Star. — London, England, 1823-08-21 00:00:00

1 i !. cannot you tell that ?—I really cannot ssy bow I stood with such particularity. why, you were in your .wiles at the time, Mr. Horrocks , were you not?—Yes, I think I was. How many seconds then passed before you took up the cleaver can't you say that ?-11alf a dozen, perhaps. • Did you you to take it up ?—I made all the hastio I could. Did you sun, or walk, or .fly ? You did not fly, I suppose, so you can say whether you ran or. walked ?-1 went as quick as I could. Did not your hand tremble, as you took up the cleaver?— Yes, it might. Could I not have rescued it from you if I pleased T—l think you would have had great difficulty in getting it from me after I hltd got it in my hands. How did you hold it then in your hands? —I really dannot say ; but I held it. Then you were, perhaps out of your mind ?—I think not. And yet you are describing what you say I did : did I make any attempt whatever to rescue that clea ver from you ?—I think you did. Did f not stand before you sane time before you took up that cleaver ?—I do not think you did. Speak positively, Mr. Horrocks, don't say you think ?—I don't believe you did stand still. As you say you were in your senses at the time, can't you speak positively, ?dr. Horrocks, yes or no?-1 can only say I think you did not. Did I not stay some time before you, when you took up the cleaver, without attacking you ?—Very few seconds. A dozen seconds?— No. half a dozen, Mr. Horrocks?—l cannot say. Four seconds, Sir ?—I cannot say. I do not think it was more than four seconds. A very short time was not that to look about for another weapon ? —lt was certainly a very little space of time. When you say I shifted my position, as if to get at the cleaver when it fell, how did I move, was it this way or that way ? (The prisoner accompanied the interrogation by suitable gestures) —Your body stooped, as I thought. Did my feet shift, I have said 'yours did?—l don't know. Then you mean to say you saw all my body move, but not my feet ?—I have spoken of what I saw. On your oath did I walk or run off, when I struck you—tell what I did—did I run ?—I think you ran. How far was I from you when you say you saw me run ? Five yards, perhaps. Perhaps less?—Perhaps so; I cannot speak to a yard. I walked first, and then I ran?-1 think you did not walk tnore than three yards before you ran. If I were a man wanting to commit wilful murder, could I rot have got away much sooner?—l don't think you could. Perhaps I could not an hour sooner have got away? The remainder of the cross-examination of Mr. Horrocks by the prisoner was immaterial. Although it occupied considerable time, it entirely turned upon whether he had opened the gate of Mr. Miller's ground inwards or outwards? The prisoner said he had opened it inwards, thereby indicating that he had not gone out in a great hurry, when the fact was, that the gate opened either way, according to the impulse given to it by the person passing. The prisoner then referred to the Preston Chronicle of the 2d of August, which described him as having evinced no sign of feeling when he was brought be fore Mr. Hot-rocks, in his bed-loom, but quite the contrary ; and had reiterated his determination, when Mr. Horrocks said he had no ill will to him, and re joined, that he would rather have seen Mr. Horrocks a corpse; and he asked Mr. Horrocks—" Did I ex press any such feeling in your bed-room, or did you towards me?" • Mr. Horrocks—" You did not, nor did I say anything of the kiud." Pr isoner—" And 'yet, my Lord, the Preston Chronicle has said all this, which is false." Mr. justice 11.4vLEY.--." We are not trying you for anything which is said in the Preston Chronicle, and there is no necessity of dwelling upon that. Prisoner—" i only wish to ask Mr. Horrocks whether what is there inserted is true ?" Mr. IlorroCks—" Certainly not." Ann Johnson and Tho.nas Heald examined by Mr. STARKIE, and cross-examined by the prisoner, de posed, that after the attack on Mr. Horrocks, when pursued, stopped of his own accord, and said " Take me, take me!" Edward Leyland gave evidence as to the above fact, and that of the prisoner declaring afterwards, that had he been able to procure pistols he would have shot both Mr. Miller and Mr. Horrocks. Thomas Walton, the constable of Preston, produced the cleaver (a common butcher's one), and the clothes and hat worn on the day in question by Mr. Horrodks. The hat and clothes were here identified by Mr. llorrocks, they were covered with blood. " The prisoner told me," said the constable, " when I asked him if he were not sot; y for what he had done, that he was not sorry at all." Dr. St. Clare, the medical attendant upon Mr. Horrocks, said, that he was called to attend that Gen tleman on the• 27th of July, at one o'clock in the day. He found he had a very severe wound at the back of his head. It was cut about an inch and a half in length, and through the scalp or skin that covers the skull, and an artery had been divided.— The outer plate of the bone of the skull had been pe netrated by the instrument which had inflicted the wound, and there was a great deal of local swelling. Upon the lift arm there were four wounds, two cuts, and two bruised wounds, and these was another in side the left hand. Here the Doctor looked at the 'cleaver, and said that it was such an instrument as was calculated to inflict these wounds, and also to inflict a mortal wound. Mr. Richard Palmer, Solicitor, examined.—When the prisoner was shewn the letter in Mr. Horrocks' bed-chamber, he was asked by one of the gentlemen present when he sent it ? his reply was, " Look at the yost-mark." At the House of Correction, on the Tuesday, he was asked why he had not sharpened the cleaver; and his answer was, he was afraid that the people might have suspected something . if he had dene so ; and his allusion was understood to apply to Ins father and mother, with whom he resided. At the conclusion of the examination of one of the witnesses, he was asked if it was correct? and the prisoner an swered—" Yes, it is true; I tried to split his skull." Id his cross-examination, Mr. Palmer admitted that the prisoner had newer exulted in what he had done while in the bed-chamber of Mr. Horrocks, as stated in a provincial paper. The Prisoner.—llid I not complain of not baring justice done to me ; that my neckcloth was taken away, and my braces Yes, you did ; and Mr. Travers, the Magistrate, said, " You. *sisal; have justice done to you, my man." A chair was then got for you, and you seemed com fortable. What were the words I used when speaking of Mr. Miller? —That you would shoot him. Was I not agitated thee ?—No; you did not appear so; you seemed quite cool and collected. The case fur the prosecution being here closed, the prisoner was asked by Mr. Justice BAYLEY what he had to say in his defence? He replied, " My Lord, I have a good deal to say; but I wish to ask when I can begin? Can I begin at the time when the first thought struck me, or can 1 begin when the act was done ? Mr. Justice BAUM—You "twist not advise with me a you have your own Counsel, and you can con sult with him. Do so, and- then you will be better prepared to enter upon your deence ? Prisoner.—My Lord, all I with to know is Can I begin my defence at the point of time I like? The Counr.—certainly you can.; consult with your Counsel, and take your own time. Pr isoner.—Then,. Gentlemen, I shalllell you the whole thing from the beginning.. The Prisoner.—" Then, my Lord, these are the facts:—The first time that the thought entered my head' of injuring Mr. Horrocks, was at the time of the last tuin-out (two years ago), and ever since it has gained a footing in my mind. At that time I did not even know Mr. Horrocks or Mr. Miller per sonally, but I made every inquiry afterwards to see who they were, and the result was that they were the sole cause of the falling off (in wages). All my in quiries ended in that. I then spunfor. .Mt. Kay ; we used often to ask his manager, viho really had re duced the wages 10 per cent.? His invariable answer was, that Mr. Horrocks was the man who bad done so at the Masters Meeting ;he said Mr. Kay and Mr. Pa ley had objected to the reduction, but still it was done. The prisoner then stated that he, with several others, had struck for wages, and were out three weeks ; and that when they offered • to go back, Mr. Kay refused to give work to two of them, on account of their being idle and drunken fellows. A third man was equally sent out—his name was Hodgon, and he, too, was called idle and drunken, although I solemnly believe he had not (whatever was the case with the other two, for I'll say nothing of that) tasted liquor for five months. I don't mean to say that at one time he was not fond of liquor, but the Methodists (1 am not one of them) got him like, and he dropped the liquor, and he told me he would try how his body would fare without it for a year, and he was so try ing, . notwithstanding this charge against him. I never saw him taste for months a second plot of beer, and as to spirituous liquors, I know lie did not taste them. I came forward to Mr. Kay and said this, which was true of the man at the present time, and Mr. Kay taunted me by saying, " Oh, I suppose he gave you *more than your ;hare of the subscription-money at the meetings, or else an extra glass of ale and grog." It was in this was Mr. Kay wanted to make Hodgon out a drunkard, and me a rogue; and this was doing at a time when the masters had themselves, although they were complaining of combination, met, and I believe taken a solemn oath to stand together; at all events they had agreed and signed under a pe nalty of £3OO (which I understand in some in stances has been paid by masters nut agreeing.) This agitated me—it confuied me—l knew not what to do for justice. I prayed to GOD, sometimes on my knees before I went to bed, sometimes after I had laid down, (I always pray eisher the one way or the other uightly), to direct me how I ought to act in this case. I never injured any man. I did not wish to murder, or to harm any individual, having no desire for injustice : but I could hardly sleep with this thought, and I awoke before five o'clock in the morning. The thing still stayed in my mind ever since. It is false to say that I said 1 would shoot him, my ex pression was, that I might shoot him. I thought that people who treated the workmen in the manner I have said, deserved something. This was in the month of April of the turn-out (1821). I was then, and had been for some time, working with Mr. Kay. The prisoner .said he had been discharged by Mr. Kay ; he then described his peregrinations for the re mainder of that and the fallowing year (1822) at the different manufactories at Manchester, Warrington, &c. which was desultory and immaterial. I fell sick at Manchester, in the spring of this year, and returned home. It is true I did bid for pistols at an auction room, but, really why, I cannot tell. I did not buy them for want of money , although if I really wanted the money, I could have had it. The thought was still in my head of the ill-treatment of the men by the masters ; I could not get rid of it. It made me spoil my work ; I could not work as I did formerly ; the idea always kept possession of me, and I used to be thinking of it as 1 worked, and that was the reason I could not work as before, for spinning requires con stant close attention. What did I want with pistols ? I never fired one in my life ; I have fired a gun. I wanted to punish or revenge upon the masters who did the injury personally ; but murder, or intent to murder, was out of my head—that is all false. I have not told you my strong reason for wishing to punish them, and •I shall tell you as short as I can. Well, the three men I have already named were tried at the Sessions, punished with two months' imprison ment in the House of Correction, where one of them now is; and, although very poor, they were con demned to pay from £2O to £5O, the costs of their prosecution. It was my determination never to do anything like a coward. Whatever I did was to be done in the face of day, and under the eye of the world. I determined to attack Mr. Horrocks as the cause of the evil, but how to do it was the question. I first thought of merely striking him with" a stick; then I thought I wouldpnly hit him a slap with my fist—but theu, considered I, for that I shall only be brought before the Sessions at Preston, where justice 1 shall have none, as .he is a rich man, and I a poor workman: it was that reflection which induced me to strike him with some weapon, which, while it cut him, would not risk his life. Neverthelesd knew I should be tried for crime—for the act ; but then, said I, it will be before the County, at Lancaster, where a hearing I shall have, and an opportunity to expose the oppression and injustice of these masters. He then enteted into a description of the particular imprisonment of the workmen whose namer he had meutioned.—This treatment of my fellow-workmen' enraged me very much, and I thought it called for and deserved revenge in some way, for the-wrongs it inflicted upon my fellow -creatures. I saw no jus tice for the poor man, though I had often heard that the law was equal for the poor and the rich. With this feeling strong on my mind, I took out the cleaver,' net meaning to kill, but to cut. I went to church, thinking 1 should see there Mr. Miller, with the Cor-' poration. I did not . expect to meet Mr. Horrgeks, tor I had heard he was confined to his bed, and sta, bad, indeed, as to have made his will. I felt the cleaver, and found it was not sharp. I said this won't kill, it will merely cut or bruise. It was what I wanted ; for I really meant to do him some bodily harm, but not to kill or murder. Finding, on, going to church, that Mr. Miller was not there,l came away, and on the church-terrace I met Mr. Horrocks. I was sarPrilidt• and to be sure it teas Man, I pushed a little before him on tug terrace; and on satisfying myself fb t ot he was the mob, I theiltelloNved him, but without air certain purpose. It , isrue, Oat I know. very well *hat I have. dune, but I o:not know wbopj at the time I meant to have don ,'Wbee we 001 nearly together at Mr. Miller's gate, I struct at Min behind, not meaning, to hi[ Tani on the tact of - thr head, but only on the shoulder; however, he was hit on the head, though I did: not mean -it. Yea lams, heard from_ him:what I did. I don't deny it; but, after what I have told you, it is for you to say 'whe ther I am guilty of murder—whether I meant to sa crifice any, man, al I am described to have meant in that indictment. My Lord, and Gentlemen, I shall trouble you no further, but to thank you, which I sincerely do, for the kind and patient hearing you have given me." The ptisoner in a few seconds said, " I beg par don, my Lord, but can I see the cleaver ? all I want is to see if it is now in the same condition as when I had it ?" The recollection of the violent threats imputed to the prisoner, here elicited a murmur against the pro duction of the instrument in the manner the prisoner 'required, from the closely packed crowd, Barristers, end others, who, from the state of the,Court, were enclosed in the small space in front of the dock. Mr. Justice BAYLEY here held up the cleaver on the Bench, and said—" Prisoner, can you see it in my hand ? You have certainly a right to be satisfied in your own way of the, point you seek to know, and you shall be so satisfied ; but the constable says, it is exactly in the same state as when he got it." The prisoner begged his Lordship's pardon, but said he really could not see the edge at that distance. Mr. Justice BAYLEY.—" Then let it be shewn to him; he can see it without having it in his hands." The cleaver was then brought by the Attorney. for the prosecution dose to the prisoner, to the evident uneasiness of the good folks in front of the dock, more than one of whom held up their hands to catch some part of it, as if the Solicitor's grasp was likely to be forced. Others at a more convenient distance evinced more confidence, and called out to let the prisoner see it. He merely looked at the edge, without attempting to put his hands upon the instrument as he might have done, and said, " I really, my Lord, without meaning to charge anyboiy, think it looks sharper than when I had it—perhaps I am wrong." The constable reiterated his declaration that it was exactly the same as when he got it. Mr.JoNzs, for the prisoner, here informed the Court, that he was prepared with witnesses as to the state of the prisoner's mind. The first was prisoner's mother. Elizabeth Riding, examined by Mr. JoNE.s.—Her husband's name was Thomas, and they were the pa rents of the prisoner, who will be 23 years of age next March. When he was quite a young boy, he had always a very bad head-ache, and a kind of singing in his head : this spewed itself when he was about twelve years old, and continued off and on. He had a fever about five years ago, it lasted for a fortnight, and after that his head became worse, and the fever was the beginning of the deafness which he had since laboured under. He often changed his places of work, and was quite unsettled. Since last May he was very ill, and very unsettled, and his father, except for five weeks after that he got work, had to support him : his spirits were very down sometimes, and at others very high. There was a house of recovery for fevers in Preston, and also a poor-house; and he asked me if I could get him into one or the other of these places, where he said he would be taken care of, for he really was in such a state in his head that he neither knew what he said nor did ; this he frequently repeated,but particularlyon the Saturday, the day previous to bis doing this deed. When his brother came in on that Saturday, about twelve o'clock, at dinner time, the prisoner was playing with a sharp knife, and running his hand over the edge. His brother told him to put it down, for he was like as if he was silly. He then got into a great rage, like a person out of his senses, and said that his brother Thomas would never let him alone; and he jumped up and would have struck him, had - I not stepped between them. I prevailed on him to lie down upon the bed up stairs. Some time afterwards I went up stairs; I saw that he had hold of the blan kets twirling them : they were twisted lite a rope; and on my asking him the reason, he said he was driving out the fleas. I would not leave him until I got him down stairs, for I was afraid of his doing himself some harm. He was then very low and dell, and I talked to him for two hours about not fretting him self so ; and he laughed and cried alternately. He slept at home that night beside our bed, for the man who was in another bed (a lodger) said he could not sleep with him, for he used to whistle and sing so in the night, and in consequence we were, for the fort night before, obliged to get a bed next ours for him. On the Sunday morning (the 27th) he came down stairs at nine o'clock, and said he wanted his shirt, for he was going to Church. The Church service at Preston begids at half-put ten 'o'clock. He said on that morning he was quite well. Here the prisoner, who had been attentively watch ing his motile' for some time, exclaimed—" What is all this—why do you swear falsely ?" Mr. Justice BAYLEY—Prisoner, you must not inter rupt your mother's testimony. You know she is your own witness. The Prisoner—My witness! my Lord, she is no such thing. I want truth, and she is speaking falsely. I don't say that she is doing it with intent, but still she is doing it. ....Mr. Justice BAYLEY—Prisoner, she is your witness, for she has been called in your behalf by your Coun sel, - and you must not-go on in this manner. Trust to the discretion of your Counsel. The Prisoner—My Lord, if this is the way to go , on, my Counsel is false.: I don't want him. • Mr. Justice BA YLEY.-.•&011 a inosaent, prism* ; attend to •.• • . 1 . I'. " • The Prisoner--My Lord, I shallshe4 stop, if I IMIO I III allowed to cross-examine her. Mr. Justice Baytax---Prisoner, you casupt be al lowed to cross-examine your own witness. If you, however, object to ypur Mother's testimony, it is my duty to inform yott that you have ii . right to make that objection. Is it now, then—and consider it calmly before you answer—your wish that your mo ther should be stopped here? If it is, I shall have to strike out all she has said (some of which is meant to make in your favour), as if it never was delivered in Court The Prisoner—Then, my Lord, I wish it all struck ont, because it is false, and I must contradict her. My father will contradict her. She talks of insanity :(looking at her with go eat earnestness), who is not of herself. My father told me in the gaol, that the is not of her own mind. Mr. Justice BAYLEY.—Do you wish her esamina tiodito be continued ? . Thr le mildness and suavity of the Judge, in, ad dressing the prisoner, made an eviderit idifftesstOn • upon him, and . his manner, which was previously ex cited and'impassioned, became more calm, and 'he' replie.l, " I really beg pardon, my Lord, but she went on at such a rate, that I could not but stop her —pray allow me, if you please, my Lord, the cross-- examination." Mr. Justice BAYLEY.—lndeed I cannot. At length the order of proceeding was resumed, and the examination of the mother continued Si Counsel. She said—" He put on that morning two clean shit ts, one ever the other, and a clean pair of my stockings in addition to his own; lie blacked his shoes twice over ;• after he had finished and glossed them once, lie went over them again. He then rare up and down the house very quick, and I begged. him not to go to the church, but to accompany his brother to the chapel, where he would hear better. He then talked a great deal .of nonsense to disturb his brother, who was reading a book. I did not see him after until' lie was taken up. I thought he Mad drowned himself. IVe were very uneasy ahont-him on the Saturday, and followed him wherever he went. I kept my eye upon him all that day. Mk brother George died raving of a fever, and my son (the pri soner) was always like him. He was, like him, often low, deaf, nervous, and not right. In her cross-examination by Mr. STA REM, it came. out that Dr. St. Clare, who la as examined that day, had twice a week for the fortnight before the 27th of July, given her son medicine for his head. The prisoner den*d that he had any disease in the back of his head ; he had, now and then, a noise in his ears, the effect of two long walking journeys. The father, Thomas Riding, was then produced. Mr. Justice BAYLEY asked the prisoner if he had any objection to the examination of his father ? Prisoner.—No, for I believe him, my Lord, to be in - - his senses. • The father confirmed the mother's statement as to the attacks in the head, * which the prisoner was subject. He was convinced that from the Ist May to the 27th of July, the day of the misfortune, he had not one night's sleep. They feared the Satur day be • fore that he would have destroyed himself or some of the family. His mother watched him closely that day, for witness had bat one kg, having lost the other on board his Majesty's ship the Snake. Dr. St. Clare was here recalled, and asked by the Court whether the prisoner had el er applied to him for any remedy for any disorder? Witness recollected his applying to him on the 22d of July last, he then complained of head-ache and deafness, as well as ear ache. He had not particularly studied derangement of mind. From his feeling the pulse but oq two oc casions, he could not form any opinion of the probable state of his mind. Frequently a great deal of cunning . is practised by deranged persons. It was quite con sistent with considerable derangement to be conscious of knowing when they were doing wrong or right. When he saw the prisoner at the Magistrate's, his . mind was in a state of considerable excitement ; he manifested a complete apathy of every moral feeling, and that apathy, as far as he Could speak from so short an observation, was real and not assumed. CAsES - of delirium were distinct from cases of delusion. Witness thought the manner of the prisoner at the Dispensary, on the 22d of July, rather strange. Walton, the constable, was also recalled. He said that the prisoner, when taken, had two shirts on, which were clean ; he did not recollect his having, at the same time, two pair of stockings on his legs... Mr. Justice BAYLEY rose at seven o'clock to charge the Jury. He read the indictment against the pri soner, and pointed out that if it were established by proof, that he either wilfully cut, or by assaulting intended to cut'inid maim, and do some bodily harm to Mr. Horrocks, then the guilt was clearly established against him tinder the Act of Parliament.. Of the facts, and the mode and character of the attack, there could be but one opinion; and the only question then was, whether the prisoner was in a state of mind to distinguish at the time haadid the act, right from wrong, or in other words, to have a moral perception of the tendency of his actions? This was certainly a very nice inquiry, and nothing was more difficult than to discern between real and pretended insanity. —The Learned Judge then pointed out the various forms assumed by insanity, and the mannerin. which law viewed. the disease, as a protection from penal responsibility : he proceeded then, with great perspi cuity, to sum up the evidence in detail, and lift the • whole case to the Jury to form their opinion upon a mature consideration of the whole of the prisoner's conduct and condition. The Jury at nine o'clock retired, iod after twenty minutes consideration, returned a verdict of Guilty, but that the prisoner at the time was not of sound mind to know what he was about. Mr. Justice 13mtkey then said, that by a some Act of Parliament, for the safety of the King's subjects, a person in the condition of the prisoner must be detained in custody at the pleasure of his Majesty, to prevent his doing further mischief. The prisoner appeared calm, and returned thanks in a very distinct manner to the Judge and Jury, for their patient attention during his trial. • The trial lasted from nine o'clock in the morning 1 %31161 about half-past nine o'clock at night, the Court being, the whole time, crowded almost to suffocation. CHARLES MATHEWS has brought from America, with additional health and spirits, a budget of extra ' ordinary novelty, to which it is his intention to unfits his friends early in February neat. • ,WILLIAM JONES (late Walsh), Operative Chemist to his ROYAL HIGHNESS the DIME of YORS.—The Ottuantst. Cituomt SUDS hating for pearly thirty years been pstronfred by the Public, and reeoatmended by Medical Men of the fine ant• stance, their beneficial effects have become fully established ; coosequence of wiich, many sorts have been offered for sale of L a h : are therefore q pr ua ep lit al y, at uih ou ich lo h io as, gr in ea a t areas n u t t e : su n re, o bio r4o ugh lic t therefore informed, that they are prepared solely at tin Oriental Warehouse, No. 100, Strand, by succe.s wiLuam Jove', sor to the late Mr..Wai.su. Where are also to be had, Wawa • Dist mu. ni.t.,s—Doetua Mommay A PILLS , -.-WALSH'S GOUT CORDIAId-•-•ANCI Wira.ca's From.: Prva• The efficacy of these Medicines beiug universally kuusvu, revlres . tto recuni intniotion.