PETERSFIELD.
Agent—Miss DUPLOCK.
PETTY SESSIONS, Tuesday.—Present: Hon. J. J. Carnegie (Chairman), Sir A. K. Macdonald, Bart., J. Bonham Carter, Esq., M.P., R. Steele, Esq., and Sir J. C. Jervoise, Bart., M.P.
— Richard Hall v. the Stewards of the Friendly Society held at the Five Bells at Buriton.—This case was heard at the last petty sessions, and a summary of the evidence appeared in the Telegraph at the time; the Bench, however, reserved their decision till to-day. The parties were again in attendance, and the case created a considerable amount of interest. After some consultation between the three magistrates who had heard the case at the former sitting, Mr. Bonham Carter, addressing complainant, informed him that the magistrates considered that all jurisdiction in the matter was taken out of their hands by the fact that the resolution for closing the box had been duly ‟certified” by the Registrar, and had thus been rendered valid and operative. The summons must therefore be dismissed, and if complainant or any other members considered that the course taken by the stewards had not been a strictly legal one, their remedy was by suit in the County Court. With regard to the financial difficulties which had led to this temporary closing of the box, he (Mr. Bonham Carter) would suggest that they should procure an equitable distribution of the funds among the members, and then proceed to re-construct the Club upon a different and a sounder principle than that on which it now rests.
— George Hobbs and Thomas Hobbs were charged with cutting and wounding Stephen Lillywhite, with intent to do him serious bodily harm.—Prosecutor deposed: I keep the Railway View beer-house at Petersfield. On Monday, the 17th of Oct., between seven and eight in the evening, I saw prisoners in my tap-room ; they were drinking beer; they called for another pot, and my wife refused to serve them with any more; they then stood up and pulled off their jackets, and were about to fight. Henry Doland was present, and said, ‟Don’t two brothers fight;” they then pitched on upon him and knocked him about with their fists. I left the room to avoid getting into the row, and went out of the front door; in a few minutes Edward Butler was pushed out, and soon after George Hobbs came round from the back door over the wall with a broom, and struck Butler with the handle over the eye; he then struck me with the broom; he fell down, and I nearly got the broom away from him; while I was trying to do so, Thomas Hobbs came and struck me very hard on the head, and partly stunned me; then they both got me farther out into the road, and one of them hit me with a stone on my forehead, which completely stunned me; when I came to a little, Doland came and picked me up; the blood ran from my forehead as if you had stuck a pig; they then both attacked Doland, and he let me drop again. I then crawled in doors, somebody assisting me, and a doctor was soon after sent for. I bled nearly all night.—Henry Doland and Edward Butler, both of whom bore marks of severe handling; and also Thomas Adams, who witnessed the scene, gave corroborative evidence.—William Peskett, Esq., deposed: l am a surgeon living at Petersfield. About nine o’clock in the evening of the 17th of October I was called upon to attend Stephen Lillywhite, at the Railway View; I found him bleeding very much from the forehead; on examination found the os frontis was fractured; the wound was incised and jagged, such as might have been produced by a stone. I dressed the wound; there was hemorrhage during the night; he was seriously ill the next day up to about four o’clock in the afternoon; the wound was large enough to admit the top of my forefinger; the blood was arterial; there was also a wound the back of the head. I thought very seriously of the case at first, and should not have been surprised if it had taken a fatal turn; he is still under my care.—Prisoners were committed for trial at the next Assizes at Winchester.
(See also
10-Dec-1859
05-Nov-1859)
— Mr. Thomas James, of the High-street, Petersfield, appealed against a poor’s-rate made on the 12th of July last.—Mr. Albery (of Midhurst) appeared for the Overseers, and took an objection to the hearing, on the ground that the Act requires that the appeal shall be made at the ‟next practicable Sessions” after the making of the rate, and supported his argument by citing Queen v. the Justices of Lancashire, 14 Jur., 552, where it was distinctly laid down that the limitation of time for making appeals to Quarter Sessions was also applicable to appeal to special Sessions. In the present case the rate was made on the 12th of July, and the next practicable Session was on the 9th of August.—The magistrates, on this ground, decided that the appellant had no locus standi , and accordingly dismissed the case.
— Moses Marsh, about 50 years old, was committed for two separate periods of six weeks' imprisonment with hard labour, on two separate charges of indecent behaviour towards some little girls from 10 to 13 years of age. One offence was committed in September last, and the other a few days since. The particulars are unfit for publication, but both cases were clearly proved against hiin. The prisoner had not long been released from Winchester gaol.
— Mr. Everett, Superintendent of police at Winchester, attended from the Court of Exchequer, to test and verify, according to Act of Parliament, the weights and measures in the custody of Mr. Superintendent Fey, which were all found to be quite correct.