James Myatt, examined by Mr. James: In November last I was postboy at the Talbot Arms at Rugeley. I know Palmer, the prisoner, and I remember Monday, the 26th of November last. I was ordered on that night, a little after five o’clock, to take Mr. Stevens to the Stafford station in a fly. Before I started I went home to get my tea, and on returning from my tea to the Talbot Arms I met the prisoner. He asked me if I was going to drive Mr. Stevens to Stafford. I told him I was.
What did he say to you then?—He asked me if I would upset them.
“Them?” Had anything been said about a jar?—He said he supposed I was going to take the jar.
What did you say then?—I said I believed I was.
What did he say after that?—He said, “Do you think you could upset them?”
What answer did you make?—I told him “No.”
Did he say anything more?—He said, “If you could, there’s a £10 note for you.” (Sensation.)
What did you say to that?—I told him I could not. I then said, “I must go, the horses are in the fly ready for us to start.” I do not recollect that he said anything more about the jar. I said, that if I didn’t go, somebody else would go. He told me not to be in a hurry, for if anybody else went he would pay me. I saw him again next morning, when I was going to breakfast. He asked me then who went with the fly. I told him Mr. Stevens, and, I believed, one of Mr. Gardner’s clerks.
Cross-examined by Mr. Serjeant Shee: Were not the words that Palmer used, “I wouldn’t mind giving £10 to break Stevens’s neck.” I don’t recollect the words “break his neck.”
Well, “upset him.” Did he say, “I wouldn’t mind giving £10 to upset him?”—Yes; I believe those were the words. I do not know that Palmer appeared to have been drinking. I don’t recollect that he had. I can’t say that he used any epithet, applied to Stevens: he said it was a humbugging concern altogether, or something of that. I don’t recollect that he said Stevens was a troublesome fellow, and very inquisitive. I don’t remember anything more than I have said. I do not know whether there was more than one jar.