The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1803-05-04 00:00:00

LEEDS, APRIL 30.

At the Sessions for this Borough, held on Satur-
day last, the following prisoners were tried :
William Smith, clothdresser, was indicted for hav-
ing, along with another person unknown, violently
assaulted Mr. N. Johnson, of Holbeck, merchant,
on the night of the 14th of Nov. last. It appeared
in evidence, that this man having met Mr. Johnson,
at the time mentioned in the indklment, accompa-
nied by his daughter, and attended by a man-ser-
vant with a lanthorn, said to his accomplice, "Is that
Johnson ?" and being answered in the affirmative,
the prisoner cried, " I)—n him, down him." He
then brandished a stick over the prosecutor's head,
and having placed himself in a threatening attitude,
Mr. Johnson closed upon and seized the prisoner
by the collar, who after throwing away his stick,
said, " Now I'll fight you like a man." The assail-
ants having thrown Mr. Johnson down, and struck
him several blows over the face and body, one of
them thought it prudent to decamp, and the other
would then probably have followed his example,
had lie not been detained by Mr. Johnson, who
courageously determined to know who he was,
whatever personal injury he might sustain in tile
attempt. The other man having fled, the prisoner
was obliged to surrender, and submit to be taken
before a magistrate. No witnesses were called on
the part of the prisoner, and the Jury pronounced
him- Guilty.
The Recorder, in passing sentence, described, in
very strong language, the heinous nature of the
offence, and observed, that he had no doubt but
the prisoner's intention was to commit murder; he
glanced at the outrages committed in the West of
England, from whence this man came, and la-
mented that the spirit of insubordination and revolt
amongst mechanics, had become so alarming (a
striking instance of which, the learned Gentleman
said, had occiarred within the last' ten days,) that
the Legislature ought, and should be applied to, to
torm some strong law, dire6ted to the suppression
of this growing and dreadful evil. He then pro-
nounced the sentence of the Court, which was that
the prisoner should be confined 12 months in York
Castle.

7obn 114Ills:Jon was tried on a charge of having
used the following seditious language, at the
George and Dragon public-house in this town, on
the 2tith of February last :—" D—n the Jury that
" found Colonel Despard guilty—l wish they were
" all in hell—and Colonel Despard's head crammed
" down the Km's throat."

We consider the publication of this cause impor-
tant, as it will tend to corm& a mistaken idea, which
the late State Trials, and the serious charge against
this man so soon after seemed to countenance,
namely, that in the event of a political tumult, the
insurgents expelled, and would receive material
assistance from the town and neighbourhood of
Leeds.

Mr. Christian opened the proceedings by an eulo-
gium on the Constitution under which we have the
happiness to live, and the consequent folly and
criminality of those persons, who either by words
or alions, attempted the subversion of this glorious
and unrivalled fabric of human wisdom. The
manner in which the prisoner was this day tried,
he observed, was a striking illustration of the truth
of this remark, as there was an instance mentioned
in an early period of English history, where a man
had been executed for a similar offence, which was
for wishing, that a stag, horns and all, was in the
King's belly.—l-le then stated the circumstances of
the case, as developed in the evidence for the prose-
cution, and contended, that it was highly impro-
bable that O'Connor, without any possible motive,
should swear an untruth ; while the evidence on the
other side was liable to much suspicion, as coming
from the prisoner's friends. Having gone pretty
much at length into the nature and possible conse-
quences of such offences, he proceeded to call evi-
dence.
Nicholas O'Connor, a corporal in the 18th regi-
ment of dragoons, said, that while sitting in his
quarters at the George and Dragon, on the 26th of
February, the prisoner, who was also in the house,
got up, and dire Ling his discourse, first to the with
ness, said,—" Colonel Despard was favourable to
all sol dicrs—he never brought any of them to
punish anent ;" then turning to two men who sat
on the other side of the room, he used the words
mentioned in the indklment. Witness then seized
him, and insisted on knowing his name; but on the
landlord saying he would be answerable for his ap-
pearance in the morning, he suffered him to depart.
Witness went immediately to Major Allen and men-
tioned the expressions he had heard, when the Major
ordered him to bring the prisoner to justice. This
was the only witness called on the part of the pro-
secution.
Mr. Heywood, counsel for the prisoner, then rose,
and after saying, that from the heat which these
charges gave rise to, he had come to the determi-
nation never to appear again in this court as counsel
for a prisoner charged with an offence of this na-
ture ; but at the earnest solicitation of several of his
friends he bad been induced, he hoped for the last
time, to sacrifice his own feelings in this particular.
He then observed that the learned gentleman who
preceded him had occupied much of his own time,
and the time of the Court, in a panegyrick upon the
Constitution, which every one who -heard him, and
none more than the prisoner at the bar, were ready
to assent to ; this, however, was at present no more
the subjea under consideration than the school-book
story about the stag and the horns being in the
King's belly : he could furnish the gentleman with
another case quite as much in point as that he had
mentioned; this was a dialogue betwixt Bardolph
and Sir John Falstaff : Bardolph, who had drank
sack till his nose was as red as a burning lamp, from
some provocation, • wished his nose in Sir John's
belly, when the facetious Knight replied, " God-a-
mercy ! I should be very sorry if it were, for it
would give me the heart-burn 1" Mr. Heywood pro.
ceeded to comment on O'Connor's evidence, and
contended, that it was not of a nature to be set in
competition with the strong conclusive testimony
that would be produced for the prisoner ; it was
possible that the witness, who was an Irishman, and
came confessedly from a part of the country where
the native Irish is spoken, might be mistaken as to
the import of the words he heard ; this was more
likely, as in giving evidence, O'Connor had used the
words ridicule ana defy in a connexion quite unintel-
ligiiile to an l.nglishman ; and if he spoke the lan-
guage unintelligibly, he might understand it so iin-
perlealy, as to mistake the words which the prisoner
• really had used, for those imputed to him. Having

dwelt on these and a variety of other topics, in :t
speech of much force and ingenuity, he proceeded to
call witnesses :
Robert Rayner, a fellow servant of the prisoner's,
deposed, that he was in company with him when
the words charged in the indktment were said to
have been spoken, but that he did not 13;:ar him make
use of these expressions; he did indeed say, " Col.
Despard declared his innocence to the last ; if he
were guilty he deserved all he got and more, but it
he were innocent the witness that appeared against
him ought to eat his head."
Two other persons who were in the room, (and
to whom O'Connor said the seditious language was
addressed,) both swore that thevheard no expression s
of the kind, except that one of them heard the pri-
soner mention " Despard's head," hut nothing about
either the King or the Jury. They could not swear
whether O'Connor, when he seized the prisoner,
charged him with having used the language men-
tioned in the indiament, or only in general terms
with having said something wrong.
Mr. Rayson and several of his people were called ;
all gave evidence as to the good and loyal charaeter
of the prisoner. Some of them had heard him talk
in the usual tittle tattle way on political iubjeas, but
never heard him express a disloyal sentiment; he
had been in Mr. Rayson's employment upwards of
twelve months.

Mr. Christian replied.
The Recorder then summed up the evidence,
when the Jury retired for about twenty minutes, and
on their return gave a verdit of acquittal.

The following Anecdote is taken from Broca',
publication of a The Conduct of Heroic Women
during the French Revolution."
a One of the prisoners of the Luxemburgh had a
dog, who, it will be seen in the following recital,
gave extraordinary proofs of sac;acity, as well as of
attachment to his master. tvery day the dog
watched an opportunity to pass into the interior of
the prison, and, entering the chamber of his master,
overwhelmed him with caresses. One day in parti-
cular his demonstrations_of joy were so reiterated as
to become exceedingly troublesome ; but the more
his master strove to render him quiet, the more im-
portunely the animal persisted in his caresses ; he
leaped, howled, barked, and bending his head down-
ward, appeared to direct the attention of his master
to his collar. Concluding the dog had been wounded
by some accident, he then examined him, but find-
ing no kind of hurt upon him, and being seized by
his restlessness, he attempted to put him out of the
room. The dog however escaped from his hands,
and displayed the same tokens, till his master took
off the collar, when the animal again began to bark
and to whine, but no longer with a tone of inquie-
tude. Surprised at the manifest change in the man-
ner of the dog, the prisoner direaed his attention to
the collar, and found that it held a letter from his
wife, who, constantly repulsed at the door of the
prison, had found this means of conveying her sen-
timents to him. He replied by the same courier.
A regular correspondence was now carried on, and
every day at a certain hour the faithful commissioner
of affection passed and re-passed with his invisible
message."

BIRTPIS.
On Sunday, at Great St. Helen's, the Lady of Mr. Ell.
yard, of a son and heir.
The Lady of Richard Solly, Esq. of York-place, of a
daughter.
MARRIED.
On Thursday last, at Bedford, D. T. Carpenter, Esq. to
Miss Barnard, of the same place.
Yesterday, at Aldgate Church, Captain William Elder,
to Miss Gibson, of Ratcliff!.
Sunday, at Camberwell, by the Rev. G. Landky, Edw.
J. Human, Esq. of the Middle Temple, to Miss Brown,
eldtst daughter of Tim. Brown, Esq. of Peckham Lodge.
DIED.
On the 3oth ult. at Ilackm.y, Vim. Williams, Esq. of
the Custom-house.
On Friday morning last, Mr. Williams, of Sion College
Gardens, Aldermanbury, attorney-at-law.
Yesterday morning, at one o'clock. Mr. Charles Fishct,
sixth mate of the Alfred East Indiaman, son of Mr. Robot
Fisher, solicitor. of Bell-square, Foster lane.

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