The Press.
London, England, 1854-01-21 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

further, that the testimony, when obtained, would be
of little or no value, as the rules of evidence in Prus-
sia were totally different from what they were in
England, and consequently the evidence itself would
he almost or altogether rejected by an English
court. Arguments in support of the rule having
been heard,

Lord CAMPBELL said ho was of opinion that, upon the defend-
ant paying the costs of the first commission, a fresh one should
issue to examine witnesses. If the court had: power to issue the
commission, it was very desirable that it should do so, for other-
wise most important evidence would be excluded. There could
be no doubt Miss Wagner and her father were most material
witnesses, and their evidence might be for ever excluded unless
obtained iu this manner. It had been alleged as an objection
that the manner in which the witnesses would be examined was
different from what it would have been in England, and no
doubt that objection was deserving of serious consideration. He
thought, however, that it ought not to prevail, because the court
was not to suppose that, although the witnesses would be exa-
mined according to the law of Prussia, the whole return would
be contrary to the law of England. If it should appear upon
the face of the return that it was so, it would be rejected. But,
if the objection did not appear upon the face of the document,
extrinsic evidence might be produced to show how the examina-
tion was conducted, and if the document could be impeached it
would be rejected. If the court should be mistaken, an opportu-
nity would be afforded for revising its judgment, for it would be
competent for the objecting party to tender a bill of exceptions
to the reception or rejection of evidence, and the opinion of the
House of Lords might be taken on the question. He (Lord
Campbell) thought that in the exercise of their discretion the
court would do well to grant the commission. The fact that the
witnesses would be examined by the judge was not alone a suffi-
cient objection. It was also said that hearsay and other objec-
tionable evidence might be returned, but, if that should be so, the
whole might be repudiated, or any particular objectionable evi-
dence might be rejected. Upon the whole, his lordship said he
thought the commission ought to issue.
The rule VMS accordingly made absolute for the
commission to issue in four days, and to be returnable
in one month.

AN EMPLOYE OF Mn. WATERS, a wine-merchant
in Whitecross-street, a man named Biggs, was
brought up at the Guildhall, together with his wife,
on a charge of robbing his master. Biggs, it seems,
was employed in the bottle-warehouse, where he was
often visited by his wife. The woman was suspected
of carrying wine-bottles away, and, being watched,
was traced to a marine-store-shop, and arrested. Mr.
Waters, at the examination, said that he had been
robbed of no less than 1,500 gallons of wine during
the past twelve months. At the shop in question,
however, the woman appeared to have sold only
empty bottles, but in numbers calculated to excite
suspicion in the purchaser if it had been his cue to
suspect any one who brought business to his store.
The following conservation passed between this
marine-store-keeper and the presiding alderman :

William Garratt said: I am a marine-store-dealer in tipper
Whitecroas-street. I know the female prisoner. She brought
some bottles several times during last week and the week pre-
vious, and my wife bought them of her. I have not known her
more than a week or two. I have only been in the business six
months.
Alderman Moos : I suppose your predecessor made a fortune,
and retired from the business ?
Witness : No, sir. I married the person who had the business
before I came into it; but, knowing nothing of it myself, I left
her to buy everything. I was generally in the way when my
wife bought bottles of the female prisoner, but I cannot say how
many she bought. She might have bought four or five dozen last
week, but I am sure that she did not buy that quantity every
week, nor can I tell if it was two dozen a week. The female pri-
soner came several times with bottles during the week before
last, and always said they were her perquisites. We sell them
to the bottle-collectors, but I don't know what my wife gets for
them.
Alderman MOON : Do you keep any books ?
Witness: Yes, sir ; we keep books, but we don't enter bottles
in them?
Alderman Moos : What do you enter then ?
Witness : Oh—metals, sir ; we buy lead and other things.
Esther Garratt, the wife, proved that the female prisoner had
been in the habit of bringing bottles to her for sale.
Daniel May, the officer, stated that both witnesses denied all
knowledge of the prisoners, even after lie told them he was a con-
stable ; but, when he said he had watched the female prisoner
into the shop several times, they both admitted that they knew
her.
The prisoners were remanded.
ELLEN HARLEY has been victimising pawnbrokers
by bringing them a tale of distress, and wedding rings,
on which, believing them to be gold, several have
advanced her Ss. The rings are, however, really
worth but 35., being made of gilt platinum, whose
weight and capability of resisting the ordinary tests
with nitric acid render detection difficult. Notwith-
standing this difficulty the fraud has been twice
detected, and, after a trial and verdict at the Mid.
dlesex Sessions on Tuedsay, Ellen has been sent
for nine months of hard labour to the House of Cor-
rection. She leaves, it is suspected, many accom-
plices still at large, pursuing the same branch of
industry. The risk to any pawnbroker whom they
may take in is far more extensive than the loss of
some shillings on the pledge, as the rings are
stamped with a forged hall-mark, and if exposed for
sale would subject the possessor to a 201. penalty
under the Goldsmiths' Act.
THE LIABILITY OF INNKEEPERS as the custodians of
their lodgers' property was tried at the Lambeth
County Court on Tuesday. One Harebel had gone
to the house of a coffeeshop-keeper named Barnes
on the Ist of December, and engaged half a bed,
some man unknown being already asleep in it when
he retired to rest. In the morning he found his
fellow-lodger gone, and also part of his own apparel,
for whose value he afterwards sued Mr. Barnes, the
landlord. The arguments turned chiefly upon the

SATURDAY,

point of custody, and the question whether a coffee_
house where lodgers were taken by the night came
under the law which regulated inns. Ultimately the
judge (Mr. Pitt Taylor) decided the latter point in
the affirmative, and on the whole case gave judgment
in favour of the plaintiff for the amount of his loss.
THE most ingenious and original inventions seem
always destined to plunge their inventors into ditti.
culties. At the Great Exhibition of 1851 there were
few specimens of mechanical contrivance which at-
tracted more curious interest than Count Dunin's
steel " model of a man," with its 7,000 springs,
wheels, and laminae so deftly combined that by turn_
ing a handle the figure could be expanded to the
dimensions of a giant, or wound down into the
diminutive proportions of a dwarf, and yet preserve
a perfect symmetry among its various parts and limbs.
The expenses attending this intricate machine, and
some other contrivances of like character, have, how-
ever,resulted in making the inventor a bankrupt,
an .djudication having been pronounced against
him on Monday in Basinghall-street. His liabilities
are stated to be considerable, chiefly upon bills of
exchange. The count it was then said had dis-
appeared, and the only assests discoverable con-
sisted of some furniture, and this was claimed by
a single creditor under a bill of sale.
Ix A BANKRUPTCY dating from 1812, that of Messrs.
Kensington, Styers, and Adams, heretofore bankers
in the City, a small dividend is announced to be pay-
able shortly, property having accumulated in the
hands of the official assignees to the amount of
about 5,0001. _ .

A LAD NAMED Duxxr.wv, aged only thirteen, and
looking much younger, was tried at the Middlesex
Sessions on Monday upon a charge brought against
him by his own father for stealing a pair of trousers.
The theft was proved; and in reply to the natural
query why he placed at a criminal bar so young a
lad, and his own son besides, Dunkley senior told
the common story of innate depravity in his child,
who he said was an incorrigible thief and had robbed
him incessantly. The lad had been sent to two
schools, but was expelled from both, as well as dis-
charged from several situations, on account of his de-
praved conduct and addiction to dishonest practices
and disreputable companions. The assistant judge
(Sergeant Adams), in passing sentence of two years'
imprisonment upon the culprit, remarked upon the
deficiency of the law, which gave the country no
claim upon the parents of criminal children to con-
tribute to their support, as they ought to do, whether
their offspring were in prison or out of it. This he
said was a question to which he should never cease
to draw attention in public and in private, in season
and out of season, so that an end might be put to
the disgraceful state of the law.
- MARCUS BAIN, formerly a lodging-house-keeper,
has petitioned the Insolvent Court for discharge
from prison. His detaining creditors were the chil-
dren of a friend, a coachman, who at his death had
left the insolvent trustee to his savings, consisting
of some 300/. invested in Consols. Availing himself
of his legal powers, however, the insolvent had sold
all the stock and applied the proceeds to his own
purposes. This breach of trust was now alleged in
opposition to his application for relief from his debts.
On his behalf counsel pleaded the ingenuousness
with which the insolvent had confessed his fault in
his schedule, and related in further mitigation how
be had fallen into the clutches of a clever sharper,
who pretended to be a barrister, borrowed large sums
of this wrongfully-obtained money, and was now
lying under sentence of transportation for another
offence. The court, however, stigmatised his con-
duct, as showing a breach of trust of the blackest
dye, and remanded the insolvent to Whitecross-street
for eighteen months.
THE RUSSELL INSTITUTION IN GREAT CORAM-STREET
has sought to be- exonerated from parish rates, under
the Parochial Assessments Act, as being "instituted
for the purposes of literature, science, and the fine
arts exclusively." After hearing arguments in the
Queen's Bench on Wednesday, Lord Campbell gave
judgment against the institution. He noticed that
newspapers were taken in there, that politics were
studied as well as science, and a magazine or Brad-
shaw's Railway Guide found more readers than
"Newton's Principia." The objects of tbe estab-
lishment were highly laudable, and its utility great;
but it was not entitled to exemption from the ordi-
nary parochial burdens.
A DECISION on the long-contested point of the
liability of railway companies to carry what are called
"packed parcels " was given on Wednesday in the
Court of Common Pleas. Several years back certain
persons commenced acting as agents for the collec-
tion of various small packages, which they made up
into a few large ones, and forwarded to provincial
towns, such as Sheffield, Glasgow, dc., where they
caused the contents to be delivered to their respective
addresses. Great convenience to trade was thus
obtained ; but the London and North-Western Com-
pany, fancying that the system deprived them of
large profits, endeavoured in the first instance to
make a higher demand for all such Tercels: but