The Sun.
London, England, 1841-04-28 00:00:00

COURT OF JUSTICIARY.
THE BISHOPBRIDGE MURDER.

GLASGOW, APRIL 23.—The doors of the Court were
this morning besieged by crowds of people anxious to ob-
tain admission to hear the trial of Dennis Doolan and
others, accused of murder. At ten o'clock their Lord-
ships took their seats on the bench.
The case having been called, the prisoners, Dennis
Hart or Doolan, Pat or Patrick Redden or Redding. or
Reddan Eagan, or Aitken, and James Hickie, were placed
at the bar, and the Clerk of Court read the indirement,
which had been served upon them, and which chtvged
them with having, on Thursday, the 10th of December,
on a wooden bridge erected over that portion of the line
of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, near to Cross-
bill, near Bishopbridge, assaulted John Green, then a
ganger or superintendent over the labourers employed on
the said line, and with an iron poker, and an iron bar or
rod, inflicted several blows on his head and other parts of his
body, and felled him to the ground, and repeatedly jumped
upon him, and kicked him, and otherwise maltreated and
abused hire, by which his skull was fractured, and lie soon
thereafter died, and was thus murdered by the prisoners.
The case was fully reported at the time, and created a
strong sensation in that part of Scotland. The evidence
was very conclusive against the prisoners.
The following evidence of the Superintendent of the
Railway works, gives a full account df the murder. Two
accomplices gave evidence, and a man, Ls whose house one
of the prisoners had been sheltered for three weeks.
Francis Rooney, Superintendent of the railway at Cross-
hill-_I remember John Green; he was a ganger at Cross-
hill, and came about the 7th or f;th of December last. I
never heard of any complaints against Green by the man.
I heard Green complain ei Doolan the night before, and
he desired me to dismiss him. He said the reason why
he wanted him dism;.esed was, that on being compl tined
of for not working, he gave some saucy answers. I live
Bishopbridge ; I went home at night, and was
at my work. about seven in the morning. I
went by the line of the railway to Crosshill ; I
heard a noise and bustle among the men about the
bridge, and I heard a sort of moan. I ran up to the
top of the bridge, to the end next the smithy, end
called out " Murder " several times ; it was dark at this
time. I saw two men beating another. When I got on
the bridge he was on the ground. I continued to call
" Murder." One of them had a weapon of some kind.
He was striking with that. I saw the other man once or
twice leaping un the body of the man that was down. This
beating and Lapiegeontieued fir two or three minutes.
was exhausted by the shouting, and terrified. A man came
and took me away to the smithy. There was no one on
the bridge but the three men, the one that was killed and
the other two. The name of the man who took me away
was Mungo Vane. I did not see the men leave the bridge.
I went back to the bridge ai It a man called Montgomery,
and found a man lying, whom I knew to be Green, rather
to the south side. He was insensible. He never spoke
at all. We carried him into the smithy. He was alive
at that time. There were marks of injury about his
person. He was all bloody about the head and breast.
We sent for a cart to get him taken to the Royal In-
firmary ; and I went with him myself. He died shout
three-quarters of a mile from the spot en which he got
the beating. I brought the body back to a little store
near the smithy. After bringing him back his guard-
chain was seen lesrigi.z out, but no watch. I could not
speak to the appearance of the men on the bridge, farther
than I saw one with a white slop on the outside—tee one
that was wielding the weapon. I could not say whether
he had a bat on, as I was not thinking of the it dress at
the time. The other bad a darkish dress, and the one
with the white slop was the tallest. It was the man with
the dark dress that was jumping. I could not swear that
the prismers were any of the men, these being more than
a hundred employed there, all much like each other in ge-
neral appearance. I am sure there was no more than three
men on the bridge. I heard the cry of " murder" in a faint
voice, as if coming from the man that was moaning. I did
not see any other men pear the bridge, but there were more
than thirty between the bridge and the smithy. There
were about twenty or thirty men on the bridge as I wont
up. I did not see any men running away, but there were
nut so many there when I went up as there were when I
was coming. There were some men on the south aide of
the bridge also; I did not see them going away. Bt fore
I came back to the smithy for assistance I had been actu-
ally upon the bridge at the north end, and then I was
seven or teght yards from the three men. I then saw no
men on the south end ; I was about twenty-five ya ds
from the bridge when I heard the first cry of murder and
moaning.

The -SOLICITOR-GENERAL said he had to bring the pain-
ful business with which he had been trusted to a close, and
felt that he could not do so without asking at their bands a
verdict of guilty against all the prisoners ; and as his
Learned Friends on the other side of the bar had stated
that they did not intend to address them, he felt that he
would be discharging his duty by leaving the case entirely
in the bands of the Court.
Mr. P. ROBERTSON said, on the part of the prisoners,
he felt, however painful it was to him, that he discharged
his duty, and his Learned Friend concurred with him, ny
leaving their case with the Court. It would not be of ad-
vantage to the prisoners to enter into any analysis of the
evidence. It would be for the Court to exaniao that evi-
dence, and see whether there was any doubt in favour of
any of the prisoners, and give the prisoners entitled to it
the benefit of that doubt,
Lord MONCREIFF then charged the Jury. They all, he
said, must see that this was a very serious case, and in
all its features a most remarkable case—few such had
occurred during his exprience; and the course which
the public prosecutor bad taken, and the course which
had been taken by the Counsel for the prisoners,
had imposed on him a very serious and important
duty in summing up the evidence on which they were
to return a verdict. On the one band, there was
a very important interest to the public, considering
the nature of the case, that justice might be admiaisterod
according to the truth • on the other, he need not tell
them that in a charge of murder, such as stated in the in-
dictmeht, and in the manner in which it had been en.
deavoured to be supported, they must sec that there was a
dreadful interest in discharging such an important duty in
a way satisfactory to their own minds. It would not Le
more his anxiety to discharge that duty with firmness, ac-
cording to the law of the country, than to deal with these
prisoners in perfect farness. Neither of the Counsel had
addressed them. He had, therefore, no choice but to lay
before them the whole evidence, according to the notes
which he had taken, with as much accuracy and fulness
as possible. His Lordship, on the law of the care!,
pointed out two very common delusions : first, that if
a party of men sallied forth and waylaid another, and
used such weapons as were libelled, merely for the pur-
pose of giving him a beating, and they killed him,
that in these circumstances they did not commit mur-
der ; and next, that of an in lividual who went out
with the others, and though did not lift his hand,
if he was cogni-ant of than. acts, and abetted and en-
couiaged them by his Presence, being supposed not
guilty, art and part, the proceedings. If he was pre-
sent, and did tot interfere to prevent it, be', on the
other haul, entered into an arrangement by which the
deed :',as to be committed. who could say that he was
':it art and part guilty ? He did not say that it appliel
to any of the prisoners—far from it; that was tor the
Jury to determine on the evidence which had been laid
before them.

At half-past nine o'clock the Jury retired, and, in about
three quarters of an hour thereafer, returned with their
verdict, finding unanimously the prisoners Dennis Doolan
and Patrick Redding guilty as libelled, and, by a majo.
rity, finding Jame 3 Hicaie also guilty, not as an actor, but
art and part as libelled, and they unanimously recommonded
him to mercy.

The prisoners were then sentenced to be execut.!cl, on
the 14th if Alay, at or near Crosshill.

DEAF AND DUMB INSTITUTION.—We have
this weik the pleasing duty of recording an instance of
the triumph of a great principle--the principle of Tolera-
tion. At a meeting of the friends of the aoove institu-
tion in the latter end of February last, it will be recol-
lected that the Bishop of the diocese refused to put a
resolution nominating on the Committee Diss9nting mi-
nisters, members of the Society, on the ground that the
motion had not been formally moved and seconde).
At the time, we stated thit the reason alleged ap-
peared to us strange, the more especially as the other
proceedings of the meeting • were not by any means
conducted in a formal manner ; that our Diocesan
suffered the names of the lay members of the Committee to
be appended to the resolution after its original proposition
by the mover; and that subsequently, the Bishop divided
a re olution into three distinct parts, and so put it to the
meeting. We then pointed out the strong appearance of
a lack of Christian charity in the course pursued, the
more especially as the bequest of a Dissenter was the
foundation of this very excellent institution. Another
meeting of the Society has been held, (P. F.
Aiken, Esq., in the Chair,) at which the chairman
stated, that on a former occasion " a committee bed
been formed, and somewhat haEtily formed, and many
excellent fa ends of the Society bad since regretted the
constitution o f he Committee as then adopt,d, it being
their wish, tied the wish of the Committee too, that ii
should be formed on the most broad and liberal prin.
eiple." The Chairman then went on to say, that the
Bishop's former objection to the motion was only on
the score of form—" to the principle of the resolution
they now had it from thrir, respected Bishop that he
did not object I They had it from his Lordship that
he approved of it, and that he should consider it a most
intolerant measure wt re they to form a Committee in
such a way as not to admit among its members Christians
of every denomination." The Rev. J. Hensman then
added, that the " proposed change met with the full
concurrence of their esteemed diocesan." It is matter of
regret that the seeming hesitation on the part of the
Bishop at the meeting over which be presided, and the
deference of those assembled on that occasion to what
appeared to be his Lordship's feelings, in regard to the
resolution in question, should have originated any mistake,
if mistake there were, as to the proceeding. We rejoice,
however, at the chage, not because we were the first to
disapprove of the course originally pursued, but because it
is a triumph of the principles of Christian charity and re.
ligious toleration.

Lx tRA.ORDINARY AFFAIR.--ill our last pub.
licatioo we, had an advertisement from the Poor-law-office,
s atitig ..nat a circular, i iviting the medical officers con-
nected, with the meLical institutions throughout Ireland to
Con'.er thin day with Mr. Nicholls, was a fictitious docu-
ment. We have since seen one of these circulars, and
,r2re at once struck with the remarkable circumstances,
t eat the cover and seal base all the official characters of the
Poor..law.officc,—that Mr. Nicholi's signatuie is admirably
imitated, and that it bears the initials of the chief clerk,
Mr. Wandsworth. Several gentlemen who could not he
aware of the forgery through the advertisement in the
newspapers have arrived in town. Some of them have
trot/died upwards of ono hundrei miles. The affair is
extrJordinary, aid demands investigation. —Dublin Pilot.
Sir William Somerville and Mr. Denison were
prevented attending the House of Commons on Lord
Morpeth's. R.!gistration Bill, by a severe domestic
of