The Sun. — 1822-11-28 (London, England)

CUTTING AND MAIMING.  Robert Hartley was indicted under the 43d Geo. 111. c. 58, s. 1. commonly called Lord Ellenborough's Act, for assaulting Samuel Owen, at the vine of Sheerness, on the 29th August, with a certain sharp instrument, and feloniously and maliciously stabbing, with intent to kill and murder him. Second count alleging the intent to disable ; and third, to do the prosecutor some grievous bodily harm. The case has been already detailed two or three times.  According to the testimony of the ship's surgeon, the wound was in a most vital part, and during the first stages of the cure the captain's life was in great jeopardy. The prisoner asked no questions of the witnesses for the prosecution ; and being called upon for his defmce, said that he committed the dreadful act imputed to him in a fit. of insanity, without any malice towards the prosecutor. Goaded by the consciousness of former crimes, and wound up to a state of frenzy from the apprehension of being transported'for lite, he became delirious, and in a moment of furious passion he did an act which, under other circumstances, he would have shuddered at with hOrror. He had been dismissed the naval service in consequen6 of insanity; but, deserted and abandoned hy.all who knew him, he was unable to prove the fact. He trusted, howevCr,• 'dint the Jury would take his case into consideration. - " ,  Mr. Baron GRAHAM summed up the case; and. The Jury immediately found the prisoner.—Guilty—Dcath. When called upon to say why sentence of death should not pass against him, the prisoner said he wished for no mercy. Harrassed as he was in mind, by a series of crimes, he had no prospect of peace in this world. To save his life would to him be no mercy. Supposing his sentence should be commuted to transportation for hfe, he should look upon it Its a prolongation of his misery. Life had no charms for him. Rather than be transported for life, he would prefer instant removal to the place of death. Deprecating the preservation of his miserable life, he earnestly prayed that the Learned Judge would leave him for execution.  The wretched prisoner spoke in a strain of language far above what might be expected in a man of his humble condition. Mr. Baron GRAHAM proceeded to pass the awful sentence of the law, and conjured the prisoner to make the best use,of the short time allotted him on this side of the grave, to prepare for an eternal scene; and told him he must expect to undergo the merited punishment which awaited his crimes. Before Mr—ltistice BAYLEY, Stephen Lawrence was indicted under the 52d George 111. chap. 143, for assembling with other persons, to the number of three and more, at the parish of St. John, in the Isle of Thanet, on the Ist of September, 1821, armed for the purpose of aiding and assisting in the illegal running and:landing of certain uncustorned goods. The indictment Contained several other counts, charging the prisoner with feloniously shooting at one Washington Carr and others, being officers of the customs; with aiding- others in ,the last-mentioned felony, &c. This indietrnent was found by the Grand Jury at the last Lent AssiieS for this County, whenno less than twenty-one persons implicathd in this- transaction were tried, 19 of whom were convicted, apd four executed. The prisoner had not been apprehended at' 'that time, but had been since, and was now brought to trial. fcfhe trial commenced at nine o'clock,•and did not end until half-past 7 this evening. At the time of the former trial the particulars of the case were fully detailed, and it is now unnecessary to enter into them minutely.—The prisoner was acquitted.