour even more plainly exhibited how little he expected to escape from the punishment due to his crime; and he received the last sentence pronounced upon him by the learned judge with little apparent feeling.

Upon his being conveyed from the court to the interior of the jail, he made no hesitation in at once admitting to the governor, Mr. Cope, that he had been justly convicted; and he expressed his greatest anxiety, that the female servants should be relieved from all suspicion. He subsequently became sullen and reserved, and seizing an opportunity when the jailer had quitted him for a few moments, he endeavoured to choke himself by cramming a towel down his throat. This attempt was, however, frustrated by the vigilance of the turnkey; and he became more communicative after he had received spiritual consolation from Mr. Carver, the ordinary of the jail, and from M. Baup, the minister of the French church in Threadneedle-street.

On the following day, the wretched man made the annexed confession, in the presence of Mr. Flower, his attorney, and Mr. Cope.

"Newgate, June 22, 1840.

"On the Friday before the murder was committed I began two or three times not to like my place. I did not know what to do; I thought if I gave warning none of my friends would take notice of me again, and I thought by making it appear a kind of robbery he would discharge me; and on the Saturday before I took this plate to Leicester-place. I had a mind to rob the house on Monday, and after I had forced the door down stairs I thought it was not right and went to bed--nothing further happened on the Monday. On Tuesday night, when his lordship went to bed (he had been rather cross with me before about the carriage) he gave me two letters, one for the post, and told me rather angrily, that he was obliged to write those letters in consequence of my forgetting the carriage; this was in the drawing-room, about eleven o'clock at night. I then went down stairs into the kitchen, and stood reading a book for some time. About twelve o'clock he rang the bell. I went up to him and took the lamp out. After that I thought he had gone up stairs to his bedroom; and when he rung his bedroom bell, I thought it was to warm his bed, and I took the warming-pan up with coals in just as usual, and he began to grumble because I did not go up to see what he wanted, instead of taking up the warming-pan. I told him he always used to ring the bell for the warming-pan, and that it was for that purpose he had rung; and he said that I ought always to go and answer the bell first, to see what he wanted. He took off his clothes, and I came down stairs again with the warming-pan, and I waited there until about twenty minutes past twelve. He rang again for me to warm his bed. He told me, rather crossly, that I should take more notice of what I was doing, and what he was telling me, and pay him more attention.

"I did not answer at all, as I was very cross. I went down stairs, and put everything in the state it was found in the morning. As I was in the dining-room with a light, he came down stairs to the water-closet: he had his wax-light. I was in the dining-room, but as he had his slippers on, I did not hear him come down. He opened the dining-room door, and saw me. I could not escape his sight. He was quite struck, and said, 'What are you doing here?--you have no good intentions in doing this; you must quit my service to-morrow morning; and I shall acquaint your friends with it.' I made no answer. He went to the water-closet, and I went out of the dining-room down stairs. He was about ten minutes in the water-closet, and I waited to see what he would do after he came out. While he was in the water-closet I put some of the things to rights again in the dining-room. When he left the water-closet, he went into the dining-room, where he staid about a minute or two. I was on the corner of the stairs that goes from the dining-room to the kitchen. I watched him up stairs. I stopped perhaps an hour in the kitchen, not knowing what I should do. As I was coming up stairs from the kitchen, I thought it was all up with me, my character was gone, and I thought it was the only way I could cover my faults by murdering him. This was the first moment of any idea of the sort entering into my head. I went into the dining-room and took a knife from the side-board. I do not remember whether it was a carving-knife or not. I then went up stairs. I opened his bed-room door and heard him snoring in his sleep; there was a rushlight in his room burning at this time. I went near the bed by the side of the window, and then I murdered him; he just moved his arm a little; he never spoke a word. I took a towel which was on the back of the chair, and wiped my hand and the knife; after that I took his key and opened the Russia leather box, and put it in the state it was found in the morning, and I took all the things that were found down stairs-- the towel I put over his face; I took a purse, I also took a 10_l._ note from a note case, which I put in the purse, and put them in a basket in the back scullery; the day after I thought it would be better to put it behind the skirting board. I had, before I went to Richmond, lost a shilling behind the skirting board, so I thought that would be a good place to put it.

"While at Richmond Lord William's locket dropped from his coat while I was brushing it. I picked it up, and put it in my trowsers pocket, but had not the least idea of taking it. I intended to have returned it to his lordship, while I dressed him in the morning. I put my hand in my pocket at that time, but found I had changed my trowsers; this was on the morning we left Richmond for Camden-hill. I did not put the trowsers on again while we were at Camden-hill. I did not recollect the trousers being different, and thought I had lost the locket. I then thought it best to say nothing about it. On the Friday morning I was looking at some of my old clothes, the policeman who had cut his chin was watching me, and in taking the trousers out of the drawer in the pantry the locket fell out of the pocket; it was wrapped up in a piece of brown paper; the policeman opened the paper and looked at it, and said, 'What's that?' I said to him it was a locket; but in the position in which I was, I did not like to say that it was Lord William's locket, as if I told the truth I should not be believed; the policeman then returned it to me, and I put it in my trousers pocket. The watch and seal were in my jacket pocket, which I had on until the Friday morning; and then I undid the ribbon, and took the seal off; it was the day the sweeps were in the house, which was either the Thursday or Friday; having the watch in my pocket the glass came out; I did not know what to do with it, as the police were watching me, so I took the watch from my pocket, and put it in between the lining of my jacket, and twisted the pocket until I smashed the glass; after that I dropped some of the pieces about the dining-room; and, at different times, put the large pieces in my mouth, and afterwards, having broken them with my teeth, spat them in the fire-place. The watch I had by me until Friday morning. I then burnt the ribbon, and put the watch under the lead in the sink. I kept the seal in my pocket until they came into the dining-room to show me the ring they had found behind the skirting board. When I was called to go down to the pantry, I let the seal fall and put my foot upon it, and afterwards put it behind the water-pipe in the scullery. Beresford and Cronin, and two masons, were there at the time taking the drain up, but did not see me do it. The watch, the seal, and the locket, together with two sovereigns, I had about me until the Friday, and if they had searched me they must have found them; but they did not do so until Friday, after I was taken into custody in my bed-room. The two sovereigns I afterwards (on the Friday, when I slipped the locket under the hearth stone) also slipped down near the wall under the flooring. I had scarcely had any beer all the week, and the ale that I had drunk that night, together with the wine, and some more I took after the cook went to bed, affected me. I turned up my coat and shirt sleeve of my right hand when I committed the murder. I did not use the pillow at all.

"After I had committed the murder I undressed and went to bed as usual. I made the marks on the door on the outside, none of them from the inside, for the purpose of having it believed that thieves had broken in. I never made use of the chisel or the fire-irons. I placed the things about the house to give the appearance of robbery. It is not true that the bottom bolt was never used to secure the door; it was bolted that night. I took the jewellery after I had committed the deed. All the marks on the door were made from the outside on the Monday night, for I got out of the pantry window and broke in at the door, and while getting out of the pantry window made a little mark on the wall outside, near the water-pipe, which the witness Young saw, and mentioned in his evidence. I went to bed about two o'clock. I burned nothing. Sarah Mancer knew nothing about it. Neither did the cook, or any of the other servants. I am the only person who is at all guilty.

"FRANÇOIS BENJAMIN COURVOISIER.

"Witness, THOMAS FLOWE.

"WILLIAM WADHAM COPE. "22nd June, 1840."

On the 23rd of the same month, however, he made a short confession, in which he contradicted the statement of the master having threatened to discharge him, and which was in the following terms:--

"After I had warmed his lordship's bed, I went down stairs and waited about an hour, during which time I placed the different articles as they were found by the police. I afterwards went to the dining-room, and took one of the knives from the side-board. I then entered the bed-room, and found him asleep. I went to the side of the bed, and drew the knife across his throat. He appeared to die instantly."

"Prison of Newgate, June 23.

"This declaration was made before me this 23rd of June, 1840.

"WILLIAM EVANS. Sheriff."

His subsequent admissions tend very materially to show that a considerable portion of his confession, even as amended, was untrue, and the frequent alterations which he made in his statements, leave room for much doubt as to many of the circumstances related by him.

On the 3rd of July he added another document to those which he had already written. It was headed thus:--"François Benjamin Courvoisier gives some account of the short duration of his life, which is to terminate on the 6th day of July, 1840." It was written in French; and the following is a faithful translation from the original:--

"I was born of very pious parents, who have neglected nothing on their part for my education and religious instruction, on the contrary, they have done all in their power; and if I am not so well informed as I should be, it is my own fault. It has been my evil habit to have always had a falsehood in my mouth ready to excuse what I did wrong, or what I omitted to do. I fancied that it was more disgraceful to have a bad memory than to be a liar. At the age of twelve, when I was very religious, I loved God and my parents, I was kind to my sisters, and took pleasure in doing what was good and right before God; but unhappily the schoolmaster did not remain in my village, and his successor was not so religiously disposed. I soon forgot all the good I had been taught, and again became such as I was before. It is true that I was not immoral, but I had no longer those holy inclinations in my heart. I confirmed my baptismal vow at the age of sixteen, and afterwards received for the first time the Holy Communion. I now began to be righteous in the sight of men only, and I thought that this was the highest duty of a Christian, and that if I gave satisfaction to men I did so to God also. My parents had a peculiar affection for me, and placed much confidence in my good conduct; they thought that I was the one in their family who was most anxious to reward the pains they had taken in my youth. I fancied that I loved my parents as myself; but if I had indeed so loved them, I should not have acted as I have done. It is true that I considered myself a good Christian. I cannot say that I often thought of God, for then I should not have sinned as I have done; all who knew me believed that I acted uprightly, and I thought so too. I had already acted unjustly towards Mrs. Fector, at the time of leaving her. I know that I should not have dared to act thus a year before. This proves that I had already begun to forget God, and that Satan had already some power over me. After I left Mrs. Fector, and went to my last unfortunate place, I felt confident in my own strength, and began to say within myself, 'Next year I will do such and such things,' but never did I say, 'If it pleases God.' During the first part of the time I was with Lord William Russell, I was tolerably comfortable until we went to Richmond, when Lord William always appearing dissatisfied, especially towards the latter part of the time, I fancied that I should not be able to remain with him, and having heard the other servants speak of different scenes (towns, villages, country-houses), I began to desire an employment which would enable me to travel through England. I afterwards formed an idea that I should be able to travel on foot from city to city for six months. I then intended to endeavour to procure a place or return to Switzerland. I thought I should be able to make my friends believe that I was in place during these six months. This was the beginning of my misfortunes, for I soon commenced to harbour still worse designs. I thought that I could go to a town, take a lodging, and after remaining five or six days I would depart without payment. I thought that 10_l._ or 12_l._ would suffice for this excursion, and began to seek an opportunity for departure. But this was not enough. I began to premeditate the seizure of what this venerable victim had with him in gold, bank notes, and his watch; but this did not satisfy me. Satan, who knew that he had my heart in his power, began to persuade me that it was not enough only to rob my master, and that if suspicion rested upon me the world would be ready to believe it: and as during the time I was at Camden Hill I read a book containing the history of thieves and murderers, being under the dominion of Satan I read it with pleasure, I did not think that it would be a great sin to place myself among them. On the contrary, I admired their skill and their valour. I was particularly struck with the history of a young man who was born of very respectable parents, and who had spent his property in gaming and debauchery, and afterwards went from place to place stealing all he could. I admired his cunning, instead of feeling horrified at it; and now I reap but too well the fruit of those papers and books which I had too long suffered to supplant devotional works; and this book--yes, this book--was read by me with more attention than the holy Bible. Why so? Because my heart was under the dominion of Satan, and I had forgotten for more than a month to pray to God, or to read his word, and perhaps I had not prayed to this Divine Saviour sincerely and from the bottom of my heart for twelve months. 'Thou honourest me with thy lips while thy heart is far from me, wherefore thou honourest me in vain, and thy words condemn thee instead of justifying thee.' But all I have just said did not satisfy the wicked desires of my heart. I have not been contented with robbing my master, having satisfied the devil, whose slave I was. My master thought me the guardian and the protector of his property. Oh, what a Judas I have been!--of what sins have I not been guilty? If I ask myself what commandment have I transgressed? my conscience tells me, all. Alas, I know well that I have taken Satan as my God; this is contrary to the 1st commandment. 2nd.--I have adored the riches and the pleasures of this world, and I have loved them more than God. 3d.--I have often taken the name of the Lord in vain. 4th.--I have made the day of the Lord my day of pleasure and amusement. 5th.--I have disobeyed my parents. 6th.--I have murdered. 7th.--I have been in company with notorious debauchees. 8th.--I have robbed. 9th.--I have spoken ill of my neighbour. 10th.--I have desired the wealth of others. God says, however, that he who transgresses only one of his commands shall be excluded from the kingdom of heaven. He says that neither hypocrites, nor liars, nor thieves, nor murderers, shall enter the kingdom of God. I am, however, guilty of all these; and the good actions that I have done during my short life will not weigh as much in the balance of the justice of God as the wicked thoughts of my heart. If the transgression of a single commandment causes me to be condemned to death by the hand of man, what do I deserve at the hand of God after having disobeyed all the law, which is the commandment of God? What punishment do I now deserve? If, when I enjoyed a good character in the eyes of men, I was an abomination in the sight of God, what am I now before the Eternal? If I am the greatest of sinners in the eyes of my fellow-creatures, how shall I appear in the eyes of Him who knows all my actions, my words, and my thoughts? Condemnation and eternal sufferings are the portion I deserve."

During the time which intervened between the conviction and the execution of the wretched prisoner, he was once or twice visited by his uncle, a respectable servant in the service of Sir George Beaumont, to whom he made a statement, the substance of which was afterwards reduced to writing, and will be found to be subjoined. His general demeanour was befitting his awful situation, and he received with much attention the pious exhortations of the clergymen, by whom he was attended.

On Saturday the 4th of July, two days before his execution, he addressed his final confession to Mr. Carver and M. Baup. It explains several circumstances upon which the public had hitherto been left in the dark.

"Newgate Prison, July 4th.

"After all the false statements which have been published in the newspapers, I feel constrained to tell you again all things as I related them to you when my uncle was here. If there are any contradictions, it is because I did not rightly understand the persons who questioned me, or because my answers were not well understood. It is true that I have not told the truth to Mr. Flower, but I have stated the reason why I did not. The public think now I am a liar, and they will not believe me when I say the truth; therefore I pray you will correct all misunderstanding on the subject, and I think it is good that I should relate again all that has passed, and how it passed. The evil dispositions of my heart began by a strong dislike (hatred) of my situation, and by the wish for another situation. My next idea was that I could live at the expense of others. Then I thought that if I were to rob my master of 30_l._ or 40_l._ it would be so much gained, and I had afterwards the idea that by killing my master the robbery would be better concealed, and that I should have done with him all at once, and be ready for my journey. I took the plate out of the house on Saturday or Sunday evening. I was waiting for a favourable opportunity of accomplishing my design.

"Monday evening the 4th of May, I had an evil thought of putting my hand to the work, but, after I had forced the door, a remnant of conscience told me that I was doing wrong. I stopped about ten minutes without knowing what to do. I vanquished the temptation of the devil, and went to bed, after having put again the door in order. Oh, if I had but determined so, on Tuesday night, how happy I should be! I ought at least to have prayed to God, and thanked him for having preserved me during that temptation, but I went to bed like a dog, without thinking even that God had seen me. Tuesday evening, the 5th of May, I had some altercation with my master, but it was not worth the while to speak of it. When he was in bed I went down in the kitchen, where I remained about an hour and a half. During that time I placed all things in the state in which they were in the morning, in the passage, &c. I went up stairs, and going by the dining-room, I entered into it, and took a knife, I believe it was a great knife. I went up in Lord W. Russell's bed-room. When I opened the door I heard him asleep, and stopped for a while, thinking of what I was about to do; but the evil disposition of my heart did not allow me to repent. I turned up my coat and shirt-sleeve, and came near to the bed on the side of the window. There I heard a cry of my conscience, telling me, 'Thou art doing wrong;' but I hardened myself against this voice, and threw myself on my victim, and murdered him with the knife I was holding in my right hand. I wiped my hand and the knife with a towel, which I placed on the face of Lord William. I then took his keys, and opened the box in which he kept his bank-notes. The double napoleons which I found were more than I expected; I put them in a purse with the rings, &c. I took also the watch, and placed them all together in a basket till the morning. I placed a pair of shirt-buttons, a pair of spectacles, and ten sovereigns under the staircase carpet which goes from the drawing-room to Lord William's bedroom. I went to bed.

"On Wednesday, when the police had searched a little everywhere, I perceived that they watched me more attentively than the other servants, and that they began to examine very carefully; I crept in the bottom of the scullery and seized the parcel I had put there during the night, and put it in my pocket. As soon as I was in my pantry, I placed the purse where it was found. One of the police came then to me, and told me I must go with him, so that I had no time to conceal the watch. I was kept in the dining-room the whole day, excepting the time my room was searched, and I could not get rid of the watch.

"On Thursday, the 7th of May, when I went to bed, I took what I had placed under the staircase carpet.

"Friday morning, I wrapped the sovereigns in some paper, and concealed them in my stocking. I went down to the pantry. Nobody being there, I placed the watch and the ring where they have been found. The policemen came then in the pantry to shave and wash themselves. I went to the kitchen and burned the watch-ribbon. I did not know what I was to do with the seals and two watch-keys. I could not get rid of them for the present, and was replaced in the dining-room. All the morning I entertained the hope that the things I had hidden would not be discovered. I broke one of the watch-keys in three or four pieces, and then threw them in the fire-place. I broke also the top and the bottom (the two extremities) of the other. After they had found the purse, &c. they brought me down into the pantry, where I staid for some time. One of the inspectors went then into the scullery, in which I entered also, thinking of a place where I could conceal the two seals and the watch-key, the two extremities of which I had broken. The inspectors stooping to look under the sink, I placed the great seal where it was found, and threw the broken key among some old rubbish in the bottom of the scullery. I then came near the door. After that, two inspectors and two masons being there, when I saw them busily engaged I let the small seal fall to the ground, and put my foot upon it in order to bend it. I stooped, as if looking under the boiler, took up the seal with the left hand, and rose up. I leaned my hand against the wall for a time, waiting for the moment when those who watched me should turn their heads, and succeeded in placing the seal behind the pipe where it was found. The inspectors went out thence to the kitchen, excepting one, who remained in the pantry with me for about an hour. During that time I let fall the small locket of Lord William's, and two sovereigns. They took me then to my room, where I was searched, for the first time. I had two policemen with me. They made me draw my boots, but not my stockings. I went not to bed on Friday night, nor on Saturday. On Sunday night I went to bed for five minutes, but I did not draw off my stockings. They made me rise up, and led me into prison. When I was in Tothill-fields prison they searched me very carefully. I feigned to be very cold and shivering, as a person who has the trembling fever, thinking they would let me keep my stockings on, but they told me to take them off, as I had three stockings, two on the right leg. I first took off the stocking which was alone, and then one of the others. When they were feeling if there was any pin or needle I placed my hand under my heel and concealed the ten sovereigns in a paper, under the thumb of my hand. The following morning they made me take a bath, when I had a good opportunity of hiding them on my person, where they remained till the morning of the day I came to Newgate. I thought that I should perhaps be examined more closely, and that, should that money be found on me, it would be sufficient to condemn me to death; but other evidence was found, and this was not wanted. I placed one behind the post of a bench in the cell of Bow-street, the last time I appeared before the magistrates; three on the top of the door, one on the window, as I believe, and four or five in the pit of the water-closet.

"This is, reverend sir, to the best of my recollection, a faithful account of what has passed since the time I conceived the dreadful idea of robbing and murdering my master to the day I came to Newgate. I wish to express to you my deep gratitude for the spiritual instruction you have given me, and your interest in the salvation of my soul.

"I am, my dear Sir, "Your humble and thankful servant, "F. B. COURVOISIER."

On the following day, the condemned sermon was preached by the Rev. Mr. Carver, in terms befitting the occasion on which it was delivered.

The wretched criminal still appeared deeply sensible of his crime, and remained in prayer during the greater part of the day. At about eight o'clock in the evening he retired to rest, but awoke again at twelve, and then he gave directions that he should be called at four o'clock. At that hour he arose and dressed himself, and was occupied until the arrival of Mr. Carver in writing letters in the French language to some of his relatives. The reverend gentleman immediately entered upon prayer with the prisoner, affording him all the spiritual consolation which the situation in which he stood would admit. A few minutes after the arrival of Mr. Carver, M. Baup was introduced to the cell by Mr. Sheriff Wheelton, and this reverend gentleman also joined in prayer with the criminal.

At half-past six o'clock Mr. Newman, the principal turnkey of Newgate, was ordered to take the sacramental bread and wine into the prisoner's cell; and, in a few minutes afterwards, the holy sacrament was administered to him. The prisoner received it with great fervency of manner. After the conclusion of this religious rite, Calcraft, the executioner, entered the cell, with a black bag containing a rope, with which his arms were to be pinioned. The prisoner clasped his hands together to undergo the operation, and in this position the rope was put round his arms and wrists. The reverend ordinary continued to pray with him for some time, and put several questions to him as to whether he was fully penitent for the crime he had committed, and whether he believed in the atonement of the Saviour; to which he replied in the affirmative, in barely audible whispers, accompanied by an expression of countenance which but too plainly showed the deep anguish of his soul. As he spoke he wrung his hands, and as far as the ropes with which he was bound would allow, raised them upwards. His form was much attenuated, and his eye expressive of the deepest mental suffering.

The scene without the jail afforded a strong contrast to that which was passing in the condemned cell.

The scaffold was raised at a very early hour in the morning; and, by six o'clock, the crowd collected in front, and filling all the adjacent places from which any view of the apparatus of death could be obtained, was immense. The people were pressed together in the compactest mass; and we believe it to be a moderate calculation when we state, that twenty thousand persons at least must have witnessed this memorable execution. So great indeed was the anxiety felt to procure a favourable station, that some hundreds of individuals had taken up their position in front of the Debtors'-door of the Old Bailey as soon as ten o'clock on Sunday night, cheerfully exposing themselves to the inconvenience of standing in the open air during the whole of the night, in order that their curiosity might be fully gratified in the morning. The windows of the neighbouring houses were all occupied by spectators, who in most instances paid a high fee for their places; whilst others, who had less money to spare, but more nerve, ascended to the roofs, and perched themselves in the most precarious situations. Among the crowd there was a considerable sprinkling of females and boys, and the number of men-servants present was remarkable, as evincing the fearful interest taken in the culprit's fate by the class to which he had belonged. In the long interval between the assembling of the multitude and the hour of execution, a few incidents, such as the futile attempts of some daring individuals to attain an enviable eminence without the ceremony of paying, or the tossing about of a stray hat or bonnet, occasionally excited bursts of merriment; but in general the demeanour of the mob was decent and proper for the solemn occasion which had drawn them together. A numerous body of city police was on the spot in front of the scaffold and dispersed through the crowd, and their conduct and arrangements for the preservation of order were in every respect commendable. At five minutes to eight o'clock the dismal sound of the prison-bell struck upon the ear, and immediately the vast multitude uncovered. This was a moment of intense excitement; it was impossible to behold the mob, with their heads all bared, and their eyes all eagerly directed towards the gallows, without the deepest feeling of awe; and the spectacle thus exhibited was enough in itself to have struck terror to the heart of the miserable felon, whose ignominious fate rendered him the sole gaze of such an immense mass of human beings.

The solemn and dreadful ceremonies in the prison in the mean time had been completed, and the usual procession was formed shortly before eight o'clock. The wretched culprit at this period displayed extraordinary nerve. His step was firm and unwavering; and, while his countenance was pale, and exhibited great dejection, it was calm and unmoved. At two minutes past eight o'clock he ascended the steps of the scaffold, and advanced, without looking round him, to the centre of the platform, followed by the executioner and the Rev. Mr. Carver. On his appearance a few yells of execration escaped from a portion of the crowd; but the general body of the people, great as must have been their abhorrence of his atrocious crime, remained silent spectators of the scene which was passing before their eyes. While the executioner was placing him on the drop, he slightly moved his hands (which were tied in front of him, and strongly clasped one within the other) up and down two or three times; and this was the only visible symptom of any emotion or mental anguish which the wretched man endured. His face was then covered with the cap, and the noose adjusted. During this operation he lifted up his head and raised his hands to his breast, as if in the action of fervent prayer. In a moment the fatal bolt was withdrawn, the drop fell, and in this attitude the murderer perished. He died without any violent struggle. In two minutes after he had fallen, his legs were twice slightly convulsed, but no further motion was observable, excepting that his raised arms, gradually losing their vitality, sank down from their own lifeless weight.

After hanging one hour, the body was cut down and removed to the prison, and it was buried within the precincts of the jail on the same evening at eight o'clock.

He admitted, a short time before his execution, that he had contemplated self-destruction; but the vigilant superintendence under which he was kept ever since he was placed within the walls of Newgate, rendered it impracticable for him to carry his meditated scheme into execution. It is related, that he proposed to take away his life by bleeding himself to death, and the following statement was published with regard to the discovery of his object:--

At half-past ten on Sunday night, Mr. Cope went to Courvoisier's room, and told him that he must go to bed. Upon receiving this intimation he seemed dissatisfied, and expressed unwillingness to strip. Mr. Cope, however, insisted that he should pull off his clothes, and the turnkeys received directions to take away even his shirt. Mr. Cope then narrowly searched the clothes, and in the coat-pocket he found a strip of cloth folded up carefully. When Courvoisier saw the cloth in the governor's hand, he acknowledged that he intended to use it as a means of destruction. "In what way?" asked Mr. Cope. "I intended," said he, "to tie it tight round my arm, and to bleed myself to death in the night." "But how," said Mr. Cope, "could you have bled yourself?" "I had made preparation," said he. "I had been looking about for a pin, but not being able to find one, I sharpened a bit of wood which you light your fires with, and I intended to bleed myself with that." "Where is that wood?" said Mr. Cope. "That, too," replied Courvoisier, "you have deprived me of by changing my bed, in which I had deposited it." He then described to the governor the manner in which he intended to get rid of life; and he declared he could easily have accomplished the object, if he had not been prevented by the caution of the governor. He stated then that he had, while in the water-closet, torn the extra cloth along the seams in the inside of his trousers and fastened it together, for the purpose of using it as a ligature. Mr. Cope examined the mattress, which he had caused to be removed on Sunday night, but no piece of wood was found in it; and it is believed that, in the confusion of removing it, the instrument dropped unperceived and was lost.

The wretched malefactor, at the time of his death, was twenty-three years of age, and was born of decent parents in Switzerland. Having received a moderately good education, he is reported to have come to England to his uncle, who has been before alluded to, through whose instrumentality he obtained several most respectable situations. In his career in the metropolis he does not appear to have been guilty of any conduct likely to draw upon him general attention, and the dreadful crime of which he was guilty seems to have been rather the result of a sudden impulse than of pre-determined malice. The motive which prompted the deed, it is clear from his confession, was that of avarice; and while the human mind cannot sufficiently abhor an act of so atrocious a character, levelled against an aged and infirm man, unable to make any resistance, by his servant, whose duty it was to protect and assist him rather than assail him, one is at a loss to understand how a man of virtuous and sound mind could quit the path of rectitude, and, with such an object, commit so foul a murder.

It is not a little remarkable, that two members of the Bedford family met with sudden deaths before the noble lord whose destruction we have just related, though in neither instance by the hands of an assassin. A former Duke of Bedford, and the Marquis of Tavistock, the father of the deceased nobleman, were both of them killed while hunting.

EDWARD OXFORD.

TRIED FOR HIGH TREASON, IN SHOOTING AT THE QUEEN.

While yet the public mind was occupied with the contemplation of the crimes of Courvoisier and Gould, which we have just related, and before the termination of the inquiries which took place in reference to those culprits, an occurrence of a yet more striking character,--more calculated to excite interest, because levelled at the life of the sovereign, and therefore, at the welfare of the country,--an attempt to shoot her Majesty, Queen Victoria, took place. Happily for the honour of the country, this attack turned out to be that of a maniac; but melancholy indeed would have been the result, if an attempt, so dreadful in its consequences to the nation, had not been rendered unsuccessful by the all-powerful hand of Providence. In the case of Courvoisier, we have seen the inscrutability of the ways of the Almighty exhibited in the detection of a murderer; here we perceive His all-seeing eye watching over and protecting our Queen from the assassin's blow, and thereby best securing the interest of our country.

The circumstances immediately attending this dreadful attempt, as well as the early life of the offender, will be best described by our reciting the proceedings which took place at the trial of Oxford, for the offence charged against him, at the Central Criminal Court, on Thursday the 9th of July, 1840, before Lord Denman, Mr. Baron Alderson, and Mr. Justice Patteson.

The prisoner had been indicted at the previous sessions; but his trial was postponed, on the ground of the absence of witnesses, whose evidence was material to the defence of insanity, which it was intended to set up on the part of the prisoner. Upon the occasion of the arraignment of the prisoner, and throughout the whole of his imprisonment previously to his trial, he exhibited an extraordinary degree of apathy. His observations during his confinement were principally directed to the degree of excitement which his case had made in the world, and the interest which was exhibited to see him; and he appeared to view his crime and its consequences to himself as of slight importance in comparison with the notoriety which he was likely to obtain. On his being placed at the bar, to plead to the indictment preferred against him, he looked round the court with a self-complacent gaze, at the same moment eagerly inquiring of the jailor whether any person of distinction was present. A smile was observed to be constantly lingering on his lips; and on the reading of the indictment, which we subjoin, he frequently burst into fits of laughter. He was a well-looking youth, and was attired in a manner superior to his situation in life. The indictment was in the following terms:--

"Central Criminal Court, to wit.--The jurors for our lady the Queen, upon their oath present, that Edward Oxford, late of Westminster, in the county of Middlesex, labourer, being a subject of our lady the Queen, heretofore, to wit on the 10th of June, in the year of our Lord 1840, within the jurisdiction of the said court, as a false traitor to our lady the Queen, maliciously and traitorously, with force and arms, &c., did compass, imagine, and intend to bring and put our said lady the Queen to death. And to fulfil, perfect, and bring to effect his most evil and wicked treason, and treasonable compassing and imagination aforesaid, he the said Edward Oxford, as such false traitor as aforesaid, to wit, on the said 10th day of June, in the year of our Lord, 1840, aforesaid, and within the jurisdiction of the said court, with force and arms, maliciously and traitorously did shoot off and discharge a certain pistol, the same then and there being loaded with gunpowder and a certain bullet, and which pistol he the said Edward Oxford then and there had and held in one of his hands at the person of our said lady the Queen, with intent thereby and therewith maliciously and traitorously to shoot, assassinate, kill, and put to death our said lady the Queen. And further, to fulfil, perfect, and bring to effect his most evil and wicked treason and treasonable compassing and imagination aforesaid, he the said Edward Oxford, as such false traitor as aforesaid, afterwards, to wit, on the said 10th day of June, in the year of our lord 1840, aforesaid, and within the jurisdiction of the said court, with force and arms maliciously and traitorously did shoot off and discharge a certain other pistol, the same then and there being loaded with gunpowder and a certain bullet, and which pistol he the said Edward Oxford then and there had and held in one of his hands, at the person of our said lady the Queen, with intent thereby and therewith maliciously and traitorously to shoot, assassinate, kill, and put to death our said lady the Queen, and thereby then and there traitorously made a direct attempt against the life of our said lady the Queen, against the duty of the allegiance of him the said Edward Oxford, against the form of the statute in that case made and provided, and against the peace of our said lady the Queen, her crown, and dignity."

To this indictment the prisoner pleaded "Not Guilty," and upon the application for the postponement of his trial being granted, he appeared considerably disappointed at his being unable to remain any longer in court.

On the day of his trial, he observed the same demeanour, but he occasionally became more serious, and gave evident signs of his being now aware of the danger of his position. The same smile was, however, still observable, and the same eager curiosity and gratification at the crowded state of the court were exhibited by him.

The prosecution was conducted by the Attorney-General, the Solicitor-General, Sir F. Pollock, Mr. Adolphus, Mr. Wightman, and Mr. Gurney; and Mr. Sidney Taylor, and Mr. Bodkin, appeared for the defence.

The court was crowded to excess during the two days occupied by the trial, by persons of distinction.

The Attorney-General opened the case to the jury in the following address: He said "Gentlemen, the prisoner stands charged with the crime of high treason, the greatest crime known to the law, and he stands charged with that offence in its most aggravated form; he is charged with having made a direct attempt on the life of the sovereign. Gentlemen, that crime, according to the law of this country, and, indeed, of all countries in which monarchy is the form of government, must be considered as very heinous. By an act passed in the twenty-fifth year of the reign of King Edward III., by which the law of high treason in this country was defined, it is enacted, that if any one shall imagine and compass the death of the sovereign, and be guilty of an overt act to show the intention of such a crime, he shall be guilty of high treason. The offence is imagining and compassing the death of the sovereign, and that is to be proved by some overt act. It is upon this act, which has constituted the great safety for the liberties of England ever since it passed, that the prisoner is now indicted. The mode of conducting the trial is regulated by an act passed in the 40th year of the reign of King George III., the effect of which is this, that where in a trial for high treason the overt act to be proved shall be a direct attempt on the life of the sovereign, the trial shall be conducted in the same manner as in cases of murder. The object of this act was to give to the life of the sovereign the same protection as is afforded to the meanest subject of the land, because, before this statute, it was necessary, on an indictment for high treason, even where the life of the sovereign was attempted, or where that life had fallen a sacrifice to the wicked attempt, to prove the overt act by the testimony of two witnesses; and there were a number of forms required, which are most salutary and proper when the charge bears a political aspect, where the treason under consideration is allied to a rebellious conspiracy, where the circumstances to be considered may constitute constructive treason, or where the case presents a supposed difficulty in bringing the charge home to the prisoner, but which, when the overt act is an attempt directly at the life of the sovereign, the law, in its wisdom, has not deemed necessary. Gentlemen, the party now accused will have an ample opportunity for his defence; on his own application his trial was postponed, and he is now defended by my two learned friends opposite, of great ability and experience, and my learned friend, Mr. Sidney Taylor, will have an opportunity of addressing you, and of bringing forward all that can be urged in his favour. From the affidavit which was made in support of the application to the learned judge (Lord Chief Justice Tindal), we are informed that two questions will be submitted to your consideration. The first is, whether, supposing the prisoner to be accountable for his actions, he is guilty of the offence laid to his charge; and the second will be whether, at the time he committed the act, he was accountable for his actions. Now, gentlemen, the burden of the first issue is entirely upon the prosecution. The prisoner is still presumed to be innocent, and, unless clear and satisfactory evidence be produced to establish his guilt, it will be your duty to acquit him; but if, upon the evidence which I am instructed to lay before you, you should see no reason to disbelieve the witnesses, I cannot anticipate that any reasonable doubt can arise. The prisoner at the bar is, as you perceive, a young man, about eighteen or nineteen years of age, although you would hardly suppose that he was so old. He was born, as I understand, at Birmingham. He came when very young to London, and was sent to school at Lambeth. He afterwards served in many public-houses, in the capacity of what is called a barman. He first went, as I understand, to superintend the arrangement of the business of the bar at a public-house in Houndsditch, and then at one in High-street, Marylebone. He was next at another public-house, in Oxford-street. It seems that he left that service about the end of April. He then went into lodgings at No. 6, West-place, West-square, Lambeth, and that lodging he made his home till the period when this offence was committed. Gentlemen, it would appear that he had formed and matured a plan to make an attempt on the life of the sovereign. On the 4th of May, in the present year, when he was at his lodgings, he bought a pair of pistols from a person named Hayes, living in Blackfriars-road, for the sum of 2_l._ He bought at the same time a powder-flask. It will appear by the evidence that he practised shooting in shooting-galleries. He was at a shooting-gallery in Leicester-square, at a gallery in the Strand, and at another at the west end of the town. On Wednesday, the 3rd of June, a week before the day laid in the indictment, he went into the shop of a person named Gray, with whom he had been at school, in Bridge-road, Lambeth, and bought half a hundred copper caps to be used for firing. He asked Gray at the same time where he could buy some bullets, and three-penny worth of gunpowder. He was told where the bullets could be had, and Gray sold him some gunpowder. On the evening of the 9th of June he showed a loaded pistol; and when asked what he meant to do with it, he refused to tell, but said that he had been firing at a target. I now come, gentlemen, to the day in question, the 10th of June. You are probably aware that it is the custom of Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, since she has been united with Prince Albert, frequently to take an airing in the afternoon or evening in the Parks without any military escort, and with the simplicity of private life. This custom was well known to all her loyal subjects, and indeed to the whole community. It will appear that on this day, Wednesday, about four o'clock, the prisoner went into the Park. He saw Prince Albert returning from Woolwich, and going to the palace. The prisoner then went to Constitution-hill, and there remained expecting the appearance of the Queen. About six o'clock, the Queen, accompanied by her royal consort, left the palace in a low open carriage, drawn by four horses, and with two outriders, who went before, but with no other attendants. Her Majesty was seated on the left side of the carriage, and Prince Albert on the right. The carriage was driven up Constitution-hill. About one hundred and twenty yards from the Palace--that is, about one-third of the distance between the Palace and the Triumphal Arch there was the prisoner, Edward Oxford, watching their progress. He walked backwards and forwards, with his arms under the lapels of his coat. He was on the right-hand side, near the iron railings which divide Constitution-hill from the Green Park. When he saw the carriage, he turned round towards it; he drew a pistol from his breast, and then, as the carriage went on, discharged it. The providence of God averted the blow from her Majesty. The ball was heard to whiz by on the opposite side. In all probability her Majesty was quite unconscious at that moment that any attempt had been made upon her life. The carriage proceeded. The prisoner then looked back to see if any one was near to perceive him; he drew another pistol from his breast, whether with his right hand or his left is uncertain, and aimed at her Majesty. It would appear that her Majesty saw him fire, because she stooped down. Again the providence of God interfered. The prisoner fired, the ball was heard to whiz on the other side--her Majesty escaped. The Queen immediately drove on, to allay the alarms which might be caused by news brought to her august parent with respect to an event so momentous. There was a considerable number of persons on the side of the Park between the road and the gardens of Buckingham Palace. Curiosity and loyalty had led many persons to that spot, in the expectation of her Majesty showing herself to her subjects. There was a man named Lowe, whom I shall call as a witness, who immediately rushed across, seized Oxford, and took the pistols from him. That person at first was believed to be the offender by the parties around, who said, 'You confounded rascal, how dare you shoot at our Queen?' On which Oxford said, 'It was I.' He was immediately taken into custody, and taken to the station-house, where he voluntarily put the question, 'Is the Queen hurt?' and on being told the Queen was not hurt, he was asked whether there were not bullets in the pistols, and he admitted at once that there were bullets. When he had been secured, and when it had been ascertained that his lodgings were, as he said, in West-place, West-square, a policeman was immediately despatched to search them. The prisoner occupied a room on the first pair back. The door of the room was open. The policemen found a box which undoubtedly belonged to the prisoner. That box was locked; but I shall show that he had in his pocket a key that fitted it, and that he acknowledged that it was his box, as were also the contents. The box was opened, and in it were found the following articles:--A sword and scabbard, two pistol-bags, some black crape, a powder-flask, three ounces of powder, a bullet-mould, five leaden bullets, and some percussion caps marked, and which had been bought by the prisoner from Gray, his schoolfellow. There was also found a pocket-book containing some papers. The box and its contents were brought to the station-house and shown to the prisoner, who stated that the papers belonged to him and that he meant to have destroyed them in the morning before he went out. These papers I will now read. The first bears no date: it is headed 'Young England;' and the rules and regulations are eleven in number. The learned gentleman then read the following paper:--

"'YOUNG ENGLAND.

RULES AND REGULATIONS.

"'1. That every member shall be provided with a brace of pistols, a sword, a rifle, and a dagger. The two latter to be kept at the committee-room.

"'2. That every member must, on entering, take the oath of allegiance to be true to the cause he has joined.

"'3. That every member must, on entering the house, give a signal to the sentry.

"'4. That every officer shall have a factitious name. His right name and address to be kept with the secretary.

"'5. That every member shall, when he is ordered to meet, be armed with a brace of pistols (loaded) and a sword to repel any attack; and also be provided with a black crape cap, to cover his face with--his marks of distinction outside.

"'6. That whenever any member wishes to introduce any new member, he must give satisfactory accounts of him to their superiors, and from thence to the counsel.

"'7. Any member who can procure an hundred men shall be promoted to the rank of captain.

"'8. Any member holding communications with any country agents must instantly forward the intelligence to the secretary.

"'9. That whenever any member is ordered down the country or abroad, he must take various disguises with him (as the labourer, the mechanic, and the gentleman), all of which he can obtain at the committee-room.

"'10. That any member wishing to absent himself for more than one month must obtain leave from the commander-in-chief.

"'11. That no member will be allowed to speak during any debate, nor allowed to ask more than two questions.

"'All the printed rules to be kept at the committee-room.

"'LIST OF PRINCIPAL MEMBERS.

'FACTITIOUS NAMES.

President--Gowrie Justinian Aloman Coloman Kenneth Godfrey Council--Hanibal Ernest Augustin Ethelred Ferdinand Nicholas Gregory Generals--Frederic Augustus Othoe Anthony Captains--Oxonian Mildon Louis Amadeus Lieutenants--Hercules Neptune Mars Albert.

'MARKS OF DISTINCTION.

'Counsel--A large white cockade. President--A black bow. General--Three red bows. Captain--Two red bows. Lieutenant--One red bow.

"'A. W. SMITH, Secretary.'

"There were in the same pocket-book three letters, purporting to be orders addressed by the same secretary, Smith, to Oxford: the first was as follows:--

"'Young England, May 16, 1839.

"'SIR--Our commander-in-chief was very glad to find that you answered his questions in such a straight-forward manner; you will be wanted to attend on the 21st of this month, as we expect one of the country agents in town on business of importance. Be sure and attend.

"'A. W. SMITH, Secretary.

"'P.S. You must not take any notice to the boy, nor ask him any questions.'

"Addressed--'Mr. Oxford, at Mr. Minton's, High-street, Marylebone.

"The next letter ran thus:--

"'Young England, Nov. 14, 1839.

"SIR--I am very glad to hear that you improve so much in your speeches. Your speech the last time you were here was beautiful. There was another one introduced last night by Lieutenant Mars, a fine, tall, gentlemanly-looking fellow, and it is said that he is a military officer, but his name has not yet transpired. Soon after he was introduced, we were alarmed by a violent knocking at the door; in an instant our faces were covered, we cocked our pistols, and with drawn swords stood waiting to receive the enemy. While one stood over the fire with the papers, another stood with lighted torch to fire the house. We then sent the old woman to open the door, and it proved to be some little boys who knocked at the door and ran away.

"'A. W. SMITH, Secretary.

"'You must attend on Wednesday next.'

"Addressed--'Mr. Oxford, at Mr. Farr's, Hat and Feathers, Goswell-street.'

"The last was in the following terms:--

"'Young England, April 3, 1840.

"'SIR--You are requested to attend to-night, as there is an extraordinary meeting to be holden, in consequence of having received some communications of an important nature from Hanover. You must attend, and if your master will not give you leave, you must come in defiance of him.

"'A. W. SMITH, Secretary.'

"Addressed--'Mr. Oxford, at Mr. Robinson's, Hog-in-the-Pound, Oxford-street.'"

"Under these circumstances, gentlemen, if the prisoner is accountable for his acts, will you say whether there is any reasonable doubt of his guilt? I should tell you that the balls, after a strict search has been made, have not been found; but I think that no one can entertain any serious doubt that the pistols were loaded with balls. I understand there were marks on the wall, which were examined immediately afterwards, and which some conceive must have been made by the balls from the pistols. I shall lay this evidence before you, but I acknowledge to you freely my own conviction that much weight is not to be attached to it. To my own mind it seems more probable that the balls went over the wall. I shall show that Oxford was not skilful in the use of pistols; and it is probable, in the confusion and flurry under which he must have laboured at such a moment, that the pistols were directed unsteadily, and that the balls went over the wall. Can there, however, be a doubt that the pistols were loaded? He buys bullets, he had them at his lodgings, there was also a mould in which to cast bullets in his box: he had been firing at a target; he had been practising at a shooting-gallery; and at the time, whatever he may have said since, after asking whether the queen was hurt, he voluntarily declared that the pistols were loaded. Under these circumstances, it appears to me that if the prisoner was at the time accountable for his actions, there can be no doubt of his guilt. But it is for you to hear the evidence that shall be given, and you are the judges of the fact. I now come to the second question, Whether the prisoner was accountable for his actions at the time when the offence was committed? And I will at once admit, under the law of England, that if he was then of unsound mind--if he was incapable of judging between right and wrong--if he was labouring under any delusion or insanity, so as not to be sensible of his crime, or conscious of the act which he committed--if at the time when that act was committed he was afflicted with insanity, he will be entitled to be acquitted on that ground. In former times, it was said that there was some doubt upon the law, and some difficulty of acquittal on the ground of insanity. There was, as their lordships will recollect, an act passed in the time of Henry VIII., raising some doubt upon this point, when there was an attempt against the life of the sovereign. Happily, however, that act has been repealed, and now we have both reason and justice on the side of the law of the land. But it lies upon a party setting up such a plea to make it out clearly and satisfactorily. It must be shown on his behalf, not merely that he was at times guilty of strangeness of conduct, or of extravagant acts--not merely that violence had been done by him, or offences committed--but it must be shown that at the particular time when the offence charged was committed, he was not an accountable being; that he was then labouring under some delusion, that he could not distinguish right from wrong, and that he was unconscious of committing any offence. Such, I apprehend, is clearly the law of the land, as it will be expounded to you by my Lord Denman and his learned brethren; and as this law is expounded to you by them, I have no doubt you will consider yourselves bound. It would be most dangerous to admit the plea of insanity, merely when it is shown that the prisoner labours occasionally under a degree of excitement, and that at former times he has been guilty of violence, if at the time when the crime is committed the party was not actually labouring under a delusion, but was aware of the object he had in view, and its consequences. I may mention for your information, that by the law of England, if exemption be claimed from a criminal charge on the plea of insanity, there is a greater necessity that mental aberration should be proved, than in civil transactions in which it is sought to annul a contract or to take away the management of a man's affairs. In criminal matters it must be proved that the insanity is existing at the time of the crime, and that it is connected with the crime committed. In civil matters it is enough to show that the party is of unsound mind, although it is not connected with the particular transaction." The learned Attorney-general having then referred to a great number of cases in support of the proposition which he had laid down, proceeded to say,--"I will now implore you, gentlemen, to consider whether, upon the evidence which will be produced, you are bound to say that the prisoner was insane at the time this crime was committed. I say most unaffectedly, that I should rejoice if such had been the case. I feel that I only speak the sentiments of all present at the time when he was guilty of this most atrocious attempt, when I say so. The crime, though levelled against any person of rank inferior to that of her majesty--putting out of the question the allegiance we owe to the head of the state, and the lamentable consequences which must have followed had this attack been successful--is of the deepest possible dye, and I say, that it would be a great relief to all who have respect for our common nature, if it be shown that the person who was capable of such an act was unconscious of what he was doing. But I have a duty to discharge to the crown and to the public, and I must say, that, so far as I have yet learned, there is no reason to believe that the prisoner at the time he committed this crime was in a state of mind which takes away his criminal responsibility for the deed. We do not find that, previously to this occurrence, he was ever treated by his friends as a maniac; but, on the contrary, he was placed in situations of trust and confidence, where he was called upon to perform duties of some difficulty, which he went through to the satisfaction of his employers, and as a reasonable being would. He is not an idiot, but, on the contrary, his proceedings throughout the whole course of his life show him to be a person of singular acuteness. I will refer to what passed when the prisoner was before the Privy Council. The witnesses were examined; the prisoner had an opportunity, which he exercised, of cross-examining them; and, at the conclusion of the evidence, he was asked whether he wished to say anything or not. He was told that he was at liberty to give any explanation or not, as he pleased; and he was informed, that anything he said would be taken down, and read against him another day. On that occasion these were the words which he voluntarily uttered:--'A great many witnesses against me; some say that I shot with my left, others with my right. They vary as to the distance. After I fired the first pistol, Prince Albert got up, as if he would jump out of the carriage, and sat down again, as if he thought better of it. Then I fired the second pistol. This is all I shall say at present.' He was asked whether he would sign the statement? He said that he had no objection, and he signed it 'Edward Oxford.' This, gentlemen, may be material in two points of view--first, because at this time he did not say that there were no balls in the pistols; he made no allegation of that kind, but to the contrary; and, next, that he was then fully sensible of the act he had committed. Upon these facts, gentlemen, it is for you to say whether, at the time this act was committed, the prisoner was accountable for his actions. You will, I am satisfied, come to a right conclusion upon the evidence; you will consider all the facts that are proved; but, at the same time, you will consider that you have a great duty to perform; that duty you will perform with caution and with conscientiousness; you will, from the evidence, come to your decision, and of that decision the country will have no reason to complain."

The evidence for the prosecution was then gone through in corroboration of the statements of the learned Attorney-general, and Mr. Sidney Taylor addressed the jury for the defence. Having argued upon the facts of the case proved by the witnesses for the prosecution, upon which he contended, first, that it was quite consistent that the pistols were not fired at the queen, but with a view only to excite alarm; and, secondly, that the pistols might not have been loaded with ball, both of which were necessary ingredients of the crime; he proceeded, thirdly, to the equally important issue of insanity. With regard to this part of the case, he entreated the jury to pay the most earnest and solemn attention to it, for the issue raised upon it was of a most important character to the interests of the prisoner, and he hoped to be able to convince them of that which he was sure would shed universal satisfaction through the country, that the prisoner was not a person who wilfully and in the possession of his senses would commit this crime. He was sure that if they could conscientiously come to this conclusion, they would most willingly free the subjects of this realm from the imputation of having them one who would, under such circumstances, dye his hands in the blood of the sovereign. It was not the first time, unhappily, that the life of the sovereign of this country had been attempted to be taken away; but he rejoiced to say, for the sake of our national character, that in no one instance had such an act been done by a person possessing a sane mind. It had been proved in evidence that certain papers had been found in the possession of the prisoner: and that fact, which had been opened by the learned Attorney-general as an important feature in this case, he placed before them as a proof of the prisoner's insanity; and he contended that that only showed in him a mind diseased, which induced him to suppose the existence of a society which, in fact, was never heard of, and of which certainly he was not a member. That no such society in fact existed, he thought he might take for granted, because if in truth there had been any such, beyond all question its members and its proceedings would have been discovered through the indefatigable exertions made through the means of the highly effective police possessed by this country, the operations of which would be called forth from the necessity of finding whether there was anything in reality beyond the mere act of the prisoner which portended danger to the state. He contended that it was morally impossible that such a society could be in existence, for he was sure that the executive government of the country would not be accessory to the throwing any slur upon its own character by admitting that such was the fact, and that all its ramifications had not been brought to light. The prisoner, he contended, must be taken to have believed that he belonged to such a society; but in order to prove the utter absurdity of such a belief, he would prove to the jury that the rules, as well as the letters and papers which had been found, were all in the handwriting of the boy at the bar--a striking and cogent proof, he thought, of his insanity. Every effort had been made to trace the real existence of such a society, but in vain; and he thought that the only inference which could be drawn from the existence of these papers was, that the mind of the prisoner had been worked upon by his own absurd fancy. With regard to the probability of his being selected to put into operation such a plan as that of the assassination of her Majesty, he would ask them whether it was likely that any political society would have employed a boy of his years and want of discretion to complete a scheme so important and yet so horrible? How was the act itself committed? The prisoner, amongst a number of other persons, in the open day, depriving himself of every chance of escape, had voluntarily been guilty of an offence which subjected him to condign punishment. Did he then attempt to escape? He did not; and even when another person was taken under the supposition that he was the man, he immediately came forward with a declaration that he was the person, as if courting publicity and apprehension. What, but insanity, could be inferred from these circumstances? Might he not well have dreaded his destruction by a mob inflamed and excited against the perpetrator of an attack so dreadful upon our young Queen? Yet, with a feeling which could be deemed nothing but insanity, he persisted in forcing himself into that very situation in which he could hope to meet with nothing but punishment. He was taken; having been seized, he was teased and excited, and gave answers which must not be taken into account as admissions that there were balls in the pistols. Since that time he had been the subject of great curiosity, and various statements, many of them false, had been made concerning him. He felt that the jury must come to the conclusion that he was of unsound mind at the time of the commission of the act, and that it would be as cruel as the supposed intended assassination itself to deliver him up to the same doom as a sane criminal. He should produce evidence to show the tendency of the boy's mind to insanity. His age was just that at which such a failing would be likely to develop itself; and as in all cases some particular period must occur at which such an aberration of intellect would first appear, so, notwithstanding all the apparent premeditation and contrivance which he had exhibited, the moment of his attack upon the life of his sovereign might be that at which it would exhibit itself. He should show that the paternal grandfather of the prisoner had been insane, and died in a lunatic asylum. The father, it would be proved, had been guilty of acts which clearly proved he ought not to have been permitted to be at large. The opinion of the most eminent medical men was that the greatest proportion of cases admitted into lunatic asylums were cases of hereditary insanity, and if they were to refuse to consider the case of the prisoner in this light, they would be proving the truth of the words of a celebrated physician, that 'man's vengeance followed God's visitation.' Let them bear in mind that no ill consequences had followed this attempt. Her Majesty the next day had entertained a party at dinner, and had the evening after gone to a concert. That showed that her Majesty felt that this must have been the act of an isolated madman, and that she had nothing to fear from the machinations of any secret society. A great and illustrious female predecessor of hers was told by some officious courtiers of a conspiracy against her life; but she said 'I will not believe of my subjects anything that a mother would not believe of her children;' and such, he was convinced, were the sentiments of the present illustrious occupant of the throne. The papers found in the box of the prisoner seemed to be the commencement of the insanity, and the attempt itself the consummation of the insanity. The whole of the persons mentioned in the papers found in his box were creatures of his imagination; and the crape with the bows, the sword, and the documents showed that he was the victim of pitiable mental delusion, and the object rather of compassion than of vengeance. It was impossible to say in what variety of shapes the noble structure of the human mind might be ruined; and he contended, that the whole course of conduct of the prisoner, subsequently, as well as at the time of the commission of this supposed offence, exhibited him to be the victim of an absurd delusion, driving him to seek notoriety, by whatever means it was obtained, and not a person capable of any crime so dreadful as that alleged against him. His inquiries after the safety of the Queen showed his apprehensions, that by some accident her Majesty might have been unintentionally injured by the wadding from the weapons which he had discharged; and his declaration that the pistols were loaded with ball might equally be taken as a proof of his insanity, as the absurd desire for celebrity which had prompted him to the commission of such an act.

A vast body of evidence was then adduced with a view to support the defence of insanity which was set up. From it, it appeared, that the grandfather of the prisoner was a person of colour, and that he was frequently, when intoxicated, guilty of acts of the wildest and most wanton description. He was a sailor, and when on shore was constantly drunk; but in his old age he received the benefits of Greenwich Hospital, where he died, having from his good conduct gained for himself the rank of boatswain in the establishment, by virtue of which he was bound to mount guard at one of the gates. Expressions were proved to have been occasionally used by him, indicating a mind bereft of reason, and he was stated to have suffered severely at one period of his life from a fever. With regard to the father of the prisoner, evidence of a similar tendency was adduced. His wife, the mother of the prisoner, was called, and she gave a dreadful detail of the injuries which he had inflicted upon her subsequently to her marriage with him, and of the brutal treatment to which he had subjected her. He had several times taken poison in her presence, and had otherwise been guilty of the most extraordinary and outrageous conduct. The prisoner, she proved, had been born in the year 1822, and throughout his life had exhibited symptoms of imbecility. He would frequently burst into tears, or into fits of laughing, without any assignable cause, and was in the habit of talking in a strain which exhibited a most anxious desire on his part to obtain celebrity in the world. He was always fond of the use of fire-arms, and frequently presented pistols at the head of his sister or his mother. Medical witnesses were also examined, who gave their decided opinion that the prisoner was in an unsound state of mind. The general result of their testimony went to show, that the ordinary senses of affection, and of personal fear for the consequences of the crime charged against him, the heinous nature of which he could not comprehend, as well as of memory, had disappeared from his mind; that he appeared incapable of estimating the importance of his trial as regarded his interests, and that he neither possessed any regret for the disgrace or pain which might be produced to his relations, nor apprehension for his own safety.

In reply to this evidence, the Solicitor-general (Sir T. Wilde) made a most powerful speech, with consummate skill arguing upon every branch of the proofs adduced to show the insanity of the prisoner, and contending that the jury should in nowise be influenced by any of the topics advanced in his favour upon the case for the prosecution, all of which tended to show his perfect calmness and self-possession, and the greatest degree of acuteness. He urged that the evidence of the madness of the prisoner's father and grandfather was incomplete and inconclusive, and that their drunken freaks could not be taken to have had any influence in producing the disease sought to be proved in the mind of the prisoner, and that the facts sworn to with regard to the early life of the latter were marks of the waywardness of an indulged child, and not of that species of madness which could free him from criminal responsibility.

Lord Denman summed up the evidence, and at the end of the second day's trial the jury returned a verdict, acquitting the prisoner, upon the ground of insanity.

He was ordered to be detained, in obedience to the terms of the statute, during her Majesty's pleasure, and was subsequently conveyed to Bedlam.

ROBERT TAYLOR.

CONVICTED OF BIGAMY.

On Monday the 29th of June, 1840, Robert Taylor, one of the most impudent impostors that we ever remember to have read of, was tried at the Durham sessions for polygamy. The offender was a mere youth, between nineteen and twenty years of age; but his numerous matrimonial adventures, and devices to obtain money, marked him as a person of singular cunning and dexterity. His plan seems to have been in all cases to practise first on the cupidity of his own sex, by holding out a pecuniary reward to any one who would procure him a suitable alliance, and then, by representing himself to be of aristocratic birth, and heir to extensive possessions, to dazzle and win over the victim and her friends. To aid his views, he represented himself as a son of Lord Kenedy, of Ashby Hall, Leicestershire. He was furnished with numerous documents, framed to corroborate his misrepresentations. These, which he carried in a tin case, were found on his person when he was apprehended. Amongst them was a parchment, on which was written, in a fine clerkly hand, what purported to be "The last will and testament of Lord Kenedy," &c. By this document Taylor appeared to be the heir to 1,015,000_l._ Three per Cent. Consols, besides immense wealth in coal-mines, salt-factories, woollen-factories, quarries, machinery, houses, plate, jewellery, and even ships; and "John Nicholson, Thomas Johnson, and Mrs. Robinson" appeared to have been constituted "guardians of the said Robert Taylor." The documents bore date 22nd of September, 1829, and exhibited the signatures, first, of the supposed testator "Kenedy," and then of the attesting witnesses, "Samuel Robinson, clerk to James Lee, and John Turner," and "William Cowley, barrister." He had also an indenture certifying the correctness of the will, and describing his person by certain marks on his right arm, and elsewhere. He had sundry other papers ingeniously enough contrived for the purpose of aiding his deception; but, as he was a youth of coarse and vulgar manners, the success which attended his impostures can only be accounted for by the blind avarice of his dupes. At the time of his trial, six of his marriages, in several parts of the north of England, had come to the knowledge of the police; but there was good reason to suppose that there were many other instances in which he had successfully conducted his plans. Like many who have pursued a career of base and unprincipled deception, this scoundrel affected great sanctity, and connected himself at different times with both the Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists. Indeed, one of his principal dupes was a Mr. Fryer, a preacher in the last-named connexion; and Taylor, having promised a reward of 10_l._ to any one who would procure him a young and religious wife, this person offered him the choice of his two sisters-in-law. Taylor chose the younger, a girl about eighteen years of age, and was married to her. This preacher not only failed to obtain the expected reward, but was swindled out of 12_l._ which he lent to the roguish adventurer. This, however, proved the last of his exploits; for having made several fruitless attempts to run away from this wife, he was at length compelled to take her with him, and on his way through the county of Durham he was apprehended.

The budget of papers found in the prisoner's possession contained a multitude of curiosities besides those above alluded to, which our space will not allow us to particularise. It appeared from one of them, an indenture of apprenticeship, that at the age of thirteen he had been apprenticed to a sweep and collier in Staffordshire, till he should be twenty-one years old. The indenture described him as a poor child from Fatfield, in the county of Durham. There were several licences and documents relating to his marriages. One of these was a memorandum of an agreement between Robert Taylor and Mary Wilson, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, to marry in three months from October 16, 1839; Taylor to forfeit 20,000_l._ if he married any other woman, and Mary Anne to forfeit one-third per annum of her yearly salary if she proved faithless. Annexed to this was a memorandum of a loan of 4_l._ from Mary Anne's father, with an engagement, on the part of Taylor, to pay 1_l._ per annum interest. Many of the papers related to the prisoner's connexion with the Wesleyan and Primitive Methodists, and with the Teetotallers, of which latter society he appears to have been a staunch adherent. The most curious paper was "a memorandum of agreement made between Robert Taylor, Esq., son of the late Lord Kenedy, of Ashby Hall, in the parish of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and those he may engage as servants." We regret that we cannot give this amusing document entire. It bears what purports to be the prisoner's signature, and from it he appears to have engaged an establishment of stewards, butlers, footmen, grooms, coachmen, gamekeepers, helpers, &c., at salaries of from 20_l._ to 60_l._ per annum, sufficient for half-a-dozen princes. The stipulation of the engagement was, that the servants, butlers included, were to observe the teetotal pledge.

When the prisoner was placed at the bar to take his trial, the court was excessively crowded, and all eyes were fixed upon the young Lothario who had so readily succeeded in procuring half-a-dozen wives. Instead of a handsome, seductive gallant, there stood before the court a shabby-looking individual, with a face not merely ordinary, but repulsive. He was evidently much amused at the sensation which his appearance produced, and joined in the smiles of the bystanders. He was perfectly unabashed, and conducted himself throughout the trial with the utmost ease and unconcern.

The first case taken was that of the prisoner's intermarriage with Mary Ann Davidson, the sister-in-law of Mr. Fryer, the Primitive Methodist preacher. John Wood, a waggoner, of Birmingham, was called to prove the first marriage of which the authorities had any knowledge. It appeared, that this witness met the prisoner in Birmingham, in 1838. The prisoner told Wood he was heir to 60,000_l._ a-year, under the will of his father, Lord Kenedy. In proof of this assertion he produced papers. He said he had a great wish to be married to a respectable young lady, and if Wood could introduce him to such a one, he would make him a handsome present. Wood introduced him to Miss Sarah Ann Skidmore, and to her father, who was a shopkeeper. The documents were shown to the young lady and her parents; the licence and the wedding-ring were procured that very day; and the couple were married the next morning. Shortly after, the prisoner went to London to settle his affairs. He subsequently returned and lived with his wife; but he had not been married more than six or seven weeks when he deserted her altogether.

As the prisoner was undefended, the court asked him if he had any questions to put to the witness.

Prisoner: "I'll ax him one or two. I axed you if you knew a decent girl as wanted a husband, and you said you did; you knew as how one Sarah Ann Skidmore wished to be married, and I told you I'd advertised, and offered a reward of 10_l._ You took me to Benjamin Skidmore. Now, are you sure as how he saw the dockyments?"

Witness: "Yes, quite sure; you showed him a document stating that you would have 60,000_l._ a-year when you came of age."

Prisoner's mother (from the middle of the court): "Robert, tell them thou's under age, and thy marriage can't stand good."

The prisoner gave a lordly wave of the hand, accompanied by a significant gesture, intimating to his maternal parent to leave the management of the case to his superior skill. Then, turning to the witness, he said, "Are you sure that you yourself saw the will?"

Witness: "Yes."

Prisoner: "No, it was not the will; it was only the certicket of my guardians to show who I was, and what property was coming to me."

Here Mr. Granger, the counsel for the prosecution, drew forth the tin case, which was a pitman's candle-box, bearing the following inscription, "Robert Taylor, otherwise Lord Kenedy." From this case the learned counsel drew the "dockyments." The "will" was rich alike in its bequests and its odours. It was a foul and filthy affair to look upon and to approach. Disregarding the usual long and dry prefaces in which lawyers are accustomed to indulge, it rushed at once into the marrow of the subject. Mr. Granger tickled the ears of the court with a line or two. Thus:--"I give and bequeath to Robert Taylor, son of Elizabeth Taylor, single woman, 1,015,000_l._ Three per Cent. Consols and no more." The will proceeded to bestow upon him four coal-pits, a woollen-factory, two or three ships, and sundry other trifles, as before mentioned.

Mary Davidson, a neat, modest-looking girl, detailed the circumstances which led to her marriage with the prisoner. The latter, she said, was introduced to her at the house of her father, on the 4th of April, by Benjamin Fryer, her brother-in-law, who was a preacher among the Primitive Methodists. The latter said he had known the prisoner some time, and he recommended him as a pious young man whom he had brought to the house on purpose to marry her. The prisoner said he was the son of Lord Kenedy, and the moment he arrived in London with a wife he would have 700_l._, and 20_l._ a year till he was of age, when he would have 60,000_l._ per annum. He showed her several documents, one of which was a certificate that he was Lord Kenedy's son, and would have 60,000_l._ a year when he came of age. He had previously seen her unmarried sister, whom he rejected in favour of her. They were married, by licence, the very next morning. They lived together three weeks, during which time the prisoner had made several attempts to get away; and many times, in the night, he had endeavoured to slide the ring off her finger. While they were together, he lived upon the money which he borrowed from her brother-in-law, to whom he owed 22_l._

The prisoner being again directed to ask the witness any questions he pleased, said, placing his hands upon the bar, and leaning forward in a counsellor-like attitude, "Now, Mary, are you certain that I had 22_l._ from your brother-in-law?"--Witness: "You had 12_l._ in money, and you were to pay him a reward of 10_l._"

Prisoner: "You say I had 12_l._ in money, Mary. Now there was 10_s._ to be paid for the ring, 5_s._ for fees, 3_l._ 10_s._ for the licence, and 8_l._ I had in money, which makes 12_l._ 5_s._ So you see, Mary, you are wrong. You was also wrong when you said I told you I was to have 20_l._ per annum per year."--Witness: "You said 20_l._"

Prisoner: "No, Mary, I said 150_l._ per year per annum. And I wish to ax you if I didn't say, 'Will you have me, money or no money?'"--Witness: "No, you did not."

Prisoner: "Yes, Mary, I axed you, would you have me, money or no money, and you consented either way."

The prisoner spoke at considerable length in his defence, giving a rambling account of his various migrations from the north to "Brummagem," from "Brummagem" to the north, &c., with some amusing particulars of his marriages and courtships, whereby he wished to make it appear that all the young ladies he came near wanted to have him, and that he had been in every instance inveigled into wedlock for the sake of his possessions. His main defence was, that he was under age, and that all his marriages were illegal; and his conclusion seemed to be, that having contracted one illegal marriage, he thought himself perfectly justified in contracting a hundred.

The prisoner's mother having expressed a wish to give evidence, and the prisoner having consented, she took her place in the witness-box, and deposed that she was now the wife of Michael Rickaby. The prisoner was not born in wedlock; she had him in a love-affair. But she would not say who his father was. She had not come there for that. He was under age.

The jury found the prisoner "Guilty."

The prisoner was next indicted for having, in October 1839, married Mary Ann Wilson, daughter of George Wilson, a tobacconist, of Newcastle. The marriage to Miss Skidmore was again proved by the certificate, which bore his lordship's mark. The prisoner, it appeared, had advertised for a wife in the Newcastle papers. In that town he appears to have attached himself to the Wesleyan Methodists. By his professions of religion and his teetotal pledges, he obtained a high character for morality and sanctity. Miss Wilson said she first saw the prisoner in October at a Methodist chapel in Newcastle. On the same day she met him at a class-meeting. On the 16th of October she was introduced to him by a friend, when he promised to call upon her at three o'clock that afternoon. He did so, and as soon as he sat down, he pulled out a tin case which was marked "Robert Taylor, otherwise Lord Kenedy." He said he was entitled to 60,000_l._ a year, and other hereditaments. The following day he made her an offer of marriage, and she accepted him. He said if he could get the loan of some money, they would be married the next morning. Her father lent him 4_l._; a licence was bought; and they were married the day but one after she had accepted him, and three days after her introduction to him. Eighteen days after this he deserted her, and she heard no more of him till he was in custody.

By the prisoner: "He spoke of putting in the bans. She did not say 'she would rather be married off-hand.'"

Prisoner: "Oh, yes, Mary, you did. I consented to take you immediately if the money was raised, and you raised it."

The jury returned a verdict of "Guilty."

The court having spent some time in deliberation,

The chairman said: "You have for some time been going about the country in a most unprincipled way, marrying weak and unsuspecting girls, and bringing misery upon them and their friends. We have seriously considered whether it is not imperative upon us to visit you with the severest penalty that the law allows. We have determined, however, to stop short of this; but you must be punished with great severity for your wicked conduct. For the first offence of which you have been convicted, you are sentenced to be imprisoned one year to hard labour; and for the second, to be imprisoned eighteen months to hard labour, making altogether two years and a half."

Prisoner: "Gentlemen, when I come out again, will any of my wives have a claim upon me?"

The court declined to answer the question, and he then requested that his "dockyments" might be restored to him.

The court thought it better to make no order; they might be placed in the hands of the governor of the jail.

The mother of the prisoner, on quitting the court, finding herself an object of some attraction, became somewhat communicative on her family history. Among other things, she stated that her son was one of General Evans's "Legion;" and that she had sent a letter into Spain, which had the effect of procuring his return to England. She had come from Workington, in Cumberland, a distance of one hundred and fifteen miles, to attend the trial; for "her son was her son," and she could not rest without coming. One thing she would not allow curiosity to penetrate--and that was, the mystery which hung over the prisoner's birth. She had "kept the secret" nineteen years, and was not going to reveal it in the twentieth. All that she would say was, that "she had him to a real gentleman."

THOMAS PATTESON.

CONVICTED OF MANSLAUGHTER.

The trial of this person took place at Aylesbury, on Tuesday, March 10th, 1840, before Mr. Baron Parke, when the indictment charged that the prisoner had been guilty of the manslaughter of John Charles, on the 21st of October previous, at Buckland, in Buckinghamshire. The case excited a great deal of interest in the county, from the condition in life of the deceased and the prisoner, who were both respectable farmers, and from the close intimacy which had long existed between them, as well as from the mysterious manner of the death of the former. Though the coroner's jury returned a verdict of manslaughter only, the prosecutors sent up a bill of indictment for murder to the grand jury, which they ignored.

The main circumstances of the case were, that on the 20th of October 1839, the deceased John Charles went, about ten o'clock in the forenoon, to the "Boot," on Buckland Common, where he had some beer; and while there, the prisoner came in to take lunch, about twelve o'clock. They remained talking and drinking together until about five o'clock in the evening, when the landlord, John Edwards, came in, with whom they had some more drink. About half-past ten o'clock at night they rose to go away, their road being the same to pretty near their respective homes. Before they went, however, Charles said, "I think I am the best man now, let us walk the chalk;" meaning that he was the less intoxicated of the two. "Walking the chalk" is, in this part of the country, the test of drunkenness, and the experiment is performed by the attempt to walk straight upon a chalked line drawn across the floor, or by walking along the straight line between two layers of bricks where the floor is of that material. The experiment was tried in this case, and the result proved that Charles, the deceased, was the less affected by drink of the two; and he therefore undertook, as is usual between two companions on such occasions, to see the other safe home. Neither of them ever reached his home, for the deceased perished on the way, and the prisoner having been taken into custody the same night, remained in Aylesbury jail up to the day of the trial. The first person who made known the dreadful catastrophe was the prisoner himself, who, about half-past twelve o'clock on the same night, in a very wild and still intoxicated state, went to Johnson, the policeman, in the town of Tring, about two miles from the place where the death took place, and told him "he had killed a man." At first the policeman did not believe him, thinking it the mere folly of drink; but he persisted, and said he would take him to the place where the body lay. The policeman then went with him, and in a lane leading to the homes of both parties, the body of the deceased was found lying on its back on the grass, in a place not exactly on the road, but where a gap in the field, which was the termination of a footpath running parallel with the lane inside of the hedge, led into the road. That path was one which had been made by people going through the adjoining land to avoid a bad part of the road; and having passed that portion of the road, they came into the road again. The prisoner, before the body was found, had told the policeman that he was sure the person he had killed was "Joe Kibble, the sweep of Tring, who had been sent by Humphrey Bull to kill him." Humphrey Bull was the relieving officer of the union, of which both the prisoner and the deceased were guardians, and was of different politics from the prisoner, the latter being a liberal, and Bull a conservative; but they were on good terms; and nothing could show more strongly the strange state of delusion which the effects of intemperate drinking had wrought upon the prisoner's mind on that fatal night, than that he should give as a reason for killing one of his friends, that he believed him to be an assassin sent by another friend for the purpose of murdering him! On examining the body of the deceased, it was found to bear marks of dreadful beating on the head and face, which had produced great effusion of blood. The bones of the nose were completely broken, and a surgeon deposed to a concussion of the brain, as one of the effects of the violence which caused death. In the pockets of the deceased were found a ten-pound note, a five-pound note, and some sovereigns. On the notes being taken out of the pocket, the prisoner immediately exclaimed, "These are the two bank-notes which Bull gave Joe Kibble to murder me!" At that time nobody present was aware that the body was that of farmer Charles. So far from that, the policeman actually sent a person to the house of Charles, to ask him to come to see the body. The prisoner had previously told the police that he had been going home from the Buckland Inn, with his friend Charles, but the latter parted from him somewhere on the road, he could not tell where. The probable solution of the mystery is, that the deceased, who was proved to be, when in his cups, of a jocose disposition, and rather addicted to the too-often dangerous practice of practical joking, or what is vulgarly called, "larking," had, in going home that night, resolved to frighten Patteson, who, though a man of prodigious bodily strength, was known to be rather deficient in courage, and had before expressed fears of going home by that lonely road. With this view, it is supposed that Charles, taking advantage of the very drunken state in which Patteson was, slipped away from him among some trees which stood at the entrance of the footpath which we have before described, and which ran parallel with the road along which Patteson had to proceed to his home. A high bank and hedge would screen any person going along this pathway from the view of another on the road. At the place where the pathway led again into the road, at the gap, there was a mound of earth with an open space between that and the hedge, so that a person coming from the gap might, by going partly behind that mound, be concealed until he came suddenly in view, and this is probably what the deceased did in order to frighten his companion; and the position of the body near the gap when found seemed to strengthen that supposition. Whether the deceased laid hold of the prisoner before the latter saw him or not must remain for ever involved in obscurity, as the panic-terror into which Patteson was suddenly thrown, operating upon the drunkenness, caused him to destroy the unfortunate man immediately; and it is probable that from his strength, his first blow knocked him senseless. The prisoner said, that, while he was beating the supposed murderer on the ground, he asked him "who sent him to kill him," and that he pronounced the name of "Bull" three times. This of course was the mere hallucination of the temporary frenzy produced by drunkenness and terror. When the prisoner and deceased left the inn together, the latter had a knobbed walking-stick in his hand, the other had none. The stick was found under the body of the deceased, but not marked with blood, or presenting any appearance that could show that it had been used in inflicting the wounds by the prisoner. Those wounds the surgeon was of opinion were inflicted by the fist only. The prisoner was in an agony of grief as soon as he was made aware that it was his friend and companion Charles that he had so unwittingly slain, and continued in a state of deep affliction, even up to the time of his trial.

On behalf of the accused, evidence was adduced which showed that he was a most amiable and respectable man.

Mr. Baron Parke, in summing up the evidence, told the jury that if they were of opinion that the delusion which operated on the mind of the prisoner, and led to the perpetration of the fatal act, was caused by such an alarm of personal danger as would not have produced a similar effect upon the reasonable mind of a sober man, they must find him guilty of manslaughter, otherwise the act would be excusable homicide.

The jury returned a verdict of "Guilty of manslaughter," accompanied by a recommendation to mercy.

Mr. Baron Parke, in pronouncing judgment, observed, that from the time he had read the depositions he believed the fatal act of the prisoner to have been the result of a delusion produced upon a mind which intoxication had deprived of the control of reason; that the prisoner never had the slightest intention of killing his friend, with whom it was proved he never had any quarrel, was clear beyond all doubt. It was not right that he should, however, go altogether unpunished, but in consideration of his having already suffered five months' imprisonment, he should sentence him to be imprisoned for two months only, hoping that this case would be a warning to all who heard it of the danger of indulging in intemperate habits.

JOHN TURNER FLYNN.

CONVICTED OF FORGERY.

This person was convicted of an offence of a most mischievous description.

He was indicted at the Old Bailey sessions, on Saturday the 11th of April, 1840, for feloniously uttering and putting off a forged order for the payment of money, and a forged certificate, knowing the same to be forged, with intent to defraud the Commissioners of Chelsea Hospital.

The evidence which was adduced in the progress of the case, showed that the prisoner was a person of extremely respectable connexions, and was at the time of his trial in the fiftieth year of his age. At an early period of his life he entered the navy, and in the course of a long service was present at many actions, in which he is reported to have behaved with much gallantry. Having obtained the rank of lieutenant, he was engaged by her late majesty, Queen Caroline, the unfortunate consort of George the Fourth, as commander of a yacht, in which her majesty took frequent excursions, during her residence on the Continent. In this capacity he gained the confidence of his royal mistress, and she was known to place much reliance on his ability and zeal in her service. On her majesty's return to England, Lieutenant Flynn accompanied her, and he was subsequently examined as a witness before the House of Lords, in the course of the inquiry, which took place into the conduct of her majesty. Subsequently to this period, Lieutenant Flynn was supposed by many of his friends to have had the honour of knighthood conferred upon for his exertions in favour of the government, and he was generally known as Sir John Flynn. He was shortly afterwards married to a person of respectable connexions, by whom he had several children. In the year 1831, Lieutenant Flynn, with a view to increasing the means which he possessed of supporting his family, at that time resident at St. Malo, procured for himself a licence to act as a prize agent, an occupation frequently followed by persons in his situation, and considered by them as in no degree derogatory to their rank. In the course of his professional engagements he was compelled to make frequent trips from France to England, and he became acquainted with Mr. Beresford Ayton, a Navy-agent, who proposed to put him in the way of increasing his business. With this view he introduced him to Mr. Holgate, a clerk in the Prize Office at Chelsea Hospital, and an agreement was entered into, that the latter should furnish the names of soldiers who were entitled to prize money, together with the amount standing opposite to their names, and the transactions in which they had been engaged, and by which their claims were authorised, (although such a course was opposed to the duties of his office,) while Lieutenant Flynn should allow him two and a half per cent. upon all sums recovered from the prize commissioners, by reason of such information,--the presumed object being, that Flynn should find out the soldiers, and by informing them of the fact of their being entitled to put forward their claims, procure them to make application for such sums as properly fell to their share.

Flynn, however, determined to apply this information to a purpose the same in effect as that which Holgate supposed him to possess, although his object was to apply to his own use all the money which he obtained. With this view he applied, in 1835, to Mr. E. A. Théleur, a friend, residing in Great Marlborough-street, to receive any letters which might arrive at his house, addressed for him, and to receive such moneys as should become payable to him, and retain them for his use. Mr. Théleur at once consented to this course, and on the 20th of August (in that year) he received a letter from Nantes.

Among the names handed to Flynn by Holgate, was that of George Langley; who had been a serjeant of the St. Helena regiment of artillery at the time of the capture of Buenos Ayres, in 1806, and who was entitled to a sum of 177_l._ for prize money. In the course of 1835 an application was received at the Prize Money Office, at Chelsea Hospital, purporting to be that of Langley, and dated from Nantes, in which the applicant requested that an order might be sent to him, for the amount standing against his name. An answer was returned, acquainting Langley, that by lapse of time his claim had fallen to the ground, for that no such applications were listened to, if not made within six years of the time of the money becoming due, but informing him that if he gave a satisfactory excuse for his neglect, the prize-money commissioners might grant the prayer of his petition. In reply to this communication, another letter from Langley was received, and upon the statement contained in it, an order was transmitted to him, with directions that it should be filled up in a certain manner, and that a certificate, signed by certain persons as to his identity, should be sent back, upon the return of which the money would be paid.

The order and certificate required were received by Mr. Théleur, in the letter which reached him, which purported to be signed by George Langley, and which, besides, requested that he would procure money for the order enclosed. While Mr. Théleur was reading the letter Lieutenant Flynn called upon him, and when the letter and its contents were shown to him, he declared that it was quite correct, and expressed a wish that that gentleman would procure payment to be made to him, as the order was drawn up in his name. Mr. Théleur, in consequence, proceeded to Chelsea Hospital, and on the 24th of the same month, a check for the amount was handed to him, for which he gave a receipt. On the following day he obtained cash for the check, in obedience to the expressed wish of Flynn, and he then paid over the amount to him, on his giving him an acknowledgment for it.

Subsequently some suspicion arose, and Holgate being questioned, he disclosed what he had done to Mr. Bicknell, the solicitor to the commissioners of Chelsea Hospital. Inquiries were in consequence instituted, and it eventually proved that Serjeant Langley had died within six months of the taking of Buenos Ayres, on board the Woolwich man-of-war, on his way back to St. Helena; and that, therefore, the application made in his name must have been fictitious, and that the certificate as to his identity, which purported to be signed by certain individuals resident at Nantes, was false, inasmuch as that no such persons were in existence.

Mr. Théleur, who had now removed to St. Germain, in France, was in consequence written to, and the explanation which he gave of his participation in the affair at once cast suspicion on Flynn, who was eventually apprehended and brought to trial. On the night before the investigation, which took place before the jury at the Old Bailey, it was ascertained that the order and certificate, as well as the letters of application to the prize-money commissioners, were written by a young woman who had been a member of Flynn's family, but who had been since married; but in consequence of her absence from London, it was impossible to obtain her testimony to account for the circumstances under which she had been induced to draw out those documents.

These circumstances constituted the evidence laid before the jury upon the indictment preferred against the prisoner. For the defence, it was suggested, that some person more designing than the prisoner had imposed upon him; but the jury returned a verdict of Guilty, accompanied by a recommendation to mercy.

It was stated, that there were other prosecutions against the prisoner of a similar character, and that frauds to a very great extent had been committed upon Chelsea Hospital.

Mr. Baron Alderson in passing sentence upon the prisoner declared, that he felt the deepest regret at finding a person of his rank in life placed in such a situation. He had hitherto borne a good reputation, but the crime of which he had been found guilty was of a most aggravated character:--it was one which might have robbed the soldier of the hard-earned fruits of his valour, of his meritorious sacrifices for the safety and honour of his country. A short time before, for such an offence he would undoubtedly have been consigned to an ignominious death, and he feared that the laxity with which the existing law was carried out, would compel the legislature to re-enact that dreadful punishment for such crimes as his. He would take care that the blood of no man should rest upon his head; and although it was his intention, as it was his duty, to present the recommendation of the jury in the proper quarter, and he should not stand in the way of the mercy of the Crown, he considered it to be his imperative duty to pass a sentence of transportation for life.

ALEXANDER M'LAGHLIN SMITH.

TRIED FOR MURDER.

The brutal and sanguinary murder for which this unhappy man was tried, was that of Mr. William Duke, the chief police-officer of Huddersfield, in Yorkshire. Surrounded as it is by circumstances of the very greatest barbarity and atrocity, it is no small relief to find that the person by whom the dreadful deed was committed was insane, and therefore legally irresponsible for his acts.

The scene of this dreadful transaction was thus described by an eye-witness. He says, "On Tuesday the 28th of April, after tea, I paid one of my usual visits to our beautiful public exhibition, and while in conversation with a friend, I heard the cry of 'murder,' and rushed out of the back door, close to which stands our prison and the prison-house. The crowd around soon told me in what course to direct my steps, and I immediately entered the prison-house. The first object that struck my attention was Dawson, one of our police-officers, seated in a chair, literally stifled with the blood which he was stroking from his head and neck, and which was streaming from other parts of his body. All was consternation and horror. The cries of Mrs. Duke, and other females, that her husband was murdered, induced me to hasten to the prison-yard, there to witness a scene that beggars description. Blood was so largely scattered in every direction that the place resembled a slaughter-house. There I found Duke, our head police-officer, weltering in his blood, pale with exhaustion, and Mr. Wrigley, surgeon, on his knees, vainly attempting to stop the bleeding. I rushed back to the front door--sent for all the surgical assistance to be found, and then returned to the scene of horror to hear the piteous request of the dying officer, "Don't remove me, doctor, don't be so cruel--let me die here!"--nearly his last words.

"On my first entrance into the prison-yard the door of one of the cells had just been locked, and the horrid imprecations of a wretch were heard amidst a scene that was calculated to appal the stoutest heart. I soon learnt the melancholy tale, that this cell contained the author of deeds that will long live in the memory of the inhabitants of Huddersfield, and for which there is no parallel in this town since the murder of Mr. Horsfall, in the days of Luddism, that very day twenty-eight years ago, and about the same hour, and in a similar beautiful season. I shall briefly state what I learnt, and which was corroborated at the coroner's inquest. A Scotch gardener named Alexander MacLaughlin Smith, who for the last twelve months has been located about Elland and Halifax, where he is well known, and has been an object of dread from his violence, was in the act of bargaining for a plant, and wishing to take advantage, he was given in charge to Dawson, a police-officer, about four o'clock in the afternoon. Being slightly affected with liquor he resisted, and became very rough, especially when taken into the prison yard, where he made an attempt to injure Duke with a pruning-knife. This, however, was taken from him, and a leg and a wrist chain were put on him, and he was locked up. He then became outrageous, and continued so until about six o'clock, when Duke, Dawson, and Dalton, the three police-officers, agreed to meet and secure him more closely. Duke opened the door of his cell, and asked what he meant by his conduct; when the prisoner (who, although chained, was not fastened to the wall) answered that he would let him know, and with an open pruning-knife in his hand, rushed out and instantly stabbed Duke, who ran, followed by the prisoner and Dawson. Dalton ran in a contrary direction, and met the three half-way round the prison. Duke was laid prostrate, and Dawson in close contact with the prisoner, bleeding, when Dalton, fortunately having a staff, knocked the knife out of the hand of the prisoner, and with assistance secured him.

"It was in this position that I found the parties, and shortly after poor Duke was removed into his house, his wounds washed, and all medical aid afforded, but he breathed his last about ten minutes after he was removed, and in about twenty minutes after his deadly encounter. Dawson was removed to the infirmary, where he now lies with hopes of recovery, notwithstanding he has received ten or twelve wounds, some very severe, one of which is nine inches long and deep to the bone. Duke's wounds are horrid to describe, some six inches long by two and a half deep; but the one that was the immediate cause of death, was in the inner-side of the thigh, four inches long and two and a half deep, which cut through two-thirds of the femoral artery.

"The dreadful news of the murder spread rapidly, and crowds assembled around the prison. The wretched prisoner in his frenzy rejoiced in his success, and regretted he had not killed more. I remonstrated with him, but was only threatened with the same fate, could he reach me. The wretch was shortly after doubly pinioned, and left for the night. The morning came; I was kindly permitted to see the prisoner, whose mind still remained callous, without a symptom of remorse, or the slightest regret, save that he had hurt his own fingers!

"To-day (Wednesday) an inquest was held at the George Inn, before Thomas Dyson, Esq., and a highly respectable jury. The whole town was in a ferment, and when the prisoner was brought in an open carriage, in his blood-stained clothes, and with his unwashed hands, with an air of savage indifference, nay even a smile on his countenance, the expression of indignation was fearful! Before the jury gave their verdict, the coroner asked the prisoner if he had any questions to ask, when, with fiendish look and sarcastic sneer, he replied, 'Me ask any question? Are you satisfied with what you have got? Then be doing!' The jury then, without removing from their seats, unanimously agreed to a verdict of 'Wilful Murder.' Shortly after the prisoner was committed and driven off to York Castle, to take his trial at the next summer assizes, amidst a dense crowd, whose suppressed indignation under the horrid exciting circumstances of this tragic scene does them great credit.

"The prisoner is about thirty-four or thirty-five years of age, with sandy hair: he stands about five feet seven inches high, is strongly built, and very broad in the chest: he has a peculiarly savage aspect. He is a native of Scotland, and has a wife and two children at Stirling, in indifferent circumstances, from whom he has long been absent. During the whole of this tragic exhibition he manifested the utmost callousness and indifference, even approaching to scorn. Not even the bloody knife or the bloody soaked clothes, when produced in court, had any apparent effect on him; and to all appearance the probability of a violent death has no terrors to him. From first to last he remained unmoved! On his road to York he was the same, and unreservedly stated, that he thought no more of killing men that acted to him as the police had done than of killing bullocks."

The wretched man during his confinement in York Castle exhibited such symptoms as could leave no doubt of his insanity, and the necessary precautions against his doing any further mischief were taken.

Dawson, the second object of his attack, after remaining in the police infirmary during upwards of a month, was sufficiently recovered to resume his duty, but he was still in a state of considerable weakness, from the great loss of blood which he had experienced.

The trial of the prisoner took place at York on the 21st of July 1840, before Mr. Baron Rolfe, when the facts which have been already detailed having been proved by various witnesses, evidence of the insanity of the prisoner was given.

The jury, in consequence, acquitted the prisoner, and he was ordered to be detained during Her Majesty's pleasure.

THE EARL OF CARDIGAN

TRIED AT THE BAR OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS, FOR AN ASSAULT WITH INTENT TO MURDER.

On Tuesday, February the 16th, 1841, the Right Hon. the Earl of Cardigan was tried by his Peers at the bar of the House of Lords, for an assault with intent to murder, alleged to have been committed by him in fighting a duel with Mr. Harvey Garnett Phipps Tuckett.

In introducing this case to our readers we do not deem it to be necessary to enter into any minute or extended discussion in reference to the circumstances which preceded this trial, but it will be sufficient to point out the general facts by which the duel which was the subject-matter of the investigation was brought about.

The Earl of Cardigan in the year 1840 held the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel of the 11th Regiment of Hussars, of which His Royal Highness, Prince Albert had recently received a commission as Colonel. It appears to have been the object of the Earl of Cardigan to advance the discipline and general conduct of his regiment to such a state as to entitle it to be esteemed in the light in which it was held,--that of a favourite regiment. The earl had been appointed to the regiment in the year 1838, while it was serving in India, but in the spring of the ensuing year, the usual period of service abroad having expired, the 11th Hussars were ordered home, and soon after received the title of "Prince Albert's Own." While stationed at Brighton, in the course of the year 1840, some differences arose between the noble earl and the officers under his command, which, whether justly or unjustly it is not for us to determine, procured for the former a considerable degree of notoriety, which placed his character as the commander of a regiment in an unenviable position. Complaints to the War Office were the result of these misunderstandings, and the subject became matter of discussion in the various newspapers of the day. Amongst those journals which took a prominent part in these debates was the Morning Chronicle, and in the columns of that paper a series of letters appeared under the signature of "An Old Soldier," which eventually proved to be the contributions of Mr. Tuckett, formerly a captain under the command of the Earl of Cardigan. Many of these letters undoubtedly contained matter highly offensive personally to the Earl of Cardigan, and the noble earl having discovered their author, called upon him to afford him that satisfaction usually deemed to be due from one gentleman to another under circumstances of insult or any other provocation. A meeting took place at Wimbledon Common, on the 12th of September 1840, the respective combatants being attended by seconds, the result of which was that, at the second shot Captain Tuckett was wounded. The whole affair was witnessed by some persons resident in the neighbourhood, and the parties were all taken into custody, and eventually bound over to appear to answer any charge which might be preferred against them at the ensuing sessions at the Central Criminal Court.

A police constable was directed to institute a prosecution, and bills of indictment were laid before the grand jury against Captain Tuckett, and Captain Wainewright, his second; and also against the Earl of Cardigan, and Captain Douglas, who had attended him in the capacity of his friend. In the cases of the two first-named individuals the bill was ignored, but a true bill was returned against the Earl of Cardigan and Captain Douglas.

The extent of jurisdiction of the judges at the Old Bailey prevented them from trying the Earl of Cardigan, whose alleged offence the noble earl was entitled to have inquired of by his peers, and the investigation of the case against the parties indicted was therefore postponed from session to session until the sitting of Parliament, the court declining to enter upon the case of Captain Douglas until that of the principal to the offence alleged against him had first been disposed of. Parliament assembled on the 16th of January 1841, and then, so soon as the forms of the House of Lords would admit, the bill of indictment was removed by certiorari, in order to be disposed of by their lordships. The customary preliminary forms having been complied with on the day above named, namely, Tuesday the 16th of February, the trial took place.

The public had been made acquainted with the fact that the trial would not take place in Westminster-hall, and that the Painted Chamber, in which the peers had met for parliamentary business since the destruction of the old house by fire, was under preparation for this solemn and imposing scene. The smallness of the apartment, and the general desire amongst the peeresses and the various members of the nobility and rank of the land to be present upon so important and interesting an occasion, rendered it necessary that very extensive alterations should be made to secure sufficient accommodation, and considerable ingenuity had been exercised in order to accomplish that object, every corner and nook from which a glimpse of the court can be snatched being provided with sittings. But the capacity of the building prevented the architect, with all his skill, from making the supply equal to the demand. The benches, galleries, and floor, were covered with crimson cloth, and the walls themselves with paper, in which that colour was predominant, and the effect was to make the gorgeous robes of the peers and the splendid dresses of the peeresses stand out in dazzling relief. When the court had opened, and the chamber was filled, the tout ensemble was magnificent.

At a quarter before eleven o'clock the lords' speaker (Lord Denman), having robed in his private room, entered the house. A procession was formed in the usual manner, his lordship being preceded by the purse-bearer with the purse, the sergeant with the mace, the black rod carrying the lord high steward's staff, and garter carrying his sceptre.

Garter and black rod having taken their places at the bar, the lord speaker proceeded to the woolsack, where, being seated, prayers were read by the Bishop of Lichfield.

The clerk-assistant of Parliament then proceeded to call over the peers, beginning with the junior baron.

This necessary ceremony being completed, the clerks of the crown in Chancery and in the Queen's Bench jointly made three reverences, and the clerk of the crown in Chancery, on his knee, delivered the commission to the lord speaker, who gave it to the clerk of the crown in the Queen's Bench to read; and both clerks retired with like reverences to the table.

The sergeant-at-arms then made proclamation, and the lord speaker informed the peers that her majesty's commission was about to be read, and directed that all persons should rise and be uncovered while the commission was reading.

The commission appointing Lord Denman as lord high steward was then read, and garter and black rod having made their reverences, proceeded to the woolsack and took their places on the right of the lord high steward, and both holding the staff, presented it on their knees to his grace.

His grace rose, and having made reverence to the throne, took his seat in the chair of state provided for him on the uppermost step but one of the throne. Proclamation was then made for silence; when the queen's writ of certiorari to remove the indictment, with the return thereof, and the record of the indictment, were read by the clerk of the crown in the Queen's Bench. The lord high steward then directed the sergeant-at-arms to make proclamation for the yeoman usher to bring the prisoner to the bar.

The Earl of Cardigan immediately entered the house, and advanced to the bar, accompanied by the yeoman usher. He made three reverences, one to his grace the lord high steward, and one to the peers on either side, who returned the salute. The ceremony of kneeling was dispensed with. The noble earl, who was dressed in plain clothes, was then conducted within the bar, where he remained standing while the lord high steward acquainted him with the nature of the charge against him.

The prisoner was arraigned in the usual form, for firing at Harvey Garnet Phipps Tuckett, on the 12th of September, with intent to kill and murder him. The second count charged him with firing at the said Harvey Garnet Phipps Tuckett with intent to maim and disable him; and the third count varied the charge--with intent to do him some grievous bodily harm.

The clerk then asked, "How say you, James Thomas Earl of Cardigan, are you guilty or not?"

The Earl of Cardigan, in a firm voice, replied, "Not guilty, my lords."

The clerk--"How will you be tried, my lord?"

The Earl of Cardigan--"By my peers."

The noble prisoner then took his seat on a stool within the bar, and his grace the lord high steward removed to the table, preceded by garter, black rod, and the purse-bearer, as before, and his grace being seated, black rod took his seat on a stool at a corner of the table, on his grace's right hand, holding the staff, garter on a stool on black rod's right, and the sergeant at the lower end of the table on the same side.

Mr. Waddington opened the pleadings, stating the nature of the offence as set out in the indictment, and added that the noble prisoner had, for his trial, put himself upon their lordships, his peers.

The attorney-general addressed their lordships as follows:--"I have the honour to attend your lordships on this occasion as attorney-general for her majesty, to lay before you the circumstances of the case upon which you will be called to pronounce judgment, without any object or wish on my part, except that I may humbly assist your lordships in coming to a right conclusion upon it, according to its merits. An indictment has been found against a peer of the realm by a grand jury of his country, charging him with a felony, the punishment of which is transportation or imprisonment. That indictment has been removed before your lordships at the request of the noble prisoner, and, I must say, most properly removed, for an inferior court had no jurisdiction to try him. The charge is, upon the face of it, of a most serious character, and it would not have been satisfactory if it had gone off without any inquiry. The policeman, however, who was bound over to prosecute, fulfilled his recognizances by appearing at the Central Criminal Court, and preferring the indictment. It is possible that in the course of this trial, questions of great magnitude on the construction of acts of Parliament or respecting the privileges of the peerage may arise, which it is of great importance to this house, to the crown, and to the community, should be deliberately discussed. According to all the precedents that can be found, whenever a peer has been tried in Parliament, the prosecution has been conducted by the law-officers of the crown. Fortunately, we have no living memory on this subject. It is now sixty-four years since any proceeding of this sort has taken place, and I am rejoiced to think that on the present occasion the charge against the noble prisoner at the bar does not imply any degree of moral turpitude, and that, if he should be found guilty, his conviction will reflect no discredit on the illustrious order to which he belongs. At the same time, it clearly appears to me that the noble lord at the bar has been guilty of infringing the statute law of the realm, which this and all other courts of justice are bound to respect and enforce. Your lordships are not sitting as a court of honour, or as a branch of the legislature; your lordships are sitting here as a court bound by the rules of law, and under a sanction as sacred as that of an oath. The indictment against the Earl of Cardigan is framed upon an act of Parliament which passed in the first year of the reign of her present majesty. It charges the noble defendant with having shot at Captain Harvey Tuckett, with the several intents set forth in the indictment. I think I shall best discharge my duty to your lordships by presenting to you a brief history of the law on this subject. By the common law of England, personal violence, when death did not ensue from it, amounted to a mere misdemeanour, and if the wounded party did not die within a year and a day, no felony was committed. The first act which created a felony where death did not ensue was the 5th of Henry IV. By that act certain personal injuries, without death, were made felonies without benefit of clergy. Then came the Coventry Act, the 22nd and 23rd of Charles II., whereby any person lying in wait for and wounding another with intent to maim or disfigure, was guilty of felony, without benefit of clergy. Under both these acts no offence was committed unless a wound was inflicted, and it was not until the 9th George I., commonly called the Black Act, that an attempt, where no wound was given, was made a felony. By that act it was enacted, that if any person should wilfully and maliciously shoot at any person in any dwelling-house or other place, he should be guilty of felony without benefit of clergy, although no wound were inflicted: but it was determined upon that statute--and in fairness to the noble prisoner it is my duty to remind your lordships of it--that unless the case was one in which, if death had ensued, it would have amounted to murder, no offence was committed under the statute. That was determined in the case of the King and Gastineaux, which is reported in the first volume of Leach's 'Crown Cases,' page 417. In that case the law was thus laid down:--'The offence charged in this indictment is described by the statute, in which it is framed, in very few and very clear words, which are--'That if any person or persons shall wilfully and maliciously shoot at any person in any dwelling-house or other place, he shall be adjudged guilty of felony, without benefit of clergy.' The word maliciously is made to constitute the very essence of this crime; no act of shooting, therefore, will amount, under this statute, to a capital offence, unless it be accompanied with such circumstances as, in construction of law, would have amounted to the crime of murder if death had ensued from such act. This proposition most clearly and unavoidably results from the legal interpretation of the word maliciously, as applied to this subject; for there is no species of homicide in which malice forms any ingredient but that of murder; and it follows, that neither an accidental shooting, nor a shooting in the transport of passion, excited by such a degree of provocation as will reduce homicide to the offence of manslaughter, is within the meaning of the statute; for from both of these cases the law excludes every idea of malice.' The law continued on this footing until an act was passed in the 43rd of George III., which is commonly called Lord Ellenborough's Act. This act did not repeal the Black Act, but greatly extended its operation, and, among other enactments, contains this:--'That if any person or persons shall wilfully, maliciously, and unlawfully shoot at any of his majesty's subjects, or shall wilfully, maliciously, and unlawfully present, point, or level any kind of loaded fire-arms at any of his majesty's subjects, and attempt, by drawing a trigger, or in any other manner, to discharge the same at or against his or their person or persons, or shall wilfully, maliciously, or unlawfully stab or cut any of his majesty's subjects, with intent in so doing, or by means thereof, to murder, or rob, or to maim, disfigure, or disable such his majesty's subject or subjects, or with intent to do some other grievous bodily harm to such his majesty's subject or subjects, he shall be guilty of felony, without benefit of clergy.' This act, however, has the following express proviso:--'Provided always, that in case it shall appear on the trial of any person or persons indicted for the wilfully, maliciously, and unlawfully shooting at any of his majesty's subjects, or for wilfully, maliciously, and unlawfully presenting, pointing, or levelling any kind of loaded fire-arms at any of his majesty's subjects, and attempting, by drawing a trigger, or in any other manner, to discharge the same at or against his or their person or persons, or for the wilfully, maliciously, and unlawfully stabbing or cutting any of his majesty's subjects, with such intent as aforesaid, that such acts of stabbing or cutting were committed under such circumstances as that if death had ensued therefrom the same would not in law have amounted to the crime of murder; then and in every such case the person or persons so indicted shall be deemed and taken to be not guilty of the felonies whereof they shall be so indicted, but be thereof acquitted.' Your lordships will observe that, by this act, it is made a capital offence to shoot at with intent to murder, or maim, or disfigure, or do grievous bodily harm, but the offence came within the statute only when, if death would have ensued, it would, under the circumstances, have amounted to the crime of murder. Next came the statute of the 9th of George IV. cap. 31, which, I believe, is generally called Lord Lansdowne's Act, that noble lord having introduced it into Parliament when he was Secretary for the Home Department. This is an act for consolidating and amending the statutes relating to offences against the person. It repeals the Black Act, and Lord Ellenborough's Act; but it contains provisions similar to those of the latter. The 11th section enacts:--"That if any person unlawfully and maliciously shall administer or attempt to administer to any person, or shall cause to be taken by any person, any poison or other destructive thing, or shall unlawfully and maliciously attempt to drown, suffocate, or strangle any person, or shall unlawfully and maliciously shoot at any person, or shall, by drawing a trigger, or in any other manner attempt to discharge any kind of loaded arms at any person, or shall unlawfully and maliciously stab, cut, or wound any person, with intent, in any of the cases aforesaid, to murder such person, every such offender, and every person counselling, aiding, or abetting such offender, shall be guilty of felony, and, being convicted thereof, shall suffer death as a felon." By the 12th section it is enacted:--"That if any person unlawfully and maliciously shall shoot at any person, or shall, by drawing a trigger, or in any other manner, attempt to discharge any kind of loaded arms at any person, or shall unlawfully and maliciously stab, cut, or wound any person, with intent, in any of the cases aforesaid, to maim, disfigure, or disable such person, or do some other grievous bodily harm to such person, or with intent to resist or prevent the lawful apprehension or detainer of the party so offending, or of any of his accomplices, for any offence for which he or they may respectively be liable by law to be apprehended or detained, every such offender, and every person counselling, aiding, or abetting such offender, shall be guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof, shall suffer death as a felon." This act contains the same proviso as was inserted in Lord Ellenborough's; but still it remained a capital offence to shoot at, with intent to murder, or maim, or disfigure, or do bodily harm, although no wound was inflicted. Things remained on this footing till the act was passed on which the present indictment is framed. That act, which received the royal assent on the 17th of July 1837, is the 1st of Victoria, cap. 85, and is entitled "An Act to amend the laws relating to offences against the Person." The preamble recites that it is expedient to repeal so much of the act of the 9th George IV., and of the 10th of the same reign, as relates to any person who shall unlawfully and maliciously shoot at any person, or who shall, by drawing a trigger, or in any other manner attempt to discharge any kind of loaded arms at any person, or who shall unlawfully and maliciously stab, cut, or wound any person, &c. And by the second and third sections it is enacted:--"That whosoever shall administer to or cause to be taken by any person any poison or other destructive thing, or shall stab, cut, or wound any person, or shall by any means whatsoever cause to any person any bodily injury dangerous to life, with intent in any of the cases aforesaid to commit murder, shall be guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof, shall suffer death. And be it enacted, that whosoever shall attempt to administer to any person any poison or other destructive thing, or shall shoot at any person, or shall, by drawing a trigger, or in any other manner, attempt to discharge any kind of loaded arms at any person, or shall attempt to drown, suffocate, or strangle any person, with intent in any of the cases aforesaid to commit the crime of murder, shall, although no bodily injury shall be effected, be guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof shall be liable, at the discretion of the court, to be transported beyond the seas for the term of his or her natural life, or for any term not less than fifteen years, or to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding three years." Therefore, to shoot at a person and inflict a wound dangerous to life, remains by this act a capital offence; but the act of shooting, when no wound is inflicted, is no longer a capital offence, and remains a felony punishable only with transportation or imprisonment. The fourth section enacts:--"That whosoever unlawfully and maliciously shall shoot at any person, or shall, by drawing a trigger or in any other manner, attempt to discharge any kind of loaded arms at any person, or shall stab, cut, or wound any person, with intent in any of the cases aforesaid to maim, disfigure, or disable such person, or to do some other grievous bodily harm to such person, or with intent to resist or prevent the lawful apprehension or detainer of any person, shall be guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof shall be liable, at the discretion of the court, to be transported beyond the seas for the term of his or her natural life, or for any term not less than fifteen years, or to be imprisoned for any term not exceeding three years." This act contains no such proviso as is found in Lord Ellenborough's Act, and that of the 9th of George IV., a circumstance which it is material your lordships should bear in mind when you come to deliberate on your judgment with respect to the second and third counts of the indictment. I am happy to say that the indictment contains no count on the capital charge. A wound was inflicted; but the prosecutor has very properly restricted the charge to firing at with intent, without alleging that any wound dangerous to life was inflicted. The first count charges, that the Earl of Cardigan shot at Captain Tuckett with intent, in the language of the law, to commit the crime of murder. The second count charges his lordship with the same act with intent to maim, disfigure, or disable Captain Tuckett, and the third count charges him with the same act with intent to do Captain Tuckett some grievous bodily harm. It will be for your lordships to say whether, upon the facts which I shall lay before you, and which I am instructed to say can be clearly made out in evidence, each and every one of the counts must not be considered as fully established. The substance of the evidence in this case is, that on the 12th of September last the Earl of Cardigan fought a duel with pistols on Wimbledon Common with Captain Tuckett, and wounded him at the second exchange of shots. It will appear that about five o'clock on the afternoon of that day, two carriages, coming in opposite directions, were seen to arrive on Wimbledon Common, and a party of gentlemen alighted from each. It was evident to those who observed what was going on, that a duel was in contemplation. The parties went to a part of Wimbledon Common between the road that leads to Lord Spencer's park and a windmill. The seconds made the usual preparations; the principals, the Earl of Cardigan and Captain Tuckett, were placed at a distance of about twelve yards; they exchanged shots without effect; they received from their seconds each another pistol; they again fired, and Captain Tuckett was wounded by the Earl of Cardigan. Mr. Dann, who occupied the mill, and his son, and Sir James Anderson, a surgeon, who was standing close by, went up immediately. The wound was examined: it bled freely but most fortunately--and I am sure that no one rejoices at the circumstance more than the noble prisoner at the bar--it proved to be not of a dangerous nature. Mr. Dann, the miller, who was a constable, took the whole party into custody. The wound was again formally examined, and Sir J. Anderson pressed that he might be set at liberty and allowed to take Captain Tuckett to his house in London, which was immediately acceded to upon Captain Tuckett promising to appear before the magistrates when he was recovered. The miller retained the Earl of Cardigan, and his second, Captain Douglas, as well as Captain Wainwright, the second of Captain Tuckett. The Earl of Cardigan had still a pistol in his hand when the miller approached him; and two cases of pistols were still on the ground, one of which bore the crest of the noble earl, and was claimed by him as his property. The parties in custody were conducted before the magistrates at Wandsworth, when the Earl of Cardigan made use of these words:--'I have fought a duel; I have hit my man I believe, but not seriously.' Then pointing to Captain Douglas, he said, 'This gentleman is also a prisoner and my second.' He was asked whether the person he had hit was Captain Reynolds, upon which he replied, 'Do you think I would condescend to fight with one of my own officers?' His lordship was compelled by the magistrates to enter into recognizances to appear when called upon, which he did from time to time, till at last the matter was carried to the Central Criminal Court. The witnesses I shall call before your lordships are, the miller, his wife, and son, and the policeman named Busaine, who was at the station-house, and will speak to the declarations made by the Earl of Cardigan. I can offer no evidence respecting the origin of the quarrel. Captain Douglas is to take his trial for his share in the transaction; he, as your lordships will observe, is jointly indicted with the Earl of Cardigan. A bill was also preferred against Captains Tuckett and Wainwright, but the grand jury have thrown it out. Those gentlemen, however, are still liable to be tried, and it would not be decorous to summon them before your lordships to give evidence which might afterwards be turned against themselves, probably, when they would be on trial for their lives. I shall call Sir J. Anderson, who has hitherto spoken fairly on the subject, and, I suppose, will now make no objection to state all that fell within his observation. Upon these facts it will be for your lordships to say whether all the counts of the indictment are not fully proved and supported. With respect to the first count, it is painful to use the language which it necessarily recites; but it will be for your lordships to say whether, in point of law, the noble prisoner at the bar did not shoot at Captain Tuckett with intent to commit the crime therein mentioned. I at once acquit the Earl of Cardigan of anything unfair in the conduct of this duel. Something has been said respecting the noble earl's pistols having rifle barrels, whilst those of Captain Tuckett had not such barrels. However that may have been, I have the most perfect conviction that nothing but what was fair and honourable was intended, and that the Earl of Cardigan most probably imagined, when he carried his pistols to the field with him, that one of them would be directed against his own person. Nor do I suppose that there was any grudge--any personal animosity--any rancour or malignity on the part of the noble earl towards his antagonist. Whether the noble earl gave or received the invitation to go out, I believe his only object was to preserve his reputation, and maintain his station in society as an officer and a gentleman. His lordship is in the army--he is Lieutenant-Colonel of the 11th Hussars, and no doubt he on this occasion only complied with what he considered to be necessary to be done according to the usages of society. But if death had ensued under these circumstances it would have been a great calamity; and although moralists of high name have excused and even defended the practice of duelling, your lordships must consider what, in this respect, is the law of England. There can be no doubt that by the law of England parties who go out deliberately to fight a duel, if death ensues, are guilty of murder. It will be my duty to state to your lordships a few of the leading authorities on this point. I will mention the highest authorities known to the law of England--Hale, Hawkins, Foster, and Blackstone. Hale, in his 'Pleas of the Crown,' says, 'If A and B suddenly fall out, and they presently agree to fight in a field, and run and fetch their weapons and go to the field and fight, and A kills B, this is not murder, but homicide, for it is but a continuance of the sudden falling out, and the blood was never cooled; but if there were deliberation, as that they went on the next day--nay, though it was the same day, if there was such a competent distance of time that in common presumption they had time of deliberation--then it is murder.' In the 1st vol. of 'Hawkins' Pleas of the Crown,' cap. 13, sec. 21, p. 96, the law on this subject is thus laid down:--'It seems agreed, that whenever two persons in cold blood meet and fight on a precedent quarrel, and one of them is killed, the other is guilty of murder, and cannot help himself by alleging that he was struck first by the deceased, or that he had often declined to meet him, and was prevailed upon to do it by his importunity, or that it was his intent only to vindicate his reputation--or that he meant not to kill, but to disarm his adversary--for since he deliberately engaged in an act highly unlawful, in defiance of the laws, he must at his peril abide the consequence thereof.' 'And from hence it follows, that if two persons quarrel over night, and appoint to fight next day--or quarrel in the morning, and agree to fight in the afternoon, or such a considerable time after by which in common intendment it must be presumed that the blood was cooled, and then they meet and fight, and one kills the other, he is guilty of murder.' ... 'And whenever it appears from the whole circumstances, that who kills another on a sudden quarrel, was master of his temper at the time, he is guilty of murder, as if after the quarrel he falls into a discourse, and talks calmly thereon, or perhaps if he have so much consideration as to say that the place wherein the quarrel happens is not convenient for fighting, or that if he should fight at present he should have the disadvantage by reason of the height of his shoes.' The last observation refers to Lord Morley's case, where though a case of manslaughter, it was a circumstance strongly pressed to show that the offence was one of deeper dye. Sir M. Foster, in his discourse on homicide, says:--'Upon this principle deliberate duelling, if death ensues, is, in the eye of the law, murder, because it is generally founded on a feeling of revenge. And if a person be drawn into a duel, not from motives so criminal, but merely for the protection of what he calls his honour, that is no excuse for those who, in seeking to destroy another, act in defiance of all laws human and divine. But if, on a sudden quarrel, parties presently fetch their weapons, and go into a field and fight, and one of them is killed, that is manslaughter, because it is presumed that their blood never cooled. Otherwise, if the parties appoint the next day to meet, or even the same day, at such an interval as that their passion may have subsided, or if from circumstances in the case, it may be reasonably presumed that their judgment had controlled the first transports, if death then ensue, it is murder. The same rule will hold if, after a quarrel, the parties fall into other conversation or discussion, and remain so engaged, so as to afford reasonable time for cooling,' Blackstone, in his fourth volume, p. 199, thus writes, when describing and defining the crime of murder:--'This takes in the case of deliberate duelling, where both parties meet avowedly with an intent to murder: thinking it their duty, as gentlemen, and claiming it as their right, to wanton with their own lives and those of their fellow-creatures; without any warrant or authority from any power, either divine or human, but in direct contradiction to the laws both of God and man: and, therefore, the law has justly fixed the crime and punishment of murder on them, and on their seconds also.' Those are the highest authorities known to the law of England, and they are uniformly followed by the English judges. Such being the definition of murder constantly given from the bench on trials for life and death, ought not your lordship to suppose that the legislature has made use of the word 'murder' in the same sense, and that when we find in Lord Ellenborough's Act, in that of the 9th of George IV., and in that of the 1st of Victoria, the expression 'with intent to commit murder,' it means with intent to do that which, if accomplished, would amount in law to the crime of murder. The legislature, and your lordships as part of it, must be taken to have well known what was the legal definition of murder, and to have used the expression, in a judicial act, in its legal sense. However painful the consideration may be, does it not necessarily follow that the first count of the indictment is completely proved? The circumstances clearly show that the Earl of Cardigan and Captain Tuckett met by appointment. The arrangements being completed, they fired twice; the Earl of Cardigan took deliberate aim, fired, and wounded his antagonist. He must be supposed to have intended that which he did. If, unfortunately, death had ensued, would not this have been a case of murder? The only supposition by which the case could be reduced to one of manslaughter would be, that the Earl of Cardigan and Captain Tuckett met casually on Wimbledon Common--that they suddenly quarrelled, and, whilst their blood was hot, fought; but your lordships will hardly strain the facts so far as to say this was a casual meeting, when you see that each party was accompanied by a second, and supplied with a brace of pistols, and that the whole affair was conducted according to the forms and solemnities observed when a deliberate duel is fought. With respect to the second count I know not what defence can possibly be suggested, because even if it had been a casual meeting, and if death had ensued under circumstances which would have amounted only to manslaughter, that would be no defence to the second and third counts. I presume to assert that on the authority of a case which came before the fifteen judges of England, and which was decided, two most learned judges doubting on the occasion, but not dissenting from the decision. The two judges who doubted were his grace the high steward, who presides over your lordships' proceedings on this occasion, and Mr. Justice Littledale. It would not become me to say anything of the learning and ability of the noble high steward in his presence, but with respect to Mr. Justice Littledale, I will say that there never was a more learned or acute judge than he was, whose retirement from the bench the bar have lately witnessed with reluctance and regret. I therefore attach the greatest weight even to doubts proceeding from such a quarter; but the thirteen other judges entertained no doubt upon that occasion, and came to the conclusion that, upon the 4th section of the act upon which the present indictment was framed, it is not necessary for a conviction that if death ensued the offence should amount to murder. The case to which I refer is to be found in the second volume of Moody's 'Crown Cases,' page 40. It was a case tried before Mr. Baron Parke, on the Norfolk spring circuit, 1838; and I will read what is material to your lordships: The case first recites the 9th of George IV., sec. 11 and 12, and the preamble, and enacting part of the 1st of Victoria, points out the circumstance that the latter act does not contain the same proviso as is found in those of Lords Ellenborough and Lansdowne, and then submits this question for the opinion of the judges: 'Is it now a defence to an indictment for wounding with intent to maim, &c., that, if death had ensued, the offence would not have been murder, but manslaughter?' Your lordships will observe that shooting at with intent to maim or disable, and stabbing with the same intent, are in the same category of subjects, and must be attended with all the same rules and incidents. This opinion will therefore have the same authority as if the question submitted by Barons Parke and Bolland had been whether, on an indictment for shooting at with intent to disable, it would be a defence that if death had ensued the offence would not have amounted to murder. The opinion of the judges was as follows:--'At a meeting of the judges in Easter term 1838, they all thought it to be no defence to such an indictment, that if death had ensued, the offence would not have been murder, but manslaughter, except the Lord Chief Justice Lord Denman, and Mr. Justice Littledale.' The Lord Chief Justice and Mr. Justice Littledale, it will be observed, did not dissent, they only doubted; but the other thirteen judges seem clearly to hold that the plea set forth does not now amount to any defence; and I apprehend that the judges probably reasoned in this manner--the intention of parliament being to make offences, before capital, punishable only by transportation, the quality of the offence is not precisely the same as before, and that if a person maims another, or disables him, or does him some grievous bodily harm, even though it were an unpremeditated act, arising out of a sudden scuffle, it should nevertheless be an offence under this act, which gives a discretionary power to the court before whom the offence is tried, either to transport for fifteen years, or to imprison for a single hour. The judges, doubtless, considering this discretionary power, and the omission of the proviso which was in the preceding acts--seeing that the capital punishment was abolished, came to the conclusion that the offence was committed, even though if death had ensued, it would not, under the circumstances, have amounted to the crime of murder. Looking at the authority of this case, I know not what defence can possibly be urged with respect to the second and third counts. I rejoice, my lords, to think that the noble prisoner will have an advantage upon this occasion which has never before been enjoyed by any peer who has been tried at your lordships bar--an advantage which neither Lord Lovat, Lord Ferrers, nor the Duchess of Kingston, could claim. He will have the advantage of the assistance of my most able, ingenious, zealous, and learned friend, Sir William Follett, who will address your lordships in his behalf on the facts and merits of the case. This privilege is secured to the noble prisoner under the admirable law your lordships passed a few years ago, by which, in all cases, the party has the advantage of addressing, through his counsel, the tribunal which is to determine on his guilt or innocence. Notwithstanding, however, all the learning, ability, and zeal of my honourable and learned friend, I know not how he will be able to persuade your lordships to acquit his noble client on any one count of this indictment. My learned friend will not ask your lordships--and if he did, it would be in vain--to forget the law by which you are bound. Captain Douglas stands on his trial before another tribunal, and his trial has been postponed by the judges on the express ground that the same case is first to be tried by the highest criminal court known in the empire. Your lordships are to lay down the law by which all inferior courts are to be bound. I beg leave, on this subject, to read the words made use of at this bar by one of my most distinguished predecessors, who afterwards for many years presided with great dignity on the woolsack--I mean Lord Thurlow. When Lord Thurlow was Attorney-general, in addressing this house, in the case of the Duchess of Kingston, he made use of this language:--'I do desire to press this upon your lordships as an universal maxim; no more dangerous idea can creep into the mind of a judge than the imagination that he is wiser than the law. I confine this to no judge, whatever may be his denomination, but extend it to all. And speaking at the bar of an English court of justice, I make sure of your lordships' approbation when I comprise even your lordships sitting in Westminster Hall. It is a grievous example to other judges. If your lordships assume this, sitting in judgment, why not the King's Bench? why not commissioners of oyer and terminer? if they do so, why not the quarter sessions? Ingenious men may strain the law very far, but to pervert it was to new-model it--the genius of our constitution says, judges have no such authority, nor shall presume to exercise it.' I conclude, my lords, with the respectful expression of my conviction, that your lordships' judgment in this case, whatever it may be, will be according to truth and the justice of the case, and that you will preserve the high reputation in the exercise of judicial functions which has so long been enjoyed by your lordships and your ancestors."

The evidence of the various persons who had witnessed the transaction of the duel, and which supported the statement made by the learned Attorney-general, was then produced; but, at the close of the case, it was objected by Sir William Follett, on behalf of the Earl of Cardigan, that there was no evidence to show that the person against whom the shot was discharged was Mr. Harvey Garnett Phipps Tuckett. The card of "Mr. Harvey Tuckett" had been put in; but this might be quite another person from the individual pointed to by the indictment.

The Attorney-general was heard on the other side; but, after a short deliberation, the lord high steward announced that the evidence which fixed the identity of the individual was insufficient; and the peers thereupon declared the noble defendant "Not guilty."

At the Central Criminal Court, on Wednesday the 3rd of March, Captain Douglas was put upon his trial, before Mr. Justice Williams, upon the indictment which had been found against him; but the jury, in the absence of positive evidence to identify Mr. Tuckett, came to the same conclusion as that which had been arrived at by the House of Peers; and a verdict of acquittal was returned.

HARRISON FLATHER.

IMPRISONED FOR LARCENY.

We cannot refrain from presenting to the notice of our readers the circumstances of this very singular case.

At the assizes at Carlisle, on the 23rd of February 1841, Harrison Flather was indicted for stealing five sovereigns, a purse, and a pair of ear-rings, the property of Morris Davis.

It appeared from the opening statement of the counsel for the prosecution, that the prosecutor, Mr. Morris Davis, was a Pole, and had been for some time resident in Carlisle, where he carried on business as a furrier. The prisoner was writing-master to the grammar-school, and was on this account probably selected by the prosecutor to give him lessons in the English language, and especially in writing and accounts. In the course of this employment a friendship sprung up between them; and Mr. Flather was finally made the confidant of the prosecutor in a matter of great delicacy, and was employed by him to conduct a correspondence with a young lady, to whom the prosecutor had become attached. Two letters were addressed by Mr. Davis to Miss Moore, the lady in question, the prisoner Flather being employed as amanuensis. Miss Moore was absent from Carlisle when these letters were sent to her residence; but immediately on her return she enclosed them to the prosecutor, and there, so far as she was concerned, all correspondence ceased. It appeared, however, that letters continued to be written in her name to the prosecutor, which he received through the Carlisle post. In these, reasons flattering to Mr. Davis were given for a renewal of the correspondence. Mr. Flather continued in Mr. Davis's confidence, read and explained the letters when received, wrote the answers, and to his hands the delivery of them was confided. Early in the correspondence, however, a circumstance occurred which, had Mr. Davis been better acquainted with the feelings and manners of English women, would certainly have awakened his suspicions; this was an application for money, specifying the precise sum which the lady wanted. Many of these applications were made, and always complied with. Among others was one on the 19th of November 1840, which formed the subject of the present charge. An application was made for five guineas, and, in replying to it, Mr. Davis took the opportunity of further inclosing a purse and a pair of jet ear-rings, which he had purchased for the purpose. One of the shillings enclosed was somewhat remarkable, being marked with the letter "A" on the head of the impression. About a month afterwards an inquiry took place, and it then appeared that Miss Moore knew nothing whatever of this pretended correspondence, and had never received any letter or communication from Mr. Davis whatsoever, except the two first, which she had promptly returned. The prisoner was apprehended; his house was searched; and there was found the identical shilling which Mr. Davis had so inclosed to Miss Moore some time before, and committed, as he had committed the other inclosures, to the hands of the prisoner.

To support this statement in evidence, Mr. Morris Davis and other witnesses were called. The simple Pole detailed the circumstances under which he had been so impudently bamboozled by the prisoner with much ingenuousness. He had set great store upon the supposed effusions of Miss Moore, which amounted to between twenty and thirty in number, and kept them tied up in a bundle in his parlour. On the Friday before the Christmas-day preceding the prosecution, however, he quitted his sitting-room, while the prisoner was there, for a short time, and, on his looking for the love-letters a few days afterwards, he found that they were gone. The letters were usually couched in the most affectionate terms, commencing "My dear, dear love," and terminating, "Your ever affectionate betrothed wife, E. Moore;" but the greater part of them contained requests for the loan of money, the amount of the sum demanded varying from 2_l._ to 5_l._ He invariably complied with the demands made, and advanced in all no less than 85_l._ Flather always took away the letters; and the answers either came by his hands or through the post. He never had any suspicion that anything was wrong until he learned that Miss Moore was at Liverpool at the same time that he supposed she was writing to him from her residence at Carlisle.

On his cross-examination, Davis admitted that he was a person of inferior education, and that he was scarcely able to read or write his own or any other language. He had paid Flather a guinea for the instruction which he received from him, and a guinea for the love-letters; but the schoolmaster frequently took his meals at his house. Flather had also kept his books and had written business-letters; and since this prosecution an attorney had applied for the amount of an alleged claim he had upon him in this respect, which, however, he had not paid. In reference to the love affair the witness said, that he knew nothing of Miss Moore except that she had dealt at his shop, and that she had never personally favoured his advances. After the first two letters had been returned, he asked her whether she had sent them back, and she answered in the affirmative. He replied that he was satisfied; but subsequently he was induced to recommence the correspondence, upon receiving a note, apparently from her, stating that she had been compelled to discourage his addresses in obedience to the wishes of her friends, and that she was desirous of maintaining a communication with him. In subsequent letters she made appointments to meet him, which, however, were invariably postponed; and she even went so far as to speak of running away with him to Gretna-Green, for which purpose he sent her 5_l._ in obedience to her request; but this scheme was also abandoned.

Miss Moore, of Paternoster-row, Carlisle, was called to prove that she had never written letters to the prosecutor, and had never received any from him through the medium of the prisoner; and other witnesses spoke to the facts opened by the prosecuting counsel, as well as to the additional circumstance that green-edged paper, like that on which Miss Moore's supposed letters had been written, had been found in the possession of the prisoner.

The jury found the prisoner "Guilty." He was then tried upon a second indictment, charging him with a like offence in reference to some of the other sums which he had obtained of the prosecutor, and a similar verdict was returned.

Mr. Justice Maule immediately sentenced him to be confined in the House of Correction for sixteen months.

RICHARD MOORE.

TRANSPORTED FOR FORGERY.

At the Central Criminal Court, on Saturday the 6th of February 1841, Richard Moore, aged thirty, was indicted for feloniously uttering and putting off a forged note, purporting to be a genuine note of the Salop bank, for 5_l._ well knowing the same to be forged, with intent to defraud Messrs. Glyn, Halifax, Mills and Co., the bankers, of Lombard-street.

The circumstances which transpired in the course of the investigation were of a remarkable character. Mr. Moore was a person of gentlemanly appearance, and was a member of a highly respectable Irish family, possessed of good means. The unfortunate young man when he came of age received a property sufficient to have placed him in a situation above the common rank. Naturally wild and unsettled in his disposition, he soon became involved in all the gaieties of the metropolis of his native country; but he ere long changed the scene of his actions to London. Here he entered even more largely into the amusements of life; and few years had elapsed before he had dissipated the greater part of his possessions. The gambling-table had served in a great measure to produce this unfortunate effect, and to the gambling-table he resorted for the purpose of renewing those means of which it had already deprived him. Every effort served but to plunge him deeper into difficulty; and at length he was driven in despair to a method of retrieving his lost fortunes which rendered him open to a prosecution for putting off forged notes.

The circumstances proved in reference to the particular case upon which he was first tried were these:--On the evening of the 31st of January, the prisoner, accompanied by a gentleman who was in the habit of visiting the billiard-rooms of a person named Cooke, at No. 358, Strand, entered those rooms, and after a short time, sat down to play loo with a party. He played throughout the evening with varied successes, paying his first losses with what appeared to be genuine country bank-notes; but when he rose to quit the room, he was in debt to Cooke, the keeper of the house, in the sum of 30_l._ which he had advanced to him. He gave his I.O.U. for the amount, stating his address to be "Wright's Hotel," Strand, and went away. In the course of the evening Cooke had given change for nine of the notes which had been paid by the prisoner; and in the morning he sent his wife into the city to procure cash for them at the various banking-houses at which they purported to be payable. She received the money for some of them; but at length, upon her presenting a note at Messrs. Glynn and Co.'s, she was detained. She immediately explained what she knew of the transaction; and her husband having been sent for, he confirmed her statement, and they were liberated. On that evening a note was taken to Mr. Cooke by the porter of the Hotel Fricour, Leicester-square, which was written by the prisoner, in which he expressed his regret at having disposed of notes which he had discovered were forged; but he assured Mr. Cooke of his desire at some future time to repay him what he had lost, saying, that he had received the notes on the day before from a school-fellow in payment of a bet upon a race which he had won some time before. Cooke, accompanied by Forrester, the city officer, who had been engaged to trace the prisoner, immediately proceeded to the hotel from which the letter was dated, and found the prisoner in the coffee-room. They directly took him into custody, and he made no effort to escape or to deny the guilt imputed to him.

Subsequent inquiries proved that the notes which the prisoner had put off were genuine impressions of the plates prepared for the various banking companies, by whom they purported to have been issued, but all that part of them which gave them the character of genuine instruments, including the signature of the director, was forged. The exact means by which these impressions had come into the possession of the prisoner was a mystery; but upon application to Messrs. Perkins and Co. of Fleet-street, who had prepared the plates, it was elicited that it was their custom to send out to the various country banking firms proof impressions of the plates which they had engraved as specimens of their work. The notes uttered by the prisoner were of this character, and they bore upon them evidence of the employment of great ingenuity in their preparation. The specimen notes were invariably issued, pasted upon card-board of considerable thickness; it appeared that the notes in question had been removed from the card-board, but being of insufficient substance, by reason of their being impressions on India paper, a piece of paper of the ordinary quality used in the genuine notes had been placed upon the backs of them so as to give them all the appearance of the notes in common circulation. The signatures appended to them did not appear to have been copied from any of the original notes; and in some instances, indeed, names had been employed entirely dissimilar to those of any of the directors of the bank.

Mr. C. Phillips, who was retained as counsel for the prisoner, addressed the jury on his behalf, urging that in truth he had no intention which was actually dishonest, and suggesting that the unfortunate man having been deprived of his property by gamblers, had sought to recover it back again by means, undoubtedly dishonest, but scarcely more blameable than those which had been employed by those by whom he had been fleeced. He was informed that it was by no means uncommon for flash notes to be employed by persons connected with gambling-houses, as a means of decoying their prey; and he asked whether, in truth, the prisoner had been guilty of anything more dishonest. The absence of all evil intention had been plainly shown in the immediate notice which he had given of the notes which he had put off being fictitious, and this at least was a point in the case which entitled him to some consideration.

The jury returned a verdict of "Guilty," but recommended the prisoner to mercy upon the ground suggested by the learned counsel.

The prisoner was then indicted upon a second charge, of uttering two notes of the respective amounts of 5_l._ and 10_l._, with intent to defraud the Boston Bank.

The means employed by the prisoner in putting off these notes were very similar to those which he had used in the former case. The offence was alleged to have been committed on the 28th of January; and it appeared that on that night the prisoner went to a notorious gambling-house situated at No. 7, Leicester-square, kept by a person named Thompson, and demanded to know whether there was any play, and what bank there was. He was informed that the bank contained 130_l._, and Chappell, the attendant in the rooms, offered to play with him, in default of there being any one else there. They played, and in a short time Chappell won 70_l._, which the prisoner paid in what appeared to be country bank-notes, of various denominations. The prisoner declared that he had no more money left then; but asked whether, if he went for some more, the rooms would be open when he returned. He was answered in the affirmative, and in about fifteen minutes he went back. At this time Thompson, the keeper of the rooms was there, and the prisoner having played again, by about four o'clock in the morning he had lost 75_l._ more, which he also paid in notes of the same description as those which he had before put off. He said he would fetch more money, if the rooms would be open; but Thompson expressed some unwillingness to allow any more play, as the usual time for closing the house had passed. The prisoner, however, went away and returned, but he found the door closed. He appeared angry and excited, and insisted upon having his revenge, and Chappell at length let him in. By nine o'clock in the morning he had lost 380_l._ in addition to the sums which he had previously paid; and he handed over a Manchester bank-post bill for 300_l._, and another for 80_l._, and then he went away. In the course of the day Thompson and Chappell went into the city to procure change of the country notes, and they obtained cash for some of them, which were not payable in London, at a bullion-dealer's in Cheapside, upon the deduction of two and a half per cent.; but upon their presenting some others at the banking-houses at which they were payable, they were taken into custody. They explained their characters and the manner in which they had obtained the notes, and were set at liberty. When the prisoner was taken into custody, a letter was found on his person addressed to Thompson, which, it appeared, he was about to despatch to that individual, in which he declared that he had just discovered that he had been imposed upon, and had paid him with forged notes, but offered to give him bills of exchange for the amount which he owed him, at various dates.

The defence in this case was the same as that which had been before put forward, and the inquiry was attended with a similar result,--the conviction of the prisoner.

Mr. Justice Coltman, who was the presiding judge, in passing sentence upon the prisoner, remarked that his offence was materially aggravated by the station in society which he had held, and the education which he had received. In a commercial country, where so much depended upon the proper maintenance of the public securities, forgery could not be looked at as a slight offence. In this case the safety of the commercial transactions of the country might have been peculiarly affected, and a severe example was called for. His lordship then sentenced the prisoner to be transported for fifteen years.

PATRICK MAXWELL STEWART WALLACE; AND MICHAEL SHAW STEWART WALLACE.

TRANSPORTED FOR INCITING A PERSON TO CAST AWAY AND DESTROY A MERCHANT SHIP.

The crime of these prisoners was of a most heinous description, and fully entitled them to receive that measure of punishment which, by the sentence of the court, they were directed to undergo. They were persons of respectable origin and connexions, and had for some time carried on business in the city of London as merchants. They were tried at the Central Criminal Court, at the March sessions, 1841, on a charge of inciting one Edmund Loose to cast away the ship Dryad.

The indictment contained twenty-six counts and charges: First--"That one Edmund Loose, late of London, mariner, on the 10th of November, in the third year of her present Majesty's reign, being the captain of a certain vessel called the Dryad, the property of Alexander Howden and others, did, with force and arms, upon the high seas, within the jurisdiction, &c., feloniously, unlawfully, and maliciously, cast away and destroy the said vessel, with intent thereby to prejudice the said Alexander Howden and another, against the form of the statute in such case made and provided; and further, that Patrick Maxwell Stewart Wallace, late of London aforesaid, before the said felony was committed in form aforesaid, namely, on the 1st of August in the year aforesaid, did feloniously and maliciously incite, move, procure, aid, counsel, hire, and command the said Edmund Loose the said felony, in manner and form aforesaid, to do and commit, against the form of the statute in such case made and provided, against the peace, &c.; and further that Michael Shaw Stewart Wallace, late of London aforesaid, before the said felony was committed, &c., did feloniously and maliciously incite, &c., the said Edmund Loose the said felony in manner and form aforesaid, to do and commit, against the form of the statute," &c.

Second count--The same as the first, but without naming the owner of the vessel.

Third count--Stated the intention of the prisoners to have been to prejudice and defraud Pedro de Zulueta, and others, the owners of certain goods, laden and being in and on board the said vessel, belonging to Alexander Howden and others.

Fourth count--The same as the third, but omitting the name of the owner of the vessel.

The other counts stated the said Edmund Loose's intention to be, to prejudice and defraud various individuals, and that the prisoners did feloniously and maliciously incite the said Edmund Loose to commit the said felonies.

The proceedings commenced on Wednesday the 3d of March, when Mr. Jervis, as counsel for the prisoners, took an objection to the proceedings. Edmund Loose, who was charged as the principal felon, did not appear to plead, and he contended, that it was incompetent for the court to try the prisoners upon the indictment, alleging them to be accessories only in the absence of Loose. He admitted that they might be tried for a substantive felony, but that was not the nature of the offence alleged.

The Attorney-general contended that, by the Act 7th Geo. IV. chap. 64, sect. 9, the accessories could be tried in the absence of the principal felon.

After some further discussion, the court ruled that the prisoners could be tried for a substantive felony, according to the statute, and that they might proceed upon the present indictment; but he left the question open, so that the prisoners might have the advantage of a more full consideration of the point.

The Attorney-general then elected to proceed separately with the trials of the two prisoners, and the case of Patrick Maxwell Stewart Wallace was determined to be taken first. The evidence produced in the two cases, however, was exactly similar, and the statement of the facts proved in one of them only will be sufficient to put our readers in possession of all that was material to the inquiries.

The evidence was divided into two classes, the first of which referred to the conduct of the two prisoners in procuring excessive policies of insurance to be effected upon the ship and cargo; while the second related to the demeanour of Loose, the captain of the Dryad, on her voyage, from which it was sought to prove that he had wilfully cast away the vessel.

With reference to the first part of the case, it was shown that the Dryad was a brig, of which one-fourth share belonged to Messrs. Howden and Ainslie, ship-brokers, while the remaining three-fourths were the property of the prisoner Michael Wallace. The latter had purchased his share of a Mr. Gillespie in the year 1838, for 1600_l._; and the vessel after that was docked and rendered a first-class ship, an outlay of 600_l._ having been made upon her. In July 1839, the Dryad was chartered to Messrs. Zulueta and Co., merchants of Liverpool, for a voyage from that port to Santa Cruz, for 300_l._: Michael Wallace acted as ship's husband, and he directed Messrs. Howden and Ainslie to effect policies of insurance upon the vessel in 2200_l._, and upon the freight in 300_l._ These policies were accordingly effected in the office of the Marine Insurance Company. In the same month, however, other policies were effected in respect of the same ship by directions of the two Wallaces. In the Alliance Insurance Company, a policy for 715_l._ was effected on goods; in the General Maritime Insurance Company, a policy for 1265_l._ was likewise effected on goods; in the Neptune Insurance Company, a policy of 700_l._ was effected on the ship and outfit, and a policy of 687_l._ on goods; in the Mutual Marine Insurance Company, a policy was effected on goods; and another policy for 650_l._ was also effected by Messrs. Bahr and Bearing, of Liverpool. Independently of these policies, an insurance to the amount of 3000_l._ was also effected by Messrs. Zulueta and Co. at Lloyd's, in respect of the cargo which they sent out by the vessel. The total amount, therefore, insured upon the Dryad and her cargo was 10,117_l._; of which, deducting the value of Messrs. Zulueta's policy, and of that effected by Messrs. Howden and Ainslie, 6617_l._ stood in the names of the prisoners--a sum far exceeding the real worth of their interest in the vessel and her cargo. The Dryad having arrived at Liverpool, Messrs. Zulueta proceeded to load her with such goods as they wished her to convey to Santa Cruz. About three hundred tons were put on board, and on the 7th of September the vessel sailed from port. When she had gone, the prisoner Michael Wallace informed Stott, an agent whom he had employed, that he had put some goods of his own on board, although it would have been contrary to his agreement with Messrs. Zulueta if he had done so. In January 1840, a claim was sent in to the various insurance offices for the amount of the policies effected as for a total loss of the Dryad. Some conversations took place between Patrick Wallace and Stott, in which the former made use of expressions which seemed to imply that Loose, the captain, had purposely lost the ship, but the greater part of the insurances were paid to the two brothers, and placed to their accounts at the banking-houses where they usually deposited their money. The return of some of the seamen of the Dryad to London, subsequently enabled the parties to the policies to obtain evidence confirmatory of suspicions which they had entertained with regard to the loss of the Dryad; and in the month of November 1840, Patrick Wallace was taken into custody. His brother, Michael, at that time was living in Tredegar-square, Commercial-road; but upon inquiries being made for him, he was found to have absconded, and his house was discovered furnished throughout, but abandoned by its occupants. On the 16th of December, however, Michael was also secured, having been found living in a small row of houses in the outskirts of Lancaster, whither, according to his own account, he had gone that he might not be called upon to give testimony against his brother.

The evidence for which it was sought to prove that the Dryad had been wilfully cast away, a fact which, it may be observed, was necessary to be shown as an ingredient of the offence charged against the prisoners, was as follows:--

Ronald Maxwell said--I sailed as first-mate in the Dryad on a voyage from Liverpool to Santa Cruz. Captain Loose engaged me in Liverpool on the 4th of September, 1839, to go from Liverpool to Santa Cruz, from Santa Cruz to St. Jago, and thence to Swansea. I have commanded a ship in the South American trade, and I have crossed the Atlantic frequently. I have been to the West Indies, and I know the navigation of those seas. On the 4th of September we took in a few cases of hardware and a few kegs of paint. They came from Zulueta's, and I signed bills for them. From the time I entered the ship to the time we sailed, we took no goods on board except Zulueta's. I locked the ship up at night, and saw her again in the morning. One-third of the hold remained unfilled. After I went on the 4th of September there was no earthenware taken on board, nor were there any cases of flannels, cloth, or prints. There were no barrels of butter, beef, or pork taken on board, except for the ship's use. There were on board two tierces of beef and four barrels of pork. That was scarcely a sufficient quantity for the outward voyage. When a vessel sails for a place such as Santa Cruz, it is usual to take provisions for the homeward as well as the outward voyage. We went out of the dock on the 6th, and sailed on the 7th of September. We had ten hands on board, including the boy and the captain. We went through the North Channel. It is not unusual, according to the wind, to go by the North Channel. Captain Loose ordered me to get tackles rove and coiled in the long-boat, that she might be ready if she were wanted. We had no log-line when we sailed. I endeavoured to make one of spun-yarn, but I found that it was too heavy. We had no proper log-line while I remained on board. The log-board was choked when I endeavoured to sound, a short time after we got to sea. I tried to clear it out, but I could not do it. I told Captain Loose of it, and he said nothing particular. The pump was never made to suck. There was a chronometer on board, I think, but I never saw it. I frequently asked to use it, but Captain Loose would not allow me to see it. We pursued our course to the West Indian seas. There is generally a course laid down on the chart as a guide. About longitude 59 deg. W., Loose deviated from the proper track, and steered to the northward. We first made land at Virgin Guarda. I told the captain that I had seen the land, and he came on deck, where he remained several minutes. A few minutes afterwards I observed breakers a-head and low land. The breakers denoted a reef, and the low land was Anagada. We were about five miles from it. I observed it about six o'clock in the morning. I told the captain that I observed breakers a-head, and he jumped out of bed, and came on deck. Benjamin Shooltz was at the helm, and I told him to put the helm down, and put the ship round to keep her off the breakers. The captain then ran to the wheel and put the helm up, and the ship went direct on towards the breakers. Loose took the wheel himself, and remained at it a short time. Two of the crew came into the waist and complained of the captain, and they said that they would take the helm themselves and put the ship round, for they were not going to be lost. Upon this the captain left the wheel and Shooltz took it. He put the helm down again and the ship came round. When the helm was put down, the ship just cleared the breakers. In a few minutes she would have been on shore. When the ship came round, the captain said he did not think she was so near. Before the ship came round, the captain told me to mind my own d--d business, and take the studding-sails down. He also said that he would have me tried for mutiny for taking charge of the ship. This happened on the 17th of October. On the 19th we were on the Silver Keys, to the north of St. Domingo. He ought, I consider, to have gone by the south side of St. Domingo, between Antigua and Guadaloupe, to get to Santa Cruz. The ship ought to have been nearer the shore to avoid the Silver Keys. They are laid down on all the charts I have seen. About half-past six or seven o'clock in the morning, I saw a rock on the larboard bow, about three or four fathoms off. I told this to the captain, and he came on deck. I pointed the rock out to him. The captain said he could not see it. He had his telescope in his hand. The water a-head was discoloured. This indicates a shoal in these seas. One of the crew from the fore-yard called out, "Rocks under the fore-foot!" and I and the captain ran forward and looked over the bow. I saw the rocks, and Captain Loose said, "We are lost! we are all lost!" Immediately afterwards the ship struck, and remained fast for fifteen or twenty minutes. Loose ordered the jolly-boat to be hove overboard, and we put tackles over the long-boat to save ourselves. After about twenty minutes she got off. She afterwards struck another rock, and remained upon it a few minutes, but then dragged past it. The captain was putting a "life-preserver" on during this time. By the second rock the rudder was unshipped. We now trimmed the sails, to keep the ship before the wind. I wanted to make a temporary rudder, and I asked the captain to allow me to take some spars to do so, but he refused, and said we were in a pretty state--a ship at sea without a rudder--we had better have been all asleep a few days before, and have allowed the ship to run ashore at Anagada. The carpenter at length made a temporary rudder, and on the 20th we got to St. Domingo. Until the 22nd we proceeded along the coast. We ought, in order to avoid the breakers, to have kept further off. We were frequently near them, and the crew had all their clothes packed up ready if the ship should strike. On the 22nd we were near a reef off Cape Hayti, and the jury-rudder unshipped. The captain asked me what was best to be done; I said there was no danger if we were to put in to the harbour. He asked Shooltz and another what they thought, and they said that the harbour was before them, and they thought they could get in. Loose said he would not do so, for he had no pilot on board, and if anything happened to the vessel he should lose the insurance. I then said that we might put out to sea and replace the jury-rudder, and stand in and get a pilot the following morning. The captain went to bed at eight o'clock. I saw a sail about nine on the larboard quarter. I mentioned this to the captain, and he came on deck. I said she was a large ship, probably a man-of-war, and she could give us assistance if we ran down to her. We could have easily gone down before the wind. The captain would not allow us to go down, and he went to bed again. At daybreak we were to the south-east of the entrance of the port. We saw a ship to the north of the port. We were steering towards the reef, and we could see the breakers a-head. They were probably two miles off. Loose was on deck about seven o'clock in the morning. The Dryad was then steering towards the reef, in the direction which he ordered. The ship we saw to the northward fired a gun, and we found it was the Bencoolen. This was to warn us that we were running into danger. The Bencoolen had a union jack hoisted for a pilot, but Loose would not allow me to hoist one, saying if the pilots were too lazy to come off without a signal, they might stay ashore. The Dryad kept the same course until a pilot came on board. When I told Loose that the ship to the northward had fired a gun and hoisted a signal, he said that was nothing to him. The pilot came on board about eleven o'clock in the forenoon. The captain called him aft and showed him the jury-rudder, and asked him if he would take charge of the vessel. He said he would if the crew would work the ship in. He then took us into port. This was on Wednesday the 23rd of October. I left the Dryad on the 2nd of November. I assigned a reason to Loose for leaving the vessel. I was paid my wages (excepting 2_l._) by Captain Loose, and I went on board the Bencoolen. [The witness pointed out on the chart the course taken by the Dryad, and showed the track that he considered she ought to have gone]. There was nothing in the state of the wind or weather to induce the captain to keep the ship so near the shore at St. Domingo.

Benjamin Shooltz examined: In 1839, I shipped on board the Dryad at Liverpool for Santa Cruz. I have recently come from the coast of Africa. I came to England seventeen days ago. Captain Loose engaged me. We had very little provisions on board, and we were poorly furnished with spare spars, &c. The captain frequently told me to keep the long-boat always in good order and ready for sea at once. We hove in sight of Anagada on a Thursday. I saw the breakers and called Maxwell the mate. We were about four or five miles from them. I received orders from the mate to put the ship round, and he then went to the captain. When I brought the ship round, she was going from the breakers. When the captain came on deck, he cursed me, and asked me who gave me orders to put the ship about. He took the helm and brought the ship round towards the reef again. I said to the captain, "I took the orders myself, and I did not wish to put the ship on a reef in broad daylight." When the captain put her up again, the crew all came aft to him, and asked him what he intended to do. He did not keep the helm long, and I went to it when he went below, and put it down, and the ship went away and cleared the rocks. If she had gone on two minutes longer, she would have been on the rocks. Two days afterwards we were on the Silver Keys. We saw breakers a-head, and a lump of rock a little on the larboard side. I had the helm at this time. When I saw the Silver Keys, I hailed the mate, and he went down and informed the captain. When the captain came up, he said he did not see the rock. He had his glass then. I saw the rock with my naked eye. A man on the fore-yard, about five minutes afterwards, shouted out that there was about four feet water under the keel, and he saw rocks. The captain was on deck, but he did nothing. Shortly afterwards the vessel struck. The captain was very frightened at the time, and cried out "What shall we do, lads?--we are lost!" The long-boat was lying on the gripes off the ship, and the jolly-boat lay upon her. This is the usual way they are stowed away. When the ship struck, the rudder unshipped. This was about seven o'clock in the morning. The captain went to the helm shortly after the Dryad struck. The day before we made St. Domingo, the strap came off the jury rudder. At that time the captain's life-preserver was on deck. The crew told him if he put that on, they would cut it all to pieces. We were then five miles from Cape Hayti. There was no reason for keeping so close to the shore as we did. I remember the night before the gun was fired; that night we kept out to sea. We were about five miles from the breakers when the gun was fired, and we were then steering direct upon them. The ship's course was not altered when the gun was fired. The previous night the captain asked me and Davis, the second mate, what we should do, as we had got no rudder. We said that the best way would be to keep out to sea, and stand in for Hayti in the morning. We had not signalled for a pilot on board the Dryad. When the pilot came on board, he easily put the ship round and took us into the harbour, where we remained nine or twelve days. Many complaints were then made by the crew to the captain. We made an effort to be permitted to leave the ship at St. Domingo, but we were not allowed by the captain. The mate left the Dryad on the 2d of November. On the 5th we sailed from Hayti, and on the 10th the Dryad struck on the reef at Cape Cruz. About ten minutes before, we struck on a small lump of rock. We saw the reef all the day before, but the ship's course was not altered to avoid it. I was acting under the orders of the captain when the ship struck. He was on deck all the night. She struck about half-past two o'clock in the morning. The captain never was on deck all night before. A man named Simpson was at the helm, and the captain told him to run away, or he would get hurt. The crew came on deck and spoke to the captain. The ship did not make a drop of water that night. I sounded one of the pumps frequently. No orders were given to the crew to get the ship off the reef, and he went below. In my judgment, the ship might have been got off, as the vessel was making no water. The captain left all the sails up. The crew were willing to work if they had been directed. If an anchor had been put out and her sails dowsed, she might have got off. A canoe came off to us. There were Spaniards in it, and the captain asked if there was a town near, and he was told there was one about thirty miles over the mountains. The Spaniards also said there was a consul ashore. The captain went ashore in the boat. He came back and said he had been to the Spaniard's house. The crew, with the exception of Simpson and myself, went ashore. The ship made no water at this time. When the captain was ashore, we made sail with the other boat and went round the ship. At her stern we found a cigar-box and a bolt attached to it. The water was clear, and we took it up. We found several letters and some leaves of the log-book in it. Loose came back from the shore that night, and the next day he had a conversation with me and the crew. He took the long-boat with him and we all went to Jamaica, where the protest was noted. We kept the letters, and at one time produced them to the captain, and he snatched them away from Simpson, and gave him four pound-notes for them. This was two days after we got to Jamaica. After we went to Jamaica, none of us went back to the vessel. Before I left the ship I found a hole under her stern. No rock could make such a hole. It was big enough to admit my shoulders. The previous day she made no water, and I told the captain so. It was on the evening of the next day I discovered the hole. The weather was not at all boisterous then. The position in which the ship was could not account for the hole. I sounded her after finding the hole, and found five feet of water in the hold. The next day we left for Jamaica. The vessel could then have been got off. I saw the hole from the inside. It was in the state-room, which was locked. The captain saw it plainly, being in the cabin where it was. From the time we struck upon the Silver Keys the crew kept their clothes in bags in readiness to leave the vessel, expecting she would get upon a reef. It is my opinion that the ship was wilfully cast away by the captain.

The witness, in cross-examination, admitted that he had sworn to the protest which had been drawn up at Jamaica, and had stated in it that he believed the vessel to have been accidentally lost. He stated that the effect of the contents of the papers which he had picked up when the vessel was on the rocks was an intimation from the captain that he had cast away the ship intentionally; but he also said that the cigar-box in which they were contained lay at a depth of six fathoms, and that he had fished it up with an oar. He imagined that Loose had himself cut the hole which was found in the stern of the ship.

Other evidence was given, from which it appeared probable that Captain Loose was dead, and by which the various sums of money received on account of the policies of insurance were traced to the possession of the two prisoners.

Mr. C. Phillips, on behalf of Patrick Wallace, addressed the jury in a powerful speech, urging that the evidence of Shooltz was not worthy of credit, and that without that evidence the case was incomplete; and also contending that the policies of insurance which had been effected were by no means so excessive in their amount as to lead to the positive conclusion that they had been effected with a view to the destruction of the vessel. He alluded with great force to the death of Loose, and his consequent inability to put such questions on the cross-examination of the witnesses as might lead to the development of the truth; and he urged that the jury having found that a protest was made at Jamaica, describing the loss of the vessel to have been accidental, which was signed not only by Shooltz, but by four other persons besides him, and the captain, they would take that to be the truth, and would on that ground acquit the prisoner.

Lord Chief Justice Tindal summed up the case to the jury, and after some consideration they returned a verdict of "Guilty."

On the next morning Michael Wallace was put upon his trial; but, as we have already stated, the facts proved against him were so precisely similar to those which were adduced in evidence in the case of his brother, that they need not be detailed. At the end of the second day's trial, after a speech to the jury from Mr. Jervis, who appeared for the defence of this prisoner, in which he again urged the same topics which formed the grounds of defence in the former case, a verdict of Guilty was returned.

The two brothers were then placed at the bar to receive sentence.

The Lord Chief Justice in delivering judgment said that it would of course depend upon the decision upon the point of law whether the punishment which he should direct them to undergo would be carried out. The prisoners had been found guilty, after fair and impartial trials before intelligent juries, of the offence of having feloniously incited one Edmond Loose, the captain of the ship Dryad, wilfully to cast away that ship for the purpose of defrauding the underwriters. He felt bound to say that he was perfectly satisfied with the verdicts which the two juries had found in the respective cases of the two prisoners. It was an offence of very grave importance, tending to check the spirit of mercantile adventure, and the commerce of this country, because it was aimed at defrauding those persons upon whose responsibility much of that adventure and commerce depended. It was to be observed that the loss in this case had fallen upon the underwriters, and the checking of their business might produce serious results. The effect of a policy of insurance was to cast upon a company a loss which, if it fell upon one individual only, might be ruinous in its consequences; and it could not but be observed that the numerous insurance companies of this city could no longer exist unless their proceedings were protected by the law, and offences directed against their fair and honest gains were punished with its just severity. In this case there were circumstances of great aggravation, because the result of the foul crime which had been committed might have been not only the loss of property, but of life. The penalty applied by the law to this offence was no longer capital. He rejoiced at that, but at the same time he felt that it was his duty to visit the offence of the prisoners with a severe punishment. The sentence of the court was, "That the prisoners should be transported beyond the seas for the respective terms of their natural lives."

The prisoners were then removed from the bar.

DAVID SAMS.

TRANSPORTED FOR BURGLARY.

The name of this hardened offender has been already before our readers, and his case will show how unavailing are the most solemn warnings to the mind naturally addicted to crime.

The first offence alleged against Sams was that of the robbery and murder of an old pensioner named Bennett, at Tewen, near Hertford. For that crime he was tried with two other young men named Roach and Fletcher at the Herts Assizes, when, although there appeared to be very little moral doubt that he had been the original concoctor of the scheme, and had actively assisted in the perpetration of the horrible crime imputed to him, owing to a failure of the necessary legal evidence as to his identity, he was acquitted, but his two unhappy companions were convicted and subsequently executed. Almost immediately after this, Sams committed another robbery, and was tried and convicted, and sentenced to six months imprisonment. Shortly after this period of imprisonment had expired, a young man named Thomas Taylor, who had also been charged with being concerned in the robbery and murder of the old man, was taken into custody, and upon his trial Sams was admitted as witness for the Crown, and he then detailed all the circumstances of the murder, and stated that it was committed by the two men who were executed, Taylor, and himself, and that they divided the money between them. Upon this evidence, and other corroborating testimony, Taylor was convicted and executed.

It might have been thought that such circumstances as these would have induced Sams to change his wicked courses, the more especially as some of the gentry in the neighbourhood of Hertford interested themselves in his behalf, and obtained him employment, whereby he might have earned a reputable subsistence, but he speedily resumed his old habits, and his employers could keep him no longer.

He now quitted the vicinity of the scene of his crimes and his disgrace, but, led on either by want or some worse inducement, he was again guilty on two separate occasions of acts of felony, for which he was apprehended and imprisoned.

On his discharge he was again thrown upon the world, and he once more ventured to the scene of his early life. Old recollections seem but to have reproduced new acts of crime, and at length he was secured while in the very act of breaking into a farmhouse at Ware. For this offence he was tried at the Spring Quarter Sessions for the county of Hertford, held in March 1841, the Marquis of Salisbury sitting as Chairman. The evidence was too clear to admit of a doubt being entertained, and a verdict of Guilty was returned.

The Marquis of Salisbury, in passing sentence, observed that he never knew an instance of so hardened a criminal as he appeared to be. He thought he should be neglecting his duty to the public if he did not pass upon him the severest sentence of the law; which was, that he be transported for the term of his natural life. The convict heard the sentence with the greatest coolness, and at its conclusion nodded to one or two of his old companions in the body of the court, and walked away laughing from the bar.

WILLIAM STEVENSON.

TRANSPORTED FOR LARCENY.

The charge preferred against this person, and of which he was found guilty, was that of stealing from his employers, Messrs. Mercer and Co., of the Maidstone Bank, a bag containing 500_l._ in gold. For this offence he was tried at the Maidstone spring assizes, on the 17th of March 1841, before Lord Denman, when the following remarkable facts were proved in evidence:--

It seemed that in the month of October, 1839, Mr. Mercer wrote to his London agents, Messrs. Masterman, the bankers, to remit to him fifteen hundred pounds in gold, and five hundred pounds in silver, and that sum was accordingly placed in seven bags, one containing a thousand pounds in gold, another five hundred in gold, and five bags, each containing one hundred pounds in silver, and the whole were placed in a box, of which Messrs. Masterman and Mercer had each a duplicate key, and the box was then committed to the care of Wallis, one of the Maidstone coachmen, to be conveyed to that place. The box was duly carried to Maidstone, and the prisoner, who acted as porter at Mr. Mercer's bank, was sent to fetch it, and he brought the box to the bank about seven o'clock in the evening, and it was taken from him by Mr. Mercer, jun., who unlocked it and took out the bags of coin, and, without examining them, placed them in the strong chest; but he observed that at this time there were only six bags, namely, one large one, which he supposed contained the fifteen hundred pounds in gold, and the five bags of silver. The next morning, upon the money being examined, it was found to be five hundred pounds short of the proper quantity of gold, and on a communication being made to Messrs. Masterman, the loss of the second bag of gold was discovered.

No clue whatever at this time could be obtained as to the perpetrator of the robbery, but no suspicion was entertained of the prisoner, and he was retained in the prosecutors' service until the following month of January, when, for some act of misconduct, he was dismissed. Shortly after this, the prisoner set up in business in the town as a grocer, and some other circumstances coming to the knowledge of the prosecutors, induced a suspicion that he was the thief, and a search warrant was obtained and placed in the hands of Faucett, the superintendant of the Maidstone police, who proceeded to the prisoner's house, and, upon searching it, he found a number of watches and time-pieces. When the prisoner was told by the officer what was the nature of the charge against him, he denied all knowledge of the robbery, and told him he might search where he pleased. The officer then asked what money they had in the house, and about seven pounds in gold and silver were produced by the prisoner's wife. He asked whether they had not got any more money, and the prisoner's wife went up to the bed-room with him, and she produced from between the bed and the mattress a bag, containing forty-five pounds in sovereigns and half-sovereigns. He also found an I O U for 10_l._, signed by a person named Merston, who proved that the prisoner lent him ten sovereigns upon it, and that he was paying him interest.

It was also proved that before the robbery the prisoner had only been in the receipt of a pound a week, and that he was in very poor circumstances; and it appeared that after he was discharged he had purchased two houses in Maidstone, for which he paid 350_l._, and the payment was wholly in sovereigns and half-sovereigns. Further it was shown, that the prisoner had taken the grocer's shop and had paid a considerable sum for good-will and stock in trade, without having any means to do so, except, as was suggested, by that of having committed the robbery.

Mr. Sergeant Shea made a powerful address to the jury on behalf of the prisoner, and said that the sole evidence by which it was sought to convict him of the crime imputed to him was his being in possession of an amount of money which the prosecutors chose to consider he could not have been possessed of by his own means. The learned counsel said, however, that he hoped to be able to satisfy the jury that the money the prisoner had spent was his own property.

Some witnesses were then called for the purpose of showing that at the various elections in the borough sums of money had been given to the prisoner, and it was elicited that a vote was always worth something, and one witness went so far as to say that he considered his vote worth 15_l._

Several other witnesses were examined, but although it was admitted that money had been given to the prisoner in sums of 8_l._ and 10_l._ at different times, the witnesses said the money was only given out of charity, and the evidence did not in the slightest degree show a probability of the prisoner being lawfully in the possession of the money he had expended.

Lord Denman then summed up the evidence, and went through the whole of it in the most careful and impartial manner, and concluded by leaving the case in the hands of the jury, who, after a short deliberation, returned a verdict of "Guilty."

The learned judge, addressing the prisoner, said that no person who had heard the evidence adduced could doubt, for a moment, that he was guilty of the offence imputed to him. It was a very serious one, and he felt himself called upon to pass a severe sentence. His lordship then ordered him to be transported for fourteen years.

JAMES INGLETT.

CONVICTED OF MANSLAUGHTER.

The case of this unfortunate person excited considerable interest in the vicinity of the place where it occurred, as well on account of the peculiar circumstances by which it was surrounded, as of the great age and high respectability of character of the accused. Inglett at the time of his trial had attained the age of ninety-four years; he was indicted at the Huntingdon assizes on the 19th of March 1841, for feloniously killing and slaying one Elizabeth Harlett, by administering to her a quantity of arsenic.

The very venerable person who stood charged with this offence had for many years carried on the business of farmer and "cow-leech," and in the latter character was in the habit of administering medicines to various kinds of cattle. His great age and his long acquaintance with the healing art had caused him to be regarded with much respect among the simple people of his neighbourhood, where his character had been unexceptionable. The deceased, who lived in the village of Houghton, near Huntingdon, was taken ill during the year 1840, and the parish apothecary used all his art to restore her to health, but in vain. About Christmas the prisoner was called in to see her, and he immediately administered to her a dose of liquid medicine, which made her very sick, and caused her great suffering, but she got better after taking it; and on the morning of the day when the fatal potion was given to her by the prisoner, she was, as her sister said, "quite purely." On the morning of Monday the 11th of January, the prisoner called to see her; as soon as he had left the house, one of her sisters saw standing on the mantel-piece of the room in which the deceased was sitting a cup full of a similar medicine to that which he had before administered to her, and which had made her so sick and ill. When, three or four hours afterwards, this sister went again into the room, she found the deceased very unwell, and the cup standing empty on the table. The deceased got much worse towards night, and from that time till her death she was constantly sick, and suffered excruciating pain, with almost intolerable thirst. Early on Wednesday morning, January the 13th, having taken some opium pills, she fell into a quiet doze, and soon afterwards death put an end to her sufferings, and she woke no more. No suspicion was then entertained of her having died any other than a natural death, and in due time she was buried. When she had been ten days in the earth, however, various rumours got abroad respecting the cause of her death; and the county coroner directed the body to be exhumed, and a jury to be summoned. Two surgeons examined the disinterred body, and found it in a generally healthy state, the organs being sound and free from disease, but the stomach and bowels were much inflamed; and the jury returned a verdict that she had died from the incautious and improper administering by the prisoner of "a certain noxious, inflammatory, and dangerous thing to the jurors unknown;" and the old man was committed to prison for manslaughter.

At the time of the inquest the nature of the "thing" to which the verdict referred in terms so vague had not been ascertained; but the contents of the stomach of the deceased were preserved, and afterwards subjected to the usual tests of the presence of arsenic. Ammoniacal sulphates of copper and of silver, and sulphuretted hydrogen gas, were applied to the contents of the stomach, and the green and yellow precipitates, indicating the presence of arsenic, followed. In addition to this, the one infallible test, the reproduction of the arsenic itself, left no doubt that the deceased had taken that dreadful poison shortly before her death. It appeared by the evidence of a chemist's shopman, that three or four months before, the prisoner bought of him an ounce of arsenic, but as he was in the habit of using that drug in the manufacture of his cattle ointments, the purchase excited no suspicion at the time. In order to show that it was the prisoner by whom or by whose direction the poison was administered, it was proved that on the morning of the death of the deceased he called at the house in which she had breathed her last, and a conversation ensued between the relatives of the unfortunate woman and himself, in which he almost in terms admitted that the fact was so. After some introductory matters, a sister of the deceased told him "it was his 'stuff' that had killed her;" to which he replied, "that could not be, for he had only given her half a grain, whereas he had given his own son, and others, a grain and more, without any harm." The sister rejoined, "Then it was too strong for her stomach;" to which the prisoner answered, "Like enough, poor thing! for her stomach was almost gone." This, and his observation on the day of her funeral, that "he would not for 20_l._ have given her anything if he had known it, for he'd rather have done her good than harm," constituted the evidence on which the prosecutor relied for proof of his having been the hand which administered or the advice which directed the arsenic. The family of the deceased spoke very favourably of his kindness and attention to her in her illness.

The Lord Chief-Justice Tindal told the jury that they must first satisfy themselves whether, in point of fact, the deceased had died from the taking of arsenic, and whether the prisoner had administered it. If they were satisfied of those two facts, they would then have to say whether the prisoner had conducted himself so rashly and with such gross negligence as made him liable to an indictment for manslaughter. The question was, whether, in reference to the nature of the remedy he applied, he acted with a due degree of care and caution, or whether he acted with rashness and gross negligence. If they were of opinion that he acted with gross negligence and want of due and proper caution, he was in point of law guilty of the crime with which he was charged upon this indictment.

The jury consulted together for some time, and then returned a verdict of "Guilty."

The Lord Chief-Justice in passing sentence observed, that the ends of justice would be answered by the responsibility to which the prisoner had subjected himself being generally known. If any person presumed to administer medically a deadly poison, being grossly ignorant of its character and effects, or with rash negligence in its use, and death ensued, he would be liable to be convicted of the offence of manslaughter. Such a person might have no evil intention, and indeed might be actuated by a desire to alleviate the sufferings of a fellow-creature, but it behoved him to proceed with caution and care. At the time of life at which the prisoner had arrived, it would be useless cruelty to inflict upon him a severe punishment; and as he had been already in jail during six weeks, the court would sentence him to a further imprisonment of fourteen days only.

The old man, who appeared to possess his mental and physical powers almost unimpaired, paid great attention to the case as it proceeded. His respectful demeanour, silvery hair, and mild countenance, secured for him considerable compassion in court, which was strongly increased by the sorrow depicted in his countenance for the deed, of which he had been so unwittingly guilty, and his known reputation for amiability of disposition.

THE END.

PRINTED BY J. S. VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED, CITY ROAD, LONDON.

Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:

pronouncesd the word=> pronounced the word {pg 22}

that the ngay city=> that then gay city {pg 30}

near the Edgware-road=> near the Edgeware-road {pg 35}

I have nohing more to say=> I have nothing more to say {pg 44}

same i dec nt levity=> same indecent levity {pg 45}

as as well as Thistlewood=> as well as Thistlewood {pg 45}

an innoffensive, gentlemanly man=> an inoffensive, gentlemanly man {pg 53}

articles of linendrapery=> articles of linen drapery {pg 61}

short of Edgware=> short of Edgeware {pg 77}

men were still alseep=> men were still asleep {pg 87}

atached to Bow-street=> attached to Bow-street {pg 130}

acording to circumstances=> according to circumstances {pg 168}

ocasionally procured=> occasionally procured {pg 168}

bronght to the scaffold=> brought to the scaffold {pg 183}

of the blody knife=> of the bloody knife {pg 188}

accessary to the murder=> accessory to the murder {pg 247}

coming down to Penydarran=> coming down to Penydarren {pg 258}

mukets of the Highlanders=> muskets of the Highlanders {pg 259}

its intended supension=> its intended suspension {pg 354}

of Cook and Joblings=> of Cook and Jobling {pg 355}

gentleman mamed Canning=> gentleman named Canning {pg 389}

immediatly afterwards=> immediately afterwards {pg 391}

under-gamekepers=> under-gamekeepers {pg 397}

witnesses at Maidstone, Chlemsford=> witnesses at Maidstone, Chelmsford {pg 403}

in order to made room=> in order to make room {pg 434}

in which the innnocent=> in which the innocent {pg 492}

controul and direction=> control and direction {pg 518}

and a detachmant of the 45th foot=> and a detachment of the 45th foot {pg 518}

of the Welch Oak=> of the Welsh Oak {pg 527}

your lordship should bear in mind=> your lordships should bear in mind {pg 613}

the property of Alexander Howder=> the property of Alexander Howden {pg 624}

a police was effected on goods=> a policy was effected on goods {pg 625}

had atained the age=> had attained the age {pg 634}

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