The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-25 00:00:00

LAW INTELLIGENCE.

SHERIFFS' COURT. Oct. 24.
(Before Mr. Under-Sheriff KENNEDY.)
OSBORNE V. NUNN.
This was an action brought by a gentleman named
Osborne against the defendant, Alicia Nunn, who is well
known in the musical world, to recover the amount of a
bill of exchange at three months for 15/.
A clerk from the office of Messrs. Temple and Burden,
solicitors, of Furnival's Inn, appeared for the plaintiff.
The action was undefended, and it was the only case
that stood for trial to-day. Miss Nunn had pleaded
that she was married to her present husband, Isaac
Clark Pray, formerly the editor and proprietor of the
Evening Star newspaper, at the time of drawing the bill
of exchange.
Mr. Under-Sheriff KENNEDY—Is the defendant pre-
sent, or does any one attend in her behalf ?
No one having answered, a verdict was entered for the
plaintiff for 151. ss. . . -

COURT OF'BANKRUPTCF,• Oct. 24'.
IN' RE -CHAPMAN AND HALL.`
Sir C. F. Williams was engaged the whole morning in
hearing evidence in the above case.

CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT.
OLD COURT.

(Before Mr. Justice MAULE and Mr. Baron ROLFE.)
THE CASE OF THE AUGUSTA.

Their Lordships took their seats at ten o'clock, im-
mediately upon which, in consequence of the decision
pronounced on Wednesday, Capt. Jennings was placed at
the bar.
Mr. PAYNE, who is counsel for the prosecution, then
applied for a further postponement of the trial, on the
ground of the expected arrival of Captain C. Hill, the
Governor of one of the British possessions on the Gold
Coast. If his application was granted, there would be
no objection on the part of the prosecution again to
admit the prisoner to bail.
Mr. PRENDERGAST, on behalf of the prisoner, opposed
the motion. The prisoner had been indicted for carry-
ing on an illegal traffic in slaves. That charge had been
preferred against him as long ago as the conclusion of
last year, and the Court had been so sufficiently satisfied
with the explanations which had been given on the part
of the prisoner, that since that period it had admitted
him from time lb time to bail. At the last sessions
the prisoner pleaded mitre fois acquit on the
ground that be had been tried at. Sierra
Leone by a competent tribunal, for the same
offence, and acquitted, and that therefore he could not
be tried again for the same offence. The Court, it was
true, had decided yesterday against the validity of the
plea, but still Captain Jennings was anxious that his
trial should take place as soon as possible.
Mr. Baron ROLFE observed that the trial had been
postponed from time to time to afford Captain Jennings
an opportunity of obtaining a copy of the judgment of
the Court in Sierra Leone. in order that he might from it
make out his defence. lie had put in a certain plea,
and that had been held by the Learned Judges who
heard it to be of no weight. He could not, therefore, see
on what ground the application was made.
Mr. PRENDERGAST pressed for proceeding with the
trial. Captain Jenning had been in custody four or five
times, which he submitted, taken together, formed a long
imprisonment. The prosecution had been commenced
nearly two years ago, and was it to be supposed that the
parties who conducted the prosecution were not aware
of the charge they had made, or the means of sus-
taining it. If, however, their Lordships should think
that the trial could not, at the present time, be proceeded
with, he was in hopes that the Court would make a
peremptory order that it should be taken first at the
next sessions.
Mr. CLARKSON appeared on the same side, and sub-
mitted that the case ought to be tried the first at the
next sessions.
Mr. PAYNE said that if the prisoner, Captain Jennings.
had been tried with Zulueta, the result on that occasion
would have been different. Upon that occasion, how-
ever, ha was noa est inventus, but 2.3 s lon as Zulweit was
acquitted, the non est inventus of Captain Jennings was
lost, and the reality became apparent. The Captain ap-
peared in Court, he showed a bold front to his accusers,
he defie I them to prove anything against him, and under
these circumstances he thought it was not asking too
much of the Court to postpone the trial to next session.
Mr. CLARKSON observed that the trial of M. Zulueta
took place on the 21st of October last year, and the pri-
soner at the bar, Captain Jennings, was in custody on
the 12th.
Some further discussion took place, which ended in
Mr. Baron ROLFK directing the trial to stand over to
the next session.
Captain Jennings was then again admitted to bail on
his former sureties, and immediately afterwards quitted
the Court.
James Ball, 30, was indicted for a felonious assault
upon Lucy Leser.
When the prisoner was placed at the bar he inti-
maicici that he expected counsel had been employed on
his behalf.
Mr. Baron Roire asked him if he had employed a
professional man ?—The prisoner said he had not, but
the deputy-governor of the gaol had undertaken to
provide counsel for him.
Mr. WimuNs complained of this course of pro-
ceeding, and said that the proper course, when a pri-
soner was not in a position to employ an attorney,
was for him to hand over the depositions or the state-
ment of his case to a counsel in open Court.
Mr. Baron ROLFE said there should be some inquiry,
And he directed the deputy-governor to be sent for.
'That functionary soon afterwards came into court,
and, in answer to questions from the Bench, he said
that the prisoner had handed him a sum of money to
provide counsel, andj he had given it to the governor,
who, he understood, would engage counsel for the
prisoner.
Shortly afterwards Mr. Ballantine rose and said
that he bad been requested by Mr. Cope to watch the
case on behalf of the prisoner.
Mr. WiLioNs said that the prisoner had, no doubt,
made a judicious selection of a counsel, but he must
say he did not think it a proper course for the officers
of the gaol to act in this manner on behalf of pri-
soners. It placed the whale of the bar under the
favouritism of the governor or the deputy-governor
of the gaol.
Baron ROLFE did not see any harm in the pro-
ceeding, If a prisoner fancied the governor was
qualified to choose a counsel for him, he did not see
how the Court could prevent it.
The trial then proceeded, and the prisoner was
eventually convicted of an assault, and he was sen-
tenced to be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for
eighteen calendar months.
• Mr. PARRY then addressed the Court in reference
to what had taken place upon the subject of the de-
fence of the prisoner, and wished to know whether
the members of the .bar were to understand that the
judges sanctioned or approved of the proceeding of
the governor or deputy-governor of the prison
employing counsel for prisoners.
Mr. Baron ROLFE said he had not expressed any
approval of the proceeding, but what he said was,
that if a prisoner chose to consult the governor as to
whom he should employ for counsel, he did not see
how it could be prevented.
George Weston, 23, John Cooper, alias Tunberlake,
27, and George Jackson, 23, were indicted, the two
first-named 'prisoners for stealing twelve sovereigns
and other property, belonging to Edward Blundell,
and the other prisoner, Jackson, for receiving a por-
tion of the property, knowing it to have been stolen.
Mr. Simon conducted the prosecution, and Mr.
Baldwin defended the prisoner Cooper. The other
prisoners had no counsel.

The circumstances under' which the robbery was
committed were of a most cruel and heartless cha-
racter. The prosecutor was in the service of a builder
in the Belvidere-road, and on the 27th of August
he went to his work, as usual, leaving his wife, who
had only been confined a fortnight, and her nurse, at
home. Shortly afterwards the prisoner Weston went
to the house and asked to see the prosecutor's wife
on particular business, and when she was introduced
to him he told her bat a very unpleasant circum-
stance
had taken place, that her husband had been
taken into custody upon the charge of robbing his em-
ployers, and that he was a police-constable, in plain
clothes, who was sent with a warrant to search
the house. The poor woman was, of course, dread=
fully alarmed at the story, and, not suspecting
Anything. wrong, lhe
,opened t ,opened boxes, rand cupboards,
And,' produced twelve. sovereigns,, some
silver-spoons, and some. articles of jewellery, all
of which the prisoner put in the drawers. After a
close search he said that lie did not find any property
he expected, and' he would write a retter to the officer
on duty at the station-house, which she had better
take, and at the same time see her husband. He at
the same time said that a young man in the employ
of her husband's master, was waiting outside, and he
would accompany her to the station-house. The poor
woman, anxious to see her husband, and of course
under very great alarm and agitation, consented to do
as Weston suggested, and he then called the prisoner
Cooper, who was standing outside the house, and
asked him to go with Mrs. Blundell to the station

house, and he would take charge of the property while
she was gone. Cooper and the prosecutor's wife ac-
cordingly went away together, and when they
had gone a short distance, Cooper, under
some pretence, left her, and as he did not
come back so soon as he had promised, her
suspicion was excited, and she returned home,
when she discovered that the moment she had left
Weston had decamped with all the property he could
lay his hands upon. The only evidence against Jack-
son was, that he had formerly lodged in the house of
the prosecutor, and that when he was taken into
custody a wedding-ring, which was believed to have
been the one stolen from the prosecutor's house, was
seen on his finger; but as he afterwards contrived to

get rid of it, here was no possibility of identifying
the article.

The jur found Western and Cooper Guilty, and
acquitted Jackson.

NEW COURT.
(Before Mr. Common-Sergeant MIRMHOtTSE.)
George Obehouser was indicted for feloniously steal-
ing, at the parish of St. Luke, Old-street, in the county
of Middlesex, on the 25th day of May, 1844, one cask,
of the value of 35., and 841bs. of a certain colour called
Chinese blue, of the value.of Si., the goods and chattels
of Thomas De la Rue and others, to whom he was
servant.