The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser. — 1835-09-29 (Liverpool, Merseyside, England)

CONSP MAC Y.—.lshe trial against the twenty otnn loos proprietors for conspiracy, a trial unpreeede'nteU in its length -slid nature for half a.ceuttiry. at this court, finished on Saturday in the conviction or the whole of the accused.  • • es;• - ; The investigation has occupied five class,. but althuugh the evidence was voluminous, yet the merits of the case will occupy but a very short space. On the Bth of June, Bray started two (minibuses on this road, and in a week after he was recommended by the defendants "to belong to them," that is, to a committee of the proprietors upon the road, who held their meeting every Tharsday, at Paddington. He was inforMed that he was not ('..eligible fulielong to theta unless he bought "a tune." This is I a term used throtighnut the investigation. He was to pay a sum las large as 1400 or £5OO forthis, and have a limited number of journeys at stated times, and was not to be opposed by any other omnibus in these "times." He refused; and then, by the evi' deuce adduced for the prosecution, front the end of the first week there was one omnibus behind and the other before him in each journey. This was the conspiracy complained of, and the evidence of a dozen most respectable shopkeepers of Halborn and Oxford-street all went to prove that this man was prevented from gaining. his living by the conduct of the defendants. They proved another circumstance most satisfactorily, that the pole of the omnibus behind Bray's was often so near the door of his.vehicle as to render it unsafe for persons to get in or out, and the passengers, male and female, were pulled from Bury's omnibus into one of the others. Mrs. Turnbull's examination went materially to prove the system of organization amongst the proprietors. She said, " I belong to the committee at Paddington. They made a demand on me for £7O. It was to defray the, expenses of running another person off the road." The question was objected to, as it was not Bray's that the money was wanted for, but the answer fell heavily against the defendants. Every description of nuisance to the public was proved. They were daily racing and abusing each other, and so high was the spirit of opposition that Robert 'Willis, in his evidence for the defendant whilit under a cross-examination said that on one occasion when they were running against Bray, they were behind, and Bray's conductor said, "You arn't game to follow us to Woolwich" (they were running from Paddington to the bank.), The other conductor said "We are," and the two vehicles went considerably out of their way. The defence set up was that Bray ran in their time, and that they were merely competing with him, as one tradesman would with another who started against him in the same line; and that Bray had asked 1.:10i of them to go off the road; and that in pursuance of this demand he had resorted to as much irregulEtrity .Altets. Marie one of the witnesses, gave evidence, corroboratediby others, to that effect; but young Trevet unquestionably gave a great point for the prosecution -in his cross-examination.by Mr. Sergeant Bompas. Ile said that at whatever time Bray's omnibus started, whether at nine, ten, or eleven, the Albion always started with it. The accusations against Bray were manifold, and it was proved that his men had' made use of very disgraceful duservati6ns against one of the proprietors, who was a shoemaker. The common sergeant left it to the jury to decide whether it had been a competition in the fair way of trade, or whether it had been a conspiracy, in which all the defendants had joined, to run the man off the road. The jury, after an hour and three-quarters' deliberation, returned a verdict of guilty. The conspirators were then called up for judgment, and received the following sentences:— Fined £loo—Thomas Bolton and Robert Trebott. Fined £so—Richard Bird, Thos. Bird, Win. Cowderov, Jas. Hill, J. Johnson, and J. Parkes. Fined £3o—Robert Carpenter, John Newell, Samuel Pearce, and Philip Sellick. Fined £2o—EdMund Sylvester and T. Corbett. Fined £s—George Dodd, Wm. Gulliver, John Goff, Thos. Trebott, J. Sylvester, and J. Smith. Bolton, one of the accused, paid the £690, the whole of the fines. THE E Itt-)tQA D Takes:Dia—Henry Stanvnought, aged • thirty-five, was arraigned on the coroner's rugitisition (the grand jury having ignored the bill of iodictineut en the ground of insanity) for the murder of his son. Satisfactory evidence was adduced -to prove the insanity of the prisoner, and the judge ( Mr. Baron Gurney) directed au acquittal. The jury, in accordance with this direction, returned a verdict of not guilty. 11 'diva ay