C4t Vrnuium.

The civil business at the Assizes has exhibited a falling-off most alarna- ing to the. prospects of the bar. In Yorkshire, in 1827 there were 188 causes for trial ; in 1828, 157; but at the recent Assizes the total was only 49. While this decrease of civil assize-trials has been going on, it is remarked, the population and wealth of the county have prodigiously increased.

The widow of Mr. John Blake, a gentleman who was killed by a collision near Clay Cross, gotavenlict_against the Midland Railway for 40001. com- pensation. The Company, however, obtained an order for a new trial : this was to have taken place at the recent Assizes, but a compromise was effected —2.5001. to be paid to Mrs. Illake, and each aide to bear its own costs. Mrs. Meynell, widow of another gentleman killed in the collision, is to ree,eii,e 2000/.

At Levee Assizes, last week, Sarah Ann French was tried for the murder of her husband, at Chiddingly. This woman is twenty-seven years of age, but she looked much older, and presented a most forbidding countenance. She had suffered from fits, and appeared in a state of Stupor ; and once in the course of the trial a medical man had to apply restoratives: Her hus- band died from arsenic, administered to him in food. The only doubtful questions before the Jury were, did the prisoner herself administer the poi- son, or did she only know of and sanction the act ? The case had peeulierly disgusting circumstances connected with it. James Hickman, a young fel- low, was courting the prisoner's sister ; the prisoner took a fancy for him, and told him she had money enough to keep him without working ; where- upon he deserted the sister. In other respects his character was very vile, though not worse than the prisoner's. , He admitted that he had taken the deceased husband's place with the prisoner on the very night the poor man died—the son of the dead man and the priikoner, a boy of eight, sleeping in a cot close by. The prisoner had accused Hickman Of the murder. She had no counsel, but Mr. Baron Parke requested Mr. Rodwell to act for her. That gentleman, in the defence he offered, argued that the murderer might have been Hickman ; and if there was a possibility of that, of Course the prisoner aright be innocent. The Judge directed the Jury, that, by the provisions of a recent statute, it would make no difference whatever in the result, whether the Jury should be of opinion that the prisoner actually administered the poison by her own hand, whether she knew of its being administered by any other person, or whether she had befor -nand counselled that person to ad- minister it. If, therefore, they should he of opinion even that Hickman bad some hand in the affair, or that he actually administered the poison, still, if they should at the same time think that the prisoner knew of it be- forehand, or that she in any manner counselled him to commit the act, she would in the eye of the law be guilty of the crime of murder. The Jul? consulted for nearly two hours ; and returned a verdict which Baron Par e considered to amount to one of " Wilful murder." Sentence of death was passed. Hickman heard his paramour's fate pronounced with- out exhibiting any emotion.

Martin a gymnastic performer at circuses and theatres, has been con- victed, at Warwick, of the manslaughter of his little son. The boy died

from a blow, or a fall ; and there were many bruises on the body. The father taught his child to go through tumbling feats, and seems to have treated him harshly, while he was careless for the safety of the little fellow—hence the bruises. The blow on the head which caused death Martin attributed to an accidental fall. The Jury, by their verdict of manslaughter, in effect decided, that if the fall was accidental it arose from the callous carelessness of the father.

Charlotte Larkin, a widow, was convicted of the manslaughter of her in- fant child. She was in the habit of giving the child laudanum to quiet

ity- a too common practice with the poor and ignorant ; one day she gave it a fatal dose. There was no reason to suppose that she intended to kill the babe ; yet the Jury convicted, and she was sent to prison for three months.

John Pemberton, the driver of the train on the South Coast Railway which met with a collision near the bridge over the Arms, some time since, by which Martin the stoker was killed, has been tried at Lewes Assizes for the manslaughter. The accused did not obey. the signals to stop at the bridge over the Arun, where there is only a single line of rails: after the collision he cut his throat, and jumped into the river, endeavouring to kill himself. In behalf of the prisoner it was urged, that, having through un- foreseen necessity, a fresh fireman on the night in question, he was compelled to look after him to see that the steam was properly kept up ; and, having looked at the fire just before he arrived at the spot in question, the glare of it dazzled his eyes, and prevented him from seeing the signal. Tho Jury re- turned a verdict of "Not guilty."

At Warwick, four men have been convicted of " garotte" robberies at Bir- mingham : the sentences were transportation for ten years,

Kalabergo, the young Italian, who murdered his uncle at Banbury, was hanged at Oxford on Monday. His confession, which has been published, describes the murder. "I was walking by the aide of the horse holding the reins, and my uncle was a little in advance. All of a sudden, I ran towards him without giving him time to turn round, and fired a pistol behind his head. He fell instantly on his face, without saying a word ; and he was no sooner on the ground, than I fired a second shot at his head, with the inten- tion of making sure. I had scarcely committed the crime when I repented. of it. I trembled from head to foot, and I had hardly ran ten steps when I fell upon the ground through terror. I solemnly declare that I have had no accomplice in this crime; which was, contrived solely by myself about two months beforehand, during which time I was looking out for an opportunity qf committing it." His Snit prompting. to the murder arose from the "very severe and humiliating ways" of his uncle towards him : he was entirely dependent on his uncle; then came the thought that if he killed the old man without being detected, he should succeed to his property, The wretched culprit pros ceeds to express the agonies of remorse which he has experienced since. "There are two terrible thoughts that afflict me most at this dreadful moment,—the one, lest the soul of my uncle may be lost eternally by my fault; and the- other; the inexpressible affliction my crime and my death will cause my mother."

Eyres and Kemmish were recently convicted at Winchester of the murder of John Soffe, whose body was found in a shallow stream at Ramsey. They were to have been hanged last Saturday ; but a reprieve for a fortnight was granted, that further inquiries might be made. Though informed that the scaffold was prepared, coffins made, and graves dug, the convicts still pro- tested their innocence.

Jane Graham has been committed for trial at Newcastle for attempting to murder hey illegitimate infant. She seems to have thrown the child over some palings into a shallow pond, and then hurried away : a man had no- ticed her with the child, and saw her return without it; he made search, and the poor little thing was found near the edge of the pond struggling for life : it survived. • Lee, a man of weak intellect, living at Boyn Hill, near Maidenhead, has murdered a child four years old, daughter of a relative. While left alone with it in the cottage, he.is supposed to have dashed its head against the floor, and afterwards kicked the body about the room.

Annie Laycoek, a young woman, and her infant daughter, have been found dead in the road near Barnsley, with their throats cut. The woman married a fellow who turned out to be already married ; the young woman left hi

in m,

and lived with one Gledhill, who was n the habit of ill-using her. Gledhill has been arrested.

A most extraordinary, novel, and exciting scene, was witnessed at the

'onion station on Saturday evening. When the five o'clock train from Norwich arrived there, the passengers were much surmised at seeing the leverend Mr. Moore, the curate of the parish, standing in the passage, of the talon-house, dressed iti his canonicals. It was soon understood that he was waiting there to "curse" a• neighbouring magistrate, who was expected by the train, and who had given him some presumed offence. When the individual alluded to was giving up his ticket to the station-master, the re. verend gentleman thus addressed him—" I inflict a curse upon this man. I curse you ; I curse your wife; I curse your children ; I curse all you have —may your children be fatherless and vagabonds and beg their bread, &e. &c. " ;- and thes he Went on until the "nursed man" drove off. We under- staled that the matter has been laid before the Bishop ; and that the reve- rend gentlemen, in default of finding sureties to keep the peace, wile com- mitted on Sunday night to the Castle, by Edward Howes, Esq.—Norwich Mercury. A wedding-party at Margate has met with a very distressing interruptidn to its happiness. The newly-married couple were.just setting off by trains when a young lady who had acted as bridesmaid imprudently stepped for- ward to shake hands after the train was in motion. ; she fell between the platform and the train, and one of her lege Shia crushed.

Very early on Wednesday morning, a fire broke out at Croydon, which de- stroyed three houses and damaged others.