Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

dren (who are of course frequently neglected by their natural guardians), she had murdered at different times several infants, in the same manner as she had lately done her husband and the two other victims of her unprovoked malice.

Old Bailey, Monday, April 8. -George Barnett was put to the bar, standing charged with shooting a certain pistol loaded with powder and shot at Frances Maria Kelly on the 17th of February last, with intent her to kill and murder. The second count charged him with shooting at her with intent to do her some bodily harm. There were two other counts, varying the charge; and a fifth count, charging him in like manner with shooting at Edward Knight.

Mr. Nathan Harris deposed, that he is a jeweller. On the evening of the 17th of February, he was in the pit of Drury-lane Theatre, about the eighth row. He saw the prisoner about two rows before him, who stood up during the performance of the farce. Miss Kelly and Mr. Knight were on the stage at the moment, embracing each other, in the characters of Nan and Joey, in the firce of The Merry Mourners. After they had parted, Miss Kelly was retreating backwards towards the stage-door, when witness observed the prisoner standing above all the people around him, with his right hand pointing slanting towards the spot where Miss Kelly was standing. Witness saw a flash come from his hand, and heard the report of a pistol: witness reached across to

him instantly, and seized him, when he said, "I am not the man who fired it; don't take me." Witness said, he was sure he was the man. At this time the prisoner had dropped the pistol. Witness had seen the wadding drop at the moment of the flash. The prisoner was then secured, taken out of the theatre, and searched. In his pocket was found a small block-tin case full of gunpowder. Witness did not stop longer, the crowd was so great.

Cross-examined.-The distance from the prisoner to Miss Kelly was very great. The prisoner seemed much agitated. He went quietly from the pit, and said nothing.

was

Mr. Birnie deposed that he took the depositions against the prisoner. He put a question to the prisoner: the answer not taken in writing. Witness cautioned the prisoner against saying any thing to criminate himself. Witness asked him how he came to fire a pistol in a public theatre. He said it was to make an alarm. Witness then asked him how he came to point it so. His answer was, "She can explain." He did not mention Miss Kelly's name, but her name had been mentioned, and that of no other female.

Cross-examined. Could not form any judginent of the prisoner's sanity. There was a sort of gloominess in his eyes.

Mr. Rorer went to the theatre to ascertain the direction of the shot, and found marks of shot (very small) on the lamps on the stage door, near which Miss Kelly had been standing. He found

sume

some shot in the orchestra, as if they had struck against the boards and fallen down. Those which struck the door had left a mark two feet nine inches from the floor, The shot found in the orchestra, and in the prisoner's pocket, were the same size.

Mr. E. Knight was performing at Drury-lane theatre on the night in question. Remembered the discharge of the pistol. Miss Kelly was on the stage at the same time with him, on his right hand. Saw the flash of the pistol, which came from his left; did not see who fired the pistol. Thought he heard the rattling of shot against the orchestra.

Cross-examined.-Neither he nor Miss Kelly received the slightest injury.

Miss Kelly was now sworn, evidently under great embarrassment, and much affected. On the night in question she was performing at Drury-lane theatre; saw a light, and at the same moment heard what she supposed to be a detonating ball. Had not the least acquaintance with the prisoner to her knowledge; had never seen him before that period, nor till this day. [The prisoner was observed to smile, and look earnestly towards Miss Kelly.]

Cross-examined.-Received two letters signed with the prisoner's name. Never answered them, or took the slightest notice of them, except to a friend. The letters were then put in.

John Baker was in attendance at Drury-lane Theatre on the 17th of February; saw Mr. Taylor produce the pistol now put in; it appeared to have been re

cently discharged. (The pistol was of the same size used by Bellingham, about six inches long.) While conveying the prisoner to Tothill-fields, he asked him how he could think of doing so rash an act-was it his intention to shoot Miss Kelly? The prisoner answered-"I tell you the pistol was not loaded with either ball or slugs." He admitted his intention was to shoot at Miss Kelly.

Cross-examined.-Saw the prisoner on the Monday following at Tothill-fields. He said he was not sorry for what he had done, and made a sort of a laugh.

Samuel Dickons accompanied the last witness in taking the prisoner to Tothill-fields. The prisoner said he intended to kill Miss Kelly, in answer to a question from Baker, Baker then asked why he intended this? The prisoner answered, "She knows very well what it's for."

Here the evidence closed, when the letters produced by Mis Kelly were read.

Mr. Dowling now announced his intention to call evidence to prove the insanity of the prisoner.

The prisoner, on being asked by Mr. Baron Wood, said, he had nothing to say in his defence.

John Crockets had married the prisoner's mother. The prisoner, when a boy, was always reserved and gloomy; he would not play with other boys. At times he was very queer, and at his meals would burst out a laughing without reason. He was apprenticed to a law-stationer; he went down to Seven-Oaks, in Kent, as clerk to an attorney; he had not been long there, when witness was sent for by his master to bring

[ocr errors]

him away, from the bad state of his mind. When he went down, he found him standing in the front of a gentleman's house, bowing he had great difficulty in getting him away. About a About a fortnight after, the prisoner went to Yarmouth; he returned in five weeks, and went to work with Mr. Norcroft, a law-stationer. He went to several other places, but was always low and melancholy. Three or four days before this transaction he was particularly low. He burst out into a laugh, and on being asked what he did so for, he said he had a thought in his head.

On cross-examination, the witness said, he never had put the prisoner in confinement, or had medical advice for him. He was harmless.

Mrs. Crockett, mother of the prisoner, said he was the son of Mr. Barnett, who was a waiter at the Piazza coffee-house. She remembered his return from Seven Oaks. He seemed very ill, melancholy, and low-spirited. The last week before this affair, he appeared very uneasy and very uncomfortable. On Saturday the 17th of March, the day on which he committed the act, he was particularly uneasy. She remembered his firing a pistol in the yard on that day. She did not see much of his mind the few days before Saturday. She knew he was going to the play on Saturday. She never knew of his having a pistol till the day in question. He was very unsettled in his mind.

Mr. Norcroft, a law-stationer, with whom the prisoner had worked for a year, deposed, that

in his opinion his close application to business had injured his health.

Witness recommended him to Mr. Claridge at Seven Oaks, who wrote to him soon afterwards, complaining of the prisoner's state of mind. Witness sent his father for him. He was correct in business till a day or two before the offence with which he was charged. He then appeared in a very disturbed state of mind.

Mr. Riordan, also a law-stationer, spoke to the disturbed state of the prisoner's mind.

Mr. Claridge was at Seven Oaks when the prisoner was in his father's employment. He once observed the prisoner standing opposite a gentleman's house at Seven Oaks, gazing earnestly at the windows. He was surrounded by a mob, who were mocking him. This was in July 1813. He was satisfied the prisoner was not then in his right mind. In talking of theatricals, he said he could play better than Mr. Kean, and was often incoherent in his manner.

The lady with whom the prisoner lodged at Seven Oaks also spoke to the circumstance alluded to by the last witness. He sometimes sat in church with his hat on, and, in fact, conducted himself in an insane manner.

Mrs. Mary Haggerty lived in Castle-street, Holborn; the prisoner lodged with her. She knew the prisoner. Once, when one of her children was dying, she asked him what he thought of it? He went to the sofa on which the child lay, and, after looking at. it earnestly, laughed in her face, and quitted the room. He often

danced

danced all night in his room, and was guilty of such extravagances, that it was her firm belief he was insane.

Mr. John Want, a surgeon, thought the prisoner insane.

Mr. Baron Wood proceeded to sum up the evidence. With respect to the letters which had been read, he said that they bore evident symptoms of insanity.

The jury found the prisoner Not Guilty, on the ground of insanity.

Horse Guards, November 18.At a General Court-Martial held at Cambray, in France, on the 23d of September, 1816, and continued by adjournments to the 26th of the same month, Lieutenant the Honourable Augustus Stanhope, of the 12th regiment of Light Dragoons, was arraigned up on the undermentioned charge, viz:

"For behaving in a scandalous, infamous manner, such as is unbecoming the character of an officer and a gentleman, in conspiring with a certain other person, to draw in and seduce Lord Beauchamp to game and play with them, for the purposes of gain and advantage; and that, in pursuance of such conspiracy, he, Lieutenant Stanhope, (having engaged Lord Beauchamp to come to his quarters in Paris, on Sunday the 17th day of March, 1816, upon an invitation to dine with him), did, in company and in concert with such other person, draw in, seduce, and prevail upon Lord Beauchamp to play with them at a certain game of char.ce with cards, for very high stakes, whereby, on an account kept by

them, Lieut. Stanhope and the said other person, or one of then', of the losses and gains in the course of the play, he, Lieut. Stanhope, claimed to have won of Lord Beauchamp the sum of 8,000l. and upwards, and the said other person claimed to have won of Lord Beauchamp the further sum of 7,0001. and upwards.

"That in further pursuance of the said concert and conspiracy, he, Lord Beauchamp, at the same time and place, was required by Lieut. Stanhope to write and sign two promissory notes or engage ments to pay at the expiration of three years the said several sums of money so claimed to have been won of him, Lord Beauchan p, by Lieut. Stanhope and the said other person respectively.

"That he, Lord Beauchamp, was at that time about 16 years of age, ignorant of and unused to play, and affected by the wine he had been prevailed upon to take by the parties."

Upon which charge the Court came to the following decision:"The Court having maturely and deliberately considered the charge exhibited against Lieutenant the Hon. Augustus Stanhope, of the 12th regiment of Light Dragoons, together with the evidence produced on either side, do find him guilty of the said charge, and do sentence him, Lieut. Stanhope, to be discharged his Maje ty's service accordingly." His Royal Highness the Prince Regent has been pleased, in the name and on the behalf of his Majesty, to approve and confirm the finding and sentence of the Court: and the Commander-in-Chief directs, that the foregoing charge, preferred against

against the Hon. Augustus Stanhope, of the 12th Light Dragoons, together with the finding and sentence of the Court, shall be entered in the general order book, and read at the head of every regiment in his Majesty's service. By command of his Royal Highness the Commander-in-chief.

HARRY CALVERT, Adj.-Gen.

Trial of Major-Gen. Sir Robert Thomas Wilson, Michael Bruce, Esq. and Captain John Hely Hutchinson, for aiding and assisting in the escape of General Lavalette.

Although the trial under the above title took place in France, its remarkable, nature, and the country of the persons interested in it, appear to give it a just claim for admission into the part of our work destined to the record of memorable occurrences in this class.

Of these gentlemen, the first has rendered himself conspicuous by the vigour of his military services, and by his account of the Egyptian campaign under General Abercrombie, (in which he brought a heavy charge of cruelty against Buonaparte), and his work on the Military Force of the British Empire. He was at this time out of active service. The second was a private pe son visiting Paris; the third a British officer, with his regiment quartered in that capital. The following narrative of the escape of Lavalette, is extracted from a letter written by Sir Robert Wilson to Earl Grey in England, and acknowledged by himself.

The plan agreed upon was, that Lavalette, who, after having succeeded, on December 20th, in

getting out of prison disguised in his wife's clothes, lay concealed in Paris, should put on an English uniform, and be conducted by Sir R. Wilson beyond the barriers in an English cabriolet, which should carry him to Compiegne, whither an officer named Elliston should bring Wilson's own carriage: into this they were to enter, and to pass through Cambray to Mons. For the execution of this design, passports were procured from Sir Charles Stuart, at the request and upon the responsibility of Sir R. Wilson, for a fictitious general and colonel, which were duly countersigned; and Elliston having obtained them, hired post-horses for the carriage of the supposititious colonel, and took for him an apartment and a coach-house at an hotel. Bruce procured Lavalette's measure, which Hutchinson gave to a tailor for providing a great-coat, waistcoat, and pantaloons; and it was determined that on the evening of Sunday, January 9th, Lavalette should be removed to Hutchinson's lodgings, in order to be taken up there on the next morning. At the hour appointed, Wilson, Bruce, and Elliston having repaired to Hutchinson's apartments, Lavalette was introduced by a person who had conducted him, but did not enter the room. The fugitive was dressed in a blue uniforra, and disguised in such a manner that he might piss without remark among Englishmen. He appeared greatly moved; but that he might not give vent to his sentiments of gratitude, Wilson and Elliston withdrew. On the following morning, at half

« НазадПродовжити »