The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1806-08-21 00:00:00

CHICOMStiNtIAL EPIDENCE.
The following, is a remarkable irstance of t:se fal-
laciousness of Circumstantial Evidence, though of

the strongest Nature ,
Exttanrdi,,ary Case of Jonathan trarlfortl, *ho was
at Oxford. (v the Murder of Chweopher Ha) es, E.g.irr
the Ye., 173-6.

Jonathan Bradford kept an inn in Oxfordshire,
on the London road to Oxfo; d ; he bore an unex-
ceptionable charafter. Mr. Hayes, a Gentleman of
fortune, being on his way to ()amid, on a visit to a
relation, pot up at Bradford's. He :here joined
company with two Gertlemen, with whom he sup-
;led, and, in conversation, unguardedly mentioned
that he had then about Lim a large vim of money.
In due time, they retired to their resp. flier Hum-
hers ; the Gentlemen to a two-bedded room :
as is customary with many, a candle burning
in the Chimney-corner. Some hours after they
were in bed, one of the Gentlemen being awake,
thought he heard a deep groan in the adjoining
chamber; and this being repeated, he softly awaked
his friend. They listened together, and the
groans increasing, as of one dying, trey both in-
stantly arose, and proceeded silently to the door of
the neat chamber, from whence they heard the
groans ; and, the door being a-jxr, saw a light in th-
room ; they entered, but it is impossiOle to pint
their consternation, on perceiving a person welter-
ing in his blood, in the bed, and a man standing
over him with a dark lanthern in nag hand, and a
knife in the other. 'I he man seemed as pettified
as themselves, btu his terror carried with it ail the
terror of guilt The Gentlemen soon discovered it
was the stranger with whom they had that night
supped, and that the man who was standing over
him was' their host. They seized Bradford dircn-
ly. disarmed him of his knife, and charged him
with being the murderer ; he assumed, by this time,
the air of innocence, positively denied the crime,
and asserted that he came there with the same hu-
mane intention as themselves; for that, hearing a
noise, which was succeeded by groaning, he got
out of bed, struck a light, armed himself with a
knife for his defence, and was but that minute en-
tered the room before them. These assertions were
of little avail; he was kept in close custody till ti.e
morning, and then taken before a neighbouring
Justice of the Peace. Bradford still denied the
murder, but, nevertheless, with such an apparent
Andication of guilt, that the Justice hesitated not to
make use of this extraordinary expression, •on writ-
ing out his mita:miss t " M. Bradford, either you or
Myself committed this murder."
This extraordinary affair was the conversation of
the whole county. 'Bradford was tried and con-
demned over and over aiain in every company. In
the midst of all this pre-determinatidn came on the
Assizes at Oxford ; Bradford was brought to trial,
i:bet pleaded Not Guilty. Nothing could be more
riilrlltg than the evidence of the two Gentlemen ;
itsey testified to the finding Mr. Hayes mnrdereh in
his bed ; Bradford at the side of the body with a
light and a knife; that knife and the hand which
held it bloody : that, on their entering the room, he
betrayed all the signs of a guilty man ; and that
a few moments preceding, they had heard the groans
of the deceased.
Bradford's defence on the trial was the same as
before the gentlemen : he had head a noise ; he sus-
peeled some villainous trammaion ; he struck a light
—he snatched a knife (the only weapon near him)
to defend himself; and the terrors he discovered
were merely the terrors of humanity. the natural
effeels of innocence, as well as guilt. on beholding
such a horrid scene ! This defence, however, could
be considered but as weak, contrasted with the se-
veral powerful circumstances against him. Never
was circumstantial evidence more strong I There
was little need of comment from the Judge, in sum-
ming up the evidence. No room appeared for ex-
tenuation, and the Jury brought in the Prisoner
Grilse, without going out of the box.
Bradford was executed shortly alter, still declar-
ing he was not the murderer, nor privy to the mur-
der of Mr. Hayes ; but he died disbelieved by all.—
Yet were these assertions not untrue 4 The murder
was *finally committed by Mr. Hayes's footman;
who immediately on stabbing his master, rifled his
breeches of his money, gold watch, and rauff-box,
and escaped to his own room, which could have
been, from the after circumstances. scarcely two
seconds before Bradford's entering the unfortunate
gentleman's chamber. The world owes this know-
, ledge to a remorse of conscience in the footman
(eighteen months after the execution of Brad.ord),
on a bed of sickness ; it was a death-bed repentance,
and by that death the law lost its 'Atli=
It is much to be wished, that this account ceuid
close here ; but it cannot! Bradford, though inno-
cent, and not privy to the murder, was, neverthe-
less, the murderer in design. He had heard, as
well as the footman, what Mr. Haves had declared
at slipper, as to his having a large sum of money
about him, and he went to the chamber with the
same diabolical inanition as the servant. Fle was
struck with amazement !—He could not believe his
senses ! and in turning hack the bed-clothes, to
assure himself of the fad, he, in his agitation, drop-
ped his knife on the bleeding body, by which both
his hand and his knife became bloody. These cir-
cumstances Bradford acknowledged to the ckrgy-
man who attended him after his sentence.

The New reek Parka, W evi, for New York,
his returned to Bristol, with damage, having been
on shore.
Wednesday week, the Barrack-yard at Ospringe,
Kent, was thronged with spectators, to witness the
delivery and consecration of the new colours to
the 89th Regiment ; the former, as may be well
remembered, having been lost, with many bras e
fellows, in the Isabella transport, shipwrecked on the
coast of Holland.
On Wednesday se'nnight, the body of Master
Coorst, son of Nlr. T. Cocieca, clothier, of K ing-
stanley, Gloucestershire, was found drowned in a
mill-stream. It. is supposed that this young gentle-
man was standing near the mill-pond, and slipt in
Accidentally : unfortunately he was not discovered
for a considerable time atter, when the means em-
ployed for Ins recorizry proved abortive, to the
great disappointment of his disconsolate parents.
He was about seven years of age, and of an amiable
and afhairinate disposition, With reusters loss
• the mere to be regretted.

• . atAGS C 0.401,73.
The AO jolt passed for limiting the number of
persons to he carried on the outside of stage coachrt,
and regrading the conditel of drivers and guards.
takes place on the Ist of September next. Its prin-
cipal regulations are : that no more titan five persons
shell be carried on or about tl:e outside of any
coach, chaise, or other carriage, drawn by less than
tour horses, between the 29th of September and the
Ist Of April, in every year : ecaches drawn by four
er more horses ate allowed to carry tell utside pas-
sergers etclusive of the coachmen and guard ;
and between the Ist of April and the 291 h of
September, no more Caen .thirteen persons shell
he eerried on or about a coach. exclusive of the
coachman and guard, tinder the fines and penalties
contained in the Ad of the 28th Geo. RI. commonly
called Mr. Gammon's Ad. One person only to sit •
en the lynx with the coachman. No earcels or lug-
gage to be loaded more than two feet above the roof
of any coach, unless the same ennsists entirely of
empty heses or baskets, under pain of 40s. for every
font exceeding two ; and, if the owner is driving.
40s. to be levied, on the view of a Justice of the
Pelee, or on the oath of a creditable witness. The
driver of any carriage stopping at any place where
assistance can be procured, shall nor quit the box
until a proper person or persons shall hold the horses,
or fore-horses, whilst the carriage stops, to prevent
their running away ; such person to hold them until
the driver has returned to the boa, and has in his
hands the reins for guiding the horses, under forfeit
of 40s. for each offence. And if the driver of any
carriage, or the guard, is incapable .of driving the
same, or properly attending the same, by reason
of intoxication, or otherwise, so that the safety
of the passengers may be endangered ; or it
ruch driver or guard shall not duly account to
his employer for all monies received for any passen-
ger or parcel conveyed by such carriage, he shall be
imprisoned in the gaol, or house of corredion, for
The jurisdiction in which the offence is committed,
for any time not exceeding six, nor less than three
calendar months.
seette
K ELLS-PI T. •
Kells.Pit, near %Vhitehaven, the property of the
Right Hon. Lord Viscount Lowther, has recentlt
undergone a thorough repair.—The following pat.
neuters. relative to it, may not be unacceptable t
our readers; especially to many at a distance, wbos
it may be presumed, are unacquainted with one part
of a coal-mine which possesses several singular pro.
perties ; and, in point of situation, differs from all
others, of which any account has hitherto bees
given.
This pit, or shaft, is 118 fathoms (!36 yards) is
depth from the surface to the main-band seam of
coals ; and it is, in other respeds, the most remark-
able of any in the kingdom, for extent of field, with-
out interruption from dykes ; being, from North to
South, or water-level course, 2400 yards ; and frogs'
East to West, what is termed, by miners, from risk
'to dip, as already explored, above 1000 yards !—!t
is also now extended upwards of 900 yards under the
sea, from high-water mark; and is as promising as
at the first working.
The coal of this pit is universally allowed to be of
the finest quality; particularly that on the North
side, which frequently splits into pieces as thin as
the slates used for the roofs of houses.
In making this complete repair of the shaft, all
the old cribs and lathing, and also all the old bran-
dreths and partition-deals, or c'eading, were drawn
to the bank, or surface; every part was replaced
with the best materials ; and upwards of eight fa-
thoms, in depth, walled with strong brick walls ; in
some places, upwards of a yard thick, where the
metals were particularly dangerous, or much decay-
ed. Two new tits were also cut on each side of the
pit, to coiled all the water, with a view of making
the hollow of the pit completely dry—a method not
hitherto predised in this pit.
It is thirty years, we are informed. since any
thing material had been done to it ; and when the
repairing of the old shaft was resolvd on, and even
entered upon, several of the workmen, whose duty
it was to died it, after. persevering for a few days,
abandoned it altogether, as dangerous in the
extreme.
The business was, however, resumed by a set of
vnienterr workmen ; who, under the difeetion of
Mr. John Longmire. agent, and Thomas Marley,
over-man. a±tually completed it, without any acci-
dent, in the short space of five weeks !—for the first
two of which, twelve hours in each twenty-four
were set apart for working a full coal-shift, or rais-
ing SO waggons of coals per shift. The last three
weeks, the pit being unsafe for carrying on the coal-
work, the repairing of the 'heft wren on without
interruption.
So great was the anxiety. and so spirited the ex-
ertions of those who had voluntarily engaged in this
enterprise, that Joseph Watson, a pick-sharper, for
want of a person to succeed him at intervals, as en
assistant banker, did not quit the works for 11 days
and nights!
Lord Lowther arrived at the Castle on Monday
evening, the 2eth ult. but only remained there over
the next day. His Lordship was to highly pleased
with what had been done, that he ordered a very
liberal premium to the agent and over-van; and a
handsome reward to be given to all the workmen,
who had volunteered their services in the business ;
which, whatever of danger it might comprehend.
was executed with uncommon dispatch, and in a
manner which excites the surprise and approbation
of all who arc competent to judge of such exer-
tions.
The repairs were eompleted last Saturday morn-
ing ; and, almost immediately afterwards, coals
began drawing to the hank, as usual.
The method used in conveying the materials up
and down the shaft, is perfeelly new and secure;
aod worthy the attention of all who are largely con-
cerned in cad-inuring. •

On the race course, at Worcester, on Thursday
eve iing, a woman and two boys wore thrown out
of a chair belonging to a ♦ery dangerous and ridi-
culous piece of machinery, called a nrrry•yo-rnsnd,
by which fall the lite of the woman is greatly en•
'tinkered, and the two boys had their kgs broken ;
on; of whom, we understand, is sinew dead.