The Sun.
London, England, 1847-07-21 00:00:00

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ASSOCIATION.

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prosecution.
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The prisoner bowed his thanks to the jury and retired
from the dock on this "his second appearance in the
same character," expressing it to be his intention to take
the Learned Judge's hint, and " never go back to
Soham no more."
In the other case of arson, wherein the mother of
this prisoner was charged with having set fire to certain
premises at Soham, soon after the committal of her son
for trial at the last assizes, the grand jury ignored the
bill.

THE URITISH ARCHEOLOGICAL

WARWICK, JULY 19.—The opening meeting of the
annual congress of the association took place at three
o'clock in the grand jury-room of the County Courts in
this town, and, in spite of several circumstances of acci-
dental inconvenience, was extremely well attended, es-
pecially by the ladies and gentlemen of the neighbour-
hood, who appear to take great i nterest in the proceeciings.
An unusually active and intelligent local committee has
been at work during several weeks; and, on Saturday,
the secretaries of the association, Messrs. Crofton,
Croker, C. R. Smith, and T. Wright, with other active
members, arrived from London and other parts of the
country. In the course of this day the town of Warwick
has been rapidly filling with visitors.

will in
prisoner
indicted
for the

OXFORDClR6t„_ilbrd, July 19.
The commission was opened here this morning at a
quarter past ten o'clock by Mr. Justice Erie. His
Lord-
ship, after atteading Divine service, returned to court at
one o'clock, to commence the criminal business; but, in
consequence of the absence of the parties or the wit-
nesses in each of several cases that were called on, his
Lordship was obliged to. adjourn the court to nine
o'clock tomorrow morning. At that hour the business
will begin in both courts. The calendar contains the
names of 45 prisoners, of whom five are charged with
manslaughter, three with cutting and wounding, six
with assaults on women, four with burglary, two with
arson, two with forgery, one with bigamy, one with
poaching, three Kith coining, one with maiming a horse, -
and the rest with larcenies that might have been dis-
rosed of at ses -ions. Of the 45 prisoners, fourteen are
marked as unable to read or write, five as able to read
and write well,. and one as able to read and write in a
superior manner. The cause list will not be made till.
to-morrow morning. At present there are only a very
few cases entered. It is anticipated that it will be a very
poor assize.

NORFOLK ClRCUlT.—Cambridge, July 20.
CROWN COURT.—(Before Mr. Justice PATTESON.)
Josiah
to a munson,
aged s3oor
was
indicted
for setting fire
stack of straw the of Thomas Peek, on
the Ist of last,November'
Mr. Prendergast
prosecution.
property
at Soham.
Mr. Dasent were counsel for the
The prisoner is a basket-rusher,
residing at Soham,
and it may be remembered that at the last March assizes
he was tried and acquitted
°Rn
charge of attempting to
set fire to a barn in that towr, is here several incendiary
fires have occurred within the 'last twelve
in-
serting into it a bundle of combustible months,matter by
was fortunately discovered. As soon as the
Prisoner h
re-
turned turned to Soham, he was taken up, on suspicion of having
been the author of the fire at Mr. Peek's, which had
occurred before the incident of former inquiry, but in
respect of which no proceedings had been taken against
him at the last assizes. It now appeared that Mr. Peek's
fire broke out about a quarter past seven o'clock in the
evening of the Ist of November, aed consumed the whole
of a straw stack, and portions of two stubble stacks.
On the following morning there was discovered a blacking
bottle with the neck broken off, and bearing marks on
the inside as if it had been filled with some combustible
matter. This circumstance at once satisfied the
authorities that this fire had - been the delibefate act
of some incendiary, who was also the author of the
other fires in the same town ' • for in many of them
similar bottles had been found. In order to connect the
prisoner with this outrage it was shown that on the Ist
of November, which was a Sunday, he partook of break-
fast, dinner, and tea at a public-house where he boarded,
ard that he quitted the house at a quarter to six o'clock
in the evening, saying he was going to chapel. He was
next seen to emerge, at a quarter past six, from his
workshop, where he must have had a light and a fire
too, for sparks were observed to issue from the chimney.
For a few paces he was traced up Church-street, to-
wards Mr. Peek's premises, but was soon lost sight of in
the crowd. At twenty minutes past six, however, he
was met going into the house where he lodged, when he
said he was going to change his coat, and go to the
chapel, which began at half-past six o'clock, and stood
next door to his workshop. In five minutes after-
wards he was again met, going in a direction from
his lodging to the chapel ; but it did not clearly ap-
pear at what time he entered the chapel. According
to one account, he made his appearance there in the
first singing, and according to another he did not come
till the second singing. At any rate the witnesses
agreed in saying that the cry of " fire " arose in the
chapel about half an hour after he had taken his
seat ; so that if he really were its author, he
must have accomplished his object by throwing
some combustible substance into the stack, which had
smouldered for nearly three-quarters of an hour before
the flames broke out. As soon as the cry reached the
chapel the congregation rushed out en masse, and re-
paired to the spot indicated by the glare of the flames,
with the exception of the prisoner, who coolly went to
the home where he boarded, and changed his coat, again
observing, " Well, they can't blame me for this fire, at
all events, for I was at chapel." In addition to there
facts, it was further shown that the prisoner had endea-
voured to borrow a black pair of trousers on this day,
from two people, under the pretence that he wanted
them to wear at a funeral at Milden-hall, at three
o'clock, though he could not by any possibility have
reached that place by that time; and when he was
taken in custody after the last assizes, he observed,
" This is a worse job than the last, and if I get clear of
it I'll take care never to set foot again in Soham."
This being the whole case against the prisoner,
Mr. NAYLOR addressed the jury on his behalf, con-
tending that the evidence only went to raise a suspicion
against the prisoner, and that, too, of the very slightest
character, so that it was quite impossible for them to
come to any conclusion hostile to the prisoner.
Mr. Justice PATTESON said, that it was very clear
that the prisoner had got a bad name at Soham, and he
quite agreed with him, that if he got clear now he would
do well not to return to Soham, for this case was an
illustration of the old adage about giving a " dog a bad
name." There was nothing against the prisoner here
but suspicion and conjecture, created by previous
events, and it was for the jury to say whether they could
safely convict a man on such testimony as that adduced
by the prosecutor, who was bound to make out the
charge clearly, and so as not to leave any reasonable
doubt of the prisoner's guilt. Here the prisoner was
not shown to be at any time of the evening nearer to the
stack than 400 yards, and the bottle was not by any
pretence traced to him, whilst it was very likely that
every man in Soham had such a bottle in his possession.
The Learned Judge then went through the rest of the
case in detail, and at the conclusion of his observations,
as might have been expected,
The jury returned a verdict of Not Guilty.
His LORDSHIP then, addressing the prisoner, told him
that if he took his advice he would not go back to
Soham, as it was clear he had a bad name among is
neighbours. _

The program-me of week and the arrangements
understood to have been entered into, with promised dis-
play of Warwickshire hospitality, give grounds for ex-
pecting one of the most successful meetings the associa-
tion has yet had. It is understood that the association
will be received to-morrow in the Castle by Lord Brooke,
and that the architectural peculiarties of this noble
baronial edifice will be explained to them by Mr. Jack-
son, of Leamington. On Wednesday the archmelogical
visitors will be received at Stoneleigh Abbey by Lord
Leigh, after having visited Guy's Cliff and Kenilworth.vaaand
On Thursday they will visit Stratterd.n
:n-
-meeting will be held at the
will be received at Charlcote, the fine ElSthan
sion of Mr. NV. F. Lucy. A
Town-hall of Stratford, by
expressfor providing
permission of the
mayor, to consider of the best measures
era
'a house, and for
memorial
against the destruction of Shel c3p
t dramatist in
be man-
erecting some worthy of the grea
.d
ists will be received at
Saturday, the last day
of Coventry, the a c_hwalgater visiting the antiqui-
tiesCombe Abbey by
will be almost entirely devoted to visit-
inghis native town.
of the congress, will
.1 d nthe party will be
On
Lord Craven.
• t castles and abbeys, ,
ancient
hospitably
entertained at Arbury by Mr. C. N. Newde-
gate, M.P.
The chair was taken soon after three o'clock by Lord
Brooke,r who made a short address, expressing his regret
that the unexpected illness of the president, Lord Albert
Conyngham, bad rendered it necessary for him to take
the chair.
Mr. PETTIGREW then read a long introductory report
on the labours of the association during the past year.
He made a classified enumeration of all the contributions
to antiquarian and historical science which had been
made by its members through the pages of its journal,
during that period. lie described the condition of the
association, both as to the activity of its labourers and
the extent of its funds, and showed how much had been
done, considering the very moderate means at its dis-
posal, in comparison 'with the lavish expenditure and
small results to science which had attended the labours
en
of farmer societies of this kind. Mr. Pettigrewntahnd
showed how much had been done by
the
association
its agents during the year to hinder desecrati
antiquity. as
de-
struction of our national monumentsot•
had lain concealed
well as to bring to light those whilLvdiitba
short notice,
from observation. He concluded with.
the distinguished
biographical and panegyriciillo
bad
been
carried from
members of the; association who .
year, the rather long list
its ranks by dsath curing the
Hatcher (the editor and
includidg
the Richardnames of
of Cirencester "), A. J. Kempe,
translator of "
John Sydenharn, (the antiquary of Poraet), Henry
Stothard, the Rev. A. B. Hutchins, Edward Bridger, T.
Ridley Colborne, and Mrs. Stuart
F. Savory, the Hon.
who, it will be remembered,
threw open her house
Hall, _.
much liberality to the members of the associa-
twioitnh so
during their visit to Winchester in 1845.
Sir W. BETnast made some observations relative to a
collection of drawings of early Irish antiquities which
he had brought with him from Dublin.

HAYMARKET THEATRE.—The irpular comedian
Mr. Buckstone takes his farewell benefit tonight, pre-
vious to his joining Madame Vestris at the Lyceum
in October. The comely is The Beaux' Stratagem,
the part of Scrub being acted, for the first time, by
Mr. Buckstono. Mr. john Reeve, a son of the cele-
brated actor, will also make his first appearance in public
in one of his father's characters. The entertainments
will include Planche's greatly successful drama of' The
Jacobite.