Rah' an 9ultite.
The purity of the borough of Leominster was the subject of a legal discussion at Oxford on Monday. The action out of which the dis- cussion arose, was to recover from Mr. Fraser, one of the Reform can- didates at the election in December last, 4/., being the value of a chair. Mr. Fraser was not elected, and therefore was not chaired; and lie de- mimed to paying for a throne which he was not permitted to mount.
Henry James, an attorney, spoke to the chair being made by Mr. Fraser's directions. It was, he said, in his custody.
Cross-examined by Mr. Campbell—His electioneering career commenced in 1818. His first candidate was Sir William Fairlie, who was thrown out in the first election : the next election he was returned, and sat. The next candidate was Mr. Cuthbert. Mr. Coates, Mr. James's partner, might have received 10,000/. from Mr. Cuthbert. He was unsuccessful. Mr. Mirehouse was the next who tried his fortune, and after him Sir Stratford Canning. Mr. Campbell—" You then tried Mr. Sergeant Ludlow." Witness-- 'We did not; it was he that tried us." Mr. Coates was Fraser's agent. On the Tuesday morning, however, he declared that he was not his agent. This was in consequence of information that Lord Hothani's agents were polling. Mr. Fraser wished James to give up the letter of nomination, in order to enable him to poll. He declined, but he went up and polled notwithstand- ing. There was a demand of 10/. for the dressing Of the chair. He believes he did say that Lord Hotham had no chance without committing bribery. 'Mr. Brayen, the late member, gave an account of his election- _ When lie was elected, he was chaired, but did not pay the expenses of the c ha!r • He was in Parliament about three months. Lieutenant Francillon ne- gotiated with bias, and placed MU in his hands to discharge certain expenses. The electors had agreed to bring him in free of expense; but they insisted on being paid the expenses they bad been put to before he resigned his seat. He voted for Mr. Fraser, after the 359/. had been placed in his hands by Mr. Fran-
Mr. Campbell called Liautenant Francillon, to throw a little addi- tional light on the purity of Leominster--
Mr. Brayen guaranteed Mr. Fr a,er his seat in Parliament ; and Mr. Fraser was to pay his own expenses of the election, which, it was stated, would not exceed the expenses of Mr. Brayen's election ; it' Mr. Fraser failed, the $501. was to be returned. Mr. James had been told by Mr. Fraser not to incur any expense without his authority, as he said he could not trust the Leominster people, nor would he be " Cuthbertised" hy them. Mr. James frequently ap- plied to him for money, fur the purpose of employing watchmen to watch the opposite party. Ile also asked for money to pay the poor-rates. He wanted 80/. lie thought the sum huge, and he sent his brother with him ; and all that was required was Si. or 9/.
The Jury gave a verdict against Mr. Fraser for the 41. for the chair. and 10/. for the trimmings.
At Leicester, on Thursday, the Duke of Newcastle obtained a ver- dict for 21,000/. against the hundred of Broxlowe, for the destruction of Nottingham Castle in October last. The damage was estimated at 32,4601.
At Lewes Assizes, on Tuesday, Edward Heath, the young man to whose mistake of oil of tar for tincture of senile, Captain George Bur- dett's life fell a sacrifice in March last, at Brighton, was tried for the manslaughter. Witnesses were examined, who proved the sending for the tincture of senna to the shop of Mr. Moor, chemist, Brighton, where Heath was shopman ; Captain Burdett's swallowing the medi- cine brought him as tincture of senna ; and his subsequent illness and . death. Mr. Heath said, in his defence, that at the time be bad been called upon to prepare the prescription, a person had entered the shop and asked for two ounces of .oil of tar : he placed the phial containing the prescription, prepared, but not labelled, in a stand used for that. purpose, and poured out the oil of tar into another bottle : at that me- ment, a third person entered the shop, and asked for castor-oil; he pro- ceeded to serve him with it, and placed the phial of oil of tar in the stand b2fore-mentioned. The prescription and oil of tar were precisely of the same colour ; but bow he came to substitute one phial for the other he could not account. He was instantly acquitted.
In the course of the riots that took place among the turn-out pitmen' near Newcastle, and those who were hired by the masters to take their place, a constable named Weddell fired a pistol at a collier named Skip- sew, which proved instantaneously fatal. Weddell was tried last -week; and after a great deal of conflicting evidence had been gone into, was found guilty of manslaughter, but recommended by the Jury to mercy. He was sentenced on Friday to six months' imprisonment and hard labour. The Judge, Baron Bolland, is described as expressing an. opinion that when he fired the pistol, he laboured under the fear of his life. The colliers assembled in Court were very loud in their 'demon- strations of displeasure at the lenity of the sentence..
At Derby, last week, two men, named Twort and Ward, were con- victed of a conspiracy to bring the Christian religion and its ministers of the Church of England into contempt. Mr. Justice Park sen- tenced them to eighteen months' imprisonment. The two men are described as very poor and very ignorant, and as fanatical as the most hot-beaded of' those whom they were convicted of conspiring against. They went down to Derby in March last, where they cheulated a. number of Deistical tracts and placards, and endeavoured to preach up the doctrines of the Rotunda . to a very reluctant audience, it would appear. They were pio :tanned at the instance of the Attorney-General.
Jobling, the man convicted of aiding in the murder of Mr. Fairies, - was executed on Friday, in front of the County Court, Durham., The body was suspended to a gibbet at Jarrow, near South Shields, on Mon- • day.
At the Leicester Assizes, on Wednesday, Cook the murderer was found guilty, on his own confession. Mr. Justice Park seems to have been much affected on passing sentence,—as he always is where the cri- minal is more than usually unworthy of compassion; he absolutely roared. Cook, it appears, made another confession before the trial— the third or fourth. Ile now says, that there was no quarrel between him and Mr. Paas, and that the murder was a planred one. The widow of the murdered man made an application, after sentence; for an interview with. Cook, to question him once more about the portion of the remains that are missing. They would hardly be recognizable now, if they exist at all.
Cook was executed yesterday. His body was ,ordered to be hung in. chains.
On Saturday, Edward Green, Thomas Lincoln, and James .Morris, • three men who were condemned at the late Assizes for burglaries, were executed at Oxford. Green, who was only twenty years of age, was a.. native of *Flatness, Devon, but was brought up at Bray, where his re- lotions now reside ; he was a noted bad character, hawing been several. times before confined in our gaol. Lincoln was twenty. five years of age, and a deserter from the Seventy-fifth Regiment of Foot : he was originally a gardener at Potton, in Bedfordshire ; where he was bow, and where his father, who has been more than *once a Prisoner, ntsr dwells. Morris, aged twenty-one, was a native of Reading ; and was apprenticed, when a mere child, to Hewlins, a chirimey-sweeper. Lately he has been notorious as a donkey-stealer. Green and Morris could reatt
a little—the other not at all. •
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