The Sun.
London, England, 1834-07-21 00:00:00

SATURDAY, J7LY 19.
(Before Mr. Justice PARK.)
Thomas Fielding„ aged 14, Charles Booth, aged 31, Wil-
liam -Oldham, aged 28, and Edward Henry Green, aged
25, were indicted for breaking and entering the shop of
John Brownsword, in this town, on the night of the Ist of
July instant, and stealing therein jewellery to the amount
of upwards of .500/.

The prisoners are :all notorious characters, and had been
in gaol repeatedly for the last ten or fifteen years. The
robbery was committed at about eleven o'clock on the above
night ; and a reward of 501. was offered next day by the
prosecutor for the detection of the offenders. In a few
days afterwards Booth made overtures to a Jew named
Solomon Abrahams to purchase the stolen property, which
the Jew promised to do. After he had seen the articles,
and had been in communication with all the prisoners on
the subject, he gave notice to the police, and having re-
ceived 501. in marked money. for the purpose, he purchased
a quantity of the articlesrartd gave the prisoners the marked
money in payment. The prisoners were shortly afterwards
apprehended, and some of the marked money was found in
the possession of each of them. Oldham had fled, and got
as far as Lincoln before he was apprehended, and a quan-
tity of the stolen property was found in his possession, be-
sides two of the marked sovereigns. He made a desperate
resistance, but was overpowered.
They were all found guilty, and sentenced to be trans-
ported for life.

WESTERN CIRCUIT—SALISBURY, July 18.
Before Lord DENMAN.
Charles Kimmer was indicted for setting fire to certain
premises of the Rev. Maurice Hillier Goodman, at Oare,
m the parish of Wilcot.
The Rev. M. H. Goodman—l live at Oare. A fire took
place on my premises on the 21st of April. I was disturbed
ten minutes before one. I went down immediately to the
fire, which was from 150 to 200 yards distant. All the
roofs of two barns, a cart-shed, and stable, had fallen in ;
three horses and twenty-four pigs were burnt. My carters
slept over the end stable, where there was a single horse ;
that stable was burnt.
By the COURT—The prisoner was not in my service.
His father is, and has been ever since he was ten years of
age, and he is now 62.
James Townsend—l know the prisoner, and saw him
about 11 o'clock on the night of the fire at Bartlett's. I
saw him about 3 o'clock in the morning at the fire. His
boots were laced up.
William Racey—l married a sister of the prisoner ; we
all live together. Prisoner slept in the next room to mine,
he must go through my room to get to his ; James Kimmer
slept with the prisoner at the time. I remember the night
of the fire. I heard a man cry " fire" about half-past 12
o'clock. I called James Kimmer ; I did not see the pri-
soner then. The door of the house was bolted when we
were all at home, it was not bolted that night. About
half an hour after I got to the fire I saw the prisoner there.
I did not hear any one come through my room that night.
By the CouaT—l had been asleep, and a person might
have gone without my hearing. All the family were there
when I went to bed, with the exception of the prisoner.
James Kimmer, jun.—l am brother to the prisoner. I
heard the clock strike 12 on the night of the fire. The
prisoner, who slept with me, had not then come to bed. I
had not seen him since 6 o'clock in the evening. He came
home to bed the next night.

Henry Goddard—l am an officer from Bow-street.
went down to Oare on the 24th of April. I apprehended
the prisoner the same day in the afternoon. He had been
in bed all day, and had just got up. I told him I had a
warrant against him for the fire. He said " Very well,
I'll come." I asked him what time he went to bed on the
night of the fire. He said a quarter before 10 o'clock. I
then took him to Marlborough Gaol. On the way I again
asked him what time he went to bed, he told me as before,
and said " It's no use asking me any more questions, for
you are not going to drag it out of I."
Mr. Goodman recalle—There was an examination of
the prisoner and witnesses on the 28th April before the
Magistrates._ I was standing close to the prisoner ; he
touched me, and said, " I wish to speak to you," and turned
round in a hurry. He said, " I only want you, Sir, and
Mr. Timothy Goodman." We went into the hall, and he
said, "I am the man that did it. lam guilty." I asked
him what could induce him to do so. He said, " Nothing
—beer, beer, beer!" He was then in such a state that I
got vinegar to recover him. He after that made a full
confession before the Magistrates.
The examination of the prisoner was then read, in which
he stated that he took some tinder and struck a light, and
set the straw-rick on fire, and he was the only person
concerned.
Goddard re-called—On taking prisoner to Salisbury gaol,
I asked him how he had spent his time after he had left
Bartlett's house. He said he went home at half-past 11
o'clock, sat himself down in his mother's arm-chair, and after
remaining there nearly an hour, he took some tinder out of
a tinder-box, some matches, and a flint and steel, and put
them into his pocket, and then went to Mr. Goodman's pre-
mises, struck a light, and set it all on fire. I asked him if
he heard the horses cry, and he said he did, and that he was
truly unhappy. He added, he was going to set fire to Mr.
Edmonds's premises. I said, " What, on the same night?"
He said, " Yes, but the reason I did not do it was because
I was afraid my own sister's house would have been burnt,
and it might have burnt her child.."
The prisoner said nothing in his defence.
Lord DENMAN then summed up the case. The first
question was, whether the straw described was a stack of
straw ; and next, whether it was his intention to burn the
barn when he set fire to the straw.
The Jury immediately found the prisoner Guilty.
Lord DENMAN then put on the black cap, and addressed
the prisoner—" You have been convicted .on evidence
which leaves no manner of doubt of the fact of one of the
greatest crimes that it is possible for a man to be guilty of.
You have set fire to the premises of a person who was
doing benefit to your family, without the smallest motive
that can be assigned, and without anything like provocation
which could give an appearance of excuse. The destruc-
tion of his property is in itself a most wicked act ; but this
case is accompanied by other circumstances which give it a
still more diabolical character, for those poor things in the
stables and sties were sure to be sacrificed to your cruelty ;
and besides that, there were three boys in the stable which
there were about 80 pills.
Cross-examined by Mr. DUNDAS—What are the pills
composed of ?

The witness inquired whether he was bound to answer
his question ?

After some remarks from Mr. PoLLocK and the Learned
JUDGE, Mr. DUNDAS asked the witness whether there was
any gamboge in the pills? and his Lordship having told
him that he must answer that question, the witness stated
that there was.

After one or two more witnesses had been examined as
to the cases in
,small-pox, &c. produced by the pills.
Mr. POLLOCK rose to take an objection to the indict-
ment, on the ground that all the medical witnesses for the
prosecution had given it as their opinion that the deceased
died of small-par, but that the death was accelerated by the
medicine given by the prisoner. Not one of the counts
were framed to meet this point. It was charged in them
all that the death of the deceased was to be attributed to
the improper treatment of the prisoner and the medicines
he had administered. The Learned Counsel held the dif-
ference to be material,
Mr. Sergeant ATCHERLEY followed shortly on the same
side.

Mr. STARKEY and Mr. DUNDAS argued against the ob-
jection.

Mr. POLLOCK replied, when
Lord LYNDHURST said that his impression at present
was against the objection, and he should allow the trial to
proceed ; but he should reserve to himself the power to
alter his opinion if anything should arise to justify him in so
doing.

The e examination of witnesses then proceeded to prove
the utility of the pills, and the cures effected by them in nu-
merous cases, some of them similar to the present.
A medical gentleman was examined for the defence, who
said that the appearances in the stomach of the deceased
were such as he should expect in bad cases of small-pox.
Lord LYNDHURST summed up the evidence at conside-
rable length, and said that they had two points to consider.
The first was, whether the deceased had died from the effects
of the pills ; and, secondly, whether the prisoner in wilful
ignorance administered those pills, the effects of which he

he halt taken thirty 'pills a day for three months succes-
sively, and never felt any bad effects.
Mr. Probart, of Derby, then gave evidence as to the
cures effected to his own knowledge by the pills.
Mr. Moat, of London, was next called. He said he was
the partner of Mr. Morrison, and that only two kinds,
marked Nos. 1- and 2, were manufactured by them. The
witness said the pills were all mixed by himself, except oc-
casionally some by Mr. 'Morrison. In a 2s. and 9d. box,
upon Mary Smith, aged 11 years, at Calverton, on the 24th
of May last. The prisoner, who was a married man, with
three children, received a good character from several wit-
nesses.—The prisoner was acquitted.