loyalty is displayed should not have been exhibited on
the present occasion." The high sheriff, rising in
considerable perturbation, said—"I have been directly
charged with disloyalty. I publicly declare that the
accusation is unjust and unfounded. I am as loyal a
subject as there is in any county in the kingdom." The
judge—"I must certainly say that, as a gentleman of
ample means, that loyalty to the crown and respect for
Her Majesty's commission has not been exhibited."
At the Durham Assizes, on the 30th of July, a case
of Criminal Conversation was tried, in which both the
gentlemen were surgeons. Mr. Potts was plaintiff, Mr.
Bulman defendant. It was clearly established that Mrs.
Potts, six months after her marriage, became a drunkard.
The husband had already got a verdict against
another man for improper behaviour with Mrs. Potts.
The jury estimated the loss Mr. Potts had suffered from
deprivation of the society of such a wife at 1s.
At the York Assizes, Thirteen Men have been convicted
of Highway Robbery, seven of the cases accompanied by
personal violence. Mr. Justice Williams said the crime
had become so frequent as to be a "complete nuisance."
All the convicts were sentenced to be transported.
When the Chief Justice of the Common Pleas opened
the Carlow Assizes, he expressed his gratification that
the calendar gave satisfactory proof of the tranquillity of
the county. At Tipperary, there was not a single case
of highway robbery, murder, taking of arms, sending
threatening letters, or any offence of an agrarian nature,
since the previous Assizes. In Mayo, Kildare, and Kilkenny,
the offences on the calendar were not of a serious
character.
At Exeter Assizes, on the 29th of July, there was a
very important trial with respect to the Restraint of
Lunatics by Relatives. John Yeo was presented by
the commissioners of Lunacy for an "assault" on
Charles Luxmoore, knowing him to be of unsound mind,
and having voluntarily undertaken the charge of him.
Yeo is brother-in-law to Luxmoore; who had been
insane for many years, and had been confined and
chained for thirteen, during most of the period in his
parents' house, but for the last four years at Yeo's farm.
The trial was for the treatment during the four years.
When Yeo took Luxmoore's parents and himself into his
house, he brought from the Luxmoores' former residence
a wooden cell in which the lunatic had been confined,
and adopted towards him the same treatment that he
had experienced from his parents, now bedridden. The
man was confined in this cell, seven feet long, seven
feet high, and between four and five wide; a chain was
riveted to his leg, and was carried through the floor and
attached to a beam below. When a magistrate recently
heard of the lunatic's confinement and went to the
place, Luxmoore was found in his cell naked; the place
was exceedingly filthy; there was a bedstead with the
legs cut off, but no bed-clothes; there was a little straw
in the den; the interior was so dark that a lantern was
required to inspect it at mid-day. It did not appear
that Yeo had any evil intent in thus treating his brother-
in-law, but that he only continued the system adopted
by the parents, who seem to have kept the poor creature
confined to save the expense they would have incurred
by sending him to an asylum. Witnesses called for the
defendant declared that Luxmoore was violent, dirty in
his habits, and addicted to destroying or polluting any
clothes given to him: if he were cleansed and dressed,
he soon tore his garments and was as naked as ever.
Dr. Bucknall, medical superintendent of the Devon
Lunatic Asylum, to which the patient was removed on
the order of a magistrate, declared that since he had
been there he had been very clean, quiet, and
inoffensive; treatment such as he had suffered would
make him violent, increase his disease, and render cure
less probable: only a very strong constitution could
have endured such treatment; it had debilitated
Luxmoore. There seemed to be no imputation on Yeo that
he kept the man a secret prisoner; but, on the contrary,
his confinement was, said a clergyman, "notorious in
the village." Yeo's counsel argued, that he had acted
from no improper motive; and reminded the jury that
not very long ago lunatics were confined in dark cells,
chained, and flogged, in asylums. Mr. Justice Coleridge,
in laying down the law for the jury, remarked that
mere ignorance of the law did not absolve a man from
its penalties if he broke it. Though magistrates have
been authorised to chain lunatics, no such authority
has been given to private persons. The jury returned
a verdict of "guilty," but strongly recommended the
prisoner to mercy. He was sentenced to six months'
imprisonment.
At the Stafford Assizes, on the 30th of July, Duffield
and two others, were convicted of a Conspiracy to raise
Wages, by inducing workmen to leave their employment
unless their demands were complied with; for summing
up the case the judge explained the law on this subject.
It was clear, he said, that workmen were at liberty,
while free from engagements, to enter or not into
employment as they pleased, and had a right to agree
among themselves to say, "We will not go into any
employment unless we get certain wages." One workman,
perfectly free from engagements, might say, "I
will not go into employ unless I have a certain rate of
wages;" or all such workmen might agree that, as
able-bodied workmen, they would not take employment
unless the employer gave a certain rate; but it would
be most dangerous if they were to hold that workmen
who thought that a certain rate of wages was not
sufficient had a right to combine, in order to induce
men in the employ of their masters to leave their
employment for the purpose of compelling their masters
to raise their wages. If a manufacturer had his capital
embarked in his trade, and had accepted orders for
execution, and any persons conspired to take away all
his workmen, that would be a molesting him in his
manufacture. Though workmen have the right to
agree that none of those who make the agreement will
go into employment unless at a certain rate of wages,
they have no right to molest, intimidate, or annoy other
workmen.
At the Southwark police office on the 2nd inst, Mr.
David Edwards and Mr. William Edwards, the former
a magistrate in South Wales, were charged with
Smoking in one of the carriages on the Croydon Railway,
and David Edwards was charged with Assaulting
Mr. Rowe, a gentleman holding a situation in the
government service. The complainant, whose right eye
was much swollen, said that last evening he came up
from Dover in a second-class carriage, and on their
arrival at the Annerley station the defendant got in, and
commenced smoking cigars immedediately. There were
several ladies in the carriage, and the smoking was a
nuisance to them, which induced witness to interfere.
Mr. David Edwards pushed his cigar into witness's face,
when he knocked it out of his mouth, and received in
return several blows on the eye, which rendered him
insensible for some time. The prisoners continued their
unruly conduct until the train arrived at the London
bridge station, when witness informed one of the
constables connected with the railway, and gave them into
custody. This evidence was corroborated by other
witnesses. The magistrate said that such conduct must be
repressed, and he was sorry that gentlemen in their position
of life should commit themselves in such a disgraceful
manner. He should fine each of them 10s. for
smoking in the railway carriage, and fine Mr. David
Edwards 40s. for the assault. The defendants paid the
fine, and left the court laughing.
Captain Cundy, a gentleman living at Bedminster,
near Bristol, committed Suicide on the 2nd inst. by
blowing out his brains with a pistol.
At the Thames police office, on the 2nd inst., Edward
Jay, a boy eleven years old, was accused of Stealing
half-a-pound of Meat, the property of Mr. Mace, a
butcher in High Street, Poplar. Jay's father keeps a
shoemaker's shop next door to the butcher's. Mr. Mace
stated, that in consequence of numerous losses of pieces
of meat, which he affirmed had been stolen by Mr. Jay
or some of his family, a policeman in plain clothes was
directed to watch. The policeman deposed, that he saw
Mr. Jay and his son come out of the shoe-shop, and look
about them and into the butcher's shop. After remaining
outside about a minute, they returned into their
own place; and the boy, after speaking to a person in
his father's shop, came out again with the handle of a
toasting-fork at his side, which he kept down by the side
of his trousers, as if to conceal it from view, and, after
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