Star.
London, England, 1821-12-04 00:00:00

MIDDLESEX SESSIONS.

These Sessions commenced yesterday before a nu-
merous Bench of Magistrates.
Edward Evans, and his wife Virtue, were indicted
for a misdemeanour in setting fire to their house.—
There were eleven other counts, charging the pri-
soners with an intent, by the same means, to defraud
the Sun Fire Office.
Sarah Marshall deposed, that the prisoners kept a
potatoe warehouse in Ely-rents, Saffron-hill, and that
she lived in the first floor of their house. On the 19th
September last,about seven in the morning, Mrs. Evans
came into her bed-room when -she was asleep, and
said, " Oh, we are all in a blaze," and departed.—
She followed soon after, and found Mrs. Evans at the
parlour-door, who opened it sufficiently wide enough
for her to see the fire, but instantly closed it again,
observing that no one should go in to rob her of her
property until her husband returned. Witness much
wished to go in, and believed that if she had been
permitted to do so, she could have extinguished the
fire, but she was prevented by Mrs. Evans, who, with
much composure, said she was insured.
Frederick Sparks stated, that when he first heard
the alarm of fire, he went into the passage of the
house, but, from the nbstructions which he met with
by Mrs. Evans, at the parlour-door, he proceeded to
the yard, and forced open the shutters. He then dis-
I covered the room on fire, in three distinct places, the
bed was on fire in different parts, a box on the oppo-1
site side of the room was also in flames, and some
linen in the drawers was likewise in a burning state.
A child's bed, that stood in an intermediate space be-
tween the fire, was untouched. He threw water on
the furniture, which saved the premises. On exa-
mining the apartment, they found a candlestick, but
the candle had been completely burnt out; there was
not any fire in the grate. He next proceeded into
the shop, and under the counter found a bundle on
fire; some wood on a shelf was also mouldering, and
must have been lighted upwards of an hour. From
the whole appearance of the room, and the scattered
fires in different parts of the premises, he thought it
could not have been caused by accident.
William Passaway, a watchman, gave evidence to
the same purport, and, in addition, he said that Evans,
when he came home,about eight o'clock, from market.
said, "It is a nice thing fur me, I have losktwenty-
eight guineas worth of clothes."
%% ilium Smith and John Logan corroborated the
testimony of Sparks.
Abraham Levi saw Evans and his two sons go oat,
about half an hour before the alarm was given, each
carrying a bundle.
Mr. Thomas Stent, a Surveyor of the Sun Fire Office,
proved that he had valued the prisoner's furniture
Immediately after the fire, and that its worth was
loot more than £3O. He also stated that the prisoner
had made a claim on the Office for £159 ; £lOO of
which was said to be for Bank-notes and silver that
had been destroyed.
ThomasWitherby, a clerk in the same Office, stated
that the prisoner had been insured for some years for
£lOO, and that, very lately, he had increased his in-
surance to £3OO.

Mr. ALLEY addressed the Court in favour of the
prisoners, and strongly contended that no case had
been made out against the male prisoner.
The CHAIRMAN, in his address to the Jury, said
that the crime with which the prisoners were charged
was one of the most wicked, and most cruel in. its
probable consequences, that could be committed. Not
only, he said, might the property of his neighbours
be, in a short space, buried in ruins,•but their lives
also were put in danger by such designs. The con-
duct of the woman, in not suffering any person to go
into the room at the time when the impending ruin
might have been averted, too plainly spoke her object;
and he could not look upon the man as less guilty,
when it is considered that he, with his two sons, are
seen going out of the house, at an early hour in the
moron*, with parcels, which they had not at all at-
tempted- to account for. A circumstance too, he said,
not to be, forgotten was, that the male prisoner said,
on coming home in the morning, that he had lost
twenty-eight guineas worth of clothes, but all the
articles that had been burnt were combustibles, that
would easily have been destroyed.
The Jury. after conversing together for about a
minute, found both the prisoners Guilty. Sentence
was not pronounced.