The National Register. — London, England, 1812-03-22 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER. 181 MARCII 422. se w charging a pistol, after he went out ; nor, according to her own ac count, had she any other way of identifying his person, than those above described. She stated the mischief to be done in 20 or 22 minutes, which makes the ending of the time 12 minutes after eight; and that ('tenet returned in 20 minuses after, on pretence of looking at the r u ins; and said, if Ned had not done his work well, he was come to com clete it; when she said, you rogue, you are come again ? you are not the man you was Annie time ago ; to which he replied, I have not been here before,—you have, said she, for I know you right well ! She then said, that his head wr.,s wet, as if he had been washing himself; that black streaks were visible from his ears to his chin; and that she said, you have been to the upper pump to wash yon, and you are not now disguised. • John Braithwaite was called, who stated his fears and surprise at seting thirteen men rush into his shop, when himself, apprentices, and ourneyman were at work ; in particular when he saw them all dis t;g3red, with • hammers in their hands, except one, who carried a 11.tchet. To his arguments about full price, and full-fashioned work, they returned reproaches upon himself, and blows upon his frames ; and on being taken out of the shop, according to the wife's desire, he was tlrased over the chair by the collar, as he believed by Carnet, whose face he knew, through the mask being turned aside in the scuffle, though he was not well acquainted with him, and who, he believed gave him a stroke over the shoulder with a hammer, which had caused a lameness in his arm ever since. Of Maples' person he knew nothing, though he stoke 3; to Camel coming to his house a second time, as described in h k ls wile's evidence. The prisoners were charged with burglary, for entering a dwelling house, as the Juiges said, after the light of heaven bad ceased to enable one man to distinguish the features of another, and stealing thereout two files, one rasp, two pair of pliars, and a hand-vice, as well as for Elonionsly breaking the stocking-frames. But here Serjeant Rough put it as a qu,:stion to the Judge, whether, to constitute a theft, the inlen rinit of tnievinz was nut necessary to be proved ? To this opinion the Judge assented ; and it was his opinion that the frame-breakers had no °d m . object in view than that of breaking frames. He wished the Jury to divest their minds of that part of tile charge which related to tealing the articles named above, in particular as nothing of the kind had been found upon the premises or persons of the prisoners. On the cross-examination of this witness by Mr. Copley, he admitted that the frame-breakers were so disguised, that he did not know any of ; that some of the candles were knocked out, and that while they rmained all was bustle and confusion. John Griffith and Burrows, two constables, deposed, that they seized and searched Maples on the 4th of Janti.:ry, and found upon his r:iim a pistol and some flints, which were produced in Court. Mrs. Braithwaite, however, believed that the pistol then produced was not the one she had seen in the possession of Maples ; and he said his father hid lent it him to shoot sparrows with some months ago, who had found it in a particular place in the parish of Wollaton, which he described. The evidence on the part of the Crown being closed, the Prisoners were called upon for their defence (it being, according to the declaration of the Judge, contrary to the practice of Courts of Justice, in cases of fe tiny, fur the Defendant's Counsel to address the Jury in an harrangue), when Camel declared that Mrs. Braithwaite had made a different state ment before the Magistrates at the time of his commitment to what she had done then, respecting his treatment of her husband at the time the frames were broken; and, on her re-examination, she admitted, that instead of Camel " nudging" her husband with a manner, he had, she b , :lieved, ken the means of saving his life. The Judge noted this cir cumstance deern in his book, and said it would stand in Camel's favour iuother day, l ats riding he was then found guilty. On the part ut Maples, who is a bricklayer by trade, it was severally stated on oath, by Sarah Rawson, Ann Rawson, and Joseph Rawson, that he, on the evening the frames were broken, was at the house of the latter, front a quarter before seven o'clock until past twelve; that he had sever been off the said premises during the whole time, nor out of the !Ink , more than front two to fl ve minutes, and then not out of the hear ing of them ;01; and that front hall-past seven to eleven, he was busily engaged in I, vhitt-washing a room. In the cross examination of these Witnesses, they differed a little in their testimonies as to who supped toe tether after the white-washing was done, and whether beer or water Was used as beverage at their supper ; but all agreed in stating the white washing was not finished till eleven o'clock. Francis Syson, a man of property, in Basford, made oath, that Car was at his house on business from half-past six till ten minutes be iinre tight the night the frames were broken ; and that then they should , I,ot have p arte d had not the witness been going out ; and that he saw .", e Pri7lll , :r again a littl e b e f ore nine.—Richard Clay, journeyman to :tll r: Walker. blacksmith, in Basford, made oath that he saw Carpel ei;:it o'cl oc k the same evening at his master's shop, who here tn get a hobbin w i re m a d e ; an d t h a t h e stopped there at Tree quarter.; of an hour that there was some ale drank in the . r i 2 ""rili i: ll the time.—John e.Thamberlain and George Chamberlain, 12i. a n d 5 ,, , • tanners in Flasfurd, made oath that they were at Wal- Here ')) along with Camel from eight till a quarter before nine o'clock. m „. 1 ,) w 'th the exception of what related to character. which was to the c • redtt of both the prisoners, the whole of the evidence . a nd the Learn e d %size, in delivering his chaise to the Jury, that notwithstanding tits time had been apprei . Aly so connec , tively ar counted fee on the part of the prisoners, during the space in which the frames were stated to have been broken, yet it was very ,pos sible for these persons to have been deceived in the t ime t o th e ex t e nt o f 1 15 or 20 minutes, and especially in the _case of Camel, because they Lad measured the time rather by the occurrences of the evening, than by the accurate movements of a time-piece; and this rendered it very possible for Cernel to have been at the scene of action. After a patient hearing of six hours, the Jury returned a verdict of. Not Guilty for Maples, and Guilty of Frame-breaking against Carnet; when his Lordship desired them to re-consider their verdict, and pointed out to them the impropriety of disuniting the burglarious entry into the house from the act of simple felony, occasioned by breaking the frames. All the alteration, however, which the Jury chose to make, was that of uniting Maples with Carnel, and finding them both Guilty of Frame breaking only, thus doing away the capital part of the charge.--The verdict being recorded, his Lordship addressed the prisoners in a most solemn and eepressive manner. He deeply lamented, that two youi; g men, whose characters, till then, Lad stood unimpeached, should have so far forgotten their duty to themselves and the laws of their country, as to let their misguided zeal, and the evil councils of others, older, and possessing more corrupt heerts than themselves, ever have led them into so perilous a situation ; a situation which would have been femora perilous, if the burglarious part of the charge had been found against them ; for in that ease, as in the present, he should have felt Einself constrained, for the sake of example, in order to put an end to such disgraceful outrages, to have exerted the full authority of the 1 .w ; nor did he know but he should have ordered it to have been cecried it to execution. As it now stands, the extent of file power was to order them to be transported for Fourteen rears, to any part of his Majesty's foreign settlements to which his Majesty's Privy Council might direct; which sentence he accordingly proteuunced. At the same time he gave them to understand, if they behaved themselves, and tl:e tumults in the neigi- Lourhood ceased, they might expect the hand of mercy to be extended towards them, in lessening their punishment. Robert Foley, aged 16, charged with frame-breaking at Sutton-in-A sh field, on the 13th of November Lest, was next brought to the bar, and pleaded guilty; in consequence of marks of contrition, the Judge sen tenced him to seven years transportation. After which, Joseph Peck, aged 17, was brought up, and pleaded not guilty. - The first witness called was Francis Betts, hosier and chapman, at Sutton-in-Ashfield, who stated, that on the 13th of November, 1811, in the afternoon, four or five men approached his house, and asked his per mission to break his frames, to which solicitation', as might naturally be expected, he refused his consent. lie then saw a .multhude approach, armed with sticks ; and on a gun being tired, he heard'a•great shwa for the hanunermen to come up, Who entered his house, and fi om the noise he heard, he supposed they were breaking his frames, He then fled for his own personal safety; and on his return, he found ware than twenty frames broken, and same of his ivrisehould furniture. Dennis Horsecroft stated that he resides at Kirkby, and remembcrei OR the day stated in the indictmeet to hare seen from 5 to Goo men, armed with guns, axes, hatchets, mauls, etc. proceed towards Sutton ; and having accompanied them thither, he saw a cumber of frames cast out of Mr. Bete* window into the street, where the pri soner among others, was using his utmost endeavours to demolish them with an iron bar, and heard him call out to his contradee," d----n your eyes smash aAray." lie knew the prieoher from a thild, and bad no doubt as to the identity of his person. T. Chadwick was next sworn ; end he stated, that on the 13th of November, he saw a great number of persons assembled at Kirkby, and followed them from lucre curiosity to Sutton-in-Ashfield. when he saw the prisoner, armed with a stick or bludgeon, stand by a man who was breaking a frame with a hammer. The prisoner, on being called upon for his defence, s.:id that Horsecroft struck the frames as well as himself. The Judge, in his charge to the Jury, stated, that in a lawless ItAnTil bly, the act of one person became the act of the whole. The Jury im mediately found the prisoner Guilty ; and the Judge, in passing sen tence of transportation -upon hint for the term of Fourteen i:at.l, re marked the simplicity of the prisoner's defence ; pitied his youth, and gave him hopes of mercy on the ground named to Camel and May:les. On Wednesday morning, John Osborne, Frame work-knitter, aged .29, of Heanor, in the County of Derby, was arraigned at the bar on a double inelictment for burglary and fah. net. Sarah Wild being sworn, stated, that she resides at Eastwood, in this County, in a house occupied by herself aid her mother; remembered having seen the prisoner at the bar pass her mother's ho , :se, with about twenty others, on the sth of last February, and heard h:ut say " d—n them, (meaning some Hussars who were guareing a waggon load of frames to Nittittehain,) they durst not fire—we are all Ned I,u,ld's men ;" but, said witness, you have not yfeur hammer-men with you--- yes, we carry them out of sight, and shall mine thib way at Digi.t ; Lave you got a coalpick to lend me, to which her mother replied yes. She went to bed before ten at night but was ;:wakelied out of her sleep by some thorns scratching at the window; heard nothing said, salted sv'io was there, when the prisoner asked if a colt worked there, te which she answered uo. Let nee in, or I will break the door open ; to which she step till I dress me, and I will ; but instead of doing this, she alartned her brother, who lived in the next house., by rapping against the partition wall with her tongs. She further stated, that the prisoner :beta ran round the house, and forced the window in, against which ~5, N{