The National Register.
London, England, 1817-08-04 00:00:00

MIDSUMMER ASSIZES.

VORIC.

Tar. lunnrrEs.—The trial, of these deluded men who
were engaged in the Yorkshireinsnrrection of the Bth of June,
have terminated in the acquittal of the whole. Six of them
have been tried at the York Assizes, on a charge of burgle-
riously taking tire arms from a house in the road, to Hudders-
field. The evidence of the witnesses against them did not
satisfy the Jury of their guilt, and they accordingly found a
verdict of acquittal. On Saturday four more, who were !op-
posed to be leaders of the mob, were upon their trial, and
also acquitted. They were technically charged " with being
present, counseling, aiding and assisting, a person unknown,
in firing a loaded gun at Mr. David Alexander, ore of the
Huddersfield Ycomar ry Cavalry, of Foley Hall Midge, near
Huddersfield on the night of the Bth of June last."

The Judge exhorted the pristine' to i ware of continuing
in such dangerous courses. They had had a narrow escape,
and might.rest assured, if they continued such practices, they
would infallibly come to :111 untimely death. The pi bioners
answered, simultimeomly, " We % ill, indeed, my Lord."

William King. of the town of Sheffield, edge tool-maker, was in-
dicted for the wilful murder of Sarah Trippet, on the morning of the
4th ofJunc last, by giving her several wounds whit a tire poker, is
his own helve in Sheffield on that day.
Mr. Mauder addressed the jury for the prose: ration, and detailed
the circumstances of this atrocious case. The erisoner was an edge
tiol-maker in Sheffield; the deceased, though nut his wife, cohabit.
ed with him as his wife, and bore hint two children. She had beets
formerly married to a person who had subsequently enlisted into the
army, and went abroad. Fur five years previous to her death. she
hail cohabited with the prisoner. Iler husband heti returned in that
interval, but owing to some compromise between him end the pri.
Loner, site remained with the Litter ; and WS by the neighbours, who
were not aware of the circumstances, eunsidered in every reeeect as
his wife. No quarrel was heard of between them till the morning if
the 4th cf .Ittne, when the dreadful act was perpetrated. The pri-
soner had slept at home the night previous, but though whit bad
happened in the couree• of it was not known, he was seen by one of
his neighbours, walking the streets, in an agitated stets, in the morn-
ing, about six o'clock. Immediately after, he returned home, and
had not been in the house above half an hour, when the neighbours
were alarmed with dreadful shrieks and groans. The door was, in
consequence, broken open, anti the prisoner was found in an upper
chamber, palely undressed, standing over the led in which was the
mangled body of his wife, with a blotely poker clenched firmly in both
his hands, while the evidences of the h.errid deed which he had just
committed, were seen in the blood that sprinkled the windows, and
the brains of the deceased, which were scattered over the bed-clother,
and beside his two infant children. The person who first saw Lint,
was terrified at his menacing attitude, and ran down efair. tie; his oe tt
safety. Nor did he relent when the deed was perpetrated. When
he heant that there were still more symptoms of life in the deceased,
he replied by saying, he hoped not, and scented to glory in the mur-
der. 'l'he facts would be proved beyond a doubt. 'I he only question
was, as to the prisoner's sanity : but unless the atroeity of crone was
an evidence of ineanity, no other prof could be found, after the most
active search antong his neighbours, previous to this deed, end the
most vigilant observation of his conduct since hit committnent. lie
was extravagant and &liken, when he was enabled to gratify his
propensities by high wages, but there was no other impeachment of
his understanding. The Learned Counsel ptoceded to call witnesses
-who supported these facts.
Mr. llama Wood summed up, and the Jury instantly returned a
verdict of Guilty.
The Judge immediately passed sentence of death, ordering thepri-
caner to be execute' on Thursday, .loly 51, a gind his body to be ven
to be dissected. " After a long and patient investigation," stud his
Lordship, addressing the prisoner, '• you have been found guilty by
a jury of your country, of the crime of murder. The Milne is at all
times the most horrid that can he conninitted by a criminal, or pu-
nished by the law ; but in your case it was accompanied with circum-
stances of peculiar atrocity. The woman whom yon have most
ceuelly destroyed, was a peewit with •whoni you coluibited, and to
whom you ought to have afforded protection. .Instead of this, you
not only murdered her, but seemed to exult in the deed, and to carry
your malice even beyond death. The act w Itieh -made every one
shudder, produced no impression upon you, but a desire to renew it.
Pray,ahreafore, to God, during the short period you. have to live,
that he may extend that metcy to you in another world. which you
refused-to one whetn you ought to !Lore protected in this." The pri-
soner heard the evidence of his trill, and this concluding address,
without betraying any symptoms of contrition or emotieo.