The Sun.
London, England, 1831-07-18 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, JULY 18, 1831.

SUMMER ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

OXFORD, ..Tar,Y. fPf•
Tie cases disposed of yesterday and to-day were
destitute of general interest. .
Yesterday Mr. Justice PATTFSON was engaged in
trying in the Nisi Prices Court a case of riot and
rescue, rrising out of the Proceedings at Otmoor, in
September last. A number of persons who had
been concerned in the riot were committed by the
Magistrates to the gaol at Oxford, and on their way
thither a mob assailed the yeomanry, and effected
the rescue of the prisoners, forty-one in number.
Four persons were now indicted for having, as it
was alleged, taken part in the rescue. Two of them
were found guilty ; the other two were acquitted.
There were four capital convictions in the Crown
Courr, before Mr. Justice PARK. The following'
was one of the cases :
James Hall and William Castle were indicted for
a but glarious entry into-the house of Isaac Smith,
at East Shetford, and stealing a variety of articles,
to the value of 30/.

They attempted to prove an alibi, but failed, and
were both found Guilty.
Mr. Justice PATTESON was engaged the whole of
to-day in trying a case in which the question was as
to the liability of Lord Churchill to pay poor-rates,
in respect of his premises at Charlbury-park. This
case, which occupied nearly twelve hours, terminated
the business of these Assizes.

HERTFORD, Jur, Y 16.

Samna Stern, aged 21, stood indicted for having
feloniously assaulted James Tucker, on the highway,
at Chipping Barnet, in this county, on the Bth inst.,
and robbed him of 9s. 6tl. in silver, and other arti-
cles; and two other young men were placed at the
bar at the same time, charged with being parties to
the said robbery.

All the prisoners pleaded " Not Guilty."
The prosecutor, who appeared extremely weak,
and his head and face greatly bruised, stated that be-
tween ten and eleven o'clock on the night of the day
laid in the indictment, he was 011 his way home from
his day's labour to Chipping Barnet, where he re-
sides, when in passing through the town of Barnet
he felt tired, and sat down to rest on the step of a
door. While sitting there three men came up to
him, and said they were watchmen, and could not
allow persons to sit about in the streets as he was
doing, and that they must take him to the lock-up;
he replied that he was only resting himself, and
would go home immediately, but they said that
would not do, for that they must take him to the
lock-up. w o of the men then seized him, one under
each :arm, and the third by the collar, behind, and
they called to each other to take out their staffs, but
they did show any. They then hurried him
along, he did not know where, until he found him-
self in the middle of a field away from the town.
Having dragged him to the extremity of the field,
they knocked him down, and threw themselves upon
him; one holding his hands over his mouth to pre-
vent his calling out, while the other two rifled his
pockets of the money stated in the indictment, a
tobacco-box, and a knife ; and they besides took the
handkerchief from his neck, and his hat, with another
handkerchief in it. They then all set upon him
while he was down, and beat him in a shocking
manner, " battering" (the prosecutor's term) his
head with sticks and their fists, until they left him
in a pool of blood, and an apparently lifeless state.
He remained quite insensible until about two o'clock
in the morning, when lie was able, with difficulty, to
crawl over to asiother part of the field where there
was a hayrick, by the side of which he laid himself
down until some one might pass by to his assistance.
About five o'clock in the morning the prisoner
Stern came by, and striking him with his hat on the
head, said, " I say, old chap, what do you do here ?"
Ile (prosecutor) replied, " that he had been robbed
and very ill used by some men ;" but he said nothing
more at that time, not deeming it safe, although the
instant he saw Stern he recognized him as the man
who held his hands over his mouth, and lay upon
him while he was robbed. Stern then assisted him
out of the field into Barnet, where they went into
a public-house just opened, and Stern gave him a
penny to get a pint of beer, but the moment the
landlord came into the room he (prosecutor) imme-
diately charged Stern with the robbery, and the land-
lord, who was also a constable, took him into cus-
tody. Of the other two young men at the bar the
prosecutor said he knew nothing, nor did he think
he had ever seen them before, but Stern he perfectly
recognized, as he had a full view of his face while he
lay on him holding his mouth.
The constable said that on taking Stern into cus-
tody, as stilted by the prosecutor, he searched him,
but found no part of the lost property in his posses•
sion, but, on observing to the prisoner, while con•
ducting him to gaol, how foolish he was to be con-
cerned in such a business, the prisoner admitted he
was one of the men who robbed the prosecutor, and
named also who the other two men were, but the
men he so named were certainly not the two other
prisoners now at the bar.
The prisoner Stern, in his defence, entirely denied
these admissions to the constable, or that he had any
participation in the robbery at all.
The other two young men at the bar expressed
their perfect innocence of the charge.
The Jury, after a few minutes' consultation, pro-
nounced Stern Guilty.
The other two young men at the bar were ac-
quitted and discharged with an assurance from the
Judge that riot the slightest imputation rested on
their character.
On the verdict of Guiltybeing pronounced against
Stern, he exclaimed with much violence against its
justice, and appeared to be in so excited a state that
the Learned Judge said he should defer for the pre-
sent passing sentence on him.
After the calendar had been gone through, Stern
was again placed at the bar, and on being asked by
the clerk of the arraigns in the usual form what he
had to say why he should not die according to law,
he again vehemently protested his innocence, till the
Judge placed the fatal black cap on his head, when
the prisoner's face suddenly turned to a livid hue,
and he became as if dumb-struck on the instant.

The Learned Judge then addressed the prisoner
in a solemn and feeling strain, exhorting him to use
:he short period of life that remained to him in mak,.
ing his peace with God; and having pronounced on
him the final sentence of the law, left him for exe-
cution on Wednesday the 27411 inst.

The unhappy prisoner, who seemed to be in a state
of almost invincible ignorance, was a field-labourer,
and a strong robust young man, but of an extremely
billy expression of countenance.
The poor man who was so cruelly treated by the
prisoner and his accomplices, only got out of bed
that morning to come to Court, and was so ill that
he was obliged to return to it again after giving his
evidence.

ACCURACY OF COSTUME,—In the Royal
Library at Turin is a curious volume, conta;ning the
Iliad, illustrated by the Monks. One of the illumina-
tions represents the burial of HECTOR, and a train of
Benedictines assisting in the funeral ceremony.
WANTON CRUELTY.—Yesterday, in the
dusk of the es ening, an ill-looking fellow broke, with a
stick, the back of a valuable French dog, in Bloomsbury-
square, crying out " a mad dog ! a mad dog !" and then
ran away. The poor animal met with its death-blow atthe very moment it was in the act of attempting to culti-
vate the friendship of its enemy. The lady who owned
it described it as being an old and faithful servant, stu-
dious at all times to pion, and foriog to Wol.

BERLIN, JULY 5.

(PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE )
The cholera has spared neither Russian nor Pole. Ge-
neral Toll, while he held the interimistic command of the
Russian army, had resolved on crossing the Vistula, and
attacking Warsaw. Paskewitsch, however, found the
army in so debilitate,' a state, that he said on his arrival
" A town like Warsaw is not to be taken by a few regi.
ments of Cossacks ;" these formed his only moveable force.
He, therefore, instantly countermanded this order, and
directed the evacuation of the Waiwodschaft Mock. The
Po"ish Generalissimo is accustomed to keep his designs
secret. The following report is, however, probable :
Skryznecki is said to have asked the new Governor of
Warsaw, whether he could maintain the capital for four-
teen days, with its present garrison and 6,000 men in a
fortified camp on the western side of the Vistula ; and, on
receiving an affirmative answer, to have declared it his in-
tention to march with the bulk of his army to the support
of the insurrection in Lithuania; or, should this prove im-
possible, to unite his dispersed corps, and return tr) "War-
saw ;--in every case, however, to have given his word to
return within fourteen days to the relief of the capital.
The voluntary retreat of Field-Marshal Paskewitseh will,
no doubt, alter this plan. There is little probability in
the report of a renewal of negotiations for peace.