The Sun.
London, England, 1851-02-27 00:00:00

LOCKHART V. DUNCOMBE.

This was in action against the defendant, as acceptor
of a hill of exchange f r 3,0004
The defendant pleaded that he did not accept, that he
was induced to accept by fraud, no consideration, and
that the bill was an accommodation one.

Mr. Edward Jamey, Q C., and Mr. Dacent appeared
for the plaintiff; Sir F. Theinger, and Mr. Bramwell for
the defendant.

The bill was drawn by a Mr. Beebey, the nephew of
the defendant; and Beebey indorsed it to the plaintiff,
who had been in his service. Consideration to th 4
amount of 9501. was proved to have been advanced by
the plaintiff to Beebey. The case was chiefly remark-
able for the manner in which the evidence was given,
After the defendant's case was finished, the plaintiff
called witnesses in reply, upon which the defendant
called witnesses to contradict them; and, lastly, while
the jury were considering, an additional witness was
tendered, but his Lordship would not hear his evidence.
The jury found a verdict for the plaintiff for 950/,
without interest.

ASSIZE IN TELLIGENCE.
HOME ClRCUlT.—Hereford, Fa). 26.
The commission cf assize for the county of Hereford
was opened to-day by Mr. Baron Parke. The cause list
is not yet made up, but the number is believed to be
about the usual a‘erage. The gaol calendar is light and
all the cases are of the ordinary description.
Mr. Baron PARKE, in his charge to the grand jury,
congratulated them upon the lightness of the calendar,
observing that all the cases contained in it appeared to
be of a very simple description, and not requiring any re-
marks from hirn respecting them, and he at the sametime
said it was very satslactory to see that there was not a
single charge involving the desctruction of human life,
or in which the life of any person accused was in jeopardy.
The grand jury having retired, one or two trifling
eases were disposed of, but they did nut furnish any
material for a report.

NORTHERN Fel). 25.
CROWN COURT.—(Befure Mr. Justice CRESSWELL.)

Jane Watson, aged 23, the wife of Matthew Watson,
was indicted for having at Braithwaite, on the 25th of
last July, feloniously cut the throat of her child, Sarah
W atson, with intent to murder it. There were other
counts in the indictment laying the intent to do the child
acme grievous bodily harm.
Mr. James and Mr. Higgin prosecuted, and Mr. Mat-
thewa defended the prisoner.
It appeared that the prisoner is the wife of a labourer
living at Braithwaite, a village about three miles feeno
Keswick, and her father, John Kirkbridge, lived in the
same house with them. On the 25th of July Mary
Fearon, a little girl, the niece of the prisoner, went to
call upon her, hut finding the front door fast, Ofe went
round to the buck door and entered thu house, and on
going up stairs she saw the prisoner sitting by ti, fire
with her child, which was about fourteen months old,
on her knee. There was blood on the floor, and two
bloody rasors lying on the dressing table, anti bloody
cloths were wrapped round the necks of both the pri-
soner and her child. The little girl, Mary Fearon, in
great alarm, ran back and informed her mother of what
she had seen, and an immediate alarm being given, vari-
ous people ran to the prisoner's cottage to see what was
to do. A witness named Jobson first entered, and found
the prisoner still sitting As described by the little girl.
He spoke to her, and asked her what she had been
doing. She made no answer, but told him "to keep off
her. He took up the razors, and there was a little
' blood on them, which he wiped off. lie then went out.
and Isaac Pearce), her brother in-law, went into the
room. She took no notice of him, and he sat down on
the bedside and began talking kinoly to her, asking her
what was the wetter, when she burst, into tears. On
seeing the child lying ou her 'toe' with bloody cloths
about it, he said, •'oh dear me, Jane, what could make
then do such a thing as this?" She said her father had
said or done something to her, and she could nut hear
it; but she cared nothing about herself. He went out to
send for a doctor, and on his return he inund her standing
over the child, which she had laid on the bed, crying out
with her arms above her head, " My poor bairn, my poor
bairn." On the surgeon arriving he found the child appa-
rently lifeless. There were two incised wounds on the throat,
about three inches long each, but not very deep, and
no material blood-vessels had been divided. On sewing
up this wound the child flinched, and he then resorted
to every means he could to revive it. The child re-
covered, and was now quit.o well. There were also two
gashes on the prisoner's throat, and both her own throat
and the child's had been bound up by her with cloths.
On the cross-examination of the various witnesses it was
attempted to be elicited that the prisoner lived au un-
happy life in consequence of having a drunken husband,
and she was shown to have exhibited a state of great
despondency before this event. It was also attempted to
be shown that there was hereditary insanity in the fa-
mily; that her mother died childish and insane, and her
grandmother cut her throat.

The Learned COUNSEL for the prisoner then addressed
the jury, and in the course of his speech was consider-
ably affected by the painful details of the case. He
urged that temporary insanity alone, there being a pre-
disposition to that malady in the prisoner's family,
brought on by domestic trouble, would have induced her
to commit so shocking an act towards her own child, to
which, immediately afterwards, the returning affection
of a mother had exhibited itself; and he appealed to the
jury to take a lenient view of so sad a case.
His LORDSHIP, in summing up, directed the jury that
it was for them toconsider the intent with which the act
was done. It they thought the prisoner had committed
this act with any of the intents charged in the indict-
ment, they must tind her guilty. If they acquitted her,
then they must say whether they acquitted her on the
ground of insanity and incapacity of knowing whether
shem did right or wrong; but the law said that insanity
must be presumed, unless that presumption was rebutted
by the clearest evidence.
The jury found the prisoner Guilty of doing bodily
harm to the child, but no " grievous bodily harm,"
which his Lordship said was guilty only of an assault.
She was sentenced to be imprisoned, with hard labour,
for one year.
Mr. Bliss, Q C., sat in the c eirse of the dsy in the
Grand Jury-room and tried several prisoners.

• PoLICE INTELLIGENcE,
MARLBOROUGH-STREET.
OMNIBUS R BBERL—Frederick Stwge, n pickpocket,
,f ex respect.,ble Nip( artioce, sees brought twfwre
Mr, Hardwick, charged r,,y a City pr,licw-conatablo ntan•Ad
He .dineton with having robbed is lady in ail oinuibui of
her watch. . _

he constable said he knew the prisoner t., be a thief.
Seeing him in company with another man, he watched
them until they got into aro omnibus at Charing-cross.
omni-
bus, .
andW o int r made
Witness immediately followed in a cab, and when the
nFss
omnibus stopped in Regent •street, and the two men got
out, he went up to the prisoner and took him into ces-
a itd ea the
.t
heprthise mpassengers had lost oner go back to the ei_
any-
thing, an elderly lady immediately discovered that she
nad been robbed of her watch. The prisoner took the
watch out of his pocket, and threw it on the seat of the
omnibus. In the prisoner's possession 1/. 2s. 6d. was
found. When witness stepped the prisoner, and told
him he must go back to the omnibus, the prisoner said,
For God's sake don't take me, or I shall be lagged;
consider my wife and family."
Miss Jane Searle, a maiden lady, residing at 16,
Queen's-row, Camberwell. said about ele.ven that morn-
ing she got into an omnibus at Newington, having a
watch in her pocket, fastened to it with a piece of tape.
Looked at the watch at the Horse Guards, and then re-
placed it in her pocket. The prisoner got into the
omnibus at Charing-cross, and placed himself by her
side, where her pocket was. The prisoner got out in
Regent-street, and in a few minutes was brought back
in custody. Witness then felt for her watch, and found
it bad been stolen. The prisoner afterwards threw it on
the seat of the omnibus.
The prisoner declined to make any defence, and was
fully committed.
DARING MID-DAY 110SBERY.—CAUTION TO LADIES.
—john William, a man dressed as a bricklayer's la-
bourer, was charged with the following daring rubbery:
Mrs. Overman, of No. 4, Queen's-row, Regent's-park,
who appeared to be still labouring under considerable
agitation from what had occurred, stated that about un
hour before, as she was walking in Park-cresent, with
her purse in her band and her watch by her side, she
was suddenly knceked down by the prisoner, who made
a snatch at her purse and watch, but only succeeded in
teariug off the ends of the purse. The prison instantly
ran off, throwing the steel ends of the purse into the
road. A gentleman who saw the occurrence stopped
the prisoner, who was afterwards given into the custody
of a police-constable.
Mr. Wyatt, a young gentleman living in Chester-ter-
race, Regent's-park, avid he was walking with his mo-
ther when he saw the lady fall on her back in the road,
and the prisoner run away. He stopped the prisoner,
and the prisoner ran back; witness pursued, turned the