The Sun.
London, England, 1808-08-22 00:00:00

SURREY ASSIZES.

Saturday John Griffiths was indieted for assault-
ing John Trudget, on the King's highway, and rob-
bing him of his- pOcket-hook, containing two one
pound notes,
. Mr—Trudget, the Prosecutor, was totally deaf, he
nevertheless, gave very corre& evidence of the trans:-
eaion. The form of the oath was written, which
he read aloud and articulately; but from a defective
formation of the organs of .speech, he was obliged
to compress his, lips with his fingers, to.enable him
to produce distin& tones. He gave, the following
account of the transa&ion : being at tpsain .Races,
he- had put his horse lap and walked'to the ground;
he supposed there had been a call to clear the course. 4
but as' he was deaf he did not hear it. He was led,
however, lip thiutt so from all the people running off
the grounu ; he turned round with a view of doing
the same, when he was surrounded and hustled by
several men. The Prisoner held his arms up while
some other hand took his book from his pocket. It
was handed to the Prisoner, and by him over his
shoulder to another. He seized the Prisoner by the
collar, and the gang made a violent effort to rescue
him; beheld him fast till other persoris came to
his assistance. The Jury found the Prisoner 'Gtu.il?J.
William Pilkington was put to the' bar, charged
with the murder of his father-in-law, Montague
Wm. Hyndes, on the v.2th day of August instant,
by shooting him with a pistol, the ball from which
going through his body, was the cause of hiS death
on the following morning.
Serjeant ONsLow stated the case precisely as it
appeared in the following evidence.
William Cooper,is the landlord of the Red Lion,
in the Maze, Southwark. On Friday night, about
eleven, as he. was putting up his shutters, he saw
Pilkington come' over to his house, opposite him, on
horseback, and Hyades met hini at the door, took
the horse from him, and put him up in the stable.
Both parties came in, and after drinking some zin
went into. a little parlour behind the.bar together.
While putting up his shutters he heard the report of
,a pistol, and going into the parlour, saw Hyndes
and Pilkington in the room, Hyndes was lying on the
floor near the door; and the .other standing just be-
fore him; a pistol was lying by his feet and the side
of the other. He asked.Pilkington what he had been
doing? He replied " nothing. " Hyndes said, "
am shot." Pilkingion said, " if he is shot, he did it
himself: :.he is only stunned, give him a little air,.
and he will soon recover." Hyndes said, " you are
a rogue and a liar, you did it, you know you did it."
He perceived the muzzle Of a large pistol standing
out of the coat pocket of Pilkington, and Dr. Clarke,
who was called in, said to him, " you have a pistol
in your pocket, you shall not stir till it is taken from
.you."
Johnston, a gunner, in"the King's service,who had
come-into the room, assisted him, and the pistol was
takeh out of his pocket ; it was loaded, and there were
also three spare ball-cartridges found in his pocket.
Pilkington was not sober, in his opinion, at the time
he caused him to be taken into custody; and the
'•
body of Hyndes was taken to St. Thomas's ,Hospital,
at his own request.
Henry Arkell, a baker in the Maze, within two
doors of the prisoner, hearing the.sound of a pistol,
went with Cooper into the back parlour, and saw the
.partieS in the position' described by Cooper; -when
he went in, deponent said to Pilkington, '' it is a
shocking accident ;" to which he answered, " he"
' did it himself, in trying to wrench the pistol,out of
my hands, so help Me 'God." The deceased then
shook his head at him, and said, " you liar, you
did it yourself." After lying a little while, and
complaining of his bowers,' he repeated what he
said before to Pilkington-- you villain, you have
murdered the best-of fathers."
Mary Elizabeth Cooper, the landlady of the house„
said she saw the parties, whom she knew, come into
the house, and go into the parlour. Hyndes sat down
. on a chair near the partition, and the prisoner stood
with his back on the end of the table, not three yards

frptn:)#, Shy heard the deceased sal', yoiLl
had better go borne ; his reply watt, " Let me alone,

say no, rupre,„ Hyndes again begged him to go
hotne,:and he said then, in au angry tone, " What is

.that to your: the room 'is as free ibr me as it is for
you." The witness went into her bar, which is
close_ to the trirlour, and some Other words passed

that she did not hear distinctly enough to swear to;
'all she could collect was, the hearing
.the prisoner_Say, in an angry and loud, tone, to the other, " What

do you say, Sir," and that
.this was followed by
Sornething like a struggle or a tussel—she heard tbt,=
deceaSed speak as if he was resisting, but could not.

mention the words any farther than, ". Do you
think .1. 'am afraid of it ?"—almost instantly she
heard,the 'report of a pistol, and went into the room;
the deceased said in her hearing, " Oh ! Lord, Ohl
Lord; BEII a dead man the Los;d forgive

these,,were the main points.
Mr. Thomas Clarke, a surgeon, who
.was called
in to the assistance of Hyades, proved the wound by,
a pitol ball to have beep the came of.his death. The
further part of tha evidence was Material. He aske4
Hytides, who shot him ? he said the prisoner; He
a,sked'him how it happened ? he told him that Pil-
kington had pulled oul a pistol, and that he was not
afraid of it. He than asked him it they had both hold
-Of the pistol ? replSC, I had. How did it go OW? Why,
by/pulling the trigger, to be sure. Did you see Lila
pull the,trigger ? To, this he-could get no information•
Fh then asked the prisoner why he carried pistols ?
he said, because he liked it, and to defend biniself:

John Smith Sloper, a medical assistant in St. Th-
o Hospital, said,' that as he was of opi,nion that
the death.of Hyndes was inevitable, he advised him
to make himself easy ; .thinking he was inclined to
repose himself, his friend, a pupil, and the sister of
the Ward,' (Mrs. Bateman), fell back, and then!
heard him say, as to him Self, '' Oh ! the villain, he
has murdered the best of fathers, who once saved
his life before." This, and his praying to God to
for give .him, were his last words ; he died about a•
quarieripast three in the morning of the t3tlh, tha
following day. The body was, since opened, and.
the of a bullet throUghthe intestines given,
as the.cause of his death.

prisoner, in his defence, said only thatite was
intO'Nieated, and as for killing his father, he had no
thought of any such thing. This he said with all
appearance of much emotion and-real contrition.
Tice LORD ChiEF BARON summed up -the evidence
.with great care aridat tention, and observed upon the
different causes in which a person might make use of
the word murdered, so that by.saying you murdered
Me, the deceased might only mean that the Prisoner
was' the cause of his -death.- He also said, that as
there was a variance in the larguage of the deceased
imMediately after the inflielion of the death-wound,
and juat previous to his.dealh, it .would be best to
consider that the forinprem.Vrsaions Were used when
the' deceased was smarting with the recent wound,
.and felt perhaps some degree of impatience and ani-
mosity against the Prisoner but that the language
he used in the. Hospital was more like that of a per-
soh conscious of his approaching death, but exer-
cising his faculties Galt ly When he was resigned to
his fate. The using- ,the •pistol at all was not ao
counted for 'by (he .141-isbn „ er. •
The Jury found
.the rPrisdner Guilty of
slate leer. He was fined one Shilling,- and order-ed
to be imprisoned for twelve months.
Thomas Roberts. was bidi6ted for the. Murder-of
Thomas Linton in a .bdx.ing cnaicli. 'The- JLiry ac
quitted the prisoner of murder, burfouild !!im
of Manslawo thier. He was .selitchceth;2 plya fine of
otieShilling, and to be discharged. •
Jolt,/ Alien was found guilty of stealing a 'lit!'"
gelding, the property of •Wm. Liley, in a:field at
Frittikv,.in -this palish. The prisoner was also tried
and Cisovi4ed 'of stealing. another -horse at lliegate,
the pitsperty of Mr. Gorse,,farrner.• ..-
HiA,ordship then passed sentence of death on
-fourt.lpital conviets; but it is not. known whether
%Thy will be left for execution. • •

Qn Tuesday last, at Berwick, the south side a
the bill, on which the church of Peebles stands,
burst open during the - heavy rain, and felt 'with a
tremendods crash, carrying trees and rocks along with
it, and nearly buried in ruins the house inhabited by
.the Minister of the parish, while the family were
asleep. It is not a little extraordinary, th-at the
church was not in the least injured. •
Yesterday evening a sailor and a young boy bur-
glari9usly entered the chambers immediately ad-
ioning the house of Mr. READ, in Lincoln's Inn,
and succeeded in packing up plate and other arti-
cles, in value upwards of 5.01. Just as they were
about to decamp with the booty, they were over'
heard in the adjoining chambers-, taken into custody,
and safely lodged in Covent Garden watch-house.