CIRCUIT INTELLIGENCE.

this day, finding the libel not proven, by a plurality of voices.

The trial lasted upwards of thirteen

THE

HERMAND.

Jedburgh, April 15.

HE Court was opened here by the Right Hon. the Lord Justice Clerk. Andrew Rutherford, or Andrew Harry Liddell Rutherford, and James Hoggan Angus, both residing at Coldstream, ac cused of celebrating clandestine and unlawful marriages, were found guilty, and banished forth of the kingdom of Scotland, never to return therein, under the pain of death, in terms of the act of Parliament of King Charles the Second (1661) against clandestine and unlawful marriages. There was no other business before the Court.

Dumfries, April 20.

The Court was opened here yesterday, by the Right Hon. Lords Justice Clerk and Hermand, when the Court proceeded to the trial of Helen Kennedy, daughter of James Kennedy, farmer in Burnsworklees, accused of poisoning Thomas Stothart, farmer in Burnswork, and Sarah Murray, his temporary servant, by infus ing arsenic into the water of which the porridge was made for breakfast, on the morning of the 9th Dec. last. The jury having been chosen, and the examination of the witnesses on the part of the Crown having been gone through, Mr Horne, the depute advocate, addressed the Jury, and Mr Jeffrey, counsel for the pannel, hav, ing also done so, the Lord Justice Clerk summed up the evidence in a very clear, impartial, and masterly stile. The Jury then retired, for the purpose of considerng their verdict, which they delivered

crowded.

A number of ladies were pre

sent for a considerable time.

David Weir, accused of stealing a sheep. The libel was restricted, and Weir being found guilty, was sentenced to 14 years transportation.

William Towal was indicted for the mur der of Ann Haffie, but the diet against him being deserted pro loco et tempore, he was recommitted on a new warrant.

Ayr, April 25.

The Court was opened this day, by the Right Hon. the Lord Justice Clerk and Lord Hermand.

James Cowan, son of, and residing with, John Cowan, farmer at Enoch, in in the parish of Portpatrick, and county of Wigton, was indicted to stand trial for the crime of culpable homicide, he having fired a gun, charged with gunpowder and flax or paper, among a number of persons assembled at a wedding at Enoch, the contents of which struck and wounded in the head John Macwilliam, who died ia the course of a few hours thereafter. The trial procceded, and the Jury having brought in a verdict of not guilty, James Cowan was assolizied simpliciter, and dismissed from the bar; and there being no other business to come before the Court, this ends the South Circuit.

NORTH-Lord ARMADALE, and Lord GILLIES.

Inverness, April 11.

The Court was opened here yesterday, by Lord Armadale, and Lord Gilties.

Hugh

Hugh Frazer, wright in Glachran, in the parish of Kiltarlity, and county of Inverness accused of stealing some logs or planks, and pieces of fir timber, from the banks of the river Beauly, the property of John and Sutherland M'Kenzie, merchants in Leith, was found guilty on his own confession, and sentenced to three months imprisonment.

Kenneth Mitchell, cooper at Oldtown of Aigas, in the parish of Kilmarach, indicted for a similar offence, was also convicted on his own confession, and sentenced to two months imprisonment.

John Fraser wright in Dalnamine, also charged with a like crime, was outlawed for not appearing, but afterwards reponed, and committed to prison on a new war

rant.

Angus Grant, alias Miller, soldier in the 5th British militia, and Alexander Gunn, shoemaker in Buolochork of Achalibster, in the parish of Halkirk, and county of Caithness, accused of a most violent and cruel assault and deforcement committed on the Collector, Robert Harper, and other Excise officers, while in the execution of their duty, in which Mr Harper had nearly lost his life, were, af. ter a long trial, unanimously found guilty, and sentenced to be imprisoned in the tolbooth of Inverness for one year, and thereafter to be banished from Scotland for seven years

John M'Bain, shoemaker in Campbeltown, near Fort George, for an assault upon a young woman, with an intent to commit a rape, was found guilty by an unanimous verdict, and sentenced to six months imprisonment, and three years banishment from Scotland.

Aberdeen, April 18.

The Court was opened yesterday, by Lords Armadale and Gillies, when,

John Grant, labourer in Macduff, accused of murder, was outlawed for not appearing.

John Guthrie, late cooper and storekeeper to the Union Whale Fishing Company in Aberdeen, and George Hutcheon, late master of the ship or vessel called the Peggy of Montrose, at present or lately at Aberdeen, were called to the bar; the former accused of having, in his character of cooper and storekeeper, in the month of October last, fraudulently, and in breach of trust, directed and caused two casks, one containing 600 pounds weight of salted beef, and the other from 4 to 500 weight of oil, both the property of said Company,

be taken from one of their storehouses, te the said sloop or vessel called the Peggy of Montrose, then commanded by the said George Hutcheon, and lying at the port of Aberdeen, and shipped, with the view of defrauding the said Company. Guthrie was found guilty upon his own confession, and sentenced to four months imprisonment; and the diet was deserted with regard to Hutcheon, the principal witnesses against him being presently at sea, and he was recommitted to prison on a new war

rant.

Alexander Lawrence, accused of hame sucken, with the intention of committing a rape on the wife of Alexander Craib, wright in Keith, was then tried for that crime; but the Jury after a trial of some length, unanimously found the pannel nog guilty.

Perth, April 28.

The Court was opened here yestesday by Lords Armadale and Gillies.

Robert Fenton, flesher in Perth, accused of sheep stealing was found guilty on his own confession, and was sentenced to be transported for seven years.

William M'Leod accused of breaking into the shop of Donald Munro, shopkeeper in Crieff, and stealing a pocket book containing a number of bank notes; he alse pleaded guilty, and was sentenced to be transported for 14 years.

The Court next proceeded to the trial of Gilbert Gray and Anne Williamson, for having stolen clothes from a trunk in the toil-house at Newburgh, and for having also taken from a tan-yard in Perth a number of half-tanned hides, which they sold to different shoemakers in Fife. To the the first of these charges both pleaded guilty, but denied the second. The jury, however, on the confession of the prisoners, brought in the verdict guilty; and Gilbert Gray, received sentence of tran sportation for seven years, with the usual certification. Anne Williamson was sen, tenced to three months imprisonment in the tolbooth of Perth, and thereafter to be banished Scotland for one year.

Patrick Keillar, formerly a dissenting clergyman, and afterwards schoolmaster in Perth, charged with the illegal celebration of clandestine marriages was outlawed.

he Court then proceeded to the trial of Pierce Hoskins, shoemaker in Perth, for the murder of his child, a boy of four years of age, on the 17th of September last, by repeated cuts with a knife. The fact of the murder was clearly established by a number

a number of witnesses. It appeared, in the course of the proof, that the prisoner had been a soldier, and had served in America, and in the East Indies. It appeared also, that he had been occasionally subject to fits of delirium after drinking, and that the crime was committed while he was in a state of intoxication. Mr Hagart, Counsel for the prisoner, brought witnesses to prove that his client was to be regarded as insane. The Jury returned a verdict all in one voice finding the prisoner guilty of having inflicted the wounds which occasioned the death of his child; but that it was done in a temporary fit of insanity. The Court thereupon adjudged the pannel to be kept in prison, till he find bail for the safety of the public, against any further fits of insanity.

Tavish M Tavish, Robert Robertson, and John Walker, were called to the bar, on a charge of deforcement of revenue officers, and, on their non-appearance, were outlawed, and their bail-bonds forfeited. This ends the Northern Circuit.

Inveraray, April 23,

Glasgow, April 28.

WOODHOUSELEE.

Stirling, April 18.

The Court was opened here this day, by the Right Hon. Lord Meadowbank, and proceeded to the trial of John Ferguson, commonly called Heather Jock, prisoner in the tolbooth of this place, accused of two acts of cow stealing, and he having confessed his guilt, the libel was restricted to an arbitrary punishment; he was thereupon sentenced to transportation for life.

Andrew Hutton, flesher in Falkirk, and Andrew Turner labourer there, were tried for unlawfully aiding and assisting Francois Petit, a French prisoner, in making his escape from a military guard, in the course of his transmission back to the depot at Valleyfield, whence he had previously escaped. The Jury returned an unanimous verdict, finding the prisoners guilty. The Judge being satisfied, from the evidence, that the offence proceeded chiefly from ignorance and thoughtlessness, and want of sober habits, and not from any previously concerted scheme or malicious design, and consider ing that both the prisoners had already been some time in confinement, sentenced them to the mitigated punishment of two months imprisonment in the jail of StirJing,

May 1812.

unanimously finding Stewart guilty of the crimes of housebreaking and theft, but that the charge of habit and repute was not proven. After a very impressive speech from both Judges, the pannel was sentenced to be executed here on Wednesday the 3d of June.

Neil Gilmour, in Calton, accused of theft and housebreaking, was outlawed for not appearing.

Jean Gibson, accused of child murder, pleaded guilty. A Jury were sworn in, and the Advocate-Depute having passed from the charge of murder at common law, and restricted the libel to the crime under the statute, the Jury were inclosed, and returned a verdict unanimously finding her guilty in terms of her confession, whereupon she was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment.

April 29. Tuesday, Robert Rennie was brought to the bar, accused of stealing a cow from an inclosure near Castlesemple county of Renfrew. The prisoner having pleaded not guilty, and his defences hav ing been stated to the Court, the Crown. Counsel proceeded to the examination of witnesses.

It was proved in evidence, that the cow in question had been stolen by the pannel. from a park near Castlesemple, on the night between the 27th and 28th Septem

ber last. He afterwards brought her to Glasgow, and sold her to a butcher for fifteen pounds. The trial occupied the Court from ten o'clock till about three, when the Jnry were inclosed, and in a short time returned a verdict, by a plurality of voices, finding the pannel guilty, but unanimously recommended him to mercy. He was sentenced to be transported for life.

John Park was next brought into Court, accused of shopbreaking and theft, was found guilty on his own confession. The Advocate-Depute having restricted the libel to an arbitrary punishment, he was sentenced to be transported for fourteen years.

James Ferguson, an old offender, (who has been tried at the same bar the two 'preceding Circuits), was then brought forward, charged with an assault, and intent to rob, in the Low Green of Glasgow in October last. He pleaded not guilty. It having appeared after the examination of three witnesses for the Crown, that the libel could not be proven, the Advocate Depute declined calling any more evidence, when the Jury were inclosed, and ordered to return their verdict next day, which they did, finding the charge not proven. He was accordingly dismissed from the

bar.

A

James McKay was next brought to the bar, accused of theft He pleaded guilty, and he was sentenced to be transported for 14 years.

Alexander M Kegie was indicted for theft; but the diet was deserted, owing to the absence of a principal witness, pro loco et tempore, and warrant was granted for re-incarcerating him into jail.

Sentence of outlawery was passed. against William M'Farlane, change-keeper at Society House, Dumbartonshire, accused of housebreaking and theft.

Joseph Burnet, accused of culpable homicide, was dismissed simpliciter from the

bar.

Moses M'Donald, John Gray, and Alexander Gibson, were indicted for breaking into the shop of James Jelly, grocer, Greenock, early on Sunday the 15th December last, and stealing therefrom the following goods :-a chest and a half of tea, 66 lbs of scale sugar, two loaves of refined sugar, 18 cheeses, 28 beef hams, 30 bacon hams; several flitches of bacon value L. 15; 12 gallons of whisky, 6 pairs of bellows, 24 brushes, 10 stones of butter, 2ibs. of tobacco, L. 4 in British silver, 10s. in copper, L. 2 in Irish Bank tokens, se

veral shoe brushes, wine decanters, crystal measures, tumblers, wine glasses, lamp oil, &c.

Before the Jury were inclosed, John Gray pleaded guilty, by being accessary after the fact.

Moses M'Donald pleaded not guilty. Alexander Gibson not appearing, was outlawed.

After an examination of evidence, the Jury found, by a plurality of voices, Moses M'Donald guilty of the crimes libelled, and John Gray guilty of aiding and assisting to remove the goods, knowing them to be stolen.

The Court sentenced Moses M'Donald to be hanged at Greenock, on Friday the 5th of June; and John Gray to be transported for seven years.

This ends the western Circuit.

NEIL

EXECUTION of HUGH MACDONALD, SUTHERLAND and HUGH M'INTOSH, the two first for robbery, and the last for murder and robbery, committed on the 31st December and 1st of January last.

Wednesday the 22d of April, pursuant to a sentence of the High Court of Justiciary, the execution of those unfortunate young men took place in the High Street; a gibbet and scaffold having been erected for the purpose, opposite the Stamp-Office Close, very early in the morning.

The preparations for this awful scenę commenced about nine o'clock in the morning, when the criminals, being relieved from their irons, and having received some refreshment, spent some time in private devotion and prayer, along with Mr Porteous, chaplain to the tolbooth, whose anxiety for their eternal welfare has been unremitting since they received

sentence.

At

At one o'clock, the streets, from the tolbooth to the scaffold, were lined with 400 of the Royal Perthshire militia, who came from the Castle for the purpose. the same time, all the avenues leading to the High Street were guarded, so as to prevent carriages or carts from appearing on the street. At a quarter before twa o'clock, the four Magistrates of the city, preceded by their officers, and accompanied by the Rev. Drs Fleming and Campbell, and Mr Andrew Thomson, three of the ministers of this city, with the Moderator and a party of the High Constables, dressed in black, proceeded from the CouncilChamber, Royal Exchange, to the tolbooth. Before the arrival of the Magistrates, the

criminals