APPENDIX TO CHRONICLE. 305 



thing could more reasonably or 

 more properly excite the alarm 

 of an honest master. The asso- 

 ciations formed during the seven 

 years of apprenticeship were of 

 the utmost importance. Credit 

 or disgrace, success or ruin in 

 life, might depend upon them. 

 Mr. Turner's delay in giving 

 up the indenture might have 

 proceeded from a desire to 

 afford opportunities for applica- 

 tion to remain. No application, 

 however, appeared ever to have 

 been made. The first communi- 

 cation to Mr. Turner was from 

 the attorney, and that, like most 

 attornies' letters, probably threat- 

 ened an action. 



Verdict for the defendant. 



GUILDFORD, AUGUST 12. 



Trial of Chennel and Chalcraft, 

 for the Murder of Mr. Chennel 

 and his Housekeeper. 



The account of this trial occu- 

 pied much time, for which reason 

 we shall confine ourselves to the 

 summing up of the Judge, Mr. 

 Serjeant Lens, before the Jury. 

 He said he was not aware that 

 he could do any thing more in 

 this important case than merely 

 recapitulate the different accounts 

 given by the different witnesses 

 of the conduct of the prisoners 

 during the hours between eiglit 

 and eleven on Monday, the 10th 

 of November. If they could rely 

 on any part of Sarah Hurst's 

 evidence, the decision of the 

 jury would be short and infallible. 

 The conclusion would be inevit- 

 able if her word could be trusted; 

 but her conduct did not tend to 

 establish her credit. She, ac- 

 cording to her own account, was 



Vol. LX. 



appointed to watch while tlie 

 murder was committing, and was 

 therefore a party in the murder. 

 She had charged others with the 

 crime, and it was difficult to say, 

 whether her charge was the effect 

 of malignity, or the mere wan- 

 dering or delirium of her mind. 

 Whatever was the cause, her evi- 

 dence was proportionally affected 

 by it. Delirium or confusion of 

 mind might apply to her evidence 

 as regarded Scooly. But this 

 excuse did not apply to what she 

 said of her husband, when she ma- 

 lignantly and deliberately accused 

 him of acting, as she had done, 

 in assisting the murderers. She 

 must have done so either to get 

 quit of her husband, or some 

 other hateful purpose, not easily 

 conjectured; and then the jury 

 were to consider how far a person 

 of such a character was to be 

 listened to. He was afraid that 

 her evidence must be laid aside, 

 and that the jury must rely on the 

 other evidence alone. The evi- 

 dence on which the jury were to 

 form their judgment included the 

 minute points of time, of situation, 

 of conduct, of declaration, and 

 language. The declarations of 

 Chennel's hatred were important; 

 but the Jury were to consider 

 that the expressions he used with 

 regard to his father and his house- 

 keeper, coarse and violent as they 

 were, extended over a long course 

 of time (as much as a year) 

 before the fatal deed ; and the 

 Jury were to judge, whether they 

 were the infatuation of criminality, 

 unconsciously avowing its designs ; 

 or loose idle words, that had no 

 definite meaning, and were never 

 intended to avow any purpose. 

 He thought that these expressionn 

 X could 



