Star. — 1816-04-11 (London, England)

OODWAT[R COACT. This was 'an action brought by the plaintiff to ?levier the expense of having hired a post-chaise, in becernber,lBl4, to take himself and another passenger by the same coach from London to Cirencester, the coach at the time of starting being loaded in a very dangerous manner. Mi.:CM/MU. having opened the cause, Mr. DANCI shortly addressed the Jury : he stated it to be t,he constant practice of coach proprietors to carry on any action brought against them to the full extent, it not happening once in an hundred times but that the contending party is induced to relinquish his praise-tvortby plan, it being attended both with considerable trouble and expense. He concluded by stating to the Jury. that he should bring a few witnesses to prove the great overloading of the coach, and indeed that it resembled more a waggon than a safe conveyance of passengers, which he did not doubt would satisfy the Jury as to his right to a verdict and costs. John Gardiner being called, proved the places being taken and a deposit made ; that the coach was loaded in a tremendous manner; that the coachman was intoxicated ; that two people were with him on the box; and that the coach was twenty-four hours performing ninety miles, computing the travelling at not four miles an hour. Thomas Haigh being called, confirmed the evidence of the first witness, and that he (Haigh) on the coach starting, measured the luggage on the roof, which was Potty-two inches high. Joshua Thomas agreed in the statements of the two fruitier witnesses, and proved that the coach was weighed at one of the gates on the road, and that it weighed three tons, eleven hundred weight. Mr. Justice DALLAS here expressed himself satisfied with the proof; when the defendant's Counsel, being quite unable to make a defence, allowed a verdict for the plaintiff, with costs, to the great satisfaction of a very crowded Court.  At the Shropshire Assizes, Samuel Fran', aged 45, was tried, charged by the Coroner's verdict, on suspicion of the wilful murder of his father, Richard Franks, aged 77, farmer, at Cardington. 'rhe principal witness was an apprentice boy, aged 15, who stated that in February last, the old man went to the cupboard, and having cut some bread, his wife took it from him, and locked the cupboard : the deceased then struck her in the face, whereupon the prisoner took up a thatching-stick and beat his father, who, retreating from the blows, fell down, and shortly after expired. The surgeon who examined the skull of the deceased stated, that the wound might have been occasioned by the fall. Verdict—Manslaughter. Imprisoned one year. Owe of the prisoners on trial at the last Assizes at Exeter, got acquitted by a singular effort of impudence. A servant girl in a public house was called to prove that the prisoner was out of his lodgings on the night the robbery charged against him was committed. The house was so full on that night, she said, that she herself was compelled to sleep in the bed the prisoner usually occupied—" Aye, (rejoined the fellow) and don't you remember I slept that night with you N.-in proof of it, I can tell you, that you have a mole on your breast—l saw it !" The poor girl was so confused by this unexpected slander, uttered in the face of a very crowded Court, that she could not hold up her head, or connect any thing she said afterwards. No one doubted the fellow's falsehood on the main point ; but, it seems, he had been pretending, one evening, at his lodgings, to foretell the fortunes of persons, from the moles on their bodies, and it then came out, that the silly girl had one, where he now, so luckily for himself, described it.