The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-18 00:00:00

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THE SUN, LONDON, FRIDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 18, 1863.

—WeISO T.
O upFaOtßEGvitNTs,YgvUeßnt-gAarPlenOttlfNtelr'NjluEn
iNe
Concert.

TZINAHAN'S LL WHISKY v. COGNAC
BRANDY.
This celebrated Old IRISH WHISKY rivals the finest
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It i Pure, Mild, Mellow, Delicious, and very Wholesome.
Sold in Bottles, 3s. Bd., at the Retail Houses in London ; by
the Agents in the prin :ipal towns in England ; or wholesale
at

S, GREAT WINDMILL-STREET, W.
Observe the Red Seal, Pink Label, and Cork branded
Kinahan's LL Whisky."

THE TEA ESTABLISHMENT, 4 and 5,
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RIDGWAY & CO.

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Rowland ElilL

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the ear, not perceptib e, removes singing noises in the head,
and enables deaf persons to hear distinetly-atehurch and at
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street, Piccadilly.

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one troubled with Wind in the Stomach, Tndizestion, or
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Their world-wide celebrity proves them of sterling merit.
Of all medicine vendors at is. lid. nd 2s. 9d. ; or free by
post for 14 or 33 stamps from Page D. Woodcock, Chemist

The following is the passsge referred to :
It has been a fashion of late to talk of an extension of the
franchise as something not to be tolerated, because it is as.
sumed that the mass of the people are not fitted to take a
part in Government, and they point to America or France,
and other places, and draw comparisons between this coun-
try and others countries. Now, I hope I shall not be consi-
dered revolutionary, because at my age I don't want any
revolutions. They won't serve me, I am sure, or anybody
that belongs to me. England may compare very favourably
with most other countries, if you draw the line in society
tolerably high, and if you compare the condition of the rich
and the upper classes of this country, or a considerable por-
tion of the middle classes, with the same classes abroad. I
don't think a rich man, barring the climate, which is not
very good, could be very much happier anywhere else than
in England; but when my opponents treat this question of
the franchise as one that is likely to bring the masses of the
people down from their present state to the level of other
countries, I say I have travelled in most civilised countries
and that the masses of the people of this country do not
compare so favourably with the masses of other countries
as I could wish. I find in other countries a greater number
of people with property than there are in England. I don't
know a Protestant country in the world where the masses
of the people are so illiterate as in England. These are not
bad tests of the condition of a people. It is no use Your
reopt ahreisoi
talking of your army and navy, your exports and your ins-
ports—it is no use telling me you have a small portion of
your people exceedingly well off. I want to bring the test
Jr!
ooe
rgs
atyd in
of
to sumo peoplenthof n
tgihnse
oi nut iiiafejoror reci tgoyun
no
tcfroi
ute the r
ipeeNso
opwwl ea, with
a,
yt acwomir
atah.-
pare favourably, The condition of the English peasantry
has no parallel on the face of the earth. (Rear.) You
have no other peasantry but that of England which is en-
tirely divorced from the land. There is no other country
in the world where you will not find men holding the
plough and turning up the furrow upon their own freehold.
I don't want any agrarian outrages by which we should
change all this; but this I find, and it is quite consistent
with human nature, that wherever I go the condition of
the people is generally pretty good, in comparison with the
power they have to take care of themselves ; and if you
have a class entirely divorced from political power, while in
another country they possess it, they will be treated there
with more consideration, they will have greater advantages,
they will be better educated, and have a better chance of

having property than in a country where they are deprived
of the advantage of political power. (Hear.)

You will observe in the above passage from my
speech, taken from youc own report, that I use the
words, "I don't want any agrarian outrages by
which we shoula change all this;" and now we
roust appeal to the tribunal of the lexicographer.
If you turn to Webster's (quarto) Dictionary you
will find the word " agrarian" interpreted, on the
authority of Burke, as follows :--
Relating to lands, Denoting or pertaining to an equal
division of lands ; as, the agrarian laws of Rome, which
distributed the conquered and other public lands equally
among all the citizens, limiting the quantity which each
might enjoy,
Again, in the same dictionary the word agrarian-
ism is given as " an equal division of lands or pro-
perty, or the principles of those who favour such a
division." Thus, in repudiating the agrarian sys-
tem I repudiated in pure and unquestionable Eng-
lish, according to Burke, the principles of those who
favour an equal division of land; I repudiated the
agrarian laws of Rome; and yet, in spite of this,
you charge me and Mr. Bright with "proposing a
division among the poor of the lands of the rich,"
and you associate us with Gracchus in schemes of
socialistic spoliation. I will leave Mr. Bright's case
or the future, as you seem to prefer it, to his own
good keeping, merely observing that his remarks
upon the land question were more slight and inci-
dental than even my own, and quite as incapable of
being perverted to your sense.
I must add a word with reference to the explana-
tion I- have given-of what weiCgassing in my mind
when I spoke at Rochdale against agrarian outrage.
In the House of Commons a speaker is allowed to
put his own interpretation and meaning on his dis-
puted utterances. This is fair in viva voce discus-
sions. But I decline to claim or accept the benefit
of this practice in the present case. There is no
dispute as to what I said. I accept your own ver-
sion of my speech ; it is a marvellously accurate re-
port, and I will abide by every word of it in its
simplest and most obvious meaning.
And now, having given you the above materials,
which I do solely to leave no ground for a pro
longed correspondence, I ask whether you are pre-
pared to adhere to the charge that I rroposed at
Rochdale on the 24th ult. to divide " among the
poor the lands of the rich," and, if so, I call on you
to cite those "certain
passages" from my speech
which you say " will bear no other interpretation."
I must be allowed to remind you that it is now
wholly a question of proof; that there is but one
issue before us, and that any attempt to evade this
issue by raising others, or entering on vague and
irrelevant discussions, cannot be tolerated. I will
repeat the assumption that yon could not have
made this grave charge without believing it to? be
founded in truth; that in alluding to " certain pas-
sages,', you thought them to exist. I call on you to
produce them in the specific form in which you
would feel bound to establish your charges before a
solemn legal tribunal, and as you are still more
bound to do, at that higher tribunal, the public
opinion of this country, to which this correspondence
will be referred. _

I remain, Sir, your obedient servant,
*lidhurst, Dec. 14. R. COBDEN.
P.S. I purposely abstained from saying a word
in the body of my letter in answer to other parts
of your communication, because I wished to have a
distinct and categorical answer from you on the
single question at issue; but, as you seem to be
curious upon the subject of my alienation from
your pages, I will give you a trivial historical inci-
dent. When entering on the arrangement of the
details of the treaty with France, in Paris, in the
spring of 1860, I found that the Times arrived
daily at the offices of the Commission, in rue
de l'Universil e. While every faculty of my mind
was employed on the task in hand, I found my
efforts thwarted and opposed day after day in the
columns of your journal, where the treaty was in-
cessantly denounced, ridiculed, and misrepresented.
I knew of course that the statements made in the
Times were groundless, I knew that the writers
could not know them to be true, and I believed
then, as I believe now, that you were actuated by
the mercenary fear (foolish enough, as I say) that

the abolition of the paper duty, which was contem-
plated as a part of the measures in connection with
the treaty, would be injurious to the interests of
your journal. To prevent this you appeared to be
ready to destroy the treaty, defeat the Budget of
the year, sacrifice Mr. Gladstone, or worry me to
death. I was tongue-tied and could not speak, owing
to my cfficial position, and it was only through the
confidence which the Chambers of Commerce placed

in my commercial knowledge that I wets enabled to
defeat your unpatriotic efforts.
I was naturally led to inquire how the Tones
reached the Commissioners' office, and was told that

it came from home as a part of our equipment. It
seemed strange enough that a Government pro
fessiog to desire the success of the treaty should
favour a journal which was doing its best to pre-
vent it. Resolved that so long as 1 was at the head
of the Commission the Times should not enter the
premises, I sent a communication to the proper
quarter requesting that the Daily News should be
substituted in its stead. This was done, and from
that time the Times has never entered my house
except by accident.

TO RICHARD COBDEN, ESQ., M.P.
Sir,—Having done already all that in your first
two letters you seemed to think essential to your
purpose, having abandoned " the shield of an im-
penetrable secrecy," having refused to "suppress
my individuality," or to " shield myself under the
third person of the editorial nominative," I might
very reasonably decline to do more than acknow-
ledge the receipt of your letter of yesterday, and
leave you to that remedy which you seemed to
think all-sufficient if you could only confront a
living man instead of an impersonal entity.
It appears to me, however, that I have been
dragged into this correspondence entirely by the
exaggerated intensity you have chosen to attach to
the often-quoted phrase, "Mr. Bright's proposition
for a division among the poor of the lands of the
rich."
The very passage to which you refer me with
so much 4enfiden6e conveys, in my opinion, the
whole of this meanieg. You seem to assume that I
charged you with proposing that this division should
oe accomplished by violence. But your own words
were there to prove to me that such was not your
meaning, and to confute me instantly if I had at-
tempted to attach that interpretation to it. There
are, hc*eier, as no one knows better than yourself,
other and Mots effective, because more enduring,
means than violendii for the division of the land of
We see in France, for
the rich among the pool'.
described to your Rochdale
example, the effect
you d
in England—the amorcel-
audience as so desiratedble
-puced by the law of succes-
lenient of the land
sion which prevails therifi
A similar measure proposed by yourself, or by Mr
Bright, and carried in a Parliament elected princi-
pally by the peasantry whom you desire to enfran-
chise, because they would then §‘ have a better
chance of having property," would in two or three
generations not only check the accumulation of land
in few hands, but would break up all existing estates
great or small, and thus lergely increase th 6 number
of proprietors. In another generation, probablYc the
peasant himself would " turn up the furrow 0.7 his
own freehold," and be no longer " divorced trot:
the land."
Yon suggest so obviously that it is by legislative
measures—rendered possible by
giving political I
Power to the peasantry—you propose to " amend
the unequal distribution of the land between the
that no one would think of
rich and the poor,''
charging you with endeavouring to effect this great
change by violence.
But if you did not desire to produce by other
means than violence a "division among the poor of
the lauds of the rich," allow me to ask, with all re-

t!pect, what is the meaning and object of the pas-
sage to which you have referred me ? As I write I
find that Mr. Cobbett is in a similar difficulty.
For myself. I can but repeat that " certain pas-
sages in your speech will, in my opinion, bear no
other interpretation than that ascribed to them,"
andwhich
yotlh I
have
yourself quoted the very passages
upon rely to justify my opinion.—I remain,
Sir, your obedient servant,
Dec. 16. JOHN T. DELANE.
P.S.—ln your postscript you mention what you
call " a trivial historical incident." It is of little
interest to me or to the Times why or when you
ceased to read it; but you must allow me to remind
you that the Times, as the largest consumer of
paper, has always recognised its own interest in the
abolition.of the Paper Duty. Your negotiation a'
Paris Iff: cted not the limes, but the papermakers,
who complain, as I still think justly, that while
5 ou made such concessions to France as the under-
taking to levy no export duties on coal, you omitted
to stipulate that the French export duty upon the
materials of paper should not be maintained. Surely
it was not unbecoming a great commercial journal
to remind the British negotiator of such neglect
while there was yet time to amend it ?

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

NORFOLK CIRCUIT—CAMBRIDGE, Dec. 17.
(Before Mr. Baron Martin.)
. THE MURDER AT WHITTIASY.
JohnTireen7Clabourer, 25 years of age, was charged
with the murder of Elizabeth Brown, at Whittlesey, OR the
12th of March, 1863 and William George Smedley, de-
scribed as a magistrate, age 45, was charged that he did
feloniously receive, harbour, and maintain the said John
Green, well knowing him to have done and committed the
felony aforesaid.
Mr. D. D. Keane and Mr. Markby conducted the prose-
cution; the prisoner Green was defended by Mr. Metcalfe
and Mr.Orridge ; and Smedley by Mr. Sergeant Tozer, spe-
cially retained.
The case excited great interest, and the court all day was
very full. Excellent arrangements were, however, made by
the persons in charge, so that at no time was it inconve-
niently crowded, This trial should have taken place at the
last summer assizes, but quite unexpectedly, and at the last
moment, the prisoner Smedley, who before the magistrates
and coroner had been examined as a witness for the prose-
cution, was given into custody and indicted jointly with
the prisoner Green. Mr. Metcalfe was then instructed to
defend both prisoners, and feeling embarrassed by this sud-
den step on the part of the prosecution, applied to the late
Mr. Justice Wightman for the postponement of the trial.
After some discussion and consultation with the Lord Chief
Baron, the application was granted.
To-day Mr. Keane stated the case for the prosecution,
and the following narrative will embody what he said.
Mr. Whyle is a maltster, having large premises in the
town of Whittlesey, and both prisoners, at the time of the
murder, were in his employment—Green as a labourer, the
elder prisoner as foreman. Adjoining the malting is a
publichouse called the George and Star; and on the night
preceding the murder there was a dance at the house. The
prisoner Green and the woman were there (Green only at
the dance), and at about half -past one in the morning were
last seen leaving the house together, going down the lane in
a direction for the malting. This was the last time she was
seen alive, and between that time and 6 o'clock the prose-
cution say the poor creature was barbarously murdered. A
native of Whittlesey, she had :ed a very immoral life, and
at the time of her death was about 35 years of age, living in
a
gaininga her livelihood by prostitution. The
prisoner married man, and also a native of the
place, and
lived
ati lnham's End. It seems that in Whittle-
cottage
lived
Green
sa m
sey the ancient custom of ringing a morning bell at a quar-
ter before six still exists, and there is a functionary styling
himself the public beliringer. On the morning of the 12th
of March he was going rather late to the church bel-
fry when he was startled by a sound as of a door hastily
shut. He looked round towards Mr. Whyte's malting door,
but saw no one, and went on to his duty. A few minutes
after this a man named Stevenson, going to his work and
towards Inham's End, was passed by a man running fast
towards the prisoner's cottage. His braces were hanging
down, and Stevenson called out, "You'll lose your brace,
old partner." The man continued running, adjusted his
braces without turning, and his face was not seen, but al-
most immediately after two men coming from Inham's End
met a man running whom they distinctly recognised as the
prisoner Green. He was well known to both, and they saw
that he was dressed in the clothes he had been wearing the
night before. A men living in a cottage next door to Green
also heard about this time a noise as of some one running
towards his house, and almost immediately Green's street
door open and some one go upstairs to the bedroom. The
prisoner Smedley pow must come upon the scene, for on
going to his work as usual to the malting, immediately en
opening the door of the kiln furnace room he found the
room filled with a thick smoke, and saw the body of, ashe
supposed, a man lying upon a heap of smouldering sacks.
He turned back at once, and meeting in the street a matt
named Robinson, called to him, " Jim, Jim, make haste,
Jim, Jack Green's got burned to dead. I know he's dead,
for he can't speak. He's in the kiln house." Robinson at
once went and Smedley with him ; they were soon joined by
more, and Mr. Crisp, a surgeon, was sent for. The doors
and windows being opened and daylight becoming stronger,
it was found that a settle opposite the furnace door within
two or three feet of the fire was burning, and upon a heap of
partly burnt sacks was the bodyof a woman, partly consumed
and still burning. Water was thrown on and a door brought,
on which the remains were placed. It was a horrible sight.
She was lying on her back inclining towards the left side,
the hands were clenched, the knees drawn up towards the
body, the tongue protruding and almost bitten in halves by
the teeth, the features much burnt away, the eyeballs col.
lapsed by fire, and much of the tissues and muscles destroyed.
On attempting to raise the body it was found that the left
arm was brokenin an oblique direction between the shoulder
and elbow, and not only broken, but the part from the frac-
ture removed as if by some instrument, for the edges of the
bone were clear and untouched by fire. This part of the arm
was never found, and on a minute examination made by Mr.
Crisp, some of the ribs were found fractured as if by some
instrument and untouched by the fire. From these circum-
stances there can seem little doubt the poor creature was,
cruelly murdered before an attempt was made to burn the
body. Green, who usually came to his work a little before
six, did not arrive this morning so early, and was sent for
by Smedley. His wife answered the messenger from the
bedroom window, and soon after Green came to the place
and assisted with others in disposing of the remains. The
same morning. about eight o'clock, Smith, the superinten-
dent of police, in the presence of Mr. Whyle, spoke to
Green, who was then at his work, asking him what time
he left the malting the night before, and when he got home.
He turned pale, looked confused, and said he left the malt-
ing about half-past eight, and was at home by 11 o'clock.
Being asked further if he had seen Elizabeth Brown last
night, he said he saw her in the George and Star taproom,
but never saw her afterwards. Shortly after he was taken
in custody, and it was then observed that his clothes emelt
strongly of burning, and his hair was slightly singed. He
said to the policeman, Oh pray don't, pray don't," and
trembled violently. Near the body of the woman was found
a cap belonging to him, and which some women had seen
him in the George and Star the night before believed he
then wore. A son of this risoner Smedley was called fer
the prosecution, and expned that the malting doors had
Chubb's locks, and were always carefully locked by his
father upon leaving work. If the prisoner Greeen
could possess himself of the keys he might have
entered and admitted the woman, but nothing seemed
disturbed, and there was no unusual appearance
with the exception of a window, a pane of which was
broken, as it was suggested, from the inside, and some foot
marks on the yard gate, and an impression of a boottobne
some ice on the top of a water cask that stood inside.
gates. It may now be asked, but how is SmedblepTalrine impli-
cated cated ? He was a witness in the first instancreh:af
nd nmagistrates against the prisoner Green in
solicitorsee for the
be-
tween that time and the assizes in July it
come to the knowledge of Mr. Smith, theetWhittlesey,
that
prosecution and clerk to the magistrates
was returning
•of the murder, as SmedleyAlarnes to have to
on the morning body lying on
he met the driver of the
the floor, before giving an
alarm,
for him, and that he
from the malting after he had discovered the
mail cart, who was to carry being
• told he had, instead of
asked if ho had received it--
n he told the next man he met,
telling what he had
Smith there seemed nothing
'1 cart driver told D r.
Themai and upon Mr Smith con-
addressed as " Jim I Jim!"
unusual in Smedley'
d Smedley, the latter admitted ho said
who it will be rememit:binsetraesudeneihare,
fronting the driver sad
"he
Rot
nothing to the driver
llis present (Mr. Whyle) had employed
master
know."ars,
with a character and upon entering his service he
,he was frightened, he did
a'im for the last two ye
ter for good conduct from his last eta.'
4th whom for 20 years and upwards.
he had been
-idence Smedley was given into custody, and
'e hanging over his head for five months.
nly went as far as this—and upon
-11 witnesses who could prove no

came

rloyer,
Upon such o.
has had this chart,
Tu•day the evidence
Mr. Keane continuing to (h..
more,
Mr. Baron Martin interposed, At,
there was no more a case against Se4ot le,,
himself (the learned judge). There was no elm—
ever that he knew any felony had been committA «-
law, uulees it could be clearly shown that holi.uow of L.,

said, in his opinion
than against
Jena) what•
.nd in

PRIM—. —..4d.
STAMPED ....sd.

felony, and then assisted the felon, he could not be con-

victed,
The prosecution against Smedley was then withdrawn,
and the case closed against Green, and it being nearly five
o'clock,
The learned Judge said he should not sum up the case
to-night, and would, if Mr. Metcalfe wished, now adjourn.
The learned counsel, however, elected to address the jury
on behalf of his client at once, and urged strongly upon the
jury the very unsatisfactory nature of the medical testi-
mony.
The Court adjourned at the conclusion of Mr. Metcalfe's
speech.

HOME cmcurr.—MAIDSTONE, Dec. 17.
(Before Mr. Baron Pigott.)
CHARGE OF ARSON.—Sydney George Snead, 33, a re-
spectable looking man, i•urrendered to take his trial upon a
charge of having feloniously and maliciously set fire to a
dwelling house in his occupation, persons being therein at
the time.
Mr. Barrow prosecuted and Mr. Ribton defended the
prisoner.

This case stood over from the last assizes. It appeared
the prisoner carried on the business of a tailor at Rochester,
and that his mother lived with him, and two maiden sisters
,
named Anne and Elizabeth Garish who occupied two rooms
---'one on the first fiJOI as a sittingroom, and another as a
hareem. The fire that was the subject of inquiry
tookplace
on the night of the 30th of March last, and it appeared that
the two ladies above-mentioned went to bed about a quarter
to 10 o'clock at night, and very shortly afterwards they
heard the prisoner's mother go to her bedroom and in a few
minutes thereafter the prisoner also went to his own room,
and, according to the evidence, y
almost immediately after-
wards the house was discovered to be on fire. Tie ladies
endeavoured to go down the stairs, but there was such a
quantity of smoke coining from the lower part of the house
that they were unable to do so, and they eventually made
their escape by a ladder from their bedroom window. The
prisoner and his mother also got out, and none of the inmates
of the house received any injury, although no doubt but for
the timely discovery of the fire their lives would have been
seriously endangered. Mr. Radley, superintendent of the
Kent constabulary, and some of his men obtained admission
to the premises very soon atter the alarm was given, and they
succeeded in putting out the fire before any material amount
of mischief was done; and it appeared the company with
which the prisoner had effected an insurance (the Commercial
Union) paid him the amount of his loss by the fire, the agent
stating, as was proved during the trial, that " it was not
worth their while to contest claims of such a trifling cha,-,
meter, or to prosecute, whatever their suspicions might be.
The magistrates of the city of Rochester, however, from the
facts that were laid before them, felt it to be their duty in
the interest of the public to take up the matter, and it ap-
peared that the prisoner was in the first instance summoned
before thew, and the result was that he was committed to
take his trial upon the present charge, which would have
been disposed of at the summer assizes, but an application
was made to Mr. Baron Channell to postpone the trial, which
was granted, and in the meantime the prisoner was allowed
to be at large upon bail. The principal facts that appeared
to be relied upon in support of the charge were, that accord-
ing to the opinion of the two ladies who lodged in the house,
at the time the prisoner went up to his bedroom the house
was actually on fire, and he must have been aware of the
fact ; and it appeared that they made an observation to this
effect to the prisoner on the night the fire happened, and he
replied it was all right when he went up to bed ; and this,
according to the theory of the prosecution, could not have
been the case. Another circumstance relied upon to sup-
port the charge was that upon the police going into the
house they found fire under the stairs, and after they had
extinguished the fire they discovered that the counter in the
shop was on fire in two places, and it was suggested that
these were all distinct fires, and could not have been commu-
nicated one to the other. It also appeared that when prisoner
was questioned about the fire by the superintendent he said
the house was quite safe when he left the lower part of it,
and that he was in bed when the alarm was given ; but
upon the officer going into his bedroom the bed did not ex-
hibit any appearance of having been slept in. Besides this,
it appeared that in the bedroom of the prisoner's mother
there was found, fastened to the bed, a long cord, knotted
and with a hook at the end, which was evidently ire ended
as an instrument to facilitate the escape of any person in case
of the house being on fire. The whole of the facts proved
in support of the prosecution appeared, however, merely to
make out a case of suspicion; and with regard to the last-
mentioned piece of evidence, it appeared that the prisoner
told the officer that the rope had been in the possession of
his family for a great many years, and there were no grounds
for doubting this to be the fact. A good many of the suspi-
cious circumstances in the case were also to a considerable
extent explained away in the course of the cross-examina-
tion, and it was not at all distinctly negatived that the fire
was the result of accident.
Mr. Ribton made an able address to the jury on behalf of
the prisoner, and he contended that the evidence had alto-
gether failed to establish the fact that the fire had been oc-
casioned wilfuay, and he urged that it was monstrous to
suppose that the prisoner should have committed such an
act, which might have resulted in the death of his own
mother, without, as it appeared to him, anything like an
adequate motive for the commission of such an atrocious
crime. In the course of his observations the learned coun-
sel said that it was clear the case had been got up by the
police, and that it exhibited a strong illustration of the want
of a public prosecutor ; and he said if there had been such a
functionary, he felt satisfied that such a charge would never
have been brought forward. Ho then proceeded to com-
ment upon the facts of the case, and said that fires were
constantly occurring which could not be accounted for, and
that this had been the case ever since the Fire of London,
which was at first generally attributed to the Papists, w;th-
out the slightest foundation for such a suspicion; and he
cited the well-known lines of Pope upon this subject :
d, Where London's column pointing to the skies,
Like a tall bully lifts its head and lies."
He then called a number of witnesses, who gave the prisoner
an excellent character.
The learned judge having summed up, the jury, after a
short deliberation, returned a verdict of Not Guilty, and
the prisoner was then discharged.

MIDLAND CIRCUIT.—YORK, Dec. 16.
(Before Mr. Justice Mellor.)
Joseph Hartley, Charles Shepherdson, Robert Haigh,
and John Scott, were charged with night poaching, being
armed, at Womersley, on the 30th of October. There was
also a second indictment charging the prisoners with shoot-
ing Thomas Hiles, with intent to do him some grievous
bodily harm, at the same time and place.
Mr. Mettle and Mr. West prosecuted ; Mr. Blackburn
appeared for Haigh and Scott, and Mr. Bruce for the other
two prisoners.
It appeared that on the night named in the indictment
Lord Ha*ke's keepers and some watchers were out near
Daffy-wood, at Womersley, and hearing a shot in the direc-
tion of another wood named Broad Oak, the party went at
once to the edge of it. On their arrival some of the watchers
were sent into the plantation, the keepers and the
rest
stationing 'themselves behind the trees in the immediate
neighbourhood. While they were there four men,
who w
I stated to be the prisoners, came out of the wood, and one
iof the party at once exclaimed, the moment he one
the
the
keepers, "There are the keepers; shoot them ;" usiia
same time a coarse expression. On this one of them who
of West
had a gun, and was stated to bo the prisoner Shepherdson,
immediately fired at Thomas Hiles. The shot took effect
and Hiles became partly insensible. One of the men then
oitlivtehdennebacrinthe
added, "Go in and finish him," and the keeper was a good
deal maltreated. In order to connect the prisoners With the
offence Hiles deposed that ho had known Haigh before, and
recognized him. A day or two after the occurrence Lord
Old Church
Hawke offered a reward of £5O for the discovery of the
offenders. In the meanwhile tho superintendent
Riding police at Pontefract, Mr. Hall, having b
it happened that they
com-
municated with, he, accompanied by one of his
officers,
tthime me
oefn: awyh,
at Pontefract. They were each found in b
ethe middleeers a ap-
prehended
ed ,one of them
partly e
partly dressed, and when asked how
were
ei nn dbeedd two ot
hoaft
the forenoon, one of diem attempted t
saying that although he had been at o account f
to seek
or it by
work, he had not obtained it, and Fetherstone
when he returned. Haigh
was taken the same day at the
had therefore gone to bed
village of Knottingley, and Splaces being in the immediatehepherdson vicinity of Pontefract, and
the prisoners e Broad Oak wood. To show that
were all
Hiles, a man mixed up with the affair, and to cor-
roborateon his way to workbnamed Salkeld, a labourer whot was
of the prisoners, whom ' ouht 6o
k o'clock in. the morning,abyromade
from
IbVomereley to Pontefract. Mnrewkiaclolmortfir:pd the boots worn
the prisoners, and on comparing them with footprints
t by the side of the wood, they were found to correspond
exactly.
In cress-examination it was elicited that Hiles during the
6437 before had been drinking, and ho admitted that although
he saw Mr. Hall, the superintendent, the next day, he did
not mention llaigh's name to him, and on being pressed for 1
his reason for not having done so, said he had forgotten to

do
In defence, Mr. Blackburn urged that practically the pri-
soners were sought to be convicted on the testimony of Hiles,
almost unsupported, and that he was in such a state from
his previous day's drinking as to be totally unreliable,besides
which he had admitted that he clld not mention llaighos
name, although ha said he had recognised him, until after
Lord gawks had offered the reward.
Mr. Brace (who commenced his address by stating that
be appeared for Mr. Campbell Foster, who, he was sorry to
say, was prevented by illness from coming to court) urger
the like topics, and further insisted that the jury must not
place too strong a reliance upon the fact of the correspond-