The Sun.
London, England, 1841-04-09 00:00:00

THE LATE JOSIAH MISTER.

(From the Salopian Journal.)
It may be recollected that the Jury retired to take
some refreshment two or three times during the course
of their important inquiry, which occupied nearly twelve
hours. On each of these occasions the prisoner also
went down to one of the cells underneath the Court, to
which there is ready access from the dock. Captain
Mayne, the Rev. D. Winstone, Mr. Heathcote (surgeon
to the gaol), Mr. Cartwright, and one or two other
gentle-nen, were accommodated by Mr. Dawson with
• standing places" in the dock during the trial, and one
of the party having gone below immediately after the
prisoner, accidentally went into the cell in which be was
in the act of taking some refreshment, He was with-
drawing, with an apology for the intrusion, when Mis-
ter requested him not to go away. The turnkey or
policeman who also was in the cell did not object to
this gentleman's 'remaining, which he accordingly did.
The witness Mary Fomk,s (cook at the Anu*e.
Ludlow). had been under cross-examination by M.
Lee immediately bac), e this, and Mister asked rather
anxiously, " What do you think, Sir? How is it
going on ?"
The reply was, " I do not think the case against you,
a 3 far as it has gone, as bad as was expected from what
transpired on the examination at Ludlow."
Mister then said, in quite a gay manner, " They can
make netting of it, Sir. The prosecution was very
baldly got up. What do you think of Sergeant Lud-
low's speech ?" 1 he, answer was, "It was a very tern
perate one, and therefore more likely to make an im-
pression against you than if it had been violent, and had
overstated the case."

There followed a short pause, and Mister then said,
with some vehemence, " Mr. Lee is doing it very well,
I could do the croskexamination much better than he
does." The observation which his visitor made was, " I
think he dos it remarkably well."
Mister replied, " Yes, he does—but no one can do
it as well as one who knows all the facts. See what I
made of it at Ludlow ; I made Cooke admit that the
few drops of blood on my shirt might have got on it by
being spirted out from Mackreth's wounds while the sur-
geon was dressing them. There's that Mary Foulkes,
I must get Mr. Lee to ask her if she did not admit at
Ludlow, that she had not wwhed her hands between
the time of leaving Mackreth's room and comity; into
mine. That is in the deposition, and I must have them
read. She left his room with her bands all bloody, and
came into mine without having washed them. It was
from her hands that the blood came upon the bed cur-
tain, and I am only su-prised that the bedclothes were
not bloody also, for she pulled them eff me in a heap."
He added, with considerab!e emphasis," I'm sorry I did
not defend myself, and cross-examine the witneies. No-
body can do it so well as one who knows the fact=."
.He then proceeded very rapidly, " Mr. Charles
Phillips has used me very badly, hasn't he?" 'He then
said, 6' Lee is doing it very VI 11, but as soon as ever I
get out, have a fly at Mr. Phillips. I'll put him
into the newspapers."
Whit.: this conversation was going on—if that can
be called conversation where one person does nearly all
the speaking—Mister appeared extremely at his eate.
He did not sit down, but walked up and down the cell.
occasionally turning his full bright eyes upon his visitor.
A pause ensued while he was finishing the refresh-
ment provided for him, but he lost little time in again
speaking. .4 What a pity," he said, that Gurney
tries me ? I was before him a year ago, at Hereford,
bu; I was most wrongfully accused. There was no
witness against me, and I had drawn a bill for 125/.
before." But what this was, it was impossible to
ascertain, as, at that moment, one of the officers sum
mooed the prisoner to resume his place at the bar, as
the Jury had returned. He made a civil bow to the
genteman to whom be had been speaking. and was re-
moved from the cell. . . . .

When he went below a second time, he was within
the cc U, standing near the entrance, when the gentle-
man above referred to happened to be passing by. Feel-
ings of humanity impelled him to hand Mister a paper
of sandwiches ; and when they were disposed of—being
received with the expression of much gratitude—M,s-
ter said, in a more subdued manner than before, " It
is very hard, Sir, to be accused of a crime I never
committed. I can prove that on the Baurday they
say I was bet,,een Shrewsbury and Ludlow, I had
gone to Birmingham, and dined on that very day at
the Swan in Wolverhampton. They might as well say
that Mr. Crawford did it as I. If you had been in
the Angel amr night, and slept in my room, you would
have been open to susipiuion as much as I."
The reply was to the effect that previous good cha-
racter would in such a case exempt any one of respect-
able appearance from the sul)icions to which a ma"
who went to any inn without any money in his pock, t
would be liable—that such suspicions once roused
would naturally be increase" when it was found that be
had put up at two inns in a pennyless condition, espe-
cially when those inns were those at which Mr. Ludlow
put up, and that his defence would be incomolere un-
less he could show that he hal not 'lodged Mr. Lud-
low from place to place, or could account for having
done so. This reply did not appear to please Mister,
for he turned into his cell, and did not resume the con.
versation.

On the day of execution, as Mister was ascending
the stairs (within the porter's lodge) leading to the
drop, he passod the gentlem,in who hul thus conversed
with him on the day of trial, and showed, by boqing
his hi.a-1, that he recognised him,
The cur;ous in such points may like to learn that
M!ster was by nn me ins what can be called an ejucated
man. lie wrote a good, plain hand, but. almost every
sentence is ungranimitwal. In spe ling, he almost in-
variably wrote " as" instead of " has." will scarcely
be h&ieved that a gentleman in Ludlow received is
commission from an autograph collector in London (Wr-
ing him to go as far as five guive,:s, if requisit, to pro-
cure a letter iu Mister's own hand-writing!

vV
When the body was taken down from the drop, it
was removed,through the porter's lodge, to a cell ad-
joining one of the courts at the left, and extended upon
a bedstead. On removing the cap, the features were
found not at all distorted. The face was nearly the natu-
rl colour,---lithe paler, perhaps, than in life. The
eyes were closed, and on the lids being raised it ap-
peared that the pupils had considerably dilated. Toe
lips, which bad their natural hue at first, soon grew
livid. The expression of the face was stern,—precisely
what has been welt described, " as unrelenting, dark,
rind p issionless."
It had been expected that his neck would have been
broken by the tall from the drop, but, on examination, it
appared that there was only a slight red streaky mark
round part of the throat, which was most decidedly on
the left side. The rope had got fixed upon the thyriod
cartilage (immediately under the lump in the neck com•
manly called the pomum Adami), and pressing on it
with much force had crushed it in and caused instant
death by suffocation. Such was the opinion of the me-
died gentlemen whom we he ird speak upon the subject.
The deceased was a very well made young man, con-
siderably uniter the middle size, and looked more like a
lad of nineteen than a man of five•and-twenty.
As the body was not claimed by Mister's relatives, it
was put into a handsome elm ciao, on which was a
plate hearing this inscription---
"Josiah Misters, aged 25 years, 1841."
At seven o'clock on Monday morning the body of
Josiah Misters was buried on the north side of St.
Mary's churchyart!, next the railing.

We regret to say that a quondam writer here
nhn commenced business some years since as a merchant
and importer of green cloth, abiconded last week, leaving
de As and linhilities. as estimated by some, to the amount of
upwards i.f 100,0001. Few of our manufacturers hut have
sus,ai led heavy loses ; and many in the neighbouring
towns of Forfar K,rriemur, and Dundee, have also suf-
fer,cl by this twf mous transaction. The occurrence of such
an untoward event," coupled with the already depressed
state of the markets, has hid a very hurtful influence upon
the manufacturing and commercial Interests of the town in
, general; but we trust that, by a little prudential manage_
went on the part of all concerned, matters may still be
maintained= a steady footing...Montrose Review.