The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-08-12 00:00:00

IMPORTANT CASE OF ARSON.

Mary Christopherson, aged 36, Frances Christopherson,
aged 14, and Mary Blaylock, aged 24, were indicted for
having feloniously set fire to a dwelling house, called the
Angel Inn, in Carlisle, with intent to defraud the York and
London Fire Insurance Company. There were several counts
in the indictment, the first three of which charged the pri-
soners with the capital offence of setting fire to a dwelling-
house, so as to endanger the lives of those resident within
it, and the remaining six counts were for simple arson.
Upon being arraigned, the prisoners, Mary Christopher.
son and Mary Blaylock, pleaded not guilty as to the first
three counts of the indictment, but pleaded guilty to the re-
maining six. The prisoner Frances Christopherson pleaded
not guilty to all the counts of the indictment.
Mr. Robinson, on the part of the prosecutors, stated, that
the course adopted by the prisoners placed him in a position
of great difficulty, as the nature of the offence was so serious
as almost to require him to press the capital charge; but,
considering the difficulty of the inquiry, and the probable
length of the investigation, as well as the prospect that ex-
isted of its termination not being satisfactory, he was dis-
posed, on the part of the prosecutors, subject to the opinion
of the learned judge, not to press the capital charge against
the prisoners. With respect to the younger prisoner it had
never been his intention to offer any evidence whatever
against her, as from her age and subjection to others, she
might have been actively employed in the transaction with-
out being guilty of the offences charged in the indictment.
Lord Denman coincided with the view taken by the learned
counsel as to the course it was most judicious to adopt in
this case.

The plea of guilty as to the last six counts of the indict-
ment on the part of the two elder prisoners was then ad-
mitted ; and, under the direction of the learned judge, the
jury found the prisoners Mary Christopherson and Mary
Blaylock guilty, and acquitted Frances Christopherson.
Sir G. Lewin, on the part of the prisoner Blaylock, said,
tbat if his lordship would allow him, he could call several
respectable persons who would state what the former cha-
racter of his client had been.

Lord Denman : 1 should certainly like to know something
of the previous character of the prisoner Blaylock.

Sir G. Lewin then called

Georieliddel7i -;;1; farmer at Lit le Brampton. I
know Mary Blaylock ; she was two years in my service. Her
character was very good. She left me eight years ago. I
have seen her often since. I never heard a word against her
character.
Thomas Todd : I live upon my own estate at Aikton.
Mary Blaylock was in my service about six weeks about six
years ago. She was a most excellent servant, and conducted
herself well.
George Elliott : I live at Longtown, and am a stationer.
I have known Mary Blaylock since her infancy. 1 have
known her parents. The whole of the family are very in-
dustrious. The prisoner went to service very young, and
always kept her places well.
Sir Gregory Lewin was proceeding to call more witnesses,
when his lordship intimated that it was unnecessary.
Lord Denman then proceeded to pass sentence, and said,—
Mary Christopherson, you stand convicted on your own con-
fession of the crime of arson ; an offence of all others the
most dangerous to human life, in the perpetration of which
you have been influenced by the base wish to defraud an in-
surance company, and to put the unjust gains that might
arise from your success into your own purse. The offence,
at all times most criminal, has been in your case greatly ag-
gravated by the circumstances under which it was committed.
The law wisely distinguished between different crimes of the
same description, and sometimes the distinction was of ne-
cessity made by very arbitrary lines ; and in cases of arson,
if the parties residing in the dwelling-house that was set on
fire, were not allowed an opportunity of saving their lives, the
offence was undoubtedly capital. In your case the fact
might be difficult of proof that other parties ignorant
of your crime were sleeping in the same house ; but there can
be no doubt but you stand within the meaning of the law, both
legally and morally guilty. The parties inhabiting the rooms
adjoining those which you had set on fire were unquestionably
exposed to all the peril of death by fire—a death beyond all
others painful ; and, indeed, even if the parties sleeping in
the house were not actually in danger, your guilt was little
varied, because there must ever remain the danger of the fire
spreading in the dead of night, which was the time you
selected tbr your guilty act, and when the danger was most
likely to be extended. Your guilt is further aggravated,
inasmuch as you have induced a young woman living in your
service, of respectable connections, who had previously con-
ducted herself creditably in various services, and found her
livelihood by honest labour, to become your accomplice in
guilt; who had herself no interest beyond, perhaps, the poor
bribe by which you tempted her in the atrocious crime;
araenns
dds
whom you have placed in the hard situation of having her life
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although I do not think it necessary to pass upon you the
heaviest sentence—although your life will be spared, it is im-
possible that any future part of it should be passed in this
country. It was one part of your fraud to remove your pro-
perty to America; and it impossible, under the circumstances,
that you should be suffered to remain in England, or allowed
to return to it. This is a severe and dreadful sentence. It
breaks the ties which bound you to your family and your
country before ; and your future life will be passed in labour
and misery—a horrible punishment which no one can con-
template without feeling compassion for those condemned to
suffer it, whatever may be the amount of their crime. It is
impossible in your case not to pronounce the severe sentence
which the law allows me to do ; and I trust your guilt and its
punishment will operate as an example to deter others from
offences of this sort, which, although conducted with skill
and cunning, are commonly brought to light by some acci-
dent; and if even the criminals could cover their fault from
human eyes, if it led to the destruction of human life, with
what reflections could they contemplate having occasioned
the deaths of their fellow creatures, their neighbours, their
friends, and their well-wishers, who had been consigned to
death by a fire lighted with their hands.—His lordship then
sentenced the prisoner to be transported beyond the seas for
the term of her natural life.
Lord Denman then addressed Mary Blaylock, and said,—
You have pleaded guilty to the same offence as the prisoner
who has just received the sentence of the court; but your
part in the transaction is of a different character to that of
the principal offender, to whom you were a servant, and
owed some obedience. But even servants should know that
they are only bound to obey the lawful commands of their
masters :—obedience to them may be indeed their duty, but
they owe a higher duty to their God and to their neighbours;
and if their masters command them to commit frauds, or do
acts which might endanger the lives of others, they ought to
abstain from obedience, and consider what they owed to
themselves and to mankind. You have lent yourself to the
criminal designs of the unfortunate woman upon whom sen-
tence has been passed ; but the court hopes that your plead-
ing guilty is an evidence of your contrition, and that, as your
mother still lives, and those gentlemen of respectability have
come forward to give evidence as to your former good cha-
racter, there is a chance of your returning to better courses
and an amended life. The court, therefore, does not con-
sider it necessary to pass upon you a very severe sentence,
not to transport you from this country ; but it is necessary
to mark the feeling of this court of justice as to the nature
of the crime you have committed, and its sentence is that
you be imprisoned with hard labour for eighteen calendar
months.

A short time since the Rev. W. Wilson, Wesleyan mi-
nister, of Great Horton, purchased a box, being part of the
effects of the late Rev. W. Wheelhouse, a supernumerary
preacher in the Wesleyan society, (Bradford west circuit,)
and on Mrs. Wilson examining the box, she discovered that
it contained a false bottom, in which was a quantity of silver,
amounting to £8 Is. The money was directly handed over
to his surviving brother. Search was then made in the
bottom of another box, which was also found to be made in
a similar way, and beneath the first bottom was found the
sum of a.:37 in gold and silver, besides security for money
lent out to interest to a considerable amount. The relations
of the deceased are all poor people.—Halifax Guardian.
TILL PROPERTY AND INCOME-TAX.—The following no-
tice has been put up at all the inns of courts, parish churches,
end chapels in the metropolis, and at the market-places and
churches throughout the United Kingdom :—" Notice is
hereby given, that all persons required by the Income and
Property-tax, 5 and 6 Victoria, cap. 35, to make returns of
their profits arising from property, professions, trades, and
I oi coa b
applicationl e to his
offices, are to deliver such returns, duly filled up and signed,
at my dwelling-house, situate (according to the parish) with-
in 21 days from the date hereof, and that any person who
imaycol
anro
caset have
may received
obtain
thefo r ms a applicable psaaird-
dwelling-house. ' Signed by the assessors. orathmery
In some parishes
the forms sent to the householders are elated the
others the 30th, and Ist of August, 1842. They must be re-
turned enclosed and sealed.
SHOCKING INHUMANITY.—On Wednesday the attention
of the authorities in Gorbals was directed to a yt. 1 ;ng ca se
of cruelty on the person of Mrs. Cassels, a married re o
woman,
in Coburg-street. From the circumstances that have trans-
pired it would appear that the woman in question,
imbecile mind, and deprived of the power of nearly the' wholehoisof
of one side by paralysis, was discovered in her ownbu
locked up in a press about 31 feet in length by broad,ose
where she had been confined for mouths in a wretched state
of filth and nakedness, a prey to vermin and all the horrors
the door being opened
of a caged existence, only when food
was being furnished her. The bottom of the press contained
some straw, on which the poor wretch could contrive to sit ;
but the limits within which she was confined were so small
that there was riot the slightest possibility of her stretching
herself or extending her limbs for the purpose of repose.
When dragged out by Captain Richardson, the spectacle
is described as truly horrifying. The poor creature, barely
veered with a shirt or loose garment, her limbs con-
tracted, and her person emaciated and covered with filth,
could scarcely be handled, from the disgusting stench in
which she was enveloped. Then den itself could scarcely
bear inspection. After what has been stated, it will scarcely
be believed that this female is in the house of her husband.
The appearance of the house, and the style in which it is
furnished, indicate at least the exterior of respectability - ; ; and
we are, therefore, utterly at a loss to account for the facts
which have been narrated. The house is at present under
the charge of a female servant, who would seem to receive
proper pecuniary supplies for the purposes of houtekeeping,
—Glasgow Chronicle. The husband, whose name is M'Crae,
was apprehended at Edinburgh, on Friday, and brought to
the Gorbals Police-office. He was arraigned on Saturday at
nine o'clock, charged with cruelty to his wife—and barba-
rously neglecting her. He said nothing in defence, and the
case was remitted to the sheriff.