The Sun.
London, England, 1851-08-14 00:00:00

BIRTHS IN THE WEEK.

Males ... ... ... ... ... 749
Females ..• ••• ••• ..• ... 728

Total ... ••• 1,477
*ln this number are included 25 by Scarlatina, 50
by Typhus Foyer, 136 by Diarrhoea, and 16 by Cholera.

SOCIALIST AMUSEMENTS IN PARIS.—A soldier
was recently drinking in company with two workmen in a
public-house at Grenelle. A man with a huge beard and a
broad-brimmed hat came in, and in a loud voice cried,
" Citizen, give rne a glass of wine if I were to take two I
should be an aristo !" On perceiving the soldier he began
singing a song in which the army was grossly insulted. He
then abused the President cf the Republic in the grossest
terms. The soldiers and workmen protested against such
language ; this led to a quarrel, and the quarrel to blows-
The public-house keeper interfered, but was was grossly ill-
treated by the demagogue. At last the man was secured
and taken to the guard-house.

-
THE BREED OF PARTRIDGES.-011 T sporting
friends in this district (neighbourhood of Southampton) will
regret to bear that within the last ten days the voung birds
have died in scores, having been subject to what is techni-
cally termed the " gapes." Covies have been reduced from
sixteen and eighteen to half that number. The breeding
season, however. has been so favourable there will be no
lack of sport. Young pheasants are very numerous and for-
ward; indeed the breed has been more favourable than for
years past. The same remark applies to hares. It has been
no uncommon thing to see full-grown leverets for a month
past, being much earlier than usual.
Dispatches were received yesterday at the Colonial-
office, from the Governor of New South Wales.
FOREIGN REPRINTS OF ENGLISH BOOKS.—An or-
dinance
books has
sn
of the
passed by the Court of Policy, British
Guiana, admitting
into this colony foreign reprints of Eng-
eer:ayment of an ad valorem duty on the bona
fide price
the collecti 29 p cent., whereof five per cent. is to go to
ng officer, and the remainder to the English au-
thor. The publication of this ordinance has excited a
warm controversy is Our Col,
at once convince our English copyright
31 a reference to which will
authors that even in
this distant land they have a sturdy and resolute champion.
....Demerara Colonist.,

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

OXFORD ClRCUlT.—Gloucester, Aug 12.

CROWN CO Uli,T.L(Bere Mr. Baion MARTIN).

At the summer assizes last year two men were
convicted of a rape on a young woman, named Mary
Anne Bennett. At the following spring assizes she
was tried for perjury alleged to have been committed
on that trial, and the two men who had been convicted
and sentenced to transportation on her evidence were
brought from Woolwich and examined as witnesses
against her. She was then convicted of perjury, but
some points of law having been reserved for the con-
sideration of the Court of Appeal, Mr. Justice Tale
fourd, who tried her, deferred passing sentence. On
the argument in the court above the conviction was
upheld; and Mr. Baron Martin now passed the sen-
tence upon her which Mr. Justice Telford directed--
the heaviest sentence that could by law be passed—
transportation for seven years.
Adonijah Edward Jordon, 29, was indicted for ma-
liciously setting fire to the dwelling-house of his
mother, Mary Jordon, she being therein.
Mr. Skinner conducted the prosecution, and Mr.
Scotland the defence.
The first witness examined was the mother of the
prisoner, 79 years of age, and she stated that for some
time back she had lived separately from her husband,
her house and his being a few hundred yards apart.
That on the Bth of March last the prisoner went to the
Bath Hospital, in consequence of a disease of the blad-
der. Previously to this he had lived for the most part
in her house, and had not shown any improper conduct
towards her. On the 7th of June he returned from
the hospital to her house, and was equally well con-
ducted down to Sunday, the Gth of July, sleeping with
her in her only bed. On that night, about nine o'clock,
the prisoner came home, and appeared excited as if
from the effects of drinking. Upon going up to bed,
he began to abuse her about her having talked of his
disease, cussed her several times, said that his father had
given him the bed when a boy, and threatened that it
should be the last time she should sleep in it, and that
he would " pay her out, and do something grand for
her." She was very much alarmed, and went and
complained to a neighbour, and passed the remainder
of the night at her sister-in-law's, close by, and did
not again see the prisoner until the next Wednesday.
After she left the prisoner was seen going towards his
father's house, and returning with him to his mother's
house, and soon after they both came out, the father
carrying a bed. The person who saw them spoke
to them, and blamed them for their conduct
in taking away the bed, upon which the
prisoner told him to mind his own business ; and
afterwards the father was heard to say, " It is a pity
she is not dead," and then the prisoner said, " If she
does not die within this week I'll kill her." A simi-
lar threat was used by the prison'er, in the hearing
of a neighbour, who went up to his room immediately
after the old woman left, and talked to him about his
conduct. The prisoner slept the rest of that night
with his father. On the following morning (Monday)
he was left in the house by his father, and when his
father returned in the evening the prisoner had left,
and the door of his house was broken open and the
bed taken away. Between twelve and one o'clock of
that day the prisoner was seen at a public-house about
a quarter of a mile from his mother's house. There
he had three or four pints of beer, and left soon after,
and returned again about five o'clock in the afternoon,
and left finally at six. Before leaving he said he had
had a quarrel with his mother, and upon being told
that his mother used to speak highly of him, he said,
" she won't ever any more," and that he had something
on his mind. At six o'clock he went to another public-
house, nearer to his mother's house, and had some
more drink, and left about half-past ten. At about
quarter to twelve he was met by two persons about
two hundred yards from his mother's house, and going
in the direction of it ; and at ten minutes to twelve he
was seen not more than twenty yards from it. At
this time there was no appearance of fire about
the mother's house. A next-door neighbour of
the mother heard the clock in her house strike
twelve, and just afterwards she looked out of her
bedroom window, and saw the corner of the roof of
the mother's house, which was of thatch, on fire, and
the fire coming over from the back to the front.
She gave the alarm, and another neighbour, seeing
the fire, ran into the house and rescued the mother,
who was at that time asleep, having gone to bed
about nine o'clock, and, as she said, carefully put
out her candle. The latter person described the
fire as burning from the outside inwards, and it was
proved that there was a heap of stones at the back
of the house, from which a person might with ease
reach the roof. A box, partly filled with lucifer
matches, was found at the father's house. The pri-
soner was not seen by any one near the house after
the fire, and on the following Tuesday he was taken
into custody. He then gave a false statement as to
his name and occupation, denied having set fire to the
house, and resisted being taken into custody. After-
wards, on his way to prison, he used expressions
showing that he expected to be punished for setting
fire to the house, and was regardless of it.
Mr. SCOTLAND having addressed the jury for the
prisoner,
The Learned JUDGE very carefully summed up the
whole evidence.

The jury retired, and, after an absence of an hour,
returned into court, and found the prisoner Guilty,
but strongly recommended him to mercy.
Sentence of death was recorded, but his Lordship
said to the jury that their recommendation would be
made known at the proper quarter, and he thought it
would probably have the effect of reducing the punish-
ment to transportation for a limited period.

NORTHERN CIRGUI I:—Lancaster, Aug. 12.
CROWN COURT.—(Before Mr. Baron PLATT.)
Jane Threlfall, aged 27, was charged with having,
on the 27th June last, endeavoured to conceal the
birth of her infant child by secretly disposing of the
dead body.

Mr. Alfred Milnes conducted the prosecution ; Mr.
Joseph Pollock defended the prisoner.
It appeared that the prisoner, who had been in
service in Preston, left her place in the month of
March last and went to her mother's house in
Wharles. After she had remained there some time
she had every appearance of being in the family way,
and on the 24th of June she had increased so much
in size that many of the neighbours observed the con-
dition in which she was. Shortly after this, viz., on
the 26th of June, her size was so much reduced that
suspicions were raised and reports spread in the neigh-
bourhood that the prisoner had been delivered of a child,
and as no mention was made of such an event having
taken place the police made inquiries about the mat-
ter, and on the 30th of June a policeman, accom-
panied by a surgeon, was sent to the house where the
prisoner was, who on being questioned as to whether
she had bad a child denied that such was the fact,
upon which she was examined by the surgeon, who at
once pronounced that a birth had taken place. Inqui-
ries were then instituted, and it was found that the
prisoner had left her mother's house on the 27th of
June, having a basket on her arm. She proceeded to
the house of a Mrs. Parkinson, going across some
fields which was not the direct way of proceeding.
This was the day on which it was observed that she
had decreased in size. In consequence of this the
fields and ditches around were searched, and in a ditch
near the footpath evidence of a birth having taken
place was found, and in another ditch, near Mrs. Par-
kinson's house, a dead child wrapped up in a pocket-
handkerchief was di,covered.
Mr. PoLLocic addressed the jury for the prisoner,
and contended that there was no evidence to show that
she had been delivered of a child, and even if they
should be satisfied that that was the case there was no
evidence to show that the child found was the pri-
soner's child, or that she had concealed a child in the
manner alleged in the indictment. _ _

His LORDSHIP having summed up, the jury re.
turned a verdict of Not Guilty.

NORTH WALES ClRCUlT.—Chester. Aug. 12.
CIVIL SlDE.—(Betbre Mr. Justice WI(IIITMAN
and a Common Jury.)
REDDISH V. PRIESTNALL..

This was an action brought by Anna Arminal
Reddish against William Priestnall, for a breach of
promise of marriage. The damages were laid at
1,0001. The defendant pleaded-1. That he had
made no promise; 2. That if he did it was dissolved
by mutual consent, and he was released by the plaintiff.
Mr. Evans, Q.C., and Mr. Welby conducted the
case for the plaintiff; and Mr. Sergeant Herbert Jones
that of the defendant. _ _

Mr. EvaNs stated the case to the jury. This was
an action for a breach of promise of marriage, and
as such related to one of the most important events
in life, and therefore deserved the most careful consi-
deration which the jury could devote to it. The
plaintiff came before them, and sought at their hands
compensation in damages for the destruction of hopes
which for five long years the defendant had delu-
sively induced her to cherish. Through his miscon-
duct she was now thrown back in the world, having
lost many of the best years of her life, and find-
ing herself exposed to the sneers and ridicule of the
ill-natured and the malicious, who are ready enough
to impute in such cases some fault or disqualifying
circumstance in the lady as the reason for her rejec-
tion. It appears that in 1842 the defendant first be-
came acqu'sinted with the plaintiff. She was the
daughter of a respectable corn and flour dealer living
in Stockport, and the defendant at that time was an
apprentice to Mr. Drinkvrater, a mercer and draper in
the
,same town. The defendant seems to have been
struck with the young lady's appearance, at their first
interview. His master soon observed he was much of
his time away from the house in the evening. He
questioned him as to where he spent his time, and on
hearing the circumstances he made no objection. In
1843, the plaintiff having gone on a visit to a married
sister in Liverpool, a correspondence by letter was
commenced between the parties, and renewed whenever
she went from home, down to 1848, when the defen-
dant made p journey to London, where he met his