The Sun. — London, England, 1804-12-21 00:00:00

MIDDLZSEX ELICTION. TRIALS FOR PERJURY. Wedneßday a Meeting of the Friends of Mr. MAlNwAniNGWashefd at the Crown and Anchor; itsonsisted of between one hundred and fi fty and • two hundred Freeholders. Mr. H. THORNTON being called to the Chair, he began his address by alluding to what had passed at the antecedent Meeting, in which he had en. deavoured, as plainly and fairly as pdssible, to re. late the history of the two Middlesex Ele&ions up to that period. He then stated the grounds which bad, at that time, appeared for supposing the same system of perjury, which a Committee of the House of Commons had - declared to .prevail at the first Eldlion, to have prevailed also at the second, though reitrained, in some degree, by the late Sheriffs of Middlesex, and by the aftive exertions of the friends of Mr., MAINW AR INC, to prevent false votes train being admitted on the poll, exertions, indeed, of which Sir FRANCIS Ili/ R pErr's party had, vehemently complained. It would, probably, be agreeable to the Meeting now to carry forward the history of the contest up to the present moment. Since the last Meeting at the Freemason's Tavern, two indittments for perjury had been tried, in put. suance 'or the general intention then expressed, anti in each case a conviaion hatl taken place. Mr. '.THORNTON then proceeded briefly to explain the general nature, of each: the fi rst was, the K ing so. Thomas Price. . ' • . • , ' It appeared that Thomas Price voted on the se. coed day of .the eletlion, In the name of john Wright ; that he swore that he lived at No. 8, Bell. court, Gray's.lno.larte, where it was proved that he did not live ; and swore also, that he had a freelield in Nu. 8, .Belt.court, Gray's•lon.lane, which freehold he did not possess. It came out on this. trial; that Price . acknowledged, at' the Red Lion i in Brentford, before ten or twelve persons, all of whom, no doubt, Price considered to be en. gaged in Similar transadintis, that be had (as he termed it) 44 doer Ybe trick" for Sir Francis •Bur. dett. It further appeaccil in evidence, that he It ceived of Stephen Taylor, at, a public.heese in rine-street; eighteen shillings, in cow.lcleraticin of his having given his vote. At • this house a Cont. mittee of Sir Fttincis Burdett' appeared ro be sitting ; 1 Stephen Taylor, who paid him, commonly went by the name of the Recruiting Scrjeant. Price was ione of those forty persons whose names were posted op at the time of Ott Election, by the friends of Mr. .Mainwering (an - sta which had been much I complained of), and for . the detedion of whoin a reward had been offered: in, consequence , of his 1 being thus posted up and advertised, he again went (as appeared in evidence on this trial) to Stephen Taylor, his eniployer, from whom h e obtained the ' • further sum of two pounds, in order to bear his • expences in going out of the way ; end after this the further sum of one pound. The Jury without any hesitation had found hitn Gray. The CHAIRMAN observed, that one of the Wit. Messer, Britt, i n one p art of his cross.eximination I.'-(ray A raft, tsenteeet,- which wile irrelevant . to the i main question), either was perplexed, or was guilty or some degree of mia.statement, by affirming the. whole of a paper to be in his own hand.writiog, .of which some part was in; better kitnd than he seem. ed very wall able to write, and an endeavour hod been used to discredit the whole cause of Mr. MAIN WAR y No on this ground, The Chairman stated, that he was informed by Mr. HostgiNts the re spedable Solicitor of Mr. MA INWAR I sto's Commit. tee, then in the room, that Britt voluntarily came ;forward and offered to give evidence about two , . triontlis ago: that the substance of what he said he should depose, was taken down in wrjting : that he held in his hand the' paper containing the Intended deposition, which corresponded with the general evidence given on 'the trial ; that the Cleik of Mr. Hoskins, 113 well as Britt, had sign. 1 14 this paper ; and that he, moreover, found on the foot of the paper the following words : it Sign. ed in the presence of H. Britt and John Ellis , . ((led ( to Mr. II), havingbeen first cautioned to declare nothing but the troth, and no circumstance that he had the least doubt concerning." Indepen. dently, indeed, of this observation, it must be oh. itious, that any error or incoherence in Britt's evi. dence could discredit only. himself. Lord EL Lew. siottouott had declared, that Britt's testimony, in the other parts of it, was not broken in upon ; and, indeed, the chief fans which he asserted were substantiated by other proof. In the second indian'ent. ' that of " the Kiva .o. Caress," the witnesses, with one exception, that of Britt, were different, but the general nature of the evi. dente w as nearly similar. In this trial "Thomas l ItltYt swore that he was himself employed, by one Je.nicina, to write out papers for the use of the fitiitious voters who . polled for Sir Faro :eta Butz') ITT. anti that he wrote out a paper for Creese. Ile (Jenkins) told me (says Hunt) at our first meet. ing, that he was a very indifferent scholar, and begged that I would write out papers 'to give to the Inert, with different names and descriptions, which t did, I suppose, as many. as thirty or forty. , Q. Was one of those y ou v. ',so wrot e a pr for Crease?-- Ft • Yes ; the name upon it was George lame*. Q. Is th at t h e paper you afterv..Arfl,: :saw in Crcese's pos. session ?--A. I saw Creese with it before he polled. :l. After he polled, he told you Ice had • of •• polled by the name arge lames ?—A. yes. Q. Did you he ar w h tt l uir t h ey were to have any thing for those Note s ?—A. Yea ; I. h ear d : l ei ki ps say t he y were to have a, guinea and a hail apiece. his lowing to nearly th e same po i nt, ant i i n part i cu l ar to • I " F avlng heart Creese say, " Mat he h 441 dole id tricA." It appears that to se c d Cease, when under confinement, desired Clerk the Solicitor of Mr. MantwarinA, and intimated to his . !-. I C , k, who called upon him, that lie knew much on the sub ?_t of the. l' rosecutions ; and asked, " ././ bar he war to e;%per.:t, • 47 ga ve the information that he was able to do ?" 1 At 41111 41 ,!_ea, ~ : 4 tu . him (said the Clerk) that he must not ask rite for int s in t i t ca it i t i t n in tto h me sta4se. h o L l i a l i d s rzt t i t i e se ; that i . i it li t e o had,ri ,noting. i n tr 4. co rill He .i, rase, he would d:s . O. It ha d als r OTrs ' i l iT4lly proved in this ttse_sisthat the.person voting had not the property for . which ' t i‘ l v v e re tessed to vote, and did not Rye in the plane which be ii. Cre to be lug place of residence. '_ hesitate:l4u was pronounced Gaily by' the jury, without ri.,. Mc. THOR NTON , procee d e d to o b serve , t h at on the trial of both these criminals it was most fully ddmitt et l / even by their Counsel, Mr. ER , ItINP,, , t h imself, t h at perjury .dad been committed ; Mr. Itsicitse merely attempting to slim, that a f uth tien L p ro of was not given that Price and Cterse were the persons Who had been tat) , of it. On Oil , main point. therefore, no one any longer . ceet!(l profess to have the smallest-doubr. Mr. ERAci E ,intimated', however, that the perjuries were zinc!) Only.as were used to happen in almost ell Nett far Eledions he seemed to comfort himseli ' that '• they probably were few in number ; and said, that they were not traced to any known agents of Sit FRANCIS. It might be important, with a view to the obje& of the present Meeting; to point nut, first, the circumstances seising out of these trials, which tended to shew that the perjury was not very limited, and of an ordinary nature, but was extensive and systematic. First, The degree of knowledge and talent on the part of some, which was combined with the perjury of the baser instru ments, was remarkable. It appeared on the first trial, that the property for which Price voted was a real freehold in the. County ; but a freehold which happened to be in the hands of a Trustee, for the use of others ; so that there was no danger of any proprietor coming forward and voting for it. Sonic industry and intelligence was necessary, in order to provide titles so plausible as this. It carne out, on the same trial, that titles were ready for as many false voters as were willing to ceme for. ward and use them. And, on the second trial, it appeared that one man (t witness) had written out as many as thirty papers, the agent next to him not being scholar enough to copy them with sufficient fairness. Thus here was a division of labetue which implied - a general system. Could it then be *supposed, that merely some one rash and wrong-headed individual, in the excess of his zeal for liberty and the cOnstitution, or some over. zealous agent, a little exceeding his instruelions, had prompted an individual or two to an ad of per. jury ? It appeared. that much htibery, as, well as perjury, had been praCtised, Sums of money had been paid, not only to Price and to Creese, but to a variety of other individuals, according to the testi tunny of the same witnesses by whom Price and Creese had been, convicted.; By whom, iheh, were all these sums of money furnished ? By this intent. perate friend, or this indiscreet' agent, out of his own pocket Wes it net obviods that there must I exist some fund which was adequate to the support of so general a system of perjury ? It ep pears, said Lord ELLENROROUGH, in summing up the evidence on the second trial, that accord: ing to the testimony of Hunt, papers were written for these men to go Nown in 'whole strings to vote." Could there be these strings of bribed and ‘ perjured votes, of which his Lordship spoke, and the per. jury not be extensive anti Systematic ? But not only, did the evidence ore lbc3e two trials sheet, that there existed an extensive plan of perjure, hut he, had to state to the Meeting, that twenty:eight other, bills, melting thirty in all, had been already found by a Grand Jury; and lie kneitv no reason for supposing that the evidence on any 'one of these Bills might not equally lead to 'conyitlion ; nor were these thirty Bias 'ail 'which might be present ed. More than twice or three iimes that number might he .ffered, as the Solicithrs assured hint, with eqoe ex p e etetieo of success, it' the expellee could b.. &frayed, and if it was theught proper tha.e3f.ere to extend the prosecutions. line he had to add another o feservation, which tended to point out stilt inure strongly the vast extent of t he p er . juries. These Bill's of Indictment which had been found, and which could be found, and of which he bad just spoken, were only those Bills in the sup port of which evidence could be 'furnished of the identity, of the person who had' voted. Multitudes of perjured .men had voted, whom no witness could be brought forward to identify. The identi. fication constituted the chief 'difficulty. If a man obtained his paper of instructions, Hod went up, and perjured himself, anti then absconded, or concealed himself, and was in name and person unknown to any witness who was willing to come forward and identify him, that man might escape trial and convic tion ; and it was obvious, that the great bulk of per. jured votes would be probably of this description. It was also worthy of remark, that the men guilty of perjury were likely not to have each of them prac tised it only in a single instance,, and that the false - titles which were given, were often given over and over to different persons. The home, for example, for which Price had voted, had been voted for no less than four times over in the last Election, but none of the voters had the least interest in the freehold. The CHAIRMAN justified the use which had been made of that kind of testimony which had been resotted to on the present occasion. He insisted, that even an adual partieeps ctinsinis may, on many occasions, be brought forward with propriety as an evidence. The witnesses-had not been instructed by agents for the prosecution to commit any crime, , or to encourage the commission of them; but crimes herving been cm:flitted, several persons who were themselves ao far implicated as to have been privy to them, had come forward te give their tes.. null:my. Lord El.t. etraottouctr indeed had ex. pressly asserted the propriety, and even necessity ' of sometimes leaning in a great degree on evidence of this sort. The CHAIRMAN declared his .extreme regret that no prosecutions had .taken place on account of the perjuries' supposed' to have been committed .at the first Elation, particularly by the Mill Vo. tern, respefting whom the Committee of the. House of Cominons had expressed so strong an opinion. . This omission had arisen partly from, the, cireum. stance of ita having been thought proper to submit the sabjett, in the first place, to the Tribunal of the House of Commons, but partly also from a de. .ficiency of funds. If due punishment had folldw.' ed the ctimes . committed. at the -first Elation, he believed that fewer:crimes would have been perpetrated - at the. second ; and if little or no pa. nishment" were now to oviriake the guilty, the • County might feel the consequences. of it most se. riously in a ; future contebt for Middlesex. It there. fiare behoved those who either .valued public mo rals, or. 44 regard for liberty and for the Consti. tetion, to contlibute, by a joint effort - , to suppress 'that system of bribery and perjury . which had gone so long unpunished. If the Elednrs of the King. .dom had. not the virtue to defend their political fightlt'sotnewhat - in theiorne manner in which they would unite against an attack on their pri. vate properly, they would not 'deserve to have ri*hts 1014 g continued to them ;" and If ptlblie morals were not maintained, it was in Hain to talk of liberty ; for the degree of freedom which could he enjoyed in this and every country, was vry Mod) in proportion to the degree of public and private virtue prevailing in it." HELLISH.--" Gentlemen, after what Mr. THORNTON has so ably said, it would be wasting your time it I-were to say a great deal ; I shall only propose the Resolutions I have in my hand, without making any comment upon them, unless it shall he necessary in order to explain them. I would only mention, that is not the intention of the Gentlemen present to enter into a subscription now.: their objet is rather to encourage subscrip. dons being raised by the Gentlemen in their re spedive parishes, to carry on these prosecutions, as well as to meet Sir FRANCIS BURDETT in case he Should present a Petition.—l beg leave to move the following Resolutions, which I will read through before either of them are put." Mr. MP.I.LIsII then read. the Resolutions,—(See the _Front of our Paper.). [The remainder of . the interesting proceedings at this Meeting shall be given in our Paper of to morrow.] CAPTURE OF THE ALTHEA. Yesterday a Meeting was held at Lloyd's Coffee. house, to take into consideration the capture of the Althea, and the Correspondence which has taken place on this subject with the Court of Directors of the East India Company, &c. Mr. MAYOR opened the business, and, in a Speech of considerable length, repeated the charges formerly made against , the East India Company on account of the loss of the Althea, which, he con tended, had been by no means satisfatiorily answer ed. He concluded by mowing the following Reso lotions; which, were agreed to : Resolved, That the Proceedings of the Committee, pur suant to the Resolutions of the 3ath 061oher last, have fully confirmed the Resolution of the General Meeting of that . day, that the histrudians of the'Governor General of the 6th and 27th of Fltbruary lasp precluded British Ships front the pro teaion which was at the same tune granted to a l'c..eigner, and in eorn:quence of which the Althea, of File value of above -100,0601, fcll into the hands of the Enemy, and as being equally .eztraordinary and. reprehensible. Resolved, 'Chat the Thanks of ttiis Meeting be given to .the Chairman and the Members - of the Committee, for the zeal and ab!lity with which they supported and carried into, erred Resolutions of the General 14ceting. Which, were adopted. • Resolved. That the Thanks of this Meeting be given to Mr. Mayor, for his contlud on this occasion.. CORN EXCHANGE, DEC. 21. Ws have to-day Wheat in considerable qalntity, and higher prices are asked for'fine samples ; but the supply' being chiefly .of inferior quality, it ,remains difficult of sale, and rather less in price ; Barley in plenty ; this trade is more. Mak, and a rrifie.tlearer ; Malt has little sale ; New Tick Beans in , full supply; those, with Pease, at little altera. *ion; Oats have ready sale, •and are lull is, per quarter dearer ;, Flour in good supply. %irjlon Us a to.as a t los od Beans -46 s a 525 a d trAnoditto . c loss a 114 s 6d rick Beans 44s a Sos Rye . SgS a SgS od Oats jos a 323 a 3,Si od Barley - 4(5 a 46i 6 Paland do. - 365 a 37 ad Malt . 74s a Sos ad Rape'Seed . - 421 a 451 White PA4IIO 54.4 a 69a od Fine Flour - gos a gss od Grey tilts . +p e a 47s ad Seconds - - gos ad DU F EVENTED.—On Tuesday evening a dis. me took place at a Coffee-house in the neighlloui. hand. of Lombard-street, between two Merchants, Well known upon the walks of the Exchange, which for a time pr,ltniNed most serious conse. quences, The rlt) irrri originated, at the Play.hOuie the preceding ';*tt..)r,.lay, and the parties meeting, a mutual explathtion was demapded; the. result was, that • a meeting was proposed the 'nett morning on Kennington Common, which, in all probability, would have taken place, but for the following sin gular occurrence : The . parties, in their 'desire to arrange their worldly concerns, rep,tired the same evening almost at the same time, to the sank Solici, tor, a ISir L. a respettable Attorney in the City. They, were ushered into separate rooms, and having .each disclosed his fatal secret, confessed his *pre hensi.ns for the consequences -of the next day's interview, and earnestly intreated that no step might be taken to . prevent the intended meeting. The Attorney, in . his turn, professed his mutual regard for the Oar. ties, and expressed a wish to reconcile their differ. ences, lie acquainted each with the•fatt' of his an. tagonist lacing in the adjoining room, : and of a mu. tual regret for what, had happened ; observing also, that, it called upon, he would attest their Outage as Gentlemen and men of honour. He added, ju-. cosely, that they had better adjourn to the. Coffee house from whence they had come, fire a valley of :rope across the table, and content. themselves with witigigg the'gume of another's killing, than make sportslor the town by Milling ace anosher. The par. -tiecconsented, were introduced to each other, shook, hands, and the next morning, by the time they' should have set out on retf-dertrudien,„ they were pet to bed to sleep off the effetis of the night's en. counter in 'the field of • Bacchus. The Solicitor, through the whole affair, proved himself a most able second, and, for. the first time in.his life, pleased both-Plaintiff and Defendant, though the parties were compelled to pay their own costs. There h at present upon the town a female swindler, about forty years of age, who Staieft her. self intitled to considerable Estates in the 'West.' Indies ; that she is besides inritled to Prize-money in rightiof her deceased husband, at Officer of the Navy. She usually carries fit litinus Bonds of from sixty to two hundred poundi With her, executed according to form, which she pledges, anti, on in. quiry, none of the subscribing names are •to be found ; and also Checks upon • Bankers. Several `persons-. have been duped by the artifice of this :woman; who, it appears, is the widow of an Area• leryman, who died some years ago at Gibraltat.-- It also appears that this woman has traversed Ire. land and Scotland, prattising the same course or fraud and deception. It is a remarkable fad that an inhabitant of Woolwich, who was employed by . . some of. his, neighhours to buy a few Shares of Tickets iri the last Lottery , serially purchased a 'Share of the 26,0001. and a Share of the to,ocaol Prizes Kid it SOttri's Office, in the Piniltry. 'CORONER's fNQUEST. • Yesterday an inquisition was takentlefire G. V. E,q. one of the Coroners Cit Middie%ex at the White Horse public. house, Wheeler.s;rHr Shoreditch, on the body of Sarah Mitchell, 3 chil;l of nine years of age, who was murdered by her f?, titer, Samuel Aida Arkbell, on istit!ttiriV last. Th e first witness called to prove this h transanion was Kennedy, a Police Ofiker of '.l; ship. street, who stated, that at halt pier twelve o'clock on Tuesday, in consequence of some infor, mation, he repaired to the lodging of Mitchell, No. 22, Wheeler.street, in company with Ar n_ strong, a brother Officer, and on opening the too door, he discovered ,the deceased, quite dead, with her throat cut from ear to ear. The witnes oh. served a razor lying by the door, very bloody, which he took with him in search of the murderer and on finding him, not far distant friun the spot, lie confessed the horrid transadion, addin g , ,4 t h at he had inflieled the wound with a razor.; but thz. , poor child little thought what he was going to do.'' Wai.'Gotthy stated, that he called at the house of his father.in.law about hdf past twelve :tr .moon not hearing the loom go as usual, he looked throti,h the •key.hole of the door, and perceived the de... ceased lying on the floor, very bloody. Mary Nicholls stated, that she heard the Pri soner go up stairs about twelve,o'clock. His wife was then at borne, and she saw the daughter come in from school in a few minutes arrer. The Pile saner was in and out of the house all the morning. She heard the mother of the deceased go, down stairs about a quarter past twelve o'clock; and . he shortly after heard the footsteps of a twin, which she supposed mint he the father's. She heard. the deceased winding quills during the interval of the mother and the father quitting the room. Wm. Byron stated, Oat 'he spoke to Mitchell on Tuesday at twelve o'clock ; he was then working at his. loom, and he appeared to the witness. some. what in liquor. ,The deceased was not then mottled from schtiol. Ti.e cyidence t)eing, gone thrott , ll, the Coroner remarked to the Jury, it waa their duty to find a veTtlij of Murder. The Jury, without hesitation, pronnunced a rec. dift of . Murder against the Father.. No :other reason car Che assigned f.,r this d;abolL cat aet :than : that which the iris ,ner Was 11 - .r:.1 to: utter, viz, that she should never live to he brong! t up by the Another. The offinder aad Isis wife had, parted the ,day before ; anti the child, it ap;leirs, hul slept the preceding night with her . tnoter.--, He•en!untarily confessed the tad to the Noldgitt rates • on Wednesday ; and,' with tears in his eye , „ when, desired to sign his confession, exclaiimd,,if 104 the some baud that did . tbe blootO It is supposed he was seized with a sudden fit of: insa;ity, as he was remarkably fond of the Child. SPECIMEN OF AM.EkiCAN PUFFING. TO TILE LOVELY MISS -- the'sylph that round thee flies, And bids thy lod:s his pinions deck, That WaVeS thc•in'o'cr thy Incent eye ii. • And curls thimi oh thy snowy neck ; I'll ask him, who's the magic skill TO make. these wanton ringlets trace ,Each witching charm at Fancy's will, Imparting each a hcighten'd grace/ And I will . say, her locks of gold, 'chat glow so brightly in the sun, These circling - wreaths and braids In triumph for hearts they've. wen ; And I will say, her curls of grace Au awk %yard twist have n ever k nown; Her tres,ses form the sweetest place Wheie Fashion may erect her throne. Then tell ma who, with•gentlest care, Disdaining vulgar barber tuggings, Thus tasteful decks her beauteous hair? 'Perhaps, 0 sylph ! perhaps Huggins I learn, with particular pleasure, that the cele. orated John R. D. Huggins, whose modest merit has found its wv to public favour without the quackery of paling advertisements, hiving returr. 4 ed from his recent mission imothe barbarous region,: of the East, in which be has endeavoured'w ditrust.: some rays of lave, has 3gnin.takto in charge the heads of ouriashionatles and elegantes. " distinguished personage, ,, , by the a i ry lightness and graceful negligence he imparts td the hair placed under his diredion, has f6ttned 3 new stra in, the annals of the American beau ramie. He has also made such advantageous transatlantic ar. rangements, that .he receives the London and Pari. sian mudei by telegraphic dispatch, without the un., necessary delay of a tuornent. A supply of these has just arrived, exhibiting the various grades of fashion, front the inervable of the Thuilieries, to the modish lomager of Bond street, and from the stately Zaw-too of female elegance at Sr. James's, to the sportive and aerial style of the petite figuraute at Paris. ilii - Dresthre Academy, aid Sci s ioil for Fa tbiovt, at No. 92, Broadqvg, is dnervettly a place of the most fashionable resort, where the spirit and adroit. ness with which his tapas flourish a comb or curl a whisker, are truly admirable; while such is the gentle dexterity with which they handle a razor, that it is really a pleasure fur a Gentleman to be taken by theme. His langhahle colletflion of caricatures (of which he has just revrived, from Londonca hoer and very diivertiltg supply affords infinite amusement during the ceremony of titivation. He has also a handsome assortment of combs, razors, pcmatwn, drtssing.boxet, and every repti. site for the toilet s which he is ever willing to ex. change for paper or silver, for the are of visitors. In short,• such are the numerous merits of this eccentric genius, that hold it a d uty , to draw them from that obscurity of which his mu. dusty is so RtilbitiOtig, Qetobtr 26, Pttuo-Fluz. A shocking accident happened On Wednettlay, about tour d'etock, at WOuivoiCh U some Men, tmo l oyes i on the EtahoratoD , , were filling )1 13-inch supposed to be on some new experiment, in tammiug the 411e1;,it unfortunately burar, and wound.. eel seven - of the ',Tien empkyed ; three datmernu,iy one olthe ihree died ab,)ut so hour after he was taken 1 1 „,4 ; thcotliar two are not exile - tea to vtltViVC • ` being s hlckingly mangled.