The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1845-12-09 00:00:00

goner wi
to Ehont

it dischar_
Jury would be not to find the bill

.ct was so, the duty of tt
These wer

observations he had to make upon the present calendar,
which, although it contained wake very serious offences
he thought, c

rest extent of this county

d as pre-

district

cl baron th
with the u

I the Grand

I promise of assistance

fficnity

Jury then retired

CURIOUS CAS

WHOLESALE INDICTMENT AGAINST

THE 'OFFICERS OF THE BOROUGH GAOI

Edward Rayner Highton, governor, the Rev. '
Carter, chaplain, Charles Robinson Bromley
turnk

id John Jones
I wen

fthe Liverpool borough

Miles, 1

leged offence wa

,n the 16th of April last, and at th

le prosecutor

dictment.
Mr. MONK

MeSSTS. BRAND'

rid DRINKWATE

tatin the c

situation of seboola
;ar 1841, but for sou

borough gaol in th

On the morning of the

if the t

They had so
Miles that som

sation t

of Liverpool, c

charge

gainst him (the governor)

iey had been given up to him
out the writer. The governor f

prosecutor was acquainted with a person
h Jamie," and he asked him (Miles) to

Lffected toward

him (the governor), as he had some reason to suppose
he was hostile to him, in consequence of his having dis-
charged his son from some office or other. It would be
for the jury, after they had heard the facts, to say
whether this request from the governor was anything
but a pretext or trick. They entered the gaol together;
and, either before or after this, Highton shewed the pro-
secutor two of the papers which he had received from the
Mayor, and stated he was authorized to ascertain whether
they proceeded from any officer of the gaol ; if they had,
he had authority to dismiss that person from the gaol

Ie did not appear to have pu
utor resneetinff the author:

any question tc
'ip. The sam

the" prose-
Le. day Mr.

Carter, the chaplain, told the prosecutor they were going
to hold an examination, and requested him to be present.
Miles said it was a little premature, or early, to which
the chaplain replied that he (Miles) would have to assist
at it. Shortly afterwards the prosecutor was called into
the governor's house, and in a room there he found a
table set, with writing materials for two persons : the

were there, but the surgeon left before the investigation
was concluded. It was suggested by the chaplain, he
(Mr. Monk) believed, that the prosecutor should take
a seat at the table, and appear to be writing, as it would
lull suspicion. Several persons were called in, from
whom inquiries were made, and then some whispering
took place between the chaplain and the governor. A
portion of this whispering reached the ears of
the prosecutor, and he immediately came to the
conclusion that the examination was, in point of
fact, a mockery, and that it had no purport whatever.
The jury, he dared say, would easily surmise for
what purpose it had been instituted. When five o'clock
arrived the Chaplain said he must go to dinner, and the
enquiry be resumed the following morning. The Chap-
lain h;td been writing, it ought to be mentioned, at one
set of writing materials; the prosecutor at the other.
On this intimaton, the prosecutor folded up what he bed
been writing to put into his pocket. The Chaplain re-
cuested him to give up the paperP. The prosecutor re-
u,ed. Some conversation followed; he again positively
refused to part with the papers he had written, and then
the Chaplain said to the Governor, " Do you mean to let
him take away those papers ?" The Governor immedi-
ately left the room, but soon returned, having in his
hands a card. He (the Governor) had previously said he
would send to the magistrates, but the Chaplain said

" No, no,—you say too much, we must use for Ce." The
Governor then kicked at the door, on which the defendant
Bromley entered, and all three seized the prosecutor,
threw him on the floor, and injured him considerably.
He was enabled, however, to preserve the papers in his
hand. The window was then opened by the chaplain,
and Evans entered through the window, threw himself
upon the prosecutor, thus assisting in the violence which
was being committed upon him. A further call for as-
sistance was made, and the defendant Jones entered, and
he assisted the others in endeavouring to obtain the pa-
pers from the prosecutor. From the violent treatment he
received, the recollection of the prosecutor became in
some degree confused ; by what means he was ejected
from the room, and what force was used to him, he did
not distinctly recollect, but he did remember Bromley
taking the papers from his pocket. Shortly afterwards he
found himself lying under or against the walls of the pri-
son outside, with his hands bloody, his head injured, and
in such a state of exhaustion as to be unable to obtain
assistance to get himself removed. Fortunately he was
met by a person named Buckley, a turnkey in the prison,
who saw his condition, took him to a public-houseewhere
he obtained something to restore him, and there he left
him to give information to Mrs. Miles. A cab was ob-
tained, and he was taken home. Dr. Marshall, a physi-
cian, practising as a surgeon, was called in ; he ordered
leeches to be applied to the head. In short, he found the
prcsecutor considerably injured. These, said the learned
counsel, were the main facts of the case,,and he left the
jury to say whether such treatment w

_ r proper on
the part of two such office's as the governor and chaplain.
The learned gentleman concluded by saying that the pro-
secutor, by indicting Orin, and the parties by whom they
were assisted, had taken the best possible course to ob-
tain redress and satisfaction for a violation of the law on
his person.

Jiihn Reade Miles, the prosecutor, was then called.
He slid that after he and the governor had entered the
gaol they went into the head-turnkey's lodge, when the
governor chewed him two sheets of foolscap paper, which
he said had been sent to the Mayor, and asked him if he
knew the handwriting upon them. He replied he had
seen something very like one of them in the gaol but he
thought they were not the production of the same hand.
The governor wished him to find out what Scotch Jamie's
feelings were towards him, and they had some talk upon
the modus operandi. lie told the governor that if he
would leave the course of action to him, he had no doubt,
through the agency of two or three glasses of whiskey,
of asceitaining the nature of this person's feelings towards
him, and that he would report on Saturday morning.
They parted, after he had asked the governor this single
question, " is there any particular mode or any point in
which you wish Scotch Jamie's mind to be attacked ?" In
the course of the same morning Mr. Carter told him they
were going to hold an enquiry about these papers and
that he must be in readiness to be called in. He told Mr.
Carter this was rather premature, considering the engage-
ment he had entered into with the governor with respect
to ascertaining Scotch Jamie's mind. He (prosecutor) was
heism afterh e mustinto thesit down governor's
an d ahpopuesaer,
saenndt
mforr.
Carterrntoinldut
to be writing to lull suspicion. Four persons were
examined. When the examination of the fourth was
over, Mr. Carter gathered up his papers, saying the
examination would be resumed the next day. He
(the prosecutor) commenced folding up his papers,
and when he was in the act of putting them into his
packet, Mr. Carter said to him, " hand those papers
to me." He replied, " No, these are to guide my mind
in the enquiry against Scotch Jamie." There were a
great number of circumstances in the papers respecting
the governor's conduct which would have guided his
inquiries. Mr. Carter said, he (the prosecutor) had no
right to the papers ; to which he replied that he had, and
that he (Mr. Carter) had his own copy, and he would not
give them up till he had taken an exact copy or transcript
of them. He told Mr. Carter he had heard something
which led him to infer that the examination was a dis-
graceful trap, and that he should lay the papers before
the chief magistrate together with his own comments.
The prosecutor then went on to detail the circumstances
of the assault, to the same effect_ a

s tne statement made
by his counsel, but much more diffuse. He said he did
not recollect the defendant Jones entering the room.
When he was at the Lodge door, Bromley came and
took all the papers, letters and other documents out of his