The Sun. — 1803-03-23 (London, England)

IRK INC. The rigor of the late %Vincer in the neighbourhood of Genoa, has deStcoyed all the oranges and citrons growing there, and greatly injured the trees. At the Hereford Assizes, wh;ch commenced on Tuesday ,t,e)nriight, _Tana Fletchir, aged as, was .found guilty of the murder of her new-born male bastard child, and ordt.r4d fur execution on. Monday  Tits case was stated to the Jury by Mr. Setjtant Cocxett, in the most impressive manner. He stated the unfortunate Prisoner to be a man of eonsiderable property ; that the question for the Jury to decide was, whether the Prisoner was in a state of insanity it the time he committed the fatal deed ? If he was in a state of insanity, they could not find the Prisoner guilty ; because, though they might have no doubt of his having been the cause of the death of his unfortunate,children (his son is .also dead since his Commitment. for the murder of his daughter), ye; if there was evidence of his insanity, theit.verdid.must be—not guilty. • The servants of the Prisoner were called as witnesses ;. they proved, that upon hearing the report of pistols, 'they slippoied that their master had shot himself; ,they accordingly went to his room door and found it locked; they then *sve.nt and climbed up to the window, ,and saw that the Prisoner had shot his children. Upon Smith, his man-servant, ‘4 Oh ! Sir, what have you done!" the Prismier exclaimed, " Done ! .Don't you see what I have done!" The proper measures were then taken, and the door broke-open. • Mr. PAILICE, on behalf of the Prisoner, addressed the Jury in a strain of language and visible agita. tion, which, we observed, made,n considerable im. pression, upon every person who heard him. 'He said he should produce before them two witnesses, whose charaders 'and eminence in, their.profession were so well known, that he need only- mention their names, and the Jury would pay that deference to their testimony which'it so deservelly.merited. Smith, butler to the Prisoner, proved his having lived with the Prisoner upwards of thirteen years; that he was abroad withhitn, and had no doubt of his insanity, of which he gave .several instances t that he was a 'tender and afreeionate fa. • they and .husband. ,The Prisoner's housekeeper corroborated the .above evidence, from the time he had kept house, as did likewise the coachman. • Dr. Will,is was then examined, who said he re.' membered visiting the patient, and thought him la. bouring under a mental derangement constantly oc cupied by one train of thinking,- which could not be driven from his' mind, or at least that he- was not able to divert him from it ; and therefore he thought him partially insane, liable to sudden fits of phrenzy, in Which fits he might commit any at of violence _on hiMself or others. Dr. Hunter was then interrogated. The .Pri. soner had been five or six weeks at York under his care-rhe saw nothing remarkable in his case at the' time-76n he appeared not so cheerful as he had formerly been, but to be evidently depressed in his spirits—that cheerful society, . he then thought, might perhaps- restore him ; such a...staie of mind certainly often terminated 'in suicide, but he. had never known any one in 'a siinilar Situation commit, . violence on' others. The Learned judge then addi'essed the Jury; and after expatiatit4k upon the enormity, nf,tbe.Crime for which the prisoner stood charged, hU,pointed.out to them, how the law had prOvided'iljoch,c4sss as the present ; that where a persOO'to9.ka‘,ttak, the life of another person; but at the tinie'of doing lin was in a state of insanity, he. was-not guilty of Murder ;he ( h Learned Judge) was satisfied, that from the evidence given, the Jury would, be folly convinced