At the Sussex Quarter-sessions, last week, Lord Chichester, the Chairman,
said that the large number of criminals at the last and pre- sent session "argued a very unhappy and disordered state of society."
On Tuesday, a little boy, not appearing to be more than ten years old, but who was stated to be fourteen, was placed at the bar, before the Chelmsford Magistrates, charged with having maliciously fired a loaded gun at a little boy named Walton, on the day previous, and having blown out both his eyes. The wounded child being in great danger, could not attend; the medical men asserting that if he survive he will be blind for life. From the little sufferer's statement, it ap- pears that he had no quarrel with the boy, nor gave him any offence ; but that he was always beating him when he met him, and had taken a dislike to him. Mr. Hitchcock said that the prisoner borrowed the gun from him, loaded it, and without any apparent cause shot the little boy. The prisoner was remanded until the fate of Walton is known.—
Essex Times.
Three hay-ricks belonging to Mr. Lay, of Chilton, near Ilsley, were set fire to by an incendiary one day last week, and destroyed.
Three sisters, married women, and living in the neighbourhood of Stamford, were committed to Lincoln gaol on Tuesday, on a charge of shoplifting. They had carried on an extensive system of plunder; meeting at Stamford every market-day; stealing what they could, and dividing the spoil before they went to their respective homes.
The mails continue to be seriously impeded by the snow and de- fective state of the roads. A heavy fall took place on the 27th ult. between Dunchurch and Birmingham. It is also very deep in the North, especially in Yorkshire, where on some hues no truck of the road remains. On the Western road, the mail inspectors report the snow in some places to be nearly thirteen feet deep. Where there is no snow the roads are in a very rotten condition.
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