The Sun.
London, England, 1829-08-24 00:00:00

SATURDAY.

George Garner, aged 45, was indicted for having
at Birmingham, on the 6th of July last, put off to
Patrick Martin 32 counterfeit sovereigns, 64 coun-
terfeit half-sovereigns, and ISO counterfeit half-
crowns, for less value than their denominations re-
spectively imported, and knowing them to be coun-
terfeit.

The trial of this case occupied the Court for a
considerable portion of the day, and excited consider
able interest, mingled with alternate feelings of dis•
gust and merriment, produced by the disgraceful but
whimsical levity of manner displayed by the princi-
pal witness, Martin, the accomplice. The follow-
ing are the leading facts, as stated in evidence :
For many years of his life, Patrick Martin, a dealer
in feathers, residing at Cork, was in the habit of
coming over to Birmingham frequently, and pur-
chasing large quantities of base coin, which he carried
home to his own country and there circulated.--
After desisting from the practice for some time, he
resumed his nefarious traffic in March last, when,
amongst others, he purchased a quantity from the
prisoner, who kept the Roebuck public-house, in
Navigation-street, Birmingham. Upon that occa-
sion he was accompanied by a labouring man, named
Owen Sullivan, whom he engaged in his service for
the purpose of assisting him in carrying on his busi-
ness, and to whom he confided the secret of his cri-
minal dealings. After their return to Cork, Mar-
tin's daughter was detected in passing a counterfeit
sorereign, which she had taken from her father's
pocket. This led to an investigation, in the course
of which Marti❑ made important disclosures to the
sheriffs of Cork, who communicated them to the
authorities in this country. It was deemed advisable
on their part to accept the tender of his services in
detecting as many of the wholesale titterers at Bir-
mingham as possible; and accordingly Collis, a
police-officer at Cork, received instructions to repair
to Birmingham in company with Martin and Sulli-
van, and take measures to concert with them for the
apprehensio❑ of such offenders as they should be
enabled to bring to justice. They all three arrired at
Birmingham towards the end of June, and imme-
diately commenced operations. They proceeded to
the prisoner's house, where he received them with
great cordiality. Ile inquired who the third per-
son was ? Martin said, "he was an honest hearty
fellow, of the name of Macarthy." Garner inquired
if they might speak of their dealings before him ?
Martin said it might be as well not until he came
for his own order, as he (Collis) would take 301.
worth of goods. Upon which Garner observed
that it would not do for him to supply three per-
sons, therefore M'Carthy's money must come
through hint (Martin). A good deal of conversa-
tion took place, the Irishmen were invited to din-
ner, and treated with every mark of hospitality.—
" We walked in the garden," said Martin, with the
most perfect nonchalance, " where we smoked and
talked of Ireland and England, and admired the roses
and onions, and other things that were growing
there. lie asked me how I had disposed of the
goods I had had in March. I replied, that I had
disposed of them in a moderate way at the cattle
fairs. He asked me how the half sovereigns went
off? and I said, "best of any." To which he re-
plied, "he thought so." During this conversation,
Collis, who was also in the garden, affected to be
admiring the flowers, and was occasionally enabled
to overhear a part of it, his repetition of which cor-
roborated Martin's statement. When an opportu-
pity offered, Garner inquires! of Martin what
" goods" he would order, and was rather disap-
pointed when the other told him he should not then
want more than 30/. worth ; but he held out hopes
to hint that he would shortly require 1001. worth.-
11e inquired what were his terms, and Garner re-
plied that he should have three sovereigns for one
(i. c., three counterfeit pieces for one good one);
but he did not yet know what the silver would be.
Martin represented that his friend M`Carthy, whom
he described as a dealer in skins, wanted to go to
Coventry to dispose of his stock to the glovers
there ; upon which Garner wrote down the names
of four of the principal manufacturers in that
city for M'Carthy's information, and it was
agreed that Martin and Sullivan should accom-
pany him, to assist in selling his skins, in or-
der that he might the sooner have money to pur-
chwe "goods" of Garner. They then pretended
to set off for Coventry ; but in fact only went a
little way out of town, when they communicated
with the solicitor for the Mint. Previously to this
Collis had slept two or three nights at Garner's
house; and Martin and Sullivan, there being no
room for them there, slept at private lodgings. For
the remainder of the period of Colis's stay at Bir-
mingham, he also occupied private lodgings. A
great number of minute circumstances and conver-
sations were detailed by the witnesses, for the Fur-
pose of affording means of corroborating the testi-
mony of Martin and Sullivan, but which it is un-
necessary to introduce here. A day having been
fixed for payment of the money, Collis, after search-
ing the persons of Martin and Sullivan, supplied the
' former with 32 sovereigns, and they then went into
prisoner's house. Garner took Martin up stairs
' into a room called the club-room, and Sullivan ac-
companied them, Martin having insisted that he
should be present to witness the payment of the
money. Collis went into the parlour, which is un-
der the club-room. After they had finally arranged
as to the terms of the purchase, Martin counted out
the 32 sovereigns, in doing which he sounded each
of them as loudly as he could upon the table, in
order that Collis, who was underneath, might hear
the money paid. Garner then promised that he
should have " the goods" in the evening. At the
appointed hour Martin came and went up to the
club-room, " but," said he, when stating this part of
the transaction, " I waited, and waited until it struck

nine o'clock, when who should walk into the room
but a fiddleri"—(Roars of laughter.)—Martin be-
came indignant at being thus trifled with, and going
down stairs he upbraided Garner with ill treating
him by not keeping his promise. Garner apologized
for the disappointment, and assured him he should
hare " the goods" on the following day at eleven
o'clock. 'Accordingly, when that hour approached,
the three Irishmen repaired to the Roebuck, Collis

first taking the precaution of searching the per-
sons of his two colleagues, a ceremony which
he performed in a certain outhouse in the yard.
Martin and Sullivan then went in, and Collis,
on whom Garner usually kept a watchful eye, went
out of sight. Garner informed Martin that he had
the sovereigns in his pocket, and the silver " was
planted." He then directed him and Sullivan to
follow him, to a place which he described, a short
distance out of the town. They proceeded along
the road until they came to a spot where a plank,
placed over a small stream of water, led to a narrow
footway between two hedges. Here Garner stopped,
and turning up a sod with the point of his umbrella,
showed Martin a paper parcel, which he told him to
pick up, as it was his property. This was the parcel
containing the counterfeit half-crowns, which he had
informed him " was planted." He then drew a
small parcel, containing the sovereigns and half-
sovereigns, from his breeches pocket, and handed it
to Martin, who gave it in charge to Sullivan; after
which they parted, the prisoner returning to Bir-
mingham, and Martin and his companion proceed-
ing on towards Bromsgrove. The parcels being
delivered to Collis, he sealed them with Mr. Powell's
(the Solicitor to the Mint's) seal, and gave them
up to that gentleman, who afterwards deposited them
with Redfern, a Birmingham constable, by whom
they were produced to-day. On examination the
parcels were found to contain the different coin set
forth in the indictment. Those of each particular
denomination were all from the same die.

..... . _
The witnesses Were Cr9ss"e2rtyllincti at some
length

by Messrs. DENMAN and Mu, on behalf of the pri-
soner, but nothing was elicited from them, except indi-
cations on the part of Martin of the most offensive levity.
His wife, he said, had a pension of 2s. 6d. a day,
and he therefore felt himself bound to support Go-
vernment ; that, and a love of justice, were the only
motives that induced him to betray his former friends.
When the witness Collis was giving his testi-
mony, and stating those parts of the conversation
between Martin and the prisoner which he had over-
heard, he kept his eyes on some small pieces of paper,
which lay before him ; Mr. DENMAN enquired what
those were ? Witness—l wrote them after the
conversation took place; as often as any thing oc-
curred, I retired to the muses, and took a note of it.

Mr. DENMAN—Retired to where ? Witness—To
the muses.
Mr. DENMAN—What does the fellow mean ?
Arc you a poet, friend ? Witness—No, Sir; but I
call a certain convenient house in the -yard " the
muses."—(lmmense laughter.)
Mr. DENMAN—Oh, 1 beg your pardon. You are
the Apollo of that mount, are you ?—(lncreased
laughter,in Which his Lordship most heartily joined.)
Lord 1 ENTERDEN having minutely summed up
the evidence, the jury, without any hesitation, re-
turned a verdict of Guilty.
William Davenport was indicted for haring, at
Birmingham, on the 2d of July last, put off to Patrick
Martin 20 counteifoit sovereigns, 28 counterfeit half
sovereigns, 240 counterfeit half-crowns, and 719
counterfeit shillings, for a less sum than such coin
by its denominations respectively imported, and
well knowing it to be counterfeit.
The details of this case are little morethan a repeti-
tion of those of the preceding one. Verdict, Guilty.

Placebo Smith and William Rolland were indicted
for putting off to the same man 30 counterfeit sove-
reigns under similar circumstances, on the 9th July
last.—The Jury found them both Guilty.

The male prisoner is nephew to the woman, who,
with her whole family, have been engaged in this
guilty trade for a great number of years.
Garner, Davenport, Holland, and Smith, were
then brought up to receive judgment.
His LORDSHIP pointed out the cruel consequences
io poor, industrious, honest people, who were
cheated out of the fruits of their labour by having
this base coin passed upon them. He sentenced the
three men to transportation for seven years each, and
the woman, she having been convicted on a pre-
vious occasion, to transportation for life.
George Bromley ‘Tas indicted for uttering a coun-
terfeit half sovereign, knowing it to be such, he
having been previously convicted of being a common
utterer of base coin.

The prisoner was found Guilty, and sentence of
death recorded against him.

Lord TENTER-DEN informed him he would re-
commend his life to he spared, hut he must never
expect nn opportunity of passing bad money in this
country
. .

These assizes terminated at a late hour t his evening.

ISLE OF ELY-WISBEACH, Aui. 18.

John Strickland and - Parker were indicted
on two different indictments tor accusing, and
threatening to accuse, John Gay and Matthew
Doggett, of an unnatural offence, with a view to
extort money from them. One indictment laid the
extortion and threatening to extort to have taken
place on the 4th of May last : the other laid the ex-
tortion and threatening to extort to have occurred

on the sth of -the same month. The indictment
laying the charge of extortion on the 4th was first tried.
Verdict—Not Guilty. _ _

Mr. PRYmE then stated to the Court that tlu re
was a second indictment found by the Grand Jury,
laying the offence of intimidation and extortion, on
the .sth of May, and required that the prisoners
might be detained to nudergo their trial for the
off lice committed upon that day.
They were accordingly tried next day on this in-
dictment and found Guilty. . . .

'I he CHIEF JUSTICE ordered the sentence of
death to be recorded.

THE MURDER OF WILLIAM EDDEN.

(From the Bucks Gazette.)

It will be recollected by our readers that Wm.
Edden, gardener, of Thame, was found dead 014
the road between Aylesbury and Thame, about
a year ago, under circumstances which strongly
induced a suspicion that some villains had way-
laid and murdered him.

On Saturday, the 25th of October, 1828,
Edden came to Aylesbury market with a horse
and cart, in which he had some trees, a sack of
potatoes, and other produce of his garden, for
sale. He did not succeed in selling his trees,
and returned towards Thame with them in the
evening, when a man named Bass, who lives at
Haddenham, rode with him as far as the turning
to Haddenham, which is about four miles from
Thame. Bass left Edden sitting in front of his
cart, and jogging on behind the cart of the Ox-
ford newsman, which had passed him on the
road, and was then a little in advance of his own
vehicle. When Bass left him it was about six
o'clock. About eight o'clock, W. King, a
straw-plait dealer, and his son, were coming from
Thame to Aylesbury, and saw a cart, which
afterwards proved to be the deceased's, in a knoll
of the road, about a mile from Scotsgrove-mill ;
no horse was in the shafts, and the harness lay
on the ground. About three-quarters of a mile
on the road towards Aylesbury they saw a man
lying on the ground, who, as they passed him
in their cart, exclaimed, " Oh Lord ! Oh God !"
to which he added something else, which was
not distinctly heard. King, however, being
fearful, did not alight, but drove by without
stopping. The dead body of Edden, or, as he
was more frequently called by his associates,
" Noble Edden," on account of his handsome
and portly appearance, was found near this
spot on the same night, and conveyed to a public
house at Haddenham, called the Cider House.
An inquest was here held on the deceased, and
the Jury returned a verdict, "That the deceased
had been murdered by some person or persons
unknown." This verdict, we then remarked,
was fully justified by the evidence ; for, besides
the facts above given, it was proved that a cry of
murder was heard by William Plater, a man who
was grubbing a root in a field at a considerable
distance from the turnpike-road about the time
the foul deed must have been perpetrated. It
was also proved that Edden's death was caused
by a fracture of his ribs, which had penetrated
the right lobe of his liver ; and coupled with this
fact, was the appearance of the deceased's clothes,
which, though soiled in some parts with dirt,
had on that part which covered the fatal wound
only one mark, which seemed rather to have been
caused by a kick or blow with something muddy,
than by the wheel of a cart passing over him.
Added to this was the evidence of William Saw,
a labourer, who, early on Sunday morning, ex-
amined the marks on the road, near the spot
where the body was found, and observed the
print of a mans hand holding a stick without a
knob impressed in the mud—the marks of seve-
ral steps as if persons. had been " paddling
about and slipping with their toes,"—and a mark
which seemed to have been made by small-ribbed
stockings, and which could not have been made
by those of Edden, the stockings he wore not
being ribbed. The harness of Edden's horse
' (including even the collar) was found unbroken
to the shafts of his cart, and the horse,
hadl ng,
These facts certainly bore out the Jury iu
I their verdict, though many_ persons have since

expressed an opinion that the deceased, who
was a little tipsy, fell from his cart, and the
wheel going over him, thus inflicted the injury
of which he died.
We will now relate the facts which led to the
apprehension of the persons charged with this
murder. It has for some time been rumoured
at Thame that a man named Solomon Sewell,

whose character does not stand very high, un-
connected with any suspicion of his being con-
cerned in Edden's death, was a short time ago
in an hospital at London, and that during that
time, in a fit of remorse, he wrote a letter to his

father and mother, who keep a tripe shop at.
Thame, requesting that ,he might be brought
clown, and he would then give an account of the
manner in which Edden met his death.—
During the late hay harvest Sewell procured
employment at Sudbury, and a woman named
Elizabeth Jones, who usually resides at Thame,
and had some previous acquaintance with -him,
was also engaged there. Some degree of inti-
macy existed between them on account of their
previous acquaintance, and Jones having heard
the report of Sewell's being concerned in
the murder of Edden, told him of it,
and added, that the constables were
coming to take him into custody. Sewell imme-
diately replied, with an oath, that if he were ap-
prehended, it should not be long before another
person, whom he named, was in custody with
him. Jones, after the hay-harvest, returned to
Thame and mentioned this conversation, and
Seymour and Edden, two active constables' of
Thame, immediately took measures for Sewell's
apprehension. After some ineffectual attempts,
Seymour secured him at Moreton on Sunda\
morning, and brought him to Thame. When
first apprehended, Sewell denied all knowledge
or participation in Edden's death, but in the
course of Sunday night he made a statement to
the persons who were guarding him, which was
to the following effect :—That on the evening
Edden was murdered he was walking towards
Haddenham-field, and fell accidentally into com-
pany with a man named Benjamin Tyler (better
known by the nickname of Nouch), who had a
coal-hammer in his hand. He (Sewell) aked
him what he was up to. Tyler replied, he was
going to meet Noble Edden, and Sewell might
as well go along with him. They then conti-
nued to walk together until they heard the
noise of cart-wheels, and met Edden's cart, when
Tyler went up to Edden and demanded his
money. Edden answered, the money he had
was but little, and that little he should not have.
A scuffle then ensued between Tyler and Ed-
den : upon which he (Sewell) ran away across
the fields, and went to his home at Thame.—
Upon his arrival there he went to bed immedi-
ately, and did not get up until the next morning,
On Monday, Sewell was examined before W.
H. Ashurst and H. W. Henley, Esqrs., Ma-
gistrates for the county of Oxford, when he gave
a statement similar to that which he made to his
guards, and which, we understand, has been re-
duced to writing. A very minute investigation
took place, which was continued on the following
day, and which terminated in the commitment of
Sewell to Aylesbury jail for re-examination, on
suspicion of the murder, and in a warrant being
issued for the apprehension of Tyler. The latter
was apprehended the same day at Uxbridge, and
was brought to Thame on 'Wednesday ; he en-
tered the town waving his hat and huzzaing.
On Thursday he underwent a brief examination
before H. W. Henley, Esq., who committed him
also to Aylesbury jail for re-examination.
The prisoner Tyler, like Sewell, bears but an
indifferent character. His ostensible trade was

that of a hurter; he was accustomed to travel with
oranges, salmon, &c. for sale. Since the com-
mitment of Sewell, it is said that he has shewn
symptoms of being insane.