The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-08 00:00:00

shops with gunpowder near Sheffield. The men
were set at liberty on Sunday from Wakefield pri-

son, and returned the same day to their homes at
Chesterfield and Belper. The case had been through-
out a most remarkable one, and excited a great
amount of interest. A short narrative of the facts

will be interesting. For some months towards the
close of last year there had been a strike among a
number of horse-nail makers employed at a little

village called Thorpe Hesley, near Sheffield. Two
men named Butcher and Hattersley refused to join
in the strike, and were in consequence frequently

annoyed by the who were taunted and
threatened because they would not leave their em•

ployment. One Saturday night in December las
the shops of these two men, which were situated
apart from each other in the village, were destroyed
with gunpowder. Near one of the shops, a few
minutes before the explosion, a young girl named
Butcher and her sweetheart were standing. The
night was very dark. A few minutes before 11
o'clock the girl noticed three men pass her in the
direction of the shop, but she did not at that mo-
ment particularly observe their appearance. In
about 5 minutes she heard the men come running
back down the lane, and heard one of them cry out
to the others to hasten, Just at that moment an
explosion was heard, and the girl and her sweet-
heart saw that the nailmakers' shop at the top of
the lane was in flames. The same night she gave
information to the police, and in a few days after-
wards three men were apprehended—Jas. Watson,
of Belper, and Isaac Emmanuel Watson and Joseph
Tomlinson, of Chesterfield. The evidence against
them was very strong. The girl Butcher distinctly
swore that the prisoners James Watson and Tom-
linson, whom she had known for years when they
lived at Thorpe, were twa of the men who ran past
her in the lane at the very moment the explosion
occurred. A policeman swore that he saw the two
Watsons on Thorpe-common, about a mile from the
village, an hour before the explosion occurred, and
that he saw them go into a public-house on the
common. It was also proved that the three pri-
soners were together at Chesterfield on the after-
noon of that day, that they were inquiring the
times of the departure of the trains, and that they
left just before a train was due which would take
them within a short distance of Thorpe Hesley.
But th© most important evidence against the pri-
soners was found in the shop occupied by Tomlin-
son and Isaac Watson at Chesterfield. In the
exploded shops at Thorpe Hesley were found the
fragments of the " infernal machines," roughly
constructed of tin, in the shape of a large can, with
the upper edges knocked over the lid, to strengthen
it, and a hole drilled in the bottom for the reception
of the fuse. In the shop at Chesterfield was found
a precisely similar instrument, and also a number
of fragments of sheets of tin, from which large
pieces had been cut. These fragments were com-
pared with those found in the two shops, and the
pieces, which were cut in a peculiar manner at the
edges, ccrresponded with such exactness as to leave
no room to doubt that they had originally formed,
part of the same sheet of metal. This was substan-
tially the case against the prisoners, and it was met
by one of the most remarkable and apparently con-
clusive alibis that was ever set up in a court ofjus-
tice. The case was tried before Mr. Justice Mellor,
at York; and Mr. Price, Q.C., who was leading
counsel for the prisoners, was so confident of an
acquittal that he asked the jury if they would go
on with the case, even before he had done more
than indicate the tenour of the evidence he was
about to adduce. The jury, however, refused to
stop the case, and thereupon no less than 17 wit-
nesses were called on behalf of the prisoners. The
explosion took place at 11 o'clock on a Saturday
night, and three memb?rs of the Chesterfield police
force, including an inspector, swore positively that
the prisoner Tomlinson was drunk in the streets of
that town at the very moment when he was said by
the girl Butcher to have been at Thorpe, nearly 20
miles away. Each of these witnesses spoke to the
prisoner on the evening in question, so that there
could bo no mistake as to identity ; and, moreover,
he was well known to them, The landlord and two
of the customers at the publichouse on Thorp-com-
mon distinctly swore that on the evening of the
explosion two strangers did go into that house, but
they were not the two Watsons. A number of wit-
nesses from Belper were called, and stated that
James Watson was in the market of that town
on the evening of the explosion, at the very time
ho was said to be 30 miles away at Thorpe. The
witnesses were all of a respectable class—small
tradesmen, with whom Watson had dcne business,
and his neighbours, and their evidence was not
shaken in the least in cross-examination. At the
conclusion of the evidence of the three policemen,
Mr. Justice Mellor asked the jury if they thought
time would be profitably occupied in a further in-
' vestigation, pointing out that the evidence, if it
were to be believed, totally overthrew the case for
the prosecution. But the jury, after a brief consul-
tation, determined to go on. In his charge Mr.
Justice Mellor was evidently in favour of an
acquittal, considering the weight of evidence
for the prisoners; but the jury, after a very long
trial, convicted all the prisoners. His Lordship
passed sentence of 14 years' penal servitude. The
publication of the details of the case ex tad strong
sympathy for the prisoners, and Viscount Dun-
gannon commented upon it in his place in the
House of Lords, The Sheffield Town Council
were asked to metnoralise the Crown in favour
of a free pardon for the men, but they declined to
interfere. A small and entirely uninfluential public
meeting adopted a different course. It is under-
stood that Sir Geo. Grey, after consulting With the
judge, determined to advise the Queen to pardon
the prisoners, and they were accordingly released
on Sunday, to the great joy of their friends.