In the case of Small v. Attwood, Lord Lyndhurst decided,
on Satur- day, that the 200,0001. laid out in stock by the defendant in the name of Phoebe Attwood, as alleged by plaintiff, without consideration, should be transferred in the name of Robert Small; for the other plaintiffs ; on the ground that the contract for the sale of the mining property had been declared void.
The Special Commission, appointed to rectify the blunders of the Middlesex Magistrates, commenced the performance of their duties on Tuesday. Mr. Rotch is not named in the commission. Mr. Justice Parke charged the Jury, and explained to them the cause of their being summoned, and the necessity for the present commission. On Wed- nesday a number of the prisoners were put to the bar. Most of them pleaded Not Guilty; but others refused to plead at all, allegine. that they had been tried once, and that they were satisfied with that. In all these cases, the Bench ordered pleas of " Not Guilty " to be entered for the prisoners. Out of 72, only 43 were convicted on their second -trials. The Grand Jury ignored the bills against fifteen.
A body of the Middlesex Magistrates assembled in the Cold Bath Fields Prison, on Tuesday, and there officially delivered an authority to the Governor for the immediate discharge of the Middlesex prisoners. The number they let loose on the public is twenty-five. There are also thirteen prisoners who, being sentenced to transportation, had been removed to the Hulks, and who will now obtain the benefit of the mistake. Besides these, there are eleven who, having been committed for periods not exceeding a month, had obtained their liberty under the ordinary course of law. Of these, two had enjoyed the punishment of being whipped.
Mr. Carr, a gentleman of the Stock Exchange, attended at the Mansionhouse on Saturday, and stated that he had very narrowly escaped being shot with an air-gun. He said, that on Friday afternoon between five and six, as he was standing with his back to the window of Mr. Howell's shop in Gracechurch Street, waiting for a passenger in one of the stage-coaches, he heard a sudden whiz, and the pane of Vass next to him instantly smashed. There were two gentlemen look- ing in at the window, and the pane between them was the one broken. A great deal of alarm was excited ; and a small bullet was found in the shop, at a considerable distance from the window. The size of the hole was that of a penny-piece. He could see nobody on the other side whom he could suspect of having fired.
Lord Charles Fitzroy charged a cab-driver, on Monday, at the Marl- borough Street Office, with insolent behaviour to him, and with charg- ing him more than the legal fare. The man confessed his guilt, and was fined forty shillings and costs. At the Bow Street Office, on Monday, Mr. Benjamin Nind, of Crosby Row, Walworth, charged the Honourable Captain Berkeley, brother to Lord Seagrave. with having assaulted him at Lord Seagrave's house in Spring Gardens, whither he had gone to demand the discharge of some claim. A servant of Lord Seagrave, who was present at the time the assault was stated to have been made, swore that Captain Berkeley was never within six feet of the complaikant, and did not strike him at all. The warrant was discharged.
At the Bow Street Office, on Monday, William Durham, an agent of a flour-factor residing near East Dereham, in Norfolk, was examined On a charge of embezzling the money of his employer, to the amount of four or five hundred pounds. He had endeavoured to escape to America, but was seized by a Police-officer when on board the ship Sovereign, just about to sail from Spithead. About 2401. was found in his trunk. He was remanded for further examination.
Sarah Shorter, a servant of Mr. Parry, of Canonbury Street, Isling- ton, was committed on Monday from the Hatton Garden Office, charged with having negligently given a large dose of laudanum to Mr. Parry's infant child, whose life was endangered by it. She was com- mitted for a misdemeanor. [We hope that Mr. Parry in future will take care how he trusts a servant to administer medicine to a sick infant—and such medicine as laudanum too.] Mary Webster, an accomplished female swindler, has been fully com- mitted, from the Marylebone Office, on several charges of defrauding tradesmen.
Captain Henry Nichols was hanged on Monday last, at Horsemonger Lane Gaol. His family, which is very respectable, did not claim his body: it was therefore sent to one of the Hospitals, for anatomical uses. He was a man about fifty years of age, and had served with credit in the Peninsular war.
Eliza Connor, a servant of Mrs. Smith, Devonshire Street, Queen Square, absconded on Saturday, taking with her a quantity of jewellery, in brooches, necklaces, diamond and pearl ear-rings and finger-rings, crosses, forehead ornaments, &c., amounting in value to about 100L, the property of her mistress.
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