The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-22 00:00:00

days together when he travelled on business,

When a,

-
home he used frequently to bring his friend, the defendant,
to dinner at an early hour, and the two used to go away from
the house together; but it sometimes happened that the de•
fendant returned to the house of the plaintiff alone, and
upon these occasions used to keep companywith Mrs. Rhodes.
Sarah Kilburn, Mary Dyson, Eliza Rayner, Sarah Brkrley,
and Martha Clay, domestic servants, had all lived with Mrs.
Rhodes during the period from May,1844, to January. They
were called for the plaintiff, and their evidence went to show
that the plaintiff's wife had been given to drink more or
less from 1844 to last January, when, as it was alleged, the
reports of her infidelity first reached the ears of her husband.
These young women all concurred to a certain extent as to
acts of familiarity between the defendant and their mistress.
The first of them asserted that on one morning in May, 1844,
she had occasion to go into the parlour to take some glasses
there, and on entering the room, the door of which was unfas-
tened, she saw her mistress and the defendant both together
on a reclining chair; she described their situation as one
presenting the strongest proof of the defendant's criminality.
She said nothing, however, either to her mistress or her mas-
ter, but did mention it to her fellow-servant, Rayner, who
was the nurse to the children, and Rayner now confirmed
her in the latter statement. Kilburn admitted that when
about to leave Mrs.. Rhodes's service, her mistress had
searched her box, accusing her of theft, but she denied hav-
ing taken anything. When so accused, she had not told
Mrs. Rhodes what she, the witness, had before seen between

her and Mr. Atkinson, and said nothing of her drinking.
This witness admitted also that she had two children of her
own, by different fathers, though she never had been mai-
ried. Dyson, the other principal witness of the defendant's
conduct towards the plaintiff's wife, had also one illegitimate
child. The evidence of these women, which was very cir-
cumstantial, showed that the defendant and Mrs. Rhodes had
been behaving with gross familiarity upon several occasions.
It appeared that Mr. Atkinson had more than once slept with
➢lrs. Rhodes during the plaintiff's absence. Once, on his
coming into the house, and the eldest child having gone to
tell her mother that Mr. Atkinson was there, he and Mrs.
Rhodes had naet in the passage, and he had kissed her within
sight of the servants, and said, " Bless thee!" within their
hearing. It was endeavoured to be shown that her drinking
was altogether consequent upon the defendant's conduct, that
he had seduced her before she contracted the habit of intoxi-
cation, and that she was led to drink from nothing but re-
morse. But the plaintiff's evidence proved that he had long
been aware of her prcpensity to drink, and had locked up
the spirits to keep them out of her reach.

Mr. Sergeant VVILKINB made a strong appeal to the jury
against the probability of the plaintiff's case. He contened
that a large part of the statements were utterly false, and
therefore he sought a verdict, not of small damages, but for
the defendant. It was impossible, at all events, that the
plaintiff could, according to the language of his own declara-
tion, have sustained any 1083 in the society, aid, and comfort
of his wife, whom he must have felt to have been a worthless
woman, and of whom, because of her wretched drunken
habits, he was now trying to rid himself by an accusation
against the defendant which was unworthy of belief.
The jury retired from the box for nearly an hour and a
half, and finally gave a verdict for the plainti'ff—Datuages, 101.

WESTERN ClRCUlT—Dorchester, July 18.
Mr. Justice ERLE and Mr. Baron PLArr arrived in this
place last night. Their Lordships attended divine service
this morning, and about mid•day the bu,iigess of the assize
commenced. . . .
There are only two causes in the civil court, ani-ele'ven
prisoners in the other. One can hardly fancy, from the still-
ness of the place, that the assizes are going on, as most of the
people we meet in the streets are tha sheriff's javelininen.

NORFOLK ClRCUlT.—Cumbridye, July 20.
The Learned Judges took their seats this morning at an
early hour, Mr. Baron Alderson presiding in the Nisi Prius
Court, where there was an entry of nine causes, two being
for trial by special Juries. The whole of the common jury
causes were tried at a comparatively early hour, but their
subject-matter was not such as to call for any special notice.
CROWN COURT.
(Before Mr. Justice WLU.IAMS.)
Joseph Plumb, aged 33, was charged with killing and slay-
ing Thomas Symonds, at Carlton, on the 18th of June, by
discharging at him a gun loaded with powder and a ramrod.
Mr. H. MILLS opened the case for the prosecution, and
from the evidence adduced by the Learned Gentleman, it
appeared that the prisoner was out " scaring crows" with a
gun on the day named in the indictment, there being in his
company the deceased, a lad of weak intellects, to whom he
had been very kind. While they were in the fields near
some cottages, the deceased was playing round his friend,
ever and anon calling out to him, " Shoot me, Joe—shoot
me." After some little time the prisoner said, " Well, I will
shoot ye ; or at least I'll scare ye ;" and forthwith loaded his gun
with some few grains of powder and wadding, which he forced
down with the ramrod, which he forgot to take out again
before he put a cap on. A stander by, of maturer
years, observidg that the ramrod was in, and that the pri-
soner was stooping to pick up a cap which had dropped from
his fingers, advised him to "take care, as guns were dan-
gerous things." The prisoner unfortunately neglected this
prudent advice, and must have put on the cap in every care-
less way, for before he rose the gun went off, and the boy
was severely wounded in the groin and abdomen by the
ramrod, which passed completely through his body. As
soon as he fell the prisoner ran to him in great distress, and,
picking him up. led him home, after which he went for a
doctor, whom, after much trouble, he succeeded in discover-
ing. The wound, however, was of too serious a nature to
admit of relief, and the poor boy expiring on the 15th, the
prisoner was taken into custody on the charge of man-
slaughter.

The jury found the prisoner Gailty, and
The Learned JUDGE, observing that the case was of a most
mitigated character, fined him Is.
THE SOUAM FlRES.—Richard Peacock, aged 19, Philip
Radford, aged 21, Robert Scarrow, aged 16, William Nor-
man, aged 16, and Edward Thoroughgood, aged 24; were ca-
pitally indicted for setting fire to the dwelling-house of Ed-
ward Thredder Fenn, on the 28th Junelast, Albert Fenn being
then therein. A second count charged the'prisofirs with
firing a barn of Mary Gawtry, also at Soham;-atithe'same time.
The jury returned a verdict of Not Guilty