The National Register.
London, England, 1817-04-14 00:00:00

AGRICULTURE.

The Board of Agriculture have offered a gold medal
or one hundred guineas, to any person who shall, before
March, 181$, produce the best Essay on the Means of
Employing the Poor, mid the gold medal, or fifty gui-
neas, to the person who shall, in the present spring,
cause to be dug by the hand the greatest number of
acres for the production of crops of corn, pulse, turnips,
or cabbage, not less than ten acres, and !lir not less than
five acres, 251. . . .

Mr. Ctirwen, the great cultivator, is burning clay
into ashes upon an extensive scale, for manure. The
farming public will no doubt be glad to hear the result,
although the practice be very old in this country, and
we are already in possession of tuanY recorded and an-
tisfitctory experiments.
In all parts of the kingdom, to much ploughed land was
never knomii by the oldest person's, as for the next harm est.
The funnels are busy in all parts of Cumberland %t,‘‘ in;
their oats. The crt 11111 l I was 111.% er in liner condition. Some
barley has been also sowa We light lands.

LEST ASSIZES.

I.INC IsTER.

THE RI N 6 (at the prosecution Of H. HoOTR) V. TIIE REV. HR.

ill/ROMAN, CLERIC.
This was an action brought by a gentleman of the annie of
Booth, against the defendant, who is a clergyman, and master
of tt grammar school, in the neighbourhood of Warrington,
for an assault upon the son of the fat titer, namely, in inflicting
severe and unmerited castigation.

_ .
Mr. Williams stated the ease to the Jury, and prodneed
evidence to the following effect :—The boy Booth, it appeared,
together with his brother, both under the age of tw else years,
was in the habit of attending the school of the defendant
daily, for a considerable time, which attendance, as well as it
regarded them and the school genrraily, was enforced in the
strictest manner. One of the Booths, however, having, at
the instance of his father transgressed this rule, he was threat-
ened with the usual punishment of flogging, and, according
to custom, his name was put upon a list kept for that pnrpasc.
The boy upon that occasion pleaded the duty he owed his
father, and the chastisement wa, deferred. Having ac-
quainted his father with the circ lance, the latter concei,..
ing that he haul a sovereign right to command bin own child,
told him to inform his toaster, the defendant, upon a subse-
quent occasion, that he wished him to remain at home ou a
particular day, advising the troy, however. if Mr. Bordonan,
should resist, and offer to inflict punishment, to submit, as
well as lie could, but as soon after as pos‘ible, to take his ha
and quit the school. This and other circ tances naturally
led to a ditfereoce and antipathy between the parties. In
stating this part of the case, Mr. Williams submitted, that the
determined severity of the defendant was the more unjust&
able, as he conceived the duty of a son to be, by the law of
Nature, originally due to a parent ; and the claim of the
latter to such obedience, paramount to that of a teacher or
mater.

Mr. Justlce Bailey.—" i apprehend- not, in all eases, Mr.
Williams. If a boy is placed under a teacher or tOr
a scholastic or any other purpose. and such master or teacher
lays down certain rules for the discipline and goveraint la f
that boy, then is the claim of the master or teacher, to his
duty, strictly paramount to that of the parent. Beside, it
woald be highly indecorous and improper for a parent to
interfere with the discipline of a school where his child might
be placed."
The evidence then went to prove, that on the day previous
to that stated in the indictment, the son of the plaintiff was
taken ill, and advised by a physician to take physic and
remain at home. An excuse was in consequence sent to the
school, that his absence on that day was unavoidable ; but the
defendant refused to receive the apology, and upon the boy
going to school on the following day, he was informed that he
was on the hogging list !—ln pursuance of this, the lad upon
the usnal day received a severe chastisement, the mature and
effect of which was proved by a audit-al gentleman named
Kenrick. This individual stated, that be was called in to
examine the boy, and he f t his back and loins quite sca-
rified, and the blood front the wounds flossing copiously. He
considered the flogging to have been dreadfully severe ; and
he ordered spermaceti ointment to be applied.
The witness being cross-examined by Mr. Scarlett, acknow-
ledged that lie was quite inexperienced in Hugging CUM'S he
had never attended soldiers who had been Hogged, nor had
he ever been flogged himself! The back of the boy, he ad•
mined, might have healed iu about a fortnight without the
applicat' of his (Dr. Kentick's) cataplasm, or spermaceti
ointment.

The Mother of Booth, another lad, and the boy binikelf,
deposed to the dreadfully severe flogging which had been M..
Meted t but they each admitted, upon their cross-examina-
tion, that the last mentioned boy had been placed upon the
flogging list, more particularly in consequence of his dulness
ill grammar, and non attention to his Catechism. They also
admitted that a boy placed upon the flogging list might, be-
fore the day fixed for its infliction, by good conduct, avert
it ; and that not only on the same day, hut upon many former
occasions, had other boys of the school been as severely flog.
ged as young Booth.
11r. Scarlett, for the defendant, made a most ingenious re-
ply ; and Mr. Justice Bayley, having addressed the Jury,
the latter, without hesitation, found the delendant--Not
Guilt .
The case excited much amusement in the Cunrt.
W ILTS.
At the Wilts Assizes, 11. Maidnient, aged I, was indicted
for stealing tinlb. of tallow, the property of Francis Webb,
of Mere. It was stated that Nle. Webb haul recently received
a g►eat deal of tallow, from %Inch the vantity mentioned
in the indictment had beeo taken. It being declared that
the prisoner had no counsel, the Judge very cheerfully be-
came has advocate;

Jhoge Abbot, for the prisoner—How do )ou know Webb,
that )on lost joist St/lbs. of tallow i-1 trio auic of it, i.:y
Lord.

I want to be sure of it too ; do yon keep an account of
‘vlsat ,tati rem iye, or what yon 11111.?--NO Inc Mod.
What, no hook, in which yon minute dune your goods ?
Yes, my Lord, I keep a day-hook.
Well, that is what I wanted; and did you in this honk
wake may entry of the tallow received, or taken l'iom it, lur

of making candles?—No, my Lord, for it was
make candles of.
' fit to make candles of; why then, man, it was not
'es, it was, my Lord.
• not fit to make candles?—Because, my Lord, it
into tallow.
Ito tallow! No, my Lard. Why then it most he
tallow.—Yes, my Lord. Alt! that's •ery well.
of the Jmy, (said the learned Judge) pin find
prosecutor's own evidence that you must acquit the
r. This man charges the prisoner with steeling tal-
e prosecutor is a tallow-chandler, and yet, Gentte-
t ard, from this tallow•eltandlcrs month, that lie
know the difference between talldw and Intl—

At the late Gloucester Assizes, John Evans, for riotously,
assembling with other persons at 'Fretlegar Iron Works, anti
•topping one of the ►team engines, was ordered to be impri-
soned twelve months.

At the late Sir:folk Assizes, which finishod on Wedrif.silay.
at Thetford, on this motion of Mr. Alderson, nine of the ltran•
don rioters were allowed to withdraw their I..irmer plea, at
last Assizes, and to plead guilty, throwing themselves Ilion
the mercy of the Court and their prosecutors. Mr. Se, jeant
Blosset, for the prosecution, consented that they should be
discharged upon their own recognizance, to appear and re-
. .
emve judgment whenever called upon. Baron Graham, in
addressing them, said, it gave him great satisfaction to see a
untidier of young persons, after has ing been guilty of such an
outrage, brought to a doe and just sense of their wicked con-
duet. lie was happy to perceive such symptoms of penitence,
stud he hoped the feelings which the defendants had disco-
vered would become general among the deluded people who
1141150117,M to redress their grievances by disturbing the pub-
lic peace and rising up against the government.

APRIL
the purpose
:not fit to taak
• No net tit
?—Yes
Then why
was not run ii
Not run int
fat, and not t.
Gentlemen
by the prosee
prisoner. Tli
low; the pros
men, you lira'
does not kno
Acquitted.
At th. 1.1.