The Express.
London, England, 1855-08-02 00:00:00

THE GREAT BABY ON HIS TRIAL.

The Great Baby is pat upon his trial. A mighty
noise of creaking boots is heard in an outer passage. 0
good gracious, here's an official personage ! Here's a so-
lemn witness ! Mr. Clamp, we believe you have been a dry-
nurse to the Great Baby for some yean 1 Yes, I have.—
Intimately acquainted with hie character ? Intimately so-
quainted.—As a police magistrate, Mr. 'amp? As a police
magistrate. (Sensatioo.)—Pray, Mr. Clamp, would you
allow a working man, a small tradesman, clerk, or the like,
to go to Hampstead or to Hampton Court at his own con-
! venienee on a Sunday, with his family, and there to be at
liberty to regale himself and them, in a tavern where be
1 Gould buy a pot of beer and a glue of gin-and-water ? I
would on no account concede that permission to any per
you be so kind as to state why, Mr. Clamp?
W▪
illingly. Because 1 have presided for many years at the
! 80-Peep police office, and have seen • great deal of
drunkenness there. A large majority of the 80-Peep'
charges are charges ageism persons of the lowest class,
of having been found drunk and incapable of taking
care of themselves —Will you instance a c. 1142, Mr.
Hemp ? I will instance the cue of Sloggins. Wu that a
man with a broken nose, a black eye, and a bull dog 1 Pre-
cisely so.—Was Slogging frequently the subject of such •
cbarg ? Continually. I may soy constantly.—Especially
on Monday ? Just so. Especially on Monday.—And there-
fore you would shut the public-houses, and particularly
the suburban public-houses, against the free access of work-
ing•people on Sunday ? Most decidedly so. (Mr. Gawp
retires, much complimented). Naughty Baby, attend to
the Reverend Single Swallow ! Mr. Swallow, you have
been much in the confidence of thieves and miscellaneous
miscreants ? I have the happiness to believe that they have
made me the unworthy depository of their unbounded con-
Sdence.—Have they usually confessed to you that they have
been in the habit of getting drunk ? Not drunk ; upon that
point I wish to explain. Their ingenious expression has
generally bee. " lushy."—But those are convertible terms 7
I apprehend they are ; still, as gashing freely from • peni-
tent breast, I am weak enough to wish to stipulate for
lushy ; I pray you bear with me.—Have you reason, Mr.
Swallow, to believe that excessive indulgence in "lush"
has been the pause of these men's mimes ? 0 yea
indeed. O yes ! —Do you trace their offenses to nothing else ?
They have always told me, that they themselves traced
them to nothing elre worth mentionlog.—Are you ac-
quainted with a man named Sloggins? 0 yes! I have the
truest affection for Slorgins.—Has he made any confidence
to you that you feel justified in disclosing, bearing on this
subject of becoming lush, ? Sloggins,. when in solitary
confinement, informed me, every morning for eight months,
always with tears in his eyes, and uniformly at five minutes
past eleven o'clock, that he attributed his imprisonment to
his having partaken of rum and water at a licensed house of
entertainment, called (I use his own words) The Wiry
Terrier. He never ceased to recommend that the landlord,
landlady, young family, potboy, and the whole of the fre-
quenters of that establishment, should be taken up.—Did
you recommend Sloggins for a commutation of his term,
on a ticket of leave? I did —Where is he now ? I believe
he is in Newgate now.—Do you know what for? Not of
my own knowledre, but I have beard that be got into
trouble through baring been weakly tempted into the folly
of garotticg a market gardener.— Where was he taken for
this last offence ? At the Wiry Terrier, on a Sunday.—lt
is unnecessary to ask you, Mr. Single Swallow, whether you
therefore recommended toe closing of ell publicebonses on a
Sunday ? Quite unnecessary. Dickens's " Household
Words.

DOGGETT'S COAT AND BADGE.—The sonnet nob-
lest from London bridge to Chelsea for D:ggett's Coat and
Badge took place yesterday, and was one of the best races
seen for many yews put. T. start was well arranged, and
after a spirited contest, Henry Jame White, of Mill Stairs,
Bermondsey, was declared the winner of the principal
pease by nearly • hundred yards. Thomas Adcock, Bt.
George's Stairs, Horeelydown (sewind), and William Ling,
Tower Stain (third), received respectively 41. 10s. and
2t. lta. from a fund provided for the purpose. The other
competitors also received small tome from the Fishmongers'
Conning, who, in addition after the rue, regaled the whole
of the men with a substantial repast.

UNITED KINGDOX LIFE ASSURANCE OFFICE.—
At the general meeting of the proprietors, held on the 6th
alt., an addition Iran made to the capital stock of the roa•
pea,. at the rats of 301. puff share.