The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-23 00:00:00

211IDDL ES 15. X SESSIONS.—Nov. 22.

(Before the Assistant-Judge.)
George William Heard, a very respectable-look-
ing man, was indicted for assaulting and beating
his wife. He surrendered in court, having been out
on bail. It was stated that an offer had been made
to the defendant that if he would plead guilty to a
charge of common assault the matter could be
arranged so far as the other side was concerned, by
his entering into a recognisance to appear for judg-
ment when called upon, but the defendant said,
" No, he would stand his trial and abide the conse-
quences if twelve men found him guilty!' The case
was then proceeded with.

Mr.' F. H. Lewis was counsel for the prosecution
Mr. Sleigh for the defendant.

From the evidence of the prosecutrix it appeared
that she had been married to the defendant about
nine years, and had three children by him. He was
in the employment of Mr. Mortlock, of Oxford-
street, as-porter, and was, as she stated, an honest,
sober, well-conducted man, industrious, and took
home his wages, which were £1 4s. per week.
They lived at 5, Romney-street, Westminster. On
the 22d of October it seemed the defendant had to
go out of town on business for his master, and was
expected to be absent two or three days, but it so
turned out that he returned the day he went, and
was surprised at finding his wife out. He walked
about the streets until between one and two in the
morning, when he met her in the company of a
young man, walking towards his (defendant's)
lodgings. e demanded to know who that young
man was, and she said he was the son-in-law of,
Mrs. Long, the landlady, and had been with her
and a Mrs. Cattlin, for whom she worked, to a
dancing place. The defendant immediately pro-
ceeded to Mrs. Long with the pair, and asked if
the young man was her son-in-law. She said he
was quite a stranger to her, but it transpired that
he was in some way related to the Mrs Cattlin re-
ferred to, who was a relative of Mrs. Long's. The
defendant then, exasperated and suspecting,
knocked the young man, whom the wife said was
a boy, but who was stated to be 21 years of age,
down, and he ran away, calling for police, leaving
his hat behind him, which the defendant, in his
maddened rage, tore to pieces. The defendant
then struck his wife, and, as she alleged, knelt
upon her in the passage, and repeated his violence
next morning by striking her with a sleeve-board,
which she used in her business as a dressmaker ;
that he struck her across the mouth and bruised her
about the body, and made a lunge with a sword-
stick at her mother. The prosecutrix said her cha-
racter was spotless, but she admitted in cross-
examination that she had been to Cremorne without
her husband's knowledge ; that she and other females
had been to public-houses and drank gin ; that on one
occasion she was gone three hours to get a Spanish
onion for her husband's supper after he had come
home from work ; that she had not exactly danced
to a banjo tune played in the streets by Ethiopian
serenaders, but had teen in company with a woman
who had turned her round to the tune. She denied
that she had been in the habit of leaving her home,
and going into the company of other men, or that
she had ever been intoxicated. She was very ab-
stemious, and sometimes went without beer even
for a week. She had been summoned to the police-
court for using indecent language in the public
streets, and fined 205,, but it was to a woman the
defendant had been keeping. He had several, ana
she watched him to houses of ill-fame. She never
called him a poor contented cuckold, but he had
said something of that kind to her as he was going
out of a night. It was a falsehood when she said
the person she was with was Mrs. Long's son-in-
law, but she said it to prevent an, outburst of the
defendant's temper, which was very irritable, not
to screen herself for being out and in his company
at two in the morning. The young man was a per-
fect stranger to her ; she had never seen him before,
and thought no harm in his seeing her home. She
had left the key of her lodging with the landlady
in case her husband should return during her
absence. She was a dressmaker, and worked hard
for her children, and the reason she was out on the
night in question was, that she went with Mrs.
Catlin to make a purchase in the Westminster-road.
They met this young man, her relative, and hearing
some music and dancing at the Railway Arch
Tavern, they went in and stopped till between one
and two in the morning.
Other evidence as to the assault having been
given,
Mr. Sleigh proceeded to address the jury, and
said the prosecutrix had, by her course of conduct,
both as a woman and a wife, been the very bane and
curse of the existence of the defendant,' who was
admitted, even by her, to be a respectable,
hard-working, frugal man, careful of his
children and his home. She was continually
absent from her home when she should have been
in it, and he had been uncared for and neglected.
This case was one of those which too frequently had
been brought under the operation of the act relat-
ing to assaults upon women, through the malice,
vindictiveness, and spite of some ill-conducted and
revengeful wife, whose object was to humiliate,
degrade, and even to incarcerate an honest, sober,
and well meaning man, wbo would not submit to
her treatment, and resorted to a blow, when all
other means had failed, and exasperated to despe-
ration at the moment. This prosecution was solely
an attempt to place the defendant at the mercy of
a relentless woman, and the defendant, like a man,
had scorned the offer made to him to plead guilty,
and go out on his recognisance ; he had preferred
to stake his character and liberty on the issue of
the trial, confident that, under the circumstances,
the manly good sense of an English jury would
exonerate him from the charge made agsinst him.
The learned counsel proceeded to comment, with
much severity, upon the conduct of the prosecutrix,
in being absent from home in the company of a
strange man in the streets at two in the morning,
when she was aware that her husband had been
sent into the country by his master, and the wilful
and deliberate lie she told in saying, to excuse if
she could, the wrong she had done, that that young
man was the son-in-law of Mrs. iong. What did
the defendant do ? He did not knock them down
there and then, but went and asked Mrs. Long if that
was her son-in-law, and when he found he was not,
what could he do but suspect, finding a strange man
walking towards his lodgings at two in the morn-
ing from a dancing place, when she must have
supposed her husband was not in London, The
defendant was wandering the streets to look for
her, when, on getting home, he found she was out,
he finds her with this man, whom she palms off as
the son-in-law of her friend, and under the circum-
stances what he did was but the natural impulse of
a generous nature, he knocked the impostor down,
who ran off, leaving his hat behind him. Why was
that young man not here to-day ? Taunted and
irritated by this young woman he might have
struck her, but she had told a highly coloured a
worth
believing. exaggerated story, and her evidence was no
believing. She was only actuated by Fe g
the most bitter vindictiveness, as the jury mustsro
it wof
h6ve seen from her manner in the box, and he
truth,: that as men and Englishmen they would
put a liber, on upon
":1 and comprehensive construction
circumstances in which
under tha
a man's condut;!'
the defendant has been_ placed.
hen summed up at consider-
The learned Judge is- after retiring fora
short
able length, and the jury, -
en
6 uilty.
time, found the defendant not

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ST. GEORGE'S-IN-THE-EAST.

Yesterday evening a meeting of the vestry of St.
George's was held in the board-room of the work-
house for the purpose, amongst other business, of
receiving a deputation appointed to wait upon the
Bishop of London in reference to the ecclesiastical
condition of the parish. Mr. Clarke presided. Mr.
Hosvell, the vestry clerk, at the request of the
chairman, stated the result of an interview which
certain members of the vestry had with the bishop
on that day week. On Thursday last the depu-
tation, in
in accordance with a vote pf the
vestry, waited upon the bishop at London-
house
reference to the objectionable services
still carried on in the parish church. At London.-
house the deputation met Mr. Thompson and Mr.
Dowsett, the churchwardens of the parish. The
bishop had his attention called to the several
objections to the service stated in a resolution for-
warded to him by the vestry, having particular
reference to the choristers, the adornment of the
altar, &c. Having heard what the deputation had
to say with regard to the improbability of peace
being permanently estab fished in the parish while
the objectionable services continued, his lordship
intimated that he was not in a condition then to
pledge himself to any course of proceeding, but
that he would write immediately to the Rev. Bryan
King; the rector of the parish, who was abroad, and
communicate to him the substaLice of what had
taken place. The bishop added that he deeply
regretted that the hopes entertained of peace being
restored in the parish when he placed there Mr.
Hansard, a gentleman for whom he had great re-
spect, and in whom he had every confidence, should
have been disappointed. He regretted that Mr.
Hansard had not succeeded in restoring the peace
which formerly existed, and putting an end to the
disturbances. His lordship then said he should
make his own views known to Mr. King, and
appointed the churchwardens and others to attend
him again that (Thursday) evening at five o'clock,
when he would state what course he would advise
for adoption. The deputation had gone to London-
house, but at that time (half-past six o'clock) had
not returned. At a subsequent period of the even-
ing Mr. Churchwarden Thompson hurried in and
took his seat beside the chairman. He merely
stated, in reply to questions, that he had seen the
bishop and was quite satisfied with the interview.
It has been ascertained from another quarter, quite
independent of the parish authorities, that Mr.
King has courteously surrendered his peculiar
views, and that henceforth thero are not likely to
be any more dissensions in this unfortunate pariah.

COUNTRY 111 A RKB ZS.

BIRMINGHAM—Noy. 22.

A fair business was done in wheat to-day, with a very
large supply. English old and new wheat must be noted
at is to 2s under late rates; foreign and damp sorts were
also cheaper to sell. Barley was a slow sale, and fully 23
lower. Peas is cheaper. Oats is lower. Beans sold at ls
to 2s under late prices.