The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-03 00:00:00

-- ' ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE. ,,:.
,- .>" ily
OXFORD ClRCUlT.—Hereford, April 1. .....,_ ::/
~,i; ".... .
The assize business was nearly brought to a close la. .__
....
night, only five cases being left for adjudication this morning...,
and they present no topics of public interest. The following ..,,
,'
~,:.
had not concluded yesterday, when it became necessary tet . -,. ..
...'
close and forward our dispatch:— .
CROWN COURT.—(Before Mr. Baron PLAIT.) ' i ""ril -- .'"
---
Benjamin Skyrnal, aced 20, was indicted for firing a loaded -' ( /..
gutt at William Hughes, on the 13th of last August, upon .k j 4
the Quoen'e highway, with intent to do him some grievous

bodily harm.
Mr. Greaves and Mr. Huddleston prosecuted ; the pri-
sow,r was eefended by Mr. Skinner.
From the evidence of the prosecutor, who is a cattle and
pig dealer, living.at St. Margaret's, it appeared that on the
day in question .he had been at Hereford. and was on his
return h,ime in the evening, when the prisoner, whom he
previously knew by sight, came up t r Mtn at a place called
the Slough, in the parish of St. Margaret, and entered inter
conversation with him, walking by the side of his horse,
until they came to a garden belonging to a man of the name
of Colman, when Skyrnal stopped, And appeared to be taking
‘niething out of the hedge; meanwhile Mr. Hughes rode on
t 100 yards in advance of the prismer, whom he heard
after him, whereupon he reined in his horse, and at
Je seine instant a gun was fired, and his (the prosecutor's)
Aet fall upon the neck of the horse. He recovered it, and
immediately galloped off. Very shortly after this Mr. Hughes
procured assistance, and finding the prisoner still at the spot
whence the shot had been fired, he charged him with having
attempted his life, and secured the man at the bar, who ob-
served that it was a person of the name of John lavis lOW
had fired the gun. The prosecutor had sold about .50/. worth
of stock in the morning, and had that amount about him at.
the time of the attack.
• Additional evidence was adduced corroborative of the
prisoner's guilt ; a little girl, to whose fatter the gun be-
longed, proving that she had lent Skyrnal the gun to shoot
birds with about the time in question, and the gun was
found the same morning after the occurrence abeve detailed,
ten or twelve yards from the place where Mr. Hughes was

rennin,

fired at.
The prisoner was convicted of firing with intent to do some
grievous bodily harm; and a previous conviction for felony
having been proved, he was sentenced to fifteen years' trans-
portation.
As soon as their Lordships have disposed of the few re-
maining cases here they will proceed in the course of the
afternoon to Monmouth, and open the commission for that
county, where seventy prisoners now await their trial.
The following is an analysis of the Monmouthshire calen-
dar :—Violating the person, 7 ; housebreaking, 4 ; cutting
and maiming, 2 ; forgery, 3; sheep-stealing, 9;. killing
cattle, 1 • highway robbery, 6; stealing from the person, 5;
minor offences, 30; manslaughter, 2; firing stacks, 1—
total, 70.

WESTERN ClRCUlT.—Tauntln, April 1.
The commission for holding the assizes for the county of
SomerSet wns opened in this town yesterday afternoon, by
e
soejuiullbnnedtitin g
the
eh
ili.arcilizersc.eulii'tf;th.i
se
i.]
he ge a
extremelyc
al i
etlbusiness,dairi,6rihot,bra stehyleetrrae,s
ibbseevienengr
very heavy,
only 19
nearly 120 prisoners for trial. The follow ing is
a summary of the offences:—Murder, 1 ; attempting to mur-
3arl tree:
der, 3 ; manslaughter, 3 ; maliciously ' wounding, 6 ; arson,
4 ; burglary, 7 ; housebreaking, 3; rape, 4; horse-stealing,
1; sheep-stealing, 6; robbery, 4; bigamy, 1 ; bestiality, 1:
larcenies, 60; embezzlement, 3; entering inclosed land by
night, 7 ; concealment of birth, 1.
John Hake and Dank/ Hake were indicted for burglari-
euslv breaking and entering the house of William French,
at Otterford, and stealing therefrom several knives and other
articles, his property.
Mr. Cox was counsel for the prosecution.
From the evidence it appeared that the prosecutor's house
having been properly closed at night, on the following
morning it was found that a panel of the door had been
broken through, and that a quantity of knives, in which the
prosecutor dealt, had been taken away. From some infor-
mation which had been received, suspicion attached to the
prisoners, who were. brothers residing in the neighbourhood;
they were apprehended, and the stolen property was found
upon them. John Hake confessed that he had broken into
the house.
The jury found both the prisoners Guilty.
Sentence—John Hake, transportation for 15 years; Daniel
Hoke, transportation for ten years.

' •
NORTHERN ClRCUlT—Liverpool, April 1.
CROWN COURT.—t Before Mr. Justice PArrEscge.)
Kitts, of the firm o Bothwell and Kitts, cotton-spin-
ners, of Bolton, was tried upon an indictment, charging him
with the manslaughter of Peter Greencugh.
This indictment arose out of the explosion which occurred
on the 10th of December last, at the works of Messrs.'Roth-
well and Kitts, when several persons were killed by the
bursting of a boiler. The defendant was the resident partner
and resided on the premises; and the ground of the charge
was that A having suffered an accumulation of steam in the
boiler without any means of escape, in consequence of which
it exploded, carrying away a large portion of the wall of the
mill, and burying the deceased in the ruins.
The prisoner, who was defended by Mr. Dandas and Mr.
Pollock, was Acquitted.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE.
BOW-STREET.
DOG-FIGHTING.—Bow-street, and all the other streets in
its vicinity, have been in a state of popular ebullition ever
since the middle of the day on Wednesday, in consequence
of the Royal Seciety for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
leaving denOunced to the police a gang of dog-fighters, and
their alders and abettors, assembling at a certain disreputable
house in Neale 's-yard, Queen-street, Seven Dials. The
police, in consequence of the information thus given them
by the Royal Anti-Cruelty Society, made a grand attack
upon the place in question on Wednesday afternoon ; and
there they captured upwards of ninety persons, tag-rag and
bob-tail; and among them—so said rumour—were sundry
" noble fords," many " real gentlemen," and a genuine
marquis or two at least; all of whom they marched down to
the Bow-street police-station, together with a bull-dog and
a dead badger with three legs, the other leg having been
"gnawed off" for the recreation of the parties frequenting
the pit, or place before indicated. Great was the hubbub
occasioned by. this proceeding. People, men, women, and
children, came running from all quarters to see the show, as
the offenders were marched io custody into the station; and
so great was the crush throughout the night, that it required
all the exertions of the force to keep a practicable thorough-
fare for the public. Yesterday morning there was little or
no abatement of the efferveccence. The front of the station-
house, the avenues of the Court were thronged with persons
evidently all agape for something out of the common way.
hut they were grievously disappointed. It was a parturient
tnlntes for instead of lords, knights, and marquises being
paraded before the bench, the thing ended in four simple
ordinary-looking persons being placed in that unenviable
situation, viz., John Mansfield, ovrner•of the pit; Andrew
.Nash. a deputy cabman unattached; John Smith, a prize-
fi4hter past work, with a marvellously disfigured visage and
fiery-coloured whiskers; and Charles Hays. a
.fac• simile of
George Crulkshatak's " Jack Sheppard," with a grass-green
cravat, a turf coat, and having his hair daintily smoothed

is ith grease.
Mr. Hall presided, and a person who attended as solicitor
for the prosecution, at the instance of the Royal Anti-
Cruelty S,ociety, hstimated to his Worship that the pro-
ceeding was instituted not under the Police Act, which
makes all persons present at these disgusting exhibitions
equally liable with the principals, but under the 6th and 7th
William IV., which considers the principals only as liable.
The Learned Gentleman did not point out this distinction,
nor did he say why the Royal Society had chosen to act
under the milder law instead of the more comprehensive
one ; but it was whispered in the Court that they did not
care to have anything to do with noble and gentle amateurs
of cruelty, their only object being to put such things down by
punishirg the actual performers. Sir. Robinson was solicitor
for the defence of the four fellows actually before the Court;
and Mr. Inspector Dodd, of the F. or Bow-street division,
opened the case ; from which opening, and the evidence
which followed it, we deduce the following facts:—ln con,se-
uence of information communicated to him at the station on
q NVednesday afternoon, that a ferocious dog fight was at that
moment going on at a house in Neale's-yard, Seven Dials, he
forthwith proceeded thither, taking with him as many of
riVate constables of his division as were then available.
They easily discovered the place, and found it surrounded by
a crowd 'of disorderly peOle, from whom they learned that
t e fighting was at that moment going on in the room up
stairs. One of the Society's officers led the way up the ladder
leading to that room ; but before he could get through the
trap-door at the top of it, a cry of " The police 1" and
" Murder!" was raised by a woman in the room below, and
instantly the trap door was slammed down, and they could
distinctly hear a number of people place themhelves upon it,
as byso their weight to prevent its being lifted again. The
officer, however. who fist mounted the ladder had seen
enough to convince him of what was going on. In a room
only '2O feet by 18 feet were nearly 150 men crowding round
a place in the middle of the floor, about three yards sqonuare,
parted oft' from the rest of the room by a low. part of
boards, and within this place he could hear dogs "snarling
and grinding" at each other, whilst the men who huddled.
Brolllld them were yelling and exciting them to greater fero-
city. The inspector now peremptorily demanded admission,
arid the prisoner, John Mansfield, in a short time lifted the
trap and admitted the inspector and the police. The growl-
ing, barking, and yelling of dogs and men had then subsided;
but the prisoner Mansfield, whose shirt-sleeves were tucked
handerx o
parni
edt
oarr
ofs
tcoh
ev eprie4d withbl
deniedo
aucpktnoobwilsedegibeiami'sii,but nai snedl f htil
that there had been any dog-fighting there, although twenty
or thirty WI dogs and bull terriers were found tied up in the
rooms below. Mansfield declared That they were only
.t.ought-there to kill rats, and the rats had not arrived. The
flior of the room was >trewed with sawdust, except the
square place in the cemtre, and that was literally covered
with blood. In a box in the room the police found a large
bull dog, panting and quite exhausted, with its head " as raw
as if' it had been skinned, and in another box, or rather two
boxes, they found a couple of badgers, one alive end theor other
dead, but quite warm, and with one of its legs gnawed
off. In the room there was a pair of scales for the purpose of
weighing the dogs before they were set to fight, and buckets of
water with sponges for the purpose of wiping the blood from
their eves and chaps, lest it should suffocateor blind them,and
so spoil the sport. They also found the hides of two dogs, prae-
served probably on account of the " pluck" their wearers h d
displayed when living. The inspector and the other witnesses
were furiously cross-examined by the solicitor for the defence
The inspector was asked if he did not know that many
gentlemen kept such dogs? He replied, "I do not ; and in
my opinion no gentleman would keep them, especially for
such purposes as these." Did not know whether there were
any noblemen or gentlemen present or not; but when the
police entered the room many men were jumpiog out of the
or
windows, and they might °be noblemen or gentlemen I
anything he knew to the contrary. The Learned Gentleman
then contended that the case had not been proved egain!t
any of his clients except Mansfield, and that was ►_upoenn,h,r.,
own confession. He insinuated that noblemen and g
mat had been allowed to escape, whilet these
selected for punishment, although they w!riele y
them, and
their titled companions, and led into the ern D
pzrrem.etiii_were,
for their own amusement. ent, he hoped the
Mr. Hata, in delivering his jtudgemoiewoh,
or in a station
persons thus alluded to were g
agev:tntasll tthaeysvth•aewre
thatttot
proved to be so ; and thereme.
his.
entitling them to be so called;,,
honestly. Had this
the inspector bad not d,
1. 'minuted under the Police Act, all the pers
prosecution been • insoantothi
:oils captured must have been hrougilt before that court, and
then it would have been seen w i,o melts oat they were; but as
it was laid under the Act of Will. IV., the principas only.
were liable, and they were now here to be dealt with. After
a minute review of the evidence, his Worship sentenced John
te,lchw,laientdhedriargtschheyhe N
al
actedash
aasn dpnllaaci•peasisaos
'Mansfield and Abraham Smith to pay the full penalty of 5/.
ritnoatppeared doubt-

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