The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-11-11 00:00:00

LAW AND POLICE.

TINE ROBBERY OF BANK OF ENGLAND NOTE PAPER.
—The six prisoners charged with stealing Bank of Eng-
land paper from the mills of Laverstoke and forging
notes. were brought up at the Mansion House on Wed-
nesday. One of them a female, calling herself Ellen
Burnett, was realised from custody at the instanoe of
Mr. Freehfield, the solicitor for the prosecution.
Against the other prisoners& good deal of evidence was
taken. One of them, James Griffiths, was, it will be
remembered, apprehended at Birmingham while print-
ing forged Bank of England notes. The evidence
against the other prisoners was that of a man named
Henry Brown, who had been employed as a carpenter
at the paper mills at Laveretoke. He gave a circum-
stantial narrative of how he was asked by the prisoner
Burnett and the womm who lived with him as his
wife to get some paper from the mills ; how he refused
at first and afterwards consented; how he was met by
the prisoner Brewer on one occasion while bringing
some paper away, and was advised by him to take it
back ; and how afterwards Brewer himself stole paper
and gave it to him to carry to Burnett. He also gave a
particular account of Burnett's visits to different people
In London, including another of the prisoners, Buncher.
At the close of Brown's evidence, the prisoners were
remanded to Friday. It is said that Griffiths has for
nearly 20 years been the principal, if not the only,
manufacturer of forged Bank of England notes, and that
his apprehension will virtually put a stop to these instru-
ments.

GENERAL SHIRLEY AND HIS HOUSEICEEPER.—AppIi-
cation was made to the Court of Queen's Bench on Wed-
nesday for a new trial in the case Thomas e. Shirley.
This was an action for breach of promise of marriage
tried at the last Lewes assizes, the defendant being
General Shirley. The ground of the application on
Wednesday was that the verdict for the defendant at
the trial was against the weight of evidence. The
court, however, refused to grant a rule for a new
JUSTICES' JUSTICE AT BEDFORD.—At the Bedford
divisional petty sessions, last week, before Lieutenant-
Colonel Higgins (in the chair), Lieut.-Colonel Stuart,
M.P., Mr. Henry Littledale, and the Rev. R. G. Chalk,
a little boy in the thirteenth year of his age, named
Thomas Miller, the son of • respectable cottager, was
charged with picking up or stealing three walnuts,
valued at one farthing, the property of Mr. Coventry
Payne, Wootton House, on Sunday afternoon, the 19th
October last. William Odell. a gamekeeper, appeared
to prove the case. From his evidence it was shown
that his master has ten or twelve walnut trees growing
in his park, the branches of which bang over the
churchyard of Wootton, and from which the nuts falL
On the 19th October, the boy with others, was proceed-
ing to church, when a number of them commenced
picking up the fallen fruit. Odell had instructions from
his minder to take the names of some of the oldest
offenders. They managed, however, to escape his vigi-
lenne, but the little fellow charged this day was caught
with three nuts in his possession. This witness
admitted that his master's trees projected over the fence
separating the park from the churchyard, and that
many walnuts fell on the side out of his master's ground;
but, he having been frequently annoyed at boys taking
nuts, particularly daring Divine Service, he was deter-
mined to punish those found so transgressing. The
mother, in great distress of mind, begged the magis-
trate' to forgive her child, as he was not aware he was
doing wrong in picking up the walnuts. The magis-
trates consulted for some minutes, and at length decided
on convicting the poor child of stealing the walnuts,
sentencing him to be committed to Bedford gaol for the
offence. l'he boy was taken to prison, but liberated the
same afternoon. The term of imprisonment, though
short, subjects the offender to be entered in the gaol
books as a oonvioted thief.
A CLERGYMAN OF THE CHURCH PLEADING INFANCY.
—At the Oxford County Court on Tuesday, a case was
heard whieh caused an unusual degree of interest. Mr.
Jackson, • tobacconist at Oxford, sued the defendant,
the Rev. William Leader, curate of Bolton-le-Moors,
Lancashire, for £4 ssi 6d. for goods supplied in 1856
and 1857 to the defendant while a member of Pembroke
College. The defendant pleaded infancy, and in support
of his idea produced documentary evidence of the fact.
, Mr. W. Brunner, solicitor, appeared for the plaintiff,
and objected to the admissibility of such evidence.
His Honor stated that the certificate which defendant
had produced was not of itself sufficient proof of defen-
dant's birth; and the defendant, who appeared in
I Person, suggested that if the case was postponed until
next court, he would bring up his father, who lived in
, Cheshire. His Honor said that in a case of the descrip-
tion he should not like not to give the defendant an
' opportunity of proving his plea, and therefore full par-
ticulars of the plaintiff's account not having been
appended to the summons, he would adjourn the case
until nest court for fell particulars. His Honor re-
marked, in conclusion, that it would be a difficult thing
to determine that cigars and tobacco were not necessaries
in the University of Oxford, until the authorities
strictly prohibited the young men from smoking, as
nearly every one could be smoking in the
streets, end where cigars were as common as walking-
sticks. The plaint list was also graced with the names
of the Marquis of Hastinge, Lord Skelruersdale, an i
the Hon. Mr. Bruce, who were defendants at the
snit of Oxford tradesmen, no doubt through negli-
gence.