The Sun.
London, England, 1842-10-29 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, SATURDAY MORNING, OCTOBER 29, 1842.

to publish and enforce his wish, and I have merely
done the same, where is the difference of ourguilt?"
Mr. Muir adduced stronger instances still. He
struck at the early politics of Mr. Pitt and of the
Duke of Richmond, and asked if what was patriotism
in them, as Ministers of State, in 1782, ought to be
critne and sedition in 1793 ?
The following circumstance we introduce here by
way of episode, which, though it formed part of the
trial, does not bear on the main features of the case.
As an interesting portion, we have not omitted it :
Mr. Muir's own servant, a young woman, had been
brought up in evidence against him. as to words which
had passed in his awn private house. Solemnly he
cautioned the Court not to allow the dangerous pre-
cedent of giving credibility to witnesses of this kind,
under accusations of this nature. " The crime of
sedition," continued he, " can neve;,,4 oammitted in
a private house. It supposes the highest publicity,
the convocation of many. But if power shall say that
words spoken in an unguarded moment within the
sacred walls of a family amount to this crime, what
will follow ? The meanest of your domestics, who
could hardly approach your presence even in their
menial duties—who (if the expression may be used)
to the members of a family are almost unknown—
these, these—the meanest and the lowest—will be
brought forward to swear away your reputation and
your life. And such is this witness, who is adduced
against me with such parade. 0, beware how you
sanctify the shameful proceeding. It is not me you
wound alone, but you destroy the confidence which
subsisted between man and man ; you lead, by your
own handq, to the firesides of your children and your
dearest relations, the fiends of suspicion and danger ;
and ye for ever put an end to that reciprocity of com-
munication which enlivens and endears domestic
society."
Mr. Muir, to fortify the arguments which he openly
avowed as having advanced, recommending the pay-
ment of Members as in former times—Members of
Parliament to have thirty or forty shillings a day for
their attendance—to be honest men and keep the
Constitution clear—continued as follows :
" Who does not know, that until a very late period
indeed, when corruption glided in, and tainted and
poisoned the whole, Members of Parliament received
their wages from the hands of the people alone ? 0 !
how I speak it with joy when I view the past ; with
sorrow, when I contemplate the present: they would
have scorned to have received the price of their at-
tendance from any other hands than the hands of the
people. Then the Constitution possessed all its ener-
gies. Then towered the Constitution in the strength of
age, but also with the bloom of youth. The people
delegated none but men whose virtues they knew, and
none but men who possessed public virtues could be
found to undertake the important mission. Look
back, I intreat you, to the great and good men
whom English history records. Turn your eyes to
the Hampdens, to the Sydneys, to the Marvilles of
former times : to those men whom—but I stop : they
received their wages directly from the people. I de-
clare to you—if it be sedition I declare it—that we
never can expect a virtuous House of Commons, a
Constitutional House of Commons, a House of Com-
mons, such as it once was, connected with no other
interest than the interest of the people—until such
time as its Members shall receive a compensation for
their attendance from the people, and from no other
quarter—be entitled to no other reward than the ap-
probation
fellow-citizens,
110
wo
etiht
ieziernos,wof minds,wnhoro
theya nd,
willt the eh
aalpep lbaeuesne s
the f
undaunted, uncorrupted defenders."
This splendid defence, however, was unavailing.
Judges and Jury were alike afraid of these new doc-
trines ; a verdict of guilty was returned, and the vic-
tims were sentenced to transportation. Muir, by
some strange incident,
,escaped the sentence, the
vessel in which be was embarked as a convict having
been captured by the French, and, after various ad-
ventures, we believe he spent his last days in France.
Most of the others died in exile, only one surviving
the period of banishment, and returning to his native
country.
Can the Liberal vestry of Marylebone besitate'in
coming to a decisive resolution, which shall do honour
to these primitive Reformers, and show their gratitude
for the Constitutional privileges which they now enjoy ?

In about five minutes, whilst still in the wood, the
keepers heard some men who were coming up the
side of the wood, calling out—" Now my lads, how
are you coining on ?" and John Bebbington
who supposed they were the remainder of the keepers,
said "We are here." They then came up, there
being three' of them, and stood on the hedge top,
when Bebhington saw that they were the companions
of his prisoner Baker. He said to Chesters,
" Shoot the first that comes over." Chesters then
took up his (Bebbington's) gun, lying by his
side, but held it in his hand, and did not pre-
sent it. The men then came over the hedge,
when Bebbington let Baker go. One. of the
poachers, the man in the slop, struck Bebbington
on the head and stunned him, and he received several
other blows, which induced him to keep calling upon
Chesters to shoot. The men then left Bebbington,
and attacked Chesters. What took place then Beb-
bington is unable to say, as he Was stunned by the
blows he had received ; and when he came to himself
he was in the brook close by. Bostock, after the con.
flict he had been engaged in was ended, and he had'ke--
covered from the blows he had received, went towards
the place where Bebhington liad had the struggle with
Baker, but he did not find him, as he had gone
away; but he saw the body of Chesters lying there.
He saw four men just out of the wood, and one of
them looking through the hedge, but he could not
recognise any of them. ,He went across the
wood towards Wettenhall, and in the field
next to the wood he met Bebbington, who
was at that time bleeding very much from a
bad cut across his head. They went to the public-
house at Wettenhall for assistance, and haring ob-
tained it they went for Chesters, whom they found
lying on the ground, where Bebbington had last seen
him, before he was attacked by the poachers ; and
they carried him to the Boot and Slipper public-house.
Whilst the above conflicts were going on, John
Noden had a struggle with the poacher armed with
the bludgeon ; and managed to fight him for a con-
siderable period with his stick. and ultimately
wrenched the bludgeon from him. They then
got into the hedge, and had a severe struggle, when
the poacher got uppermost, and jumped with his feet
upon Noden's belly, and then set off into the wood.
Noden was so much injured as not to be able to get up
for some time; and when he did get up the men had
all gone away.
When Richard Chesters was tr ken to the Boot and
Slipper public-house, he was in a state of insensi-
bility; and he died about half-past twelve o'clock on
that day.
On Wednesday an inquest was held at the Boot
and Slipper public-house, Wettenhall, before Henry
Churton, Esq., Coroner, on the body of Chesters.
Mr. Churton had the assistance, in pursuing the in-
quiry, of Mr. Tollemache, Mr. Corbett, and Mr.
France, Magistrates of the county. Mr. Dumvile,
Solicitor of Tarporley, attended on the part of the
prosecution.

The evidence was chiefly corroborative of the state-
ment we have just narrated. The prisoners, Charles
Hitchen, William Warburton, Richard Evans, and
Samuel Cousins, were severally identified without
difficulty by a variety of circumstances.
At the conclusion of the evidence, the prisoners
were cautioned that any statement they might make
would be used against them, when each of them
swore they had been at home the whole of the night
in question.

After a patient investigation, and a lucid summing
up by the Coroner, the Jury returned a verdict of
" Wilful Murder against Charles Hitchen, William
Warburton, Samuel Cousins, Jos.Baker, and Richard
Evans ;" and the four prisoners in custody were im-
mediately committed on his warrant to Chester Castle
to take their trial at the assizes for that offence ; and
were conveyed there the next morning by Mr. Baker
and his assistants.

It is expected that Baker will not be able long to
evade the search making for him.