ARSON.—A man named Burford was tried at Lewes on Tuesday,
charged with setting fire to a barn at Guestling OT1 the 23rd August last. Mary Catt, in whose cottage Burford lodged, swore that Bur- ford had got her steel and tinder-box the night that the fire took place, on pretence of lighting a candle ; which, however, he did not light ; and she identified a steel, found near the barn, as that which Burford bad got from her. Some matches were missing in the morning. It did not appear that on any former occasion Burford had asked for a light, though he often came home late. Mrs. Catt swore also, that soon after Burford got the steel, she heard footsteps in a walk outside of the garden. Her husband swore that lie came home about one o'clock ; that he also asked for the steel and tinder-box, and could find neither. A minute after Burford came running into the cottage. When Catt asked him where he had been, he only answered that lie was drunk and did not know. His drunkenness was not visible either to Catt or to his wife. Burford first gave the alarm of the fire to the bailiff on the premises; it burst forth almost immediately after he returned to the cottage. An attempt was made to prove that Catt owed Burford an ill-will; and a witness swore that, on the night in question, Bur- ford was very drunk. Mr. Justice Alderson summed up with great impartiality, and with somewhat of a leaning towards the prisoner ; to whom no assignable motive for setting fire to the barn could be lin- puted. The Jury, however, found him guilty, and he was sentenced to be executed accordingly.
The Prisoner—" My Lord Judge, how long have I to live ?" No answer was given to this anxious question ; and the convict left the dock, appealing to his Mends that he was innocent.
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