bouring village. On the night of Monday last, his house and offices were surrounded by an armed banditti, who set fire to both at the same moment. In the former were Shea, his wife, seven children, and three female servants; in the latter five labourers slept. Such of those unfortunate victims of brutal ferocity as attempted to escape from the flames, were fired at by those miscreants, and driven back into the blazing tenements. In short (for who can bear to dwell on any account so revolting to every feeling ofhumanity ?), the whole of the seventeen inmates of this family were hurried into eternity. 21. Eight miserable convicts were executed at the Old Bailey: -Josiah Cadman, Edmund Sparrow, and Thomas Tapley, for uttering forged 51. notes; George Ellis, for uttering a forged 10%. note; William Garton, for stealing in a dwelling-house; George Smith, for robbing on the highway; William Harding, for stealing six sheep; Isaac Cobelia, for robbing on the high way. At half-past seven the two sheriffs, accompanied by the under sheriffs, &c. proceeded to the cells, where, after the sacrament had been administered, the irons of the convicts were knocked off, and their hands and arms bound. During this process they were supported by the sheriff's chaplain. Harding (an old man) trembled exceedingly, and a cold sweat burst forth on his countenance, when he looked down upon the hammer, and the block on which the irons were removed. Cadman was called out first, and ascended the scaffold with composure. When the rope was placed round his neck, he addressed the spectators with much firmness and deliberation. As nearly as his expressions could be collected, they were these: "Friends and fellow-countrymen;-It is with the agonized feelings of a husband who has brought his wife into the same disgrace with himself that I now address you. I have drawn down upon myself the sentence of the law; to that I bow. Let it be told to my king, to my sovereign, that I revere him in his situation as a king; and may the scene which is now before you keep you all from an evil so dangerous, and a temptation so powerful, as that to which I now fall a sacrifice." At the conclusion of these words, the people who were near the scaffold exclaimed with vehemence, "God bless you! God bless you!" After a pause of a few minutes, and when the last man (Cobelia) was brought out, Cadman again addressed the people-" Tell the world that I die in peace with all men. I love my wife-I love my king-I love my country-I love my God." These were his last words. Every thing being now arranged, the drop fell, while the ordinary was in prayer; and these unhappy men were launched, almost all of them without any apparent struggle, into eternity. After hanging an hour they were taken down, and their bodies given to their friends for burial. Cadman had for a considerable period been engaged with his wife in the unlawful pursuit for which he suffered. They sold forged notes to the utterers, who paid them 7s. for a forged 1. note, and 30s. for a forged 5. note; and several persons have been convicted who were their instruments in putting off the false paper. Distress it was, in the first instance, that caused Cadman to join the keeper of a coffee-house in Drury-lane, in dealing by wholesale in the dangerous traffic; and, on his being taken into custody, he offered to impeach all who had been connected with him, if he were allowed to plead guilty to the minor offence. The Bank took his case into consideration, but having clear proof of the extensive guilt of the prisoner, they could not, in justice to others, suffer the most guilty to escape. No hopes were ever held out to him, that mercy would be extended towards him. 22. COURT OF CHANCERY.. The Attorney General v. the Skinners' Company.-The lord chancellor gave judgment in this case. It came before him in the shape of an appeal from the vice-chancellor; and it originally was an information by the attorney-general, as to the conduct of the Skinners' company, with respect to some property left by sir A. Judd, to endow a free grammar school at Tonbridge, in Kent. His lordship went through the whole of the pleadings on both sides, by which it appeared, that sir A. Judd, an alderman of London, had, by a sort of testamentary deed, given previously to the year 1554 the sum of 30%. per annum, arising out of two estates; one in the parish of Allhallows, Gracechurch-street, and the other in the parish of St. Pancras, Middlesex, for the payment of 201. a year to a master, Sl. a year to an usher, and 21. a year for the reparation of his grammar-school at Tonbridge, in Kent. This was bequeathed, if it could be called a testamentary deed, to the master and wardens of the Skinners' company, to be by them applied for the purposes before mentioned. There were also other estates purchased by the money of Judd, but left in his name and that of one Thomas Fisher, for the maintenance of some alms-houses. All this property had, in 250 years, augmented so much in value as to be worth several thousands a year. The vice-chancellor had declared, that an account should be taken of all the messuages, lands, tenements, hereditaments and premises, and of the rents, profits, and issues, arising from the same, with the nature of their application by the Skinners' company, bequeathed to them by sir A. Judd, in trust, for the maintenance of the school at Tonbridge. Lord Eldon said that he should no further disturb that decree, than by introducing some words, in order to leave the question open, whether the will of sir A. Judd was valid or not. QUEBEC.-Four hundred and twenty vessels arrived here this season, with 8,050 settlers. 23. AMERICAN LAW CASE.State of Maryland v. Jos. Thompson.-Indictment for the murder of Miss Ann Maria Hamilton. This important and interesting case came on for trial in Baltimore city court. The facts disclosed in evidence were the following: The prisoner had boarded for four or five years in the house of the father of Miss Hamilton during this time he had become ardently attached to the de ceased; and from his own declarations subsequently made, he had been engaged to be married to her, with the approbation of the mother, from the 16th day of May, 1819, until the period of his quitting the residence of her father, which was three or four weeks previous to the homicide. She had accepted a ring from him with the device of two united hearts, and her name engraved upon it. Shortly after the donation, he went to sea. On his return, he thought Miss Hamilton's deportment towards him changed from its former cordiality to coldness; and believing her manner to be influenced by the unfavourable disposition of the mother towards him, he abandoned their dwelling as his place of residence at the above mentioned period. A short time afterwards, he paid Miss Hamilton a visit, and demanded of her the restoration of the ring he had presented her; when it was alleged by the young lady to have been lost. The characteristic gloom of Thompson's temper, and the solitariness of his habits, from that time visibly augmented. It was stated by the proprietor of the house in which he last boarded, that on one or two occasions he had been observed by him to take lonely rambles about the streets before the dawn of day; he still, however, continued to frequent Hamilton's residence. The night previous to the death of Miss Hamilton he paid the family a visit, and appeared in a more melancholy mood than usual, leaning his head against the door, and manifesting more than his ordinary reserve; he, however, when addressed, conversed rationally. On the night of the per petration of the murder (which was Friday, the 5th of October last), he came about eight o'clock to Hamilton's; and took his stand against the side of a door, whereby he entered into conversation with Mr. Hamilton. The latter, at the close of their conversation, said, he believed he should go to bed. Thompson advised him so to do. 99 Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton then went up stairs, leaving Thompson with their daughter; they had been but a few moments above, when they were alarmed by the screams of their daughter below, who cried out, "Oh! mamma, Thompson is going to shoot me.' The mother ran down stairs, and arrived in sufficient time to see the flash of a pistol, and to catch her daughter in her arms as she fell, at the foot of the stairs. The daughter expired in an instant. Thompson then, after gazing the mother stedfastly in the face, fired a second pistol at his own head, which knocked him senseless on the floor. The father ran down stairs, caught hold of his daughter to see if she was dead, and finding his fears too fatally confirmed, laid her down-and in the fury of the moment, stamped upon the head of Thompson, as he lay apparently lifeless on the floor. Thompson was taken that night to the watch-house, and when he recovered his senses, was removed to the gaol of Baltimore county. He is 40 years of age; the deceased five days short of 15. She was a girl whose beauty and loveliness were proverbial in her neighbourhood, Thompson, during his confinement in gaol, stated to one of the witnesses in this case, that the reason why he killed her was, that he was under the firm persuasion, that one of the boarders had dishonourable intentions towards her, and in the event of their success, did not mean to marry her that to the accomplishment of such views, her death and his own were preferable. Insanity was the defence set up. : The chief justice charged the jury briefly. About eight o'clock p. m. the jury retired to their room, and soon returned with a verdict of Guilty of Murder in the first degree. 23. Lieutenant-colonel Mazeau, implicated in the conspiracy of August, 1820, was found guilty, in the court of Peers, of having made a proposition to change or destroy the government and the order of succession to the throne, and to excite the citizens to take up arms against the royal authority. He was immediately sentenced to five years imprisonment, and to pay the costs of the prosecution. 24. LIBEL. The King v. Weaver, Arrowsmith, and Shackell, -This was an information filed by the attorney-general against Robert Thomas Weaver, printer, and Thomas Arrowsmith and William Shackell, alleged proprietors, of the newspaper called "John Bull," for a libel upon the memory of lady Caroline Wrottesley. The libel appeared on the 15th of January, 1821. The article was headed" Queen's Visitors," and it charged the deceased lady Wrottesley, with having, in her life-time, carried on an intrigue with a menial servant. Mr. Justice Bayley delivered the sentence of the court: Weaver to pay a fine of 100l. to the king; Shackell and Arrowsmith 5001. each; and all to be imprisoned nine months in the custody of the marshal of the King's-bench, and to give security for five years, themselves in 500l. and two sureties of 250%. each. 26. LIBEL.-The King v. Blacow, Clerk.-Mr. Justice Bayley pronounced sentence, for a libel on the late queen : "The court does order and adjudge, that you, Richard Blacow, do pay to the king a fine of 100%.; that you be imprisoned six months in the custody of the marshal of the Marshalsea; and that you do farther find security for your good behaviour for five years, yourself in 500l. and two sufficient sureties in 100%. each." The court also sentenced Williams, mayor of Chester, to six months imprisonment and a fine of 1,000l. for partiality during the last city election. MYSTERIOUS STORY.-The following mysterious transaction is mentioned in many German newspapers :-" A lady of distinguished rank, the mother of princes, and whose fate and situation are sufficient to excite interest and command respect, arrived at Bonn, under the name of Madame Von -. That city, to which she was attracted on account of her health, pleased her so much, that she determined to take up her residence in it until spring. She then laid aside the incognito which she had assumed, and her rank obtained for her from the authorities of the city that protection and consideration which was her due. Nothing was observed either in her conduct or her conversation, which deviated from the strictest circumspection. Her numerous domestics were foreigners. Among the persons who formed her so ciety was observed the daughter of president Von Hagen, of the government of Cologne, and professor Ennemossier, a physician, who attended on her and possessed her full confidence, while another medical person who belonged to her establishment, and had also the title of physician, appeared to be no favourite with her. The latter left the town, and it was soon after remarked that a stranger had made his appearance at Bonn, who appeared to occupy himself much about the princess and her affairs. On the 23rd of November, before day-break, there was heard, in the apartments of this lady, a noise similar to what might have been expected from the breaking in of a band of robbers. Her cries awakened Dr. Ennemossier, who slept in the upper story. He came down in haste, and saw this princess, who is near 60 years of age, struggling against her own servants, who carried her by main force to a carriage prepared for her removal. The aggressors did not allow her time to dress herself properly. The doctor wished to oppose this violence, but he was overpowered, and the carriage drove off so rapidly, that even the sentinel posted at the entrance could not stop it. The carriage proceeded on the road to Coblentz; the gate of Bonn on the side of that town being readily opened to the carriage. The participators in the plot, who remained in Bonn, kept the door of the princess's hotel fast for two hours, to allow their accomplices time to secure their prize. Those who stayed behind have been arrested, and an investigation is commenced by the royal criminal court. VOL. LXIII. 27. On Tuesday last, two seamen, named Peter Heaman, and François Gautiez, were tried and convicted on a charge of piracy and murder, before the judge admiral of Scotland. Heaman had been mate, and Gautiez cook, on board a merchant ship called the Jane. On the voyage from Gibraltar to the Brazils they took forcible possession of the ship, which was freighted with specie to the amount of 38,180 Spanish dollars, and murdered Johnston the captain, and Paterson, one of the seamen. They afterwards sunk the vessel, and landed the specie in an island off the coast of Ross-shire. A Maltese boy on board the vessel gave information of the horrible transaction, as soon as he was able; and, with the rest of the crew (three persons in all), not implicated in the mutiny and murder, appeared as evidence on the trial. The two prisoners are sentenced to be hanged on the first Wednesday in January. Heaman is said to be a native of Sunderland; Gautiez is a Frenchman; they are both young men. It is a curious fact, that at the time the prisoners were apprehended, the whole ship's library consisted of a book entitled, "Trial of Captain Delano, for Piracy." EXECUTIONS IN THE OLD BAILEY.-The sentence of the law was executed upon Samuel Hayward, for a burglary and robbery, committed in a house in Somers-town [see Chronicle for October, p. 153;] Joseph South, for uttering a 10. note, forged upon the Bank of England; and Anne Norris, for robbing a man at a house in Wentworth-street, Whitechapel, under circumstances of great aggravation. There were N |