The Statesman.
London, England, 1822-03-25 00:00:00

THE STATItSUA'

_.sto TIM RDITOR of ins STATSSALON.
Sin—la a late number of your paper, you inserted
a paragraph which stated that Mr. Edmonds of Bir-
mingham had been remanded at the Warwick Sessions
(having petitioned for his discharge under the Neel-
veut Act), till the Insolvent Court in London had
Oven their decision ..n two points of law. The Comet
in London has derided in Sir. Edmonds's favour, and
his discharge was issued ; hot as he was about to
leave his el , bode, in which be bad been con-
fined near twelve months (nith Me. Wookr and Mr.
Maddock') for attending a Reform Meeting at Binning
ham, a detainer for 601. was lodged against him under an
Excise prosecution for selling roasted wheat, or break-
fast powder. Mr. Edmonds having had to combat four
Government prosecutions within the last two years, has
been ruined thereby is his circomstances, and has not i
shilling towards the 601. I and unless the (deeds of the
persecuted Reformer come forward and assist him to pay
the fine, his imprisonment may be to the extent, of his
existence. He has a wife and several helpless children
totally dependant upon bii exertions. The great seve-
rity to which he ie subject will be obvious from the fol-
lowing statement. A little' more than two years ago,
Mr. E. was selling roasted Wheat, aid as information
was laid egainst hint for selling Was t eitertittste for
enfli.e. He immediately discontinued the sale, and en-
tered s plea of "..Vot Guilty" to the information. Prior
to the term arriving when the information was to be
tried in the Exchequer, Mr. Etkoonds's brother called
at the Crown Office about the Jury list, ixd was told if
Mr. E. retracted his former plea, and pleaded Guilty,
and discontinued the sale of the powder, nothing further
would be heard of the promotion. Air. L's brother put
in a plea of Guilty, and nothing further was heard of it,
till Mr. E. was about to leave his place of confinement,
and then a detainer was lodged. A case of such seve-
rity I think mast excite the public sympathy in ft.
your of any person, more especially that of an individual
who suffers in consegnence of his honest and manly
exer-
tions in the cause of troth and jostler.
I 'ads, Sir, your constant Reader,
AN ENESIT TO OPPRESSION.
N.B. Mr. Edmonds. hie pet tioned the Board of Ex-
cise, and Lords of the Treasury, to be allowed to enter
the 60/. in Lis Scheda • nn der the Inspirit& Act, and

the tweet returned is, 4'. it,is refused."
OUTRAGES IN NORFOLK 4.YD SUFPOLIC.
1 , .
tenon les noon/sem noltellsT OP Witten 23
On Moseley morning were brought before Sir Wm.
Robe. Km", .Bert. and George •Lee. Esq., Robert
Dixon, and William Riley the elder, both of Winter-
thing, %booms,. mild Richard 'Colman the younger,
of Sbelfaoger, laboueer,•ebarged on the oath of Mr.
racisard Doggett. of Winfertiting, with breaking and
leetroyiog a *stoking machine. Na property, on the
Itith of February; as mentioned is wformer paper, is
company witb.WilliaroAsktra Noah Peaky. gad GM
Fortis, of Bcessingbem, now in custody for firing the 4
stacks of Mr. John KW., et Pisa. and a number iti
other riotons and „eville &resod persons, to the
amount of ISO sod ofrictir, , The two former standi
further charged, on dub et Samnel George, of IVin.
farthlog, farmer, with. unlawfully assembling with a
nunaher of cehers„ on Iris premises, on Monday. the 4th
of Maro inst. as before mentioned, sod breaking pad
destriiiing a threshing machine, his property. So
much ma these rioters.attiebed to each other, that the
trheoefttpreolete4tieer
611;hethlrea5oo.t b:oadpepr re,lbieendoeodmuntil d the
f
Lieutenant Crossley, now quartered at Liss. were sent
by the Magisi rates le the aid of the civil power. The
the wen
under t tbaok s
hairs
* duecommand,to
f
Li e it:. r
their
prompt e n an lC r oarsle,yp,f
mall
he
neatens exertions in the apprehension of the rioters.
The prisoners were admitted to bail, to appear at
the ensuing assi vs. at Thetford, and the parties bound
over to prosectre for tlie offences.
It is to be remarked that no•witlistaJing the large
rewards offered by hand-bills in circulation in the
neighbourhood of Hiss, no discoveries have yet loin
effected, except in the instance of William Baker,
Noah Peake.. and George Fortis, now in . confinement
ii the Castle; •the first of whom was apprehended feel
destroying a threshing machine on the premises of
Mr. Richard Doggett, at Wiafarthiog.
On Sunday sight some incendiaries set fire to some
°stacks in the parish of Hepworth, in Suffolk, which
, .
entirely consumed the same.
On Monday evening some stacks were Set on fire at
Rielinghall Inferior, in Suffolk, which in a short time
destroyed the Caine. ,
On the night of the Ida inst. a stack of haulm
containing about 20 waggon loads, on the farm of Mr;
George Gardiner, of Donde''', was trAlirionsly se
on fire and consumed. A large wheat stack, standing
near, fortunately escaped. Mr. Gardiner has offered
a reward for the discovery of the offender, as have also
the Norwich Union Office, where, be was insured.

Dune GIZAT Foot. RACE.—We noticed a few
weeks age the foot race on theSiddals. between Shaw,
the Staffordshite pedrstrian, and Wending, of the
.china manufactory in Derby. The distance run on
'that occasion was one huudred and twenty yards. sod
the ease with which the race was won by. Wantliog,
encouraged his friend, to back him again, on 310DdaY
last, at Shaw's fevourite space of three !Amide, d yards.
The stake was 200 guineas; and farther bets to a
very considerable amount were laid on the issue of
the contest. The ground selected was on the Lon-
don road opposite to the Infirmary. The course was
divided by a cord, on .each side of which the racers
were to contend. The signal for starting was riven
by the firing of a pistol. la the course of the first
hundred yards, Weeding gained considerably of his
opponent. and kept this advantage to the end of the
race. Finding his superiority, he even dated twice
to look behind him, and won with apparent ease,
beating Straw by six yards. The time occupied was
very accurately rib d, and as near as it could be
calculated, was thirty three seconds, a speed equal to
,about nineteen miles in an hour. It is difficult to
(urns an estimate of the number of people assembled ;
souse have rated it extravagantly high, the prubabi
lity is that sot less than seven or eight thousand
persons were collected on the °erasion ; and the
triumph of the succeesful combatant was haikd by
the Modest acciatuaticios.

_ ~•~ ~
t. ,

Lii.VT ALMS& .
atm TOIOB.-711VINIO4T. NORCO 21.
,11tArD ON 71111
SisciaL Juftv,...-Koso e. lei an
information against the defendant, ass officer of excise for
making false entries in Ms book, with the intent td de-
fraud the revenue of certain duties payable on leather.
Mr. Rsine stated the case to the Jury. The defendant
was an officer in the excise, and it was his duty to sur-
vey the tannery of Mr. Thos. Grayson, of Pickering.—
Souse fraud having been sdspected in the mode in which
the &Ain were charged at that tannery, Mr. Stalker.
the collector of excise at Leeds, with Isis clerk, weal
over to Pickering, to investigate the matter. They ar-
rived at the defendant's house about nine.o'clock in the
morning of the •:'.6th March, and found him standing at
the door of his house. They immediately demanded
from him his book and his stamp, used for marking the
weight of the finished hides. This instrument contains
two movable letters, which are changed from time to
'time at the will of the supervisor. The letters F'. Z. had
been introduced into the stamp on the 2tsth of
February. The offi.:er produced his book, and
after souse hesitation, the stamp. Upon inspecting the
`book of the defendant. It appeared that he had charged
11111 bides , stamped with the letters Z. as weighing,
11,066916. ; 64 of these bides remained on the premises of
Mr. Grayson, and were found .to weigh I,Bollb.—in ad-
dition to these there were five bides, which had been
sold to a carrier at Melton, which weighed 16316. and
there coaseqnently remained 13 hides unaccounted for,
the weigilrof which, taken on au average the most fa-
vourable for the defendant, would have been 1231 b.
making a total of 2,0951 b. which was an excess of up-
wards of 4001 b. on which the duty had been evaded.—
The hides were deposited at a public-house, at Picker.
lug—and it was alleged, that during the time they were
there, the defendant, or thereon, had abstracted a cer-
tain portion of the bides, and had substituted others of
a much less weight—for, upon the 69 bides being
weighed at York, on Giesler preceding this trial, they
were found to weigh only 1,7461 b. whien, with the 13
bides missing, would amount to 1,/s69lb. milting the
fraudulent increase to be only 3001 b.
Serjeeot liuumcw add d the Jury on the part of-
eflie defendant. The defence set up was. that this in-
crease of weight was produced by a practice in this tan-
nery, of dagging the leather after it had teen received
into the stock, which operation consisted in sponging it
with water, to make it weigh heavier—and • it wit-
nesses from Mr. Grayson's tannery deposed to this mode
of increasing the weight of the hides in question; bat
they stated the increase produced by iS to be only ten per et
Mr. Justice BATLEY charged the Jury at considerable
length, who relies' for about an hour cod a quarter, and
on their return into Court, pronounced the defendant
tLeTt:ODAT, uancn 23.
Jobe Delete was charged with forging and uttering,
knowing it to be forged. a bill of exchange, purporting'
to be of the value of 4941. 2.. 6J.
The prisoner, who was of the most respectable appear 7.
*nee, had been a merchant, and carried on an extensive
business at Gomersal, near Leeds, but unfortunately had
'bloom, a bankrupt at the beginning of 1'320. The bill
Kineation was paid to Mr. Atkinson, inannfactaree,4
af. Bradford, with whom the prisoner had transacted
peat deal of business. This was in September 1819.
The only witness examined was the prosecutor (Mr. At.
Mason) who, id his cross-egarination by Ms' Brougham,
acknowledged to having i4O geed the name of " John
Taylor," on the bill; and tobliving paid the bill at a
haoking.boase. representing the indorser Taylor" as
'person residing sear Halifax, with whom he lied dem
business; when, in fact, and according to his own state-.
went, John Taylor was his (Atkinson',) foreman.
Justice OOLROYD would not go further into tbs,
tonic after, as Ilia Lordship observed, the witness had at-
knowledged himself guilty of committing a forgery on
ibe bill in question.
• Mr. Balms was Immediately discharged; and Mr.
Brougham moved fur a copy of the indictment, whfgh
was granted.
Mr. Brougham to Atkinson, " Perhaps, Sir, pasmas,
derstand the meaning of that ; if not your attorney:KM
inform you."
• Mr. Brougham declared that Atkinson, at the time be
`elerrge‘l the prisoner with the forgery was indebted to
him 2,j00/.
' • TORN CASTLII, ITEONAY.
Rickard Lovett was tried for a burglary in the
Lease of Frances Allison, of Hull, and stealing a
laantity of copper.
Mr. COLTIII•N stated the facts of the case to, lb*
jury, which were briefly these : —The preseetttrix, tflfiti
is a widow, resided at Hall. On the morning Of
the 19:h of October last, about two o'clock. she' Iris
awoke by two of her neighbours, who informed kW
that they believed a man bad Woken int 3 bee lupine;
as one of aim bad semi him tutting the door which was
then open. On Mrs. Allison coming down stairs. 11
search was made in the house, when some copper wife
discovered to have been stoles from the window seat.
The thief, however, ..old not be found : but from cop-
per being scattered on the grate and the kettle being
upset, they suspected the robber had mounted the
..
chimney; consequently one person went to the out-
side of the house to ascertain if icy one came one of
Ithe top of the chimney, whilst the other remained in
the house and throat a stick up the chimney. This,
however, had not the desired effect ; therefore a ire
was lighted, and the smoke soon brought flown the
prisoner, with a quantity of copper in Iris pocket. All
the above facts being proved in evidence, time Joey
found the prisoner Guilty. He is quite a boy, being
only 16 years of age.