The Sun.
London, England, 1859-06-27 00:00:00

ABDUCTION OF A VOTER AT BURY.

A very crowded court assembled in the Town-
hall, Bury, on Saturday, to hear a case brought
before the magistrates, in which five of the sup-
porters and friends of Mr. F. Peel, the sitting mem-
ber, were charged with abducting and holding in
duresse a voter on the opposite side, under circum-
stances of great violence and cruelty. There were
seven magistrates on the bench—Mr. John Grundy,
chairman, Mr. Thomas Wrigley, Mr. Richard Kaye,
Mr. Robert Kaye, Mr. Richard Wild, Mr. Hutch-
inson, and Mr. Wm. Openshaw. The defendants
were Zachariah Hardman, Joseph Booth, Murphy,
Sudron, and Ogden, Dr. Wheeler and Mr. Chas.
Hopwood were counsel for the prosecution, and
Mr. Fernley appeared as counsel for Hardman and
Ogden, and Mr. Higgin as counsel for Sudron,
Murphy, and Booth.
Dr. Wheeler stated the case, which was brought
under the 17th and 18th Vic., cap. 102, sec. 6, by
which the offence of abducting and holding in
duresse a voter during an election is constituted a
misdemeanour. By the 10th section of the same
statute it is provided that such cases, if sent for
trial, must be taken to the assizes. There was a
further charge of assault.
Wm. Constantine, the plaintiff in the case, hav-
ing been sworn, stated that he was a stone mason,
living at Elton, a township within the borough of
Bury, and was in his 48th year. He voted for Mr.
Barnes at the last election. On the morning of the
29th April last, which was the nomination day at
Bury, he called at the New Inn, Elton, a Conserva-
tive house, about a quarter-past seven o'clock. It
was a house frequented by the Peelites. He called
for a glass of ale, but the defendant Hardman, who a
was present with several other people, would treat
him with some spirits. Hardman had told him he
was a watchman for the Peelites, and had a number
of men under him as assistants. Could not say
what sort of spirits they were, but they made him
feel very sleepy. Before he had finished a second
glass, he rose from his seat to leave the house,
when Hardman and others seized him, and carried
him with force and violence through a yard at the
side of the house to a cab, into the bottom of
which he was thrust, doubled up, and it was driven
away. Hardman was in the cab, and another man
and Hardman kept him down by kneeling on his
chest, covering his mouth with one hand to prevent
him from giving any alarm. Complainant proceeded
to idescribe at some length his treatment in the cab,
and violent struggles to get loose during a journey
the length of which he could net guess. He was
frequently so ill-used by Hardman, Booth, and
Murphy, that he became much exhausted. Twice
in his struggles to get at liberty he got the cab
door open, and on one of these occasions he believed
Murphy, the driver, struck him violently. He
caught Hardman with his hand in his pocket, and
afterwards missed three sovereigns from that pocket.
Hardman hit him a blow in the mouth, which
knocked a tooth out and cut one of his lips. He
could not see, being doubled up at the bottom of
the cab, which way they drove him, but on the
journey recognised by the overhanging trees that
he was in the neighbourhood of Sudron 's residence.
The cab was ultimately stopped at Astley-bridge,
near Bolton, where he was carried into the Tip-
ping's Arms public-house, and kept prisoner for
many hours in a room up stairs. Whilst in this
room a pillow was placed under his head and
another over his mouth, and he was nearly suffo-
cated several times'in the attempts to stifle his cries
of " murder." Hardman, Booth, Ogden, and
another man joined in the violent detention of him
there, and Hardman tried to pour half a pint of
spirits down his throat. Whilst the others held him
Hardman pinched his nose, and every time he
gasped for breath poured the liquor into his mouth.
It burnt his mouth, and ran into his eyes and all
over his face, but he blew most of it out of his
mouth as fast as it was poured in. He got hold of
Hardman's hands with his teeth during the
struggles, and bit pieces of flesh out of his fingers.
Hardman repeatedly asked him if he would go over
to the Peel party, but he replied that he would vote
for Barnes if he had life. Complainant detailed seve-
ral stratagems he resorted to in order to regain his
liberty, by one of which he got a bucket brought
into the room, which being of iron he suddenly
snatched up and dashed through the window.
It carried glass and window frame with it, and
so some neighbours interfered, and the landlord and
landlady came up and caused him to be set at
liberty. He cried" Murder ' when he sot outside,
and told to a crowd who got round him how he
had been used. The landlady followed him out
and gave him five shillings to pacify him. Some
men outside kindly showed him the nearest rail-
way station, and he reached Bury about eight
o'clock the same night. He was much exhausted,
and voided blood, after the usage to which he was
subjected,
suffering much pain for some weeks, and
not yet recovered from its effects.
wasA
Air. Higgia and Mr. Fernley subjected the
plaintiff to long cross-examinations, without shak-
ing his evidence.
It being now nearly five o'clock, and the case
having lasted from soon after eleven in the morn-
ing, the magistrates decided, after hearing another
witness or two, to adjourn till another day. The
additional evidence was corroborative of Constan-
tine's statement.

ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONS.—The following
gentlemen, having undergone the necessary examinations
for the diploma, were admitted members of the college at a
meeting of the Court of Examiners on the 24th inst., viz. :
Messrs. Joseph Rickey, Clones, County Monaghan ; Her-
bert Roby Harris, Swan River,!Australia ; Thomas Scard,
army ; Henry Thomas Barton, Newcastle-on-Tyne ; Thos.
Deanz Llaithwaite, Yorkshire ; Edward Davies, Llansilin,
Denbighshire ; Henry Goode, Derby ; Henry Hadow,
n
George Street, Minoes ; and James Cotton Byles, Vic-
toTia-pexk-road, Hackney,