The Sun.
London, England, 1867-05-09 00:00:00

oEkirlitAL CRIMINAL COURT.—This Day.

(Before Mr. Justice Blackburn).
CHARGE OF ARSON.

The trial of Stephen Samuel Wales, who surrendered to
an indictment charging him with wilfully setting fire to
certain premises in his occupation in the Prince of Wales-
road, with a view of defrauding the Western Fire In-
surance Office, was resumed this morning.,

This case was postponed from the last session, and
although the evidence extended to very considerable
length the facts lay in a small_ compass. The prisoner
occupied a house situated 27, Prince of Wales'-crescent,
Haverstock-hill, and he carried ou there the business
of a dealer in unredeemed pledges, jewellery, and
articles of that descripion. At the close of last year
he applied to the Western Instvanc, Company to effect
:an insurance for the aunt of ..V5O against fire upon
his stock and furniture, and the surveyor of the company
having examined the premises awl the stock appeared to
have considered the amount wa reasonable, and in Novem-
ber a policy was effected for tlio amount mentioned. The
fire tort was the sutj clt, of ingliry tack place soon after
12 o'clock at night on the 91,t January, and it appeared
that very soon after the alarm had been given by the
three of the Western fire brigade men, It tyney, Coots, and
Kerrard, went to the place with a small hand-pump, and
upon looking through the shutter of the back window they
saw the fire was blazing under the counter, but it did not
appear to be at all of the character of a serious conflagration,
and the firemen broke open the door with the intention of
endeavouring to extinguish the fire by means of the hand-
pump. As they were approaching the spot, however,
there was a somewhat violent burst of flame and smoke,
and at the same time the firemen noticed a strong smell
of tar. It was afterward observed that the walls and
flooring all over the house were covered with some sub-
stance that exhibited the appeaKtace of black paint,
and this was relied upon' by the prosecution as being
an important fact in connection with the charge
against the prisoner. It appeared that Dr. Odling and one
or two other scientific gentlemen. were consulted in refer-
ence to the matter,andthe opinion they arrived at was that
the burst of flame spoken to by the firemen was the result
of an explosion of an ingredient called tar oil, which is a
very inflammable sub-stance,arid which when ignited
would give forth'a large quantity of vapour. This vapour
would under ordinary. circumstances have moved readily
with the atmospheric air, but it appeared that the
night on which the fire occurred was one of the very
coldest of the late inclement winter, and it seemed that
the effect of thisexcess of cold was to drive the-vapourback
into the house, and by this means the flooring and the walls
had been covered with it, and thus presented the appear-
ance of black paint that was observed by the witness. It
appeared that almost immediately after the alarm of fire
had been given the prisoner and his wife made their ap-
pearance from the back of the premises fully dressed, and
the bed which they were supposed to have occupied was
found ready for use, but no one seemed to have been in it.
The prisouor at the time he was first seen was carrying a
tin box, but the only thing that box appeared to have
contained was the policy of insurance that had been effected
with the cornpamy,and upon one of the officers of the company
observing it was a bad job, and iuquiring if he could give
any explanation as to the cause of the fire, he said he was
quite unable to do so. The fire seemed to have been ex-
tinguished without much trouble, and upon the premises
being examined afterwards a coil of rope was found at the
top of the house which might have been used to enable any
one to escape from the roof by means of it if he had found
it necessary. A watch was also found in the cellar burned
to such an extent as could not have been occasioned by such
a fire as the one that occurred on the prisoner's premises,
and two surveyors who examined the house after the fire
expressed their opinion that the value of the salvage was
not more than about £lOO, and that there could not have
been more than £2OO worth of property upon the premises
at the time the fire took place. The prisoner seemed to
have subsequently represented that the smell of tar to which
some of the witnesses had called his attention was occasioned
by a quantity of oilcloth having been'cousumed, but there
did not appear to have been any cinders or other refuse such
as must have been discovered if an article of this descrip-
tion to any extent had been burned. There were a va-
riety of other minute facts brought forward in support
of the prosecution, and among them was proof that
shortly before the fire a board had been placed over the
glass fanlight of the front door, which would hove had
the effect of preventing any appearance of flame or fire
being observed from the outside of the house.
A number of witnesses were examined yesterday, but
the case was adjourned until to-day.
The evidence adduced this morning wont to show that
previous to the fire the prisoner purchased a quantity of
jewellery, to the amount of £l3O, as an addition to his
stock.

Mr. Heaton, professor of chrlnistry at Charing-cross
Hospital, Mr. Moore; and Mr. Crook, were examined to
show that the deposit found on the walls, flooring, and
other portions of the house, agreed with the appear-
ances that would 13) produced by the burning of a large
quantity of.oil cloth.
tritittrg RCS tt-e.tkit.l:l6 liria .081=
tain experiments with oil cloth, and he could not agree
in the opinion that the applarauces ware such as would
be produced by burning oil cloth.
(The jury had not returned a verdict when we went to
press).