The Sun.
London, England, 1861-09-23 00:00:00

Owing to the extraordinary interest the case
has excited there was an unusually full bench of
magistrates, amongst whom were C. M. Caldecoott,
Esq. ; Broughton, Esq. ; J. A. Campbell, Esq. ;
J. W. B. Leigh, Esq. ; and Rev. R. Lickornish.
Many of the leading gentry of the town and dis-
trict were also present.
Since the prisoner was remanded on Monday
last he has been confined in the police station here,
under the charge of Mr. Superintendent Wild, of
the Warwickshire Constabulary. In the earlier
part of the week he wrote a very large number of
letters, many of them respecting bail, which, how-
ever, was not forthcoming. The majority of the
communications were forwarded to Ireland, where
the prisoner states he has a large circle of friends
and relatives. He has also frequently telegraphed
to various persons, with a view either of obtaining
information with regard to the alleged circum-
stances of the case against him, or to obtain advice
and assistance in defending himself. The prisoner
has conversed without reserve un the features of
the case, and has expressed his annoyance at the
publicity which has been given to the case through
the medium of the press, as being calculated to em-
bitter the minds of his family connexions, whom he
states to be the richest in Ireland, as well as the
family of his wife, whom he represents as being
one of the most wealthy in England. He has
availed himself of the privilege granted by the
magistrates with regard to his personal wants, and
has purchased bottle stout and other luxurious com-
estibles, which he has enjoyed with great apparent
relish. A rumour was freely circulated in the town
last night and this morning, that the prisoner would
at the hearing to-day bring a charge of infidelity
against his wife, and that he would plead that he
had not any felonious intentions when he placed
the child out to nurse, but that he had himself been
deceived as to the character of the person into
whose custody he had delivered the child. This
rumour tended still further to heighten the excite•
ment which existed here, and the popular feeling
ran so high that it was considered advisable to con-
vey the prisoner from the station-house to the Town
Hall in a fly, through the back streets, the officers
in charge being dressed in plain clothes, in order to
attract as little attention as possible. The ruse had
the desired effect, and the prisoner was safely con-
ducted before the magistrates. Long before the
doors of the Town-hall were opened, a dense crowd
besieged the vicinity, and when admission was
granted every available nook of the court-room was
immediately occupied, a large proportion of the
auditory being women.
Upon the prisoner being placed at the bar there
was a considerable difference in his personal appear-
ance, he having had his hair cut and been shaved,
and so got rid of 'that careworn and dissipated
aspect which was so evident on Monday last.
Mr. George Francis Cooke, solicitor, of 30, King-
street, Cheapside, London, again appeared to con-
duct the case for the prosecution ; and the prisoner
was represented by Mr. Philbrick of the Home
Circuit, instructed by Messrs. Whyte and Collisson
of 61, Russell-square, London.
Mr. Maltby, her Britannic Majesty's Vice-Con-
sul at Brussels, Was also present, having come from
his post of duty especially for the purpose of as-
sisting in the investigation.
' On the application of Mr. Collinson, the prisoner
was allowed to be seated.

Mr. Philbrick said that as he was quite unac-
quainted with the proceedings he begged that the
evidence taken on the previous examination might
be read over, which was done by Mr. Bloxam, the
clerk to the magistrates.
Mr. Cooke, in opening the proceedings, said—lt
was an information under the Act of Parliament of
the 6th and 7th William IV., cap. 86, sec.4l, charg-
ing that the prisoner ou the 7th of January, 1859,
at Rugby, did unlawfully and wilfully make to one
William Herbert, then being the registrar of births
for that district (for the purpose of being inserted
in the registry of births for that district), certain
false statements touching the particulars, by the
statute required to be made known and registered,
of and concerning a male infant born of the body
tof Amy Georgiana Hill, by the prisoner, her hus-
band, on the sth of January, 1859. The Act of
Parliament was entitled " An Act for Registering
Births, Deaths, and Marriages in England," and
sect. 17 enacted that the Registrar-General should
provide register books for births in a certain form,
the entries being divided by printed lines. Section
20 enacted that the father or mother of every child
born in England after the Ist of March, 1837, or
in case of their illness, absence, or inability, the
occupier of the house where the child should have
been born, should within 42 days next after the
birth give information upon request to the registrar,
according to the best of his or her knowledge and
belief of the several particulars by the said statute
required to be known and registered touching the
birth of such child. Section 41 enacted that
that every person who should wilfully make or
cause to be made for the purpose of being in-
serted in any register of births, deaths, or marriages
any false statements touching any of the particulars
required by the statute to be known and registered,
should be subjected to the same pains and penalties
as ifhe were guilty of perjury. The learned gentle-
man proceeded to say that the prisoner, on Aug. 28,
1852, was married at the house of H.M.'s Envoy
Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at
Brussels to Miss Amy Georgiana Burdett, then of
the age of 19 years, with the consent of her mother.
Upon her marriage the fortune of the young lady
was settled, and by the settlement a certain life in-
terest was given to Mr. Hill,the present prisoner.
The property consisted of about £14,000 in posses-
sion and reversion. There was a reservation of £lOO
a year for the wife, free from any control of her
husband, and in the absence of any issue of the mar-
riage, power was given to the wife to appoint by
will. The parties lived together continuously and
yet hrid no issue until the month of January, 1859,
hut d tiring the six years and a half the prisoner had
for a considerable time been afflicted with illness.
At the time Mrs. Hill was pregnant she was re-
siding with her husband at Dublin, and the pri-
soner, for some reason of his own, not material to
the p resent inquiry, expressed a wish that her
accou chement should take place in London, to whict.
place they were on their way on Jan. 5, 1859. The
lady was taken unwell while journeying to the me-
trol?olis by the London and North Western Railway
and, could not proceed beyond Rugby. She was re-
nureed to the nearest .house that could be found open,
a small inn called the Globe, where she was, soon
at'Ler her arrival, delivered of a fine male child by
IV fr. Sadd, surgeon and, accouchenr, at Rugby. One
(,f the first duties of the prisoner as a parent was,
as he appeared to have been aware, to register the
birth of the child under the statute referred to, and
at this point of his marriage career the offence
charged against him was commuted, no doubt with
the view to supress and conceal the Ent of there being
a child of the marriage at all. Much had appeared
in the public newspapers concerning the case since
the prisoner was brought before the magistrates' on
Mon day last, and public interest and indignation'
hal been widely excited against the prisoner for
his: unnatural and inhuman treatment of his own
le);itimate offspring; though he (Mr. Cooke) might
ba permitted to remark that the statements pub-
iished in the newspapers had been substantially
true, rdthough the fortune of the lardy had been
over-e stimated. However, the prisoner was not
there to be tried and punished for all the wrongs
done by him to his wife and child, or the pain and
ey he had subjected his wife to for more than
ttwo long years, in uncertainty whether the child
had I ived or had died, or for the misery and wretch.
edne,
la he had subjected the child to, and the eon-
aequ,
nett State of ill health that child was now
lng from long probably he
to want and neglect,
y he might have to answer before
an, lather tribunal for those wrongs. Mr. Cooke con-