The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-03-07 00:00:00

urity will t
I r

of age, and of very activ

apital which I V

!xact sum spe

ied in your advertis

wise, have the goodness to write to m

venience, and address ' D. M
ton, frontland, top flat."

as'adjourned to the following day

SATURDAY
This morning the judges took thei

n the delivery of his address

Several other persons, some with whom he
who had known him for a length of

3 others

ce in the treatment of insane I:

,ns, were

then examined, and stated their belief that the prisoner was

affected by morbid delusions sufficient to account for the act
which he had committed. Mr. Winoslow the author of a
work on insanity, amongst the rest, said that the prisoner
was labouring under a morbid delusion, and was incapable,
at the time of comrnitiing the act, of controlling his actions.
Mr. Clarkson then called Dr. B. Philip, and was abodt
im, when he wrs interrupted by

to examin,
Chief Justice TINDAL, Wl'
if he bad any eviden
by the medical gentlemen who had been examined?
The SOLICITOR-GENERAL replied that he had not.
Lord Chief Justice TINDAL.—My learned brethren and
myself are of opinion, that, after the testimony which has
been given by the medical gentlemen of the state of the pri-
3oner's mind, the case for the prosecution cannot be legally
ustained—that is, if you are not prepared with other evidence

,olicitor-General

ce to rebut that which

to rebut that testimon
The witnesses were hereupon ordered to withdraw, and
The SOLICITOR-GENERAL, addressing the jury, said—
Gentlemen, I feel that I should not properly discharge my
duty, on this occasion, if, after the opinion which has just
been stated by the learned judge, 1 were to
your verdict against the prisoner
has intimated to me, that a ver

The- Lord Chief Justice

by himself and by the othe
that the evidence—especially the evidence of the medical
witnesses—which has been brought forward for`the d

trong opinion is entertained
trued jut

on the bench

eience,

appy man, at, the time he committed the
been indicted, was labouring under
therefore, you are equally satisfied on that

crime for which be i

insanit

er is entitled to a verdict in

But, g,

as anxious to

y, that

Lthninistration of

public justice-; and I berlieve that I am right when I say
that every facility has been given to the prisoner's legal ad-
visers to enable them to malce a defence for him. There

was no wish, nor could them he any wish, on the part of the
Crown other than that the ends of justice should be attained
and satisfied. But, most certainly, when, in the open streets
of the metropolis, crimes of this nature are committed, it is

e the care of the public
nnected with those erin

vestigated ; for such investigations are necessary to the pro-
tection of the minds, the persons, and the property of us all.
On the part of the prosecution, I felt it my duty to lay before
you the evidence which we possessed respecting the conduct
of M`Naughten in connection with the ordinary affairs of
his life. With the doctrines laid down by my learned friend
floi;uhlleysaagyrs that
tetlihee great object, in every case of this nature,ving them as I do to be the correct law ;

rtain whether t

arty who commits a crime was,

when he committed it, a responsible agent, and whether his
mind was under proper controul, or whether his controlling
powers of mind had been taken from him, and that he was
rendered thereby irresponsible for his actions. These are
also the opinions of the learned Chief Justice, who will state
to you his views in reference to the evidence which bas been

adduced, andit will then be fdr you to deal with the case as
you shall think fit.
Lord Chief Justice TINDAL then addressed the jury, and
Said the question for them to determine was, whether, at the
time the act in question was committed, the prisoner had or
bad not the use of his understanding, so as to know that he
was doing a wicked and wrong act. If they should be of
opinion that he was .not sensible at the time he committed
it that he was violating the laws both of God and man, then
he would be entitled to
_a verdict in his favour ; and if, on

the contrary, they should be of opinion that, when he com-
mitted the act,. he was in a sound state of mind, then their
verdict would be against him. He (the learned chief justice)
concurred in opinion with nis learned brethren beside him,
that the evidence of the medical gentleman who had ex-
amined the unhappy man (he called him unhappy with respect
to the state of his mind), the tendency of which they would
remember was all on one side, clearly proved that his mind
was in such a state at the time he committed the act as not
to render him responsible for the cotnmissiow of it. If they
thought it necessary that he should read the evidence, he
would do so; or if they required any further information
with respect to the law of the case, he would be happy to
give it to them. •
The Foreman.—l am desired by my brother jurymen to
say to your lordship that they do not require to hear the evi-
dence read.

Chief Justice Tindal.—lf you find the prisoner not guilty
on the point in reference to which I have given my opinion,
then it will be for you to state that you acquit him on the
ground of insanity, in which case there will be proper care
taken of him. . . _ _

The jury, without leaving the box, consulted together for
about a minute, and emphatically said—we find that the pri-
soner is " not guilty," believing him to be insane at the time

he corn

The Solicitor•General.—Will your lordship be pleased to
give directions respecting the prisoner's future custody ?
Lord Chief Justice Tindal said he would of course be kept
in safe custody until her Majesty's pleasure should be known

The court then adjourned at ten minutes to eight o'clock

k LEGAL DISTINCTION.—On Tuesday last, at our country
Quarter S

ns, two men, named Byewater
urable Chai

to the jur

rnips, when growing in
No doubt the excellent
San—for be is esteemed

1. and r

ir all who know him—intended to use the word " taken "
r " stolen." In either case, what an absurd distinction the
w makes, as though taking the property of another, without

A LEG.—On Saturday evening last one of those adroit
schemers, who wish to enjoy the good things of this life
without paying for them, -hit -upon the following ingenious
plan of securing a capital joint for his Sunday's dinner. The
fellow, who was well dressed,' and of respectable exterior,

walked up to the shop front of a respectable butcher in the
Milc-end- road, and, taking a capital leg of mutton off the
hook, took it into the shop. At the moment, the butcher was
engaged in receiving payment for some meat, but as soon as
he was disengaged, the " dodger " addressing him said, he
had purchased the leg of mutton then in his hand from a
butcher a little higher up the road ; and having some misgiv-
ing that he had been " done " in the weight, he should feel
much obliged by his (the butcher's) just putting it in the
scale to satisfy his mind on the point. The butcher, who
is one of the old school, and remarkable for his bluff John
Bull mannerism, replied,
that he was not in the habit of
weighing the goods of his fellow-tradesmen, that he had
enough to do to weigh his own hinted
told the fellow, that if he
hinted something about the
honesty of suspicious persons,
wished to gratify his scruples he must go elsewhere, and that
the sooner he took himself off the better. The fellow only
observed that he (the butcher) might, at all events, be civil,
and walked out of the shop with the leg of mutton. In
about twenty minutes after, the lad whose duty it was to
watch the shop front missed the joint • and, calling out to his
master, asked if he had sold the leg of mutton. The latter
replied not, but finding it gone, the mortifying truth at once
occurred to him that he bad been
the --- "regularly done" out of

celtent pint
DOUBLE 13fGANIY.—
On Tuesday last, Richard Belcher,
of Little Wittenham, was brought before the Rev. N.. Do-
dson, under the following circumstances, which possess a
degree of impudence rarely, we hope, to be met with :—lt
appears that in the year 1828, the prisoner, Richard Belcher,
was married at Newington Oxon
Gar-
diner, and lived with her until the NT' to a woman named
ear 1839, when, after two
days' acquaintance only, he married a secoad person, named
Lucy Warren, at St. John's Church, Lambeth, who had some
property belonging to her, and some hundreds in ready cash,
no doubt the inducement to Belcher. From thence they (the
last wife and Belcher) went to Jersey,. where they lived about
six months, and the first wife came over, and was introduced
to Lucy Warren as the man Belcher's cousin, and stayed there
some little time, and soon afterwards returned to England
alone. Shortly after that, Belc'ler and the second woman
(for wife she is not legally) came to England, and resided at
Little Wittenham, where the first wife was living, Belcher
declaring to the poor woman Warren, that he was previously
married, and living in the same house with both women, the
first of whom only he treated as his wife,
having taken pos-
session of the latter's property. Mr. Mertyn, of. Jersey,
watchmaker, to whom Lucy Warren is related by marriage,
suspecting all was not right, came to England, and finding
his suspicions correct, succeeded, after a most dilige.stice,
nt and
praiseworthy investigation, in bringing Belcher to justice,
and he now stands committed for trial at the next assizes for
Berko for Bigamy.—Berkshire Chronicle,