The Sun.
London, England, 1826-08-14 00:00:00

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No. 10,584.

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

GLOUCESTER, FRIDAY/ Auc. 11.
CHAILOK IDIOT
THIC KING v. SMITH AND OTNERK.

, .
This case is a repetition, with a mere variation and trans-
position of some of the names, of the question which has
already occupied so many days of the Court during this
assize, involving the conduct of the family of 'Mr. Smith,
of Muckleston-wood, in the county of Stafford, towards
one of its members, George Smith, an

The two former causes were tried before common juries,
the present by a special jury, nine of whom were in attend-
ance, and the remaining three were supplied bye tales.
Mr. RUSSELL read the declaration, from which it al,
peered that - this was an indictment against William and
Thomas and Sarah Smith, for a conspiracy, to beat, injure,
and otherwise maltreat their brother George Smith, au
idot, intrusted to their care, by committing upon him seve-
ral assaults, by Confiding him in a dark hole, and in an un-
wholesome room, by cruelly neglecting and refusing him
Ihe necessary supply of clothing eta victuals to preserve
healtdi_and support nature; bi'vehich4assaulta 'and negfeek
he had lost 'the use of his limbs, and become crippled and
distorted. The defendants pleaded the general issue.
Mr. TAUNTON, in stating the case to the jury, impress-
ed upon them the great importance of the inquiry, and the
imperative necessity of divestiug their minds of any pre-
vious rumours which might have crept into them, and of
confining their attention alone to the evidence which would
be laid before them in the present cause. He then went
over in detail the nature of the charge exactly as it was
disclosed in the repeated statements of the two preceding
causes, the confinement and alleged neglect of the poor
idiot, his forlorn condition, unassisted infirmities, his early
bodily health, his later loss of the use of his limbs--a
change ascribed to his neglect and ill-treatment, and the
great alteratio» for the better, in the entire cessation of his
fits, and improved state of his health, since he was removed
to the Stafford Lunatic Asylum. With respect to the
law of the. case, Mr. Taunton observed, that tti support
this indictment, it was unnecessary to prove an actual
beating or striking of this poor. idiot, it was enough to
show general maltreatment, which implied what the law
deemed to be an assault. He enforced this definition and
construction of law, by Owing from Mr. Russell's book,
which was authority, the dictum 'of Mr. Justice Lawrence
at the Lent assizes for Shropshire in 1811,.. who had laid
it down that there might be an assault by exposure to in-
element weather, where a mistress withheld from a servint
she was bound to support, sufficient nourishment, and
refused to permit the proper exercise which the stability of
good. health required. Tho case would be found in 2d
Campbell, 650 and 653. He next proceeded to state the
alleged facts of the case in the order in which they have
been developed in the two last causes. That this idiot
had been bereft of reason from his birth, that at no period
had he been able to take due care of himself,l that the rays
of reason had very feebly penetrated his mind at any time,
and that at his father's death, the family were left SW. a
year for his maintenance, payable out of an estate, which,
upon his death, was devised to the other members of the
family. The learned counsel then narrated the visit of
the Rev, Mr. Broughton, a Magistrate, with Mr. 'End, and
the constable, on the 25th of January last, in consequence
of certain information which he had received of the condi-
tion in which, according to their statement, they had found
this . unfortunate person; and' the imperative necessity
they immediately felt of causing his removal to the Staf-
ford Lunatic Asyltun, where his general health had since
improved, and his fits ceased. This criminal prosecution
had been, he said, directed by the magistrates of the
county of Stafford.

Mr. CAMPBELL interrupted. Mr, Taunton, and com-
plained of his describing the prosecutors.
Mr. TAUNTON insisted he was regular in doing so, it
being important to the Jury to know who it wart that
brought such a charge before them. He concluded by a
strong appeal to this Jury upon the nature of the ease, and
arraigned in severe terms the condoct of the family to-
r this idiot.
The evidence afterwards given was ,precisely the same
as that heard on the other trials. Samuel Harding, John
Goodall, and James Barber, deposed again to the good
bodily health of George Smith 26 years ago; Thomas
Bid, Esq., described, as before, the manner in which he
and the Rev, Mr. Broughton found the idiot. In his cross-
examination, he said, that he might be liable to pay his
share of the costs of this prosecution, and, so might the
Stafford Asylum ; but he could not positively say it would
so happen; An action had' certainly been brought against
him, before the present prosecution was instituted, by Mr.
Win. Smith, for entering his house and taking away the
idiot. Proof was also liven that this prosecution was con-
ducted, not by Mr.. Bird, (one of the former defendants,
achad been insinuated by Mr. Campbell), but by Mr.
Keene, the clerk of the peace for the county of Stafford,
and by order of the visiting Magistrates of the Asyliim.
The, Rty. Mr. Broughton also repeated his deposition
respecting the state in which he found the idiot, and ex-
pressed how. much he , was shocked and indignant at it,
adding, however, to hii former evidence, that Miss Smith
had said her brother had lain 14 years in that state; and
his reply, that he thought it, the most inhuman treatment
ever experienced by a human creature. He told her
he should deem
it necessary to have him removed to the
Lunatic Asylum;- when she answered,
" You are welcome
to remove him wherever you please."
'Poison, the eon:.
stable, also repeated his former evidence. Mr. Garrett,
of the Lunatic Asylum, delivered the same testimony us be-
fore of the state and condition of George Smith, since he
first saw him. Mr. Garrett (of the Stafford Asylum), and
his keepers, spoke again of George Smith's improved health
of late, and of the noxious condition . in which he had mi-
tered ; and the medical gentlemen (Messrs. Knight, Dent;
Hawthorn, mid Hodgeon). severally repeated their profes-
sional opinions respecting the infirmities and neglect of the
idiot, and the fracture of his thigh, in the same terms as
they had used on the two preceding trials.
Mr. Stanley, an attorney from Market-Drayton, proved
the .will of , 1
*sane gmith,•the father in which he had be- i
queathed 50/. a year to the use of the idiot, with a rever-
sion to his surviving brothers on his (the idiot's) decease.
Mr. TAUNTON said, that was his case.
Mr. Justice Buttßouoii remarked, that ,he feared this
case could be carried no farther, for it had not been made to
appear on. the part of the ' duty what-
inprosecutors, that any
ever had been tegoy a take
iposed on the defendants to
care of the idiot. The person, indeed, against whom
.
such a custody could be for a moment presumed or im-
plied,
was the brother %noir the owner of the house;
but as touching him, there ani'.
him personally
not a scintilla of evidence
in the cause to connect
P with these allega-
tions. They must show that there
defendants;
a legal responsibi..
noy to be
lit devolving upon sonic'
of the who were
t . put upon the same footing
servants of an asylum, charged with as the keepers and
ithe care of sufferers of
this deacription.
Mr. TAUNTON submitted, that '
imams ..
the will out of