The Sun.
London, England, 1859-03-17 00:00:00

-Crankhall-lane. On approaching a bridge which
passed over the canal, he saw three men coming up
the lane, at a distance of about 100 yards. When
he had passed the clock at the West Bromwich old
church, it was just three minutes past four p.m.,
and the distance about a mile and a quarter. He
kept walking on, and as he passed the three men,
the prisoner, who was the one nearest him, seized
him by his left arm, while one of the other men struck
him a blow on the forehead with a blunt instrument,
and the third man seized him by the throat. The
men kocked him down and knelt upon him to pre-
vent his cries for help. He, however, continued to
cry for assistance, and shouted " Murder !" upon
which one of the men, whom he identified as the pri-
soner, threatened to murder him if he continued
making a noise. The prisoner succeeded in getting
the money bag out of his pocket, and cried out, "I've
got it," and, upon that, all three men ran away,
along the towing path by the canal side. The pro-
secutor, who acted with great courage, got up and
pursued the three men for a distance of three-quar-
ters of a mile along the towing path, crying" Mur-
der," and " Stop thief !" A farmer, named James,
saw the men running along the towing path, but he
could not identify the prisoner. Timmins borrowed
the farmer's horse, and pursued the three men on
horseback, and again caught sight of them at the
distance of 300 or 400 yards, but his horse fell, and
before he could come up with them, the men sepa-
rated, and went away over a bridge, in two direc-
tions, and he lost sight of them. In order to cor-
roborate the evidence of the prosecutor as to the
identity of the prisoner, two witnesses were called,
one of whom saw the three men at a distance of 30
yards, and the other saw them across the canal ;
and according to their evidence the prisoner was
one of the three men, and carried in his hand some-
thing which one witness thought was a turnip, and
the other a leathern bag.
Mr. Cook Evans, for the prisoner, put in the de-
positions
taken before the magistrates, in order to
show some discrepancy between the evidence now
given by the prosecutor and that which he had
formerly given ; and also ealled several witnesses,
who proved that at the time of the robbery the pri-
soner was at the George and Royal Exchange
publichouses at Wednesbury.
Mr. Scotland called the servant at the George,
and the landlord of the Royal Exchange, who swore
that they did not see the prisoner at either of those
places.
Mr. Best having addressed the jury on this evi-
dence, _ _ _

Mr. Scotland replied on the whole case.
Mr. Baron Channel! then summed up the evidence
very elaborately, and left it to the jury to say whe-
ther or not they were satisfied upon the evidence
that the prisoner was one of the three men.
The jury, after about five minutes' consideration,
found the prisoner guilty. Sentence deferred.
Elijah Knowles, 23, miner, charged with shooting
at Ehza Slater, at Rowley Regis, on the 2d of De-
cember, 1858, with intent to murder her, and also
with intent to do her some grievous Wily harm.
Mr. A. S. Hill appeared for the prosecution, Mr.
Kennedy defended the prisoner.
It appeared that the prisoner had kept company
with the prosecutrix, a girl of about 20, for as much
as nine months, but, for some reason, she had dis-
carded him, and refused to have any more to say to
him. The prosecutrix was a nailer, and on the 30th
of November last the prisoner went to her while she
was at work, and said in a desponding tone, " Well,
Eliza, are you in the same temper as you always
were ?" She said she was, and he then said, " If you
won't have me, I'll make you so as none else shall
have you ; it will be a Kite's-hill.job." The prisoner
went away, and the prosecutrix, who was much
frightened, communicated her fears to another girl,
who worked in the same place. The following
night the prosecutrix was at work in the same
place, and observed the door thrust open. She closed
it, and it was again thrust open. The prisoner then
entered with two others, and pointing a gun at her
discharged it. Her face was singed, and according
to the evidence there were marks on the wall,lwhich,
it was suggested, were the result of the discharge.
A man named Westwood swore that he was about
40 or 50 yards from the place, and saw a flash, and
saw the prisoner and two others get over a wall,
and one of them said, "I think we have finished
the - at last," and that the prisoner had a gun
in his hand at the time. The weight to be attached
to this witness's evidence was diminished by the
fact that he did not speak to the prisoner, and had
not seen him for several years previously. The
prisoner, when he was taken into custody, said he
was in bed at the time. The police produced five
very small shots, about the size of a pin's head,
which they had found in the shop, and also a brick
from the wall, against which, it was suggested, the
shot had struck.

Mr. Kennedy addressed the jury for the prisoner,
and called several witnesses to prove an alibi. He
contended from the appearance of the shot that
they had not been fired, and that it was more pro-
bable that the gun had been fired by some boys in
order to frighten the prosecutrix, and without any
intention of doing her any harm.
While the counsel for the prosecution was reply-
ing on the prisoner's evidence, a remarkable occur-
rence took place in the appearance of a young mar.,
who wished to be sworn, he having first admitted
to the prisoner's counsel that he had fired the gun
at the prosecutrix.

Enoch Partridge, the young man in question,
was .then sworn, and, having been told by the
learned judge that he was not bound to answer any
question tending to criminate himself, proceeded to
state that, in pursuance of an agreement made the
preceding night with two other young men, he
loaded a gun with powder and paper and fired it
at the prosecutrix. He was cross-examined a t
some length, and persisted in his story that he did
it, and that his only object was to frighten the
young woman. He said he had walked as many
as 20 miles that day to give this evidence.
Mr. Hill, in his reply, contended that this wit-
ness had come forward and perjured himself in
order to ocreen the prisoner from the connquence4