The Sun.
London, England, 1846-04-06 00:00:00

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ants, by whom they were "bound "to the plaintiffs. They
said that they were not so ; but without explaining that they
had, in fact, contracted with the plaintiffs, and that they
nevertheless. considered themselves free for particular reasons.
At that time, in consequence of the reduction of the duty on
glass, the demand for hands had become more brisk. A
correspondence ensued between the plaintiffs and the defend-
ants upon the subject of these men, and then the claim

e former to the services of the men was made known
.0 the latter. The man Dodds was engaged after this
correspondence began' and c mtinwel in 'the service
of the defendants . afterwaed.; ; the others, Lee and
INPConnell, having been engaged at an earlier date.
Mr. Richard Shortridge, formerly in the same way of busi-
ness, and now a magistrate for the county of Durham, was
one of the witnesses called. He stated that he had been re-
ferred to as a common friend of both parties, and spoken to
by both of them respecting the matter in dispute. He was
of opinion that the plaintiffs were entitled to the services of
the three men. But it appeared that the men had insisted
that. the defendants were bound to continue them in their
employ, and some attorney, called " the miner's attorney,"
was mentioned as one wh would protect the men against
the claim of their former employers. The men demanded
from the defendants the observance of the subsequent con-
tract between them ; and further, as it appeared, a respect.
able attorney had advised the defendants that it was incum-
bent on the plaintiffs to take seine proceedings against the
men, or that, in default of such proceedings, they (the de-
fendants) would be justified in keeping the three men in
their employ, notwithstanding the intimation of the former
contract which they and the defendants had received from
the plaintiffs.
Mr. CROMPTON, in reply to the case of the defendants, sail,
he was quite willing to leave it to the jury to decide the °ply
'question that could be entertained—namely, the amount of
damages to which the plaintiffs might be entitled. .
The Learned JUDGE, in directing the jury, observed, that
it appeared that the defendants, whose respectability was
not in doubt, had in fact been deceived by the representations
of the men whom they had engaged. They rightly said to
the plaintiffs, " Show us how it is that the men are bound to
you." And then the contract was shown "to Mr. Shortridgc,
and that gentleman decided in favour of the plaintiffs. But
the defendants, it further appeared, were still fiat altogether
content, because they also had entered into a contract with
these men, which contract would have been binding if the
men had not told a falsehood. The defendants, however, had
rightly discharged the men ; anti then, as it was stated, there
was an attorney who had said that he would pick a hole in
the agreement between the men and the plaintiffs. The men
claimed to have their subsequent contract with the defen-
dants performed to the letter. This placed the defendants in
what was called " a cleft stick"—that was, that they must
be prepared either to defend proceedings against these
men, or to be prepared for proceedings taken by the
Messrs. Pilkington, and they had elected to encounter
the latter difficulty. The course adopted, and said to have
been recommended by a respectable attorney to the de-
fendants was, to say to the plaintiffs, " if you do not take
some steps against your men, we will take them back again."
This was certainly most absurd advice. The men
might have been prosecuted and punished, it was true,
before the magistrates, for leaving their employ, although
such proceedings are accompanied with risk, from the diffi-
culty there was of making a conviction which should be free
from objections. But the plaintiffs were not bound to pro-
secute their servants. The defendants having been pressed
on one side, and on the other, chose, as it appeared, to side
with the men, although not obliged to do so. The plaintiff
would be entitled to some damages at the hands of the
jury—not, of course, excessive damages, for while the men
had acted dishonestly in saying they were not bound, the
defendants had been deceived by their misrepresentation
upon that point.
The jury immediately returned a verdict for the plaintiff=
Damages, 51.

CHESTER ClRCUlT.—Chester, April 3.
CROWN COURT—( Before Mr. Justice WIGHTMAN.)
ATTEMPT TO MURDER.—Mary Evans, aged 22, was
charged with administering two drachms of red oxide of
mercury, commonly known as red precipitate, to her infant
male child, with intent to murder it on the 3d of December
last, at Birkenhead. The prisoner had also been indicted for
the wilful murder of another of her children by poison at
Bibington, near Birkenhead; but, as the testimony in that
case rested principally upon the chemical analysis of there-
mains of the child, which had been buried six months before
the circumstances that led to the apprehension of the ac-
cused transpired, the grand jury had ignored the bill.
In the case now under trial the Attorney-General for the
Palatinate, Mr. HILL (with whom was Mr. Townsend),
stated that the child was illegitimate, and was born in Sep-
tember last. It was entrusted to the care of Mary Cheetham
to be nursed. The prisoner made occasional visits to see the
infant. On the 3d of December she took it to the house
where she resided. The nurse accompanied her, and saw her
give something to it which she supposed was milk, as the
prisoner had said she would give it some, and Cheetham had
cautioned her not to let the child haVe cold milk. Cheetham
took it back to her own house, but en the way it became ill
and vomited She carried it to a druggist, who perceived
that the child had been poisoned. A constable was sent for,
and Cheetham returned with him to the house where the
prisoner lived; a physician having been fetched in the
meantime to prescribe for the apparently dying infant.
On seeing the policeman, the prisoner asked if the child
was dead, and attempted to conceal a cup, which the
officer seized. The vomit and the contents of the cup were
afterwards examined, and proved to contain red oxide of
mercury. The woman begged not to be taken into custody,
as she said nobody knew about it. The woman Cheatham
who nursed the child, the police• officer ceho arrested
the prisoner, the druggist to whose shop the infant
was taken after swallowing the poison, another druggist,
who sold the red precipitate to the prisoner, Dr. Vaughan.
of Birkenhead, who was called in to attend the child, and
under whose care it ultimately recovered, and Dr. Brett,

lecturer on chemistry at Liverpool, who analysed the vomit
and the contents of the cup, which the constab'e took from
the prisoner when he apprehended her—having been seve-
rally examined in support of the charge,
Mr. BRYAN addressed the jury for the prisoner, arguing
that the poison might have been given ignorantly or in
mistake.

The Learned Juno: then summed up the evidence with
great care and perspicuity; after which, a verdict of Guilty
was returned, and his Lordship, in a most impressive ad-
dress, ordered sentence of death to be recorded against the
prisoner.
She is a single woman, and has given birth to five illegi-
timate children, only one of whom is living—the infant
which she has been convicted of attempting to murder.
THE ROCK FERRY Al URDER.-3fichael Burns, aged 33,
was charged with a highway robbery upon the person of the
late Thomas Peacop, in the township of Bebington.
The Attorney General (Mr. Hill), Hr. Townsend, and Mr.
Davison, appeared for the prosecution; the prisoner was un-
defended.

The ArromEr-GENERAL stated the case, to the effect
that the prisoner was charged with highway robbery on the
person of Mr. Thomas Pe Icop, on the 31st day of December,
1644. The grand. Ury had thrown out the bill for murder
against three of the prisoner's companions, and he had de-
termined upon proceeding against the prisoner for the high-
way robbery only, with violence. It would be remembered
that Mr. Peacop was murdered at, Bebington, and that
a number of persons were concerned in it. The question for
them would be, whether he was one of the party consenting
. .

to Mr. Peacop's robbery—the murder, as he before stated,
not being charged. When the robbery was committed, Mr.
Peacop had some sovereigns and some silver upon him, the
silver only being taken. For a long time afterwards no in-
formation was obtained as to the offenders, but at length the
prisoner sent over to Dublin. Information was then ob-
tained respecting his connexion with the robbery, and a
constable went to the city of Dublin and apprehended him.
The prisoner then made a statement implicating himself,
and upon that statement, corroborated as it would be by
other evidence, he thought they would have no doubt he had
been a party in the highway robbery.
Evidence as to the facts of a murder and highway robbery
having been adduced, the statement made by the prisoner
before the magistrates at Birkenhead in September last was
then put in and read.
The prisoner, on being called upon by the Learned Judge
for his defence, said, " I have said all I had to say before
it was paid no attention to, and I have now no more to say."
His LORDSHIP having summed up,
The jury retired to consider their verdict, and, after some
deliberation, found the prisoner Guilty.
Sentence of transportation for life was then passed.
Burns seemed stupefied and amazed at the result of the
trial, and there is no doubt that when he impeached, as his
accomplices, the men Lynch, Newton, and Talent, against
whom the grand jury ignored the bill, he expected to be ad-
mitted evidence for the Crown, and to obtain a reward of
300/., which had been offered.
LIBEL orr A CLERGY iAlr.-An indictment for libel on
the prosecution of the Rev. J. Arniitstea.(l, Vicar of Sand-
bach, against Samuel Slater, of Holmes' Chapel, was tried
before Mr. Justice Wightman. The libel was published in the
Macclesfield Chronicle, in the form of a letter to the editor,
of which the defendant, by his own admission, was the
writer. It arose out of an agitation promoted by a party of ,
Dissenters against church-rates, and imputed dishonesty to
the vicar, with other s:anthrotis insinuations. Tae Itev.
Gentleman bad merely brought the matter into Court to
vindicate his character, the Lear.ied Judge giving it as his
opinion that the libel was of such a nature as could not be
passed over without notice. The prosecution was conducted
by Mr. dill and Mr. Townsend; and Mr. Trafford appeared
for the defendant. The principal witness was the editor of
the paper, who had Slater 's written declaration that he was
the author of the letter which was the subject of the in-
dictment.

The defendant was found Guilty, and sentenced to pay a
flue of 101. to the Queen.
The trials of prisoners were also taken in the Nisi Prius
Coin, and at half-past eight o'clock in the evening the busi-
ness of the assizes terminated.

At a moment when famine, and its terrible attendant
pestilence, are threatening the poor of Ireland, and when the
First-Minister of the Crown, as well as every individual ac-
quainted with that country, is fully sensible of the fact that
no relief which Parliament can extend to its people can he
effective or permanent without the co-operation of the large
landed proprietors, and when such just complaints are made
of the apathy of these lords of the soil, who fail not to en-
force their rights, while they lamentably neglect those duties
which they owe to the p-•ople whom I'rovidance has com-
mitted to their care, it is to us a most gratifying task to
record the exertions of one nobleman to give employment,
and spread comfort among tile humbler classes around him.
That nobleman is Lord Da Freyne, who, to alleviate the
distress of tenants and deplovients, gives, and has given for
the last year, constant employment to no less than 550 men
daily in the further improvement of his beautiful and ex-
tensive demesne of French Park, in the county of Roscom-
mon. Should other landlords follow the example of this
most estimable nobleman we should hear little of local suf-
fering or agrarian outrages. lie will reap his reward in the
blessings of a grateful population, and in the comfort and
happiness which pervade his estates. May his noble ex-
ample stimulate others to like acts of judicious benevolence.
—Observer.

FIRE AT THE ADELPHI THEATRE.—List evening
some alarm was created in the immediate vicinity of the Strand, by
the report that the Adelphl Theatre was on fire. The engines from
Chandos street were immediately taken to the building, and were
followed by the West of England firemen flout the Waterloo-road.
It was then ascertained that the fire had broken out in the car-
penter's workshop, a buildlag exactly over the treastny of the
theatre, and that it was cause 1 by a spark falling amongst a heap of
Shavings. A number of deal boards, standing in the workshop were
set on fire, but the discovery having been opportunely made, the car-
penters and scene painters, who were at the time fortunately engaged
on the stage, ran forward, and, with the aid of some buckets of water,
succeeded in extinguishing the flames before any considerable damage
had bent done.