The Sun.
London, England, 1851-11-01 00:00:00

CRIMINAL COURT _-(THIS DAY.)

OLD COURT.
(Before Mr. Justice MAULE and Mr. Justice
CRESSWELL )

MANSLAUGHTER.— Charles &main, aged 16, described
as a labourer, pleaded guilty to an indictment charging
him with feloniously killing and slaying one Henry
Plampen. The prisoner and the deceased had been em-
ployed in a stable together, and on the occasion of the
assault which ultimately led to the death, the deceased
pushed the prisoner under a horse, and otherwise pro-
voked him, and in the passion of the moment he stabbed
the deceased with a pitchfork.
The COURT sentenced the prisoner to three months,
imprisonment, with hard labour.
THE SOUTH-WESTERN RAILWAY ROBBERY.—A re-
spectably attired man, named George Senior, aged 48'
described as a perfumer, was indicted for feloniously
receiving goods value 2751., the property of the London
and South-Western Railway Company, well knowing
the same to have been stolen. The prisoner pleaded
not guilty.
Mr. Ballantine, with whom was Mr. Huddlestone, ap-
peared for the prosecution, and Mr. Parry defended the
prisoner.

Mr. BALLANTINE opened the case to the jury, which
he represented to be ono of a somewhat extraordinary
character. It appeared that in February last Messrs.
Candy and Co., the warehousemen of Watling-street,
ordered a large package of merino goods of a house in
Paris, which were duly forwarded and shipped for
Southampton at the French port of Havre. Strange to
say, however, that the goods never reached their proper
destination, though beyond all doubt they were safely
placed upon the London and South-Western Railway,
and ultimately the railway company had to make good the
value of the missing property. Nothing was heard after-
wards of the property until some few weeks ago, when a man
named Pamplin was convicted in this court of having
been concerned in a large gold dust robbery en the
South-Western Railway, and after his conviction be
gave such information to the officers of justice which led
to the discovery of an extensive and organized system
of plunder, which was going on under the supervision of
one of the railway companies' servants. This person
took a leading part in the management of the goods' de-
partment of the railway, and the position which he thus
held enabled him to ascertain the value of the small
puckagu goods that passed over the line. It was
his practice when he wished to become possessed
of any property, to be in the way of the
Waterloo goods' station when they arrived from
Southampton or any other place, and then to alter
the waybill and direction of the packages, so that they
should be delivered in the due course of business at
some rendezvous which he and his confederates might
have previously agreed upon. Now in this way it was
alleged that tho merino goods consigned to Messrs.
Candy and Co., from Paris, came into his possession,
and were then directed to a felonious channel. The
goods, instead of going to Watling-street, wero de-
livered in Earl-street, Finsbury-Square, at a house
then cccupied by the convicted man Pamplin, and
according to the evidence of Pamplin himself,
which was confirmed by Winter, the railway servant.
and another accomplice, named Witcher, that a portion
of the contents of the packages afterwards found their
way to the bands of the prisoner, who at the time was
the landlord of the Black Dog public-house, in Crain-
street, Finsbury. The goods were sold, through the
instrumentality of the prisoner, to a man named Seaward
for Bd. and 9d. a yard; and the total amount came to
565. 9s. 4d. Pamplin, Witcher, and Winter (the rail-
way servant), have since been tried and convicted of the
robbery, and sentenced to various terms of transporta-
tion and imprisonment; while the man Seaward has been
convicted and sentenced as a receiver. The prisoner
accepted some pieces of the merino as a slight remune-
ration for the part he had taken in the transaction; but
the prosecutors believed he was concerned with Seaward,
and therefore they thought the ends of justice required
that he should be prosecuted also.
Several witnesses, including two of the convicted
thieves, and Seaward, the other receiver, were called
to give evidence in support of the case, and afterwards a
deposition was put in to show that at a former trial the
prisoner, who was then examined as a witness, positively
swore that the sale of the goods to Seaward was nut ne-
gotiated at his house. The only evidence, however,
which connected the prisoner with the sale was that of
the convicts, which at the close of the case tor the pro-
secution the Court pronounced to be unconfirmed by any
independent witness or circumstance. _ _ _

Mr. PentrY therefore confined his address on behalf'
of the prisoner to that particular point, and he told the
jury that the law wisely required that in cases like this
the evidence of the accomplices must be confirmed by
some respectable and independent testimony before it
could be allowed to implicate a third party.
Mr. Justice MAIILE, in summing up, concurred in
that opinion of the law, but, nevertheless, left it to the
jury to say whether or no there was any confirmation of
the evidence of the convicts, or in the absence of such
confirmation, whether under all the circumstances of the
case the evidence of the accomplices was worthy of belief.
The jury retired from the box to consider their
verdict, and after an absence of about half an hour, re-
turned into court with a verdict of Guilty.
The Court sentenced the prisoner to seven years'
transportation.

E IV COURT.
(Before Mr. Commissioner GURNEY.)
Alexander Goods, a convict, was indicted for felo-
niou6ly committing an assault on Thomas Hopper, with
intent to do him some grevious bodily harm.
The prosecution had been instituted at the instance
of the Government.

It appeared from the evidence of Captain O'Brien, one
of the directors of convict prisons, and Mr. Thomas
Hopper, chief warder of Millbank Penitentiary, and
ce her witnesses, that she prisoner was an inmate of the
Penitentiary, and bad been reported on the 9th of
September last for having broken fifteen squares of glass
in his cell, and destroyed a portion of his furniture. On
that day the prisoner was brought before Captain
O'Brien, in order that the charge might be investigated,
and after hearing the evidence tee sentenced him to 28
days' solitary confinement in a dark cell. When the
officers were about to remove the prisoner he asked
Captain O'Brien if he might be allowed to say a few
words. Captain O'Brien replied in the affirmative,
and the prisoner said, " Why was I sent here
again from the hulks? You recollect that I aaid before
I would either kill myself, or somebody else,. and now
I will do it." Ile then took a knife out of his breast
and gave Hopper a violent blow with it on the chest.
The knife penetrated through the wadding of the uni-
form, but was providentially arrested in its progress by
coming in contact with a metal button. The prisoner
was immediately seized, and on the way to his cell he
told Hopper he was sorry the knife had not entered his
heart. The knife was the same as those used by con-
victs at Millbank, and must have been secreted on his
person after dinner ; but the point, instead of being
round, had been sharpened, no doubt for the purpose of
more easily effecting his purpose. Captain O'Brien
stated that the prisoner had made several complaints
with regard to his being sent back from the hulks, and
had also applied to be sent out to Norfolk Island ; and
he believed he told him that his jurisdiction had only
reference to the treatment of prisoners in the Peni-
tentiary.
On being called on for his defence, the prisoner read
a rather ably composed document, in which he detailed
at some length a series of unjust and cruel punishments,
which he said he had received since July,
.1847, and
which he declared bad led him to sink deeper into crime
and misery. He particularly complained of not being
sent to the colonies, while other convicts, of worse cha-
racter and conduct than himself, had been sent, and he
added he was at lust brought to such a state of despera-
tion that he committed the above offence in order that
he might be brought before a court of justice, and be
enabled to show the public how badly ho had been
treated.
The Learned JUDGE having summed up the case,
The jury found a verdict of Guilty.
The Learned JUDGE said he should respite the priso-
ner's sentence until next seesion.

WORSHIP-STREET.—(THIS DAY).
William Johnson was charged before Mr, Hammill
with the following assault and attempt at robbery on the
person of Mr. George Amor.
Prosecutor stated that last night, between eleven and
twelve o'clock, while passing down Kingsland-road, on
his way home from the City, he was accosted by a re-
spectable-looking female, aho requested his assistance
in finding out Dunstor-street. On reaching the spot he
was suddenly felled to the ground by some person behind
him, and the next instant a hand was pieced over his
mouth and his watch-chain seized. Succeeding in
forcing the hand from his face, he called " Police!" on
which prisoner exclaimed, " Step it, Emma;" but the
female, who had not left the spot, refused, and, kneeling
on him, endeavoured to force the watch from his pocket.
On seeing an officer running down the street she ran off,
leaving her visite in his hands. Ho could swear to the
prisoner.
Carpenter, 474 N, deposed to finding the prosecutor,
quite sober, lying on the ground, and also to apprehend-
ing the prisoner a abort distance from the spot. The
woman escaped.
The prisoner was fully committed for trial.