The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-12-07 00:00:00

not perceive how in such cases any Mitigating circumstances
could appear. The first case of those alluded to, was that of
a young woman, who had been very cruelly treated by an in-
dividual who had thrown vitriol upon her. In this case he
believed there was not the smallest doubt of the guilt of the
prisoner. In the other case of throwing vitriol, which was
that of the two men whose names he had mentioned, the guilt
of the parties, he believed, was not so clear. If they (the
Grand Jury) should think it a case of suspicion, and that the
evidence was not perfectly clear, it was always the best and
safest mode of proceeding to cut the bill; because, if they
should send a case for trial with imperfect evidence, and,
through any doubts, the prisoner was acquitted, that case was
closed for ever. If the inquiry once came before the Court,
they could not find a new bill. They would know from those
who were conducting the prosecution, whether they were de-
termined to go on with the indictment or not, as he under-
stood there were some doubts upon the subject, from. imper-
fection in the evidence. In such case it were far better not
to go on, fur the reasons which he already stated.— ,He bad
no further observations to make, the calendar being, as he
had already mentioned, very light. It contained, he was
happy to say, none of those offences which had heretofore
been so oommon, such as the rubbery of warehouses by por-
ters and persons in trust. Such crimes, he hoped, were
greatly reduced by the severe measures resorted to. He sin.
cerely hoped the active system that had been panned had
been the means of putting down this class of offences. ..Itt
fact, the present calendar showed that they had done a great
deal of good in suppressing crime in this town.

CHARGE OF FELONY.
William Smith, aged about 24, was charged with having, on
the 29th of November last, stole a new jacket, value 14s. the
property of Martin Cross, an old clothes dealer.
Mr. HENDERSON conducted the prosecution.
Police-officer 447, William Harper, it appeared, in conse.
quence of some information which he had received, took the
prisoner into custody on another charge. He found in his
possession a new jacket, and, on inquiry, discovered that the
prosecutor had lost such an one. Mrs. Cross recognised-the
prisoner as a person whom she had seen several times in the
course of Thursday last at her husband's shop.
The prisoner, in his defence, said he had purchased.the
jacket from Mr. Hart, in Ratcliffe-highway, London, having
just received £ll 10s. for wages.
The tailor who made the jacket swore positively to 'its
identity. He pointed out a part where he had inserted a
piece of brown cloth. The jury examined the jacket, but
tbev could not discover the difference of colour. This was,
by the tailor, attributed to the difference of shade produced
by the gas having been lighted.
The jury retired at four o'clock. They returned at twenty
minutes past four, and acquitted the prisoner.

SHOPLIFTING.
John Mannerhan, aged 20, was charged with having, on
the 13th November, stolen a coat, the property of Elias MOEN
and another coat, the property of Thos. Lorton: •
Air. RAMSHAY conducted the prosecution.
_
It appeared that, on the 13th November, the prisoner was
seen by a washerwoman to take a coat down from Mr. Maties
door. She called to those within the shop and ran after the
prisoner. He entered an ale-house and immediately came
out with the coat on bis back and a pipe in his mouth. Mr:
Pickering, who is in the service of Mr. Moss, and had fol.
lowed the woman, seized him with the coat on his person.
He took it off and told them tiat if they were determined to
take him into custody, they should have the trouble of carry.
it to Bridewell.

The prisoner, in his defence, said be was not the person.
He was merely standing looking on.
Phe rtacontmainamod,h...n evarse.e.ftel

wucrera pqrsu CIOLLIZInTignUt
their doors, which, he said, was offering a temptation to
thieves. At the Central Criminal Court the Grand Jury bad
recently come to a resolution, that they would not find a bill
in any case where these exposures of property were made.
The other charge against the prisoner was not gone into.
The jury found him guilty, and he was sentenced to twelve
months' imprisonment and bard labour.

THEFT FROM A SHOP.
William Burke, aged 14, and Eliza Flaherty, aged 14, were
charged, the former with having stolen certain bonnets, the
property of John Harding, and the latter with having pur-
chased one of the said bonnets, knowing the same to have
been stolen. It appeared from the evidence that, in Novem-
ber last, Mrs. Harding missed five bonnets from her shop.
These bonnets were traced to the possession of the lad Burke,
from whom the prisoner Flaherty purchased one of them.
Burke had offered the bonnets for sale to a Mrs. Browne,
who refused to purchase them. The bonnet sold to the female
prisoner was a Leghorn bonnet, worth, at prime cost, 15s. 6d.
The jury found both prisoners guilty. Burke was a very old
offender. He was ordered to be transported for seven years.
On hearing the sentence he exclaimed loudly, "It has come
in very good time !" The female prisoner was also sentenced
to seven years' transportation.

ROBBERY FROM THE PERSON.
Julia Doyle, aged 36, was placed at the bar under an• in-
dictment, wherein she was charged with having feloniously
stolen a bag, containing twenty sovereigns, six half sovereigns,
and a five pound note, the property of Charles Waters, from
the person of the said Charles Waters. The prosecutor
stated, that he was pig-jobber, of Dundalk. On the 6th or
7th of August, in the present year, he came to Liverpool with
a quantity of pigs, which he sold in Manchester. He returned
to Liverpool with the proceeds, and went to lodge at the
house of Mr. Hoyes, in Lumber-street. He was on his wa♦
home to his lodgings one evening, when he met the prisoner,
with whom he entered into conversation. They went into
Mrs. Gore's public-house, at the corner of Lumber-street.
Here they had some liquor, and the prosecutor took out his
purse, with the sum above-mentioned in it, to pay for what
they drunk. He returned the money to his breast pocket.
They left the house together, and the prisoner told him that
she had not any money for her breakfast. She told him a
tale of distress, and be said, he would never see any one
hungry while he had a shilling. He took out his purse and
was looking for a shilling, when she snatched it from him and
ran away. He followed, but she eluded him by running
along a gateway and round several carts. Information was
given to the police, and the prisoner was taken into custody,
He (the prosecutor) went to the place where the prisoner
was, in Milton-street, and identified her, She was sentenced
to ten years' transportation.
The other cases do not contain much interest, and have
been fully reported in our police reports.

Barley sells cheaper in the English markets at present than
in Limerick.—Limerick Chronicle.
EARL DURHAM.—The Earl of Durham had not arrived
in Cleveland-row at a quarter before two o'clock to-day, nei-
ther had any intelligence been received as to the time his
lordship might be expected in town.—Standard, Wed.
WHIPPING LOCUSTS.—On the road from Cordova to Se-
ville, Captain Scott witnessed a curious peculiarity of Anda-
lusian agriculture. " During our ride, we observed a 1141111•
ber of men advancing in skirmishing order across the coun-
try, and thrashing the ground most savagely with long flails.
Curious to know what could be the motive for this Xerxes-
like treatment of the earth, we turned out of the' road to in-
spect their operations, and found they were driving a swarm
of locusts into a wide piece of linen spread on the ground at
some distance before them, wherein they were made prison-
ers. These animals are about three times the size of an En-
glish grasshopper. They migrate from Africa, and their
spring visits are very destructive ; for, in a single night, they
will entirely eat up a field of young corn. The Gaza de Lan-
gostas (lobster hunting, as they call it) is a very profitable
business to the peasantry; as, besides a reward obtained
from the proprietor of the soil, in consideration for service
done, they sell the produce of their chasse for manure at so
much a sack."—Captain Scott's Excursions. ,
MURDEROUS BURGLARY AT WHITTINGTON.—The village
of Whittingham, near Lichfield, has been the scene of one
of the most cold-blooded and brutal attempts to murder a
family that has for many years been recorded. The quiet
village of Whittington is about three miles from Lichfield;
and a little distance from it, on the road to Huddersfield, is
Whittington Hurst. Near this place lived a farmer named
Charles Wood, his wife, and their servant in. On Friday
last they retired to rest at the usual hour, When, in the dead
of the night, two men with their faces blackened entered the
bed-chamber of Mrs. Wood, who slept with the servant girl:
they struck the latter with a blunt instrument, and left her
for dead; they next cut Mrs. Wood's throat and beat her,
and afterwards proceeded into the bed-room of the poor old
man, who was very infirm, and scarcely able to help himself.
Having, as they supposed, despatched Mrs. Wood and the
servant, they threatened the old man with instant death if he
did not disclose where he kept his money, and give up his
keys. He delivered up the keys; and the robbers, having
ransacked his room, locked Wood in, and went down stairs,
The revelry of the brutes then commenced—they drank a
quantity of spirits and ale, pulled the taps out'of the barrels
and a cask of elder wine; they then demolished the clock
and other furniture, and finally set fire to the house in three
places, one of the first being lighted upon the dining table in
the parlour. They then went away, taking with them a £5
note and some silver, a gold watch, three silver Watches, some
old coins, two gold rings, sixteen spoons, and other articles.
The poor girl, having recovered from the effects of the blows
that stunned her, went to her master's room, unlocked the
door, and saved him from being burned to death in his bed.
Being very weak, he could render no assistance; and he
would have been suffocated, had he not, with great difficulty,
reached the window, and with his hands broke several panes
of glass, to give him some air. The girl then went down
stairs, and, after having with great presence of mind and
dexterity got the fire in a degree under, she went to the
nearest house, which was some distance, and alarmed the
inmates. Mrs. Wood was searched for, and found lying in a
ditch, with only her bedgownou, with a deep cut in her neck,
and her arm broken by a poker by one of the ruffians. She
had by some means effected her escape through a window
and was running to a neighbour's house for assistance,when,, from fright and exhausted, the poor creature fell in the ditch.
The greatest excitement has prevailed in the neighbourhood,
and the Lichfield police officers have been indefatigable, day
and night, in their endeavours to secure the wretches. Two
men answering their descriptions were seen begging in the
neighbourhood the day before, and were at a beer-shop in
Lichfield the same night.—Wolverhampton Chronicle.

The calendar contains the names of thirty-four prisoners
for felony, and eight for misdemeanors and assaults.
The following gentlemen were sworn of the Grand Jury:-•
Rich. Dawson, Esq., Foreman John Moore Priestman
William Armstrong. Joseph Ridgway
Amos Bigland William Ridyard
Thos. Buddicom Blackburne Charles William Read
Simon Crosfield Charles Shells
Walter Fergus M'Gregor Thomas Smith
Isaac Fletcher , William Watson
James Mulleneux Daniel Willis
Alexander Parlaue. Robert Taylor Woodward
William Peat Bushby Rogers Waterhouse
William Bothwell Barnard L. Watson, Esqrs.
The Conrt having been opened with the usual forms, and
her Majesty's proclamation against vice and immorality hav-
ing been read,' the Learned RECORDER delivered his charge
to the following effect :
He was exceedingly happy to observe, with one or two
exceptions, the calendar was a verylightone, not only nume-
rically, but as regarded the nature of the offences. The ex-
ceptions to which he alluded were the cases No. 7, and that
of two men, Walmsley and Welsby, Nos. 29 and 30. By an
act of recent date, now lying before him, passed in the first
year of the reign of her present Majesty, cap. 85, the offence
with which these persons stood charged, that of throwing
vitriol, was made liable to be visited with severe punishment.
The act stated as follows:—" Whoever shall unlawfully or
maliciously send or deliver to, or cause to be taken or received
by, any person any explosive substance," (they, the Grand
Jury, would perceive that this provision of the law grew out
of a curious case of some explosive matter having been put
into the Post-office in this town, some time since) " or any
other dangerous or noxious thing, or shall cast or throw upon,
or otherwise apply to, any person, any corrosive fluid or other
destructive matter, with intent, in any of the cases aforesaid,
to burn, maim, disfigure, or disable any person, or to do some
)ther crr;---- bodily harm

~~
~i; .

other grievous bodily harm to any person, and whereby Tin
any, of the cases aforesaid, any person shall be burned,
maimed, disfigured, or disabled, or receive some other griev-
ous bodily harm," (they would perceive that the liquid was
not only to be thrown, but an actual injury must be inflicted)
" shall he guilty of felony," (this was quite a new enactment)
" and being convicted thereof, shall be liable, at the discre-
tion of the Court, to be transportetkbeyend the seas for the
term of his or her natural life, or_fir....any.t.orm not leas },Lau
• fifteen yeartefrttbe 110 prisoned for any term nut exceeding
three- year," At common law, proceeded the learned Re-
corder, previously to the passing of this act, the offence could
only be considered as a misdemeanor, and was punishable
by fine and imprisonment: The legislature had since very
wisely looked upon the malignity of these crimes, and had
enacted that they should be punished with transportation, or
if any mitigating or palliative circumstances appeared, with
imprisonment to the extent of three years, though he could
not perceive how in such eases any rrntin•atiner