The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-21 00:00:00

•• •• .. ss. ....

FACTORY BILL.
Mr. DISRAELI presented a petition from Bradford, in
Yorkshire, in favour of a Ten Hours Bill.
CONSTABULARY (IRELAND) BILL.

The report of this Bill was brought up and received.
On the motion that the report. be agreed to,
Mr. HUME objected to the Bill as a very impolitic one, as
it appeared to admit of the appointment of an unlimited num-
ber of police. If also the Consolidated Fund was to be
charged with the expense of those police, he thought its provi-
sions should be extended to England, as it regarded the pay-
ment of the police force here.

Mr. LajOUCHERE explained that the expense arising
from tending extra police to disturbed districts would
have to be met by those districts, which would he the
means of causing the proprietors to make every exertion to
keep in order their respective localities, so as to do without
this extra expense. With regard to the unlimited power
spoken of, that had been altered, and the Lord-Lieutenant's
power in this respect is now restricted.
The report was then adopted, and the Bill ordered to be read
a third time to morrow.

PUBLIC WORKS (IRELAND—No. 4 and 5) BILLS.
The reports of these Bills were brought up and adopted,
and the third reading fixed for to-morrow.
CONSOLIDATED FUND (APPROPRIATION) BILL.
The report of this Bill was brought up and adopted.
RAILWAY COMMISSIONERS' BILL.
On the motion that the House resolve itself into Committee
on this Bill,
Colonel S[BTHORP objected to it. It would en-
tail great expense on the country, besides giving
an increased patronage to the Government; and it would also
have the effect of establishing another Board of Commissioners
like to the New Poor-law Board, of which they had heard so
much of late in regard to the way in which they had done their
duty. The Hon. Member concluded by moving that the Bill
be committed that day six months.
As no Hon. Member seconded the amendment it fell to the
ground.

(LEFT SITTING.)

CRIMINAL COURT.-(THIS DAY.)

OLD COURT.

(Before Baron PLATT and Alderman Sir P. LAURIE.)
MURDER IN SIIADWELL.—Benjamin Gibbons was placed
at the bar this morning, indicted "for the murder of Jane
Sloman, on the night of the Ist of June last, in Labour-in-
vain-street, Shadwell.
Mr. BALLANTINE, with whom was Mr. CLERK, introduced
the facts of the case briefly to the jury, and then called
Ann Sloman, who said she was the mother of the de-
ceased, who lived in Labour-in-vain-street, Shadwell. Wit-
ness and her daughter went on Whit-Monday, the Ist of
June, to Stepney fair, where they met the prisoner. At
half-past six o'clock the same evening she parted with the
deceased, who said she would go home and- cook something
for the prisoner's supper. At that time she was a little
fresh, but not intoxicated. The prisoner on the following
morning, about seven o'clock, roused the witness and said,
"Jane was dead; she had fallen-down stairs and broken her
neck."
Jahn Hodges, a lumper, said he was at Stepney fair till
ten minutes past twelve o'clock at night with the prisoner.
They parted at half-past,fwelve o'clock, the prisoner being
quite sober. . .
John Lewis, who lived next door to the prisoner, said, he
was awoke between twelve and one o'clock on Tuesday morn-
ing by a man in the street singing out, :'Jane, come down
and let me in ; open the door." A female voice, which he
did not know, answered " I shan't, I shan't." Tue first
person then cried out, " Throw down the key, my dear." He
heard no more. His wife was at this time sitting at the
window.
Ann Lewis said, she heard a noise after the prisoner calledfbr
the key, as if of a person falling down stairs. The prisoner
had not left the door at that time, nor had he got in. The
witness called out to the prisoner, " Oh, father, she must
have got a drop too much." He said he did not know, he
could not get in, and he would go and see if he could get
lodgings somewhere else. The prisoner next morning, about
half- past five came again to the door and tried, but could not
get in. After some trouble he got in by a window at the back
of the house. The witness in the meantime looked through
the keyhole of the door and saw the prisoner stretching the
legs of the corpse, which lay at the foot of the stairs rather
across the passage. The prisoner then lifted up the head
of the deceased, and cried out, "Jane, Jane, my dear." The
witness was of opinion at the time that the noise she had
heard before came from that part of the house.
Mrs. Slack, who lives next door to the prisoner, on hearing
the knocking, went to the street door. After the communi-
, cation had ceased between the prisoner and the deceased,
t. h t heal d a noise as of a person falling down' stairs,
and exc!aimed "O my God! that woman has fallen
down stairs." The prisoner knocked and called
twice after this noise, but no answer was given.
She heard no noise as of a quarrel or struggle afterwards,
although the partition between the houses is such as to
transmit conversation very plainly.
Mrs. Lewis, recalled by the JUDGE, said she bad sat up all
night, and heard no noise whatever after the falling down
stairs.
William Darlow, who lives in Jamaica-place, Limehouse,
said, that in the back room of deceased's house there was a
private still. The prisoner came to his house on Tuesday
morning at 7 o'clock, and said his wife was dead; he
came home about 3 o'clock, and she tumbled down the stairs
and broke her neck. He requested the witness to bear
a hand and remove the still. tie said the back door was
open, he would get in by it. Witness said he occupied the
two back rooms on the ground floor for the purposes of the
still. The prisoner's room was up stairs, and he had nothing
to do with the still or the rooms below. On Monday, about
three in the afternoon, he used the piece of iron produced in
Court as a -hammer, and left it on the tub in the still room.
Martha Darlow, the wife of the last witness, said she would
not swear that she had not removed the piece of iron after
her husband left.
John Robert Crawford, owner of the Nelson Coffee-house,
Commercial-road, Shadwell, said the prisoner bad coffee at
half-past twelve o'clock on Monday morning, and returned
about half-past two next morning with a coalheaver. Both
had coffee, with bread and butter, and were rather noisy at
first. The witness threatened to put them out, and the pri-
soner havieg promised to be quiet, laid his head on his arms,
and twice sighed heavily. The coalheavei said to him,
" What the - the matter?" He said nothing. They both
seemed to have been enjoying themselves.
William Pod, who serves at the bar of the Duke of York
public-house, said he saw the prisoner at the house about
*ix o'clock on Tuesday morning, when he had a pint of beer.
J. Harris, a beer-seller, on Market-hill, went on Tuesday
morning to No. 6, Labour-in-vain-street, and looked through
the keyhole, and saw a woman apparently lying dead. He
orought a policeman, and they broke open the door and went
in. The prisoner came while they were there, and while he
was crying over the body one of those present said he ought
to have given the alarm sooner. The prisoner said he could
not give an alarm at that time of the night, so he went to a
coffee-house, and got himself a cup of coffee. The feet of
the deceased might be about a foot or eighteen inches from
the stair, and the body lay askew.
Constable 380 K, said he found the head of the corpse to-
wards the wainscot, resting on a bag, the feet to the stairs,
the left arm touching the wainscot. On the wainscot were
the marks of two hands, and a patch of blood between. He
found the piece of iron produced in the yard. It lay on the
middle rail 'of the paling, which separated the yards of Nos.
6 and 7, the place over which it would be convenient to
lift a stilt, with a view to removing it secretly.
Constable 8 K said he observed a spot of blood on the
second step of the stairs, which seemed to have been smeared
with the finger. He examined the prisoner, and saw blood
on his hands and jacket. The witness asked him how he
accounted for the blood? He said he had cut his finger the day
before the fair. The constable examined his hands and found only
a slight wound on his fore finger which did not appear to have
bled recently. On asking him how he got the blood on his
jacket, the prisoner said Heaven knows, I don't know."
The prisoner then said he had come home about seven o'clock,
and described how he got in and how he found the corpse.
The jacket and waistcoat were taken off the prisoner at the
station-house, when witness observed blood on the waistcoat
and inside the pocket of the jacket, which the prisoner said
he supposed he had got from lifting the head of the corpse.
Daniel Ross, a surgeon, High- street, Shadwell, said he was
sent for to 6, Labour-in-vain-street, on Tuesday morning,
the 2d of June. He went and saw the corpse of a woman,
lying with the feet slightly inclined towards the stairs, the
head and left shoulder touching the skirting-board. He
examined the body, when he found altogether on the head,
cheek, and nose six marks, which had the unusual appear-
ance which is produced by a blister on, a child before
death. The wound on the back of the head was jagged
and lacerated, tending upwards, and laying the bone bare.
The scull was fractured, and there was one of the veins rup-
tured ; both he had no doubt would cause death. He saw
nothing about the stairs which wouldhave caused thewound,
There was nothing hard in the bag on which the head was
lying, and the stairs had no bannisters, the stairs being
wooden and without carpeting. If the wound had been
caused by a blow on the stairs there might
have been blood on the steps, but not ne-
cessarily. If the woman going down stairs had fallen
back, the wound would be upwards; but he did not think
the edge of the step could have inflicted the wound seen.
In the room above which the body lay there was vomiting
which smelt strongly of drink. On the matting where the
body lay, part of the blood was dried, part in a fluid state.
Tile woman might have been dead for six hours when he
saw her first. He had examined the marks of blood on the
jacket of the prisoner, some of it about the bend of the arm,
some on the left collar, and some on the edge of the pocket.
The blood was a little flowing from the head, and the marks
might have been produced by lifting the head. The iron pro-
dnced might have produced the wound, or, perhaps, the
toe of a heavy boot.

Mr. BALL.ANTINE—Were there not some jets of blood seen?
Witnesa--Yes, drops upon his shoes.
Baron PLATT—Did you observe whether any artery was
ruptured? Witness—So, he had not examined.
Baron PLATT—Then
Would n
whatoul kindo t ot
hblood f poste
b ndt spurt foin
oor tem
r examina-
tionun have you made?
aclolaonudr
va retneorL?
blood? and wa thesvir it
nr noteess
edn ioftuesr ebnlcoeo
dbetweene
da
in
after exposure to the air.
Baron PLArr—Wouldilnipottinau dl
form,ro as thebloodpof spurting
sfproumthgebhloeoadd
take the same form, an
would in falling? Witness—Yes.
Baron PLATr said he asked these questions because he
spoke of spurting and jets. Did you apply the piece of iron
to the wound? Witness—No ; the wound was somewhat
triangular.
Baron PLATT—You have said the toe of a boot might have
caused the wound, might it not have been caused by any
blunt instrument, the edge of the stairs, for example? Wit-
ness—Yes.
Baron PLATT—Then I collect that a person falling down
the stairs might have suffered this wound? Witness—lt is
improbable.
Baron PLATT here intimated his opinion to Mr. Ballantine
that the case had gone far enough.
Mr. DOANE, counsel for the prisoner, said he had inti-
mated as much to his Learned Friend at a previous stage of
the case.
Baron Purr said to the jury that the man had been seen
by two of the witnesses raising the head of the deceased.
That action was sufficient to account for the whole of the
blood seen upon the prisoner If they had any doubt as to
the issue of the trial, they might proceed with it, but it ap-
peared to him unnecessary.
The jury immediately returned a verdict of Not Guilty.