4.--At the Norwich Assizes, before Mr. Baron Bolland, Jonathan Whitley
Cooper, gentleman, was placed at the bar charged with the wilful murder
of Cornelius Moor, at Catton. Mr. Byles and Mr. Roberts were for the
prosecution, and Mr. Fitzroy Kelly, Mr. O'Mally, and Mr. William Cooper
for the defence. The jury returned a verdict of not guilty of murder,
but guilty of manslaughter. A verdict of acquittal was taken in the
further charge against the prisoner of maliciously shooting at a man
named Ford. He was sentenced to be imprisoned in the House of Correction
for one year.
11.--An election petition, presented by Mr. T. O. Springfield and others,
against the return of Mr. Edmond Wodehouse and Mr. H. N. Burroughes for
East Norfolk, was withdrawn.
16.--The popular burletta, "Jim Crow, or the Flight to America," was
produced at Norwich Theatre. Mr. Dunn appeared as Jim Crow, and "gave
the celebrated song as sung by him upwards of 3,000 times." "We dare
scarcely give our opinion of this composition, finding ourselves, as we
do, at such complete variance with the taste of the great Metropolis,
which has run wild in ecstatic enthusiasm over this precious piece of
jingling nonsense."
18.--Died at Binham, aged 89, Thomas Row, "the last of a body of
woolcombers who had been employed there from time immemorial."
23.--The cuckoo was not heard until this date, "being the latest
indication of the vernal season since 1767, in which year it did not sing
till May 7th, and the latest ever known in 51 years, according to the
late Mr. Marsham's observations at Stratton Strawless."
28.--The hearing of the petition against the return of Mr. C. E. Rumbold
and Mr. William Wilshere, as members for Yarmouth, commenced before a
Committee of the House of Commons. "A compromise was effected, by which
one of the members vacates, and Mr. Baring is to succeed. Counsel for
the petitioners unfolded a scene of profligate corruption to an
unparalleled extent. If the petition had been prosecuted with the
vindictive feeling and party spirit exhibited on a former occasion, the
committals to Newgate would have been so numerous and the prosecutions so
sweeping as to have carried ruin into many of the principal families."
At the election, which took place on August 23rd, Mr. Baring was opposed
by Mr. Wilshere, and the poll was declared as follows:--Wilshere, 735;
Baring, 702. "A poor man who felt much interest in the result of the
election declared that if Mr. Baring lost he would hang himself in less
than an hour after the poll closed, and he actually did it."