The Sun. — 1831-12-09 (London, England)

PARNELL. CHARGE OF " llocusslNG."7—At the Surrey Sessions 'yesterday JA 311 U MicrtAr. EWSON and JOHN WRIGHT Were indicted for utilawfUlly conspiring together and administering to DANIEL BRYAN a quantity of laudanum in a pint of beer, for the purpose of rendering him insensible, and agreeing together to steal certain mothLa from ids person. Messrs. BACON and .lESIMETT were Counsel for the prisoners,Who were acquitted: ' •  Mr. Corder, the Vestry-Clerk of the parish of St. Paul's Covent-garden, yesterday appeared before Sir R. BIRNIE and Mr. MINSIIULL, for the purpose of introducing to them the two Italians, Joseph Paragalli and Andrew Colla, who'gave evidence at the Old Bailey against Bishop and Williams. Mr. Corder said that the doubt thrown upon the testimony of those witnesses was a source of very great uneasiness to them, and they now were anxious to reiterate what they had stated before the Jury, as to the body brought to the King's College, and on which the inquest sat, being that of the Italian boy, Carlo Ferrari. Andrew Colla now stood forward, and declared that he positively saw the boy Carlo Ferrari, alive, on the Ist of November, in Oxford-street, and spoke to him, and that the clothes found in Bishop's garden, and producd on the trial, belonged to that boy. The clothes were never shown to him until he was placed in the witness box before the Jury, and he then spoke to the identity of the trousers without hesitation. Before he saw the trousers he tiescribed them accurately to Mr. Thomas ; and he also gave a description of the boy before he was allowed to see the body. Joseph Paragalli knew the boy Carlo Ferrari well, and it was therefore quite impossible that he could be mistaken as to the identity of the body when he saw it at the stationhouse. The doubt which the statement of the murderers had, in their confession, thrown upon the identity of the body, had rendered him and the witness Colla very unhappy. Mr. MirisnutA, was perfectly well convinced that the statement or confession of the murderers was not, so far as related to the murder of the boy whose body formed the subject of the trial, true. The Magistrate then asked whether the boy, Carlo Ferrari, had not usually a smile upon his countenance ? Andrew Colla replied that the boy had a laughing face. He always looked as if he were about to laugh. Mr. MINSIIULL observed that he had himself seen an Italian boy answering this description about Oxford-street on the Ist of November. He recollected  the circumstance perfectly, for he had frequently seen the same boy before about the streets at that part of the town, and had remarked him in comequenee of his smiling countenance, and was often disposed to give him a few halfpence, only he did not like to encourage vagrants. . Mr. Corder was perfectly satisfied that the statement of the murderers, so far as the body of the boy for whose murder they were executed was concerned, was untrue. The confession, however, which had been published, had the effect of throwing discredit upon the prosecution, and the parish officers of St. Paul's, Covent-garden were, therefore, determined in a few days to make public a statement of the whole transaction. Mr. MlNsitum, had no doubt himself of the fact, and thought it very proper that the doubt should be cleared up, and that the public should be convinced of the identity of the body. Mr. Corder said that no time should be lost in preparing the statement, and then withdrew with Paragalli and Colts.