The Sun.
London, England, 1850-08-02 00:00:00

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

NORTHERN ClRCUlT.—Newcastle, July 31.
CROWN COURT.—(Before Mr. Justice CRESS WELL.)
MURDER.—Patrick Forbes was charged with the eil-
ful murder of his wife, Elizabeth Forbes, at Newcastle,
on the 22d of March last.
Mr. Ingham and Mr. Lush appeared for the prosecu-
tion, and Mr. Otter defended the prisoner.
We can only give an outline of this case in our report
of it, as the details are of too horrid and shocking a cha-
racter for publication. The prisoner, it appeared, was a
labourer, and lived with his wife and four children in an
apartment on the fourth floor, up an entry called
Clogher's-entry. Both were accustomed to habits of
drunkenness. When sober, the prisoner appeared to
have generally acted kindly to his wife, and in their
habits of intemperance they appeared from the evidence
to have often got drunk together. When drunk, he had
been often heard to threaten her life, on which oce.-
don she was in the habit of going to her brother's
lodgings for protection. On Friday, the 22d of March
last, the prisoner and his wife began drinking together,
and early in the day his wife became quite drunk, and
about four o'clock that afternoon was seen lying drunk
at the bottom of the stairs leading to Clogher's entry.
The prisoner, who also was intoxicated, assisted by
his daughter, Bridget Forbes, carried the deceased
upstairs to her own room, and in so doing the prisoner
let her fall. She was placed on a bed in the room,
and the prisoner laid himself down beside her,
and both appeared to have fallen asleep, and they were
so seen about nine or ten o'clock at night. The prisoner's
daughter went to bei with a Mrs. Dees in an adjoining
room, and about one o'clock they were awoke by a cry,
and by a son of the prisoner, aged 14, who came to them
from the prisoner's room, where he had slept, and said
his mother was dead. On going into the prisoner's room
the fire was found lighted and the prisoner sitting beside
it. They found the prisoner's wife lying dead on the bed.
£be prisoner was crying " Oh, my Betty." Ile got up
and said to Mrs. Dens, " I will tell you how it was." She
seid, want to hear it; keep your counsel to your-
self; tell somebody else." Tne boy went for candles and
his daughter for medical assistance, the prisoner being
left alone. In the firs was a short poker, thrust nearly up
to the handle in the fire. Before the prisoner's daughter
left for assistance she cried out " Murder!" and the pri-
soner drove her out of the room. On the arrival of the
police they found pools of blood and some spots on the
ihor. The bed clothes were soaked with blood, and the
prisoner's hands were covered with blood. They could
see no marks of violence on the woman. A woman
named M'lrer, who lived in an adjoining apartment, and
who happened to be nursing a sick child about one
o'clock, stated that at that time she heard a piercing
scream apparently come from the prisoner's room, fol-
lowed by another. The prisoner's son said he was
aroused out of sleep about one o'clock, bat he could not
tell what it was that awoke him. His father asked him
to put the bedclothes on him, arid to go to bed. Ho did
so, and went to bed in an adjoining room, as he had been
sleeping on two chairs before the tire. About a quarter
of an hour afterwards, his father awoke him, and told
him his mother was dead. On the arrival of the police,
they sent for a surgeon, Mr. Rayne, who foudd the bed-
clothes saturated with blood under the deceased. There
were no external marks of violence. He then made a
post mortem examination of the body, and he then found
that the bladder had been ruptured by some sharp
pointed instrument, and that the intestines were
wouhded, the injuries extending at least a foot into the
body of the deceased. In the witness's opinion, the
poker which was produced; and which was found thrust
into the fire of the prisoner's room, was a vary likely
instrument to have caused the injuries described. The
shock to the nervous system and the hemorrhage from
such an injury would be so great that death would be
almost instantaneous.

having whitened the jury in defence of the
prisoner, contended that there was nothing to chow
malice on the part of the prisoner, and that the injury
committed by the prisoner must have been the result of
intoxication, brutalising him, and rendering him inca-
pable of knowing what he was about, and that a verdict
of manslaughter would meet the justice of the case.
ilia LORDSHIP then summed up the facts to the jury.
There was nothing in the facts proved to show excite-
ment or sudden passion, from any injury to the prisoner
at the time the offence was committed, which could re-
duce the crime, if committed by him, to manslaughter.
On the contrary, the circumstances showed a remarkable'
absence of any such mitigating cause.
After the jury had retired his Lordship wished to con-
sult Mr. Justice Creswell on a point which had arisen,
in the case, when the door of communication between
the two courts wad found to be locked. The door leads
into the grand jury room, and a door at the other side
of it communicates with the other court. His Lordship
ordered the door to he opened. After much knocking
and time spent in looking for the key, one of the offi-
cers of the court went round to the grand jury room, and
shortly returned sad stated to his Lordship that; the
county justices were sitting there, and they refused to
open the door. his Lordship then ordered the High
Sheriff of the town and county of Newcastle, the cases
within their jurisdiction then being tried, to open the
door, and, if necessary, that it must be broken open.
At this moment a gentleman, whose name we wore
given to understand was Sir Charles Monck, followed by
two or three other gentlemen, came through the open
door on to the bench, and addressing his Lordship,' said
—The Justices of the Peace charged with the county
business were sitting in the grand jury room, and they
could not have the door opened. His Lordship was
trying town prisoners, and although his Lordship
was enabled by a statute to adjourn the town's proceed-
ings to any place in the county, the statute did not men-
tion any particular place. The justices :of the county
had assigned that court to his Lordship for his use
whilst trying the town's business, and there were re-
tiring rooms and mocks of ingress and regress irres-
pective of the grand jury room. The statute did not
ray that the judges should have any particular places
.igned to them, and they might b. removed to a public-
house, or any other building for which they might have
occasion.

Hls
LORDSHIP-At preseilt, I beiug one of the justices
Of MilliZ9 for the county of Northumberland, as well as