The Express.
London, England, 1863-05-18 00:00:00

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.

OLD COURT.
(Before Mr. Justice Williams.)
John Stonham, alias John &ebbing*, 42, and Eliza
St e4binq , 36, two respectable-looking parsecs, were charged
with feloniously and maliciously setting fire to a dwelling.
boom in their occupation with intent to injure. There were
several other counts in the indictment, by some of which
the prisoners were charged with committing the offence
with intent to defraud the Imperial Insurance Company.
Mr. Giffard and Mr. Poland conducted the prosecution;
and the prisoners were defended by Mr. Metcalfe and Mr.

The circumstances under which this charge was preferred
against the prisonsn were of rather an extraordinary charac-
ter. It appeared that they had resided for some time at
Dublin, where they carried on a small hotel, and
as man and wife, by the name of Mr. and Mrs.
ttialiogs, although it appeared that the female prisoner
had a husband living. 'They were insured for 400 f. in one
of the Dublin fire offices, and in the beginning of last year
their premises was totally destroyed by fire, and they
claimed and received the amount for which they were in.
mural from the company. It appeared that after this they
came to London, socompanied by a woman named Mary
Campy, who had been in their service in Dublin,
and the female prisoner took a small shop in Brewer.
street, Somers-town, which she opened in July
in the trade of a cheesemooger and butterman ;
but it a that although the male prisoner, who
still pas her husband, lived in the house, he took no
part in the business, but the woman appeared to be the
sole proprietor of the concern. In October she applied to
the Sun Fire-office to insure her stook and household furni-
ture for the sum of 500/., and the surveyor belonging to
that office went to the house in Brewer-street, and the pri-
mate Eliza Stebbings pointed out the property she desired
to inane, among which were two pictures, the subjects of
which were the Enthused, representing an old man fishing
in a tub of water, and a copy of the Dreadnought Hospital
ship, for which she said she had been offered 4501.
The gentleman who went from the office told her that
he thought she wan very wrong in not taking such
an amount for the pictures, as he considered them not
worth more thea 25e., and he thought the amount of tin-
'arena. was exorbitant, refused to have anything to
do with the matter, and declined the risk on behalf of
the office. The female prisoner very soon afterwards ap-
plied to the County Fire-office, and made * proposition to
insure with them for 44:01., but their surveyor also declined
the risk, and she then made a similar application to the
Imperial, and succeeded in effecting an insurance with
them in the mouth of December, 1062, for 4501. The
policy had hardly been completed, or, at all events,
only a very short time elapsed before a fire
took place at the prisoner's house, and it was
entirely consumed, and the female prisoner, who up to
this time had been the sole mover in the transaction, sent
in a claim to the company for 1111., for property which she
alleged to havebeen destroyed by the fire. A gentleman
connected with the office went to the premises sad saw the
female prisoner, and in answer to his inquiries as to how the
fire occurred she said that she had gone out au the evening
before with her servant, Mary Casey, and that she put
some slack coal on the fire, to keep it in until she came
home, and planed her night-clothes on a chair before the
fire, and the supposed they must have become Ignited ; and
she than for the first time midst:tat she wee a married woman,
but added that her hothead had behaved vary 11l to her,
and had left her, and she did not know when he was.
The company refused to pay the sum claimed by the
prisoner, but eventually they offered her 601.. which she
consented to accept, and went to the office to receive the
money.l She was told, however, that as she warn a married
woman it was necessary that her husband should sign the
receipt as well as herself, and after two or three fruitless at-
tempts to induce the company to pay her the money
she went to the office, and introduced the male
prisoner as her hothead, wheel the money was
paid, and they both signed the receipt. The company
appeared to have suspected all along that there was
some suspicion attached to the transaction, but no discovery
would, Wall probability, have taken place if a Maputo had
not arisen between the prisoners and the woman Casey. who
had been sent to Dublin, and who caused a letter to be
written to the inspector of police of the Somers-town die-
trick informing him that the fire had beau caused wilfully,
and stating certain facts in support of this allegation, which
led to the prisoners' apprehension and their committal upon
the present charge.
Several witnesses were examined in support of the above
facts, and the learned judge having summed up, the jury
immediately returned a verdict of Guilty.
Mr. Justice Williams, addressing the prisoners, mid that
they had been convicted, after a most careful inquiry, of
the very serious offence of arson, a crime of such enormity,
that only a very few years ago their lives would have been
liable to forfeiture for it. It was an offence of the deepest
magnitude, not only as affecting the amount of money of
which insurance offices were plundered by means of it, but
also as regarded the safety of the lives of the public, for
when once fire was set to a house no one could tell where
it might spread to, or what painful 000sequenaes might be
the result. Ile then sentenced them to be kept in penal
servitude for fifteen 3 ears.

NEW COURT.
(Before Mr. Baron ChannelL)
At the sitting of the court the prisoner Raridnitz, whine ;
ease has been on these two days past, was again placed at '
the bar.
The learned Baron then proceeded to sum up, and in so
doing reviewed the transactions at great length, dealing ,
with them in a light very favourable to the prisoner. He •
dwelt with much force upon the fact. of the prisooer's
youth, and the way he had been drawn into the traosaction
by the others. He also dwelt with some force upon his
having brought money into the concern, sod, said it would
be for the jury to determine whether or not the greater part
of his conduct had not been to recoup himself without ,any
deliberate intention of defrauding the prosecutors.
The jury, after having been locked up for sometime, re-
turned a verdict of Guilty, at the same time stroogly re-
commending him to mercy, as they thought that he bad
been led into it by the others, who had acted in a very
improper mariner by drawing him into the business and
getting his capital from him.
The prisoner was sentenced to six months' imprisonment.
THIRD COURT.
(Before the Recorder.)
The trial of Crowther and Goodburn for conspiring to de-
fraud Messrs. Lang, Campbell, and Co., their masters, was
resumed on Saturday morning by the Recorder, who com-
menced summing up.
The counsel earned in the case were Mr. Edward James,
Q.C. ; Mr. Berjeant Ballantine, Mr. Montague Chambers,
Q.C. ; all specially 'sinned ; with Mr. Giffard, Mr. Clerk,
Mr. Sleigh, Mr. Metcalf, and Mr. Thompson.
The Recorder, in summing up, went minutely through
the whole of the evidence, and said there were two distinct
charges against the prisoners which the jury would have to
decide on. The tint was that of conspiracy to defraud, aod
the second was that of the fraud on insurance company.
The proceedings were of a somewhat prolix and very com-
plicated character. and the jury would have to say from the
facts disclosed in the letters which had been read to them,
coupled with the state of the accounts, whether or not the
prisoners had defrauded the prosecutors knowingly, or
whether their acts, however censurable, were not criminally
complete: and with regard to the second class of count, he
did not think that the ;my would have any doubt but that
the prisoners were guilty.
The jury, after as absence of some time, several times re-
turning into court and asking questions of the Recorder, at
last found both piteous's Guilty on the four last counts, nd
Not Guilty on the first and snood.
The Recorder sentenced Crowther to six months' im-
prisonment, and the prisoner Goodburn to three.
FOURTH COURT.

- - -
(Before the Common Serjent.)
Santee Howlett, 96, wirpenter,wes indicted for feloniously,
in a prise light, killing and slaying one. Samuel Rivett.
Jaws Lewis, bommeker, 52, and W. and G. W. Hammond
were alto indicted for feloniously aiding sod assisting in the
laid fight.
Mr. Palmer appeared for the prosecution ; Mr. Daly for
Howlett, and Best end Mr. swop for the Hammonds
and Lewis.
It will be recollected that the damsel and the
Howlett worked in the same carpenters' shop, an it was
dearly shown b the evidence that at different times the de•
ceased had challenged the whole of his alto tea to fight.
It was at length agreed that a fight should take place ea
Barter Moeda, in the Hackney Yankee, and, after a severe
and protracted encounter, in which Howlett was severely
paelshed, and bad up to the lest three rounds the worst of
the fight, the deterred man Rivett appeared to be eeriewdy
hurt, but was severthelees brought up again to fight ez his
secooda, who me et premed out of the way. H. wko,, in a
blind and bruised date, wee then again Owed before his,
end the evidence was not clear as to whether he used great
force in knocking the deemed down in the lest round, or
whether be fell with only a slight push, bat on the dimmed's
memo% pin to raise him up he was found to be senseless'
and ober Wag in the field for the space of 20 initiates
or half en boar vas conveyed to the oared
public-house, sad when medical assistance arrived was faced
to be dead. The priermer, Lewis, it appeared, had acted
as Howlett's seined, sad the two liesueoeds, who were
the sew of areepeetabieliceomdvictuallrietheneighbor.
hoed, were premet. As attempt was mad• to • the
Mat Beeteneel the stabeheider. The We of the