The Sun.
London, England, 1832-07-28 00:00:00

SUMMER ASSIZES.

OXFORD CIRCUIT --WORCESTER, JULY 25.
Eliza Rickards, aged 16, was chareed with administer-
ing oxalic acid to Mary Dace, with intent to murder h, r.
Mrs. Mary Duce said—l have been in bad health fix
the last six or seven years. 1 usually take my breakfast
in bed. I used to take tea for breakfast. I found fault
with the prisoner about some baking. I told her I thought
she would ❑ot suit me. In the evening I gave her warn-
ing. On the Sunday the prisoner went to a place of wor-
ship. She asked to go out. She returned at about seven,
and sat down in the kitchen. She sad if I would pay
her a quarter's wages she would go next morning. On
the Monday morning the prisoner came at about five
o'clock, and asked the if I would have breakfast. She
brought on a waiter a tea-pot partly tilled, a tea cup and
saucer, and some loaf sugar in a basin, and a piece of
bread. She put it before me. I poured out the tea, and
sipped a little, and found it had an acid taste. It en-
tered my mind that I had got poisdu. It fetched the skin
off my mouth and tongue. I made an alarm, and my
husband called the prisoner. and sent her up to me ; and
my husband put the tea-pot and tea things under the bed.
The tea-pot was given to Cragg, a constable.
Cross-examin,dl by Mr. CARRINGTON—I ordered the
prisoner to be tied with a waggon-rop. Her hands were
tied behind her, and the waggon-rope was passed between
her wrists, and she was tied to a post. She had kick, d
the door and splintered it before she was tied with tl e
waggon-rope, but her hands -.vere then tied behind her.
Before that she hal complained of her being hurt by being
tied. Mrs. Bennet and I hail some conversation respect-
ing my husbatid having taken liberties with the prisoner.
Mr. William Duce said—l am the son of the prose-
cutor. I had purchased oxalic acid to clean my boot-
tops. I kept it in a drawer which was not locked.
About a week after the prisoner came into our service I
had lost the key of the drawer, and, fearing it should be
used in a mistake, I told her not to touch it, as it was
poison.

Jacob Rutter said—l am the apprentice of Mr. Duce.
The prisoner said that Mrs. Duce had bee❑ at her all the
week, and she would he even with her.

Mr. Downing said—l am a surgeon at Stourbridge. I
have been in business 23 years. Th.- bottle was brought
to me by the last witness. I analyzed the contents of the
bottle and tea•pot. I took clear lime-water, and added a
portion of the contents of the bottle, and a very small por-
t,on of lime was precipitated. I added nitric acid, which
took
and rendered the contents clear. I
judged 'e
that it contained a very small portion
idl; time
believe this is the same bottle.—(Mr.
of u
at
oxalic
a thee the
teaas nm dfbeeevn ever
pyreodneuce in
l
by the. constable, lo:s oft a
Downing took up the bottle, and drank twc or three
-f
poisonedtothe whichastonishment hta o
Court.)—Ttis is the same that I analyzed. I cannot say
mouttc
with certainty that this bottle contains oxalic acid.
Cross-examined—lf I am obliged to tell the truth, I
would not believe the prosecutor or his wife on their oaths.
Their son has been confined as a lunatic, but that was six
ur seven years ago. —Vet dict, Not Guilty.
Mr. JUSTICE BosANQUET—Young woman, let what
has passed be a warning to you for the future.

MIDLAND CIRCUIT, LINCOLN, JULY 25.
Clipshum Allen, aged 47, was put to the bar upon a
charge of having teloniously set fire to a wheat rick, the pro-
p. rty of Mr. Jonas Clarke, in Deeping Fen, in the parts
of Kesteven, in this county, on the night of the 18th of
Deceml'er, 1830. Other counts in the indictment charged
the pr Boner with setting fire to a barn, a stable, and other
premi,ea•
The prisoner is a labourer, and a well looking man,
with a countenance and demeanour bespeaking honesty
and confidence in his innocence. lie had been com-
mitted to prison upon this charge soon after tha burning,
hut the bill then pre'erred against him was ignored by the
Grand Jury. Upon the discovery of more evidence he
again apprehended, and was to be tried at the last
Lent Assizes, but, in consequence of the absence then of a
material witness, the trial was postponed to the present
Assizes. . _ _

Then... were upwards of thirty witnesses examined against
the prisoner, and three for him, to account for his move-
ments in the previous part of the night of the tire.
The Jury retired to consider their verdict.

The prisoner, who stood very firmly at the hir all day,
,:ow fainted from weakness, and from the pain caused by
an attack of hernia, to which he was subject. He was
taken out into the gaol, attended by the surgeon.
The Jury soon returned, and found a verdict of Not
Guilty.
William Wells was indicted for having, on the night of
the 14th of May last, in the parish of Louth, in this
county, viol ntly assaulted Jane Rouse, with intent to corn-
:nit a capital offence.
The prisoner is a strong and powerful, but coarse-look-
ing man, about thirty years of age. The prosecutrix
WEIS a girl of fourteen only.
On being examined by Mr. CURZON, the Counsel for
the prosecution, she stated that, on the morning of the
14th of May, she went with Ann Hardy, another young
woman,
to the fair of Louth. It rained in the evening,
arid she and the ether young woman, and a young man, a
friend of the latter, took shelter under a shed. The pri-
soner came and asked if he might take shelter there also;
he did come under the shed, Ann Hardy and her friend

left the shed, telling witness they would return soon. At-
ter they went, prisoner took witness to a barn, and there
he made the assault on her. She cried for half an hour,
and screamed for help, and the prisoner was abusing her
ail the time. A Mr. and Mrs. Addinshall came at last,
and the prisoner then went away.
On cross-examination by Mr FIYNELLY, she said she
had been 'walking about the fair from nine to six o'clock ;
she was neither buying nor selling, nor did she go to be
hired as servant. It was ten o'clock when she and the
young woman were under the shed. She did not know
where she and her friend went to. They did not come to
her assistance though she screamed loud. The prisoner
did not force her inro the barn; she did not make resist-
ance to going there, but she did not go there willingly.
Mrs. Addinshall and her husband came to the barn on
hearing the screams; they thought murder was committed.
As they entered the barn the prisoner came out, and said,
on hieing rsked what he was doing, that he was doing no-
thing. The presecutrix was then found ; her bonnet was
all broken; she cried, and said the prisoner bad abused her.
Prisoner asked the girl if she would take a guinea and be
silent; she said no, nor two.

A Surgeon, who examined both the prisoner and the
girl at the time, said the girl w ie tossed about a good deal,
but no other violence was effected.

T,.e Jury found the prisoner Guilty, and the Learned
JUDGE sentenced him to two years' imprisonment in one of
the gaols of the county.

vEircu v. TAYLOR.

The plaintiff ic a respectable physician residing at Horn-
castle, in this county, and brought this action to recover a
compensation in damages from the defendant, a gentleman
residing in the county, for several libels written by him,
and reflecting on the plaintiff's character. The plaintiff
had formerly practised as surgeon and apothecary at Al-
ford, but he afterwards obtained a doctor's diploma from
the Coll.ige of Aberdeen, and practiced ever since as a
physician, and was the medical attendant of the defendant's
sister for about eleven years, until her death. That lady
had by her will left each of the plaintiff's three children
100/. There was also a bequest in it to the defendant ;
but by a codicil subsequently added, after a quarrel with
the def.-nd.ent and others of her family, the testatrix re-
voked the legacy given to him by her will. Nothing was
given to the plaintiff or to his family by this codicil.
The defendant, however, in October 1830, wrote him a
letter, charging him with taking advantage of the confidence
which his situation as a medical attendant gained for him
with the testatrix, to induce her to quarrel with her family.
He threatened to expose the Doctor, and accordingly he
afterwards wrote a letter to a patient of the Doctor's at
Horncastle, repeating the charge made in the letter to the
Doctor himself, and describes him as like a Scotchman,
taking advantage of his patients to extort money from
them. He added that he was no Doctor, but an apothe-
cary, boldly assuming the former title. The defendant
wrote 1: tiers to the like effect to three or four apothecaries
in She neighbourhood, and all these letters were the libels
of which the plaintiff complained.
The letters were put in and read, and the other neces-
s try proofs made to sup;.ort the action.—Damages SOO/.