Star.
London, England, 1823-10-02 00:00:00

OF KR. eoLatioor.

. PROM THE LONDON MAGAZINE.

Fling wide thy gates of darkness, Death !
Speed to the race with Misery yoked :
No mangled cheek or howling breath
Shall greet thy presence, long invoked!
But circling dance shall beat the ground ;
The joy of song shall burst around;
Stern tyrant! dreadful though thou be,
Thy dwelling is with Liberty!
They, wafted on thy dusky wings,
Look down upon the ocean swell;
Their wandering foot on ether springs
To filar own land beloved so well!
And there the lovers to their loves,
By fountain brink, in citron'groves,
Recount the deeds of wrath and scorn
Which they, as men, front men have borne! OLEN.

LONDON ADJOURNED SESSIONS.

Yesterday. at the sitting of the Court, John Watson,
Robert Selby Heal and Charles Knatchbull, known as
Captain Knatchbull, were arraigned for a riot in the
Fleet Prison, some weeks ago. -
The prisoners were brought from Newgate, to which
they were committed during the late Old Bailey Sessions.
Mr. ADOLPHUS. was conversing with his client, Cap-
tain Knatchbull, when

The RECORDER asked the Gentlemen connected with
the case if they were ready to proceed ?
Mr. ANDREWS, in reply, said he believed that his
Learned Friend (Mr. Adolphus) was then consulting
with his client, as to the probability of his being enabled
to save the time of the Court. In a few-minutts Mr. An-
drews observed, that the prisoners had consented to
plead Guilty to the charge ; and as Mr. Brown, the
Warden oldie Fleet, had no vindictive feelings towards
them, the Court, he humbly submitted, might be in-
clined to p.os a nominal sentence, and suffer the pri-
soners to return to the Fleet ; as the only object of Mr.
Brown wa., the good discipline of the prison over which
be presided.

The It FEORDER remarked, that he could not suffer
such an offence as the prisoners were charged with to
be thus passed over ; and he was convinced his brother
Magistates felt as he did on the subject. It was not only
a question between Mr. Brown and the prisoners, but
the Public were also deeply interested in the charge
made against them.
Mr. ADOLPHUS said, that as far as his client was con-
cet ned, he did not regret the decision of the Court. He
was accidentally mixed up with the transaction, and
s% as by no means a promoter of it ; neither did he take
a leading part during its continuance. The Learned
Counsel then moved the Court to traverse the ti ial until
the next Sessions, in consequence of the absence of a
material witness, and was proceeding to plead in favour
of the postponement, when he was interrupted by
Mr. CLA RKE, the Deputy Clef k of the Arraigns, who
stated that Mr. A dolehirs had no occasion to argue the
point, as the prisoners had the privilege of traversing
their trial once; and they had not previously taken ad-
vsntage of that right.
The prisoners Mere then removed out of Ccurt for the
pu rpo,e of being conveyed back to Newgate, where they
w ill remain until the next Sessions for the City of Lon-
don, when they will again be brought up for trial.
John Helltedl was charged with an assault upon Jane
Riley, on the 10th of May last, with intent to commit a
rake. There was a second indictment, charging the as-
sault only. The prisoner was tried and acquitted on
the capital charge at the last Old Bailey Sessions.
Jane Riley, an interesting little girl, only nine years
of age, deposed that she lived with her aunt, at No. 4,
Duke.street, West Smithfield; has seen the prisoner be-
fore to•day; about three months ago, at the Old Bai-
ley ; prisoner committed the offence one Sunday morn-
ing, between ten and eleven, in a little room adjoining
the shop iu her aunt's house; prisoner lived in the house,
and was an apprentice to her father; has one brother
and two sisters, who are all younger; on the day in
question her aunt and father «ere out; the maid ser-
vant was on the second floor; witness was going down
stairs, when the prisoner came out of the little room,
and, taking bold of her throat, carried her into the little
room, and, putting his knees on her stomach, treated
her with brutal and indecent violence. She screaaied
loudly, the servant girl came down stairs and tapped at
the is indow, which almost fronted the prisoner. The
prisoner looked up, and the servant bestowing on him a
coarse epithet, he released witness, and the servant took
her away. The testimony of this witness was corrobo-
rated by Jane Herrabin, the servant alluded to.
Mr. Thomas Parker, a surgeon, deposed that violence
had been offered to the prosecutor.
The prisoner put in a written defence, denying the
offence charged, and impugning the conduct of the pro-
secutor. which he considered as vindictive. •

The ltEconumt summed up the evidence—premising,
that the prisoner was now indicted for the misdemean-
our of an attempt to commit a felony; it would seem
that the prisoner, in his cross-examination, wished to
prove a full commission of the crime, in order to escape
a conviction under the present indictment for the mere
attempt ; the previous Jury had given their opinion upon
that point, and tightly so, if the same evidence as had
now been given was that upon which they had arrived
at their verdict. His Lordship dwelt minutely upon an
exposition of the law on the capital offence, and had not
concluded tt hen the Jury expressed themselves satisfied,
a:.d returned a verdict of "Guilty of the Misdemeanour."
The lteoottuca, in sentencing the prisoner to 18
months hard labour, animadverted strongly on the line
of conduct pursued by him in his cross-examination, in
endeavouring to evade the present indictment by seeking
to establish the full completion of the crime charged.

FRANCE.—From an OthCidli return published of the
births, marriages, and deaths, occurring in Paris in the
year 182'2, it appears that of 26,880 children born, no
less than 9,751 were bastards, or more than 36 illegiti-
mate children out of every hundred ; the marriages
were 7,157, and the deaths 23,260; in every instance
th( )roach sell bets the males