The Sun.
London, England, 1845-03-21 00:00:00

him from the Admiralty, to his two nephews, Joseph I
Somes the younger, and Frederick Somes. On the same
day this most generous Aisle made over to these doubt-
less highly-meritorious, and therefore munificently-
endowed youths, ships of about 22,000 tons and 120,0004
value. Having thus cast overboard the impediments to
his safe passage into the House of Commons, on the 27th
of December Mr. Somes was elected Member for Dart-
mouth. What adds to the eccentric generosity of Mr.
Somes is the admitted fact that his nephews, whom he
freely and absolutely invested with this large quantity of
shipping, were innocent of all previous knowledge of
the business in which they were now to embark. They
had no previous knowledge essential to the acquirement
of the experience and tact to which commercial men
are usually indebted for success. They had no place
of business. The name of one of them, it is true,
appears, for the first time, in the " Commercial
Directory" for the present year ; but his place of business
is the same as that of his uncle, who has supplied him with
" a local habitation and a name." Inexperience is wont to
produce blunders. And the haste with which hastily-con-
cocted transfers, made for collusive and corrupt puposes, are
got up, are also frequently productive of blunders which
exhibit their true character, and thus betray and defeat
the intentions of the parties. To which of these causes
a ludicrous blunder of Mr. Frederick Somes is to be
referred, we leave to others. The circumstance is
worthy of record. This young gentleman joined with
his brother in a joint tender to the Admiralty of a
ship, which a reference to the registry-book at the Cus-
tom-house shows to have been transferred by Mr. Somes
to Mr. Joseph Somes, jun., and not to the brothers jointly.
Whether the transfer of Mr. Joseph Somes' property
was bond fide, or collusive—whether it was by deed of
gift, or by bargain and sale—whether for the purpose
of ridding himself of a legal disqualification for a seat
in the House of Commons, or for any other object—
was not, however, the question with which the Corn-
miitee had to deal, and were called upon to decide. The
question placed in issue was, whether the terms of the
statute which regulates the transfer and registration of
ships had been complied with in Mr. Somes' case? The Act
(3 and 4 Wm. IV. c. 55), the object of which, according to
its preamble, is to consolidate the laws relating to the
registration of ships, expressly enacts (sec. 34) that no
bill of sale shall be valid to pass property in a ship, until
such bill of sale shall have been registered in the re-
gistry-book of some port. The bills of sale of Mr. Somes'
ships to his nephews are all dated on the 17th of Dec.
But there is no registry of a date previous to the elec-
tion; the earliest date of any such registration being
December 28—the day after the election. Mr. Somes had
not, therefore, when he was elected to serve in Perlis
merit, complied with the terms of the statute. He
still had an interest in ships serving the Government
under contracts not voided before the day of election.
A clearer ease of disqualification was never established.
A more palpable proof that a House of Commons' elec-
tion Committee is incapable of divesting itself of party
influences, when r( quired to pronounce a just decision
which involves the seating or unseating of a political
partisan, was never supplied. Whether the Committee
consist of 13, 7, 5. or 3, is a matter of trifling moment.
The majority will, in nine cases out of ten, decide in fa-
vour of the party which favours the political views of that
majority. This has grown into a proverb by the long
experience of its truth. Hence no confidence in their in-
tegrity is placed in the legal or moral decisions of such
a tribunal.

LAW IN TELLIGENCE.
SHERIFFS' COURT, March 19.
(Before Mr. Under-Sheriff BURCHELL.)
COOK v. HOOPER.
This was an action brought by a person tamed Cook, a
messenger in the Post-office, to recover from Mr. James
Hooper, a medical gentleman, 41. 13s. 6d., for rent, with
attendance, due by him to the plaintiff for the use and oc-
cupancy of apartments. The apartments were charged at
the rate of 6s. 6d. a week, with an additional 2s. 6d. for at-
tendance.
Mr. PEARSON, who appeared for the defence, put in, as a
set off, a doctor's bill for medicines furnished by the defendant
to the plaintiff's family, at various times. He further al-
leged that, of the amount sought to be recovered by the
plaintiff, only 1/, 6s. was due for rent, as the remain-
ing 31. 7s. 6d. was charged for attendance, which
had never been given. The latter item had not
been mentioned to the defendant until a quarrel had
arisen between the parties, and Mr. Hooper had sent
in his bill for medicines, Sce. The set-off now advanced
on behalf of Mr. Hooper amounted to 151. It was an
amended bill, to which, in addition to medicines supplied to
and attendance on the plaintiff's family, medicines supplied
to a female servant of the plaintiff, and a quantity of butter
and several fowls, which it was alleged that the defendant
had supplied, were added. The first bill sent in by Mr.
Hooper was for medicines alone, amounting to 41. 13s. 6d.,
being exactly the same amount as that sought to be reco-
vered by the plaintiff.
The UNDER-SHERIFF, in summing up, commented rather
severely on the doctor's bill, which he believed had been
stretched out to meet the case, and was to be looked upon
with considerable suspicion.
The jury, after a short consultation, returned a verdict for
the plaintiff for the full amount of 41. 13s. 6d.

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.
HOME CIRCUIT.—Lewes, March 18.
The Commission for Sussex was opened yesterday. The
business is lighter than it has been remembered for many
years, there being only twenty-six prisoners for trial, and
common jury cases, some of which were undefended, to be
disposed of on the civil side.
Both Courts were opened this morning at ten o'clock, the
Lord Chief Justice sitting on the Crown side, and Mr. Baron
Alderson at nisi prius. The causes disposed of by the
Learned Baron were of the most trivial character, and the
cause list was gone through by seven o'clock in the evening,
none of the cases involving any matter of the slightest in-
terest to the public.
CROWN SlDE.—(Before Mr. Baron ALDERSON.)
March 19.
Amos Patching, 44, and Thomas Burgess, 44, were in-
dicted for burglariously breaking and entering the dwelling-
house of Nathaniel Blaker, at the parish of Edburton, and
stealing three gold seals, a writing desk, and other articles,
his property. Mary Anne Hounsell, 22, and Jane Reader,
alias Gates, alias Burgess, 41, were also charged in the same
indictment with feloniously receiving the property, knowing
it to have been stolen.
Mr. Clarkson and Mr. Cobbett conducted the prosecution.
The prisoners had no counsel.
This case appeared to create a good deal of interest, on
account of the male prisoners, together with a man named
Longhurst, also indicted at these assizes, being supposed to
have committed a great number of burglaries in this county,
there being five indictments against them, in the present
calendar, for burglaries at different places ; the women being
charged, in each case, as receivers of the stolen property.
The prisoners were arraigned on Tuesday, before the Lord
Chief Justice, when the men pleaded guilty to most of the
indictments. It became necessary, however, to try one of
the cases, in order to include the female prisoners, and the
present indictment was accordingly proceeded with. It
appeared, from the evidence adduced, that the prosecutor,
Mr. Blaker, is a farmer, residing at Edburton, and, on the
night of the 31st of December, the premises were all left
properly secured, and the next morning, it was discovered
that, during the night, they had been opened by some
persons forcing open a cellar-flap, and the lower part of the
house had been ransacked, and a good deal of property
taken away. Nearly the whole of this property was found
in apartments occupied by the male and female prisoners
at Brighton, and, from the observations made by the latter
at the time they were apprehended, and subsequently before
the magistrates, there was very little doubt that they
were perfectly well aware of the means by which the pro-
perty had come into the possession of the male prisoners. It
appeared that the men had absconded, and very great credit
was due to a constable named Biddlecomb, who holds the
office of inspector of police at Godalming, in Surrey, for the
means he took to apprehend them and to make out the case,
After travelling in pursuit of them over a very great extent
of country, he at length succeeded in coming up with the
prisoners near Alton, in Hampshire, and, as he was at this
time alone, they would probably have got away, but that he
very adroitly hit upon the following expedient to disarm their
suspicions. He told them, upon coming up with them, that he
was an officer, and that a farmer a short distance off had sent
him after them, on suspicion of their stealing some fowls the
night before. The prisoners said they could easily prove their
innocence of the charge, for they had slept at Basingstoke.
The officer then said they could no doubt easily prove this to
the satisfaction of the complainant if they would go back with
him, and for form's sake they had better have on the handcuffs.
The prisoners consented, and very quietly allowed the officer to
handcuff them, and he then told them the real nature of the
charge against them. The prisoners, who are powerful, re-
solute- looking fellows, then said they wished they had
known what they were wanted for at first, adding, that if
they had, the officer should not have put those things (the
handcuffs) so easily upon them, and there is very little
doubt that but for the prudence of the officer, the prisoners,
from their desperate character, would have made a violent
resistance, and the result might have been of a serious cha-
racter, as the officer, although alone, was a resolute man
and determined upon effecting the capture of these indivi-
duals, who have for a long time been the terror of this and the
adjoining counties.
Mr. Baron ALDERSON having summed !up, the jury re-
turned a verdict of Guilty against all the prisoners.
They were immediately called up for judgment, together
with Longhurst, the man who had pleaded guilty on the
previous day, and the male prisoners were sentenced to be
transported for ten years ; the women were ordered, Hounsell
to be kept to hard labour for two years, and Burgess for 18
months.
The Learned JUDGE said, that the inspector, Biddle-
comb, appeared to have acted with very great zeal and
activity in the case, and he should therefore order him a
reward of twenty pounds in addition to his expenses. He
likewise directed that two other constables who bad assisted
him in his pursuit of the prisoners should also receive a re-
ward of five pounds each.

OXFORD ClRCUlT.—Stafford, March 17.
CROWN COURT.—(Before Mr. Baron PLarr.)
Mary Ann Reading, aged 30, was charged with conceal-
ing the birth of her female illegitimate child at Kingswin-
ford, on the 16th of December.
Mr. C. Forster conducted the prosecution, and Mb Neale
the defence.
The prisoner, who was attired in deep mourning, was in
December last cook and housekeeper in a family of great re-
spectability at Wordesley, in this county.
On the 16th of that month, during the temporary absence
of his master and mistress, the butler observed a very sudden
change in the appearance of the prisoner, and his suspicious
being excited, he examined her bed-room, where he found a
pair of blood-stained sheets, and on opening an unlocked box
discovered the dead body of a new-born child. lie immedi-
ately questioned the prisoner, who at once admitted herself to
be the mother of the infant, which, according to her own ac-
count, had been born dead. No marks of violence were on
the body, nor was there any reason for supposing that the
infant had experienced a violent death.
The jury returned a verdict of Guilty, with a recommen-
dation to mercy. and the prisoner was sentenced to a month's
confinement in the common gaol.
James Walton, aged 25, and George Profit, aged 33, twe
resolute-looking men, were indicted for having on the night
of the 28th of December last entered certain lands at Tam-
worth, the property of the Right lion. Sir Robert Peel, with
several other persons unknown, armed with guns, for the
purpose of destroying game.
Mr. Godson, Queen's Counsel, and Mr. Lee, conducted the
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field, who, assembling in large gangs, rendered their capture
by the gamekeepers a matter of great danger, if not of entire
impossibility. On the night of Friday, the 27th of December,
a party of poachers, armed with guns and bludgeons, to the
number of 14 or 16, were discovered by four watchers on
land of Sir Robert Peel, called Turnabout-field, and subse-