The Sun.
London, England, 1862-03-22 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTEL LIC,BIV CE.

MIDLAND CIRCUIT.—DERBY, 31A.Rcn. 21.
CROWN COURT.
(Before Mr. Justice Williams.)
Joseph Shaw, who was late yesterday evening
arraigned upon 13 indictments, charging him with
forgery and utterance of as many deeds of convey-
ance, pleaded guilty to each and all of the indict-
ments.

Mr. Boden, Q.C., and Mr. Huish were instructed
in the greater number of cases, and Mr. Stephen in
others.:

His Lordship postponed passing sentence until
this morning, in order that he might, in the mean-
time, consult the Lord Chief Justice and lay the
depositions before him in a case of so great import-
ance.
Upon Mr. O'Brien's application, his Lordship
permission to address the Court pre-
viously to senteiTJe
being. passed.
granted him
ht up this morning, end,
having been in due form askea
Whether he had env-
The prisoner was brob;
thing to say why judgment shoula not be pro-
nounced against him,
Mr. O'Brien rose and addressed the Court to this
effect. He was not, he said, instructed to offer any
remarks in palliation of the prisoner's guilt, but to
express the sorrow and shame which he felt, and
by which he was bowed to the ground, overwhelmed
by the disgrace brought on by crimes into which
he had been led by embarrassments, the consequence
of imprudence in early life, and which had induced
him to betray the confidence reposed in him by his
clients. Day after day, and night after night, he
had felt that the day of exposure would be to him
a day of relief; the anguish and torture he had
endured were the severest punishment that he could
suffer. The learned counsel could offer no circum-
stances in mitigation, not even the circumstance
that, having recently been appointed to a place of
high trust and of considerable emolument, he had
proposed to lay aside the larger portion of the pro-
ceeds for the payment of those to whom he was
indebted. The resolution was in vain. As soon as
it was known that he was in receipt of a good in-
come his creditors in a body came upon him, and
the circumstances which led to the present prosecu-
tions became known. The sentences inflicted on
different prisoners, though nominally the same,
varied in their severity with the position in society
which the individual might happen to occupy.
Mr. Justice Williams said that though the elo-
quent and affecting appeal of the prisoner's counsel
could not fail to make him feel as a mari great com-
passion for one who had fallen so low from the posi-
tion which he had held, yet, as a judge, he could not
but mark the heinous crimes of which the prisoner
had been guilty with a severe punishment. He had
enjoyed and abused the confidence of his clients, and
had persevered in a course of fraud, dishonesty, and
forgery, which but a short time since must have
closed his career upon a public scaffold. In con-
clusion, his lordship sentenced the prisoner to 15
years' penal servitude.
(Before the Lord Chief Justice.)
SHAW V. WOMBWELL.

Mr. Sergeant Hayes and Mr. Manley Smith
appeared for the plaintiff; Mr. Macaulay, Q.C.,
and Mr. Merewether, for the defendant.

The plaintiff in this case is the owner of about 40
small tenements, which he built himself, about Ilke-.
ston, in this county, and the defendant is the pub-
lisher of a newspaper called the Ilkeston Pioneer.
The action was for a libel brought in respect of
certain articles which appeared in that paper in
October last, reflecting on the plaintiff's property,
and atributing a fever which prevailed in the neigh-
bourhood to the state of the drainage of the houses.
The plaintiff called a great number of witnesses,
and among others the county surveyor, who repre-
sented the plaintiff's property as superior to any
of that class in the neighbourhood or in the towns
of Derby and Nottingham, the drainage good, and
the water excellent. The defendant, having with-
drawn all offensive observations, consented to a
verdict for the plaintiff for 40s. .