The Sun.
London, England, 1837-11-30 00:00:00

CASE OF WILLIAM SMITH.

Sir CHARLES KNIGHT LEY, in moving for the re-
turns of which he gave notice yesterday, said the case to
which they referred was this—at the last Lent Assizes for
Northampton (as- we understood), William Smith was tried
for destroying his father's will, by which a nephew
of the testator had lost considerable property. He was
convicted on the clearest evidence, and sentenced to seven
years' transportation ; but the sentence was commuted to
three months' imprisonment in Millbank. This commuta-
tion had only been communicated to the Chairman of
Quarter Sessions, who had wrote- to the Under Secre-
tary of State for explanation, but received no answer. The
petition for the commutation had been got up by a Dr. Wat-
son, and signed principally by persons on his living.
He did not learn whether this Doctor 'Watson was
a Doctor of Divinity or of Medicine ; but on en-
quiry he found that he had taken a degree neither
at Oxford nor Cambridge. He thought, therefore,
that the liberation of this person, without a
previous inquiry on the part of her Majesty's Government,
was an insult to the magistrates. of Northampton, and a
gross abuse of the prerogative of mercy. The Ho-
nourable Baronet concluded by moving that copies of
the Correspondence which had taken place between
the Chairman of Quarter Sessions and her Majesty's Go-
vernment, or any other papers connected with this transac-
tion, be laid upon the. table of this House.
Lord JOHN RUSSELL said that this was a most
unusual motion, and he hoped that the House would not
accede to it. He would shortly, however, state the
grounds upon which the man had been liberated. A.
memorial had been sent to him ,signed by a Dr.
Watson, who represented himself as the clergyman
of the parish in which this person lived ; and a number of
the parishioners stated that this parson had destroyed the
will in a moment of irritation and resentment against his
father, who he conceived had treated him harshly, and
that he was then in a state of health by which his, life
was endangered, and hoping that the sentence would not be
carried into effect. On this representation Smith had been
liberated.

The motion was then negatived without a division.
DANISH CLAIMS.

Mr. WARBURTON presented a petition from Baring,
Brothers, and other parties, praying to be allowed to par-
ticipate in the remuneraCon given to parties with respect
to the Danish claims. He would only now present the
petition, giving n'tice that he should move that it be
taken into consideration on Monday.
Mr. M'KINNON obtained leave to bring in a Bill to
Atneal the Law of Patent.—Adjourned.

James Warwick, a horse-breaker, residing at Brack-
enburgh, in the parish of iiesket-ii,the-Forest; was employed
on Monday in breaking in a young horse, after which, he got
intoxicated, and as he was riding, home put his lighted pipe
into his waistcoat pocket. Thn smouldering contents of his
pipe fell into his clothes, and were fanned into a flame by the
wind, which communicated to the whole of his dress. The
poor man threw himself from the horse, and rolled on tho
ground without being able to extinguish the fire. Mr. Wat-
kin, of Phuntons, who had observed the smoke rising for
some minutes, at last went to see the cause, when be disco-
vered Warwick writhing in agony, enveloped in a body of
flame; he extinjuished the tire, and had removed him to his
.home, where he expired on Tuesday morning.—. Cumberland
Packet.

Last Tuesday morning, as Mr. Clark, farmer, of
Deeping, was going to market, he saw a man driving nine
oxen along the road to Spalding, and asked if they were for
sale. The man said he was taking them to market, and Mr.
Clark bought seven of them. Struck with the low price de-
manded, Mr. Clark thought they 'were not fa:rly come by, and
requested the man, to go with him to Spalding to receive
the money. On their arrival at the town, Mr. Clark made
known his suspicions to the police, and the man was taken
into custody and brought before the magistrates ; where,
after some hesitation, hu confessed he had stolen the whole
from Mr. Stranger, of Ketton, who came into Spalding in the
c,mrse of the morning in pursuit of the thief, whose name is
Mason, a resident of Ketton. The fellow was about to be
married on Monday to a respectable young woman of, the
place. tie was fully committed for trial at the next assizes.—
Lincolnshire Chronicle.

•
FIREL—On Saturday morning, about four o'
clock,
the house of Mrs. Sarah Matthews, in Greenfield street,
Lower Deptford-road, was discovered to be on fire—the body
of her late husband lying in the house at the time. It appeared
that a person of the name of Morley, residing in the first floor,
was alarmed by his wife, who found the room full of smoke.
They got out of bed, when they found the floor of the room
so hot that they could scarcely stand. Mr. Morley lowered
his wife and child from the window, and then lowered himself.
He obtained assistance, and the house-door was then broken
open, and subsequently the door of the-front parlour, which
was found to be on fire. Here a shocking scene presented
itself, the trunk of Mrs. Matthews's body being discovered
on the floor. With the assistance of the neighbours and the
police the flames were extinguished, and the legs and arms
was
),another
r atifioettl
of the unfortunate woman were ascertained to have been burnt.
completely off. 0.1 the side of the trunk a
npol
partly belted. On the same morning ( Saturday ),
ing calamity occurred in the abode of a poor man named Atkins,
residinz in Tumor's-buildings, Grove-street, Commercial-
road, East. Between the hours of nine and ten o'clock Mrs.
Atkins left home to procure b..eakfast for her husband and
family, leaving three younz children in charge of their bro-
ther, and during her ab:eece one of them approached the
fire, when its clothes ignited. The little girl ran about the
room with its apparil in a blaze, and the flames unfortunately
communicated to the clothes of the two sisters. The screams
of the poor children brought the neighbours to their assist-
ance, when they found three of them enveloped in flames,
which they subdued as quickly as possible. The three chil-
dren were most dreadfully burned, and one of them, Sarah
Atkins, aged five years, soon afterwards expired. The others
were removed to the London Hospital in a state of extreme
suffering, and are not expected to survive. The parents of
the children, who bear a good character, are in great poverty,
and with their family have been for some time enduring great
privations. Their pitiable situation has excited the greatest
commiseration.

Joseph Charles Luther, the last descendant of the
great Reformer whose name he bears, has just abjured the
Protestant faith in Bohemia, where he was living in the most
•
abject poverty.— Wurzbury Gazette.