[Coquet]

WILLIAM HAWTHORN (25), was charged with the manslaughter of George Gilhespie, at Amble, on the 27th of May last.
Mr INGHAM, with whom was Mr SELBY, appeared for the prosecution; and Mr CHARLES WILKINS for the defence. It appeared the deceased, and a number of other persons, had been drinking at a beer-shop, called the Mason's Arms, at Amble, on the night of the above day, and remained there till an hour so late that they were refused any more drink. They had then come out, and most, if not all, of them being drunk, fighting commenced. Among the rest who were engaged was the deceased, who appeared to have been rather quarrelsome. One of the witnesses, the father of two of the young men who had been drinking, having, as he said, gone to the place to look after his sons, he saw the deceased knocked down, and saw him lying bleeding; but, although it was a moon-light night, and the prisoner has a wooden leg, he could not see the prisoner was the man who had struck. One of the sons of this witness said he saw Gilhespy the deceased, and a man named James Wood fighting. He saw them fight two or three rounds, and, when doing so, he saw Hawthorn, the prisoner, go forward and knock Gilhespy down. He (witness) had then ran away where there was another row, and it was when he came back, about ten minutes after, that he found the deceased bleeding profusely, and trying to crawl away upon his hands and knees. He was quite insensible and could not speak. He then assisted him towards home, and gave him into the charge of some of his (deceased's) partners. Deceased had been then brought to the house of James Welsh, with whom he had lodged, but he was quite insensible, and never spoke, and lingered on till the the following Friday, when he died. Thomas Thompson, a policeman at Warkworth, said that, having been made acquainted with the affair, he met the prisoner in Warkworth, when he (the prisoner) told him that on Saturday night, when he was at Amble, a person in dark clothes came up to him and knocked him down, and that he then took up a stone and struck the man on the head, and that when he struck the man dropped to the ground. The prisoner said he had acted so in self-defence. Mr Duncan, a surgeon at Amble, deposed to having examined deceased, and found an extensive wound at the back part of the head. Mr WWILKINS, for the defence, said that this was another evil effect of the want of education, from which ignorant men resorted to the public-house as a means of pleasure, and said that the whole offence was but another result of the deplorable effects of drunkenness, and contended that although it was proved that the prisoner had struck deceased, there had been no evidence to prove that the blow was the cause of death.
The jury having retired a short time, found the prisoner guilty, and he was sentenced to 4 months' imprisonment, hard labour, his Lordship remarking that the case was somewhat more serious than the previous one of manslaughter, but still that the prisoner had got much provocation.