The National Register. — London, England, 1823-03-30 00:00:00

IMPORTANT DISCOVERY. A very awkward explanation has taken place at a SUBSCRIPTION House at the west end of the town. A young gentleman, who was plundered by the tireeks, in Paris, last autumn, of at least 40,0001. was, the other evening, the loser, in one hour, of 5,0001. " I will send you a check to-morrow morn ing," said he ; '• but in the interim, you must allow me to put these dice in my pocket." The tune and manner intimidated his adversary. The unsuccessful gamester went immediately to the re sidence of a noble lord. The dice were broken, but found not loaded ; but, on a nicer inspection, they were discovered to be not square, that is, longer one •way than another, and su contrived as always to throw sixes—" Don't pay," exclaimed the noble lord. '• Don't pay" re-echoed another nobleman. —This advice has been followed. But the conse quences resulting arc fatal to all other money trans actions in this house. A country banker, and a young merchant of great eminence, also refuse to pay the SUMS they have lately lost at this SUBSCRIP. 'TION He BSC The above transaction has thrown the west end of the town into u state of confitsion, of which our more sober readers can have no idea. The determined conduct of the loser, in taking away and examining the dice, has led to the discovery of u system by which many individuals of respectability have been ruined. The dice, we understand, are exposed to the public at a shop in Boud•street. The house where this occurrence took place is not far removed from Pieadilly, and may be recognised from its commanding view of tbe Grcen.park. It was formerly known us subscription-house, and it came into the hands of its preset': possesaur iu 1820. It was taken by a trio of dirlsiotts charac ters, who agreed to retain the original subscribers, and received the privilege of introducing their own friends. Rouge et Noir was excluded, but a French hazard-table was set ty, around which was nightly collected the greater part of the young men of fa ehion about town, and immense sums of money lost to the table. The regular advantage to the bank at this game, is equal to a small per centage, but the winnings of the house regularly amounted to a considerable -dividend of the stakes. Astonishment was frequently expresaed et the runs of luck, as they were called, of the bank ; but such is the in fatuation of play, that the frequenters still continued to lose night after night, deluded by the elegance of the acconmiudation—the apparent respectability of the concern, and the insinuating name of " Sub scription House." A few nobles of the land, some characters of the turf, who are supposed tube sharp on all points, as well as the host. of idle young men, have in turn been sufferers. To give an instance— , une night last season u certain noble lord lost 8,000. a gentleman well known at Tuttersalls, 15,0001. and a commoner, who has lately created a sensation by an excursion with a lovely brunette, 11,0001. — This was one nights profit. The concern went on with equal prosperity fur two seasons, realizing it is said, over 250,9001. which the three partners divided. Qne of the partners retired at the cote rt.encement of tee season ; and we understand, that law proceedings arc commenced against the others for the recovery of large rums since the discovery of the dice with unequal sides. The principal it is said, has left town fur the Continent, to avoid the consequence of an investigation. One of them Mr. A. was a few years since a waiter and marker of a billiard table ut the Smyrna Coffee-house, in St. James-street ; another, Mr. C. was formerly a fish monger in a small way. and acquired money by successful betting on the turf. The principal and master hand of the concern, Mr. Josiah T--, was ut one time a partner in a mer cantile house in the c ity which became bank rupt. He was arrested, cud lived in the rules of the King's Bench for some time in great distress.— He contrived to open, five years since, with the assistance of a friend, a Rouge ei Noir house, on R small scale, in Pull-mall, whence he removed to a larger euricern, in the same street, nearer to St. James's. Here his success was beyond precedent, and in . very a shurt,time his profits amounted to 70,0001. With that sum he undertook the manage ment of the subscription house in Piccadilly, where profits were realised to a very large extent, and which might have gone on but fur the discovery of the unequal dice, which has broken up his trade. The long disputed question relative to the packet service, on which the rival interests of Falmouth and Plymouth have limn so actively employed, is now finally settled in favour of the former. Thirty sail of 10-gun brigs, to be commanded by Lieute nants of the rt.yal navy, are to be placed under the orders of Capt. King, late inspector of the preventive service fur the coasts of Kent, who hoists his pen dant on board the Asti az frigate.—Sir T. B. Martin, Sir George Clerk, and this ()facer, arc at present at Falmouth, making the necessary arrangements for tFN new service, which promises to be a most valu able one tar the country at large.. , THE NATIONAL REGISTER POLICE. _ GUILDHALL. A FRENCHMAN'S it)4IIiNErTC.) CHELTENHAM.—A. French gentleman applied to the Lord Mayor to inflict puni►hment upon the proprietor of the Swan-with-two necks coach ullice. for causing him to be conveyed to Chatham instead ul Cheltenham, and refusing to cor rect the ini!take.by seiNling him coach free to his place of destination. It appeared from the statement of the Frenchman, who spoke the English language very imperfectly, that he had gone to the Swan-with-twomecks, Lad-lane, lin the purpose of engaging a seat on the outside of the coach to " Chattynham, and paid five shillings; which, although he believed was erroneously charged, and to the proprietor's disadvantage, he said nothing about, on the ground of retaliation, having been often taken in by the canaille of England himself. He entered utio con versation upon the coach w i th Millie female pisseugers, and WAS much amused for some tune. lie could not, however, help observing, that there was a great dissimi larity between the road to Chutlyothans and the road from Chuityrrhant—a citcumstance winch lie accounted for uy ingeniously ascribing it to the change its his own posi tion, having his face fowards London on the one occa sion, and his back is the other. The novelty produced by this way of travelling added to Iris satislactiou ; but on arriving at Rocliester-brolge, his astonishment ex ceeded all bounds—tin in travelling to London, he had seen nothing at all of the kind ; and (won shifting his pontion, the bridge, arid the great sheet of water, still remained, and, whatever way lie looked at them, were not convertible into any other description of scenery.— lie then requested that his fellow-passengers would ex explain the cause of so extraordinary an event as the sudden appearance of a bridge and a river of such di• ',tensions. They rellied that Rochester -bridge stood there as long as they could remember. " lioollesthere bridgel" cried the Frenchman : " Glad bless my sold, what bring me to 11o:hes:here bridge? Stop, OW1110:111, and drive me to Glitaiyham I" • " ‘Vlay its I am," said the coachman,—" you'll soon be there." To describe the rage of the complainant upon being set down at the inn at Chatham, and told that he was at his journey's end, would be impossible. He neither ate nor drank, nor left the company of the coachman. until the coach returned to Lid-lane, and dropped him, fatigued in body and mind, on the Split from whence he had taken his departure. The clerk who booked him first came under his rebuke ; but the language in which it was conveyed was of so heterogeneous a description as to fail.even us correcting the mistake. At length the Frenchman said that he had paid the sum of 11. 12s. fur travelling from the place lie.wished to reach to London; and theas the clerk found that it was to Cheltenham, and not to Chatham the unlucky traveller wished' to gm There was, however, now no remedy. Tile Frenchman de manded, as retribution fur the inconvenience lie had suffered, that he should be immediately supplied with an inside place, and driven to Cheltenham gratuitously; but Mr. %Vaterhou.e, the prorrietor„ • c ilthottgli disposed to abate Ss. in the demand, in consnieration of the error of his servant, refused to mend the mattes upon such unreasonable terms. The Frenchman, therefore, ' resorted to the Chief Magistrate, in the hope that his lordship would order that a seat should he forthwith fur nished for him to Clealoyha-4, which he declared that he pronounced as pe-fectly at the time as at tile present moment, and that the coachman should he punished for not stopping at Rosherth<re-bridge, when called upon to do so. The Lord Mayor regretted that the clerk, coachman, and passengers should be so stupid as not to know that the complainant wished to go 'o Cheltenham ; but re fused to punish the proprietor of the tun for the want of a correct ear in his servants. The proposal to deduct the Chatham fare appeared to him a very conscientious way of set►ling the dispute, and there cLrtaioly antlered to be not the most scrupulous re..ard to what was right in the wish of the gentlemm to take advantage of what he considered au error in the office. Indeed, to the endea vour to overreach the owners of the coach might be at• tributed all the misfortunes of the journey; Inr had the complainant mentioned what he had paid before, n: never would have trembled ..t the sight of Rochester bridge. The Frenchman then consented to accept the offer, and withdrew. CORONER'S INQUEST. An inquest was held on Thursday evening, before ( .1. H. Gell, Esq. coroner for Westminster, at the house of Mr. Hill, ironmonger, No. 5, Iterwick-street, Soho, oil view of the body •,t his Amt, Mr. John 11111, a tine young wan. 19 years of age, who destroyed himself. Jane Heywood, servant to Mr. Hill, stated, deceased was in his fathes's trade. She had observed him for the last 13 months fallowing loader a melancholy, but more particularly for the last week, when he had been in a welly low state. On Wednesday lie drank tea at home, and on that day lie appeared more desponding thtui forme, ly.— Deceased had been in the habit of visiting a young wo man with whom lie kept company almost every evening : Ibis the deceased hail ink/tilled witness, and she has also known the circunistence from the young woman. The Cormier inquired her name. Witness answered, lire name was Maly Catlin, and she resided with hue patents in Cross street. A Juror wished to know her age. Witness replied, she andel stood the young lady was Itl last October. A letter was here handed in to the Coroner, by the re quest of the nolo innate young man's father, who stated lie found it in his souse pocket - book, It was as follows : " My beloved blare,--My happiness is now adequate to the misery 1 have endured fur these last few days ; I am sorry, extiemely 'miry, at having been so insii—iray, may say so ridiculous, to attempt my —but I mow see the fully of it. I now sec destructionthat 111 i instead Of eliding my miseries, it wuuld have prolonged them to eternity—and what would have (seen still worse, would have made yon, my dearest, wretched as long as you I existed. It was, ootwithstandi,,g, a very pluvideulial thing ; it was not sufficient to take effect, this proceedet from my ignorance in using it, but I trust I shall never be tempted to such an act a second time. " I itope, my dearest Mary, we shall not be altogether parted front each 011.er. " It seems fate has determined on our meetingf; go where we will, we are sure to meet, Mary. Ido Well remember those words, which were yonrs, or at any rate words to the same effect. Oh ! my love, let them be re. alined. We may, if you will, be very happy, ki ng else can possibly obstruct it. Yours faithfully acid sin• cerely, •' J. HILL." There was no elate nor any direction to the above epistle, which was wiiiteis in a most beautiful hand Witness continued—She hail heard that deceased had at tempted to poison himself, and had bought laudanum for the purpose. Site heat - dike deceased come home at half past nine on IVedoesday eveiiiiie, and go into the shop, but did not see him again, at •I therefore concluded lie was gone out. Nut finding bins come home, she fastened the dour at half past one o'clock, and went to bed. She got up neat morning at five, anti went iuto the shop about seven o'clock to get some coals, when se was startled on eiiserving deceased suspended by a cord, one end of which wits about his neck, and the other fastened to a beam. Au alarm was iustantly raised, and Mrs. Hill's nephew cut him down; bull lie was quite dead and cold, and supposed In ilaVe been dead many hours. J titor.—Lio you know whether there was any disagree. uncut between deceased and the female with whom lie kept c 1111 l patsy? Witness.—l believe there was a disagreement between them, and which 1 believe, occasioned a derangement of mind. The Jury, therefore returned a verdict of " Temporary unsaid derategemesat?' DETECTION OF MORE PRIVATE DISTILLERIES.— On Thursday murnurg last, about eight o'clock, two officers of excise, Fncliew, sett. and Drewett, repaired to a house in Cumberland-street, Curtain.road,-aml ou rapping at the door, a man looked out of the first floor window, and observing who the visiters were, refused to open the door, and instantly jumped out or the back window of the same floor, and made his escape through the adjoining house; two youths escaped at the top of the house, and sera intuit% over the roofs of Mile (Altars, gained the street by sliding dowa a water-spout. In the mean time the sutuAgler'i wire, who hail been out, te noned home, and knowing nothing of what had oc curred, opened the street door with a key, and the offi cers followed her in, and found below stairs a well fined up distillery. The still was then running off strong spirits, 'from what is technically called low wines, or spirits which have only been once through the still.— They also found a small quantity of spoils, and upwards of one hundred gallons of inolass-wash in fermentation. They made a capture of the still and all its apurtenances. and then proceeded to New Union-street, Moorfields, where they had been told another existed ; but the exact house was nut known. As they were passing through the street, they observed a noted smuggler trawling on the step of the house No. 22, who, on seeing the officers. immediately ran away. They did not pursue him but went up to the house ; they door being open they walked in, but found it completely empty, except the trout kit. ehen, which contained the objett of which they were in search—a still, fitted up, on a very large scale, in brick-work. tout hail evidently recently been fixed, as the mortar was wet. The worm and worm-tub were also complete, and there was a quantity of corn-wash ready for the still. The whole would have been in operation for the first time in half-an hour, if the officers had not intruded, and carried all the apparatus to the Excise Office. EXECUTION OE JOHN NEWTON. FOR THE MOO DER OF HIS Wm.—After this unfortunate man had been conveyed front the place of trial to the county gaol. at Shrewsbury, no Saturday evening, he continued for many hours in a state of great agitation and menial dis tress. On Sunday he attended divine service in the chapel of the prison, where he conducted himself with propriety. On the more near approach of the hour of dissolution his feelings again became much agitated.— At about a quarter after melte, on Monday, he was brought towards the scaffold, exclaiming as he passed along, "1 Is ve lost my life for three shillings. Haven., ascended the lodge of the gaol, where he passed few minutes in prayer with the chaplain and suave fellow poisoned, he was conducted to the scaffold ; when,look lug towards the immense multitode assembled. he exclaimed, in a %cry loud tune several times, "John Bolton I" " John adult', of the 'Hem." A voice all. geared to dose% Cr from the crowd ; and the prisoner then exelaurnd, "Joint Edwards, are you ci 111 l c front Severn hall r NVnile on the seaffidd he said to tile crowd, " This is a sad death to die, my lads, for a young matt like me; God bless you all ; 1 would give all the world it had nut happened." Ile ette!Jiawiliwsl or three times ".Don't hang me.-1 hope, gentlemen, y ou 'll not hang me yet."—Occasionally he ejaculated " Lord have mercy on me l"—Previous to being turned off, he put his shot* (which he wore slipperways) front his meet ; and whet, rte drop tell he died instantly. and apparently without a struggle, The unhappy man occupied a farm of 170 acres, had been owned about tell years, and has lent four children. Ile told a &tenth - man- who visited lino, he had been a very had husband at all tunes; then when CO tttttt nted the fatal act, he ,truck and kicked his wife several times ; and that, hut for the interposition of Vrovideoce, he should, under the influence of his un governed feelings, at the same time, have sacrificed the fife of the child who interposed its cries on the beltall of its mother. This addition to his cria.es was happily prevented by -the poor child outruttiong and escaping front Mtn. The unhappy crimin a l w as a large soul very ornning W liged to goadifusenuAß:ll:lbccdhlakeitirfwiarrinueeateuilrianstiti.lalrwl.gualltliod:cecxcilAitcrieltaelli l a :t t wa e ntd i d l 7 . ltk a irhe t eg i I d pdwl i ra i i i citte e eh o r s se haci ti ssa i lo : r e bing i ce the cow became furious, and tan violently towards the foot path and knocked a woman against the iron rail. tug, and v er y serious ly injured her. The animal was ',tined without dun% further mischief. .7 . • • 102