The Express.
London, England, 1853-06-20 00:00:00

EARNINGS OF SPITALFIELDS WEAVERS.

The following notes front tho conversations of
Spitalifields weavers may be interesting. A weaver, about
thirty years of age, was working flowered rilk at 13!d. a
yard. lie said he worked from fourteen to sixteen hours a
day. "My earnings from Christmes to Christmas last year
were not more than 10s. a week. lam obliged to play'
when work is slack ;—that means, after finishing a ' cane'
(an inch of silk, &c.), I have to wait until more is ready ;
sometimes this is a fortnight, or three weeks, or perhaps
more. The slack times cause wages to be reduced.
This is not don. in a hurry, but by a halfpenny, or
even a farthing • time. A man with a Gamily cal:s at
these had timee for work, and is shown some for which
something lees thee his former price is offered ; to
save his family from the workhouse he agrees. I never in
my experience knew th' price of work auxin raised when
once reduced. Five years ago I remember very well I
could have earned with greater ease and in less time 16s.
than I can now 10s." An old women, the widow of a
weaver, whoa/ husband had died a short time since, said
she earned 4d. • day by winding satin (working thirteen or
fourteen hours • dav); her daughter 2s. 6,1. a week for
working the same long hours. The rent of their room was
Is. 6d. a week. A weaver, his wife, and two grown-up
daughters, working at ultramarine and crimson
velvet, said they could each complete one yard in
a day of flout thirteen to fourteen hours, for
which they were paid Is. 3d. a yard ; this would
come to 7s. 6d. a week for each person, but there are many
drawbacks. "I have a yard measure there's" said the
man, pointing to his loom, " exact according to act of par-
liament, but I never take home any work without having •
deduction made in consequence of the diff•reece of mea-
sure. A web of velvet is worth, when finished, about
101. 10s. in the market; so on our four looms we have forty
guineas' worth of property at the least. If it should
happen that a web should be lost, either by roguery or ac-
cident, the whole of the weavers in the employ of the per-
son to whom the last web belonged would have a sum
stopped from each until the amount was entirely made up,"
which, together with the time spent in waiting for work,
would reduce the wages of this family to about ss. a week
each—li. in all ; and in order to live comfortably and have
sufficient space for their work, they are obliged to pay as
rent not km than s'. a week, leaving 15s. a week for food
and clothing.— The Builder.

FUNERAL OP THE LATE JAMES HARMER, FsQ.—
Os Saturday the remains of this gentleman were removed
from Cricklewood, Middlesex, to Kensall:green Cemetery
for interment. Ineependeatly of the deceased's personal
friends and relatives, many gentlemen who highly
respected him for his kind and humane disposition to the
poor also followed the deceased to hi. last earthly resting
plate.
children,PßOT
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upon women
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Pin parts of the criminal law." The act came into opera-
tion when it received the royal assent on Tuesday last.
Only one clause relates to assaults, and it provides that when
any person shall be charged before two justices of the peace
sittine at a place where the petty sessions are usually held,
or before any magistrate of the metropolis sitting at the
police courts, or before any stipendiary magistrate, with an
assault upon any female whatever, or upon any male child,
Whose age shall not, in the opinion of such justices or ma-
gistrates, exceed 14 years, either upon the complaint of the
party aggrieved or otherwise, it shall be lawful for the said
justices or magistrates, if the assault is of such an aggra-
vated nature that it cannot be sufficiently punished
under the provisions of the statute 9 Geo. IV.,
e. 31, to proceed to hear and determine in a sum-
mary way, and if they shall find the same to be proved
to convict the party accused, and every offen !er so con-
victed shall be liable to be imprisoned in the common gaol
or house of correction, with or without hard labour, for a
period not exceeding six oalendar months, or to pay a fine
not exceeding (together with costs) the sum of 201., and in
default of payment to be imprisoned as aforesaid, with or
without hard labour, for a period net exceeding six calen-
dar months, unless such fine and costs be sooner paid ; and
if the magistrate or magistrates shall ao think fit shall be
bound to keep the peep and be of good behaviour for any
I period not exceeding six calendar months from the expire-
' lion of such sentence, and such conviction shall be a bar to
.011 future proceedings, civil or criminal, for or in respect of
the same assault ; and no person convicted under this act
shall be entitled to appeal against such conviction to the
general quarter sessions of the peace, anythiag to the con-
trat7 notwithstanding.
DREADFUL ACCIDENT.—On Wednesday last, I.la,
young man, named Stephen Northeottj aged 19, was killed
ex the North Devon hoe of railway, now in course of con-
struction. It appeared that the poor fellow was driving
four trucks laden with earth. In going down the inched
plane, the horses want hater than usual; the deceased's
foot slipped, be fell across the rails, and the wheels passing
over, near:ly cut his body in two.
THE NEW WESTMINSTER BRIDGE.—On Friday
the select committee of the House of Commons, of which
Sir William Molesworth was chairman, concluded its in-
quiry on the preamble of this (government) bill, the ins,-
pintail object prepaid by it being to remove the preps*
dilapidated structure, dating from the reign of King George
the Second, to build a new bridge on or near the site
thereof, and to transfer Westminster-bridge and the estates
of " the Commissioners of Westminster-bridge" to the
Commissioners of her Majesty's Works and Public Build-
ings, under whose superintendence the new bridge is to be
constructed. After the examination of some witnesses, the
committee declared the preamble of the bill proved.
MEASURING LONDON FOR ITS CABS.—On account
of the new Hackney Carriage Act coming into operation
next month, the Metropolitan Police Commissioners have
issued orders for a measurement of all the leading thorough-
fares and principal streets in London. When the distance
between a large number of principal points and the various
cab-stands shall have been ascertained the results will be
embodied in tables for the use of the public, as well as for
cab-drieere, and the police at the stands.
OARRICK.—h the nisei Castle collection of plc
tures, autographs, and other articles, illustrative of the fine
arts, is the following letter of David Garrick :
" Loaders, 21 de Jan.—Monsieur,—Je viensd'appreadre
de Monsieur Fab, qui part pour Paris dem tin matte, et je
no vondrais pas lelaisser partir sans voos Mire par cette wea-
-1 sion mes remerciemens, sous Waves 'hue inflniment en
m'envoyant vote* outrage, dans lequel se trouve mutes les
lbeautes de l'origiaal, avec cells dolt sous raves encore
embelli. Si votre intention etait de venir en Angleterre
I pour apprendre notre languc, et de voir plus pees lee
glandes et sublimes beautes de notre poste minortel, ja
erois sous devoir les entrees de nos spectacles, comme stn
hommage qui eat des aux pins que roue avies pris ayes
tent de seem de (sire connsitre sotto Shakspeare en
France, d'uoe maniere si avant/teense. Jo serai charme de
irons voir ici, et de poaveir sous temoigner combien je suis,
monsieur,
B.
r,vootAre autriecsx.b,umble et tres obeissant servtteur,
(s
'IIIE LATE NUNCIO.—Mgr. Garibaldi, the pope's
nuncio, who died so suddenly on Thursday last, passed the
greatest part of his diplomatic life in Paris. From 1826 to
1831 he was attached as Secretary-auditor to Cardinal
Lambruschini, the then nuncio. After Mgr. Lambrus-
chini's departure be remained at Paris as charge d'aff,iiree
till 1837, when he was named internuncio. He was re-
called to Rome in 1843, and soon after was sent as nuncio
to Naples In 1860 he returned to Paris as apostolic nun-
cio with the dignity of cardinal- It has been stated that he
fell down in an apoplectic fit whilst walking up and down
his drawing-room with a friend, but this was not the case.
Ho had just written a despatch to his government, and had
risen from his chair to go to his carriage, whit ia had
ordered to take him to the ministry of foreign affat4Nwhen
the fatal event took place. Mgr. Garibaldi obs Wed a few
days age that M. Donoso Conies was the find atatHumider in
l'aris that had died at his post. Orders have been when for
the celebration of Mgr. Garibaldi's funeral in Notre Dania
on a scale of grandeur commensurate with the high tank
held by the doused in the church and dipiontatic world.

LITERATURE.

Cams i..ustratee• or (hieretut Life and the Application of
EnFish law to 'lndia, decided in her Majnty's Supreme
Cneri at Bombay. Lty Sir Tartar, late Chief
Jn.tiee. Sweet.

Although a thick volume of legal decisions is not
generally a very inviting book, yet those who venture
into the pages of the one now before us, will find
mach to repay perusal. Indeed, Sir Erskine Perry's
cases afford some remarkable additions to former
Illustrations of Crime. After going through his'
volume, one might almost incline to the belief that the
aubtle-minded denizens of the East have a genius fur
deception. Certainly Sir Erskine ferry relates seve-
ral cases brought before his own court which throw
completely into the shade all the recorded celebrities
of European swindling. A few of these may be
summarised; and first let us select that with which
the volume opens.
41,1 A SIAIMEED RAIIISCS CASE.
At the close of the lust century there flourished in India
a merchant prince named Abdul Leta. He was a man of
great influence, fur to a descent from no Ilse a personage
than the Prophet himself he joined the possession of im-
mense wealth. He had large establishments at Calcutta,
Bombay, and oth-r cities, and to the day of his death he
lived a prosperous gentleman. In the Calcutta house he
had two clerks, hight respectively Mahomed All Khan and
Aga Mahomed Shustri. Mahomed Khan was his master'.
favourite, and accompanied him to Bombay, where he re-
mained until his patron's death, in 1801. ln his will Abdul
Latif called him his partner, constituted him his executor,
and left him one third of his property, which was estimated
at ten lats., or 100,0001. Moreover, Mohomed Khan married
Mariam Bigum, his master's widow, and succeeded to all his
master's affluence and honour. Ile was the agent of the
imam of Muscat, the Pacha of Egypt, and to several other
Mthumeclan potentates ; and he appease to have been him-
self a person of princely habits. He gradually intrusted his
late fellow clerk, Ago Shustri, with the management of his
affairs; and at length he almost entirely withdrew from
business, leaving nearly the whole of his concerns in
the hands of Shustri. In 1820 he died, and in his
will, which was dated on the lst of October
In the previous year, he treated his confidential agent with
a liberality commensurate with that which he had himself
experienced at the hands of his own employer. He named
him as his esecutor, left him • third of his property, and
admitted a debt to him of fifty thousand rupees. He left
two widows—to one of whom, Halimi Rihi, he bequeathed
twenty thousand rupees, and to the other, Mariam Bigum,
fifty thousand rupees. The other two-thirds of his residu-
ary estate he left to his children—namely, to Mises Ali
Mohonied, the son of Mari im, and 3lahomed Salay Khan,
the son of Halle' Bibi. There were twoother children but
they died in their minority.
In 1831 Mires became of age and demanded a settlement
with his father's executor. Shustri tendered him 32,300
rupees in discharge of all his claims; but the young man re-
fused the offer, and a legitation was immediately com-
menced between the widow and eons of Mahomed Khan
and Shustri. A bill was filed against the latter to compel
him to bring in his accounts, and in his last answer, which
was dated February 1834, he admitted; that there
were assets amounting to 8 lake (80,0000 ; but he
pleaded that be could not get in more than 67,000
rupees. In the following March he died, leaving his son.
indaw, Aga Mahomed Belting, as his executor. Aga Rehire
immediately took possession of the Khoti or mercantile
firm, and carried on business on his own account.
lie soon acquired the reputation of being one of the
most enterprising merchants and ship-builder, in the
East; and Sir Erskine Perry, with an artist's; eye for
effect, gives, in a note, an extract from the Gralleman's
Gazette of some years later, containing a most florid descrip-
tion of the launch of the ship Queen Victoria, which Ise
had built for the Imam of Muscat, the ceremony being
graced by the presence of the Governor, Sir G. Arthur, and
of Sir it. Oliver, the superintendent of the Indian navy,
and the vessel's name being given to her by Lady Anther
herself.

The suit, which was of course abated by the death of
Maestri, was revived against Aga Rahim, and went to the
)darter's Office on the usual decree to account. The plain-
tiffs established a claim to eight lake, founded upon admis-
sions in the answer of Shustri, the inventary filed by him
with the Ecclesiastical Registrar, and other documents
signed by the defunct executor. There were three or four
items r.'. acing to the ownership of two ships, and outstand-
ing debts, 7hich were still fiercely litigated—so fiercely,
indeed, that ;he defendant preferred a charge against
Mariam Ripens for perjury. The bill however was ignored.
In 183., Aga Rahins Made a move, the boldness of which
almost takes one's breath. He asserted that his father-in-
law had made a mistake in charging himself with the eight
lake ; for that those eight lake really belonged to himself on
account of the business which he had carried on for
many years past; and that his clerks had by igno-
rance or fraud set it down as belonging to the
original testator. Now, as Shustri's admissions were
upon oath, the Master refused to admit this new claim with-
out an order by the court; and accordingly in 1838 the
coon, after having had laid before it a vast amount of evi-
dence establishing a prima facie case, that the defendant's
statement was just within the possibility of proof, allowed
Aga Rahim to tile a supplemental bill. The contest that
followed was waged with tremendous fierceness and perti-
nacity. Fur five whole years half Asia was ransacked for
evidence. Witnesses were examined at Calcutta, Hydra-
bad, Hasson', Moltke, and a multitude of other places, to
show that the Khota had belonged from 1804 to 1820 not to
Mahomed Khan but to Shustri, the Khota not being men-
tioned in Abed Latif's will. At length in September,
1843, the cause came oa for hearing, and it occupied the
court nix days. Ou the lith of the following November Sir
Erskine Perry pronounced judgment, declaring that the
evidence which the defendant had brought to prove that
Shustri had made a mistake had utterly failed, and that it
was clear the Khota never had belonged to the defendant's
father-in-law. The next step was to procure a decree on
the 26th of February, 1841, ordering the defendant to pay
26,000 rupees which had been retained as commission on
the estate of Mahomed Khan. By the laws of India a com-
miaion of 5 per cent. is allowed to the executors of Euro-
peans, with a view to induce strangers to step in to pro-
tect the property of persons dying far away from their
friends, but of course that could not apply in this
ease, and the court held that " ceuarde ration*
ream! fez." Aga Rehint's next device was to "emigrate."
The final report of the master was expected to be made in
a very short time, and he therefore freighted one of his
ship. with valuable property, under the pretence that has
family were goiog on a pilgrimage to Kabala. On the 10th
of November, however, a writ of rte erect jurimhclionem
was procured, and his meditated flight was stopped, but the
ship and its cargo sailed away beyond the reach of the law.
The dreaded report at lest came out, and he was returned
as a debtor to the extent of upwards of ll lace, or 110,0001.,
and a decree was prinounoed for payment. In August,
1848, Aga Rahim petitioned the Insolveat Court, but se he
had refused ro deliver up a single rupee, the petition was of
course dismissed. The creditors then sequestered his ea-
-710118 extensive estates and other effects, whereupon claim-
mats rose up on every side alleging that the property had
been conveyed to them. The court heard all these parties
in open court, and pronounced them nearly all to be fraudu-
lent. Aga Rahim had been thrown into prison, and as he
obstinately refused to give up any of his abstracted pro-
perty to the son of his benefactor, he remained there for
several years; but at last his creditor, the plaintiff, per-
mitted him to leave gaol, and this once illustrious merchant
slunk off out of Bombay to join his family in exile.
There are many other eases in this volume which
might well deserve notice, but we have quoted enough
to show that the archives of the Indian courts teem
with cases stranger than romance. The technical points
arising from the different laws of succession, the na-
tive customs 'elating to marriage and divorce, with
the additional complications arising from conversions
to Christianity, to say nothing of the conflict of laws
ecclesiastical and civil, foreign and native, military
and marine. English and Mofussil, are exceedingly
carious and difficult; and the student will find
amply sufficient to repay him in this collection of
" modern instances." The style of Sir Erskine has
little of the crabbed dryness to which legal composi-
tion has established a lung prescriptive claim ; and
altogether his Cases form a valuable and interesting
volume.

Lt MS SOCIETY
amalgamation of the Society of daily newspaper comp*.
titers • ith the ...mete of the book department of the trade,
was celebrated on Saturday evening, by a dinner at the
Freemasons' Tavern, presided over by Mr. Alderman
Andrews, the ex-mayor of Southampton. Amongst other
gentlemen who honoured the society with their attendance,
was Mr. Alderman and Sheriff Carter. The usual touts
having been disposed of. the Chairman gave the tout of the
evening,eiz.," Prosperity to the London Society of Composi-
tors," and enlarged with much effect on the benefits which
have been conferred both on the employer end employed by
the proceediags of the society. The toast was drunk with
enthusiasm. Mr. Nichol', the secretary, responded in en
effective speech." The Charities connected with the Printing
businere.vis..the Pension Society,the Almshouse Fund, and
the Widow and Orphan Fund," was neat siven,with a high
compliment from the chairman to the journeymen printers
of London, for their efforts in the cause of charity. The
toast was responded t- by Mr. Darkin. The "health of Mr.
Sheriff Carter, with thanlui for his attendance," was
next proposed from the chair. Mr. Carter, in
responding. apologised for the absence of his colleague,
Mr. Sheriff Croll, who, however, bad autho-
rise.' him to subscrihe .5/. to the charities of the business; he
himself also presenting 51. for the same object. The health
of the chairman wise then siren, who replied in a speech of
great length, full of important advice to working me.,
bustled on his own practical experience. His observation*
were received with great applause. The chairman sea-
elude by presenting 51. to the stewards from himself, sad
1/. from Mr. Harrison, to their charitable funds. Several
othi r toasts connected with the business having been gives,
the proceedings, which appeared to give great satisfaction to
all present, terminated. The presentation of a testimonial,
in ti-e shape of two silver snuff-box a, to Messrs. Cartwright
and 51• Lean, the late treasurer and secretary of the society,
Pom their fellow-workmen, introduced with a mat vomit
'from Mr. &Ischia, formed an agreeable *pleads is tbis
stveninil'a proceedings.
THE SPANIIII FLEET.—A letter from Ancona d
the sth mentions the arrival of a Spanish Meet at that pin
after an experimental cruise in the Mediteramana. The
Sett ceasing of eight vowels. For the last eastmig SI •
ball so Ihmaish Sect had been sees is the Adzietie.

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