gler. He was noted in his time for Upon the death of the elder Patch, this his son succeeded to the above-mentioned estate. He now quitted the trade of a butcher, and commenced farmer, uniting with his own paternal estate a small farm which he rented. It seems, however, that he farmed with little or no success, as he was soon obliged to mortgage his estate for more than one half of its value. Some years, however, were passed at Ebmere, when an accident drove him from his home. From motives. which it is unnecessary to examine, he had quarrelled with the rector of his parish, and, in order to be revenged, he removed the produce of his farm from off his land, without setting out the tenths for the rector. In other words, he refused to pay the tithes. The consequence was a lawsuit, and an immediate action in the Exchequer. Patch, shuddering at the expense of the litigation, and the certain result which awaited him, and perhaps somewhat embarrassed in his circumstances, quitted Devonshire, in the spring of the year 1803. Upon his coming to London, he immediately presented himself at Mr. Blight's, with whom his sister at that time lived as a menial servant; together with a brother of his (of whom it is somewhat extraordinary that no mention was made in the course of his trial), who was brought up a baker, but, for some reasons which it is unnecessary to enter into, was now in the service of Mr. Blight, as a kind of overseer or superintendent in the shipping business. It must here be observed, that Mr. Blight had formerly been a West India merchant, and had failed; upon which he engaged in the ship-breaking business, and was at this time carrying it on with great success. His embarrassment, in fact, arose from the severity of certain trustees, who acted for his former creditors; thus his old debts, during the time in which he was engaged in the West-India business, weighed him down,-and not any contracted in his new occupation. Patch had not long entered the service of Mr. Blight, when, from jealousy or some uneasiness, his brother quitted it. He had been disappointed in endeavouring to set up for himself in the business of a baker, to which he was bred; and this mortification, perhaps, aggra vated by the conduct of his brother Richard, excited such a disgust in his mind, that he immediately wert to sea, and sailed to the West Indies, where he soon died a victim to the yellow fever. Richard had not been long in the service of Mr. Blight, when he naturally cast. a look towards his estate in Devonshire, and commenced a journey into that country for the purpose of making an arrangement respecting it. Accordingly, in 1804, he disposed of his land; from which, having first been obliged to clear off every embarrassment, he received a nett sum of three hundred and fifty pounds. Two hundred and fifty of this Mr. Blight received, for the purpose hereafter mentioned; and the remaining one hundred pounds passed through the kands of his bankers, whom he probably constituted as such, upon the credit of this money. The next year, 1805, on the 23d September, Mr. Blight, who was induced to come to town, by means of Mr. Patch, during the absence of the latter, was mortally wounded by a pistol, which was secretly fired at him, and which occasioned his death the next day. The case was particularly inquired into by A. Graham. Esq. the magistrate, who, suspecting Patch of the horrid murder of his friend and master, committed him to prison, and his trial came on at the Surrey assizes, continued by adjournment to Horsemonger-lane, in the Borough, Saturday, April 5, 1806. So great was the interest excit ed by the approaching investigation, that, by five o'clock in the morning, a vast concourse of the populace had assembled, and on the opening of the Court it was with the utmost difficulty that the lawoffice:s and others could obtain an entrance. The Dukes of Sussex, Cumberland, and Orleans; lords Portsmouth. Grantley, Cranley, Montford, William Russell, Deerhurst, and G. Seymour; Sir John Frederick, Sir John Shelley, Sir Thomas Turton, Sir William Clay.. ton, Sir J. Mawby; Count Wcronzow, the Russian Ambassador, and his secretary, were present. The magistrates had made every commodation that the Court would admit of: and a box was fitted up for the royal family. ac The prisoner was conducted into court soon after nine o'clock, and took his station at the bar, attended by two or three friends. He was genteelly dressed in black, and perfect composure marked his countenance and manner. Precisely at ten o'clock, the Lord Chief Baron Macdonald took his seat on the bench; and to the indictment the prisoner pleaded, in all audible voice, not guilty.' He peremptorily challenged three jurors; after which a jury was sworn, and the indictment read. The first witness ca led was Mr. Richard Frost, a publican, who kept the Dog and Duck, The first part of his testimony (for he was called in a second time) related merely to the fact of the death of Mr. Blight. He stated, that, on the morning of the 23.1 September last, he was sent for by the prisoner, in consequence of the deceased having been killed by a pistol shot: he went, and found him leaning on his hands, and wounded, Mr. Astley Cooper said he was called in to the assistance of Mr. Blight. Upon examining him he found he had received a wound near the navel, and another in the groin. He observed that they were gun shot wounds; and, as the body of the deceased was considerably inflated, he pronounced them mortal : he observed the bowels coming through the wounds. The next morning Patch came to him, said the deceased was in extreme pain, and wished to know whether any thing could be done for him. The witness told him he feared there could not. This was about seven in the morning. He rose and went to him, and found him in a very swollen state. He promised to retuen in the afternoon with a physician. He went t town, and came back with Dr. Barrington; but Mr. Blight had been dead about three quarters of an hour. He had not the smallest doubt that the wounds were the occasion of his death. Richard Frost was again called up to speak to the firing of the gun. He stated that on Thursday, the 19th, there was the report of the firing of a gon at Mr. Blight's house; he went out to ascertain the cause, but did not perceive any person coming from the premises; and he was in a situation in which, had the person who fired it attempt ed to make his escape, he must have observed him; it was about eight o'clock in the evening, and it was dark; but he was near enough to have seen any one run away, or climb the wall. Miss Anne Davis and Miss Martha Davis, sisters, who happened to be walking by the premises in a different direction from the last witness, stated that they also saw the flash, and heard the report of a gun, and must have seen any persou attempting to escape; but all was quiet, and they concluded that the gun was fired by some one on the premises. After this head of evidence, to establish that the gun fired on the Thursday preceding the death of Mr. Blight was not by any stranger, but by the prisoner, witnesses were then called to relate the circumstances which had taken place on the 23d. Mr. Michael Wright stated that he was going past Mr. Blight's house a little after eight, when he heard the report of a pistol in the house; and having become acquainted, by the rumour, of the former attempt, he was induced to go up to the house, with a view to offer his assistance: he knocked for some time, and was not admitted ; but, insisting on having the door opened, Mr. Patch made his appearance, and began informing him what a dreadful accident had happened. The witness was impatient at hearing this story; he thought that some means should be rather adopted to pursue the murderer, and recommended Patch to commission him to apply to Bow Street, as an inquiry taking place instantly after the assassination would most probably be attended with success. Patch seemed reluctant, and thought that no good effect could result from it. The witness was rather indignant at his assistance not being accepted, and therefore went away. Hester Kitchener's evidence applied to the two days. She stated the 19th she had been ordered by the prisoner to shut up the shutters of the house earlier than usual. Her master and mistress were then at Margale. At eight o'clock the prisoner sent her out for some oysters; and, as she returned, she heard the report of a gun; but through the court-yard, the only passage to the house, she did not see any one. When she saw Patch, he cried, Oh, Hester, I have been shot at!' She rejoined Lord forbid!' They then looked for the ball, which she found. The witness continued to state that her master returned to town on the Monday morning; that in the evening he and the prisoner drank tea together in the back parlour, and afterwards had some grog. Her master was fatigued, heavy, and sleepy with his journey and the liquor. Patch came down in a hurry to her in the kitchen, and, complaining of a pain in his bowels, wanted a light to go into the yard. She gave it to him, as also a key of the counting-house, through which it was necessary he should pass. She heard him enter the back place, and slam the door after him; immediately she heard the report of a pistol. Her master ran down into the kitchen, exclaiming, Oh, Hester, I am a dead man and supported himself upon the dresser. She ran up to shut the door; and as she was half-way down the passage, on her return, she heard Patch knocking violently for admittance. He asked what was the matter; she told him; on which he went down and off red his assistance. He asked the deceased if he knew of any one who could owe him a grudge. Mr. Blight answered No, as he was not at enmity with any man in the world. Mr. Christopher Morgan was passing by when the fatal shot was fired: he went to the house, and saw Mr. Blight lying in a wounded situation, and recommended Mr. Patch, in the first instance, to search the premises all over. Patch told him, and his friend Mr. Berry, who was with Mr. Morgan, to go and search an old ship that was off the wharf, as he had reason to think that the perpetrator might have escaped there; for he heard a noise in that direction on the night when the gun was previously fired. They went, but found that the ship was lying at the distance of sixteen feet from the wharf; that it was low water; that from the top of the wharf to the mud was ten feet; that the soil was soft mud, and that any one who might attempt that way must have been up to his middle; besides the mud did not bear the appearance of any one having passed through it; he was therefore perfectly convinced that no one escaped over the wharf towards the water. Mr. Berry corroborated this evidence. Six other persons, who happened to be in different directions leading from Mr. Blight's house to the public roads, most distinctly proved that, when the shot was fired that killed Mr. Blight, every thing was quiet on the outside of the premises; that there was no appearance of any person attempting to escape; and, if there had, that there was no possibility of his eluding observation. The next series of evidence went to infer that the prisoner was carrying on a system of delusion and fraud against the deceased, in respect to certain pecuniary transactions between thein. It was proved by Mrs. Blight, the deceased's widow, that her husband, who had fallen into some embarrassments, had, in order to mask his property, made a nominal assignment of it to Patch; but the assignment was not to be carried into effect unless the trustees of his creditors should, as he apprehended, become importunate. This confidential assignment Patch wished to convert into an absolute sale, for consideration given on his part; but Mrs. Blight declared that he had never paid her husband any money, excepting two hundred and fifty pounds, part of one thousand, two hundred, and fifty pounds, the consideration for a share of his business. The next strong branch of evidence referred to the stockings which the prisoner had on the night |