Summer Assizes.
The Times, 1824-07-29T00:00:00

The assizes commenced this day. The ChiefBaron ALszXAxDrs and Mr. Justice GASELaME (the-new Judge), arrived leasta.ght, asrn opened the commission in tle usual forms. After attendirg divine service this moning, their -Lordships proceeded to the asonrt; the CImIEF BARoN takinga the cr1 ninrlside, and M|r. Justice GAsELEa: sitting at Ns Prisa. The caendarof-prisonerstisnot heavy,-gitlier as to the number of offenders, or-the 9ualityof-crime. Tro women are indicted for destroying their illegitimate children; and one man for administering drugs with intention to procareabortion: the-rest of tbe charges are comparatively of small importance. At Nids Pius, 8ix causes only were entered for trial when business began: and the details were not expected to have niuch public interestt. The CH7IE:F BAnoN, in delivering his charge to the Grand Jury, adverted to the case of the females cha,ged with destroying their offspring, ard strongly dwelt upon the nece sityof having full ev14 dence in all such cases that the child vvzs born alive. It had hap- pened in times past, from mistaken opinions eRtertained as to what was sufficient proof upon this point, that inferences, perhaps too hasty, had sometims been drawn unfavourable to the mo- ther. As nedical men of great eminence had- lately turned their particular attention to this subject, errors were now less likely to occur upon it than they hadl been; but still it was one upon which the jury could not exerdse too much caution. The.opinion recently published by a very considerable physician was . thatthe mental agonyv and bodily suffering of a female privately elivering herself, might frequently be such as to threaten berown existence, and still mere easily destroy a child (alive, perhaps, immediately be. fore the birth.) In such a case, the law would not hold the mother guilty of a child's death, as it would have arisen probably not from any malicious intent on her part, but rather from the unhappy cir. curnmtances into which her imprudence had thrown her. In the criminal Court, Anthory Mulheuron, a native of MzsaS. chusetts, in America, was indicted for uttering base cein, and havin large quandties of it in his possession. The prisoner had passed one bad shilling to a womaLn named Barton, who kept a grocer'c shop in Vycombe Akrsh; and on being taken into custody, nine- teen other base shillings, and twelve half-crowns, were found neatly packed in paper upon his person, besides a bottle coataining wash to refresh thean, as they should becomne dull or out ef order. Ifr. Mulhearon cross.examined the witnesses with. prodigious insolence, and stated that he had picked -up his packet of bad monoey by the road side, about a utile from Birmingham. The jury, how_ ever, disbelieved this statemeni, and without retiring found him- Guilty. CIVIL: slDf- GPEEEt V. WrTEfRLS A5M SILLETT. This was an action tsr assault and false imp.risonment: the cir- cumstances of the case stood as follows:-The plafiliff, MrT. Green, on the 10th of March last was travelling by the Regulator coach from London to Witnev. When the coach arrived at High W'ycombe a parcel, alleged to'be of value, was missing, and the defendts, whos were the coachman and the proprietor of the irn at Wycornbe, in- sisted upon searching the plaintiff, and a gentleman named Eeles, whc was alsu an inside passenger. A constable was sent for, and the parties? although they offered most respectable referendes, were nearly stnpped to the skin; after which exposure, notbing was found upon them ; but the constable-found the parcel in the same place in the coach where it had originally been deposited. Alr. H. CoorEt, for the defendants, said that the mislaid par- cel had been of considerable value; and proposed fuirther tu prove that the constable had been sent for at the desire of the plaintiff him self, and Mir. ISeless. There bad been nothing vindictive in the pro, ceeding, either on the part of the innkeeper or the coachman; anct the parties searched had, in point of fact, been put to very sliglht in. convenience. Witnesset were called on both sides. Those for the plaintiff proved the stoppage and the search; those for the defendants swore that the search had been conducted in the most civil and tempermte - manner. One witness, the bar-maid of tbe inn at Wycombe, swore that theplaintiffhimselfhad first proposed the sending for a con- stable. lr. Justice GASELEE said. that if the jury thought the plaintiff himself had sent for the constable to clear his character, they muss- givea verdict for the defendants If they thought he had been searched not by his own desire, they would give such dnmagei aS. the detention and exposure might seem to deserve. heJury, af'ter a moment's consideration, found for the plaintiff.r damages, 401. In the next case, which was Mr. :esles against the same defen- dants, the plaintiff agreed to take a verdict with nominal damages SUl;MAER AsSzEs$ BUCKINGRAhl. TUEsAY. JULY 27.