The Sun.
London, England, 1846-02-17 00:00:00

THE MURDER IN DRURY-LANE

BOW
BO W -STREET.--(THIS DAY.
te, who stands
11.7iCAMINATION OF THE SUPPOSED v
disposed
before
Thomas Wicks; ft young man of about. 20 year'S':;f"""ft.
charged with the murder of his master, James Bostoea
arrested on that chargelate last night, As placed at the bar,
been
Mr. Twylord, as soon as the night charges were
irons the time of the opening of the Court, and indeed for some of.
previous, the street was crowded with people anm,j_trne
sight" of the accused, but as is usual
io isly
waiting to "Batch a
in such eases the prisoner was led across the street from the station-
house to the Court, ,at the same time with the other prisoners, so that
he could not be distinguished from them by the mob. The Court
itself was net so crowded as might have been expected from the in-
terest usually displayed by the inhabitants of the vicinity of the
police-court, in eases of this description. It is probable that but for
they" counter-attraction" of the Westminster nomination, there
would have been a much " larger attendance" at Bow-street.
A beadle was in attendance to take notes of the examination, and
to furnish a report to the coroner, by whom.he had been sent.
A few minutes before the prisoner was brought in the court, a
Hhen-
unan applied to the magistrateto have the case put off till to
morrow, saying that he was a relation or the prisoner, and that he
was in possession of facts which, he thought, would materially alter
the, aspect of the case.
Mr. Twyrosu said that he conld not postpone the hearing of the
case. If the applicant had ally facts to adduce, an opportunity
'mould he given him In the course of the examination..
_0” ten minutes to two o'clock, the prisoner was placed in the
dock. 3n being led lute the room by the jailor, he made a spring,
. and
.entered the box in a wonderfully non-clialent manner. On
.71124.
.nkead.,whether his name was Thomas Wicks, he replied,
s notI in; manly voice."l He Is a very boyish-looking per-
son, appearing to be more than 17 years of age. He was dressed
in a velveteen jacket
levity, and evldeutly it During the examination he showed great
Biuntiel Perseus,
an
~,zi Olt very little of the charge against him.
deceased, No. 4, Pitt-plae man who lives in the same house as the
by trade. At aeven o'clock on said —I am a coa,ll-Inakor
er. I immediately got u and
quite dressed I p,
in bed. 1 heard a cry of '• Master.
the, morning of Monday, be In; then
dressed myself. Before I waspartly
heardfloertheehpzirt of a
pistol. I live in the attic, vcl(inti,:(l,l is the third
dtesivi I went down stairs a
lives in the house
I put it out. Afterwards I found a icalZweritle, alight in the passage.lwas
wah.
to the street door, and saw Mr. Goodrarain—e passage, and I went
opposite, at his door. I asked him to bring
and we went together to the place where I had seen light, which he did,
Bostock was then coming down stairs. %91:H4:it' errs,
body of Mr. Bostock lying in the passage, anfdun covered
-v the
with blool. The wound was on the left side of the head, but Ic'eateinut
Oaf Winroo9l4sl al/ the What, et
_that side et Oa hea4 was mend

4 ith blood. We then called in the police, and the body was taken
way on a stretcher,
George Goodman, of No. 5, Pitt-place, a file-cutter, corroborated
the above statement. He knew the prisoner as an apprentice tdeceased. He was not quite dead when they found him, but he could
not speak.
Frederick Walker, of No. 20, Princes-street, Drury-lane, said that
yesterday morning, at about five minutes past six o'clock, he was in
n
a public-house in Princes-street, when the prisoner came in •
asked for a pennyworth of rum, with which he was served. Wit-
ness askedhim whether ".fern," meaning the deceased, was up yet.
Ile said he was net, and would not be until half-past six or seven
o'clock. He then went away.
Martha Hazlett, a young woman, 18 or 19 years of age, was then
called. On being asked whether she knew the prisoner, she began
to cry very bitterly, and it was some time before she was sufficiently
recovered to give her evidence. She stated that she met the prisoner
at about nine o'clock on the morning of the murder, in Chiswell-
street, Finsbury-square. Ile said that he was not going to work that
day. They went to a public-house and had some spirits, for which
he paid. They then parted, and he appeared to be in a great hurry.
A shopman in the employ of Messrs. Harding, gunsmiths, of 69,
Great Queen-street, Lincoln's Inn, said that on Monday or Tuesday
of last week the prisoner came to him with a pistol, which was out
of order. It was a flint and steel pistol. Witness only oiled the
spring, which was stiff, and the barrel, which was rusty. Witness
charged him sixpence. He said he wanted to shoot a dog
that had bit him, and showed a scar upon his jaw.
Ile asked witness to give him a bullet. He had not
a bullet, but he gave him two slugs. On Wednesday he
came again, and said that the pistol had missed fire, but
witness showed him that it was in good order. He said he bad shot
the deg. On Thursday he went to the shop again, and showed wit-
ness a percussion-cap pistol, which Ile said he had got in exchange for
the other, and had given half-a crown into the bargain. Witness put
the pistol in order, and gave the prisoner a few caps. He said he
wanted to go shooting ou Primrose-hill on Sunday. He then went
away.
Edward Mailers, a dealer in pawnbroker's unredeemed pledges, of

129, Drury-lane, said that in the course of last week the prisoner
came several ti,Aes to his shop to bargain for a pistol which he
wished to buy. Finally witness gave him a percussient-eap pistol in
exchange for a flint pistol, receiving half-a-crown in a dition,
from the prisoner. The prisoner said that he wanted it to shoot birds
with. (The whites sproduced the pistol, which he bad received from

_
the pee nor.)
James Stowe, an oil and colourman, of 19, Great Wild-street,
proved that the prisoner had bought gunpowder of him on several
vecasions during the last w, ek. Ile always said he wanted it
to shoot birds with, and on one occasion he showed him a pistol
on duty in Great Wild-street, on Saturday night, he was caled into
the house, No. 4, Pitt's-place, by the deceased, who was about to
give him into custody for obtaining money, and converting it to his
own use. The prisoner said he had lost it, and offered to pay half-
a-crown a week till the whole sum (11s.).should be paid. He also
said : You can stop it out of my wages, which come to 145., but how
am Ito live? The deceased did not give him in charge, but said he
would stop out of his week's wages the I ls., and 2s. 6d., which he
had borrowed from him, making 13s. fal. He then gave the prisoner
6,1., wbich made up the sum of 145., the prisoner's wages.
Policeman Pocock, F 14, and Thompson, A 62, took the prisoner
In charge, at a coffee-house in Great Queen-street, Drury-lane, at
about twelve o'clock last night. Ile asked on the road to the sta-
tion-house, whether " the governor was dead ?" They told him he
was ; and he said .. he was a -- rogue to me; this was brewing
for him fur twelve months, and I have revenged anystlf for his cruel
treatment to me. He was cautioned that anything he said
would be used against him, and he said no more.'
Afterwards, at the station-houses he said several times that the de-
ceased was a very bad mastar to him, and that he had been re-
' venged. Once he said, " I was sorry for him, when I end done it ;
but he behaved very badly to me.'j He afterwards said, Oh. Po-
cock, what is worse than a guilty conscienca."
The prisoner, who, during the evidance of the policeman, had ap-
peared more serious than before, on being asked if he had any ques-
tion to put to the witness Pocock, said "No ; he gives hfs evidence so
sincerelp that I can say nothing to him : and the evidence is so clear
against me that I innstconfess that I am guilty of it. I did do it ;
and I only wonder I did not de it twelve months ago, his conduct to
me was so cruel,"
Mr. James Duncan, the house-surgeon of King's College Hospital,
said that at about two o'clock yesterday morning the body of the
deceased was brought to him on a stretcher. Ile was quite insensible.
He had a wound behind the left car, which witness had ascertained,
on post mortern examination, passed through the skull. The bullet
had lodged in the right side of the brain. Ile died at about three
o'clock in the afternoon, and the wound was the immediate cause of
death.
The depositions were then read over to the prisoner.
The prisoner made a statement of the conversation between him-
self, the deceased, and the policeman, which differed but slightly
from that of the policeman himself. He then signed the statement
he had made after the evidence of the witnesses Pocock and Thomp-
son, which had been taken down by the clerk at the time.
The witnesses were then bound over to prosecute, and the prisoner
was fully committed.
This extraordinary case occupied the attention of the Court up to
a quarter to six o'clock in the evening.

QUEEN'S BENCH.-(THIS DAY.)
(Before Mr. Justice WIGIITMAN and a Special Jury.)
BREACH OF PROMISE OF MARRIAGE.
SMITH V. LORD FEREERS.
(Continued from our Afternoon Edition.)
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL the proceeded to address the jury for
the defendant. He commenced by calling upon the jury to give
their calmest consideration to this most important case, for it was
one which, in his professional experience, he had never seen equalled.
At present all appeared to be unintelligible and mysteriovs, and he
confessed that he had never heard of a case that appeared so
inextricable. But he would pledge himself that, before he
sat down, he •would have satisfied the jury, beyond the
possibility of all doubt that this was a meat false and flagitious pro-
ceeding from beginning to end ; and should the result of the verdict
of the jury be in favour of the defendant, as he had no doubt it would,
would be to brand the plaintiff with disgrace and ignominy, yet his
duty would compel Mitt° adopt a course which would have such a re-
cult, in order that his noble client m'ght not appear to be what he
had been attempted to be represented. The Learned Gentle-
man then cited two instances of cases of a description some-
what similar to the one he should make out. One was the case
of a young woman who had left her employment, and in order to
account for her absence told a falsehood, which led on to others, and
at last got herself so involved- that she swore she had been taken
away by two gipsies, whose lives had well nigh been forfeited,
had not her perjury been detected, and she was trans-
ported. The other case was somewhat similar. Ile would show
distinctly and clearly that this was a like case, and that it was from
beginning to end a base and infamous conspiracy, got up by the
plaintiff herself by a series of letters, for the purpose of involving his
client in this action. The Learned Gentleman then went over the
evidence with great care, and pointed out the absurdity of the notion
that Lord Ferraseven could have written the letters attributed to him.
After the examination of several other witnesses, the Court ad-
journed.

COURSE OF EXCH./
Amsterdam .. ....C.F 12 912
Ditto, at sight
Rotterdam ...... 2U. 12 10
Antwerp..... •
Hamburgh —MIL 13 1414
Altona •
Paris, 3 days' sight • 25 75
Ditto, 3 months...— 26
Marseilles •••• • • • ... • • 26 10
Bourdeaux 26 10
Frankfort on Maine 122%
Petersburgh, 3 U 5.... • •
Berlin •..... •• •-
Vienna, • effec. lb •• • • 10 1034
Trieste, ditto.... • • ..
Madrid •• .. •• • .
Cadiz • • •.. :

►NGE.-- (THIS DAY.)
Gibraltar . -
Leghorn
Genoa.. • •...•..
Milan
Venice •...
Naples ..
Palermo, per oz
Lisbon.. .. • • •..
Oporto -
Rio Janeiro . •
Bahia
Buenos Ayres .. •• ..
New York, 21 days' sight
Philadelphia .... • • .

..... 30 75
.... 26 10

........ 119%
... ..... 52%
.... 52%
... 2434

PRICES or BULLION, TER OZ.
Foreign Gold in bars.. £3 17 9
Portugal Gold Coln .. 3 17 5
New Doubloons ...... 0 0 0
New Dollars • ..... 0 4 9%
silver in bars ........ 0 4 11%

Bilbao.. •••• • • • .... •
Barcelona •• •• ........
Seville. .

IRISH, PACIFICATION
BILL.

A Bill intituled an Act for the Better Protection of Life,
and to Facilitate the Apprehension and Detection of Per-
sons
Guilty of Offences in Ireland.
I. For the more easy apprehension and detection of per-
sons who shall commit or shall attempt to commit murder,
or who shall do grievous bodily harm to any of her Majesty's
subjects, in Ireland, be it enacted by the Queen's most excel-
lont Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the
Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons, in this
present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of
the same, That if any person or persons shall murder
or feloniously slay any of her Majesty's subjects in
Ireland, or shall shoot at, stab, cut, or wound any of said
subjects, or shall by any means whatsoever cause to any :Of
said subjects any; bodily injury dangerous to life, with intent
in any of the cases aforesaid to commit murder, or to maim
or disable or to do some other grievOus bodily harm to any
of said subjects, it shall and may be lawful for the Lord Lieu-
tenant of Ireland, with the advice and assent of her Majesty's
Privy Council in Ireland, to declare by proclamation that any
county or part of a county in which any of the offences afore-
said shall have been committed, as al. o such part as he and
they shall think proper of any adjoining county, requires an
additional establishment of police, and thereupon it shall acid'
may be lam ful for the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to appait
such and so many resident magistrate or magistrates, sub-,
inspectors of constabulary, head constables, constables, and
sub-cen.tables as he shall think proper to Ise stationed and
reside within the district specified in such proclamation, un-
til the Lord Lieutenant shall, by proc,amation in that behalf
issued, othe, wise direct; and such additional force of con;
statiglazy shall form part of the general constabulary force,
and be in allWSPertleibject.to the same rules and discipline
as the residue of the said force.
11. Ard be it enacted, that it shall and may be lawful for
the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, with the advice ()flier Majesty's
Privy Council in Ireland, if he and they shall so think
lit, in and by any such proclamation so to be made as
aforesaid, or by a distinct proclamation, to warn the inhabi-
tants of the district specified in such proclamation to be and
remain within their respective places of abode at all hours
between sunset and sunrise, from and after such day as shall
be named therein for that purpose.
111. And be it ena•Aed, That it shall and may be lawful
for the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, by a new proclamation
to be made by and with the advice of her Majesty's Privy
Council in Ireland, to revoke any proclamation issued in
pursuance of this Act as to the whole or any part of the dis-
trict thereby proclaimed, and thereupon the original procla-
mation mentioned therein shall, upon a day to be specified in
such new proclamation, stand and be 'evoked so far as such
new proclamation shall purport to revoke the same.
IV. And be it enacted, That copies of every proclamation
made under the provisions of this Act shall be posted on or
ileflV to the doors of all places of public worship within the
district specified in such proclamation, and on or immediately
adjacent to the doors of eaeh police station or barrack within
the same, and at the places (if any) appointed by the grand
jury for posting road notices within the same.
V. And be it enacted, That the production of the Dublin Ga-
zette, containing the publication ofany proclamation under this
Act, shall be deemed and taken to be and shall be conclusive
evidence in all courts of civil and criminal jurisdiction in Ireland
of all such facts as were or shall be necessary to authorise the
issuing of such proclamation as aforesaid; and every such
proclamation shall be deemed and taken in all such courts
respectively to all intents and purposes whatsoever, to
have been issued in conformity to the several provisions of
this Act.
VI. And be enacted, that it shall be lawful for the Lord
Lieutenant of Ireland to pay such reward or rewards as to
him shall seem fit for the discovery or apprehension of any
person or persons who shall be convicted of any of the
offences aforesaid committed within the district specified in
any such proclamation.
..,°\:ll.And be it enacted, that it shall be lawful for the
sli!wei
inmmtda
shallishallv Lieutenante
bwei
seemfel,i o
reasonable
Ireland
just such
t 0 sumsthepoefrsmonoanleyr
eapsr to 0_
proclaimed district,'itiarent, child, or other relation of any person
iriered or feloniously slain within any such
shall be or to any person who within such dis-
trictfeloniously maimed or permanently injured, due
of the person murdered, re,
regard being had to the rank, degree, situation, and circum-
stancesitot ishslayl
shall
killed, nfloali mfoerdt,hoer
permanently injured.
VIII. And be it enacted,
tTi'llsiesavtlnoidnee
warrant,ottetoedirect to be
as
monsolidated
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, by his
moneyi
rums of
this Act authorised betoa.te
advanced and issued out
boyf
Fund arising in Ireland such
ne•
cessary for any payment
btheeincurr provisions
incurred in
as aforesaid, and for the payment of the several salarienis:rdee
re-
munerations, allowances, and expenses of the resident magis-
ot rf a
tt
he si s and
,c
ao
nn(slt aabl
lu loatrhye
rfocrocset
se ma
updl ocyheadrguens dteor
IX. And bet eivict.to That for the purpose of repaying
the executi of this Acdt:
the sun aof money so be issued out of the Consolidated
person or officer as shah for that pur-
Fund as aforesaid, such
from time to tme make s.uhci
each such proclaimed district,
pose be appointed by thee LliorradteLlerurteantesantasofmlaryelbanednescheas!
sary on every occupier wit I?
the reign of her Majesty, intttu .
rat( side under an Act passed is tilled: fill
nanAdetsefeoornathyeeamrsoroef
effectual Relief of the destitute Poor i n Ireland," or under
t e
any Act or Acts altering or amending theL. same.
X. And be it enacted, That the Lordenn Lieutenant of Ireland
shall issue orders to the resident
magistrate or magistrates,
and to the constabulary foice stationed within each such pro-,
claimed district respectively, to collect such rates; and such
resident magistrate or magistrates, and such of the said con-
stabulary force as shall be employed in the collection of
ouch rues, shall be furaiohesllyitlt a mitt= warrant 9r order,