The Sun.
London, England, 1828-12-05 00:00:00

had to do with any one from Ireland the better.
With respect to the complainant, he said, it was
utterly false that she came into his service through
any advertisement; for the truth was that he actu-
ally picked her up in the New-road as a common
prostitute, where she walked nightly, and he, very
imprudently he admitted, took her home to his
house, and made her his bed-fellow, and she
continued to sleep with him every night, while she
rema;ned in the house, in his own bed, until
three days before the occurrence of which she
now complains. He acknowledged that on that day
he had an intercourse with her, but it was entirely
with her own free will and•consent. She was quite
a destitute creature, he said, when he picked her up
in the street, and had scarcely a rag of clothes on
until he provided, at his own expense, proper
dresses for her, some of which she wore at this mo-
ment. Indeed, so destitute was she of even an un-
der garment, that for the first three or four nights
that she slept with him he was obliged to put one of
his own shirts on her every night. The house-
keeper, he said, soon got jealous of all this przfer-
ence to the housemaid, for she herself had made se-
veral attempts to gain admittance to his bed, but
she always called the other " Madame," and
having construed that term to mean a gentleman's
—. These quarrels at last rose to such a height
upon the score of jealousy, that he told them both
they must quit the heuse ; and, in fact, so far from
their having left him at their own desire, he it was
that turned them out of his house; and in revenge
for his having done so, it was, that they now joined
to either extort a sum of money from him, or else
make an attempt upon his life by false swearing.—
There were plenty of women to be had, he said, in
the neighbourhood in which he resided, without
running the hazard of a man's life by a violence of
this kind.
Sir GEoaGE now questioned the complainant very
closely upon this point, but she in the most unhesi-
tating and solemn manner declared, that she never
did sleep with Mr. Smith in all her life, nor did she
ever suffer him to take the slightest liberty with her
person ; neither did he ever attempt any until the
day that he had committed this offence. He never
did, she declared, pick her up in the New-road, nor
did she ever in her life walk that or any other street
as a prostitute ; on the contrary, she was respectably
brought up in the dress-making business, by. the
Misses Baxter, who resided at No. 223, Tottenham-
court-road, and with whom she always continued to
live and to sleep hf their house up to the very day
that she went into Mr. Smith's service ; and to those
ladies it was that she referred Mr. Smith for hercha-
racier when she answered his advertisement in the
Times; and shat she never had been in any service
as a domestic servant before. She declared in the
most solemn manner that every syllable Mr. Smith
had uttered respecting her was false from beginning
to end.
.The housekeeper also declared that every thing
which Mr. Smith had said respecting her was equally
false, for that, se far from her going into his. service
with a false character, she referred him to two ladies

named Powell and Bladen, who keep a large and re-
spectable boarding-school at Clapton, whose service
she had just then left, and who gave Mr. Smith a
most excellent character of her, and before she went
to reside at Clapton she had lived, she said, in the
_ _

family of the Rev. Mr. Fogarth, in Essex, and be-
fore then she kept a shop of business in Queen-
street; but not being successful, and being a widow
without any children, she gave up her shop, and
went into service, and although she was an Irish-
woman, she defied any one living with truth to say
any thing else to her disadvantage.
Mr. Smith repeated in the most solemn manner
that the complainant slept in the same bed with him
every night during the whole of nearly three months
that she was in the house; and snatching up the
New Testament that lay before him on the bench,
he said, " Sir George Farranr, I have ever been
brought up all my life as a religious and a moral man
—as a member of the church of England—and
(kissing the sacred volume) so help me God!
that girl (pointing to the complainant) slept with
me every night nearly while she was in my house."
Sir GEo. FARRANT asked Mr. Smith if he could
bring forward the evidence of any other person in
the house to prove that the girl slept with him, be-
cause the contrary was so clearly and distinctly
sworn to by the two females, that he (Sir George)
could not do otherwise than act upon their oaths as
truth.

Mr. Smith said that it was impossible for him to
produce any evidence, for these. two women alone,
besides himself, were acquainted with the fact.
Sir GEORGE FARRANT—Then; Mr. Smith, how-
ever painful fo me, I must certainly commit you for
trial.

Mr. Smith—" For God's sake, Sir George, think
what you are about to do; I beseech you not to
believe these profligate women; give me at least
some time to make inquiries as to their characters,

and to obtain legal advice in the serious situation in
which I am placed."
Sir GEORGE said, that the characters of the wit-
nesses would be a matter more properly for the con-

• • .
sideration of a Jury, and legal advice could not alter
the positive testimony of the prosecutrix, to which

she so distinctly adhered.
Mr. Smith was then committed to prison on a
capital charge, and the prosecutrix and the other
witness bound over to prosecute; but at the request
of Mr. Smith, he was nominally remanded to another
day, as he was desirous that the present Old Bailey
Sessions should pass over before his trial should
come on in his present unprepared state.
A great number of most respectable gentlemen
and tradesmen attended with Mr. Smith, and offered
to the Magistrate bail to any amount for Mr. Smith's

appearance; but the Magistrate referred them to one

of the Judges for that purpose. Mr. Smith was then
removed from the office, in custody of the gaoler.

The quantity of rats with which the neigh-
bourhood of Bury is infested has become a very serious evil.
The fields and hedge-rows swarm with these noxious ver-
min, and their ravages in the new-sown wheat and the
turnips have been very considerable. Upon one farm, near
Bury, not less than two thousand hare been killed, awl
upon another eight hundred since Michaelmas. It is the
common practice of farmers to offer a bounty of twopence
each on the tale of rate, to all who may choose to bring
them ; and at this rate a number of persons have found
ample employment. In consequence of the dryness of the
autumn, the vermin have not yet taken shelter in the
barns but when they do, the mischief they will occasion,
unless materially reduced in number, must be immense.
One cause of this plague, for such it may be termed, has
been the wet summer, always favourable to the multiplica-
tion of the species, but a still greater cause is the destroy-
tion of stoats, weasels, polecats, arid other animals naturally
preying on the rat, for the purpose of preserving game,
which thus becomes doubly injurious to the produce of
agriculture.—Norwieh Mercury.

The following curious story is told of an old
Indy living in Buckinghamshire. Some time ago the hus-
band of this ancient dame died without making his will,
for the want of which very necessary, precaution his estate
would have passed away from his widow, had she net re-
sorted to the following expedient to avert the loss of her
property. She concealed the death of her husband, and
prevailed upon an old cobbler, her neighbour, who was in
person somewhat like the deceeAcd, to go to bed at her house
and personate him, in which character it Wal agreed that
he should dictate a will, leaving the widow the estate in
question. An attorney was next sent for to draw up the
writings. The widow, who on his arrival appeared in
great affliction at her good man's danger, began to ask ques-
tions of her pretended husband calculated to elicit the
answers she expected and desired. The cobbler, groaning
aloud, and looking as much like a person going to give up
the ghost as possible, feebly answered, " I intend to leave
you half my estates, and I think the poor old shoemaker
who lives opposite is deserving the other half, for he has
always been a good neighbour." The widow was thunder-
struck at receiving a reply so different to that which she
expected, but dared not negative the cobbler's will, for fear
of losing the whole of the property, while the old rogue
in bed (who was himself the poor old shoemaker living
opposite) laughed in his sleeve, and divided with her the
fruits of a project which the widow had intended for her
sole benefit.....-Rucks Gazette.