The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-27 00:00:00

STRAND SESSIONS.

July 25.
CROWN COURT.

113
103%
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MICE,

MIDLAND CIRCUI 11-IVoitinyleam, July 25.
The Crown business was finished i❑ the course of the of er-
noon of Friday, when Mr. Justice Matteson proceeded to
assist the other Learned Judge in the disposal of the causes.
The business has been very light on the criminal side of the
court, the only serious charges being a case of stabbing, and
that of a girl of the name of Zillah Clarke, charged with
firing some straw in a hovel. She was Acquitted. The Nisi
Prius business, though heavier than was expected, did not
present anything worthy of a report.

OXFORD CIRC.,' WT.— Stifford, July '25.
CROWN COURT.—(Befoie Mr. Justice MAni.E.)
Fo EltY AT WO lA' EIZI tAmrox.—Robert dllitcheli, a po-
liceman, pleaded guilty to the charge of forging a cheque
for 751. upon Captain Hatton, the chief constable of the South
Staffordshire police force, and was sentenced to seven years'
transportation.
111AN.snauGHTEn AT TirroN.—Joseph Bate was indicted
for killing a fellow• workman in the parish of Tipton, on
the 24th of June. This case afirded another of the many
proofs brought forward at Stafford assizes of the fatal conse-
quences arising out of the ungovernable conduct and ex-
cessive
passion displayed towards each other by the men
employed in the mining districts. In this case the prisoner
and the deceased, a man named Cooper, were working with
many others at Messrs. Benson's works in the neighbourhood
of Tipton. On the day of the occurrence, they ( with others)
were engaged in carrying hot metal in ladles from the fur-
nace to a place where a large hammer was fixed; a contest
seems to have arisen as to which should arrive at the ham-
mer first ; the men were running along a floor the surface of
eh ece causedof
which was of metal and highly polished. The deceased
swung the hammer round, with the view (as it aPPearea) to
obtain first possession of an anvil; the prisoner thereupon
forcibly thrust him round. The effect of this was to hurl
him with violence against the hammer. consequent upon
which his head came into contact with some part of the ma-
(c) I ti,
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ande jury m
further
al or
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licious intent on the part of the prisoner.
immediately returned a verdict of Not Guilty.

-----
NORTHERN CIRCVIT.—Durham, July 23.
The commission was opened last night by Mr. Justice
Wightman, who presides in the criminal court. Mr. Justice
Cresswell sits in the civil court at this place. The cause list
is not numerous. Mr. Justice Wightman, after the list of
the tnagistrates and coroners had been called over, and a
grand jury sworr, addressed them shortly upon the
duties the grand juries would have to perform, and con-
gratulated them upon the comparative lightness of the cal-
lendar.
PASSING COUNTERFEIT ONE ._John Crowther, aged 46,
and Harriet Johnstone, 14 very aged woman, were arraigned
f'r having, at Stockton, uttered a couterfeit half-crown,
with intent to defraud,
well knowing the same to be forged.
The prisoners passed at their lodgings as man and wile, and
left behind them there a carpet bag, locked up, the mottling
before their apprehension. On the 25th of March they pro-
eieded to the Market-place, where the female prisoner pure
• chased with the base half-crown a pound of butter from a
small farmer's wile standing in the market, and received the
change. Upon their
was apprehension their ld atecked uo l lodging was
discovered, and in the carpet- bag found p and
enveloped in several folds of wearing apparel, a rouleau of
twenty-nine bad and counterfeit half-sovereigns, and two
Li,ners. He gave up the case
bad sovereigns, and three counterfeit half crowns. There
was a bunch of keys found on the woman, with one of which
given, when
the policeman with ease had unlocked the bag. The man
hajldirg.
tiiiToprrstody, a faLe name.
of the female, but contended there was nothing in the
deuce to affect Crowther, whom the jury acquitted, and found
the woman guilty of uttering the base coin, knowing it to
be counterfeit. •

DESERTION AND CAE% Cox.—Ellen Hughesattended be-
fore the bench to support a summons which had been taken
out against her husband, Dlr. John Hughes, lately an engi-
neer in the service of the Birmingham and Gloucester Rail-
way Company, by the guardians of the Strand union, for
allowing her to become chargeable to the parish of St. Giles.
It was not denied that the defendant had not fulfilled the
pecuniary arrangements entered into by him for the support
of his wife since their separation. Defendant was also charged
with having formed a criminal connexion with a female ser-
vant, and that this was the original cause of the separation.
The wife had formerly been in the service of Captain O'Don-
nell, and the defence was criminal intercourse on her part
with that officer, to prove which several witnesses were called.
Captain O'Donnell admitted that lie had frequently visited
complainant, and had relieved her wants, but denied that
any improper intercourse had taken place between them.
The Bench refused to grant the order.

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.
NORFOLK ClRCUlT.—Norwich, July 24.
CROWN COURT.—(Before Mr. Justice WILLIAMS.)
ARSON.—Henry Warren was indicted for having, on the
30th of June, set fire to a "stable in the parish of Rockland.
Mr. EVANs conducted the prosecution; the prisoner was
not defended by counsel.

The prisoner, who is a chimney-sweep, was allowed to
sleep in the loft of the stable in question on the night named
in the indictment, and. be:ore the lire he had asked at a pub•.
lie-house for two or three lucifer matches, which had been
refused him. Ar,out half,an hour afterwards the stable was
discovered to be on tire by two ;young women, who were
passing along a road, at the side of which the stable stands.
They gave an alarm, and soon after heard a noise as of the

shutting of a gate in the direction of the stable, and saw the
prisoner advancing thence, who first said, " Are you all
right ?" and, on one screaming, told them to hold their
tongues. He afterwards assisted those who attempted to ex-
tinguish the fire; suspicion, however, was directed to him,
and he was seized. As he was in the act of being led away,
he was seen to take a lucifer match from his pocket, bite off
the end, and then throw it away.
The prisoner, in his defence, suggested the improbability
of his setting tire to the only place of refuge he had, for nu
one would give a chimney-sweep a bed; and commented on
the omission to produce tile fragments of the lucifer match,
winch it had been said he had thrown away.
The jury, after souse deliberation, returned a verdict of
Guilty. Sentence was deferred.
SHOOTING.—TEST OF INTENT BY DISTANCE.--John Meek
and Indium Dodman were indicted for having, on the Ist of
July, shot at Charley Godbolt, with intent to maim, &c. It
appeared that on the clay in question the prisoners drove in
a waggon past a field in which the prosecutor was mowing
some vetches. They were lying on the top of the waggon,
and on the prosecutor looking, up at them they first :soused
him, and then one of them, seizing a gun, fired it at him,
saying, " Take that. The shot took effect on various parts
of his person; one penetrated the skin under the eye, and '
another struck his hand. Wham the prisoners were ap-
prehended, Meek said that the gun had been tired at a lark;
and it turned out tha the waggon, at the time of the firing,
was distant about 33 yards from the prosecutor.
For the defence the criminal intent was again denied, and
several persons gave the prisoners an excellent character.
Mr. Justice WILLIAMS told the jury to consider whether
the gun had been fired at such a distance from the prosecutor
as to show that the prisoners must have contemplated its
taking effect; if it had not been so fired they ought to be
acquitted.
The jury deliberated a few moments, and returned a verdict
of Acquittal. _ .

BREAKING AND ENTERING A DWELLING •HOUSE.—
George Whales was indicted for having, on the 10th of May,
feloniously entered the dwelling-house of William Miles, at
Beeston, and stolen fourteen pounds therefrom.
Mr. Evans conducted the prosecution, and Mr. G. L.
Browne defended the prisoner.
It appeared that the house of the prosecutor had been en-
tered while the family was attending divine service, and the
money taken by some person, who must have cut out a
small latticed window from its rude framework at the back
of the house, and squeezed himself through the aperture thus
made, for there were the footmarks of a stranger outside the
window. The window-frame was whitened, as if some per-
son with a whitened coat had forced himself through, and on
the sill there was an impression as of whitened corduroys.
The footmarks were traced to some distance, and it appeared
that the thief in his retreat tnust have forced himself through
a place where he would have to creep on his hands and
kr.ees, and, in all probability, wet his knees, and cause his
dress to be marked with green stains. All these indications
of guilt coincided with the state of the prisoner's dress, ex-
cept that the impression of his highlows did not correspond
with the footmarks. It was proved, however, that the pri-
soner, after lie had seen the constables examining the foot-
prints, had drawn some nails from his highlowe, and that in
laigth and breadth they coincided with the impressions.
None of the money, however, was found on the prisoner or
traced to him. The defence consisted of very ingenious com-
ments, tending to discredit the accuracy of the witnesses.
The jury returned a verdict of Guilty; and the prisoner was
sentenced to be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for two
years.
WOUNDING A MAN IN POSSESSION.— William Tennant
was indicted for having, on the 30th of April, wounded John
Utting on the head, with intent to do him some grievous
bodily harm. Mr. Palmer prosecuted, and Mr. W. Cooper
defended the prisoner. On the day in question the prisoner
went to a small farm, of which he has recently been dispos-
aw
that he was warned off by
and persisted in remaining on the
spremisesesse i in
there,
course of l
notwithstanding
the prosecutor, who is a sheriff's follower, and had been left
in possession. The prosecutor determined to eject him, and
was rising from his seat for that purpose, when the prisoner
toopocket and struck him with it a tre-
mendous back of the head.. At that moment the
kas to
blowne from
on
son of the prrosecutor entered, and, rushing to his father's
assistance, knocked the prisoner down and secured him.
The blow on the prosecutor's head proved to be one of a very
serious kind, and the attendance of a medical man for some
time became necessary. In cross-examination it was elicited
that the prosecutor Lad been convicted of a conspiracy to
procure evidence against a man on a charge ofrape. For the
defence, the daughter of the prisoner proved thatlthe prose-
cutor had commenced the affray, and she also denied that
her father had had any stone in his hand. The jury Ac-
quitted the prisoner. This case concluded the assizes fbr this
county.