The Sun.
London, England, 1827-08-02 00:00:00

SUMMER ASSIZES.

WE STERN CIRCUIT. —SA LI SB URY, AUG. 1. •
(RECEIVED THIS MORNING.)
John Richmond Seymour, Esq. and Henry Macklin,
a footman formerly in that gentleman's service, were put
to the bar at ten o'clock this morning, capitally indicted
for an offence which is not of a, nature that can be men-
tioned.
At half-past seven o'clock, Mr. Seymour and Macklin
were acquitted, Mr. Coleridge, after the evidence of two
servants, not wishing to press for a conviction.
There is an indictment for the misdemeanour, removed
by certiorari into the Court of King's Bench, and there-
fore not to be tried this Assize.
The Crown business pressing so very heavily on the
CHIEF JUSTICE, owing to the extraordinary length of the
trial of Mr. Seymour, Mr. Justice BURROUGH satin the
Nisi Prins Court to try criminal cases.
SAMPLE OF A COUNTRY GENIUS.
Charles Kelow, a dogged, ill-favoured looking lad,
about 16 or 17, was indicted for having feloniously stolen
a pair of shoes from the shop of Henry Stepney, afWar-
minster.
Mr. Justice BURROUGH was desirous of knowing whe-
the the prisoner actually took the shoes before the wit-
ness's (a young brother of the prosecutor's) face, on which
the following interrogatory took place.
Mr. Justice BURROUGH—Where were you when the
prisoner took the shoes?—l was standing in the door.
What did lie come in for ?—To tell me that he had
threepence.
That he had threepence! I don't undertand you. What
about the threepence ?—He said that he was going to buy
a pint of beer.
Beer ! Do you sell beer at your shop ?.--No, we don't ;
but he (lid it to fill, the shop with a lot of his companions.
How could his having threepence fill the shop ? Why,
when he saw that I would not believe that he had three-
pence ; he called in another man to be witness that he had.
Well, well, never mind that, tell me abOut his taking
the shoes. Where were you at the time? Oh, we were
all in Warminster.
Stupid fellow ! What part of the shop were you in.? I
was at the counter.
What, when he took the shoes ? Oh, no ; not then—at
another time.
How can the boy be so stupid ! Wheri he took the shoes ?
I was in the door way.
And how near was the prisoner to you? He was close
to the shoes.
Well, where were the shoes? In the window.
The Counsel for the prosecution here put in a query—
" How far was the window from the door ?" "Three or
four inches ;" and thus the locality was settled, after a
dozen questions.
The Jury found the prisoner Guilty, and the Learned
Judge sentenced him to be transported for seven years.
Mr. Serjeant Bustras, although the junior Sergeant on
this Circuit, filled the judicial chair, in the absence of Mr.
Justice BURROUGH.

MYSTERIOUS MURDER AT HADLEY,

NEAR BARNET.

, During the whole of yesterday the neighbourhood of
Hadley, Barnet, and parts adjacent, was in the highest
state of alarm and consternation, in consequence of a re-
port that a barbarous and most mysterious murder had
been committed at Hadley Green, in which a lady of re-
spectability and her daughter had fallen victims to the steel
of a midnight assassin. The circumstances of the dreadful
transaction, as far as at present known, ar•e as follows :
Mrs. Mary Spencer, a widow lady, upwards of 70 years of
age, with her daughter, who was rather over 40, and a fe-
male domestic, have, for a very lengthened period, resided
on Hadley Green, and were very generally respected.
About ten o'clock on the night preceding the horrid catas-
trophe the servant retired to bed, leaving her two mistresses
in their sitting-room, immediately adjoining their bed-
chamber. They were then conversing cheerfully, and ap-
parently preparing to retire for the night. Not the
slightest noise or disturbance was heard during the night;
and in the morning the servant arose about the usual hour.
After some time spent in the necessary household duties,
she proceeded to her mistresses' bed-room, and was much
astonished at perceiving no person in the room, and the
bed in the same state she had left it the•preceding evening.
A sense of something terrible immediately crossed her
mind, and, for an instant, her• senses forsook her; but, re-
covering herself; she ventured to the apartment where she
had last seen her mistresses, and there a most appalling
spectacle met her sight. The two unfortunate ladies lying
on the floor, weltering in their blood, with which their
clothes and the floor of the apaitment were saturated, and
their throats cut and mangled in the most frightful man-
ner: An alarm was immediately given, and several per-
sons proceeded to the scene of this dreadful tragedy; the
further circumstances connected with -which, at present, ap-
pear shrouded in the deepest mystery, but not the slightest
clue could be discovered to throw any light on the transac-
tion. The doors and windows were free from any marks
of violence, and every article of property safe and un-
moved ; and the only circumstance that would have indi-
cated violence was the disordered state of their dresses, and
the position of the chairs and table at which they had been
left the night before. From the appearance of the bodies,
it was evident that life had been extinct several hours ; and
their not having undressed themselves is evident proof that
the deed must have been perpetrated soon after they were
left alone. No instrument by which the wounds could be
inflicted was found in the apartment, although strict search
was made. Various rumours are afloat in the neighbour-
hood, which it would, at present, be imprudent to mention,
as every circumstance will undergo the investigation of a
Coroner's Jury, which is summoned for to-morrow.

FASHIONABLE AND MISCELLANEOUS.

WINDSOR, AUG. I.—Yesterday the KING
arrived at Virginia Water, at three o'clock. After dinner,
his MAJESTY proceeded to ti-e Fishing Temple, where he
partook of coffee, and enjoyed the amusement of angling,
and returned to the Royal Lodge at nine o'clock,

This day the Queen of WIJ,RTEMBERG and
her Royal Sisters, Prinoess AUGUSTA and the Duchess of
GLOUCESTER, will dine with his MAJESTY at Virginia
Water.

On Monday, Mt. CANNING arrived at the
Royal Lodge, and had a long audience of hie MAJESTY.

The Duchess of.kENT, accompanied by the
Princess VICTORIA and FEODORE, and the Prince of LEI-
NINGEN, and attended by the Baroness de SPAEDTH, Miss
lATZIN, and Captain CONROY, left leer apartments in the
King's Palace at Kensington, about one o'clock yesterday
afternoon for Tunbridge Wells. The Royal Duchess and
her suite went in three carriages and four.
Prince LEOPOLD left his residence, Marl-
borough-house, Pall-mall, yesterday morning, for his scat
at Claremont.

Mr. PHILLIPS, the new Under Secretary of
State for the Home Department, attended at the Home
Office on Tuesday, and entered on his official duties. Mr.
HoexousE, the late Under Secretary, also attended, and
delivered to Mr. Pnimars the books and official documents
attached to his department in the office.

Sir HERBERt TAYLOR, after transacting,
official business for some hours yesterday at the Com-
mander-in-Chief's Office in the Horse Guards, left town
about three o'clock in the afternoon, to attend the KING at
his Royal Lodge in Windsor Park.

ViSCOMIt PALMERSTON held a levee yester-
day at the Office of the Commander-in-Chief in the Horse
Guards, which was attended by near thirty military officers.

The Right Hon. Sir CHARLES STUART had
an interview yesterday with Viscount GODERICH. Sir
JOHN WYLDE, Chief Justice of the Cape of Good Hope,
transacted business with the Noble Viscount yesterday at
the Colonial Office.

The Earl of CARLISLE and Viscount PAL-
MERSTON transacted business yesterday at the Foreign Office.
Yesterday a Court of Directors was held at
the East India House, when Lieutenant-Colonel JAMES
LAW LEAMINGTON took the usual oath and his seat as a
Director, in the room of EDWARD PARRY, Esq. deceased.
ADDRESS TO LORD MANNERS.--.The Cor-
poration of Dublin have voted a complimentary Address to
Lord Manners on the occasion of his retirement from office.

Yesterday, at eleven o'clock, the Duke of
PORTLAND, family, and suite, Lord H. BENTINCK, Lady
BAGOT, and several other persons of distinction, embarked
on board the Earl of Liverpool steam-packet for Ostend.
Several letters from the country mention that
the gold circulation is disappearing, and that sovereigns are
becoming scarce, particularly in Yorkshire tend Lancashire.

THE DEATH OF A CHILD ATTEMPTED
BY STARVATION AND CRUELTY BY ITS PARENTS.

A man named Taylor, and a woman named Diacon,
with whom he cohabited, were brought to Hatton-garden
Police Office last night, in the custody of Hatt, the Found-
ling watch-h.ouse keeper, followed by at least 500 people,
charged by a Mr. Wolfe, an undertaker, of 28, Brighton-
street, Cromer-street, St. Pancras., with starving and
cruelly treating a young child, named James Taylor, be-
tween three and four years of age, the offspring of the male
prisoner.
The child was mined to the Office by Mr. Wolfe; and
was shown to Mr. Sergeant Sellon, the presiding Magis-
trate. Its appearance was most frightful. In figure it was
not as large as a baby of seven months. The head was
flattened on one side; the face was elongated, pale, rueful,
and'distorted; the eyes leaping from their sockets, with a
wild expression ; the mouth small and compressed,• with
lips thin and feverish. The breast bone of the infant was
thrown out into the form of a how. The several joints of
the body and limbs were exceedingly swelled, and in many
parts ulcerated. On different parts of its body were marks
of severe chastisement. Its little wrists were also cut, as
if from a rope having been tied round them. It could not
speak, but made use of a discordant sound to announce itf,
wants. _ _

Mr. Wolfe stated, that some months since the prisoners,
who lived as man and wife, came to lodge at No. 1,
Brighton-street, in the house of a man named Pavett,
which was exactly opposite to his house. The apartment
they occupied was the front kitchen. They were in the
habit of going out in the morning and not returning until
very late at night. Upon many occasions some of the
children and women in the neighbourhood heard cries and
screams issuing from the kitchen, as if from an infant in
distress. A woman who lived in the same house, named
Caldwell, thinking that the cries must have proceeded
from hunger, frequently put pieces of bread under the
door, which for some moments would have the effect
of stopping the cries. The infant was, however, never
seen, as it was never brought out to take the air, and.
every thing respecting it Ival mere .conjecture. One of
his (Mr. Wolffe's) daughters, however,' by some chance
got a glimpse of it, and the account she gave him of
it was so frightful, that he .determined upon taking
some means to see it, and adopting the course he that
day did, if the representation made to him was correct.
He accordingly had the woman, taken into custody by a
street-keeper, and did the like by the man when he came
in. It was then he learned that the child was not the off-
spring of both the parties, but of the man's by a former
wife. He sent for a medical gentleman named Walford, of
Judd-street, who examined the child, and said; that al-
though the child was in a dedining state, yet there were
marks upon the body that did not proceed from any malady
but were the marks of seveie chastisement—the marks of a
rope being quite perceptible on different parts of the body.
A number of witnesses here came forward who bore out
all the facts stated by Mr. Wolfe. Amongst others, Mrs.
Caldwell, who.deposed to the most piteous cries having
issued from the kitchen, in consequence of which she fre-
quently put victuals under the door, and saw the infant
crawl over and eat them.

The woman in her defence said, that she always treated
the child with as much kindness as if it had been her own.

Mr. Sergeant SELLON, in remanding the prisoners until
Friday at one o'clock, said that much thanks were due to
Mr. Wolfe, for his exertions in the case.

The prisoners were then taken from the bar, and con-
veyed by a private way to the New Prison, to save them
from the indignation of the assemblage of people that
crowded round the office door, until a late hour last night.
The child was given to the care of Mr. Wolfe until Fri-
day, who conveyed it home, had it washed, and every ne-
cessary care taken of it.