The Sun.
London, England, 1851-08-15 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.
OXFORD ClRCUlT.—Gloceester, Aug 13.
CROWN COUR F.—(Before Mr. Baron MARTIN.)
Janus Adams, 32, a tall, gentlemanly-looking man,
and Elizabeth Williams, 23, a tolerably good-looking
young woman, were charged with forging and uttering
an order for the delivery of gouda in the name of Lord
Villiers, with intent to defraud one John Lane, at Ciren-
cester.
Mr. Cripps conducted the prosecution, and Mr. Hud-
dlestone the defence.
Oa the 21st of May Mr. Lane, who is a grocer and
elector at Cirencester, of which town Lord Villiers is
representative, received a letter, signed " re-
questing him to send to him, at his London address, 41,
North-street, Manchester-square, a side of Gloucester-
shire bacon as good as he had, and, if he had not a
good one, requesting him to procure one, and adding:—
" My cionstituenta complain of my nut dealing with them;
but if 1 could procure things as good at Cirencester as I
do in London, I should get everything from my consti-
tuents." Mr. Lane, on receiving this letter, pi ()cured im-
mediately and sent off a first-rate side of bacon
by the Great Western Railway. Oa the 22:1 of
May the prisoner called on a Mr. Fisher, a tailor,
who lived at No. 40, North-street, Manchester-,quare,
and who knew him formerly as a tailor, and asked
him to take in parcels and letters for him. He said
they would be addressed in the name of Villiers. He
called again on the same evening, and upon the day
following. On the Saturday (the 25th) a letter came,
but was not taken. He said the parcels would contain a
side of bacon and a gold watch. Mr. Fisher asked him
why he got the letters and parcels addressed to him in
the name of Villiers? and he said it was because he did not
like the old man (his father) to know where he was. On
the 23d Williams called and asked whether any letters or
parcels had come for Lord Villiers? Adams never
mentioned Lord Villiers. On the Saturday the Great
Western Railway Company's waggon came, and the
driver raised a side a bacon out and took it to No. 41,
North•street, the house of a Mr. Dando, who said he
knew nothing of Lord Villiers, and would have nothing
to do with it, and made the driver take it back. Mr.
Fisher met Adams the same day, end told him that he
had seen a Great Western Railway Company's waggon
bring up a side of bacon to No. 41, and take it away
again; whereupon Adams said, "I must look after it."
Mr. Fisher said the prisoner Williams never called at
his house together with Adams, but heard that she was
livine with him as his wife. In the course of that day
Adams called at the house of a person named Parker,
living in William-street, St. Luke's, and wanted
to borrow a few shillings to pay for the carriage
of a side of bacon, which had come to him
from a person named Lane, but having
been carried to a wrong number, was taken back to the
station. When the prisoners were arrested Williams
said to Adams, in the presence of the constable, " You
know that you wrote those letters and sent me for the
things," to which Adams replied, "Hold your tongue;"
and she then added, "You know you told me the things
were to come from your father." Williams cried much,
and was heard by a❑other constable saying to Adams,
"I told you all along not to write these letters; but you
told me your father would set all right." The next
morning Adams asked Bowles, a policeman of Cirenc, s-
ter, if he thought his father and Mr, Lane would make
it up, and requested him to go to his father and persuade
him to go to Mr. Lane and make it up. Bowles said he
could not intertere. The prisoner then asked if he
would be allowed to write a letter, and being told that
he could do so, he wrote two letters, one to Mr. Lane
and the other to his father. In the letter to Mr. Lane
he begged of him to go and see his father, and in the
letter to his father he begged of him to see Mr. Lane.
One witness, who saw Adams write once, about three
years ago, swore that the letter was in his handwriting.
At the close of the case for the pro,ecuttoo, his Lord-
ship said there was no case against Williams, and di-
rected her to be Acquitted; Adams was found Guilty.
There were two other indictments for similar trans-
actions against the prisoners, but on these no evidence
was offered, and Williams was declared Not Guilty. It
was not thought necessary to proceed upon them against
Adams,

His LORDSHIP, in passing sentence, said —James
Adams, you have been convicted on the clearest possible
evidence of the crime of forgery. No one who has heard
the evidence can nave any doubt that you wrote, or pro-
cured some one else to write, that letter for the purpose
of defrauding Lord Villiers or Mr. Lane. You probably
thought that Lord Villiers would make good his loss to
Mr. Lana, and that no steps would be taken against you.
You are a man of good education, you write well, and
express yourself very well; and you must know that the
law of England attaches great importance to the genuine-
ness of documents respecting property. When it is
considered what an enormous amount of property is re-
presented in this country by written documents, it is
obvious that the law must take care to preserve them
from forgery; and for a very long time it punished with
death forgeries much less serious than yours, and per-
sons were over and over again executed in dozens and
dozens. The law was lately mitigated, but still the
judge was left no discretion, but to transport fur life.
However, very recently some more discretion was al-
lowed, and that discretion I am now about to exercise.
I will not transport you for life, but you must leave this
country for a long period. You beat know how you have
been conducting yourself in other countries. You and
others must know that if they choose to violate the law
it will be sure to overtake them. The sentence is, that
you be transported for ten years.
It was said that the officers of the prison had re-
ceived some documents frum the French police to show
that the prisoner had been convicted of picking pockets
in France.
Edmund Curtis, 29, a labourer, was indicted for the
manslaughter of his wife, Hester Curtis, on the sth of
April last.
Mr. Macnamara was counsel for the prosecution, and
Mr. Cooke for the defence.
Jane • Anne Wilkes said--[ am the wife of Henry
Wilkes, who keeps the White Lion public-house at St.
Mary's, near Gloucester. I knew Hester Curtis, and
employed her as a charwoman. She was at my house
on the sth of April. Her husband (the prisoner) called
in the evening, She spoke to him, desiring him to come
home. He refused. She said " His place was at
home;" and he said, "So is yours." They then both
left the room. It was then twenty minutes before seven.
He was not particularly angry. He was sober.
After they had left the house—about three minu es
after—l heard a violent shriek. I went out and saw
her lying across a low iron railing in my garden. He
had hold of her over the left shoulder with his right
hand, and was striking her on the head with his clinched
fist. When I got out the shriek had ceased. I heard
no noise after. I told him he would kill her if he had
not done so, and desired him to loose her. He did not
do so. I called out William Kirkland, who pulled him
from her, and she fell on her left side on the ground,
apparently leeless. I told him he had killed her. I
called assistance. She was lifted up and put on a chair.
She fetched three sighs and died. She never spoke atter
I saw her. The doctor was sent for.
Cross-examined—When she was carried into the par-
lour he knelt down by her. He bad been working in
my garden that day. I told him he owed me 6s. Bd.
He said ha had a charge of 4s. for two days' work
against me. I refused to pay more than ls. 81. a day.
She came up, and was there while we vrrategh,d ab-ut
the wages. This talk was going on about three minute,.
They both left immediately. I did not see her hold
him by the collar. I heard her say nothing about his
drinking.
Mr. Alfred Clarke, a surgeon, practising in Glouces-
ter, proved that he was called in to attend the deceased
at the White Lion. She died in ten minutes. He made
a post mortem examination, and found bruises on the
head, which caused as extensive effusion of blood on the
brain and spinal marrow, which was the cause of death.
Cross-examined—When she was brought in he knelt
down and cried. The skin on her head was not broken.
The prisoner offered to make an explanation respecting
'he transaction, but I would not listen to him, as j
thought he ought to be cautioned before he made any
statement.
Mr. COOKE said be could not struggle against a con-
viction, and would give the jury no trouole.
They at once returned a verdict of Guilty.
Mr. Cooxic then said that the statement which the
prisoner wished to make to the surgeon was, that as
they left the White Lion she upbraided him and spat in
his face, and that he thereupon used his fist and struck
her, and she got over the rails. It did not appear that
she received any severe blow, and it was because the
skin was not cut that the effusion of blood proved fatal,
as the vessels could obtain no relief from the effusion
consequent on the excitement of a quarrel.
In answer to his LORDSHIP, the prisoner said he had
One child.
His LORDSHIP, in passing sentence, said—The facts
show that you indulged in a very violent degree of page
sion. Some sharp words took place between you and
your wife, and I can very well believe that you did not
mean to kill her. Nothing, however, can justify a man
in striking a woman. No doubt when this result oc-
curred you were sincerely sorry for it. I think, in con-
sidering all the circumstances, I can satisfy the justice
of the case by sentencing you to be imprisoned for six
calendar months, and kept to hard labour.
John Aston, aged 28, was indicted for the man-
slaughter of James Chamberlain on the 7th of May last.
Mr. Powell prosecuted, and Mr. Cooke defended the
prisoner.

On the evening of May 7 the deceased, the prisoner,
and a man named Jones, the prisoners uncle, were
drinking in a public-house near Gloucester, when a
quarrel arose between Jones and the deceased, both
of whom were drunk. The prisoner, who was sober,
promoted a fight between them, and they went out and
fought, or rather pulled each other about fur some
time, when they became exh,usted. The prisoner,
however, caught hold of his uncle, Jones, and
dragged him towards the deceased, arid he also went up
towards the deceased and squared his fists at him, upon
which a person named J.-ffs, who had been attracted from
his house by the noise, went to him, and, after telling
him it was a shame in him to induce two el•
derly men who were drunk to fight, added that
if he struck the deceased he would himself pre-
fer a charge of assault against him. The prize ncr
then te,ed abusive language t 'wards Mr. J-ITs,
and said of the deceased, after a violent impreca-
tion, " I had ono© to psy twenty tanners (sixpences) for
giving a man a bit of a kick, and if I have to pay again,
it shall be for something more." He thee went up to
the deceased, who was leaning against a wall, raised his
hand upwards and downwards once or twice, and struck
the deceased a violent blow on the left temple, which
felled him to the ground, and cut his face open. The
deceased was assisted up and placed against the wall,
and, turning to the prisoner, be said, "1 will make you
pay f'or this." Mr. Jeffs also said be would get a war-
rant against him; upon which the prisoner said, a I'll
pay fur something, then," and again struck the deceased
in the same place, and again knocked him down. The
deceased was then conveyed to a house, bleeding and