The Sun.
London, England, 1852-07-22 00:00:00

The commission wilt be opened at Durham on
Saturday.

MIDDLESEX SESSIONS, July 21.
(Before Mr. Sergeant elDams Assiecauteiudee.)
EXTRAORDINARY CASE. -- Thomas Whitcher, a
builder, in Gilbert's-mildings, Westminster-road, Waa
indicted for having assaulted and inflicted bodily harm
on George Thomas Minor.
Mr. Metcalfe prosemated; Mr. Parry appeared for the
defendant.
The Learned Counsel,. having shortly stated the case
to the jury, called—
The prosecutor, who deposed--I am a linendraper in
Somers town. I lived in Chapel-street. I had a resi-
deuce, No. 2, Shrubland-grove, Dalston. Formerly I
I occupied apartments in the defendant's house. That
I was about three months before this transaction. I lived
there with my wife, but we were obliged to leave in
e:onsequence of the pertinacity with which he paid his
at tenttota to my wife. He thought proper to pay her
pacticuler attentions, as I thought. If ever I and my
wife .i:ad a few words, le was elways ready to interfere.
He would Luke her by the hand, stroke her chin, and
eacimieorrcus3bdotiZetir
wgaeit,t,apoa t ahnegrryc.h"eeHk,e
anwdouslqduet?zti:
say, " Poor dear. Airs. Minor what a pity it is that
her. his
aud do all this right before my face.—(Laughter.) I
considered him an intruder, and I shouts rather
think such doings were an intrusion. I had to used to
go home to Daiston every night on accouirt of the die-
ranr2f. I used to go home tw:eo a week. I went home
on the night of
the 25th of May by occident That wee
a night I was not expected 'home. The tight for my
teing at home that week would have been W ednetday.
Well, when I got there on the Tuesday night it was
about ten o'clock. My wife was not at home. She sauna
home at a little after one o'clock on the morning of tee
26th of May. She came home in a cab. Directly j
heard the cab I thought it was her, and I rushed one.
and I found that the defendant bad come home with her.
When the cab drove up, the defendant opened the, door,
got out, and began to arrange his dress, which was dia.
ordered. I bad not seen my wife in the cab then, but
suspecting she was there, I was going to the cab,
when he interposed, offered me his hand, and said,
e‘ Ah, Minor, my boy, how do you do?" I said,
' How's this! this is not a fit hour for you to be
out with my wife," I went to the cab, and there
I saw my wife on the seat with her clothes disar-
ranged in a peculiar manner. Her bonnet was broken
back and front, her hair was hanging about her face,
the combs were out, and she was drunk. One of her
ear-rings was missing. I got her inaide of the house.
She was in an excited state .of into/100A Whitcher
was by no means sober.. In fact, he was drunk too I
took-her-banci--aniP'helped- 'her up the stops. When r
got her in. he rushed up the step to the door, and said
he would oome in too. I said, fki
o, you shall not." He
caught me by the collar to push in, and I caught him by
the collar to push him out. I gave him a push, and as I
was sober and he was not, he slipped down two or three
steps—he did not fall, as he held by the railings. When
he recovered himself. he came up to me and struck me a
blow on the mouth, with his clenched fiat. Is was a
violent blow. My lip was cut and my gums inflamed,
and blood was drawn. He afterwards struck me a blow
on the chest, which caused me to spit blood for more
than an hour afterwards. I called for the police. A.
constable came up in about six minutes, and I gave him
into custody.
Cross-examined—l paid rent for the house in Shrub-
land-grove indirectly. I and my wife were not separated.
A deed of separation was drawn up but not executed.
Such a thing was never dreamed of until after we knew
Witcher. The deed was not executed because my wife
said she could not live without me.—(Great laughter.)
The house was not taken in my name. I have been.
married about four years. My wife had a child before
marriage—a son, now fourteen years of age. He has
some property under a deed of gift from his father. The
house was taken in his name. The rent was 261, a year.
I allowed 6s. per week towards the rent, the rest was in
respect of the boy.. Some of the furniture
belongs
to me,
the remainder I have made over to
comfort of ray laugh.) I two trustees for the
have now a ware-
house at No. 7, Crown-street,iloxto
at No. 1, Denton 's-buildings, Somers-town.
and I live
When this
occurred I carried on business in Chilli'.
not here last session; I was in Whitecross-lteereet,Lf Iwas
got up a conspiracy, and said I was about to le" theyh
country, and by that means got me locked upavent
capias. I set aside that capias by proving that Iowa:
not going to leave the country. I swear that I did not
strike prisoner on the chest before be struck me. When
he struck me I was on the step. I had not been spar-
ring with him. When he had struck me he ran to the
cab, and, called out to the cabman to drive on. I was
calling out "police" at the time. I got him from the
cab, and then he struck at me a blow over the cabman's
shoulder. The cabman wished me not to give him in
charge.
Police-constable. 326 N proved having taken the de-
fendant into custody by direction of the prosecutor, who
at the time he deposed was bleeding from the mouth.
The defendant was drunk.

In addressing the jury, Mr. PARRY said they must
boar in mind that they were not trying an action for
criminal conversation, and be was quite sure that neither
the jury nor the presiding Judge would at all deviate
from the ordinary course of proceeding adopted in cases
involving a question of simple assault, because in the
present case the prosecutor had introduced au element
quite independent of, and foreign to, the real point in
issue. The defendant instructed him to deny, iu the
most solemn manner, that any criminal intercourse had
ever tsken plrme hAween him and Mrs.. Minor, and the
prosecutor, if' he thought there had, would have a remedy
iu another e-,art; but, as far as the present inquiry was
concerned, tha jury had nothing to do with that 60-
int. The, simple issue Kea, had the cleirndamt a.lulted
the prosecutor? 11,, Darned Counsel then prcceeded
to urge that, under the eircuaistaucts in which he ..outid
his wife, it was na:aral that the prosecutes* should
',aspect that something imi:roper bad occurred, and that
thefore, there was every prob,ibilit,y in fav:)ur the
re
presumption that tho prosecutor truck the de-
tendant-.ihat such was the tact ho was prepared with
evidence to prove. _

Thomas flisrne deposed that ho was a cabman, and
on the night an question drove the Lady and the deka-
dant to Sorubland-grove. He went on to give a version
of the affair directly at varia.aoe with that given by the
prosecutor. Ho made out that the prosecutor was the
aggressor, and :that he had given a grossly untrue ao-
00Ut of the transaction.
The jury did not trouble the counsel to reply. They
found the defendant guilty of a common assault.
The ASSISTANT-JUDGE, in an indignant manner, said
it was a most atrocious case of assault, under aggravated
circumstances. The defendant had instructed his
counsel to throw all sorts of dirt at the prosecutor, but
the counsel had acted well in not carrying out his in-
structions, further than simply putting the questions. He
had besides suborned perjury, for no one could doubt
that the cabman had been put into the box to tell the
most audacious falsehoods, and tell a monstrously and
preposterously absurd story.
Mr. PARRY thought these observations of an excited
and extraordinary character. He would implore of the
Learned Judge to adjourn the case until be was more
cool, as he was under excited feelings, and probably was
about to inflict a severe punishment on a man for trim.
con., an off.nce which this Court had no jurisdiction
to try.

Tile ASSISTANT-JUDGE said he was quite cool, and
not at all excited; but he should not be doing his duty
co the office he held if he did not express his opinion
when the oath was so far disregarded that a perjured
witness was unblushingly brought forward. He was
not going to punish the defendant for crim. con., but for
this assault, and he thought it would have been better
had the Learned Counsel sat quiet, and acquiesced in
what he said.
Mr. PARRY said he could not concur in any one thing
that had fallen from the Court. Why was not the cab-

man committed for perjury?
The ASSISTANT-JUDGE did not care a brass button
whether Mr. Parry concurred in what be said or not.
He then went over the facts, and said it was clearly a
case for imprisonment. The sentence was that the de•
fend ant be imprisoned in the House of Correction for three

calendar months.
Mr. Poland was instructed to watch the case on. bo-
balf of Mrs. Minor.

'pp:A/PEST OF FRIDAY NIGHT.
TILE TEMPEST
TO WINDMILLS.
night last, about eleven o'clock, this town
h tremendous hurricane from the N.
wtati:?DivijesFidledidbyaioitudapeals of thunder and continuous flashes
with heavy fall of rain and hail, Which
; b,ing, a
about an hour. The lightning commenced etbout
tinned till after one o'clock on Satuxday
e and con
3°l°Sfiosntrien"dging, during which a' number of windmills in the
town and surrounding neighbourhood sustained
great
damage. In Colchester, Butt Mill, the property of Mr.
Bysat Hewes, was rendered a complete wreck, the sails
being blown off by the wind, and the interior of the
mill completely shattered by the electric fluid entering
at the cap, and descending through the centre into the
round house, when it made its escape through the roof,
forcing an aperture in the tiling of about five feet square.
The corn and flour bins are shattered to pieces, and a
great portion of the machinery dislodged from its bear-
ings. The damage is computed at about 5001 This is
not the only instance in which Mr. Hewes is a sufferer
by the storm; for the Distillery Mill, which is also his
property, did not escape, the sails of which were blown
off and smashed to pieces, and the machinery damaged
to an extent altogether amounting to upwards of 2001
Mr. Warren's mill, on the Military-road, shared a
simi-
lar fate, the sails being blown off, and the interior, with___
the machinery, much damaged, it is feared,
.byil ~°,s°
lightning. Mr. Abbott's mill, at Greenstld,
sails taken off and otherwise seriously iniaireas-._flar
Angier's mill, un the Harwich-road, sustained'
sails
damage. Mr. Clubb's mill, North-street, hed by the
blown cif and the whole structure dislocathleolidcw.
Wind. A small windmill, cn Mile-end Heed.
also a wind -
chestcr, received very considerablei
mill at Greet Bentley
tenor much shattered.
pinnies of property in this n: 'The crops of corn are
la
a Wed its 59i-80dt:912 reaajigr djffo of and
anyrhoethiner
heavy storm of rain
stroye(: by the wind or tem
knuclud tlowri by the force o
not injured to any
pe;:vfibourbood being' de-
.
g"nredabt /iBpshie°iePrhdLt'xbpPrYesr)

BEE —As the R •
bee
THE STING OF A
very painful, and has been ftoutlarin some instances very dan-
gerous, perhaps you wadi
anto
trhers
sd it beneath your notice to
give the following. t
person stung can le
withtaritaneousl
the "son :-411 most WINS the
y obtain relief by Pressing
tube of a key. This will ex-
upon the pow
d relieve
tract the sting an the pain, and the application of
aqua ammonia (common spirits of hartshorn) will imme-
diately remove it. e ;
poison being of an acid nature, is at
• t stunghsi
once neutralised by the application of this the . and
to
volatile alkali. A small quantity introdu into wound
012 the point of a needle, or fine nibbed poop And SPP4Od at
von as possible, will war ,
eel* eflr tail.

.