APPENDIX TO CHRONICLE. 



315 



or innocence of the prisoners on 

 the evidence which should be laid 

 before them. Having said thus 

 much, he should proceed to state 

 tiie case. It was necessary for 

 the peace and well-being of so- 

 ciety, that crime should be re- 

 pressed, and offenders apprehend- 

 ed ; and to accomplish this ob- 

 ject, it was necessary that reward 

 and encouragement should be 

 given to those persons who risked 

 their personal safety, and fre- 

 quently even their lives, in the 

 ' discovery and apprehension of of- 

 fenders. The law had given re- 

 wards to such persons, and still 

 the country owed much to indi- 

 viduals who meritoriously per- 

 formed such services ; but as 

 much merit attached to those who 

 well dischaiged this duty towards 

 the public, great in proportion 

 was the guilt of those, who, for 

 the sake of obtaining these re- 

 wards, should lay traps and throw 

 temptations in the way of others, 

 to induce them to commit crimes. 

 Such was the offence with which 

 he had to charge the prisoners at 

 the bar : and in proving his case 

 he should be obliged to have re- 

 couise to evidence, which it would 

 be the duty of the jury to look to 

 with suspicion, and receive with 

 caution. The witnesses might, 

 perhaps, differ in some immate- 

 rial facts ; but if they should agree 

 in the miin points, and after be- 

 ing sifted and cross-examined it 

 should ajjpear that there was no 

 reason to doubt the truth of their 

 testimony, he should submit that, 

 whatever might have been their 

 former associations or modes of 

 living, their evidence was not 

 therefore to be rejected on this 

 occasion. This transaction was 



brought to light in consequence 

 of five persons, named Wni. San- 

 derson, Wm. Ward, Wm. Hurley, 

 Jas. Hurley, and Dennis Hurley, 

 being charged with a burglaiy in 

 the house of Mrs. M 'Donald, at 

 Hoxton ; and on that occasion 

 \^aughan, who was a patrole, 

 Mackay, who had been in the 

 employ of the City Police, and 

 Brown, the other defendant (what 

 he had been, he, Mr. G., could not 

 state), brought the prisoners up, 

 and Vaughan deposed as to the 

 facts of the burglary in question. 

 [Here Mr. Gurney read tlie de- 

 positions of Vaughan and the 

 other defendants, and continued.] 

 Had these dei)ositions been all 

 that passed, the magistrate would 

 have completed his duty by com- 

 mitting the prisoners fur trial ; 

 but the prisoners, on being ques- 

 tioned, said they were taken to 

 the house of Mrs. M'Donald by a 

 man they met at a public-house, 

 and went in with him, but took 

 nothing. Something here oc- 

 curred, either a look or a word, 

 he (Mr. G.) could not say what it 

 was, which excited suspicion in 

 the mind of Mr. Nares, the 

 maa:istrate, who turned to Vaue:- 

 ban, and observed, " Vaughan, 

 you went to the spot at the time 

 the prisoners were committing 

 the bu!-glary in consecpience of 

 information you received ; who 

 gave you that information r" 

 X^anghan declined to say who 

 gave him the information, ob- 

 serving, that mentioning names 

 might be attended with danger to 

 individuals, and would operate to 

 prevent their receiving informa- 

 tion in future. This, and some 

 other circinnstances, induced Mr. 

 Naies to commit the prisoners for 



re-exami- 



