Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-04-08
ENGLISH JUSTICE.
Distraining a Baby's Cradle for
Rent-The Mother Kills the officer
and is Acquitted

/
A curious and novel case was tried be-
fore Justice Willes at the Spring Assizes
of the Northern Circuit in England, held
| at Durham last month. Bridget Mcintyre,
an Irish woman, was charged with the
nlanslaughter of one Geo. Vasey, at a
place called Wilmington, on the LIST of Feb
ruary of the present year. The circum-
stances of the homicide were peculiar.
Vasey, the deceased, was a sheriff's
officer. The prisoners husband had fail
ed to pay his rent, and this baiiiff went to
the house to distrain for it. There he
found the prisoner, her husband being
absent at the time. In the room which
he entered was her baby, lying quietly in
its cradle. Whether the baliff was una
bic to find anything else or not does not
clearly appear, but at all events, he told
the woman he must have that cradle.
She very naturally refused to let him
have it, saying he might have everything
else there was in the house, but not that.
He insisted, and the alteration between
them, thus begun, was brought to cli-
max by the balitf, who turned the baby
out of the cradle, which he passed to an
under bailiff at the door. The exaspe-
rated mother seized the first offensive
weapon at hand, which was, as it hap
pened, a rolling pin. With this she
struck the officer two heavy blows on the
head, and as he fled she flung an earthen-
ware jug at him. This was broken to
pieces over his head.
The bailiff departed. He went home,
took to his bed, and after an illness of
six days died of erysipelas and extrava-
sion of blood on the brain. 1t was not
maintained on the part of the defence
that death resulted from any other causes
than the blows inflicted by the angry
woman.
The jury found the prisoner guilty, but |
with recommendation to mercy. This |
recommendation was most favorably con-
sidered by the court, and Justice Willes |
ordered that she should find two sureties |
In twenty pounds (about one hundred |
dollars) each to keep the peace for twelve |
months, and that upon so doing she |
should be discharged. He said, in the |
course of the trial, that the distraint of |
the cradle was quite illegal, and being so,
the woman used no more force than was |
necessary to resist it; bailiff might as |
well distrain shirt upon persons back |
as cradle with a child in it. Even a
horse upon which man is Eiding cannot |
legally be destIained, much less a baby's |
cradle in which the baby lay.
OF course every one will approve the |
action of the court in this case. 1t is an
admirable warning to the officers of the
law not to OVerstep the limits of their au-
thority. To avoid so doing, clear I'M
Outstanding of exactly what the law pre-
scribes in regard to their acts is necessa-
~; for it is to the ignorance of officers, |
that their mistakes, and even |
outrages are attributable. knowledge is
a primary condition for the exercise of |
care. There are several instances on re-
cord in England where officers have been |
killed while attempting to serve illegal |
warrants which they believed to be legal; |
and in each case the court refused to inn |
pose a severe sentence. Those who as
sumo to act under the commands of the
law ought to be sure that they have the
law on their side.