The Express.
London, England, 1863-12-15 00:00:00

MIDDLESEX SESSIONS.

(Before the Assistant4udge.)
Pierre Alfaint, 45, a 'odor, waa indicted for unlawfully
attempting to assault and wound William Conley, and he
was further indicted for feloniously attempting to commit
self-murder.

The prisoner, it appeared, was a person of imperfect in-
tellect, a foreigner by birth, but bad served in the British
merchant service as an ordinary seaman. On the 4th of
November the prosecutor Cooley found bim in the Bt.
Katharine's Dock, where be (Costley) was immured as watch-
man, and at half-past 3 was about putting him out, when
the prisoner said to him, " You have told them what I
said of the captain." Dooley said he knew nothing neither
of him nor the captain he was alluding to, upon which the
Lprisoner drew from his right-hand pocket a long-bladed
ife and struck sat him with it, bat fortunately he had a
stick and warded off a blow which might have proved
fatal. A constable on duty had seen the prisoner loitering
about the F Quay, and hearing of the attempt he went to
the spot, when the prisoner rushed at him with the knife in
his band, and jumped on board a barge, and thin. he com-
menced stabbing himself in the throat and stomach, inflict-
ing npoa himself a fearful jagged wound. He bled
very much, and, the barge being at a considerable depth
from the quay, from the point from which the prisoner
leaped, he had to be hauled up by a crane on to the quay,
and taken to the London Hospital in a cab. At the name
time the assault was committed on Conley the prisoner
made a rush at the constable, r2O H, and he bad to draw his
truncheon to protect himself, and when he attempted to cut
his throat the policeman said he " sawed " away at it, but
could not make the knife penetrate at the nest at tempt, but
on making another attempt he thrust it into his lroat, and
was then seized.

For the defence it was urged that the prisoner was not of
sound mind, and that his hallucination wee that be was
being hunted about by a hundred policemen, that they
would not permit him to live honestly, and ha had all Norte
of other strange impression'.
After a somewhat protracted trial his lordship summed
up very carefully, and the jury found the prisoner Na
Guilty on the ground of insanity, and it was ordered by the
court that he should be detained until her Majesty's pismire
should be known.

THE POLICE COURTS.

CLERKENWELL.

Henry Herbert, of 6, Hope-terraoe, St. Mathias-rod,
Stoke Newington, errs charged u follows :—" For that you
on the 26th day of November, not being the person em-
ployed by or contracting with the pariah of St. Mary,
Islington, or under Messrs. Dodd, the firm contracting with
the said vestry, did unlawfully cony sway and collect ashes
and dust from No. 9, Cleveland-road, Islington, contrary to
the statute," leo.
lir. Layton, vestry clerk, was in attendance to watch the
owe, and produced the contract between the vestry sad Mr.
Dodd. _ _ _

This it was stated, was the first case under the Metropolis
Local Management Act in which persons have been con-
victed of stealing dust, and so annoying have the practices
of a dun of persons known as " flying dustmen" become,
that the contractor. have deterrniond to prosecute in every
cam that comet under their notice. In addition to steeling
the dust they muse a great annoyance by only removing
what they think proper, and then demanding money for
what they have done. Several complainta were made to
Mr. Dodd of the practices of the defendant and another
man that was with him, and Mr. Dodd at once took the
oeoeseary measures, and succeeded in capturing the de-
fendant while removing tike dust from the house above men-
tioned. When spoken to about the matter the defendant
said it was all right and that be wee the "regular dustman,"
but when told otherwise, he then said be was authorised to
do what he was about by the contractor, and next said he
was collecting the dust for a brickmaker.
The prisoner set up for his defence that he was not aware
that he was doing wrong, and said that be was instructed to
collect the ashes by a Mr. Round, who, he said, had a right
to them. . . . .

The contract having been pot in, which showed that Mr.
Dodd was the contractor for the particular part of the parish
in question.
The magistrate said that the case was clearly made out,
and ordered the defendant to pay a fine of 20s. and caste,

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The defendant, in reply to the ton is tr te, said he ha Ti no
goods on which the fine and costs could be levied.
The magistrate, in default, ordered the prisoner to be
confined in the House of Correction for ten days.
The prisoner, who said he had no money, was then re-
moved.
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