The Sun.
London, England, 1848-07-20 00:00:00

T-11 gTT N, N ON, T VASPAY

After a few words from Lord Galway-, Mr. Wryld, and
Mr. Beresford, the Bill was read a second time and
ordered to be committed on Friday.
The remaining orders of the day were then disposed
of, and the louse adjourned.

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.
MIDLAND CIRCUIT, Northampton, July 18.
CROWN COURT.—(Before Lard Chief Justice

DENMAN.)
Edmund Franklin and Edward Randall were indicted
for manslaughter, in having feloniously, on the 7th of
last month, in this town, caused the death of William
Cornfield, by administering to and causing to he taken
by him a certain quantity of arseuite of copper. There
were several counts in the indictment, which was very
lengthy, charging the offence in different ways. Their
technical details would be tedious and uninteresting to
the general reader, while the nature of [and the distinc-
tions between them may be gleaned from the subjoined
statement of facts. The three first counts in effect
charged them with wilfully administering it, well know-
ing that it was a deadly poison, and well knowing that
the deceased was about to take it; and with wilfu lly
placing it where any of her Majesty's subjects might
take it, &c.; the two last with negligently and carelessly
administering it, well knowing that it was deadly
poison.
They were also indicted on the coroner's inquisition,
which charged that the prisoners, " not having the fear
of God before their eyes, but being moved and seduced
by the instigation of the devil, wickedly contriving and
intending the said William Cornfield with poison feloni-
ously and wilfully to kill, &c , with force and arms, &c.,
feloniously and wilfully, a large quantity of a certain
deadly poison (to wit) emerald green, otherwise arsenito
of copper, that was to say one drachm of the said deadly
poison, did put, mix, and mingle into and with a certain
article of food called blancmanger, which the said William
Cornfied was then and there about to eat (and with the
intent that the said William Cornfield should take and
eat) the same, they well knowing the said emerald green
to he a deadly poison; and that the said William Corn-
field (not knowing the said poison to have been
mixed with the said blancmanger) did afterwards take,
eat, and swallow a large quantity, to wit, the quantity of
half a pound of the said blancmange'', &e., by means
whereof the said William Cornfield then and there be-
came, and then and there was, mortally sick and distem-
pered in his body, and of the said poison, so, &c., taken,
&c., from the 7th until the Bth did languish, &c., and
then die ; and the jurors, &c., say that Edmund Frank-
lin and Edward Randall him the said William Cornfield
in manner and by the means aforesaid, feloniously and
willfully did kill, &c."
Mr. Flood and Mr. Bittleston conducted the prosecu-
tion ; Mr. Ilumfry, Q.C., and Mr. Miller appeared as
counsel for Franklin ; and Mr. Macaulay on behalf of
Randall.
This case has excited a very great sensation in this
town and part of the country, whilst it will furnish a
most impressive warning to all consumers, if not to all
purveyors of food. The prisoner Franklin has resided
in this town for very many years, carrying on upon an
extensive scale the business of a confectioner, and been
highly respected. The younger prisoner was a respect-
able youth in his employ. The deceased was a gentle-
man much respected.
It seems that Mr. Cornfield was an accountant in good
business here. He took a strong interest in the affairs
relating to a dissenting chapel of the Independent deno-
mination in King-street. On the 7th of June last the
Rev. G. Nicholson, minister of that chapel, was or-
dained, and the members present at the ordination dined
together in the Temperance-hall in Northampton, the
dinner being provided by Franklin. The dinner com-
prised, amongst other things, soups, jellies, and blanc-
manger. One of the dishes of blancmanger was orna-
mented on the top by a cucumber (formed also of iskuic-
manger), with foliage round it of a vivid green colour,
the colouring matter being described by some of the
witnesses as extending to the thickness of the finger nail,
and by others to more than halt an inch. The deceased
gentleman portook of this blancmange'', as did several
other gentlemen present. The effects produced upon ell
of them were of a very alarming character, including
vomiting, violent internal inflammation, heat in the
throat, and thirst. These were the symptoms of the re-
ceptien of arsenical poison into the system in each case.
Several of the gentlemen were obliged to leave the
room, and suffered more or less severely, some of them
not having completely recovered to the present time.
The deceased was violently tick before he left the hall,
and obliged to be removed in a carriage to his own
house, which he had left about half-past ten in as good
health as usual. The dine er was at half-past three
o'clock. He regained his house at about halt-past six,
when the vomiting and purging continued; went to bed
at eight, and was a corpse at live in the morning. No
doctor had been sent for, the deceased not complaining
of pain after he got home, and Mrs. Cornfield having
entertained no idea of the presence of poison. The post
mortem examination was made by Mr. Faircloth and Mr.
Bryan. The effects of violent inflammation were evi-
dent throughout the stomach and intestines, which were
of an intense red culotte, the redness extending com-
pletely' through the coats of the stomach, and being ex-
ternally visible and internally. The post mortem exa-
mination showed the decease to have been other-
wise extensively diseased, a large calculus hav-
ing been found in one of his kidneys, which
had hail also been reduced by disease to a mere bag of
matter. There was also disease of the aorta and of the
prostate gland. On so diseased a frame poison would act
with greater violence. The proximate cause of death
appeared to have been the cessation of the action of the
heart produced by the extensive inflammation. The
deceased was also afflicted with hernia, and the part
affected presented a purple colour, which was said to be
usually observed in cases of arsenical poisoning. The
stomach and intestines, with their contents, was given
for analysis to Mr. Greville, the chytniet. The remainder
of the blancmanger was impounded with the other
remnants from the dinner and the moulds used in making
the confectionary. There was but little of the blane-
manger left, and the only traces of the green coloured
matter were a few points hardly visible. A small por-
tion, however, was scraped from the edge of the dish
with a penknife, which proved to be sufficient for the
purpose of analysis by Mr. Greville, who was satisfied of
the presence of copper. The blancmanger itself contained
a few minute specks of green, hardly visible to the un-
assisted eye. Still, on testing them for copper, the result
was conclusive. Mr. Greville at first thought that the
portion removed from the dish edge might be too small
to enable him to arrive at conclusive results as to the
presence of arsenic, but he afterwards tested it and
discovered conclusive proof that arsenic was present.
He obtained from the witness, Mr. Barry, a respectable
chymist in this town, some emerald green of
the same kind as sold to the prisoner Randall. That
was its commercial name, but it was sometimes called
mineral green . From this green he separated a large
portion of white arsenic. The green colouring gave
decided arsenic results when tested by Marsh's apparatus.
Arsenical results were also obtained from the contents of
the viscera, but not copper, as from the small points in
the blancmanger. This would be accounted for by the
fact that the copper would be very quickly discharged
and absorbed; not so with the arsenic. A small portion
of emerald green in powder was discovered in the shop
of Franklin, and being tested for copper decisive results
were given of its presence,' but the quantity submitted
was too small to be tested for arsenic also. A quantity
of emerald green produced from various shops, and one
parcel from Mr. Barry, a druggist in Northampton, who
was proved to have frequently supplied Franklin with
the article in question, were tested for arsenic and cop-
per. Both were produced, the analysis showing 471 per
cent. of arsenic to be contained in the compound, the scien-
tific name of which is arienite of copper. Arsenic, which
will tenaciously adhere to the coats of the stomach
and the other viscera, is to be detected atter the
copper has been ejected by vomiting or otherwise. The
vomit was not preserved. The compound had been used
by Franklin for some years in his business for colouring
articles intended to be eaten. Randall was the person who
mixed the deleterious matter on the present occasion, and
he admitted that on this occasion he had used a some-
what larger portion than usual to give a more beautiful
colour. Franklin was present superintending the dinner.
Mr. Barry, the chemist, proved that Randall had fro-
quently, for years past, been to him to purchase the ar-
ticle for Franklin, and that certainly, on the first occa-
sion, and he believed on several others, he told him that
it was poison, and not to use it for anything that was to
be eaten. Other persons had come for it from time to
time, for Franklin, and lie had told them the same.
Had not thought it necessary to communicate that
intelligence to Franklin himself, after having said so so
many times. It seemed pretty clear that both the pri-
soners had long known that it was poison, for it ap-
peared that after its having been so represented to be,
some three years ago, it had ceased to be mixed with any-
thing intended to be eaten. They seemed to have used
it only ornamentally on this occasion, for which it had
alone been recently used. However, when Randall
was asked about it on this occasion, he at first said, as
they had been accustomed to represent, that it was ex-
tract of spinach, but admitted afterwards that he knew
it to be emerald green. It could not be contended for a
moment that Franklin did not know it by name. If so,
false statements were constantly made as to what it was,
and ho must have known that it was poisonous, and so
knowing left it to his apprentice to deal it out without
ascertaining its strength or at all limiting the extent of
its use. However, one wituess said, " Yes, it is poison-
ous if you take a pound of it," and another that " he d
eat a pen'orth of it for twopence," which would give
half an ounce of white arsenic or thereabouts, and be
enough to kill a score of people, to say nothing of the
copper, which is another strong poison. It appeared
that this substance is sometimes known as mineral
green, which contains no arsenic, but it also ap-
peared that mineral green was always sold in lumps,
the arsenite of copper being an impalpable powder,
and further, from the evidence of Mr. Greville,
that mineral green itself, which is a mixture of the
hydrate of copper and carbonate of lime, would become
a poison by the operation of the acidity of the stomach.
It is worthy of mention that Mr. Greville said that
Christison, in his work on poisons, was mistaken, for
that the arsenite of copper was always commercially
known in England as emerald green. It was clear that
what was here used was the arsenite of copper (Scheele's
green), that it caused death, and was administered under
the circumstances above detailed. Whilst it was
pretty certain that the prisoners knew that it was poison
sus, it was not so certain that they either of theta knew
of what it was composed, or that it was deadly to such
an extent.
In such a case it is not necessary, or perhaps advisable,
to furnish the long scientific evidence in detail.
After Mrs. Cornfield's evidence,
Mr. Faircloth, the surgeon who had attended the de-
ceased for several years, was called, and proved that on
the post-mortem examination of the body ha found all
the usual peculiar appearances of death by arsenic or
other irritant poison, pointing out the well known dis-
tinctions therein from those of death from long standing
disease.
Mr. J. M. Bryan, surgeon of this town, assisted at the
examination, and corroborated the whole account of the
last witness.
Mr. H. M. Greville, of Northampton, practical che-
mist, proved that he was present at the examination, and
confirmed the testimony of the other two gentlemen.

He had analysed, and discovered arsenic and copper in
the little that was left of the Iflancinanger and the very
little found on the shelf at Franklin's, and 471 per cent.
of white arsenic in that which he received from Mr.
Barry as the same`.as that which he had supplied to the
prisoner. He found white arsenic in the stomach of the
deceased, but not copper, which he accounted for as
before stated. He described all the ordinary tests that
he had applied in the usual way.
Mr. Betts, shoe-manufacturer, of Northampton; Mr.
Porter, of Northampton, gentleman; Mr. John Groom,
shoe-manufacturer; and Mr. George Macguire, were
called to prove that they were at the dinner and partook
of the blancmanger, and the dreadful extent and dura-
tion of their sufferings.
Waiters and other witnesses were called, whose testi-
mony will have sufficiently appeared above.
Charles Woolston proved that he was formerly in the
service of Mr. Franklin. Was with him five years, and
assisted him in his business. After he had been there
about three years a young man came there and first in-
troduced emerald green. Afterwards witness used it in
a small quantity, about three thimbles full. This was
for blanernanger in a small mould, representing a plum
with two leaves and stem, which leaves and stem were
green. The whole was to be eaten. Never remembered
any previous instance of illness. Had eaten blanemanger.
Had used it twice. When witness went to Mr. Barry's
to fetch a penny worth Mr. Barry told him it was poison.
This was about two years and a half ago. Franklin saw
witness use the emerald green after Mr. Barry had told
witness it was poison. Witness communicated it to
Franklin and to Randall, who were both together at the
time. After witness told Franklin that emerald green
was poison it was not used for eJlouring, articles intended
to be eater. [The substance of the rest of this wit-
ness's testimony appears in the statement above.]
Mr. Huatrav addressed the jury on behalf of Mr.
Franklin, and Mr. MACAULAY on behalf of Randall.
The LORD CHIEF JUSTICE then summed up the case,
leaving it to the jury to say whether or not the prisoners,
both, or either of them, knew that it wits poison ? in
like manner, whether or not they were guilty of culpa-
ble negligence in the administering of it ?
The jury answered the question in the affirmative as
to both prisoners, returning a verdict accardingly, against
both of Guilty of Manslaughter.
His LORDSHIP, in a very feeling and impressive ad-
dress, sentenced them both to imprisonment for three
calendar months.
This case concluded the business of the assizes for this
county at seven o'clock.

WESTERN ClRCUlT.—Winchester, July 18.
CROWN COURT.—(Before Mr. Justice WILLIAMS.)
William Atter was indicted for the wilful murder of
James O'Connor by striking and beating him with a
mallet upon the head and face, on the 10th of June,
giving him divers mortal wounds, of which he languished
until the 11th of June, when he died.
Mr. Greenwood and Mr. Collyer were cunsel for the
prosecution; and Mr. Missing defended the prisoner.
It appeared that the prisoner was a convict at Ports-
mouth, and was under the superintendence of the de-
ceased. On the 10th of June, about half-past eleven
o'clock, the prisoner was in a passage adjoining the tittiug
loft; several of the convicts were also there. O'Connor

was in the passage likewise. A man named Smith, a
seaman rigger, was in the loft. He heard a heavy blow

struck in the passage. He looked up and saw O'Connor
in the act of falling on his back. The prisoner had a
. .

mallet which he held up offer his shoulder with both
hands, and as O'Connor fill the prisoner struck hint a
most violent blow on the face with the mallet. Some

of the parties picked him up ; he was covered with
blood. The prisoner said, " I told him I would cook
his goose, and I have done it." The deceased was re-
moved to the Star Hotel ; he was insensible. A sur-
geon instantly attended him. His eyes were obscured in
consequence of the injury. There was a wound between
the eyes ; the bones of the nose were broken to pieces,
and the right side of the lip was completely divided,
and was bleeding profusely. On the following day,
about three o'clock, he was delirious, violent, and fero-
cious, and it took six. men to hold him. Ho soon after-
wards began to sink, and died at ten o'clock that night.
The surgeon was of opinion that the death was caused
by bruises, contusions, compound fracture of the skull,
and ex travasation of blood on the brain. On the same
day, after the blows were struck, the prisoner was put
into a solitary cell on board the York convict ship, when
he talked to a man named King, who was confined in an
opposite cell. He said, " I have done for one
King asked him whom he meant ? The prisoner re-plied,
" O'Connor ; I gave the - a blow on the
head ar.d knocked him down ; the - turned up his
eyes and I gave him another blow :on the face and
knocked his nose flat on his face, and I saw the old
devil stand round the -- as I killed him. I told you
I would do it. I looked for an opportunity all the
morning before I could get one. I was an hour before
I could get anything to do it with ; at last I found the
mallet, and that I killed the - with." The prisoner
asked where he should be " topped ?" King told him
at Winchester. Tho prisoner then said, " I shall make
a fine !p?ech on the scaffold."
At the conclusion of the case for the prosecution,
Mr. MtssiNa said, it was not necessary for him to
address the jury ; he had watched the case, and that
was all he coula do.

At the request of the prisoner a written statement
was read. In that statement he said that O'Connor had
driven him wrongfully ; that they could give him no sa-
tisfaction ; that he had begged the captain to shift him,
for if he did not he should get into trouble, as he could
not bear it any longer ; that O'Connor had afterwards
treated him worse than before, and taken him before the
captain, and charged him with using threatening lan-
guage ; that after that he was in such a passion that he
scarcely knew what ho was doing ; that he was very
sorry for the act, and begged the Court to have mercy
on him. (We are assured that it was intended to shift
the prisoner at the end of the week ; that his name was
down for that purpose, and that he knew it.)
Mr. Justice WILLIAMS, in summoning up, told the
jury that if they were of opinion Atter had caused the
death of O'Connor without any lawful reason, it would
be their duty, however painful it might be, to find him
guilty.
The jury in a few minutes returned a verdict of Guilty,
and he was sentenced to death.
The prisoner conducted himself with the utmost pro-
priety in the dock. The court was crowded to excess.
Stephen Morris, jun., William Smith, and Charles
Brntcher were indicted for the wilful murder of Charles
Payne on the 22d of February.
Mr. Poulden and Mr. Massey were Counsel for the
prosecution; Mr. Missing defended Smith; Mr. Sewell
appeared for Morris; and Mr. Prideaux for Bratcher.
This unfortunate affair arose out of a poaching trans-
action. The prosecutor was Mr. Drummond, who is the
owner of large estates at Cadlands, in the parish of
Fawley, in this county. On the night of the 26th of
February, John Cull, James Cull, and Charles Payne,
who were gamekeepers, started about twelve o'clock at
night to look after poachers. They heard the report of
a gun in the Ferne hill copse; they proceeded in that di-
rection, and heard the report of another gun iu the same
copse. They then suspected that the party would go to
Shobland's copse. John Cull and Payne went and hid
themselves behind a barley-rick in Hoarstone-field. In
consequence of a noise they heard they came from be-
hind the rick, and saw five men facing them. John Cull
went and collared two of them. He saw a person go to-
wards Payne, and he believed that person to be Morris,
with whom ho bad been acquainted for a considerable
length of time. The men John Cull had collared strug-
gled very much, and one of them got away, but he secured
the other, who turned out to be Smith. During the strug-
gle John Cull heard au exceedingly heavy blow, followed
by the discharge of a gun. James Cull then came up.
Two persons laid hold of him, and beat him so as to
render him senseless. When he came to himself, he got
up and went towards Payne whom he found lying on
the ground insensible. Theythen
handcuffed
Smith to
Payne, and went and got a light and a cart. Upon their
return they found the stock of a gun under Payne's
shoulder. It had blood upon it. The barrel of the gun
was lying near. They searched Smith's pockets and
found some pheasants in them. They took Payne
home. At daylight they returned again to the spot, and
found two cloth caps and a rabbit skin cap. The pri-
soner Morris lived about a mile from this field, and
next door to a Mrs. Clavell. About one o'clock that
morning Mrs. Clavell heard cries and moans in Morris's
house. She got up and went into his house, and
found him complaining that ho had Met with an ac-
cident, and had shot himself. She went for a sur-
geon, who found a gun shot wound in the pit of his
stomach. Morris told the surgeon he had been out
shooting, and in drawing the gun through a hedge it
had gone off and shot him. Payne never became sensi-
ble, and died on the following Wednesday of a blow he
had received with a gun on his head. The three pri-
soners were together at a beerhouse that night. Bratcher
had on a rabbit skin cap, similar to the one felled in the
field.
Mr. Sowell, Mr. Missing, and Mr. Prideaux submitted
that the charge of murder could not be supported be-
cause the gamekeepers had no right to apprehend
those parties. In order to give the keepers that autho-
rity it was requisite that the parties should have been
in a close with intent to kill game." there," in that very
close in which they were apprehended; the parties,
therefore, had a right to resist their apprehension, and
could only be convicted of manslaughter.
Mr. POULDEN urged the contrary of this proposition.
Mr. Justice WILLIAMS said be should consult Mr.
Justice Coleridge on this point, whether or not a servant
of an occupier of land had a right to arrest parties who
were not in either of the lands in which they intended to
kill game, but being on the land with intent to kill game,
but not to kill game " there."
The Learned JUDGE having had a conference with
Mr. Justice Coleridge, returned into court, and
said, that they were of opinion that there was no
Li
authority to arrest these parties. In order to
give power to arrest, the parties arrested must
be found upon land committing one of the offences
named in the first section of the statute; that the party
must enter or be upon the land where he was arrested
with intent to kill game on that very land. In this case
there was no evidence that the parties were upon the
land when they were arrested, with intent to kill game
there; therefore the offence was reduced to manslaughter.
and Mr. Prideaux then Mr. Missing, Mr. Sewell,
ad-
dressed the jury on behalf of their respective clients.
Mr. Justice WILLIAMS having summed up,
The jury returned a verdict of Not Guilty.
The same prisoners were then indicted for night
poaching.
The jury found them Guilty; and
Mr. Justice WILLIAMS sentenced them to seven years'
transportation each.

SOUTH WALES CIRCUIT, Cardiff, July 17.
(Before Mr. Justice WIGHTMAN.)
Thomas Martin and Michael Leas y were indicted for
the wilful murder of John Williams, in the parish of
Swansea, in this county, on the night of the Bth of Muy
last. There was a second indictment against the pri.