Star.
London, England, 1824-01-08 00:00:00

OBSERVATIONS.

Spring has sustained his fame, and secured the Championship. He is
the safest man, after Randall, for he never gives w chance away ;
but be is too tardy in dealing out punishment, and his blows do not
tell as a heavy man's like him should. There was not one real good
bit in the fight—nut one clean knock-down blow. Langan has
proved himself a truly game man, and the wonder is, how u novice
like him could make such a stand against the best man in the rmg,
his superior by nearly halt' a stone in weight. He is a prime article,
and deserves encouragement. We heard a countryman on the road
from Warwick say, that if Langan lay ou the ground for half an
hour, and Spring beat liar all the titneN he could not make him give
in. Such is the man.
Neale and 6elascu were to have fought in the same ring, but it
was too dark t• begin fighting atter the lint battle. We suppose
they can keel for another day.
The fighting" ring was so tar from the Stand where the sporting
characters were assembled, we are unable to give particulars sif the
betting, further than it began at 3 to 1, and never Duce was brought
even, Or went over.

• --
• •
The Sessions of the Peace for the Count; of Middle-
sex will begin oh Monday lieu, the 12ilk instant, when
the tiials.f traverser% and others, out on bail,on matte's
of assau.t, ituisauce, and misdemeanour, Mil 4 In pig•
ceeded on.•

t

THE ARMY.

.••••1.11.1.

The recruiting of the Royal Artillery in Belfast is conducted by
the 7th Battalion, or late Royal Irish Artillery, which has been re-
cruited in that neighbourhood for more than a century.
Monday and Tuesday se'nnight the first and second divisions of
the 73d Regiment marched into Sligo, on their route to Castlebar,
where the head-quarters of the Regiment are to be established,and
where they replace the 88th Regiment, which commenced its march
on the Saturday preceding, destined for the West Indies. Detach-
ments of the 73d will he stationed at Naas, Dundalk, Wicklow, &c.
The undermentioned Non-commissioned Officers in the garrison
of Limerick, have lately been discharged, previous to entering on
their new duties as Assistant Barrack-Masters:—Serjeant 11E1,1711-
MAX, 39th, Kinsale; Serjeant Macome, liifles, Tralee ; and Ser-
jeant Rpearouv, Rifles, Templemore.

HERTFORD ASSIZES.

(BY ADJO IT R A MEN T. )

TRIAL OF THURTELL AND HUNT.

(Concluded from the STAR of yesterday.)

By means ofa succession of Expresses, we were yes-
terday enabled, in a part of our impression, to commu-
nicate the result of the trial at Hertford to the Public,
and we now resume such part of the proceedings as did
not appear in the whole of our Journal, as well as the
further particulars which have transpired.
We stated that the prisoner TrtuavaLL read several
cases of circumstantial evidence from the Percy Alm
dotes ; the following are the most remarkahle cases he
quoted from that work :

The first was the case of a person who was arraigned before Sir
James Dyer, Lord Chief Justice of the Coninuan Pleas, upon an in_
dictment for the murder of a man who lived in the same parish with
the prisoner. The first witness against him deposed, that on a cer-
tain tray, mentioned by the witness, in the morning, as he was going
thmugh a close, which he particularly described, at some distance
from the path, he saw a person lying dead ; and that two wounds
appeared in his breast, and his shirt and clothes were much stained
with blood ; that the wounds appeared to the witness to have been
made by the puncture of a fork or some such instrument, and look-
ing about he discoitered a fork lying near the corpse, which betook
up, and observed it to be marked with initials of the prisoner's
name; here the witness produced the fork in Court, which the pri-
soner owned to be his.,
A second witness deposed, that on the morning of tic dry no
which the deceased was killed, the witness had risen very rally,
with the intention of going to a neighbouring market-town, which
he mentioned; that as he was standing in the entry of his own
dwelling-house, ;he street-door being open, he -saw the prisoner
• come by, dressed in a suit of clothes, the colour and fashion of
which he described ; that he (the witness) was prevented from going
to market, and that afterwards the first witness brought notice to
the town of the death and wounds or the deceased, and of the pri-
soner's fork being found near the corpse. That upon this report
the prisoner was apprehended, and carried before a Justice of
Peace ; that he (this witness) followed the prisoner to the Jostice's
house, and attended his examination, during which.he observed the
exchange of clothes the prisoner had made since the time he had
seen him ih the morning; that on the witness charging him with
having changed his clothes, he gave several !burning ai:,-.vers, and
would have denied it; that upon witness mentioning this circum-
stance of change of dress, the Justice granted a warrant to search
theyrisoner's house, when the very clothes the witurss had de-
scribed- were discovered concealed in a straw bed. He then pro-
duced the bloody clothes in Court, which the prisoner owned to be
his clothes, and to have been thrust in the straw lied with the inten-
tion to conceal them, on account of their being bloody.
A third witness deposed to his having heard the prisoner deliver
certain menaces against the deceased, whence the prosecutor in-
tended to infer a proof of malice, pnpoile.
The prisoner being called upon fur his defence, addressed the
following narration to the Court:—That he rented a close in the
same parish with the deceased, and that the deceased rented another
close adjoibing to it ; that the only way to his own close was through
that of the deceased ; and that on the day the murder in the indiCt.
went was said to be committed, he rose early in the morning, in order
to go to work in his close, with his fork in his hand, and passing
through the deceased's ground, he observed a man at some distance
from the path lying down as if dead, or drunk ; that he thought
himself bound to see.what condition the person was in; and on
getting up to him he found him at the last extremity, with two
wounds in his breast, from which much blood had issued. In order
to relieve him, he raised him up, and with great difficulty set hint on
his lap ; he told the deceased he was greatly concerned at his un-
happy fate, and the more so as there appeared reason to think he
had been murdered. Ile entreated the deceased to discover, if
possible, who it was, assuring hint he would do his best endeavours
to bring him to justice. The deceased seemed to be sensible of what
he said, and in the midst of his agonies attempted to speak to hint,
but was wired with a rattling in his throat, gave a hard struggle,
then a dreadful groan, and vomiting a good deal of blood, some cat
which fell on his (the prisoner's) clothes, he expired in hie arms.
—The shock he felt on account of this accident was not to be ex-
pressed, and the rather as it was well known that there bad been a
difference between the deceased and himself, on which account he
might possibly be suspected. lie therefOre thought it advisable to
leave the deceased in the condition he wan, and take nu further no-
tice of the matter; in the confusion he was in when he lett the
place, he took the deceased's fork away instead of his own, which
-was by the side of the corpse. Being °hazed to go to his work, he
thought it best to shift his clothes, and that they might not be seen,
he confessed that he had hid them in the place where they were
found. It was true he had denied before the Justice that be had
changed his clothes, being conscious this was an ugly circumstance
that might be urged against him, and unwilling to be brought into
trouble if he could help it. Ile concluded his story with a most so.
lemn declaration, that he bad related nothing but the exact truth,
without adding or diminishing one tittle, as he should answer for
it to GOD ALMIGHTY.
Being then called upon to produce his witnesses, the prisoner
answered, with a steady composed countenance and resolution of
voice—" He had no witnesses but Gun and his own conscience."
The Judge, DYER, in his charge to the Jury, enlarged on the
force of the circumstantial evidence, which, he said, was so strong,
that the Jury ought not to hesitate a moment about finding the pt.-
soner guilty. The Foreman of the Jury begged that the Jury might
withdraw, which was allowed by the Judge, who, after waiting
several hours, sent to know their decision. The Jury returned for
answer that elevetrof them were agreed, but that the Foreman
had taken a different opinion, and was unalterably fixed in it. They
at length returned a verdict of Not Guilty, which the Judge re-
fused to record. The Jury were locked up al( night, but the Fore-
man was stiU inflexible, and the next morning they again returned
a verdict of Not Guilty. The Judge reproached them severely,
and said, " The blood of the deceased lay at their doors." The
prisoner fell down on his knees, and cried out to the Judge " You
see, my Lord, that Goo and a good conscience were the best
witnesses."
The Judge was astonished, particularly as the Foreman was a
man of must respectable character. At lengtil .he determined on
having an interview with the Foreman, who, having made his Lord-
ship promise never to reveal what he told him, then gave the
llollowittg account :—The deceased being the Tythefitan where he
(the Juryman) lived, he had the Intoning of his decease been in his
(the Juryman s) grounds, amongst his corn, and had cone him great
injustice, by taking more than his due, and acting otherwise in a ,
most arbitrary manner. When he coniplainesl of this treatmeut, hr
had riot only been abused with scurrilous language, but the de-
ceased had struck at hint several times with his fork, and had actu-
ally wounded him in two places, the scars of which wounds be then
shewed his Lordship. The deceased seemed bent on mischief, and
the farmer having no weapon to defend himself, had Ito other way
to preset ve his own life, but by closing in with the deceased, and
wtenchlug the fork out of his hands; which having effected,
the deceased ottemesd to recover the f irk Irons hum, and -in the
scuffle received the two wounds which had occasioned his death.
—The farmer was inexpressibly concerned at the accident which
occasioned the man's deism, and especially when the prisoner was
taken up on suspicion of the inursier. But the Aseises being just
over, he was unwilling to suricahl.r himself a;:c1 to confess the mat-

..,r,.

~~~

yam_:

•
ter, because his farm and affairs would havebeen ruined by hit !yin&
so long in jail. lie was sure to have been acquitted on his trial fur h
bad consulted the ablest lawyers upon the cue, who all agreed, that
as the deceased had been the aggressor, he could only have been •
guilty of manslaughter at most. It was true he had suffered greatly
in his own mind on the prisoner's account; but being well assured
that imprisonment would be of less consequence to the prisoner than
to himself, he had suffered th► law to take its course. . In-order,
however, to save hint, which he was deteimined to do, he got himself
appointed foreman, and acted in the manner he had done."
The next case quoted by the prisoner Thurtell was that of
ril-
ham Shaw, an upholsterer, who, in 1721, was hung in ch ins at
Leith, for the murder of his daughter. The father had wished to
induce the girl to marry contrary to her wishes. They :vere heard
to quarrel, and the father went out, locking the door after hiM.—
A neighbour, whose room was only separated by a thin partition.
soon after,wards heard groans, and the daughter faintly exclaim,
" Cruel father, thou art the caw;e,of my death." A constable was
fetched, the d,sor forced, and the girl found, not dead, but unable
to speak. The father was taken up, tried, and executed. His last
words were, " I ant innocent of my daughter's murder."
There was scarcely a person in Edinburgh who thought the father
innocent; hut in the following year a man who had become the oc-
cupant of Shaw's apartment, accidentally discovered a paper which
had fallen into a cavity on one side of the chimney. It was folded
as a letter, and on opening it, was found to contain as follows :
" Barbarous lather! your cruelty in having put it out of my power
ever to join my fate to that of the only man I could lost, and
tyrannically itt-iiting upon my marrying one whom I always hated,
has made me forra a resolution to put an end to an existence which
is become a burthen to me."

This letter was signed " Catharine Shaw," and on being shewn
to her relations and friends, it was recogeis:d as her writing. The
Magistracy of Falinburgh examined it, and on being sa hard of its
authenticity, they ordered the body of William Shaw to be taken
front the gibbet, and given to hia family for interment ; 4nd as the
Only reparation to his memory, and the honour of his virvieirg re-
lations, they caused a pair of colutsis to be waved uver Lis grave, is
taken of hip innocence.

In addition to the Address, the prisoner Hunt read a paper, the
substance of which we gave yesterday, Mr. Knapp read a paper, in
which he endeavoured to shew that certain parts of Proberes state-
ment was false, and that be intended to shield himself: eineopart
was obviously so. He states in one part, that Hutt, in travelling
down to Gill's-hill, on coming to the part of the road ~v!'cre 'texas
to have joined Thurtell, observed," This is the place at which I was
to have met him." Such a thing he never could have said, inas-
much as he was ignorant of the road, and did not know one spot
from another.

The defence of the prisoners having conc:nded here,
his Lordship retied for a few moments, and. on his
' return, asked it any Hertfordshire constable was pre-
sent who could prove that Gill's-hill-lane was in the
County of Hertford?—lt having been suggested that the
Coroner WAS preent, he was. sworn.
Mr. Justice PARK.—DO you know if Gill's hill-lane,
the spot where the murder was committed, is in the
County of Hertford ?
CORONER.—It is in the parish of St. Alban's, in the
County of Hertford.