The Sun.
London, England, 1844-07-27 00:00:00

No. 16,208. LONDON, SATURDAY EVENING SUN, JULY 27, 1844.

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Mr. Justice WIGHTMAN said he might do so, but-that silo -
had had a very narrow escape.
Jane Retherton was indicted for setting fire to a haystack,
the property of the Rev. Samuel Winter Pearse.
Mr. Kekewich prosecuted. The prisoner was defended by
Mr. Rowe.
By the evidence it appeared that the prisoner's husband
had been sent to prison for some act by the proscutor in the
present case. He was lying in gaol in the latter end cf
March and the beginning of April. At this tithe Mr. Pearse
had a sale of some farming stock, in the evening of which
day the prisoner came to the house of a witness, who began
talking about the sale. In the course of the conversation ail
witness remarked that the old hay-rick had not been sold.
Prisoner replied she wished the hay-rick was burnt, and she
would be the one to help to do it. On the night of the 2d of
April, a farmer was returning to his home about half-past ten
o'clock. He met the prisoner about eight land yards from the
prosecutor's rick. He knew her perfectly, as she had lived with
him as a servant. He did not, however, speak to her, but
passed on. In a moment he saw the flames rising from the rick
when he called on the prisoner to stop. Instead of attending to
this call she took to her heels and. ran. He immediately
followed after her, and when he was just about to overtake
her, she began to scream. He came up and asked her why
she had not stopped, and whether she had seen the fire ?
She replied she had not. He then said, " This is shocking
work,' and left her to call up Mr. Pearse, which he did. She
was also seen out of her house, though, as it appeared, in a
somewhat different direction, by another person. On examin-
ing round the rick a box of matches was found.
Mr. ROWE addressed the jury for the prisoner, and called
two respectable women, who swore that about half an hour
before they heard the cry of " Fire I" they had been with the
prisoner in the house of one of them, which was exactly.op-
posite her own. They saw her leave the house and go into
her own ; and when the cry of " Fire" took place they looked
out of their windows, and both of them saw her looking out
of hers, undressed and ready for bed.
Mr. Justice WIGHTMAN having summed up with great care,
the jury returned a verdict of Guilty.
The Learned JUDGE then- sentenced the prisoner to be
transported for life.
In the Nisi Prius Court Mr. Justice Patteson has been en-
gaged the whole day trying a case of trespass, relative to
cutting down a tree.

NORFOLK ClRCUlT.—lpswich, July 25.
(Before Mr. Justice WILLIAMS.)
James Friend, aged 35, was charged with sending a letter
to William Cockerell, threatening to burn down his house
and farming buildings, &c., situate at Tunstall, in this county.
Mr. Gordon appeared for the prosecution ; Mr. Dasent de-
fended the prisoner.
Mr. Cockerell is a farmer of great respectability and opu-
lence, residing at Tunstall, near to the prisoner, who had been
in his employ as a farming servant for the last twelve
months, and it did not appear that any disagreement had
arisen between them. On the morning of the 6th of May
last, the son of the prosecutor found a sealed letter tied to a
stone in the stackyard of his father's farm. This letter was
thus addressed :—" Farmar—your primsas will sone be set
on fire, 1844." This document was forthwith taken to the
prosecutor, who carefully removed the seal, and opening the
letter read the following contents
" Farmar—ve are starven ve vol not stan this no longer
this gang is 600 80 ; rathar than Starve we are twirmind
to sit you on fire ; you are rongan the Pore of thare living
by im Ploying thrashmans shears; this Primisis will soon
take plase if you don't oltar ; there is plenty grown in the
cuntry to suport the Pore; you must not be surprised if you
se your Primisis on fire and stock all Bamt. There will be
six on fire in one time."
In order to connect the prisoner with this offence, the
policeman proved that he forthwith went to him while he was
thrashing in the barn, and asked for his seal, which he
readily gave up to him. This, when compared with the im-
pression on the seal, presented strong features of resemblance,
there being distinctly visible on the wax the top of a
flower, over which were deciphered the letters " ET-ME-
N," while the motto of the seal was " Forget me not," over
the usual emblem of fidelity. Besides this there was a defect
in the stone, which exactly corresponded with a mark in the
impression. It further appeared that the prisoner had gone
on the 7th of May to the house of a friend, the blacksmith of
Tunstall, whence he sent a girl for a sheet of paper, saying he
wanted to write a letter to a friend at Wickham. When the
paper came he tore it in half, and wrote something on one
piece, which he folded up and sealed with his seal. The
un-
used half he left behind him, and it was carefully deposited
in a cupboard, where it lay till the constable called and took
possession of it on the 11th of May. The letter found in the
stackyard, being a half sheet of common writing paper, was
compared with the half sheet left in the blacksmith's house,
and found to correspond with it in quality, stamp, and a "jag,"
which had evidently been produced by the hasty operation of
tearing them asunder. Besides these facts, the registrar of
births, deaths, and marriages for the district, and the prose-
cutor, also identified the handwriting of the letter to be that
of the prisoner, whom they had seen sign his name once.
Mr. DASENT having addressed the jury on this evidence,
His LORDSHIP left it to them to say whether the com-
position in question was a threatening letter, and was written
by the prisoner. If they should find these questions in the
affirmative, it would be then their duty to say whether they
thought it was intended to be sent to the prosecutor, and if
so, then their verdict ought to be one of guilty.
The jury, after a deliberation of half an hour or so, re-
turned a verdict of guilty.—Sentence deferred.
(Before Mr. Baron ALDERSON.)
Joseph Barrett, aged 31, was indicted for having set fire to
a dwelling-house, cow-house, granary, and other buildings,
the property of Rebecca Jones and others, the executors and
trustees of Samuel Jones, deceased.
Mr. PRENDERGAST opened the case to the jury for the
prosecution, and from his statement it appeared that the fire
in question broke out about one o'clock in the night of the
7th of May, which consumed the whole of the buildings
attached to the premises of the prosecutors, at Great Thur-
low, in this county. In order to bring home to the prisoner
the perpetration of the outrage, a variety of witnesses were
called, who deposed that so far back as the month of October
last, he had a quarrel with the "old gentleman," which pro-
duced the most angry feeling on the part of the prisoner
towards Mr. Jones, who was the poor-law guardian, and was
as well as every other member of his family, highly esteemed
and revered in the parish, of which the prisoner was an in-
habitant. Not long before the death of the old gentleman,
it seemed that the prisoner had applied at the farm-house
for work, without success. On the next night, just as the
folks were a-bed, he and his wife again called, and demanded
" a home," in a tone of great energy. Upon this Mr. Jones
went to speak to him on the impropriety of his conduct,
but was met with a threat of a "warming," adding, "Joe
Barrett won't name any names, so you won't
catch him up, Wt., null, have _one." Upon this,
he went away, but returned 'On the next day, when a
personal rencontre took place between the guardian and the
pauper, who was given in charge, and committed to prison
for two months for the assault. During his incarceration Mr.
Jones died, and nothing more was heard of the prisoner ; but
when the fire occurred suspicion fell on him, and many
people recollected his having used a variety of threats and
deelarations of hostility towards the family of the Joneses,
which they now repeated in open Court.
The prisoner, when called on for his defence, entered into a
long and very consistent account of his proceedings on the
night in question, and accounted for himself by saying that
having left the Crown tap at a seasonable hour, he went
home to his father's house, in a yard belonging to which he,
his wife, and a child occupied a heap of straw, piled up in a
hovel. There, he said, he fell asleep till the cry of " fire"
aroused him, and he got up as fast as he could, and when
dressed he waited for his father, whom he called to corrobo-
rate this statement.
The jury returned a verdict of Not Guilty.
George'Darey, aged 13, and Robert Feakes, aged 11, were
charged with having wilfully and feloniously set fire to a
portion of a wood called the Fir Wood, in the parish of
Stanton, the property of William Taylor, on the afternoon of
the 15th of June last.
Mr. Gordon prosecuted the prisoners, who were undefended.
From the statement of the prosecutors and others it ap-
peared that the two boys were out in a field near the Fir
Wood, and that smoke having been seen to rise from that
part near to which they were, a cry was raised, and pursuit
immediately set on foot. The lads fled across the fields as
fast as their legs could carry them, but were soon overtaken,
when they asserted they had set the wood on fire " by acci-
dent," while playing hard by, and trying to make a little
bonfire out of some dry grass. On investigation, however,
it appeared that they had collected a quantity of this grass
in the field, and heaped it up against the underwood. They
had not long been in custody before they shifted their ground,
whether from fright or treachery, and began to accuse each
other of having done the deed wilfully, and of having in-
cited its commission. The result was that they were both
committed for trial, and when the site of the fire was searched
a little "home-made" cannon was found, consisting of a piece
of iron piping fastened on to a wooden handle. Whether
this instrument was used by them as a mere toy, or as a
means of setting fire to the wood designedly, did not appear.
When called on for their defence to-day, the lads both said
that they did it without intent; but the jury, after a patien t
inquiry, entertained a somewhat different opinion, for thong h
they acquitted the younger prisoner, they found the elder,
on whom sonic lucifer matches had been found, guilty.
Sentence was deferred on this case also.
John Woods, aged 16, pleaded guilty to a charge of setting
fire to a quantity of growing furze, at Nacton, the property
of Mark Majora, on the 15th of June.
Mr. GUNNING, on the part of the prosecutor, begged to re-
commend the youthful incendiary to mercy. He had always
borne a good character hitherto.—Sentence deferred.

MEDICAL PROTECTION ASSEM-
BLY, EXETER-HALL, JULY 22, 1844.
At a numerous and extraordinary meeting of the Com-
mittee, Mr. Carpue in the chair, the following resolu-
tions were unanimously adopted :
That this Committee has viewed with horror and in-
dignation the foul insinuations which have been levelled
against Mr. Wakley in the Commons House of Parlia-
ment.
That this Committee has seen with delight and admi-
ration the bold, open, and dignified manner in which the
insinuation was met and answered by Mr. Wakley, and
the Committee considers that the thanks of the whole
medical profession are due to Sir R. Peel, and the Mem-
bers of the House of Commons, for the noble and gene-
rous protection which they afforded to Mr. Wakley on
that occasion.
That this Committee acknowledges with feelings of
cordial satisfaction, the high-minded co4yet of the
whole of the political press towards Mr. Waltley on this
occasion, writers of every party having nobly stepped
forward to the rescue of a man whose public services
and private worth might justly have shielded him from
the calumnies of even interested slanderers.
That after what has transpired, no attempt to revive
the calumny against Mr. Wakley can ever be made ex-
cept by persons whose conduct and unworthy motives
must subject them to the severest condemnation of all
honourable inind.
That the Committee gladly avail themselves of this
opportunity to acknowledge, with gratitude, the many
obligations which Mr. Wakley has conferred upon the
members of the medical profession since the establish-
ment of the Lancet, the first periodical of the kind that
appeared in this country, and which he has conducted
with ability, independence, and an enduring devotion to
the cause of medical reform, for nearly a quarter of a
century. We beg also to refer, with pleasure, to the
many abuses which that publication has been instru-
mental in removing from the endowed and chartered
medical institutions of this country ; to the great good
that has resulted to the public, anal more especially to
the poorer classes of society, by the salutary changes
lie has caused to be introduced into the public hos-
pitals of the empire ; and to the great advancement
in the interests and prospects of the profession ge-
nerally, due to the conduct and indefatigable exertions
of that gentleman.
J. CONSTANTINE CARPUE, Chairman.
H. HODSON RUGG, Hon. Sec.
Before the meeting separated, a resolution was unani-
mously adopted, thanking Mr. H. H. Rugg for the
handsome manner in which he had accepted the office of
honorary secretary to the committee.