PETERSFIELD.
Agent—G. DUPLOCK.
PETTY SESSIONS.—Present: Hon. J. J. Carnegie (Chairman), Right Hon. Sir W. G. H. Jolliffe, Bart., M.P.r., Sir J. C. Jervoise, Bart., M.P., Sir A. K. Macdonald, Bart., J. Waddington, Esq.
— The jury lists for the several parishes within the petty sessional division were verified by the respective parish officers.
— Alfred Stacy appeared to a summons, charging him with assaulting Barnard Oliver, on Tuesday, the 2nd instant. Complainant keeps a beershop in College-street, Petersfield, and deposed that in the afternoon of Tuesday, the 2nd of September, defendant, who is a dealer in fish, called at his house and asked him to buy a pod of herrings. He refused to do so, alleging that defendant had on a former occasion sold him some stale fish. Some angry words thereupon arose, and, according to complainant's version of the affair, defendant seized him by the shoulders, dragged him out of the front door, and locked him out; and upon his wife letting him in, defendant again seized him and pitched him head-long from the passage into the front room, and afterwards repeated the assault in the tap-room. This was corroborated by complainant's wife. Defendant, however, gave a very different version, and said that, in fact, he ought to have summoned complainant; that he merely took hold of him quietly by the arm, and led him out to look at a pod of herrings, when he pushed him (defendant) violently against the wall and cut his lip, and that all that followed was in consequence of this. He called Henry Norman, who deposed that he was passing Oliver's house, in company with Stacy, when someone rapped the window; they went in and had two pots of beer, and were coming away when Oliver produced a sort of whirligig and wanted them to turn for beer. They did so, and after several more pots had been drunk Stacey took Oliver by the arm and asked him to come and look at some herrings. When they got outside of the house Oliver pushed Stacy against the wall and made his mouth bleed; after which there was some tussling in the passage and also in the tap-room, where Oliver caught up the tongs, and was going to strike Stacy, when the latter seized him round the waist and threw him down.—John Draper gave similar evidence as to what took place in the tap-room, but he did not see the rest of the affray.—Defendant was adjudged to pay a a fine of 1s. and costs 8s. 6d.—The Chairman cautioned Oliver against permitting gambling in his house.
— William, Alfred, and John Figg (three brothers), were a charged with using dogs for killing game in an enclosure on Woolmer Forest, the property of the Queen. William did not appear. Samuel Dixon deposed as follows: I am a warder of Woolmer Forest. On Sunday, the 21st of September, I was on duty in an enclosure called Long Moor. I saw the three defendants with two dogs outside the enclosure; they entered, and I followed and watched them. I heard someone urging on the dogs, which were giving tongue. I saw William with a hare in his hand, and Alfred had a spade on his shoulder. I got within 25 yards of them when they all three made off. I said, ‟Well, Will, I see you have a hare; that’s enough."—Convicted. John and Alfred each fined 5s. and costs 3s.; William fined 10s. and costs 4s.
— William White, who keeps a beershop at Priorsdean, was convicted on the evidence of P.C. George Derham, of keeping his house open for the sale of beer after ten o’clock on the night of Saturday, the 13th September. Defendant said the reason of his house being open after the time was that his cart broke down, and some men helped him to get his things home, and he gave them some beer. Fined 1s. and costs 7s. 6d.
— George Bignell, a young man, in the service of Mr. Thomas Vinson, of Hawkly, was committed for trial at the Assizes on a charge of bestiality preferred against him by his master. The court was cleared during the hearing of the case. The evidence of Mr. Vinson was most conclusive as to the attempt (which the law treats as a misdemeanor), but faniled to establish the higher offence of felony. Prisoner was accordingly committed on the minor charge, and Mr. Vinson was bound over to prosecute.