The Sun.
London, England, 1859-07-19 00:00:00

SOUTH STAFFORDSHIRE.

An adjourned special meeting-oftisilS company
was held yesterday at Birmingham for the purpose
of considering the bill now before Parliament con-
ferring " additional powers," &c., ',upon the com-
pany.
Mr. R. C. Chawner presided.
In reference to the bill now before Parliament,
he stated that he had hoped to be able to announce
that the bill had passed in its entirety, inasmuch
as the only part of the bill which was opposed was
the clause authorising a lease to the London and
North-Western Railway Company, which the com-
mittee had declined to pass, the chairman of the
committee, after hearing counsel for the North Staf-
fordshire Company, having stopped the counsel for
the Midland Company, and said that it was not
the intention of the committee to allow the

leasing; powers. s The company already pos-
sessed authority ,under the Bill of 1855
to make an arrangeMent with the London and
North Western Company for working the line ;
and it would become a consideration before they
took any Other step as to how far they could pro-
-c ed u nder that Act.
Mr. WAGSTAFF, the solicitor, :then read the
clauses retained in the Bill, which conferred powers
for on extension of time for making two new
branches; also powers to purchase land between
the line at Cannock
,and the Birmingham Cane!,
and to enable the company to raise more capital
for the wcrks.

The CHAIRMAN, in moving a resolution approving
the Bill, said that, notwithstanding the lea,ing
powers had been struck out, he had no doubt that
the railway had now attained such a position as to
traffic'thatthere was no reason to fear a falling off
in the receipts ; consequently, there was no danger
of their property declining, in value.
Mr. J. B:NYN seconded the motion, which was
unanimously adopt:id.
In reply to a question from a shareholder,
. Mr. WAGSTAFF said he was of opinion that the
two companies already possessed sufficient powers
to make an agreement as to the lease of the line ;
but he was not prepared to say whether the Lon-
don and North-Western Company would make
another application to Parliament.

ASSIZE INTELLIGIENC4

MIDLAND CIRCUIT:-LEICESTER, JULY 18.

On Saturday evening Mr. Justice Williams
ma r(rni.Nn, d
n g hlteirre.,
Cahnd
ie f openedjust the
Justice
Erie
ope commission.ned he
This
Crown
court, Mr. Justice Williams presiding on the
" cause" side. Tina borough-calendar contained but
three cases—:;ne of stabbing and two of felony.
Joseph IVlousley, 41, coal merchant, was indicted
for feloniously stabbing John William Keen.
Prisoner had been to, an inn in the town, and the
company were chaffing him about his treatment to
his wife. •He became excited, and -on the party
leaving he followed prosecutor; and inflicted a
wound two inches in length in his left side.
He was • found guilty, and sentenced to fifteen
months' hardlabopr.
The county calendar, contains eight cases and 13
prisoners, all of ordinary interest.

OXFORD CIRCUIT.—WORCESTER, JULY 18.
Business commenced in both courts at ten o'clock
this morning, Mr. Justice Byles presiding in the
Crown Court and Mr. Justice Willes at Nisi Prius.
Altogether there were 33 prisoners for trial (city
and county),.and some causes, three of which are
inserted for special juries.
(Before Mr. Justice Byles.) • ,
Theophilus Dunn, engineer, was charged with
uttering forged Bank of England notes at Dudley.
The prisoner ' bears a very indifferent character.
In the month of October last he made a
descent upon Dudley, and passed off several forged
Bank of England notes upon the tradesmen. Two
cases were proved against him, and a former con-
viction also being proved he was sentenced to ten
years' penal servitude.
(Before Mr. Justice Willes.)
His lordship has been occupied nearly all day in
hearing an action for assault, which vias not con•
eluded when our report was despatched.

NORTHERN CIRCUIT,L--Yor.K, JULY 16.
(Before Mr. Jn.stice
Lars Peter Nicholie Ernst and Thomas Walton
were arraigned on the indictment for burglary in
the house of John Crossley, Esq., at Manor Heath,
near Halifax. • The former prisoner had pleaded
guilty to tb.e burglary, as well as those at Head-
inglev Parsonage and Bstrdsey. Walton was tried
on the indictment of receiving some of the property
which had been stolen at Manor Heath, the charge
of burglary being .abandoned against him. It was
clearly proved that he had dealt in the stolen pro-
perty ; and the jury, therefore, found him guilty,
and he was sentenced to two months' imprisonment.
In passing sentence upon Ernst, who is a native of
Denmark, and who has earned the title of " The
Danish Jack Sheppard," the learned judge said
that, on referring to Ernst's past history, besides
the three burglaries for _which _he was about to be
sentenced;- he was ordered to be imprisoned, in
1856, for burglary, at Worcester assizes. He served
his time ; and in Gloucester, in the same year, he
'was again convicted ; and in the latter part of the
same year he was again punished for being found
on board a vessel, where he had gone for the pur-
pose of committing a robbery. It appeared that
imprisonment was perfectly useless in Ernst's case,
and he should, therefore, rid the country of him for
ten years, by committing him to penal servitude for
that periad.

(Before Mr. Baron Watson.)

POTTER V. BLAND.-LIABILITY OF INNKEEPERS.

Mr. M. Potter, commercial traveller to Messrs.
Ellis and Co., of London. sued Mr. Bland, of the
Old George Inn, York, for £Bl 95., which,' it was
urged, he ought to pay by reason of his liability,
in common with other innkeepers, to make good
anything lost at his house, if there was no negli-
gence or other circumstance on the part of the person
losing property which put an end to that liability.
The plaintiff was staying at the house of the defen-
dant on the 29th of April, and on his retiring to
rest that night he bolted his room door. On the
following morning he found the door slightly open,
and his money gone ; and it therefore appeared that
the thief had been secreted in his room. A person
named Clark, who has figured a good deal lately in
the metropolitan and other prints, left the house
early that morning. He was apprehended in Lon-
don on suspicion of having committed the robbery,
but from want of sufficient evident he was dis-
charged by the York magistrates. The plaintiff
had exposed his money in the commercial room in
the presence, it is thought, of Clark; who is a
young- man of very respectable appearance, and it
was consequently submitted that he had been neg-
ligent, and not entitled to recover.
The Judge, however, was of opinion that there
had been no negligence on the part of Mr. Potter,
and

The jury, therefore, under his lordship's direc
tion, found a verdict for the plaintiff for the ful
amount claimed.

JULY 18.
(Before Mr. Justice Hill.)
THE HULL MURDER.
John Riley, 36, was charged with the wilful mur-
der of Alice Riley, at Kingston-upon-Hull, on the
3d of July inst.
The prisoner, who is a thin, sallow looking man,
dressed in fustian trousers and a short white smock,
and has an obliquity of vision, pleaded not guilty..
Mr. V. Thompson and Mr. Cross (instructed by
Messrs. C. and F. Ayre, solicitors, Hull) prose-
cuted; Mr. West, by request of the learned judge,
defended the prisoner.
Mr. Thompson stated the case. The prisoner
and his victim were man and wife, and had lived
together for about 12 years, as they had children
nearly that age. They had resided for some time
in Lincolnshire, where they had a serious quarrel,
when, in consequence of the prisoner taking a knife
and threatening his wife's life, she left him and
went to reside in Hull. Her husband visited her
from time to time while she was living there, and
finally went to reside with her altogether. The pri-
soner now seemed to be very indolent, doing nothing
for the support of his wife and family, but depend-
ing entirely upon the exertions of his wife for his sus-
tenance. Mrs. Riley seems to have been very
clever as a sempstress, and she earned in this way
money sufficient to keep, her and her family and
her wretched husband for some time, and the latter,
when all honest means failed, actually forced his
unfortunate victim to prostitution to acquire money
to satisfy their daily wants. It seems about this
'time they had frequent quarrels, the houtshbearndhainlld
resorting to drink to drown h -
using the, wife for
glbnb
oMu
ra
sy,
enough to
keep him in idleness, not
onm otnheey
'that twheitphosoormweodmiffian-
earndsotrhroewn.ei
loans t
goingt e y
intoha d
tahneo
room,th er f
°an
nr r edl
prisoner was brought before
asosanuhlte,
and was
ehnaldtybereeneovveerzadd. Tlyhuespedri,
nwgh el
inh
ehrea
twe
da sinse
jnutnt oe
pt hr
se
emna
for
t one
e n oerntthh e.
last, he returned to his wife, but did not seem to
have had any affray with
_deceasedup
to the time
of the murder, which took
The eldest boy had place a fortnight since.
gone out for the day, and in
his absence the prisoner and his wife had breakfast
together, and in the
course of the morning had
some drink, both husband and wife seeming to be
in very good tempers. The woman, it appears,
always went to bed
when she had got any drink,
to sleep off the effects,
and having had some on the
Sunday morning,
in the afternoon she retired to
bed, previously, however, telling the woman who
kept the 1 d o ging-house to call her at five o'clock, as
she wanted to go out to take tea with a friend.
Soon after this the •
soner told a little boy, his
son, to go out and plpriay, and he did so, not return-
ing until three o'clock the same afternoon. The
prisoner being now alone, locked the door, and it
is presumed proceeded to commit the dreadful act
of cutting his wife's throat, for within a short

Jotrow a saucepan; or something. fo.
and she, finding the prisoner'atrothn. ,
shouted Alice," but received
-..ShEf then event round. to the iootn window, -and
-calre-Cghtthe Woman's name again, but with-no
suec'esS.-: ;list-at this time, however, the woman
heard. a traek,'er a noise resembling it,, inside the
room, and ;21-lo then ()penal the -windoW and
lookA in.. To .-1::nr honor :,11cs saw the prisoner
hanging the neck. „She immediately alarmed
the neighbours, and a man named Richardson7pro-
eeeded-ihm-the room. Ile-had no suspiaion---of
anything being wrong with: auk but the 1)HO-tic*,
and of Course' prc,de:6cied-squickbr to cut him doivh:
Life was not extinCtond e left him in_the dare
of some other persons, w 7 e he and a man named
lialgarno went to the bed to awaken the wife,
whom they found with her throat cut in such a
manner that death must been instantaneous.
On' a table near the bed, but out of the reach. of the
deceased, was found a common table knife, covered
with blood. The, prisoner on being .charged with
the crime. said nothing. On being searched and
examined at the station-house, some spots of blood
were found on his clothes, and he (prisoner) said
they had been the result of accident a few days
before. Riley afterwards asked another policeman
named Pearson where his little boys would be sent
to, and afterwards added, ""The ;knife I 'cut her
throat with was the same she attempted to cut my
throat with some time before." The prisoner
further explained that the blood on his smock and
shirt sleeves was from a cut inhis head some tiro()
before; and was there when the "row" commenced.
The prisoner also at the time added, "It's no use
saying, I'm innocent when I'm not."
Tha
above
witnesses
andfor
Mr.e prosecutionve st
lddr
es
sfeudlltyhpe roved
thetjury,
contending that the unfortunate event had occurred
in a quarrel, and therefore that the offence was
manslaughter only.
The jury found the prisoner guilty of murder,
and sentence of death was accordingly pronounced.