The Sun.
London, England, 1832-08-10 00:00:00

SUMMER ASSIZES.

ROME CIRCUIT, .LEwEs, Auo. 8.
worm v. THOMSON.
This was an action of assault.
Dr. Wood, the plaintiff, is a physician on the staff, and
resides at Newick, in this county. The defendantalso re-
sides there, and be, as well as the plaintiff, takes a great
interest in every thing connected with the parish, and, as it
not unusually happens to persons mixed up in parish mat •
ters, is sometimes engaged in parochial broils. At a vestry
meeting holden some time ago, both the parties were pre-
sent, and the defendant accused Dr. Wood of having, with-
out consulting his brother parishioners, made a return to
the commissioners of the poor. He denied it, and averred
that the defendant attended the meeting for the sole pur-
pose of insulting him. This counter-charge naturally pro-
ducea altercation, the defendant alleging that Dr. Wood
had acted presumptuously, and be intimating that if he
asserted such an untruth, he would assuredly pull his nose.
A struggle ensued, and the assault--the cause of grievance
—was committed, though it did not clearly appear which

was.

The Jury found for the plaintiff—Damages 40s.
The business was terminated here, and the commission
for holding the assize for the county of Surrey will be
opened at Guildford to-morrow.

CHESTER.
CURIOUS LIBEL CASE,-.-THORLEY V. PY3ILOT.
Mr. J. JEava opened the pleadings. Plea, thegenera,
issue.

Mr. TEMPLE stated the case. This was an action for a
libel of a very aggravated character, written and published
by the defendant, of and concerning the plaintiff, in a
pamphlet entitled Modern Methodism in its true Colours.
The plaintiff, Mr. Thorley, was a highly respectable shop-
keeper at Macclesfield, and a class-leader among the Wes-
leyan Methodists, as well as a trustee and treasurer of the
chapel and Sunday school belonging to that denomination
of Christians at Butley. The defendant was a member of
the Church of England originally, and had been educated
for a clergyman of the establishment, from which he sub-
sequently seceded, and associated himself, as far at least as
the management of their schools, with the class of Dis-
senters to which the plaintiff belonged. These school+
were under the management of Mr. Thorley, and because
of some petty quarrel or difference with Mr. Thorley,
about the places of the singers in the chapel, the de-
fendant made an attack not only upon Mr. Thorley in par-
ticular, and the whole body of Wesleyan Methodists to
which he belonged, but upon the Established Church also,
He thus spoke of the Church Establishment :
" After the short and imperfect sketch, Sire (for the
pamphlet was prefaced with an epistle dedicatory to his
Majesty), who can say that the Church is not in danger ?
Yet, after all, its greatest enemies are within it, in the
persons of its archbishops, bishops, deans, rectors, and
vicars, who, by their incompetence, their assumed pomp,
their eagerness after the good things of this world, and
their tenacity of them when obtained, excite the indigna-
tion and disgust of all, who know, as well as they, the
arduous duties which they have undertaken to perform,
and the several and religious qualities with which they
ought to be endowed." After denouncing the system of
the Wesleyan Methodists generally, and its professors,
the dead and the living,—even that celebrated individual,
John Wesley himself, did not escape his censure,—the
defendant proceeded to denounce particular individuals,
and the plaintiff among the number. It should be here
observed, that during the connexion of the defendant with
the Wesleyans, he had learnt something of the private
history of the plaintiff, and other members of that body.
He learnt that Mr. Thorley had been apprenticed to a
person of the name of Buckstone, and he accused Mr.
Thorley of having robbed his master—of having started in
life as a thief, and laid the foundation of his fortune in
fraud and peculation. (Here the Learned Counsel read
several extracts from the publication in question, which
contained gross reflections upon the character of the
plaintiff.)
After expatiating at some length upon the enormity of
the charges, and the aggravated character they bore, from
being deliberately written, revised, corrected, and printed,
not in an ephemeral shape, but in the form of a bulky
pamphlet, which had reached a second edition—the learned
Counsel proceeded to say that the plaintiff, considering his
station in society, and the relation in which he stood to
the respectable and influential body of dissenters of which
he was a member, could not do otherwise than bring this
action to clear his character.
Mr. Serjeant JONES, for the defendant, said, in this case
the question was not what should be the amount of pu-
nishment inflicted upon Mr. Pymlot for the sake of soci-
ety in general, but what was the amount of the injury and
damage to Mr. Thorley. The amount of the injury
Mr. Thorley had sustained might be collected from the
fact, that he was still continued in-his office of treasurer,
and trustee, and class-leader, and the other honorary dis-
tinctions which he obtained among the Wesleyan Me-
thodists. The learned Serjeant expressed his hope that
the jury, by their verdict, would not give a triumph to
either party, but would give moderate and temperate da•
mages

Lord LYNDHURST summed up, and the jury gave a ver.
diet for the plaintiff—annages 501.

It has been said that the Tories have no sense
of economy ; they, however, atone for this deficiency by
displaying singular economy of sense.—Figaro in London.
DREADFUL ACCIDENT_---On Tuesday, a
girl of loose character named JACKSON, was burnt to
death in a house in Earl-street, City Road. The house
has been for some time occupied by a woman named WIL-
LIAMS, during which scenes of the most shocking and
disgraceful depravity have been carried on in it. The de-
ceased bad retired to her room about twelve o'clock, where
she had not been many minutes when the other inmates,
alarmed by her cries, burst open the door, and found her
enveloped in flames. After some time they extinguished
the flame., but the poor creature was so dreadfully burnt,
that she survived only an hour. Her last words were
uttered in prayers for forgiveness for her companions, and
beseeching them to abandon their present course of life.
On Wednesday an inquest was held at the
Rose in the Bud, Greenwich, on the body of Me. S.
IIISDELL, aged 56, a hairdresser in Beauchamp street,
Deptford. On the 3d of May the deceased was walking
along High-sweet, Deptf rd, when a small spaniel fol-
lowed him sonie distance, and upon his attempting to fondle
it, the animal sprang at him, and bit him very severely in
the wrist. He took no notice of the wound, and it ap-
paraitly healed up. On Monday. night he complained of
pain in his wrist, and en the following day he became
worse. He then evinced the dreadful symptoms of hy-
drophobia, which increased to such an extent in the even-
ing, that a strait waistcoat was necessary to be put on him
to restrain his vio:ence. He died in the greatest agony
about 2 o'clock on Wednesday morning. The Jury re-
turned a verdict that the deceased died by hydrophobia.
On Saturday night last, a respectable mall,
named PATRICK GILL, residing near Portadown, was
shot dead while sitting at his own fireside ! Suspicion fell
upon an individual who had been served with a notice of
ejectment by a relative or connexion of GILL. A ramrod
of a pistol, which was supposed to belong to this person,
was found under the window through which the shot had
been flied. He was taken into custody, but discharged for
want of evidence. An inquest was held on the body by
the Coroner of the county of Armagh. The Juryre-
turned a verdict of Wilful Murder against some person or
persons unknown, —Newry Examiner.