737. WILLIAM STOREY proceedingsdefend was indicted for feloniously stealing, on the 21st of August , five sheets, value 2s. 6d. the property of James Colverley proceedingsvictim .

ELIZABETH COLVERLEY < no role > sworn. - I am the wife of the prosecutor: I lost the sheets from the bottom of a house that was repairing; I had given them to a white-washer to hang round the room, to save the paper while he was whiting the ceiling; the moment that I missed them, I saw the prisoner running down the street with them; I went after him, and stopped him myself; I asked him how he came by those sheets; he did not make any particular answer, but turned back, and went home with me; I told him if he would tell me who he was, I would not do any thing to him, but he would not tell me his name, on account of his family.

GEORGE LONGDEN < no role > sworn. - I was sent for to take the prisoner into custody, (produces the sheets): I received them in the room where the prisoner was; they have been in my possession ever since.

Q.(To Mrs. Colverley). Can you swear to those sheets? - A. I think I can; they are marked J E C.

Q. Have you any doubt? - A. None.

Cross-examined by Mr. Knapp. Q. These sheets were of very little value? - A. Very little; hardly any thing at all.

Q. This person you have discovered to have respectable connections? - A. Yes.

Q. The prisoner was intoxicated; was he not? - A. Yes.

Prisoner's defence. I was very much intoxicated at the time.

GUILTY . (Aged 42.)

Confined twelve months in the House of Correction , fined 1s. and discharged.

Tried by the first Middlesex Jury, before Mr.Justice HEATH.

(The trial of the above prisoner had been put off from the former Sessions, in consequence of an affidavit made by him of the absence of a material witness of the name of Joseph Raynes < no role > , without whose testimony he could not safely proceed to trial; and no such witness, having been produced, the court assured him that his punishment would be aggravated, on account of the perjury he had committed).