The Sun.
London, England, 1848-09-25 00:00:00

MULLINS.

The above named prisoners were called up to take
their trial on the motion of the Attorney-General.
Mr. BALLANTINE applied to Mr. Justice Platt to
postpone the trial of the whole of the prisoners until the
xt session, on the strength of an affidavit, which
stated that though a person was occupied all Saturday
and yesterday at Manchester in searching for material
witnesses, he had not been able to procure them. Time,
therefore, was necessary to procure them.
Mr. HIIDDLESTONE joined in the application, but was
opposed by the 'jury on the ground that the prisoners
had had ample time to prepare their defence.
Mr. Justice ERLE, having communicated with the other
judges, declared that they were of opinion that the trial
should not be postponed. It was important that the
offence imputed to the prisoners should be settled without
delay, and that the attendance of jurymen should not be
in vain.
Mr. PARRY (on behalf of Mullins) applied for a post-
ponement of his trial, on the affidavit of Mr. Roberts,
his solicitor, who stated that he was committed
on the 20th instant, during the sitting of the Court,
and that no briefs had been made out, nor in-
structions given. In an ordinary case of felony—steal-
ing a pocket handkerchief—the application would be
granted as a matter of course. From the course the
Attorney-General had taken, he had not turned his
mind to the case of Mullins.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL left the matter to the de-
cision of the Court.
Atter some discussion, the trial of Mullins was post-
, poned until the next session.
1 The prisoners were then severally called upon to
plead. Cuffey, when called upon, exclaimed, in a -loud
voice, "I am not guilty ; I demand a fair trial by my
peers or my equals, according to Magna Charts" which
caused some surprise, not unmixed with laughter.
Mr. BALLANTINE, on Mr. Brooks, surgeon, being
called upon to enter the box, applied, to the Court
to be permitted to ask that gentleman a question
material to the case, and important for the
prisaners to know, for after all, the felony alleged
against the prisoners partook of a political cha-
racter. He admitted he had no information with respect
to Mr. Brooks. He applied to the Court to appoint triers"
to Enquire whether the jury to be called upon to try the
prisoners were free from political bias. He cited the
Ist volume of Coke upon Littleton in support of his ap-
plication.
Mr. Parnell, Mr. Huddlestone, and Mr. Metcalf (all
of whom appeared for Cuffey), and Mr. Parry (on be-
half of Payne), supported the application, who also ap-
plied to have the panel read over. It was utterly useless
to give prisoners the right of challenge if they were
kept in ignorance of the names of those by whom they
were tried.
The ATTORNEY. GENERAL opposed the application.
The names were called over on the first day of each
session.

NEW COURT.
(Before the RECORDER and Mr. Alderman Gums.)
CHARGE CF RATE.—William Dar vill, a respectable
looking man, was indicted for a rape on Julia Harris, a
child only nine years of age.
The facts of the case are totally unfit for publication.
The jury. round the prisoner guilty of an aggravated
assault, and
The RECORDER sentenced him to two pars' imprison-
ment and hard labour in the House of Correction.
The court was crowded to excess in the early part of
the morning, by jurors in waiting, in consequence of
200 extra having been summoned, in the expectation
of numerous challenges on behalf of the Chartist pH-
sonerr.
Through some mismanagement, either on the part of
the Sheriffs, the Under-Sheriffs, or some other officer of
the Court, the box appropriated to the reporters was
filled immediately on the sitting of the Court with jurors,
and the gentlemen of the press were left to bear the
cases that came before the Court, and make out their
reports of them how they could.

theEcSocaAsrtnguoarrdA
oSfaisuacincoLinEnbe.—A S
was
week, he observed a boat approaching, which
im-
mediately boarded. There were two men and a woman
ttahkei
ng
in the boat. The two men landed and made off, closely
iesuwt eanlakn
lastt o f
pursued by the coast guard ; the woman remained, and
was taken into custody, as, there were thirty bales of
tobacco in the boat. The coast he
guard succeeded in
taking one of the men, named Pepperell, a notorious
smuggler, who, with the woman, was taken before the
magistrate at Kingsbridge on Tuesday. Pepperell was
convicted in the penalty of 1001., or imprisonment ; and
the woman, named Jarvis, was acquitted, on account of
the defence set up by her attorney, that she was merely
a passenger from Prawle. Pepperell, not being pre-
pared to pay the fine, was given into custody of Browne,
the constable, for conveyance to Exeter gaol, but having
another prisoner in his custody, who had been commit-
ted for sheep stealing, he hired a bed for them at the
New London Inn, Dodbrook, intending to take them to
Exeter the next morning. During the night, Pepperell
made his escape out of the window, which was three
stories high, but by what means is unknown. _
Gas roa ONE !—Mr. Thomas Waugh, of Berry
Edge, publican, has got a gasometer all to himself ! It-
has usually been concluded that a man must dispense
with the luxury of gas unless his lot be cast in a good
,ind town; but Mr. Waugh, thanks to an ingenious pit-
man of Garesfield colliery, has gas-works of his own,
which only cost him about 25/.! and he can brag of
having a more brilliant light than the folks of Newcastle.
gr. Waugh, we understand, is not the only person for
whom the engineering collier has constructed gas-works;
others have had him at work illuminating their houses.
—Gateshead Observer.