The Sun.
London, England, 1867-08-09 00:00:00

'THE SUN, LOisUON, FRIDAY EVENING, AUGUST 9 1867.

commencement of our inquiry, and frequently
during the course of it, we explained the provisions
of the Trades' Union Commission Act, 1867, with
regard to the powers conferred on us of granting
certificates of indemnity to witnesses who should by
their evidence inculpate themselves. We are con-
vinced that the most material disclosures made to
us were so made in reliance on our promise of in-
demnity made in conformity with the Act of Par-

liament. Had no such indemnity been offered, we
are satisfied that we should never have obtained any
clear and conclusive evidence touching the most im-
portant subjects of our inquiry, and that the system
of crime which has now been disclosed, as well as
the perpetrators, would have remained undiscovered
—we have therefore granted certificates to all wit-
nesses whom we believe to have made a full and

true disclosure of all offences in which they have
been implicated."

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

NORFOLK ClRCUlT.—Normictr, August 8.

CROWN COURT.
(Before Mr. Justice Byles.)
Hubbard Lingley was Indicted for the wilful
murder of Benjamin Black, at Barton Bendish, on
on the 17th of May, 1867. He was charged upon
the Coroner's inquisition with the same offence.
Mr. Metcalfe and Mr. Drake conducted the case
for the prosecution, the prisoner being defended by
Mr. Sims Reeve.

The facts of the case, which rested on circum-
stantial evidence for its proof, were as follows :

The prisoner, who is the nephew of the murdered
man, Benjamin Black, was employed as under-
woodman by Sir llanson Berney, at Barton Ben-
dish. his wages (12s. a week) were paid him by
his uncle, who, in addition to the place of woodman,
filled that of gamekeeper there. On the 17th of

May, very early in the morning, in consequence of
being roused by the report of a gun from a wood
near the cottage where he resided, the uncle got up
at 4 a.m., and went in the direction of the shot. He
was never seen again alive, for at 6 o'clock some
labourers who were going to their work in a neigh-

boating field discovered his dead body lying near a
gate forming the entrance into the wood,
with the left side riddled by shot, and in such
a situation as made it clear that the shot which had
caused immediate death had been fired into that

side from the wood, and as the victim was walking
up to open the gate for the purpose of going into
the wood. Now, in the wood at a spot about 15 or
16 feet from the place where the body lay were the
evident marks of some person having knelt down
some four or five feet from the hedge as if on the
watch, together with other marks, showing that this
person had retired to this place from the gate, and
the leaves of the hedgein this direction were scorched
as if by gunpowder. Now, who was this person by
whom this shot had been fired ? As to this the
following details were given in evidence :—ln the
first place, several pieces of what was called by the

learned counsel in his opening coarse white sugar
paper, stained with
gunpowder, lay between the
spot from which the shot was fired and that where

the body was found. In the next place, at a short
distance in the wood, were seen fragments of a
broken bottle, so broken as to have been apparently
thrown down with great violence and ground to
powder, and near these fragments also were found
a piece of the same sugar paper and some gun-
powder. In a shed, which was used for keeping
tools, the key of which was held by the deceased,
some broken bottles and some straw were found,
and it was also discovered that the lock had been
broken. It was the prisoner who drew attention to
these things, and he suggested that there had been
a drinking party in the shed, that the lock had been
forced, and the bottles broken by them, and that by

them also was his uncle's life taken. It was the
prisoner's duty to work in that wood, and on the
discovery of the dead body by the labourers oue of
them called out to him, and in about four or five
minutes he came from the direction where he should
have been at work, and from a spot about 320 yards
from where the body lay. This was about a quarter
past 6, and, though the tips of the fingers were cold,
the hand was warm ; the body was then lying on
the left side, with shot marks on that side and on
the left eye, and, in answer to the remark of one of
the labourers, saying, "Hubbard, doyou know what
has happened? Your uncle is shot and is dead," he
replied, " No, I don't ; who could have done this ?"
appearing at the same time affected at the sight. On
searching the body Black's watch was found pro-
get being small the watch truding from the pocket,heaenudgsilvloemurintog
darnawapipt eoaurt-,
ahnuctoo ofw aen
i ngwtrotchhehpaoveikn
re-
mained, but a chain attached to it was broken ; a
purse with money in it which his widow proved the
something more than
was carried away,
Bda
siel. 6
deceased dwl
ohhoakedui
ntgha taken
ae
tlnetf
the
-eihtghi
sa htei tne,n house,te
ring
on into the wood
it was found that it had been lifted from its hinges
and left hanging, as if, so it was suggested, to fur-
ther the object of the person by whom the shot was
fired and the purse taken. The prisoner was the
first to notice the loss of the money, and as sus-
picion was
directed
ofhim
he was kept in
very early in the
the againsteause of
close view all day, a detective officer having, as
soon as intelligence was forwarded to Norwich,
investigation
gone over to Barton Bendish. The rest of the
proof against the prisoner will appear from the fol-
lowing evidence. The motive for the crime, as Mr.
Metcalfe opened to the jury, was that the prisoner,
being dissatisfied with his own work, wished to
get his uncle's place, and had been to Sir H. Berney's
agent to try and get it, while, as would be shown,
there were continual quarrels between his uncle and

himself, and so late as the Saturday before the
uncle's death he had uttered strong threats against

The first important witness who was called was
the policeman, William Balls, stationed in the dis-
trict, who, after stating that he went to examine
the wood and the place where the body had been
found, said that he picked up fragments of a broken
bottle and pieces of coarse white paper near the
faceof a person having
towards the dead
knelt
, bme,
hh
ienr
de tah ehreed wg
ee rwith
a hr
ss
body and his toe-marks in a line behind it, and
also in the shed above mentioned ; that the leaves
of a maple bush five yards from the body, and in a
line with the knee marks, were scorched ; and that
the prisoner brought him the dead
man's broken watch
chain, which he said he had found on the body. He
went on to say that, having asked the prisoner
where his gun was, and being told that it was at
his uncle Henry Barton's house (the dead man's
brother), he went with him
to that place, and on
their arrival, Henry having joined them, the pri-
soner looked round a room, and saying, " It should
be somewhere here," his uncle said, My gun is in
a shed ; it is not here" (for it had been taken away
and was being used for frightening birds) ; and,
having sent for it, the prisoner said, " That is the
gun," to which the uncle replied, " Why, you know
you never were allowed to take that gun away.
What is the good of bringing these people here upon
this fool's errand ?" They andl
the prisoner having been apprehended on the charge
of murdering his uncle, he said to this witness, " I
should think there are fiftythpeeli went away,knowrsonswho
have a gun. I hid it while they were gone to follow
the trail." (This was a trail of 1,000 yards which
this witness and two other men had traced from the
gate near the body to another gate in the wood, but
as it led nowhere they did not pursue it. The im-
portance of this statement, however, will be seen in
the next witness's evidence). The prisoner then
went on to say to Balls that he hid the gnu because
he thought he should be suspected, and having
shown the witness where it was
(in a thicket of
blackthorn in the wood, about 150 yards from the
body), he went to the place and found it covered
over with dead leaves, and showing marks of hav-
ing been recently discharged, there being a piece of
the cip still on it. Balls on further search also
found an empty powder flask in a hollow tree in
the wood about 300 or 400 yards from the body, and
about 70 from the place where the prisoner had been
working.
George Reed, a farmer in the neighbourhood,
proved that he went into the wood and came back
to the body just as Balls and the others came up;
the prisoner was close to the body
all the time that