312. EDWARD BASSET proceedingsdefend was indicted for feloniously stealing on the 2d of March , three blankets, value 14 s. and a sheet, value 1 s. the property of Joseph Ibbett proceedingsvictim , in a lodging room .

ELIZABETH IBBETT < no role > sworn. I am the wife of Joseph Ibbett < no role > , I live at No. 8, Church Row, Chelsea ; I let the prisoner a bed, he had lodged with me about six or eight months. On Sunday afternoon, the 2d of March, my husband and I went out to a funeral, the prisoner at that time was the only person left in the room; we missed three blankets and a sheet from off his bed and there was a little girl saw him come down stairs with a bag on his back.

Q. Have you ever found your things. - A. Never; he returned to his lodgings the same night, he did not ask after the blankets; when he came the next night from work he was taken up.

Cross-examined by Mr. Knapp.

Q. He had lodged with you six or eight months, had he paid regularly for his lodgings. - A. Yes, he paid one shilling and sixpence a week.

Q. How many beds were there in the room in which the prisoner slept. - A. Four beds, and seven people slept in the room; at that time he mostly had a bed to himself.

Q. You said that he never asked you for the blankets, do you know whether he asked for the blankets of any other person that slept in the room. - A. He complained in the middle of the night that he was cold.

ELIZABETH CASTLETINE < no role > sworn. I saw the man come down stairs with a bundle.

Q. What day. - A. It was on a Sunday, between four and five in the afternoon.

Q. Where was Mrs. Ibbett. - A. She was gone to a funeral.

Q. Who was the man that came down with the bundle. - A. That man. (witness pointing to the prisoner at the bar.)

Q. Did you know him. - A. Yes, I had seen him a good many times before; I lived opposite of Mrs. Ibbetts.

Q. Did you see what was in the bundle. - A. I saw something like a blanket, there were holes in the bag.

Q. How large might the bundle be. - A. It was this size. (witness extending her arms about a yard in length and about half a yard in width.)

PATRICK MACKCALLER < no role > sworn. I lodge in the same room with the prisoner; I left Edward Bassett < no role > in the room, between five and six o'clock in the afternoon, he came into the room of a bustle and went to the cupboard, after that he went to his box, and took something out, what it was I do not know.

Prisoner's Defence. A little after three o'clock my landlady was in a hurry to go out to a funeral, she said I must make haste, I went up stairs and left two persons in the room; I said to Solafont this is not an agreeable lodging. we cannot get a fire when we want it; I went down stairs and went to a neighbour's house and drank tea with them, I saw nobody in the court when I went down it.

JAMES MURRAY < no role > sworn. I am an out-pensioner of Chelsea Hospital; I know the prisoner, my wife washes for him.

Q. Do you remember his drinking tea with you on the 2d of March. - A. Yes, he came about three o'clock in the afternoon, and about five o'clock he went to fetch his tea things, he was gone about ten minutes or a quarter of an hour, he returned and went to tea with us, and staid till ten o'clock at night, he brought his tea things in his pocket.

The prisoner called two witnesses, who gave him a good character.

NOT GUILTY .

First Middlesex Jury, before Mr. Baron Graham < no role > .