The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1858-12-21 00:00:00

WESTERN CIRCUIT,
-
DoDMIN, Dso, IS,

'lesion foe the minty of Cornwall was
II town on Saturday by Mr. Jellies Bytes,
Ile Loree..._., yesterday Attended ;blue 'steles,
This morning the buslneu sommeneed, There are
ins prisoners, seven of whom are 'Merged with *OM
one, a girl of lb, le (Merged with the eapital
Hitting tire to a dwelling ouse, some persons
,in, and she wee further chomped with ad.
y a quantity of arsenic to the daughtu of her
ui._ ith intent to kill and murder her aid one
person larted with outionittlng wilful and 'arrant
perjury Afore he judge a the Uourity Curt.
Mr, Jostles Byles, In ohargirg the grand jury,
observed that although a special winter &balm was
unpreeedented in this county, yet that the enplaning
of the calendar fully justified it, fur of the number of
only ninu prisoners eight of them might stand at the bar
On trial for thel lives, The first person, a young girl
of It wan chased, Ant, with administering arsenic
withintent to murder, Generally in these eases the
Arsenio woe reproduood In its metallic state, bet is the
premnt ease neither the contents of the stomach, aor
the broth in which it was supposed the poison had then
administered, had been preserved. No amnia had been
found, but the inedioal teen stated the eymptonie were
loch as would be produced by arsenic having been
taken, The prisoner had not been known to have
atomic In her pothesslon. There were circumstance to
load to suopielitii, but atiopielon alone woe not sufficient,
The thine prisoner was also sheeted with another
capital offence, of getting Are to & dwellingliouse, thole
nelsons living therein at the time, The 'videos' would
be that there wee a err undar a bed, atid that the
primmer had ooninionleatlon with that moot, end that
elle had A Doodle, If they returned a true bill and the
primmer was acquitted she could not agent be pot upon
her trial if, however, they threw out the bill and
additional evideime should be subsequently eliteined,
she might he 1411111 indicted foe the ofhiiimi, Ns must
now allude to a oath in which he felt there would he
solos tilffleolly, lila men were ohergeil with the wilful
winder of a German sailor by stabbing line, The
1100111114/11 was a pethealue, unidentling novena, The
mall was given by elle inulividual of the sit, Now,
eitiipoeiog thief elllllll flu 1111141 the hem' that stabbed,
the first question would to, what WAN Ilk offense au4
what was the tillbutte of the other Are individoel
who Gabbed wee clearly guilty of 11111Stler whether he
inteitiled to hill ti r nut, if he only lotentied to summit
lsiilily harm it was 111111•111/Si If they *mild 'mint out
the maim who gees that !doh, mid the potty jury 01604
lie of illilullillu that they had godeeted the fight noviAl he
was guilty of murder, The neat inteidlon_weuld be, In
whet euumditil well the oilier Ave 1111141 Two 'method.
Gomel' allow were at Valmoulli i coo wee lewd
myeloid wile Iron ritilltige when the stab was gives, ill
before that li, had been atheidled In a Ithriterutis a
dastardly wettest by theme elk limn i buttild these Ivy
10141 110111111111411‘11 tile nee of the knife, at was ni the
Ist itt tile men who used the knife, Fife
dish, ahoy wits sill Nuiltt of 'yodel If thy juittiethe
in a 11411111101 i design Anil intention to Yid I Well ,Mhd
tie collie 11146111111 ..td that kind, at leapt against edits
the nrleoners, There woe seldom, a nitiedemine
tention at the time of the asemill eoll at the vary
beginning of it, illoppoeing they thould think the
WWI did not itithitil and design to hill, yet the others
would also be guilty of 11111141 W It the knife was end iii
porsitanes of oils monition deeign to use the knife,
homilies then the hand that used the half. was the hand
of them all, Supposing there WU no 00111111011 design to
use the knife, if being present rd the moment of stab.
hing, they athetithil, and manifested their rithent by
"misting In the offline', they were guilty of murder,
rind, then, there moot be a 501010011 design to kill
lelUirtlineliro4 tY4 thlirstrulinet h nun they trilinW ti ttst b.
present at the time and assent to and assist In the use
of the knife, If, however, they should think none of
these three modem of putting the come proved againet thy
five It woold be their duty Wand the slabber geilly
to acquit the others, lint It was elver that they
been guilty of a barbarous assault I therefore, If t op
were aequitted of the mars aerlous charge, lie should
take eery that a bill should be presented that should
meet the jostles of the saes,

Die, Id,

William BAH woo IndlOod fur tho wilful murdo? of
Doniol Donnsway, on Iho 4111 of loploinbor, ol Lls•
noon!.

learned Judge, in his gumming up, haring
expleined to the jury Ole Isw upon the subject of maw
slausliter and inuMsr,
The jury found the prisoner guilty of nianslaughter.
Ilentones vtill deferred.
The grand jury hare thrown out the bill spinet
Mary Ann Crass for administering arsenic with intent
to murder.

Mary Ann Crass wee indicted for setting bre to a
dwelling•house, some perions being therein.
Mr. Cox proeocuted.
The jury soquitted the prisoner,
It was dark when the trial was over, and the prisoner,
who le only ill you'
of age, woo asked if ohs had any
one to take oars of her or take her home, She said she
had not, Bite was then asked if ohs would remain in
gaol all that night, or be dleoharged. Bh. said she
would rather remain in gaol, Application WM to be
made to the guenllins of the poor this morning to take
ths poor girl to Fahnouth.
William Fria, Daniel Cronin, Thomas Wright, and
George Gabriel were indicted for the wilful- murder
of Hero Ackerman, on the ibth of Ileptembu, at
Falmouth,

Mr. Cox and Mr. Powell were counsel for the prose-
cution, end Mr. H. T. Cole fur the primmer'.
After • groat deal of very contradictory evidenee,
Mr. Juries Hyles summed up the cue to the jar?.
It wee clear that the unhappy man had met with his
death by a eteb In the beak. Whether Prioe or Gabriel
should in found to have 'truck that blow, that man renal
be guilty of murder. To constitute the crime of murder
it wu not neoeasery, when the wound wee Inflicted by •
deadly weapon, that the taking away the life should be
intended when the assault was inflicted upon a peemiable
and nnoffending man. The (Annul said that if the pri-
ioners were guilty of anything it might be of manslaugh-
ter. He did not mean to withdrew that question from
them ; but he must tell them that there was very little
ground for reducing the crime from murder to man-
daughter. It seemed to him that It was murder, or
nothing at all. He would slate to theta hew
the offence might be reduced to menelaughter.
If the unfortunate man had aesaulted or "Amok
tho prlsoners,—lf he had ammulted the man who
stabbed him, end that man had immediately, in hot
blood, before reason could Interpose, stabbed him,—that
would be inensieughter and not murder.
•

The jury aegultied all the prisoners.

The RAMC prisoners, together with John Holmes and
William Lyons, were then indicted for maliciously
assaulting Hero Ackerman and with their hands and
fists inflicting grievous bodily hartu on him, on the 164 h
of September, is Falmouth.
The seine counsel appeared as in the former ease.
Prim, Cronin, and Wright pleaded guilty.
Parry said he believed in his own mind that kwon.
kicked the unfortunate man and struck him with kit