Jones's, who is since dead, and Mr. Nash lives in the farm now. As I went up by the road-side, I supposed he (meaning captain Evans) would keep sight of me all the way. The captain called to me: he was in his garden, close by the road-side. He followed me out of the garden into the field, and said he wanted to speak to me. He said, I've had Hemming at our house this morning, and something must be done by him he is lurking down towards your house now. I ordered him to get into your buildings, if possible, before or at the edge of night, that I might not see him, or any of my family; somewhat must be done by him. I shall come down to your house at night, and bring somebody with me, and we must give the poor devil some money, or do some thing with him to send him off. Will you get up and come to the barn?-it won't detain you a minute.' I refused coming, and said I did not like to come. He (captain Evans) said, 'It can make no odds to you; you need not be afraid to come at eleven o'clock.' He said, 'Just come out; it will make no difference to you at all; for if you don't come, I am afraid of your dogs.' I went out at the back door, and down to the barndoor at eleven o'clock. There was the captain, and James Taylor, and a third, whom I thought and believed to be George Bankes. They went into the barn; I mean the captain, Taylor, and George Bankes, and I. I believed it to be Bankes. As soon as the captain came into the barn, he calls, 'Holloa, Hemming; where be'st?' not very loud. Hemming spoke, and said, 'Yes, sir.' Taylor and the captain then stepped on the

mow, which was not higher than

my knee. The captain pulled

a lantern out of his pocket, or from under his coat. Myself and George Bankes were then on the threshing-floor. The captain said, 'Get up, Hemming; I have got something for thee.' Hemming was on the mow at the time, covered up with straw. He was rising up an end, as if he had been lying on his back, and as he rose up, Taylor up with a blood-stick, and hit him two or three blows on the head. I said, "This is bad work; if I had known, you should not have had me here.' The cap. tain said, "He has got enough.' Taylor, and the captain came down off the mow directly. Taylor said, 'What is to be done with him now?' The captain said,

We

D-n his body, we must not take him out of doors: somebody will see us, mayhap; it is not very dark.' Taylor went out of doors, and fetched a spade from somewhere; it was no spade of mine. will soon put him safe,' says Taylor and the captain. Taylor then searched round the bay of the barn, and found a place where dogs and rats had scratched holes. He threw out a spadeful or two of soil, and cleaned it from the side of the wall. This will do for him,' said Taylor to the captain, who stood by and lighted him. Bankes and myself were on the floor of the barn still. Then the captain and Taylor got upon the mow, and pulled Hemming down to the front of the mow. The captain said to Taylor, Catch hold of him,' and they dragged him across the floor, and into the hole in the opposite bay which Taylor had dug for him, and soon covered it up. I cannot tell whether he was put in on his back or not.

I never stepped into the bay from the floor; I thought I should have died where I was. The captain said to Taylor, Well done, boy, I'll give thee another glass or two of brandy.' The captain said to me on the floor, when we went out, I'll give you any thing; d-n your body, don't you ever split.' All four were present. We then parted; the captain darkened his lantern; the captain, Bankes, and Taylor, went away towards Oddingley; I went to bed. The whole was not half an hour about. Hemming's clothes were on. He never moaned nor groaned after he was first struck. There was no blood, nor spot on the floor. Nothing else was done that night. On the 26th of June I was at Pershore fair. George Bankes came to me in the afternoon, between four and five, and called me up an entry towards the privy at the Plough, and said, Here is some money for you that Hemming was to have had.' Mr. John Barnett was with Bankes then. Bankes and Barnett each of them gave me money, which I did not count until I got home. They said, when they gave it me, 'Be sure you don't split.' There was no more said about it that night. It was in two parcels, between 267. and 277. in all. I put it all in one pocket. This was to have taken Hemming off, as Bankes, and Barnett informed me. A few days after I was at captain Evans's; he sent for me by my son John, then about seven years old. When I got to the captain's, I found him alone; he said to me, 'If you will keep your peace, you shall never want for 51.; there is 51.' I never received any money from him afterwards. On the same day, in the parlour at the captain's

house, Catherine Bankes came to me, and went down on her knees, in great distress, and begged and prayed of me not to say anything, as she feared captain Evans had done a bad job, and that some of them would come to be hanged if I spoke. I promised her I never would say anything. Some years after the captain had a sale, and asked me, if I wanted anything at it? He said, 'If you want anything at the sale, I shall have a deal of money then, and I will make you a present of a trifle.' I bought a short-tailed mare at the sale for 221. or thereabouts. In the evening of the sale, Mr. Handy, the auctioneer, asked me to settle for her. The captain replied, 'There is a settlement between him and me, and he can settle with me for the mare.' I was never asked for the money. Mr. Barnett did not say anything about Hemming. In about nine or ten days after Hemming was knocked on the head, captain Evans asked me to put some soil in the barn where he was buried. I hauled a good many loads to the barn doors to raise it, so that I might draw better with the team on to the floor. Some was put into both the bays, and to the other barn as well. After it was done, the captain asked me if it was done. I told him it was; and he said he was very glad of it. No more was said about it. Mr. John Barnett lent me 1007. before I left Netherwood farm. I gave him a bond for it, or a note of hand. Part of it is not paid now. He might have been paid the whole upon my assignment of my effects to Mr. Waterson, if he had seen after it, as there was plenty to pay my bond debts, and more, I borrowed some other

money of Mr. Barnett, before and after the murder of Hemming. Some time after the parson was shot, old Taylor was put to gaol, from what a man named Rowe had said of money being offered for the murder of Mr. Parker. The captain and Miss Bankes were greatly frightened about this, lest I should tell. Captain Evans and Mr. Barnett were taken up about Mr. Parker's murder; but George Bankes never was. The captain asked me, if I would take an oath not to tell. He said he would administer it, as he was a magistrate."

John Collins.-A week or so after Mr. Parker's murder, marl was drawn and put in the prisoner's barn, in one bay, which is near the pool side. I got the marl by prisoner's direction, and he drew it away. His brother, John Clewes, Harding, and Smith were employed elsewhere about the farm at that time. 1 never knew from prisoner who put the marl in the bay. We had two carts. Prisoner drove the cart full of marl himself, and I filled the empty cart while he was away. Prisoner said, "We'll get some loads to fill up the barn floor where it is unlevel, as well as the yard." Some was used about the fold yard. William Lowe. In 1815, at the White Horse public-house, Silver-street, Worcester, I met the prisoner. He and I drank together; first beer, then wine. The subject of the conversation was a report in this city of the landing of Buonaparte in France. It was remarked there would be terrible slaughtering again in the army. Clewes observed, there would not be half so much fuss about that as there had been about the death of a parson not long before; we con

versed with Clewes about the death of Mr. Parker for an hour, or an hour and a half; it was observed-that wherever Hemming was, he would, sooner or later, be brought to justice, and hung for the murder of Mr. Parker. Clewes answered, he knew better than that; Hemming was safe enough, and never would come to be hanged.

The case for the Crown was here closed.

Mr. Justice Littledale then charged the Jury. It clearly appeared that Mr. Parker was murdered, and apparently by Hemming. It also appeared, on the surgeon's evidence, that Hemming was murdered, and his widow had identified the skull of the skeleton found in the barn to be his. The prisoner does not appear to have murdered Mr. Parker, but to have been in a great degree cognizant of the means of his death. Then was he concerned in the death of Hemming? Some of the parties, who were concerned in the murder of Mr. Parker, seem to have wished to get rid of Hemming, and a most diabolical resolution to murder him was adopted. The question of the prisoner's share in that transaction mainly depended on his own confession. He (the learned Judge) had decided that that confession ought to be received. It appeared to have been made after great deliberation, and was entitled to great weight, as giving a full account of the transaction, and not claiming entire innocence for the prisoner, but implicating him as an accessory after the fact. But did it implicate him as a principal, aiding and abetting the blow by Taylor as charged? There was no evidence as to any act of the

prisoner between the murder of Parker, of which he seemed cognizant, and that of Hemming. Taking the whole confession together, the fact of killing Hemming seemed done without the prisoner's participation. There was noevidence that he concealed Hemming in his premises, or that he had any communication as to his murder with captain Evans or Taylor. The evidence that captain Evans and Taylor wished Hemming's death was the prisoner's confession. That confession was put in by the prosecution; and it showed no such wish on the part of the prisoner. That confession must be all taken together-for, as well as against, the prisoner; nor could the jury convict on it alone, unless they could supply by other evidence what was deficient in it, or could presume, from evidence not before them, that the prisoner had there made a false statement. The confession was supported in the facts, proving the prisoner was an accessory after the fact, by showing that he got the marl and laid it in the barn. Again, his taking the money from Bankes and Barnett was strong evidence of that degree of guilt so admitted on the confession. But nothing shewed that guilty participation of the prisoner, which was the subject of the indictment, viz. his aiding and abetting in the death of Hemming. In order to constitute that of fence, as charged in the indictment, the prisoner need not have struck the blow, if he in any manner participated or encouraged the act; but he was not shown to have done so in any way.

The Jury at first found the prisoner Guilty as accessory after the fact; but on being reminded by the learned Judge of the charge

in the indictment, as well as the nature of the confession and evidence, they Acquitted the pri

soner.

The counsel for the prosecution against Thomas Clewes, George Bankes, and John Barnett, on the coroner's inquisition for the murder of Richard Hemming, then intimated their intention not to proceed on that charge.

TAUNTON, APRIL 7-8.

Trial of John Russell for Murder.

John Russell, a decent-looking man, thirty-three years of age, was placed at the bar, charged with having, on the 30th November, 1829, murdered Joan Turner, by cutting her throat.

Harriet White.--I know Mr. Langton's Six-acres: there is a path across the field, leading up to Avishay-lane. On the morning of the 1st of December, I found the body of Joan Turner in that field: she was dead.

Jacob Summers.-I was going to Chard the morning the body was found. Harriet White came up very much frightened, and caught my wife round the neck. I ran on, and when I came up the hill I saw the body about two yards on the right of the pathway; it was lying on the back, with the throat cut from one ear to the other; the head lying a little to the right; her petticoats were tucked up as high as her middle; on the left thigh was the print of a man's bloody hand; there were marks of bloody fingers on the other thigh. I went to pull her petticoats down, and found her cold and stiff, as though she had been lying there all night. I saw a piece of what I thought flesh

near the body. Under her left shoulder I found the top part of a pound loaf of bread, soaked in her blood.

Joan Summers, wife of the last witness, corroborated his testimony.

Northcote William Spicer. I am a surgeon of Chard, and was called to see the body of the deceased about nine o'clock on the morning of the 1st of December. I found a deep wound, commence ing a little below the left ear, behind the angle of the jaw, and continued downward across the throat into the windpipe, which had been inflicted by many repeated cuts. The principal blood-vessels were divided, which caused the death of the young woman. I likewise found two long cuts through the clothes over the right shoulder, but the skin was merely divided; the surface of the bowels and both thighs were covered with blood, as if the hand had been wiped over them. There was no medical proof of any other violence. I saw the prisoner that morning in custody at the workhouse. I observed some scratches about his face. They were such as the nails of small fingers would make.

John Bragg. I can see Mr. Langton's Six-acres very plainly from my house. On the 30th of November, in the evening, about half-past eight, my boy came home. About ten minutes after, I heard a terrible scream, which appeared to come in at the window which looks towards the Sixacres, and while I was speaking I heard another, and then we heard another, not so loud. I heard no

more.

Cross-examined. On the fol lowing morning, I heard of the mur

der about half-past eight. I knew of an inquest, but was not able to go out, I mentioned this to

many people, but never went before a magistrate, because I was not asked to do so.

Elias England. I am fifteen years old, and work at Mr. Risk's factory. I remember the day the body was found. The night before, at a quarter past eight, I left the factory, and went down Avishay-lane, towards my home. My brother and John Brimpsy were with me, but John Brimpsy left us. We passed Stephens'slane, which turns up on the left. The town-clock struck nine as I was going home, When I was further on than Stephens's-lane, I heard something jump out of the hedge from Mr. Langton's field; and I heard some groaning noise a little further on, about ten yards from the place where I heard the jump; it appeared to come up Mr. Langton's field. I heard the noise when I was a good way along Mr. Langton's second field. I was frightened. I heard the noise all the way along.

Robert Bragg. The night of the murder I left the factory about ten minutes after eight o'clock, and was going towards Fernham. I saw the prisoner opposite the mile-stone. I heard him speak.

The

There was another person on before me, but who that was I don't know. prisoner overtook me, and passed me a little way from the milestone.

Cross-examined. Most of the people of the factory leave at eight o'clock.

Mary Ann Carter.-Joan Turner worked in the factory. I met her on the Monday night at Mr. Edwards's back door. She took