The Sun.
London, England, 1860-07-11 00:00:00

SUMIIIER ASSIZES.

OXFORD CIRCUIT.—ABINGTON, JULY 10.
Mr. Justice Byles and Mr. Justice Hill arrived
in this town yesterday, and opened the commission
for the county of Berks. Their lordships after-
wards attended Divine service at St. Helen's.

(Before Mr. Justice Hill.)
William Gordon Fitzmaurice, 29, schoolmaster,
was charged with forging certain certificates of
character, with intent to deceive and defraud the
guardians of the Bradfield Union, and thereby ob-
taining the situation of master of the boys' school
of the Bradfield Union, on the 29th of November,
1859. He was also charged with uttering the same
knowing them to be forged.
Mr. Cripps and Mr. Lawrence appeared for the
prosecution ; Mr. Griffits defended the prisoner.
It appeared that on the 12th of November, 1859,
the guardians of the Bradfield Union inserted an
advertisement in the Reading Mercury, stating
that on the 22d they would elect a schoolmaster of
the boys' school, at a salary of £35, with board and
lodging, and sueh further sum as might be allowed
by the Committee of Council on Education, and re-
questing candidates to send their testimonials to
the clerk of the board. Among others, the pri-
soner sent in an application for the appointment,
enclosing copies of three certificates, the originals
of which he afterwards produced to the board on
the 29th of November. The first certificate pur-
ported to be a certificate signed J. A. Sandford, on
the part of the Committee a Council on Education,
to the effect that the Committee of Council on Edu-
cation had awarded him a certificate of probation,
first division ; and that the sum to be allowed to the
guardians from the Parliamentary grant on his
behalf for the parochial year ending Lady-day,
1859, according to the scale laid down by the Poor
Law Board and the Committee of Council, would
be at the rate of £23 per annum. The second cer-
tificate purported to be signed by " J. Mills for C.
F. Inskipp, clerk to the guardins of the Hastings
Parochial Union Schools," and certified that " Mr.
Fitzmaurice resigned," and that his " character
was very good and highly respected." The third
certificate purported to be from " Charles Miles,"
Chaplain Superintendent of the Middlesex Industrial
Schools, at Feltham, testifying to the general good
character of Mr. Fitzmaurice, that he possessed
first-class abilities, that his judicious manage-
ment and treatment of boys were highly to be
commended, and that sterling qualities, even tem-
per, and general good conduct were eminent traits
in his character. Upon these testimonials the pri-
soner was appointed, and told that he was to enter
on his duties on the sth of December ; but, before
that day arrived, inquiries were made and it was
discovered that all the certificates were forgeries.
It appeared that the prisoner had been schoolmaster
of the Hastings Union School, from the 23d of
September, 1858, to the 21st of April, 1859, when
he resigned. An application was then made by
the prisoner to the guardians for a testimonial, but
this was refused. Jane Mills, the schoolmistress,
left on the same day. It also appeared that he had
been master in the Industrial School at Feltham, in
Middlesex, from the 13th of July, 1859, to the
Ist of October, when he asked for leave of absence
for 48 hours, but as this was refused, he said he
should leave and they would not see him again.
and he then went away. A schoolmaster named.
Charles Mills had left that establishment on the
13th of September previous. Both of these latter
certificates were proved to be forgeries.
The jury found the prisoner guilty, and
Mr. Justice Hill, after a severe admonition, sen-
tenced him to eight calendar months' imprisonment
with hard labour.
George Solloway, 45, labourer, was charged with
the manslaughter of William Wickens on the 6th
of March at Old Windsor.
Mr. It. Sawyer appeared for the prosecution ; the
prisoner was undefended.
It appeared that the deceased man was a pauper
in the Windsor workhouse, and was paralytic and
an idiot. He had lost the use of one side, but ho
could walk a little and could help himself to his
food, though he could not cut it. His usual health
was good, but he was at times dirty in his habits,
and on the day of his death it appeared he required
a bath. The prisoner was also a pauper, and it was
his duty, under the nurse, to attend upon the
prisoner and other patients in the same
ward. About dinner time the prisoner was
seen washing a pair of trousers and a shoe
belonging to the deceased, who was about the
same time seen in the bath. According to the evi-
dence he was kept in the bath about half an hour,
and was shivering. The prisoner then took him
out and put him to bed, and becoming alarmed ran
and fetched the nurse, who went immediately and
found the deceased in a dying state. The poor
man died almost immediately, and his body was
quite cold.
The prisoner said he had given the deceased a
bath, but he had put two pailsful of hot water into
it. The surgeon, Mr. Ridout, said he attributed the
death of the deceased to apoplexy; but he had made
no post mortem examination, am. 4. the reason he gave
for the omission was that the coroner had given him
no order. In answer to questions from the learned
judge the surgeon said the deceased might have
died of apoplexy of the lungs, or of a disease of the
heart.

Mr. Justice Hill said, that as death might have
arisen from natural causes, it would be wrong to
convict the prisoner ; but, if ordinary care had been
taken, the proper evidence might have been got.
The jury therefore acquitted the prisoner.
George Woolton, 10, shoemaker, was charged
with wilfully and' maliciously placing a piece of
iron upon the Great Western Railway, with intent
to obstruct an engine on the line, and to endanger
the lives of the passengers, on the sth of April,
1859, at Bray.
Mr. lt. Sawyer appeared for the prosecution;
Mr. J. J. Williams defended the prisoner.
It appeared that on the evening of the sth of
April last the Plymouth train, which left Padding-
ton at 8 10 p.m., came in contact with some hard
substance near the Wycombe junction. The train
was stopped, but finding that the engine was in
proper order the driver proceeded to Reading, where
he discovered that the ash pan and guard iron were
injured. The servants of the company made an exa-
mination of the line, and found a piece of a rail lying
between the rails, the ballast disturbed, and one
of the transoms broken in two. The line was
watched, and on the night but one after the pri-
soner was seen upon the line near the spot
with an iron spanner in his hand, and taken into
custody. While in custody the prisoner admitted

that he had b eon several times en the line, and that
the in question ho placed the iron across
evening
the rails, and gave this extraordinary reason for his
conduct. He said his mistress called him "thick-
head," every time she came near him, and that he
was determined to do something to get away from
his place.
Mr. J. J. Williams submitted that neither of the
intents charged in the indictment was proved.
Mr. Justice Hill decided that the prisoner must
be considered as intending the probable conse-
quences of his act.
The jury found the prisoner guilty, but recom-
mended him to mercy, on the ground of his evident
imbecility.
Mr. Justice Hill called the prisoner's master and
asked him about the prisoner's disposition and con-
duct while in his service, and was informed that he
was always at some mischief, and very spiteful.
His lordship also consulted the governor and chap.
lain of the gaol, and then said he felt bound to pass
upon the prisoner a sentence of five years' penal
servitude, which he did accordingly.
Maria Spencer, 28, schoolmistress, surrendered
to take her trial, on a charge of forging a certificate
of good character; with intent to deceive and de-
fraud the guardians of the Bradfield Union Girls'
School, on the 27th of March, 1860. There was also
a count for uttering the same knowing it to be
forged.
Mr. Lawrence appeared for the prosecution, Mr.
J. 0. Griffits defended the prisoner.
It appeared that, on the 11th of February, an
advertisement was inserted in the Reading Mercury
inviting applications for the vacant office of mis-
tress of the Bradfield Union Girls' School. The
salary was to be £25 a-year, with apartments and
rations. The prisoner sent in copies of her testnno-
nials, and on the 27th of March she produced the
originals, one of which purported to be a certifi-
cate from the hon. secretary of the Royal British
Orphan Asylum, and dated January, 1859. The
prisoner was elected, and entered on her
duties at once, but it was afterwards dis-
covered that the certificate had been given in
January, 1857, and the date altered to 1859.
She had left in 1857 with a certificate of good cha-
racter, arid afterwards returned to her office, and
continued till August, 1859, when she was dis-
charged by the committee, without a certificate of
character, but without anything which reflected
upon her moral character.
Mr. Griffits, for the prisoner, contended that
the alleged alteration was more like a flourish than
a deliberate alteration, and that the certificate was
not uttered as a certificate of 1859, or with a fraudu-
lent intent.
Mr. Justice Hill told the jury that if they agreed
with the view taken of the case by the prisoner's
counsel they ought to find her not guilty ; but if
she knew the figure had been altered, and uttered
it as a certificate of 1859, with intent to deceive the
guardians, they ought to find her guilty.
The jury found the prisoner not guilty.

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.-July 10,

OLD COURT.
(Before the E(2corder.)
THE 11E11'4 lull ELECTION.

Mr. Wm. M‘Gall, a law writer at Berwick-upon-
Tweed, surrendered to take his trial upon an indict-
ment charging him with having committed wilful
and corrupt perjury before a Select Committee of
the House of Commons.

The Solicitor-General, in continuation to what
appeared in The Sun of yesterday, proposed to
bring forward evidence that the defendant had been
guilty of bribery in respect of other parties than
those referred to in the present indictment.
Sir F. Slade, however, objected to the reception
of evidence of this description ; and the Recorder
ruled that it was not admissible.
This was the case for the prosecution.
Sir F. Slade then took several technical objec-
tions to the indictment, the most material of which
were, that there was no corroboration of the testi-
mony of the principal witnesses, and that as the
case at present stood it was merely oath against
oath, which was not sufficient to support a charge
of wilful and corrupt perjury.
The Recorder said he should reserve this point
for consideration, if such a course should become
necessary.
Sir F. Slade then proceeded to address the jury
for the defence. He said he was not sorry that the
Court had overruled the legal objections he had
felt it his duty to make on behalf of the defendant,
because it gave him the opportunity of addressing
them upon the merits of the case, and he hoped to
be able to satisfy them that the gentleman at the
bar, who during the whole of his life had borne the
character of a most honourable and respectable
man, was entirely innocent of the charge that was
made against him. By what description of evi-
dence was this serious charge sought to be sup-
ported ? By the testimony of the witnesses Brown,
Miller, and Blaylock. The jury had seen those
witnesses—they had observed their demeanour;
and he asked them whether it would be right to
hang a dog upon the evidence of such witnesses as
these ? The real question they had to decide was,
whether the defendant, or the witnesses who had
been called, spoke the truth when they were exa-
mined before the committee of the House of Com-
mons ; and he was sure his lordship would tell
them that in law, unless there was some corrobo.
ratiN e evidence, and there was merely one oat
against another, they ought not to convict defen,
dant. So far as two of the witnesses, Brown and
Miller, were concerned, the committee of the House
of Commons had already decided that they were
not to be believed upon their oath, for although
they swore that they had been bribed, the committee
would not believe them, but decided that their votes
were good votes. Notwithstanding this, however,
the House of Commons, in one of those fits of vir-
tuous indignation in which it sometimes indulged,
had directed the present prosecution to be instituted
against the defendant,thus virtually endeavouring to
reverse their decision, and they called upon twelve
jurymen of the county of Middlesex to assist them
in effecting this object. The committee would
in all probability have come to the same conclusion
in the case of Blaylock that they did in those of
Brown and Miller, but for the prejudice that had
been introduced by the description of evidence that
had been sought to be brought forward on the pre-
sent trim by the Solicitor-General, and which evi-
dence would never have been received by any com-
petent legal tribunal. The learned counsel then
proceeded to comment at considerable length upon
the evidence that had been given by the principal
witnesses, and he submitted that the story they told
was absurd and improbable to the last degree, and
the jury ought not to give any credit to it.
The Solicitor-General briefly replied.
The Recorder then summed up, and at a quarter
past four o'clock the jury retired to consider their
verdict.

At about six o'clock they returned into court,
and wished to be informed whether there was any
evidence that Mr. Gibson's house, where the money
was represented to have been given, was used by
the committee of Mr. Hodgson.
The Recorder said he did not think there was
any positive evidence of this fact, but he believed
it had been stated to be so in the course of the trial.
The jury intimated that there was no chance of
their agreeing, and they then again retired.
The Recorder sat for some time longer, and he
was then informed by Mr. Under-Sheriff Gammon
that the jury stated that there was no likelihood of
their agreeing, and the Court was adjourned till
ten o'clock.

The Court was again opened at twenty minutes
past ten o'clock, when the jury announced that they
had agreed to a verdict of not guilty.

NEW COURT.
(Before the Common Sergeant.)
Frederick William Lowe, 35, messenger, pleaded
guilty to an indictment charging him with forging
and uttering an order for the payment of £384,
with intent to defraud George Taylor.
Mr. Cock, who appeared for the prosecution,
stated that the prisoner had been a 'messenger to
Messrs. Nisbet, merchants, and the money was ob-
tained upon a cheque forged upon the London and
County Bank.
Mr. Sleigh, on the part of the prisoner, said that
in this instance the prisoner had. yielded to a sudden
temptation, and after he got the money went to
America, where he was robbed. of a great portion of
it. He then came back to this country, gave him-
self up, and also £B4 and a gold watch.
The Court sentenced t'ue prisoner to four
years
penal servitude.
linty to
Henry Cooper, 37, shoemaker, pleaded g
having, within three months of his havingvhavingD
een
'
adjudged a bankrupt, obtained on credit divers lea-
ther, Bilk, thread, and materials, valued. at £BO, the
goods of Alfred Le Mare and others, with intent to
defraud.
Lewis prosecuted ;
Mr. Sleigh and Mr. F.
and Mr. Robinson defended.
Sentence was postponed until next session.
(Before Mr. Commissioner Kerr.)
Charles Fox Thatcher, collector, pleaded guilty
to several indictments for embezzlement.
Mr. Sleigh and Mr. Poland prosecuted, and Mr.
M. Chambers, Q.C., and Mr. Robinson were for the
prim ner.
The prisoner had been for many years collector
in Paddington parish, and his defeleati.ons were
about £1,400, his salary and comm •
s mon being ian-
nually about £4OO.
Mr. Chambers having addressed the
Court in
mitigation, presented a petition from
tilde ratepayers
recommending him to mercy, and 800 had been
subscribed by them to meet bis defalcations.
Mr. Sleigh said that the parish felt themselves