Star. — 1827-07-19 (London, England)

EDINBURGH, JULY 16.  Saturday, at ten o'clock In the morning, the Caere proceeded la, the trial of Robert Rod, hackney coachman, mewed of the canna' culpable homicide, in having, on the 20th of June last, on the read between Edinburgh and blusselburgh, driven his coach with We horses against and over the body of Robert Stretton, private sal. diet in the Ist Dragoon Guards, in consequence of which he was mortally wounded, and died on the 22d, two days after. Reid, when called upon to answer to this charge, pleaded Guilty, and said he was very sorry for what had happened. The Jury found him Guilty upon his own confession. Mr. Come addressed the Court in mitigation, and produced a number of certificates of thecrevions good character of the prisoner, two from his former and late employers. Their Lordibips, while they all expressed strongly their 'sense of the danger arising from recklessness on the part of drivers, and the necessity of protecting the lieges from such conduct, were willing to give due weight to the good character of the prisoner, and therefore sentenced him to the lenient punishment of confinement in the jail of Edinburgh for nine months. Donald Smith, late a letter-carrier in the General Post Office, was charged with opening, detaining, resealing, and, not till after a lapse of many days, delivering two letters, directed to Bat tholomew'Fi y, from his daughter! at Glasgow ; one of the letters contained a one pound note, which was not abstracte.l. The prisoner pleaded' Not Guilty. Mr. Fry, his son, and a daughter, proved the circumstances attending the irregular delivery of the letters, the appearance they exhibited of having been opened, Re. and his two daughters from Glasgow satisfactorily proved the times at which they bad been put into the .Post Office there, one of whom produced pencil seals, by which the wafers had been impressed, whereas when delivered, the letters were sealed with wax above the wafers; the one bearing the impression of the reverse of a shilling, the other of a key, the latter corresponding exactly with the key of the prisoner's drawer in the Po.t Office. A number of official persons, belonging to the Post Office at Glasgow and Edinburgh were examined as to the scrupulous routine of duty in both establishments, most of whom stated the improbability that a letter could in its progress through them be opened and resealed by any individual unobserved ; but it was admitted that (speaking of the Edinburgh Office) one letterman had ready access to the repository of another.— Several of these witnesses distinctly swore that the office stamp on the letters in question had been intentionally obliterated. The prisoner had all along denied the commission of the offences with which he was char*ed, and Mr. Finlay, inspector of the department to which be belonged, acknowledged that he had always cowl: dered him sober, attentive, and active, but had known him in arrears with his payments. No exculpatory evidence was called, but Mr. George Ross, one of the Commissaries of Edinburgh, in whose service the prisoner was for a few months, previous to his being employed in the Post Office, gave him an excellent character for sobriety and honesty, and a certificate was produced from Mr. Sinclair, of Ulbster, to the same effect. The Loan ADVOCATE addressed the Jury on behalf of the t.:town, and Mr. M.Neill made an ingenious defence for the prisoner, which he rested chiefly on the ground that the four sorting clerks of the Post Office had equal opportunity with the prisoner to commit the offence of keeping up and opening the letters, and might afterwards put them into the prisoner's hands for delivery, and on that ground he sought a verdict in favour of the prisoner. The LORD Jurotcg Cutax, in alluding to that de- I fence, observed, that if the letters had been put into the prisoner's hands in the crumpled state described by the witnesses, such circumstance could not have escaped his notice, and would have led to direct investigation; the conclusion was, that the prisoner was the guilty person, but if the Jury had any doubts, they would give the prisoner the benefit of them, and throw his previous good character into the scale. The Jury, after a few minutes consultation, gave a verdict of Not Proven, and the prisoner was dismissed from the bar.—The Court then adjourned. The following are the appointments for the ensuing Autumn Circuits of the Jury Court : N