The Sun.
London, England, 1826-01-03 00:00:00

pectedly coming in upon them. - It is enough—
and it is all that in equity could, be required
from them—that- they were prepared to satisfy
all the claims that they could reasonably expect
to be made upon them.

- - - -
EDIN BURG 11.
IflOU COURT OF JUSTICIARY, Dim 29.

CAStOF THE COMET.
Their
A Lordshipsl
-to the consideration of a bill of suspension and liberation for
Duncan
Atter of the Comet steam-boat, pri-
soner in the Tolbooth of 'Edinburgh, by virtue of a sentence
pronounced by the J utlge of the High Court of Admiralty, on
grin es , lateine t tom after nine o'clock, and proceeded
a i
the 211 inst. presented to the Court of Justiciary by Alexander
M‘Niel, Esq. Advocate, on Tuesday.
The LOUD .i. Dv dcAT
Zatated that he was about to save the
Court some. troteble by 'it once acknowledging that he did
aonsider the proaeetlinge in
record, which would render it,
this case liable to an objection of
i technical nature, as touching the mode of making up the
in his opinion, not fitting for
the public prosecutor to insist for a maintenance of the len.
tence against the pursuer. The libel set forth in the major
proposition two crimes—theme culpable homicide—the other
negligently steering cf a steara.boat, by which lives were lost.
Though these crimes were neatly of the same nature, yet the
prosecutor having set theta_ forth as separate crimes, was
bound to hold them as such-; and the indictment proceeded
to say, not that the pursuers ivere ,' guilty of the said crimes,
or one or other of them, but that they were guilty of the said
crime actors or art and port;"
thus leaving it uncertain which
of the two crimes so set forth the prosecutor meant to charge
them with. The obvious remedy
for this error was the Perving
of a new indictment, but his Lordship had felt unwilling to
adopt this course, seeing that much expence had been incurred,
and nearly forty witnCSSCH put to the trouble of coining from a
great distance to give evidence. Farther, much interest bad
Leen excited in regard to the case, and the public looked anx-
onsly for a full inquiry taking Place in regard to it ;and, owing
w
to the Act of Parliament lately pal' relative to the choosing
of jurors on criminal trials, which
is to take effect on theist of
January, it would have been impossible to proceed in the trial
of the prisoner until the middlsof next month at soonest, a
delay greatly to be deprecated in such a case. .An appeal hay.
ing now been entered to their Lorthhips, and the Crown Coun-
sel having deliberately considered the objections offered, had
come to be of opinion that such as were connected with making
up the record were of a name thattendered it unbecoming- on
the part of the public prosecutor to insist further. With respect,
however, to the two great objects of the trial—the one, the lay-
ing before the public the whole circumstances connected with
that melancholy catastrophe, and showing distinctly where the
blame lay; the other, the fixing thalaw, and certifying to per.
sons concerned in the management of steam-boats, that those
guilty of negligence would suffer punishment at the bar of a
criminal court—these would stand
untouched by the present
proceeding, and would have the same salutary effects to the
country as if this prisoner had remained in gaol for the whole
period prescribed in the sentence against him.
Mr. Cocx DU Rte then rose, and observed, that as, from the
course adopted by the Lord Advocate, there was now no case
before the Court, it was therefore unnecessary to go into the
merits of the case. The learned Gentleman warmly acknow-
ledged the fairness and liberality that had distinguished the
conduct of his Lordship, which, he observed, hail continued
from the commencement of the case down to the present mo.
meat.

Lord Glenna said, that be highly approved of the candid
course now adopted by the Lord Advocate.
The LonD JUSTICE CLERIC concerted in the compliment
paid by Lord Gillies on the conduct of the Lord Advocate. and
considered that the case hati been conducted in a way calculated
to do much good to the country, and which reflected great credit
on his Lordship.
The following judgment was then read by the Clerk of
Coure;
" The Lord Justice Clerk and Lords Commissioners of Jus-
ticiary, having considered the foregoing bill of suspension and
liberation, and abet is above represented in regard to the mode
in which the record was made up, in respect that the Lord
Advocate does not insist in maintaining the sentence of the
Judge Admiral, suspend the sentence complained of sitrplipiter,
and grant warrant to, and ordain the Magistrates of Edinburgh
and keepers of their Tolbooth, to set the said Duncan IWlnues
at liberty."
Mlnnes was liberated accordingly. - •
Sentence of outlawry was pronounced against Robert Mar:
shall, coach-driver, Glasgow, for non-appearance to answer to
the charge of bigamy.
Alexander Valiance was convicted of the crime of theft,
by means of housebreaking, in having entered, on the 30th
of September last, the shop of' T. and J, Stuart, watch.
makers, in Auchterarder, and stealing tihrefrom four new
silver watches. The panel was sentenced to transportation for
seven years.
John (Mlles was then convicted of theft, Red of being habit
and repute a common thief, in having stol4„ a watch on the
Ist of November last, from the holm of Poter Stewart, Burn-
street, Lochend.road, and was sentenced to fourteen
transportation. years'
David Kennaway was then put to the bet,
on a charge of
wilful murder, in having, in Dalkeith, on the 10th of July
last, assaulted and struck his father, John Kennaway, several
severe blows on the head with a blunt instrumeet such as a pair
of tongs, whereof he died. ,
The circumstances of the case were shortly these :—The Da_
nel, a pensioner, had, a day or two previous,i }en.
his ,n.
sion, and being rather the worse of liquor, wset to the holm
of his father, a frail old man of seventy.sevea who resided
with a daughter. The panel then quarrelled elth his Nisi„,
and struck her. The father desired the daugia-...r to leave the
house, as she understood, in the hop: that the son would
follow her. Old Kennaway, a very passioeste man, got
up and laid hold of the tongs, which, it WAS Supposed, lied
been wrenched from him by his son, for 11 o letter was
found at the stair head, almost immediatt thereafter,
ty
beating his sister with them, who took shelter isa neighbour's
house. In a few minutes after, the son left his
dither's house,
apparently in a rage, and the daughter then ritiur„ed to it,
where she found her father lying opposite his bed, on hie
back, dead. The person who lived in the flit
der that oc-
cupied by old Kennaway, heard a great noise,
overhead, of
furniture tumbling about; and during the interve
sr the daugh-
ter was absent from the house, they heard sonthing pulled
along the floor, as if it was a feather bed, or the btu-
- eii, of a man.
An examination the body took place within twefiy-six hours
after death. Dr. Scott described that there were Iwo wounds
on the forehead, and the cartilage of the nose W separated
fmns the bone. On opening the head, half an English pint of
bloody serum was found extravasated between the b
durst matter. The brain itself was sound. In tile thorax a
considerable quantity of bloody serum was found, 'end the air
kin and the
vesicles of the lungs were completely suffused witinblood but
there was no eppearance of strangulation. The in, ,
ny on e forehead must have been effected by a blunt insti neut. the
forehead must have been effected by a blunt lflStislll, A
long examination of medical men followed, in the , otuse of
which Dr. Scott and Mr. Grahame, of Dalkeith, anti
Alison and Chrietison gave their opinions as to the cause of
itt
rofessors
death, both in reference to the evidence adduced, and ie report
which was made up on the examination of the body a r death,
the tnain fact of which was, that neither from the 111 ical re-
port, nor from the circumstances developed in evide
they warranted to conclude that death had been cause by too.e
lence, or that it had not : the conclusion must be draen from
the moral, and not the medical evidence. ,
The Jury, after being inclosed for about half an hur, re-
turned a written verdict, fiuding, by u plurality of Yokes, the
panel guilty of culpable homicide ; and he was sentenced to be
transported for life.--The Lord Chief justice Clerk sta4.l, that
days in the !class of Bermuda, along with other tisp
in all probability the panel would spend the remaintlq of his
offenders. nate

PUN MEDICAL.--A gentleman afflicted lwith
flypochoficlria, was continually taking pills and
fregiwntly changing them ; on which a frien re.
ni keel that he resembled the capital of Tur
~y,
as Inc Was Constant-to-no-pill. \

OYsrEns.--The Union Conch from Lonion
cluno into Leeds, on Saturday la.st, drawn by stx horses, nd
laden, amongst other Christmas luggage with 200 barre of
oyaters. The carriage here of each lurid is 2a. od., ar.4 e
retail mice of oysters in this town is 11.,t0‘ 4. 4d. per scor (Leeds Patriot.)

'Flip following is said to be an infallible Hi.
miter for the TooritAckz :—Take some lint,
which put in a quill, and place it over the lobe
Of a tobacco-pipe prior to its being smoked, after
which apply that part of the . lint nearest the
tube to the cavity of the teeth, where let it re.
main some considerable time ; it will hare.
diutely assuage the most violent pain, and tlip
full efficacy of it will be best knot by the test
of experience.