The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-15 00:00:00

LEGROVE V. CLARK THE YOUNGER.

Mr. Sergeant Kinglake and Mr. Massey appeared for
the plaintiff, and Mr. Crowder and Mr. Poulder con-
ducted the case for the plaintiff.
The action was for the seduction of the plaintiff's
daughter, a pretty, interesting looking girl, of about 19
years of age.
It appeared from the evidence that the plaintiff was
a small farmer, living in a little village near Basingstoke,
and the defendant was a grocer in Basingstoke. The
plaintiff and his wife were in the habit of sending their
daughter to the defendant's shop for various articles
which they were in the habit of purchasing there. By
this means an intimacy sprung up between the defendant
and the plaintiff's daughter, and in the sequel the de-
Endant used to take the opportunity of frequently
visiting the daughter at her father's house when both
the parents were away, as they necessarily were a great
deal, attending to the management of their farm. At
length the daughter found herself in the family way;
and after a time she mustered courage to tell the de-
fendant's aunt. This led to some negotiation between
the parties, but with no satisfactory result; and a child
having been born in due course, this action was ulti-
mately brought.
Mr. Crowder, in his cross-examination of the daugh-
ter, attempted to impeach her character for chastity ;
but he only succeeded in showing that she had on one
or two occasions gone to a public-house in Basingstoke
with a young man whom she knew ; and she had once
dressed herself up in the clothes of the son of the de-
fendant's aunt, and gone into the village thus attired for
a little innocent fun. Tho jury thinking that this
evidence furnished no answer to the action, gave a
verdict for the plaintiff, damages 501.

HOME ClRCUlT.—Hertford, July 14.

CROWN SlDE—(Before Mr. Justice CATKAN).

John Hayes, 21, was indicted for feloniously setting
fire to an outhouse, the property of Joseph Gear, with
intent to injure him.

Mr. Ryland prosecuted. The prisoner was defended
by Mr. T. Chambers.

The circumstances under which this charge was pre-
ferred were of rather an extraordinary character, for,
although the prisoner was only arraigned upon one
charge of arson, it came out in evidence that he must
have been the author of three incendiary fires almost
simultaneously. A great number of witnesses were
examined for the prosecution, the evidence being, as is
usual in such cases, entirely circumstantial, but their
concurrent testimony left no doubt of the guilt of the
prisoner. It appeared that between seven and eight
o'clock on Sunday evening, the 18th of June, just about
the time when the inhabitants were returning from their
different places of worship, the neighbourhood of Water-
ford, a village a short distance from Hertford, was
alarmed by the sudden outbreak of three fires, one at an
outhouse belonging to the prosecutor, a second at
Waterford Mill, occupied by a Mr. Squire, and a third
at Waterford Hall, in the occupation of a gentleman
named Dorrington. Speedy means were, of course,
taken to allay the conflagration; but this was not
effected until a considerable amount of damage had
been done. The evidence against the prisoner went to
show that just before the fire broke out he was met by
a labourer named Parish close to Gear's cottage, and
he lost sight of him for a moment, and he observed him
again very shortly, apparently coming from the out-
house in question, and Parish had not got more than a
quarter of a mile from the spot when he heard the alarm
of fire, and saw the place burning. The prisoner was
then traced for some distance by several witnesses, till
he arrived at Mr. Squire's, where a cow-house was fired,
and here, as in the first case, immediately upon the dis-
covery of the fire the prisoner was seen creeping
stealthily under a railing away from the spot. Not con-
tent with the mischief he had already effected, it would
seem that the prisoner proceeded directly to Waterford-
hall, where he set fire to the back of the premises, but
the fire was fortunately extinguished without any serious
injury being done by it. The prisoner then, it ap-
peared, retraced his steps by a circuitous route; but the
hue and cry being raised, he was pursued and taken
into custody, and conveyed by Inspector Dunn, of the
Hertford police, to the lock-up in that town, and, on
his. being told that he was charged with causing three
fires, and among them that one at Gear's, he replied,
that was all right. It transpired in the course of the
evidence, that the person who had fired Mr. Squire's
premises must have passed through the backwater of
the mill stream, and on the prisoner's person being exa-
mined, it was found that his shoes and stockings were
completely saturated with water, and the foot prints
close to the fire also tallied exactly with the shoes
worn by the prisoner at the time of his apprehen-
sion. These facts, and some other minor circum-
stances, left no doubt whatever of the guilt of the
prisoner ; but the most singular part of the transac-
tion appeared to be, that it was not suggested that
the prisoner had any motive for committing such acts
as those imputed to him, and that there was not the
least between him and the parties whose pre-
mises ho had fired, except in the case of Gear, with
whom he had only had a slight quarrel two years be-
fore. It likewise appeared that the prisoner was in
regular work, and bore a good character in the neigh-
bourhood.

The jury returned a verdict of Guilty.
Mr. RYLAND said there were two other indictments
for arson against the prisoner, but
The COURT intimated that it would be unnecessary to
proceed with them. _

The Learned JUDGE then addressed the prisoner, and
said he had been convicted of an offence which was un-
happily of very frequent occurrence, and which called
for exemplary punishment. If he had been charged with
setting fire to a dwelling-house ho should certainly have
transported him for life, but as it was, he must expect a
severe sentence. He then ordered him to be transported
for fifteen years.

VIITIMALL GARDENS.—Yesterday a grand morn-
ing and evening fete was given at these gardens under
distinguished patronage, in aid of the funds of the
Distressed Needlewomen's Society. The morning pro-
ceedings included a public breakfast, which was nume-
rously attended, and, barring a little confusion, appeared
to give satisfaction to the guests ; a fine-art distribu-
tion, after the manner of the Art-Union, and a concert.
In the execution of the latter, the programme was not
accurately fulfilled, many of the distinguished vocalists
announced, including Tamburini, Madame Tadolini,
Madame Dorus Gras, tic., not being present. However,
with the gay decorations of the gardens, and the exer-
tions of four distinct bands of music, the visitors were
kept pretty well amused during the early part of the
afternoon. In the evening the usual attractions of the
gardens,including the horsemanship, the wonderful feats
of the inimitable Juba, added to a doable display of fire-
works, were displayed. There was also a ball, which
afforded gratification to many hundreds. Though the
weather was unpropitious towards nightfall, owing to
the thunderstorm, the gardens were pretty well attended
to the end of the proceedings.
SEAMEN'S HOSPITAL SOCIETY.—A general court of
this society was held yesterday at the office, 74, King
William-street, London-bridge, Rear-Admiral Hope in
the chair. From the report it appeared that the balance
in band at the last meeting was 971. ss. 4d. Since then
the donations had been 3581. 10s. 9d. The annual sub-
scriptions 6881. 19s. 6d., the dividends on stock 6671. ls.,
the merchant seamen's money 1241. 3s. 4d., the fines
under the 7th and Bth Victoria 951. 17s. 2d.; making in
the whole 2,0311. 17s. Id. After defraying the several
expenses, there remained a balance in favour of the
society of 611.75. The number of patients received on
board the Dreadnought hospital-ship during the last
quarter was as follows:—From her Majesty's ships, is;
from the British and foreign merchant vessels, 594; on
board on the Ist of last April, 143—making a total of
756. There were at the present period 161 sick, 5 con-
valescent and fit for duty, and 5E49 had been discharged
since the Ist of April. The total number received since
the commencement of the society in 1821 was 57,438.
The committee alluded to a donation of 951. which had
been left to the society by the Roy' Wictona Yacht
Club ou the dissolution of that club.