Bridport, Beaminster, and Lyme Regis Telegram and Dorset, Somerset, and Devon Advertiser. — 1865-08-17 (Bridport, Dorset, England)

BOURNEMOUTH. THE CHELTENHAM ELECTION MURDER TRIAL.— On Monday morning, at the Gloucester Assizes, before Mr. Justice Byles, Thomas William Glass was charged that he did wilfully, maliciously, and with malice aforethought, kill and slay William Lynes, at Cheltenham, 12th July. Prisoner appeared pale and careworn, but in answer to the charge replied in a firm voice, "Not guilty." He was charged with the WM offence under the coroner's inquisition. , Mrs Powell, Q.C., and with !lira Mr. Fallow, ap• ; r  peared for the prosecution ; Mr. Huddleston, Q. C., and with him Mr. H. James, for the prisoner. The jury having been sworn, Mr. Powell etailed the facts of the case, stating that the prisoner some ! time ago carried on the business of a chemist and druggist in Cheltenham. lie was not successful in the business, and about twelve months ago he left the town, and had since carried on the same business at Bournemouth, in the county of Hants. Unfortunately for himself he had retained his name on the register of votes for the borough of Cheltenham, and on the 12th July he arrived in that town from ! Bournemouth for the purpose of recording his vote. In the course of the day, at about 9 30 p.m., several men were walking along the street, singing "Hurrah for the bonnets of yellow !" when they met the ! prisoner, who said, "I'll give you yellow,"and pulled his hand out of his right-hand pocket, and put it into Lyne's face. At the same instant a pistol went off. Deceased said, "Good God, Fitts, I'm shot." Prisoner stooped down to him and said, "I hope cot." Glass was then taken to the police station and given into custody. He had been very excited throughout the day, but was sober. When at the lock-up prisoner said, " You may know that I did not intend to dolt, for I had not put a cap on. I can't think what brought the pistol into my hand."—A gunsmith had found that the pistol could be discharged at half-cock, and said it was reckoned a defect if a piece so went off. —John Humphreys, resident surgeon of the branch dispensary at Cheltenham, said Lynes died at twenty minutes past seven the following morning, and he was not conscious two minutes after his admission to the house. His impression was that the pistol must have been forced against the lip. The bullet was found in the brain.—Mr. Powell then summed up the evidence, and said the question he submitted to the jury was—were the circumstances such as to constitute the prisoner's offence—that of murder, or was it an accident arising from negligence, in which case it would be merely manslaughter? He feared that the jury could come to no other conclusion in the case than this—that the pistol was wilfully and intentionally fired by the prisoner.—Mr. Huddleston, !Q. C., then addressed the jury for the prisoner. Ho submitted that there was a total absence of all intention of mischief in the circumstances of the case before them, and of intention to do grievous bodily harm, which was an essential ingredient of malice to constitute an offence of murder. He appealed to men—tender of the weaknesses and failings of our poor human nature—strictly to do justice, but temperately to consider the circumstances.— Several persons of Cheltenham were called to give prisoner a good character, and the Rev. Mr. Bennett, of Bournemouth, spoke to prisoner's bearing an excellent character since March last. The learned judge -then carefully summed up the case, after which the jury retired, and after an absence of 12 minutes returned into court with a verdict of "guilty of manslaughter." There was a slight attempt at applause in court, and the verdict evidently surprised many persons. The learned judge, who left -the court for a few minutes directly the verdict was given in, on returning said—" I defer to the judgment of the jury. The responsibility is with them and not with me. I therefore am bound to d.eal with you, Thomas William Glass, as if this were as the jury have found that it is, a case of manslaughter. It is a very aggravated case; but, as said before, I shall defer to the judgment of the jury. The sentence of the court is that you be kept in penal servitude for the term of 15 years." The prisoner hastily left the dock, where he had been accommodated with a chair during the trial. At no part of the trial did he seem to be more than an interested spectator. The prisoner's father, who is highly respectable, was in Gloucester during the trial.