The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-21 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE,

[NORFOLK CIRCUIT—NoItroLx, Dee. 18,
(Before Mr. Baron Martin.)

His lordship arrived here yesterday afternoon from Cam-
bridge, and eter attending Divine service at the Callardrel,
opened the commission for the county of Nor:olk and for
the city of Norwich.

The calendar for the county, which apparently unneu-
ally heavy for the time of year, contains the names of 22
pti 'miffs, who are charged as follows : One with shooting
with intent to kill one aXi ma!iciors shooting, one with
slabLinga ix with bu-glary, one with rap; one with bigamy,
there with arson, four with robbing faun the. person with
violene3, two with concealment of birth, one with re riving
stolen goods, and one with en nencural offence. The city
calendar contains the names of two prisoners, charged with
forge:y and robbery.
The leataed Judge, in He charge to the grand jury for
the county, in remarking upon the numerous tea's of erson
he had had to try upon what may now be called this
Circuit, du, ing the prat fortaight, eeid,—l had occesion at
Cambridge to regret that I had acted upon a scale of
punishment with respect to the crime of arson ; had I known
the extent to which this crime exists in these counties I
moat certainly shou'd have inflicted much more severe een-
tenets. The class (leas( s I have met with is this :—Persons
who suppose they have some ground of complaint against
the relieving officer, or because their wages aro not so high
as what they think they Filmed be, or bocause they have
received some offence of a trifling kind, proceed to set fire
to stacks of grain without in the least considering who the
owner is, whether he has given them any offences, or
whether any one at all has injured them. It certainly
seems to me that if that offence continues these must be
severe examples made. In many counties in Englend,
especially in the eastern counties, the quantity of grain
which is stacked in the fields is enormor a, and if persons
are allow: :' to set this grain on fi-e, real), without c ouse,
but apparently from a feeling of general ha're i to a'l man-
kind, it is en offence which milt Le put down with seven)
punishment. Aceerdmg to my experience, severe preish-
went do put down crime. Tnc Judges r-e in the ht bit of
sentencing persons to very severe punishments, but it
offences of this kind are persevered in, E mere punishments
must be resorted to, end, as I have se.id, in my experience
they ere effectual for that put d:
George Bone, aged 22, ch scribed in the calendar as a
groom, w.-e charg 3 with stealin4 from the parson of John
Fox a silver watch and key and Bs., at Stenfied, on the 26th
of October, 1861, with violence, and from the statement of
Mr. Drake, who was the counsel engaged for the prose-
cution, as well as ;rom the es idence of one of the wit-
nesses named Parke, who was present at the transac-
tion and s.w ell that went on, it appeared that on the
day in question Fox, the prosecutor, a respectable look-
ing sort of tradesmen, had b 7 on at a neighbouring eillage
call:- 1 Brisley, staying in a publichouse in' that place crom
2 p.m. till 10 p.m., and while there the evitnrs Parke (who
was a cripple, suppor'ed on a el atela) and the prisoner came
in, and after some little time spent in drinking and talking
they all three left together and took the road to Fox's home,
calling at two or three publichouses ca the way. On
arriving at a spot where fovr cross-roads meet, it being
then about 11 at night, the moon shining brightly at the
time, the prisoner, without any pi wocation or warning,
suddenly shack the prosecutor so violent a blow a :th his
fiat as to knock him down, end then proceed:A to heat end
kick him, the prosecutor I aging for mercy. Parke, who
stood a little distance off, end whether iron unwillingness
or from inability or fear, owing to his weakness and lame-
ness, not attempting to help, heard the prisoner say, " Give
me some money end I will let you go," upon which the
prosecutor gave him whet money he had, when the prisoner
allowed him to rise, end went away. The hasten man
shortly efeerwerds felt for his watch, and then discovered
that besides his money he was minus his silver watch,
which he had pulled out at the inn in the prisoner's pre-
senc3, and which though like other watches, "made to go,"
was not meant by him to be parted with at that time end
place, nor was anything more se In of it Oil some few days
afterwards, when the prisoner brought it to a pubrcen in
the neighbourhood and offered it for sale. In the mern-
while Mr. Fox, the prosecutor, having told his story to a
policeman, a search was made at the Swan lon, in Bris-
ley, where prisoner and Parke occupied beds in the same
room, and on one of the beds, which had been very recently
slept in, w:s found a watch well, identified by Fox, as one
that was attached to the watch on the day of the attack,
and shortly afterwards the watch and the prisoner were
found. The prisoner, who was undefend'd by counsel, en-
deavour- Ito show, first, that the attack was provoked by
Fox challenging him to fight, can:- quence of whieh,
seeing that Fox was the bigger man, he thought it
wiser to kacck him down at once end then to kick him,
probably to prevent his getting up again ; secondly, that
if the watch were stolen somebody else did it, for ho had
nothing to do with that part of the matter ;
thirdly, that Mr. Fox was so chunk and knew so little what
ern
found hi:. guilty,l
It_eowt as about that he gave him the money ; and, 2;our.hly;
14 :so reliance could be placed on anything Parke safd.
The ;, however, crme to a very different conclu4ion.
and havi
shooting at Taal
111°Jnate,h8;sistaaPvtaisonment hard labour.
aged 18, a laboueer, was charged with
southure,
ou
eassEares, gamekeeper to Mr. Fountain at
him. 1 th of Octeber, wile intent to murder
Mr. Metcalfe and
eared for the prosecu-
tion ; Mr. Bulwer defended
The ease excited no little inteerrisoner.
evidence of the wounded man
it
waibin court, and from the
and brutal an assault Nv?s
coinanast7d as n that as cowardly
imagined, The outline ef the story, as; la can
we"
be
0 by the le-irn'
counsel for the prosecution was, that Elbulat 7 o'clock on
appeared
was
39ate;i.et'd
to is