The Sun.
London, England, 1839-04-04 00:00:00

SPRING ASSIZES.

OXFORD CIRCUIT—GLoricEsTER, ArarL 1.
(Before Mr. Justice PATTESON.)
HARPER V. BOODLE.
Mr. Sergeant TALrOURD said that this was an action
for a libel. The plaintiff was a bookseller and printer
at Cheltenam, and also the editor of the Cheltenham
Free Press—the defendant being the honorary secretary
of the Rt.form Association. It would appear that the
town of Cheltenham had certain commissioners who re-
gulated the paving and lighting, and also the police es-
' tablishment of the town. These commissioners acted
under a local act of Parliament, and it was wished by
some parties, who were some of them commissioners
themselves, that some alterations should be made in the
local act, to give the commissioners more extended
powers ; and after this a vestry meeting was held on the
subject : but before this meeting was held, Mr. Pack-
wood, a solicitor, who was the clerk of the commission-
ers, met the plaintiff, and wished to impress the plaintiff
with the idea that the change was for the better, and
he wished the plaintiff to moderate or withdraw
any opposition that he had intended to make to
the proposed changes. The plaintiff at tended
the vestry meeting and proposed a resolution to
which an amendment was proposed, and, after a very
storniy discussion, the amendment was carried. The '
matter, however, did not rest there, and various hand.
bi.ls were published, some in favour of no change at all,
some in favour of a modified change, and some for the
abrogation of the commissioners' authority altogether.
In the month of February, Mr. Harper, being em-
ployed as a printer, printed a handbill, signed " A
Radical Reformer."—( The Learned Sergeant read the
handbill. It was very long, and related entirely to
local petitions and to the vestry meeting, and con-
tained the following passage as to the vestry meeting,
relating to the defendant :—" I found our Secretary
perched up with a white stick in his hand, like a bum
bailiff, at Gloucester.")—Now, if the plaintiff had
known the contents of this handbill, he certainly would
not have allowed this pictorial representation of the de-
fendant to have appeared, because it was printed with-
out his knowledge, and, a short time after, the defendant
published in the Cheltenham Journal an advertisement
signed with his name, and addressed to the plaintiff by
mime, which was the libel now complained of. The
Learned Sergeant read the libel.
Verdict for the plaintiff—Damages one shilling.

MIDLAND ClRCUlT—Wanwicr, MONDdr.
(Before Mr. Justice BOSANQUET.)
ll'illiam Read, 20, was indicted for having, between
nine and ten o'clock on the night of Sunday, the 10th
of March last, at the hamlet of Counden, in this county,
feloniously discharged a loaded pistol at Mr. Thomas
Wilmot, with intent to murder him. The indictment
contained several counts varying the nature of the
offence. Mr. Wilmot, the prosecutor, was an attorney
at Coventry, in which business he is now succeeded by
his son, and he himself lives at Counden.
Mr. Justice BOSANQUET summed up the evidence to
the jury, who, after some time, delivered a verdict of
Guilty. The prisoner was sentenced to be transported
for life.

WESTERN CIRCUIT—I3oDmiN, THuRsDA r.
Yesterday morning both the Learned Judges at-
tended Divine service, and about one o'cock business
commenced. Mr. Baron GURNEY, presiding in the
Crown Bourt, and Mr. Baron MAULE sitting in the
Nisi Prius.
Edzvard Rowc was indicted for stealing two heifers
in the parish of Wendron, the property of Walter
Jeffery.
After hearing evidence the jury found the prisoner
guilty, and he was sentenced to be transported for 15
years.

In a case of petty larceny, Mr. Baron GURNEY con-
sidered it right to state that he had some depositions
returned to him, which it was utterly impossible for any
one to read. He must request magistrates to employ
persons as clerks who could write a legible hand. In
the present instance a professional man was the clerk,
but he could not write so well as a boy who had been
educated at a penny school.
FRIDA Y.—This being Good Friday, the Judges at-
tended divine service, and business was not commenced
in the Courts till one o'clock.

(Before Mr. Baron GURNEY.)
John Williams was indicted for assaulting and robbin
Elizabeth Ann Gregor of a large sum of money, the
property of her father, on the 19th of January-. Mr.
- Baron GURNEY summed up the case, and the jury found
the prisoner guilty. Sentence deferred.

NORTHERN CIRCUIT.—LirERPooL, MONDAY.
(Before Mr. Baron PARKE.)
Charles Miller was charged with the manslaughter of
his own son, William Miller, at Heaton Norris, on the
Gth of October last.

The first witness, Abraham Longson, was a police.
officer in Stockport, and on the Gth of October, he was
near to the house of the prisoner, and on hearing a
noise like screaming, he entered and proceeded up
stairs. In an upper room he saw the prisoner's son
lying on his back dead, with his head near the windows
He saw the prisoner, and from what appeared he
charged him with having killed his son. He replied
that he had, and said " You'd ha done the same if he'd
done as much to you. He came to my bedside and struck
me two or three times, and you would not have liked
it if he had done as much to you." On asking him where
the instrument was he had done it with, he told witness
that it was somewhere in the room and that he must
find it. The prisoner was then handcuffed to another
man, and the knife searched for. It was found by a
woman named Gaskill, and was bloody. The knife,
which was a shoemaker's knife, was here produced,
and also another one of a similar kind, which was found
in the same room by the surgeon.
Mr. Baron PARKE summed up, and the jury returned
a verdict of Guilty.
Mr. Baron PARKS then addressed the prisoner in a
very feeling manner on the atrocity of the offence,,
and concluded by passing sentence of fifteen years'
transportation.