Winter Assizes.
The Times, 1824-12-10T00:00:00

At'ne winter assizes tbr this county commenced yesterdayj befoaeble i Hon. Mr. Justice BUrtROUGE and the Hon. Mr. BaTon GA7tow.. Edward Finn, James Horn, and Patrick, Collier, were indicted for a burglary-in the dwelling-house of James Crossley,. Esq., att West Ham. in the night of the 20th of September last, and stealing therein a clock, a musket, a fowling-piece, seven siver 1spoons, an&'d' several articles of wearing apparel. Mr. Crossley, the prosecutor, who is a merphant residing in Broad-street, City, had his country.hotsc at est 'Ham brokeni1 open in the night of the 20th of September, and.robbetlof the; orti- Ces above-mentioned. The house was then in the care of an upper scrvant, the family being in Lbndo:.- StsprCion fell'upon a costate monger, named EdwaTd Allen whose cart was found by a. conutable standing at the door of a pttblic.honse in Whitechapel, about five o'clock on the morning of the 21st. The constable' enteied the house, and found the prisoners and Aillen in company drinking. The principal witness for the prosecation was Allen, the accom- plice, who swrore that he had been engaged by the other prisoners to assist them with his cart in carrying off the property Stolen from the prosecutor's house. Hie was corroborated in several material circumstances of his evidence. The Jury, under M4lr. Justice BURRtouos's directions, found the prisoners guilty, and judgment of death was recorded pursuant to the statute. Charles Clarke was Indicted for feloniouslv killing and slaying Thomas Young, at Great Chishall, on the l0tfiofOctoberlast; and J0hin Burrowv and Jesse Fow'ler were indicted as accessories to the same felony and manslaughter. It appeared in evidence that the prisoners, the deceased, and several other men, labourers in husbandry, had met on the night of the 10th of October, at a public-house in Great Chishall, to spend their harvest money. Between one and two In the morning they left the house, in a state of intoxication, for the purpose of returning to their respective homes. Ins their wiy home, some of the party be- gan to play rough tricks upon each other, such as jostling and slapping oneanother's aces. The deceased did not nppear to have taken any paTt ia this sport, but the prisoner Clarke challenged him2i to fight, and pusbed him into a ditch. Goaded by this act of ag- g-ession, he was prevailed upon to figlit. Clarke and he stripped, ani the other prisoners immediately became 'secondt. About eight or nine rounds took place, and in the last the deceased fell in- sensl'he on the ground. He was taken home in that-state, and died next day. Upon opening the head and examining the body, it ap- peared that a blood.vessel had been ruptured in the former, and that in the latter one of the sboulder-bones had been broken, and on the back were m%rks apparently proce'eding from kicks which he was supposed to ht e received whilst on thte rrund. T?Re prisoner Bur- rows, wvho was ltie deceased's second, had endeavoured to prevail upon the latter no. to fight. An excellent character was also given to himl by the parish.)fficers, as a sober, industrious, and well-con. ducted mian. Mir. Justice BusLtRouV, in summing up the case to the jury, said it appeared to hlim.bat the affray which terminated so fatallr was what Iscalled afairight. At alleventt, itwasnotlikeanyof thosecases which had of late disgraced the country-he meant prize fights; in which hi was sorry to observe men were pitted against each other to fight for a purse, in the presence of thou. sands of spectators, unongst whom were persons whose stations, fortunes, and' education, he would have supposed would incline thetn to more honourable and gentlemanly amusements. For his ewn part, he heastily wished that some examp I would be mde of pergons actively engad in, or by their countenance encouraging, such disgraceful contests. Should a case ever corre under his judicial notice when death was the result, he thought it his duty to declare, that he should carry tie law to its utmost extent. By a late act of Parliament (3d Geo. IV., c. 38), Judges were Impowered to eentence offenders guilty of mamslaughter to transportation for life. The degrading practice which had now become so prevalent, rendered it aecessary to make a severe example, for the purpose of checking it; and his Lordship had come to the resolution, in common with the ether Judges, to Inflict the severest penalties 'upon offenders of this description. He was happy, however, to say, that it was very niuch owing to the geod con- duct of the magistracy in most counties of England, that this barba- rous species of exhibition had been considerably abated. There were, however, he lamcnted, certain exceptions, which had a contraryv ten. dency. In his opinion, any i'lagistrate, who, either by his'epen countenance, or-passive tolerance, In any respect contributed to the encouragement of such scenes, was unfit for his station in the-com- mission. Unless Magistrates exerted themselves to put a atop to such practices, they might expect serious notice to be taken of their remissness ffom the highest quarter of the state. The Jury found the prisoners Guiilty, and the learned Judge sen- tenced Clarke and Fowler to twelve months' imprisonment aud hard labour, and Burrows to six tnonths' imprisonnent and hard labour, in the house of Correctien. WINTERB_AS ZES. CIXELMSFORD, DEC. B-