The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-04-03 00:00:00

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SOUTH LANCASHIRE SPRING ASSIZES.

CROWN COURT.—TITESDAY.
SENTENCE ON BARLOW.
Richard Barlow, convicted of forgery on Monday, was
placed at the bar. The Judge said, it had appeared from the
evidence adduced in the course of the trial, that the bill for
£492 18s. in question, which the prisoner had uttered know-
ing the same to be forged, was one of six forged notes which
he or his family had been enabled to take up. The legisla-
ture bad removed the extreme punishment in these cases,
but they had still left open a discretion to visit the offence
severely, and if judges did not do their duty, it was probable
the crime would increase. In a commercial community like
this, it was necessary that they should be enabled to punish
crimes of this nature severely. The prisoner was sentenced
to transportation for 15 years.

ARSON.
Thomas Robinson, aged 22, was indicted for having wil-
fully and maliciously set fire to the warehouse of Mr. James
Bradshaw, of Manchester, with intent to destroy the same,
and with having stolen therefrom a box of gold leaf, the pro-
perty of the said James Bradshaw.
Mr. Armstrong and Mr. Wilkins conducted the prosecu-
tion ; Dr. Brown defended.
William Rogerson, a copper-plate printer, in the employ
of Messrs. Bradshaw, stated that, on the 6th January, the
prisoner at the bar was a shopmate of his. They left work
on that day at the usual time, a little after eight o'clock.
The prisoner had no business on the premises after eight.
When witness left he saw him standing on the, top landing.
Witness saw him next evening, about half-past six, at the
corner of Union-street, opposite Bradshaws' warehouse. He
said he had been in a privy at the back of the premises, on
the night of the fire, (which was the evening before,) about
twenty minutes. He desired witness to be at the court the
following morning, to say that the back of the warehouse
was a thoroughfare. Could not tell whether it was a tho-
roughfare or not. It was not a public road. Some person
came up while he was talking to the prisoner, and the latter
ran away.
John James Bradshaw, son of the prosecutor, described
the warehouse and fastenings, and that there was no tho-
roughfare through the premises, but only a back passage.
The prisoner was one of his father's workmen on the 6th of
January. The whole of the third.story was used as a work-
' shop for the men. They had about twenty hands altogether.
The usual time of giving up work is eight in the evening.
The prisoner was a printer in their service, and he worked
in an upper room. Witness looked through the warehouse
soon after eight o'clock, and satisfied himself that there was
no one on the premises, though there might have been some
one concealed in the upper rooms. He saw that all the fires
were out in all the rooms. He locked the front dpor out-
side, having previously bolted the back door and the yard
door inside. He left the premises shortly after eight o'clock,
and a few minutes past ten o'clock word was brought to him
that the warehouse was on fire. Some persons who were
friends had gone in. The front door had not been opened,
but the back doors had. He ran immediately up towards
the room where the gold leaf and some other valuable pro-
perty was kept, and found that a panel had been broken out
of the door at the top of the staircase ; the door was in flames,
and the fire rushed out so fiercely through the panels that
they durst not approach. They went to the window of the
back room where the gold leaf was kept. It was very dark,
but witness had placed the gold leaf shortly before his de-
parture in a position where he could at once lay his hand
upon it in the dark. He now missed it. There were a set
of drawers in the large room which had gold leaf in them,
and these were burned. No marks of violence appeared on
the fastenings.
Jane Critchley resided with her brother, who keeps the
Globe Tavern. On the evening of 6th January, about half-
past nine o'clock, she heard some knocking at the door,
which led into the passage above mentioned. She went to
the door and found the prisoner at the bar. He entered the
house and bad a glass of warm ale. This passage had no
outlet save the back door of the warehouse, and of the inn,
and the door in Birchen-lane. The prisoner drunk his warm
ale and went away. The fire was discovered about twenty
minutes after he had been there.
Thomas Drummond, landlord of the Globe public-house,
confirmed the accouilt as -to time, and the circumstances of
the prisoner's visit on the sth Jan. He was certain that no
one had passed backwards and forwards through the yard
previously. There were barrels, lumber, and coal in the
passage.
Mary Drummond, wife of the last witness, further corro-
borated the testimony as to the time of the prisoner's en-
trance at the back door. She went out about half-past nine
o'clOck, and about ten minutes before ten, she was passing
the warehouse which she saw on fire.
Nathaniel Forth, a police-officer, of Manchester, stat-
ed that about a quarter to ten o'clefek, he was standing
on the opposite side of the street, when he saw a light in
Messrs. Bradshaw's warehouse. He looked intently. It
went out, and in a minute or two blazed up again. He was
then convinced that it was a fire, and he went and gave the
alarm.

Edward Hartley, another officer, of the Manchester pa-
trolling police, deposed that after the fire was discovered, he
went into the warehouse, and up to the first landing, and
there he found a panel broken out of the front room
door. He found the panel of the door out, and the
room on fire. H e found a candlestick and a paper cap on the
floor. He found the door in Birchen-lane fastened, and saw
a man who said he would go round and get it open. He
could not say who that man was. Witness was engaged in
saving the property. He wanted the door in Birchen-lane
opened, and went round to get it open. He found a man
trying to open'it from the inside, but he did not know who
that was. He got in and found the back door leading to the
Bradshaws' yard, and the back door leading from thence into
the warehouse, both open.
Ralph Hales, landlord of the Unicorn public-house, in
Church-street, stated, that the keys of Mr. Bradshaw's
warehouse were usually left at his house for the accommo-
dation of his workmen.' On the evening of the 6th January,
the keys were left there shortly after eight o'clock. A little
before ten o'clock, he heard that the warehouse was on fire,
and went with the keys. He unlocked the front door, and
accompanied Hartley up stairs. The panel was taken out of
the door, and stood against the wall. Smoke and flame
appeared in the room, and they could not enter by reason
thereof.
Richard Caldwell stated, that the paper cap found on the
floor was shown to him the morning after the fire. It was
his cap, and he had left it on a table in the top room that
evening at eight o'clock. No stranger had been in that
room during the afternoon.
John Blagden, a poliee-offieer, proved that he received the
prisoner into his custody on the 7th January, on the charge
of having wilfully set fire to his master's premises. He took
him about nine in the morning, and kept him till about two
o'clock, when he made his escape, while the attention of
witness was occupied by another. prisoner. He retook him
about nine o'clock.
Alexander AV-Mullen stated, that he examined Messrs.
Bradshaw's warehouse on the morning of the 7th. There
were no marks of violence on any of the doors, but the back
dour of the passage appeared to have been opened by prising
the staple back. When the prisoner was told that he was
charged with having set fire to his master's premises, he said
he could face that out, for he was innocent. He was told by
inspector Irving, that he had been seen to pass through the
Globe tavern, about half-past nine o'clock on the night before.
He said, Rogerson and Mullen had seen him go away from
the warehouse about eight.
James Aspinall, a skinner, stated, that he was working in
the Irwell soon after the fire, when he found a parcel of the
missing gold leaf swimming in the river. He gave it to an
officer named Richard Green, who produced it, and a large
parcel, which was afterwards found near Oldham-road. Mr.
Bradshaw, jun. said. their was a quantity of gold leaf which
was made peculiarly for them. He could swear to this as
part of the gold leaf missed.
Richard Beswick, deputy-constable of Manchester, stated,
that he was present when the prisoner made a statement as
to where he was on the night of the 6th. As this statement
was not then taken down in writing in the depositions, his
lordship refused to receive again a repetition of it as evidence.
Dr. BYOWN having ascertained that very small quantities
of paper, as well as large parcels thereof, were sold at Mr.
Bradshaw's place of business, put it to his lordship whether
the premises were properly described in the indictment, is a
warehouse, when perhaps a halfpenny-worth of paper might
be sold there.
His LORDSHIP said, as large parcels were sold wholesale,
there, the fact of small parcels being sold there did not cer-
tainly make it not a warehouse.
Dr. BROWN alluded to a case, Lyons v. De Pass, reported
in 9 Carrington and Payne, which he thought might perhaps
bear him out, on examination, if his lordship would make a
memorandum on the point.
Mr. PASHLEY said he was counsel in the case alluded to,
and it was held that the premises were a shop, but it was not
held that they were not a warehouse.
His LORDSHIP thought that conclusion a very natural one.
Dr. BROWN appealed earnestly and eloqueutly in behalf of
the prisoner, exhorting the jury not to convict him in a case
of mere suspicion, depending on circumstantial evidence.
His LORDSHIP, in the course of his charge to the jury,
pointed out a great difficulty in the case. The course of the
case for the prosecution left it to be implied, that the prison-
er had remained concealed on the premises. The circumstance
of the prisoner having presented himself at the back door of
the Globe, there being no other mode of getting out of the
place, pressed very hard against him ; but as the gold leaf
had been removed, and he presented himself without any
box or parcel, the difficulty there was undoubtedly very great
on the other side. On the whole he thought the case had
been brought before them with so much of doubt in it, that it
would be very painful to them to convict. The would see
whether they agreed with him in this view ; if not, he would
read over the whole evidence.
The jury acquitted the prisoner, and his lordship ordered
him to be discharged.