The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-12-12 00:00:00

REMNMEN(IIS OF 01.1) ELC MONS.

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of I.a,ni It! ;

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114114". I. .1t- t• • • T.a. W.!, V4ll-l. I ,ly
T. ,Icty ,ai. I'l • :1• •• •. •N.r.l • 1,1%0..1y
'no I'.•••• to, WhO nob'. z. no voq.,,f the 114.r01t,:n
Inocho dor.- . .

11 ame,el, •' lhat ro`lingt R within
the Parish of T. 11.4 Troliti. alias trot...osier
to PO loin .4 the 11.,roo:..:, 1.1,....h...60r."
&waved. "Ti.t. 100 tiAlit ItUritt-tot•o. to
serve in Parliament tor the Borough of Dorchester, is in
the i,il,&,iUnit 4 i.esai.l lierou4.l .014
Poor, in relom.t. le their personal &totes, and o ,cl.
Persons as pay to Church toil Per. in respect ,4 their
red Estates withia the ati.l Th.ollA4 Pitman
11,., Moyer. WOO orderml into c.,..Paly for an.l
arbitra, y practices at the election."
borchoe.ter, Itith February. Ina
A new writ °Menai for this Borough, iu the room o„
John Browne, Esq., who since his Election, accepted the,
office of one of His Majesty's Counset, learned in the Law.

Caine at her a.rain, and cut her throat. As he left her
the raz•ir fell from his lima Witness crawled up-
kit primmer followed her and kicked her in the
fa. • .i I head, and then, all of a sudden, be eat down
doe, by her side, witne..is being then on the
exhausted Witness had had no quarrel or words
with him that .lay, auil was on gieel terine generally
with hint. He was not much i,tiven to drinking, hot
she hail seen him the wise for drink, and when he
was like that he was always threatening her and
saying he would kill her. She remembered Robert
Sprall coming to lodge at her house; but her husband
himself brought him there. When be WAS the worse
for drink lie mentioned his name, but not when he was
solier.--Cross-examineil by Mr. Worry: Prisoner was
engineer to Mr. Mien's yacht, and had been in that
serviee niee y, are, Ile always went away with the
yacht, lie hail 30s. a week, and used to send witness
2'24. He "glared" at witinss the last time he cut her;
and he had often been strange, and she had thought
he was going out of his • I She had never seen him
in this •• glaring maddened state" when he was sober.
She could not say whether he was drunk or sober when
! he cut her, as it was done so suddenly, but he after-
wards told her in the prison cell that he had had only
two pinta of beer. The mad fits hail increased of late,
and it was then lie talked of Sprall, but he had no
cause bi he jealous of him; she did not really think he
was jealous. Ile hail said she waited on him too
much. Sprall first lived next chew to them, and then
came to lodge, and remained about 18 months. They
did not move to Lymington in consequence of it He
mule to see them in Lymington ; he came to pay 4s.
he borrowed of her husbands daughter. She did not
have is letter from him in the name of Brown. Prisoner
went to Holland in the yacht, but she did not receive
1 4.7 18s. a month from him. She had the 225. a week
from Min, but she pawned only mime of her own things
ti provide for her children, lie did not find that all
the things were pawned when he returned. She never
had a likeness id Small taken, but there was one in
the house, given to them before he came to live with
them. Did not go to the Southampton Races with
Sprall ; she went with her husband; was sure of that,
and he was there present and could not deny it. Ifld
not return with Sprall ; nor did her husband say to
him "Bob, how many times shall I have to
tell you to leave my house." Re-examined :
, Had never been alone in the house with Sprall ;
the prbeiner's grown up daughter was always there.
—Mr. Worry, in defence, maid the case was one of a
mot distressing character, the more so as it would be
I proved by the document he should hand in to his
Lordship was a man of remarkably good character.
What was the clue to the ineor, Avail& and dastardly
attempt he had made t• the life id his wile?
W. • • t. some reason apart from the drink why
lie had . Was it not bemuse he was afflicted
with a mania stronger even than drink ?—the mania
of jealousy, and jealous id the man Sprall. He sub-
mitted that on this occasion be was nothing more than
a madman, but though he could not on that account
ask the jury for a verdict of not guilty, he did submit
that it was a point whether or not he was guilty of the
intent to murder, or whether he was not guilty of the
second count only—whether he was not in a condition
of mind which rendered him irresponsible for his
actions. The prisoner certainly was not mad now,
but he was on that particular day—nimbi mail by the
unaccountable jealousy of Sprall.—His Lordship said
this was another sad case of the effects of drink, but
as he hail already told the jury in other cases drunken-
ness was no excuse for crime. After recounting the
circumstances the hearted judge asked what intent a
man could have who with i. razor inflicted such wounds
a. 4 those spoken to? But it was for them to decide
that point, and if they thought he was only guilty of
the lesser crime it would be their duty to say so.—The
jury, after one minute's consultation, found the pri-
soner guilty of the full offence.—Prisoner, in arrest of
judgment, said he could not have been in a mound con-
dition of mind, for if God were to take his breath
away that moment he had not the slightest recollec-
tion of having put his arm round "that woman's"
neck and committing the offence with which he was
charged. He made a lengthened statement reflecting
upon her "cruel conduct" towards him, and her alleged
intim icy with Slim'', declaring that for the last four
years he hail not known what it was to have a night's
rest for thinking of that, and it hail driven him mad.
He hail never hail any temper; lie never did anything
in a ',ambit' ; he hail always been a good man to his
wife, mil hail tried to encourage her to forget that
man, but just as they got comfortable in Lymington
lie came ihiwn there, but was it likely he spent three
shillings railway fare only to pay a debt of four ,
shillings, AA hail been stated. The thoughti of having
a 0.4 Ml= for a wife who did nit hive him hail driven
him frantic; iinc day he said to Small, Bob, one
dee I -hall be in toed& because of you," but his wife
only sail when he told him not to come there, "You
come, Bob, you come." For four years he hail led a
most wretched life, and he asked for mercy at the
hands id the judge on that account. On this very
morning she Alancel before him as he went out and
sail. '• When Bob Sprall comes home he's going to
take me to so-and-so," and that hail such an effect
up. in him that someone t .1.1 him be looked like a man
IsArified by affliction. He then took a drop of drink,
IA a iduleir came over him, and how he got home and
what he did there he had no recollecti whatever.--
His Lindship said whether prisoner remembered what
he did or not he as a judge could not allow it to lie
urged that, because a person hail, or imagined he hail,
a matter of complaint against his wife, lie sl lii be
encouraged to make a persistent attempt upon her
life, and if .hr- hall 1161 nothing tvuld have saved him
from the ;gallows. He could nit under all the circum-
stances paus upon him a less sentence than that of ten
years penal servitude.

THURSDAY.
THE EXTENSIVE ARSON AT SOUTHAMITON, DuNCHUILCH,

AND
_noUTHAE.t.

William No/r sham, alias John Wit/la's Nadi:n/4am,
33, artist, and Sarah Hilt, 30, milliner, both imperfect
education, were indicted for undichaudy setting fire to
tertain g.ssls in a building called Wo.slbine Cottage,
with intent to defnuid the Imperial Fire Insurance
Company, at Ihnichurch, on the :Nth of May last.
There was a further charge against the male prisoner
.1 anon, alleged to have been COMlllitt<3l At 49, Bed-
ford-terrace, Southampton with intent to defraud the
Issohm Lancashire Insurance Company ; and a
voluntary bill for arson at Southsea had also been
preferred by Superintendent liarvey,, of the Porte-
moth pdhe, and returned as true. The prisoners
were:deo charge.l with lareeny as bailees at Newchurch.
T.. all the charges they 1163461 111 A. gni IV. -Mr. Fol kan
awl Mr. Bullen prosecuted k the prisoners were unde-
fended. --In May last the prisoners, under the name of
Mr. and Mrs. John Hill, took apartments at two
guineas a work in .1 house called NVo.slbine Cottage, at
Bombard.. in the Isle of tVight. The owner or
occupier the house WAN an elderly man named John
Hunt, who was 81. years ohl, but his niece, Joanna
D ore, lived with I , and she showed the prisoners
over the house, and they took three bedrooms and two
sitting rooms. They brought their luggage, which
consisted f none hatuts.rs and baskets, and two or
three packages. They put their luggage into different
ps.u.s, but on the 22n.1 they removed 3 chest of draw.
en' from one .1 tte rooms and put all their luggage in
that room, the 'aural, ihonner telling Dore that that
would make the place inure tid3. They came in on
the 13th of May, and only on the 23rd a Li, occorred
whereby the whole .1 their property was destroyed
and a load ui of the house consumed. The prisoners
had gone out about a quarter to two o'clock on the
aiterms.n of that day, andabouta quarter to three Mine
Dore hearl a crackhug noise, which she at first did not
attribute to anything burning, and took no particular
notice of it. but as the noise increased she went upstairs
an pelted the door of the room where the luggage was,
and found the place in flames. An alarm was given
and assistance prcennsl and the fire extinguished, but
not until the
_property bachging to the prisoner. was
consumed. They returned together Letv. een five and
Nix o'clock, and on being told by Dore what had oc-
curred the female prisoner " preteneled to faint," but
the man sail that all his packages were insured, and
that be sl Id get ClOO. Ile was asked if he could
account for the fire, and he replied that he had been
smoking in the room, and had laid his pipe on one of
the baskets, and that he supposed it must have
happ. tied in that war, and that wane bottles of brandy
Ana whiskey :r the luggage would have made the fire
bunt all the moreaerely. Mr. Annstead, the assessor
from the Fire Insurance tompany, came a day or two
afterwards and went over tire rooms. The male
prisoner introduced the female as his wife, and in
answer to questhins as to what was burut and how the
hr lini opened, said his own, his wife's, and the children's
clothes were consumed,. and repeated what he had
already said about the pipe. Before this the inan had
hMlle to Mr. Tiny, a solicitor, saying he had had £l5O
in Australian bank notes ano.ag his things which had
been burnt, and omsulteol him About it. The male
prisoner told Mr. Armistead that he had vows from
scarls.rough, and that lie hail recently returned to
England from a nine years' residence in Australia.
r„. sni,ei.a, was looked over, but no traces of lsittles
could be found. 'lle prismer made out ach for
consmerahly ovir 1:100. and it was arranged for 1:100,
but as prisoner had said ic had come 6,411 Scarborough,
! and as the policy which was originally made out for
Yorkshir.... and transferred than, to %V.sslbine
Cottage. enquiries were made and in onasespience of
what was heard, as a result die 111011 Cy was not paid.
, siNgestion of the prisoners was that the lire was
med. jest-ill.:lna the law therefore allowed the prose
cutdon i.. lav before the jury evidence of a diffenuit
nature to show 'hat the fire was not the result id
accident, but of design, and in support of that view
it was shown by evidence of the clearest description
, that no less than lite dillerent hres had occurred in
houses where these two ',rimmers had resided tukcii
vartuieuts, in which their goods were consumed, and
that in ,o.ery oue .1 these C3ACK they made claims and
recovered payment from different iasurame offiem
• FRIDAY.