The Sun.
London, England, 1847-03-23 00:00:00

SURREY SESSIONS.

Th 3 adjourned sessions for Surrey were opened yes-
terday, before J. W. Freshfield, Esq., and a full bench
of Magistrates, at the Sessions-house in the *rough.
The grand jury having been sworn,
Mr. FRESILFIELD, in addressing the jury, drew their
attention to the heavy state of the calendar, but stated
that as there was no particular case that required
observation, he would not detain them from their duties,
and ho was the less inclined to do so inasmuch as the
county business would be taken at one o'clock, and it
was necessary that the Court should have something to
proceed with.
A true bill having been found,
William Tucker, aged 36, was indicted for receiving
one fowl, one sack, and one bushel of peas, the property
of the Earl of Ellesmere, at Walton-on-Thames, well
knowing the same to have been stolen.

Mr. WALLINGER, who appeared for the prosecution,
said that he did not doubt but the charge would be
brought home to the prisoner, although he had no
direct evidence to put in:against him ; but the property
was found in his possession, and as he could give no
proper account of his receiving it, on the usual rule of
law he must be presumed to be guilty. He then called
George Williams, a labourer, who had charge of the
poultry on the property of the Earl of Ellesmere at
Woodlands, near Walton, who stated that about the 4th of
February he left two hens and five ducks, together with
a sack containing peas, called "Black-eyed Susans," in
the fowl-house. When visiting the place the next
morning, he missed the property enumerated in the in-
dictment, as well as the ducks and the two hens. The
peas had been soaked, ready for feeding the fowls, and
the sack which contained them had a few holes and
other peculiarities about it, by which he was enabled to
identify the one produced in court as the same. His
Lordship's name was painted on the sack.
Mr. CHARNOCL cross-examined the witness on behalf
of the prisoner, but was unable to shake his testimony.
Henry Robinson, constable at Walton, stated that in
consequence of an intimation from Eye, the constable at
Guildford, he went to the White Swan, the house of the
prisoner, at Walton, and that in a closet in a bed-room
he found the sack produced, the peas which it had con
tained, and a dead fowl.
On cross-examination, the witness stated that free ac-
cess was given to the house, and no impediment what-
ever was thrown in the way of searching the house.
To Mr. WALLINGER, the witness stated that the pri-
soner was absent at the time the search was made. He
found nothing else, but a duck was picked up out of the
Thames about twenty yards from the priooner's house,
out of the crop of which he had taken peas like those in
the sack.

To this evidence Mr. CIIARNOCK objected.
Henry Hollington, superintendent of the police, Guild-
ford, stated while the prisoner was,in custody on another
charge a person came to - the 6.utlide of the station-
house, and the prisoner callint out to him, said
he supposed that he knew from itvhom he had
the fowls, and requested that _ho Ould go over to
Sutton, which is about four mildi from Guildford, and
tell bis wife to put the ducks and other things out of
the way, and further to tell -his brother Tom
to come over and swear that he had sold
the fowls to him at three shillings a couple.
In consequence of hearing this conversation, he sent
over to search the prisoner's house, and the sack, the,
peas, and the fowl produced were brought to him. He
then searched the prisoner's person, and upon him,
besides five sovereigns and some silver, found a
quantity of Black-eyed Susan peas in his pocket. The
peas appeared to have been soaked.
John Eye, the policeman who had accompanied
Hollington in the search, produced a bag of peas which
he found in the garret of the prisoner's house. They
were the same kind as those previously produced.
Mr. Haines, one of Lord Ellesmere's bailiffs, spoke to
the marking on the sack, and said the fowls produced
were of the same kind as those bred at Woodlands. He
had ordered the peas to be put into a tub, to be soaked,
in the bullock-house, a day or two before they were
stolen.

Mr. Gemment certified to the present name of the
Earl of Ellesmere, a doubt having been raised as to the
correctness of the form of the indictment.

Mr. Crunrroc' ii in reply, contended that it was no
rule of law at all that, where property is found in the
possession of a person shortly after it had been stolen,
if that person was unable to give a clear account of how
he came by it, that that person was presumed to be the
thief. It was not a rule of law, but simply for the
guidance of juries, if they conceived the collateral cir-
cumstances should seem to justify such a supposition;
but he verily believed that like the celebrated law for
the regulation of wills, it had been the cause of injuring
the innocent rather than correcting the guilty. After
going through the evidence, and stating that it ought to
be of the clearest kind to induce a conviction. The
Learned Council called witnesses to character.

The CHAIRMAN summed up, and the jury returned a
verdict of Guilty.—Sentence deferred,
There is another indictment against the prisoner.

CALEDONIAN RAILWAY.—The works on this great
undertaking are proceeding rapidly in the neighbourhood of
this city. A number of houses in Ritson's-lane and Caldew
Damside, most of which were occupied by the poorest de-
scription of tenants, have been removed for the construction
of the line in that part of the town. A temporary wooden
bridge has been erected across the Caldew, immediately
above the present structure, for the convenience of the public
whilst the present road is interrupted by the alterations
which will be necessary to admit the passage of the railway
under it.—Carlisle Patriot.

ETHEL—Yesterday afternoon, a very skilful ope-
ration was performed by Dr. Marsden, the senior surgeon of
the Royal Free Hospital, in the Gray's Inn-road (in the
presence of the Hon. Walter Ogilvy, Mr. T. W. Cooke, and
other gentlemen), on a long-standing tumour of the upper
lip and jaw-bone, of William Wood, aged sixty-seven, who
had travelled up from Guilford for the express purpose of
having the operation effected. Mr. Cooke, the resident sur-
geon of the hospital, administered the vapour of ether, and
the tumour was removed without the slightest evincement of
pain by the patient, who, on his recovery, very gratefully
expressed his thanks, and was removed to his ward wait
every expectation of a perfect care.