The National Register.
London, England, 1817-03-24 00:00:00

Monmouth . 1819 t 4

Iterks . . . 4126 IS
Burks . . . 5153 9 11
Cambridge . $I 47 15 7
Chester . . 7111 t 9 9.1
Cornwall . . 3t;iis 10 1
Cumberland . 3111 4 8
Derby . . . 6593 17 VI
Diquit . . . 92:11 19 11,
Dot set . . . 3999 I 2
1)11164111 . . 1102 0 4i:
Essex . 13993 Li f.. 1
Gloucester . 790 J 71
Hereford . . 3185 5 7
Hertford . . 3261 1 9}
Huntingdon . 11 t 9 Is 31
Kent . . . 19727 3 9
Lancaster . 2139:41 13 01
Iricester . . 6651 9 61
Lincoln . . 11159 18' 6t
Midiltecx 13990 17 9 I Total COT ,693 4 $

Nurtl,lk . . 777 211
Nurolamptnn . 4353 6 3
NG4llBo,therland 1798 0 tni
Not tiuglaum . 63436 7 8.
Oxford! . . . 3012 7 Of
Rutland . . 531 14 01
Salop . . . 4318 18 01
Somerset . . 7819 13 0
8011.1..tmplon . 60Is 14 101
Statlosti . . 8672 :1 1
lull lk . . 8319 12 2
Sony . . . 8813 1 71
. . . 8706 1 6}
11 ,
*.t.swick . . 7103 11 lit
Wes9oorelaml 883 11 7§
11 ilt.!:irr . . 5003 11 1131
11'Ark'e.qer . 351.2 8 st
York . . : 3.6151 12 3§

LENT ASSIZES.

BEDFOR DSHIRT.

TIM KING. OW THE PROAECITTLON OP PAMPA DARIITv V. TTIT.
REV. itonunT WOOD. Aan, cf.caK. AND SIDIANNAIi WOOL-

HAM) AND SAIIAH WOODWARD, SPINSTERS.

This case has produced an uncommon degree of interest in
all parts of the county of Bedford, front the peculiar charac-
ter of the crime imputed to the defendants. The court was
crowded at an early hour with persons of all ranks; but.
limn the nature of the evidence and remarks about to be sub-
mitted to the Jury, it was deemed proper that the ladies should
be ordered to withdraw. The deloidants having taken their
places is, court, the clerk of the arraigns read the indictment,
which charged them with Davin; foully and maliciously cou-
sin' eti together, filsely to accuse one James Harris of having
committed a rape on the person of Susannah Woodward; in
farthe.anite of which C.;llAiiiracy the said parties appeared
before the Rev. W. Hooper. one of the magistrates of the
(-entity, and preferred their charge, in consequence whereof
a warrant was issued for the apprehension of James Harris :
lac w is euittitaitted to gaul, and at the last assizes was prose-
cute) for the offence, but was acquitted. To.this indictment
the defendants pleaded not guilty.
Mr. Sergeant Illossett aildreksed tile Jury. The defendant,
Mr. Woodward, was the vicar of the parish of Harrold, in
this comity, and his daughters lived with him in the vicarage
house. 'lke present prosecutor, James Harris, was the son
ier a respeeta'ole soldier in the same town; and the charge
imputed to him by the ildetelants was such, that it only re-
quired to be stated to conrince every Mall that it was false.
In bee such was the nature of the evidence given by the
'vole; %swami who reeresentecl herself to have been violated,
taunt the Jury before whom the trial took place, upon her less
tonony alone, pronounced young Harris not guily. That
Mies alusatinah 1600dw3ril hail had intercourse with some one,
whereby she was likely to become a mother, was beyond a
doubt ; but why it was thought proper to fix upon the pre-
tent prosecutor must renntin a mystery. In the testimony
given by the proseentrix on the indicttneat against Mr.
Harris, site stated, that he had, in the month of July, ISI I,
attempted some violence on her person; but that she had
resisted lain, and, on his poetise never to rope it similar
eolit:et, undertook not to mention the circumstance to her
tither. 'Fite more formidable pats of thi charge, however,
slie del not fix till the 18th of October iii the some year;
when, according to her statement, she was coining from the
privy ie her father's garden, within a few yards of the h use,
the garden being overlooked by cottages, and her sister and
a servant being at home, this very man, satin attacked her in
the in inth of July preceiline, again assailed her, and at an
tally hour of the evening, in sp..e of all h' r resistmee and
cries, violated her person. Her sister Sara'u at length
Collie to her assistance, when the ravisher got tip, and atter
etti atoning both their Ilea • if they attempted to disclose what
bad happened, went ass ay. Weedier it was possible to have
committed a violation under such cireunutauccs the Jury
would, after a ,11,elosure of the other facts, be able to deter-
untie. From t tit period down to Jai), in the following year,
this young luda.aceirdi.ig to her ow.' tale, never disclosed to
any person, e scept to her si ter, what had happened, and
then the disclootre came of necessity, for she proved to be
eight m mtlis g me with child. Daring all this period she
lived in her firth pr's house, and nu hers lief father's eye. She,
however, kept herself excludes from public view, and when
site did go me oad, always wore a large cloak. He believed
it was baleiy possible, under tile description which she had
given of the violence committed, that she shonlel have proved
pregnant; but even allote ine the possib,lity, it was not a little
extraordieary, that, living in her father's house so. many months,
she had not made a disclosure of the violation, or that her
father hiaatelf, from the state of her persou, had not made
some inquiries. It was not ell it was impossible longer' to
conceal the business, that her fiti,uly was found in company
with his two daughters before the Rev. Mr. Hoop• r, a most
respectable magistrate in the neighbourhood, prefer. ing the
charge against Mr. Harris. Ou that occasion Miss Susannah
Woodward made the depositiou which she afterwards gave on
Cie trial; and her sister Sarah te•roborated h. t tesiinto iy by
the following stateineut :—" On Tuesday the 18th of Ocr. last,
I was alone in the house ; I heard the voice of my sister Sa-
sattuah calling out, " Sally !" as if in great distress, front the
garden. I immediately ran into the garden, and there 3 tw
soy sister on the ground, and a young man, named James
Harris, a saddler, of Harrold, holding 11,!1' thWll upon the
groted, with a knife in his baud close to her throat. I imme-
diately cried out, ' murder!' and then Harris jumped up, and
puttilie the knife close to my throat, said, if I cried out, he
would run the knife iuto my threat. I said, Wile would re•
move the knife. I wood be silent. Harris then left the ga:.•
den, after saying, that if I told my father, he, or some one
else, would kill me or my sister. L'pou these inform lions,
Ilk. Hooper granted his warrant for app. ellitief ng Harris.
He'was taken into custody; but, utter pi otesting most so-
lemnly his innocence of the some imputed to han, was emus
spitted for tria'. On that trial, leaw !vet, a • It.: had :dread:.
stated, he was acaiiiiell to the in tst limoarable rummer. hi
this view of the case it natist be telt, is, that the cha.ge of via•
lotion was altogether false. S.. it had been p. mu:tamed by a
most respectable jury t and 00111411 would have the 11.1 i dile.° I
to say niter this, tit the charge by Susanitali was 1101 to, II and
tualiciuns. Thus, if the charge of violation was false, he alt-
. preltentled uu duu c, could exist, that Siat', .alto had swat ii
that sias was eresse.t when it was committed, Juiced with Iter
sister in the fabrication of a gross fal•ehteel, and thus became
. a pity to the conspiracy against the present prosecutor. The
two sisters being ciearls implicated to the ti eusaction, the
11,31‘t qttestion for him to consider was, how the father became
&Ire/qt.:a. 114 establishing the :MO of the father, he was per-
suaded, lie should have as tittle didlett.ty a, with the daugh-
ters. He would ask, in the first place, whether it wait withir
the scope of peliai Wkly. that a , a man of sense and din-
criminatiou, could live iu the 54111.' house with Isis daughter
dining eight tuentles of her pregliaucy, without discovering
her situation independent of this, wJst'n ins daughter
told hint the stars, which she Ariel wards swore to befure a
magistrate, could lie believe it i But this was not 1411, for he
would lie found M. fore the magistrate, as if to confirm his guiltt
inure strongly, setting his daughter teght as to the particular
State of the eight on which t!.e siolaliun was alleged to have
taken place. When Mr. Hooper asked what sort of a night
it was, SUbit1111411) sail, " it was a dark night ;" nou %ewe
lie, and placing his 11411 d Oil his Jetliner's
saiti, " No, my dear, it vi,IS a fine moonlight night."
Now, lie would ask, how, if there had not been somethint, or
coneett and plan in this mystei tuns tseStir, ale. Woodward
entail have been weltered thus to assist the mentors of his
saeghter, who em tainly ought best to bat e known the sot t of
;eta oa which %Le soh been so decades:ly iithiobtkl ?
't . I. fii till! a ••S I I ist/t übe

the rape; but failitee in this, Mr. Baron Graham observed,
that the Jury had to decide whether the three defendants,
two, or any of them, had been guilty of the offence imputed
to them. In order to commit the crime of conspiracy, two
must necessaril. have been eoncerned; therefore, in this
ease, the jury must Mel either two guilty, or acip:it the de-
fendants altogether. The learned Judge then read over the
whole of the evilletice. From this evidence, he observed, it
was clear that the father must have known that his daughter
was in a state of pregnancy. In the first place it appears,
that not a syllable of this charge came to the knooledge of
James Harris till seven or eight 11101111111 after the tact was al-
leged to have taken place; and then what was done? The
charge is illartSlTed, the proseeutrix is examined, and upon
coining into a cairn of justice thuds no credit. Now it is said,
nut with the must perfect cerreetness, that the prisoner was
acquitted upon a point of law, and not upon the merits of the
case. This, I /1111 satisfied, is nut true; the fact is, that the
improbability c th • charge was the trite ground upon which
the acquittal took place; and certainly nothing.eould wear
more: the face of improbability than that, if the crime alleged
had bet it committed, it would have been kept secret from
the month of October to the June following; but it becomes
still more improbable, when the situation of the parties is cult-
sidered; the one a t mute woman of eiliwietion and modesty,
and the either a young snail living in the sante parish. Can
any one believe., that the slaughter of a clergyman could have
been so ignorant of the state of society' as not to know she
would have been sufficiently protected fro it the violence
with which site geld she was threatened, or that she would,
after having hem so atroriously abwied, under any Perlin !s
of terror, latve lost a moment in proclaiming her el eat ace,
and asking far vengeance on her violator? but still less likely
is it th it she wield have concealed a disgrace to which her
own sister had been an eye-witness. These, 1 apprehend,
were the groiniels on which the acquittal took place, and not
as has been stated, on a mere rule of law. If the young
woman had been treated with the violence she has de.cribed,
she must and would have told her parent. That site was with
child is a matter beyond doubt, mid it might, by possibility,
happen that this young item was the tether of that child;
but the violation must be put altogether out of the question.
Even this sorinise, which I have mule for the benefit
of the young womm, is set aside by tlw oath of the
young man himself, who swears most positively that he never
had any connesion with her whatever; and that his evidence.
is at ail deserving of discredit, 1 can in no respect discover.
lie is a respectable yoting man, and has ;Tie en his testitn my
in a very ungnestionehle manner. I protest I was most
anxious and desirous, for the sake of this male innate family,
that something might occur which would lessen the enormity
of their guilt. The natural compassion of one's feelings in
seeing a titan of editeation, and in holy orders, work up his
mind to au offence fur which there is no palliation, withou
using a harsher observation, led me to hope some circuit'•
stance might arise to lessen the enormity of Isis guilt. It
is with pain, however, that I am driven to say uo such
circumstance has transpired. %%That could be the motives for
concealing the real father, and fixing it on an innocent man,
is beyond our ability to discover? If the charge of violation
agains, James Minis is false. the next question for our coll.
sideraiion is, di.' the defendants agree to bring forward the
charge, ,eioseine it be false? With respect to the young WO-
men, as they both swore to beingiereseut when the fact took
place, no doubt of their guilt cell; exist. As to the father,
perhaps the evidence is not so conclusive. In the defect of
the evidence against the father, yon have nothing but the
general circa:instance.; of the ease, and the palpable falseness
of the charge. You will consider whether the natural saga-
city of u man of good e location could really have persuaded
Mtn to give credit to so foul a charge. If you are not tulle sa-
tisfied of his guilt, you will acquit him by your verdict. The
same observation applies to the daughters; but if you think
they were all privy to the conspiracy, you will find your ver-
dict accordingly.
The Jery, after a few ;minutes consultation, found all the
defendants guilty.
Mr. Baron Grebe's' immediately proceeded to pmneance sentence
on the defendants. He observed, that during the whole of his jtali-
cel life he neves fiat more pain than in the performance of his duty
on the present oc-asion. It was impossible to imagine a case more
melancholy than that which was now before him; a clergyman of
the Church of England, a character winch stoad so high in this
country, convicted on the clearest and most satisfactory evidence
of the most ueotuineble and atrocious conspiewy—a crime which
became still mere dreadful from his Navin;induced his two un-
fortunate daughters t, follow him in his career, and to hear a
part in his foul load of infamy. tic conliesed he knew not how
to du justice. Compassion for the intimities of human nature
might induce bins to alleviate the severity of punishment; but in
this cave all compaeion was swallowed up in the contemplation of
the scene lefore hurt--a scene which presented to his view a man,
who, in spite of the hene.its of eieretion, and the dictate, of religion,
had sunk to the last degree of Hunan crime.
The sentence of the Court wes, that tee Rev. Robert Woodward
should be imprisoned in the ceintem gaol of the county of Bedford
fur two years; and that his elaug'nties, Sarah and Susannah, should
each be impeiemed one year in Cie same Kell.
The defend:tuts seemed deeply afflicted with their situction. Mr.
Woodwind Is a titan %bout 50 yr:4 of age. His eldest daughter,
Sarah, has not'iiae prepossessing in her manners or person, and is
about ye. The yemege.st. Summate, is rather a pretty girl, of fair
vinyl -entre Their i de: has excite et hut very little eximonsseration in
tie county.

Prucr OF I%READ.
The highe,t price of the best Wheaten Bread thmulhont the me.
tropolis. is st..ted by the Bakers to he 171 d. the Quartern Loaf—.
&J to Bakers sell the Quartern Loaf from id. to sd. lower.