The first of the qui tam actions for betting, brought
by Russell the solicitor, was tried at Gafford on Thursday. Lord George Bentinck, the defendant, did not plead the late act passed to stop these proceedings in bar of this action ; he wished the affair to be gone into. The case for the plaintiff was, that Lord George Bentinek betted certain sums with Mr. John Gully as the agent of John Day the trainer ; Day being the loser. When Mr. Gully was examined, however, it appeared that he made the bets for himself, and afterwards transferred them to Day ; he still being answerable to Lord George. On this, the action broke down. The Court was kept in constant laughter during the examination of Day, by his endeavours to escape from answering the questions put to him : he wished to "protect his friends." Another witness, amidst laughter in which the Judge joined, said he bad burnt his bettingbook as soon as he heard of these qui tam actions : he had won largely ; but his memory was burnt with his book.
Another exposure of horse-racing roguery, similar to the Running Rein affair, took place at Guildford Assizes on Monday and Tuesday, in an action brought by Mr. Herbert, a solicitor at Northleach, near Cheltenham, against Mr. Day, the trainer. Mr. Day claimed and obtained ther amount of the "New Stakes," ran for at. the last Ascot•races,. for his colt Old England ; declaring that Mr. Herbert's colt Bloodstone, which came in first at the race, was a three-year-old instead of a twoyear-old. The Jury viewed both horses. For the plaintiff it was asserted, that Bloodstone was a foal by Bubastes out of Romaike, and that it had been foaled in 1842; for the defendant, that the pretended Bloodstone was a foal out of Romaike by Beiram, and that it had been foaled in 1841. The witnesses for the plaintiff endeavoured to make out that Bloodstone was really foaled in 1842, and that the Beiram colt had died in 1843, in consequence of an operation. Cross-examination did not exalt the characters of most of the witnesses. The evidence fot the defence was conclusive as to the fact that the pretended Bloodstone was not the colt of 1842, but a three-year-old colt : and the Jury declared themselves satisfied of this before all the witnesses had been called, and returned a verdict for the defendant accordingly. The horse had been purchased with all his engagements by Mr. Herbert, of one Newman, who had played the tricks exposed at the trial ; and the Foreman of the Jury said they thought Mr. Herbert might have been deceived in the matter.
There were ten cases of arson for trial at the Norwich Assizes ; in four of which the prisoners were convicted, two were acquitted, and the bills against the other four were ignored.
At Guildford, on Saturday, two youths of seventeen were found guilty of firing a quantity of heath and furze at Godalming.
At Norwich, on Friday last, James Frost was tried for the murder of his four children ; three of whom he destroyed by smashing their heads with a hammer, and the fourth, an infant, by putting its head in a jug of water. He was acquitted on the ground of insanity. The wretched prisoner was a Primitive Methodist, and had once been an admired preacher, but had been deposed from the pulpit for a drunken debauch, into which he had been tricked by his fellow-workmen ; this preyed on his mind, and he became gloomy, and had doubts on religion and feats respecting his own spiritual state. The murder of the children was perpetrated while his wife was out for a few minutes. He said he hoped that he had thus sent them to heaven ; and when conveyed to prison, he sang snatches of hymns and psalms "most appropriate to his situation," and gave other tokens of religious mania.
At Newcastle-upon-Tyne, last Friday, Mark Sherwood was convicted of the murder of his wife : the Jury deliberated for six hours. The details of the case are given in the Spectator of the 23d March.
At Stafford, on Friday and Saturday, William Beards was convicted of the murder of Ann Griffiths, at Wednesbury. We gave an account of this murder on the 30th March. The evidence was entirely circumstantial. The prisoner protested his innocence at the trial ; but since his condemnation he has confessed his guilt.
At Bodmin, last week, Matthew Weeks, a young man, was found guilty of the murder of Charlotte Dymood, a girl to whom he was paying his addresses. The murder was committed on Davidstowe Moors ; and the evidence was circumstantial, but conclusive. Weeks has since confessed his guilt.
William Saville, the murderer whose condemnation we noted last week, was executed at Nottingham on Wednesday ; when a fatal accident happened among the great crowd assembled to witness the hanging. Just after the prisoner was turned off, a rush of the crowd took place • and a number of persons were forced down a narrow avenue, that leads to the street in which the execution had taken place. This avenue is a very steep descent, called Garner's Hill, and at the top are three or four steps. The persons who were forced down fell on the ground, and the others were pushed over them. Those who had fallen were trampled upon, and thirty persons were taken up more or less injured: twelve were quite dead.
Richard Dadd has been committed by the Rochester Magistrates for the murder of his father; the committal being preparatory to his confinement in a lunatic asylum.
John Weaver, a man who had separated from his wife and was in consequence depressed in spirits, cut his daughter's throat last week, in a lane near Erdington ; but not very badly, as the young woman is now considered out of danger. On being placed in the lock-up at Erdington, Weaver strangled himself with some pieces of cord.
James M`Faddon, a Suffolk Policeman, was murdered by a robber last week. He attempted to seize one of a gang of five thieves who had broken into a barn and were about to steal some corn, at Kessinglands : Howell, another of the thieves, fired at him with a gun, and wounded him in the thigh; • and he died on the next evening. A verdict of "Wilful Murder" has been returned against Howell; who is in custody.
A fatal accident happened on the river Severn, at Diglis, near Worcester, on Monday evening. Extensive works for the improvement of the river are carried on there, and fifteen of the workmen entered a small boat to cross the stream : though the boat was overladen, and the water running rapidly, the men began frolicking ; the boat was overset, and twelve of the passengers perished, the other three being saved with great difficulty. Lucy Grant, a young woman, was killed, at the Rugby station of the London and Birmingham Railway, on Saturday, through her own inadvertence in attempting to get into a carriage to look for a bird and cage, after the train had been put in motion : four carriages passed over her, dreadfully mangling her lower limbs ; and she died in less than three hours after. No blame attached to the Railway-people. A man has also been killed on the Bristol and Gloucester Railway, near Frocester : he was run down by a train while trespassing on the line.
A new pile of warehouses in Manchester, known as the Irwell Buildings, and their contents, were destroyed by fire on Monday night. The loss is estimated at 20,0001. One man was killed, and another seriously injured ; a " cat-head " (an instrument used to hoist goods from the street to the upper floors) falling on them.
A very destructive fire occurred at Exeter, on the 2d. It broke out at a tallow-chandler's ; and before it could be subdued, twenty houses were burnt down.
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