upon by Mr. Warren, he begged that a strict search throughout the premises might be immediately gone into. On Mr. Warren remarking that the trouserspocket smelt the same as the case and purse, he (prisoner) pulled from his coat-pocket a handkerchief, remarking that it had a similar perfume; notwithstanding which he was given in charge.

Mr. Curtis and the Earl of Harborough became responsible for Mr. Theed's future appearance, and Mr. Codd remanded him for a week.

Yesterday, after the disposal of the night charges, the case was again called on.

Mr. Clarkson (addressing Mr. Codd) said, I appear here, Sir, on the part of Mr. Warren, who has made all the inquiry he could since the matter was last before you without being able to produce any more evidence with regard to who is in possession of the purse of money or the pin, and, whatever may be his suspicion as to the affair, I beg to state that it would be idle to trouble you further respecting the charge, which I now withdraw, without considering it necessary to make any further observations.

The proceedings having thus terminated, Mr. Theed, after receiving the congratulations of his friends, quitted the court.

13. TUNNELL THROUGH THE ALPS.-M Vanino Volta, the engineer of Como, who, in conjunction with M. Bruschetti, of Milan, obtained, in 1837, from the Austrian government a privilege of fifty years for the construction of a railroad between Milan and Como, is now negotiating with the Swiss cantons of Grisons and St. Gall, an enterprise which would vie in

magnitude with the Thames Tunnel, viz.-the piercing through the Grisons Alps. Impressed with the commercial importance of the passage of the Splugen, and, at the same time, with the various obstacles which it presents, he thinks it possible to pierce through that mountain, and establish, in the passage thus effected, a railroad, the northern portion of which would end either at Wallenstadt or even at Schomerckon, on the Lake of Zurich, and the southern would be connected with the Como and Milan railroad. M. Volta, reckoning that thirty years will be required to execute the works, demands an exclusive privilege of 100 years, with liberty to establish companies, in order to procure funds, or to transfer his privilege to other parties.

16. EXTRAORDINARY CASE OF MURDER.-A murder under very extraordinary circumstances, and without any assignable motive, has been perpetrated at Seend, about five miles from Devizes. The unfortunate man who was murdered was named James Heritage, a labourer of Seend. He was an orphan, about twenty-two years of age, and unmarried. Isaac Freeme, the person charged with the murder, was under-gardener to Mr. Ludlow Bruges, is between twenty and thirty years of age, and has a wife and three small children-his wife expecting shortly to be confined with the fourth. They were at the Bell Inn, at Seend, on Thursday evening; but, although they sat in the same room, they did not drink together; and they had very little conversation with each other-certainly no quarrel. Freeme left the house first (about half-past nine), and it is stated was in liquor. Upon getting out

side the house he began to quarrel with different persons who were there, and challenged them to fight. A man named Pearce, after some hesitation, accepted his challenge, and Pearce knocked him down two or three times, and otherwise punished him. Freeme shortly went towards his home, which is on the Trowbridge-road; and at about the same time Heritage appears to have left the Bell, and to have proceeded in the same direction towards his home. Which was before the other does not appear quite clear. They, however, came up with each other in the middle of Seend-hill, and some words ensued between them. At the bottom of the hill Heritage, "dubious what Freeme would do to him," got over a stile into a field, A few yards from the stile was a gate, which was open, and Freeme by this means got into the field almost as soon as Heritage, and going up to him, knocked him down, and stabbed him in the neck. Freeme says, that Heritage struck him first; but if Heritage's dying declaration can be credited, he never struck him at all. Immediately after the deed was done, Freeme called the assistance of a neighbour; and in answer to a question from this neighbour, said

"It was I that did it-I killed him as dead as a nit!" He after wards assisted Heritage to a stable, and then went home to his wife. On the following morning he attended his work as usual, and ob served to the coachman, that he had fought with and killed a man on the night before, and expected to be taken up for it. He was apprehended during the day. He ritage lingered until Saturday evening. It is a remarkable circumstance that Heritage wore a

smock-frock when he left the Bell; and that when first seen, by a neighbour, after he had been stabbed, he had neither hat nor smock-frock on, but was lying on the ground in his shirt sleeves. The smock-frock was afterwards found on the stile, and his hat on the ground. Had the frock been taken from the deceased after he had been wounded, there would unquestionably have been marks of blood upon it, as he bled profusely, and his shirt and waistcoat were covered with blood; but it bore not the slightest stain. This fact, then, would raise the presumption that the deceased had taken it off with the view of fighting Freeme, especially as Freeme's smock-frock was also lying in the road. It is certainly an extraordinary circumstance. Freeme was, no doubt, labouring under considerable irritation at the time, not only from the beer he had drunk, but also from the punishment he had received from Pearce. An inquest was held on Tuesday, when a

verdict of "Wilful murder" against Freeme was returned. He was committed for trial.

-.

SENTENCE OF DEATH ON FROST, WILLIAMS, AND JONES.It being understood that sentence would be passed upon the prisoners this morning, the court was crowded as soon as the doors were opened. Previously to the judges coming into court, Frost came to the front of the bar, and entered into conversation with Mr. Stone, the counsel; with his attorney, Mr. Geach; and with Feargus O'Connor.

At nine o'clock their lordships took their seats, and Frost, Zephaniah Williams, and William Jones, were ordered to be placed at the bar. Frost's countenance por

trayed the same calmness which characterised it during the trial; Williams appeared low and desponding; and Jones had lost that air of levity and carelessness which he had previously exhibited.

Proclamation having been made for all persons to keep silence while sentence of death was being passed upon the prisoners at the bar,

The three learned judges put on their black caps, and the chief justice addressed the prisoners in the following terms: "John Frost, Zephaniah Williams, and William Jones,-After the most anxious and careful investigation of your respective cases before juries of great intelligence and almost unexampled patience, you stand at the bar of this court to receive the last sentence of the law for the commission of a crime which beyond all others is the most pernicious in example, and the most injurious in its consequences to the peace and happiness of human society-that of high treason against your sovereign. You can have no just ground of complaint that your several cases have not met with the most full consideration, both from the jury and the court; but as the jury have in each of them pronounced you guilty of the crime with which you have been charged, I should be wanting in justice to them if I did not openly declare, that the verdicts which they have found meet with the entire concurrence of my learned brethren and myself. In the case of all ordinary breaches of the law, the mischief of the offence does for the most part terminate with the immediate injury sustained by the individual against whom it is le

velled. The man who plunders the property, or lifts his hands against the life of his neighbour, does by his guilty act inflict in that particular instance, and to that extent, a loss or injury on the sufferer or his surviving friends. But they who by armed numbers, or violence, or terror, endeavour to put down established institutions, and to introduce in their stead a new order of things, open wide the flood gates of rapine and bloodshed, destroy all security and property, and life; and do their utmost to involve a whole nation in anarchy and ruin. It has been proved in your case, that you combined together to lead from the hills at the dead hour of night into the town of Newport many thousands of men, armed in many instances with weapons of a dangerous description, in order that they might take possession of the town and supersede the lawful authority of the queen therein, as a preliminary step to a more general insurrection throughout the kingdom. It is owing to the interposition of Providence alone, that your wicked designs were frustrated; your followers arrive by daylight, and after firing upon the civil power and the queen's troops, are by the firmness of the magistrates, and the cool and determined bravery of a small band of soldiers, defeated and dispersed. What would have been the fate of the peaceable and unoffending inhabitants, if success had attended your rebellious designs, it is useless to conjecture; the invasion of a foreign foe would in all probability have been less destructive to property and life. It is for the crime of treason, committed under these circumstances, that you are now called upon yourselves to answer;

and by the penalty which you are about to suffer, you hold out a warning to all your fellow subjects, that the law of your country is strong enough to repress and to punish all attempts to alter the established order of things by insurrection and armed force, and that those who are found guilty of such treasonable attempts must expiate their crime by an ignominious death. I do, therefore, most earnestly exhort you to employ the little time that remains to you in preparing for the great change that doth await you, by sincere penitence and fervent prayer, for, although we do not fail to forward to the proper quarter that recommendation which the jury intrusted to us, we cannot hold out to you any hope of mercy on this side of the grave. And now doth nothing more remain than that the court pronounces (to all of us a most painful duty) the last sentence of the law, which is, that each of you, John Frost, Zephaniah Williams, and William Jones, be taken hence to the place whence you came, and be thence drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution, and that each of you be there hanged by the neck until you be dead, and that afterwards the head of each of you shall be severed from his body, and the body of each, divided into four quarters, shall be disposed of as her Majesty shall think fit, and may the Lord have mercy on your souls."

Frost raised his eyes during the latter part of the sentence, but the other prisoners did not show any signs of emotion. They were then removed from the bar.

Sentence of death was afterwards recorded against the other prisoners, viz., Walters, Lovell,

Benfield, Rees, and Morgan-who had pleaded guilty to the charges of treason, brought against them. An account of the trials of these persons will be found in another part of our volume.

21. IMPRISONMENT OF THE SHERIFFS IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. The apartments in which the sheriffs are lodged who have lately been arrested by an order of the house of commons, (see our parliamentary report), are situated on the right hand side of the lobby, on the same floor as the house of commons, and are the rooms appropriated to the sergeantat-arms and the chaplain. In dimensions they are about twelve feet square, and the windows look out upon Westminster Abbey. The rooms have no communication with each other, and all messages are conveyed by the officers of the house stationed at the doors and acting as sentries. These officers are on duty day and night, being relieved every twelve hours; but, notwithstanding their vigilance, the sergeant-at-arms, Sir W. Gossett, allows his prisoners every privilege consistent with his duty, and on Friday evening he permitted them to walk out, attended by two of the messengers, into the cloisters, and thence to the site of the late Speaker's residence, and so on to the embankment of the new houses of parliament fronting the river. The sheriffs usually rise about eight o'clock in the morning, and are furnished, at their own expense, with the morning papers. About ten o'clock they see the members of their families, and persons connected with their business, and about eleven o'clock they receive the visits of the nobility, gentry, and civic officers, and merchants.

Upon these occasions they are invariably attired in their court suits, and all the ceremonies of a levee, such as entering names, and leaving cards are rigidly observed, They generally dine with their select friends about six o'clock, and afterwards receive such casual visits as may be paid them up to midnight, when they retire.

27. DECISION OF THE JUDGES

IN THE CASE OF FROST, WILLIAMS, AND JONES.-In consequence of the prisoners counsel having objected that a list of witnesses had not been delivered to their clients according to the statute (see our law report), and that their trial was therefore invalid, the case was referred for the opinion of the fifteen judges, who have arrived at the following decision.

LITTLEDALE.

FOR.

AGAINST.

Lord DENMAN.

Lord ABINGer.

Chief Justice TINDAL.

PATTESON.

WILLIAMS.

COLERIDGE.

PARKE.

ERSKINE.

ALDERSON.

ROLFE.

COLTMAN.

BOSANQUET.

GURNEY.

MAULE.

pleaded: "