The National Register.
London, England, 1812-07-05 00:00:00

* THE.NATIONAI, REGISTER.

TRIAL OF THOMAS BOWLER.

The Prisoner was indicted under the Cutting and Maiming Act,
II wilfully and maliciously discharging a blunderbuss, loaded with
bullets, at William Bttrrowcs, on the 30th of May last, and wound-
ing him in the neck and back with the contents thereof, at Alperton,
in 'he parish of Harrow.
Mr. ADOI.IUS opened the pleadings, and Mr. POOLEY stated the
case to the jury. In doing so, he described with technical precision
the nature of the offence, which the Act. ender which the Prisoner
st.,od inhered, was intended to repress and punish, aed also the de-
,cription of persons who were to be considered amenable to its provi-
sinus. Any man, he said, who could discern right from wrong, and
who appeared capable of reflecting upon the consequences of the act
he committed at the time of commission, was answerable to the law
for his conduct, if provided for by the criminal legislation of the
country. In detailing the circumstances of the case, he said the pri-
toner's offence had come precisely under the terms of the Act of Par-
liament, and it was for him to shew, that at the time he committed
the crime, he was in that state of mind which could induce the jury,
conseietitiously, to abstain from a conclusion of his guilt.—Heo hen
proceeded to call his witnesses to prove the facts of the case, which
are already so full in the recollection of the public, that it would Le
superfluous to recap4ulate them minutely. The prisoner, it :appear-
ed, was a fanner of considerable property at Alperton, near Harrow.
On the morning of the 30th of May, at an early hour, he was seen out
in the village by his neighbours with a blunderbuss in his hand, and
"his little grandson on horseback following him. Cpoo being asked by
a blacksmith what he was going to do with his fire-oen , he said he
was going to shoot a dog, and requested that the blacksmith would do
something at the back of the piece to enable it to do execution.
!With this the blacksmith complied, when the prisoner, after walking
about in the road backwards 'and forwards for a few minutes,
took the blunderbuss from the blacksmith's shop, and stood
under an elm tree by the road side, apparently watching
very earnestly for some objet that was approaching. Mr.
Burrowes shortly afterwards, in a taxed cart, came over a bridge
which crosses the junction Canal, and advanced within a few yards of
the prisoner, who deliberately levelled his blunderbuss at him, fired,
and at the same time exclaimed, 46 There d—n you." .lr. Burrowes,
who observed kis motions, and seeing the danger which awaited him,
dipped his body to endeavour to avoid the consequences, and receiving
two of the balls in his neck and one in his back, fell, apparently
lifeless, over the shafts of the cart. His horse, alarmed with the
report of the piece, ran off' at full speed with his wounded master
lying in that. position, whilst the prisoner, after having made his
grandson dismount from his own horse, gallopped oil' as fast as he
could. The prisoner was not apprehended until the I.3th of June,
when he returned to his own house and was taken. These were
the leading facts of the case. The attention of Counsel was chiefly
directed to the proof of the prisoner's sanity at the time of the trans-
actisn, to which evidence was examined at considerable length. All
the witneses for the prosecution agreed, that at the time the ailair
took place the p risoner seemed perfectly cool and collected, and
rational. His son-in-law, however, related a variety of instances, on his
cross-examination by Mr. Wetherall, which indicated at various
periods considerable derangement of intellect ; such as various acts of
inconsistency in t tic management of his affairs—sudden loss of memory
--incoherency of 'conversatson-L-rising at unseasonable hours of the
41"ning—dining at unusual hours of the day—and going to ba at mut
-common periods of the evening. The testimony of the other wit-
nesses, however, want to show, that within the last two months his

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conduct was perfectly rafi6o4l,- and that of a man whose set,, • • •
complete and unimpaired ; so much so, that on the day next bu- •
to tit: transaction in question, lie had made a fresh will. The
motive assigned in the evidence frr the prosecution, for the sanguin: • v
purpose of the prisorer, was some displeasure the prosecutor ti -at
given him in the month of March last, by lopping some trees which
divided their respective premises. Tne prisoner was afterwards
heard.to say in St. James's market, to a mail named William Shep-
hen', when the latter mentioned that he had bought same hay of Mr.
laurrowes, " D—n that Burrowes—l'll Burrowes him—'tore long
I'll be the death of him ; he shan't live beyond the middle of June. it
I die next morning."
The evidence on the part of the prosecution having been closed.
the Prisoner was asked if he hud any thing to say in his defence;
but he,said he would leave it to ilia Counsel, who immediately set
up a plea of insanity. To support this his house-keeper, Elizabeth
Bargum, a servant maid in his house, and several neighbouring
farmers wet e examined. They so.ted, that frem the time the
Prisoner had talien from his horse, in July last, his behaviour had
never been the same as it !no! been before—that his memory and
intellects seemed from that time to the present to have been totally
deranged, sun( that in consequence of numberless instances of
incoherent conduct, by threatening to destroy himself, they were
obliged to watch and prevent him from so doing, and that down to
the very day on which the crh.n was committed, they believed hint
to be incapable of acting or judcirg for himself, and to be in a state
of constant mental derangement. Mr. Hyatt, an apothecary, who
attended him at the time of his fall, Dr. Aineley, who had at-
tended him since his committal to prison, Dr. Warburton, a medical
gentleman in the habit of atteetling persons afflicted with deranga.
ment of intellect, and Mr. Webb, surgeon to the New Prison, aIL
deposed generally that from their own long experience and close
attention io disea-es of this kind, and from their repeated visitation
of the prisoner since his confinement, they believed him to be in a
complete state of mental derangement, even to the present hour.
and their practice convinced Om that, although the prisoner
might, as was customary with patients during their insanity from
apoplexy, be apparently rational and consistent upon many point,,
yet upon someone point, which funned, as it were, the key of their
derangement, they were usually without any reason or capability of
right conduct, and were apt to f, nn unfounded notions of malice
and revenge even aphis.: their most intimate friends, upon imaginary
.causes, and to be disiosed to wre.rk vengeance upon those parties ;
such they thought the situation of the Prisoner. Several other
persons bore testimony to his mental derangement.
Sir St mora Ls BL A sc, recapitulated tie evidence for the jury, and
hid down the law of the case. I t the Jury believed that the Prisoner,
when he committed the act attributed to him, was in a state of mind
capable of perceiving right from wrong, and not under the influence
of any temporary illusion against the Prosecutor, which rendered him
incapable of judging whether he did right or wrong towards that
individual, in that case he was not answerable to the laws of his
Country. But if they believed that he was capable of discovering
right from wrong, and not under such illusions at the time he come
mated the act, but sansible that he was doing a wrong aci, then Ile
would be amenable to the justice of his Country, and guilty in the
cs e of the law.
The Jury retired for about an hour and a half, and returned a
verdict of— Gt: r.Ty
The Court was immensely crowded during the 'whole trial, which
lasted front ten in the morning until eight. A strong phalanx of legal
assistance was employed for the Prisoner. He had no less than five
Gentlemen of the Bar, Mr. Gurney, Mr. Alley, Mr. Wetherell,
Mr. Arrabin,
The Prosecutor recommended the Prisoner to mercy, on account of
his being a neighbour.

We are sorry to find by ad vices from Lisbon, that a horrid attempt
Lad nzen made to assassinate CIO. Linzee, of His Majesty's ship Union,
by a seaman belongine to that vessel, who stabbed him in the breast.
The wound however -did not prove mortal„as was at first supposed ; and
we have the stitistaction to state that Captain Linzee, has arrived at
Portsinuuth on board the Sabrina, and is in a fair way of recovery.—
The assassin was tried by a Cole-martial at Lisbon, and ciecated. He
co:dessed his crime, in which it appears he had no associate, nor had
he coati-mimic sled his diabolical purpose to any one ; he could not as-
sign any motive for the act, except some diabolical impulse to commit
a murder.
SUICLDF.—The village of Alperton, where Bowler shot at Mr.
Burrows, has been the scene of auother deplorable event. A respect-
able farmer, of the name of Kidney, was found drowned in a pond,
at the back of Air. Burrows's house, on Monday morning, to the as-
tonishment of the neighbourhood.
The number of French Commissioned Officers and Masters of priva-
teers and merchantmen that have broken their parole in the three last
) can aiding the .sth June, is 63V; uf whom t:4.4 have been retaken,
and 440 escaped. considerable number of Officers have besides
been ordered into confinement fur various tither breaches !_if their rarolc
engagements.

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