The Sun.
London, England, 1848-03-09 00:00:00

WORSHIP-STREET.

Yesterday a middle-aged man named Jeseph Mundell,
was placed at the bar, before Mr. Arnold, charged with
the following outrageous assault upon Mr. Robert
Witherden, agent to a gentleman holding extensive
household property at Spitalfields:—
The complainant, one of whose eyes was terribly
woolen and' contused, and who exhibited other evidence
of serious ill-usage, stated that the defendant being
greatly in arrear with his rent, and it being impossible
either to obtain the money from him or to induce him
to quit the premises, the witness was instructed by the
landlord to effect the latter object by issuing a distraint
upon his goods, but not with the intention of taking
them, if it could be avoided. On proceeding to the house,
at 12 o'clock that day, accompanied by a broker, an
entry was effected in the defendant's absence, but he
shortly afterwards came in, and on witness offering him
to forego the execution if he would vacate the tenement
he indignantly refused to do so, loaded him with the vilest
epithets, and felled him to the ground by a terrific
blow over the eyes which nearly stunned him. The bro-
ker then attempted to rescue him from the defendant's
fury, but was immediately knocked down by a blow on
the face, which smashed his spectacles, and this was
rapidly succeeded by another blow across the hand from
a heavy stick, and a third upon the crown of the head,
which caused a severe gash and covered his clothes with
blood. The defendant then attempted to seize a hammer,
and was proceeding to further violence, when a police-
man fortunately happening to pass the house, was
called in, and the detendat was given in charge.
Robert Bushell, the broker, and a man named Urwin,
his assistant, fully corroborated the first witness, and
the former, who exhibited a severe wound in his head,
declared that he had been seriously ill ever since.
When called upon for his answer to the charge, the
defendant said that upon reaching home he found the
brokers in his house, and being informed that they had
effected an entrance by bursting in his door, he knew
that that was illegal and attempted to resist it, but is as
immediately assailed by one of the complainants with a
heavy piece of wood, and, considering himself in great
danger, had protected himself as well as he could.
This statement, however. was positively contradicted
by all the witnesses, who declared that there was not
the slightest foundation for it, and
Mr. ARNOLD, who severely reprehended the outrageous
conduct the defendant had been guilty of, sentenced him
to pay the full penalty of 51. for the assault upon Mr.
Witherden, a second 51. for the violent attack upon the
broker, or in default to be committed to the house of
Correction for two months for each penalty, and in ad-
dition ordered him, at the expiration of the respective
terms, to put in substantial bail for his good and peace-
able behaviour for the succeeding three months; neither
of which conditions was the defendant able to comply
with, and he was therefore removed in the van.

ASSIZES OF THE HAUTE GA-

RONNE.
TRIAL OF FRET E LEOTADE.

The important events which have occurred within the
last ten days have so fully absorbed public attention,
that it has been impossible hitherto for us to continue
our report of the proceedings of this remarkable trial.
Now that calm has been restored, and the press of
matter connected-with the revolution is less severe, we
shall give a resume of the sittings of the Court of Aesizes
of the Haute Garonne, observing first, that although the
interest of the trial of Leotade had not fallen off, the
evidence produced has been of such a nature that even
if we could have found room for the reports, they must
have been short. The affair, besides, has taken a turn
which enables us to draw up our summary in brief terms.
It will be remembered that, up to the 17th ult. inclu-
sively, the date of our report, most of the witnesses for
the prosecution had been heard, and that Madeleine
Sabathie, who had been ordered into custoly on a
charge of prevarication and false evidence, had retracted
her declaration of having seen Cecile Combettes in the
street after the hour at which she was known to have
been in the establishment of the Freres. She was ex-
amined again after her retraction, with a view to ascer-
tain whether she had been suborned to give false evi-
dence, and who were her suborners; but en this point
she persisted in declaring that she had invented her
story merely with a view to serve the freres, and without
having been in any degree influenced by dirt ct or indi-
rect overtures from them. The Frere Leurien, the gar-
dener of the establishment, who had also been ordered
into custody for false testimony, was repeatedly examined
during the remainder of the trial, but he continued to
persist in his first declarations, and when detected in
prevarications and inconsistencies, attributed them to a
detect of memory. The defence set up by Leotade was
chiefly by way of alibi. His object was to prove that he
had been so engaged in various matters at the tune when
Cecile Combettes must, according to the accusation, have
been inveigled from the parlour of the establishment of
the freres, and taken to the spot where she was violated
and destroyed, that he could not have committed those
crimes. He had also combined his defence in such a way
as to cast doubts upon the evidence "of Conte, as to that
witness having seen him and the Frere Jubrien at the
moment when Cecile Combettes was in the establish-
ment, and to create a supposition that the crime might
have been committed by Conte himself. A host of wit.
nesses, consisting principally of Freres and pupils of the
establishment, came forward to establish the alibi. Their
evidence was of such a character that, if it could be be-
lieved, it was utterly impossible he could have been the
murderer, but most of these witnesses appeared to the
President to have had a lesson got up for them, and
when pressed hard by the President and the Pr,cureur
du Itoi they contradicted each other in such a way as to
confirm the suspicions which were entertained of their
veracity. They deposed to a variety of minute circum
stances which they could hardly be supposed to have re
membered after so great a lapse of time, and when
asked how they could recollect them, they had nearly
all the same answer ready, namely, that they recollected
the 15th of April, because it rained on that day. Until
the inconsistency of these statements, however, was
pointed out to them, and they began to contradict each
other, nothing could be a more regular and consecu-
tive chain of testimony which had been prepared.
The freres deposed, with an apparent convic-
tion of truth, to their having seen Leotade at
such an hour, such a moment, and such a place, and the
young pupils who were examined gave their evidence
cooly and deliberately, as if they had previously all got
it by heart. Some witnesses, unconnected with the
establishment, also came forward to declare that they
visited it on the 15th, and had seen Leotade occupied in
various parts of the premises at the very time when,
according to the act of accusation, he must have been
engaged in the perpetration of the horrid deed for which
he was now undergoing his trial. It appeared, however,
that some of these individuals had had their memory re•
freshed by letters from Frere Jubrien, written some
months after the murder, and the impression of the
Court appeared to be that their evidence, although
honestly meant, had been the result of this contrivance by
Jubrien, who was at one time implicated as an accom-
plice of Leotade. On the other hand, however, some of
the witnesses who were called for the prosecution
stated facts which were of a nature to raise
doubts as to the correctness of the premises on which
the act of accusation was based, and to confirm
portions of the testimony of the witnesses for the
defence, which had at first appeared to have been got
up for them, and to be false. The President, on more
occasions than one, declared the embarrassment that he
felt, and directed the jury to take particular notice of
these points, so that they might be weighed and appre-
ciated in connexion with the whole affair. On the 25th
ult. M. Joly-, the advocate for the partie civile, addressed
the Court, the evidence having closed, and he was to
have resumed his address:oa the 26th. But on that day
the agitation in Touluse, on account of the news from
Paris of the revolutics, was so great, that it was foiled
impossible for;the Court to proceed with the calm which
so grave and difficult an affair required. M. Joly was
absent at the Hotel de Ville, re-organizing the National
Guard, and M. Saint-Gresse, one of the counsel for the
defence, was absent on account of the recent death of his
father. The Procureur-General made an application to
the Court, to put off the affair to another ass•ze, and the
Court, after a short deliberation, and with the consent of
M. Gasc, the other counsel for the defence, adjourned
the case to the next assize, on the double ground of the
absence of M. Joly and M. Saint-Gri ace, and the excited
state of the city of Toulouse. By order of the Court,
Madeleine Sabathie and Frere Lauriene were ordered to
bo set at liberty.

_ - -- -
ATTEMPTED MURDER AND GALLANT DEFENCE.—
At Six-mile Bridge, Limerick, two ruffians took 1 d-
ings a few nights since in the house of Mr. Irwin, a
respectable inhabitant. At midnight they called fix a
candle, and thrusting the servant into a room, threatens d
to shoot her if she opened her lips, and then admitted
a third bandit. Afterwards they went into Mr. and Mrs.
Irwin's bedroom, and cautioned them not to stir, or
mark the consequence; they, however, disobeyed, and
struggled hard with the assailants, whom Mrs. Irwin's
cries so alarmed that they fled. In their flight they
left behind a bayonet, a gun, and a hat.

Dispatches were received yesterday, at the Colonial-
office, from the Governor of the Mauritius.