An action of trespass and false imprisonment was tried on
Friday last week, at the Catebadge Assizes. It was brought by Mr. John Stewart, a gentleman of fmttine and good emmexions, and a member of the University of Cambridge, against the Reverend Dr. Chafy, Master of Sidney College. The circumstances of the case, RS stated by Mr. Sergeant Storks for the plaintiff, were the following.
Mr. Stewart, in company with Mr. Cannon, a Cambridge solicitor, went on the II nf A egnst last to Sidney College. Mr. Cannon NViShed to see a son of Dr. Clay, with whom he had business to transact. lk went accordingly to the young gentleman's moms in the College, and left Mr. Stewart in the court below. Presently Mr. Cannon rejoined his friend, and they turned to leave the College together as they had conie, when they saw Dr. Chafy and Mr. Ilenson, a tutor of sidney, standing on the grass-plot in the Court. The shoe-black of the College CaIIIV up, and asked, by direction of Dr. Chafy, who they were, and what they wanted ? The plaintiff mildly answered, " Oh, its of no conse- tmence ;' and he and Mr. Cannon were in the act of leaving the College, when the defendant intercepted them, and a.,ked them, in a haughty and imperious tone, " Who are you? What do you want here? I will know who you are, an I what you team, before you leave the College." The shoe-black about this fane told the defendant that the plaintiff and his friend would not tell their names; se: which the defendant was extremely angry. Upon this Mr. Cannon observed, " Really, Dr. Chafy, I am surprised that "—when the latter inter • rupted hint with "Dr. Cindy, iodeed ! Don't Dr. Chafy me! Tell me who you are, or I will send you to gaol ! I am a Magistrate, and Master of this College, and I'll not suler you to leave it till you tell me who you are, and what you woo." Mr. Cannon replied," This is most extraurdivary conduct ;" when the defendant, in a furious manner, answered, " I am Master of these terri- tories," and called out to the porter, " Shut the gates and send fur a constable, and I will send these men to ptison." The Doctor continued to use very vio- lent language, calling them stupid fools, &c. ; and ordered the gates to be lucked. Mr. Henson, the tutor, was sent for another Magistrate, in order to commit the offenders. This Magistrate was Mr. Abbott, who almost immediately liberated the gentlemen. Mr. Cannon soon afterwards wrote to Dr. Chafy, demanding an apology; but no answer was returned, and the present action was brought.
Chief Justice Denman said, the plaintiff was entitled to a verdict, for the defendant had acted without any warrant of law, and with a degree of violence which he had seldom seen exceeded. The Jury found a verdict for the plaintiff; damages 25/. Another ver- dict for the same sum was taken by consent in another action at the suit of Mr. Cannon.
At the same Assizes, on Monday last, Mr. George Alston, a Fellow Commoner of Queen's College, was indicted for an assault on his on son, aged three years ; and pleaded euilty. Mr. }broil Varghan said, He regretted to see a gentleman and a father standing in the painful situation of the defendant ; but he thought that he should not be compromising justice if he ordered the defendant to enter into his own recognizance, and that of two sureties, to keep the peace, and to come up to receive judgment if called upon, which he would he should he ever be guilty of any breach of the peace in future. The prosecution was a most proper and useful one, and the defendant, in addition to these recognizances, should pay the expenses of it.
This being done, and the recognizanees given, the defendant was dis- charged.
[It is lucky for Mr. George Alston of Queen's College that he is a " gentleman :" had he been a coalwhipper or a shoe-black he would not have been let off so easily.]
Three parish-officers of Chatteris were then tried, and convicted of conspiring to bring about a marriage between a pauper and a young woman pregnant by him of an illegitimate child, with the intent to relieve the parish of Chatteris of the maintenance, and throw it upon the parish of St. Ives. The officers gave him three sovereigns, and two and a half guineas for the licence ; and immediately after the married pair were transported to the pauper's parish. Judgment will be given by the King's Bench. At the Dorchester Assizes, on Monday last, six agricultural la- bourers were convicted of a felony in being members of an illegal so- ciety, and administering illegal oaths. It appears from the evidence, that the system of many of the Trades Unions had been adopted by these peasants. Their object was to compel their employers to give them a certain rate of wages, and submit to certain rules of their dicta- tion. It would seem also that they were in connexion with other so- cieties of the game description. The oaths were administered with a good deal of mummery ; the persons taking them being blinded, and then sl.own the picture of a skeleton, death's head, tke. The prisoners were sentenced to seven years' transportation.
At the Stafford Assizes, on Monday, there were two convictions, separate cases, for murder. Charles Shaw, a well-looking lad of fifteen, was charged with the murder of Charles Oldcroft, aged nine, by strangling him with a cord. They were both in the service of a potter ; and the murder was committed for the sake of Is. 6d. belonging to the younger lad. The other ease was that of Richard Tomlinson, a tall man about twenty-two years old, for the murder of Mary Evans, by striking her on the head with a stone, and throwing her into a ditch, whereby she was suffocated. The prisoner and the murdered woman were courting, and had a quarrel MI the road to a conjuror's, whom she wanted to consult about some stolen things of which she suspected the prisoner to be the thief. A confession of the prisoner before the .Magistrates was given in evidence; but there was, besides, abundance of corroborative proof. Both were sentenced to be hanged.
There was not a single prisoner from the town of Preston at the late Lancashire Assizes.
Mr. Francis James Rens, a French gentleman, actuary at the Savings Bank of Stow for the last seven years, was robbed and murdered about eight o'clock on the evening of Monday the 10th instant, about ninety yards from the George Inn at Stow-in-the- Wold. A Coroner's Jury sat on the body on the Wednesday following; when it appeared that Mr. Hens was knocked down as he wm• entering the town, and beaten about the head with a blunt iron instrument. He was robbed of his purse and his watch. The Gazette of Tuesday last offers a reward of 200/. for the discovery of the murderer. Two men have since been apprehended, tinder circumstanees of strong suspicion.
Flue murderers of Mr. Richardson have not been discovered, though very great exertions have been made by the Police. It is now supposed • that they must have been regular London thieves disguised as country- =on.
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