The Sun.
London, England, 1839-08-03 00:00:00

AUGUST 1

MURDER.—This morning having been appointed for the
trial of James Johnson, charged with the murder of his
wife, the Court was filled long before the Judge took his
seat. The indictment charged the prisoner with having on
the 7th of April, in Nottingham-street, Brighton, with a
certain razor inflicted a mortal wound upon the neck of
Julia Johnson, of which wound she died.

Mr. CLARKSON, who appeared for the prosecution,
stated the particulars of the case, and then called a great
number of witnesses, who described the state in which the
body was found ; and one witness stated that she heard the
deceased say before she was found dead she would make
away with herself, if it was not for her soul.
The Jury, after half an hour's deliberation in the box,
returned a verdict of Not Guilty.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.

G UILDHALL.

TILE " TICKETING SYSTEM."—James Robinson, a
shoprnan at Mr. Meeking's, draper, Holborn-hill,
attended before Mr. Alderman BROWN, to answer the com-
plaint of James Leighton, of Talbot-court, for assaulting
him.
The complainant stated that as he was passing down
Holborn-hill, on Tuesday evening, about eight o'clock, he
observed some silk handkerchiefs in Meeking's window,
ticketed " Gentlemen's Silk Bandannas, ls. 6d." He
went into the shop and asked for one, and was requested
to walk to the other end of the shop, where he would be
shown some of the same quality as those in the window.
What was shown to him were very inferior, so he returned
to the window, and asked for a particular pattern in the
pile. He was told that was 4s. 6d., but it was cut off for
him. He insisted on his right to have it at the marked
price, and laid down his money. He considered the cut-
ting it off was an act of sale, and he refused to leave the
shop without it. There he staid for about two hours, and
then the shop being shut up, about 20 young men swarmed
round him, and catching hold roughly of him by the arms
and legs, they bundled him out into the street upon " all
fours." That he might identify and give into custody one
of his assailants, ho caught fast hold of one fellow's leg,
and his charge against the defendant was, that he com-
pelled him to relinquish that hold by kneeling heavily on
his breast, and pulling his cravat, so as nearly to strangle
him.

Mr. Alderman BROWN asked if he meant to say all this
took place at the shop of Mr. Meeking, on Holborn-hill?
Complainant replied he did.
Defendant denied the assault. Leighton was not lying
in such a position that kneeling on his breast was practi-
cable, and he denied having nearly throttled him. He
only did what was necessary to release his friend's leg. He
had asked for a particular piece of goods, a yard of that
marked ls. qd., and when it was cut off, refused to pay the
price of it. The pile was made up of handkerchiefs, at a
variety of prices.
Mr. Alderman BROWN asked how many, then, of that
pile were marked ? Defendant said only one. They could
not put the price to every particular piece, because the
prices were so various.
Mr. Alderman BROWN said that, as but one price was
affixed to the whole pile, the public would conclude that
the whole were at that price. This was not, he hoped, the
way in which tradesmen in the city of London often did
their business.

William Govers stated that he assisted in putting the
complainant out of the shop after it was shut up, he haviug
repeatedly refused to leave. It was his leg the complain-
ant held so fast.

Mr. Alderman BROWN asked the complainant why he
held the witness's leg ? Complainant answered that he
wished to give the person into custody.
Mr. Alderman BROWN said he had some difficulty in
holding the defendant to bail, under all the circumstances;
but the complainant, if he chose to indict him at the ses-
sions, on the 14th September, was at liberty to do so.

Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cam-
bridge, with her accustomed liberality, has caused a
handsome contribution to be forwarded to the Royal
Belgrave Lying-in Institution, and has still more essen-
tially served the interests of that flourishing and usefnl
Charity, by giving her name as a Patroness. The Duchess
of St. Alban's has also sent a liberal donation with per-
mission to place her name as a Vice Patroness.
THE BIRMINGHAM POLICE BlLL.—Yester-
day the following requisition to the Lord Mayor was nu-
merously signed by members of this Court of all parties
We, the undersigned members of the Common Countil,
respectfully request your Lordship to summon a Court on
an early day, for the purpose of considering the propriety
of expressing, in a petition to the House of Commons, the
anxiety of this Court, that in any provision that may be
made by Parliament, respecting the police of Birmingham,
the House will not sanction any invasion of the ancient
and salutary rights of local government, which have been
inherited by the people of this country from the earliest
times, as an essential principle of our free constitution."