The Sun. — 1847-07-19 (London, England)

COLERIDGE.) Thomas Bill was indicted for burglary. Mr. Sergeant Allen and Mr. Selfe conducted the prosecution ; and Mr. Huddlestone the defence. On the night of the 23d of February last the offices of Messrs. Oldker, Woodward, and Ball, awrneys, at Pershore, in this county, were broken open, the private drawers of Mr. Ball ransacked, and a quantity of trinkets and jeweller), and thirty railway shares abstracted. Till the 19th of March no clue whatever was discovered as to the perpetrators of the robbery. On that day Mr. Ball received an envelope enclosing the railway scrip. with the words " You robbers," written on one of the scrip ; and " You rogues and robbers," on the inside of the envelope. Mr. Ball at once recognised the writing as that of the prisoner, To make sure that he was not mistaken he showed it to one of the clerks, without saying anything of the circumstances under which he received it ; the clerk, too, at once pronounced it to be the writing of the prisoner. It was shown in the same manner to three or four other persons, who all unhesitatingly declared it to be the prisoner's writing. The prisoner was a leathercutter and currier, in a respectable way of business, at Upton-on-Severn, and had formerly been a client of the prosecutors, and in that capacity had been frequently in Mr. Ball's private room at the office, and knew where he kept his money and valuable securities; and, in short, had an opportunity of becoming acquainted with all the internal arrangements of the office. The prosecutors subsequently brought an action against him, and levied an execution upon him. For some irregularity connected with the mode of making the levy, the defendant brought an action against the sheriff, and recovered 1871. damages and costs. In consequence of these circumstances, the defendant had ceased for some time to employ the prosecutors as his advisers. Suspicion having been fixed upon him, a search warrant was obtained, and he was taken into custody. No part of the lost property was found. On the constable asking him for his keys he produced a bunch of six. These were common keys, and opened his own drawers, and he produced them without any attempt at concealment, but there was this remarkable circumstance connected with them :—Of the drawers that were ransacked several had been broken. One was opened without violence, as with a key, and another was forced open with the bolt halfway down. Not one of the prisoner's keys would open the drawers that had been broken. One would open quite easily the one that had been opened, and another would force the bolt of the other lock just so far only as it was found to have been forced. It further appeared that the address on the envelope was in a different hand from the writing inside and en the scrip, and that the letter was posted in Worcester on the Bth of March, and it was proved that the prisoner and his son, who is an apprentice to a surgeon, were together in Worcester on that day, and that the address on the envelope was in the handwriting of the son.  Mr. HErDD LESTO NE, having addressed the jury for the prisoner, contended that the case was scarcely one of suspicion, and called witnesses to character. His LORDSHIP summed up strongly in support of a conviction, but The jury, without many minutes' hesitation, returned a verdict of Not Guilty. Hercules Lovell Blewitt was indicted for the murder of his wife, at Dudley, on the 9th of June last. Mr. Huddlestone and Mr. Hill appeared for the prosecution, and Mr. H. Cooke for the prisoner. It appeared that the prisoner, who was a travelling tinker, had lived for some time on very bad terms with his wife, constantly abusing and ill-treating her, and cohabiting with another woman. On the day in question he was more than usually disposed to ill-treat her. He had abused her repeatedly in the course of the day, and struck her, and she was so much in dread of him that she ran out of the lodgings which they hid in Wol