The Press.
London, England, 1857-12-26 00:00:00

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THE COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH has this week been
occupied three entire days with the case of " The
Queen v. Robinson," a prosecution for perjury,
alleged to have been committed in a certain suit in
the Ecclesiastical Court for adultery. The painful
facts out of which this prosecution arises have often
been before the public. The case of " Evans v.
Robinson," in which they first transpired, was an
action for criminal conversation, and on the first
trial the verdict was given for the defendant. A
new trial was successfully applied for, and resulted
iu a verdict for the plaintiff, with damages 5001.

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The Court of Exchequer was then applied to by the
defendant to grant a new trial, but this was re-
fused. The plaintiff subsequently took proceedings
for the purpose of obtaining a divorce a mensa et
thoro, a necessary measure to enable him to apply
to the House of Lords for a divorce, and in January,
1850, a suit was instituted in the Arches Court
between Mr. Evans and his wife. In that suit the
defendant in this case was a witness, and swore as
follows :

I am now prepared solemnly to swear I never did on
any occasion, either before or after her marriage, take
indecent liberties with the produceant (Mrs. Evans) ; nor
have I ever committed an act of adultery with her.

On that occasion Mrs. Evans had produced wit-
nesses to prove an alibi on the part of Mr. Robin-
son—that was, to prove that having been at some
house or other at a certain time, he could not have
been at her lodgings at the periods alleged. Under
these circumstances, Sir John Dodson thought the
evidence in proof of the adultery insufficient to
outweigh the positive oath of Mr. Robinson ; so he
refused the divorce a menea et thoro. Upon this Mr.
Evans indicted the defendant for perjury, assigning
as perjury, besides the words given above, the de-
fendant's denial that he had a latch-key at the house
of Mr. Phillips, in the Edg,eware-road, at which
Mrs. Evans bad lodged. Lord Campbell, in sum
ming up, said the case comprised the following
questions, upon which the verdict of the jury
would depend :-
1. Did illicit intercourse take place between the defendant
and Miss Carrington in the fly, on the road at Chelten-
ham, in July, 1849 ? 2. Did the defendant speak the
words alleged in the club at Cheltenham, in 1850, respect-
ing the marriage of Miss Carrington to Mr. Evans? 3.
Had the defendant a latch-key when Mrs. Evans was
lodging at Mr. Phillips's in the Edgeware-road, in the year
1853 ? 4. Did illicit intercourse take place between the
defendant and Mrs. Evans, as stated by the witness Munn,
in August, 1853? 5. Did illicit intercourse take place
between defendant and Mrs. Evans on the 4th and sth of
July, 1854, when Mrs. Evans was lodging in Bryanston-
street ? And Othly. T ,d the defendant attempt to tamper
with Mrs. King on the 10th of August, 1854, before
the first trial, as stated by 1,1?
The jury retired at half-past three p.m. At seven
o'clock the following letter was sent in to Lord
Campbell :

My Lord,—We cannot agree in the affirmative on any
one of the six questions submitted to us. On the general
question of whether there should be a ♦erdict for the de-
fendant we are equally divided, and there is little or no
probability of an agreement.
Lord Campbell said that, under these circumstances,
he should, of his own authority, discharge the jury.
his lordship added that the case would be tried by
another jury, who, he hoped, would be unanimous.
The jury were then: discharged, and the decision
on the case is still pending. Sir Frederic Thesiger
was counsel for the defendant, and Mr. Sergeant
Byles for the plaintiff. During the absence of the
jury Lord Campbell received intelligence of the
relief of Lucknow, which he ordered to be announced
to the court.

AN INQUEST was held on Monday upon the bodies
of the man and woman found dead with their throats
cut in their room at Harper's Coffee-house, Drum-
mond-street, Euston-square. A letter was read from
Messrs. Rossen and Son, a firm at Rotterdam,
stating that their clerk, T. Oechler, had a few days
previous to Dec. 16th run away from Rotterdam, and
that in all probability the two persons were identical.
Two persons of similar desc. iption were also traced
from Dover to the Penton Hotel, Haymarket, be-
tween the 20th and 20th November, and the linen of
the man was marked T.D. The coroner in summing
up said it was difficult to decide that the man bad
murdered the woman, and the jury returned a verdict
to the effect that both persons died from the effect
of certain wounds, but that how those wounds were
inflicted there was no evidence to show.
JOHN BEALE, charged with the murder of Charlotte
Pugsley in Leigh Woods, on 11th of September last,
was tried at Taunton, before Mr. Justice Willes, on
Tuesday, found" Guilty," and sentenced to death.
FRANCES Harms, who lay under sentence of
death at Winchester for the murder of her child at
Portsmouth, has had her sentence commuted to
penal servitude for life.

Mn. F. Knx,v, who was on the 17th inst. charged
by Mr. Francis Worrell Stevens, stock-broker, of 3,
Royal Exchange, with having attempted to rob him
of several hundreds of pounds, although discharged,
without the slightest stain upon his character, was
so deeply, affected at the idea of having been locked
up in a station upon such a charge, that on Sunday
morning he put an end to his existence by cutting his
throat. Mr. Payne held an inquest at the Vestry.
hall, Horselydown, on the deceased, on Tuesday,
when the jury returned a verdict that the deceased
destroyed himself while in a fit of temporary insanity
brought on by the traumetim with the bro4T,

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