morning when the murder was com. mitted. It was also proved by Hawkins, and the servant of Mrs. Brakewell, that the statement in the depositions of the prisoner was false, they not having scen him on the Thursday night. The prisoner had also informed the magistrate, that he got to bed on the night of the murder, by the assistance of Hawkins, unknown to the landlady; but this was also denied. The prisoner had said he slept several nights with Wright, a soldier; which Wright denied. Several women of the town were called to prove that the prisoner knew the deceased intimately. After the case for the prosecution had closed, Testic, one of the officers to the sheriff of Middlesex, stated, that he had overheard the patrole Hopwood instructing Wright, the soldier, and a witness for the prosecutor, what to say; and the patrole observed, that unless he took care what he was about, they should be done. This was denied by the parties. Hineson, another officer, stated, that he saw Hopwood, before he had been called, whispering to Mary Horner, the principal witness; and he heard Horner say she had been rarely handled by a bothering counsel, but they could get nothing out of her. Hopwood told her not to mind, and to take care how she came on if she went in again. The officers felt it their duty to come forward, as belonging to the court. The prisoner protested his inno. cence, and some witnesses gave him a humane character. Baron M'Donald summed up the evidence with perspicuity, and combined the facts for and aginst the prisoner in one point of view. He warned the jury to look with discernment at the testimony of Horner; who from her sanguine man. ner of conducting herself, whilst giving evidence, seemed to have more than ordinary interest in the fate of the prisoner, which had been heightened by her subsequent conduct. The learned judge also pointed out the circumstances which attached suspicion on the prisoner. His depositions at Bow-street had gone to deny several important facts, proved in evidence; and the Jury would also look at his conduct in stating he had slept with Hawkins. The judge reprobated the conduct of the patrole in instructing witnesses, whatever motives of justice he might have had in so doing. The jury deliberated for some time, and delivered a verdict of Not Guilty. The prisoner, on being taken from the dock, thanked the judge and jury, and observed, that he was an injured man. 23. This morning, John Maycock was executed at Horsemonger. lane, for the murder of Mrs. Anne Pooley, at Horselydown. As cruelty and cowardice have generally been observed to be united, so it was in this case:-the villain, who held his hand with coolness upon the throat of an helpless old woman until she literally died in his grasp, was most remarkably overcome by the terrors of his own fate; still we did not hear that he was penitenthe might be said to be influenced by attrition, but not by contrition. The body was given to the surgeons of Guy's Hospital. 24. A dreadful accident happened to Mrs. Gell, widow of colonel Gell, at her residence, Notts Hill, near ate assistance was afforded, but without effect, as she soon after expired, leaving a family of ten children to bewail her loss. Lincoln's-Inn-hall, 25.-In consequence of a notice previously given to the register to attend in his place to hear judgment given upon the exceptions to the master's report, in the cause of Purcell against Macnamara, esq. the court was unusually crowded. The lord chancellor, soon after ten o'clock, entered the court, accompanied by his honour the master of the Rolls. His lord. ship, instead of delivering his judgment, addressed the Bar in these words:"I had fixed on this morning, as the earliest and most convenient time for finishing, with the as, sistance of his honour the master of the Rolls, at least the judicial part of this long and important case; but late last night, much too late to make it possible for me to apprise you of it, I had notice to attend his majesty, with his other ministers, before twelve o'clock this day. Í shall therefore ask his honour to deliver his opinion, in which I heartily concur, his honour and my self having had long deliberations upon the subject. With regard to the other matters which stand for my own judgments, I shall not have time to deliver them in open court-adopting the same course as my lord Eldon when he retired from the office of lord chancellor, I shall send them in to the register. If I should be called out of this world as suddenly as I have been out of this place, it will be a happy thing for me if I can render as clear an account of my conduct through life as of my administration of justice during the period I have presided here. I believe it would not have taken an hour by the clock to have delivered all the judgments that remain for me to pronounce. I have altered nothing here-I have removed no man. But I cannot, with justice to myself, or with propriety as it regards you, retire from this court without returning you my most sincere thanks for the kind, honourable, and liberal manner in which you have uniformly conducted yourselves towards me.-I approach the threshold of my high office with conscious pride and satisfaction, particularly when I consi. der the complicated nature of the duties I have had to fulfil, and their newness to me. I am happy to acknowledge that it is to the learning of the bar, and the assistance I have derived from you, that I am indebted for having been enabled to administer these duties with justice and equity. and equity. In retiring to private life, it will be my satisfaction to cultivate that acquaintance which I have had with you in my public situation." Mr. attorney-general (sir A, Piggot)" I am sure, my lord, I should not do justice to the sentiments of the bar, if I were to suffer your lordship to leave this court without expressing their grateful sense of the kindness shewn to them while your lordship has presided." The whole bar then rose and bowed to his lordship, who instantly after retired. 26. At Maidstone assizes Andrew Schostock Schostock, a German, was tried on an indictment, charging him with the wilful murder of Thomazin Ward, at St. Peter's, in the Isle of Thanet, on the 16th of January. chiefs. A riband was found tied very tight round the neck of the deceased, and it would be proved by her husband, that she never wore an appendage of the kind. It would be stated by a surgeon, that by this riband the deceased was strangled. Under the strong circumstances attending the case, the jury would have no doubt of the guilt of the prisoner. The evidence brought home the facts to the prisoner. Judge Heath summed up the evi. dence, and the jury without hesi tation found the prisoner-Guilty. The counsel observed, that the prisoner was a private soldier in the king's German legion, and the unfortunate woman who was murdered was at the same time a shop. keeper of respectability, residing at St. Peter's, in the Isle of Thanet. She had taken a walk to Broadstairs, about a mile distant from her place of residence; and not having arrived back again at the time appoint. ed, her husband became alarmed for The prisoner had an interpreter; her safety; and, on search being and after sentence was passed on made, the body was found in a field, him, he said, "there is one God, about 60 yards from the road. It and one Heaven," and he had one was evident, the learned counsel ob- prayer to make. The judge inform. served, that the unfortunate woman ed him, he need not expect mercy had experienced much violence; her in this world. body was exposed, and her person had been injured. The prisoner, it would be proved, was seen walking a few yards distant from the deceased a short time before the murder was committed; and it would be proved in evidence, that he was absent from his guard, without leave, from seven till ten o'clock; his shoes were dirty with field dirt; it would be proved that he was found in possession of three handkerchiefs, the property of the decea sed, which had been taken from her. On being questioned where he was at nine o'clock, the prisoner said he was at the Neptune's Hall public house, which would be contradicted in evidence; and he said the handkerchiefs found in his possession had been given him by a stranger. In another conversation, the prisoner had said he saw a man knock a woman down, and it was the same man who gave him the handker 30. George Allen, convicted at the Stafford Assizes, of the wilful mur. der of three of his children, at Upper Mayfield, on the 12th of January, underwent the awful punishment so justly annexed to the horrid crime of murder! He appeared sensible of his dreadful situation, and earnestly entreated the spectators to take warning by his fate. [See p. 362.] The following diabolical scheme to take away the life of a young fe male was, by the interposition of divine Providence, prevented du. ring the last week in Bedfordshire. As the driver of the Bedford stage waggon was going along the road between Luton and the town of Bedford, at twelve o'clock at night, he perceived a light in a field ad. joining the road; and curiosity having been excited, he unfastened his mastiff dog from under the wag. gon, and proceeded to the spot, where he found a man digging a hole in the ground. The waggoner accosted him familiarly; but the man angrily informed him, he had nothing to do with him or his business, and the former left him. He had not proceeded 200 yards on the road, when he met a female with a box and bundle under her arm; and he also interrogated her, without receiving any satisfactory answer. The curiosity of the waggoner was on its full stretch, when he saw the young woman cross to the foot-path which led to the man in the field; he again untied his dog and followed her. She went to the man; when, after a short conversation, he drew a pistol from his pocket and exclaim ed, "I have prepared your grave, and you must die." The waggoner, who had remained a few paces distant, rushed on the man, and the mastiff seized him; when the waggoner bound him, and conveyed him to safe custody, as well as the female, who wished to depart. The man has been committed for trial at Bedford. The woman, who is pregnant by the man, was a bar-maid at Bedford; and the man, a rustic, had met her by appointment. She had left her situation, and had 701. in her poc. ket. APRIL. 3. At night a number of persons were assembled at the Gloucester Coffee-house, Piccadilly, (as is cus. Homary) to see the mail-coaches set , which run the western road. Just as the Bristol mail was about to tart, without any inside passengers, 40 men, genteelly dressed, called ut to the coachman and guard, to now if they had any room; and VOL. XLIX. being answered in the affirmative, they said they wanted a cast to Maidenhead; the guard immediately let them in.-They got out at the Saracen's Head Inn, at Maidenhead, where the mail-horses are watered, and in a few minutes the mail drove off again. On going up the hill, the other side of Maiden. head, the two men, who had just got out, became the subject of conversation between the guard and coachman, on account of the guard observing, that he did not see either of their faces on getting in or out of the coach, and that they appeared designedly to conceal themselves : this induced the coachman, to suggest the propriety of examining the mail, to see that all the property was right, which was agreed to by the guard. They found all the bags right, and the parcels in the boot; but, on examining the seats inside the coach, they found several parcels missing, which they supposed to be of considerable value. The guard, in consequence, took one of the leading horses, and rode back to the Saracen's Head Inn, where they had left the two men. As soon as he had got to the house, he called out for George, meaning the landlord, in great haste. The two men were then just about sitting down to supper; but hearing the horse ride up to the house in great haste, one of them went out to see what was the matter, and observing the guard, called to his companion by the name of James. He came out, and they both ran off; the guard and landlord pursued them, and called out, "Stop thief!" and a watch. man in the town took the alarm, and turned one of them in his course up a court, which the landlord knew was not a thoroughfare: E e they they therefore pursued him, and found him concealed in a corner, lying flat on the ground, with bank notes to the amount of 90l. loose, near him, in the mud, supposed to have been the contents of a parcel taken from the mail; and two parcels unopened. The other villain made his escape. 6. On Monday one of the stagecoaches that daily runs to Stamford from London, performed the journey (99 miles) in 9 hours and 4 minutes from the time of starting; although the passengers, of whom there were four, were allowed time to breakfast and dine upon the road. The coach must necessarily have run at the rate of 12 miles an hour all the time of travelling. 13. At the Cork assizes, W. Todd Jones, esq. obtained a ver. dict of 2,250l. with costs of suit, against Mr. collector Shaw, for two years false imprisonment. This cause, in which the liberty of the subject was so intimately involved, was tried before Mr. justice Fletcher; who reprobated in the severest language, that gentleman's imprisonment, without any examinations on oath, and expressed himself decidedly of opinion, that neither lord Hardwicke, nor Mr. Wickham, his lordship's secretary, could have been at all acquainted with it. The jury, who were all Protestants, deliberated only nine minutes. 14. A shocking accident happen. ed at Staiths, near Whitby:-Iannah Grunday, of that place, a fisher-girl, and three others, having goue under Roacliff to pick shellfish to bait fishermen's lines with, and being too soon for the tide, they sat themselves down upon the beach, about forty yards from the base of the cliff, which is there about six or seven hundred feet high. While in this situation, s flat stone fell down from the top of the cliff, and struck this girl with its edge upon the fourth vertebra of the neck; and, dreadful to relate, severed her head from her body without mangling it, and threw it to the distance of thirty yards from the place where she was sitting. 18. A melancholy suicide occur red at the house of messrs. Birkett goldsmiths and pawnbrokers, Prin ces-street, Soho. Mr. Wm. Birket (who had been a considerable tim established in business with his bro ther Mr. James Birkett and Mr Parker) went up stairs abou twelve o'clock to the two pair o stairs front room, and shortly afte the report of a pistol was heard On rushing to the room before men tioned, the family found him lyin on the floor quite dead; he had sho himself through the head, and th ball of the pistol lodged in the tw pair of stairs room of Mr. Fisher the gun-smith, directly opposit where the deceased stood. 20. John Robinson, of Mickleby near Whitby, farmer, was commi ted to the castle of York on Thur day the 2d in tant, charged wit the murder of Susannah Wilson who formerly lived with him as servant, but who about two mont! since went to reside with a relatio at Guisborough.-This poor girl le her friends at Guisborough, betwe five and six o'clock in the mornin of the 17th of February, on t evening of which day, there is eve reason to believe, she was murdere (though her body was not fou till the 27th of March), allegi that she was going to see her ma ter, who had promised to meet with a bushel of wheat; but pr |