The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-10 00:00:00

INDECENT ASSAULT.

At the Wilts quarter sessiors on Thursday, before
Sir John A wdry and other justices, the Rev. Her-
bert Williams, curate of Tidcombe and Fosbury,
was indicted for assaulting Maria Beckingham, a
girl about 17 years of age, on the 26th of November
last. The case has excited a great deal of interest
in the town and county. Mr. Swayne appeared
for the prosecution, and Mr. Herbert Saunders ap-
peared for the defendant. The defendant in this
case is a married man, and prior to the alleged com-
mission of this offence has officiated as curate of the
parishes of Tidcombe and Fosbury. The defendant
lodged with a Mr. Barnes, who lived in the parish,
and was waited on by the servants in the house.
The prosecutrix, a respectable-looking girl, was a
servant in the employ of Mr. Barnes, and from her
statement it appeared that on the evening of the
26th Nov. she and the defendant were alone in the
house. She took his tea to him in the parlour, and
he then entered into conv:arsation with her about.
going to America, asking her if she would like to go,
to which she replied that she should not care about
going alone. The girl was nursing the baby at the
time, and the defendant put his hand round her, at-
tempted to kiss her, committed an indecent assault.
upon her, and made a most improper request..
She resisted defendant's importunities, threatening
also that she won:d tell her mistress. The defen-
dant begged that she would not do that, and pro-
mised her if she would not he would tal:,e her out
to America with him. After this Mr. Williams
left the house and proceeded to tte evening school.
When.
:ned she informed her
of the assault
committedtressret
upon
tt
her, and the mis-
tress, as may be ;.Magined, became very angry,
ieD the
girl's
mistress
and at once proceeded to the school, called the de-
fendant, and acquainted him with the nature of the
charge made against him. The defendant denied.
the truth of the statement, and alleged that it was
a trumped-up charge by the girl. On the follow
ing day the girl made a complaint to her father,
who, during the dinner hour, had an baterview
with the defendant, when the latter said if he had
done wrong he was very sorry for it, and a man
could do no more than that. He also said he
hoped the father would forgive him and say no-
thing about it, as it would do him no good, and
it would ruin him. He also held out his band,
and wished to shake hands with the father, who,
however said he must take time to consider whether
he should take any proceedings against the de-
fendant. The Rev. Mr. Williams wished to know
how long he would be in coming to a decision, and
wished him to go to his lodgings that evening. The
father did not go, and legal proceedings were th'ert.
commenced. On the application of the prisoner's
counsel he was allowed to sit at the table by the
aide of his counsel, and not to appear in the dock.
The prisoner pleaded not guilty, and the witnesses
were ordered out of court. Mr. t 5 Wayne opened the
case to the jury, and stated the facts as given in
the above narrative. Evidence having been given
at considerable length; the chairman summed up,
and said he thou.: ht the magistrates were fully jus-
ti#ed in sending the case for trial, and be was
always inclined, in cases of this kind, to send thein
for trial by a jury. He should be very reluctant
to expose himself to the imputation of trying to
suppress and keep quiet a matter of public scandal.
The learned chairman then went through the evi
dence, and left the case in the hands of the jury..
The jury returned a verdict of guilty, and the pri-
soner having been placed at the bar, the chairman
addressed him, telling him he had bean convicted
on evidence which lett no doubt o.t his guilt, and
his sacred position would tend greatly to aggravate
the punishment that the Court would feel it its ont,:!
to inflict. The sentence of the Court was that the
prisoner be imprisoned to hard labour in the House
of Correction at Devizes for six calendar months.
--
Western Daily Press.

RACING FIXTU
FEBRI

[RES FOR 1863.
VARY.

Lincoln
MA:

'.25

Nottingham Spring
Derby Spring
Liverpool Spring .... lO
Shrewsbury l2

I I), mcaster Spring ..17
1 Warwick Spring 17
Northampton 24
Croxton Park 27
.RIL.

r:
Newmarket Craven A 6
Durham
Catterick Bridge S
Thirsk

Epsom Spring 16
Newmarket F. S 20
York Spring .. .28
Salisbury

Chester 5
Bath
Marlborough ..........14
Ju
Ascot
Newton 10
Hampton
Oddham 16
Bibury Club

Harpenden l5
Epsom l9
Manchester 27

Stockbridge lB
Chelmsford 23
Newcastle
Carlisle 3O

Ju
WorcestAr
Ntwrilarket July
Abingdon 14 I
Hungerford l6

Nottingham 21
Wincheste,2 2l
Goodwoe,d 28

Brightcn
Brighton Club 6
Lewes
Reading l2
SEP TR
Derby Summer
Lichfield ......... J . . , 1
Leicester
Doncaster ............ ... .10
15

Ye.): k August l3
Devon and Exeter l5
29
Egham

MIER.
Brecon 2l
Monmouth 24
Manchester Autumn
Newmarket Ist Oct. 29
OCTOBER.
Newmarket S. 0
.. 12 Newmarket Houghton ..26
Lincoln. Autumn 21 I

Worcester.. NOVE!
3 I

SPEEPLECHASING

1113 ER.
Shrewsbury Autumn....l7

FIXTURES FOR 1863.

FEBRUARY.
Carmarthenshire Hunt .. 2 Aberystwith Hunt 16
Scarborough 11 Birmingham .
Reading l2 Lincoln 25

MARCH.
Grand National Hunt (Market Harborough ...26
IRISH—APRIL.

Kildare Hunt 15

The Civil Tribunal of the Seine has just given
judgment in an action brought by Mr. Voignier,
the master of a boarding-school Passy, against his landlord,
M. Lenormand, under the following circumstances. The
plaintiff is lessee of a house and garden in the Rue St,-
Andre at Passy, adjoining a piece of ground at the
corner of that street, and the Boulevard du Roi de
Rome, belonging to aM. Philippon, The latter in
April last began to dig the foundations for building a
house fronting the boulevard, and as the boulevard is some
metres below the level of the Rue St.-Andre he removed
the soil near the foundations of Voignier's house to the
depth of nine metres, so that it was found necessary to
take down the party-wall and provisionally close in the
end of the house with planks. Four of Voignier's rooms
were consequently rendered uninhabitable, and he ap-
plied to the civil tribunal demanding that an architect
should be appointed to make a report on the state of the
premises and on the compensation to which he was
entitled for being thus disturbed in the possession of his
house. The architect reported accordingly, and, on the
' strength of his report, Voignier commenced proceedings
against his landlord demanding that the premises should
be put into a tenantable state at his expense, and that be
(the landlord) should be condemned to pay plaintiff 3,000 fr,
for the loss already incurred, and 600 fr. per month till the
comi letion of the works. On the part of the plaintiff it
was stated that sixty of his pupils had been taken away
by their parents in consequence of the dangerous state of
the house. The defendant's counsel argued that his client
was not responsible for the damage, and that Philippon,
wbo had cau•ed the prejudice, was alone responsible. The
Tribunal, however, after hearing counsel fo, all parties.
decided that the landlord was bound to secure his tenant
peaceable possession of the premises against any third
person, and, therefore, condemned him to put the house in a.
tenantable state, and to pay the plaintiff 2,500 f. for the
injury already suffered, reserving the right of the latter to
recover for any future loss that might ensue. With re-
gard to Phillippon, the Tribunal condemed him to indem-
nify Lenormand for the above damages and all costs of the
present proceedings.

The funeral of the late Archbishop of Paris look
place yesterday morning at Notre Dame, in con-
formity with the programme. The ceremony in the cathe-
dral was imposing in the extreme. The whole of the nave
was hung with black cloth, and lighted by thousands of
candles ; the clergy were in full canonicals, and the lay
part of the congregation consisted, with very few exceptions,
of officials in uniforms all over gold lace. Not less than three
cardinals, 20 bishops, and 100 canons, were present. The
outside part of the cortege was reme.rkable chiefly for its
military display, Four regiments of infantry, four squad-
rons of lancers, and a battery of artillery followed the
hearse ; but the ceremony, on the whole, lacked that one cle-
ment that makes such displays something more than a mere
show for the eye—the deep feeling and emotion of the
crowd. Far different was the case when one of Mgr. Mor-
lot's predecessors, Mgr. Afire, was taken to his last rrsting
place at Notre Dame. He was killed, as you know, by ft
chance ball at the barricade of the Faubourg St. Antoine,
on the 16th of June, 1848 —and the population of Paris on
the morrow of that fearful struggle, still under the impres-
sions caused by a street battle of five days' duration, re-
garded him as a martyr in the cause of order, and when the
archbishop's corpse, clad in his canonical robes, and his
face uncovered, was borne along, the crowd was swayed by
emotions which this day's pageant wholly failed to elicit,
though, as a pageant, it was splendid and imposing.
General Count de Soren, formerly aide.-de•camp
o the Duke d'Enghien, has just died in his 93d year. He
was one of the last representatives of the Army of 1780.
lie had been a fellow .student and even the corporal of
Napoleon, at the; school of Brienne.