The Sun.
London, England, 1855-07-23 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

OXFORD CIRCUIT.—CROWN COURT.
STAFFORD, JULY 21.
(Before Mr. Justice Erle.)
RAILWAY ROBBERIES.

Wm. Crutchley, aged 40, breaksman ; Joseph Miles,
22, stoker ; and John Craddock, 42, baker, were in-
dicted for stealing, on the 12th of April last, a quantity
of tobacco, the property of John Robinson M'Clean, the
lessee of the South Staffordshire Railway Company.
Mr. Huddleston and Mr. Robert Kettle conducted the
prosecution ; Mr. Scotland defended Crutchley and
Miles ; and Mr. Motteram defended Craddock.
It appeared that, on the 10th of April last, Messrs.
Wood and Son, of Leeds, consigned a cask of tobacco
to Mr. Elkington, a grocer at Lichfield. On the 12th
it arrived safely at Burton•on•Trent, and was there
placed on a truck, No. 861, of the South Staffordshire
Railway, to be conveyed the remainder of the jour-
ney, but was not seen afterwards. After the loss
was discovered, and inquiries made, Pratt, the guard
of the train which included the truck No. 861, was taken
into custody, and he make a confession which led to
the present indictment. Pratt was now examined as
a witness, and stated that he, Crutchley, and Miles,
together with a man named Anderson (not in cus-
tody), agreed to steal the tobacco, and arranged with
Craddock, who kept a baker's shop and public-house at
Walsall, for its subsequent disposal. On the night of
the 12th they proceeded to Lichfield, received the truck,
and subsequently removed the tobacco into sacks,
which they took with them, knocked the cask to pieces,
and burnt the staves in the furnace of an engine. The
sacks of tobacco were then brought to a lonely spot on
the railway between Lichfield and Walsall, adjoining
Cannock-chase, and buried in the ground. On the fol-
lowing day it was removed by Craddock in a spring-cart.
On the following Monday Pratt and Crutchley went to
Craddock's house, and Craddock told them he bad made
161. of the tobacco, and they received 12/. from him, he
retaining 4/. as his share. The removal of the tobacco
by Craddock from the place where it bad been buried
was established by the evidence of several witnesses, and
he was convicted, but there being no sufficient corrobo-
ration of Pratt with respect to the other two prisoners,
they were acquitted.
There were several other similar charges against the
same and other prisoners in the employment of the
South Staffordshire Railway Company, to which some
pleaded guilty, and against others no evidence was of-
fered in consequence of the result of the first case.
Craddock, against whom a previous conviction was
proved, was sentenced to 14 years' transportation.

NORFOLK CIRCUIT.

CAMBRIDGE, JULY 21.

WELLS V. KELSON.

Mr. O'Malley and Mr. Naylor appeared for the plain.
tiff ; Mr. Keane was counsel for the defendant.

This was an action by a tradesman at Cambridge, to
recover from the 4lfendant, now an officer in the 46th
Regiment, butt eellerly an undergraduate of Caius Col-
lege, the sum of 61. 7's. on the following account :
" Oct. 22. A gold breast-pin £o 14 6
A hunting whip
Nov. 1. A gold breast-pin 1 10 0
A gold-ring
Engraving crest

£6 7 0"
The defendant pleaded infancy, to which the plaintiff re-
plied, denying the infancy, and alleging that the articles
sold were necessaries. The real question in contest was
whether the articles were necessaries or not. The
evidence fcr the plaintiff showed that he keeps a shop
in Cambridge, and sells to the young men of the univer-
sity watches, jewellery, cigars, and pictures. The de-
fendant was introduced as a customer to the plaintiff by
an undergraduate of the name of Harvey, and the plain-
tiff sold the goods on credit to the defendant, without
inquiring as to defendant's means or prospects, either of
the tutor of Caius or any one else. Such a thing as in-
quiring of a tutor was never done. The defendant used
to hunt. He wore a scarf, and the pins were for attach-
ing the scarf. He associated with other young gent:e-
men, and such things were worn by the undergraduates.
As soon as the defendant was appointed to his regiment
the plaintiff directed his attorney to make an application
to the Horse Guards to induce the authorities there to
compel payment of this claim, and that direction was
obeyed. On the other hand, it appeared that the de-
fendant, who is now on his way to Sebastopol, is the
only son of a clergyman in Sussex, who sent him to
Cambridge two years ago, when he was just 13 ;
fitted him out with everything that was necessary, in-
cluding the very plate the father had himself used when
at college ; undertook to pay all the bills sent in to and
by his tutor, and to give him, besides, 201. a term for
travelling expenses and pocket-money. The income of
the father was made up of about 2601. from church pre-
ferment and about 1401. from a small landed estate. At
the end of two terms the defendant had incurred debts
exceeding the amount of one year's income of his father,
and the latter removed him from Cambridge. The
health of the defendant did not require that he should
hunt or take horse exercise. He had no high family
connection ; and his father not only did not authorise
him to assume the position of a young man of fortune
and high rank, but, on the contrary, sent him to read.
Under these circumstances, the defendant having nothing
but his pay, and seeing that the claim, though in itself
small, was one of many, amounting in the whole to 5001.,
the father, who was substantially the defendant, resisted
the action.

Mr. Baron Parke told the jury that it lay on the plain-
tiff to satisfy the jury that the articles for which he
claimed to be paid were necessary to the real estate, de-
gree, and condition in life of the defendant, and not
merely to that which he had assumed in the university.
The law held that infants were incapable of contracting
debts except for necessaries. The defendant was clearly
entitled to be protected from any contract not for neces-
saries within the meaning of the law. He (the learned
judge) and the jury, according to the obligation of their
respective oaths, were bound to administer the law ; and
it appeared to him that when the parents of young men
like the defendant eame forward to sustain such a defence
as the present under circumstances like the present, not
only ought they not to be condemned, but they deserved
the thanks of society. Now the law was that mere
luxuries never could be deemed necessary for any infant
cf any rank. With regard to things ornamental there
was this distinction ; things of mere ornament could not
be necessaries, but ornamental things might be deemed
necessary if the individual would lose caste by not having
them. That being so, and this being the case of the son
of a clergyman with an income of 4001. per annum,
he was not quite certain that be ought not at once to
take the matter into his own hands and direct them
that all these goods were luxurieQ, or things of mere
ornament. At all events the hunting whip and ring
were ; and so was the engraved crest, for the mere use
of which an annual tax of 245. would have to be paid.
The breast pins ho would leave to their consideration
with the remark, that if they found one to be necessary
they could hardly find two, at an interval of ten days,
to be necessary, and that as to one even, they must,
before finding it to be necessary, find that the scarf
itself was a necessary, and also that this defendant
would lose caste unless he fastened his scarf with a gold
pin. The father, however, had given the son every-
thing which he thought his son required ; and it occur-
red to him (the learned judge) that an undergraduate
of Caius, sent thither to read, by a father who was
a country clergyman with an income not exceeding
4001. a year, would be in no danger of losing caste if he
fastened his scarf with a common pin instead of one
made of gold, and costing either 14s. 6d. or 11. 10s.
The question which they had to answer was, whether
any, and if any which, of these articles were " neces•
caries " within that meaning of the term which he had
explained to them.
The Jury deliberated some minutes, and then expressed
a wish to retire.
Mr. Baron Parke—What can 'here be toretire about?
There is nothing to consider if you attend to the law as I
have laid it down, and the obligation of your oaths.
The Jury again consulted, and finally retired, remain.

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