HUNTINGDON ELECTION.-The ...
The Times, 1824-05-18T00:00:00

HUN{TINGDON ELEcTION.-rhe POII closed on Friday, when the numbers were, for Mlr. Stuart, 65 Alr. WVelLs, 22; ma- jority for Mr. Stuart, 43. Fifty householders tendered their votes forll' mells but were rejected. Mlr. Stuartwas afterwards chaired, as also was Air.Wells. Another account states-At tht close of the poll the numbers were as follows :_ Secondd.ay_r.Stusrt,9 J Ir.lells,10 [ MajoratyjforMr.Weihal Gross poll, as declared by the Returning Officer Mr. Stuart, 65 I Mr. Wells, 221 lajority for MAr. Stuart, 43 State of the poll, including disputed votes, to be settled by a com- nittee of the louse of Commons:- Mr. Stuart, 651 [ r. NVells, 66 1 Afajority for Air. Wells, I The statement of the poll having been mad the returning officer declared that James Stuart, Esq., was duly 1elcted member of Par- liament for the borough of Huntingdon. PLAN FOR BREAKING GUT OF NEWOAT.-Osn Sunday week a very desperate plan for effecting an escape from the prison of Newgate was discovered. Indeed, so great is the vigilance of the su- periatendents of the prison, that there is not the slightest probabi- lity of the accomplishment of any object of the kind. The apparent impossibilitg, in al likelihood, induced the adventutrers to determine upoa committing murder,ifoppositionpresented itself,-an intention I hich it is manifest they entertained, from the following facts, which rumour has art afloat 'with considerable accuracy :-A rope, 44 feet in length, was found in the cole-hole of the middle yard, which is allotted to prisoners who are to take their trial. It was found Ito be made from the mnats about the prison; and the gradual diminution of the mats was, we believe, the first thing that caused the suspicion. It was while the prisoners were at chapd the yard was searched, and the discovery of the rope, to one end of which was attached a piece of iron, forming a sight angle, one part of which WaS intended to catch the top of the wall, led to n further ex- aminatin. It was then ascertained thtt tbe bars of one of the ofrooms wre partly eevered through, and that it was intended by two of the prisoners to get into the yard, in the dark, to throw the rope to thetopofthcprisOn, to ascend, and if the watchtnen onths top shouldattemptto-opposetheiresape, tohburl them beadlong upon the pavement. Butcat the sarne tne that these preparations were goiDg forward within, those who laid the plan of escape took carethat there should be a powerful co-operstion on the other side amongst their friends, wvho are candidates for the gallows. A great number of thieves were to be stationed (according to the directions of some of the most experienced) in Newgace-street, for the purpose of preventing the interference of the passengers in the event of alarm in the prison. Those coadjutors were to be armed with pistols and cutl3sscs, and were, in fact, to cat down all opposition. IThe prison. ers were to receive a brace of loaded pistol, in mois tsugur, calcu- lating that no exaination of that article would tale place; and those pistols they intended to use against the watchmen on the roof, if there was too much difficulty in dashipg them into ty srreet, upon an outcry raised by them, or bv others, for t purpose of alarming them to their dutv. There were otherppnson. era concerned in the plan for escape, but thiywere rathersilesntspecta. tort of the preparations than active partners in the enterprise. They disavowed being parties to the breaking, but they have admnitte,l that if the ringleaders escaped, they should make the experiment, as they could not bear to let so inviting a thing as a rope-way out of prison lie idle. The prisoners who set this scheme on foot wer only waiting,for the dark xights to commence vigorously and as thesr hope otescape must be,cansidering the stupendousacultieiswhich, to the knowledFe of every one in Newgate, present themselves but vsery light, their desperationiwould,if not checked in the outset,save unaoubtedly caused a horrible scene of bleoodshed. Thie-watcbmeft at the top of the prison are constantlysupplied with blunderbusses, pistols, aind cudt asa,d to calculateuponbtheirnothealing the dshZ. in* of the iron of the rope against the waaU (for the prisoners did not suppose thst in one thr'w they could fAsten the6mp to the wall), coald be little less than madness. The necessary Tsteps, it is need. less to say, have been *aken to prevent thoke desperateadvknture,s from engaging i any other plan of espe. Perbapi there never wvas a morecompletelydigestedandarranged sclemelaid. InMr. Newman's time five men broke out at the top of the-house, and ac. tualy escaped; four of them were afterwards hbuged. Since that time the top of the prison has been as weUluuardedasanypart of the interior