Star. — 1815-08-04 (London, England)

LOWEST= ASSIZES, AUGUST S. HastketA. aged 2S, was indicted for the, wilful murder of Geo. Smith, aged two years and Sire =paths, on the 2d of June last. Mrs. Lord,, pauper, of Yuley—l live in the workhouse : the prisoner so lived there; she bad lived there three weeks t she was calletl the little woman : she was exceedingly deformed in body, and appeared not to understand what was going forward. The de' ceased also lived there on the 2d ut June. I went to a passage where there is a window—it is nine or ten yards from Betty Smith's room. I went down stairs, and !mind the deceased in the arms of Mary Handcock ; the child was in a dying state; its skull was fractured; I threw my apron over it and wrapped it op ; I found the prisoner sitting on the bed in• Betty Smith's room; 1 asked the prisoner at the .bar why she threw the child out of.window ? she said she did it, but the child would not hut t ; it lived an hour and a half; the window is three feet two inches from the floor of the room. Mary Handeock, also a pauper in the workhouse.— The window is three or four feet from the floor ; I j saw tie child before it came to the ground : it fell on stones ; I heard its skull crush on the stones; there did not seem any life in it for several minutes; 1 went to fetch the surgeon from Dursley ; I afterwards took broth to the prisoner, I asked her hos; she came to. do it ; she said she did it, and should not be hurt for it ; her manner was not uncommon ; she was not person of good understanding, but inoffensive, shi seemed to have no understanding at all, she was al.l ways melancholy. Mr.. Cave, Master' of the Workhouse.—The pii, soner had been in the workhouse three weeks, upon iihe death of her mother ; she appeared to be of week , intellect, and I treated her as such, and was very hteareful of her ; I never suffered her to be out of sight 11• of some person, as I had heard she had attempted .ber life ; I never heard of her 'disposition to do violence to ethers; she took but very trifling noticoot the event, and was no more moved than a stock: The window has been examined by a mason, and it being three or lour feet from the floor on the inside, it is impossible the child could have climbed out; it is 20 feet to the ground outside. Mr. Fry, surgeon, of Dursley--I examined the child ; it died by injury of the brain. On the part of the prisoner three or fear witnossei proved that she was incapable of distinguishing right from wrong, and had attempted to drown herself and cut her throat. The Jury therefore found her Not Guilty on the ground of insanity. She was, therefore, committed to custody for life under the statute.  Jam K.IIy, capitally convicted at the Cornwall Assizes for ravishing Abigal Bele, has since been reprieved, and ordered to be transported for' life. At the last Assize% at CastLeber, a man was tried for, murder. After the Jury brOugbt in their verdict, ray, the prisoner was observed to drink out of a bottle be had during the trial concealed. The audi. tors conceived it to be poison, but it turned out to be good (Aidl When be drank it out he lung the bottle at the head of the prosecutor—it broke—.and after the 'Consternation which the circiimstance caused in the Court had subsided, Connsellor RAne.satess awned, it was the first time be ever beard of a nisi. aal and a prosecutor *reeky a &auk forth,