The Statesman.
London, England, 1822-07-12 00:00:00

PRirE SEVEN PENCE

EXTRAORDI.VAItk CASE.

BRIGHTON, JULY G.—A most extraordinary case
has twice been inveatioted by the Bench of Magis-
trates as the Old Ship. This day se'nnigiir, Mrs.
Mary Eleanor Herei,furd, the wife of a shoemaker, was
brought up for examination. She bad been given
into rueody on the Saturday. charged with having
picked the pocket of Henry Hedger, a journe, man
cooper, of five shillings and sixpenee, and detained in
the town prison. Hedger had forfeited his promise
and did not appear at the examination. The latter
I circumstance gave the prisoner an opportunity of
turning the tables npos him, and she did so most com-
pletely. She made it appear, that Hedger had at.
tempted to rob her of her shawl, her money, and the
gold ring on her finger, but which her tries bad pre-
vented. end brought a erowd of people about them,
in St. James's-street, between elevee and twelve
o'clock on Saturday night, when her assailant had re-
course to the expedient which had placed her in con-
finement. The affair. as she described it, bore a most
atrocious character, and a warrant was issued against
Hedger. On Thursday, both parties appeared at the
Bench; the late poisoner, now to the proem:iris. told
her story, with but little variation, as before, which
elicited smile from the defendant, • well looking
young man of about five and twenty years of age, such
at seemed to owe their origin to conscious innocence
of the charge against him ! When taken, be bad as-
signed as a reason for his not attending on the Mon-
day, a desire be had felt, not to pursue the matter
fin her. concluding, owing to his absence that the pri-
soner would be liberated. He saw his error, lie said.
and was sorry he had not been better advised. The
Bench told him, if the charge should be substantiated
it would affect his life. This he heard unmoved,
because the deposition of the proem:iris, he said, was
a tissue of falsehood from beginning to end. Ile
then stated his meeting with the prosecutrix on the
Steyne on the Saturday night, where he had accosted
her as one of the frail sisterhood, and had been denied
nothing that he bad solicited. Finding in the end
that she had picked his pocket, he had given bet-intd
custody because she had refused to return the money.
To the night constable she had said nothing of having
been robbed berrelf, hail refused to tell her name to
him, and had used language offerisive and opprobie
uus. The proseeatrix vehemently persisted in all she
had advanced, nor could the cross qm triune of the
Bench detect heels any essential error. The de-
:rodent, at length said, if time were allowed, that fie
could bring forward a witness to prove, that lie and
the proseentrix bad been seen walking arm in arm.
with apparent sociability together, a circumstance
which in itself, if established. that would itiwww&te
the whole of her testimony. The Bench complied
with the request, and postponed the final hearing of
the ease till this day, Monday, liberating- defendant
upon his own recognisance of 1001. with two sureties
in NI. each, and compelling the husband of the pro-
secutris to enter into a recognisance of 1001. for the
re-appearance of his wife. The known food charac-
ter of the defendant occasioned the sureties required
fur him, almost as soon as asked for to present them-
selves. The result of the examination this day, we
shall impartially make know next week.

LIMISLATIVE BLUNDINS —le the new Marriage Act
which has undergone each lengthened and tritium
dischuloos in both Houses, there is the following
passage—" And in such cue both parties shall also
make oath that the person or persons whose consent
shall be required by law to the marriage of such par-
ties has been given ;" 1. c. that the person or persons
has been given! The framer, of course, means the
consent of such person or persists, but he gets it
enacted that " that the person or persons" shall be
given ! But there is soothe:, enactment truly mar-
vellous ; "And be it further enacted," says the amended
Bill, That such banns shall not be published until the
true christian and snrames of the said persons, and.,
the house or houses of their respective abodes, shall be
aßxed on the principles door of the church or chapel
and in some eonspicnons place within the said church
or chapel !" Parliament is omnipotent, truly, bet
bow a bonne conk! be stock on a church door is a pro-
blem that remains to be solved. The difficulty, we
apprehend, is increased, when two houses are to be
stuck on the said door I But we most say, with rever-
ence, that their Lordship. intend to carry their omni-
potence to the highest pitch, when they enact that the
same house or houses most be stuck on the chords
door, and also placed in some conspicuous place within
the said church !

DRCAD,CL EFFLCTS or INcostriwaNcr.---An jolliest
111
was held on Thursday. at the Bell Inn, Erkington.
Worcestershire, on Thomas I'ickrrill. aged 33, a road
maker, in the employ of Mr. Allen Stoker, of that
place, who died eat ly on Tuesday morning, in crinse-
queues of taking the preceding night half en ounce
of arsenic, io a fit of insanity, occasioned by too well-
f.,unded jealousy of his wife, whom he had detected in
an improper familiarity with C. Fowler, one of his
neighbours. It appeared in evidence, that the deceas-
ed bad forbidden Fowler his house, and that; in conse-
quence. disputes Isa,t arisen between t►e unfortunwe
man and his wife. The affair was laid before a neigh-
bouring Magistrate, who advised the hardened wo-
man to abandon the disgr ceful connection, hut to no
purpose: the acqnaintarice continued, and the deceas-
ed hearing of (heir having been together op Monday
last, open his returning home in the evening, he ques-
tioner) his wife as to the fact, when she admitted that
Fowler had called ; he then asked her for some sugar,
and mixing with it the arsenic he had previously
hoaght, took it in h. r presence. A►sistance was im-
tuerliateiy obtained, but to no effect. The character of
the deceased was marked by great eccentricity, but
of indefatigable industry and strict honesty. Ver.
dict, "Died in consequence of taking poison edmi.
nistered by his own baud in a lit of insanity, produced
by jealousy."